Creating an Environment

30 Adar I 5782

Hayom Yom, 30 Adar I, Rosh Chodesh: “My father said: A chassid creates an environment. If he does not, he had better check his own baggage carefully, to see whether his own affairs are in order. The very fact that he fails to create an environment should make him as broken as a splinter. He must demand of himself: What am I doing in this world?”

“Throughout their lives, they did not cease even momentarily from binding their mind and soul to the Master of the universe” (Lessons in Tanya, Likutei Amarim, beginning of Chapter 34)

Tanya, describes how our ancestors, the patriarchs, never ceased for one moment ‘from binding their mind and soul’ to G‑d. So strong was their faith that literally everywhere they went they brought their connection with them, and they created an environment around it. Because this connection was too much for their descendants to sustain physically, “He commanded them immediately to erect for Him a Sanctuary, in which would be the Holy of Holies, wherein His presence would dwell” (Tanya, as above).

“You shall take the anointing oil and anoint the Mishkan and everything within it, and you shall sanctify it and all its furnishings; thus it will become a holy thing.” (Shemos 40:9)

This was the entire point of the Mishkan. To create an environment wherever the Jews went. An environment of holiness and a connection to G‑d. Even as imperfect Jews, we were supposed to have a place of Divine perfection in which we could experience holiness as it manifested itself in the physical world. Nowadays when we don’t have a Mishkan or a Beis HaMikdash, just like when we read Korbanos to replace the sacrifices, we have to create this environment through less physical methods, by creating an atmosphere of chassidus and holiness wherever we go.

“Your kingship is a kingship over all worlds, and Your dominion is throughout all generations.” (Tehillim 145:13)

The Hayom Yom tells us that when creating an environment of holiness is not working out, it is our fault and only our fault. Hashem’s kingship is “over all worlds” and His “dominion is throughout all generations.” There is no such a thing as a place that is distant or a Jew that is distant. There is no such thing as a time which precludes serving Hashem in holiness. The distance is within ourselves and our own preconceived notions. Eradicate those notions, and the holiness will flow, wherever we go.