Ushpizin #4 Moshe Rabbeinu and the Mitteler Rebbe: Boundless Abundance and Expansion | Rabbi Chaim Zilber

00:00 Speaker 1 Rabbi Zilber, l’chaim, l’chaim, and may it be good.

00:02 Speaker 2 And blessed and good.

00:03 Speaker 1 Today we’re on the fourth day.

00:06 Speaker 2 The fourth day of Sukkos.

00:07 Speaker 1 We have two important guests.

00:09 Speaker 2 Moshe Rabbeinu. There’s no more important guest than that. And the Mitteler Rebbe.

00:13 Speaker 1 The Mitteler Rebbe.

00:14 Speaker 2 The Mitteler Rebbe. I have to mention that when I stood before the Rebbe in the second row, I actually had a good spot on the fourth night of Sukkos. I was facing the Rebbe, and I had already planned for the Rebbe to get to the ushpizin. That was a given, and I had prepared myself.

00:30 Speaker 1 By ushpizin, you mean—

00:32 Speaker 2 In the sicha on each night of Sukkos, the Rebbe always mentioned the ushpizin too, and I had already prepared myself for Moshe Rabbeinu and the Mitteler Rebbe. And to everyone’s surprise, the Rebbe said that the guest [?] was the Rebbe Maharash—that it was the night of the Rebbe Maharash among the ushpizin. The Rebbe paused for two seconds and said, “According to one reckoning,” because according to another reckoning it was the Mitteler Rebbe. Then he went on speaking as usual about Moshe Rabbeinu and the Mitteler Rebbe. That’s how we discovered that there was another reckoning for the ushpizin, one that chassidim had known about. The Rebbe revealed it in passing, almost as though by accident: there’s also a way in which the seven Chabad Rebbeim correspond to the seven ushpizin.

01:13 Speaker 1 If we always start with Avraham Avinu and the Baal Shem Tov, then the Rebbe revealed—

01:17 Speaker 2 That there’s another reckoning.

01:18 Speaker 1 In which it’s Avraham Avinu and the Alter Rebbe.

01:20 Speaker 2 Right. I should mention that when we sat in the sukkah at Olei Torah, in the following years too—5753, 5754—we were there every night of Sukkos. We used to sing the niggun of the ushpizin. From then on, we sang both. When the fourth night came, we sang both the Mitteler Rebbe’s niggun, a cappella, and the Rebbe Maharash’s “Lechatchila Ariber,” because we had taken on board the idea that there was another reckoning. But the Rebbe returned to the Mitteler Rebbe. So we also—

01:46 Speaker 1 We also—

01:46 Speaker 2 Keep things as they are officially, so to speak: this is the Mitteler Rebbe’s night.

01:51 Speaker 1 All right, so Moshe Rabbeinu and the Mitteler Rebbe. What connects these two special guests who come to us in the sukkah?

01:56 Speaker 2 There’s something very clear: both lived out their years to the exact day. It says of Moshe Rabbeinu that Hashem “fills the years of the righteous from day to day”: he passed away on 7 Adar, the day he was born, his birthday. And we know that the Mitteler Rebbe was born on 9 Kislev 5534 and passed away on 9 Kislev 5588. He lived out his years. It was a short life, fifty-four years, but it was complete to the day.

02:26 Speaker 1 Mm-hmm.

02:26 Speaker 2 The Rebbe spoke about this at length. I had the privilege of being there on Shabbos, 9 Kislev 5752[?], when the Rebbe devoted about half an hour to discussing how complete his life was. Even his physical life was spiritual, as we see from the completeness of his years. That was one point the Rebbe also mentioned in connection with the ushpizin, a common denominator between them: Moshe Rabbeinu was a “man of G-d,” whose physical being was also G-dly. And with the Mitteler Rebbe we see this clearly. It’s about him in particular that it’s written that if you cut his finger, Chassidus would come out instead of blood. And even his chassidim, when they met in the street, would talk about yichuda ila’ah and yichuda tata’ah—or, in another version, about Arich and Atik. Their physical lives, too, were permeated with Chassidus.

03:12 Speaker 1 The everyday life of life, yes.

03:14 Speaker 2 The everyday life of life. Beautiful.

03:16 Speaker 1 That’s the connection between them.

03:18 Speaker 2 Yes, that was one connection. But I have to say that the connection the Rebbe spoke about more was the idea of rechovos habe’er, the broadening of the wellsprings. The Mitteler Rebbe’s Chassidus was very lengthy and expansive, and—

03:31 Speaker 1 With the Alter Rebbe, there are many passages that are short.

03:34 Speaker 2 Everything was brief, like the sefirah of Chochmah. The Rebbe Rashab said of the Mitteler Rebbe that he was the sefirah of Binah. Everything was developed at great length. The same maamar that takes five pages in Torah Or will take about thirty pages in Toras Chaim.

03:50 Speaker 1 Wow.

03:50 Speaker 2 Really. So what does that have to do with Moshe Rabbeinu?

03:55 Speaker 1 Yes, you can see it with Moshe.

03:56 Speaker 2 Right. Moshe Rabbeinu received the tablets from Hakadosh Boruch Hu: “I will give you the stone tablets.” What did Moshe Rabbeinu give the Jewish people? The entire Torah—Scripture, Mishnah, halachah and Aggadah, down to what a seasoned student will one day uncover. It was all given to Moshe at Sinai. Hakadosh Boruch Hu didn’t say all of that explicitly. So the Gemara applies the verse in Mishlei, “One with a generous eye will be blessed, for he gave of his bread to the poor,” to Moshe: he received the Ten Commandments, the Tablets of the Covenant, and gave the whole Torah in all its breadth.

04:28 Speaker 1 Beyond what we understood.

04:30 Speaker 2 Beyond that—that’s what a generous eye means. How do we see this with the Mitteler Rebbe? First of all, he presented Chassidus at great length, with more explanation, more plainly and more understandably. They weren’t just points that you had to work through; the maamarim were fully explained. The Mitteler Rebbe’s Chassidus really is easier to understand too. And the Rebbe says we see something more specific. It’s told that the Mitteler Rebbe published his Chassidus as kuntreisim, pamphlets. He didn’t wait until there was enough for a book; he put out maamarim as pamphlets. Why? So that even poor people in Lubavitch could afford to buy a maamar.

05:13 Speaker 1 Instead of a book—shorter pieces.

05:15 Speaker 2 The pamphlets, the kuntreisim, cost just a few kopeks. And that’s a direct parallel to “he gave of his bread to the poor”: poor people in the literal sense could study, could buy the bichlach, the Chassidus pamphlets, and it would be accessible to everyone.

05:36 Speaker 1 What do we learn? What do these guests teach us?

05:40 Speaker 2 The Rebbe asks us to really go into Chassidus at length, not to be stingy with it. A person should take a maamar and broaden his understanding. Don’t settle for saying some Chassidic vort at the table. Really, before davening or whenever there’s an opportunity, sit down and study Chassidus in depth. Chassidus is so sweet and enriching that it would be a shame to use it only the way one uses books of Polish Chassidus, with individual points—a point here, a point there. From time to time, really broaden your understanding. Listen to a podcast that goes into Sukkos in depth. Really enrich yourself. Today there are so many sources of information about—

06:29 Speaker 1 There’s a lot today, as you said, a lot of explanation of all of Chassidus.

06:33 Speaker 2 There’s a tremendous amount of explanation today. The Mitteler Rebbe set the tone and gave the strength to everyone who has had the privilege of expanding on Chassidus in all kinds of books and videos. I really recommend it. No, the wellsprings are already there.

06:53 Speaker 1 Let’s bring that expansiveness into our own lives. How do we sit down and study Chassidus abundantly, with room to breathe?

06:58 Speaker 2 You can see it in people. You come to shul and see people who open themselves up, letting all that abundance flow into them and into those around them. You meet them, and right away they share some Chassidic idea with you, something. You can see that someone hasn’t come into another day of Yom Tov empty.

07:19 Speaker 1 He’s full.

07:20 Speaker 2 Full. And today, when we’re traveling, we really have a wealth of podcasts too. As you’re listening right now, you’re doing exactly that at this very moment. And one mitzvah leads to another: give more Jews the opportunity. Share this with another friend so he, too, has the chance to enjoy the Rebbe’s wellsprings.

07:41 Speaker 1 I see a bit of covert advertising here, I have to say. Just kidding.

07:43 Speaker 2 Well, it was called for.

07:45 Speaker 1 Gut Moed.

07:46 Speaker 2 Moed.

07:46 Speaker 1 Yasher koach.