I am always gratified to experience how events come together in such a magnificent and beautiful manner in an obvious expression of divine providence, and I’d like to share with you how this past Monday was one of those days. With the help of my friend Armando Velez an editor at the Spanish language El Diario newspaper, I made a special trip to Juarez, and here is why it was so meaningful.
The foundational text of Chabad Chassidic philosophy is the book of Tanya, authored by the Alter Rebbe, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, and published in 1797. It is a guide for how everyone can and should serve G-d and actively contribute to making the entire world a place of divine peace and tranquility, based on the groundbreaking teachings of Rabbi Yisrael Baal Shem Tov, the founder of the Chassidic movement in the mid 1700s. Both the Baal Shem Tov and the Alter Rebbe were born on the 18th day of Elul, which this year was celebrated this past Monday.
Tanya has transformed countless lives over the centuries, not only through its intellectual and philosophical brilliance but mainly because its teachings are culled from the deepest levels of Torah scholarship and provide access to the innermost dimensions of our souls. It is aptly compared to a wellspring that provides spiritual life-giving waters for eternity to the spiritually parched. The Baal Shem Tov was told by Moshiach that the era of redemption when true peace and tranquility will reign depends on these teachings reaching everyone in the world, no matter how “far and out” they may be.
In 1978 the Rebbe launched a campaign to publish special editions of the Tanya in every city where even a single Jew currently lives, and explained the significance of the project through the analogy of the wellspring. A wellspring with a thin trickle of water eventually grows into a gushing river that reaches very far, but whereas the river can eventually dry up, the wellspring never does. In addition to bringing the messages of Tanya to everyone in every place by bringing books published elsewhere, printing a special edition of the Tanya in every location makes them the source of Tanya giving it the transformative energy of the wellspring that never dries up. When the local Jews now study the ideas of Tanya and work to apply them, they are dealing with a locally published book, emphasizing its local relevance.
Although we did not plan it this way, conflicting schedules delayed the project in such a manner that it ended up happening on a most auspicious day. On the birthday of both the Baal Shem Tov and the Alter Rebbe, the 8,092nd edition of Tanya, containing their transformative teachings, was printed in Juarez, Mexico. Here is another reason why Monday was so auspicious for this event. One of the themes in the second section of this week’s Torah portion - which was traditionally studied on Monday - emphasizes that when Jews are scattered around the world during exile, the presence of one single Jew in a remote location is profoundly important to G-d and plays an role in bringing the redemption through Moshiach.
As ink met paper in a Juarez printshop, a handful of local Jews gathered for the ceremony. We chatted about the upcoming High Holidays and one of them wrapped Tefillin on the spot. Everyone in the shop was invited to place charity in the Tzedaka box and when the first set of copies was complete, we studied some lines from the newly published Tanya.
Following the Rebbe’s lead in 1978, Juarez with its 2.1 million strong population and handful of Jews, became a wellspring of the Torah teachings that will prepare every individual and the entire world for the era of Moshiach, may this happen very soon!
Channa Kaplan wrote...