The twenty-fourth "cheder" in the palace of Hayom Yom.
Monday, 13 Teves, 5703.
Chumash lessons: Vayechi, Sheini, with Rashi's commentary.
Tehillim, on the 13th of the month, from chapter 69 through chapter 71 inclusive.
Tanya, we are in the middle of chapter 9, from the words "haki naeh" until the words "kerish fish."
A brief teaching whose source is a letter that the Rebbe Rashab wrote to the Rebbe Rayatz, and among the things the Rebbe heard in the year 5690 from the beloved one, from Rav Aryeh. The Rebbe recorded it in his notes, and here he transcribes the saying. It is a very short saying, yet its message is wondrous and obligating.
Let us first read the entire teaching as it stands, and afterward we will expand upon it a bit. The first sentence: "When one sets up a lantern, objects gather around the light" — a parable, of course — "for light draws" [in Yiddish: light pulls]. The light draws people to come to it.
Regarding the expression "when one sets up a lantern": there is a letter that the Rebbe wrote to the mashpia Rabbi Nissan Nemanov in the year 5712, who was a mashpia in the yeshivah in Brunoy, France. The Rebbe rouses him to make plans for the farbrengens that must be held during the month of Kislev, and writes to him that one must take care that the farbrengens should not be held only in the yeshivah or in the homes of the chassidim, but should also be held in all the synagogues connected to the matter, and likewise that one should make an effort that the farbrengen be publicized in the newspapers and through additional means.
The Rebbe explains to him the idea — why it needs to be publicized: since there is the saying "when one sets up a lantern," which draws the light, those who are outside also need to know that a lantern has been set up, and if they know — they too will gather around it.
And where must the lantern be placed? In the street — in a place that is "outside." There are those whom one can reach directly and speak with, and there are those whom one cannot even meet and does not know; yet the very fact that you publicize and it becomes known that you have set up a lantern — this itself draws the light.
As the Rebbe once emphasized in a talk, a teaching different in its wording but identical in its idea: the Rebbe Rashab once said that a chassid is like a "lamplighter." A "lamplighter" — for there was once an arrangement whereby in the streets there were points of illumination, and a person had to go around with a torch of fire, reaching every such point that was meant to spread light, and kindle it. So it is with the chassid: there are many Jews, and every Jew is a potential source of light, and therefore one must go and illuminate.
And on that same occasion the Rebbe said: Sometimes you do not see people around you — perhaps because there are no people, or because they are present but hidden away in all sorts of holes and crevices. Even so, you are not exempt from your task: you must light the lantern, and then people will gather around it, hearing that there is a lantern here, and ultimately they too will themselves become lamplighters.
The expression in the teaching — who is gathered? "Those who desire the light gather together." In the phrase "those who desire" there is a very interesting emphasis. In the year 5708, the Rebbe wrote a letter to the chassid Rabbi Yehuda Chitrik, and roused him that he could have an effect on other Jews and draw them close to Chassidus — like oil, whose nature is to spread through everything and penetrate every place.
Rabbi Chitrik wrote back to the Rebbe and asked what to do with people who are closed off within themselves and within their own world, whom it is difficult to reach — how can one draw them out of such a state? The Rebbe answered him with this teaching, and said to him: Be precise in the wording. It says "when one sets up a lantern, those who desire the light gather to it" — who are "those who desire"?
The Rebbe says that it is written in Chassidus that there is a difference between the word "chafetz" and the word "ratzon": "ratzon" is an external will, whereas "chafetz" expresses an inner will. This means: there are Jews who outwardly say that they do not want at all, that they have no connection and no interest; but the truth is that every Jew, in his innermost self, does want — there is no Jew who does not want, as in the well-known ruling of the Rambam in matters of divorce, that every Jew truly wants to fulfill the will of Hashem.
Consequently, since every Jew inwardly desires this, even if it is not currently visible openly, then every Jew is one who "desires" the matter. And if you would only set up a lantern, you would cause all the Jews who desire — and who are those who desire? Every Jew is one who desires — that their inner desire should be aroused outwardly, and then they will truly come and draw near to the lantern.
In another letter the Rebbe writes that if we say "one sets up a lantern" and the lantern draws light — then when you set up the luminary of Chassidus, the luminary within Torah which is the teaching of Chassidus, which is far more than a lantern, then certainly and surely they will gather around it. And this must be done in such a way that even one who is on a different street, who is not near the lantern and the luminary that has been kindled — one must convey the message to him in fitting words, so that he will know that here there is a lantern, that here the light is being kindled, and this itself will draw him.
And this brings me to an interesting point that the Rebbe Rayatz once wrote. There were chassidim who wrote to the Rebbe Rayatz two complaints, or perhaps two questions: The first — that they have no one to whom to speak Chassidus; they want to, but there is no one, there is no one to speak with. And the second — even if there are "clients," there is no one to say it; even the people themselves do not feel worthy and suitable enough to say it.
The Rebbe Rayatz would answer them thus: To the claim that there is no one to teach — one must remember the saying I heard from my father, which he wrote to me in a letter, "When one sets up a lantern, those who desire it gather to it." What does "you have no one to teach" mean? Set up a lantern, and you will see that suddenly there are those who awaken and want it, and they will gather around you.
As for the second objection — that there is no one to speak, and that you feel you are simply not suited for it — the Rebbe Rayatz would often say: "I have seen with my own eyes" that a person who thinks he is incapable begins anyway, and after some time one suddenly sees that he succeeds in speaking in a wonderful and fine manner, and literally brings about a revival, a resurrection of the dead, in his entire surroundings. So too a person who thinks he does not know, cannot, and is not capable — begin with your "I do not know," and in the end you will see that you too can accomplish a great deal.