Bayis - A person's Home - Part 5

00:00 The hemsek and continuation to the earlier installments on the concept of a home, a Bayis Yehudi, a Jewish home, we now continue with installment number five, discussing the Rebbe's insights on the goal of a Bayis Yehudi. That a Jewish home is to model after and reflect the Beis Hamikdash. In a sicha of the Rebbe, Shabbos Parshas Chayai Sarah, Tov Shin Lamed Beis, late 1971, when the Rebbe spoke about the Chanukkah's Beis Hamikdash, when the Beis Hamikdash was reinaugurated after it was invaded, the time of the second Beis Hamikdash, before the miracle of Chanukah. The Rebbe draws a comparison that likewise we find also in regards to Chanukkah's Bayis Kipshute, literally inaugurating a new house when a person moves into a new house. In our time, they make a Chanukkah's Bayis, a commemoration, a celebration. This has a source in the Rishonim and surely in the Achronim. The Rebbe is referring to the Halakha codifiers in the earlier generations and in the later generations. And there is also a maimer, a discourse of the Alter Rebbe, that the Alter Rebbe said, beginning with the verse, "Mizmir shir chanukkah's habais ledavid", a song for the dedication, inauguration of the house for David, which the Alter Rebbe said this maimer on the occasion when he went into a new shul. The Rebbe asked a question, well, in the Cheir it's not understood. Mizmir shir chanukkah's habais ledavid refers to the dedication of the Beis Hamikdash. What connection does it have with a shul? And surely, what connection would

02:07 it have with an individual house? The Rebbe explains, as it was already mentioned in the past, that the intention and the goal of every shul is Mikdash Me'at, is considered a small sanctuary. Likewise, every individual house by a Yid needs to be like the Beis Hamikdash, a place where Hashem dwells. And as it is understood, what it says when he get to the Mishkan, "Ve'aseh li mikdash veshananti beseicham", make a sanctuary for me and I will dwell amongst them. "Beseicham lenamar", it doesn't say in him, it says in them, "Beseicham kol echad ve'echad". Because the inyan of v'shachanti, dwelling, that Hashem dwells, and that is why it's referred to a Mishkan, from the word of dwelling, that needs to be taking place within every Yid. The house of every individual Yid needs to be a place where Hashem dwells, as it dwells in the Mishkan and in the Kodesh Hakadashim, the Holy of Holies, where the Aron and the Kapelis were found. In a sicha, Simchas Torah Tov Shin Lamed Vav, late 1975, the Rebbe said the following. We say, "Ve'aseh li mikdash veshananti beseicham", as mentioned earlier, that it doesn't say he will dwell in him, but in them, which this refers to every Yid on a personal level. So bemeila when a Yid conducts himself as he needs to conduct himself, as Hashem, who is the one that chose us from other nations, has designated by Matan Torah, and that is when the Jewish nation received its entity. And bemeila when a person

04:09 conducts himself according to the directives of Torah, that is when every Jewish house is in the level and in the standard of Tzion and Yerushalayim. And in the same sense that we say, "Ki miTzion tetzeh Torah uv'al Hashem Yerushalayim", from Tzion comes Torah and the word of Hashem from Yerushalayim, likewise, belegier to every Yid, from the house of every Yid goes out the inyan of Torah and v'al Hashem, which is Halakha. And then it is in a manner that it's obvious, that it's authentic, that even people around him feel that this is true and sincere. In a sicha on the thirteenth of Tammuz, Tov Shin Lamed Vav, 1976, the Rebbe referred to a verse in Tehillim where it says, "Im Hashem lo yivneh bayis shav am amlu ve'einav be". If Hashem does not build the house, then those that will build it, which means that they are relying only on themselves, shav, it'll be in vain. So the Rebbe says in order that it should be Hashem yivneh bayis, that Hashem should build the house, is that in every house it should be v'shachanti beseicham, that Hashem is the one that built the house and he himself finds the dwelling place in this house. And that is connected with the fulfillment of mitzvahs. The word mitzvah also has the meaning of tzaf tzaf v'chibur, attachment. When a person conducts himself as Hashem wants- and commanded us, that is when he becomes connected, attached with Hashem. And that is when Hashem says, that I dwell in

06:20 that house and through the house in the person's share that the person has in world and through this in the entire world. In a Sicha Shabbos Parshas Va'etchanan 1980, the Rebbe spoke about the two inyonim that take place by a person's table. And it is compared to the offerings on the Mizbeach, the altar. The Tzemach Tzedek explains that in the same sense that the offerings on the altar literally were two concepts. One is a fire that was lit by the Kohanim on the, uh, Mizbeach. And then there was also a fire that descended from heaven, as the Talmud tells us in the Tractate of Yoma. In the same sense, in the table of the person which a-- the table of a person is considered an altar, of Hashem. So through inviting guests, poor people to one's table, it is similar to the fact that the Kohanim lit the fire. They did so-- they initiated something on their own. Although there was a flame that came from above, nevertheless, the Kohanim on their own initiated that they lit the flame on the Mizbeach, which means giving the Orchim something to eat, feeding them and making them feel comfortable. The flame that came from above is compared to the inyon of Torah. In the same sense that Torah is compared to a flame, to a fire, in the same sense by speaking words of Torah by the table, it is considered like bringing down the flame that comes from above. In a Sicha Yud Beis Tammuz 5744,

08:39 1984, the Rebbe spoke about the verse that we say at the end of Hallel, that the whole system of Baruch haba when we welcome someone, so we say you were blessed with the inyon of Beis Hashem, the house of Hashem. A Yid needs to make his personal house, a house of Hashem, a house which absorbs in it and receives all matters of goodness and holiness from the shul, from the study hall that make it be similar and an extension-- as an extension to the Beis Hamikdash. And then it is that from the house of Hashem, Hashem draws down the Shechinah in the house of every individual Yid, and this then encompasses the whole environment and in addition to that, the entire world. In conclusion, in a Sicha Shabbos Parshas Miketz, 5738, that Hanukkah time, late 1977, the Rebbe said the following. In the same sense that the general Beis Hamikdash is a place from where the light came out to the world, as it says in the Jerus-Jerusalem Talmud, and it came out through the windows which were made in such a manner that it was primarily for the light to come out to the outside, and through this it illuminated the whole world. Likewise, by every Yid, a house of every Yid, that he needs to illuminate the galus, the exile around him till he even reaches to those that have no connection with inyonim of Torah and mitzvos, and he illuminates the whole world.