Kuntres Chai Elul 5703 · by the Rebbe Rayatz
The Kuntres, Story by Story
Not a book of fifty gates, but a Chai Elul collection: talks, one mystical discourse, and memoirs full of tzaddikim-stories. Here is what the Rebbe says in each — and the answer to a good question: is every story a gate?
⬇︎ Hebrew (DOCX) ⬇︎ Russian (DOCX) 🎧 Listen to it
→ How we learn from each story — sight (חכמה=ראייה) & hearing (בינה=שמיעה)
Preface
By the publisher (Kehot). 18 Elul is the birthday of the Baal Shem Tov (5458) and the Alter Rebbe (5505); chassidim mark it with gathering, tzaddikim-stories, and resolutions for Torah and ahavas Yisrael.
Talk 1 — The boy who didn't ask "why"
The Rebbe recalls 18 Elul 5653: his father told him to go to mikvah before dawn and skip Tachanun. He didn't ask why — "the word 'why' didn't exist in our home." His father then joyously named the birthday of the two luminaries, closed both doors, and delivered the ma'amar "Chamishim Shaarei Binah."
The Ma'amar — the Fifty Gates of Binah
The mystical core: "created" = revealed through avoda; the 49 gates + the fiftieth as rain and dew, effort and gift; חולה = 49; the fiftieth as the connector of Chochmah and Binah. Read the full lesson on the 50th gate →
Talk 2 — The Shavuos meal
The Tzemach Tzedek: a seudas mitzvah refines the soul's three garments — thought, speech, action. Story: R. David Tzvi Chen placed his hand on his forehead before a blessing — to reflect on Whom he was blessing.
Talk 3 — Eternal memory
18 Elul is the 2nd day of Creation. The Alter Rebbe cites the Baal Shem Tov on "לעולם ה׳ דברך נצב בשמים" — divine speech stands within creation, keeping it alive — and does so to make an eternal memorial to the Baal Shem Tov's birthday.
Talk 4 — The madwoman of Slutsk
A woman loses her mind; the Baal Shem Tov heals her on the condition that she and her husband part willingly, out of faith in a tzaddik. He testifies that a simple Jew who knew only to pray and say Tehillim, but was extraordinary in ahavas Yisrael, was awarded Gan Eden. The lesson: love of a fellow Jew outweighs everything.
Memoirs — the niggun, the angels, the last Shabbos
Stories the Rashab told: the Alter Rebbe on his last Shabbos — the angels Yaakov sent were real; the niggun of R. Michele Zlotchover ("arousal of great mercy") and the Baal Shem Tov's promise to whoever sings it in teshuvah.
The Baal Shem Tov's childhood
Orphaned at five — his father's last words, "Israelik, fear no one but God alone." Four years with the hidden tzaddik R. Meir in a forest hut; then Elijah the Prophet reveals himself with a smile and teaches him the great delight in Heaven from the simple praises of ordinary Jews. From here the Baal Shem Tov drew his path of love for every Jew.
R. Shmuel Munkes and the lungs
The mischievous chassid flings a pot of roasted lungs into water — ruled to have "wasted" — but the lungs turn out to have been non-kosher; a flash of divine spirit had saved the table. The lesson: the pull of the forbidden, and the strength of the animal soul.
The diary & the discourse on education
The Rebbe's own diary records how the education ma'amar was born: his father hands him old writings to compile and, glancing at it, says "עס פעלן די שטריקלעך" — "the connecting strings are missing — but as it is, it's already a ma'amar." The discourse itself, in seventeen chapters, calls education "a whole Torah," beginning with the educator examining himself.