The Tanna D’vei Eliahu says that the Cherubim predated the world—the Cherubim came before the act of creation. Just as there were Cherubim in the Beis HaMikdash, so too are there Cherubim in heaven that were created before the act of creation. The Eitz HaChaim says that the Cherubim are the root of the creation. This is why it says “from between the two Cherubim,” because the whole world, the entire Torah and all of the universe, everything was created from the two Cherubim. Everything came from the two Cherubim.

   Every child is the aspect of the Cherubim. In fact, the Cherubim were children, as Rashi says, that the Cherubim had faces like children. Children, who have never sinned or fallen into forbidden sights or thoughts, are like the Cherubim.  The world exists in the merit of these children; they are higher than angels. Even the angels have no conception of the greatness of a child.

   A child has never sinned in his life. He hasn’t done any damage to the world, which is why he is higher even than the sefirah of Keser. His very breath is the holiest thing in the world. “The breath in which there is no sin,” which is drawn down from the world of Atzilus, from the Cherubim that are from the world of Atzilus, and all the abundance that flows down to the world comes via these children. The world exists because of the breath of the children of Beis Rabban. The Zohar says in Vayikra that when a child says the letter aleph, at the same time the whole firmament is shaken up and all the angels and all the Seraphim become fire in all the worlds. None of the Seraphim, none of the angels, and none of the tzaddikim can look at the light that comes down and enlightens all the worlds. When a child says the letter aleph, it is impossible to imagine in any form or fashion the lights that come down and are revealed. When a child says aleph, 360,000 lights descend. The hidden light descends, and so the whole world and all the worlds and the whole generation depend on the breath of the children of Beis Rabban.

   The Rebbe brings in Torah 37:4, “and through the charity of the Land of Israel, you include yourself in the air of the Land of Israel which is an aspect of holy breath in which there is no sin…which is the aspect of the breath of the schoolchildren.” The Rebbe says that one can only reach the level of the breath of schoolchildren by giving charity to the Land of Israel. If he merits giving charity, he reaches the level of “the breath that has no sin,” which is the aspect of a child. This is to say that at any moment a person can go back to being seven years old. The whole point is to return to being a seven year old child. One’s entire life, one should be seven years old. You can even be 70 or 100, but you need the breath that has no sin! You need to be a child of seven years old. If you give charity, then each time you give charity you receive that breath that has no sin and you become the aspect of the Cherubim—you become part of the Cherubim.

   “The righteous blossoms are seen in the land” (Shir HaShirim 2:12). The righteous blossoms are the schoolchildren. When children come into the world they are holy and pure. They don’t want to dirty themselves with the filth of this world. A child doesn’t see what is going on in the streets. He knows that everything in the street is tumah. The child knows that the whole world is a sewer. It is already clear to him at age three—it’s all clear to him. Everyone can achieve that aspect of a child. Everyone has to try and remain a child. Hashem wants that a person to remain a child his whole life long. How can we ensure that we will remain children? By not wanting to be big shots, by not wanting to see what is going on in the street. We must have no interest in anything tamei. When you see an open sewer you walk the other way! You don’t say, “Well, maybe I’ll go the shorter way through the sewer. No, you run away from the sewer. As long as you have your soul in you, you aren’t prepared to get filthy—you’re not willing to spend even a second in the sewer. A person needs to know that everything that happens here in this world is taking place in a gigantic sewage pit. After the sin of Adam HaRishon, the whole world became a sewage pit, a giant sewage ditch. When you pass through the street, you need to make sure than no impure thing will attract your attention. Don’t look at any impure thing. Nothing. Flee from everything bad, from every forbidden sight, from every forbidden thought. Don’t try to get involved with any matters regarding this world. The world passes like the blink on an eye. You have to realize that this world is a giant sewer—there is nothing worth looking at. There is nothing to see or listen to. Think about how you can be a child your whole life long. I want to be a child. I want the breath that has no sin. I don’t want any sin to cling to me. I don’t want that any desire will interest me, other than Torah and prayer. Nothing should interest me. Know that the street is full of tumah. Any person who has a drop of intelligence will quickly shoot through the streets when he has to go out, without looking around. He knows that he needs to skip over a few sewage ditches on the way. He runs to shul, to the yeshiva, from the Kotel to Meron. He runs as long as his soul is inside him. He just flees, for he knows that the entire street, any public place, the whole world is just a giant sewage ditch.

   The Rebbe is the true child. He is a nursing infant. He said, “I haven’t even begun to exist at all,” because the Rebbe never saw the world, never heard the world, never looked at anything in this world even for a second. He never talked in this world. He never breathed in this world. He never released even so much as a breath into this world. The Rebbe is the Blind Beggar who, from the day he was born until the day he died, never opened his eyes and saw this world. The Rebbe was a flaming fire, a flaming fire for Hashem Yisborach, infinite deveikus with Hashem Yisborach. This was our holy Rebbe: totally a flaming fire for Hashem Yisborach.

   If you know a true tzaddik like Rabbeinu HaKadosh, then you can always be on the level of the breath which has no sin. So when you come to the Rebbe, you start being a seven year old child. When you come to the tzaddik, give charity to the tzaddik and then you will merit to the breath which has no sin.

Prayer

   Please, Merciful and Compassionate One, let me merit having sons and daughters who will be able to renew their speech every moment and second like the awesome Rabbeinu HaKadosh, so that every word and letter that comes out of their mouths will be a measured and weighed until they merit that the holy Shechina will speak through their mouths. And fulfill in us the verse, “And as for me, this is my covenant with them, said Hashem. My spirit which is upon you and the words I have placed in your mouth will not be withdrawn from your mouth nor from the mouth of your offspring, nor from the mouth of your offspring’s offspring, said Hashem, for this moment and forever” (Yeshiya 59:21).

 Ohr Pnei HaMelech

The final day.

   The holy forefathers were a chariot for the Shechina. What does it mean to be a chariot? It means to cancel yourself completely, to totally annul your existence. They didn’t exist—they were nothing. They were only a chariot. They didn’t do anything—everything they did was only that which Hashem showed them to do. They had no will of their own. They had no thoughts of their own. They were only a chariot that carried the rider, and the rider directed them. They merited being a chariot for holiness. They merited being the wheels that carried the chariot. We need to learn from the holy forefathers how to cancel ourselves. We always seem to have so much to do. We need to do this, that and the other. But the fundamental thing is to forget about ourselves, to forget about our desires. Our whole desire needs to be the desire of Hashem. We need to check all the time if our desires are fitting to be G-dly desires. We need to look all the time for hints and signs how to do Hashem’s will. We need to throw away our own understanding and do the will of Hashem. Just like Avraham Avinu who did so much chesed, and suddenly Hashem told him, “Listen to what Sarah said. Banish Yishmael because he could damage Yitzhak’s education.” First comes the children’s education, then the chesed. This was such an embarrassment for Avraham Avinu. He said, “I cannot go out into the street. People will run away from me. All my followers, all my students, everyone that is following my path, everyone will reject me. I’m finished. I taught them to do acts of kindness. To patiently explain to people, until even the slowest in understanding also comes to believe in Hashem, so that he too should feel Hashem—to explain to them kindly, rather than run after them. Am I now going to banish my own son from my own house?”

   The epitome of self-nullification is at the moment when a person is about to die. Only as the soul is leaving the body does the person truly understand that this world is absolutely nothing. Then everyone around the person shouts, “Shema Yisrael Hashem Elokeinu, Hashem Echad.” Because it is particularly at that moment that everyone understands that there really is nothing but Hashem—there is nothing but the One. The entire world was created for this moment. Every day of a person’s life he is really preparing himself for his final day.