Farbrengen of 19 Kislev 5770, Kfar Chabad

00:02 Speaker 1 Gut Yom Tov, chassidim. Gut Yom Tov, Jewish people. Happy Yom Tov, gut Yom Tov! L’chaim, l’chaim. At this very time, at these very moments, 211 years ago, chassidim poured into the streets of Petersburg and danced. Petersburg, the capital of the Russian empire. Its streets filled with jubilant chassidim. There was great joy among Chabad chassidim. Our great Rebbe had been released from imprisonment to freedom, from exile to Geulah. As our Rebbeim have told us, this was not merely a physical imprisonment, but a terrible accusation against the very dissemination of Chassidus. And on this day, 19 Kislev, the great yahrzeit of the Maggid of Mezritch, the Alter Rebbe’s teacher, the accusation was removed and permission was granted to spread the wellsprings of Chassidus. Maamarim were once again delivered, at greater length and with fuller explanation, and the chassidim had light and joy. In a special letter about this great day, 19 Kislev, the Alter Rebbe writes: “This day shall be established as a permanent festival among the Jewish people, a day on which His great Name will be magnified and sanctified, and thousands upon thousands of Jews will be stirred to teshuvah and to the service of the heart. And teshuvah according to Chassidus means to return: ‘The spirit shall return to G-d Who gave it,’ so that each person rises higher and higher on this day.” And indeed, Chabad chassidim have celebrated this festival, the festival of festivals, for 211 years. As we can see, this festival belongs not only to Chabad chassidim. Everyone to whom the Baal Shem Tov’s teachings are dear celebrates on this day. We celebrate the triumph of Chassidus, which has become available to all. There is no one who does not draw from it, whether openly or indirectly. We need only look at the many farbrengens held this year on 19 Kislev to see how the entire Jewish people celebrates the Alter Rebbe’s festival of liberation. L’chaim, chassidim; l’chaim, dear brothers. May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year in the study of Chassidus and the ways of Chassidus. L’chaim, as is the custom of chassidim,

03:18 Speaker 1 We will now recite the Rebbe’s chapter, Psalm 108. Rabbi Zev Kesselman shlita, mashpia of the Beis Menachem synagogue.

03:40 Speaker 2 A song, a psalm of David. My heart is steadfast, O G-d; I will sing and make music, even with my soul. Awake, harp and lyre; I will awaken the dawn. I will thank You among the peoples, Hashem, and sing Your praise among the nations. For Your kindness is great above the heavens, and Your truth reaches the skies. Be exalted above the heavens, O G-d, and let Your glory be over all the earth. So that Your beloved ones may be rescued, save with Your right hand and answer me. G-d has spoken in His holiness: “I will rejoice; I will divide Shechem and measure out the Valley of Sukkos. Gilad is Mine, Menashe is Mine, and Ephraim is the strength of My head; Yehudah is My lawgiver. Moav is My washbasin; upon Edom I will cast My shoe; over Pleshes I will shout in triumph.” Who will bring me to the fortified city? Who will lead me to Edom? Is it not You, O G-d, Who has rejected us and does not go out, O G-d, with our armies? Grant us help against the foe, for human salvation is worthless. With G-d we shall do valiantly, and He will trample our enemies. Long live our master, teacher and Rebbe, King Moshiach, forever and ever. Long—long live our master, teacher and Rebbe, King Moshiach, forever and ever. Long live our master, teacher and Rebbe, King Moshiach, forever and ever.

05:36 Speaker 5 Welcome to all our distinguished guests, Chabad chassidim and friends of Chabad who have come to take part in this farbrengen celebrating the festival of liberation. Welcome to the philanthropist Gabriel Bouzaglo, who does so much for Kfar Chabad, and to Professor Sorkin. Welcome. The Rebbe attached great importance to 19 Kislev farbrengens, especially the one in Kfar Chabad. In many letters, the Rebbe encouraged people to attend this farbrengen, which, in the Rebbe’s words, is an occasion for all the Chabad community in the Holy Land. The Rebbe also requested recordings of the event and a list of the speakers. Every year the Rebbe sent a telegram opening with the words: “To all those taking part in the great farbrengen in Kfar Chabad.” We will now read the Rebbe’s telegram for the 19 Kislev celebration. We invite Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak HaKohen Aharonov shlita, chairman of Agudas Chassidei Chabad and chairman of Tzeirei Chabad in the Holy Land, to read the telegram. Please.

07:15 Speaker 6 To all those taking part in the great farbrengens for 19 Kislev, shlita. L’chaim, l’chaim, and blessings. May it be Hashem’s will that for each and every one, “He redeemed my soul in peace” and the rest of the verse be fulfilled in full, and that they succeed in making the vessels for this. For our Sages explained the verse as referring to engagement in the revealed Torah and Chassidus, acts of kindness, and prayer. And all this in a manner of “You shall spread forth,” with success in the campaigns and in all the campaigns. Especially as this year it comes immediately after a holy Shabbos of complete rest, and we continue with the proclamation, “The Jews had light and joy and honor.” So may it be for us immediately. And in the words of David, the king Moshiach, [unclear], may He redeem us from exile with the true and complete Geulah.

08:46 Speaker 7 Thank you. And may we be blessed in the Rebbe’s words from a telegram he sent one year: “I join your farbrengen in the hope and prayer that the inspiration and vitality will continue throughout the year, with the central point being to spread the wellsprings of Chassidus and a chassidic way of life throughout the Holy Land, amid abundance both materially and spiritually.” Surely today, too, the Rebbe is here, joining the farbrengen and bestowing upon each person children, life and ample sustenance. As we sit together as brothers and friends to celebrate this festival of festivals, we will place the king at our head and begin with words of the Rebbe’s Torah. Let us invite the renowned mashpia, whose words are pearls, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Gurvitz shlita.

10:06 Speaker 6 Gut Yom Tov, gut Yom Tov. May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year in the study of Chassidus and the ways of Chassidus. When we celebrate 19 Kislev, about which the Rebbe Rashab writes, “The light and vitality of our souls were given to us,” we can look briefly at several of the Rebbe’s sichos to understand a little of this and see just how much light and vitality were given to us. It is told that when the Alter Rebbe was in prison, his teachers, the Maggid and the Baal Shem Tov, came to visit him as souls in bodies. As an aside, they say that when the Frierdiker Rebbe visited the place and returned to his father, the Rebbe Rashab, and told him about it, the Rebbe Rashab wanted to know whether there was room in the cell where the Alter Rebbe had sat for three people. In other words, they had come as souls in bodies. They visited him in prison, and the Alter Rebbe asked them, “Why has this happened to me?” They told him, “Because you are spreading Chassidus.” “So should I stop?” They said, “No. Since you have begun, continue, and you will prevail.” We need to understand something here: the fact that the Alter Rebbe was arrested, that they managed to imprison him, was no ordinary thing. After all, when he wanted to, he stopped the horses—or the boat on the way, when he wanted to sanctify the moon, he stopped it. The Alter Rebbe had the power to reduce that entire fortress to nothing, to make it cease to exist. But the Alter Rebbe accepted imprisonment upon himself in order to remove a decree so that we would be able to study Chassidus. He himself could have arranged things for himself, sat and lived a good life. But so that we, ordinary people, could sit and study Chassidus, the Alter Rebbe accepted upon himself all the suffering and pain of imprisonment, so that afterward, as it turned out, he would be able to teach and spread Chassidus. The question arises: there had already been a time when the decree was issued earlier, back when the Alter Rebbe

13:32 Speaker 6 He was a student of the Maggid. They were sitting in the beis midrash when they found a page of Chassidus lying on the floor. One of the holy fellowship, Reb Pinchas of Koritz, was very upset. The Alter Rebbe said to him: “Reb Pinchas, don’t be upset. I’ll give you a parable. There was once a king who had an only son. The son fell ill and was close to death, and the doctors could find no cure. Then one doctor came and said there was a special diamond. If they ground it up, mixed its powder with water and poured it into the prince’s mouth, perhaps it would heal him. They searched for the diamond and found that it was the diamond in the king’s crown—the very jewel that made the crown beautiful. They came to the king and asked whether they should remove it from the crown. He said, ‘Yes, remove it and grind it up.’ By the time they had done all this, they told the king that his son was so ill they weren’t sure he could swallow anything. The king said, ‘Grind it up, do everything, pour it into his mouth. Perhaps one drop will get in and heal him.’” The meaning of the parable for the teachings of Chassidus is clear. We take the diamond from the king’s crown, and even though so much of it goes to waste—pages end up lying around, sometimes in places they shouldn’t be—it is spilled and wasted in the hope that perhaps one drop will get in and heal the king’s son, the Jewish people, from the faint in which they find themselves. When the Alter Rebbe finished telling this parable, the holy fellowship heard the sound of the Maggid approaching. The Maggid had difficulty walking and used crutches, and the floor was wooden, so they could hear his footsteps. Everyone fell silent. The Maggid entered the beis midrash and asked, “Tell me, what happened here?” They told him they had found a page of Chassidus lying somewhere it shouldn’t be, Reb Pinchas had objected, and the Alter Rebbe had given him a parable. The Maggid said that there had been a severe decree in Heaven

16:29 Speaker 6 against spreading the teachings of Chassidus, and that through the Alter Rebbe’s parable they had overcome the decree. From then on, the chassidim would have the upper hand. So how did the decree suddenly return? Why did the Alter Rebbe have to be imprisoned again? Why more anguish and suffering? Why did the decree return? The Rebbe gives a remarkable explanation. The teachings of Chassidus came—were revealed in this world—for two purposes. One could say that our permission to study Chassidus, the secrets of the Torah, is as a medicine, as in the Alter Rebbe’s parable. Medicine is taken in a measured dose: ten milligrams, fifteen milligrams. You don’t take a lot. That was indeed how the Torah teachings heard from the Baal Shem Tov and the Maggid were given: in measured doses, to heal a person of his illness, to rouse him from his faint. As explained elsewhere, even where studying the inner dimension of the Torah is forbidden, it may be used as a remedy. It was like the Rambam’s Moreh Nevuchim: to rouse people, he needed to write Moreh Nevuchim, which was also a kind of medicine. But there is another purpose in studying Chassidus: to set right and prepare the hearts of the Jewish people for the true and complete Geulah. That is something different. It is no longer a matter of medicine. We are on the eve of the Geulah, in the second half of the sixth millennium—Friday afternoon, after midday—and we must prepare for the true and complete Geulah. Chassidus comes to prepare the heart, to make it ready. Fifteen cc’s or twenty cc’s are not enough. We need to study Chassidus abundantly. We need to study a great deal of Chassidus. The physical mind must understand the teachings of Chassidus. Small doses and a short discourse are not enough. Even a physical mind like ours must be able to board the train of Chassidus and understand it. In another of his sichos, the Rebbe gives an analogy. He says: At train stations, as they used to be in Russia, there were

20:00 Speaker 6 large stations and small stations. At the small stations, the train stopped briefly, and only people boarded. At the large stations, it stopped for a long time, and they loaded not only people but also cargo—especially livestock, cattle. It took time to get the cattle onto the train. First of all, an animal is frightened of the carriage and the train whistle. Above all, it knows where it is being taken: to be turned into meat. So the animals are not very willing to board and have to be forced on. At those stations, the train waits longer. Throughout the year, there are stations in a person’s life. A Chassidic train arrives and stops, saying to him, “Come aboard. Join the train of Chassidus.” At some stations the train stops only briefly, but there are large stations where you can bring the animal aboard too—you can bring aboard the animal soul. Sometimes it resists. It is frightened of the train, of the whistle. It knows Chassidus will change it. It will stop being an animal; it will become something else. But here, at the great station of 19 Kislev, is the opportunity to bring the animal aboard too. Then the teachings of Chassidus can change it, prepare and set right the heart—the person’s heart, not his G-dly soul. His G-dly soul is always ready. It is the animal soul, his left side, that must be set right and prepared for the actual coming of our righteous Moshiach.

22:14 Speaker 8 Thank you very much, Rabbi Gurevitch shlita. At one of the Rebbe’s farbrengens on 19 Kislev, the Rebbe said: “It is true that the very fact that we sit together, sing together and say l’chaim together is important. But we must leave here with a good resolution”—as Rabbi Gurevitch spoke about—“to increase our study of Chassidus, as much as possible.” Every year we thank Hashem for His great kindness in granting us the privilege of celebrating 19 Kislev and seeing the triumph of the teachings of Chassidus. And when chassidim rejoice, they break into a niggun. Chassidim of earlier generations would say: When you tell a story about the Rebbe, you connect with the power of his deeds. When you repeat a Torah teaching from the Rebbe, you connect with the power of the Rebbe’s speech. When you sing one of the Rebbe’s niggunim, you connect with the power of the Rebbe’s thought. The niggun “Keili Atah” is one of the ten niggunim composed by the Alter Rebbe, whose liberation we celebrate. “You are my G-d, and I will thank You; my G-d, I will exalt You,” in a special performance by the musician Reb Daniel Zamir, together with Reb Elior Wallner, the orchestra and the Chabad Chassidim Choir. Nemuel, please.

28:40 Speaker 9 You are my G-d, and I will thank You; my G-d, I will exalt You. You are my G-d, and I will thank You; my G-d, I will exalt You. You are my G-d, and I will thank You; my G-d, I will exalt You. You are my G-d, and I will thank You; my G-d, I will exalt You. You are my G-d, and I will thank You; my G-d, I will exalt You. You are my G-d, and I will thank You; my G-d, I will exalt You. You are my G-d, and I will thank You; my G-d, I will exalt You. You are my G-d, and I will thank You. You are my G-d, and I will thank You. My G-d, I will exalt You. You are my G-d, and I will thank You. Oh, oh, oh. You are my G-d, and I will thank You. My G-d, I will exalt You. Oy, You are my G-d, oy, and I will thank You. My G-d, I will exalt You. Oh, oh, oh. You are my G-d, and I will thank You. My G-d, I will exalt You. My G-d, I will exalt You.

32:55 Speaker 10 Moving. Thank you so much to the whole orchestra and to the chassidim’s choir. We’ll hear them again later with niggunim of dveikus and niggunim of 19 Kislev. Welcome to everyone who has joined us, and to those who have come to honor the occasion with their presence. Honored rabbis, members of the Knesset—gut Yom Tov, gut Yom Tov! We now invite the distinguished Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz shlita, Rabbi of the Western Wall and the holy sites. Please.

33:43 Speaker 11 Honored Chief Rabbi.

33:48 Speaker 10 L’chaim, l’chaim!

33:55 Speaker 11 Honorable Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Yonah Metzger shlita; honorable mara d’asra, Rabbi Ashkenazi shlita; the rabbi of Holon; Deputy Health Minister, Knesset member Rabbi Yaakov Litzman; Knesset member Rabbi Moses; rabbis, public figures, ladies and gentlemen. Boruch Hashem, we have merited to gather here in Kfar Chabad for another year on the Festival of Liberation, and there is no stronger testimony to the enduring power of the Festival of Liberation than this gathering. There are no partitions here, no differences of opinion. Here we are all together, as one person with one heart, rejoicing in the Festival of Liberation, rejoicing and thanking Hakadosh Boruch Hu that, boruch Hashem, the Jewish people have Chassidus. Through it, they can rise both in simple faith and in knowledge of Hashem. For without Chassidus, neither is possible: neither simple faith nor “Know this day and take it to heart that Hashem is G-d in the heavens above and on the earth below; there is no other.” In the parsha we read this past Shabbos, we read what Yaakov Avinu said before Hakadosh Boruch Hu prior to his meeting with Esav. He says these words: “Master of the Universe, thank You, for with my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps.” He points to two poles, two extremes. On the one hand, “with my staff I crossed this Jordan”—I was destitute and had nothing. Elifaz came and took all my possessions, until I had nothing left. And now, Master of the Universe, I have become two camps. Boruch Hashem, I have wives, eleven children, great wealth, enormous wealth. Boruch Hashem, I have been blessed. The commentators ask: Why, when Yaakov Avinu wants to express that he was destitute and had nothing, does he use the phrase “with my staff I crossed this Jordan”? Presumably, he had other things as well. Why is the staff specifically the symbol of that extreme—of poverty, of having nothing

36:54 Speaker 11 at all? Rashi explains that the Torah wanted to allude to the miracle that happened to Yaakov Avinu when he was fleeing from his brother Esav toward Charan, toward Lavan. The Jordan stood before him. What did he do? He took his staff, and the Jordan split for him. So “with my staff I crossed this Jordan” alludes to the tremendous miracle that happened to Yaakov Avinu when he crossed the Jordan. But that, too, raises a question: Is this the place to allude to that great miracle? The Gemara in Bava Basra says that sailors told Rabbah bar bar Chana that once a year, an enormous wave of water comes, threatening to wash away the world, with a white flame of fire emerging from it. What do the sailors do when they see this wave? They take a staff with His blessed Name engraved on it, and with it they stop the wave. What is this staff with which they stop the wave? The Chasam Sofer says that the wave alludes to the waves that wash over every Jew, wherever he may be, at every moment, in every corner, to the ends of the earth. There are waves; there are threats. What do we do? We take the staff—the Hebrew word for “staff” is an acronym for “We have always hoped in You.” It is a staff symbolizing faith, with His blessed Name engraved on it, and with this staff we stop all the waves. The staff of our generation is the Chabad Houses in every corner of the globe. This staff draws its strength from Chassidus. His blessed Name is engraved on it, together with those words, “We have always hoped in You.” It is the power of simple faith found in every corner of the globe, where the Rebbe sent his shluchim from one end of the world to the other to bring the word of Hashem, the message of faith. There are waves; there are threats. Only a year ago, we saw what happened in Mumbai, the terrible tragedy that struck the Jewish people there. How do we survive? How do we cope? With that staff: “We have always hoped in You.” This is the staff with which Yaakov Avinu

39:41 Speaker 11 crossed the Jordan, and through which “now I have become two camps.” The fact that the Jewish people, that the Chabad movement, boruch Hashem, has not just two camps but many centers of Torah and mitzvah observance—that is thanks to this faith. May Hakadosh Boruch Hu help us so that, “with my staff I crossed this Jordan,” we will finally cross the Jordan, the last barriers before the coming of Moshiach Tzidkeinu. And may that great faith, faith in the coming of Moshiach Tzidkeinu, bring us to merit the great gathering at the building of the Beis Hamikdash, speedily in our days, amen. L’chaim!

40:30 Speaker 3 L’chaim, and blessings. A great thank-you to Rabbi Rabinowitz shlita. I can attest to the great help he gives to all Chabad matters, including the Chabad Rashbi organization that operates at Rashbi’s gravesite. Rabbi Rabinowitz provides tremendous help throughout the year with everything needed. Once again, welcome to those joining us. Welcome, His Holiness the Miskolcz Rebbe shlita. And here with us is a true friend of Chabad Chassidus who, throughout the year, responds to requests from Chabad Houses in Israel and around the world to put his special gift for public speaking to use and help the Rebbe’s shluchim wherever they are. I can testify firsthand, having seen him at dozens of events this year: the Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Yonah Metzger shlita. Please.

41:51 Speaker 4 My esteemed friend, the mara d’asra, Rabbi Ashkenazi shlita; my esteemed friend Rabbi Gur Aryeh, the rabbi of Holon; my esteemed friend Rabbi Rabinowitz, rabbi of the Western Wall and the holy sites; our honored guest and friend Rabbi Yaakov Litzman, Deputy Health Minister and representative of the rebbes and the great Torah leaders; my esteemed friend Rabbi Moses, Knesset member; the Miskolcz Rebbe; Rabbi Aharonov; Rabbi Lifshitz. Esteemed and holy gathering, Chabad chassidim and their friends wherever they may be. Our Sages say that before Rebbi went to speak with the rulers of Rome on behalf of the Jewish people, he studied the parsha we read yesterday, Parshas Vayishlach. What was it about Parshas Vayishlach that so interested Rebbi before he went in to speak with the non-Jews on behalf of the Jewish people? If I may, perhaps we can explain it this way. “Yaakov was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak.” Afterward, Yaakov asks this mysterious man, “Please tell me your name.” What are you called? But what does he answer? “Why do you ask my name?” Why do you need to know my name? Have you ever seen such a thing? A Jew comes up to you and politely asks, “Tell me, what’s your name?” And you answer him rudely, “What’s it to you?” In any case, they have already spent an entire night together. Why is this unidentified man embarrassed to tell Yaakov his name? The whole—

00:02 Speaker 1 In every generation, we are reminded anew that people rise up to destroy us—in every generation. And if Hakadosh Boruch Hu did not stand guard over us in every generation, who could withstand them? Notice, ladies and gentlemen: in every generation, the antisemite has changed his name. Once they said the Jews were hated because of capitalism: they are rich, and they leave the non-Jews poor. You have amassed wealth, so people hate you. Let there be an era of communism, when everyone is equal, and they will not hate you. Well, did Judaism flourish during the decades of communism? Did they not close our shuls? Did they not imprison Jews who learned and taught Torah under communism? Did antisemitism disappear? No! Under communism too—and perhaps especially then—antisemitism was at its height. Later they said: Do you know why they hate you? You have no country. They said, “Juden raus”—Jews out—go to Palestine. So once they hated us because we had no country. Today they hate us because we have a country. Once they hated us before we had settlers, before there were settlements, before there was Judea and Samaria. Today they hate us as though they had not hated us then, and now they hate us because we have settlers. So we have to deal with Obama and all our international relations, as though everything had been fine with the Arabs until the Six-Day War. The settlements are the whole problem. Every generation changes its name. Yaakov asked the man who wrestled with him all night—Yaakov understood that he represented antisemitism—“Tell me, what is your name? What name do you use when you come and spread slander against us, saying we deserve to be hated? On what grounds? Why?” He answered, “Why do you ask my name?” I have no name. Every generation I change the reason. I have no name. Each time I have a new name, but the common denominator is

02:39 Speaker 1 hatred of Jews. Do you want proof from last week? I will give you proof from last week. Imagine—there are two distinguished representatives of Agudas Yisroel here, the honorable Rabbi Litzman and the honorable Rabbi Moses. There are other members of the Knesset here. There are no other members of the Knesset here, for now. Imagine there were. Who? I said Rabbi Moses. I said two, two members of the Knesset. Imagine that last week a member of the Knesset had stood up in Israel’s Knesset and proposed, in response to the increasing terror in our region: Let us decide that the State of Israel will ban the building of mosques, because there is a concern that mosques will preach against the Jewish people and the Land of Israel and encourage terror. And imagine the Knesset had voted by a majority to forbid building mosques in this country because we suffer from terror. Do you believe there would have been a single nation in the world, or anyone at the UN, that would not have risen against us—including the president of the United States? Everyone would have. How can this be? Where is the democracy? Well, ladies and gentlemen, what do you make of the world’s silence when a country that makes human rights its banner—and in one of its major cities, Geneva, houses the UN human rights center—Switzerland, held a referendum among all its citizens last week and decided by majority vote: No mosques will be built here! No mosques will be built. Do you know how many mosques there are in all of Switzerland? Four. Four mosques. Do you know how many Muslims there are in all of Switzerland? Four hundred thousand. So democratic Switzerland, which concerns itself with international human rights in the name of the UN, allows a hundred thousand Muslims to pray in one mosque. Four hundred thousand for mos—ah, four. And no one opens their mouth or makes a peep. Let Israel’s Knesset dare to make such a decision. Oh, what an uproar there would be around the world if we did that! Every generation has its own smile, every generation has its own name for “a man wrestled with him.” How does this relate to Chabad? I was recently a guest in Moscow.

05:52 Speaker 1 If you are a guest in Moscow, of course you also meet, with great joy, the chief rabbi of Russia, Rabbi Berel Lazar, my dear friend. The two of us traveled to dedicate a place whose dedication moved me as I have not been moved in a long time, and I must share it with you. Outside Moscow, about a two-and-a-half-hour drive away, is a great forest, one of the ancient Russian forests. All the stories about the Baal Shem Tov and about chassidim going into the forests come back to you there; you can see all those stories before your eyes. And in that forest, fifty years ago, the communists built an enormous youth camp—enormous! With dormitories, halls, cinemas, theaters, and swimming pools, so the young people would hear the teachings of communism and rejoice in them, while the teachings of Judaism, of course, and of the other religions would be suppressed within them. Heaven forbid they should b-believe in G-d. In that great cinema hall, we dedicated the beis midrash. Upstairs, where the women’s section was—the cinema balcony—that entire upper level, with its large balconies from fifty years ago, became the women’s section. The wall on which films promoting disbelief in Judaism had been projected became the aron kodesh. All the surrounding walls, which had absorbed messages of disbelief in the G-d of Israel—“Write on the horn of an ox that you have no share in the G-d of Israel,” G-d forbid—all those walls are lined with sefarim: Gemaras, the Talmud, books of Chassidus, you name it. And 120 young men sit there, all studying for the rabbinate. Then I hear the master of ceremonies, a Jew with a heavy Russian accent but fluent Hebrew: “Shalom aleichem, Rabbi Glicksberg.” Ah, fluent Hebrew! So I ask Rabbi Lazar, “Tell me, what is this man’s story? He has an unmistakably Russian accent, but such beautiful Hebrew. How is that?” So he calls over the master of ceremonies to sit beside us

08:52 Speaker 1 and tell his story. I will tell it to you almost in his own words. He says: “I was a nine-year-old boy. My parents were Jewish. My mother divorced my father, and after the divorce she became engaged to a minister, a Protestant minister in Russia. After the engagement, the minister told her, ‘Your nine-year-old boy cannot remain Jewish. As a minister, I cannot have a Jewish child living in my home. You must convert him.’ She began to argue, but he said, ‘No, no, no. That is a condition. Otherwise there will be no wedding.’ She was forced to agree. They set the wedding for three months later. A week afterward, she saw in the newspaper that Chabad was organizing a free summer camp for children in Russia, with a list of all the fun activities meant to attract children, everything the children would do for free. My mother said to herself, ‘He is still Jewish, so let’s make use of this. That will give me two months to prepare for the wedding without him. We’ll send him to this camp, and he’ll stay there. A month later, I’ll make him a Christian in time for the wedding.’” This nine-year-old boy signed up for the camp for Jewish children in Russia. I think that camp, too, was called Tzivos Hashem. So he enrolled. After three weeks, the children were very excited: a mohel had been brought in, and they were told that anyone who wanted a bris could have one for free. Many children agreed. This boy refused. He did not tell anyone why, but he said to himself, “In two months I’m going to be a non-Jew anyway. Why should I have an operation? Why go through the pain?” So he decided not to have a bris. The children in his room told him it had been a spiritual experience, that it did not hurt so much, and that he should do it. They began to influence him, and he grew uncertain. So, before falling asleep in bed, he made himself

11:26 Speaker 1 a sign: “If that mohel comes back to the camp, it is a sign that I should have a bris. If he does not come back, I will not have one.” Two days passed. The mohel came to check on the health of the boys who had had a bris, and the boy saw him in the camp. To him, that was the sign that he should have a bris. He went up to the mohel on his own and said, “I want to have a bris too.” They gave him a bris, and because of that bris he remained Jewish. As for his mother, in the end, I do not know whether she married the minister and then divorced him, but she did not stay with him. Today that Jew not only learns Torah; he is a teacher in the yeshivah gedolah there in Moscow. This is one tiny part of the tremendous work of the shluchim, beginning with the author of the Tanya and continuing to the most recent generation—the Rebbe, whose hand still guides the work of all the shluchim to this very day. My blessing to all those who stand guard over this sacred work, who in recent years have become ambassadors of the Jewish people. There are ambassadors of the state, and there are ambassadors of the Jewish people. An ambassador of the state has an embassy with the state’s flag. An ambassador of the Jewish people is the shliach in each and every place. May all the shluchim merit to spread Torah and Chassidus everywhere, to continue drawing hearts closer to our Father in Heaven, and may we soon merit the complete Geulah, speedily in our days. Amen.

13:41 Speaker 2 Thank you very much. The honorable Chief Rabbi of Israel, the esteemed Rabbi Yona Metzger shlita—we wish the Rabbi many more years in his position, and may we continue to see him helping and supporting the Rebbe’s shluchim in Israel and around the world. Welcome to those who have joined us. We also have with us the distinguished mashpi’im who have come from afar especially for this farbrengen: the esteemed chossid and scholar Rabbi Nachman Yosef Twersky shlita, and with him the esteemed chossid and the Rebbe’s shliach to Antwerp, Rabbi Shabtai Slavaticki shlita. We will hear from both of them later tonight, until daybreak. We will now hear a blessing from the Miskolc Rebbe shlita of Petach Tikvah, who does great things throughout the city, particularly through the special Simchas Beis Hashoevah he holds every year, attended by thousands of people and bringing about a great kiddush Hashem.

15:01 Speaker 7 Our blessing, our song, and before our eyes—that it should all be completed.

15:15 Speaker 8 Honorable local rabbi, esteemed rabbis, public figures, Rebbes, and distinguished congregation. It is an honor and a joy for me to be in this holy place today, on this holy day, the Festival of Liberation. The foundations of Chassidus. As is well known, King David says in Tehillim, “The righteous will flourish like a date palm; he will grow tall like a cedar in Lebanon.” The holy Baal Shem Tov, may his merit protect us, explains: What do the words “The righteous will flourish like a date palm; he will grow tall like a cedar in Lebanon” mean? We know there are two kinds of trees. The cedar is tall and very beautiful, but it does not produce fruit. The date palm, by contrast, is a shorter tree, but it produces sweet fruit. The same is true, says the holy Baal Shem Tov, of two kinds of tzaddikim. There is a kind of tzaddik who rises higher and higher but does not concern himself with bringing all of Israel up with him. And there is a tzaddik who is like the date palm that flourishes. He comes down, among ordinary people. He goes down to the people to lift up the Jewish people—every Jew, wherever he may be. He produces sweet fruit. King David says, “The righteous will flourish like a date palm.” A tzaddik flourishes like a date palm when he comes down to lift up the Jewish people and produce sweet fruit, while also growing tall himself “like a cedar in Lebanon.” That is the meaning of the verse. As is well known, the Midrash says of the verse “Bring the tribe of Levi near”: “This is what is written: ‘The righteous will flourish like a date palm.’” What is the connection between bringing the tribe of Levi near and “The righteous will flourish like a date palm”? The question is: Why did the tribe of Levi merit being brought near, to perform the service in the Beis Hamikdash and in the Holy of Holies? Because the children of Levi went down to the people. They were concerned not only with themselves, but with every Jew, wherever he might be: bringing him close to his roots, to the service of the Creator and to love of the Creator, blessed be His name. Why did they merit “Bring the tribe of Levi near”? The Midrash says: “This is what is written: ‘The righteous will flourish like a date palm.’” Because

18:53 Speaker 8 they were like the tzaddik who flourishes as a date palm, they merited becoming the Levites and performing the holy service. This also explains the saying, “In the place where baalei teshuvah stand, even the completely righteous cannot stand.” He says that “the master of teshuvah” means someone who is a master over baalei teshuvah—not that he himself is a baal teshuvah, but that he brings others to become baalei teshuvah. In the place of that master of teshuvah, who brings the Jewish people close to teshuvah, even the completely righteous—the other kind of tzaddik—cannot stand. They cannot reach that level, the level of the tzaddik who flourishes like a date palm. We see this idea in what our Sages say in Tractate Chagigah about the verse, “For the lips of a kohen should guard knowledge, and they should seek Torah from his mouth.” Our Sages say: “If the rabbi resembles an angel of Hashem of Hosts, they should seek Torah from his mouth.” But who has ever seen an angel, to judge whether this rabbi resembles one or not? What does it mean that if the rabbi resembles an angel, they should seek Torah from his mouth? The author of the Hafla’ah says: We know that a human being is one who moves forward—rising and descending, growing ever higher. An angel, by contrast, remains as he was created. “If the rabbi resembles an angel”: If we want to attach ourselves to a true rabbi, he must resemble an angel—not only rising higher himself, but standing still. He stops in order to gather in all of Israel and bring them into the embrace of the Creator of the world. If the rabbi resembles an angel of Hashem of Hosts in this way, then they should seek Torah from his mouth. And so, distinguished congregation, in light of what we have said: Today, on the Festival of Liberation of our master, the Alter Rebbe, author of the Tanya, may his merit protect us, and on the yahrzeit of the Maggid of Mezritch, may his merit protect us, we remember these disciples of the holy Baal Shem Tov, who continue his path: going down to every Jew, wherever he may be, to lift him up to

21:42 Speaker 8 [unclear]. And all the Rebbes of Chabad, down to the leader of our generation, follow this path and devote themselves with mesirus nefesh to all of Israel. There is no corner of the world, no remote place in the world, that the holy shluchim do not reach. With mesirus nefesh, they carry out the mission of the righteous leaders to bring the Jewish people close to Hashem’s Torah, to His tradition, and to the eternity of Israel. That is the tzaddik who flourishes like a date palm, and “if the rabbi resembles an angel of Hashem of Hosts, they should seek Torah from his mouth.” That is the kind of rabbi we need to learn from. That is the kind of Rebbe we need to learn from. Today, in the Holy Land, a million children do not know what “Hear, O Israel, Hashem is our G-d, Hashem is One” means. People sit and each one attends to his own affairs, and nothing happens. Where is that sense of responsibility for one another—to go out and bring the Jewish people closer? To bring them to faith in the Creator of the world? To awaken the pintele Yid within the Jewish people? To lift them higher and higher? To go down to the people? As it is written, when Hakadosh Boruch Hu appoints Moshe Rabbeinu leader of the Jewish people, He says to him at the burning bush, “Do not come closer; remove your shoes from your feet, for the place on which you stand is holy ground.” The Saba, may the memory of the righteous and holy be a blessing, says that Hakadosh Boruch Hu was giving a message to the leader of Israel: You, Moshe Rabbeinu, are about to become the leader of Israel. “Do not come closer”—do not rush, do not race higher and higher. “Remove your shoes from your feet”: When you are barefoot, you cannot run. “For the place on which you stand is holy ground.” That is what we need to understand today, on this holy day as we gather here: this idea, these foundations, this quality of the tzaddik who flourishes like a date palm. We must hold fast to this path. Fortunate are you, and good for you, that you continue the holy path, the true path of the holy Baal Shem Tov. And as is well known, the holy Or Hachaim comments on “When a person among you brings an offering to Hashem.” He says:

24:46 Speaker 8 “A person” means a person of importance. Who is important? One who “brings near.” That is what the holy Or Hachaim says. Whom does he bring near? The “among you”—the lowliest in the generation, who do not even know what Shema Yisroel is. He brings them near as an offering to Hashem. That is the true offering to Hashem. And the holy Or Hachaim says—look it up inside—that someone who engages in this needs no offering: no sin offering, no guilt offering, and no thanksgiving offering. For our Sages say, “No sin comes about through one who brings merit to the many.” My friends, this is the whole foundation, the whole idea embodied here in this holy place. And surely the holy merit of the author of the Tanya, may his merit protect us, will continue to help us and all of Israel. May we all merit, with Hashem’s help, to bring others close—to bring near the lowliest among the people. As the Alter Rebbe writes in Igeres Hakodesh, citing the holy Zohar: When a tzaddik departs this world, he is present throughout the world. What does this mean? Our Sages say, “He left life to all the living.” What does “He left life to all the living” mean? He explains that as long as the tzaddik is in this world, his love and awe and all these qualities called “life” are clothed in his body. When the tzaddik ascends above—as he writes in Igeres Hakodesh—all these lights, these qualities, these foundations, remain in this world for those who wish to cleave to him, to be connected and bound to him. Then he is present everywhere. May the Creator of the world grant that, through the merit of the tzaddikim, may their merit protect us, we all merit to act, to accomplish, and to follow this holy path laid out for us by the holy Baal Shem Tov and those who came after him. And through this, with Hashem’s help, may the Jewish people draw close to the Torah, and “your wellsprings will spread outward.” Your wellsprings are [unclear]. Then we will merit

27:45 Speaker 8 the complete Geulah very, very soon, speedily in our days. Amen and amen.

27:59 Speaker 9 Yasher koach, and we wish... A great yasher koach to His Holiness the Rebbe of Mishkoltz, shlita. May he reign for many years and continue to spread the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov everywhere. We welcome the head of the regional council, Mr. Menashe Moshe. With us here is Knesset member Rabbi Menachem Eliezer Moses—go in peace. Also here are members of the Chabad Rabbinical Court and the mashpi’im, whom we will hear from later. Rabbi Gliksberg, shlita, the rabbi of Givatayim, makes a point of coming every year. After his release from prison, the Alter Rebbe wrote a letter to his relative by marriage, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev: “For Hashem has done wondrous and great things in the land, and has wondrously magnified His great and holy Name, which has been exalted and sanctified before the many, especially in the eyes of all the ministers and all the peoples throughout the king’s provinces. Even in their eyes, the matter is astonishing beyond measure. And they responded and said of it: ‘This is from Hashem; it is wondrous in our eyes.’ But in such a case, it must be made known that this day on which Hashem acted on our behalf is a day on which ‘it was good’ was said twice: 19 Kislev, the great day of the passing of our holy Rebbe. And as I was reciting the verse ‘He redeemed my soul in peace’ in the Book of Tehillim, before I began the following verse, I went out in peace—and I conclude: peace from Hashem.” To the verse “He redeemed my soul in peace” from Tehillim, chassidim in the Alter Rebbe’s time composed a special niggun, “Padah Veshalom Nafshi.”

30:20 Speaker 10 He redeemed my soul in peace from the battle against me, for many were with me. He redeemed my soul in peace from the battle against me, for many were with me. G-d will hear and answer them, He who is enthroned from of old, forever. G-d will hear and answer them, He who is enthroned from of old. For they do not change. For they do not change. For they do not change. And they do not fear G-d. He stretched out his hands against those at peace with him; he violated his covenant. The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but his heart was at war. His words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords. Cast your burden upon Hashem and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to falter. And You, and You, G-d. And You, and You, G-d. You will bring them down to the pit of destruction; men of bloodshed and deceit will not live half—will not live half their days. Men of bloodshed and deceit will not live half, will not live half their days. Oy, oy, oy, but I will trust in You. Oy, but I will trust in You. Oy, but I will trust in You. Oy, but I will trust in You. Oy, but I will trust in You. Oy, but I will trust in You. And I will trust in You. Trust, trust in You. And I will trust in You. And I will trust in You. And I will trust in You. And I will trust in You. And I will trust in You. And I will trust in You. And I will trust in You. Let’s hear everyone together.

35:54 Speaker 11 And I will trust in You. And I will trust in You. And I will trust in You. And I will trust in You. And I will trust in You. [unclear]

37:49 Speaker 11 [unclear]

40:18 Speaker 12 [unclear] I will trust in You. I will trust in You. I will trust in You. I will trust in You. I will trust in You. I will trust in You. I will trust in You. I will trust in You. Give it to me, please. I will trust in You, I will trust in You, I will trust in You, I will trust in You, I will trust in You, I will trust in You, I will trust in You, I will trust in You, I will trust in You, I will trust in You.

44:06 Speaker 13 L’chaim, l’chaim, l’chaim, chassidim. “And I will trust in You” that immediately, “He redeemed my soul in peace” will come to pass: a peaceful redemption from this long exile, a peaceful redemption leading to the true and complete Geulah with the revelation of Moshiach Tzidkeinu. As the Alter Rebbe said, “Whoever rejoices in my joy, I promise to bring him from confinement into expansiveness, from the material to the spiritual, and from Gehinnom to Gan Eden.” L’chaim, l’chaim! And this farbrengen is for the complete recovery of the child from Kfar Chabad, Rafael Peretz ben Shterna Sarah. May he have a complete recovery very soon, immediately. L’chaim. Everything will be all right. The Alter Rebbe, Rabbi Schneur Zalman—Schneur, two lights: the light of the revealed Torah and the light of the hidden Torah. Among the Alter Rebbe’s works is the Shulchan Aruch, and within the Shulchan Aruch the Alter Rebbe wrote a special work on the laws of Torah study. Chassidim relate, chassidim relate, that the Alter Rebbe composed the laws of Torah study and published them in pamphlets without naming the author. Shh... The chossid Reb Pinchas Reizes printed these pamphlets. Reb Pinchas’s father was one of the leading opponents of Chassidus, and once he saw his son Reb Pinchas studying a pamphlet containing the Alter Rebbe’s laws of Torah study. His father took the pamphlet, studied it too, and said to his son—without knowing who had written it—“Pinchas, I will cover the printing costs.” And that is how the laws of Torah study were printed and spread among the opponents of Chassidus as well, because they did not know who had written them. When the pamphlets reached Vilna, where the Gaon of Vilna lived, people told him about them and brought him a copy. The Gaon of Vilna took the pamphlet on the laws of Torah study without knowing who had composed it, studied it, and said, “This pamphlet is luminous genius, and its author is certainly a brilliant genius. It is a mitzvah for this work to be found in every corner of Jewish homes.” Some time passed, and the opponents heard that the Alter Rebbe had written this wonderful pamphlet on the laws of Torah study.

47:14 Speaker 13 They were very angry and said it was one of the chassidim’s schemes to bring more chassidim to their Rebbe. Five full books of profound insights on this pamphlet on the laws of Torah study were written by the local rabbi, the esteemed Rabbi Mordechai Shmuel Ashkenazi, shlita. We will now invite the rabbi to speak.

47:56 Speaker 14 L’chaim, l’chaim. Our years, our hopes and our aspirations in the study of Chassid— in the study of Chassidus and in the ways of Chassidus. L’chaim, l’chaim! I won’t speak at length. I only returned today after a few days in Antwerp. Last night, we had a chassidic farbrengen in Antwerp led by the shliach Rabbi Slobotzky. I sat there, moved by the presence and the unity of the chassidim, of the Jewish people. Chassidim from every circle and every community took part in that farbrengen—a symbol of unity. And perhaps, perhaps that is one of the first signs of the true and complete Geulah. So I’m a little tired. But the Rebbe Rashab writes in his well-known letter concerning 19 Kislev: “May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year in the study of Chassidus and in the ways of Chassidus.” We all understand what studying Chassidus means. What do “the ways of Chassidus” mean? What are the new ways of Chassidus that came about with the revelation, the revelation of the teachings of Chassidus? One of the ways of Chassidus, in addition to studying Chassidus, is the farbrengen. And that was one of the things that, in the Alter Rebbe’s day, the opponents could not accept. They might even have been prepared to accept the study of Chassidus, but the ways of Chassidus—to sit and farbreng for hours on end, through long, long nights, with a little mashke and a piece of herring, to sing niggunim and songs, to tell sto—stories? A person is supposed to study Torah. It’s time taken away from Torah study. But in fact, anyone who knows the history of the past two hundred, two hundred and fifty years knows that one of the main, fundamental practices of chassidim was the farbrengen: chassidim gathering together wherever they were, sitting down, having a little mashke, telling stories and recalling memories. These farbrengens—through these farbrengens, chassidim held firm in the most difficult circumstances. Precisely through the farbrengen, precisely through unity, when a number of chassidim sat together and said l’chaim, wishing one another success in everything they needed. And about these things our Rebbeim said—said that a note fell from Heaven, saying that what a chassidic farbrengen can accomplish cannot

51:25 Speaker 14 The angel Michael can accomplish through his prayers. And one of the special things about the holiday of 19 Kislev is the farbrengen for the Festival of Liberation. We have gathered at this farbrengen today to say l’chaim and leave with good resolutions, special resolutions connected with the Festival of Liberation: to strengthen, to strengthen ever more our bond with the Tree of Life, with the Rebbe; our bond with our Rebbeim, following their ways in everything they have taught us. Whether in the Rebbe’s mitzvah campaigns or in Ahavas Yisroel toward each and every person. May Hashem help that this farbrengen bring good, active resolutions in accordance with the Rebbe’s wishes, and may we merit the true and complete Geulah, with our King at our head. L’chaim, l’chaim.

52:23 Speaker 3 Thank you very much. A great yasher koach to the mara d’asra, the distinguished Rabbi and chossid Rabbi Mordechai Shmuel Ashkenazi shlita. May he live long in his position and continue to lead Kfar Chabad with distinction. The Alter Rebbe wrote the Shulchan Aruch when he was about thirty. The Maggid of Mezritch had charged him with writing this important work. His colleagues, the Alter Rebbe’s fellow students, felt the jealousy of scholars: why had the Maggid assigned this difficult task to him and not to them? The Frierdiker Rebbe applied to this the verse said about Yosef the Righteous: “His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.” “His brothers were jealous of him”—these were the Maggid’s students, who were jealous of the Alter Rebbe. “But his father,” the Maggid, “kept the matter in mind.” The Hebrew letters of “shamar,” “kept,” stand for Rabbi Mordechai Shmuel Ashkenazi, Talmud Torah. May he continue spreading the wellsprings and studying Torah for many good years. With us here is someone who makes a point of attending this event year after year: the rabbi of Givatayim, the distinguished Rabbi Yosef Gliksberg shlita. Please.

53:53 Speaker 4 My esteemed friend, the distinguished Rabbi Ashkenazi shlita, the mara d’asra; all the honored rabbis and community leaders here with us; and the entire holy gathering. Sitting here, a verse comes to mind that suits this evening. It speaks both to the liberation of the Alter Rebbe zt”l—may his merit protect us and all Israel—and to the holy gathering of Lubavitch, which, under the leadership of the great Rebbe, is, thank G-d, filling the whole world with faith in Hakadosh Boruch Hu and His Torah, and with Ahavas Yisroel. The verse that comes to mind is: “He raises the needy above affliction and makes families like flocks.” “He redeemed my soul in peace”—that is the raising up from affliction, from imprisonment, from suffering and hardship. And we see the result today. Generations have passed, and here are families like flocks: families upon families of chassidim, devoted shluchim filling the whole world. It is a great miracle, a great miracle that flows from, and is the result of, the great miracle of 19 Kislev. This is the miracle of Chabad, of Lubavitch, today. And through what merit did this miracle come about? The Gemara says in several places—in Shabbos, Sanhedrin and Taanis. In one place it says: “Rav Pappa said to Abaye.” Rav Pappa asked Abaye: “Why was it different for the earlier generations, for whom miracles occurred?” Miracles happened for them. And why don’t miracles happen for us? Perhaps you will say they studied more Torah than we do? Not necessarily. Rav Yehuda studied three sections of Nezikin; that was the main extent of his learning. And we study even Uktzin—the whole Torah. So where are the miracles they had? Why don’t we have them? The answer given in all these places is: “The earlier generations gave their lives to sanctify Hashem’s name, and so miracles occurred for them.” We have not yet reached that level of self-sacrifice to sanctify Hashem’s name, and so miracles are lacking. What was Rav Yehuda’s miracle? Rav Yehuda would take off one shoe—one shoe. When rain was needed, rain fell immediately. He only had to take off one shoe and the rain was already falling. And we stand there praying,

57:39 Speaker 4 crying out, sighing and weeping. Where is the rain, my friends? Let us all pray for rains of blessing, and that we be worthy of them. The secret is that they gave themselves over to sanctify Hashem’s name. And we should know: giving oneself over to sanctify Hashem’s name is not only in cases where halachah says one must die rather than transgress. Those cases are not so common. Rashi asks there: how does this passage of Gemara relate to Tractate Berachos? Because it says there that if someone is told in the marketplace that his garment contains shatnez, he does not protect his dignity or standing. He takes off the garment right there in the marketplace and is not ashamed. That, too, is self-sacrifice to sanctify Hashem’s name. That is self-sacrifice. And so, my friends, in the merit of all this—in the merit of the self-sacrifice I saw as a child, the self-sacrifice of Lubavitch chassidim when we were in Siberia. There we saw the need for self-sacrifice. My father, of blessed memory, ruled that something was forbidden on Shabbos, and they wanted to sentence him to death for that act of self-sacrifice. Hakadosh Boruch Hu performed a miracle. Later we went down to southern Russia and reached Samarkand under Stalin. What a magnificent community it was—Torah, good deeds, acts of kindness and chassidic devotion. I once heard, as a child, that the Chofetz Chaim, of blessed memory, said something fitting for Chanukah: Why did the Jews on Chanukah give their lives to sanctify Hashem’s name? Because the war was over the spirit, the soul, the Torah. And he said that if, during the Communist Revolution, many Jews—or even some of them—had given their lives to sanctify Hashem’s name, we would have defeated them. We would have won. Well, we had the privilege of seeing some of those Jews there, Jews who gave themselves over. Real self-sacrifice, like what we saw in Mumbai, India, where there are people who truly give their lives to sanctify Hashem’s name in carrying out their shlichus. I will add just one more word of praise. In the house of Hashem, the house of study, the house of Chassidus, the house of good deeds, the house of our fathers’ traditions,

1:00:47 Speaker 4 the home of loyalty to the Rebbe and to his teachers—that is the shoe he never took off, the one shoe. With self-sacrifice, he took off the other to set out on the road, on the road to the Jewish people, to bring the Jewish people closer. That is the strength. Because if you take off both shoes and run too fast, there is a danger, G-d forbid, that something will be forgotten, that something will be lost. I so envy chassidic Jews when I come into a home of chassidim. There is no need to speak of the devotion here to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, to His Torah, to Chassidus, to serving Hashem with self-sacrifice. And from here people go out with one shoe—one shoe here and the other turned toward the Jewish people throughout the world. That is the strength; that is the great miracle of our generation. Let us all continue, and may Hakadosh Boruch Hu perform miracles for us too, as we will soon say: “As He did for our ancestors in those days, at this time.” Amen.

1:02:11 Speaker 5 Yasher koach. Rabbi Gliksberg shlita, we wish you many more years of joining us here at this special 19 Kislev farbrengen in Kfar Chabad. How heartening and joyful it is to see such a large crowd that has come from afar: groups of chassidic Jews from Haifa, from Tzfas, from Ramat Aviv and the yeshivah in Ramat Aviv, the Ashnav group from Yehud, and from here in Kfar Chabad. The Rebbe says about a chassidic farbrengen: “One who passes through a perfumer’s shop comes away fragrant.” Someone who passes through a perfume shop absorbs its fragrance. Anyone who comes to take part in a chassidic farbrengen, especially a 19 Kislev farbrengen like this one, will certainly absorb a great deal from the wellspring of Chassidus. L’chaim, l’chaim. A drawing was held here this evening for a plane ticket to visit the Rebbe, for a child, a soldier in Tzivos Hashem, to travel with his father. The winner is Tzivos Hashem soldier Mendy Feldman, together with his father, Rabbi Dovid Feldman. The ticket was donated by Avi Malka of the catering company here and the dear benefactor Reb Gavriel Buzaglo. A great yasher koach, and thank you very much. The theme of 19 Kislev is spreading the wellsprings of Chassidus. Some are engaged in giving water to the flocks far from the spring, while others do the holy work of giving water to the flocks close to the spring. These are the students of the Chabad yeshivos, the students of Tomchei Temimim. Alongside the great growth of the institution of shlichus, there has also been steady expansion of Chabad educational institutions and yeshivos, where the young students sit and immerse themselves in the revealed and inner dimensions of Torah. Answering our call and coming from afar is one of the distinguished mashpi’im, a scholar of both the revealed dimension of Torah and Chassidus. Throughout the year he works with the King’s legion, the students of Tomchei Temimim, teaching them and deepening their knowledge of Torah and their fear of Heaven: the chossid, descendant of holy forebears, the distinguished Rabbi Nachman Yosef Twersky shlita. We will now hear Rabbi Twersky. After him we will sing a nigun and hear Rabbi Slobotitzky

1:05:04 Speaker 5 shlita, the Rebbe’s shliach from Belgium. After that there is still the Nigun Arba Bavos, and we will go on sitting together for a chassidic farbrengen until daybreak.

1:05:23 Speaker 6 L’chaim, l’chaim. Yom Tov, Yom Tov. Since we’re here in the middle of the 19 Kislev farbrengen, they asked... One of the main reasons for the imprisonment was the accusation that the Alter Rebbe had made the teachings of Chassidus public and spread them through Chabad—chochmah, binah and daas. That was the reason for the imprisonment. And on 19 Kislev there was a victory, and the Baal Shem Tov and the Maggid told him to continue making the teachings of Chassidus public. The Alter Rebbe writes in a letter that while he was saying “He redeemed my soul in peace,” before he had even said the next verse, he was freed—he received the news. So we see that in this verse, “He redeemed my soul in peace,” the Alter Rebbe emphasizes the central point of the Geulah. We need to understand what is so central about “He redeemed my soul in peace.” Generally, when someone is redeemed from captivity, from imprisonment, there are two ways it can happen. One way is that a person gets out of prison by overcoming his enemy. He fights him and gets out. And there’s a way it happens in peace: he makes peace with him. That’s how it was in the plain meaning of the verse “He redeemed my soul in peace”: Absalom’s men came to an agreement with him. Not only did they agree with him, they prayed for King David’s success. The same applies to “He redeemed my soul in peace” as it relates to every Jew. Because, as is known, King David said Tehillim on behalf of the Jewish people. All of this applies to every Jew, in every situation. Every Jew has a battle, a constant battle. On one side there’s the yetzer tov, there’s the neshamah; there’s the yetzer hara, there’s the animal soul. There’s a battle. How do you win this battle? Here too, there are two ways. There’s the way of fighting and winning, and there’s the way of working together with the animal soul, working with it. “And you shall love

1:08:55 Speaker 6 Hashem your G-d with all your heart”—“with all your heart,” with both the yetzer tov and the yetzer hara together. What does this have to do with Chassidus at a deeper level? The Rambam says at the end of Hilchos Chanukah that the Torah was given only to bring peace to the world, as it says, “Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.” The question arises: the Torah does speak about peace. There are laws concerning peace between one person and another, between husband and wife, all sorts of laws. But the entire Torah was given to bring peace? How does that relate to the entire Torah? So let’s understand this. There’s a Midrash. The Midrash says that the Jewish people are called by the name used in Shir Hashirim: “Shulamis, Shulamis.” The Jewish people bring peace between Hakadosh Boruch Hu and His world. There’s a disagreement between Hakadosh Boruch Hu and His world, and peace has to be made. The question is: what’s the disagreement? What do they disagree about? Chassidus explains that the verse says, “There is nothing else besides Him.” The entire existence of the world is Hakadosh Boruch Hu. As we say, “You were the same before the world was created,” and as we say in the siddur, in davening, “and You are the same since the world was created.” It’s the same. But don’t we see a world? It says, “In the beginning, G-d created.” There is a world. That is a reality the Torah itself attests to. So the whole world is only... Throughout the whole world, all we see is Hakadosh Boruch Hu, only the reality of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. It isn’t a reality in its own right; it exists only as a result of Him. But the world, from its own perspective, doesn’t see that. The world cries out, “I am a reality.” That’s why we say the Jewish people bring peace: when a Jew observes Torah and mitzvos, when a Jew learns, reflects, studies Chassidus and Torah, and observes mitzvos, he hears that his whole existence is only “In the beginning, G-d created.” Bereishis means “for two firsts”: for the Torah and for

1:11:42 Speaker 6 the Jewish people. The world’s entire existence is only for this. That is its whole purpose: Torah and mitzvos. And that is the whole point of Chassidus as revealed by the Baal Shem Tov and the Alter Rebbe: to take the physical and infuse it with this, to show that everything is holiness, everything is Hakadosh Boruch Hu. I once heard a teaching from one of the great figures of Chassidus, a student of students of students of the Maggid. He said there were three eras in the revelation of the inner dimension of Torah. There was the era of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, the Zohar. There was the era of the holy Ari, Kabbalah. Then came the era of Chassidus. What did each accomplish beyond the one before it? We see three stages. So he said that with Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, we find in the Zohar, “Ta chazi”—come and see. Come and see. Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai showed a Jew that you can rise upward. You can lift yourself up. That’s “ta chazi”: rise up. A person, a Jew sitting down here, can ascend to heaven and see what goes on there. The holy Ari showed that a Jew can draw heaven down here. The whole subject of the sefiros and of Kabbalah—all of it is drawn down here. You can draw heaven down here. Then the Baal Shem Tov came and said, “Gentlemen, we don’t need to rise upward, and we don’t need to draw heaven downward. We’ll take the earth, the lower realms, and make them heaven.” That is all our work. “I was created only to serve my Maker.” And the Rebbe emphasizes: it doesn’t say, “I—I was created to serve...” It says, “I was not created except to serve my Maker.” My whole existence is not an existence for myself. My whole existence is only to serve my Maker, only to serve Hakadosh Boruch Hu. And that is the explanation of how the Alter Rebbe brought this down—brought down Chassidus, the essence of Torah, the inner dimension of Torah—not only through faith, through the faculties that Hakadosh Boruch Hu gave me. He brought it down

1:14:24 Speaker 6 into human understanding too, into our own minds, so that we take G-dliness, and when G-dliness is in my mind, I live with it, and it affects every part of my being. In general, we’re living in a very... I’m an educator, I give shiurim in a yeshivah, and I meet with many parents and all kinds of people. There’s a problem: today everyone is afraid. They have children, and each person worries, “What will happen to my children?” Today there are challenges, there are situations people don’t know how to deal with. It’s a very serious problem. And they look for this approach and that approach, all kinds of wisdom and educational methods, every possible way to solve the problem. But there’s something called treating the root of the problem. So I’ll share a saying from one of the great figures of Chassidus, Reb Pinchas of Koritz. Reb Pinchas of Koritz said that when a person sends his son to study with a melamed, he should send him only to a melamed who studies the inner dimension of Torah, who studies Chassidus. Why does he say that? Because there’s a problem. You send a child to learn, and the melamed teaches him simple things: alef-beis, Chumash, and so on. How can I be sure it will enter the child’s inner being, the child’s soul, and stay with him his whole life? How can I be sure? So Reb Pinchas of Koritz says: if the melamed studies the inner dimension of Torah, he teaches the child with his own soul, from deep within himself. And the moment you teach a child from your inner being, it penetrates the child’s inner being. That’s the solution. When the teacher studies the inner dimension of Torah, it enters the child, his inner being. When a father learns with his child, speaks with his child, it enters the child’s inner being. The same is true for us as parents—the connection we have with our children. The Shabbos table. Once, two

1:17:19 Speaker 6 Two parents met. One had children who weren’t turning out as they should, while the other’s children were. So he asked him, “What’s your secret?” He said, “My secret is the Shabbos table. The Shabbos table.” My friends, I’ll tell you a story about the Rebbe. There was a chassidic family whose son had left home, run away from home, and the mother went in to the Rebbe. She asked the Rebbe, “Rebbe, what can I do? I’ve tried every way to bring him home. What can I do?” So the Rebbe told her in Yiddish, “Beautify the Shabbos room.” That’s what the Rebbe said. He didn’t explain. Beautify the Shabbos room. They didn’t have much money, but the Rebbe had said it, so they did everything they could. She bought new curtains for the room where they ate on Shabbos. Then she bought a new tablecloth, new cutlery, new dishes, and all week she thought: What special thing can I cook for Shabbos? Like preparing for a wedding. All the children saw that, for their mother, the whole week revolved around Shabbos. The father saw how she was preparing for Shabbos. He said, “What about me? Am I preparing?” So he prepared. He found a chassidic story. He studied different ideas. He learned a chassidic vort, a sicha, a teaching, in a way he could bring it down to the children’s level. They sat at the Shabbos table like kings. It was simply beautiful to sit there. Everything was set out properly, and the father made the table a pleasant place. He spoke words of Torah and other things, and the physical side spoke to them too. That’s the idea of “My soul was redeemed in peace.” The physical and the spiritual work together: the physical beauty of the Shabbos table, and the beauty of the effort the father put in. The children at home would meet their brother and tell him—they told him, or they didn’t tell him. They said to him, “You know, you’re missing out. Every Shabbos at our house is like a wedding. Look what you’re missing! It’s a shame.” And so—

1:20:05 Speaker 6 The boy came back. And of course, he came back with all his strength. That’s our secret: to work together. We have to instill in the children the physi—the beauty, the inner dimension of Torah. And you can’t fake something like that. You can’t just say a few words for appearances’ sake, to fulfill an obligation by saying something at the Shabbos ta— When the father learns Chassidus himself, then when he speaks at the Shabbos table, his soul is speaking, and it goes in.