"The Dream of My Life" — What the Rebbe Revealed About the Role of a Chossid

00:00 On 28 Sivan 5701, the Rebbe and the Rebbetzin arrived in America, in the United States. It was the middle of World War II. Through great miracles, they managed to escape from a Europe in flames and arrived on one of the last ships to leave Portugal for the United States. This happened on 28 Sivan. Chassidim celebrate that day with great joy—a double joy. There is, first of all, the joy of their physical rescue, the great and wonderful miracle through which the Rebbe and the Rebbetzin reached safety. At the same time, it marks a new era, a new surge in the work of the Frierdiker Rebbe, who was already in America. He had arrived about a year earlier and was waiting for his son-in-law, the Rebbe, to arrive. Together, they then established the important institutions through which they would reach not only America, but the entire world: Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch, the central organization for Chabad’s educational institutions worldwide; Machne Israel, from which the shluchim and the entire enterprise of shlichus, Chabad Houses, and the publicizing and spreading of the wellsprings of Chassidus throughout the world would emerge; and Kehot, the publishing house for Chabad Chassidus books from across the generations, itself another part of spreading the wellsprings of Chassidus throughout the world. The Rebbe arrived on Monday, 28 Sivan, and that Shabbos, Shabbos Parshas Korach, 3 Tammuz, there was a historic farbrengen. The Frierdiker Rebbe farbrenged with the chassidim, and this was, in fact, his first farbrengen in America. That farbrengen was also connected with the Frierdiker Rebbe’s day of Geulah, 3 Tammuz 5687. That was the great day on which the great miracle occurred: the Frierdiker Rebbe was saved and released from prison. It was not yet a complete Geulah, because as soon as he left prison, he was sent into exile, which was supposed to last three years. But through a great miracle, less than ten days later, on 12

02:52 Tammuz, the Frierdiker Rebbe’s birthday, came the day of Geulah, when he was able to return home, and so on. That is why chassidim chiefly celebrate 12 and 13 Tammuz as the days of Geulah. But 3 Tammuz is itself an extraordinarily great day, because his release from prison in Russia was literally a passage from death to life. We will not go into the historical details now, but on that Shabbos, Shabbos Parshas Korach, 3 Tammuz 5701—the first Shabbos after the Rebbe arrived in America—the Frierdiker Rebbe was exceedingly happy, and the farbrengen was especially remarkable. Among other things, the Frierdiker Rebbe told a very interesting story at that farbrengen. He told a story about the Rebbe Rashab. In 5667, he related, the Rebbe Rashab spent most of the year outside Russia for reasons of health and other reasons. He was in Würzburg, Germany, for most of the months of that particular year. Chassidim would come to visit him there, and he related that on one Shabbos, a chossid came to visit the Rebbe Rashab, and they farbrenged. At the farbrengen, that chossid asked the Rebbe Rashab a simple question: “Rebbe, what is a chossid?” He wanted the Rebbe Rashab to define what a chossid is. The Rebbe Rashab answered, “A chossid is a lamplighter.” What does “lamplighter” mean? In those days, the streets in towns needed to be lit so that people could get around at night. There were streetlamps that had to be lit. A man would carry a pole with a flame and go around lighting the lamps. Of course, this was before there were electric streetlights everywhere. The person whose job it was to light the streetlamps was called the lamplighter—in Yiddish, a lamternshchik. The Rebbe Rashab said to the chossid who had asked what a chossid is—

05:15 he told him, “That is exactly what a chossid is. A chossid is a lamplighter. He has to kindle the soul within every Jew, ignite its spark, inspire it and illuminate it.” The chossid asked, “What if the lamp is in a desolate desert?” The Rebbe Rashab told him, “It must be lit there too, so that at the very least the lamp will be ashamed of the desert, and then it will turn the desert into an inhabited place.” The chossid went on to ask, “What if the lamp is in the sea?” He said, “You must still jump in—take off your clothes, jump into the water, and light the lamp there too.” Then the chossid continued, “What do I do if I don’t see any lamps?” The Rebbe answered, “That means you’re not a lamplighter.” The chossid went on to ask, “Is that really what a chossid is?” The Rebbe Rashab paused to think for a while, and then answered, “Yes, that is a chossid.” “What do I do if I don’t see the lamps?” the chossid asked. The Rebbe told him, “First you need to work on yourself, to refine yourself so that you can light your own lamp. Then you will be able to light the lamps of others as well.” There was more to it, but that was the main point of the story: the exchange between the chossid and the Rebbe Rashab years earlier. The Frierdiker Rebbe told the story at that farbrengen. Years later, the Rebbe farbrenged about the story and explained every detail in a most wonderful way. A chossid’s role is to be a light that illuminates. And here we come to one of the fundamental ideas we were privileged to hear from the Rebbe. At farbrengen after farbrengen, in many sichos, maamarim, and letters, the Rebbe returned to this point: a chossid’s role is to be a lamplighter, a light that illuminates. The Rebbe related that when the Rebbe Rashab founded the famous Chabad yeshiva, Tomchei Temimim, he

07:38 also spoke about the central role of a student. What is the role of a student in a Chabad yeshiva? To be a light that illuminates. Of course, a yeshiva student sits and studies the revealed teachings of Torah and the teachings of Chassidus for hours on end, connecting the two parts of Torah. He davens with focus and strengthens his fear of Heaven. But the ultimate purpose, the inner goal of founding Tomchei Temimim, the Rebbe Rashab said, was that its students should be lights that illuminate. Every student and every chossid should know that his role is to go out into the world and bring light—to kindle “the lamp of Hashem, the soul of man.” Every Jew has that lamp of Hashem, the soul of man. He has a soul. The soul is “an actual part of Hashem Above.” It has a spark, but sometimes the spark is covered by all sorts of layers, and it needs to be brought to light. In one of his sichos, the Frierdiker Rebbe gives an example to explain this. He says there are stones that can produce fire—flint stones. Before matches and other means of making fire, people would use such stones: they would strike one stone against another, and a spark would come out. The Frierdiker Rebbe says that a chossid is like a flint stone, called tzur hachalamish in the Holy Tongue. These are particular stones that produce a spark when struck. Every chossid is a flint stone. You might look at him and see a stone, without seeing the fire. The stone might have been in water for years and years, and while it is in the water you see no warmth, no flame, no spark. But the moment you take it out of the water and strike it, suddenly a spark comes out, and that spark becomes a flame. So today we are going to delve into this idea of being lights that illuminate, and understand exactly what

09:52 The special mission: to bring light, to kindle the candle of Hashem, the human soul. Every one of us has a Jewish spark within us. Our task is to make that spark shine, to kindle the flame, and to let its light illuminate everything around us, making the world a brighter place. After the passing of the Frierdiker Rebbe, the Rebbe wrote one of his first letters to the chassidim. The chassidim were broken and despondent. This was just a few years after the terrible Holocaust. Very few chassidim had survived. In that letter, the Rebbe offered the chassidim comfort, but we can also see the direction he set from the very beginning. The Rebbe said that, G-d forbid, under no circumstances could we give way to despair, depression, or sadness. We had learned from our Rebbeim what our mission was: to be lamps that give light. The Rebbe also quoted something the Tzemach Tzedek had said to the great chossid Reb Hillel of Paritch, one of the foremost chassidim of his generation. Reb Hillel was a great chossid, a genius, and a tzaddik. The Tzemach Tzedek sent him out in a role that was then called a shadar. His task was to travel from town to town, village to village, city to city, teaching and spreading Chassidus and explaining it to the chassidim. At the same time, he was also tasked with collecting money to bring to the Rebbe, for the institutions and other needs the Rebbe was overseeing then. They called it “sowing spirituality and reaping material support.” That was Reb Hillel’s role. It was no simple task. For months at a time each year, he traveled from town to town and village to village. As the years passed, Reb Hillel grew older and asked to stop

12:26 doing that work, because all the travel had become difficult for him. The Tzemach Tzedek then said to him, using an expression from our Sages in the Gemara, “We are workers of the day.” In other words, our task is to bring day—and day means light. Our task, the task of a chossid, is to bring light, to bring day, to turn darkness into light and exile into Geulah, and to bring the light of Chassidus everywhere, to every person and every Jew. That is our task. In his letter to the chassidim in 5710, the Rebbe wrote that our mission is one of light. Rather than dwelling on what we lack, we should focus on how we can add more light and holiness wherever we are. The Rebbe also used another expression from our Rebbeim: “One action is better than a thousand sighs.” A person can look at all the things that are missing, difficult, and burdensome, and begin to sigh over what he does not have. But one action is worth more than a thousand sighs. Our task is to shine, to act, and to bring light. This message runs through the Rebbe’s teachings in different ways, as a wonderful approach to serving Hashem: instead of occupying ourselves with darkness, we should occupy ourselves with light. If a little light dispels a great deal of darkness, then certainly a great deal of light will dispel even more darkness. This approach applies to every aspect of serving Hashem, both in our work on ourselves and in our work with another Jew. When it comes to working on ourselves, the Rebbe guided chassidim in dozens of letters. Chassidim wrote to the Rebbe, and we can see their letters in the Rebbe’s wonderful series of Igros Kodesh, which already has more than thirty volumes. Over the years, chassidim—young married men and young people,

14:51 and yeshivah students—wrote to the Rebbe about their spiritual state, about setbacks in serving Hashem and transgressions they had stumbled into. They asked how to make amends for certain things, especially what chassidim call the “well-known sin.” They asked the Rebbe for a way to correct what are called sins of youth, transgressions that come from youthful passions. And in the Rebbe’s distinctive approach, one thing recurs in letter after letter, in dozens and hundreds of letters: bring light—light into yourself and light into your surroundings. Do not dwell on yourself, on what you lack, or on your sins. Wake up and shine. Illuminate yourself and those around you. The Rebbe often speaks in these letters about diverting one’s attention. What does that mean? In Chassidus, the word daas means connection. What am I connected to? Where is my mind, and what am I attached to? Where is my attention? What am I absorbed in? If I dwell on myself and on the things that are wrong with me, I will sink further into them. But if I focus on the positive—on the soul, on light, on Torah, on rising higher, growing stronger, overcoming challenges, adding light, and learning—the result will be different. The Rebbe writes to study diligently and consistently, to increase Torah study, to put more into davening, and to strengthen oneself in serving Hashem. The light will dispel the darkness. Better still, bring light to others. In writing to many people about how to make amends for particular things, the Rebbe says that the greatest correction is to influence another young married man, another young person, another person, and bring him closer to Torah and Yiddishkeit. If, G-d forbid, a person’s past actions diminished light and vitality, his task now is to add light and vitality: to bring life to another Jew and draw young people closer to Torah and mitzvos. That is the greatest way to make amends for the things a person did wrong

17:23 in the past. Bringing young people closer means kindling a light, bringing light into the world. And that is the story of the chossid and his conversation with the Rebbe. The chossid asks the Rebbe, “What is a chossid?” And the Rebbe tells him, “A chossid is a lamplighter.” In other words, a chossid’s task is to go out into the street, into the public domain, and reveal the spark within other Jews, to bring them light. What if the lamp is in a desert? Sometimes you meet a Jew and see a desert in him—a desolate wilderness. It is not just his surroundings; he himself is in a desolate wilderness. He seems empty of all content, empty of everything. Why bother with him? He is so far away, so immersed in material things, so disconnected from Yiddishkeit and from Torah and mitzvos that you wonder how you could possibly speak to him about the soul and about light. He does not seem receptive to it at all. The Rebbe Rashab says: No. We must kindle the light of his soul too, illuminating his soul with the light of the inner dimension of Torah. At the very least, he will feel ashamed of himself, and that itself will lead him to turn the desert into a place where people can live. And what if the lamp is in the sea? Sometimes the opposite is true: a person studies a great deal of Torah but lacks yiras Shamayim. He learns an enormous amount and is a great Torah scholar, but the Torah has not transformed him. He studies Torah, but he does not have a connection with the Giver of the Torah. He lacks yiras Shamayim; he lacks a connection with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. So we are told that we must jump into the sea. We need the self-sacrifice to go in, draw close to that Jew, and illuminate him with the light of the inner dimension of Torah, so that the light of his soul will begin to shine too. Then his Torah study will become genuine Torah study, for the sake of Heaven. And when the chossid complains, “I can’t see”

19:27 the lantern in someone else, the Rebbe tells him: “Look for the lantern within yourself. Refine yourself. Start working on yourself, studying the inner dimension of Torah, davening with greater concentration, refining yourself, and leaving our inner prison. Then we, too, will be able to shine, to bring the light of the inner dimension of Torah to every place and every person.” There was once one of the great chassidim, one of the great mashpi’im of our generation, named Reb Nissan Nemanov. Nemanov. He was a great mashpia in Brunoy, near Paris, France. A great chossid. He ran a large yeshiva, one of the major yeshivos in Europe for Torah scholars at that time—one of the few yeshivos. At the time, there were also many, many young people living in Morocco, and conditions there made it very difficult to carry on. There was a great deal of poverty, hardship, and difficulty, and many left. Not everyone went straight to Israel. The Rebbe spoke then with Reb Nissan Nemanov about opening the doors of the yeshiva in France to accept dozens and hundreds of students. And indeed, hundreds and thousands of young men from Morocco came to study at the Chabad yeshiva in France. More than that, even the famous Baba Sali, zt”l, would himself come every year for several weeks and sit and learn in France. They had a very, very special connection. Reb Nissan, the mashpia, was with the Rebbe at that time, and at one of the farbrengens he approached the Rebbe and asked for a blessing for the young men from Morocco. He began asking that they become chassidim, that they serve Hashem, that they receive... He asked for all kinds of blessings, different blessings, and the Rebbe said two words to him: “That they be candles that give light.” The chossid continued asking for several more blessings, and the Rebbe repeated: “That they be candles that give light.” That blessing contains everything: that they be candles that give light. We should educate and guide our children, our students, placing the emphasis on being a candle that gives light. Not to be

21:50 concerned only with yourself. Sitting and learning, davening and observing mitzvos—that’s wonderful. That’s beautiful. But don’t forget the central task and the main purpose. Our task is to bring light: to be a candle that gives light, to seek out the candle, the soul, in every Jew and kindle it through the candle of a mitzvah, through the light of Torah, especially through the inner dimension of Torah and the luminary within Torah. “The light within it brings him back to the right path.” In this way we can illuminate one more soul, and another soul, and another soul, until we light up the whole world. Someone once asked the Rebbe in yechidus: “Rebbe, what exactly is the dream of your life? What is the goal? What is it all for? How do you see the dream of your life?” And the Rebbe told him: “The dream of my life is to succeed in kindling one more Jew’s candle, one more Jewish soul, until together all the candles of the Jewish people become a great flame, illuminate the whole world, and put an end to the darkness, so that our entire world becomes a place of light.” That Jew, who at the time was still, you could say, a bit rebellious and not so close to serving Hashem through observing Torah and mitzvos, asked the Rebbe at the end of their yechidus whether the Rebbe thought he had succeeded in kindling his candle. The Rebbe answered with a smile: “No, I haven’t succeeded. But I did give you the match. Now it’s in your hands.” And that, in essence, is the task of each and every one of us: to bring light into the world, to shine, to kindle the candle of our own soul, and to bring light everywhere around us. To bring the light of Judaism, the light of Torah—to shine. Not to be sunk in darkness, and not even to fight the darkness. You don’t drive away darkness with sticks or with battles. What the Rebbe taught

24:04 us is to add one more good deed, one more good action, one more candle of a soul, one more candle of a mitzvah. And in this way, with Hashem’s help, we will merit to drive away the darkness, bring Divine light into the world, and illuminate the entire world. Then the whole world will become a place of light and holiness: “And Hashem will be your everlasting light,” with the light of the complete Geulah through our righteous Moshiach, speedily in our days, amen.