Tuesday morning back in BR. Great to be home; deeply grateful to have taken my trip.
The last time I wrote was Friday, so here's a brief account on what transpired since.
We spent our first few days in Ukraine. Then we traveled to Rostov in Russia. 18 years ago, crossing from Ukraine to Russia was no big deal, similar to crossing state lines over here. Now, the border control has gotten so difficult - we literally had to walk across a significant distance dragging our suitcases - it was comical. I never saw Borat, but I've gotta believe this was straight out of there.
Rostov is a lower middle class city which has notable historic significance in Chabad.
In brief: The Bolshevik revolution in 1917 uprooted the Chabad community from its century-old centers - most notably the town of Lubavitch in White Russia - pushing them into temporarily safer zones. One of them was Rostov.
Rabbi Sholom Dovber Schneersohn (the Rebbe, after whom we've named our baby), his family and a group of disciples settled in Rostov. A multi-dwelling building was procured for the Rebbe and some families, and that became the center of Chabad life.
Meanwhile, plans were made to re-locate to Turkey, in search of (relative) religious freedom. But the Bolsheviks arrived in early 1920, making movement impossible, and Jewish-life very difficult.
The Rebbe passed away soon after (just before Pesach in 1920), leaving his son Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok (our Rebbe's father-in-law, who passed away in NY in 1950 and is buried immediately adjacent to the Rebbe here in Queens) as the Rebbe. I grew up, and still try to grow, with stories of their self-sacrifice at that time. Their commitment to Judaism was unwavering, flowing from a firm belief that the Bolsheviks only had control of their bodies, which they could torture and oppress, but that their souls were transcendent and beyond any oppressor's reach. With that as a sincere perspective, they had the ability to stare danger in the face without flinching from their ideals.
Several years ago, Chabad (Rabbi YY Aharonov, director of Chabad in Israel) was able to regain control of that multi-plex. It is now a Chabad synagogue and school. The school is off for the summer, so we only had a small group for Shabbos.
But it was awesome. Immersing myself in Rabbi SB's mikveh, praying in his study - feet from where he passed away (stories in themselves), reading the Torah for the minyan in that powerful place (part of that reading being "Look down from your Holy Abode in the Heavens and bless your people Israel") was very moving for me. This is an experience I can't relegate to my personal history; it needs to inform, inspire and guide my present and future.
More about Rostov. But not for this installment.
Sunday we spent in the town of Lubavitch, which in a tiny hamlet, but served as Chabad's center for 102 years. Amazing history, which gave greater context to my relationship of learning from the Rebbe. If the Rebbe is (metaphorically) the faucet watering my psycho-spiritual garden, then was visitng - and connecting with - the various stages of water-source and 'piping'.
So it was an amazing re-connect with deep principles: A desire to truly connect with G-d and humanity, genuine respect for others - including a willingness to (truly)inconvenience one's self to help another - , control of one's own base impulses, the struggle to maintain a higher-level consciousness of destiny, values and objectives.
Truly good to be back, but I hope to have a soul extension-cord which is still plugged in there, through the Rebbe who is here.
Roberta wrote...
On Elul 7, the spiritual message mentions the Shema and the Alter Rebbe, both so special to your journey that day and week, and of course, for all of us, all the time. It also mentions replacing a “hay’ with an “aleph” in a certain word of the Torah. I don’t claim to understand the significance of replacing a hay with an aleph, but in looking at Ashrei, I noticed that the phrase that begins with aleph refers to blessing G-d’s name forever. Perhaps that is also one aspect of the connection.
Please continue to share any aspects of your journey that you can. In so doing, the river that feeds our “psycho-spiritual” garden will be nourished as well.
Mendy Herson wrote...
Thanks for your post.
I'm of the belief that we're all on a spiritual journey. Some us don't know it. Some can feel that there's something happening, but can't identify it. Some are afraid to journey because the status quo seems safer.
I think that sums up a lot of what we do. If we can help people identify their respective journeys (which means their own human evolution), just as we try to focus on our own, then we live in a more dynamic, improving world.
pinevhhmi wrote...