The maamar "V'Atah Tetzaveh" explained by Rabbi Yekusiel Green

00:00 Let’s get briefly acquainted with the famous maamar “Ve’atah Tetzaveh,” which chassidim customarily study on and in the lead-up to Gimmel Tammuz. The Rebbe delivered “Ve’atah Tetzaveh” on Shabbos Parshas Tetzaveh, the 11th, 5741. In preparation for Purim Katan 5752, after the Rebbe edited the maamar, it was published as a separate booklet titled Kuntres Purim Katan 5752. In fact, this was the last booklet we merited to have the Rebbe edit and personally distribute, with his holy hand, to each individual on the day it was published, Purim Katan 5752. This accounts for the special affection chassidim have for this maamar. Broadly speaking, the maamar before us is one of the Rebbe’s maamarim in which he explains the Frierdiker Rebbe’s famous maamar “VeKibel HaYehudim.” The Frierdiker Rebbe delivered that maamar on Purim Katan 5687 before a gathering in Moscow. Among those present were members of the Yevsektsiya, who were spying on the Rebbe’s activities to strengthen Jewish life. Their report to the authorities about this farbrengen was, at the time, a significant factor in the Frierdiker Rebbe’s arrest in Sivan, several months later that same year. In “VeKibel HaYehudim,” the Frierdiker Rebbe discusses, among other things, the inner meaning of Purim as the completion of the Jewish people’s acceptance of the Torah at the Giving of the Torah. The maamar also discusses the faith and mesirus nefesh that Moshe and his extension in every generation are charged with instilling in the Jewish people. In the maamar before us, “Ve’atah Tetzaveh,” the Rebbe explains these points at length. In “Ve’atah Tetzaveh,” we study in depth the inner connection between these matters and the different levels of the soul, from its essential powers to its revealed faculties. It should be noted that the Rebbe regarded the Frierdiker Rebbe’s “VeKibel HaYehudim” as a fundamental maamar, and stressed the importance of studying it thoroughly and engaging in all the aspects of avodah it discusses. In the maamar before us, “Ve’atah Tetzaveh,” delivered on Purim, Purim

03:13 Katan, the Rebbe combines his detailed explanation, according to Chassidus, of the verse “And you shall command” with the inner meaning of Purim. As explained in Chassidus, Purim completes the Jewish people’s acceptance of the Torah at the Giving of the Torah. Our Sages said of the verse “They established and accepted” that what the Jewish people accepted upon themselves at the Giving of the Torah, when they said, “We will do and we will hear,” was accepted under compulsion: Hakadosh Boruch Hu held the mountain over them like a barrel. Now, in the days of Purim, through the year in which the Jewish people stood firm with mesirus nefesh, their relationship to the Torah rose to a higher level. Now they established and accepted it. Their acceptance of the Torah became something enduring on their own part, arising from their own will. Here the Rebbe explains at length the different levels of faith and of mesirus nefesh: where faith and mesirus nefesh originate in the higher levels of the soul, and how they are drawn from there into the soul of a Jew as it is clothed in a body. The Rebbe also discusses at length the different ways faith and mesirus nefesh affect a person’s revealed faculties. How does mesirus nefesh have an effect? How does faith affect the intellect, the emotions, thought, speech, and action? In the instruction “And you shall command the Children of Israel,” Hakadosh Boruch Hu asks Moshe to connect and bind the Jewish people to Him. In fact, these words addressed by Hakadosh Boruch Hu to Moshe—“And you shall command,” meaning, “Connect the Jewish people to Me”—are directed not only to Moshe himself, but also to the extension of Moshe in every generation: the shepherds of the Jewish people throughout the generations. In the maamar before us, delivered on Shabbos Parshas Tetzaveh and Purim Katan, the Rebbe explains the Frierdiker Rebbe’s words in “VeKibel HaYehudim.” As mentioned earlier, that maamar was delivered at a gathering bound up entirely with mesirus nefesh and the strengthening of faith. The Rebbe explains how this instruction was fulfilled by Moshe himself, by the shepherds of the Jewish people throughout the generations, by Mordechai

06:15 the Jew in the time of Achashverosh, and by the Frierdiker Rebbe in our generation. Studying the maamar shows that although they are all extensions of Moshe in their respective generations and share a common purpose, each has something that distinguishes him. Here the Rebbe highlights the differences between Moshe, Mordechai, and the Frierdiker Rebbe. Moshe Rabbeinu is called Raaya Meheimna, the faithful shepherd: a shepherd who nourishes and sustains the Jewish people in their faith. Faith itself, which we inherit from our ancestors, can remain something that encompasses a person without penetrating him. As the Zohar says, “A thief at the entrance to his tunnel calls upon the Merciful One.” The thief asks Hakadosh Boruch Hu to help him succeed in his plans. It does not trouble him that, on the one hand, he believes in G-d and, on the other, he asks Hakadosh Boruch Hu to help him act against His will. That is because faith itself can remain external to a person. Moshe Rabbeinu instills faith within a person, nourishing it so that it penetrates his inner being and his inner faculties function in accordance with the faith that has entered them. Now, unlike Moshe, who drew down daas for all the people of his generation, Mordechai developed, revealed, and aroused the power of mesirus nefesh among the Jewish people. For an entire year, until the miracle, they all stood firm with mesirus nefesh for their Judaism. It is worth noting that there is a difference between the mesirus nefesh in Mordechai’s time and that in the time of Matisyahu and his sons. In the days of Chanukah, mesirus nefesh was expressed primarily by Matisyahu and his sons. Among the rest of the people, many had become Hellenized and were distant from Judaism. This was not so in Mordechai’s time. Everyone—men and women, old and young, Torah scholars and ordinary people—was imbued with a spirit of mesirus nefesh. There are different levels of mesirus nefesh, and the Frierdiker Rebbe developed, drew forth, and instilled in chassidim mesirus nefesh from the highest level, the essence of the soul. At the same time,

10:17 alongside this high level of mesirus nefesh, the Frierdiker Rebbe demanded that mesirus nefesh reach all of a person’s revealed faculties, so that the intellect and emotions, too, would be in harmony with the mesirus nefesh of the soul’s essence. However great the power of mesirus nefesh may be, over the years we have encountered people who stood firm with mesirus nefesh when they lived in places where harsh decrees were imposed on them. Later, when the decrees were lifted or they moved to places without such decrees, the person was hard to recognize. It was hard to believe that this person had once stood firm with mesirus nefesh. The Frierdiker Rebbe came and demanded that the power of mesirus nefesh reach the inner faculties. One must serve with mesirus nefesh not only in countries and times when the Jewish people face harsh decrees, as was the case when the Frierdiker Rebbe was in Soviet Russia, but also upon coming to countries where life is comfortable. When a person is not living under harsh decrees, he serves Hakadosh Boruch Hu with the power of mesirus nefesh as it permeates all his inner faculties. In fact, this is the path in serving Hashem that the Rebbe demands of all chassidim: that each person’s avodah, and the avodah of everyone together, be such that the revealed faculties are truly like the essence of the soul. As explained in Chassidus, this way of serving Hashem today is a preparation for the service of Hashem and the revelations that will be in the future Geulah. The Rebbe concludes the maamar by saying that through putting this way of serving Hashem into practice, all the Jewish people will merit, very soon, the true and complete Geulah through Moshiach Tzidkeinu, very soon.