Back in 1996, Rabbi Finman was asked to speak to the niece of one of his students. After spending many hours answering her questions, the woman gave Rabbi Finman her e-mail address. Rabbi Finman wrote the woman a note and included in it a short insight into that week's Parsha and a short Chasidic story.
Realizing that this was something no one was yet doing,, Rabbi Finman sent the missive to his mailing list of about 30 people. Requests from recipients friends came pouring in. The next week Rabbi Finman sent the e-Parsha to 100 people. Within a year more than 2000 people were receiving it. Today, more than 14,000 receive the e-Parsha weekly and the requests keep coming in.
Yisro 5786
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Beshalach 5786
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This week's YouParsha Beshalach https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emIcp_aAZyU The Manna
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Beshalach, Exodus 13:17 - 17:16, Describes the greatest miracle, the splitting of the Reed Sea. The splitting of the sea is used throughout the Kaballa as an example of how the Almighty created the world. The verse describes that a strong East Wind blew the entire night. While the wind was blowing, the Sea remained split. As soon as the wind ceased, the Sea reverted to its original state.
To understand how we exist in our present state of creation, an example is given of a rock thrown in the air. The nature of a rock is to remain in one spot. When the rock is thrown, the rock now flies. The rock will remain in the air for the duration of the time it takes for the energy expended to dissipate. Upon its fall, the rock resumes its normal nature and is unidentifiable as having ever been airborne. The more energy expended, the longer the rock remains in the air.
Before the world was created, there was nothing. The nature of nothing is to be nothing until energy, G’dliness, is introduced. At that point, the nothing becomes something, Creation. Creation will remain in existence for as long as the G’dliness emanated remains within it. Once, G’d forbid, the G’dliness is removed, the creation ceases to exist, with no recognition of it ever existing.
The ramification of this thought is that the Almighty creates the world anew every second. If that be the case, there must be Divine intervention. Nothing happens by chance. Every act is part of the Divine plan. There is, of course, freedom of choice between right and wrong. The interaction of the two is the topic for another time.
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In 1947, RaMaSh, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, son in law of then Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitschock – the Previous Rebbe, traveled to Paris. His mother had made it out of communist Russia. The Rebbe, who had escaped from Europe to the United States in 1941, arrived in Paris to greet his mother whom he had not seen for more than 15 years and escort her back to the United States.
In Paris, he met a group of Lubavitch chassidim who had survived the Holocaust and very much wanted to immigrate to the Unites States but could not get visas. They asked him that upon his return, to tell the Rebbe Rayatz of their plight and ask him to awaken compassion and mercy upon them from Heaven. The future Lubavitcher Rebbe explained to them that they must be a little naïve to think that the Rayatz needs to be directly informed in order to be made aware of their problems. In order to make his point he told them the following story:
In 1946, the Rayatz was ill and required a certain injection every day. A private nurse would come to his study at 770 at a set time to administer the injection. One day, she knocked on the door of his study. There was no answer. Usually, there were Rabbis from the Rayatz’s secretariat around, but this time there was no one there. She slowly opened the door. When she walked in, she saw him sitting at his desk, his eyes gazing off into the distance, obviously unaware that she had entered. He had the look of someone who was not in this world altogether. She was certain that something had happened to him, perhaps he had even lost consciousness and she ran to look for someone from the family or the staff. She encountered Ramash, who quickly came into the room and approached near to his father-in-law’s mouth to hear what he was mumbling. He heard the Rebbe Rayatz reciting the words of the Song of the Sea, Az Yashir with the Torah melody. It was as if the Rayatz was praying. Immediately, RaMaSH realized that the Rayatz was in a state of communion (with G’d) and was not sick. After a few minutes the Rayatz seemed to snap out of it.
RaMaSH sensed that there was a reason for all this. After some some research, he discovered that during those very moments that the Rayatz was in a state of communion, thousands of miles away, a small group of chassidim had tried to illegally make it across the Russian-Polish border. If they had been caught, they would have been summarily executed. During those critical moments, the Rebbe Rayatz had awakened the mercy of Heaven that they be successful.
The Rebbe-to-be told the chassidim in Paris that after this story they should understand that the Rebbe Rayatz does not need anyone to tell him when to awaken mercy on his disciples. Every chosid is always on his mind. He sees and knows exactly what is happening with him, and continually sacrifices himself and prays for each and every one of them.
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