WE OUGHT TO BE ECSTATIC THAT WE HAVE THE REBBE

Every Chassid knows that he has to prepare himself and his family for the great day of Yud Shvat. * How does one prepare for this day? Why does hiskashrus to the Rebbe need to be a part of our lives? How does it affect our daily lives? * Rabbi Sasson Gabbai, mashpia in Yeshivas Tomchei T’mimim in Netanya, shares his thoughts regarding the Rosh Hashana L’hishkashrus.

“Being that we are standing within thirty days of Yud Shvat …” The Rebbe started several sichos with these words, which shows the importance the Rebbe ascribes to this day.

Yud Shvat is not merely the hilula of the Rebbe Rayatz. For us, Chassidim of the seventh generation, it is the great and holy day in which we merited to accept the leadership of the Rebbe MH”M.

Rabbi Gabbai is a beloved mashpia in the Chabad yeshiva in Netanya. He is beloved by his students as well as the many graduates of the yeshiva, who have received and continue to receive a wealth of Chassidic guidance from him. He personally runs from the limelight as he prefers to focus his energies on those in his charge. It was actually those same students who suggested we speak with him. “There’s no one better,” they said.

I asked him to tell our readers some points they can focus on for Yud Shvat. He smiled; he is aware of the problem. Although he is a mashpia in a yeshiva, he also davens in the community’s shul and he is familiar with the issues facing the balabatim.

“I know both sides of the coin,” he says. “In the days before a special day in the calendar, like Yud Shvat or 11 Nissan, I feel the excitement in yeshiva. The atmosphere is special. They are getting ready.

“By balabatim, unfortunately, it’s less exciting. There isn’t always a farbrengen on Shabbos and when there is, people are hurrying to get home after hearing ‘something.’ They don’t have that excitement; it’s all ‘dry.’”

Why is that, when these are Chassidishe young men?

The main reason is the staleness. I am sure that each of them, when he was a bachur, “lived” the Chassidishe dates, but much time passed since then. There’s a family and the burden of parnasa, and people are busy with other things.

In the first years after leaving yeshiva, he still had a chayus and excitement that there is a Rebbe, but as time went on, as is the way of the world, the excitement dimmed.

A friend told me that he once met an older woman at the airport who wasn’t a Lubavitcher, who told him that she remembered Yud Shvat 5711, the day the Rebbe accepted the nesius. She was an American and she said that she still remembers the great excitement that was felt then. Even non-Lubavitchers spoke about the Rebbe’s acceptance of the nesius, she told him. It was an event that meant something to the world, not just Lubavitchers.

As diaries from that time depict, throughout the first year after the passing of the Rebbe Rayatz, until Yud Shvat of the following year, there was great tension among the Chassidim – would the Rebbe agree to accept the nesius? The Rebbe had made it clear he wasn’t interested. Then came the fateful farbrengen of Yud Shvat 5711, in the course of which a Chassid, Rabbi Avrohom Sender Nemtzov, got up on a chair that was behind the Rebbe’s chair, and he proclaimed, “The crowd asks the Rebbe to say a maamer Chassidus; the sichos are good, but the crowd requests Chassidus, may we find favor that the Rebbe will say Chassidus.”

At 10:40, the Rebbe began saying his first maamer, “Basi L’Gani.” At the end of the first part of the maamer, R’ Nemtzov, despite being in his 80’s, jumped on to the table in his great joy and exclaimed, “Chassidim, we need to say the SheHechiyanu blessing, for Hashem helped us, and we have a Rebbe! Say it after me!” He said the bracha and the crowd answered “amen” in a thunderous, joyous response. The Rebbe looked at him and smiled broadly. In diaries written about that farbrengen, the tremendous joy is described.

As with everything, over the years, the excitement and joy wane. The Rebbe’s nesius became part of daily life. The kuntz is to “live” this day, this special time when we merited to accept the Rebbe’s leadership. We must go back in time and feel as the Chassidim did back then, just like we need to feel, today, as though we just got the Torah.

It’s not easy, because spiritually, we are above time, but on the material plane, there are gaps of years, many years, and the passage of time has an effect. Perhaps this is why the bachurim are more excited for this day, because they live in a spiritual atmosphere which places them “above time,” to live with the Rebbe, to live with the coronation of the king.

THREE WAYS TO LIVE AND FEEL

How do we do it? How do we get back in time and reexperience the excitement of kabbalas ha’malchus?

The first thing is to constantly remember that we are truly connected to the Rebbe. No matter what happens, the Rebbe and we are bound together.

They tell of a bachur who wrote to the Rebbe that he wants to go to college, but since it is not befitting a Chabad Chassid, he is willing to stop being a Lubavitcher for several years until he graduates. The Rebbe responded that all this would be fine if hiskashrus to the Rebbe was unilateral, only from his end, and he wants to take a break. However, hiskashrus is bilateral; it is also from the Rebbe’s end and the Rebbe does not forgo anyone, even for a short time.

It’s important to remember this point every day, anew – we are bound to the Rebbe and the Rebbe is bound to us, with cords of love, with the nefesh, ruach, and neshama and other levels. We cannot disconnect from this hiskashrus.

The second thing that can be done to “live” this day is to learn the Rebbe’s teachings associated with this day, particularly the maamarim of Basi L’Gani. Every year, the Rebbe would explain and elaborate more on them. When you go into yeshivos at this time of the year, you see the bachurim busy learning Basi L’Gani.

The third thing that can help is by getting into the atmosphere and preparing psychologically.

How do we do that?

The main thing, as mentioned, is to try and remember, at least on the level of recalling an experience, the day we merited to bond with the Rebbe, the beginning of the nesius, the first maamer, part of which was said with tremendous sobbing. Such as when the Rebbe says “not with our will etc.,” and the goal of the seventh generation (there is a recording of it which anybody can easily access), to recall with the power of the imagination, that jubilant exclamation of R’ Nemtzov, “we have a Rebbe!” When we are reminded of this, we want to be connected to it, to be part of it.

Another way that can help is through our influence on others, which automatically enables us to work on ourselves. First and foremost, on our families, and then on neighbors and those in ever-widening circles around us. You can sit with your family and watch a video of the Rebbe, review a point from a sicha, tell about moments you had with the Rebbe. When a person influences others from a place of inner truth, it helps him get excited and be ready for Yud Shvat.

Why is it so important to “live” the day of kabbalas ha’nesius?

In one of the farbrengens of the mashpia, R’ Chaim Sholom Deitsch, which I attended, he spoke a lot about the need to connect with the Rebbe. One of the people present, a young bachur who had recently become interested in Chabad Chassidus, asked him: If I study English, do I need to bond with the English teacher? Why, when I learn Chassidus, do I need to bond with the Rebbe?

R’ Deitsch answered in his usual clever way, “You’re right, you don’t need to bond with an English teacher, because you are not seeking to become English or transform your psyche to become like a citizen of a country whose citizens speak English. But when you seek to become part of a teacher and his inner world, then there is no recourse but to bond with him.”

When learning Chassidus, it’s not just about learning a maamer and becoming wiser for it. The goal of learning Chassidus is to transform me into a Chassid, or to be a better Chassid. It’s a way of life, and in order to be a Chassid, you need to be mekushar to the Rebbe.

Chassidus dismisses the idea of yeshus (ego) because yeshus means I manage on my own, and the basic premise of a Chassid is that I cannot manage on my own; I need the Rebbe to influence and uplift me. By Chassidim, hiskashrus to the Rebbe wasn’t for one specific purpose or another. Hiskashrus was the gateway for our entire way of life in the fulfillment of Torah and mitzvos and our role in this world. When a Chassid is mekushar to the Rebbe, then his entire life becomes “life with the Rebbe.” When a Chassid is mekushar to the Rebbe, the Rebbe connects him with Hashem and consequently his entire life is one of holiness.

THE JOB: TO UPLIFT

In general, we see how throughout the years, the Rebbe raised us up through the sichos and through countless letters. The Rebbe brought us to a much higher place than everyone else. Throughout the years, the Rebbe’s conduct did not allow us to rest. He banged on our heads and said, grow!

I teach Chassidus to bachurim, showing the chiddush of Chassidus, how it affects every issue on all levels of a person’s life. This idea forces me to think a lot about these things.

An important aspect of Chassidus is to uplift, to get a person to be happy from the very fact that he is a Jew, not just “boruch Hashem, I’m breathing” (as per the popular Hebrew expression), but being a Jew is a feeling for which one needs to thank G-d. This is something that Chassidus gives us. By learning Chassidus, everything a Chassid does happens in a way that is different than someone who does not learn Chassidus and did not merit to be mekushar to the Rebbe.

People call Yud Shvat “Rosh Hashana L’hishkashrus.” It is the day that we merited to get the Rebbe. This is the central point of the day and we need to work on ourselves to be ready to encounter this reality. When we think about it, we need to be ecstatic that we have the Rebbe. If we don’t feel happy enough, we need to work on ourselves, because this is the essence of the life of a Chassid.