Chai Elul | The Teaching the Baal Shem Tov Said in Gan Eden That Expresses the Revolution of Chassidus

00:00 Who wouldn’t want to hear words of Torah straight from Gan Eden? Today we’re going to talk about a remarkable story that the Frierdiker Rebbe revealed many years ago, before the war, when he was in Poland. It is connected with Chai Elul, the birthday of the Baal Shem Tov and the birthday of the Alter Rebbe. As the Frierdiker Rebbe revealed, he heard the story from his father, who had experienced it himself. It happened in 5652. The Rebbe Rashab was still relatively young then, about thirty or thirty-one, in the early years of his leadership. Around that time, his sister was getting married. He related that he had worked very hard, toiling to understand one of the maamarim of his father, the Rebbe Maharash. In merit of that effort, his father told him that on that Shabbos, Shabbos Chai Elul, the Baal Shem Tov’s birthday, he would merit to be with him in Gan Eden and hear words of Torah from the Baal Shem Tov himself. And so it was. As he related, although the Rebbe Rashab was here in this world among people that Shabbos, his behavior seemed very, very unusual. He davened almost all day and hardly spoke to anyone. It was as though he were disconnected. He was here, but he wasn’t here—completely removed from his surroundings, in another world altogether. The chassidim and his family did not understand what was happening. But a few weeks later, the Rebbe Rashab told his only son, the Frierdiker Rebbe, what had happened. He told him that on that Shabbos, Shabbos Chai Elul, he had merited to be in Gan Eden, in the chamber of our teacher the Baal Shem Tov, and throughout that Shabbos he

02:32 merited to hear words of Torah from the Baal Shem Tov. Seven teachings—seven pieces of Torah that he heard from the Baal Shem Tov himself on that Shabbos, the Baal Shem Tov’s birthday. The Rebbe Rashab passed these teachings on to his only son, the Frierdiker Rebbe, and told him to keep them secret until the time came to reveal them. Only forty-five years later did the Frierdiker Rebbe reveal this secret. At a farbrengen on Shemini Atzeres and Simchas Torah of 5697, after a long introduction of stories and explanations surrounding the account, the Frierdiker Rebbe revealed these teachings. I myself heard about it from people I knew who had been at that farbrengen. I was privileged to know people who had studied at the Tomchei Temimim yeshiva in Poland and had been there themselves. They told me that chassidim from Chabad and other chassidic groups were present. Poland, after all, was a country where Warsaw was a major center of Jewish life for various chassidic groups, and many came to the farbrengen to hear the Frierdiker Rebbe’s holy words. One of them described it to me fifty years later, still full of emotion and wonder: when the Frierdiker Rebbe told the story, he simply transported them to another world. As that chossid described it, when they left the farbrengen after hearing it—it was in the sukkah—their excitement was so great that one said to another, “We were just in the atmosphere of Gan Eden, as though completely detached from the reality of this world.” As we said, the Frierdiker Rebbe revealed the teachings over several farbrengens. Each time he revealed another teaching, until, during the farbrengens of Shemini Atzeres, Simchas Torah, and Shabbos Bereishis, he repeated all seven teachings, the seven maamarim that the Baal Shem Tov had said in Gan Eden on that

05:02 Shabbos Chai Elul. The Rebbe Rashab heard them and repeated them, and that is how they reached us. One of those teachings—the first one—is what we will discuss today. It concerns the weekly parsha, Parshas Ki Savo. We’ll see how this teaching, this maamar of Chassidus that the Baal Shem Tov revealed in Gan Eden and that reached the Rebbe Rashab and then us, expresses, in an essential and perhaps comprehensive way, the essence of Chassidus as revealed by the Baal Shem Tov. At the same time, it reveals the remarkable innovation in Chabad Chassidus introduced by the Alter Rebbe. As we mentioned, Chai Elul is the birthday of what the Frierdiker Rebbe, quoting his father the Rebbe Rashab, called “the two great luminaries”: the Baal Shem Tov and the Alter Rebbe, author of the Tanya. That was how he described the day. So if we delve into the teachings the Baal Shem Tov said that day in Gan Eden, we can understand the remarkable innovation of Chassidus as revealed by the Baal Shem Tov, and also what was new about Chabad Chassidus as revealed by the Alter Rebbe. The Baal Shem Tov said—and the details were given—that the first teaching was delivered on Friday night, at the time of Kabbalas Shabbos. He spoke about the first verse of the weekly parsha: “And it shall be, when you come into the land that Hashem your G-d is giving you, and you inherit it and settle in it.” That is how the parsha begins: Moshe Rabbeinu brings the Jewish people the good news that they are going to enter the Land. “And it shall be, when you come into the land that Hashem

07:15 your G-d is giving you.” Then the verse says, “And you inherit it and settle in it.” The Torah continues with the mitzvah of bikkurim: “You shall take from the first of all the fruit of the ground, put it in a basket, and go to the place that Hashem will choose.” Our teacher the Baal Shem Tov said: The word eretz, “land,” refers to Eretz Yisroel. But the Midrash also says that eretz is related to ratzon, “desire.” Why is it called eretz? Because it desired to do the will of its Maker. It is related both to desire and to running—to the urge to run. The Baal Shem Tov said that every Jew is, in a sense, an eretz. “When you come into the land” means that every Jew has this land, this good land, within his soul. He has the desire—the desire to run toward, connect with, and bond with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. “When you come into the land that Hashem your G-d is giving you”: we received this as a gift. Hakadosh Boruch Hu gives each and every one of us this land, this desire, this urge to run, this longing to connect with Him. But “when you come into the land”—when that land, that desire, is kindled within us and begins to shine, when we enter that land—means that a Jew awakens and feels the desire, the urge, the longing to connect with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. We received that awakening, that desire, as a gift. But we have a task to carry out. What is our task? There is “you inherit it”: every Jew has inherited from Avraham Avinu and our holy forefathers the love, the desire, the connection with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. But then comes “and settle in it”—we have to bring it into a settled state. In other words, it cannot remain only a desire, an urge to run. We have to bring that desire and that urge into a settled state. “Settled” means internalizing it, so that it shines

09:45 And it should be felt in each of the soul’s faculties. “And you shall dwell in it”—to settle that desire, to give it a settled place. Often we have a desire, an eagerness, an awakening. An awakening is something a Jew experiences from time to time, but that awakening is a gift we receive from Above. A Jew’s task is to take that awakening and bring it into himself, to make vessels for it. And that is the continuation of the verse: “You shall take from the first of all the fruit of the earth and place it in a basket.” We must make vessels for that awakening. What are those vessels? As the verse continues: “And you shall go to the place that Hashem your G-d will choose.” A Jew must know, says the Baal Shem Tov, that when he goes somewhere—wherever it may be—he is not going on his own. He is led from Above to the place that Hashem will choose. Hakadosh Boruch Hu leads every soul to the place it needs to go. What is its task there? “To cause His name to dwell there.” That is the continuation of the verse. Our task is to make Hakadosh Boruch Hu known, to bring Him into that place and reveal Him there—to cause His name to dwell there. These were the Baal Shem Tov’s words of Torah at the beginning of Shabbos night, 18 Elul of that year. Then, after Kabbalas Shabbos in Gan Eden, he repeated this teaching and added something. The Frierdiker Rebbe related what he had heard from his father, who had heard it from the Baal Shem Tov himself: the Baal Shem Tov repeated the teaching and then added, How does a Jew cause His name to dwell? How does a Jew make Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s name known and cause it to dwell wherever he goes? By saying a blessing, or a verse of Torah or Tehillim. In other words, when you are somewhere and you say a verse of Torah, a verse of Tehillim, or a blessing there, then through that

11:58 you bring the name of Hakadosh Boruch Hu into the world, make it known, and cause it to dwell there. When the Rebbe Rashab told his son this teaching, he said, “Listen to what they speak about in Gan Eden.” In that wondrous place, Gan Eden, what is the most wonderful thing they praise? A verse of Tehillim, a blessing, a good word that a Jew says somewhere—that is what is most important and most exalted in Gan Eden. He also told him that when the Baal Shem Tov delivered these words of Torah, there was a gathering there, as he put it, of many Jews—men, women, and children—from among the Baal Shem Tov’s students, their students, and the generations that followed. An extraordinary, tremendous story. In 5747, 18 Elul also fell on Shabbos. At a farbrengen, the Rebbe retold this story and spoke with tremendous enthusiasm about its message. The story itself is utterly extraordinary. It is not every day that we hear words of Torah coming directly from Gan Eden. The story is astonishing in its own right. It is certainly a miraculous story: a Jew living here in this physical world merits a Divine revelation, a revelation of the Baal Shem Tov, who shares words of Torah with him. He can then recount what he heard and repeat those words, and they have reached us. That is truly remarkable. At that farbrengen, the Rebbe spoke in a remarkable way about the Rebbe Rashab’s having merited to hear these words of Torah directly from the Baal Shem Tov, and about how we need to reflect deeply on precisely what their message is. When we begin to examine this, we find several points. By looking at the details of this teaching, we will learn a number of extremely important things that explain the essence of the Baal Shem Tov’s teachings, and within that,

14:22 as we have discussed, 18 Elul is connected with both the Baal Shem Tov and the Alter Rebbe. They were both born on the same date, forty-seven years apart. On the Baal Shem Tov’s forty-seventh birthday, the Alter Rebbe was born. The Baal Shem Tov was born on 18 Elul 5458, the year of nachas, as the Frierdiker Rebbe discusses in his sichos. For the Baal Shem Tov’s entire purpose was to reveal the true nachas, the pleasure Hakadosh Boruch Hu takes in every Jew and in every mitzvah a Jew performs, and so on. Forty-seven years later, in 5505—the year of Kehos, as the Frierdiker Rebbe would say; Kehos carried the Aron containing the Tablets—the Alter Rebbe was born. Both were born on the same date, 18 Elul. What exactly did the Baal Shem Tov reveal in Chassidus? And what exactly did the Alter Rebbe reveal? What did the Alter Rebbe introduce in Chabad Chassidus? Chabad Chassidus is, in fact, a branch of the Baal Shem Tov’s teachings. But what exactly did each of them add? What did each reveal? If we delve into the teaching we have discussed on a verse from the weekly parsha, we can get some idea, some taste, of precisely what the Baal Shem Tov revealed and what the Alter Rebbe revealed. We know that the Baal Shem Tov awakened faith among the Jewish people. What does that mean?

16:15 The Jewish people do not need faith imposed on them. Faith is already planted in every Jew’s soul. The Jewish people are called “believers, descendants of believers.” That is who we are. We are a people of faith. When Moshe Rabbeinu met the Jewish people while they were still in Egypt, “the people believed.” The Jewish people are believers by nature, in their very souls. We inherited faith, as the Alter Rebbe explains at length in Tanya: faith is something every Jew has naturally, inherited from Avraham Avinu. But over time, faith can sometimes become dormant, asleep. As King Shlomo says in Shir Hashirim, “I am asleep, but my heart is awake.” At various times, especially during exile, “darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the nations.” In the haftorah we read for this week’s parsha, Parshas Ki Savo: “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of Hashem has shone upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the nations, but upon you Hashem will shine.” There are such times. What do I mean, “there are such times”? We are living right in the midst of times when darkness covers the earth. And that was how it was in the Baal Shem Tov’s time, more than three hundred years ago. In those days, the Jewish people were in a low spiritual state. The long exile, the troubles, the suffering, the pain, the pogroms—all this brought the Jewish people to what was described as a state of fainting, a kind of weakness in faith. The Baal Shem Tov was named Yisroel. That was his name: Yisroel, Yisrolik. Yisroel was not a common name. If we look at history, we find only a handful of great Jewish figures with that name. One explanation for why the Baal Shem Tov was named Yisroel is that when someone faints, you call him by his name to rouse him. When a person has fainted, his faculties have become inactive. Calling his name has the power to awaken him from his faint. The Jewish people were in a kind of faint. Rabbi Yisroel Baal Shem Tov, the holy Baal Shem Tov, came into this world as a great soul to awaken the faith among the Jewish people that had fallen into a faint. And that is indeed what the Baal Shem Tov did. He traveled from town to town, from village to village. There are many wonderful stories about the Baal Shem Tov from when he was still a hidden tzaddik, before he became known as the holy Baal Shem Tov. And afterward, too, he often traveled to towns and villages. Sometimes, as the stories tell us, he traveled just to ask Jews, “How are you?”—so that he could hear their answer: “Boruch Hashem. Boruch Hashem for our livelihood. Boruch Hashem for our food.” He wanted to awaken a Jew’s connection with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. And that, essentially, is what the Baal Shem Tov is saying: “And it shall be, when you come into the land.” The Baal Shem Tov revealed the good land: the desire, the eagerness, the longing, the thirst a Jew has for Hakadosh Boruch Hu. “Which Hashem your G-d gives you”—it is a gift. We need to reveal it, but it is something we have received as a gift. The Baal Shem Tov revealed this wonderful gift of faith in Hakadosh Boruch Hu within a Jew. He awakened that connection among Jews. Jews who were at the very lowest point, Jews living in poverty, hardship, pain, and disappointment—all kinds of disappointments that existed in those days, as we know from the history of that time. The Baal Shem Tov reawakened in them faith, joy, love, love of Hashem, love of Torah, and Ahavas Yisroel. All of this is “the land that Hashem your G-d gives you” as an inheritance. What did the Alter Rebbe do? The Alter Rebbe did not merit

18:39 The name has the power to rouse a person from a faint. The Jewish people were in a kind of faint. Rabbi Yisroel Baal Shem Tov, the holy Baal Shem Tov—his great soul came down into the world to awaken the faith of the Jewish people, which had fallen into a faint. And that is indeed what the Baal Shem Tov did. He traveled from town to town, from village to village. There are many wonderful stories about the Baal Shem Tov from when he was still a hidden tzaddik, before he became known as the holy Baal Shem Tov. Even afterward, he often traveled from the towns to the villages. Sometimes, as the stories tell, he would travel just to ask Jews, “How are you?”—so that he could hear the answer: “Boruch Hashem. Boruch Hashem for the livelihood. Boruch Hashem for the food.” He wanted to awaken a Jew’s connection with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. And that, in essence, is what the Baal Shem Tov is saying: “And it shall be when you come into the land.” The Baal Shem Tov revealed the good land—the desire, the eagerness, the yearning, the thirst a Jew has for a connection with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. “Which Hashem your G-d gives you”—it is a gift. We need to uncover it, but it is something we received as a gift. The Baal Shem Tov uncovered in a Jew this wonderful gift of faith in Hakadosh Boruch Hu. He awakened the connection in Jews—Jews who were in a state of utter lowliness, Jews living in poverty, hardship, pain, and disappointment, with all the disappointments of that time, as we know from the history of those days. The Baal Shem Tov reawakened in them faith, joy, love, love of Hashem, love of Torah, and Ahavas Yisroel. All of that is “the land which Hashem your G-d gives you as an inheritance.” What did the Alter Rebbe do? The Alter Rebbe did not merit

20:43 To be a direct student of the Baal Shem Tov—and that was intentional. There are many stories about this. We know from history that the Alter Rebbe was with the Baal Shem Tov only once in his life, when he was three years old. His father, Reb Baruch, was a tzaddik and a student of the Baal Shem Tov, but he was a hidden tzaddik, and the Baal Shem Tov instructed him to conceal his connection with him. In other words, the Alter Rebbe did not know about the Baal Shem Tov directly. Although his father was a chossid of the Baal Shem Tov, he did not tell him. This was deliberate. The intention was that the Alter Rebbe would have to choose the path himself, through his own efforts, come to recognize it, and seek out the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov. Although he was fifteen when the Baal Shem Tov passed away, he never had the opportunity to see him again—only that one time, at age three. His father brought him to the Baal Shem Tov for his first haircut, the upsherin, also called chalakah. The child, the Alter Rebbe, Reb Schneur Zalman, asked, “Who was that Jew?” His father told him, “Grandfather,” and from then on the Alter Rebbe knew him as Grandfather. Later, when he learned about the Baal Shem Tov, he also learned that he had been with him and had received his blessing. The Baal Shem Tov had cut his first locks of hair and blessed him. At the time, he did not know who he was; he only knew he was Grandfather. And afterward, the Alter Rebbe would indeed call the Baal Shem Tov “Grandfather” because of that story. Then, years later, after the Baal Shem Tov had passed away, his successor was Reb Dov Ber, the Maggid of Mezritch. Only then did the Alter Rebbe begin

22:54 to look for a place where he could gain greater depth in Torah, greater knowledge of Torah, and he heard about the Maggid of Mezritch. He traveled to him and became his beloved student. That is the story. But what is its deeper meaning? What was the Alter Rebbe’s innovation? It is found in the name Chabad Chassidus: chochmah, binah, daas—wisdom, understanding, and knowledge. The Alter Rebbe took the key points, the foundations of the Baal Shem Tov’s teachings, the gift that the Baal Shem Tov revealed, and taught how we can take them and bring them into our inner faculties, into chochmah, binah, and daas. As we said, the Baal Shem Tov awakened faith. What is the difference between faith and chochmah, binah, and daas? Faith is a faculty of the soul. Faith is a profound faculty, but it is above the intellect. I believe in Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Faith is an immense, wonderful power that a Jew possesses, but it is above the intellect. I believe. I believe there is a G-d. I believe that Hakadosh Boruch Hu created the world. I believe that the Torah is from Heaven. I believe in the thirteen principles of faith set out by the Rambam. A Jew is a believer, as we said. But faith, as we all know, can remain in a lofty, elevated place, while I do not understand. That is, I do not live it; it does not penetrate me or become part of me. With the teachings of Chabad, beginning with the Tanya and then in his wonderful maamarim in Torah Or, Likkutei Torah, and many other works of the Alter Rebbe’s teachings—and afterward through his successors, our Rebbeim, the leaders of Chabad—the Alter Rebbe revealed the dimension of chochmah, binah, and daas. This is what is meant by “and you shall dwell in it”: to bring faith down to a place where a person can connect with it, understand it, grasp it, and become one with it. It remains faith. On the one hand, these are profound and wonderful things,

25:14 and on the other hand, a Jew can bring this faith into his intellect. Anyone who has had even a taste of Chabad Chassidus sees how, through analogies, explanations, proofs, and all the wonderful explanations in the Alter Rebbe’s works, this faith can be received and connected to. A person can draw close to it in a way that it penetrates his inner being, so that all the faculties of his soul—his intellect and his emotions—become part of this faith. Around the time the Frierdiker Rebbe told the story we have just discussed, about that wonderful revelation of the Baal Shem Tov in Gan Eden, when he delivered that teaching—which, as we said, contains all the depth of the Baal Shem Tov’s teachings together with the Alter Rebbe’s wonderful innovation—he also gave an interesting explanation connected to everything we have discussed, in the name of the holy Shelah. Incidentally, when the Frierdiker Rebbe spoke about Chai Elul, about the Baal Shem Tov’s birth in the year 5458, he related that in that same year the Shelah’s book was printed in large, clear type in Amsterdam. It, too, is one of the foundational works in Chassidus. So he relates that the holy Shelah writes about the verse, “This is my G-d, and I will glorify Him; the G-d of my father, and I will exalt Him.” What does the verse mean? At first glance, it repeats itself: “This is my G-d, and I will glorify Him; the G-d of my father, and I will exalt Him.” On a simple reading, “This is my G-d, and I will glorify Him” means: This is my G-d, and I will praise Him. “The G-d of my father, and I will exalt Him” seems to say the same thing again. But no—there is depth here, an inner depth. He says that “and I will glorify Him,” v’anveihu, can be read as ani v’Hu, “I and He.” The holy Shelah says: There is “This is my G-d,” and there is “the G-d of my father.” There is a Jew whose connection with Hakadosh Boruch Hu is a connection of faith. “The G-d of my father”—my father was a Jew, my father believes, and I inherited from him that

27:42 faith: “the G-d of my father.” But there is also the level of “This is my G-d.” It is mine. It is not only because of my father. I, too, have connected with it, because I contemplated it, studied it, delved into it, and used my faculties of chochmah, binah, and daas so that it would become part of me. That is what the verse means by “This is my G-d.” If it is something I have delved into and worked on, then “and I will glorify Him”—ani v’Hu, I and He, are united as one. There is a connection between I and He. The Jew is connected to Hakadosh Boruch Hu from deep within. But if it is “the G-d of my father,” only because my father believes, then it is “and I will exalt Him.” It is elevated, wonderful, sublime—but it can remain above us and not penetrate our daily lives. And that is essentially the point of the Baal Shem Tov and the Alter Rebbe. The Baal Shem Tov revealed the good land—the desire, the longing, the thirst, the connection—and the Alter Rebbe explained how to fulfill “and you shall dwell in it,” so that it penetrates within. This also leads into the continuation of the teaching he gave: when a Jew goes somewhere, he does not go alone. This, too, is one of the foundations of the Baal Shem Tov’s teachings. The Baal Shem Tov revealed the concept of hashgachah pratis, Divine Providence. The Baal Shem Tov revealed and explained that Hakadosh Boruch Hu watches over every single detail in the life of each and every person—and even over inanimate things, plants, and animals, all the more so human beings. So when a Jew goes somewhere, he knows he is not going alone. He is going for a purpose. That purpose is a Divine one: to bring Hakadosh Boruch Hu into that place. Here, too, this can happen in two ways. There is the Jew who goes somewhere. The very fact that a Jew is in a place already serves a purpose. As the Baal Shem Tov said, the Jewish people have been dispersed to every corner of the world, to all sorts of places, and sometimes a Jew goes to a place. The very fact that a Jew is there

29:40 Being in that place itself purifies it and brings G-dliness there. But the Baal Shem Tov says: Then the Alter Rebbe comes, and this is the point of taking action, of making it known. It isn’t enough for you to be there. When you’re there, bring Hakadosh Boruch Hu there; make His name known there. Do a favor for another Jew, say a verse, say a blessing—make Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s name known in that place. And that is really the point of this great day, Chai Elul. “Chai” is not just a word; it’s no coincidence. Chai Elul. This is the day that brings life, vitality, into Elul. After all, what is Elul? As is well known, Elul is an acronym for “I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine.” The connection between “I” and “my beloved,” Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and between “my beloved” and “mine.” A Jew connects with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu connects with a Jew, out of love. But to live “I am my beloved’s”—to live it. There is the vitality the Baal Shem Tov revealed: the desire, the eagerness, the longing, the thirst. That is a Jew’s connection with Hakadosh Boruch Hu; that is life. And to live it in a way that it permeates every part of us—the mind, the heart, all 248 limbs and 365 sinews—that is what the revelation of Chabad Chassidus brings. The Baal Shem Tov’s name was Yisroel, as we said earlier. He revealed faith, the name. Yisroel is the name of the Jewish people. It is the power of faith that we have. The Alter Rebbe’s name was Schneur. Schneur—as the Baal Shem Tov said, why was he named Schneur? The light of the revealed dimension, the light of Chassidus, the light of Torah that the Alter— that the Alter Rebbe brought through the books he wrote, both the Shulchan Aruch on matters of halachah and the Tanya and all his other books of Chassidus. Schneur: the light of the revealed dimension and the light of the inner dimension, the light of Chassidus. He gave us the ability for a Jew to know how to serve

31:46 Hashem, how to be a Jew in a way that the light, the faith, permeates every part, every detail of who he is. We see in studying Tanya how the Alter Rebbe explains to every Jew the power of faith, and the ability to bring that faith into the mind, into the heart, and even into thought, speech, and action—what the Alter Rebbe calls the garments of the soul. A person becomes wholly permeated with faith, and it enters his daily life: he lives as a Jew, with his thought, speech, and action in accordance with the Divine will. So on Chai Elul, this day, we also begin the twelve days of preparation for Rosh Hashanah, one day for each month. From Chai Elul, every Jew begins the days of preparing for the great day of Rosh Hashanah, to crown Hakadosh Boruch Hu as King—King over me, King over the Jewish people, King over the world. May we truly connect, with vitality, to the teachings, guidance, and lessons the Baal Shem Tov teaches us, to the way of life of the Baal Shem Tov and the Alter Rebbe. May we be Jews full of vitality, Jews who live their Judaism inwardly. And may Hakadosh Boruch Hu bless each and every one of us with a good inscription and sealing, a good and sweet year materially and spiritually, a year of Geulah and salvation for each individual and for everyone together.