Hashem And The Torah Are One

לזכות ראובן יעקב בן שרה יוכבד לברכה והצלחה בכל ובריאות איתנה


Gimmel Tamuz [next week] is the Rebbe's yahrtzeit.

Rav Yoel Kahn, the main "chozer" of the sichos of the Lubavitcher Rebbe related a story that happened to him:

I used to give shiurim in chasidus to buchrim in a certain litvishe yeshiva in New York. There was one boy who didn't attend the shiurim because he was too involved in learning gemara but we became friendly anyway. One time he told me that he has a personal problem and needs an appointment with the Rebbe. I tried to get him one but the Rebbe's schedule was full for a looong time. I pressured the gabbai R' Chadkov and finally he relented and gave the boy an appointment with the caveat that he cannot stay in there for more than 3 or 4 minutes.

In reality, the Rebbe spoke with him for over an hour. R' Chadkov was angry but there was nothing I could do. After the meeting the boy said "I am never going to 770 again!!" I thought that the Rebbe told him something that didn't make sense in his mind. The boy explained that what the Rebbe said was logical but he still is not going to return to 770.

15 years later I am walking down the street in Crown Heights and someone calls out to me. It was this boy. He told me what had happened in this yechidus with the Rebbe 15 years prior and what happened subsequently. 

This boy had come from a chasidic home but had lost the strong connection to the warmth, feeling and emotion of chassidus after learning for so long in this litvishe yeshiva. He told the Rebbe that he had a certain problem [to this day I don't know what it was] and the Rebbe told him that the ONLY way to solve the problem is to learn a few hours [!] of chasidus a day. The Rebbe explained that learning gemara without chasidus often brings one to learn for ulterior motives such as honor or to be a gadol. Such learning has no solid foundation and won't last. When one learns chasidus, all of his learning becomes pure. When one learns Torah he should feel Hashem in the Torah he is learning. The Rebbe gave a moshol of a child who hugs his father. There is no other purpose in hugging his father other than connecting to him. In the same way, we learn Torah in order to connect and feel that אורייתא וקוב"ה כולא חד - Hashem and Torah are one [as the Zohar Hakadosh says].

"Have you ever seen anyone learning that way?" The Rebbe asked the boy. The boy asked in return "If one learns chasidus, he learns that way?" "I saw people who did", countered the Rebbe. "Sometimes a person feels that he wants to "grab" Hashem, so he takes his gemara and learns."

The boy said that the Rebbe explained the topic very well but the boy wasn't willing to give up on his desire to be a gadol and learn less gemara. But since he knew that the Rebbe was correct he refused to come back to 770.

Some time later, the boy gave an explanation of a gemara which caused his friends to scoff. He was not used to this. It happened another few times until he had a personal crisis. Until now, all of the kavod he had received from the other boys and being considered a genius kept him going but now it was gone.

Eventually he left yeshiva, got married and went into business. He no longer had any taste for learning. After a long time he finally grabbed himself and realized how far he had fallen from his glory days in the yeshiva. He tried to get back into learning but it didn't go. He tried again - but for naught. He tried learning chasidus but that didn't grab him either. He was by nature a reserved and more cerebral boy and the fire and passion of chasidus didn't excite him.

One day he saw an advertisement for a farbrenegen at 770 and decided to go. AS HE WALKED IN, he heard the Rebbe saying "Hashem makes sure that everyone comes back. That applies to ALL Jews. But there is a special hashgacha for those people who once learned Torah, whether it was li-shma or not, and He makes sure things happen that bring such people back to Him."

The boy said that he doesn't know if the Rebbe was talking directly to him or not but he stayed and listened to the rest of the talk - some of which he understood and most of which he didn't.

After that he attended numerous farbrengens of the Rebbe. I asked him why he kept coming back if he didn't understand? He became angry and said "What don't you understand? I hear this Jew talking and I see that Hashem, the Torah and the Jews are one!" 

Since then he has been looking for me to study with him chasidus [Chabad chasidus is the most cerebral of all the sifrei chasidus. חב"ד = chochma, bina and daas. That is a good match for the nature of this man].

It was very important to him that the Rebbe remembered him and their meeting. One time [I think it was the last day of Pesach] he passed by the Rebbe to receive a li-chaim. When the Rebbe saw him he said "Voos machstoo" [How are you?].

We have been learning together for some time now and his home changed drastically for the better. His children now attend good yeshivos as opposed to where they used to be.

[This story was related in Kfar Chabad magazine י"ט כסלו תשע"ד]
זכות הצדיקים יעזור ויגן ויושיע!!