THE MITTELER REBBE: HIS LIFE and 6 LIBERATION 9-10 Kislev| Yitzchok Wagshul
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718_Beis Moshiach 16/11/2009 8:45 AM Page 3 contents INWARDNESS: THE PATH TO POSTERITY 4 A LASTING LEGACY D’var Malchus THE MITTELER REBBE: HIS LIFE AND 6 LIBERATION 9-10 Kislev| Yitzchok Wagshul IF LOBSTERS HAD DOCTORS 12 Shlichus | Dr. Aryeh Gotfryd OUR FIVE-YEAR PLAN 16 7 Mitzvos | Hannah Porat HAVE I GOT AN ANSWER FOR YOU! USA 22 Moshiach & Science | Yaacov Moshe Moses 744 Eastern Parkway Brooklyn, NY 11213-3409 Tel: (718) 778-8000 Fax: (718) 778-0800 [email protected] SOULS RETURNING FROM A”Z www.beismoshiach.org 26 Stories | Eli Shneuri EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: M.M. Hendel ENGLISH EDITOR: THE PEOPLE OF THE BOOK Boruch Merkur 32 Shlichus | Rabbi Yaakov Shmuelevitz HEBREW EDITOR: Rabbi Sholom Yaakov Chazan [email protected] THE LELOVER REBBE ZT”L 34 Feature Beis Moshiach (USPS 012-542) ISSN 1082- 0272 is published weekly, except Jewish holidays (only once in April and October) for $160.00 in Crown Heights, Brooklyn and in all other places for $180.00 per year (45 ETERNAL LIFE issues), by Beis Moshiach, 744 Eastern 36 Thought | Rabbi Yosef Karasik Parkway, Brooklyn, NY 11213-3409. Periodicals postage paid at Brooklyn, NY and additional offices. Postmaster: send address changes to Beis Moshiach 744 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, NY 11213-3409. ‘MY EMISSARY, THE TORAH’ Copyright 2009 by Beis Moshiach, Inc. 41 Moshiach & Geula | Boruch Merkur Beis Moshiach is not responsible for the content of the advertisements. 718_Beis Moshiach 16/11/2009 8:45 AM Page 4 d’var malchus INWARDNESS: THE PATH TO POSTERITY A LASTING LEGACY Sichos In English world... that there is one G-d and The ultimate consummation of the it is befitting to serve Him. He efforts to reveal Eisav’s spiritual would travel from city to city and from country to country, potential will be in the Era of the collecting the people and proclaiming [G-d’s existence].” Redemption when “Delivers will go up [7] Yitzchok, by contrast, never to Mount Zion to judge the mountain traveled outside the Holy Land and even within Eretz Yisroel, we of Eisav, and the sovereignty will be do not find many stories of his G-d’s.” efforts to reach out to others. His divine service had, instead, an inward focus. All of us desire posterity. We and inspiration for people in This is reflected in his efforts want our lives to bring something coming generations. to dig wells. lasting into the world. Digging a well involves This is the message of Parshas A FOUNTAIN OF INNER removing the layers of earth and Toldos: that a person can leave a STRENGTH uncovering the source of life- legacy that will continue to thrive giving water that is found in one’s With whom does the Torah after his passing. own place. choose to associate the message of Our Rabbis offer two In the analogue, this refers to Toldos? definitions of the word Toldos: a) the efforts to penetrate to one’s Yitzchok. [4] progeny [1] - this includes both a G-dly core and activate it as a There are two particulars person’s biological children and source of inner strength. which reflect the nature of also his “spiritual children,” i.e., Each of us has a neshama Yitzchok’s divine service: a) the individuals whom he has which is “an actual part of G-d” unlike his father Avraham, he taught. [2] Both of these types of [8] and every entity in the world is never left Eretz Yisroel, [5] b) his children perpetuate the person’s maintained by a G-dly spark. efforts were focused on digging influence. b) the chronicles of Yitzchok’s thrust involved wells. [6] one’s life and experiences. [3] realizing these inner potentials, Through his journeys, Avraham When a person’s life is full of bringing them to the surface, and spread G-dliness in the lands in inner meaning, the chronicles of using them to initiate positive which he sojourned. his life continue to provide depth change. He “proclaimed... to the entire 4 3 Kislev 5770 BEIS MOSHIACH 718_Beis Moshiach 16/11/2009 8:45 AM Page 5 In this manner, the awareness Avrohom’s efforts, the awareness Eisav, rather than to Yaakov. of G-d becomes an integral part of Yitzchok inspired was more As a father, Yitzchok was one’s life. It does not remain permanent and lasting, for it came involved in an ongoing endeavor merely an external factor, from the people themselves. to enable Eisav to fulfill his dependent on the teachings of Yitzchok’s internalized bond spiritual potential, and he thought others, but, instead, comes from with G-d was able to inspire an that granting these blessings to one’s own insight, and is inner awareness within the people Eisav would further this purpose. internalized within one’s own around him. [12] [16] thinking processes. He did not realize that in fact it This in turn enables one to TO COMMUNICATE would be Yaakov - and his realize the G-dliness present in TO OUR CHILDREN descendants - whose divine every element of existence. service would tap Eisav’s spiritual In this context, our Sages In the most complete sense, potential and bring it the surface. interpret [9] the verse, [10] our desire for posterity is focused The ultimate consummation of “Dwell in this land,” as “Cause the on our children. the efforts to reveal Eisav’s Divine Presence to rest in this We want them to continue and spiritual potential [17] will be in land,” help the world manifest its further the principles and values the Era of the Redemption when G-dly core. of our homes. “Delivers will go up to Mount And here a difficulty arises: Zion to judge the mountain of Yitzchok’s children were Eisav Eisav, and the sovereignty will be INWARDNESS WHICH and Yaakov. LEADS OUTWARD G-d’s.” [18] Yaakov indeed perpetuated and At that time, the powerful One might, however, ask: This enhanced Yitzchok’s divine spiritual energies which Eisav is surely a worthy path of divine service. possesses will surface and will be service, but why is it associated Eisav, however, rejected given appropriate direction. with the name Toldos which means Yitzchok’s path entirely. “progeny”? Moreover, this difficulty is Seemingly, it would be more compounded by the fact that a A SOURCE OF LIGHT appropriate to associate the major portion of the Torah reading FOR ALL MANKIND concept of Toldos with the divine concerns itself with Eisav, and on Our Sages relate [19] that in service of Avraham, for he actively the phrase “And these are the the Era of the Redemption, the sought to communicate the toldos of Yitzchok,” the Midrash Jews will praise Yitzchok, telling awareness of G-d to others. states [13] that the word Toldos him: “You are our Patriarch.” By naming this Torah reading refers specifically to Eisav. For in that era, the inward Toldos, our Rabbis underscore the Although openly Eisav’s thrust of Yitzchok will permeate fact that the inwardness of conduct did not demonstrate that all existence. “The occupation of Yitzchok also produces “progeny”. he was Yitzchok’s son, the the entire world will be solely to Yitzchok’s divine service and connection between them, know G-d. The Jews will be great the positive influence it generates nevertheless, existed. sages and will know the hidden attracts the attention of others and This is reflected by our Sages’ matters, attaining an motivates them to seek a bond statement [14] that Eisav’s head understanding of their Creator to with him and follow his guidance. was buried “in the bosom of the [full] extent of mortal In this vein, our Torah reading Yitzchok his father.” potential.” [20] relates that Avimelech, the king of Similarly, our Sages explain Although all the Jews will all the Philistines, and Phichol, his [15] that, in contrast to Yishmoel live in Eretz Yisroel, they will - as general, came to visit Yitzchok who is not considered as an heir of their ancestor Yitzchok - influence and told him, “We have seen that Avraham, Eisav is considered as mankind as a whole. G-d is with you.” [11] Yitzchok’s heir. For the source of “And it shall come to pass in Yitzchok’s divine service was Eisav’s soul, his head, contained the end of days that the mountain able to bring them to a recognition very powerful divine sparks, and of G-d’s house will be established of G-d’s active presence within the these were associated with on the top of the mountains... and world. Yitzchok. all the nations shall flow unto it. Indeed, in contrast to the For this reason, Yitzchok Many people shall say, `Come let awareness generated by desired to give his blessings to [Continued on pg. 42] BEIS MOSHIACH Issue 718 5 718_Beis Moshiach 16/11/2009 8:45 AM Page 6 9-10 kislev fourteen years after the Alter Rebbe’s marriage. Sensing that his soul was a gilgul of Rav Hamnuna Saba (Rabbi Hamnuna the Elder, a THE MITTELER great sage of the Mishna) his father, the Alter Rebbe, originally wished to name him Hamnuna, but in deference to the Maggid’s request, the child was named REBBE: DovBer. (Years later, when an astonished Rabbi Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev—whose grandson married the Mitteler Rebbe’s daughter—marveled that the HIS LIFE AND discourse he had just heard from the relatively young Rabbi DovBer stemmed from a spiritual level so exalted it was beyond the reach of even the Rashbi (Rabbi Shimon LIBERATION Bar Yochai, another Mishnaic sage and author of the Zohar), the Alter Rebbe explained that since Rav Hamnuna had been on that level, By Yitzchok Wagshul the Mitteler Rebbe was able to perceive it as well.) Over a hundred years ago, the his release from Czarist prison) American poet and philosopher with some insight into the Mitteler George Santayana famously wrote, Rebbe’s life and his MASHPIA TO THE ALTER “Those who cannot remember the contributions—to the extent we REBBE’S CHASSIDIM past are condemned to repeat it.” can even comprehend such At the age of fourteen (a His point was that studying history things—to the development of customary age for marrying at that is important because it enables us Chabad.