A New Era

Want a blessing? Commit to a Mitzvah.

This week is Yud Shevat, the yahrtzeit of the Previous Rebbe and the day the Rebbe accepted the leadership 75 years ago. In honor of this day, I want to share with you two stories from the year 5710 (1950), the year of the Rebbe’s acceptance of the nesius, that illuminate the way the Rebbe taught how to connect Jews to Yiddishkeit and to G-d.

One of the well-known Chassidim in Chabad was Rabbi Shalom Dovber Gordon, of blessed memory. In 5709 (1949), he was appointed the rabbi of a synagogue in Newark, New Jersey. Near his home in Newark lived a family he was very close with. The mother kept some level of kashrus, but the father did not keep Shabbos, and their store was open on Shabbos.

This couple had an older daughter who, no matter what, could not find a shidduch, and this caused them tremendous pain. Rabbi Gordon told them that, Baruch G-d, the Jewish people are not forsaken, and we now have a “new Rebbe” who is accomplishing great things and bringing about salvations.

One day, the mother came to him and said she wanted to go to the Rebbe to ask for a blessing that her older daughter should finally find a shidduch. He happily agreed and brought the mother and one of the brothers to 770.

They entered the Rebbe’s room, and Rabbi Gordon remained outside. At the end of the yechidus, the mother came out very angry. He asked her what happened inside, and she told him that when they entered, the Rebbe asked how their livelihood was.

She answered that Baruch G-d they did not lack money, and as far as they were concerned, they would gladly close the store and retire, but since their older daughter was still unmarried, and they didn’t know what would be with her in the future, so they continued working in order to take care of her.

“And what about Shabbos?” the Rebbe asked her. “On Shabbos,” the mother answered, “the store is open.” “Why?” the Rebbe asked. “You just said that Baruch G-d you don’t lack parnassah and you are not short on money. So why are you working on Shabbos?”

“Because of our daughter,” the mother replied. “We’re worried about her, and therefore we need to save up more money.”

“We want the Rebbe to bless her that she should find a shidduch. And then after she gets married, we promise we will close the store on Shabbos.”

To this, the Rebbe replied:

“G-d wants exactly the opposite! First close the store on Shabbos, and then I promise you that the daughter will get engaged…”

And with that, the Rebbe ended the yechidus.

The mother told Rabbi Gordon what the Rebbe said and concluded angrily:

“In Ukraine I went to many Rebbes. They gave blessings, and they never made it conditional on keeping mitzvos…”

The Riots in Newark

For about fifteen years after that yechidus, the store remained open on Shabbos. In the meantime, the father passed away, and the daughter was still single.

During that period, there was the “day of riots” in Newark in 1967, known as the Newark Riots. It was a violent conflict that lasted several days—from July 12 to 17—triggered by the routine arrest of a Black taxi driver, John Smith, and it developed into a large protest against police brutality and systemic racism, racial tensions, and police raids.

It ended with 23 people killed, hundreds injured, thousands arrested, and 900 businesses destroyed. Among the stores destroyed that day was their store as well.

About two weeks later, the daughter became engaged to a religious young man. She was already over 40 years old, and she merited having one child (today he is a Chassidic Jew living in Israel).

In 5749 (1989), her brother, who had become religious thanks to Rabbi Gordon, invited him to officiate at the wedding of his daughter, and he reminded him of this story.

Rabbi Gordon said to him: “You see? The Rebbe said you needed to first close the store on Shabbos, and you didn’t want to. So from Heaven it had to be arranged that a day of riots would destroy your store, so that the daughter would finally get a shidduch at the last moment…”
(Yemei Bereishis, p. 128)

A similar story is told in Yemei Bereishis (p. 282) about that same year of the Rebbe accepting leadership:

It was one Motzaei Shabbos in the beginning of the winter of 5711 (1950). In the middle of Maariv, a distinguished Jew entered 770. He was a lawyer by profession, and he looked extremely shaken and urgently asked to speak with the Rebbe.

He told the bochurim there that his daughter was seriously ill, and he was offering $10,000 to anyone who would explicitly guarantee him that his daughter would recover. Before this, he had already visited several Rebbes in New York, but none of them could guarantee him salvation.

The bochurim directed him to Rabbi Chodakov. Rabbi Chodakov went in to the Rebbe, and the Rebbe responded that he could only receive the man the next morning.

The man, brokenhearted, tried to beg and explain that his daughter’s condition was critical and he could not wait until morning, but he was refused.

The next morning, the man arrived at 770 and said something astounding: normally in situations like his daughter’s, either the patient deteriorates or improves—but with his daughter something unusual had happened: her medical condition remained exactly the same overnight, without any change.

When he entered yechidus, the Rebbe said to him:

“You see, Heaven is waiting for you, and everything depends only on you. If you accept upon yourself three matters of Torah and mitzvos, such as keeping Shabbos and the like, then the girl will recover.”

“I Am Only a Messenger”

The man, who was not observant, tried to substitute the good resolutions with donating a large sum of money to one of the Rebbe’s institutions. But the Rebbe said there was nothing to argue about, because he was only a messenger to deliver the message.

After the man left the yechidus, the Rebbe instructed the directors of the institutions not to accept even a single penny from him, so that it would not enter his mind that he could fulfill his obligation through money.

When the man saw he had no choice, he accepted the good resolutions, and indeed, shortly afterward, his daughter recovered and was no longer in danger.

When the happy father wanted to sponsor a kiddush in 770 as gratitude for the miracle that happened with his daughter, the Rebbe asked that this be prevented, so he would not think he could “pay his thanks” that way. Only a few weeks later, on Shabbos Parshas Vayigash 5711, the man sponsored the kiddush for the Rebbe’s farbrengen.

At the farbrengen, the Rebbe referred to the story of his daughter’s salvation and said:

“When G-d performs a miracle for a Jew regarding saving his daughter, this is a directive from Above that he must have the avodah of ‘Bas” (female), the concept of nullification (bittul) and accepting the yoke of Torah. And through this, he will also have the strength and firmness not to be affected by anyone regarding fulfilling his resolution to go in the path of Torah (without looking at his previous lifestyle), knowing that this is the true path,especially regarding the education of this daughter, and his other children, in the path of Torah and mitzvos.”
(Toras Menachem, vol. 2, p. 157)

The Rebbe himself, in one of his letters from the year 5710, addresses this explicitly. He writes that when people ask him for a blessing: “Sometimes I connect it with the person’s promise to take on some matter of Torah and mitzvos. And thank G-d, I have already seen actual fruits from many who kept and continue to keep their promise.” (Igros Kodesh, vol. 3, p. 422)

The Mitzvah That Redeems

We can say that the source for this approach— that when a Jew asks for a blessing, he should add in a mitzvah—comes from Parshas Bo.

The Torah tells us that G-d commanded Moshe that all of Bnei Yisrael should take a lamb for the Korban Pesach and slaughter it.

Rashi brings in the name of Rabbi Masya ben Charash and asks: What was behind this mitzvah? And in Rashi’s words:

“Why did He command them to take it four days before slaughtering it, unlike the Pesach of later generations?”

Rabbi Masya ben Charash would say:

It says, “And I passed over you and saw you, and behold, your time was a time of love.” The time arrived for the oath I swore to Avraham, that I would redeem his children. But they had no mitzvos that they observed so that they would deserve to be redeemed, as it says, “And you were naked and bare.”

So He gave them two mitzvos: the blood of Pesach and the blood of circumcision, for they circumcised themselves that night, as it says, “Wallowing in your blood,” and it says, “Also, through the blood of your covenant I have freed your prisoners from the pit in which there is no water.”

And since they were steeped in idolatry, He told them, “Pull away and take for yourselves”—pull your hands away from idolatry and take for yourselves sheep for the mitzvah.
(Bo 12:6)

The Jewish people were in the state of “naked and bare.” They were not worthy on their own to be redeemed. So what did G-d do? He gave them a mitzvah. Because the moment a Jew does a mitzvah, he becomes connected to G-d—and that connection itself enables redemption.

And that is exactly the message that comes out of these stories. When a Jew comes to the Rebbe and asks for a brachah— for a shidduch, for healing, for salvation—the Rebbe encourages him to accept a mitzvah. That mitzvah becomes the vessel for the blessing. It connects him to G-d, and through that connection, G-d redeems him from whatever situation he is in.

And this is what stands behind the entire idea of the Rebbe’s Mivtza’im campaign; not to wait until a Jew does complete repentance; but to connect him immediately to one mitzvah. One mitzvah that connects him to G-d, and pulls him out of his personal exile.

And when every Jew connects to a mitzvah, one mitzvah and another mitzvah, then the general redemption is completed as well. Just like in the Exodus from Egypt, so too now: through mitzvos in actual practice, we will all go out from exile to the complete Geulah, speedily in our days, Amen.
(Likkutei Sichos, vol. 16, p. 117 and onward)