Parshas Mishpatim 5782 - Moshe Rabbeinu, the Raya Mehemna, makes every Jew an "Eved Ivri" to the Almighty

00:02 In 5729, on Shavuos, a chossid came to the Rebbe, as chassidim did every year on Shavuos. One of the chassidim who came that year was a Jew named Reb Zalman Teibel. Reb Zalman Teibel was among the Jews who left Russia after the war, in 5706. He lived in France and came to the Rebbe in 5729. He joined the Shavuos meals with the guests who customarily ate with the Rebbe. He said he had a niggun he had heard many years earlier, before the war, from older chassidim, and that he wanted to sing it. The niggun is set to the words “Ana avda d’Kudsha Brich Hu,” which are said when the Aron Kodesh is opened, in the “Brich Shmei” prayer. There it says, “Ana avda d’Kudsha Brich Hu” — I am a servant of Hakadosh Boruch Hu; “d’sagidna kamei” — before whom I bow; “u’mikamei d’yekar oraysei” — before the glory of His Torah, as the “Brich Shmei” prayer says. He had a niggun for these words and asked to sing it. He sang it at the meal, and the Rebbe liked it very much, enjoyed the niggun greatly, and asked him to teach it to the bochurim so they could learn it and sing it afterward. And this niggun later became one they would

02:06 sing very often at farbrengens. Many times, during the meals, they would sing the niggun with great joy and energy. At that Shavuos farbrengen, the Rebbe spoke in depth about the words “Ana avda d’Kudsha Brich Hu”: a Jew says to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, “Ana avda d’Kudsha Brich Hu.” I am a servant of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. There are different levels, and a servant represents the greatest dedication and devotion, the deepest bond there is: that of a servant to his master. We can speak about the relationship between a father and son, a teacher and student, a king and his people. But of all these, the greatest self-nullification, the greatest dedication and devotion, are specifically those of a servant to his master. For “whatever a servant acquires, his master acquires,” and “a king’s servant is like a king.” The servant is wholly devoted, giving himself over completely to his master, to the point that he has no independent existence to begin with. Whatever the servant does belongs to his master. The Rebbe spoke about this at length, explaining that this is why Jews say, “Ana avda d’Kudsha Brich Hu”: a Jew says, I am a servant of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. My entire existence is that I belong to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. I have no existence of my own, nothing of my own. I am a servant of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. And they would sing this niggun very often at the Rebbe’s farbrengens. Then, many years later, at a kos shel bracha distribution, the Rebbe would

03:56 distribute wine from the kos shel bracha after the Simchas Torah farbrengen. The Rebbe gave wine to hundreds of people, to thousands of people, distributing wine from the kos shel bracha. By then, that chossid was elderly, somewhat frail and unwell, and in one of the later years, others helped him come before the Rebbe. When he passed before the Rebbe, the Rebbe gave him wine from the kos shel bracha and began to sing the niggun. As chassidim sing it, he began: “Ana, ana, avda, avda d’Kudsha Brich Hu. Ana, ana, avda, avda d’Kudsha Brich Hu. Ana, ana, avda.” The Rebbe sang it with great warmth and energy, and the entire crowd sang with him. Then it grew quiet, and the Rebbe said with great fervor: “Ana avda d’Kudsha Brich Hu. Rosh Hashanah — a Jew becomes a servant of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. The Ten Days of Teshuvah — a servant of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Yom Kippur — ana avda d’Kudsha Brich Hu. Sukkos — ana avda d’Kudsha Brich Hu. Shemini Atzeres, Simchas Torah — ana avda d’Kudsha Brich Hu. And the entire year, each and every day, ana avda d’Kudsha Brich Hu.” And with this, a Jew goes out into the whole year. Our weekly parsha is Parshas Mishpatim. Parshas Mishpatim begins: “And these are the ordinances that you shall set before them. When you acquire a Hebrew servant.” The first mitzvah the Torah tells us about after Matan Torah, after the parsha...

05:51 Parshas Yisro, which contains the Ten Commandments and Matan Torah, is followed by the opening of Parshas Mishpatim: “And these are the ordinances.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu tells Moshe Rabbeinu, “And these are the ordinances that you shall set before them” — like a table set before them. He must explain and convey to them all the ordinances, all the mitzvos. What is the first mitzvah? “When you acquire a Hebrew servant, he shall work for six years, and in the seventh he shall go free without payment” — the laws of a Hebrew servant. All the commentators ask: Why does the Torah begin, as its first mitzvah here, specifically with the laws of a Hebrew servant? There are many laws with practical relevance, everyday laws. The first mitzvah, the first law the Torah wants to explain, is among the mishpatim — rational mitzvos, mitzvos that, as Rashi explains, [unclear]. But even within the parsha itself, we find quite a few practical laws; there are even laws among the rational mitzvos that have not yet been stated. Nevertheless, it begins with the laws of a Hebrew servant. And what, as Rashi says, is the case of a Hebrew servant? A Hebrew servant — [unclear], a person who, unfortunately, had no money and was so poor that he resorted to stealing. Then, having stolen, he had no means of paying it back. So he was sold as a servant: “the court sold him.” This is something that almost never happens. In those days, it certainly could not have been common. In the period after Matan Torah, when they had the spoils of Egypt and the spoils of the sea, and the great wealth they had brought with them from Egypt — as the Midrash says, every Jew had ninety donkeys laden with silver and gold, along with everything they had taken from Egypt — there surely could not have been a Jew so poor that he had nothing to eat, had to steal, and had no means of paying it back. And even in later times, it was not at all common. Yet this is to be the first law the Torah tells us about: “When you acquire a Hebrew servant”? All the commentators ask this question and offer a number of explanations. Some commentators say, as the Ramban cites: Why is the law of a Hebrew servant brought here? Because it is connected to the first commandment: “I am Hashem your G-d, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.” And concerning a Hebrew servant, it says later, in Devarim: “You shall remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and Hashem your G-d redeemed you.” So you must remember: You, too, were a servant, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu redeemed you. That is what all these laws address. The Ramban says that the Torah therefore begins with the laws of a Hebrew servant because they are connected to the first commandment, the first thing Hakadosh Boruch Hu said at Matan Torah. Other commentators say that since the Jewish people had just been in that situation — they had been servants, servants to Pharaoh, and now had gone free —

07:28 [unclear]

09:03 the Torah therefore explains the law of a Hebrew servant, while the experience of servitude and of leaving servitude was still with them. These are explanations brought by great Torah scholars, by the Ramban and other commentators. The Kli Yakar explains it along these lines, and Rashi, too, seems to indicate that this is why we begin with the laws of a Hebrew servant, in connection with what Rashi brings later in the parsha: “This ear, which heard at Mount Sinai that the children of Israel are servants to Me.” Why, when the servant does not want to go free, does it say that his ear must be pierced? One of the punishments given to a servant for not wanting to go free is “his master shall pierce his ear.” They pierce his ear — why the ear? The ear is what heard. What does Rashi say? Because “this ear heard at Mount Sinai that the children of Israel are servants to Me,” yet he went and sold himself as a servant; or “this ear heard at Mount Sinai, ‘Do not steal,’” yet he went and stole. So here, too, we see how these matters follow on from Matan Torah and are plainly connected to it. These are explanations brought by the commentators. The book Erchei Hakodesh says that the verses also allude to exile: they deal with a situation in which the children in exile are servants, servants in exile. And it explains the continuation of the verses: “But if, as a man” [unclear], Hakadosh Boruch Hu sells the Jews, sells them as servants, and how the Jews are redeemed; that Jews are in exile and are servants, but nevertheless the Jews do not, that—

10:46 Even if, G-d forbid, [unclear] they are among the nations of the world, there is therefore the promise, “He shall designate her for his son”—that Hashem will return and take them, taking them as His wife. That is the Geulah. [unclear]. So the parsha begins, “If you acquire a Hebrew servant.” This is the first commandment in the parsha. In his teaching on the weekly parsha—the Chassidic parsha, as it is called—the Alter Rebbe asks an interesting question. “And these are the laws that you shall set before them” is addressed to one person. In other words, Hashem is speaking to Moshe Rabbeinu: “You shall set”—you, Moshe Rabbeinu. “Before them”—who is “them”? The Jewish people. Here the verse uses the plural: “before them,” before the Jewish people. And what does it say next? “If you acquire.” He was speaking about the Jewish people, “before them,” in the plural, and now he speaks to one person: you. How should the next verse have been worded? “If they acquire a Hebrew servant.” “If they acquire”—they, the Jewish people. “And these are the laws that you shall set before them”—Moshe Rabbeinu, you must teach the laws to them, to the Jewish people. It should have said “if they acquire”: if they, the Jewish people, acquire a Hebrew servant, the law will be such and such. The Alter Rebbe asks: Why does it say “if you acquire” in the singular, rather than the plural? To whom is it speaking here? The Alter Rebbe says: This particular word is deliberate, and there is a particular...

12:40 explanation. And this is a general principle underlying the weekly parsha. The Alter Rebbe says that “if you acquire a Hebrew servant” is addressed to Moshe Rabbeinu. In these verses, Hashem is speaking directly to Moshe Rabbeinu—the same Moshe Rabbeinu who stood at the Giving of the Torah, of whom it is said, “Moshe received the Torah at Sinai,” and who passed the Torah on to the Jewish people. Hashem says to Moshe Rabbeinu, “And these are the laws that you shall set before them.” You, Moshe Rabbeinu, must fulfill “set before them”; you must bring this into their inner being. The Alter Rebbe interprets “before them” as referring to their inner being: bringing the Torah into their inner being, into their souls, into their hearts. “If you acquire”—Hashem is speaking to Moshe Rabbeinu. And what does He say? “If you acquire a Hebrew servant.” You, Moshe Rabbeinu, must acquire and bring about that every Jew should be a Hebrew servant, a servant of Hashem. You must reveal within every Jew what it means to be a Hebrew servant. This explains all the verses that follow. “Six years he shall serve”—every Jew is a servant of Hashem. Moshe Rabbeinu reveals within every Jew that he is to be a servant of Hashem, a servant of the Master of the world. This is what it means to be a servant: when the soul descends here below, it becomes Hashem’s possession, Hashem’s servant. And “six years,” the Alter Rebbe says, alludes to...

14:26 “The world will exist for six thousand years.” “Six years” alludes to the six thousand years during which the soul descends here below. This is the time for a person’s service, particularly during the time of exile, the time of “he shall serve”—“six years he shall serve.” This is a person’s service when the soul lives within a body and is involved with physical things, and must serve Hashem, must be Hashem’s servant. Of this it says, “Six years he shall serve.” “And in the seventh”—in the seventh millennium, when the days of Moshiach arrive—“he shall go free without payment.” Then he will “go free,” free of the mitzvos, as the Gemara says. Those will be the days of Moshiach, the time of reward for the mitzvos. The Jew will have completed all the work of refinement during exile, making the world a dwelling place for Hashem. Then “he shall go free without payment.” And the rest of the parsha speaks about the great revelations and the great gifts that Hashem will subsequently give the Jews. This is the principle with which the Torah begins here, immediately after the Giving of the Torah: “And these are the laws that you shall set before them: If you acquire a Hebrew servant.” Hashem says to Moshe Rabbeinu: The Jews have received the Torah. They received the Torah not as something new; the Jew is to be Hashem’s servant.

15:56 Jews existed even before the Giving of the Torah. With the Exodus from Egypt and the Giving of the Torah, we became Hashem’s people, and from that came the matter of serving Him. As it says earlier, in Parshas Shemos: “When you bring the people out of Egypt, you shall serve G-d on this mountain.” When the Jews left Egypt, they had been Pharaoh’s servants. On leaving Egypt, they left [unclear] and became servants of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. From then on they were servants of Hashem: “For the Children of Israel are servants to Me.” The Jews became Hashem’s servants, and service to Hashem is eternal. That is what it means when it says, “Six years he shall serve.” But who reveals within the Jews this sense of being servants, of serving? That is Moshe Rabbeinu’s role. Why? What does it mean that Moshe Rabbeinu in particular must reveal what it means to be a Hebrew servant? The Alter Rebbe explains [unclear] a fundamental concept in Chassidus from the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov. The Alter Rebbe says: As is known, the Zohar calls Moshe Rabbeinu “Ra’aya Mehemna.” There is an entire section of the Zohar in which he is called “Ra’aya Mehemna.” What does “Ra’aya Mehemna” mean? It has two meanings. The simple meaning is that he is a faithful shepherd. Moshe Rabbeinu was the faithful shepherd of the Jewish people. Indeed, earlier, in Parshas Shemos, we already find that Moshe was

17:36 a shepherd, and that Hashem tested him. Moshe Rabbeinu, in the way he [unclear] the flock [unclear] the little sheep that ran away, and the whole story that the Torah tells—how, as a result, Hashem chose Moshe Rabbeinu to be the faithful shepherd of the Jewish people. Moshe’s faithfulness means that he cares for every Jew and thinks about every Jew, and so on. That is one meaning, the simple meaning. There is also a deeper meaning. The Alter Rebbe explains in [unclear] that “Mehemna” is related to the word for faith. “Ra’aya Mehemna” means a shepherd, someone who takes the sheep and goats to feed them grass. In other words, Ra’aya Mehemna is someone who nourishes and sustains faith. Like a shepherd, a shepherd with [unclear]: his purpose is to take the sheep, the goats, the flock, out to the field, where he gives them grass so they can graze and eat. Moshe Rabbeinu is the shepherd of faith; he nurtures faith among the Jews. What does it mean that he nurtures faith? After all, Jews are believers, the children of believers.

19:11 Jews inherited faith from Avraham Avinu. And as it says in the previous parsha, when the Children of Israel left Egypt, they had simple faith: “And they believed.” Jews do not lack faith. But, says the Alter Rebbe, [unclear], faith can remain on the level of something that surrounds a person. What does that mean? A person can have faith: he believes in Hashem, believes in the Creator of the world, believes that there is a G-d in the world, the Master of the world—but it has no connection to his life. He believes in Hakadosh Boruch Hu, believes in Hashem, believes there is a Creator, but it has no connection whatsoever to his everyday life. He can live his everyday life without living with his faith at all. As he cites from the Gemara, the Gemara says, “A thief at the entrance to his tunnel calls out to the Merciful One.” There can be a thief, a Jewish thief, [unclear], standing by the door about to steal, and he asks the Master of the world: Help me so that nobody catches [unclear]. He asks the Master of the world, [unclear]. And that is a contradiction: [unclear]. The Alter Rebbe says that it is specifically Ra’aya Mehemna, Moshe Rabbeinu, who [unclear] faith, [unclear] so that faith will be [unclear] in the heart [unclear].

20:54 He believes in Hashem, but his faith may remain on that surrounding level. Faith must descend into the heart, become something real and alive within him, and be something he lives with firmly in everyday life. That is what Moshe Rabbeinu, Ra’aya Mehemna, accomplishes. Moshe Rabbeinu teaches all Jews that faith must not remain in a Pesach-like way [unclear], must not remain on a surrounding level, but must descend into the heart, into the person, and become something real within him. [unclear] “We are servants of Hakadosh Boruch Hu.” The Torah comes and says, “And these are the laws that you shall set before them.” The Rebbe says that after the Giving of the Torah, when “Hashem descended upon Mount Sinai” and “all the people saw the sounds,” there was a revelation of G-dliness, and they truly saw G-dliness. They saw that “Hashem is G-d; there is nothing besides Him.” But after the Giving of the Torah, when its revelation departed—that immense revelation which everyone who stood at Mount Sinai had seen—faith could remain [unclear]. The Rebbe says that Moshe Rabbeinu must teach that now begins “And these are the laws that you shall set before them”: it must not remain only a matter of faith [unclear], but must become “laws”—things a person accepts through his own understanding. That is the meaning of “before them”: it enters a person’s inner being, and consequently he can [unclear].

23:00 Moshe Rabbeinu, the “faithful shepherd,” must draw down faith and bring it inward, so that a Jew feels firmly, in everyday life, that he is a servant of Hashem: “We are servants of Hakadosh Boruch Hu.” Then, throughout the six days of the week, he serves Hashem with his whole life, with all his dedication and effort. That is what the Rebbe emphasizes. The Alter Rebbe says that it should not be [unclear]. There is an example of a thief: What kind of person is a thief? [unclear] from someone who is asleep, G-d forbid. And the Frierdiker Rebbe says [unclear] that we see how these two things can coexist: there is theft, G-d forbid, and there is Hakadosh Boruch Hu. It can be the same with a businessperson. He knows he is a servant, and he knows his livelihood comes from Hashem; he prays to Hashem for his livelihood. [unclear] “upon all Israel, with goodness and life.” G-d forbid, when he starts a business, he turns to that business to earn a living and wants to do [unclear]. He knows the halachah, yet all sorts of things contrary to halachah occur to him. He thinks that this will help him; in the end, [unclear].

25:02 He needs to reach what the Torah teaches. On the one hand, he knows that he prays to Hashem, and he prays to Hashem about his business and his livelihood; on the other hand, there can be [unclear]. A Jew who studies Torah knows that the Torah is the wisdom and will of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and before learning he prays that Hashem help him understand. [unclear] When it comes to the learning itself, he insists on understanding it his way, while his friend offers a different explanation. He gets angry because he wants to win, and he is already certain how the matter must come out and who understands it. The same can happen with prayer: he cuts short his avodah in prayer, cuts short [unclear] because he wants to go learn. It can take all sorts of forms. What is the avodah involved here, when he prays to Hashem and understands that this is serving Hashem? He has faith; he believes. But his faith remains something that surrounds him rather than permeating him; it stands [unclear] and does not find practical expression in everyday life. His conduct, thoughts, speech, and actions can be contrary to the Divine will. So there is a need for the faithful shepherd, Moshe Rabbeinu, to draw down that faith, so that a Jew understands and so that within a Jew there will be [unclear].

26:53 It must become clear that he needs to know he is a servant of Hashem. The Torah says: “Six years he shall serve, and in the seventh he shall go free, without payment.” What lies in this? On the one hand there is “six years he shall serve,” and afterward, “in the seventh he shall go free, without payment.” In other words, the aim of his service must be that he always knows that “in the seventh he shall go free, without payment.” Even in the physical sense, when a person is a servant, he must know that he is a servant, but that his servitude is only for a set time. That is the plain meaning of the verse, as the Torah tells it to us. But to be a servant of Hashem, he must know that even if “six years he shall serve,” he must live with the fact that [unclear] he will not be a servant. He should not think of himself as a servant forever; he must know that he is a servant for only six years, and then he must go “free, without payment.” From the moment he enters servitude, he must know that the goal is that “he shall go free, without payment”: he does not truly remain a servant, because a Jew is not a servant. “They are My servants, and not servants of servants,” the Gemara says. A Jew must know that even if he is a servant, he is not the servant of another person. A Jew is not a servant of a servant; a Jew is, in truth, forever a servant of Hashem. Therefore, from the very first year that he becomes a servant, he must know that the goal is “in the seventh he shall go free, without payment.” What does this mean in serving Hashem, as a practical lesson in avodah? The Rebbe once spoke about this at a farbrengen, I think,

28:35 in the early years, at the beginning of the Rebbe’s leadership. There was a farbrengen on Parshas Mishpatim 5711, and the Rebbe spoke about this at great length. What does the Torah mean by telling us this? The Rebbe said that, in serving Hashem, a Jew is a servant of Hashem. There is the avodah of “six years he shall serve”: serving Hashem during the time of exile, when a Jew is in a foreign land and nevertheless serves Hashem. And what does “in the seventh he shall go free, without payment” mean? It means that a Jew must know that the entire aim of his service of Hashem is to reach “in the seventh he shall go free, without payment.” A Jew must know that exile is not his place. A Jew must always have a thirst, a longing, and a yearning for the days of Moshiach. Even while he is in exile, a Jew does not belong to exile. A Jew is not a Jew of exile. He must know that the goal, the purpose, and the intent are “in the seventh he shall go free, without payment”; that all his avodah is in order to—and in the words of the Mishnah, how does the Mishnah in Berachos put it?—“All the days of your life, to bring about the days of Moshiach.” “All the days of your life, to bring about the days of Moshiach”—the Chassidic meaning, the inner meaning, is: “All the days of your life, to bring about the days of Moshiach.” A Jew must live “all the days of your life” and remember that this is “to bring about the days of Moshiach.” The Rebbe also spoke about this

30:12 once at a farbrengen. Who says this in the Mishnah? Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah. What does he say in the Pesach Haggadah, in the Mishnah in Berachos? “Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah said: Behold, I am like a man of seventy years.” Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah was once appointed nasi. The Gemara in Berachos relates that he was appointed nasi at that time. And on the very day he was appointed nasi, what did Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah say? “Behold, I am like a man of seventy years.” As is known, he was only eighteen, but so that he could be nasi and his words would be accepted, he came to appear “like a man of seventy years.” And what did he want? In the words of our Sages, “that the Exodus from Egypt should be mentioned at night.” He wanted to bring about the remembrance of the Exodus from Egypt at night. How is this expressed? We see from the Mishnah as a whole that the Exodus from Egypt is mentioned not only by day, but also at night. And the Mishnah concludes: “‘The days of your life’ refers to this world; ‘all the days of your life’ includes the days of Moshiach.” What is the inner meaning here? What is the depth of it? Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah was appointed nasi. Why is the first thing the nasi speaks about the Exodus from Egypt? And that it should be mentioned not only by day but also at night, and “all the days of your life, to bring about the days of Moshiach.” What does this mean? The Rebbe gave a wonderful explanation. Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah was among the first nesi’im in the period of exile. This was shortly after the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash. And at that time,

31:40 the time when the account of Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah took place, a few years after the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash, he was among the first nesi’im. A state of confinement, exile, and darkness was beginning—the Roman exile. It was a long, dark, bleak exile that seemed to have no end. What does the nasi, a rabbi who has just been appointed nasi, do? The word “nasi” is related to raising up. A nasi’s role is to lift people: not only is he himself on a higher plane, he also lifts his flock. He raises them; he elevates them. Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah comes on the day he becomes nasi. What does he want? What is his entire goal and intent? He works to enable Jews to “mention the Exodus from Egypt.” So that even when they live through a difficult exile, and times of “night” come—dark, bleak, bitter times of exile, darkness upon darkness—even at night they mention the Exodus from Egypt. Even in a state of night, a Jew can mention the Exodus from Egypt, and even then he stands in a state of Geulah. He says more than that: not only the Exodus from Egypt, but “all the days of your life, to bring about the days of Moshiach.” Not only the first redemption, but the redemption that has yet to come, the Geulah of Moshiach. A Jew is in the time of exile, and he knows that all his avodah and everything he does are “to bring about the days of Moshiach.” That—

33:15 [unclear]. Through this avodah, he will reach [unclear]. He can still be living in a time of exile and already be in a different frame of mind, on a higher plane, in a state of Geulah. That is what a nasi does. A nasi uplifts—“When you acquire a Hebrew servant.” A nasi uplifts the flock in his care. Even while they are still living in a time of exile, they can be connected to what is above, stand in a higher world, and be in a state of Geulah, though the world itself is still in a state of exile. In the early years, the Rebbe had a practice on Simchas Torah: he would teach niggunim. Every year, on the night of Simchas Torah, toward morning, after the hakafos and everything else, when only a small group remained, the Rebbe would come down to the shul—after the hakafos and the Simchas Torah night meal—and teach a niggun. In those early years, he taught one every year. This continued for ten years, so there were at least ten niggunim that the Rebbe taught, one each year. One of them was a niggun about which the Rebbe said: This is how the niggun called “Shamil” goes. Who was Shamil? The Rebbe once told the story behind it, a true story. In Russia, the government once wanted to conquer several surrounding countries and cities. There were mountains there called the Caucasus Mountains.

34:57 The Russian government reached that region at the time and wanted to conquer the entire mountain range. The Caucasus Mountains were high, and up in those mountains lived tribes—wild tribes, wild groups of Cossacks and other people who lived there. Very wild tribes, as they were called. [unclear], and they did whatever they pleased there and posed a great danger. The Russian government wanted to conquer them, but it did not have the power to do so. In those days there were no airplanes yet, so there was no way to reach them from above. The only way to get there was to climb up from below. But the Russians were down below, and the tribes lived above, on the mountains, so the Russians had no way to defeat them. They therefore devised a ruse: they convinced them that they wanted to make peace, under a white flag. The Russian soldiers began climbing from below, while Shamil—Shamil was the leader of the entire tribe; that was his name—came down from above with his whole group. Then, when they met along the way, the soldiers fought them, defeated them, and captured them all. That was how they conquered all the

36:28 Caucasus Mountains, which became part of Russia. They took Shamil and sent him into exile in Siberia, where he was in Tbilisi. Now, the Rebbe relates that chassidim tell it this way: Shamil had a pronounced gift for music, and he composed this niggun. It is well known that great tzaddikim can take a niggun from a non-Jew and elevate it to holiness. This is brought from the Baal Shem Tov. It is discussed at length in Likkutei Moharan, describing how tzaddikim took niggunim and reworked them. This niggun was elevated to holiness and became a chassidic niggun. The Rebbe then taught the niggun with all its details and nuances, explaining how, in each part, Shamil expressed what was in his heart in response to his circumstances. In the first part of the niggun, he describes his present situation. Then comes the longing. He remembers the good times, when he was like a free bird—as the Rebbe put it—a free bird on the high mountains. In contrast, now the poor man is in a pit, in a hole, imprisoned, and it makes him bitter. He is entirely hemmed in by constraints and limitations. And when he remembers the good times,

37:50 his longing for those days grows stronger. Then comes the conclusion of the niggun, expressing his hope that he will eventually emerge from this situation and things will get better. That heartens him, because he immerses himself in the hope and confidence that a time will come when he will return to the high mountains like a free bird. The Rebbe then explained the whole matter in terms of avodas Hashem. It refers to the soul’s descent below. The soul lives on the high mountains. The high mountains are the lofty lights of Gan Eden. They allude to the Patriarchs: “The mountains—these are the Patriarchs.” After all, every soul is connected to the holy Patriarchs. “Beyond the river”—that is the meaning of “a Hebrew servant”: “Hebrew,” because “your ancestors dwelt beyond the river.” Jews came from the holy “beyond the river.” As explained in Chassidus, “beyond the river” means that Jews stand above all the worlds. From there the soul descended here below, into exile. The soul is imprisoned in the body and the animal soul. And when the soul remembers what a soul is—“truly a part of G-d above,” as the Alter Rebbe explains in Tanya—and how the soul is, in essence, like a free bird on the high mountains, belonging to the Infinite, to the boundless light of the Ein Sof, to the greatness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu.

39:10 That is what the soul wants. An immense thirst and longing for that state awaken within it, and it has hope and confidence. When a Jew knows that our presence here below, in exile, is only temporary, and that Moshiach is about to come—especially now, when we are in the footsteps of Moshiach and know that the Geulah can come at any moment, today. When a Jew lives with that hope and confidence, then even while he is here in exile, he can place himself in a state above the whole exile, above all the worlds. And this is Parshas Mishpatim, which comes after the Giving of the Torah. Each of us must always remember and know: “And these are the judgments that you shall set before them.” We must remember and know that there is Moshe Rabbeinu, and there is an extension of Moshe in every generation, because every generation has its own Moshe Rabbeinu. He is the faithful shepherd who, through what he teaches and says, through his Torah and his influence, teaches every Jew the knowledge [unclear]. This enables a Jew to have knowledge of G-dliness, so that it does not remain merely a matter of faith, something lofty in the seventh heaven, but faith becomes [unclear].

40:31 This is a matter of daas: learning it plainly, understanding it, saying it aloud, and feeling it enter one’s awareness, until it becomes something alive, something internal, something a Jew lives with. And through the Moshe Rabbeinu of every generation, who reveals G-dliness and brings it down into the world through the Torah he reveals, and through the deeds and actions of tzaddikim, by which they show that the world is not an independent reality. They reveal the truth that Hashem is G-d. They reveal that “You were shown to know that Hashem is G-d; there is nothing else besides Him.” And through this [unclear]. So even if we are still living in a time of exile, we already live with this; in our hearts we already feel that [unclear], that the voice of Moshiach and the light of Moshiach are already here, that “in the seventh year he shall go free, without payment,” and that this must happen. May we merit to see it with our physical eyes—the complete Geulah through our righteous Moshiach, speedily in our days, amen.