A RADICAL PATH

Dear Family

Hope everyone is well

Mazal Tov Freida on your upcoming birthday. Wishing you continued success and happiness.

Mazal Tov also to Chava on your birthday thereafter. You should have a good year in Sem and NY.

There was a very interesting point that I learnt this week, or should i say that I got to understand better, and I think it relates to all of us

Yesterday was the 18th of Elul which was the birthday of two great people, The Baal Shem Tov (1698 ) and The Alte Rebbe (1745)

It is also the day when the teacher and Master of the Baal Shem Tov (Achiya Hashiloni) appeared to him in 1724, and when the Baal Shem Tov became revealed in 1734.

Basically the Baal Shem Tov founded the Chassidic movement and the Alte Rebbe set up its foundation and framework from which at least the Chabad element of Chassidus grew

Mommy and I went to a farbreng on Chai Elul where Rabbi Chaim Muller spoke very powerfully about all this, but one of the the points I wanted to share was the RADICAL CHANGE introduced by the Baal ShemTov with one of his following statements:

"Every single thing one sees or hears is an instruction for his conduct in the service of G-d."

Now we have heard the Rebbe saying this statement thousands of times, but somehow the way Rabbi Miller explained it made me understand it in a new and important way.

The basic way most people understand Judaism, and the way Judaism has been practiced over the previous centuries, is an insular way - living in the shtetl, closing oneself off from the world, dressing in a very specific and different way from the rest of the world, not socialising with the world, not eating the same food etc etc

In short Hashem was to be found in this insular world, and the world outside was seen to be a disturbance, and even antagonistic.

And therefore this statement of the Baal Shem Tov started to send a RADICAL RIPPLE OF CHANGE through the Jewish world.

He was saying that Hashem could be found everywhere, even in the world.

His statement wasn't just a new idea. It was founded from deep within Torah, and the succeeding Rebbes expounded and kept expanding these Teachings of Chassidus.

In fact Rabbi Miller pointed out that it is recorded that the above statement has been refered to by the Rebbe in almost every single sicha that he has spoken and I think I heard him say a figure of 5000 times.

Rabbi Miller explained, that what it means to us as Jews, is that whoever we are, at whatever level we are, wherever we find ourselves in life, whatever style of dress we have adopted, we are all within the framework of 'seeing and hearing' Hashem.

Every event of our day is not an accident or incidental.

We are all now out there in the world, each at our own level and standard.

And according to the teaching of the Baal Shem Tov, we are all still very much closely connected to Hashem. Each event of the day is a delivery to each of us from Hashem

Besides understanding that these events are all from Hashem, we also have the opportunity to conduct ourselves, in these situations, in a way which reflects and improves our service of Hashem. It could simply be kind or helping another , and how we deal with each event,etc .

By the way, this does not detract from those beautiful communities who still want to live an insular way and continue to serve Hashem along these traditions.

Wishing everyone a Gut Shabbos and a Kesiva Vechasima Tova for a Good and Fruiful Year

PS A reminder to keep up Rambam 5 minutes per week. The weekly chapters can easily be found at Chabad.org in the 'Learning' section