Simchas Torah - attaining the proper outlook on the world

00:00 The Frierdiker Rebbe once spoke, on Simchas Torah 5696, about the haftarah we read on Shemini Atzeres. The haftarah tells of the dedication of the first Beis Hamikdash, and it concludes: “On the eighth day he sent the people away, and they blessed the king and went to their tents, joyful and glad of heart for all the good that Hashem had done for David His servant and for Israel His people.” “They went to their tents”—the haftarah tells of the great dedication, the first dedication of the first Beis Hamikdash. It began on 8 Tishrei and continued for two weeks, until Shemini Atzeres. Then came “on the eighth day”: after two weeks, two sets of seven days, in which they celebrated and rejoiced with the greatest joy over the dedication of the first Beis Hamikdash, it says, “On the eighth day he sent the people away.” King Shlomo sent them back home, and “they went to their tents, joyful and glad of heart”: they went home with great joy, full of gratitude, happy and content, “for all the good”—for all the good things Hakadosh Boruch Hu had done for David His servant and for the people of Israel. They had seen the greatest revelations and the greatest manifestation of G-dliness in the Beis Hamikdash. The Frierdiker Rebbe once spoke about this at length.

02:00 He asked a simple question: Seemingly, the time of King Shlomo was a period of the greatest wealth and abundance for the Jewish people, both materially and spiritually. King Shlomo’s time is known as one of the periods when the Jewish people enjoyed the greatest light, the greatest abundance, and the greatest peace in every respect. Needless to say, the Beis Hamikdash was there—it was built in that period—and there was a revelation of G-dliness and the resting of the Shechinah, as people saw how G-dliness was revealed in the world through the Beis Hamikdash. But materially, too, the Jewish people lived in a state of “each man beneath his vine and beneath his fig tree,” with the greatest security and wealth, in the greatest abundance. So the question arises: When the verse says that the Jewish people went home, why does it say, “They went to their tents”? They went to their tents. A tent, after all, is a temporary dwelling. Seemingly, at that time the Jewish people did not live in tents, in temporary structures. They lived in large houses; presumably each person had spacious rooms and a large house, a wealthy home. They lived comfortably, quite literally with material abundance, as is clear from Tanach and the Midrashim about King Shlomo’s time. So why does the verse say, “They went to their tents”? They returned to their tents? It could have said, “They went to their houses,” meaning—

03:42 In short, their houses, their tents—but what is the meaning of the wording “to their tents”? To understand this and answer the question, we first need to tell the well-known story about the Maggid of Mezritch. The story took place when the holy Maggid of Mezritch was still a teacher, before he became known, before his greatness was revealed during the lifetime of the Baal Shem Tov. At that time the Maggid of Mezritch lived in Mezritch, but he taught young children and was more of a hidden figure. People did not know much about his true greatness or his true genius; he was great in both the revealed and hidden dimensions of Torah. It is told that in those days, the Baal Shem Tov’s disciples included many kinds of people. There were great Torah scholars and tzaddikim, and there were also ordinary people from the surrounding area—hundreds and thousands of ordinary people from the area who were all close to the Baal Shem Tov, his chassidim and connected to him. One Jew who lived near Mezritch had fields and yards and the like, and, boruch Hashem, he made a good living. He would come to the Baal Shem Tov on Yom Tov or Shabbos. When he was with the Baal Shem Tov and was about to return home, he went to—

05:13 As he was leaving the Baal Shem Tov, he took his leave and received his blessings. When he was about to go, the Baal Shem Tov said to him: “You’re traveling near Mezritch. You’ll pass through the town of Mezritch, and I’d like to ask you, as a personal favor, to convey my regards to one of my disciples. My disciple Reb Ber lives there in Mezritch. Find out where he lives, go in and give him my warm regards.” For that chossid, who was a simple man, this was a great joy: he could fulfill such a mitzvah and carry out this mission. He accepted it gladly and wholeheartedly. On his way back to his town, he passed through Mezritch. He was certain that if the Baal Shem Tov was sending him to one of his disciples, the man must surely be someone famous, a great and G-d-fearing person. He began asking around: “Who knows the great and famous scholar, the tzaddik Reb Ber?” No one knew whom he meant. Finally, someone said to him, “Perhaps you mean Reb Ber, the teacher who teaches young children?” Well, perhaps. He went, and they directed him to a poor alleyway, to a dilapidated house with a small, plain room. He went inside and saw the Maggid of Mezritch sitting and teaching young children. It was a very poor home.

06:52 The house was completely run-down. There was great poverty there, and everything was very plain. There were no benches or tables; they used planks and logs to sit on while they learned, and afterward they made beds from those same planks to sleep on. The poverty was palpable. He wanted to approach the Maggid and convey a few words from the Baal Shem Tov. The Maggid told him that he was learning with the children now and that he should come back after dark, when he had finished teaching. When he returned after dark and met the Maggid, he told him that he had a mission from the Baal Shem Tov. The moment he said those words, the Maggid of Mezritch rose with great reverence, and the man conveyed the greetings the holy Baal Shem Tov had sent him. Afterward they spoke a little about what had happened at the Baal Shem Tov’s and so on. Then the Jew, a simple man, asked him a simple question: “I don’t understand. How can you live in such poverty? A Jew like you, who I understand is a great Torah scholar, a great genius and an important person—especially since you come from the Baal Shem Tov—you could be a respected Jew and have a normal home where you can move about. It should have

08:15 a table, a bed, benches, and all the other things people need. Is this how you would study in your own home? What is this?” The Maggid listened to the whole question and answered him: “At home it’s entirely different. At home, of course, you need all those things. But when we’re on the road, all those things aren’t so important.” That, in short, was the point the Maggid wanted to explain. The Rebbe elaborates on it in a sicha, and we know what the Maggid of Mezritch meant to explain: a Jew has a home. A Jew knows that this physical world, with all its material concerns, is not his home or his permanent place. He lives with the awareness that his permanent place, his home, is something else entirely. This whole world and all material things are only temporary. We need them in order to make the physical world a dwelling for Hakadosh Boruch Hu, to make it a place for Him. But materiality in itself is temporary, something we encounter along the way; it is neither the main thing nor the ultimate purpose. And this is what the Torah tells us in the account of the first pilgrimage

09:46 for the dedication of the first Beis Hamikdash. What does it mean to explain by this? The Rebbe says in the sicha that the verse states: “On the eighth day, on the eighth day he sent the people away, and they blessed the king and went to their tents”—they returned to their tents. And what was the situation then? The Jewish people were living in the greatest wealth and abundance in King Shlomo’s time, in every detail. But they had just experienced the dedication of the Beis Hamikdash. They had not merely made a pilgrimage; they had come to the Beis Hamikdash and spent two weeks there in the great joy of its dedication and of the revelation of G-dliness they saw there. It stirred them deeply. In their eyes, their possessions became no more than tents. They came to see that the entire material world is only a tent, something secondary. A Jew’s whole task is to take material abundance and wealth and make the physical world a vessel for spirituality, to make the world a dwelling for the Creator. That is what the verse means by “on the eighth day.” They set out on a day that was Shemini Atzeres, the day of Simchas Torah. Now, one could ask what “on the eighth day” means: Does it refer to Shemini Atzeres, as it seems to in Divrei Hayamim, or to the eighth day after Shemini Atzeres, meaning to

11:11 The day after two sets of seven days, “the eighth day,” which is 23 Tishrei, alludes to Simchas Torah, as the Tzemach Tzedek writes. In Kings it says here “on the eighth day,” while in Chronicles it says “on the twenty-third day,” the day on which Simchas Torah falls today outside the Land of Israel. This is, in fact, the allusion in Tanach to Simchas Torah and Shemini Atzeres. In any case, what does the verse tell us? What happened in the days of King Shlomo? When the Jewish people came to the Beis Hamikdash, through the revelation of G-dliness there and through spending those two weeks there, they came to sense that this entire physical world is nothing but tents. They went home understanding that the tent, this physical world, is only temporary. It is all a means of accomplishing something great: making it into a dwelling for the Creator and preparing the world for the Geulah. That is the meaning of “David His servant and Israel His people.” This point is explained in a number of maamarim connected with Shemini Atzeres. It is not just a nice story with a pleasant interpretation of a verse. Rather, the point expressed in this verse brings out

12:36 a central theme—indeed, perhaps the most central theme—in the observance and meaning of Shemini Atzeres and Simchas Torah. We find several maamarim of our Rebbeim, beginning with the Alter Rebbe, that open with the verse “On the eighth day he sent the people away,” as it appears in Likkutei Torah. The same is true of the Rebbeim after him: almost all of our Rebbeim have maamarim on this verse. Although it recounts something that happened back then, a one-time event in the year of the dedication of the first Beis Hamikdash, when the people made their first pilgrimage to Jerusalem for its dedication, it is nevertheless relevant every year, as the maamarim explain. We see that the Gemara derives several matters of halachah from these verses. The practice of blessing the king is also derived from them. As the Gemara in Sukkah relates, there was a practice on Shemini Atzeres of offering a blessing to the king, and this was learned from this verse. In any event, even now, when we do not have the physical Beis Hamikdash, these things take place spiritually. So this is a central verse, expressing what Shemini Atzeres and Simchas Torah are about.

14:05 And how this day affects the entire year. In Likkutei Torah, the Alter Rebbe says of the verse “And it was on the eighth day that he sent the people away” that on Shemini Atzeres and Simchas Torah we receive the strength and blessings for Torah and avodah for the entire year. All this is hinted at in the words of the verse: “And it was on the eighth day”—on Shemini Atzeres and Simchas Torah—“that he sent the people away.” The Alter Rebbe explains that “he sent the people away” means that there is now “the people”: the Jews became a people. During the month of Tishrei, the Jews became Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s people. “You are standing today, all of you”—in earlier maamarim, the Alter Rebbe explains that “today” refers to Rosh Hashanah. On Rosh Hashanah the Jews stood, “You are standing today, all of you, before Hashem your G-d,” “so that He may establish you today as His people.” On Rosh Hashanah the Jews became Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s people because they crowned Him as King: “Recite verses of kingship before Me so that you may crown Me as King over you.” When Hakadosh Boruch Hu becomes King, the Jews become His people. This is the overarching theme of our avodah throughout Tishrei: on Rosh Hashanah, during the Ten Days of Teshuvah and on Yom Kippur, the Jews repeatedly say “King” and crown Hakadosh Boruch Hu as King, thereby becoming His people. All the avodah throughout this month is to crown Hakadosh Boruch Hu King of Israel and King over the entire world. And as we

15:49 say in the wording of the blessings, “King over all the earth,” “King over all the worlds”: Hakadosh Boruch Hu is King of the world, and we bring His kingship into ourselves—into our souls, into the Jewish people and into every Jew. This avodah continues through Sukkos, when, by sitting in the sukkah and taking the four species, we reveal the oneness of Hashem and the kingship of Hakadosh Boruch Hu in the world, until we reach “On the eighth day there shall be an atzeres for you.” As the maamarim of Chassidus explain, the word atzeres refers to absorbing something: Shemini Atzeres is a day of absorption. It brings things inside; on this day we absorb them inwardly. This is the time to absorb and internalize everything we felt through the avodah of the festival days. And this is what the verse says: when we reach “On the eighth day he sent the people away,” Hakadosh Boruch Hu gives the Jews all these strengths, blessings and spiritual influences for the entire year. “And they blessed the king”—as Chassidus explains, “blessed” also has the sense of drawing down: drawing the King, Hakadosh Boruch Hu and His kingship, down into the entire world for the whole year. Then it says, “And they went to their tents.” How does this translate into actual practice? A Jew—when you sit in the sukkah, you

17:18 [unclear] in a tent. Throughout the week, the seven days, the eight days of Sukkos, and then we reach “On the eighth day there shall be an atzeres for you”: the Jews need to internalize that the whole world is [unclear], and that all their avodah is directed toward turning this [unclear] world into a dwelling, a Beis Hamikdash, a dwelling for Him. Then comes the avodah with joy and gladness of heart: “And they went to their tents joyful and glad of heart.” This is the joy and gladness of heart that the Jews received from the Season of Our Rejoicing and from the great joy with which they dance with the Torah on Simchas Torah and Shemini Atzeres. They then carry this joy through the entire year. The point of Simchas Torah is the avodah of Jews to internalize the truth that there is nothing besides Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and to bring His kingship into the world as King of the world and King over all the earth. And to internalize that the whole world is [unclear], so that a Jew makes the physical world into a dwelling for Him and prepares the world for the Geulah. Again, that was the theme of a farbrengen held there on Simchas Torah. I was there at the farbrengen, right [unclear], but it was [unclear], and it remains engraved in my soul: when you are with the Rebbe on Simchas Torah, you see this openly. Yes, it was truly apparent.

18:43 Tangibly, yes. The joy of Simchas Torah should be openly visible in all these things. For Simchas Torah is the day of “there shall be an atzeres for you,” and the joy of Simchas Torah should bring joy and vitality into the entire year. The Rebbe would hold a farbrengen on the second night of Simchas Torah, before hakafos. One of the farbrengens took place on Simchas Torah night, before hakafos. In 5749, the sichos at that farbrengen were very interesting. In general, Simchas Torah with the Rebbe was extraordinarily joyous, and the joy in particular was [unclear]. You could actually see it. We believe that this joy was present on Simchas Torah in general. That farbrengen was a joyous farbrengen, very joyous, [unclear]. Later, toward the end of the second part of the farbrengen, the Rebbe spoke about singing the niggunim of our Rebbeim. He spoke about the special quality of a niggun and instructed that they sing niggunim of each of the Rebbeim: the Baal Shem Tov, the Maggid of Mezritch, the Alter Rebbe, the Mitteler Rebbe, the Tzemach Tzedek, the Rebbe Maharash, the Rebbe Rashab and the Frierdiker Rebbe. They sang niggunim of all the Rebbeim, and of the Rebbe as well. Then the Rebbe said: It is known that in the time to come there will be a tenth song. And so it was:

20:24 The ten songs—nine are the songs found throughout Tanach, and the tenth will be the song “Sing to Hashem a new song,” which will be sung in the time to come. The Rebbe then said, after all the niggunim had been sung, that we do not know what the tenth song will be, but its content will certainly be connected to the revelations of G-dliness in the days of Moshiach. And we think its content will surely be like the niggun the Rebbe began to sing, the well-known Russian niggun that the Rebbe loved very much: “Nyet, nyet, nikavo krome yevo adnavo.” Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay. He began singing the niggun with tremendous joy. The niggun means that there is nothing besides Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself. Yes, its message is “There is nothing besides Him,” and that is the content of the revelation of Moshiach for which we are waiting, the revelation of the time to come. And the Rebbe said: That is the content. He began singing the niggun with tremendous joy, rose from his place, got up from his chair and danced with tremendous joy. There was extraordinary joy there, because the Rebbe danced for some time with immense joy at the farbrengen. It was a moment when, as they say, you could truly feel the revelation of Moshiach. Following that, after the dancing, the Rebbe said: We are holding

21:51 Now, a sicha. The Rebbe also said the content of this sicha at the beginning of the hakafos. Before the hakafos, there is a preparation in which we recite verses: “You have been shown to know that Hashem is Elokim; there is none besides Him.” We recite the seventeen or eighteen verses known as the verses of preparation for the hakafos. These verses help us understand the joy with which a Jew dances with the Torah and dances with Hakadosh Boruch Hu on Simchas Torah. What is the first verse? “You have been shown to know that Hashem is Elokim; there is none besides Him.” The Rebbe said there was not much time before the hakafos. It was already almost midnight. And the Rebbe said: We will speak about the first verse, but there is not enough time to speak at length about the first verse, so we will speak about its first word. The Rebbe gave a sicha, a long sicha, on the first word, “You”—just on the word “You.” That is how the preparation for the hakafos begins, with the word “You.” What is the meaning of “You”? It means “you,” addressing someone directly. Seemingly, Hakadosh Boruch Hu has holy names, several holy names by which we call Him: the name Havayah, the name Ad-nai, the name Elokim. And yet, when a Jew speaks to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, he addresses Him as “You.”

23:21 Yes, that is, he addresses Him directly. Seemingly—I mean—that is not respectful; people do not speak that way. And yet, when a Jew, an ordinary Jew or a small child, whoever he may be, stands up to pray and speaks to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, what word does he use? Alongside all the holy names in the verses and prayers, there is the simple wording: “You,” “Blessed are You.” And so it is in “You have been shown to know.” A Jew speaks to Hakadosh Boruch Hu and says, “You.” We know that the plain meaning of “You have been shown to know” is that Moshe Rabbeinu is speaking to the Jewish people. But according to the Alter Rebbe’s well-known interpretation of the verse, “You” means You, the Essence and Being of the Infinite, blessed be He. So “You” refers specifically to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. And in Chassidus, this is truly fundamental. “You have been shown to know”—one must know “You,” You, Hakadosh Boruch Hu; one must know this with understanding, with daas. It is not mere knowledge. [unclear] The Alter Rebbe says something wonderful about this, an extended idea. [unclear] Remember: “You”—

24:55 that you should sense His presence before you. And this is the truth, a wondrous and immense quality of a human being: a person can stand, as it were, face to face with Hakadosh Boruch Hu and actually say to Him, “You.” This is not an abstraction. Hakadosh Boruch Hu, of whom [unclear] “the heavens and the heavens of heavens cannot contain You,” Hakadosh Boruch Hu, who [unclear]—and it is Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself we are speaking about. It follows that when a simple, sincere and upright Jew—not a tzaddik or a great person, but any Jew, whoever he may be—speaks to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, says a blessing or recites a verse, he says, “You,” addressing Him directly. He is speaking to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. This is founded on the teaching of the Baal Shem Tov, who revealed that Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself, the Essence and Being of the Infinite, blessed be He, renews, gives life to and sustains the entire creation from nothing at every moment. This is a whole subject in itself. Of course, it relates to faith, this idea of creation from nothing at every moment. When Hakadosh Boruch Hu [unclear], it is not an abstraction. [unclear] A craftsman who makes a vessel: the craftsman makes it, and it remains a vessel even without him. But here it is not so. At every moment there is life, creation from nothing. All of creation is renewed through speech. This is [unclear]. And Hakadosh Boruch Hu [unclear] at every moment. For if, Heaven forbid, [unclear] Hakadosh Boruch Hu—Heaven forbid—the world.

26:47 On the contrary, as Chassidus explains, this is not an abstraction. Hakadosh Boruch Hu—this is a matter of life-giving energy; indeed, because the Jewish people are so precious to Him, [unclear]. Hakadosh Boruch Hu wants every Jew to meet with Him always. And there is always time for Him. This applies to each and every person, particularly [unclear] when he speaks in this way. At every moment, a Jew stands before the Creator, and so, when he wants to meet with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, Hakadosh Boruch Hu is there with him, face to face. This is “I have set Hashem before me always.” One must always be in that state. It is a verse, and the Shulchan Aruch rules it as halachah: “I have set Hashem before me always”—to keep Hakadosh Boruch Hu in mind at all times and think of Him constantly. This is the foundation of the entire Shulchan Aruch. [unclear] But the soul of his book [unclear] about Hakadosh Boruch Hu at every moment, at every step. And so Simchas Torah is the day on which a Jew hears this “You.” Simchas Torah is the day when it shines forth: a Jew recites, “You have been shown to know,” and hears that “You” means You, the Essence and Being, face to face. This gives him the strength to go forward confidently from Simchas Torah, day by day throughout the year, and...

28:44 On Simchas Torah, we receive the Torah and bring this into “In the beginning, Elokim created the heavens and the earth.” Wherever a Jew goes and wherever he stands throughout the year, even while in exile, it should be clear to him that the Divine power, G-dliness, is present in every detail of the world. And so, wherever a Jew finds himself in exile, Hakadosh Boruch Hu is with him at every moment. From this comes a Jew’s greatest joy, as the Alter Rebbe explains in Tanya: “How great is the joy of an ordinary and lowly person” when he is with a flesh-and-blood king; how much more so with the King of kings, Hakadosh Boruch Hu. When we know that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is together with us at every moment and in every matter, nothing can confuse a Jew or interfere with his service of Hashem. We take this from Simchas Torah, from Shemini Atzeres: we absorb inwardly and bring deep within ourselves our bond with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. And with this a Jew goes through the entire year: may it be a successful year, a year full of life, a joyful year, a year of Torah, a year of light, a year of blessing, a year of Geulah, and everything from alef to tav—a year of Torah, a year of prayer, a year of praise, a year of teshuvah. May the year be full of light, full of Torah and full of joy. And may we indeed merit that [unclear], from exile to the true and complete Geulah, immediately, right now, [unclear], “Eye to eye they shall see when Hashem returns to

30:18 Zion, and the glory of Hashem will be revealed, and all flesh together will see that the mouth of Hashem has spoken.” Amen, may it be His will.