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

The Rebbe arrived in America on Chof-Ches Sivan 1941. It was a spiritually barren place where “anything goes.” It was in this place that the Rebbe lifted the entire world through the shluchim that he sent from there to the entire world, as in the mashal in Chassidus that when you to lift a building you do so from below.

Chof-Ches Sivan is a day for all of us, all Chabad Chassidim, and for the Jewish people in general. If not for the Rebbe being saved where would we be today? It’s the day of our rescue!

BRINGING LIGHT TO THE LOWEST PLACES

Speaking of shlichus, shlichus is about lighting up the lowest of places. Every shlucha can write a book and more about Jews who seemed low to her, disconnected, and then, at some point, their pintele Yid was ignited.

We knew someone who was living with a gentile woman; Judaism “didn’t speak to him,” but he did want to put on tefillin, and before he died he asked that my husband be informed that he died so he could have a Jewish burial.

His gentile wife cooperated with us and made sure he had a tahara and tachrichim in Kiev but that wasn’t enough; he also had to be buried in a Jewish cemetery. My husband decided to do something like what is told about one of the Rebbeim who called a certain Chassid very late at night so he would realize the matter was important. He called the woman at nine pm which is considered very late. He asked where she intended on burying her husband. She had bought him a plot next to hers but when she heard that part of a Jewish burial is being buried among Jews, she said, “If this will be good for him, I’ll agree.” And he had a Jewish burial.

Thirteen years ago, there were no kosher restaurants in Ukraine which is why my husband would invite as many Jews as possible who were not religious to our house for a meal so they wouldn’t eat treif. One day, he let me know that a couple was coming for supper. That day was my son’s birthday and he wanted an air gun as a present. At first, I said no because it wasn’t Chassidish, but I gave in when I saw that all his friends had this toy.

He waited for my husband to come home so we could celebrate the birthday and in the meantime I allowed him to play with the gun near the door. Then my husband arrived with the guests and by mistake, one toy bullet hit the guest in the forehead.

Of course we apologized and quickly celebrated the birthday and put the children to sleep. Then we sat with our guests and got to know them. The man was a photographer and he came to take pictures in Uman on Rosh Hashana. His wife wanted to look for the grave of her grandmother who was supposedly buried near we were. After some time we said goodbye and didn’t think we would ever meet them again.

Four years later,  they called and asked to visit. They came and we were surprised to discover the woman wearing a head-covering and their daughter looking like a Beis Rivka girl, as tznius as could be. They told us that when they returned home, they realized it wasn’t for naught that they “had gotten a bullet in the head,” and they had to change their way of life. The couple did so with mesirus nefesh. The father stopped taking pictures on Shabbos, a day which apparently was his main money-making day and he began walking an hour and a half each way to daven with a minyan on Shabbos. He does so till this day! They sent their daughter to a Jewish school, a two-hour-drive each way. She came back from school demanding kosher food so they kashered their kitchen.

At some point, the couple realized they needed to marry according to halacha and we were at their chuppa. Exactly nine months later, we each gave birth to a girl, on the same day. Today, they are a Lubavitcher family in every respect. The mother wears a wig which is a story of divine providence. It’s a wig I had ordered for myself but the color wasn’t good and the wig sat in the closet. When I became aware of this family’s astonishing transformation I realized the wig wasn’t for me but for Marina whose older daughter is now married to a Lubavitcher bachur from Crown Heights!

IT’S ALL HOLY!

The ability to illuminate the lowly is not just for shlichus in some out-of-the-way place. As women, we have this ability and we use it a lot at home with the children. This is our shlichus!

We recently received the Torah anew on Shavuos and became “a kingdom of priests.” This applies especially to us women. Just as all of the service of the kohen was holy and there was no part of it that was mundane, so too, every woman is the high priest of her home and all her work is holy! I am not more righteous and holy when I daven than when I sweep the floor so it will be pleasant for my children. The level of holiness is exactly the same! This is the chiddush of Mattan Torah, the joining of upper and lower. We have the power to sanctify the mundane and everything!

WITH LOVE AND A GOOD THOUGHT

This does not mean that we need to do the work on our own. We should include the children in the chores according to their age and ability, but only with love. Regarding American youth the Rebbe said, “You cannot force him to do anything but you can educate him to everything.”

Nowadays, this holds true for young people everywhere. It is possible to achieve an organized house with feelings of anger and frustration, and you can achieve it with fun and connection. When we have a shared goal that is clear to all and each one takes part, we are all happy and satisfied. And even if I gave a child a job and she didn’t do it as I wanted, I will try to judge her favorably. She didn’t act with disdain. Perhaps she rushed; maybe she tried and wasn’t successful, but it’s not that I wasn’t important enough to her.

This positive thinking will bring us to both the personal and collective Geula because the Geula begins in our head, in revealing the good within everything. Chof-Ches Sivan gives us the strength to make this switch.

47