On the 3rd of Tammuz, 5754, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, of blessed memory, passed away. Obviously, for anyone connected to Chabad and, therefore, to the Rebbe, this is a day of great significance. This is not to say that it is a day of sadness, as our sages explain that the soul of the deceased is elevated on this anniversary, and, moreover, the work the Rebbe accomplished throughout his life is revealed on earth with greater force and power on that day.
Beyond the various mystical explanations about the Rebbe's continued life and influence on our lives, we must understand what the Rebbe left as a plan of action for the following years, until the coming of Messiah, which is soon in our days.
Of course, I am not really the one to say the Rebbe left this or that in particular; there are people with much greater knowledge of the Rebbe's teachings, much closer to him while he was alive in our world, who can state with greater authority what the Rebbe's legacy is.
However, having made this introduction, I will try to explain a legacy of the Rebbe, which is a completely new issue compared to previous generations.
First, we must understand that the Rebbe embodied the link between the ancient world and the modern world. That is, old Europe, full of small towns where great geniuses and Torah scholars lived, great Hasidic masters who, with their words, revived a Judaism weakened by suffering. That Europe replete with yeshivas (institutes of study), where the Beit HaMidrash (house of study) was a fundamental part of the town, where the inhabitants passed daily to pray and study, or even to listen to a lesson on Ain Yaakov (stories from the Talmud).
And the new world, where science and technology were everyday matters, where politics ceased to be simple monarchies and moved to complex systems of government, where mass communication and information opened the doors to new horizons in many fields.
The Rebbe participated in both worlds and was an expert in both. He was a Torah genius with profound erudition and vision, while also being a scientist who associated with the leading figures in science at universities in France and Germany during the 1920s.
Then, he knew how to combine the two universes and reveal the Truth of God in both, showing how they could coexist and not contradict each other.
With this, we can understand the Rebbe's revolutionary vision. Generally, we speak of Simcha (joy) and Merirut (bitterness). These are two pillars of service to God, each achieving a different result in a person: joy elevates a person above all their difficulties, while bitterness breaks down a person's insensitivity and overcomes their problems. And there is a time for everything.
However, the Rebbe taught us that even those aspects of serving God that involve bitterness should be done with joy by our generation. In other words, we are not equipped to deal with bitterness. At our current level, we relate to joy, not bitterness. Even breaking our inclination toward evil should be done with joy.
And this is something revolutionary. On a day like the 3rd of Tammuz, when all the Rebbe's work rises and is revealed in this world with greater force, may we, through the merit of the "Head of the Children of Israel," have true Simcha, the joy of being connected with the Source of Life, with God, and may we joyfully bring the Messiah swiftly in our days. Amen.