12-13 Tammuz: When the Jewish Lion Awakened in Soviet Russia

00:00 The Gemara in Berachos, page 12b, says: “They sought to include the passage of Balak and Bilam in the recitation of Shema.” In other words, when the Sages established the text of Shema Yisroel, they wanted to add the passage of Balak and Bilam—the prophecies of Bilam. They did not do so, the Gemara says, because it would burden the congregation by making Shema too long. The Gemara asks: What is there in Bilam’s prophecy that relates to Shema Yisroel? The Gemara answers by quoting the verse: “He crouched and lay down like a lion, and like a young lion—who will rouse him?” Here Bilam is blessing the Jewish people. As we know, he wanted to curse them, but Hashem turned the curse into a blessing. Among the wonderful blessings he gives them, he says: “He crouched and lay down like a lion, and like a young lion—who will rouse him?” Rashi explains how this verse relates to Shema: “When you lie down and when you rise.” We say Shema Yisroel at night before going to sleep and in the morning when we get up. The verse is telling us that the Jewish people recite Shema at night—“lay down like a lion”—and in the morning, “who will rouse him?” They recite Shema in the morning, and they sleep peacefully and calmly, like a lion and a young lion. That is Rashi’s explanation. First of all, we see something remarkable about the importance of this prophecy. In Parshas Balak, the Torah tells us about Bilam’s prophecies. Bilam wanted, G-d forbid, to curse the Jewish people, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu turned his curse into a blessing. So we understand that these blessings in the weekly parsha contain something extraordinary—so much so that they were meant to become part of the recitation of Shema. Let’s look a little more deeply at these verses today. Of course, Bilam’s prophecies and these verses have tremendous depth, layer upon layer. The Torah recorded them, and Moshe Rabbeinu recounts them specifically, as the commentators explain. The Ramban discusses at length how the entire story

02:15 of Balak and Bilam is, in fact, a prophecy. After all, the Jewish people were not there. It took place elsewhere. The Jewish people were in the desert, and on the face of it, they had no idea what was happening there. Elsewhere, in the land of Moav, Balak hires Bilam and asks him to come and speak and curse them. Apparently, no one among the Jewish people saw any of this physically. It was revealed through prophecy. The Ramban explains that Moshe Rabbeinu knew everything that had happened through a clear prophecy and wrote it in the Torah. So these prophecies, these words, these blessings, have layer upon layer of depth. As explained especially in Chassidus, what is remarkable about these blessings is precisely that they come from among the nations of the world. Bilam was a symbol of impurity, kelipah and the sitra achra. He was a prophet whom Hakadosh Boruch Hu raised up for the nations, as the Midrash discusses at length in telling Bilam’s story. So precisely out of evil, out of darkness, out of impurity and the sitra achra, comes the advantage of light emerging from darkness. Out of the great darkness of the nations come the most wonderful blessings for the Jewish people. “Who can bring something pure out of something impure?” as the verse says. Today we’ll focus on these verses, including the verse that, as we said, the Gemara identifies as expressing the greatness and importance of the Jewish people—especially in these days, in this period—the verses that compare the Jewish people to a lion and a young lion. There are actually two verses in Bilam’s prophecy that speak of this. There is an earlier verse as well: “Behold, a people rises like a young lion and lifts itself up like a lion; it will not lie down until it eats its prey.” There too, the Jewish people are compared to a lion and a young lion. And Rashi, on the verse “Behold, a people rises like a young lion” in the weekly parsha, tells us that “rises like a young lion” means that when a Jew gets up in the morning, he eagerly seizes the opportunity to do mitzvos. He puts on

04:25 tzitzis, says Shema, puts on tefillin, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu... At night, before going to sleep, he says Shema, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu helps him. Rashi brings a truly wonderful explanation: Hakadosh Boruch Hu protects the Jewish people at night when harmful forces come and want, G-d forbid, to hurt them. He protects them in the merit of the mitzvos that the Jewish people eagerly seize the opportunity to do. And here again we have the verse, “He crouched and lay down like a lion, and like a young lion—who will rouse him?” What is so remarkable and interesting about this verse that the Gemara chooses specifically the second verse? Not “Behold, a people rises like a young lion and lifts itself up like a lion,” but specifically “He crouched and lay down like a lion.” The Maharsha raises this very question in Berachos. He notes that the Midrash Tanchuma does, in fact, cite the verse “Behold, a people rises like a young lion and lifts itself up like a lion,” whereas the Gemara in Berachos cites specifically the second verse, “He crouched and lay down like a lion, and like a young lion—who will rouse him?” So today we’ll discuss the wonderful explanation of this verse according to Chassidus, based on a maamar the Rebbe delivered at a farbrengen on 12–13 Tammuz 5716. 12–13 Tammuz is the Festival of Liberation. On these days we celebrate the liberation of the Frierdiker Rebbe, who was released from imprisonment nearly a hundred years ago. His imprisonment came about because of his self-sacrifice, which symbolizes the tremendous self-sacrifice shown almost a hundred years ago in Soviet Russia, in Communist Russia. There were harsh decrees aimed at erasing religion, at erasing the Jewish people and the Torah, the Torah of the Jewish people. The Frierdiker Rebbe stood like a lion or a young lion and fought, one man against a mighty regime of those days, and defeated it. Then came the severe imprisonment in 5687, from which he was liberated on 12 Tammuz. And as the Frierdiker Rebbe wrote at the time in his

06:47 famous letter, asking that the festival of his liberation be celebrated for generations: This was not a personal liberation. As he writes in the letter, “It was not I alone whom Hakadosh Boruch Hu redeemed on 12 Tammuz, on 13 Tammuz, but every Jew, even one who is called a Jew in name only.” In other words, even a Jew whose only connection to Judaism is that he calls himself a Jew was also liberated on 12 Tammuz. Because what was at stake in those days was the very existence of the religion, the very existence of Judaism. By the laws of nature, the government in Russia had all the power then and did whatever it wanted; everyone knows that. Yet there was this great miracle: the Rebbe entered the lion’s den and emerged with courage and strength, with the great victory that they themselves released him, and then he left Russia. And afterward, all the remarkable strength of the self-sacrifice of Russian Jews over seventy years—standing firm in their Judaism, proudly and resolutely, despite all the hardships—all of it was in the merit of those days. The Rebbe would hold a farbrengen every year on 12 Tammuz. So in one of the early years—I’m speaking of close to seventy years ago—the Rebbe delivered a maamar of Chassidus at the farbrengen. As was his holy custom, at every one of the major farbrengens the Rebbe would deliver a maamar during the farbrengen, explaining a profound idea in Chassidus connected to the occasion. So at the 12 Tammuz farbrengen in 5717, the Rebbe spoke about the verse “He crouched and lay down like a lion, and like a young lion—who will rouse him?” We see that the Gemara chooses this particular verse. What is special about it? What is its deeper meaning? Listen, then, to a wonderful Midrash in Midrash Rabbah on Parshas Vayechi. The Midrash points out that there are two very similar verses in the Torah. When Yaakov Avinu blesses Yehudah in Parshas Vayechi, “Yehudah, you are

09:03 “Your brothers will praise you”—he gives the blessings to the tribe of Yehudah, and there he tells him, “The scepter shall not depart from Yehudah.” He is speaking about the kingdom of the House of David, the kingdom of Yehudah. There is also a very similar verse there: “He crouched, he lay down like a lion, and like a lion cub—who will rouse him?” Here we have a similar verse, which Bilaam says with one very small difference. Yaakov Avinu says, “He crouched, he lay down like a lion,” while Bilaam says, lehavdil, “He crouched, he reclined like a lion, and like a lion cub—who will rouse him?” The Midrash gives several interpretations of this. One interpretation is that from the time of Peretz—Peretz was Yehudah’s son and an ancestor of King David—until Tzidkiyahu, that entire period is described as “he crouched, he lay down.” Tzidkiyahu was the last of the kings of Yehudah, at the end of the First Beis Hamikdash. And from Tzidkiyahu until Moshiach, it is “he crouched, he reclined.” What is the explanation? The Rebbe explains the difference between “lay down” and “reclined.” When a lion is strong and healthy, in its full strength, it lies down like a king. That is “he crouched, he lay down like a lion”—the lion’s distinctive way of lying down. “Reclined,” on the other hand, suggests weakness, as in the expression “he took to his bed.” It can suggest illness, rachmana litzlan, or its simple meaning can be lying down to sleep. So it can mean sleep, or it can mean lying down because of illness. The Midrash says these are two periods in the history of the Jewish people. There is the period of splendor and beauty, when the Jewish people were at the height of their flourishing, from Peretz until Tzidkiyahu. Those were all the wonderful periods when we had Moshe Rabbeinu, and afterward, when the Jewish people entered Eretz Yisroel, and then King David came, followed by the kingdom of the House of David until King Tzidkiyahu. That was “he crouched, he lay down”: the Jewish people

11:43 lay down in their full strength, and all the nations of the world feared them. But after the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash came the exile in Bavel, and afterward the exiles of Greece, Persia, and Edom—the long, terrible exile that we are still in, though nearing its end. We are in a state of “he crouched, he reclined.” Lying down. “I sleep in exile.” The Jewish people are in a state of lying down, a state of sleep, and even more, a state of illness, of taking to bed. And here the question arises: “He crouched, he reclined like a lion, and like a lion cub.” How can the Jewish people, even at such a time, when they are lying down, still be called a lion and a lion cub? “Who will rouse him?” Here we come to the remarkable depth and message that this verse conveys, according to the Rebbe’s wonderful explanation. A Jew, even in exile, even in the hardest moments of the darkness of exile, is always like a lion and a lion cub—even when “he crouched, he reclined,” even when the Jewish people in exile are in a state of “I sleep in exile.” One of the differences between the Jewish people in the time of the Beis Hamikdash and in the time of exile is that in the time of the Beis Hamikdash, they were awake. Their eyes were open. “Lift your eyes on high and see Who created these.” A Jew would contemplate and see the “Who,” the Divine power that created all of creation. In the time of the Beis Hamikdash, the Jewish people saw the ten miracles in the Beis Hamikdash, as the Mishnah says. There was a revelation of G-dliness. They saw Hakadosh Boruch Hu openly. There was Divine Providence in Eretz Yisroel, and the kings of Israel fought wars and won; people saw Divine Providence openly. In exile, as the verse says, “We have not seen our signs; there is no one among us who knows how long.” It is a state of sleep, with eyes closed. We do not see the miracles and wonders. “I sleep in exile.” But the verse in Shir Hashirim says, “I sleep, but my heart is awake.”

14:14 Although the Jewish people are, so to speak, in a state of sleep, the heart is awake. A Jew’s heart never falls asleep, even when he has taken to bed. There can also be a state of illness, rachmana litzlan, a spiritual illness. That happens when we let the yetzer hara, the animal soul, take control of us, and a person stumbles, rachmana litzlan, into desires and undesirable things. Then it becomes, so to speak, a matter of illness—an illness that may be dangerous or one that may not be, but an illness, rachmana litzlan, a distancing from Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Nevertheless, even in those moments of sleep and illness, “my heart is awake.” A Jew’s heart is always awake. The power of mesiras nefesh remains in full force. We see in reality, throughout the history of the Jewish people, that even in their hardest and darkest moments, a Jew’s power of mesiras nefesh is fully awake. The heart of Israel is awake. A Jew is like a lion and a lion cub. And that is really the story of 12–13 Tammuz. When the Frierdiker Rebbe was in Russia, it was an extremely dark period, and the Jewish people were in a situation where, according to the natural order, it was forbidden to study and forbidden to teach. Nevertheless, the Rebbe demanded that every Jew stand firm with mesiras nefesh in observing the mitzvos and studying Torah, and in teaching Torah to children. He demanded that every parent invest in their children’s education, even though the government did not allow it. At that time, people could tangibly see the strength of the Jewish people. Throughout the seventy years when the Communists were in full power and did not allow Jews to observe Torah and mitzvos comfortably or openly, people could tangibly see the power of Jews’ mesiras nefesh—how they stood firm and kept the flame alive in every circumstance. That is the meaning of “like a lion and a lion cub”: seeing the power of mesiras nefesh in a Jew, revealed and bursting forth from within him in the hardest circumstances. This story

16:40 has repeated itself throughout the history of the Jewish people. In recent times, too, we have witnessed—especially in recent years, in recent months—that precisely in the Jewish people’s hardest moments, we see their remarkable strength. We see “How fortunate we are, how good is our portion”; we see the power of unity and the power of the soul. We see an awakening in every part of the Jewish people, with Jews awakening to love of Hashem, faith in Hashem, and observance of the mitzvos. Or, as Rashi tells us in the weekly parsha, as we said, “Behold, a people rises like a lion cub.” Rashi says that they get up and snatch up the mitzvos. They do not just perform the mitzvos; they snatch them up. Snatching them up expresses affection. When a person cherishes something, he grabs it eagerly. That is how they snatch up the mitzvos. A Jew gets up in the morning, puts on tzitzis, puts on a tallis or tefillin, says Shema, accepts Hakadosh Boruch Hu as King, and connects with Torah and mitzvos out of love. Before going to sleep, he says, “Hear, O Israel: Hashem is our G-d, Hashem is One.” He knows that Hakadosh Boruch Hu—“Behold, the Guardian of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps.” That is “a people rises like a lion cub.” This strength, the power of mesiras nefesh, is our strength, and that is what the Sages of Israel wanted to place within the Shema. “Hear, O Israel: Hashem is our G-d, Hashem is One” is the power of a Jew’s mesiras nefesh. We know that throughout the history of the Jewish people, when Jews faced the hardest moments—when Jews went to the fiery furnace, during the Inquisition, during the Holocaust, in their hardest moments, moments when they gave their lives with mesiras nefesh—they said, “Hear, O Israel: Hashem is our G-d, Hashem is One,” the verses proclaiming Hashem’s oneness, in every circumstance. Because that is a Jew’s strength. So we say that together with the passage of Shema, where a Jew accepts Hakadosh Boruch Hu as King both by day and by night, even in moments of

18:49 Light—and even in moments of darkness—a Jew says, “Shema Yisroel.” He knows he is in good hands, and that gives us the strength and confidence to know that even in the final moments of the darkness of galus, a Jew may “crouch and lie down.” These are moments of lying down, moments of galus, but “he crouches and lies down like a lion and a young lion.” Even when a Jew is in a state of lying down, in the darkness, the sleep, the illness—G-d forbid—of galus, he still has the power of mesirus nefesh. He has the power of faith, and that power remains in full force, like a lion and a young lion. “Who will rouse him?” Here the wording is precise: Why specifically “Who will rouse him?” The words also bring to mind the well-known verse, “If only their hearts would remain this way, to fear Me all the days.” The Midrash says that King David used the words “Who will grant” twice in Tehillim. In chapter 14 and again in chapter 53, a similar verse appears: “Who will grant from Zion the salvation of Yisroel? When Hashem restores His people’s fortunes, Yaakov will rejoice, Yisroel will be glad.” It appears twice, with a word changed here and there. The Midrash asks: Why did King David say “Who will grant” twice? The Midrash answers that there are two verses in the Torah. One is in Parshas Behaaloscha, where Moshe Rabbeinu says, “If only all of Hashem’s people were prophets!” During the episode of Eldad and Medad prophesying in the camp, Moshe Rabbeinu said, “If only all of Hashem’s people were prophets!” If only all the Jewish people could be prophets. And in Parshas Vaeschanan it also says, “If only their hearts would remain this way, to fear Me all the days.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu tells Moshe Rabbeinu: If only the Jewish people would retain the fear of Heaven they had at the giving of the Torah throughout all the generations. The Midrash calls these the words of

21:07 the Master and the words of the student. Moshe Rabbeinu, the student, says: “If only”—if only all the Jewish people could be prophets. The Master, Hakadosh Boruch Hu, says: “If only their hearts would remain this way, to fear Me all the days.” The Midrash says that King David’s two prayers, “Who will grant from Zion the salvation of Yisroel,” are for these two wishes to be fulfilled when Moshiach comes. And “Who” refers to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, as in the verse, “Lift your eyes on high and see Who created these.” That “Who,” Hakadosh Boruch Hu, of whom it says “Who created these,” is the One who, when Moshiach comes, will grant salvation to Yisroel from Zion. Then the Jewish people will also be prophets. As it says in the Prophets, when Moshiach comes, “I will pour out My spirit upon all flesh.” All the Jewish people will be prophets. And the Jewish people’s fear of Hashem will be such that “all flesh will see that the mouth of Hashem has spoken.” They will have fear of Hashem: “Their hearts would remain this way, to fear Me all the days.” So this is what the verse tells us in the wonderful prophecy we read in the weekly parsha: “He crouches and lies down like a lion and a young lion; who will rouse him?” Because Jews stand firm in “Shema Yisroel” even in the final moments of the darkness of galus, with the mesirus nefesh to proclaim Hakadosh Boruch Hu King, we are not afraid of anything. We stand with the pride of Yaakov—a pride we are seeing now, in these very days—and proclaim Hakadosh Boruch Hu King over Yisroel and King over the world. The great Shepherd watches over us and saves the sheep from the seventy wolves. Then we will merit to see “Who will rouse him?”—the complete Geulah—as it says later in the parsha: “A star shall go forth from Yaakov, and a scepter shall arise from Yisroel,” and in the verses that follow, “Yisroel shall act valiantly,” and a complete Geulah

23:12 through our righteous Moshiach.