On the eve of this Yud Bais (12th of) Tammuz, a few hours before Shabbat, we saw a small turtle (yes, a turtle!) walking across the sidewalk in our driveway alongside busy Fuller Road. It was making its way towards UAlbany. Hope it fares well!
This was a first. But what’s the message?
Now the turtle (though some dispute the translation, its how I was taught in my youth) is mentioned as an illustration explanation in Tanya Chapter 21, how the outer shell of concealment is part of the turtle itself, not separate from it. And so it is with G-dliness & the Tzimtzum.
Yud Bais Tammuz is the date which we celebrate the story of (the arrest &) the liberation of the Friediker Rebbe, R Yosef Yitzchak (1880-1950), from Stalin Communist prison. It is a story of (oft-repeated Chassidic themes of) concealment & revelation, and indeed, as Tanya illustrates with a turtle, how somehow, even the concealment is revealed to be part of the revelation…