THE SOURCE, THE RIVER AND THE GARDEN

Dear Family,

I hope everyone is well and enjoying summer holidays.

We wish Pesach and Chanie and Family Mazal Tov for their move to California next week. We are for sure going to miss you all, but your move should be with much success in gashmiyus and ruchnius for yourselves, and for the whole Family. Meshaneh makom, meshaneh mazal, letovah!!

Mazal Tov to Shmueli Bassin in Australia for your upcoming birthday next week. Long time no see Shmueli! Wishing you a good year in all matters, and with much happiness.

Wishing Hirshy and Family a safe trip to London. We are all excited BH

Yesterday was the yohrtzeit of The Rebbe's father Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson (1878-1944).

He was a mystic and scholar, writing commentaries on the most esoteric texts, and was the Rabbi of a major Ukranian city.

He was persecuted by the Soviets because of his work and sent into exile to Siberia.

His writings are very deep and beautiful, and I thought I would give an outline of one of his writings which I saw in Chabad.org this week, so as to get a taste of his beauty. Please look there for the full version, which is also only an adaptation.

I am sure Chanan is going to love the part about the garden!

The talk was based around the posuk 'A river flows from Eden to water the garden.' - Genesis

Besides its literal meaning it is also a metaphor for the passage of ideas from their point of origin, to their fully realised form as teachable lessons. (and this is a very long distance as will be explained)

Rabbi Levi Yitzchak links the concepts of Eden, river and garden, with the lives and passing of 2 famous Talmudic Sages in a most beautiful way, which I will try and explain.

The Garden

A garden offers our senses diverse pleasures, but it is only after careful deliberation of the gardener, who judiciously selects his flowers and trees, plots their placement with an eye to maximise their effect, manicures the paths, trims, prunes and paves so that the visitor can take joy in the garden.

Similarly, a teacher is meticulous and careful in what he presents, and how he presents it, and what he withholds, so that his lesson can provide intellectual delight.

The River

The river that feeds the garden is the entirety of the teachers intellectual amassment.

The river is broad and powerful, its flow incessant.

From this stream he constructs his garden, his carefully chosen lessons.

The Source which is Beyond - Eden

This is far different to the pleasing rationality of the river and garden.

Eden means intense delight, but it also has connotations of something unfathomable, with dizzying creativity, and even chaotic.

There can be wisps of this quality in the river and garden, but this is barely perceptible.

It is a world of its own.

Rabbi Levi Yitzchak now links the above to the life and death of 2 great Sages, Rabbah bar Nachman and Rav Yosef - Babylonian Talmud in 3rd Century.

They were colleagues and were both the potential future leaders.

Who was more fit for the leadership?

Rav Yosef

He excelled in the breadth of the Torah.

His knowledge was encyclopaedic, and he was reverently called Sinai, in reference to the entire corpus of Law given to Mosheh on Sinai.

Rabbah

Rabbah understood and relentlessly pursued, the depth of Torah.

He was reverently called 'one who uproots mountains' alluding to his incisive penetrating understanding

The colleagues opted for Rav Yosef, saying that, while a sharp and deep mind is admirable (Rabbah), legal decisions can only be based on knowledge of the relevant texts. Ie the people need the 'wheat'.

But Rav Yosef insisted that Rabbah deserves the position because 'the owner of the wheat is needed.'

So Rabbah took the leadership, and after Rabbah's passing, Rav Yosef did assume the position 3 years later.

The passing of Rabbah.

Rabbah passed away alone in a forest in exile from the Persian government.

When the Sages of Pumpedita sensed their leader was no longer on earth, they went in search.

As they neared Agama, they saw a flock of birds hovering over a spot in the forest.

They understood that the birds were there providing protection for their saintly leader, which was correct.

They located him, and did the mitzva of burial and mourning.

The Talmud relates that on the day he died, a storm lifted an Arab riding on his camel, from one side of the Papa River to the other.

The passing of Rav Yosef

When Rav Yosef passes away, the Euphrates River leaps and clamours bringing the bridge that spans it, to it's knees.

The broad RIVER represents Rav Yosef's carefully constructed and vast rivers of knowledge, and the tumult of the river at his passing, was its celebration of his life.

Rav Yosef was a man of the RIVER. Rabbah was a man of EDEN.

Rabbah's restless, penetrating mind aligns him with the indecipherable point of knowledge that is found in Eden. This was represented in his passing showing his solitary journey (alone he perceived the secrets of Eden), the hush of the forest, and the wings of the birds, and the storm.

Rabbah and Rav Yosef, despite their variances, are inseparable friends.

Rabbah provides the spark of ingenuity that gives rise to the endless formation of ideas.

Rav Yosef streamlines them, and shapes them into applicable Laws

However Rav Yosef understood that for there to be a RIVER, there has to first be an EDEN.

And that is why he gave over his leadership to Rabbah first, and only later, after the passing of Rabbah, did Rav Yosef take the leadership.

Gut Shabbos to all.