Thursday, October 21, 2010

Understanding the Akeidah on our level a Kopischnitz Torah

I was zoche to be at the bris this morning of Chaim Lazar 's baby harach hanimol Yaakov Nechemia, at Congregation Ohev Yisroel, Ramat Shilo, here in Ramat Bet Shemesh
 
Honored with Sandak was Rav Binyamin's father the Kopishnitza Rebbe of Yerushalayim Shlit"a a descendant of the holy Apta Rav the Ohev Yisroel.
 
After the bris the Kopishnitza Rebbe drank le'chaim with a few of us and shared the following:
 
He spoke in the name of Alter Kopishnitzer and said how he had described the nidayon of the Akeidah on his own level.
 
The Kopischnitzer Rebbe rarely spoke words of divrei Torah, but on Rosh HaShanna night he said the following:
 
The Kopischnitzer asked regarding Avraham Avinu's nisayon at the Akeidah that actually Hashem had spoken to Avraham and asked him to do the something that was seemingly impossible!
 
He had asked him not to take his own life but to shecht a yid! And the fact that Yitzchak was his own son through him he expected his descendants to continue was another thing. But to shect another yid?! How can a yid do such a thing?! How could Hashem have asked that of Avraham Avinu?! To shecht another yid?!
 
"I myself," he said in a rare personal glimpse into his own story of horror and suffering, "when the Nazis may their names be obliterated and erased, came and took me, I went readily with simcha and energy and said to myself here is an opportunity for self sacrifice for personal mesirus nefesh for Hashem. But when I heard that the Nazis took this yid and that yid, and this mishpacha and that one and I saw their fear, their pain and their suffering this was unbearable! That is when I too began to suffer dearly as well!"
 
It was not his own pain, anguish and suffering that was difficult for him to bear, it was that of another Yid.
 
When the present Rebbe shlit'a continued he said that when he had visited the Alter Skverer Rebbe, the Skverer had heard about the Kopischnitzer Zatza'l's outpouring of personal emotion at the Rosh HaShanna tisch and he asked the Rebbe shlit"a about it. When the Rebbe related to him what the Alter Kaposchnitzer had said he began to pace to and fro in excitement in the room snapping his fingers and clapping his hands aflame with excitement azoy hot er gezut! That is what he said! he repeated again and again!
 
The Rebbe shlit"a then told the Skverer what he now told us now to explain his zayde's words "The Ba'al HaTanya, Rav Shneur Zalman of Liadi was a talmid of the Mezritcher maggid, though he was one of the youngest of the inner circle he was one of the greatest. The Maggid had many great tzadikim as disciples who later became Rebbes, the Noam Elimelech, the Kedushas Levi, the Meor Eynaim and many many others. There were other disciples who were Chassidim and righteous ehrlich yidden but they did not become Rebbes. It was about these students who were on the "lower" level that the Baal HaTanya told the following story:
 
Once these talmidim sat in a circle by the riba, the oven that warmed the beis midrash keeping out the cold. They sat discussing the different virtues of the nisayaon the test and trial Avraham Avinu endured by the Akeidah. Each one offered their own personal explanation as to what was the difficulty that Avraham faced. One said one explanation and his fellow offered another. The Baal HaTanya sat in the back listening to their conversation and their discussions. Later he explained that every one of the explanations they offered were true and based on their own personal level of Avodah and mesirus nefesh. Each saw through the prism of their own level what Avraham Avinu's self sacrifice in avodas Hashem was at the Akeida. And this, he concluded was said of the Maggid's so called lower level disciples!!!
 
That ended the Rebbe shli"ta is what I told the Skverer to explain the Kopischnitzer's words, he too saw the Akeidah through his own personal level of avodas Hashem with mesirus nefesh and since like his predescor the Apta Rav, he was a true Ohev Yisroel, a lover of Jews the thing that stood out most to him was the question begging "How could you shecht another Jew!?" How could Hashem have asked of Avraham Avinu the impossible!!!
 
Kol Tuv,
R' Tal Moshe Zwecker
Director Machon Be'er Mayim Chaim
Chassidic Classics in the English Language
www.chassidusonline.com
chassidusonline@gmail.com
Phone: 972-2-992-1218 / Cell: 972-54-842-4725
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Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Chinuch and Archery a la Kotzk

I heard in the name of the Kotzker Rebbe that "KeChitzim BaYad Gibor Ken Bnei haNeurim" (Tehillim 127:4) - Like arrows in the hand of a mighty archer, so are the children in youth.
What is the connection between arrows and children?
Just as when an archer holds his bow closer to his heart, the farther and straighter the arrow flies. So too with raising children the closer we hold them to our heart the farther and straighter they go.
 
 
Kol Tuv,
R' Tal Moshe Zwecker
Director Machon Be'er Mayim Chaim
Chassidic Classics in the English Language
www.chassidusonline.com
chassidusonline@gmail.com
Phone: 972-2-992-1218 / Cell: 972-54-842-4725
VoIP: 516-320-6022 / eFax: 1-832-213-3135
join the mailing list here: http://groups.google.com/group/beermayimchaim
Noam Elimelech, Kedushas Levi, Pirkei Avos more!
Discuss Chassidus http://groups.google.com/group/torahchassidusdiscussion
Author Page https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B003VH9D48
LinkedIn: http://il.linkedin.com/in/rabbitalmoshe