1. Awarenesss of Providence.

When[648] the Children of Israel were in the wilderness after the Exodus from Egypt, G-d provided them with all their needs, both spiritual and material, readymade: food from heaven, water from Miriam's well, and Clouds of Glory that laundered and ironed their clothes.[649] Why so? Because they had left Egypt for the wilderness in a spirit of mesirus nefesh, self-sacrifice:[650] "They did not say, 'How shall we go out into the wilderness without provisions?' Instead they believed -- and went; as it is written in the Prophets,[651] '...when you followed me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.' "

Today, unfortunately, when one approaches someone for tzedakah, for example, he starts with his calculations: First of all he has to worry about himself; and if he gives money now for charity he won't have enough to cover next year's expenses; besides, he has to make sure he'll have enough to leave over for his children "after 120 years...." "Besides," he argues, "money that I've sweated and toiled for I should give away for charity?!" And as for the needy, "If G-d made them needy, let Him look after them,"[652] and so on.

A Jew should be aware and should remember that when one carries out G-d's will without calculations, as described above, G-d takes care of whatever is needed, both spiritually and materially.

2. Awareness when Asleep.

[After discussing the halachic principle that[653] "a man is always accountable..., whether awake or asleep," the Rebbe recounted the following episode:]

My revered father-in-law, the Rebbe [Rayatz], would sometimes farbreng on Shabbos with his family. On one such occasion he asked his youngest daughter, who was about five years old at the time, whether she knew that on Shabbos everything should be done in a holy manner, because the Torah says,[654] "For it is holy..., a Shabbos... holy unto G-d." She replied that of course she knew that the Shabbos day was holy unto G-d, and she felt it in the Shabbos meals. She added that when she was asleep, though -- and since she was a little girl she had to take a daytime nap -- she wasn't able to think that the Shabbos day was holy unto G-d.

In truth, however, even when one is asleep the holiness of Shabbos should be perceptible and felt; as we were saying, "A man is always accountable..., whether awake or asleep."

3. Time to Get Started.

[The Rebbe elaborated on the message of the Rebbe Rayatz on Shavuos, 5709 [1949]:[655] "What are people waiting for? The Redemption is being held up!"]

4. One More Chance.

[The Rebbe spoke of the compensatory period that follows Shavuos. The Alter Rebbe notes in his Siddur[656] that Tachanun is not said during these days, up to and including the twelfth of Sivan.[657] The Rebbe stated that during these days one can correct and compensate for whatever may have been lacking in one's avodah on Shavuos.]

   

Notes:

648. (Back to text) The above text is taken from the unauthenticated notes later recorded by one of those present when the sichah was delivered at the ufruf of R. Kalman Kotlowitz, on Shabbos Parshas Naso, 11 Sivan, 5710 [1950].

649. (Back to text) Rashi on Devarim 8:4.

650. (Back to text) Rashi on Shmos 12:39; see also Rashi on Devarim 32:10.

651. (Back to text) Yirmeyahu 2:2.

652. (Back to text) Cf. Bava Basra 10a.

653. (Back to text) Bava Kamma 2:6.

654. (Back to text) Shmos 31:14-15.

655. (Back to text) From a sichah of the Second Day of Shavuos, 5709 [1949], sec. 19, appearing in Sefer HaMaamarim 5710 [1950], p. 245.

656. (Back to text) Reprinted in Siddur Tehillat HaShem, p. 71.

657. (Back to text) The original of "compensatory days" is yemei hatashlumin. Shavuos, which lasts one day in Eretz Yisrael (6 Sivan) and two days in the Diaspora (6-7 Sivan), is treated as if it were a seven-day festival in the sense that in the Beis HaMikdash its sacrifices could still be offered throughout the compensatory days ending on 12 Sivan.