What is a Chossid, According to the Rebbe

Episode 194: "What Is a Chossid, According to the Rebbe"

Welcome to our weekly program, The Inside Story of Chabad in America, through the Mindel Archives. This is the third program of "What Is a Chossid." We still didn't get to the other things that I showed you in the first programs, so we need many, many more programs. But now I want to mention a few things that are mentioned in "What Is a Chossid."

So the Rebbe writes: I am certain that when a Chossid is teaching, or saying a maamar, to others, it is a zechus for his grandparents, and it is enough to provide for his children and for his grandchildren with an abundance of blessing.

And the Rebbe says that when you see somebody who is higher than you — who learns well, who does good things, who does acts of kindness — always look up to him. And when you see somebody who is lower than you, whose head is down in gashmius (materialism), it is like a beheima — you know, a cow — a cow never picks up its head, a cow never looks at the sky, because everything is in gashmius for it. Everything in this world — when you see somebody who has his head down in gashmius, always look at that and thank God that you are not like that.

On this I want to mention something I once mentioned: when the Rebbe was a child, about nine, ten, or eleven years old, he was standing with another boy. The boy was named — I believe they learned in the same class and he lived in [unclear] later — but he was a child the same age as the Rebbe. [The boy asked:] Why does the Torah begin with a Beis and not an Aleph? The Rebbe said he doesn't know — or his father told him — because Beis stands for brocha (blessing), and also Beis is the number two, Aleph is the number one. He was taught that when you see somebody who deserves respect, who comes before you, you can learn from him, and you should always look up — look at him as someone higher, a person of stature. That is what his father told him.

While the Rebbe was standing there, he said he also knows [something about this]. He said: the number nine is a very lucky number, because nine is Emes — Aleph is one, Mem is forty, Tof is four hundred; four plus four plus one is nine. Emes is nine, and nine is lucky: every number you multiply by nine, the answer always comes back to nine. Nine times one is nine. Nine times two is eighteen — eight and one is nine. Nine times three is twenty-seven — seven and two is nine. And so on, to the end, because Emes always has to go back to Emes. That is why every number looks different except nine and six — you take a nine, you turn it upside down, and it becomes a six, because [in Hebrew numerology] Shin is three (or three hundred), Kuf is one (hundred), Reish is two (hundred) — six. So Emes is nine, and when you turn it around [you get six]. That is why — where is the head of a nine? The head of a nine is on top. When you see a child — or a person — whose head is down [in gashmius], remember what we just said: look up, as the Rebbe writes about a person. When you see somebody who is higher, and when you see a person who is lower, whose head is down, in the gashmius of this physical world — that's why nine and six are opposites, the only [pair like that].

Now let's go back to the question. He said: three is three — when you establish that certain things happen three times, that is how three works; let's establish that. Now, [the boy] asked: why does the Torah begin with a Beis and not an Aleph? He said: if the Torah would begin with an Aleph, let's count — Aleph, Beis, Gimel: one, two, and three is six. What comes after? Gimel, Dalet, Hei, Vav: four, five, and six is fifteen — five and one is six. After that: Zayin, Ches, Tes: seven, eight, and nine is twenty-four — four and two is six. [And so on through the alphabet in groups of three, by threes] — each group adds up to six, six, six — all the way, until only Tof is left on its own. And that is something that has its own meaning. So that's why, if the Torah began with an Aleph [the result would always come to six].

Now let's see — the Torah begins with a Beis. Let's start counting by three from Beis: Beis, Gimel, Dalet: two, three, and four is nine. Nine is Emes. After Dalet comes Hei, Vav, Zayin: five, six, and seven is eighteen — eight and one is nine. [And so on through the alphabet in groups of three, starting from Beis] — each group adds up to nine, nine, nine, all the way to the end. That is why the Torah begins with a Beis — to show that [everything comes out to Emes, truth].

So that reminded me to share what the Rebbe said here. The Rebbe says we should always look at how people guard their time — this is important, as the preciousness of time must be guarded. It is urgent to accept the yoke of this, from every bit of time. Every day that passes is not just a day, it is a lifetime. Days go by, as the Gemara says: a day enters and a day departs, a week enters and a week departs, a month enters and a month departs, a year enters and a year departs — and it says, a summer day and a winter night [together] make up a year. And if a person realizes that time is so important, that you can't get back time, then he will use his time the way he is supposed to. This is part of being a Chossid.

Now I want to mention one more thing, at the end — people shouldn't take me the wrong way, but I do want to mention something I heard. We're talking about — there's no [such thing as] a Misnaged nowadays. Misnaged means "against." There was something to be against in the time of the Alter Rebbe, and maybe [the Misnagdim] had a right to feel that way, because there was a [new] movement, and they thought it was a strange thing that would take something away [from Yiddishkeit]. Nowadays there is no such thing — you can say whatever you want, but how can there be a Misnaged? There are no Misnagdim now. I'm not saying this applies to right now in every place — maybe there are a few, maybe, maybe — but most of the world knows [Chassidus now], and I'm not pointing to any specific place.

So there was once an argument between a Chossid and a Misnaged. [The Misnaged] said, "you have to be [a certain way]," and [the Chossid] said, "you don't have to be" — and there was always this disagreement. When a Misnaged passes away, he goes to Gan Eden, because he doesn't know more — he learns, he davens with a minyan, he's a good Jew, he doesn't know much, but whatever he does know, he does properly. So he goes to Gan Eden.

Then, when a Chossid passes away, it's a problem, because a Chossid doesn't go to Gan Eden right away. He should have known better — he learned more, he should know better. You know, it depends — when you wear blue glasses, the world looks blue; green glasses, the world looks green. If you're a Chossid, you look at the world differently, and a Chossid always wants more and more — whatever you do, it's not enough. Not that you didn't learn — you're a Chossid, you learn — but it's always "more." They put you in this world to make [a dwelling place for God below]. So he doesn't go to Gan Eden right away — he probably goes [first] to Gehinnom for that, because he should have known better. So they take the Chossid [through Gehinnom], but you have to go through the door of Gehinnom.

So the Misnaged stands there in Gan Eden, and he laughs, and he says, "You see — I went to Gan Eden, and you're going to Gehinnom. So you see that I'm right?" And the Chossid says to the Misnaged, "I'd rather be [a Chossid, even in Gehinnom, than a Misnaged in Gan Eden]."

Sometimes we're talking about nowadays — but without learning, people don't realize what [Chassidus] is. That's why, when the Alter Rebbe went out from prison — imagine, the Alter Rebbe being in jail — and then afterward he went to a Misnaged's house, that hour at the Misnaged's house was much harder for him than being in prison for so many days, because of the kelipah of those days. But nowadays, [Chassidus] is in the air — everybody knows, everybody learns — and only through this can we accomplish [the goal]. It should be a geulah, it should be speedily — it will come only through this.

There is much more — we hardly touched on what we started off with, the Rebbe saying what is a Chossid — but we need many more programs, and we'll do it another time. Thank you.