It was a poignant father-son moment, a powerful gift from leader to future leader.
That historic summer day in 1895, [Rabbi] Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, who would eventually be the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, was commemorating his fifteenth birthday. His father, the fifth Rebbe, Rabbi Sholom Dovber, took the teenager to visit the gravesites of their holy ancestors, the prior Chabad Rebbes.
Stepping into the cemetery’s small synagogue, the Rebbe approached the Holy Ark and opened its sacred doors. Borrowing imagery from the Biblical ‘binding of Isaac’, the Rebbe solemnly addressed his forebears: “I am bringing my son today for his 'Binding'…Abraham bound Isaac tightly…I, too, want my son's Binding to be appropriate and effective."
I understand the Rebbe to be saying: Just as Abraham secured Isaac in the family’s Monotheistic tradition, and in a relationship with the Divine, I am securing my son – your descendant - in a profound bond with his family heritage and their legacy of community leadership.
The Rebbe then went on to speak about commitment to doing the right thing, irrespective of how one feels at a given moment, by pointing to the Scripture’s language of “girding [one’s] hips with strength”.
Our bodies have some high-functioning organs, the Rebbe explained, like the brain and the heart. We also have some body parts with less complex character, like the hips and legs. Reasoning and feeling (brain and heart) are higher-order functions, while getting from place to place is more functional and comparatively simpler.
The Rebbe went on to explain that, at the same time, your legs are your body’s foundation. The brain and heart are sophisticated, but they stand on the firm support of legs. In that sense, the legs symbolize our concrete behavior. Understanding and appreciating the beauty of our spiritual world is a critical spice to life; but life’s foundation is our actions. Commitment to principled behavior is the foundation of a meaningful life.
Naturally, we prefer to fully appreciate the reason for a given action before we undertake it. We want to feel inspired and emotionally connected, and not act mechanically. At the same time, we shouldn’t simply postpone positive behavior and wait for our inspiration to kick in. We need to act.
So, how does one find the internal fortitude to persevere with proper conduct, if one isn’t feeling inspiration?
By "girding our hips with strength," i.e. by finding our deep core of commitment to following the guidance of our powerful history. The commitment – in and of itself – can be the trigger that activates our inspiration.
That is how a Rebbe framed with his son the covenant that Abraham forged for us all.
ב"ה