Thursday, December 1, 2011

What makes a person a chossid of the Rebbe?


It’s often asked what exactly makes someone a Chabad Chossid? There are invariably many answers to the question. Is it someone who does Chitas, someone who wears a full beard and a koppata on Shabbos? Someone who learns chassidus Chabad. Someone who does the Rebbe's mivtzoim. But the real answer is a person who is connected to the Rebbe is a Chossid of the Rebbe. When a person is connected to the Rebbe and he does what the Rebbe has instructed one to do this is in truth what a Chossid is. A person can be just starting out on her journey to yiddishkeit and all she is doing is lighting Shabbos candles on Friday night, but since she is doing it because the Rebbe has asked her to do it then she is a Chossid of the Rebbe. And if a bochur in a Chabad yeshiva goes on mivtzoim on Friday or studies chassidus because this is what the Rebbeim have instructed as the sedder of the yeshiva then he is a Chossid of the Rebbe. The more one connects to the Rebbe the more he feels himself to be a true Chossid of his.  And then obviously the more one is connected then automatically he will do Chitas, learn chassidus, love his fellow and bring them closer to the Torah, etc. etc. Have a good Shabbos.