Pesach Sheni, 5710 [1950]

Brooklyn, N.Y.

The[334] Zohar[335] records that on the day of his passing,[336] Lag BaOmer, R. Shimon [bar Yochai] opened his discourse with the verse,[337] "I am my Beloved's, and His desire is towards me," and said: "Throughout the days that I have been bound in this world,[338] I have been united in a perfect bond with the Holy One, blessed be He; and now, by virtue of this, 'His desire is towards me.' "

There is a well-known interpretation[339] of the common idiom of the Zohar which describes the beginning of a discourse as an opening: the mentor concerned opened the appropriate conduit and made possible a downflow of Divine blessings or enlightenment,[340] thus enabling others following after him to attain them likewise. Thus it was that in the generation of R. Shimon bar Yochai even little children uncovered the mysteries of the Torah, because he had opened the conduit which enabled the innermost dimension of the Torah to become accessible.

Though[341] "who is the man whose heart would dare to approach" the level of Rashbi,[342] nevertheless,[343] "G-d bared His holy arm": Through our Master, the Baal Shem Tov, and his holy disciples, viz., our saintly forebears, the Rebbeim of their respective generations, up to and including my revered father-in-law, He illumined for us the teachings of Chassidus..., which unlock the gates of the heavenly palaces of Chochmah and Binah.... The teachings of Chassidus light up a path by which every single individual, according to his own capacity, is able to approach the realm of holiness, and to serve G-d with his brain and with his heart.

On Lag BaOmer every year, the festive anniversary of the passing of Rashbi, the heavenly conduits are opened afresh. This day is therefore particularly suited for fortifying and invigorating one's efforts in the study of the pnimiyus of the Torah and in the avodah which one undertakes in this spirit. For, as declared by my revered father-in-law, the Rebbe [Rayatz],[344] these conduits were thrown open by Rashbi -- until the coming of the righteous Redeemer, speedily, in our own days, Amen.

Menachem Schneerson

   

Notes:

334. (Back to text) This letter appears in Sefer HaMaamarim 5710 [1950], p. 206, and in Likkutei Sichos, Vol. XII, p. 227.

335. (Back to text) III, 288a.

336. (Back to text) In the Heb./Aram. original, yom hahillula (lit., "the day of rejoicing"), so called because on that day -- and so too on its anniversary every year -- the soul enjoys a prodigious ascent to levels of heightened spiritual perception.

337. (Back to text) Shir HaShirim 7:11.

338. (Back to text) I.e., "throughout my lifetime."

339. (Back to text) See the maamar beginning with the words, Ki Kaasher HaShamayim 5678, in Sefer HaMaamarim 5678, p. 283.

340. (Back to text) "Conduit... enlightment": In the original, tzinor hahashpaah.

341. (Back to text) Cf. Yirmeyahu 30:21.

342. (Back to text) Acronym for R. Shimon bar Yochai.

343. (Back to text) Yeshayahu 52:10, as paraphrased at the beginning of Kuntreis Toras HaChassidus.

344. (Back to text) See the conclusion of the maamar which begins with the words, Ani LeDodi, of Lag BaOmer, 5708 [1948]; it appears in Kuntreis 57, and in Sefer HaMaamarim 5708 [1948], p. 189.