On 20 Av, the Rebbe Said: Don’t Think Small
A striking handwritten response to a donor who reduced his contribution reveals the extraordinary power of 20 Av, the day that begins shaping the year ahead.
by COLlive Editor · COLlive
On 20 Av, the Rebbe Said: Don’t Think Small
A striking handwritten response to a donor who reduced his contribution reveals the extraordinary power of 20 Av, the day that begins shaping the year ahead.
When someone reduced the amount he had planned to give to the Rebbe’s annual 20 Av appeal in memory of his father, the Rebbe responded sharply.
In a handwritten note, the Rebbe wrote:
“This is a strange approach. Just days before the bracha for a good inscription and sealing, which includes material wealth in the literal sense, this is the size of his vessel?”
The Rebbe’s words turned the usual calculation on its head. The donor was looking at what he could afford to give. The Rebbe urged him to consider the size of the bracha he hoped to receive. A smaller contribution meant creating a smaller vessel at the very moment Hashem’s brachos for the coming year were being drawn down.
The message carries particular significance today, 20 Av, exactly forty days before Rosh Hashanah.
In a sicha delivered 41 years ago, the Rebbe explained that the work of preparing for Rosh Hashanah begins on this day. Just as a child’s formation is determined forty days beforehand, the renewal of every Jew on Rosh Hashanah begins taking shape forty days earlier, on 20 Av.
The Rebbe said:
“We can therefore understand how crucial the preparation for Rosh Hashanah is forty days earlier, on 20 Av. The renewal of the creation of man on Rosh Hashanah, meaning each and every Jew, is already determined to a considerable degree, including the most essential matters, forty days beforehand, on 20 Av.”
Beginning the preparation today, the Rebbe continued, brings an increase in Hashem’s brachos for the entire year:
“By beginning the preparations for Rosh Hashanah on 20 Av, we bring about an increase in Hashem’s brachos, with great success in all the avodah that serves as preparation for Rosh Hashanah. Most importantly, there is the bracha of being written and sealed for a good year even before Rosh Hashanah.”
Today, on the yahrzeit of the Rebbe’s father, Jews around the world are joining the Rebbe’s shluchim in Kazakhstan, the land of Rabbi Levi Yitzchok Schneerson’s exile and final resting place.
Donations support the continued spread of Yiddishkeit throughout Kazakhstan and the upkeep of Rabbi Levi Yitzchok’s holy tziyun.
The Rebbe gave those who contributed in his father’s memory an extraordinary bracha.
“Up to five hundred times as much.”
Chof Av is not a day to think small.
It is a day to expand the kelim, give generously and prepare for a year of abundant brachos, materially and spiritually.
Click here to donate and be included for the bracha.
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