The Nechoma Greisman Anthology

Introduction — The Cosmic Mission

These excerpts from a shiur given by Nechoma in honor of the Sixth of Tishrei -- the yahrzeit of Rebbetzin Chana, the Rebbe's mother -- with the addition of a few of her handwritten notes, stand in place of an introduction to this selection from her written works, classes and thoughts. The excerpts speak for themselves, and seem to encapsulate many of the matters which occupied Nechoma during her life. G-d willing, the complete shiur will be found in the forthcoming volume of transcriptions of Nechoma's taped shiurim.

A section in the book of Shmuel I describes how Chana the prophetess accompanied her husband, Elkana, to the Mishkan in Shilo. She cried bitterly because she did not have any children. Her husband, Elkana, became aware of how empty and sad her life was, and he said to Chana, "Why are you so sad? Am I not better for you than ten sons? There are things in life other than children. Hashem has seen fit to prevent you from having children. But you're a good woman, you do a lot of chesed, there are many mitzvos to fill your life with, other than children!"

Now, interestingly, we do not see that Chana said anything to her husband in reply. Actions speak louder than words. She didn't correct him, she didn't reprimand him, she didn't contradict him, she just went ahead to the Mishkan and davened from the depths of her heart, and she cried out to Hashem that He should bless her with children. She didn't accept Elkana's attempt to appease her. She did not make peace with the fact that she would not be able to bear children. The section goes on to describe how Eli, the Kohen Gadol at the time, watched Chana davening silently. At first he reprimanded her, accusing her of being intoxicated, but later, when he discovered that she was simply pouring her heart out to Hashem, he blessed her that she should have children. The story has a happy ending, for she became the mother of the great prophet, Shmuel, and six other sons as well. Commentaries explain that she is the joyous Em HaBanim mentioned in Tehillim, and spoken of in Hallel.

Chana had made an oath that if she were blessed with a child, she would dedicate him to the service of Hashem. When Shmuel was two years old, she made good her word. She brought her young son to the Mishkan, and there he remained serving Hashem for his entire life, becoming a prophet of the stature of Moshe Rabbeinu. However, in the first two years of her child's life, when he was still a nursing infant, Chana did not go to Shilo, where the Mishkan was located. Until that time, before she had children, she always went along with her husband. But, when Shmuel was born, she chose to stay home and take care of him.

From these facts about Chana, the Rebbe has derived several teachings, hora'os, which apply to every Jewish woman. One of these teachings is the great importance of every single Jewish child. We live in a world today that tells us that having children is not such a great thing. It's not so important, especially if you already have two. And if you already have three, or four, five, six, seven -- it's enough already. Maspik kvar! Who needs another one? We live in a world that is filled with propaganda, if you will, regarding family planning, limiting the size of your family, and spacing the children conveniently apart. But the Rebbe emphasizes the value of every single Jewish child, even if it's the tenth, or the eleventh, or the twelfth, or the fifteenth. Every Jewish child has tremendous importance, not only to his mother and father and siblings, but to the Jewish People as a whole. And as long as Hashem has granted a woman the ability to give birth to another Jewish child, then that is her first mission, her most importance shlichus in the world, which takes precedence over any other mission, and any other activity that she is able to do. So that each woman who has a child, even if it is her tenth, has mesirus nefesh to bring that child into the world.

The Rebbe mentioned that some women feel that they have done their duty in the way of childbearing. They have a girl and a boy, a big one and a little one. Perhaps now is the time to take a break, not (G-d forbid) to do a little tap dancing, but to do worthy things, mitzvos, like bikur cholim, being active in the Rebbe's mivtzoim campaigns, etc. So what's wrong with that? That's very noble, very right. The Rebbe responded as follows: Anything that a Jewish woman could do for the world, for Am Yisroel, had she not been pregnant and given birth to that child, comes nowhere near the great accomplishment of having, and bearing, and bringing up another Jewish neshama in the world. No one should think that anything is more important than that activity. And if Hashem has decreed that a certain sector of the population will have the shlichus of bearing and tending to and educating a large family, then those women must know their priority -- that their main contribution to Am Yisroel is another Jewish neshama.

Moreover, this also hastens the coming of Mashiach, because our Sages declare that, "Mashiach will not arrive until there will be no more neshamos in Guf." Now, the word "Guf" in this context does not follow its traditional meaning of "body." Here the word "Guf" refers to a heavenly treasury. Just as there is a treasury of rain, and of other things, there is also a treasury of neshamos that have not yet been born. Somewhere in the upper worlds there is this treasury, and its name is "Guf." And only when all the neshamos in this treasury have been born will Mashiach come.

The Rebbe has repeated time and again that our generation is on the threshold of Mashiach, and so this mission becomes even more vital than in the past. After I had given birth to my sixth child, my parents came from the United States to celebrate the birth and the bris. It was a Thursday night, close to midnight, and I was taking care of the laundry, the cooking, nursing the baby and the phone. My father was sitting in the dining room, learning. At some point he looked up from his sefer, and said, "This is the most difficult of all the Rebbe's mivtzoim." We know that if it were not for the Rebbe pushing us and encouraging us, we might not have the strength and motivation and determination which is required after seven, eight, and nine children. It was this sicha in which the Rebbe spoke about the mission, the cosmic mission, of bringing each Jewish child into the world.

Perhaps a woman's ability to bear children, or the lack of it, is due to previous gilgulim, incarnations. We must believe in gilgulim to make any sense of this world. This world is like a puzzle. Did you ever clean the house and find one piece of a puzzle? What is it? Is it a tree? Is it a house? It just looks like a blob of color. It has no meaning until you find the rest of the puzzle, and then, all of sudden...

There is a famous story from the Baal Shem Tov and the Maggid of Mezritch, regarding gilgulim. The Maggid had been learning the Zohar's commentary to the portion of Torah called Mishpatim. The Zohar explains that this parsha contains the secret of gilgulim. The Maggid was puzzled by this comment, and asked his Rebbe, the Baal Shem Tov, for an explanation. But the Baal Shem Tov merely suggested that the Maggid go to a certain spot in the woods outside the city, and carefully observe whatever would take place. Those events would answer his questions.

The Maggid dutifully did as the Baal Shem Tov had suggested. The next morning, he positioned himself discreetly at a vantage point from which he could see the grassy clearing, next to a river, of which the Baal Shem Tov had spoken. He did not have long to wait. An obviously wealthy man came riding up to the patch of grass, and since it was a hot day, he took off his coat and hat, washed his face and hands in the river, ate, and lay down for a nap on a silk sheet which he had spread out for this purpose. Some time later, he woke up, put on his coat and hat, and left. It was only after the wealthy man had left that the Maggid noticed a bulging wallet which the wealthy man had obviously dropped.

But, right away, another person appeared. He was very obviously poor. His clothing was tattered, and his hat was old and shapeless. He was also feeling the heat of the day, and just as he was about to take off his coat to rest under a tree at the edge of the grassy spot, he spied the wallet. Without stopping for a moment, he picked up the wallet, pocketed it, and ran off with it.

A few minutes later, a man of dignified appearance, possibly a Rav or a Rosh Yeshiva, also passed by the spot in the woods. He too, decided to take a rest there. After he had been sitting there for some time, the wealthy man came galloping up to the grassy patch to search for the wallet which, by this time, he had discovered was missing. Seeing the Rav sitting in the same spot where he had been lying earlier that morning, he naturally assumed that the Rav had found his wallet. He demanded its immediate return, but when he was greeted by the innocent protests of the Rav that he knew nothing about it, the wealthy man flew into a rage. He began forcefully searching all of the Rav's pockets and possessions. Finding nothing, he vented his anger and frustration on the Rav, to whom he gave a sound beating. He then left in a huff.

At the end of the day, the Maggid returned to the Baal Shem Tov, even more mystified as to the secret of gilgulim than he had been some hours before. But his teacher explained the story behind the events he had just witnessed. In a previous lifetime, there were two business partners who had a falling out over some financial matter. They decided to go to the local Rav to solve their dispute. The Rabbi was busy with some other matter, and without much thought, he decided in favor of one of the partners. The other partner immediately paid his colleague the large sum which was the subject of their dispute.

After some time, all three -- both partners and the Rav -- passed on from this world. When they appeared before the Heavenly Court, it was found that the Rav had inadvertently favored the wrong party, due to his hastiness and lack of research. The Beis Din then decided that all three would have to return to earth to make amends. The rich man was the partner who had unwittingly gained money that did not belong to him, and the poor man who found it was the unfortunate partner who had been forced to part with his money. And the Rav also got his due reward...

This is also true of our lives. They make no sense, unless you know what has happened earlier, in a previous gilgul, or what will happen later. Perhaps a woman with ten children didn't have any in a previous gilgul. And she needed to go through the experience of raising children to complete the mission of her neshama. Perhaps the woman who cannot find a shidduch, and therefore cannot have children, had done that mission to the utmost in a previous gilgul. Who knows? But one thing we do know: "G-d's judgments are true, they are righteous together" (Tehillim 19:10). When the entire picture is seen altogether, then it becomes apparent that His judgments are true. There are no mistakes. Everyone has been given, exactly and precisely, the shlichus that requires her to develop those angles and areas of her life that were not completed in previous visits to this earth...

The saintly previous Rebbe's name was Rebbe Yosef Yitzchok. On many occasions, and particularly during shnas ho-arboim -- forty years after the passing of the previous Rebbe on the tenth of Shevat, 5710, the Rebbe spoke about the significance of his name, which comes from the verse in the Torah that Rachel said as she gave birth to him -- "Yosef Hashem li ben acher" -- "May God grant me another son." The Rebbe explains that we too must ask Hashem to grant us the abilities to make from an acher, someone who is in the category of "other' -- a ben, a son of G-d.

Take a Jew who considers himself an acher. He thinks he's American, he thinks he's English, he thinks he's French. Here is a Jew who doesn't really care about being Jewish, who does not count himself as being part of the Jewish nation. A Jew who would write his nationality as U.S. rather than Jewish. Take that Jew and work with him by showing him a Shabbos, by showing him hospitality, by teaching him and helping him find out about his Jewishness, so that the next time somebody asks him to answer a questionnaire, he will write his nationality as "Jew". Then you have made an acher into a ben, into a son of the Jewish people, and a son of G-d. That was the lifework of the Rebbe Yosef Yitzchok, making many many achers into banim and banos of Am Yisroel.

What is the significance of the name Yitzchok? It derives from the word tzchok, like simcha -- meaning laughter and joy. The way of Chabad, the way of Lubavitch, and the way of Rebbe Yosef Yitzchak's successor, the Rebbe Shlita, is not to go about this work of making an acher into a ben with a stick, and bang people over the heads if they don't change their ways. On the contrary, the way to bring someone closer is with simcha, with joy, with a big smile and lots of warmth and friendliness...

As the years go by, we are coming that much closer to the arrival of Mashiach. Our Sages teach us that there will be different periods in the era of Mashiach. During the final period, Hashem will remove the ruach hatumah, the power of impurity, from the world. [This will be the time of techias hameisim (resurrection of the dead) Ed.]. But in the meantime, in order to pave the way for a life of more kedushah and less tumah, or no tumah at all, the Rebbe has instructed us how we ourselves can remove the tumah in many small ways -- by getting rid of treif animal toys, by more tznius, by not using those English names, by teaching our children to say Baruch Hashem. In all different ways, we can add more kedushah, and remove the tumah. We must get ready for a new world -- the world in the time of Mashiach. And so we have to keep in touch with the Rebbe, listen carefully, and know that EVERY hora'ah is another step in getting the world ready for a life of Mashiach.