By Rabbi Dovid Markel
Once, in a private audience that the Chassidic mentor, Reb Nissan Neminov had with the Lubavitcher Rebbe, the Rebbe enumerated three stages of the Chassidic Yeshivah, Tomchei Temimim:[1]
The first time period is when the Yeshiva was situated in Lubavitch. Lubavitch is a small town that is cut off from the happenings of the rest of the world. In such a location, it was not such a novelty that the students were completely immersed in the service of G-d.
The second phase is when the Yeshiva left Lubavitch and moved to the larger cities. In this era though there were terrible edicts against Judaism. This in turn awakened within the students a fiery passion of self-sacrifice and raised them slightly above the frivolity of corporeality and hedonism. For, when a Jew lives with constant self-sacrifice, the indulgences of this world hold less of a sway over him.
The Rebbe concluded: We are living in a third era. Although there is not a constant demand for self-sacrifice, there are an abundance of internal and external tribulations that face the modern student. In order to overcome these trials a special service of “iskafaya” (subjection of the animal-soul) is necessary. When a Jew walks in the street he must have tremendous self-control not to look in places that he should not.
In a way, this manner of service is tremendously more difficult than the ways that preceded it.
Although there is no specific date noted as to when this audience took place, it was surely before 1984 when reb Nissan passed. In the thirty years that have passed since then, the internal and external trials that a chossid faces on a daily bases have multiplied many-fold.
While often we may look at ourselves and have a hard time believing that we too are chassidim, we must realize that our challenges and missions are different than the generations that preceded our own.
In the merit of overcoming our challenges and making a dwelling place for G-d in the lowest of places we will merit to usher in the ultimate redemption—soon, in our times!
[1] R. Zushe Alperowitz, Farbrengen (Jerusalem 2014) Pg. 148
