Follow ChabadInfo & Never Miss an Update!

Follow us on Instagram Subscribe to our WhatsApp status and broadcast Follow us on Tiktok Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on Google News Subscribe on YouTube

By Rabbi Tuvia Bolton, Yeshiva Ohr Tmimim, Kfar Chabad, Israel

This week’s reading always falls in the last month of the year; Elul. According to Kabala in this month it is the month in which G-d reveals His Thirteen Attributes of Mercy (Ex. 34:6,7) every moment, constantly.

The initials of this month also indicate G-d’s love: Alef Lamed Vav Lamed stands for what King Solomon wrote in Song of Songs (6;3) “I am to my beloved and my beloved is to me. ‘My beloved’ is G-d!

And this week’s section commands us twice to be happy – once in the beginning “Rejoice with all the good that G-d has given (26:11) and later in the middle “Serve G-d with Joy and a good heart from great abundance” (28:47).

In other words; this entire month of Elul prepares us to have a positive attitude for Rosh HaShanna and Yom Kippur when we see and feel how much G-d cares about and wants to forgive us! Nothing happier than that!

So it’s strange that this week’s Torah reading also contains 98 horrific curses awaiting the Jews if they transgresses the Torah!

Hardly a fitting message for the Month of Mercy’. How can we be positive and happy with these curses hanging over our heads?

To understand this, here is a holocaust story.

I usually avoid holocaust stories because no human mind can explain what and why such a thing happened. True, G-d said in this week’s Torah portion that curses are an option. But a father simply does not do such things to his children… especially when the father is the King of the Universe!

Nevertheless, here is the story. (It has a sort of positive ending, that’s why I’m telling it.) It was told to me personally by someone who heard it directly from an old Vishnitz Chassid who survived the war. This is what he said.

“The Nazis, may their name be blotted out, spent a lot of energy and time searching for Jews of all types in basements, attics, forests and everywhere possible. And those who weren’t killed on the spot were sent to ‘concentration’ camps, where the Nazis could ‘concentrate’ on torturing and killing them in the most efficient’ ways.

“In our camp there were a lot of religious Jews and many of them Chassidim that had been captured near the end of the war in Hungary.

“The Nazis were very cruel but we heard that they got really cruel around the Jewish holidays and it wasn’t long before we saw how true this was.

“On Rosh HaShanna, they beat us and made us work all day non-stop, then on Yom Kippur they forced us to eat, and finally on Succot, the Holiday of Joy they decreased our meager rations by half. But when Simchat Torah came (the final day of Succot) which is supposed to be really happy, they rounded up all fifty of us young Vishnetzer Chassidim, and announced that we were being taken to the gas chambers and would be dead in just minutes.

“Everyone began to weep uncontrollably as we were led off under heavy guard. Escape or resistance was impossible; we were so weak and they were armed to the teeth and besides there was nowhere to run to. Barbed wire was everywhere and the guards had ferocious dogs. And we still hoped against all hope for a miracle maybe they would change their mind.

“Then one of our group, one of the Chassidim, said, ‘Listen friends, today is Simchat Torah… we are Jews! Right?! Simcha!! These perverted animals can’t take that from us. We have to be happy!!’ He began a song and at the third note everyone joined in. We sang, louder and louder moving our feet to the tune and suddenly for a few seconds we were in control! We were free!! The Nazis could rule our bodies but our souls were free! Free!! We sang and even danced as much as possible as we were marching.

“Abruptly the German commander shouted ‘Halt’! And his soldiers stopped the procession. We fell silent as he swaggered before us in his high, shining black boots and perfectly fit black uniform and then said with a satanic sneer on his lips.

“So, you want to rejoice on your stupid holiday ehh? Well, we also want to rejoice!! We want ALL the Jews to rejoice!! Why are you so selfish?!” He smirked, looked around contently, and continued.

“Instead of killing you now where no one will see it.  I’m taking you back. Tomorrow morning at sunrise, in a few hours, at five a.m. I will awaken the entire camp and everyone will be forced to watch how you happy bunch are publicly and slowly tortured to death, one at a time. We want ALL the Jews to be happy! Let us see how you Jews rejoice then!!”

“He barked an order and we were led back to a sort of bomb shelter room with a thick iron door that slammed ominously behind us.

“But HaShem had different plans.

“We didn’t know it, but at about 1 am there came urgent demand from German high command that our camp had to supply five hundred workers to another location. A special unit was even sent to pick out and gather the workers. But after an hour of searching, they could only come up with four hundred and fifty able bodied men. They were lacking fifty. Then someone remarked that he remembered seeing us fifty lively young men being led into the cubical.

“So … at 2 in the morning our metal door opened and we were actually forced OUT of our prison, herded into trucks and shipped away to work!!

“We later heard that when the commander woke up, got his executioners ready, awakened all the Jews and gathered them all outside in the freezing cold morning for the ‘show’ ….. he was disappointed!! When he got to our room to take us to our public deaths, he found the room …empty!! There was no one to torture and kill.

“Not all of us survived the work camp but some of us did and one thing for sure; if it wasn’t for our joy that night, I certainly wouldn’t be here to tell this story; we all would have been murdered.”

This answers our question about why curses appear in our Torah reading.

The natural state of man… especially the Jews….is Joy.  But that is like the joy of a child; free and without responsibility.

True human joy comes from responsibility. When we feel worthwhile and important. Especially responsibility to G-d! The more that we feel that G-d ‘needs’ us, the more the Joy.

This is the message of Elul, the month when both the Baal Shem Tov and the first Rebbe of Chabad, Rebbe Shneur Zalman (who wrote ‘The Tanya) were born and Chabad opened its first yeshiva (Tomchi Tmimim).

We are ALL worthwhile. Infinitely important!!

G-d loves us, He creates each of us every instant, and He gives us the opportunity to serve him in all our deeds… to perfect the world.

But, as we saw in our story, G-d often sends curses and obstacles to awaken our true identity and reveal JOY to defy and even transform nature.  To take us from prison to freedom.

As we see today; the world is against us! But with joy and Simcha we can emerge victorious.

Today we must battle ignorance and indifference. Our weapon is happiness and our task is to be teachers. We must educate and inspire Jews to learn Torah do commandments and bring blessing, meaning and happiness to the entire world.

And the way to do it is also through optimism and joy.

Go to your local Chabad representative and ask to learn one of the Rebbe’s many volumes of wisdom. Whether it is “Sichot” or even deeper teachings called “Maamarim” or perhaps one of his letters called “Igrot” and begin to see what real joy is.

It all depends on us to begin this transformation.

And the Lubavitcher Rebbe says this should happen at any moment. We are standing on the merits of thousands of years of Jewish hopes, prayers and suffering.   Now it could be that just one more good deed, word or even thought can bring the Geula.

Wishing all our readers a healthy, happy, successful, sweet, New Year with Moshiach NOW!

63