Vaeira! Living the Geulah Internally

00:00 In Lubavitch there was a mashpia named Reb Michel der Alter, Reb Michel Bliner. At the yeshivah they called him Michel der Alter simply because he was an older chossid. He was one of the mashpi’im at Tomchei Temimim Lubavitch. When the yeshivah was founded, in its early years, he was among its older mashpi’im. He had been with the Tzemach Tzedek and the Rebbe Maharash, and later he was one of the older chassidim of the Rebbe Rashab. Reb Michel der Alter was a mashpia whom the students loved dearly. They loved him so much that they called him “the mother of Tomchei Temimim.” That was what they called him. Why? Because he devoted himself to every student. He looked after them in all kinds of matters, not only spiritually but materially as well. The Rebbe spoke about him several times at farbrengens. Once, at a Yud Shvat farbrengen, the Rebbe retold a story he had heard from one of Reb Michel’s students. That student was a rabbi in Australia named Reb Chaim Mordechai Perlow. He was an exceptional Torah scholar and a student of Reb Michel der Alter. The Rebbe asked him to write down stories he had heard from Reb Michel der Alter and other chassidim, and he wrote down a great many. They were later published in the book Likkutei Sippurim. One of those stories is one the Rebbe retold at a—

01:33 farbrengen on Yud Shvat, in 5715. When the Rebbe spoke about Reb Michel der Alter, he first related that when Reb Michel was already elderly and found it difficult to give Chassidus classes and farbreng with the students, the question arose whether to keep paying him a salary. That salary had to be paid at a time when there was no money to spare, especially in those days. Since he could no longer devote himself to the students and teach classes, someone thought perhaps they should stop paying him the salary he had received for his work at the yeshivah. They asked the Rebbe Rashab, and the Rebbe Rashab said, “Absolutely not.” He said that in Reb Michel’s case, it was enough for the students to see his face, to see him pass by—to watch how he came and went, to look at his face. That alone was enough. This by itself tells us who Reb Michel was. The story goes that Reb Michel would farbreng with the students, and he would tell this story again and again. In the old days, Jews lived in small towns and settlements. There was—

03:02 a common arrangement in Russia and Ukraine: Jews needed to earn a living, so some lived in outlying settlements. They were known as settlement Jews. There were towns and villages full of non-Jews where one or two Jewish families would live, earning their livelihood from those places. That was how things were. What did they do to maintain their Jewish life? They were simple people, unlearned, very, very simple people. They would hire a melamed. The melamed would come to teach Torah to the children, and he also served as the rabbi who ruled on questions of halachah—what was permitted, what they should do and what they should not do. Everything connected with Torah, mitzvos, Jewish life, halachah and education was the melamed’s responsibility. That was the arrangement in those villages in those days. Once, something happened to a Jew who lived in such a settlement and had a melamed who taught and did everything a melamed customarily did. One day a letter arrived from the big city. A letter had come from the big city to the village. The man opened it and saw that it was written in Yiddish or in Hebrew, but he could not read. He was such a simple man that he had never learned.

04:31 He could not read, and he had not learned to write either. That was how it was in those days: there were simple people who could neither read nor write. So what could he do? He went to the melamed and asked him to read aloud what was written in the letter from the big city. The melamed began reading, and among other things, the letter said that they wished to inform him that his father had passed away. The father of this man from the settlement, this villager, had passed away. The melamed was reading the letter when he suddenly looked up and saw that the man had fainted. They immediately rushed to revive him. The news had struck him: his father had passed away, nebach. Reb Michel told the story and asked: What seems puzzling here? What happened? Who read the letter? The melamed read it. But who fainted? The man from the settlement fainted. The melamed himself read the letter and did not faint. The man had not read it; he had only heard it, and he fainted. What happened? Well, the answer is that to the melamed it was someone else’s letter. He read it, but its contents did not touch him. He was reading a letter addressed to someone else. A letter had arrived, and it had nothing to do with him.

06:01 It was a stranger’s letter, and he read it only so he could convey its contents to the Jew who lived in the village. But for that villager, it was his own father. When he learned that his father had passed away, he fainted. As the Rebbe related, Reb Michel would farbreng with the students and demand of them: When a Jew studies Chassidus, he must remember that studying Chassidus should not be like reading a stranger’s letter. The teachings of Chassidus are what the Rebbeim gave us: a letter from Atzilus, a letter from above, from the higher worlds. Chassidus, the maamarim, give us an understanding of G-dliness and of serving Hashem, enabling a person to connect with his roots, connect with Hakadosh Boruch Hu and serve Him. But when you read the letter—when you read and study a maamar—it must not be like a stranger’s letter. If you read it that way, it has nothing to do with you. It is a stranger’s letter about a stranger’s father. You have to read the maamar, study it and engage with Chassidus as something that concerns you personally. It has to be like your own father. This is our Father in Heaven; this is my father. When you approach it that way, the light of Chassidus, the maamar of Chassidus, the teachings of Chassidus, influence and affect—

07:22 a person much more deeply, in an entirely different way, as something that concerns him personally. In today’s study, Parshas Vaeira, in this week’s Chassidus on the parsha, the Alter Rebbe explains in several maamarim on the weekly parsha the meaning of exile and Geulah in a person’s inner spiritual life. After all, Parshas Vaeira is where the account of the Geulah begins. Parshas Shemos is a parsha of exile. It describes all the suffering of exile and the backbreaking labor, right up to the end of the parsha, when Moshe Rabbeinu cries out to Hakadosh Boruch Hu: “Why have You brought harm? Why did You send me?” Moshe Rabbeinu can no longer bear the bitterness, the enslavement and all the backbreaking labor the Jews are forced to endure in the bitter exile. That is the end of Parshas Shemos, where Hakadosh Boruch Hu tells him, “Now you will see”—now you will see what is about to happen—“for with a mighty hand...” But Parshas Shemos as a whole is a parsha of exile. As soon as we reach Parshas Vaeira, light begins to shine. We can see it in the name of the parsha: Vaeira, “I appeared.” As the Alter Rebbe explains, the inner meaning is already in the parsha’s name: here eyes begin to open, and the light of Geulah begins to shine. The first verse of the parsha says: “Elokim spoke to Moshe and said to him, ‘I am Hashem. I appeared to Avraham, to Yitzchak and to Yaakov as E-l Shaddai, but by My name Havayah I was not known to them.’” Hakadosh Boruch Hu tells Moshe Rabbeinu: I revealed Myself to—

08:55 Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov by My holy name E-l Shaddai, but “My name Havayah” I have not yet revealed. And now, “I will establish My covenant”—I will fulfill My oath, My covenant—and now there will be “I will bring you out,” “I will save you,” “I will redeem you” and “I will take you,” until “You will know that I am Havayah.” Then they will see what is about to be revealed from the name Havayah. These are the opening verses of the parsha, the message of Geulah that Hakadosh Boruch Hu gives Moshe Rabbeinu to pass on to the Jews. When we study this parsha, we could study it as a story that happened three thousand and some years ago: the Geulah from Egypt, with all its events, the plagues and everything that followed. But Chassidus comes and teaches us that every matter contains a lesson. As the Alter Rebbe taught us, we must live with the weekly parsha; the things we learn in it are living matters connected to each person’s daily life. The Alter Rebbe says: We ordinarily understand the word “Vaeira”—“I appeared to Avraham, to Yitzchak and to Yaakov”—as referring to the past. “I appeared”: that was at an earlier time, in earlier generations. Hakadosh Boruch Hu speaks to Moshe Rabbeinu and says, “I appeared,” in the past,

10:23 To Avraham, to Yitzchak, and to Yaakov. The Alter Rebbe says that the word “Va’eira” can also be understood another way. In Hebrew, as often happens with a particular word, it can be read in the past tense, or as an ongoing present tense. In other words, “Va’eira” describes something continuous, an ongoing action: I reveal Myself again and again. So when we learn this parsha, Hakadosh Boruch Hu comes and says to Moshe Rabbeinu: Not only “Va’eira” in the past, but “Va’eira”—I reveal Myself again and again to every Jew, “to Avraham, to Yitzchak, and to Yaakov.” After all, the Gemara says, “Only three are called the fathers.” That is, when we speak of Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov, they are the fathers of every Jew. Within every Jew, deep in his soul, are the qualities of Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov. The qualities of the tribes are not the same in every Jew. One person is from Reuven and another from Shimon; every Jew belongs to his own tribe, and his way of serving Hashem may be more like Reuven’s, or Shimon’s, or Levi’s, or a combination of them. Chassidus explains the qualities of the tribes as they relate to a person’s inner service. But the fathers are present in every Jew. Every Jew has inherited from our fathers, and the Alter Rebbe says in Tanya: Every Jew has within his soul, deep inside, an actual part of G-d above, and within that soul there is

11:53 in every person, the qualities of the fathers. And this is what Rashi is explaining. In the edited maamar, the Rebbe adds—this is not written in the Alter Rebbe’s maamar, but the Rebbe adds it—that this is the meaning of the verse, “Va’eira to Avraham, to Yitzchak, and to Yaakov,” on which Rashi says, “To the fathers.” Everyone asks: What is Rashi telling us here? We know that Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov are the fathers. There is a point to it, but the point he wants to emphasize in this maamar is what Rashi is clarifying for us: Because they are the fathers, this exists within every Jew. Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov are our fathers, and a father passes his qualities on to his child. The child has that capacity within him and carries an essential connection to his father. And since Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov are our fathers, the “Va’eira,” in which Hakadosh Boruch Hu reveals Himself, belongs to and exists within the soul of every Jew. Just as Hakadosh Boruch Hu revealed Himself to Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov, so He reveals Himself to every Jew deep within his soul, [unclear]. What does it mean that Hakadosh Boruch Hu reveals Himself to every Jew, to Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov? This is what we are speaking about when we speak of Geulah in a spiritual sense. And here the Alter Rebbe begins to explain what exile is and what Geulah is

13:12 as they exist within a person’s soul. When we speak of exile and Geulah, we can speak of them not only as they exist in the world. As the Alter Rebbe says, every Jew has the experience of exile within his soul, and every Jew has the experience of Geulah within his soul. What are exile and Geulah? This is alluded to in the name of the parsha, Va’eira. The Alter Rebbe finds several places in Tanach, the Midrashim, and the Gemara where exile is compared to a woman carrying a child, during pregnancy. He cites the Gemara in Berachos and several verses that speak of the birth of the Jewish people and compare exile to pregnancy, to a pregnant woman: “For Zion has travailed and also given birth to her children.” When Geulah comes, the verse says, the prophet says, it is like this: The woman was pregnant, and afterward “Zion has also given birth to her children”—she gives birth to the child. That is birth. And that is why the birth pangs of Moshiach are birth pangs, as the verses say: When Jews are in a time of distress, it is a case of “The children have reached the point of birth.” The children, the children of Israel, the Jewish people, have reached the point of birth, the moment of delivery, “but there is no strength to give birth.” And this is

14:38 the situation in which we now find ourselves. We see it plainly in the world, in Eretz Yisroel, among the Jewish people, throughout the Jewish community, and across the entire world: We are living through days of siege, when “the children have reached the point of birth.” The Jewish people have reached the threshold of Geulah, but “there is no strength to give birth.” Amid the bitter darkness of these days, a darkness doubled and redoubled—may Hakadosh Boruch Hu help, and may the birth of the true and complete Geulah finally take place, immediately, right now. When we speak of exile, we say it is pregnancy. When we speak of Geulah, it is birth. We find this also regarding the Exodus from Egypt in Yechezkel, in the well-known chapter, chapter 16, where he compares the situation in Egypt to a child in its mother’s womb, “a nation from within a nation.” And Geulah—“and as for your birth, on the day you were born”—he compares to delivery, to birth. And when we speak of pregnancy and birth, we look at the well-known Gemara in tractate Niddah, where the Gemara describes a child in its mother’s womb. A fetus in its mother’s womb “eats what its mother eats.” It has nothing of its own. It eats what its mother eats. And not only that: Its eyes are closed, its ears are closed, its mouth is closed. It does not eat through its mouth, does not speak through its mouth, and does not breathe on its own. The only thing it has is

16:01 an open umbilical cord; through it, nourishment enters. It “eats what its mother eats,” and that is the only thing functioning for it. And it is in a state where it [unclear], and that is the child’s entire condition. All its limbs are complete. This does not mean that it is missing any limbs there. As we know, in the final months the child’s limbs are already fully formed; it even has fingernails, it already has hair, it has all its limbs and everything else fully formed. But it is in the state of a fetus. It has nothing of its own; its revealed faculties, its inner faculties, its hidden faculties, its higher faculties—all are completely closed. Its head is between its legs. And when it emerges into the world, then “what was closed opens, and what was open closes.” The lower organs close, and the upper organs—its eyes open, its ears open, its mouth opens. It can then breathe on its own, rather than through its mother. It can take in food through its mouth, and little by little it grows. What does all this mean in a person’s service of Hashem? The Alter Rebbe says: Every Jew has all these faculties within him, fully intact. In exile, a Jew is a fetus. And just as we say of a fetus that all its limbs are completely formed, a Jew lacks nothing. Even in exile, Knesses Yisroel, a Jew, is a body with a soul, with a part of G-d above.

17:26 But his soul’s faculties are in exile: his intellect and emotions, his sight and hearing. All the faculties of his soul are in exile. The awakening, what I call his inner self, is not in exile. It is always there within him, but everything is closed. His head is between his knees. His higher faculties are not functioning. Instead of opening his eyes and seeing—“Lift your eyes on high and see Who created these”—contemplating and seeing Hashem’s greatness in the world; instead of using his ears to hear of that greatness, contemplating “Hear, O Israel, Hashem is our G-d, Hashem is One”; instead of reflecting deeply and listening to Hashem’s greatness and to Hashem’s oneness in the world, in creation; instead of using his mind and intellect to understand that greatness—everything is closed. But the limbs are intact. What does it mean that the limbs are intact? The Alter Rebbe says: “And their service becomes the performance of mitzvos by rote.” They learn and learn, they observe mitzvos, but it is mitzvos performed by rote. This is “eating what its mother eats.” His faith is his mother’s faith, his father’s faith. He himself has no understanding. He himself has no feeling. He inherited his faith from his father and grandfathers, and that is all he has. He goes to shul and observes mitzvos, as he was raised to do. He is a Jew. But for it to become something of his own—that he does not have. That is “eating what its mother eats.” And that is exile. That is a child in the womb, its head between its knees. The knees are the lower limbs.

19:10 This does not mean that he lacks faith. As for the lower limbs—in practice, he is a Jew who follows the Shulchan Aruch, a Jew who observes Torah and mitzvos. But he does so by rote, and that is a bitter exile. Geulah here means opening one’s eyes: reflecting, studying the inner dimension of Torah, and contemplating the greatness of Hashem. One opens one’s eyes to see, “Lift your eyes heavenward and see Who created these,” and delves into the greatness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. “Hear, O Israel, Hashem is our G-d, Hashem is One.” This is the whole point of the service of prayer. The Alter Rebbe explains at length, in this maamar and in several other maamarim, what contemplation means: a Jew must reflect and delve into the greatness and oneness of Hashem. Contemplation brings him to his own understanding, grasp, and feeling of G-dliness. His eyes are open. He sees the truth of “Hashem forever”; he sees the One in the seven heavens and the earth, and in the four directions of the world. He is in a state of Geulah. In the future, this will be the state of the world. That is what the verse tells us: in the future, “they will all know Me.” That will be in the future. Now, while we are in exile, exile is a state of pregnancy. The Jewish people are asleep in exile, and this is the point the verse makes. He cites the verse, “Rachel weeps for her children, for He is not there.” As he says in the Zohar, [unclear]

20:36 “Rachel weeps for her children, for He is not there.” It does not say, “for they are not there,” but “for He is not there”: G-dliness, Hakadosh Boruch Hu, is not present with her children. They do not have G-dliness with them, that connection with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. They have only the outward limbs, the actual deed, but without any feeling, any vitality, any joy, or any love, says the Alter Rebbe. A Jew must prepare himself for Geulah. It is drawing near, and the parsha tells a Jew: you must know this. Do you want Moshiach to come? Do you want to see “eye to eye when Hashem returns to Zion”? To see that “the glory of Hashem will be revealed, and all flesh together will see that the mouth of Hashem has spoken”? That will be in the future. The point is that a Jew should experience “And I appeared.” He must know that even now, while he is still in exile, there is “And I appeared”—[unclear] within you. To want to approach this, you have to take it inwardly. You have to begin studying Chassidus, contemplating the greatness of Hashem, and awakening within yourself love and awe of Hashem. This is “And I appeared to Avraham, to Yitzchak, and to Yaakov.” The Alter Rebbe explains: Avraham our forefather represents love of Hashem—“Avraham, who loves Me”—contemplating the greatness of Hashem. [unclear] to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. “You shall love Hashem your G-d with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.” That is true love of Hashem. As [unclear]

22:04 He contemplates a loftier level of G-dliness. And then there is awe of Heaven: Yitzchak, “the fear of Yitzchak,” represents awe of Heaven. This leads him to take care to “turn away from evil.” This is not yet the ultimate perfection, but it does contain delight, love, warmth, and awe. From there he reaches the attribute of Yaakov, the attribute of compassion: “the G-d of Yaakov,” “Your mercies are abundant,” “Have mercy on us, our merciful Father.” When he contemplates the soul’s descent below, how it remains in exile all the time, and the fact that Moshiach has still not come, this awakens great compassion for his soul. As we find with Yaakov our forefather, “He raised his voice and wept,” when he saw Rachel [unclear]. When the Jewish people are still in exile, in bitter exile, “Yaakov raised his voice and wept” is awakened within him. This is the sorrow and great compassion that are Yaakov’s attribute, through which he arouses great compassion for the souls. And the service of prayer contains all these elements: verses in the prayers that awaken love of Hashem, verses that awaken awe of Hashem, and verses that awaken great compassion. This is “And I appeared to Avraham, to Yitzchak, and to Yaakov.” This is the birth that follows pregnancy. Then “And I appeared” truly becomes a birth. The birth is expressed in the child’s being born and then going onward, and it comes out of distance, out of having grown distant from G-dliness.

23:34 That is one aspect. But afterward the revelation comes to light, and he also [unclear] the milk, nursing from his mother. Then there will truly be great joy among Jews after [unclear] the awakening of the service of prayer, and the delight he receives from contemplating G-dliness and studying Torah. This will give him [unclear]. This is the great joy, “joy and gladness of heart from an abundance of everything,” through which the soul grows. From it comes birth, followed by growth and development, until he reaches the greatest perfection possible. This is the preparation Jews must make within their souls now, at this time. The meaning of Torah is that this is the [unclear] of the weekly parsha. Torah is not merely a history of what happened once. Torah means knowing that right now we can bring about within ourselves something resembling Geulah, emerging from our own inner, personal exile. This is the true preparation for the true and complete Geulah, when the birth of the Jewish people will reach its ultimate perfection. This is what we heard from the Rebbe several times, particularly in recent times, in the well-known sicha in which the Rebbe said that we must emerge from our own inner, personal exile in matters of serving Hashem. From there we will come to the true Geulah, the true and complete Geulah through Moshiach Tzidkeinu. And regarding this, the verse says

24:59 “But by My name Hashem I was not known to them.” The matter of [unclear] compassion during prayer is only the service of the forefathers. Afterward comes the additional service of Moshe Rabbeinu: studying Torah with self-nullification. Serving Hashem through prayer awakens the soul, but it is a matter of feeling alone: I love, I am in awe—these are feelings. When a person sits down to study Torah, he becomes completely self-nullified. Torah is the wisdom and will of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, as the Rebbe explains in Tanya. There it is not about my feelings; there a person stands in a state of profound self-nullification, until he is completely nullified to the Divine will: “Let my soul be like dust to all; open my heart to Your Torah.” Self-nullification before [unclear] opens the mind and heart so that he can absorb the Torah, which the Rebbe emphasizes is His wisdom and will. There, “My name Hashem” is revealed. This is the true preparation for “A new Torah will emerge from Me.” While he is still in exile, he works on himself, works on himself, so that he will have both of these: the work of the heart, which is the service of prayer, and the study of Torah, which is the service of Moshe Rabbeinu. This is the immediate preparation for the true revelation of “A new Torah will emerge from Me,” for the true and complete Geulah through Moshiach Tzidkeinu. May the Rebbe [unclear], and may we merit to see it with our physical eyes,

26:31 immediately, right now, while we are still studying these parshiyos: “As in the days of your exodus from the land of Egypt, I will show him wonders.” And may we indeed merit the complete Geulah through Moshiach Tzidkeinu.