Today Friday, December 20th, is Yud Tet Kislev the nineteenth of Kislev marks The Rosh Hashana of Chasidut, and the day when the light and life of the depths of our souls was given to us, and a Chag hachagim on the release of the first Chabad Rebbe, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, from Russian prison 225 years ago. He had been imprisoned by the Russian Tzar who disliked the Jewish people and blamed the Rebbe for his constant financial support for the Jewish community in Israel (punishment for supporting Israel is nothing new!), which was then under part of the Ottoman Empire (who were considered enemies of Russia). He sat in a Russian jail for 53 days; his liberation was a celebration for the entire Jewish people and the teaching of the soul of the Torah.
Many interesting events occurred while the Rebbe was in prison. On the way to prison, the guards wanted to travel on Shabbat, to which the Rebbe was opposed. The wagon broke several times until the guards realized their prisoner’s wishes needed to be reckoned with and spent Shabbat by the roadside. The souls of the Baal Shem Tov and the Maggid visited him and assured him of vindication. His 53 days in prison paralleled the 53 chapters of the main book of his teachings, the Tanya.
A very poignant story with a powerful lesson for each of us occurred with the minister of education during the interrogation. He asked the Rebbe to explain a verse in the Torah: when Adam ate from the forbidden fruit, Hashem asked Adam “Where are you?” Didn’t Hashem know where he was? After the Rebbe responded with the explanation of Rashi, the minister asked how the Rebbe interpreted Hashem’s question. The Rebbe answered that the words of the Torah are eternal and a lesson to each of us throughout our lives. G-d always asks you every day “Where are you today?” You have a limited time on this earth and a mission to fulfill in perfecting the world. He mentioned the minister’s exact age. “Where are you” in fulfilling your mission?
It is a time to gather, increase in Torah study, perform extra Mitzvot and charity, and accept good resolutions for the future.
The Baal Shem Tov heard from the soul of Moshiach that when the wellsprings of Chassidut will spread forth, Moshiach will come.
Chag Hachagim Sameach! May Hashem grant you a good year in the paths and teachings of Chassidut!
Once Genesis hits its second half, everyone starts dreaming. Jacob has two dreams. Joseph has two dreams. Pharaoh’s butler and baker are dreaming. And Pharaoh himself is dreaming. “I have a dream” is how you can sum up the second half of Genesis. Everyone is dreaming about something.
Joseph is in prison. He was placed there on false charges of rape. He was as innocent as they come. It was his accuser who was guilty of seduction and coercion. But Joseph was blamed and cast into an Egyptian underground prison.
In prison, he services the king’s butler and baker who have also been imprisoned. One morning they share with him their dreams.
So, the chief cupbearer related his dream to Joseph, and he said to him, "In my dream, behold, a vine is before me. And on the vine are three tendrils, and it seemed to be blossoming, and its buds came out; [then] its clusters ripened into grapes. And Pharaoh's cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes and squeezed them into Pharaoh's cup, and I placed the cup on Pharaoh's palm.
And Joseph said to him, "This is its meaning: the three tendrils are three days. In another three days, Pharaoh will number you [with the other officers], and he will restore you to your position, and you will place Pharaoh's cup into his hand, according to your previous custom, when you were his cupbearer.
The baker is happy with what he hears and presents his dream.
"Me too! In my dream, behold, there were three wicker baskets on my head. And in the topmost basket were all kinds of Pharaoh's food, a baker’s work; and the birds were eating them from the basket atop my head.
Joseph interprets this dream as follows:
"This is its meaning: the three baskets represent three days... In another three days, Pharaoh will remove your head from you and hang you on some gallows, and the birds will eat your flesh off you."
There is an obvious difficulty in this story. Considering all the similarities in their respective dreams [the threes (clusters of grapes and the three baskets of baked goods), their specialties (wine and pastries), and their very presence, why did Joseph interpret these dreams in radically different and opposite ways?
When the butler dreams of seeing grapes and him squeezing the grapes into Pharaoh’s goblet and placing it on the king’s hand, Joseph sees this in the most literal sense: You will once again prepare wine for the king and deliver it to him. Why then when the baker dreams of holding baskets on his head with Pharaoh’s pastries does Joseph not see it in the same way: the baker is back on his job, preparing bread for Pharaoh and carrying them to the king, while the birds are enjoying a snack on the way?
What is more, while the dream of the butler is explained literally, the dream of the baker must resort to symbolism. The birds’ eating the breads in the basket does not mean that they will eat the bread, it means they will eat his flesh after he is hung by Pharaoh. But why? Why not just say that the birds will eat from the actual bread the baker will have prepared for Pharaoh?
The famous Dubner Maggid, Rabbi Jacob Kranz (1741-1804), the 18th-century Ukrainian great storyteller and “darshan,” explains it via a story:
A talented artist could paint a picture with such realism that it seemed at times impossible to distinguish it from actual life. Once he drew a scene that portrayed a man standing in an open field with a food- basket on top of his head. The painting was so authentic and seemed so real, that actual birds were swooping down to try to eat the bread in the painting. He presented it to the king – who so proud of his new acquisition, offered a handsome reward for one who could find any fault in the painting.
Many challengers came but alas, no one was successful in finding but a single flaw in the incredible painting. It was simply too perfect.
Until an old man approached the painting. Observing the phenomena of the birds trying to eat the bread pictured atop the head of the man portrayed in the painting, he realized that he had discovered a serious problem with its realism; - the king gave him the money....
The old man said this: if the birds are trying to eat the bread atop the man’s head, then there is something wrong with the man – for if the birds would perceive the man as true to life, they would be too afraid to approach! Birds would never approach a living person with a basket on his head. Thus, the painting is portraying a contradiction that is unreal. Either the person in the painting is alive and well and the birds stay away, or the man is dead and then the birds enjoy the feast on his head.
This was Joseph’s tipoff. In the butler’s dream, the butler himself served Pharaoh. In the baker’s dream, he was passive, while the birds swooped down. This must have meant that he was not among the living.
This was further demonstrated to Joseph by observing one striking difference between the dreams. In the butler’s dream, he was active. He was actively squeezing grapes and serving wine to Pharaoh. He was doing something. In the baker’s dream, the baker remains completely passive.
throughout the entire dream. Things happen to him; not through him. He has three baskets of bread on his head. He does not place them there; they are just found on him. The birds are eating the pastries. He is not doing anything; he is just observing what the birds are doing to him.
This is the difference between life and the opposite of life. Thus, each of their dreams represented their fate. One of them pictured himself as a helpless victim of external circumstances. The birds swoop down and take them at will while he remains a non-entity in his own life- circumstances. He is simply observing things happening to him. The other sees himself as a player and a doer. Joseph knew that one dream represents life: the other— death.
This distinction exists within each of our lives. Joseph’s message speaks to each of us.
They say there are three types of people: those who make things happen; those who watch things happen; and those who must tell that something happened.
We are all imprisoned in one way or another—we all must face forces that hold us back and hold us down. Each of us has our “shackles,” internal emotions or external circumstances, that limit us.
The question is not whether we are in a prison. We are all in some form of prison. The bigger question is are we doing something about it or are we waiting for things to happen to us. The sign of life is action. Do something. Make some changes. Reach out. Don’t just go to sleep. Action is the path to freedom. Inaction becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
This very approach defined Joseph’s own approach to life—and is essentially responsible for the life of the man who made us who we are.
The Torah relates that “Pharaoh’s daughter ... saw the basket [of baby Moses] among the rushes, and she dispatched her maid and took it.”
Another interpretation of this verse renders the Hebrew word as “her arm” rather than “her maid.” Accordingly, the verse reads, “...she dispatched her arm and took it.” What does it mean that Pharaoh’s daughter “dispatched her arm”? Our sages explain that the basket holding the infant Moses lay far beyond her reach. Nevertheless, she extended her hand toward it. A miracle occurred and “her arm was extended for many arm-lengths,” enabling her to take the child and save him from her father’s decree.
Let’s think about this. Often, we are confronted with a situation that is beyond our capacity to rectify. Someone or something is crying out for our help, but there is nothing we can do: by all natural criteria, the matter is simply beyond our reach. So, we resign ourselves to inactivity, reasoning that the little we can do won’t change matters anyway.
But Pharaoh’s daughter heard a child’s cry and extended her arm. An unbridgeable distance lay between her and the basket containing the weeping infant, making her action seem utterly pointless. But because she did SOMETHING, the maximum of which she was capable, because her hand did not hang idle while a fellow human being needed her help, she achieved the impossible. Because she extended her arm, G-d extended its reach, enabling her to save a life and raise the greatest human being ever to walk the face of the earth.
A Rabbi once visited the Rebbe. The Rebbe asked him why he was not vocal and active about a particular crisis in his city. The Rabbi responded by quoting the words of the Talmud If a word is worth a dollar, silence is worth two.
To which the Rebbe responded: True! But if you are silent all day, you will receive no more than two. If you speak out all day, each word will give you a dollar!
Silence is a virtue—particularly for rabbis and many others who love to be heard a bit too much. Listening is more powerful and effective than speaking. But some situations demand the opposite. In some circumstances, silence becomes a vice, a symptom of paralysis, inaction, and fear a demonstration of passivity.
In life, you have to do something. Anything. But do. Don’t just stand there while the birds are coming.
The Rebbe Reb Sholom Ber remarked: Better one action than one hundred sighs.
It is true in our personal lives and in our collective lives. We often hear about the crisis of Jewish continuity. We read reports, statistics, and dire predictions. And we sigh.
What Joseph is telling us is that the most important question is not where we are, but what we are doing about it. You are worried about the continuity of our people, so DO. Do something. Anything. But do. There is a Jewish child you know? Sponsor his Jewish education! And when you do, G-d will do the rest.
Shabbat Shalom, Shana tova in studying the inner parts of the Torah the soul of the Torah, and acting by it,
Rabbi Yoseph Geisinsky
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