"HaChodesh HaZeh Lachem" - Renewal and redemption within a person's soul - Rabbi Asher

00:01 The Frierdiker Rebbe relates in a sicha from 2 Nissan 5711, the yahrzeit and day of the passing of his father, the Rebbe Rashab. He relates that in 5663, the Rebbe Rashab spent several months with his son, the Frierdiker Rebbe, in Vienna, Austria. They were there for health and medical reasons, and the Rebbe Rashab had to see doctors frequently. He relates that on Rosh Chodesh Nissan of that year, 5663, there was a farbrengen. His father, the Rebbe Rashab, farbrenged, had a little l’chaim, and spoke at length; the farbrengen went on for a long time. The next day was 2 Nissan—the day that would later become the day of his passing. That had not happened yet; it was only years later that he passed away on that date. This story took place seventeen years earlier: the Rebbe Rashab passed away on 2 Nissan 5680, and this happened on 2 Nissan 5663. The next day, 2 Nissan, his father, the Rebbe Rashab, was very happy. He said he felt such expansiveness of mind that he could not put even a morsel in his mouth. He could not bear the taste of physical food. He said you could not even find a baker who could bake something—any food—that he could put in his mouth just then. It was extraordinary joy and extraordinary expansiveness of mind. The Frierdiker Rebbe says there were times when it was not

02:00 possible to ask, “What happened? What has changed?” When you ask, [unclear]. But sometimes they would ask, hoping to be fortunate enough to receive an answer. That time, when the Frierdiker Rebbe saw such joy and renewed energy in the Rebbe Rashab, he asked him, “What has changed? What happened today to bring about this renewal?” His father, the Rebbe Rashab, replied, “Let’s go for a walk, and I’ll tell you.” Later that day they went for a walk, and there the Rebbe Rashab revealed that the Alter Rebbe had come to him that day and shared a Torah teaching. This was the teaching: the Alter Rebbe said that people think avodah means “standing at the head”—that is, performing great wonders. The truth is that it is very simple. What is the avodah? He said: It is written in the Mishnah, “He ascends the ramp, turns toward the surrounding ledge, and comes to the southeastern corner, then the northeastern, northwestern, and southwestern corners.” The Alter Rebbe explained: “He ascends the ramp”—first a person raises himself a little, putting himself on a higher level. The ramp is the way up to the altar; he goes up and becomes a little higher. “Turns toward the surrounding ledge”—then he looks around within himself to see what is going on. “And comes to the southern corner”—what does “southern” mean? The south is warm. It is the place with more sun, meaning more warmth. “And comes to the southern corner”—he becomes warm. In other words, when he turns his attention to himself and begins to serve Hakadosh Boruch Hu, he becomes warm; a warmth develops within him.

04:00 Then it says “southeastern.” East is associated with sunrise—and then, suddenly, it becomes light; things themselves become clearer. After the eastern corner comes the “northeastern” corner. North is the left side, the direction of the yetzer hara, “the northern one.” The Gemara says that the yetzer hara is called “the northern one,” the left side. Then light reaches the north as well—the animal soul, the yetzer hara. And when one refines and corrects the left side, the yetzer hara, one proceeds from north to “northwestern.” West is associated with pleasantness and sweetness: a pleasantness and sweetness are brought about Above. This was the Torah teaching he heard from the Alter Rebbe, and that was the source of his extraordinary joy: [unclear], such insights from the holy mouth of the Alter Rebbe—how could he put anything physical in his mouth? That is the story that took place on Rosh Chodesh Nissan and 2 Nissan. When Rosh Chodesh Nissan arrives, the month of Nissan, we begin, of course, Parshas Hachodesh, with the verse: “This month shall be for you the first of months; it shall be for you the first of the months of the year.” And when we come to “This month shall be for you,” there is the well-known teaching first recorded in the name of the Baal Shem Tov. It appears in Degel Machaneh Ephraim in the name of the Baal Shem Tov, and the Rebbe would repeat it often.

05:54 He did so several times in maamarim and sichos when this time of year came around, the time of Parshas Hachodesh and Rosh Chodesh Nissan. The Degel Machaneh Ephraim writes that he was with his grandfather and saw that once, on Rosh Chodesh Nissan, the Baal Shem Tov called his great disciple, the Maggid of Mezritch, and told him that today was the time to pray about all matters concerning the governments and authorities of the world. After all, the Mishnah says, “The first of Nissan is the new year for kings.” In these days, all the ministers and governments, and everyone who manages the affairs of the world, are appointed from Above. So today is a time to pray that all the ministers and governments of the world act for the good of the Jewish people. That was the teaching the Baal Shem Tov gave the Maggid of Mezritch. The Rebbe spoke about this and said that these words were conveyed to us as well, and that they are an instruction for every Jew: at this time in the month of Nissan, and particularly at the beginning of Nissan, we must pray and ask Hakadosh Boruch Hu that all these matters—the kings and all the affairs of the world—be for the good of the Jewish people. This is also what is cited in the name of the Maggid of Mezritch, who explained the verse “This month shall be for you the first of months.” That is the meaning of the words

07:30 “This month shall be for you.” That is the meaning of “for you”: this is a time entrusted to you, to the Jews, when Jews must pray and act so that everything affecting the entire year, all twelve months of the year, will be “for you”—as Jews want and as Jews need, for the good of the Jewish people. The Maggid of Mezritch explains this too, as written in the sefer. When he discusses the month of Nissan in the sefer and distinguishes it from the month of Tishrei, he says that in Nissan Hakadosh Boruch Hu says: This is yours, this is “for you,” it belongs to you; whereas the month of Tishrei is “Mine.” What does it mean that Nissan is “yours” and Tishrei is “Mine”? The letters of Nissan are in sequence: first nun and then samech. These are adjacent letters, proceeding in order from above downward. The letters go in sequence from above downward: alef, beis, gimmel, daled, nun, samech. That is the order from above downward. This is called “yours”—the flow of blessing drawn down from Hakadosh Boruch Hu to the Jews, for the good of the Jewish people. Tishrei, by contrast, is “Mine.” The letters of Tishrei run in reverse: tav, shin, reish, yud. They go in the opposite order. This is called “Mine”; it is Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself. Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself raises it up so that there will be an even greater illumination. In other words, the difference between Nissan and Tishrei is that in Nissan, Hakadosh Boruch Hu reveals, in the Maggid’s words, “an abundance of brightness”: a great and immense light, with which Hakadosh Boruch Hu illuminates the world.

09:21 This illumination is drawn down in order from above downward, and that is a revelation of G-dliness. A great brightness, an immense light from Hakadosh Boruch Hu, shines in the world. And together with that light, Hakadosh Boruch Hu gives a Jew the ability to receive the brightness. In Tishrei it is the opposite: an ascent from below upward. Nissan, by contrast, is a time of revelation, of great brightness. [unclear] This is also what the Maggid mentions when he says that Nissan is called the month of aviv, spring. Aviv can be read as av yud-beis, “father of twelve.” In other words, in Nissan there is the sequence of alef, beis, gimmel—a revelation of G-dliness that Hakadosh Boruch Hu reveals to every Jew with great brightness, and Jews have the capacity to receive that brightness, that light. That is av yud-beis: it is what sustains the Jew. It is the father of the twelve months, and from it illumination is drawn to all the months. More specifically, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, the holy Berditchever, also explains the verse “This month shall be for you the first of months.” What does it mean—two beginnings of the months? These are two beginnings of the year. The Gemara in Tractate Rosh Hashanah cites the dispute between Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua: When were the worlds created? Rabbi Eliezer says the worlds were created in Tishrei. Rabbi Yehoshua says the worlds were created in Nissan. In other words, there are two beginnings to the year. This is along the lines of what the Midrash says: “When Hakadosh Boruch Hu chose His world, He established in it the beginnings of months and years”; the month of Tishrei is Rosh Hashanah. “And when He chose Yaakov and his children,” Hakadosh Boruch Hu chose the month of Nissan to be the first of months. What is the difference between Tishrei and Nissan? The holy Berditchever says that the month

11:34 Tishrei, “when He chose His world,” represents conduct according to nature, conduct connected with His world. The whole world prospers, and this is a natural way of running things. So Hakadosh Boruch Hu runs the world according to the order of nature. When the month of Tishrei comes to an end, “when He chose Yaakov and his children,” that brings us to “the first of the months.” “This month shall be for you”—Hakadosh Boruch Hu runs the world for the benefit of the Jewish people. In other words, Hakadosh Boruch Hu says to the Jews: When Nissan arrives, He asks the Jew, “How do you want the world to be run?” The Jews decide, and that is “this month shall be for you.” It is according to the Jews’ conduct and wishes—according to their needs. What do the Jewish people need? That is how the world should be run. The Jews decide and determine how the world is run, and so the month of Nissan, too, is according to the needs of the Jewish people. So the first thing we need to take home from this—we don’t have much time, just one brief point to take home—is that things need to be, as [unclear] says, according to the needs of the Jewish people. “This month shall be for you”—the month must be for you. The way things are run, all the governments, all the leaders, and everything that happens in the world must accord with the needs and wishes of the Jewish people. Things must be good for Jews in every respect, materially and spiritually. And when we come to “this month shall be for you, the first of the months” and the difference between Nissan and Tishrei, this goes even deeper: What does it mean in serving Hashem, and what does it mean in a person’s service? As we mentioned, there is a dispute between Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua: When was the world created? Rabbi Eliezer says, “The world was created in Tishrei.” That is, 25 Elul was the first day of Creation, and

13:34 1 Tishrei was the creation of Adam. And the Gemara says that this is how Jews observe it: in the Rosh Hashanah prayers, we say on Rosh Hashanah, “This day is the beginning of Your works.” On the other hand, Rabbi Yehoshua says that the world was created in Nissan. The world was created on 25 Adar, and Adam was created on 1 Nissan. The Gemara says that even according to Rabbi Yehoshua, Rosh Hashanah is the Day of Judgment. Nevertheless, the idea of “the first of the months” remains. Besides this, there are several other matters. Jews calculate the seasons specifically from Nissan. Perhaps, then, the true meaning of “for you” does indeed follow Rabbi Yehoshua’s view that the world was created in Nissan. And what should we learn from this? There are two modes in the year: the mode of Tishrei and the mode of Nissan. How do we understand this, and what is the difference between them? Above all, how does it relate to a Jew’s service? What does it mean in a person’s service, in everything a Jew does to serve Hakadosh Boruch Hu? What, specifically, is the service of “this month shall be for you, the first of the months”? As always, at Pesach time, in the month of Nissan, we say, “This month shall be for you.” What does this mean in our service? The author of [unclear] discusses this. The author of [unclear] says about “this month shall be for you”: What is the difference between Tishrei and Nissan? Tishrei is when the year begins. In the plain sense, when Tishrei arrives, it is the new year for years. The Gemara says it is a new year, and plainly, that is when the year begins. Tishrei 1, Tishrei 2, Tishrei 3—every year, when Tishrei arrives, it is a new year, a new time. Nissan is the time of the months. The verse says, “This month shall be for you, the first of the months,” and the concept of months is connected with Nissan. Nissan is called “the first of the months of the year.” That is the meaning: Nissan is the first month, and Tishrei is the

15:42 seventh month. The author of [unclear] says: What is the difference between the beginning of the year and the beginning of the months? It is the difference between the sun and the moon. The sun is connected with the year. The sun’s course runs over a full year. Plainly, the sun does not change from month to month. As the author of [unclear] says, “The sun has no months.” The sun does not change from month to month; that is true in the physical sense. The sun does not distinguish one month from another. It is the same sun: it rises in the east, sets in the west, and neither shrinks nor grows. There is no visible reality of the months of the year in it. The fact that the nations have twelve months determined by the sun is only for their calculations. But physically, there is no difference between the months as far as the sun is concerned. With the sun, the main distinction is the year. The sun passes through the three hundred and sixty-five—here it says, “the three hundred and sixty-five days of the year.” Over the days of the year, the sun moves between summer and winter, between cold and heat, governing the course of the seasons and everything connected with them. That is a cycle connected with the entire year. With the sun, the main thing is the year; our Sages discuss its entire course of three hundred and sixty-five days each year. That is a matter of a year, not of renewal or months. But with the moon it is exactly the opposite. With the moon, there really is such a thing as months. What is the moon’s defining feature? Months. Every twenty-nine and a half days, the moon is renewed. Yes, the moon,

17:22 [unclear] is reborn, and the moon has a new, fresh light. In the words of Ibn Ezra: “The sun has no months, and the moon has no years.” What does this mean in a person’s service? In a person’s service, the difference is that the sun represents constancy. That is the pattern of the whole year. Shanah, “year,” is related to shinui, “change”; shanah is also related to the language of our Sages, to mishnah—something that repeats itself constantly, at all times. In our service, this is the constant service, “the daily offerings in their proper order.” A Jew has the service of the daily offerings in their proper order. A Jew gets up to begin his day’s service, washes his hands and davens three times a day, and has set times for Torah study. That is how a Jew’s life proceeds day to day. These aspects of serving Hashem are called service according to nature, in an ordered, step-by-step way. What is Tishrei about? The order of nature. But then comes Nissan. Nissan—its name is related to nissim, miracles—is a time of miracles beyond nature, and the analogy for it is the moon. The moon undergoes renewal. In the moon’s cycle, as an analogy for the Jewish people, there is a time of decline, a time of darkness, a time of concealment, until the moon is completely hidden on the eve of Rosh Chodesh, in the darkness. Then comes renewal: a new light, a new radiance, as the moon is born anew. That is the idea of renewal. And in a person’s service,

18:57 this is the idea of “the additional offerings according to their laws.” Sometimes a Jew enters a new frame of mind, experiences a new awakening, makes a new leap; he jumps out of his natural routine and begins something new, with fresh vitality. Here lies the difference between Nissan and Tishrei. In Tishrei, the main thing is that a Jew must awaken within himself the ordered service of “the daily offerings in their proper order,” a service like the sun. In general, it is service guided by reason and understanding, in an ordered, step-by-step way—service of “the daily offerings in their proper order,” day after day. This is the vitality a Jew receives from Tishrei for the entire year, as we said earlier. Yes, the year specifically needs the sun. But then comes Nissan, the time when a Jew must bring himself to serve through a leap. The month of Pesach—Pesach is related to “passed over and leaped.” It is a time of leaping, a time of miracles. Yes, a Jew must go beyond his own measurements and limitations, step out of the garments of his natural routine, and serve in a miraculous way. Broadly speaking, these are the natural order and the order of miracles. Both exist within a Jew. There is the natural order, the day-to-day pattern, the ordered, step-by-step pattern, a way of proceeding according to [unclear]. Then comes Nissan. We tell the Jew: Now that Nissan has arrived, this must be a month in which you go beyond your limitations and boundaries. The Exodus from Egypt—as Chassidus explains, the meaning of the Exodus from Egypt is to go out of—

20:24 from the constraints and limitations of nature—and not only of the animal soul, but even from the constraints and limitations of the G-dly soul’s nature. What does it mean to go beyond the constraints and limitations of the G-dly soul’s nature? It means serving Hashem in a way that transcends all limits, in a way that is above nature. A person’s conduct has to be miraculous. In other words, if he has been accustomed to a particular way of doing things, he has to bring himself to make a leap beyond his usual daily routine and his gradual progression. That is how it should be in his Torah study: his learning should be like something coming into being from nothing, a new revelation. The Alter Rebbe writes in Tanya, chapter 15, about someone who serves Hashem: he studies one more time than his habit and established practice call for. His service, his davening, should be like something coming into being from nothing—a revelation beyond the limitations and boundaries of what halachah requires of him in the order of prayer. It should go beyond the letter of the law, with more vitality, more intention, greater care, and more time spent davening. And likewise in his Torah study, he has to bring himself to follow a routine that transcends limitations and boundaries, even [unclear], even of Chumash, as the Alter Rebbe says in Tanya that the service must be in a manner of [unclear]. And this is the idea behind the order of service in the month of Tishrei. “This month shall be for you the first of

21:56 months”—there has to be a month, and “the month” implies renewal. And this renewal is the idea of the Exodus from Egypt. Nissan is the time of the Exodus from Egypt, and the Exodus in a person’s inner service is, as the Alter Rebbe says in Tanya, chapter 47, “in every generation and on every single day.” The Mishnah in Tractate Berachos says: “In every generation, a person is obligated to see himself as though he had left Egypt.” What does that mean? When Pesach comes, this is brought as halachah in the Rambam and the Shulchan Aruch, in the laws of Pesach: in every generation, on Pesach, on the night of Pesach, a Jew must sit at the Seder as a free person, with all the things intended to show that it is as though he had left Egypt. The Alter Rebbe comes along in Tanya, quotes the Mishnah, and adds to it. The Mishnah says, “In every generation”; the Alter Rebbe adds, “In every generation and on every single day.” In other words, this is not just something that happens once, in the month of Nissan, on Pesach, but every single day. And similarly, he goes on to say: “A person is obligated to see himself as though he left today.” He adds the word “today.” “As though he left” suggests, in a general sense, that I left Egypt. The Alter Rebbe adds “today”: every day, in everyday life, a Jew must be in a state in which he left Egypt today, literally today. And the Alter Rebbe explains in chapter 47 of

23:31 Tanya how a person should work on himself so that every day, through davening, he leaves the constraints and limitations of the body and animal soul. If you remember, earlier we spoke about what he says in other maamarim of Chassidus: that one must go beyond even the constraints and limitations of the G-dly soul. And the Rebbe once wrote in a letter to one of the chassidim explaining what leaving Egypt every single day really means. What is the service of leaving Egypt every day? He tells a story, something that once happened with the Rebbe Rashab and his son, the Frierdiker Rebbe. The story took place in Rostov, [unclear]. As is known, the Rebbe Rashab left Lubavitch; there was a war at the time, and it was impossible to live in Lubavitch, so he moved to Rostov. During that period they lived in the same building. The Rebbe Rashab, of blessed memory, lived on one floor, and the Frierdiker Rebbe lived on another. The Rebbe Rashab, the father, would visit his son on Shabbos, particularly on Shabbos afternoons; sometimes he would come to make Kiddush and say l’chaim. One Shabbos, the Rebbe Rashab came to his son, the Frierdiker Rebbe, made Kiddush there, farbrenged, took a little glass of spirits, and said to his son, “L’chaim, baal habayis!” Plainly,

24:58 he meant something very simple: he had come to his son’s home, and his son was the master of his own home. “L’chaim, baal habayis!” The Rebbe relates what he heard from his father-in-law, the Frierdiker Rebbe: the Frierdiker Rebbe burst into tears and said, “Father, don’t call me a baal habayis. A baal habayis is something repulsive.” What did those words mean? Why did he find the words “baal habayis” so objectionable? The Rebbe explains that “baal habayis” does not mean, G-d forbid, a Jew who does not observe Torah and mitzvos, or a Jew who commits various transgressions, G-d forbid. No. A “baal habayis,” in the sense of the term “baalei batim” in halachah, is a Jew who observes Torah and mitzvos, the minor as well as the major. He serves Hashem, follows the Shulchan Aruch, and does everything halachah requires. But what defines a baal habayis? He gave a startling explanation: his daily routine is the same every single day. On Monday, his routine is the same as on Sunday; on Tuesday, the same as on Monday; and on Wednesday, the same as on Tuesday. Every day, the same conduct, in the same way. And when someone tells him that he needs to go beyond himself, break out of his routine, go beyond limitations and boundaries, the idea seems absurd to him. In his eyes, it would be considered crazy.

26:29 He sees it as something abnormal. He is a normal person, a Torah-observant Jew, a Jew who follows the Shulchan Aruch—but why go beyond the boundaries? Why do something with himself? Why suddenly change? And that is the definition of a baal habayis. That is what he called repulsive, something that should not be found in a chossid. And the Rebbe explained in the letter that this is the meaning of “In every generation and on every single day, a person is obligated to see himself as though he is leaving Egypt today.” A Jew must live his everyday life in a state of “This month shall be for you,” a state of renewal. “The month” is related to renewal; the moon is constantly renewed. He must not let himself fall into what is called “mitzvos performed by rote,” into limitations and boundaries, into routine and habit. Incidentally, even in the ordinary ways of the world, there is the matter of routine and habit. We spoke earlier about the regular order of davening and the order of worldly custom. The verse says: “This month shall be for you the first of months; it shall be for you the first of the months of the year.” The Rebbe points out that the repeated wording comes to tell us that one should not [unclear] throughout the year. A Jew does indeed need a routine, an orderly routine, and there needs to be [unclear] in the pattern of life, and—

27:48 that is the routine. But within the order of the months of the year, every month should bring renewal with it, so that a certain vitality, earnestness, freshness, and renewal can be felt. And so we reach Parshas Hachodesh, and the month of Nissan arrives, and we receive a special strength for renewal. This is what Rabbi Yehoshua means when he says, “The world was created in Nissan”: among Jews, there should be the scent of the month of Nissan, a sense of the miraculous in [unclear], in serving Hashem. And indeed, likewise, “In Nissan they are destined to be redeemed.” As is known, there is a dispute between Rabbi Yehoshua and Rabbi Eliezer. The Gemara in Rosh Hashanah says that Rabbi Eliezer states, “In Tishrei they are destined to be redeemed,” while Rabbi Yehoshua states, “In Nissan they are destined to be redeemed.” And the Tzemach Tzedek cites that in Vayikra Rabbah, on Parshas Emor, the statement is made without qualification in accordance with Rabbi Yehoshua’s view. In other words, it presents as the ruling, without qualification, Rabbi Yehoshua’s view: that they are indeed destined to be redeemed in Nissan. What does this mean for the approach to serving Hashem that we are discussing? That the future Geulah will not be as Rabbi Eliezer says—a redemption more in keeping with nature, the order of Tishrei—but a miraculous Geulah, a Geulah beyond the natural order. And by taking it upon ourselves now, at the time of the month of—

29:14 “this month shall be for you,” to serve Hashem in a miraculous way, this [unclear]. May we be able to crown kings in the month of Tishrei, and most importantly, may we crown the true king, the king of the House of David, King Moshiach. And may we merit that in this month of Nissan, “In Nissan they are destined to be redeemed” will indeed come to pass, and may we merit the complete Geulah through our righteous Moshiach. Amen, may it be His will.