The Quiet Revolution of 19 Kislev - How Chassidus Changes the World?

00:00 In connection with the great day of 19 Kislev, the Rosh Hashanah of Chassidus, the day the Alter Rebbe, author of the Tanya and the Shulchan Aruch, was released from prison: this day was established as the great day, the Rosh Hashanah of Chassidus, as the Rebbe Rashab called it. There is a very interesting point here that we might not notice. But it seems to be far from a side issue; it is something essential, important and central—so much so that the Alter Rebbe himself treated it as central. It was a central theme, at least one of the most central themes, of his Geulah, and that is what we will focus on today. I had the privilege of being with the Rebbe several times in the later years at 19 Kislev farbrengens, and this was one of the main themes the Rebbe addressed. We could say that in our time, right now, and especially this year, it has particular significance—an even greater significance. It is very, very relevant to our time. It concerns the effect of this day, 19 Kislev, the effect of the teachings of Chassidus and their triumph in relation to the entire world, all the nations of the world. It also concerns preparing the world for the days of Moshiach, for the time when the world will be perfected under the sovereignty of G-d Almighty, when the sovereignty of Hakadosh Boruch Hu will be revealed in the world. It begins with a very interesting letter the Alter Rebbe wrote immediately after his release from prison. As is well known, when the Alter Rebbe was released on 19 Kislev 5559, he immediately wrote a letter to a friend, one of his closest friends, the holy Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, the renowned tzaddik. The two of them, the Alter Rebbe and Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, had studied together under the Maggid of Mezritch. The Alter Rebbe wrote him a short, pointed letter expressing the entire essence of the festival. He also

02:28 wrote a letter to the renowned tzaddik Rabbi Baruch of Mezhibuzh, a grandson of the Baal Shem Tov, in a similar style, with a few different words but the same content. In that letter, the Alter Rebbe tells them that he must inform them, as friends, companions, students of the Maggid and among the first to spread Chassidus. He wants to let them know that on Tuesday, the day on which “it was good” was said twice, and the day of the great hilula of our teacher, our Rebbe, the Maggid of Mezritch—on Tuesday of Parshas Vayeishev, 19 Kislev—I was sitting in prison reciting Tehillim. I reached the verse, “He redeemed my soul in peace from the battle against me, for many were with me,” in Tehillim chapter 55. It is a verse about Geulah: “He redeemed my soul in peace from the battle against me, for many were with me.” Before I continued to the next verse, people came into the Alter Rebbe’s prison cell to tell me that I was free, that I could go free. I emerged in peace. The Alter Rebbe then continues. After sharing that news, he writes something extraordinary. I will read it in the Alter Rebbe’s own words: “Hashem performed wonders and did great things in the land. He wondrously magnified His great and holy Name, which shall be magnified and sanctified among the multitudes, and especially in the eyes of all the ministers and all the peoples throughout the king’s provinces. In their eyes, too, the matter was wondrous beyond measure, and they responded by saying: ‘This could only have come from Hashem; it is wondrous in our eyes.’” What is the Alter Rebbe telling him here? That his release from prison was no ordinary event. It was an immense miracle and wonder. The wonder was so great that all the ministers and leading figures of the country—Russia, where the Alter Rebbe was at the time—were astonished too. They said, “How could this have happened? It’s impossible.” And they all saw that this had come from Hashem;

04:56 it was wondrous in their eyes. That is what the Alter Rebbe tells them about the magnitude of the miracle of his Geulah. And here a very simple question arises: Why is this so important to the Alter Rebbe’s Geulah? It is remarkable. The Alter Rebbe wants to tell his closest friends, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev and Rabbi Baruch of Mezhibuzh, the great news of his Geulah. Let’s think for a moment. First, a Jew was imprisoned and then released. The great miracle, first and foremost, is the release itself: a Jew came out of prison. Second, we know that this imprisonment stemmed from an accusation in Heaven against the teachings of Chassidus. The whole story of the imprisonment, as we all know, concerned the revelation of Chassidus. We won’t go into all the details, but this is well known. There was an accusation against the revelation of Chassidus, and through the Alter Rebbe’s imprisonment, that accusation was broken. That meant the teachings of Chassidus were vindicated: they could come to light, and people could continue to spread and teach them. That was the story itself. If so, the most wonderful and significant news of this day should have been the good news about Chassidus. We are talking here about students of the Maggid of Mezritch. There had been an accusation against Chassidus, against the Jewish people being able to study the inner dimension of the Torah. Now permission had been granted to study the inner dimension of the Torah. That is the greatest thing for us to celebrate. Especially in light of the well-known stories. One story the Frierdiker Rebbe would tell is that while the Alter Rebbe was imprisoned, the Baal Shem Tov and the Maggid appeared to him and came to visit him. The Alter Rebbe asked them, “What is going on here? Why am I in prison?” In other words, what is the real reason, the Divine reason, that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is putting me through this trial, this experience, this suffering? They told him that the entire reason for the imprisonment

07:15 was that an accusation had arisen in Heaven over taking the inner dimension of the Torah, the teachings of Chassidus—the jewel in the king’s crown, the precious gem in the crown, the wondrous secrets meant to remain secret—and pouring them out, conveying them, giving them, publicizing them and bringing them to the entire world. It began with the Baal Shem Tov, continued with the Maggid of Mezritch, and then the Alter Rebbe brought it further. The teachings of Chabad presented the inner dimension of the Torah in an unparalleled way. This led to an accusation in Heaven: the world was not ready for it. It would bring the coming of Moshiach, but the world was not yet worthy of such secrets. The Alter Rebbe asked, “Do I need to stop? Does this mean that what I am doing is wrong?” They told him, “On the contrary. Since you have begun, you must now continue even more. Now that this accusation has been broken, the decree has also been annulled, and from this day forward you can spread the teachings of Chassidus with even greater strength and vigor.” If so, that should have been the greatest miracle and the greatest news for the Alter Rebbe to share. Yet what does he emphasize to them? How the non-Jews were moved and amazed, how they responded, and how Hashem performed great wonders in the land—how the nations and the ministers of the state said and acknowledged that Hashem’s hand had done this. Seemingly, that is entirely secondary to the great miracle that happened on 19 Kislev, yet he makes it central. The Rebbe raised this question in the later years. I had the privilege of being with the Rebbe several times during that period, and this was one of the points he returned to in light of the times we are living in. So what is the point? Here the Rebbe gave a truly remarkable explanation. For our day, these words are especially powerful, important and wonderful, because we see these things happening before our very eyes. And this connects to another point as well.

09:19 An important point that explains this to us. The Rebbe spoke about it on 19 Kislev 5751. If I’m not mistaken, I was with the Rebbe then, and he spoke about this point: why, in 5662—late 1901—the Rebbe Rashab wrote a letter for 19 Kislev. That letter is a cornerstone for understanding what 19 Kislev is all about, and it was also printed in Hayom Yom. Hayom Yom is a small book of sayings that the Rebbe compiled in 5703, during the Holocaust. It is a small, wonderful book, full of gems and sayings from the teachings of Chassidus, and it opens with this letter. The letter the Rebbe Rashab wrote in 5662—which, by the way, is also a very, very important year because the Rebbe was born on 11 Nissan of that year. But this was earlier, in Kislev 5662. In the letter, the Rebbe Rashab explains, briefly but profoundly, the essence of this great day. He writes: “This day, 19 Kislev, is the festival on which He redeemed our soul in peace, and the light and vitality of our soul were given to us. This day is the Rosh Hashanah for the words of the living G-d”—the Rosh Hashanah of Chassidus, the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov. Why did the Rebbe Rashab call this day the Rosh Hashanah of Chassidus? We’ll understand that too if we reflect on this wonderful, short letter that the Alter Rebbe sent to his friends. From it, we’ll also understand why it is called the Rosh Hashanah of Chassidus. The point, the Rebbe said, is this: we know that the entire revelation of the teachings of Chassidus began with the Baal Shem Tov’s account of his historic encounter with the soul of Moshiach. There is a famous letter that the Baal Shem Tov himself wrote, recounting what happened to him on Rosh Hashanah 5507. He relates that he ascended on high. That

11:50 means, he ascended on high. Tzaddikim have the ability for the soul to ascend even while they are alive in a physical body. So he ascended, and there he asked—what happened? He encountered the soul of Moshiach. He explains that he entered a chamber called the Chamber of the Bird’s Nest, the chamber of Moshiach, and there he asked: Why are we still in galus? “When will the Master come?” When will Moshiach finally be revealed? And Moshiach said to him: “When your wellsprings spread outward.” In other words, when the wellsprings of the Baal Shem Tov’s teachings—the wellsprings of the inner dimension of Torah, of Chassidus—spread outward throughout the world, that will be the time when Moshiach is revealed. What does that mean? What is the deeper meaning of “your wellsprings spread outward,” which is what the Baal Shem Tov explained to the Alter Rebbe—sorry, what Moshiach explained to the Baal Shem Tov as the condition for Moshiach’s coming? Here is the explanation. When we speak about Moshiach’s coming, when we look at the words of the prophets and then at the Rambam, who presents these matters as halachah, at the verses that speak about the Geulah, we see something remarkable: many of the verses about the Geulah emphasize its effect on the nations of the world. The best-known, most powerful verses. For example, the verse we say every day in davening: “Saviors will ascend Mount Zion to judge the mountain of Esav”—which is also connected to the weekly parsha—“and the kingdom will be Hashem’s”; “Hashem will be King over all the earth; on that day Hashem will be one and His name one.” These verses come from different places in Tanach, but they speak about the revelation of Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s kingship throughout the world. We also say this in Aleinu, the wonderful prayer said at the end of every davening. It speaks about what will happen when Moshiach comes: then all the nations of the world, all the inhabitants of the earth, will recognize and know

14:14 that to You, Hashem... and so on: “For to You every knee will bend”; “to perfect the world under the kingship of the Almighty”; and they will know. As we mentioned earlier: “For then I will transform the peoples to a pure language, so that they will all call upon the name of Hashem.” In other words, one of the most wonderful and important things about the Geulah is its effect on the entire world. How do we understand this? If we look more deeply at the matter, what does Geulah mean? Geulah is not just something specific: the Jewish people are suffering, and then Geulah comes. The suffering stops; there will be no more troubles, no more wars, no more hunger. In the Rambam’s words, “There will be no jealousy, no hatred, and no competition.” The deeper meaning of Geulah is the redemption of the Shechinah. It is not only the personal redemption of an individual; Geulah encompasses all of reality. The redemption of the Jewish people is also the redemption of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, the G-d of Israel. As the well-known Gemara says, when the Jewish people went into galus, the Shechinah went into galus. The Shechinah is in galus. In the broadest, most general sense, that means the entire world is in galus. After all, the reality of all creation is Hakadosh Boruch Hu. He is the One who brings the entire creation into being, gives it life, and sustains the whole world, all of reality, at every moment. But the world does not say that. Not only does it not say it—the world conceals it. We look at the world. What do we see? A world full of darkness, full of kelipah and the sitra achra. Moshiach’s revelation in the future means that the entire world will come to recognize that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is the Master of the world, that throughout creation we will feel that Hashem is one and His name is one. Nature will not merely cease to conceal Him; it will reveal Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That is really the whole essence of Geulah. This began with the redemption

16:32 from Egypt. If we look at the story of the redemption from Egypt, we see several times, already in the parshiyos of Shemos and Vaeira, in the Book of Shemos: “The Egyptians will know that I am Hashem,” and “You will know that I am Hashem.” What is the story of the redemption from Egypt? It is not only that the Jewish people came to know Hakadosh Boruch Hu through the miracles that happened. The Egyptians, too, cried out, “It is the finger of G-d.” The Egyptians, too, would say it and come to recognize, “I am Hashem.” That means the purpose of Geulah is not limited to the Jewish people as a group. Rather, through the Jewish people, it is to affect all creation and the entire world, bringing them to a true, absolute recognition that “there is nothing besides Him,” that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is the only reality, that “Hashem is G-d.” The thing is, the Exodus from Egypt was only the beginning. It happened through plagues, through breaking resistance. It took the form of plagues and breaking resistance. In other words, the world was not yet ready to feel this, internalize it, and accept it naturally as part of the world itself—so that it would become something the world itself recognizes as a reality that could not be otherwise. Not just as a blow we received that suddenly made us feel there is truth in the world. This is really the process from the Exodus from Egypt and the Giving of the Torah until Moshiach’s coming. It is all one long process, meant to bring the true reality to light throughout creation, so that all creation will cry out, “There is nothing besides Him,” and the entire world will come to this recognition. And this is the point of the Baal Shem Tov’s revelation and the teachings of Chassidus. The Baal Shem Tov revealed the depth of Hashem’s oneness within the world. If we look in Tanya, the foundational book written by the Alter Rebbe, where he embodied and distilled all the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov, one of its fundamental points—if not the fundamental point of Tanya—is the wondrous revelation

18:51 The Baal Shem Tov taught that the entire existence of creation is, in essence, the G-dly power within it, bringing it into being, giving it life and sustaining it at every moment. A person needs to come to the realization: “Know this day and take it to heart that Hashem is G-d in the heavens above and on the earth below; there is nothing else.” This revelation is meant to be the purpose of creation. The Alter Rebbe tells us this in chapters 36 and 37 of Tanya—wonderful chapters in which he explains the entire purpose of creation, the purpose of creating the world in the first place, and the purpose of our soul’s descent into this world, where it is clothed in a body and an animal soul. It is all to reach that final goal: to reveal the G-dly reality within the reality of the world and creation, within the lower world, as the Alter Rebbe calls it. That is really what our whole life here in this world is about. So now it all makes sense. This is why, when the Alter Rebbe is released from imprisonment, what he notices and emphasizes is the effect of the Geulah in the eyes of the nations of the world. It is not a side issue, a political matter, or simply something nice—that everyone said, “How beautiful! What a miracle! How wondrous!” This is the whole point. If we look at 19 Kislev not just as something personal to one individual, or even to one particular group, but see that the Alter Rebbe’s Geulah is part of the Geulah of the entire world, part of the Geulah of the Shechinah through the revelation of Chassidus—the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov as explained by the Alter Rebbe—then this is an extraordinary stage, a major stage, a central stage in preparing the entire world for the Geulah. All the inhabitants of the world will recognize and know the real truth of “Hashem’s truth endures forever.” This is what the Alter Rebbe sees on the day he is released from imprisonment: that Hashem “has done wonders and great things in the land,” that the world cried out. It is wondrous in my eyes; the truth of Hashem

21:08 did this. The fact that the nations of the world, that the ministers, [recognized it] reveals that the world is in a process of becoming ready, of drawing closer to that long-awaited moment of Geulah, when the entire world will become a place of complete G-dly revelation. And this is really what Rosh Hashanah for Chassidus is about. So the Rebbe explained: Now we understand why it is called Rosh Hashanah. If we consider what happens on Rosh Hashanah, we see something very similar. On the one hand, Rosh Hashanah is the day of judgment for every Jew. Hakadosh Boruch Hu inscribes and seals each person for a good and blessed year, and all the rest. But we know that there is something much more to it. On Rosh Hashanah, we see that in all our prayers, we do not just ask Hakadosh Boruch Hu to give me a good year. More than that, we do not even ask only that things should be good for the Jewish people. We ask for that too. But if we look at the Rosh Hashanah prayers, we see that they center primarily on one request: the revelation of Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s kingship throughout the world. “Reign over the entire world in Your glory, be exalted over all the earth in Your splendor, and appear in the majestic glory of Your might before all the inhabitants of Your world. Let every thing that was made know that You made it, and every thing that was formed understand that You formed it. Let everything that has breath in its nostrils declare: Hashem, the G-d of Israel, is King, and His kingship rules over all.” Wonderful words. This is the prayer of Rosh Hashanah. A Jew stands in shul on Rosh Hashanah, with the shofar and the machzor. He is not thinking only of himself; he is praying for all creation. Rosh Hashanah is the day of “the beginning of Your works.” It concerns the entire world. It is the day Adam was created. But Adam is not a person who thinks only of himself. Adam

23:15 crowns Hakadosh Boruch Hu King over the entire world. And every year on Rosh Hashanah, we bring about that Hakadosh Boruch Hu should be not only King of Israel, but King over all the earth—that His kingship should be revealed throughout the world. This is the inner essence of Rosh Hashanah, and it is why Rosh Hashanah was established on the sixth day, not on the first day of creation. Not 25 Elul, but specifically 1 Tishrei, because the purpose of man’s creation is that through him the entire world becomes a G-dly place. He crowns Hakadosh Boruch Hu King over all the earth. And just as this is true of Rosh Hashanah, so it is with the Rosh Hashanah of 19 Kislev. The Alter Rebbe, in his book Tanya and in his teachings of Chassidus—the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov—teaches, “Your wellsprings will spread outward.” The aim is to reach an understanding and recognition, for the entire world to come to understand and recognize G-dly reality and G-dly oneness, to recognize that “Hashem is G-d; there is nothing besides Him.” The entire world will come to a complete recognition. And this is what we see today, in our own days: how, little by little, slowly but surely, we are seeing the great miracles and wonders taking place for us in Eretz Yisroel. The miracles and wonders—someone who looks with the right eyes, according to the foundations of Chassidus that the Alter Rebbe revealed to us, sees how “Hashem has done wonders and great things in the land.” All the nations of the world say it openly. Everything happening here in the world, all the miracles and wonders taking place in the surrounding countries—extraordinary things—is part of the process toward the revelation of His Shechinah, toward the revelation of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, preparing the world for the Geulah. So what does this require of us? Now, in these momentous days of Rosh Hashanah for Chassidus, 19 Kislev, it is time for every one of us to strengthen our commitment to “Your wellsprings will spread outward.” First of all, to study Chassidus

25:19 ourselves. Second, to spread its messages as well: to teach, to bring the wellsprings of the Baal Shem Tov’s teachings, which are spreading farther and farther, to every place. To bring that message, to bring its depth, to bring the inner dimension that reveals to us the depth of the Torah, the depth of the soul, and also the depth of the world, as we said: how the entire world is, in essence, one reality—“Hashem is G-d”; “Hashem’s truth endures forever.” And this also tells us to be a light unto the nations. At this time, in these days, everyone who has the opportunity and ability needs to influence the nations of the world too, to speak with them about this reality. To speak with them about the Seven Noahide Laws, to teach them justice and integrity, to teach them about the true oneness of Hashem, about the presence of Hakadosh Boruch Hu throughout the world. To reveal it and make it known, each person in the opportunities available to them, to be a light unto the nations, to perfect the world under the sovereignty of the Almighty. Because this is where we are now, in these historic moments, when every one of us has—or will have—the opportunity to be part of this great process, this wonderful thing. As the Rambam writes at the end of his great work, Mishneh Torah, this is really the entire purpose of creation: when Moshiach comes, there will be no hunger, no war, no hatred, no jealousy and no rivalry. Goodness will be abundant, and the occupation of the entire world will be solely to know Hashem, “for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of Hashem as the waters cover the sea.” The entire world will come to recognize, understand and grasp Hashem’s greatness, for knowledge of Hashem will fill the whole earth. This is what we await; this is what we hope for. And through studying and spreading Chassidus, we will merit to see it in these very days—the great miracles and wonders,

27:26 the miracles of the Geulah, complete victory in the war, and the return of all the hostages in peace and safety. May all the sorrow and troubles we are experiencing now come to an end. Instead, may the light of the Geulah shine in the most complete, greatest and strongest way. May every one of us merit, in the well-known words that the Frierdiker Rebbe coined and said at a 19 Kislev gathering: “May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year in the study of Chassidus and in the ways of Chassidus.” Amen, may it be His will.