Why the Rebbe Who Saw the Atrocities Was Optimistic

January 26, 2018   

סקירת שנות חייו של הרבי הריי"צ (רבי יוסף-יצחק שניאורסון) מליובאוויטש תגלה שזו הייתה תקופה הרצופה כמעט כולה תלאות וסבל. זמן קצר לאחר לידתו, בשנת תר"מ (1880), פרץ גל הפוגרומים נגד היהודים ברוסיה, שזכה לכינוי 'סופות בנגב'. מצב בריאותו של אביו היה רופף, והוא נאלץ להיפרד מבנו היחיד ולנסוע לתקופות זמן ממושכות לאזורי מרפא. אלה היו שנות ילדותו של הריי"צ.

Then World War I broke out. The Rebbe and his family were forced to leave the town of Lubavitch, which had been the capital of Chabad Hasidism for more than a century, and wander far away.

Meanwhile, the communist revolution took place in Russia, and the most severe religious persecution in Jewish history began.

See the potential

If that weren't enough, the Rebbe, the father, suddenly fell ill and passed away, and his son took over the leadership in the midst of a difficult and turbulent period. He was arrested several times by the authorities, and finally imprisoned in an attempt to eliminate him.

By miracles of miracles he was saved, but was forced to leave Russia. Now began a period of wandering in Latvia and Poland, then World War II broke out and the terrible Holocaust took place. The Rebbe managed to escape with a handful of family members and Chassidim, but lost other family members and many Chassidim in the Holocaust.

The Rebbe arrived in the United States physically broken and shattered, and there he encountered an alienated and assimilated Jewry.

Many tried to explain to him that America was different, and there was no chance of establishing a Jewish and Hasidic life there as there was in Europe. The Rebbe began to act against all odds, encountering enormous difficulties and a lack of resources.

Meanwhile, his illness worsened, and about ten years after coming to the US, he passed away.

One might assume that someone who has witnessed the horrors of one of the darkest periods in human history, and the depths to which humans can descend, would develop a bitter attitude toward the world. The reality he encountered throughout his life was one of evil and cruelty, oppression and persecution, values ​​collapsing, and communal and social structures shattering to pieces.

But the last Hasidic treatise that he left to his followers before his departure opens with the verse "I have come to my garden," and he explains there that the world is actually a blooming garden, the dwelling place and main dwelling place of the Creator of the world.

The terrible events that Eve experienced did not affect his worldview, which sees the world as good and has the potential to be a thriving garden of goodness and holiness.

Judaism erect head

On Yom Kippur, 1950 (1950), the Rayatz Rebbe passed away and was succeeded by his son-in-law, the Lubavitcher Rebbe.

He turned his father-in-law's last Hasidic article into a life's testament for the entire generation. This is the challenge for all of us, he taught – to discover the 'garden' within the world. Not to be frightened by the difficulties and evil, by the images and worldviews that have taken root, but to lead the world to its purpose and destiny, as God Almighty has determined for it.

And indeed, the unbelievable happened. A grassroots Judaism began to blossom in cold America. Remote corners of the world began to light up. Judaism raised its head and began to make its voice heard with confidence and power; and the belief that very soon the world would reach its redemption and its purpose crept in and took hold in the hearts of the masses. This is the power of a true vision.