The Leap Year - Part IV

00:00 The continuation to the earlier installments regarding the leap year. We continue now with installment number four, discussing additional insights of the Rebbe and its lessons in regards to a a leap year. In his Sicha, Shabbos Parsha Mishpatim, Tov Shin Mem Alef nineteen eighty-one, which was also a leap year, the Rebbe said the following, as it is translated here by Sichas in English: "The solar years is ten days, twenty-one hours, and two hundred and four parts longer than a regular lunar year. A leap year corrects this defect to such an extent that it has three hundred and eighty-three or three eighty-four or three eighty-five days, even more than the three hundred sixty-five days of the solar year. Although every lunar year is complete, the completeness of a leap year depends upon the leap month, which not only repairs the lack but adds an quote-unquote extra. When the world was created, the sun and the moon were the two great lights equal. Due to subsequent incidents, the moon became the smaller light, and its year became shorter than the sun's year. The idea of completion can be understood from the Midrashic saying," this is in the Midrash Shemos Rabba chapter thirty-one, paragraph fifteen, "the day borrows from the night and the night from the day. There is room in Torah for the idea that night and day should be equal with twelve hours apiece. Instead, during this summer, the day borrows quote-unquote hours from night, and in winter, the night borrows from the day. They are only

02:16 paid up in the months of Nisan and Tishrei. Similarly, solar and lunar years are only paid up at the end of a nineteen-year cycle." The Rebbe continues and asks a question. "But why is it that the leap month comes before the regular month? We would expect the reverse. For example, if one misses a regular pra-prayer service, the makeup prayer is said at the time of the following service, but only after one has completed the prayer belonging to that time. In this case, however, the makeup comes first and only then the quote-unquote regular month. From this comes a wonderful teaching applicable in all times, not only leap years. When an opportunity arises to do a good deed or a Hiddur mitzvah, beautifying a mitzvah, doing it with a special enhancement, the initial reaction would be to first care of those things demanded of this day, and only then, when all debts are paid, can one consider rising in holy things, but the lesson of the leap month teaches us otherwise. First, we make the addition and then follow the normal seder. Sometimes the extra must come first, for only in this way is there a complete year." The Rebbe refers to the Sefer Chassidim that it does say in Sefer Chassidim, chapter four hundred and fifty-four, quote, "He who owes money should not give large amounts of Tzedakah until he is paid up." But the Rebbe continues, this refers to regular times. There are, however, times in which the Tzedakah agent explains that the money must

04:25 come now, and if not now, then the whole project may be lost. The Rebbe refers to the tractate Taanis twenty-one A. Then we must take a lesson from the leap month. This lesson goes beyond the story brought in the Talmud in Taanis twenty-four A of an individual who, because he had always donated generously in the past, continued to do so even in difficult times in order not to descend in holy things, In his case, he was continuing an established practice. The leap month says more. When the Tzedakah collector comes and says that a certain amount is needed in a particular way and by a fixed deadline, one should realize that this is a special time and immediately give Tzedakah. This lesson is borne out by the practice of many Israel who borrowed to give Tzedakah, although they certainly had learned the Sefer Chassidim mentioned above. Thus, there are two ways of service. There is the way described in Sefer Chassidim, and there is another way, that of not confining oneself laying within boundaries and limitations, even the limitations of Torah. In fact, through going beyond boundaries, the ordinary service, the perpetual offering- becomes elevated to its true level. Yet how can we decide which service is appropriate for a given situation? The Rebbe explains to help in this decision there's a well-known story told over by the previous Rebbe in the Sefer HaSichas Tov Shen Gimel nineteen forty-three, page sixty-seven, about when this thought came in. The Rav in the story caught himself immediately, but

06:35 for the benefit of ordinary Yidden who might not do so, we have the story in printed form. To apply this story in our case, it depends when he remembers that he is a debtor, one who owes money, and a debtor should not make large gifts tzedakah. We see that it did not occur to him when he learned in his daily shiur after davening, or when he ate and drank to satisfaction, of course, to fulfill the verse, thou shall eat and be satisfied, nor when he went for a walk in order to guard his health as explained in the Rambam. Of course, he fulfills all the words of the Rambam and neither did he remember when he read the newspaper before his walk so he would have something to discuss if he met a good friend. He may not have thought of his debts at all until after Mincha, but when the collector approached him, then he thought of his debts. Thus, this story reminds us to check when the thought comes to us, what our true concern is. And the same goes for love and fear of Hashem, the spiritual silver and gold, for it is precisely at those times when there's a special need, a special mitzvah, an event that comes by Hashgacha Protis, divine providence. At these times, the clever one, the evil inclination, the yetzer hara, comes to tell us that we must do the regular service first before fulfilling these special needs. But the leap year teaches us that there are

08:14 times that one must give of himself spiritually and physically to make up what is lacking before going back to the normal order of things. Moreover, the leap month of Adar Alef must come before the ordinary Adar Sheni to make a complete year. And hence we see that even the normal service of Adar Sheni would be incomplete without the previous fulfillment of the extra service of Adar Alef. We will, im yirtzeh Hashem, continue in the next installment.