10 Ways The Rebbe Changed Our Lives

“If every Jew in the world fulfils all 613 mitzvah to perfection, the world would still not be complete… Until all seven billion people recognises G-D, the world is not the way that G-D intends it to be.” 

~ Based on the teachings of R. Manis Friedman

1. Jewish Pride

There was a time when Jews had to hide under the radar and downplay their Jewishness because it was literally life-threatening. We were terrified and afraid to show our Jewishness. This lack of pride was an actual survival technique. 

The Rebbe sees the severe damage that years of oppression has on the Jewish psyche and set out to repair it. Whether it is to come out of golas גלות (exile) or to take the golas out of ourselves, the Rebbe knows it is going to demand the return of Jewish pride. He announced that any one who reaches out and encourages Jewish pride is “my chossid”.

This strong emphasis on Jewish pride is what the Rebbe was all about —he helped restores Jewish dignity and turned around the notion that Jews should stop apologising for being Jewish.

By Jewish pride, he didn’t mean we should be proud of the fact that we have the greatest scientist the world has ever known or a baseball player who’s the best pitcher in history; certainly not the pride we feel over any of our renowned artist, politician, singer or celebrity. 

Not even of our great Israeli army, although the victory of the Six Day War was a great step in the healing and the return of Jewish pride, which was only a step in the right direction.

The pride that the Rebbe emphasises is Jewish thinking and identity — our Jewishness — being proud of our Torah, our history, our ancestors, our customs and minhagim (tradition) and everything that makes us Jewish. 

2. The Super-Human:

The Rebbe introduced the idea that a human being is far more capable than he thinks. He believes that there’s nothing a person can’t accomplish and insisted, that we become bigger than ourselves.

As an example, when anyone would say to him “I’m overwhelmed and busy all day!” the Rebbe would respond by giving him more to effectuate, urging him to stretch beyond his capacity. By the Rebbe: For as long as you are alive, you can do more. 

The Rebbe teaches that until we go beyond our limits, or our natural inclinations, we have not started to live. That’s the beginning of our humanity not the crowning glory because until we go beyond ourself, we are not yet even human, but simply being content with the way that we were created, but merely living out the programming that we were born with.

In other words, unless we push and go beyond ourself where our nature wouldn’t take us, or where our natural capacities and talents don’t go — but we choose to go anyway out of sheer determination, that’s when we start being a human being and make the contributions that we are capable of.

The Rebbe refusal to accept the natural restrictions, shortcomings, or limitations that we cripple ourselves with, he pushes us to achieve beyond our wildest imagination and help us realise our super-human potential and capabilities.

3. Action, Action, Action:

The Rebbe teaches us that although the inner workings faith and the matters of the heart are important, the essential thing in this world is action. Hence, no matter the philosophy that we adopt or the feelings or experiences that we have, however interesting, intense, and exciting they may be, what counts is the action that come of it.

Primarily because we are living in a time and generation where action is crucial.  and it is our job to change the world, the effect is the strongest when we actually act and engage ourselves with the world. Far more than good intentions, or great understanding and appreciation of what’s right and wrong, the actual doing is what affects the physical world and that’s where we need to have the effect. 

As an example, the Rebbe said to this college student, “When you get back to campus, get your friends to put on tefilin.” He replied, “But Rebbe, I don’t put on teffilin.” The Rebbe response was, “That’s not their fault. Why should they suffer?” Now, we could say, if a guy doesn’t put on tefillin or eat kosher himself but tells others to, isn’t that the highest form of hypocrisy? First, he should practice himself, then he’s fit to preach to others. 

The Rebbe didn’t see it that way. To the Rebbe, an internal condition may or may not be healthy, albeit hypocrisy is not a healthy one. However, what’s happening on the inside is not as crucial if you can exercise your power to impact a positive action or change. Hence, if you’ll succeed in encouraging your friends to put on the tefillin, that is far more significant than whether you’re hypocritical or not. There’s no need to question if it is hypocritical or not because even if it is, if your friends will do the mitzvah, that will be a great and worthy accomplishment. The same goes with all other mitzvoth such as keeping kosher, Shabbos and so on and so forth. 

4. Bringing Godliness down to Earth:

Since Har Sinai, where G-D gave us the Torah, we’ve been instructed to bring godliness off the mountain and all the rest way down to earth — and that’s what we’ve been doing for over 3000 years. 

The Rebbe said, this generation is the one that’s finally going to succeed in the mission. Since there are many levels between heaven and earth, Godliness has come down a distance, but not completely — as an example, we still needed to build a mishkan (Terbancle) in order to have G-D’s presence felt in the physical realm though it was the beginning. Still, only one place, one location, one geographical spot became Godly. Our job is to infuse godliness in every inch the world, and we are the generation that is meant for this task and will finally succeed in doing so. 

5. The Power of a Single Mitzvah

The performance of a single mitzvah, even if it is not followed by another mitzvah is another concept that the Rebbe made known and popularised. This concept may or may not be completely original, but it certainly was given a lot of exposure by the Rebbe.

Some call it the Philosophy of the Partial Mitzvah. If, for example, a person lights the Shabbos candles in honour of Shabbos, but does not observe the rest of Shabbos, the Rebbe explains that the lighting of the candle is infinitely valuable. Likewise, if one does not mix meat and milk, even if he doesn’t keep kosher, it’s still infinitely valuable. 

The reasoning behind it is, if you were to do me a favour --- something that I really need, enjoy, and appreciate, and it’s the only thing you do for me, it’s valuable, significant and meaningful enough — you can't dismiss somebody going out of their way for you just because they don’t do it often enough. 

Likewise, does G-D appreciate a mitzvah (good deed) from someone who is not committed to performing mitzvahs full time? If you think of a mitzvah as doing for G-D what G-D asks, wants, needs or enjoys, it’s infinitely valuable even if you do one mitzvah your entire life. Therefore, getting a Jew to put on Teffilin without asking him to commit to all 613 mitzvahs is infinitely meaningful. The Rebbe had to make this assertion because not everybody sees it that way, but it’s certainly one of the strong points that the Rebbe had made. 

6. The Oneness of the Torah

The Rebbe has brought together a holistic and complete understanding of the Torah. We know that there are different aspects of Torah from halacha  or the laws --- the dos and don’ts to the discussion, the debate around the halacha under what circumstances, do you do the mitzvah, who is obligated to do the mitzvah, what if you forgot to do the mitzvah? How do you make up for it. That’s basically the oral law --- the Talmud, the Mishnah, the Gemara. Of course there’s also the written Torah, the five books. Then there are the commentaries. Hence, there’re many aspects of the revealed part of Torah and then the mystical parts — the Kabbalah or the Zohar. 

For many years, the different aspects of Torah were studied in very limited, compartmentalised fashion. Those who studied the Kabbalah treated it like a special subject — different, distinct from anything else. Those who specialised in halacha didn’t dwell too much in the Kabbalah. They were somewhat divided. The Rebbe helped us understand the entire Torah as a single unit. Everything in the Kabbalah is reflected in the Gemara, and everything in the Gemara has its Kabballistic origin. 

The Rebbe united all the various aspects of Torah into one comprehensive teaching. What the Gemara doesn’t explain, is explained in the Zohar of the Kabbalah. What the Zohar doesn’t elaborate is found in the Gemara and so on and so forth. When taken together as, as a single unit, the Torah is complete. The Rebbe’s slogan was one Torah, one God, one Nation. Which leads us to another point.

7. Love of Every Jew

The Rebbe’s respect, appreciation, and devotion to every single Jew is one that gives new definition to Ahavas Yisrael or love of fellow Jews.

Since time immemorial, we’ve heard and known people/activists who have launched projects of tremendous good. They speak and focus always on klal Israel (the entire Jewish people). Hardly was the significance of the individual. As such, any project that doesn’t affect the entire people, doesn’t seem to be worth the effort. By the Rebbe, the individual was as significant as the collective; and the total was as significant as the individual. 

Again, the Rebbe demonstrated a rejection of division, separation, and distinctions, because in emes — all things are true. If you’re talking about the truth of what a Jew is, it’s true of an individual Jew, just as it is of the people. You may see more good in the people than in the individual. However, if it’s not in the individual, how then did the people get it? 

If you have 10 bad people how can you have a good minyan (the quotient for certain prayers to be said)? If you have a minyan of bad people, you got a bad minyan? So how can you say the minyan is great, but the individuals are not? So if the Jewish people is great, then you’re willing to work for the Jewish people and, and worry about the survival of the Jewish people and continuity of the Jewish people, you have to appreciate the infinite value of each individual that makes up the Jewish people.

If we are to fulfil G-D’s purpose in creation, shockingly it is not enough that every Jew becomes a saint. If every Jew in the world becomes a perfect Jew, fulfilling all 613 mitzvahs to perfection, the world would still not be complete or what G-D needs it to be, because there are seven billion other people. Until all seven billion people recognises G-D, the world is not the way that G-D intends it to be. 

The Jewish people were given a responsibility to be a light unto the nations, not only by modelling our faith and devotion to G-D and His commandments. We actually have an obligation to influence, convince and bring all people to serving G-D collectively. That is why the description we have of the ultimate (the world in its perfection after Mashiach comes) as seen in the Aleinu (Jewish prayer), at the end of every tefilah/ prayer and every davening (praying), of every day of the year is —all the people of the world will serve and recognise YOU! 

8. Impacting the World:

With seven billion people in the world, how are we a population of about 15 million accomplish the task of influencing everyone to godliness? Clearly, it’s not a project that you can actually undertake as individuals but wherever we have the opportunity to influence non-Jewish leaders, thinkers, writers, or the people who create the culture and its values, we should introduce Torah concepts that are universal and meant for all people. 

I once had the occasion to be on a BBC programming where they host a segment that delivers a five minute message to the world. The show goes out to, back then, 800 million listeners of different cultures, languages, regions etc. Today, they probably reach more people. When I arrived, I overheard the technician mumbling to himself about how people come to the studio and think that they can say something in five minutes that’s relevant to 800 million people. It was preposterous and laughable to him. 

Now it happened, that same week, the Rebbe made an announcement to encourage every school, company, factory, and employer to add an additional dollar to their employees’ paycheque to be given to charity; he then encouraged the workers themselves to add some of their own money to be given away as well. The idea being, you just got your paycheque, and you have what to eat. Now think of someone else who doesn’t have what to eat. 

I quoted the Rebbe and made his exact suggestion on air. Upon hearing this, the same technician exclaimed, “Wow! Finally! I think you did it. You did it!” He finally heard something that was meaningful, significant, impactful and relevant not just to the 800 million listeners, but every human being.   

The Rebbe’s taking responsibility for the whole world and expecting the same of us is something original. It’s been a long time since Jewish leaders had the vision to be able to think of the rest of the world, beyond just Jewish survival but applicable to everybody.

When it comes to Jewish survival or peace in Israel, the Rebbe’s demand was that we treat the subject from a traditional Jewish value perspective and not from a political perspective. Since Torah is true and politics is not, playing politics with Jewish lives is simply unacceptable. 

Our primary commitment and the government’s responsibility in Israel, first and foremost, has to be the safety of its citizens, not peace in the region. When you’ve assured the safety of your citizens, then you can talk peace. But peace at the expense of a single Jewish life is not acceptable — Rebbe’s demand and insistence that every time you compromise, you cheat on your own values, thinking that’s going to appease everybody, has proven to be a failure every time. 

The Rebbe’s attitude is to take a Jewish stance. It’s our obligations. We have instructions from G-D, from the Torah, and our sages, and that’s how we behave. If we’d only say that to the world, the world would respect it much more than insisting that we are a democracy, or that we’re the only democracy in the Middle East is not impressive. Instead we ought to speak in the name of G-D and act in a godly fashion and put value and truth above politics. 

9. The Connectivity of the Spiritual and the Physical:

The Rebbe would often respond to people who sought his counsel about their problems, be it physical or non-physical, to “check the Mezuzah.” He urged everyone to make sure that every door in their home (except the bathroom of course) has a kosher mezuzah. Writing a Mezuzah is a very exact and precise task, one mistakes renders it un-kosher and loses the holiness or effect of the Mezuzah. 

Now the obvious question is, a person writes to the Rebbe about problems with his visions, his leg, his back or his heart, and the Rebbe says with “check your Mezuzah.” How are we supposed to understand that?

One of the Rebbe’s themes is the inter-connectedness and continuant of the spiritual and the physical. They are not separate or two different truths —Everything begins spiritually and then it devolves until it takes on physical form. If something is incomplete, unhealthy or unwholesome in the physical, we ought to trace it back to its metaphysical origins. 

As an example, many ailments that doctors call “stress related” is metaphysical, yet it’s affecting the body, but the psychosomatic is only part of the story. It’s not just your thinking it’s also your soul. It’s also what’s going on deeper than your conscious thoughts. All of these things have an effect. 

The Rebbe being holistic, went to the source of the problem. The body and soul maybe very different in their natures but they are inter-dependant; one affects the other. An unhealthy body disturbs the soul, and a soul that is not interested in the body will not provide the body with what it needs. A body that refuses to accept its soul is going to have ailments.

Thus, the healthy relationship between body and soul is a necessary part of life and health. But that’s true on all levels, not only body and soul. How you make a living and the way your business functions also has a soul and a the body. In order for the body to be successful, the soul has to be healthy. So your business has to be moral and honest and the way that G-D intends in order for G-D’s blessings to flow. No matter how hard you work or how much overtime you put in, if you run a decent business, you’ve created the vehicle for which G-D can provide for you and G-D will provide a lot or a little, depending on what you actually need to fulfil your purpose in life. 

There’s a common theme of non-separation that threads the Rebbe’s message — No separation between a person and his livelihood. No separation between Jew and Jew. No separation between one part of Torah and another. No separation between body and soul. No separation between Creator and creation. The ultimate point of everything is oneness.

10. Moshiach Now!

Beginning with his very first farbrengen as Rebbe, the Rebbe spoke of this generation's mission to complete the Dira Betachtonim, of mankind making this world a dwelling place for G-D. He urged everyone to do everything within their power to help the world reach its ultimate state of perfection, when Godliness, not just goodness will be naturally apparent and prevalent.

The Rebbe was a passionate believer in the coming of the Mashiach. In a letter to Israeli President Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, the Rebbe wrote: "From the time that I was a child attending Cheder, and even before, the vision of the future Redemption began to take form in my imagination -- the Redemption of the Jewish people from their final Exile, a redemption of such magnitude and grandeur through which the purpose of the suffering, the harsh decrees, and annihilation of Exile will be understood."

The Rebbe would finish almost every public talk of his with a prayer for the imminent arrival of the Moshiach. As early as the 1970s, he sought to raise awareness of the Messianic age by encouraging people to learn and become knowledgeable in the laws of the Holy Temple, laws that will only apply when the Messiah finally arrives. 

Mashiach is the descendant of King David the royal family in Jewish history. Mashiach will, as our King, guide us, teach us, and inspire us in the new way of living once evil has been eradicated.

Hence, when we talk about Mashiach we’re simply saying the world as it is, is not acceptable. It’s has to get better than this. Much better and we’re actually promised that there will be a time when Mashiach will come and the world will be what it is meant to be. We’re just impatient for it to happen and we know who is going to guide us in that transformation.

The Rebbe would frequently quote from earlier rabbinic opinion that learning about the redemption would raise awareness of and could actually bring the Messiah sooner and that this generation was the last generation of the exile and would be the first generation of redemption. Such as the Chafetz Chaim and others, who stated that actively asking for the Messiah's coming is crucial.

Thus, it’s not a matter of believing in Moshiach, it’s a matter of preparing the world so that the world can be ready under Moshiach leadership --- the world as was intended to be when G-D created it.

May we merit the Mosiach Now! as we heed the teachings of our Rebbe, Menachem M. Schneerson, of Righteous memory.