In Rabbi Shmuel Zucker’s kehillah, even the holy soul feels at home

Photos: Elchanan Kotler, Personal archives

Rabbi Shmuel Zucker had been teaching in yeshivos for over three decades, introducing his students to a world most of them didn’t know existed — the endless layers of depth inherent in every aspect of Yiddishkeit and accessible to anyone with a spiritual thirst — when talmidim realized it was time to open their own kehillah, a place where the neshamah feels at home even as it’s pulled back into the mundane world

“We should be zocheh that the Kehilla Kedosha should always remain me’uchad — united — together. How much nachas ruach… and how much taanug the Ribbono shel Olam has from the achdus of the kehillah and the bikush Hashem from the kehillah…

We should be zocheh to grow together —

ish es re’ehu ya’azoru

ul’achiv yomar chazak! ”

These were the supplications offered by Rav Shmuel Zucker, rav of Ramat Eshkol’s Kehilla Kedosha Beis Shlomo, as he stood at the entrance to the kever of the Baal Shem Tov in Mezhibuzh, Ukraine, five years ago.

A group of men hung back as their rav stood in fervent, tearful prayer, trembling at the very notion of entering the burial place of such a lofty tzaddik.

The thick blanket of awe was a jarring contrast to the mood that had prevailed just minutes earlier. As their bus rumbled through rural roads toward their destination, the travelers had burst into exuberant dancing and spirited singing, overcome by the joy of the moment.

And now there was fear. Reverence. Trepidation.

From dancing to trembling, from joy to fear — in the world of Rabbi Zucker, these pose no contradiction.

For decades, it has been his life’s mission to teach how one can dwell in the Heavens while rejoicing on Earth.

Deeply passionate about chassidus — both its lessons and their practical application — he maintains that the Baal Shem Tov brought this ability to the masses.

“V’hachayos ratzo vashov,” says the pasuk in Sefer Yechezkel, “and the chayos (celestial beings) ran and returned.” The Baal Shem Tov explains that this describes the struggle of the soul. On the one hand, it wishes to escape the clutches of physicality and soar unhindered through the world from which it came.

But on the other hand, this is not its mission. Hashem desires the melding of body with soul and thus chained the Divine spark to a sublunary base. The soul struggles mightily to break free; it reaches up — ratzo — but then, it must be brought back down: vashov.

A Yid must master the art of shuttling between Heaven and Earth.

But difficult as it is, the soul needn’t be despondent. For here, in our terrestrial reality, it has the gift of camaraderie.

It can bond with fellow souls, each offering the other chizuk.

Ul’achiv yomar chazak.

And this, too, is what Rabbi Zucker preaches. Let the soul rise, let the soul return.

But let it always know that it has a best friend ready at any moment to give it strength and encouragement.

Ul’achiv yomar chazak.