ב"ה
You're here, and you want to be there. But you're not there, and won't be there for a good while, perhaps ever. So do you act as if you're already there? Or do you tell yourself that here's just fine, and who needs there anyway?
You can become a hypocrite, or you can come to terms with your limitations. But there's also a third way--the way of the Long Pole.
Numbers 8:1-12:16 Week of June 18-24 
In our Parshah section this week there are lamps and
lamplighters, journeys and encampments, petitioners (who are rewarded) and complainers (who are punished), seventy new prophets and one loyal disciple, an elusive father-in-law and a critical sister--and what it all means according to sages and mystics from biblical times to the present.
The wick, if lit, would flare briefly and die; as for the oil, it is difficult to ignite at all. But when wick and oil are brought together in the lamp, they produce a flame. As for the flame itself, it is not one but many flames: blue-black fire where it touches the wick, red-yellow fire in the middle, white fire at the edges. All these components--wick, oil, vessel and multi-colored flame--exist within the life of man, whom the Book of Proverbs calls "a lamp of G-d."
"The flame is not yours," said the Rebbe, "you are just its carrier. The lamp is ready to be lit--you need only touch it with the flame." "Should I grab him by the throat?" asked the Chassid. Replied the Rebbe: "By the throat, no; by the lapels, yes."
The human psyche is home to two contrasting drives: a striving for freedom, and an impulse to submit to authority. Since both are fundamental to the Judaism's vision of human potential, and since the cultivation of one will presumably mean the suppression of the other, the question arises: which should be given priority over the other? Or, to otherwise state the question: in what sort of environment would the Torah prefer to see the Jew--as a member of a free society, or as the subject of an authoritarian regime?
You knock at heaven's door, and give your name. The entire court, all of them noble souls, makes way to form a corridor as you walk, breathless, toward the throne. They bring out maps--the charts of Creation--to verify whether your journey corresponds to Heaven's design. You explain that rather than reaching up for the Divine, you went further down instead, digging wells, only to find that the waters down there have the same blueness of which the heavens are made. You go on to describe how, by digging deep below, you extended the distance between the heavens and the earth; you established an outpost, thus promoting a vigorous circulation between the heavens and the new frontier. |
 
"Everyone who visits Prague, wants to see the Old Town Square, the Alteneu synagogue, the monument to the Maharal and the ancient Jewish cemetery which are all located right nearby," says Rabbi Manis. "Another of the city's big attractions is the ancient Hebrew face clock that rotates backwards, from right to left." 
Avot: Chapter Two Comment: The Flame How, indeed, can something as agitated as the flame radiate such peace? Story: The Fire Fighter One miraculous tale leads to another Kindling The Lights Of Our Souls Excerpt from a letter by the Rebbe to a graduating yeshiva class
THE REBBE: 50 YEARS PREVIOUS ISSUE |