My Rebbe and teacher, the holy Rebbe Aharon of Belz, zy"a, arrived in the Holy Land after escaping from the Holocaust on the 9th of Shvat 5704 (February 3, 1944), after losing all of his children and most of his Chassidim, who were all murdered by the Nazis, yimach shemam. I heard from the chossid R' Yosha Belzer z"l, that when the Belzer Rebbe conducted his first Tish on the first Friday night in the Holy Land, it was "Shabbos Shirah". The Rebbe said, "At the beginning of the Song at the Sea, it is written 'Then will Moses and the Children of Israel sing', which Rashi comments in the name of the Midrash, 'from here is a hint from the Torah to the Resurrection of the Dead'. How does this verse hint to the concept of the Resurrection of the Dead?"
The Rebbe zy"a explained that the Midrash could be understood as follows: The verse (13:17) "the children of Israel were "chamushim" when they went up out of Egypt. The simple meaning of the word "chamushim" means armed. Our Sages understand an additional meaning of "chamushim" - a fifth, that only 1/5th of the Israelites left Egypt. The other 4/5 died during the plague of darkness. This means that every Israelite had many relatives who perished shortly before their Exodus from Egypt. If this is so, it must have been very difficult to sing during such a tragic time. The answer to this is that they believed that death is only a temporary separation of the soul from the body until we are worthy to the Ultimate Resurrection of the Dead, and they were therefore consoled because they knew that they were destined to meet them again someday. This is what the Midrash means, that because we see that they were able to sing despite all the deaths, we see the tremendous faith the Israelites had in the future Resurrection of the Dead. This is a summary of the Rebbe's holy words.
It is worth adding, that the death of the Israelites during the plague of darkness was actually a tremendous benefit, as my holy ancestor Rebbe Tzvi Elimelech of Dinov, the Bnei Yissoschar zy"a, explains in his holy book Agra D'Kallah (Parshas Beshalach), that, according to Kabbalah, this was very important to ensure that Klal Yisrael would be redeemed from Egypt, and all of the souls that died during this time were worthy to receive a tikkun (spiritual rectification) directly from God, and this is what the Prophet said (Isaiah/Yeshayah 27:13) that at the Resurrection of the Dead "there will come those who were cast away in the Land of Egypt"
Similarly, the Bnei Yissoschar zy"a wrote in a letter to his Chassidim in Munkatch after the cholera epidemic in 5591 (1831), that this epidemic came for our benefit to draw our Redemption closer. Even if we are not worthy to the Geulah (Redemption) immediately, the suffering of the epidemic certainly shaved off several years from the difficult decree of Galus (Exile).
A believing Jew must believe that everything is for the good according to the Heavenly calculations that are above our understanding, and we must accept with joy things that appear to be bad, and we even recite a blessing to thank Hashem for this, as our Sages taught (Brachos 54a): "a person is obligated to bless God for the bad things that happen just as we bless God for the good".
The separation that exists between the Jews and the unbelieving heathen nations could be seen most clearly on the night of the First Passover in Egypt. On one side, the Egyptians were crying tremendously from the endless pain of the deaths of their first born, while on the other side the Israelites were sitting in their homes rejoicing, with worshipful songs of praise and thanksgiving to Hashem, even though they themselves lost most of their own families only a brief time before this!
In the merit of this joy, they were worthy at that time to leave Egypt, because the energy generated by this joy, through faith, brought down tremendous salvation, as is taught in our sacred literature.
A story is told that a Chassid visited his Rebbe, the Seer of Lublin ZY"A, to spend the High Holy Days in his community. Upon greeting the Rebbe, the Rebbe told him to return home immediately. Puzzled and saddened, the Chossid turned around and embarked on his journey back home.
The Chassid lodged at an inn where he encountered a group of Chassidim traveling to Lublin to spend Yom Tov with the Rebbe. They greeted this fellow Chassid and took note of his sad expression. Upon hearing his strange tale, they said to him, "How can this be? We are all going to the Rebbe and you are going back home?! Impossible! You must come with us!" They drank a toast, L'chaim, and danced with him in a spirit of happiness and rejoicing.
Afterwards, they all travelled on to Lublin. When this Chassid went back in to see the Rebbe, the Rebbe told him, "you should know I sent you home because I foresaw from Heaven you were destined to die, and there was nothing I could do to help you. I did not want you to die here so far away from your family, so I sent you home. However, when you were at the inn and the Chassidim rejoiced with you, the power of joy annulled the decree! Your personal religious joy accomplished what I was unable to accomplish. You are now welcome to stay here and spend the holiday season with us."
This joy, which the Hasidim experienced, was not a temporary joy that any human can experience at a time when they imbibe alcohol, but rather it was a true joy which remains constantly in the heart of every individual who lives with faith and trust in Hashem. These Hasidim engaged in an external expression of drinking whiskey in order to arouse and encourage the joy in the depths of their hearts.
Concerning such a manner of drinking, the holy Rebbe Meir of Apta, zt"l, author of Or LaShamayim, teaches, "when we will be worthy to greet the true Moshiach, we will take a bottle of whiskey with us, to demonstrate how we survived this long exile, by the power of joy".
According to this, we can understand why we drink wine during the Passover Seder, on the evening of the Night of Faith, because it is written concerning wine "and wine causes human hearts to rejoice" (Psalms/Tehillim 104:15), and we lift up the cup of wine and recite Vehi Sheamda "and this", the attribute of joy, which is aided by the wine we hold in our hands, "is that which stood for our ancestors and for us", and through this we succeeded in surviving and thriving in every difficult situation in history.
This is why we continue the recitation, "because in every generation they stood up against us to destroy us, and Hashem rescued us from their hand", meaning that faith in Hashem rescued us from all damaging demonic forces, and from all suffering, because faith brings us to true, constant joy, in any type of situation, and in this merit we are worthy to incredible salvation, just like it was on the day we left the Land of Egypt.
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