A hardhitting Yud Tes Kislev

As reader's of tonight's previous post will no doubt have apprehended by now, I was a bit depressed coming into tonight's farbie, convinced that it couldn't possibly come close to the glorious 19 Kislev Farbrengens of yesteryear. Usually when I come into a farbie with this attitude I'm pleasantly surprised at the results, presumably because my expectations were so low to begin with. As it turned out, tonight's farbie could have been entered with high expectations, and they would have been fulfilled. Rabbi Yisroel Cotler was tonight's victim, I mean mashpia, and he performed admirably. All the opinions expressed herein are his, though I do reserve the right to defend them if I must. If they seem trite or obvious, well that's probably the transmitter's fault. And don't get the idea that just because I write something that means I practice it. It's enough that I try. And so, enough chit-chat, on with the show!

What's the point of 19 Kislev? What did it accomplish? Like most things in life, it's easier to describe by writing what it ain't. For example, and this is as true a story as a story can be, there was a bochur taking a bus in Israel on chol hamoed sukkos, and he noticed a non-lubavitch bochur on the bus. This other bochur went over to the bus driver and told him that he was going to sleep, but please, if it begins to rain, please wake him up. Why? Because then he can eat.
What is wrong with this story? Hey, the bochur was keeping shulchan oruch, wasn't he? The problem is that his whole Judaism was a cat and mouse game with G-d. A chassid recognizes that there ain't no one but the big guy, both upstairs and downstairs.
Once a chassid came to the Tzemach Tzedek and he asked him for a bracha for his grandkid. He wanted to bring junior to hear the Rebbe say chassidus, and b'derech mailah, automatically, he would become a chassid. The Tzemach Tzedek got up from his chair, and said, "For fifty years my grandfather, father in law, and I have fought that a person shouldn't become a chossid automatically, and you're asking for a bracha for it?!"

There is a relatively famous story with Professor Velvel Green, who had just made a hachlata to keep kosher. A couple days later he went to a week-long NASA sponsored conference in Huntsville, Alabama. Unlike seasoned kosher eaters, be didn't yet know that when you go to Alabama, you pack two suitcases: one with your clothes, and one with your kosher food. So here he is, at the end of the first day, and he's starving. There had been a delicious buffet dinner that night, but he I course couldn't eat at it. He walks out, and lo and behold! The hotdog man approacheth! Now, this wasn't New York where chances are that it's Hebrew National; this stand had treif written all over it. Poor Velvel is standing there, and he makes a deal with G-d: I'll start keeping kosher next week. What else was he supposed to do? He walked over, bought a dog, and then it hit him. He couldn't do this. He said he wouldn't. So bye bye hotdog. The rest of the week he lived on potato chips, Coca-Cola, and the occasional apple. When he got back to Minnesota he wrote the Rebbe a letter detailing this experience, and the Rebbe wrote him back, saying that he had released an incredibly great spiritual light into this here physical world. Like, major fireworks. We all have our hotdog stand. For Velvel now, it's not a hotdog anymore. But he still has one, just like everyone. The question is, what will we do? Give in, or fight the great fight?

We are living in a microwave generation. We need gratification, we need it now, and we need it easy. When we learn a maamar or sicha, the first thing is, "how does it speak to me? What lesson can I learn out of it?" If it's too hard, or too esoteric, then there's plenty more where they came from. There is even a wide selection of sefarim which give a nice question, a nice answer, an it only takes two pages instead of twenty. This approach works for a chabad house; after all, which shliach has the time to learn a whole sicha before shabbos? This approach will also work for a shabbos table, for mivtzoyim, for virtually any situation...except one. It won't work for you. The only way to learn chassidus properly and to internalize it is to sweat over it. Sure, you won't understand it the first time. Heck, you won't understand it the fifth time either. But you keep on plugging away? Good things will come your way. It's the difference between a tradition soup and a homemade chicken soup. Sure, the instant soup is simple, easy, and hassle free, but you can't compare it to a chicken soup which was slaved over for many hours. So too, any chassidus you manage to pick up in a few minutes won't fool anyone. The only way to accomplish anything is through constant application.