Educating Children About the Chassidic Dates in the Month of Iyar - Rabbi Yosef Avraham Pizam shlita

00:02 Speaker 1 You are listening to the “Lema’an Yishme’u” podcast from Machon Halacha Chabad.

00:09 Speaker 2 2 Iyar is the birthday of the Rebbe Maharash, Rabbi Shmuel. The Rebbe Maharash, the youngest son of the Tzemach Tzedek, succeeded him. When we say he was the youngest son, we mean he was the baby of the family—but he was greater than all his brothers. After all, his father, the Tzemach Tzedek, appointed him as the Rebbe who would succeed him, and he took his place in the town of Lubavitch, the capital of Chabad Chassidus. 2 Iyar is the day when, during the counting of the Omer, the sefirah is Tiferes shebeTiferes. Tiferes shebeTiferes! Once, when the Rebbe Maharash was a child, the Tzemach Tzedek tested him in the presence of his teacher. The teacher said, “He’s doing well, isn’t he? The Rebbe Maharash, the child, knows it so well?” The Tzemach Tzedek replied, “Well, is it any wonder that Tiferes shebeTiferes does it well?” Tiferes is a lofty level; according to Kabbalah, Tiferes descends from Kesser. Tiferes shebeTiferes. Tiferes signifies Torah. It says that Tiferes is the giving of the Torah. Torah, Kesser. It is something supremely lofty, utterly extraordinary—above the usual order, above every level. So is it any wonder that a child born on Tiferes shebeTiferes does so well? Bereishis—yes. The motto of the Rebbe Maharash’s life, as reflected in the way he conducted himself, was: The world says that if you cannot go from below, only then do you leap over from above. He said, “Ich zog, I say: Lechatchila ariber”—from the outset, leap over from above. That saying appears in a letter of the Frierdiker Rebbe, and our Rebbe made it the cornerstone of all our activities, the very foundation of all the spiritual and material work of this generation. In other words, whatever you do, do it on a grand scale; move forward boldly. Taking something upon yourself? Take on a little more. When you

03:11 Speaker 2 set your sights on a goal, choose a big goal, a really big one, and trust in Hashem’s power to make your path successful. Do it with joy, trust in Hashem, and a connection to the Rebbe, and that way you will succeed. This applies to spiritual matters, to serving Hashem, and also to material matters: every Jew should have everything in abundance. The Rebbe Maharash embodied this saying, this principle, in the way he lived. He performed great miracles. People said he conducted himself in the way of the Baal Shem Tov—with great miracles, wonders, and acts of deliverance, and with tremendous courage and self-sacrifice for the Jewish people, in the spirit of lechatchila ariber. One example of how this found expression was when he needed to advocate for the Jewish people in Russia. The great majority of the Jewish people lived in Russia then. The Rebbe Maharash would go directly to the highest-ranking ministers. He would not go to some lower-ranking official, or people like that, as other advocates did. He always went to the minister in charge, to the very highest officials, to secure help for the Jewish people. So you can see that for him, while the world says that only if you cannot go from below do you leap over from above, “I say: lechatchila ariber”—start from above, go straight to the very top from the outset, and always aim for the highest. That was the motto of the Rebbe Maharash’s life. His well-known niggun also expresses this state of mind, this lechatchila ariber: a leap in serving Hashem, going from strength to strength. It is the niggun of Lechatchila Ariber. So how will we mark 2 Iyar, the Rebbe Maharash’s birthday? Of course we will hold a farbrengen. Of course we will make good resolutions. And of course we will encourage our children to read about the Rebbe Maharash in the book Rabboseinu Nesi’einu, where they can read

05:41 Speaker 2 the remarkable story of his life and the wonderful miracles he performed. We will all strengthen ourselves in this approach of lechatchila ariber, starting from above. For example, if a child decides to learn a hundred Mishnayos by heart, tell him to take on a hundred and twenty. A little more. Go even further with lechatchila ariber. When you aim high, even if you do not quite achieve everything you wanted, you will accomplish more than you originally thought you could. Go big in every aspect of serving Hashem and in all the permitted pursuits of a Jew. Everything, everything, everything will meet with great success when we keep this saying, lechatchila ariber, before our eyes. The Rebbe blesses us that everything we do should be lechatchila ariber. So we need to learn the teachings of the Rebbe Maharash, and we need to give tzedakah to causes connected with our Rebbeim, following the Rebbe Maharash’s path. And who more than the Rebbe instills in us the idea of lechatchila ariber? They tell of a prominent shliach who once came and told the Rebbe that he had built and expanded the shul there—a magnificent, splendid building. The Rebbe told him, “Yes, but lechatchila ariber. Well, I’m waiting for you to start the next building already.” With the Rebbe, there is no resting on your laurels. You did something big, something wonderful. Good—now you are used to working in the spirit of lechatchila ariber. Keep going beyond that: do even more, compared with what you did before. That needs to be our way. This is how we will hasten our preparations for the Geulah, working expansively in our personal and communal affairs to hasten the true and complete Geulah. 13 Iyar is the yahrzeit of the Rebbe’s brother. His name was Rabbi Yisroel Aryeh Leib. He had extraordinary gifts in music and Chassidus, and he passed away suddenly at a young age. His yahrzeit is 13 Iyar. The Frierdiker Rebbe once told the Rebbe about a dream he had.

08:15 Speaker 2 In this holy vision, he saw his father, the Rebbe Rashab, delivering a maamar of Chassidus. It was a dream. The Frierdiker Rebbe told the Rebbe, “I also saw your brother Leibel, Rabbi Yisroel Aryeh Leib. I saw your brother there too.” At first the Rebbe Rashab asked, “Who is that?” Then he immediately said, “I know him, I know him.” The Frierdiker Rebbe told the Rebbe, “Ask him. He heard the same maamar that the Rebbe Rashab delivered in Gan Eden, together with me.” From this we can understand the greatness of Rabbi Yisroel Aryeh Leib’s soul. Rabbi Yisroel Aryeh Leib had extensive knowledge of every part of the Torah. When he saw the Rebbe’s book Hayom Yom, he said, “Oh, at last my brother has begun publishing books!” He was deeply impressed by the astounding genius he saw in Hayom Yom. On the surface, they are sayings of the Frierdiker Rebbe—but one genius recognizes another. He understood the Rebbe’s calculations, what lay behind the sayings: why he placed each saying on that particular day or with that particular parsha. He sensed the Rebbe’s great genius there and was overjoyed. Rabbi Yisroel Aryeh Leib lived in Tel Aviv and later moved to Liverpool. There he studied at a university, lectured in mathematics, and pursued further studies. There he passed away suddenly. Before he left Tel Aviv, he spoke to Rabbi Nachum Goldschmidt, who had come to see him off. He said, “Listen, I’m going to England, and I have a request of you.” Rabbi Nachum Goldschmidt was relatively older and was himself exceptionally brilliant at explaining Chassidus. He was the Rebbe’s contemporary in Yekaterinoslav. They had even studied together in cheder; they were in the same class. Rabbi Yisroel Aryeh Leib said to him, “Reb Nachum, promise me that you’ll make sure my brother

10:45 Speaker 2 When the time comes, he will be the Rebbe.” We always saw that our Rebbe took great pleasure in chassidim visiting the resting place of Rabbi Yisroel Aryeh Leib, who was born in 5669 and passed away in 5712, and whose honored resting place is in the holy city of Tzfas. When people would visit his resting place on 13 Iyar, pray, make requests, and say what needed to be said, the Rebbe took pleasure in it. The Rebbe always responded to reports like these warmly and with gratitude. This has grown stronger from year to year: gatherings at Rabbi Yisroel Aryeh Leib’s resting place to recite Tehillim and Kaddish, and to ask for the Geulah—that he speak favorably on behalf of the Rebbe, all the Rebbe’s chassidim, and all the Jewish people. May we merit to complete the mission of his brother, the Rebbe, King Moshiach; may we merit to carry out his mission and bring it to its fullest completion by bringing the true and complete Geulah to all the Jewish people. So it is understood that on 13 Iyar, every chossid surely makes an effort to recite in Tehillim the verses corresponding to the letters of the name Yisroel Aryeh Leib, to give tzedakah, and to do something in the merit of the Rebbe’s brother. This is to bring the Rebbe pleasure and to invoke the merits of this exalted soul, Rabbi Yisroel Aryeh Leib, so that he arouses mercy and speaks in favor of the Jewish people, interceding with the Rebbe, with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and with his and the Rebbe’s father, the holy Rabbi Levi Yitzchok, so that the Jewish people may already merit a true and complete Geulah, both personal and collective, in its fullest perfection. Amen and amen.