How Chasidim of Shuvu Banim Immersed in -25 Degree Ice â Dealing with Difficult Goals in Life â Râ Safrin
âALL THE ELDERS EVADED THE WALK TO PHARAOH. ONLY MOSHE AND AHARON HAD THE STRENGTH TO FINISH THE MISSION AND TO OVERCOME ALL THE OBSTACLESâ â THE TZADDIK RABBI MORDECHAI SAFRIN SHLITâA IN A SPECIAL TALK FROM LIKUTEY HALACHOS, HILCHOS SHELUCHIM. RAV SAFRIN BRINGS US TO THE ADVICE WHICH IS SO IMPORTANT FOR OUR GENERATION, âSTEP AFTER STEP ONE PROGRESSES TO THE GOAL.â RAV SAFRIN RELATES A PERSONAL INCIDENT IN WHICH THE CHASIDIM OF OUR REBBE RAV ELIEZER BERLAND SHLITâA REMAINED IN KIEV WITHOUT A MIKVEH, AND WITH SELF-SACRIFICE IMMERSED AMIDST FREEZING TEMPERATURES OF -25 DEGREES C (-13 F) WITH VIOLENT WINDS. RAV SAFRIN BEARS WITNESS THAT FOR HIM THIS WAS AN ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TEST. DID HE IMMERSE IN THE END? âThis is an aspect of all ten plagues which Moshe brought onto them. Moshe Rabbeinu went into Pharaoh with no fear at all. Moshe Rabbeinu has no fear at all. The Kadosh Baruch Hu said to him: Take 70 men from the Elders of Israel and go to Pharaoh. He took 70 elders and went to Pharaoh. Afterwards, itâs written: And Moshe and Aharon went to Pharaoh â where are the 70 elders. One by one they dropped out. âRashi says: They evaded. They didnât flee. They found some excuse. One suddenly pulled some muscle in his leg. One suddenly [said:] I forgot the food on the stove. Each one found some excuse and said: I canât. They couldnât stand up to the terror. It was terrifying to enter there. Going now to provoke the wicked person, to provoke Pharaoh. No way. People donât leave there alive. No one leaves there alive. âThis was exactly what was difficult. Suddenly a person comes whoâs five meters tall, large like that, and says Hashem sent him. So fine. He begins to perform miracles and says a number of code-words. Then they went with him. But in actuality mamash â there still wasnât faith. There was weak faith. They went to Pharaoh â they began to go. I wouldnât have even began to walk, but they began to walk. âWe once had an incident in Kiev. We were there in some hotel. They didnât allow us to reach Uman. In the morning there was no mikveh, because we couldnât travel to Uman, and there was no mikveh in the hotel, but there was a river not far away. The problem was that it was minus 25 degrees [C], and this is coooolld. This is cold, something terrible, but to âShuvu Banimâ it doesnât matter to them that this is cold. They went to the mikveh. âAll my colleagues went to the river to immerse, but I couldnât leave the room. I couldnât. Where? To immerse in this cold?  I canât immerse, I canât. Then everyone left, and I remained alone in the room. âI said to myself: I canât immerse, but to pray -- I can. I searched for prayers in Likutey Tefilos about the Mikveh. Nothing. Only Shavuos â prayers 50, 56 â the Mikveh of Shavuos. I said, fine, Iâll say the âMikveh of Shavuos.â I said the prayer. A thought came to me: Fine, I wonât immerse, but Iâll go to the river. To go out â I went out. To do hisbodedus, Iâm going out. The problem is the immersion. Iâll walk until the river, but to immerse -- I canât. âI reach the river. What do I see there? Immersing in pairs, because the moment that a person leaves the water heâs frozen. His hair is frozen, his mustache is frozen, his ears are frozen, his fingers are frozen. Itâs impossible to get dressed, impossible to close the buttons, impossible to move the fingers. He needs someone to dress him. A person gets out of the water, and his friend dresses him. This is coldâŚâ Someone in the audience asks, âWhat, itâs impossible to close oneâs hands, Rav Mordechai?â Rav Safrin: âPerhaps a little bit. Itâs freezing. This is freezing. The hair: you need to be careful not to break your beard. It could break. This is ice. How do you get out? The water is 4 degrees. The water isnât freezing. If itâs freezing, itâs between 0 and 4 degrees, and underneath the water is flowing. Underneath itâs not cold.  The problem is the wind. You go out to wind thatâs minus 25 degrees. This is like needles. âSo thenâŚwalk until itâs no longer possible. This is what happened with the Elders. A portion certainly didnât want to [even] begin to go. A portion began to walk, but until they got closeâŚÂ The closer they get, they see the terror. Then they step backwards. Only Moshe and Aharon were the lone ones who went in until Pharaoh. [They] spoke to him and made everything happen. âOur Rebbe Rav Berland then wasnât in Kiev. He wasnât with us.  Maybe he immersed in another mikveh. Maybe he didnât go on that trip, I donât remember. He travelled, but he didnât always go in. No, he went inâŚIn my trips he always got through, but I donât know. He didnât go with us to the river.  Maybe he went to another mikveh. I donât know, I didnât track him.â Someone asks, âDid you manage to immerse in the end, Rabbi Mordechai?â âYes, Baruch Hashem. The entire thing is to do what is possible. This is something which you learn little by little, that even if itâs impossible to do everything that you need to do, but itâs possible to do half, [then] do half. Then one sees that he takes another step forward. He goes another step forward until in the end he finishes everything. âBut here the Elders couldnât, they didnât succeed. They started. This isnât a simple thing. Moshe says to them to come to Pharaoh. What, go to Pharaoh? Have you gone out of your mind? Are you crazy? This isnât simple, the way to the palaceâŚThis isnât a palace which is situated on the street. There is a complete park around the palace. This is a long way from the entrance gate until the palace. On the way are lions, leopards. Thereâs columns for hanging â all the criminals they would hang. âThey would leave them there hanging, so that anyone who would come understands that if he so much as irritates the king, then they would send him to the lions or the leopards. Even if he had an appointment â say one incorrect word⌠âThere was a story of one of the Amoraim. I donât remember his name. He argued with the king and proved to him that heâs mistaken about something. They said to him, âYouâre right, but the fact that you proved that the king was mistaken â because of this, he needs to kill you.â See the video of Rav Safrin (in Hebrew)