The Rebbe - What is a Rebbe - Part IV

00:00 The hemsech to the earlier installments been a gear to the concept of what is a Rebbe. We continue now with installment number four, discussing additional insights of how the Rebbe explains the relationship that exists between the Rebbe and the people in that generation. In a nineteen sixty-six, the Rebbe related to the Mishnah, where it says that the first day of Nisan, Rosh Chodesh Nisan, is considered Rosh Hashanah limelachim. It is the new year for kings. This is how it is calculated in the calendar when we count the years of a king in his reign. The Inyan of melachim, kings, relates to Raboseinu Nesiyenu. Raboseinu means our teachers. Nesiyenu means our leaders, referring to the Rebbes of Chabad. Raboseinu is, as our sages tell us, man malchei rabbonim. That who is considered a king are the rabbonim, the sages. But the Inyan of Raboseinu, which means our teachers, our mentors, are only in relationship to spiritual matters, to Inyanim of Torah, teaching Torah. As we see that when it comes to a rov, a person asks a question in Halakha, and the Rebbe continues, but a level that's higher than that is Nesiyenu. Raboseinu Nesiyenu. Nesiyenu relates also to physical matters, which means that there is a request for something that a person is lacking in a physical manner, and that's when he comes to the Rebbe as the Rebbe is Nesiyenu, the leader. And the Rebbe continues that although the Alter Rebbe writes in the famous letter in Igeres HaKodesh, the fourth section of Tanya,

02:34 chapter twenty-two, that, that Hasidim should not turn to him to ask him been a gear to physical needs. Nevertheless, we see that in a practical sense, from the Alter Rebbe throughout all the generations, and also beginning already from the Baal Shem Tov till the previous Rebbe, in every year, in every month, and every week, people turned to the Rabbeim to ask them advice, questions been a gear to physical matters. And therefore, the Rebbe continues and concludes, we find that in Chodesh Nisan there are many Inyanim that relate to Raboseinu Nesiyenu. As we see that the Yemei Hilula, the days of the passing of the Tzemach Tzedek and the Rebbe Rashab are in Chodesh Nisan, and likewise, the assuming of the leadership of their successors, Rebbe Maharash and the previous Rebbe, are also in Chodesh Nisan. In a Sicha, the second day of Chol Hamoed Sukkot, taf shin mem hei, late 1984, the Rebbe speaks about the experience that the Rabbeim experienced together with Hasidim in their troublesome times. Movon de gam pasut, it is understood and it is simple that as they are nasiyim, the Rabbeim lived, they amid glebt, they endured the conditions, the physical conditions of Yidden in their time. As we see it in many of the Igeres HaKodesh, in many of the letters that Rabbeim wrote to help support their brethren. Some of these letters were published, and from this we also understand been a gear to the others that for reasons were not yet published. We see it from Tanya

04:58 in the fourth section of Tanya in the I-Igeres HaKodesh, many letters that the Alter Rebbe writes to help support the brethren who find themselves in Eretz Yisrael, behulul. Likewise, the first Ma'amar that the Rebbe delivered on Yud Shevat, the evening going into Yud Aleph Shevat, taf shin yud aleph, 1951, assuming leadership in a formal manner, the Rebbe describes the pain of the previous Rebbe. As the Rebbe mentions toward the conclusion of the Ma'amar as choyenu hu nasa umachiveinu savlam vehu mechul mipshoeynu medukah maveseynu, which means that our illnesses he carried, our pain he endured, and he was hurt and broken from pshoeynu and avoneseynu. And in the same sense that he saw Our troubled times, the Rebbe concludes with the redemption that the previous Rebbe will redeem Yidden from Galus. In a Sicha Shabbos Parsha Nitzavim Tov Shin Yud Dalet, that's summertime 1954, the Rebbe speaks about the unique quality of studying the Torah of the Rebbe. Our sages tell us, Tzadikim Deim Libeidam, that Tzadikim are compared to the Creator. And in the same sense that the Almighty has enclosed himself, enclosed his essence in Torah, as the Talmud tells us in the Tractate of Shabbos, Anon Nafshi Ksovis Yehovis, I have inscribed and enclosed myself in Torah. Likewise, the Tzadikim have enclosed themselves with their whole essence in their Torah. And this is a unique quality in the sense that it touches higher than the regular standard level of the Neshama. In the Neshama, there are five levels. Nefesh, Ruach, HaNeshama, Chaya, Yechida.

07:30 Nefesh, Ruach, HaNeshama are the three lower levels, and they are found in the Neshama as the Neshama finds itself in the body. Chaya and Yechida are higher, Yechida being the highest, Lashon Yochid. So the Rebbe says when it comes to connecting with the Rebbe, by learning his Torah, we connect with a level that is even higher yet than Yechida. Because Yechida is one of the five names of the Neshama. As the Midrash tells us in Breishis Rabah, Chamisha Shemes Nikru La, five names. Yechida is also considered a name. But the essence of the Neshama is higher yet than Yechida. Therefore, when one studies the Chassidus of the Rebbe, and he studies it without any limitations, and he follows his ways and his teachings, although he doesn't understand everything, then the essence of the Chassid connects with the essence of the Rebbe. Because since his learning is in a manner that he is putting his whole essence into it, he's putting himself completely into it. As the famous quote that the previous Rebbe said, not only that he studies Torah, but Torah teaches him. And since in this Torah is found the essence of the Rebbe, so bemeila then the essence of the Chassid connects with the essence of the Rebbe, which is higher than Yechida Shebe Nefesh. And bemeila then the blessings come down from above in an infinite way in everything that the person needs. We will, im yirtze Hashem, continue in the next installment.