When the second Chabad Rebbe, Rabbi Dov Ber (known as the "Mitteler
Rebbe") passed away, there were three prospective successors.
Though all three were immensely qualified for the leadership of the
Chabad movement, all three unanimously declined all the importuning of
the Chasidim. These three were: Reb Chaim Avraham, the brother of Rabbi
Dov Ber and youngest son of the Alter Rebbe, Reb Menachem Nachum, the
Mitteler Rebbe's son, and the Tzemach Tzedek, the son of the Alter
Rebbe's eldest daughter.
As time passed, the pressure among the Chasidim to find a successor
escalated, though it seemed that no solution was in sight. Finally,
despairing of a solution being found, two of the Chasidim declared, "It
is impossible to be without a Rebbe!" They decided to travel to Ruzhin
with the intention of accepting the Ruzhiner Rebbe as their Rebbe.
The Ruzhiner Rebbe, Reb Yisrael, was the grandson of the Mezritcher
Maggid, and so highly thought of for his enormous piety that he was
called the "Holy Ruzhiner."
These two Chasidim travelled to Ruzhin for Shavuot. As was the custom
there, (as well as among many other Chasidim) the Ruzhiner distributed
shirayim -- food from his table -- to his Chasidim. It was Yom Tov and
the Ruzhiner began to distribute wine from his own cup to each of the
Chasidim. The two Chabad Chasidim also wanted to participate and receive
wine from the Ruzhiner and they proffered their cups for the "cup of
blessing."
The Ruzhiner, however, refused them, saying, "If you want some wine, you may take it yourself, but I will not give it to you."
The two were very surprised and protested, "Why won't you give it to us,
after all we have come here in order to accept you as our Rebbe?"
Upon hearing those words, the Ruzhiner sat down at the table and began
to deliver a deep Chasidic discourse based on the theme, "The Giving of
the Torah began, not at Mount Sinai, but at the burning bush."
He explained in great depth that when G-d gave Moshe the task of taking
the Children of Israel out of Egypt, G-d told Moshe to "tell the Jews
that I have remembered you and want to take you out of Egypt."
Moshe's reaction was strange. He replied that he was afraid the Jews
would ask him what is G-d's name. To this G-d replied, "Tell them My
Name is, 'I will be what I will be.' "
The Ruzhiner posed the question, "Why did Moshe ask this question of
G-d? For Moshe did know G-d's name as he had been handed down a
tradition that it was spelled Yud-Kei-Vav-Kei[1]! And why did G-d answer, 'I will be what I will be.'"
The Ruzhiner elucidated the point through the use of numerical
equivalents which are often used to explicate texts. He explained that
the numerical equivalent of Yud-Kei-Vav-Kei is 26, while that of the
words "I will be what I will be" equals 441 which is " emet" -- truth.
G-d desired that Moshe be able to reveal to the Jews the truth.
"The word 'emet'," continued the Rebbe, "is also an acronym for, "Torat Menachem Emet" ["the Torah of Menachem is truth"].
When the two Chabad Chasidim heard these words being spoken by the Holy
Ruzhiner, they realized that he was intimating that they should return
home to the city of Lubavitch and that the Tzemach Tzedek, whose name
was Menachem Mendel, should become Rebbe.
Upon arriving in Lubavitch two weeks later, the Tzemach Tzedek had
already acquiesced. The returning Chasidim repeated to their fellows the
discourse they had heard from the mouth of the Holy Ruzhiner in regard
to the word "emet" intimating that the Tzemach Tzedek should be the
Rebbe.
The Chasidim recalled with amazement that the Tzemach Tzedek had
delivered the same discourse that very same Shavuot, but when he reached
the part which identified the acronym of emet with his name, Menachem,
he merely hesitated and smiled to himself. Now, they all understood why
he had smiled.
No comments:
Post a Comment