A question that shluchim are often asked is, where did you learn to become a shliach? Does Chabad give a course before you go out on shlichus?
Nadav CohenFor those who learn Chassidus, the question sounds funny. What would we learn in a course – that we need to love every Jew? That we need to care for others? That we need to be moser nefesh for the Rebbe’s ratzon? These are not things that you learn that you need to do or need to be.
A preparatory course will definitely not turn a person into someone who loves Jews or into a moser nefesh. Chassidus needs to be lived. Someone who learns in Yeshivas Tomchei T’mimim, learns Chassidus, is connected to the Rebbe, farbrengs, and lives Chassidus, is someone who is prepared to go on shlichus.
As to how to go about drawing people closer to their Father in heaven, that too will be found throughout the teachings of Chassidus, in every maamer that we learn about the special bond that exists between a Jew and G-d and what we need to do to reveal it.
IS THERE STILL
HOPE FOR ME?
There are maamarim in which the point is particularly emphasized, for example, the maamarim that speak of the “King in the Field.” Let us examine this maamer from a slightly different perspective than usual and see what we can take from it for life, for shlichus, chinuch, shalom bayis, etc.
The original maamer is from the Alter Rebbe and he asks, how can we say that the month of Elul has a lofty G-dly revelation of the 13 Attributes of Mercy and at the same time say that the avoda of a person in this month is with his own efforts (an isarusa d’l’tata and not an isarusa d’l’eila). The answer is in the analogy of the “King in the Field.” Indeed, in Elul there is something lofty which we don’t have in any other month, Hashem is more revealed than ever, but it is not like the month of Tishrei when the king is wearing royal clothing and is in his palace. In Elul, the king goes out to the people. He goes out to the field and is not dressed in royal clothes, and there in the field he receives everyone graciously and shows a smiling countenance to all.
Similarly, although Tishrei has a lofty revelation (which, as it were, compels us to go to the king – isarusa d’l’eila), not everyone can get in to see the king. In Elul, the revelation is lower, it does not draw a person as strongly (and therefore, the knowledge that the king is in the field does not compel anyone to go and see him). On the other hand, in Elul the king greets everyone. Anyone can come and it makes no difference what he was until now or how distant he was. His spiritual stature does not matter, for the king receives everyone.
***
A classmate from high school (from the period before I came to Chabad) recently called me. I had kept in touch with him just barely over the years but he knew that I am Lubavitch now. He said that he had an important question that he had to get answered.
I promised to try and he said, “Tell me, can everyone do t’shuva? Even someone who committed the gravest sins?”
“There is nothing that stands in the way of t’shuva,” I answered him.
Sometimes, a person reaches a point where he thinks he can no longer rectify his past. He thinks that he can never do t’shuva. The Alter Rebbe tells us in his famous analogy that in Elul the king is in the field, in Elul he receives everyone with a smiling countenance. Their standing makes no difference. Even someone deep in klipa, someone who threw off the yoke of Heaven completely, can do t’shuva.
A person’s fear that he already crossed the red line, that he went too far, is a fear he has to get over. To the person who has lost faith, who doesn’t think he stands a chance, Chassidic teachings tell him that Hashem did not give up on you, He wants you too, He is ready to accept you as you are, just go toward Him.
(It should be noted, as per the well-known observation, that although the king is in the field, if the Jew continues working his field, planting, hoeing etc. and doesn’t approach the king, there won’t be a connection between him and the king. The person needs to leave his field work and approach the king who is nearby.)
In many Chabad houses we see this. A Jew becomes interested and what appeals to him is that he is accepted as he is, and not just that, but he is received graciously. He is shown love. This is true for mekuravim and also true with students and children.
LOVE NOT MANIPULATION
In the maamer “Ani L’Dodi 5726” (Seifer HaMaamarim Meluket 4), the Rebbe explains the analogy further. The description of the king displaying a jovial countenance alludes to spiritual merriment, the essential pleasure that Hashem has with a Jew just for being a Jew. True, when a Jew does mitzvos it gives Hashem nachas, but even before that, Hashem has pleasure just from his being a Jew, before he does any mitzvos at all.
When a Jew feels that Hashem has pleasure from him without his even doing mitzvos, it arouses in him a pleasure in Hashem, a pleasure in Elokus in a manner that this is the very essence of his delight, he has no greater pleasure. This feeling of pleasure is that which will motivate him to accept the yoke of heaven, to do Torah and mitzvos. We see this behavior with the Rebbe who has a deep love for every Jew, even a Jew who does not do mitzvos and even a Jew who goes against the Torah. The Rebbe continues to love him just for being a Jew. This love is what gets a Jew to love him in return, which gives him the strength to overcome those things that impede his progress, and then he does t’shuva.
This love is also seen in the Rebbe’s shluchim (“a person’s emissary is like himself”), who are not willing to give up on any Jew. Even a Jew who insists he does not want to put on t’fillin is approached time and again and is not given up on. After all, we did not suggest that he put t’fillin on the first time because he’s a nice guy. We suggested it because he’s a Jew and that fact does not change, no matter what he does or says. Hashem continues to love him and the Rebbe continues to love him, and we too continue to love him.
If this love sounds like some sort of manipulative tactic to get him to put on t’fillin, it’s not…
The same is true in chinuch. Sometimes we need to show students and children that we love them as they are, without expectations; they wait for this. They want to know that our love is not conditional, there is no hidden reason. We don’t just show them that we love them as they are, we truly love them as they are. The moment they believe that we really love them they’ll already come on their own.
To conclude, Elokus needs to be the greatest pleasure and this provides the strength to overcome obstacles. A mekurav comes to a Chabad house and we don’t ask him to remove his earrings and get a haircut. We learn Chassidus with him and enable him to enjoy Elokus. If he will derive pleasure from Elokus, the rest will happen on its own. So too for Chassidim, learning Chassidus is a G-dly pleasure. Having students feel pleasure in their learning Chassidus is the goal because when this happens, they do t’shuva.
Rabbi Nadav Cohen serves as Director of Educational Programs at the Ascent Institute of Tzfat and is the author of the critically acclaimed “GPS for the Soul,” available at amazon.com and kabbalaonline-shop.com.
“WHEN YOU GO TO WAR AGAINST YOUR ENEMIES”
Over a decade ago, I was on a trip to the Far East to “find myself.” I went to monasteries and ashrams and sought spirituality. It was because I considered myself a spiritual and open-minded person that I allowed myself to learn about Judaism too, to hear what Judaism had to say. As a young Israeli who grew up in an irreligious environment, I did not imagine that there is spirituality in Judaism. Like most Israelis who draw most of their knowledge of the world from the media, I thought that Judaism is just a list of the forbidden and the permitted that you had to abide by.
One Friday night I ended up at a Chabad house. I still did not know what Chabad is and what Chassidus is but I walked in to hear what they had to offer. They were in the middle of the Shabbos meal and the place was packed with young Israelis who were touring India. I did not sit down with everyone to eat but stood on the side to hear the rabbi speak.
It was Shabbos, Parshas Ki Seitzei, and the young rabbi there spoke about the first verse in the parsha, “When you go out to war against your enemies.” He asked, “Why doesn’t it say ‘when you go out to war with your enemies.’ What is meant by ‘al – on or over your enemies?’”
He said, “The moment you decide to go to war, you automatically have an advantage over your enemy. The problem is when you don’t fully commit. Then what we feel is how the forces of opposition are fighting us. But if we make a firm resolution, in whatever area of life it may be, the very commitment automatically puts us above the enemy.”
I remember hearing this and liking it very much. In the spiritual process I went through, I tried to move past bad habits and negative patterns of thought that I had and this idea that he said suited me well. I did not admit it yet, but from that vort I began to realize that I had what to learn from Judaism and especially from Chassidus. Thanks to that vort, I moved closer to Judaism. What a powerful impact one idea from the Rebbe’s sicha can have. We are promised that our efforts will not go for naught.
On Parshas Ki Seitzei the following year I was already in yeshiva. Now I could learn the vort myself. I opened up the sources and understood the idea in a deeper way. A Jew is above his natural world for he has a G-dly soul and therefore the world cannot interfere with his avodas Hashem. All that is expected of us in order to be in a position that transcends the world is to go to war. To make a firm commitment that we are setting out on the journey; when we commit to something, nobody can stop us.