Behaaloscha

The sicha for the parsha and the Haftorah of parshas Behaaloscha is in Vol. II of Likkutei Sichos.

In the Haftorah of the parsha it says, I saw a menorah made out of gold. This a reference to the collective Jewish souls as all Jews together make up a menorah made of all gold. In the menorah there were seven lights, which is also true of the Jewish people. There are seven different ways in which the Jews serve G-d, as it is explained at length in Chassidus; through chesed, kindness, gevurah, severity or perfection and so on through the seven emotions that make up the seven branches of the menorah.

What they all have in common is all of them are candles, they all illuminate, make the Bais HaMikdash bright, and from the Bais HaMikdash, that brightness and light extends and spreads throughout the whole world. That is why the windows of the Bais HaMikdash were built in such a way that the light spread outwards from the Bais HaMikdash. This light spread throughout the whole world and that is the whole purpose of the Bais HaMikdash.

Where did the light of the Bais HaMikdash come from? It came from the candles of the Jewish souls. Although there are different kinds of Jews, and each one has to serve G-d according to his personality and talents as it says, I was created only to serve my Creator, in other words I am supposed to serve G-d with my particular talents, with the abilities that G-d gave me, which makes my service different from others, however what makes us all equal, that which we all have in common, is that all of us are here to create light and to illuminate the world.

The difference is only in the approach of how we go about producing that light. There are those who go about serving G-d through the attribute of kindness, because that is what their personality dictates, and with others, it comes through the attribute of severity, of strictness, of perfection, in that they are very strict with themselves, they are very careful with the way they behave, and this also comes from their personality in which the gevurah is dominant.

But the goal, the end result is the same for all Jews and that is that we bring light to the world. Now although the goal is the same for every one, it makes a big difference in the way that we serve G-d, whether we are using the attribute of kindness or that of severity.

In the attribute of severity, a person may be acting very strict with the intention of producing light and illuminating the world. However that is not always immediately evident. Whereas when a person uses kindness with which to do the mitzvahs, then right from the start it is obvious that the purpose is to bring light, because the manner is also a manner of light. So we don’t have to look beyond the surface to see where this behavior is leading - it is a light producing behavior, because immediately it is evident that there is a love here for a fellow Jew.

That was the way in which Aharon, the Kohen Gadol, served G-d and lit the menorah. Aharon was the one who loved all creatures and brought them to Torah, even those whom the Torah describes as creatures, meaning they have no other virtue, there is nothing else complimentary that can be said about them. They have only personal failings and faults. Their only redeeming virtue is that G-d created them; they are G-d’s creatures, as the Alter Rebbe explains in Tanya.

And even then Aharon approached only with love and drew them to Torah through love. In this case, the way that Aharon pursued the performance and the spreading of Yiddishkeit, here the goal and the manner are all the same. The goal is to produce light and kindness and the manner was a manner of light and kindness. So that even on the surface it was obvious that the love for the creatures was there and it was through that that Jews were drawn closer to Torah.

This was also the style and the approach of all the Rebbes including the previous Rebbe. Their work was to light the candles and bring light to the world, and their style was to do it with kindness and love. In every Jew there is the candle, which is the neshama. But some need to have their candle lit by someone else – they can’t light their own candle. And that is the work of Nosiei Israel, of the heads of the Jewish people, to light the neshama of the Jew who is finding it difficult to inspire and light his own neshama. And in this there are seven different categories.

The style that the Rebbes of Chabad used to light the neshamas in other Jews and particularly the Previous Rebbe was that of love, which was obvious and visible to all. Not only was the end goal one of light and of joy, but also the style and approach to bring a Jew to Yiddishkeit was only through ways of kiruv and pleasantness. They lit the neshamas of all seven categories of Jews.

The order in which the teachings of Chassidus reach the outside world is not that we sit and wait until the outside world comes and asks to be taught Chassidus. Rather we have to go out into the world, to the outside and there spread the teachings of Chassidus. This approach of going to the student, to the needy, was originally introduced by Aharon, the Kohen Gadol, who, not only loved peace, but pursued peace, and in his pursuing of peace and love of his fellow creatures, he brought them to Torah. Aharon didn’t wait for people to come to him he went to them first. He went not only to those who promised to be great students; he went even to those whom as we said before, can only be described as creatures. And even with them, Aharon didn’t wait for them to come to him, but he went to them in order to bring them closer to Torah.

The expression  “bringing them close to Torah” is an important lesson in the spreading of Torah, in that we bring the people to the Torah, not the Torah to the people. Although Aharon went to them, so you might get the impression that he brought the Torah to them, he didn’t lower the standards of Torah so that they would be comfortable to those who are merely creatures. Even though he went to them, he did not, in any way, compromise the standards of Torah. He brought the entire Torah to them, the Torah as it is, without any concessions.

This element in the avodah of Aharon, is also hinted at in the lighting of the menorah, because candles refer to Jewish souls as we said before and there are seven kinds of souls, as it says in Likkutei Torah and this reflected in the seven branches of the menorah. So the job of Aharon was to light the neshamas of all seven categories until they had their own light and could continue to burn on their own.

How effective was Aharon? How deep was his influence in bringing those neshamas to illuminate and to give off their light? The Torah tells us that he had to kindle the wick until the flame had caught and could burn on its own. As long as the neshama of these creatures remained dependent on Aharon, then he had not yet accomplished his desired goal. The success of Aharon’s efforts were when the Jew’s neshama had caught sufficiently so that he was no longer dependent on Aharon, he didn’t have to have his fire lit, but instead he became a source of light himself and could then light other candles.

Concerning the lighting of the menorah in the Bais HaMikdash, we find three commandments.
1) Anyone can light the menorah; it doesn’t have to be done by the kohen gadol or by a kohen.
2) Preparation of the menorah, putting the oil and the wick in their place, had to be done by a kohen, and not necessarily the kohen gadol.
3) The place of the menorah had to be in the heichal, inside of the Bais HaMikdash.

And so it is also with lighting the neshamas, with inspiring the seven branches of the menorah of the Jewish people.

1) Lighting the neshama is not only the job of a kohen, and certainly not limited to the kohen gadol, it is the job of every Jew. Every Jew has the responsibility to spread the teachings of Torah, particularly those of Chassidus, until they inspire all the Jews around him. This is a mitzvah for every Jew because we are all told that even if we are not a kohen, we should be like the students of Aharon, not like the children of Aharon who are all kohanim, that even if you are not a kohen, yet you should accomplish that which Aharon accomplishes – the lighting of the menorah

2) The preparation of the menorah – for this you have to be a kohen. Because a person could think, that since what is important is that another person should influenced, so what difference does it make how he is influenced? He could find his own explanations in Torah, his own insights and inspiring sermons and this will inspire people to do mitzvahs. What is the difference if what he is saying is absolutely true or correct or holy, or not? So for this we have the instruction that the preparation, the oil and the wick of the menorah, this has to be prepared by a kohen, and not by just anyone.

And what is a kohen? A kohen is someone whose life is completely and exclusively devoted to G-dliness. He has no other commitments or involvements. He is free to serve G-d with all his heart, because G-d is the center of his life, and the only devotion in his life. That is why the kohen is not allowed to own property, because his devotion is completely to G-dliness. Only such a person can prepare the menorah, which means to prepare the teachings, the lessons and the instructions with which every Jew can then reach out to another Jew.

3) The menorah has to be kindled inside the Bais HaMikdash, inside a place of holiness. The lesson from this is, that a person should not say that although it is true that I have to illuminate and kindle the flame of another person’s neshama, who says that I have to do it to the highest degree of holiness? Why does it have to be on the level of the Bais HaMikdash? There are people who are not necessarily equipped to handle that degree of holiness. So the Rebbe tells us that the lesson  that the menorah has to be kindled in the Bais HaMikdash is that we should never underestimate the potential holiness of any Jew, and therefore we have to light the menorah of the Jew, the candle of the Jewish neshama with the highest degree of holiness.

This means that we have to immediately expect every Jew to do all 613 mitzvahs. But every mitzvah that a Jew does, even if he is doing only one or two, even if he is not doing them all, the mitzvahs that he is doing, should be on the highest level of holiness, with the greatest purity and sincerity, with the greatest focus on the G-dliness of the mitzvah and not for any other reason. The purity and holiness of the mitzvah should not be compromised.

Hence we have two lessons:

1) Every Jew is responsible to spread the light of Torah and mitzvahs, with no compromise – you don’t bring the Torah down, you don’t compromise the mitzvahs.

2) In the few mitzvahs that the person does, we don’t compromise the quality and holiness of the mitzvah, we bring the Jew into the Bais HaMikdash, to a level of holiness, which means purity and G-dliness in the performance of whatever mitzvah he happens to be doing.

So even if a person knows that the student he is teaching or the person he is influencing will never do all mitzvahs to perfection, this should in no way permit the teacher to lower the holiness of the mitzvah that the person is doing. Therefore you can teach Chassidus to a person who is doing only a few mitzvahs because in those few mitzvahs, he has to know the G-dliness and holiness of the mitzvah and be able to do the mitzvah with the proper sincerity, appropriate for the Bais HaMikdash, appropriate for lighting a menorah in the heichal, inside the Bais HaMikdash.

As is explained in Chassidus, in seichel, in intelligence and emotions, one can have a partial experience, a partial understanding of a subject. The same is true also with emotions, there are more mature emotions and more childish emotions, emotions come in various sizes and degrees. But when it comes to ratzon, will, Chassidus says, there can’t be a partial will. If a person needs something and doesn’t get what he needs, it can’t be said that half his needs were met, because half of what he needs, isn’t what he needs - he still doesn’t have his need or his will fulfilled.

And so when a person understands that every mitzvah is a Divine will, this is what G-d wants, to do it partially would be a failure in the whole will. We are not saying that you can’t do a mitzvah partially, it is that you can’t approach a mitzvah partially, you have to recognized being the Divine will, being that this is what G-d wants, you have to approach the mitzvah with that kind of bittul which makes the mitzvah pure and holy.

This is also with the differences between the generations. Before the teachings of Chassidus were revealed, in earlier generations, people were very pious, they kept Torah and mitzvahs completely and perfectly and yet, they didn’t learn Chassidus. It is only in the last few generations that pnimiyus HaTorah, the soul of Torah, which is Chassidus, has been revealed and is now available for everyone to study. The fact that it has become available in our generation means that is essential to us, even if it wasn’t in earlier generations. We study Chassidus and perform mitzvahs with the insight, inspiration and holiness that Chassidus adds.

And so it is necessary to teach Chassidus even to a person who is beginning to find his way into mitzvahs and into Yiddishkeit so that the mitzvahs that he is performing should be pure and holy. The Gemarrah says that there was a woman whose sons all became kohanim gedolim, because of the great degree of modesty she kept. Now a person could think to himself, why do I have to be so modest in order to have children who will be kohanim gedolim, why isn’t it enough that our children should be as holy as a regular kohen? In fact all Jews are holy, so why do we have to take that extra measure, go the extra mile to be so modest that our children should be on the level of the kohen gadol?

This is what the menorah teaches us, that we have to light the menorah not just anywhere but in the Bais HaMikdash. That even though there is the possibility of lighting the menorah in a less holy environment, to achieve a lower level of holiness, yet the Torah tells us that that is not good enough, we have to light the menorah to produce a light in the place of holiness. If a woman is capable of raising her children to be kohanim gedolim, that itself obligates her to settle for nothing less and to keep a level of tznius that will guarantee that her children will be on the level of the kohen gadol.

With this we will understand why the Torah says “speak to Aharon ” to light the menorah when we know that lighting the menorah, as we said before can be done even by a person who is not a kohen. And the preparation of the menorah, also doesn’t demand the attention of a kohen gadol, a regular kohen can do it. So why was Aharon told that he should light the menorah?

As we said before, it is a mitzvah on every Jew to affect, influence and inspire another Jew, to light the G-dly potential that exists in the neshama of every Jew. We also said that the person can’t light his own neshama, it has to be lit by someone else, and that someone else has to bring the holiness of a kohen gadol to the neshama. Not to be content with a lower level of holiness but to demand the highest degree of holiness, that of the kohen gadol.

And what is the holiness of a kohen gadol? The kohen gadol was the one who not only entered the heichal, not the outer chamber of the Bais HaMikdash, but he went lifnei v’lifnim, into the inner chamber, the Holy of Holies where the ark, which contained the luchos, the tablets with the Ten Commandments, was. This means that the kohen gadol is one who has exclusive devotion to the study of Torah. What’s more, in the Holy of Holies there were the luchos. The luchos represent the Torah but they represent the Torah as it is engraved in stone, not a parchment Torah, with letters written in ink but rather a Torah inscribed in the stone.

As we have already spoken on other occasions when you have engraved letters then the stone itself make up the letters and the letters are not something separate from the stone. This is the level of the kohen gadol that he is the Torah, a living Torah. That is why the Torah says “speak to Aharon” that he should light the menorah. The obligation and the privilege of lighting the menorah applies to every Jew, to help another Jew’s neshama come into light but that ability that every Jew has to light another Jew’s menorah, this comes from the kohen gadol, comes from the Nasi of the generation, from the kohen gadol of the generation.

And when we have that connection, and we have that ability coming from the kohen gadol, then every Jew is kosher, every Jew is ready and prepared and capable of lighting the menorah.

This is particularly true of Jewish women, of mothers in whose hands the main responsibility of raising the next generation of sons and daughters so the woman needs to know that she shouldn’t settle for anything less than to raise up her children to be on the level of the kohen gadol.

Also the Gemarrah says concerning the kohen gadol that through the change in a behavior, when we improve our behavior, all the obstacles that stood in the way beforehand concerning the lives of our sons and daughters, the difficulties in raising our children even the physical material difficulties, all of them are removed and we are blessed with children, with health and with sustenance, and all of them in abundance. 

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