Yud-Tes Kislev
1. Among the matters that my father-in-law, the Rebbe [the Previous Rebbe], spoke about regarding Yud-Tes Kislev, he said:1 "Yud-Tes Kislev is the time of birth of a chassid; Yud-Tes Kislev is the bris."
The explanation of the connection between bris milah and Yud-Tes Kislev will be understood in light of what was discussed*1 — that in the mitzvah of milah there are three matters: a) the act of milah, the actual circumcising; b) that the Jew becomes and remains a mahul (circumcised); c) he becomes an eino arel (one who is not uncircumcised). And as was explained, there are cases where only two of the three details are secured, and the halachah then is that one must secure the third detail as well.
The allusion of these three details in man's Divine service was also explained: "Mahul" means that the good within the soul should be uncovered and revealed — "ועשה טוב" ("and do good"); "Eino arel" — not to be under the dominion of the orlah, the evil inclination2 — "סור מרע" ("turn away from evil"); and both of these details must come specifically through effort — the act of milah.
In light of this one will understand the statement of my father-in-law, the Rebbe, that Yud-Tes Kislev is the matter of bris milah. For Yud-Tes Kislev is the time when the victory and the redemption in peace of the teachings of Chabad Chassidus were revealed, and the day is the Rosh Hashanah of Chassidus3 — and the three above-mentioned details of the mitzvah of milah, as they apply to Divine service, are among the fundamentals of the approach of Chabad Chassidus:
Chabad Chassidus demands that a Jew attain all matters of good through his own effort (avodah), and not be satisfied with the good that he possesses as a matter of course. As in the well-known story4 of a chassid who asked the Rebbe, the Tzemach Tzedek, to bless his grandson with a good memory: "that he should remember everything he will see and hear by the Rebbe and among chassidim, and then he will automatically be G‑d-fearing." The Rebbe, the Tzemach Tzedek, answered him: "For more than a jubilee of years, my grandfather (the Alter Rebbe), my father-in-law (the Mitteler Rebbe) and I have been toiling so that chassidim should be G‑d-fearing through avodah, not automatically G‑d-fearing."
[OCR unclear] … the distinction between the approach of Chabad and the approach of Poland:5 Chabad demands that one not rely on the avodah of the tzaddik — that he, with his avodah, will uplift the chassidim and that is enough — rather, each person must and is obligated to toil by himself in the service of G‑d, with toil of the flesh and toil of the soul, as it is written:6 "כי אדם לעמל יולד" ("For man is born to toil"). And this is the act of milah as it applies to Divine service.
Chassidus demands that one spread Yiddishkeit and Torah everywhere, and seek to make another Jew good. As the saying of the Rebbe Rashab:7 "A chassid is one who devotes himself to seeking the welfare of another." And this is the matter of being mahul in Divine service: the heart (the seat of all the middos) circumcised — a good heart, so that one's own good is revealed, and he acts for another Jew as well.
The whole point of Chassidus is to change the nature of one's own middos, as the Alter Rebbe put it:8 "כל ענין החסידות לשנות טבעי מדותיו" ("The entire purpose of Chassidus is to change the nature of one's traits"). And this is what "eino arel" means: to remove the nature with which one is born.
2. Another fundamental point in the mitzvah of milah, as was explained, is that the holiness of the soul — the covenant of a Jew with the Almighty — enters the body in an inward way through the mitzvah of milah. Therefore the Alter Rebbe rules9 that with the mitzvah of milah there begins "כניסת נפש הקדושה" ("the entry of the holy soul") into a Jewish child, "entry" meaning going in in an inward manner. And for this reason the child, from the time of the bris, has a share in the World to Come.10
This point, too, is among the fundamentals of Chabad Chassidus: "Chabad demands inwardness (penimiyus)."11 That is to say, all three above-mentioned matters alluded to in the mitzvah of milah must be carried out not only in an encompassing (makif) manner, through faith alone, but also in an inward manner — in the Chochmah, Binah and Daas (Chabad) of the G‑dly soul — until it permeates also the intellect of the animal soul and the physical brain of the body. This is what is meant by the (inward) entry of the holy soul into the physical body.
3. And although at the time of the bris milah there is only the beginning, the start of the entry, nevertheless, according to the saying of our Sages12 "שכל התחלות קשות" ("All beginnings are difficult"), one can say that in the entry of the holy soul at the time of milah there is a power and an advantage13 that are not present in the level of entry that comes through educating the child in Torah and mitzvos, and perhaps not even in the completion and principal entry of the holy soul at the time of bar mitzvah.
May it be G‑d's will that in the days before Yud-Tes Kislev — which are akin to the birth and the days of preparation for the bris — there be the proper preparation for the activities regarding the study of Chassidus and conducting oneself in the ways of Chassidus, and all this with joy and gladness of heart.
(From the sicha of Yud-Tes Kislev and a letter of 12 Kislev 5722)
* * *
Every matter* is by Divine Providence. This year marks one hundred and fifty years14 since the passing of the Alter Rebbe,15 who was the founder of the approach of Chabad and Lubavitch. Also, this year the "dinner" of the Tomchei Temimim yeshivos was set for the day of his passing — 24 Teves. Surely this is something from which one can learn.
* * *
From the Rebbe, my father-in-law — who transplanted and planted the Lubavitch yeshivos in America — we heard many stories about the Alter Rebbe. Of the many stories I want to choose one which I think suits the occasion, a story that characterizes and gives an insight into the approach of Lubavitch and Chabad.
It was in the days when the Mitteler Rebbe, who later became the successor of his father the Alter Rebbe, lived together with his father. The Mitteler Rebbe already had children then, and among them was a very small child. The Alter Rebbe lived on the second story (floor) and the Mitteler Rebbe on the lower one (the ground floor). Once, while the Mitteler Rebbe sat and learned, a child fell out of its cradle in its sleep (as sometimes happens with a child) and began to cry. The Mitteler Rebbe was so absorbed in his learning that he did not hear it at all and continued learning. The Alter Rebbe, although he was on the upper floor and was also absorbed in learning, nevertheless heard the child's crying. He interrupted his learning, went down to the lower floor, put the child back into the cradle, and calmed and quieted him.
Afterwards the Alter Rebbe explained to his son, the Mitteler Rebbe, that not hearing a child's crying — however absorbed one may be in learning — is not the proper way.
The Rebbe, my father-in-law, "interpreted" this: however absorbed one may be in one's own learning or praying, or in doing good things in general, one must at that very moment hear when a Jewish child cries, and one must interrupt the praying or the learning and see to it that the child stops crying. He derived from this that however lofty one may be oneself, and however great the matters one is occupied with — since there is a Jewish child who is demanding and lacks something, one must hear it, put one's own affairs aside, and seek ways to make the child stop crying.
* * *
The lesson is needed especially in our time and our work:
In recent years a strong awakening has become noticeable among Jews in general, and among Jewish youth in particular; people have begun to seek Yiddishkeit. This is so even among eighty-year-olds and twenty-year-olds, and to a much greater degree among thirteen-year-olds and younger. Likewise among young married couples who have children four or five years old, there too an awakening has come to give their children Yiddishkeit. One also feels — people have at last come to the truth — that they want genuine Yiddishkeit, not a watered-down version, without compromises. Therefore the desire grows ever stronger to give the children an education that is founded and built entirely on our living Torah, which brings true life into day-to-day life.
And this is the lesson of the story told above: whatever Jews may be occupied with — and surely they are occupied with good and important things, whether matters of livelihood or various other necessary matters — when it comes to the question of Jewish children who cry and thirst for a Jewish education, this problem and this work take precedence (priority) and come before all the other things with which one is occupied.
One must make the greatest effort to give the institutions, yeshivos and chadarim that educate Jewish children with a proper Jewish education the means to take in the maximum number of children that can possibly be accepted. For unfortunately, the situation now is that many children remain on the street because the yeshivos do not have the means to open more classes or to take on more roshei yeshivah.
* * *
There are, unfortunately, homes where the children do not feel at all that they lack something, and therefore they do not cry. Toward these children the obligation and the task are much greater. For the very fact that they do not know at all that they need to cry is proof that they need a Jewish education to a much greater degree.
This too is one of the tasks that the yeshivos must set for themselves in particular: to accept students from all kinds of circles, without any limitations, without any distinction whether they come from a circle that at least knows that it lacks something, or from a circle that does not know at all that they need to cry; and to give each one of them the fullest measure of Jewish education, which will lead them on the path of being happy their whole life, both materially and spiritually.
* * *
There is also a lesson from the above story regarding the general world situation.
We have just entered a new year. The new child — the world in the new year — is unfortunately in the situation of a small child who has fallen out of the cradle, gone off the right "track" (path), and does not know how to orient itself, both in the relations between nations and between various circles: how to use the possibilities that humanity has in order to build and improve, and not the reverse — to destroy and make things worse.
And in this we have the lesson of the above story — to guard against two opposite errors. Sometimes a person thinks that he is busy with his own affairs, and what concern is it of his what happens in the world in general, what happens around him, and especially in another country? Now one sees clearly that even things that take place in a very distant corner of the world affect everyone, and often even his private life. A second mistaken claim: "Who am I and what am I; what can I accomplish," and so on. The truth, however, is that everyone can accomplish, and as explained in the Gemara and the Rambam16 and in later works, when each person makes his own corner brighter with the true light, the light of Torah and mitzvos, the Almighty assures that through this not only will his own life become better and easier, but he will also contribute his share to the general life of the entire world — that the world come closer to justice and righteousness, good and holiness, and that the forces driving the world toward the opposite of peace, the opposite of building and the opposite of good, become weaker.
This activity includes first of all, as was said earlier, strengthening the true Jewish education of Jewish children wherever they may be, through which one spreads the light of Torah and mitzvos — "נר מצוה ותורה אור" ("A mitzvah is a lamp and Torah is light"). And we then have the Almighty's assurance that this will bring good fortune to all who engage in it, and will strengthen the forces of good in the world, until ultimately they will be victorious; and we will merit, together with all of Israel, that Moshiach Tzidkeinu will come and take the Jews and the whole world out of exile, and bring down the true and complete Redemption.
* * *
May the Almighty help that all this be done in good health, with joy and gladness of heart, which will add to the activity, so that it be carried out on a much greater scale.
For judging by the situation now, however much the yeshivos are enlarged, there will be children to fill all the rooms and all the classes.
And this will also add to the success and to the blessing of G‑d.
(Excerpt from a sicha to the activists of the Tomchei Temimim Lubavitch yeshivos, Thursday of Parshas Noach, 5723)
Notes
1) Likkutei Dibburim, vol. 3, p. 976.
*1) See above, Parshas Lech Lecha, and the sources cited there.
2) Sukkah 52a.
3) Igeres HaKodesh of the Rebbe Rashab, 4 Kislev 5662. A photographic facsimile was printed in Kuntres Umaayan, p. 17.
4) Sefer HaSichos, Summer 5700, p. 57.
5) Likkutei Dibburim, vol. 1, p. 282.
6) Iyov 5:7.
7) Sefer HaSichos, Summer 5700, pp. 32 and 33. See also the letter of the Rebbe Rashab (cited in the sicha of 3 Tammuz 5701 and explained in the sicha of 13 Tammuz 5722): "A chassid is a lamplighter."
8) Likkutei Dibburim, vol. 1, 53a.
9) End of siman 4 in the second edition [of the Alter Rebbe's Shulchan Aruch].
10) Sanhedrin 110b. This is also implied in Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh De'ah, siman 263. And although the Rema and the Alter Rebbe in Orach Chaim (siman 124) ruled according to the opinion (Sanhedrin, ibid.) that it is from when he begins to answer Amen, it can be said that the opinions in the Gemara there, although stated in the language of a dispute, do not actually disagree (similar to what we find in Likkutei Torah, end of Parshas Korach, and in Kuntres Umaayan, maamar 22, ch. 3), for they speak of different levels in the World to Come.
11) Likkutei Dibburim, vol. 2, p. 546.
12) Mechilta, Yisro 19:5, cited in Rashi there. Tosafos, s.v. Pesiah, Taanis 10b.
13) See Likkutei Torah, Naso 29a. Nedarim 31b, and there. Likkutei Torah, Eikev 15b–c.
*) In connection with the annual "dinner" of the Lubavitch yeshivos "Tomchei Temimim," the Rebbe Shlita receives the yeshivah activists, and on that occasion the Rebbe Shlita gives them his blessing and delivers a sicha relating to the occasion. Since in last year's sicha a story, a mode of conduct and a directive of the Alter Rebbe are related and explained, we publish this sicha for Yud-Tes Kislev, the day of the Alter Rebbe's liberation.
14) Note also the saying of our Sages: fifty years are called an "olam" (Tanna Devei Eliyahu Rabbah, ch. 7); and see Bachya and Tziyoni on Mishpatim (21:6).
15) Note that the calendar arrangement then was the same as in this year (5723). [He passed away] after he had prayed Maariv, with Havdalah in the blessing "Chonen HaDaas," with a clear and settled mind and in wondrous devekus (at about the middle of the eleventh hour), on Motzaei Shabbos (Parshas Shemos), 24 Teves 5573 (Introduction to the Shulchan Aruch of the Alter Rebbe).
16) Kiddushin 40a–b. Rambam, Laws of Teshuvah 3:4.
Key Lesson
Yud-Tes Kislev is the "bris" of the chassid: just as milah requires active effort, revealing the good, and removing the evil, so Chassidus demands that we refine our nature through our own toil and let it permeate us inwardly. And like the Alter Rebbe who heard a child crying from another floor, no matter how lofty our own pursuits, the cry of a Jewish child for a Torah education must come first.