When Two Lights Came Into the World

When Two Lights Came Into the World

Welcome to our weekly Thursday night program, the story of Chabad in America through the Mindel Archives. Since we are getting closer to the great yomtov of Yud Tes Kislev, Chag HaGeulah, I want to share with you an article that Rabbi Mindel wrote before he wrote The Philosophy of Chabad. Now this article, in the back, it says it was given to Shazar — Shneur Zalman Shazar, who was the president of Israel. He was very close to Shazar. I don't know whether the Rebbe told him to give this to Shazar, to write it in Yiddish and give it to Shazar, or not. But I know that he gave it to Shazar. And most of us, many of us, do know the entire story of the Alter Rebbe, but many do not know. So I'm going to read inside — this is written in Yiddish, and I will try to translate this into English.

Our Jewish history is rich with Jewish giants — Geonim, Tzadikim, Talmidei Chachamim, Tanoim, Amoraim. Each one was an expert in different fields. Some were in Halacha, some were in Kabbalah, some were in Hakirah, philosophy, and some in Mussar, ethics. It's seldom, even among Tzadikim, to find a person outstanding in all four areas, and to create a derech, a path, to bring all of this into everyday life — such a shitah. That spiritual giant was Reb Schneur Zalman of Liadi, the Alter Rebbe, the author of the Shulchan Aruch HaRav and the Tanya, and he was called the father of Chabad.

The Alter Rebbe was born on Chai Elul in the year 1745 in Liozna, not far from Vitebsk — this was then part of Poland. Chai Elul is also the birthday of the founder of Chassidus, the Baal Shem Tov. He was born in the year 1698, forty-seven years earlier. When the Alter Rebbe was born, the Baal Shem Tov said a new neshamah came down to this world that will light up the world with two lights, shnei orot — two lights: the light of nigleh and the light of nistar.

The Alter Rebbe's father, named Reb Baruch, was a great Talmud chacham, and he was one of the hidden chassidim of the Baal Shem Tov. He brought his three-year-old son for upsherinish to the Baal Shem Tov. The Baal Shem Tov told his father, Reb Baruch, about the great neshamah and the shlichus his son would accomplish — he will find his way to Chassidus on his own. This was the only time that the Alter Rebbe met the Baal Shem Tov. He was fifteen years old when the Baal Shem Tov was niftar, when the Baal Shem Tov passed away.

Until Shneur Zalman was twelve years old he learned with a teacher by the name of Rabbi Issachar, and then he went home and learned by himself. By his Bar Mitzvah he made such an amazing impression that they called him the Rav Tana U'Poleg, the Liozner Illuy.

In the city where they lived, there lived two brothers. One was named Yaakov Tzvi, he was a Mekubal, and one was named Pinchas Eliyahu, he learned mathematics and philosophy. With their help, Shneur Zalman gained knowledge in Kabbalah and in philosophy, in these two areas.

It's important to know that when Shneur Zalman was ten years old, he put together a calendar for fifteen years. He divided it up into different time periods — Molad HaLevanah and Yamim Tovim, also the dates of the yearly markets in Liozna. The luach had thirty pages, written with green ink — that's how he wrote it. The family kept it until, in Elul 1856 [sic], there was a fire in Lubavitch, and the calendar was burned.

He was fifteen years old when he got married, to a daughter of Reb Yehuda Leib Segal, who was close to the government. And it was the custom that sons-in-law were usually supported by the fathers-in-law — they had kest, dowry — and Reb Shneur Zalman sat and learned Torah with great hasmadah.

It's important to mention that when Reb Shneur Zalman was eleven years old, he stood on a wagon in the market and delivered an amazing speech, that the Jews should have parnassah from agriculture, not from city work. When he was fifteen years old, after he was married, with the permission of his wife he asked — since he had the dowry money — to use it to establish people in parnassah through agriculture.

At that time, being supported as a kest by his father-in-law, he became acquainted with some of the high government people. It happened that one of the government officials had a problem with a sundial. Nowadays we have clocks, we know the time; in those days there was a sundial, and by the sun they used to tell what time it was. It was broken, and no one could fix it. So his father-in-law, Reb Yehuda Leib Segal, suggested that maybe his son-in-law could fix it, could figure out what was wrong. Reb Shneur Zalman figured out that to the southwest, miles and miles away, on a hill, trees were blocking the path of the sun, and that was why it was broken. The greatest mathematicians could not figure out why — but he did.

By eighteen years old, before writing the Shulchan Aruch, Reb Shneur Zalman was clear in all the Rishonim, the Achronim, also Shas, the Zohar — even though he could have been satisfied with the knowledge he had, he felt something missing in his neshamah and heart. The key is to combine moiach and lev — intellect and heart, seichel and feeling.

At that time there lived two great people: one was the Mezritcher Maggid, and one was the Vilna Gaon. People used to say: in Vilna you learn how to learn; in Mezritch you learn how to daven. So Reb Shneur Zalman could have gone either way, but he chose to go to Mezritch. With the permission of his wife, he left for eighteen months.

In the beginning he was not happy. But at a certain point, hearing the Torah from the Maggid and his talmidim made a tremendous impression on him. As Shneur Zalman was sitting and listening to the talmidim of the Maggid speaking in Kabbalah, specifically about angels, malachim, chayos, and their service, their avodas Hashem in love and fear — these high Chassidic concepts — while the talmidim were learning these deep concepts of serving Hashem, they were about to expire, to faint, from the intensity. And the Alter Rebbe was listening, and he too almost fainted.

Shneur Zalman, for the first time, got the feeling of unifying with Godliness. And who knows where this hanhagah would have led, if all of a sudden the Maggid hadn't passed by and revived them by saying a short dvar Torah. What did the Maggid say then? This is what the Alter Rebbe built Chassidus Chabad on.

It says in Yeshayah, "V'adam alav barasi" — I created the earth, and man upon it I created. The Godly light, which is unlimited, without boundaries, even in the highest realms, clothed itself in the Ten Attributes, and created different categories of angels and worlds without limit, until it created the material world for people. Man is the goal of the entire creation.

And then he said: "barasi" is, b'gematria, taryag — the 613 mitzvos of the Torah — and that is the goal of people and of this world.

Also he said, it says in Sefer HaBahir, that the attribute of Chesed, kindness, complained to God, and said: "Since Avraham Avinu came into this world, I have nothing to do, because he does everything for me." Avraham — a neshamah in a guf, in a body — does hachnasas orchim, does gemilus chassadim, spreads faith in Godliness. He stands on a higher level than the attribute of Chesed in the highest worlds. Chesed is jealous of Avraham Avinu.

The Maggid finished speaking, went back to his room, and left the talmidim, the students, in the deepest thought from this short Torah. From this, the Alter Rebbe found the foundation of Chassidus Chabad, which he afterward developed. These were the five points that he developed, that he heard from the Maggid:

Number one: the Godly light, the ohr, is unlimited in the highest worlds, and it dressed itself in the material world.

Number two: angels and the worlds are not the end goal of creation.

Number three: the purpose of everything is man, with his neshamah in a guf.

Number four: the purpose of man is to serve God through the taryag mitzvos, the 613 mitzvos, in everyday life.

Number five: the person who does mitzvos stands higher than the malachim, than the angels.

And what impressed Shneur Zalman the most was taking the coldness out of the seichel, the intellect, and combining the heart and the intellect, the heart with the brain. This is what Shneur Zalman was looking for. And this is what made him a chossid of the Mezritcher Maggid.

A new world opened up for Shneur Zalman. Now he learned Torah in depth, lit with Kabbalah and prayer and Chassidus. Shneur Zalman was the youngest student and the most beloved student of the Maggid, and the Maggid called him "Zalmanu." Shneur Zalman learned together, chavrusa, with the Maggid's son, who was called Avraham the Malach. Avraham the Malach taught the Alter Rebbe Kabbalah, and the Alter Rebbe taught him Nigleh.

The eighteen months passed and Shneur Zalman returned home, now a confirmed chossid and follower of the Maggid and the Baal Shem Tov. The friends in Vitebsk asked Shneur Zalman, "How was Mezritch?" So he said — he writes this in Yiddish — he said: "In Vilna you learn how a person masters the Torah; in Mezritch you learn how the Torah masters a person."

Now people found out in the city that Shneur Zalman had become a chossid. In those days they used to call the chassidim "the Kat" [the sect]. It became a whole commotion. Shneur Zalman's father-in-law was probably the worst misnaged — he was against what the Alter Rebbe did. Shneur Zalman called together the lomdim, the scholars of the city, and held an open debate explaining Chassidus, and he brought in many, many young talmidim. But the opposition, the misnagdim, became stronger, and for Shneur Zalman's family it was very uncomfortable. His wife was always on his side, and she agreed he should go back to Mezritch.

In the year 1767 he became the Maggid of Liozna, a position he held for thirty years, until after the second arrest, when he moved to Liadi.

In the year 5530 (1770), when Shneur Zalman was twenty-five years old, the Maggid said to him: "It is already two hundred years since Rabbi Yosef Karo, the Mechaber of the Shulchan Aruch. It's time you should write the Shulchan Aruch with the new sh'eilos that have come up, and you should be the Posek Achron." And so it was. It was accepted by the entire world, even by the misnagdim, as one of the greatest works of halacha.

The Shulchan Aruch was printed after the histalkus of the Maggid. Two years after he wrote the Shulchan Aruch, Rabbi Shneur Zalman began to put together the shitas Chabad, the Likkutei Amarim [Tanya] — he worked on that for twenty years.

And b'ezras Hashem, next week we'll continue in short the rest of the story before Yud Tes Kislev.