Moshe, Dovid and the Baal Shem Tov - the Inner Secret of Shavuos

00:00 Today we’re going to talk about three great Jewish leaders from throughout the generations who have a special connection to this festival, Shavuos, the festival of the Giving of the Torah. First, of course, is Moshe Rabbeinu. Moshe received the Torah at Sinai on Shavuos. Moshe Rabbeinu is the one who rose and ascended: “Moshe ascended to G-d,” and through him Hakadosh Boruch Hu gave the Torah to the Jewish people. Nearly five hundred years later, we find King David. The Jerusalem Talmud says that David died on Atzeres, meaning Shavuos. The Babylonian Talmud, in Tractate Shabbos, says that David died on Shabbos, and the Jerusalem Talmud says that it was on Atzeres, on Shavuos. As we know, several of the customs we observe on Shavuos are also connected to King David’s passing on Shavuos. For example, we read Megillas Rus on Atzeres, on Shavuos. One reason we read Megillas Rus on Shavuos is that it is the day of King David’s passing, and he was descended from Rus the Moabite. So it is a very special day to connect with King David. And thousands of years later, Shavuos is also the day of the passing, the histalkus, of our teacher the Baal Shem Tov. The Baal Shem Tov passed away on the first day of Shavuos in the year 5520. As is known, there was some uncertainty about when it happened—whether it was the first day or the second. Over the generations, it became clear that the Baal Shem Tov’s passing was indeed on the first day of Shavuos. This is a great day on which we connect with these three figures: Moshe Rabbeinu, King David, and the Baal Shem Tov. As we connect with these figures, these tzaddikim and leaders of the Jewish people whom we’ll discuss today, we’ll try to understand what links them to this day of the Giving of the Torah. After all, we understand that it cannot be

02:18 a coincidence. Nothing—nothing in the world—is coincidental, as the Baal Shem Tov, whose day of passing is on Shavuos, teaches us. Nothing happens by chance. Everything that happens in the world is through Divine Providence. So certainly this detail, too—that this day is the day of passing of these three tzaddikim—is through Divine Providence. All the more so when we are speaking about such great tzaddikim and the great day of Shavuos: these things must have very deep meaning. So we want to understand the special connection that these three great Jewish leaders in particular—Moshe Rabbeinu, King David, and the Baal Shem Tov—have with Shavuos. We’ll look at what they share in common, as well as the differences between them. I had the privilege of being with the Rebbe at Shavuos farbrengens for several years, and I remember that over the years the Rebbe explained this in a number of ways. He explained both the points these three tzaddikim share and the ways in which they differ, the distinctive mark each one left. So let’s consider a few things. Of course, our goal is to learn from this and take a lesson from such a momentous day, a day so important and so central to the history of the Jewish people. Surely we want to take lessons from it for our daily lives. What do these three shepherds of the Jewish people teach us? First, the points they have in common. All three, of course, were leaders of the Jewish people in different eras. Moshe Rabbeinu led the Jewish people in the Exodus from Egypt and through the wilderness, and prepared them to enter the Land of Israel. King David was the king of Israel. “David, King of Israel, lives and endures.” He was the first of the kings of the House of David, and he helped

04:21 the Jewish people—saved them from all the foes and enemies surrounding the Land of Israel. So much so that the Rambam calls King David the first Moshiach. He was, so to speak, the beginning of the Davidic monarchy. He saved the Jewish people from all their enemies and began the preparations for building the First Beis Hamikdash. And the Baal Shem Tov lived during an extremely difficult period in the history of the Jewish people, during the exile, in some of the hardest times. In connection with King David, the story is quite similar. As related briefly in Tanach, and at greater length in the Midrashim, King David was a shepherd. “From following the nursing sheep He brought him,” as it says in Psalm 78: Hakadosh Boruch Hu took King David from the flock. He was out in the field, as it says in the well-known story in Tanach. Hakadosh Boruch Hu sent the prophet Shmuel to the family of Yishai, the family descended from Rus, to find the true king who would become the eternal king of the House of David. Shmuel came to Yishai’s home and could not find him. He thought one son might be the one, then another—until he learned that there was a boy out in the field. That was King David. He was not a child, but he was out in the field with the flock. The Midrash also says that Hakadosh Boruch Hu tested him through the way he gave the older sheep one kind of grass, the younger ones another kind, and the little ones yet another. That is how Hakadosh Boruch Hu saw him as a shepherd of the Jewish people. That is how he came to be king. And when we turn to the Baal Shem Tov, we find something similar—not with sheep, but as is well known from accounts of his life, until the age of twenty-six or thirty-six, until a fairly mature age, the Baal Shem Tov lived quietly and modestly, a hidden tzaddik. He lived in villages and small towns among non-Jews,

08:41 and what was his job? Primarily, he would take the few Jewish children who lived in the area from their homes to cheder, from home to school. He did not even teach them. He only helped the teacher of the young children by bringing them back and forth from home. That was his entire job. And from there emerged the great Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Chassidus. What does this tell us? The Rebbe once spoke about one of the things we can learn from this. The point we should take from these three tzaddikim is that sometimes a person thinks that to become a great Jewish leader—to be a Moshe, a king, a tzaddik, a great leader—one must be occupied with great things. But it was precisely in simple, small things that Hakadosh Boruch Hu tested them: in their ordinary conduct, in the little things. Moshe Rabbeinu with the flock, King David with the flock, the Baal Shem Tov with the children. From there they grew into the great leaders of the Jewish people. And of course, the message for us comes as we approach the Giving of the Torah, the festival of Shavuos. We speak of the holy Torah, so great and vast—“broader than the earth”—and all its greatness and depth, layer upon layer of depth. We received all of this today, at the Giving of the Torah on Shavuos. A Jew needs to know that reaching the Torah’s greatness begins precisely with the small things, with simple things: devotion to simple matters. In our lives today, this means educating Jewish children. Sometimes we look down on dealing with little things: speaking to a small child about the alef-beis, teaching a young child proper conduct, paying attention to ordinary people. “I’m an intelligent, accomplished person—why am I wasting my time on these simple, small things? I should be involved in greater matters.” The Baal Shem Tov, King David, and Moshe Rabbeinu tell us: on the contrary, it is precisely through

11:07 Simplicity, sincerity, and devotion in the small things—that is where Hakadosh Boruch Hu tests them. And from those things they reached the greatest heights, becoming great leaders of the Jewish people at pivotal times in our history. Another thing we see, of course, that Moshe, Dovid, and the Baal Shem Tov have in common is their devotion to the Jewish people. After they became leaders, after they emerged as leaders of the Jewish people, we find in each of them an extraordinary devotion, an Ahavas Yisroel. They gave themselves—their lives, their whole being—for a Jew. Of course, we see this with Moshe Rabbeinu throughout the Torah. We see it especially at the time of the sin of the Golden Calf: how Moshe Rabbeinu stood up to save and protect precisely those Jews who were at their lowest, the Jews who had sinned with the Golden Calf. Moshe Rabbeinu stood before Hakadosh Boruch Hu, pleaded with Him to forgive them, and succeeded. He even broke the Tablets, as Rashi teaches us, to protect the Jewish people. Moshe Rabbeinu’s bond with every Jew, how much he cared about every Jew, his burning Ahavas Yisroel for every Jew—it stands out throughout his life. Dovid Hamelech: we find this quality in him too. Dovid, King of Israel, lives on. In every situation, he tried to speak in the Jewish people’s favor, even at his most difficult moments. We read in Tanach about Dovid Hamelech being pursued. Not only did he not retaliate; on the contrary, he forgave. And when his men wanted to kill King Shaul,

13:23 he protected him and would not let them harm him. When they wanted to take revenge on Shimi ben Geira, the head of the Sanhedrin, for cursing him, Dovid Hamelech said, “Do not touch him, for Hashem told him to curse.” Dovid Hamelech’s humility and self-effacement, and the way he thought about and cared for each and every Jew. Dovid Hamelech’s prayers became the songs of Israel—all of Tehillim. It is full of Dovid Hamelech’s prayers for the Jewish people, asking Hakadosh Boruch Hu to protect us in every situation and in every way. And we find the same thing with the Baal Shem Tov: his mesirus nefesh to do a favor for a Jew. As we know from the stories about the Baal Shem Tov, he set aside his whole life and all his comforts to travel from place to place, sometimes on grueling journeys, just to help a Jew who needed something—whether it was a matter of livelihood or health. The Baal Shem Tov’s work for the good of the Jewish people: as is known, already at age fourteen he was involved with the hidden tzaddikim, and he spoke to them about how you first have to help a Jew materially before thinking about his spiritual needs—and then think about his spiritual needs too. He was a symbol of burning Ahavas Yisroel. So we find this quality of Ahavas Yisroel in these three great figures in connection with the giving of the Torah. A Jew needs to know that the basis for receiving the Torah is what the Torah tells us: in the third month, when the Jewish people arrived at Mount Sinai, what made the giving of the Torah possible? As it says in the Midrash, which Rashi cites, “Israel encamped there opposite the mountain”—as one person with one heart. When the Jewish people showed

15:25 that unity, encamping as one person with one heart, that is what led Hakadosh Boruch Hu to say: Now is the time to give the Torah. But when we look at the particular qualities that distinguish each of them, we can see several things—some simpler, some deeper—in the differences between them. So, in connection with Torah, Moshe Rabbeinu, of course, gave the entire Torah. At the giving of the Torah, the whole Torah was given, from beginning to end. Moshe received the Torah at Sinai, and the entire Torah was given then. That is why there will not be another giving of the Torah. Even when Moshiach comes, there will not be another giving of the Torah. There is no need: the Torah of Moshe Rabbeinu contains the entire Torah. But when we speak about the order in which the Torah was revealed, the Torah’s development, what we received from Moshe Rabbeinu was primarily the Written Torah. That was his main contribution. Moshe Rabbeinu wrote the Torah and gave the Sefer Torah to the Jewish people. The Written Torah is associated with Moshe Rabbeinu. With Dovid Hamelech, we find more of an emphasis on the Oral Torah. The Gemara in Berachos, near the beginning, 3a, speaks about Dovid Hamelech as head of the Sanhedrin. The Gemara cites the verse in Shmuel, “And Hashem was with him,” meaning that the halachah followed his ruling in every instance. Dovid Hamelech was a king not only in his leadership of the Jewish people in Eretz Yisroel; he also dealt with halachic questions of permitting a woman to her husband, as the Gemara says. In other words, Dovid Hamelech was associated with the Oral Torah. And with the Baal Shem Tov, we find the revelation of the teachings of Chassidus, the inner dimension of the Torah—the Torah’s secrets revealed through Chassidus in a way that enabled every Jew to understand, grasp, and receive something of the Torah’s inner dimension and its secrets. And from

17:29 that came all the teachings of Chassidus in later generations. These are all parts of the Torah. All three are connected to the same day, to tell us that all parts of the Torah are one Torah. A Jew needs the Written Torah, the Oral Torah, and the inner dimension of the Torah. These are three parts of the Torah that complete one another. There is another point we can see if we want to look more closely at the differences. The Mishnah says in Pirkei Avos: “The world stands on three things: on Torah, on avodah, and on acts of kindness.” These are three pillars that uphold the entire world. This is the purpose of creation. A Jew’s whole life in this world rests on these three paths, these three pillars. Torah study is one path. Avodah means the offerings, and it also means prayer. When we do not have offerings in the Beis Hamikdash, prayer takes their place. And acts of kindness means, primarily, deeds of kindness. More broadly, it includes all the mitzvos of the Torah, which are called tzedakah. Now, if we look at these three tzaddikim, each of them certainly had all three qualities. Nevertheless, Moshe Rabbeinu stands out particularly in the path of Torah: Moshe received the Torah at Sinai. Dovid Hamelech stands out particularly in the path of avodah: both because he laid the groundwork for the Beis Hamikdash, where offerings would be brought—that was his life’s goal, to prepare everything so that King Shlomo could build the Beis Hamikdash, as described in Tanach and the Midrashim—and also in prayer. We all know him as the sweet singer of Israel. Prayer is rooted primarily in the prayers of Dovid Hamelech, in Sefer Tehillim, the foundation of all the prayers of the Jewish people. That is the path of avodah. And the Baal Shem Tov, who revealed the teachings of Chassidus, represents acts of kindness. Why are chassidim called chassidim? One of the reasons given in the name of the Alter Rebbe, author of the Tanya, is that he explained where

19:41 That’s where the name chassidim comes from. The Baal Shem Tov did not give them that name. The name arose, as it were, from among the people—they called them chassidim. It was not an official designation. But as the Alter Rebbe said, the reason the name chassidim arose is that chassidim are people who do kindness even when it comes at the expense of their own personal gain. The role of a chossid, as we learn from the teachings of our Sages in the Gemara—what is the definition of a chossid? A chossid is someone who gives up his own benefit in order to help another Jew. Acts of kindness, even at the expense of one’s profit or convenience. So this is what we mean by Torah, avodah, and acts of kindness. Moshe Rabbeinu represents the pillar of Torah. King David represents the pillar of avodah, and the Baal Shem Tov represents acts of kindness. All three are connected with the same day, Shavuos, teaching us how, on Shavuos, a Jew should receive the Torah anew with all three of these elements: growing stronger in Torah, in avodah, and in acts of kindness. And here we come to a deeper point. We can also consider the point we mentioned—that each lived in a different period. Each one teaches us how a Jew should conduct himself in the world in different times, and we can learn from this in our service of Hashem. If we look at Moshe Rabbeinu, King David, and the Baal Shem Tov in the periods in which they lived, we see something interesting. All three were leaders of the Jewish people. All three were nesi’im who guided and taught the Jewish people in different periods. But the difference between those periods is that Moshe Rabbeinu was with the Jewish people in the desert, when they were removed from material life, when the Jewish people lived

21:58 in a place where they had no worries, no distractions. In the desert, they ate the manna; everything came from Heaven. They had no involvement with the world, and that is where they received the Torah. The Torah was given only to those who ate the manna. This was a very, very unusual period in the history of the Jewish people. King David was with the Jewish people in a completely different period: they were in the Land of Israel, living and working within the natural order. The Jewish people built up the Land of Israel and settled there, each tribe in its own place. There King David taught them how to be Jews with all the pride of Yaakov: not to be shaken by any obstacles, but to serve Hashem within the natural reality of the Land of Israel. The Baal Shem Tov lived in a time of darkness, deep in exile, when the Jewish people were at a low point in their worldly circumstances. These are three very, very, very different situations, and each of them conveyed a message—through his personal example and through what he taught us—about how a Jew serves Hashem in every situation. Moshe Rabbeinu teaches a Jew that when he studies Torah, he is in the desert; he is above the world. There is no world, no natural order of things. Hakadosh Boruch Hu takes care of you and gives you everything, and there you must be a Jew who serves Hashem, studies, and davens. When you are engaged in serving Hashem, you are entirely removed from the world. Moshe teaches us how a Jew serves Hakadosh Boruch Hu and receives all blessings and sustenance from Him, above the world. The world does not interfere with him at all. King David teaches us how to be a Jew within ordinary life. There is a world, there is a natural order. You have to work six days; “For six years you shall sow your field.” In the Land of Israel, the miracles and wonders of the desert were no longer there. But even when you

24:05 are living within the trappings of nature in this world, you are a strong Jew: you serve Hakadosh Boruch Hu and remain faithful to Him. The Baal Shem Tov teaches that even when there are difficulties, tests, and darkness, when you cannot see the light—even in the hardest times—a Jew is not shaken. He stands strong and serves Hakadosh Boruch Hu with joy, love, and vitality, as the Baal Shem Tov taught through Chassidus. So these are the three situations. Each of them, in his own time and in his own way, teaches a Jew how to serve Hakadosh Boruch Hu and remain connected to Him. He belongs to a kingdom of priests. We, the Jewish people, received the designation “a kingdom of priests” in each of these situations. In our own lives, everyone experiences a little of one situation and a little of another. Everyone can find times in life when we are, in a sense, in the desert. You are a young man in yeshivah; no one disturbs you, and you can devote yourself to Torah and avodah, like the Jewish people in the desert. There are times in life when we have to work for a living and bring food home. Then you are occupied with life in this world, and there you must be a strong Jew. And there are times of darkness. Everyone goes through periods of tests and difficulties, when things do not go as they would like, and there, too, one must be a strong Jew. So we have the message of Moshe Rabbeinu, of King David, and of the Baal Shem Tov: how a Jew receives the Torah in every situation. There is the pride of Yaakov: “You shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” in every situation; “You shall be My treasured people among all the nations.” In every situation, a Jew serves Hashem, is connected to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, brings Him into the world, and makes the world a dwelling place for Hakadosh

26:00 Boruch Hu. And in closing, if we reflect on it, we will see that the three tzaddikim we have been discussing are also connected with the Geulah. Moshe Rabbeinu is the first redeemer of the Jewish people. Moshe is the first redeemer; he redeemed the Jewish people from Egypt. King David was the king who began the dynasty of the House of David, from which the final redeemer will come. He began that redemption when he delivered the Jewish people from all their enemies, as we discussed. So he, too, is connected with Moshiach: Moshiach is called Moshiach ben David. The Zohar says that Moshe is the first redeemer and he is the final redeemer. This means that when Moshiach comes, Moshe’s soul will unite with Moshiach’s soul, and together they will be one soul. And the Baal Shem Tov—as we know from the remarkable story he himself writes about in his letter—encountered Moshiach’s soul. Moshiach told him that “when your wellsprings spread outward,” that will be the time of the Geulah. Spreading Chassidus, the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov, is the preparation for Moshiach’s coming. So we have these three figures—Moshe Rabbeinu, King David, and Yisrael Baal Shem Tov—who teach us how a Jew must prepare himself for the Geulah. The Rebbe once said that when we say the word miyad, “immediately,” as the Rambam puts it, “they are redeemed immediately”—this is what we are all waiting for, that the Geulah should come immediately, right away, literally now. The three letters of miyad—mem, yud, daled—stand for Moshe, Yisrael, and David, the three tzaddikim we have been discussing. So may Hakadosh Boruch Hu help us merit the complete Geulah even before Shavuos, and then the resurrection of the dead, with all the tzaddikim joining us, foremost among them Moshe Rabbeinu, King David, and our teacher the Baal Shem Tov. May we merit the complete Geulah through our righteous Moshiach, and may we merit

28:08 to receive the Torah with love, joy, and inwardness. Amen, may it be His will.