The Days of Tashlumin of Chag HaShavuos - Learning Torah with Toil and Effort through One's Own Strength - Rabbi Asher Parkesh

00:02 In a letter, the Frierdiker Rebbe writes about two kinds of chassidim of the Alter Rebbe. He relates that once, at a 19 Kislev farbrengen with the Rebbe Maharash, the Rebbe Maharash spoke about two kinds of chassidim. He called them a “pnimiyus chossid” and a “makif chossid.” Both were genuine chassidim, great chassidim, among the finest chassidim, on high levels in their service of Hashem. But one was called a makif chossid, and the other a pnimiyus chossid. He gave two examples from among the Alter Rebbe’s chassidim. The makif chossid was Reb Yekusiel Liepler, and as an example of a pnimiyus chossid he cited Reb Moshe Vilenker. He describes the difference between them at length. Reb Yekusiel Liepler was a simple man. He was a Jew who even found reading difficult. His abilities and faculties were very limited. Once he traveled to the Alter Rebbe. When he arrived, the Alter Rebbe was still delivering Torah teachings—what do I need to say? I need to keep it brief. The Alter Rebbe was giving a Torah teaching then, speaking about subjects that appear in Tanya. As is known, while the Alter Rebbe was working on and writing Tanya, he also delivered maamarim following the order of Tanya. The Alter Rebbe said then that every

01:49 Jew has two souls. The G-dly soul is in the right chamber of the heart, and the animal soul is in the left chamber. Reb Yekusiel was deeply stirred by this Torah teaching. He felt that his own animal soul was there on the left side, in the left chamber. He was so stirred that he wanted to go in for yechidus. The attendant would not let him in, so he went through the window. He climbed in through the window and entered the Alter Rebbe’s room. The Alter Rebbe was in the middle of davening. Reb Yekusiel cried out, “Rebbe, cut off my left side!” In other words, he wanted the Rebbe to remove his left chamber. The Alter Rebbe finished what he was doing at that moment. He was in a state of deep dveikus and said, “[unclear] gives life to them all.” With that, the Rebbe infused him with a soul. He infused him with warmth for G-dliness, until he simply began to dance, went out into the street, and kept dancing. His soul had been stirred tremendously. From then on, he began to study Chassidus. The Mitteler Rebbe worked with him, and he rose from level to level. He became one of the great chassidim in his intellectual grasp and understanding of Chassidus. But it was all in a makif way. Suddenly, an illumination would shine in his soul, and he would begin to dance and—

03:29 He would say in Russian, “The chossid has arrived.” And when the inspiration passed, he would say, “The chossid has gone.” He went through periods that were complete opposites. At times when he was deeply inspired and his heart was full of fire for G-dliness, he would study Chassidus for hours, daven for a whole day and a whole night, and simply devote hours to Torah and avodah. But on days when he did not feel that inspiration, he would daven with great difficulty; even reading the words was hard for him. That was how it was, from one extreme to the other. This was the kind of chossid called a makif chossid. In other words, all his Chassidus came from the Alter Rebbe’s blessing. The second chossid was Reb Moshe Vilenker. Reb Moshe Vilenker was a man who prepared himself to enter his first yechidus with the Alter Rebbe. He prepared for that first yechidus for three years, investing effort of both soul and body. Then, after the yechidus, over the seventy years he still lived, he succeeded in bringing that yechidus into expression in his avodah. He was one of those about whom the Alter Rebbe said that Reb Moshe had refined [unclear], and so on. He was an example of a chossid for whom everything had been worked through inwardly, until it permeated every limb, down to the smallest detail. And after that, [unclear] discusses the two kinds at length, that

05:08 in the practice of Chassidus, the central path in Chabad Chassidus is specifically inward avodah, avodah through one’s own efforts. This is the order of avodah: one must not rely on receiving it from Above, but must work it through oneself, through one’s own efforts. And this point, as we stand in the days of completion following Shavuos, is one of the main points relevant to avodah in general, to the giving of the Torah on Shavuos, and particularly to these days of completion. As explained regarding the giving of the Torah, there is a fundamental point discussed in the works of Chassidus. It is also quoted in the name of the Alter Rebbe: the giving of the Torah involves two things. There is the giving of the Torah, and there is the receiving of the Torah. There is what is given from Above, and there is the avodah that must come through one’s own efforts—the receiving: Jews must prepare for the giving of the Torah, and afterward, the study of Torah must be done with effort and toil. And as is known, the Frierdiker Rebbe relates in his sichos that the Alter Rebbe once said that three things were given at the giving of the Torah. The revealed dimension of Torah was given. The secrets of Torah, the inner dimension of Torah, were also given. And the power for avodah was given. At that time, Hakadosh Boruch Hu gave Jews the ability to work through their own efforts and to reach the highest and deepest revelations specifically through their own efforts. And here there is an interesting point to understand in—

06:56 There is a passage in the Gemara that, when you learn it, seems difficult to understand at first glance. But when you look more deeply, you see that it contains an interesting lesson. The Gemara in tractate Menachos, page 65, relates that there was a debate between Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai and the Boethusians. The Boethusians claimed that Shavuos always falls on the first day of the week. As is known, their whole position rested on their interpretation of the verse “on the morrow of the Shabbos”: they claimed that the counting of the Omer always begins on the day after Shabbos, so it always begins on Sunday, and the last day of the counting of the Omer is Shabbos. It follows that Shavuos always falls on Sunday. The Gemara relates that Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai debated the Sadducees, the Boethusians, and asked them: Why, according to you, does Shavuos fall on Sunday? They did not know how to answer, until one Sadducee said, “Moshe Rabbeinu loved the Jewish people, and he knew that Atzeres is only one day.” He did not want the Jews to have only a single day of Atzeres. After all, the entire festival of Shavuos is just one day. There is a saying: On Pesach, there is nothing to eat, because all the foods are chametz. That is what people say—on Pesach there is nothing to eat.

08:31 And on Shavuos, there is no time to eat, because the day is simply so short, and by the time you get to your room, the day is already over. And on Sukkos, there is nowhere to eat, because there is no sukkah, no time to get into the sukkah, and all those things. That is the saying. In any case, the Gemara says that the Sadducee argued that since Moshe Rabbeinu saw that Atzeres was only one day, out of Ahavas Yisroel he wanted Jews to enjoy at least two days. So he said that Atzeres should always fall on Sunday, giving them two festive days on which they could enjoy food and delicacies, so that the Jews would have two days. Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai answered him: “If Moshe Rabbeinu loved the Jewish people, why did he delay them in the desert for forty years?” How could he have held them back in the desert for forty years? The Gemara then continues with Rabbi Yochanan citing verses and answering him. But this part of the Gemara raises a question: What is going on here? What was the Sadducee’s argument, and what was Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai’s answer? The Sadducee, the Boethusian, argued that Moshe Rabbeinu loved the Jewish people. What does Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai answer him? When you learn it plainly, it sounds as though Rabbi Yochanan is saying that he did not love the Jewish people. He says, “If he loved the Jewish people, why did he delay them in the desert for forty years?” As though Moshe Rabbeinu did not love the Jewish people—G-d forbid that one should say such a thing. What needs to—

09:57 What proof did Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai bring? Why did he bring up the forty years in the wilderness? What is this whole matter about? After all, this is an aggadic passage in the Gemara. Rashi says that here he brushed him off with a straw argument: since he said something foolish, he answered him with something foolish. But on the contrary, the Gemara is the wisdom and will of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and it certainly contains layer upon layer of depth. There is a richer explanation, as the sages explain. What was the dispute about? It was about the nature of Moshe Rabbeinu’s Ahavas Yisroel. The Boethusians and Sadducees held that Ahavas Yisroel meant making life even easier. If Moshe Rabbeinu had Ahavas Yisroel, he would give things as a gift. That was their claim. And their argument was that the Torah is a “hidden treasure.” Tractate Shabbos says that the Torah is the greatest gift, a “hidden treasure,” the wisdom and will of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. So it is not possible for a Jew to receive it through his own efforts. It is a gift that Hakadosh Boruch Hu gave us—not because of anything on our part, but as a gift from Above. And since it is a gift from Above, it should come as a gift. That is what they said: Atzeres should be a day of delight that follows a day of delight. After all, of Shabbos it is said, “I have a precious gift in My treasury.” Shabbos is a day without work, a day of rest,

11:32 a time of rest, a time of delight, given to us from Above. So the Sadducees and Boethusians thought the same applied to the giving of the Torah: from Shabbos, from a day of rest and delight, one enters into the giving of the Torah. And the giving of the Torah is certainly something bestowed entirely from Above; there is no way for a person to accomplish anything in it. This is connected with the Sadducees’ whole approach: they accepted only the Written Torah, not the Oral Torah. The Written Torah, generally speaking, is a gift from Above: its letters and words are exactly as Hakadosh Boruch Hu gave them to us. The Oral Torah, by contrast, involves effort and work; through effort, one develops new insights in it, as a Torah scholar must. So in their view there was no Oral Torah. They did not believe in the Oral Torah, because according to their approach, the entire matter of Torah comes from Above. That is why they argued that, on the contrary, Moshe Rabbeinu, who received the Torah at Sinai, loved the Jewish people, and Ahavas Yisroel means giving everything from Above. Why must one toil? Why go to the trouble? Everything can come as a gift. That is why he established that Shavuos should fall on Sunday, so that the Torah would be given as a gift, entirely from Above. Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai answered this with an argument of his own. Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai, who was among the leading Tannaim after the destruction of the

12:53 Beis Hamikdash, disputed with the Boethusians and said to him: “If Moshe Rabbeinu loved the Jewish people, why did he delay them in the wilderness for forty years?” What did he mean? We know that, according to the plain meaning of Scripture, the forty years in the wilderness were a punishment. The Jewish people sinned with the spies, and the Torah testifies that Hakadosh Boruch Hu punished them with forty years. But we know that in the Torah, punishments are never merely punishments. The point is that during the forty years the Jewish people spent with Moshe Rabbeinu, they carried out the work required of them then and faced every test, through every ascent and descent. Moshe Rabbeinu worked with them for forty years and taught them how a Jew can reach the highest level through work and effort. The Jewish people could have entered the Land of Israel in three days, as Rashi says in Parshas Devarim. In three days they could travel from Chorev, from Sinai—as described in Parshas Behaaloscha, “They traveled a three-day journey”—cover the entire distance, and reach the Land of Israel. But then they would have received all these things as a gift from Above. Moshe’s true Ahavas Yisroel, however, was expressed in doing just the opposite: to receive the Torah and the Land of Israel, they needed to do so through work and effort.

14:22 Work in holiness through their own strength. That is why Moshe Rabbeinu led them through the wilderness for forty years. It was not merely a punishment meant to wear down the Jewish people and afflict them. It was Moshe Rabbeinu’s true Ahavas Yisroel: to reveal their inner holiness, their hidden strengths and their true holiness, so that each person could reach the highest level through his own work. And in this way they reached the giving of the Torah. Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai therefore argued that Shavuos must come through counting. Shavuos must come after the forty-nine days of the count. There must be “You shall count fifty days.” In other words, each person must go through the forty-nine days of the count, and only afterward does Shavuos arrive. One must engage in actual work and transform one’s character traits; only then can each person reach the revelation of the giving of the Torah. Although we do not count the fiftieth day, as explained in Chassidus and as the Rebbe cites from Likkutei Torah—after each person has done his work over the forty-nine days, he is given the fiftieth gate from Above as a gift—nevertheless, the Torah says, “You shall count fifty days.” Even the fiftieth gate is considered as though it came through your work and effort. In other words, the account the Gemara tells us here about Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai teaches us the true way each person receives the Torah. Moshe Rabbeinu’s true Ahavas Yisroel was that he

15:46 was not content with a person being given a blessing from Above, with a tzaddik helping him, and with his receiving things only as a gift from Above. Moshe Rabbeinu, who truly loved the Jewish people, wanted them to work in holiness through their own strength, face their trials, and refine themselves. Through all the ascents and descents the Jewish people experienced, they reached a state of “And you who cleave to Hashem your G-d are all alive today.” They could then be ready to receive the inner dimension, enter the Land of Israel, and receive the Torah in this way. This gives us a clearer understanding of the days on which the Shavuos offerings could be made up. As the Gemara says in Tractate Chagigah, and as cited in the Shulchan Aruch, these days concern the offerings brought by the Jewish people. On all the other days for making up offerings that we find—when the Jewish people brought offerings on Pesach and Sukkos—the days were festival days. They are days of Chol Hamoed according to the Torah. Pesach has seven days, and Sukkos has seven days and Shemini Atzeres—holy days. On Shavuos, however, the days for making up the offerings are specifically weekdays. They are not holy days, but weekdays. In halachic terms, yes, they are days that, by law, are neither Chol Hamoed nor Yom Tov. Nevertheless, they

17:11 became the days on which the Jewish people brought their offerings in the first instance after the first day of Yom Tov, Atzeres. So the Gemara says in Tractate Chagigah, and it is also cited in halachah: they would bring the offerings on those days, which were weekdays. In this, the Torah hints to us that Torah study does not depend only on what is given from Above, on holy days when an influence comes from Above and the Jew then devotes himself to Torah. No, quite the opposite: even when a Jew is in the midst of the weekdays, on an ordinary Wednesday, an ordinary day, he devotes himself to Torah and works through his own strength. He labors with his own abilities and his own effort. And this is the true way a Jew merits blessing in Torah and blessing in his work—specifically as opposed to a situation in which all the revelations are given to him from Above. Granted, there was first a great revelation of Torah on Shavuos. But the chief virtue in Torah is that a Jew labors and toils through his own strength, so that he can become a vessel for Torah and absorb it with his own abilities, through his own effort. And it is precisely his effort that raises him to the highest levels. I remember that in 5749, with the Rebbe, Sivan was very [unclear]. It was a special year. Something happened then: the Rebbe held farbrengens, there were sichos—yes, almost every night there were sichos, not only on Shavuos itself. The days fell

18:41 [unclear]. Shavuos had been very joyous, very uplifting—an exceptionally lofty Shavuos. Then came the night of 13 Sivan, after 12 Sivan had ended. The days of tashlumin, the days for making up the festival offerings, had still been shining; nevertheless, 12 Sivan was now over. According to halachah, the Alter Rebbe rules that on 13 Sivan we already say Tachanun. 12 Sivan is the last day on which we do not say Tachanun. That is the Alter Rebbe’s ruling. So once 12 Sivan was over, all the revelations had passed. The Rebbe once gave a sicha about this. It was a very interesting, very warm, and very rich sicha. The point the Rebbe explained was: What is the significance of the night after 12 Sivan? We are now on 13 Sivan. What is being asked of us? What should a Jew take from this? In the sicha, the Rebbe went through all the holy days. The Alter Rebbe says in the Shulchan Aruch that Tachanun is not said throughout those twelve days. Beginning with 1 Sivan, the Rebbe explained the significance of each day: 1 Sivan was Rosh Chodesh; on 2 Sivan they were told, “You shall be to Me a kingdom of priests”; on 3 Sivan there was the setting of boundaries; on 4 Sivan the days of separation began; and so on—all the things that happened on each of those weekdays. Then came the Giving of the Torah, followed by the days of tashlumin, when Jews brought their offerings. These too were holy days, days for making up the offerings of the Giving of the Torah. But all of that is what

20:08 is given from Above. All these things are given to us from Above: joyous days and holy days, in which the light of the Giving of the Torah still shines. So it is with the days of tashlumin as well [unclear]. And since, as our Sages say, these really were days of tashlumin, when all the offerings could be brought, this too was a time when the light of the Giving of the Torah still shone. But when 12 Sivan ends, the Rebbe said, and we enter 13 Sivan, that light comes to an end. This does not mean that the holiness has ended; the holy period has ended, and now daily life begins. And now comes the test: when a Jew, after 12 Sivan, after the days of tashlumin have ended, sits down and studies Nigleh and Chassidus diligently and persistently, applying himself with tremendous effort—then we see that he has truly received the Torah. The fact that you study Torah during Shavuos, on the days of the festival itself and even during the days of tashlumin, may still be because the light of the Giving of the Torah is shining within you. So you are not necessarily studying Torah through your own efforts. But when do we see that the Giving of the Torah has truly had its effect, that the Torah has become yours? When it comes from your own choice, your own dedication, and your own taking hold of the Torah, until it has become yours—“for they are our life and the length of our days.” When

21:43 the time of Shavuos ends, and even the days of tashlumin are over, and a Jew sits down to study Torah with tremendous effort, diligently and persistently, studying Nigleh and Chassidus—that is the test that shows he has truly received the Torah. And when this is so among Jews, it will bring about what Chassidus cites from the Zohar on the words “He will do for the one who waits for Him,” concerning the revelation of Moshiach: “No eye has seen, O G-d, besides You, what He will do for the one who waits for Him.” Great revelations and all the things that will be revealed in the future, in the days of Moshiach. “He will do for the one who waits for Him”—“the one who waits for Him” means, as the Zohar explains, “those who press for words of wisdom.” Through laboring by one’s own efforts, when a Jew begins to study diligently and persistently, with tremendous effort, he puts into practice the capacity for effort that we received at the Giving of the Torah, and begins studying Nigleh and Chassidus. This is “He will do for the one who waits for Him,” and it will indeed be soon, in our days. We will see all the great revelations and receive the true revelations of the Torah’s secrets, of “A new Torah will come forth from Me.” And Rashi says on the first verse of Shir Hashirim, “Let Him kiss me again with the kisses of His mouth,” that He will reveal to them the secrets of its reasons and its hidden mysteries—the true secrets of the Torah, which we will hear from Moshiach, speedily in our days, amen.