CHOCMAS NASHIM: VAYETZEI: GRATITUDE
By: Suri Davis
- Birth & Passing of R. Dovber of Lubavitch (1773; 1827)
Kislev 9 is both the birthday and day of passing of Rabbi DovBer of Lubavitch, son of and successor to the founder of Chabad Chassidism, Rabbi Schneur Zalman·of Liadi. Rabbi DovBer was known for his unique style of “broadening rivers” — his teachings were the intellectual rivers to his father’s wellspring, lending breadth and depth to the principles set down by Rabbi Schneur Zalman.
Born in Liozna, White Russia in 1773, Rabbi DovBer was named after Rabbi Schneur Zalman’s mentor and teacher, Rabbi DovBer of Mezeritch, who had passed away on Kislev 19 of the previous year. Rabbi DovBer assumed the leadership of Chabad upon his father’s passing in 1812. In 1813 he settled in the town of Lubavitch, which was to serve as the movement’s headquarters for the next 102 years. In 1826, he was arrested on charges that his teachings threatened the imperial authority of the Czar, but was subsequently exonerated.
Rabbi DovBer passed away on his 54th birthday in 1827, a day before the first anniversary of his liberation (see calendar entries for tomorrow, Kislev 10).
- Yaakov runs away from home for fear of his brother Esau. G-d tells Yaakov that he will be with him and take care of him. Yaakov then says, if G-d gives me clothes to wear and food to eat…then I will make him my G-d.
- Leah names her fourth child Judah, stating “this time I will thank G-d.”
There are times, as I sit quietly in my home or bed that I wonder, and am grateful, that I was not born in a war torn or third world country, where there is a struggle for peace, food, water, sanitation. I feel how fortunate I am, some would say fortuitous, but nothing is fortuitous when in G-d’s hands, that I was born in America, in a peaceful democracy.
I have read many books this year about the early rabbis of Lubavitch who inevitably were jailed for spreading Judaism, and the hardships they endured in exile. Yes adversity, provided them with the solitude they all took to write extensively about the torah, Jewish law and philosophy. But very few among us ever want to be tested in this way. Among those tested was Rabbi Dovber of Lubavitch, whose yahrtzeit is this Shabbos. As I read the trials and tribulations of Jews around the world, and yes, even in America in the early 1900s, where observant Jews were fired for taking time off from work to observe Shabbos. The Lubavitch movement looks outward to scour the earth looking for Jews, no matter how different and far from Jewish practice and tradition, to bring them close. We are now in a pandemic, where people are looking outward to divide and deride.
We are outward looking people, it is not enough for us to contemplate ourselves, we look at others and how we compare ourselves to what they have and what allegedly they achieved. If one watches any movie about dystopia, the walking dead, Handmaid’s tale etc. We start with a group of people who are dissatisfied and in their “honest” rumination of themselves and the world, they feel that there was is the only way, the correct way, that all else is the wrong way.
We came to America for tolerance. That’s at the root of our Thanksgiving. Now we have a president who is encouraging intolerance of those who don’t want to vaccinate. Why cant we stop at “thank You G-d we have a vaccination that gives me confidence that I wont die from Covid.” All these years, we didn’t turn against those who opted out of life-saving alternatives, like those who opted out against Measle vaccinations, those who are overweight with diabetes, who cost the health system billions of dollars. For the last 25 years, did I get my flu shot and ask those around me if they had theirs, that as a result of their failure to vaccinate, they subject my health to their vulnerabilities. Do we rally against those who don’t get the Shingles vaccine because they cause our system millions of dollars in treatments.
Fear and morality at the source of group think that shoots out to others. It’s not ours to judge. If you are afraid, stay home. If you are vulnerable, stay home. Deputizing people with intolerance, praising their aggression, turning friends and neighbors against each other like Jacob and Esau. Astonishing and appalling.
Texas has deputized the average citizen against abortion. Any person who reports a doctor who is performing abortions gets a $10,000 award. We are turning citizens against citizens, with collective absolute “group think,” tolerance is gone and aggression and violence has taken its place. Thought went from thank G-d there is a vaccinate to save myself to those who don’t vaccinate are killing us. Doors have been re-locked as though we are still at the beginning of the virus. Doors locked like those of Sodom and Gemorrah.
Think long and hard before closing your mind and doors. Every year I read about the failure and greed of big med and big pharm. Think about all the times you went to fine restaurants and saw your doctor with a drug rep. How many doctor friends were flown to Maui for medical conventions. The Sacklar family who were prosecuted for pushing their Opioids on society causing the drug epidemic could not have succeeded without doctors who were willing pawns in their scheme. Google medical device recalls. Watch daytime T.V. which has attorney commercials for attorneys who want to distribute hundreds of millions of dollars of settlement money from medical devices, procedures and medicines which had FDA approval and hurt those who took and used them. I am glad that most of Americans and residents of Nassau County have heeded the call to vaccinate. Raise your sleeve, but don’t close your mind, and permit this fear and intolerance to bring us closer to Sodom and Esau.
Good Shabbos.
-Suri