The Vav Tishrei 5766 gathering for Chabad women

00:04 Speaker 1 A program of Mishnayos corresponding to the letters of Rebbetzin Chana’s name—Ches, Nun, Hei—please.

00:45 Speaker 2 Good evening. We are gathered on the Rebbetzin’s yahrzeit. I once heard an elderly Jew say, when we began talking about yahrzeits and days of remembrance: “Tell me, vos iz, what is a yahrzeit?” I said, “A yahrzeit is a day of remembrance.” He said, “No, that’s not it at all. Yahrzeit is an acronym: ‘The day a tzaddik’s feet are gathered in shall be a Yom Tov.’ That’s a yahrzeit.” And that truly fits the way we observe a yahrzeit: it is a day when we gather together and rise together, with chassidic joy—not sadness or bitterness, but specifically by saying l’chaim and strengthening ourselves in joy. So it is an honor for me to study this evening, for the elevation of the Rebbetzin’s soul, three Mishnayos from chapters beginning with the letters of her name. The first Mishnah is in Tractate Terumos, chapter 1, Mishnah 1: “Five may not separate terumah.” The Mishnah discusses terumah. A person plowed, sowed and worked his field for a long time. Now he has harvested the grain, and the first thing he must do after harvesting his crop is separate terumah: take a portion as the Torah commands and give it to a kohen. That is the first thing required of him. And the Mishnah immediately tells us: there are five who cannot effect the separation of terumah. They cannot perform it—to the point that even if they did separate it, their terumah is not terumah. It does not work even after the fact. They do not have the authority to separate terumah. Who are they? The Mishnah lists: a deaf-mute, a person lacking sound judgment, a minor, and someone who separates terumah from produce that is not his. Also, a non-Jew who separates terumah from a Jew’s produce—even with permission—has not effected a valid separation. When the Torah speaks about separating terumah, about the obligation to give it, it says: “Speak to the Children of Israel, and let them take for Me an offering.” From whom? “From every man whose heart moves him, you shall take

04:22 Speaker 2 My offering.” From the wording of this very verse, our Sages derive who cannot separate terumah. “Speak to the Children of Israel, and let them take for Me an offering.” That is, speak to the Children of Israel: a Jew can give terumah. If someone is not a Jew, if he is a non-Jew and wants to give something to a kohen, he can give him many personal gifts, but they do not have the status of terumah. “From every man whose heart moves him”: a man can give terumah. “Be strong and become a man.” After bar mitzvah, a person is an adult; after bas mitzvah, a person is an adult. An adult who has a field has the authority and the ability to give terumah. “Whose heart moves him”—excluding a deaf-mute and a person lacking sound judgment, who do not have the requisite understanding. To give terumah, one must have—one must be of sound mind. If a person is not of sound mind, his terumah is not terumah. What is a person lacking sound judgment? We know what a minor is. But what is a person lacking sound judgment? Rabbeinu Ovadiah of Bartenura gives us a sign: it is someone who loses what people give him. Someone who loses what he is given, who does not know how to look after it, falls into that category. He does not know how to look after his clothes, his property or his money. Someone who loses what he is given lacks sound judgment. One thing is certain, says the Frierdiker Rebbe: a chossid cannot be a fool, and a fool cannot be a chossid. For a fool is someone who loses what he has, what he is given. And a chossid receives so many good things from the Rebbe—so much Torah, so much guidance. If you want to be a chossid, then you cannot be

06:50 Speaker 2 a fool. You must understand that you have to make use of what you are given. If you are such a shlemiel, such a fool, that you lose what you are given, that you cannot appreciate it, that you do not know how to appreciate what you are given, then you cannot be a chossid. So choose one of the two. Which group do you belong to? Yes, the Rebbe is speaking here in somewhat gentle language. Separating terumos and maasros is not just a technical matter of taking a little from the granary. I take some grain and give it to someone else—a technical act. What is so difficult about picking it up and giving it away? Why can’t a non-Jew give terumah too? But terumah is called terumah for a reason. The Tzemach Tzedek explains in his series of books, Or HaTorah, that terumah has a dual meaning. Terumah means separation: I take a portion from the whole, from the total quantity, lift it out and give it to someone else. I have separated it from the pile of grain I have. I took it, separated it and gave it to someone else. That is called terumah. The Tzemach Tzedek says that the holy Zohar explains that terumah also comes from the word for elevation. I take grain that was ordinary and elevate it. When I give it to a kohen, I am not merely giving it to him. At the same time, a great light and great holiness are drawn down from the higher worlds upon the grain, upon the terumah, and I have elevated the physical to a much, much higher level. A minor cannot perform this act of elevation—taking physical things and elevating them to holiness. A non-Jew cannot elevate the whole world to holiness. Only someone with a Divine soul within him, which is truly a part of G-d above, has the ability to give terumah, to separate terumah. And not

09:38 Speaker 2 only when the terumah comes from his own grain. The Mishnah concludes by addressing this question: What if the non-Jew does not want to separate terumah from his own produce, but I want to appoint him as my agent? He works for me. This Thai worker works on my farm—Jewish labor! He works on my farm, and just as he does all the work for me in the field, I tell him, “Take some grain and give it away. Go to the kohen, take a few kilos of terumah and give it to him as my agent.” No, says the Torah: “Just as you are members of the covenant, so too your agents must be members of the covenant.” Only a Jew like you can be your agent. Just as you are members of the covenant, so too your agents must be members of the covenant. Someone who is a member of the covenant can be your agent; a non-Jew cannot. And here the question branches out in halachah into other areas: Can a non-Jew act as an agent for another non-Jew? Some halachic authorities say simply: the Torah says, “Just as you are members of the covenant, so too your agents must be members of the covenant.” Because you are a member of the covenant, you can appoint an agent to separate terumah in your place if he, too, is a Jew. A non-Jew cannot be your agent. But if a non-Jew appoints another non-Jew as his agent in other areas of life—in business dealings, financial matters and all sorts of other things—why shouldn’t that non-Jew be able to act as an agent? He can. The Yerushalmi, the Jerusalem Talmud, says that a non-Jew cannot even act as an agent for another non-Jew, and all the halachic authorities wonder about this. How can it be that a non-Jew cannot act as an agent for another non-Jew? Why not? “A person’s agent is like the person himself.” So he cannot be like the Jewish person appointing him, but he can be like another non-Jew. A person’s agent is like the person himself. If the one appointing him is a non-Jew, he can be like that non-Jew. But according to

11:48 Speaker 2 In Chassidus, the point is understood. I believe there isn’t a single woman here in this hall who hasn’t at some point studied chapter 1 of Tanya, with Maskil Le’eisan or without Maskil Le’eisan. But at the end of chapter 1 it says, “All the good that the nations who worship idols do, they do for themselves.” There cannot be a situation in which a non-Jew does something for someone else. Everything he does, he does for himself. It cannot be that he does something for someone else. How can a non-Jew be an agent? After all, what is the whole idea of agency? The whole idea is that I carry out an action, but the action is not attributed to me; what I did is attributed to the person who sent me. When a friend travels to the Rebbe, I take the opportunity and say to him, “Here’s twenty dollars, here’s a hundred dollars. Do me a favor: go into one of the stores on Kingston and bring me five shirts. Take the money and buy them for me.” He goes in and buys them, and on the flight back he starts thinking: Maybe it would be a shame to pass up shirts like these. What’s good for Yekusiel is good for me too. I’ll give him his money back and keep the shirts for myself. He can do that, but then halachah defines him as a thief. Simple. Why? Because the moment you bought them as an agent, the act of buying is not attributed to you. You bought them, you paid the money, and you intended to buy them for someone else. So the action you performed is attributed directly to him. The item is already his. You bought it for him. A Jew can be an agent; a non-Jew cannot be an agent. He cannot perform an action that is attributed to the person who sent him. Why? “All the good that the nations who worship idols do, they do for themselves.” And we women sitting here in this hall, who are involved in shlichus, know

14:08 Speaker 2 what shlichus means. On the one hand, we receive the strength from the one who sends us. On the other hand, every action we take is not credited to us—or perhaps it is credited to us, but it is attributed to him. That is where it belongs: it is an action the one who sent us performs, with all the seriousness and all the responsibility that entails. That was the first Mishnah, beginning with the letter ches. Let’s move to the second Mishnah, in Tractate Shabbos, chapter 21. Here comes the Mishnah beginning with the letter nun. It deals a little with the laws of muktzeh on Shabbos, laws that come up in every Jewish home, Shabbos after Shabbos. The Mishnah presents an incident—uh, a case: “A person may pick up his son with a stone in his hand.” The child misses his father. He longs for him, he cries, he wants to be held. A familiar situation. Now the father wants to go over to his son and pick him up. There’s a problem: the child is holding a stone in his hand. A stone is muktzeh. He picked up a stone—a familiar occurrence. He picked up a stone from the street, the child has a stone, and now the father wants to lift the child. If he lifts the child, he lifts the muktzeh along with him. Is it permitted or forbidden? The Gemara’s conclusion is that the child may become ill. He isn’t ill now, but if his father doesn’t pick him up when he misses him, he really will become ill. Notice that it’s the father doing this, not the mothers. The child isn’t crying, “Mommy!” He’s crying, “Daddy!” I don’t know why; I didn’t say anything. So the child cries, “Daddy.” The child cries, “Daddy,” and the father wants to pick him up, but there’s muktzeh. The Mishnah says that even if the child will not be in mortal danger, since he may become ill—it could harm his health if his mother doesn’t pick him up—the Sages permitted lifting the child and were not concerned that the stone would be carried along with him. “And a basket with a stone inside it.” We have a basket, a bowl, with a stone inside it, but

16:43 Speaker 2 it also contains fruit. He wants the fruit now; he wants to eat it or use it, but in the other room, not here. What should he do? He cannot shake the fruit out, as the commentators explain. The Mishnah is not talking about nuts or hard fruit, but soft fruit that is difficult to pick up by hand. If I shake it out, it may be damaged. In that case, a person may carry the basket with the stone inside it, even though the muktzeh is carried along with the fruit. Likewise, one may move impure terumah together with pure terumah and with ordinary produce. And Rabbi Yehudah brings another situation here, another case, moving on to a further point. Rabbi Yehudah says: “One may also remove the terumah from a mixture in which it is outnumbered one hundred to one.” Let’s imagine such a mixture. We have grain here, a lot of grain, a large container with a lot of grain—a container of ordinary produce, a hundred se’ah of it, into which one se’ah of terumah fell. That bit of terumah, absorbed here, mixed in here, makes it what the Mishnah calls a mixture of terumah and ordinary produce. When the ratio is one to a hundred, the terumah in it is nullified and it all becomes ordinary produce. With fewer than a hundred parts, all the grain is forbidden for a non-kohen to eat; it belongs to a kohen. Once there is one to—a hundred to one, then it is all permitted to be ea—permitted to be eaten, provided I give one part of the hundred to a kohen. Since I don’t have to give that one part immediately, but can leave it until the end, in the meantime I may eat from it all; in the meantime, none of it is muktzeh. Ordinarily, if I had to rectify it, we know that separating terumos and maasros on Shabbos is forbidden, because we are rectifying the produce. But this is not considered rectifying it, and it is permitted. This Mishnah

19:19 Speaker 2 reminds me of what was said here about the child in his father’s arms. There is a maamar of the Frierdiker Rebbe in which he speaks about the reverse situation. It is not the child crying and wanting to be in his father’s arms; the Frierdiker Rebbe addresses us from the opposite direction. When we travel and engage in spreading the wellsprings, when we study Torah, when we want to teach others—and some people arrive at a ufaratzta event, come to an activity, and are handed the microphone—then, in the twenty minutes they have been given, they want to fit all of Chabad into it, from beginning to end, packing it in and packing it in. In those twenty minutes we have to give, give, give everything. We start at the bottom and climb to the heights, and during those twenty minutes the other person doesn’t even know what you’re talking about. You don’t realize that you’re talking astronomy, going higher and higher. Who are you talking to? What are you talking about? The Frierdiker Rebbe says: When a father wants to play with his child face to face, what does he do? He doesn’t bend down to the child in the cradle and start playing with him. First he takes the child in both hands, bends down to the cradle, and slowly lifts him until the child is level with his face. Once the child is level with his face, he can play with him a little. So, slowly and patiently, when the child wants and longs to reach our Father, his Father in Heaven, the father doesn’t look away. There are issues of muktzeh; there are problems, there are difficulties. We must be careful not to transgress, not to move the muktzeh, but we must lift the child. Especially since, by lifting him, we bring him closer to our Father in Heaven. And the last Mishnah, from Tractate Berachos, chapter 9, Mishnah 1: “One who sees a place where miracles were performed for the Jewish people.” Yes, the Mishnah begins with the same... Someone who sees a place where miracles were performed for the Jewish people—what does he say? He

21:41 Speaker 2 He says: “Blessed is He who performed miracles for our forefathers in this place.” The Bartenura explains that this refers to someone who sees the crossings of the Red Sea, the streams of Arnon, the crossings of the Jordan, or the stone on which Moshe Rabbeinu, peace be upon him, sat—any miracle performed for the public. He says: “Blessed is He who performed miracles for our forefathers in this place.” If a person experienced a personal miracle and passes that place, he must say: “Blessed is He who performed a miracle for me in this place.” If he sees a place where idol worship was uprooted, he says: “Blessed is He who uprooted idol worship from our land.” Here the Mishnah is speaking about someone who comes upon a particular place and sees it. He went on a trip to Sinai—yes, traveling to Sinai is a common thing these days—and there he sees one of the crossings of the Red Sea. He studied well, paid attention in his Tanach classes, and knows exactly where one of these places is. Now he has come upon a place where miracles were performed for our forefathers. Seeing these places should stir a person. Seeing them is not a chance occurrence. You came upon one and saw it. It should uplift you. You should remember those days, rise above yourself, and thank Hakadosh Boruch Hu for the miracles performed for our forefathers in this place. So that is a kind of seeing that happens when we come upon something. For us chassidim, when we talk about seeing, there is something interesting. I was thinking about how much emphasis we place on a person taking the initiative to see what we are called upon to see. One of the things we are called upon to see, especially those involved in spreading the wellsprings of Chassidus, is the Rebbe’s face. Seeing the Rebbe’s face has deep significance. Especially when? Our Sages say: “Whoever repeats a teaching in the name of the one who said it should see the author of that teaching as though he were standing before him.” We go out to spread Yiddishkeit. “The Rebbe said, the Rebbe said, the Rebbe said.” How wonderful—how did I speak? “The Rebbe said.” The words have a different force. They have a different effect.

24:26 Speaker 2 There is a difference between simply reciting what the Rebbe said and seeing the author of the teaching standing before you. You are saying something the Rebbe said; you see him vividly. You look and contemplate before you go to speak, and after you speak. As explained in Sefer Hamaamarim 5696, seeing the Rebbe’s face has an effect when we work to strengthen Yiddishkeit and spread Chassidus—not only on the person speaking, but also on the person listening. What you say is received in a completely different way. Some things are truly startling. We are in Bnei Brak, but within a closed circle we can talk. Reb Shlomo Chaim Kesselman would say that in the confession at the shofar blowing on Rosh Hashanah, between the blasts, the instructions say, “One should confess quietly.” So what are we supposed to confess quietly? What does that mean? What are we supposed to whisper there? Reb Shlomo Chaim Kesselman would tell his students that “confess quietly” means to picture the Rebbe’s face—right there, between the shofar blasts. And if we thought this was an idea of Reb Shlomo Chaim, a"h, the Baal Shem Tov wrote to the Maggid of Mezritch: “Before the shofar blasts, prepare yourself well. And how should you prepare yourself well before the blasts on Rosh Hashanah? Picture my face before you”—the Baal Shem Tov is speaking about himself—“and also the face of my teacher, whom you, too, merited to see. My teacher, whom you, too, merited to see, is Achiyah HaShiloni.” I want to wish us all that we not only see miracles performed for our forefathers in the past, but that we continue to see our king in the present, that the Rebbe be before our eyes, and that we see blessing and success in all the work of our hands. Thank you very much.

27:26 Speaker 3 Many, many thanks to Rabbi Yekusiel Green for that wonderful, remarkable study of the Mishnah. And now we will move on to picturing the Rebbe’s face.

27:39 Speaker 2 A good sealing, or a good final sealing. We heard many times from the Rebbe, at the farbrengen on 6 Tishrei, a wonderful story about Rebbetzin Chana. When she arrived at the place where the Rebbe’s father, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak, had been exiled, he wanted to study and write down his Torah insights, but he did not even have a pen or pencil with which to write them. What did his wife, Rebbetzin Chana, do? She went—and the Rebbe once said that perhaps she learned how to do this there, or perhaps she already knew—she gathered various plants and put them in water. She went through that whole process until she produced a little ink. With it, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak, the Rebbe’s father, wrote Torah insights. Over the years, she brought those writings out of Russia and took them to the United States, where they were printed as the books Likkutei Levi Yitzchak, including commentaries on Tanya and more. In the middle of telling the story, the Rebbe adds one more line from which we can learn a great deal about conduct at home. As the Rebbe tells the story, he adds: “Even though the home lacked bread and water at the time, Rebbetzin Chana devoted her energy, her knowledge, and her time to finding ink so that her husband could write his Torah insights.” That is how the Rebbe expressed it; that is what the Rebbe said. Beyond the fact that she invested time and effort to make sure her husband had ink with which to write his Torah insights, it is all the more remarkable because she lacked bread and water. Instead of making ink, she could have gone looking for a little bread or water and tried all sorts of ways to find some. But no: she set that aside and went to find ink for writing Torah insights. That is what the Rebbe says in the sicha; that line also appears in the version that was written up and printed afterward. We need to consider what we can learn from this story the Rebbe told us, especially

31:46 Speaker 2 since the sicha began with “And the living should take it to heart.” I think that if we interpret it, the Rebbe always valued the plain meaning of the verse. The Rebbe was not reluctant to be the greatest rosh yeshivah in the world while teaching us how to study Chumash and Rashi on the simplest matters. When studying Rashi, too, the Rebbe loved to explain the plain meaning of the verse—why Rashi explained it one way and not another. So when we study a sicha of the Rebbe and want to learn something from it, before getting into its deeper meaning we should first consider what the Rebbe said and what he wanted to teach us in very simple terms. I think there is a Shulchan Aruch here, a set of guidelines for day-to-day conduct in the home—how a wife should act. Boruch Hashem, we are not in a situation where we need to search for a pen or pencil for a husband, and boruch Hashem, I hope everyone has bread and water at home. But there is something here that perhaps we do not think about enough, and in a moment I will tell a story as well. There is a verse in Mishlei: “The wisdom of women”—wisdom in the sense of chochmah, and this is what it explicitly says—“The wisdom of women builds her home,” and so on. What is the simple meaning? A woman’s wisdom builds the home. What is wisdom? We have learned in Chassidus that whenever it says chochmah, it means the wisdom of Torah. The wisdom of Torah builds the home. A home is being built here. The home is the husband and wife, and together with the children and the whole family, they build it. Of course, to have a home, first you need to rent or buy a house—the physical house and its walls. Then you need a table in the house. Boruch Hashem, everyone has a table at home. You also need chairs, an oven, a refrigerator, and everything else. It is not enough; everyone should have more and more comfort and abundance. But there is also the light of the home, the happiness of the home. The happiness of the home is the Torah of the home. One of the things

35:12 Speaker 2 The Rebbe asked for a home filled with sefarim. Now, some stores have bookcases on display to show how many books they can hold. They put in a complete Shas, or the holy Zohar, or the Five Books of the Torah. But try taking one out, and you’ll see you can’t: they’ve run a wire through the books to keep them in place. They’re there for decoration. That isn’t what a home filled with sefarim means. It means the books are used, and used often. The beauty of the home, the happiness of the home, is the Torah learned within its four walls—or the Torah learned outside and brought home. The Rebbe told us about Rebbetzin Chana. She didn’t think that if she failed to bring her husband, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak, a pen, he wouldn’t learn. There was no question that he would learn. But he wanted to write down chiddushei Torah. She spent an hour or two—or ten hours; I don’t know how many—of her own time preparing ink for him. Instead, she could have gone looking for another slice of bread and another cup of water—not a cup of Coca-Cola, a cup of water. The sicha says they didn’t have enough water or bread. Perhaps it wasn’t a matter of saving a life, because if it had been, she certainly would have gone to get some water. But apparently they didn’t have enough. It wasn’t like their home in Yekaterinoslav; in Alma-Ata, they didn’t have enough water. Perhaps their mouths were even a little dry. Perhaps the amount of bread they ate was so small it was doubtful whether they could bentch afterward. Perhaps it wasn’t the required amount, but they ate. As a wife, she could have stopped and thought: I have a husband, but I’m here too—Rebbetzin Chana. I have a few minutes; I’ll go now and bring

37:31 Speaker 2 a little more bread, a little more water. But the Rebbe tells us: no. With her holiness and her true wisdom, her Torah wisdom, she saw that something more needed to be added to Torah here. We can’t take her situation as an exact model for our own; we’re still far from it. But we can learn from it. She understood that something needed to be written down. Her husband wanted to write chiddushei Torah. He was learning, but he was learning by heart. He had almost no sefarim. He learned the little he had again and again, all by heart, of course, as we know from the stories. Even so, she could provide a way for him to write down some chiddushei Torah. She did it. She spent many hours producing a little ink, with which he briefly wrote down various insights. To this day, we learn Rabbi Levi Yitzchak’s Torah teachings from those wonderful insights. And here the Rebbe taught us Rebbetzin Chana’s approach. A home isn’t built on bread and water alone, and boruch Hashem, we aren’t in a situation where we need a little bread or a little water. A home is built; above all, it is built on the foundations of Torah. That’s what the Rebbe means in the letter he writes to every couple for their wedding: Torah study. And that’s the meaning of “The wisdom of women builds her home.” It’s the wisdom of Torah that builds the home. You’ll surely ask me: What does this mean for the woman? The husband should learn Torah, but what are we asking of her? We’re not saying she has to bring him a pen, a pencil, or a sefer of chiddushei Torah to study. What am I talking about? Please, let him learn for hours and hours, all day and all night. I want to tell a story, and I think we can continue from there. A couple came with a problem: one of their children wasn’t learning in the Talmud Torah, the cheder he attended. He wasn’t making progress

40:03 Speaker 2 because he himself wasn’t studying. He heard a little, paid attention sometimes and not at other times. And so it went through first grade, second grade, third grade. Soon he would have to go to yeshiva, and he wasn’t progressing. He had ability; he was a healthy child. He didn’t need a psychologist or anything else. Everything was fine, boruch Hashem. He had talent, but he wasn’t learning. He had no enthusiasm for it at all—not for Chumash, not for Mishnayos, not for Gemara. He listened a little, and that was it. What was the problem? The wife came with her husband because, in her opinion, the problem was that for years she had been asking him to learn with their son, and he hadn’t done it. Her complaint was justified. The father wasn’t learning with the child. When a father learns with his child, he gives him enthusiasm. He makes him feel that his learning matters very much. He gives him the confidence to arrive at Talmud Torah the next day and perhaps know the material better than anyone else, because he learned it with his father and might even know a few things that weren’t taught in class. She said the father was at fault, and that he wouldn’t budge. I watched the father sitting there, listening and listening, without answering a word. There’s a saying in the Gemara: “Silence is like an admission.” It was as if he admitted everything and agreed with her, but that wasn’t quite it. She finished laying out her complaints and wanted me to tell him that, as a father, he had an obligation to educate his children, including in Torah study. I looked at him and could see he had an answer, but he wasn’t saying it. I said, “Well, perhaps he doesn’t have time?” “No, he has time. He comes home in the evenings. Not every evening, but he has time, and he has the strength and the knowledge.” Still, he didn’t answer. And she

42:19 Speaker 2 told it all again, while I tried to get a response. She had been trying for years. It wasn’t working. So I said to him, “Perhaps you think you don’t have an answer. All right, then, from now on... Or perhaps there is an answer. You don’t have to give one. We came to discuss the matter.” I could see something was weighing heavily on him. Then he said, “No, no. It’s true that my wife has been asking me for years, and I do have time. But I haven’t learned with our son because my wife is to blame.” To blame? He hadn’t wanted to say it. It burst out, and once he said it, she cried. I want to tell you about it. I’ll never forget it. This is what he said: “When we got married about twenty-five years ago, I was learning in kollel. After the wedding, people generally learn in kollel for a while. I was a good young man and learned well; I had done well in yeshiva too. I was serious and capable. My wife had studied too. Making a living was very difficult. Every week or every month, I never once heard my wife say, ‘Good for you, sitting and learning.’ Whenever there was an opportunity, she would say, ‘It’s a shame we don’t have this.’ Not, chas veshalom, ‘You’re learning, and that’s fine.’ But every month, or every week, or every couple of months, she’d say it like a little jab.” He asked her, “Is that true?” And she answered, “Yes, but...” She hadn’t said anything outright—just, “It’s a shame; if only we had a little more money.” He said it went on for six months, three quarters of a year, while they tried to maintain peace at home. “Then I understood that we couldn’t go on like this. I started working.” He told me exactly which year it was, how

45:01 Speaker 2 it began, and where he worked. At first he worked half a day. Later, on workdays, he would usually finish very late, but three times a week he got home earlier. He began going to the shul to learn with a chavrusa—one thing at one point, something else at another. Then she told him, “You work all week, and you only get home a little earlier three times a week, apart from Shabbos Kodesh, when the day is taken up. Can’t you set aside one or two of those evenings to go for a walk with me?” She said it once, and then again and again. He took the hint. That’s all right; he’s a good man. “So what did I have left? Out of the whole week, I had two or three evenings. And out of those three, twice I either went for a walk with my wife or went shopping and so on—all good things. That left me one evening. And what could I really learn in that one evening? So I learned a little here and a little there. That went on for a year, two years, three years. By the time our son was old enough for me to learn with him, four or five years ago—we had daughters first—I had already gone about fifteen years without really learning anything. I had no pleasure in learning anymore. What had I learned? I work all day. I come home late at night, and once a week I have to catch up on a shiur here, a shiur there, or Chitas or Rambam. How much time is there? And if I have a few evenings in the week, we’ve arranged to go for a walk once a week, and so on. So what do I have left? I didn’t learn. I have no pleasure in learning. I learn a little, but I have no... You took away all the pleasure I had in learning.” And she

47:00 Speaker 2 sat there crying like a little girl—I don’t know what age—and said to me, “I admit it. It’s true.” And he, too, was telling the truth. He said, “I never answered her, and I didn’t want to tell her. I simply have no pleasure in learning.” It’s hard to ask a father, when that’s where he’s at, to...

00:04 Speaker 1 Married a wicked woman. The pious woman married a wicked man. Both cases were the reverse. The Midrash relates that the wicked man who married the pious woman became righteous, while the pious man who married the wicked woman became wicked. The Midrash says that our Sages, of blessed memory, conclude from this: everything is in the woman’s hands. That is what the Midrash says; it is not just a story. To my mind, that is the plain meaning of what the Rebbe told us in this letter—in this story, excuse me, in this sicha. A woman needs to see how to build her home. A home is built not only through material things; its light is its spirituality. And that does not begin after fifteen or twenty years, but from the very first day. Then, when there is light in the home, there is peace in the home, as the verse says: “Great peace have those who love Your Torah.” When there is love of Torah in the home, when Torah is part of the home, the husband comes home, and the children see and ask where their father was. They are told that he was at a class, went to learn, went to a farbrengen, went to hear a class, or is learning in his room and they cannot go in right now. That makes them want to learn, makes the wife respect her husband more, and makes the husband respect his wife more. She understands why he learned for so many years and why it was so important that he do so. We also have the blessing of Torah: “Its ways are ways of pleasantness, and all its paths are peace.” When there is Torah in the home, all the ways of the home follow a path of peace. That is peace in the home. We bring that peace into the home through the spirituality we bring in from the first day after the wedding, so that the home is built on Torah. Through the Torah and the things written in the Torah—its mitzvos—especially in these days of the Ten Days of Teshuvah, may we all merit to be inscribed for a good year

02:30 Speaker 1 and sealed for a good year, and may our righteous Moshiach come speedily, in our days, ממש.

02:35 Speaker 2 How do we do that? I am honored to invite the organization’s chairwoman, Mrs. Sarah Silberstrom, to present the fund’s project for this year. Please.

02:49 Speaker 3 Inspired by the Rebbe’s words and the Rebbetzin’s wonderful work, we are sitting here at a very, very special time: the Ten Days of Teshuvah. These are ten days when each of us wants to improve and wishes for herself and her family that things will truly be better, both personally and for the Jewish people as a whole—and that Moshiach will finally come. We sat down and thought: What can we really do with the fund this year? After all, the fund’s money is for the three mitzvos alluded to in the name Chana. We decided to take light as our theme, because the mitzvah of lighting Shabbos candles, of adding light, is so vital these days. A little light dispels much darkness. We see that even women who find other mitzvos difficult say, when it comes to lighting Shabbos candles, “How lovely! We’ll light. When is it? Tell us. We’ll light.” We also see that many different groups have taken up the Neshek campaign—the Shabbos candle-lighting campaign. In conversations with active women, shluchos, women sitting here and others, they told me: “Listen, there’s a problem with Neshek. When we go out into the street and stand on a street corner, or these days in a mall—I’m talking about the women—it doesn’t feel good. We stand there with our bags, wanting to run after women passing by. You know what? The women of Gur have a table, a cup; they have something. Why shouldn’t Chabad women have a little spot of their own?” At first I thought, there’s already a branch. There are Chabad women’s organizations and Chabad Houses. Why a separate spot? In every city, every community, every place you are, there is a location. But suddenly I understood the difference between the Beis Hamikdash and the Mishkan. The Beis Hamikdash stood in one place; the Mishkan traveled from place to place. There is an advantage to a permanent location, to having a branch that people come to, but there is a great need to go to the places where people are—to have a little spot in the middle of a mall or off to the side. That led to the proposal you can see pictured here. Anyone who wants to go out for Neshek on a

05:02 Speaker 3 regular basis will receive a small, lightweight plastic table and a sun umbrella. Don’t worry, it won’t be blue and white because of all the associations; we’ll make it red and white. We’ve already ordered from China, because that’s a bit of a sensitive matter, and there will also be a base for the umbrella. Three items that are easy to carry. A woman may have to carry them herself each time, but perhaps a shopkeeper will agree to keep them there. Once we bring these out onto the streets—hundreds of umbrellas and tables on every corner—what wonderful publicity, and what a wonderful place to have! I remember working at a college. At first I didn’t have a room. I did all the same work, but I was constantly moving around. I didn’t know what to do; I had no room. Suddenly they gave me a spot—not a room, a spot—and suddenly I could sit down. Suddenly I felt like a person. I had a place of my own. Once we have a spot on a street or in a mall—there, they’re putting up the plastic table. Rebbetzin Butzman[?] put a great deal of effort into finding one that would be light and easy to carry. We actually went all the way to manufacturers in China. A small, very lightweight plastic table and an umbrella with a base, bearing our design and an invitation to light Shabbos candles. This will be given to anyone who—usually pairs of women—will go out regularly for the Neshek campaign, nationwide, with hundreds of sets. This year it will come from the donations to the Chana Fund, 5766. You see, we didn’t know how many to order—five hundred or fifty. So we are reaching out through the representatives, but above all to the audience sitting here. Anyone who goes home thinking she would like an umbrella and little table like this to go out for Neshek at least once a week should call the organization’s office. We will also circulate a notice

07:17 Speaker 3 through the representatives, and for a small sum each woman will receive a set. I also want to suggest putting a tzedakah box on every table under every umbrella, with the proceeds going to the local branch. I am sure that as women pass by, over time this spot will also become a place where people give tzedakah to support the representative working in that area. I hope that, like an advertisement seen wherever you go, people will say, “Oh, there’s the Chabad umbrella again! There’s the Chabad women’s umbrella—there’s the umbrella!” Quite a few companies already want to sponsor this so they can get publicity too. But it really depends on us. If we go out and set these up, and each woman is willing to take a set, there could be several sets out on the same evening, as long as each is used at least once a week. So this year’s call is to add light. The organization’s gift and contribution is to obtain these sets in a dignified, attractive form, so that everyone will have a place. As for... Someone here is asking whether they can also be brought to hospitals or institutions. Each situation needs to be considered on its own. I think the main innovation is having a spot on the street, in a mall, or in another public place. But... I want to say one last thing about the people who are without homes today, living in temporary circumstances, and trying to build a home where they are. They are our dear, beloved friends, to whom something happened that everyone sitting here was sure would never happen—and yet it did. I think we have a responsibility, at least through the Ahavas Yisroel Council, to bring them as much joy as possible, and to contribute and give. For some of the women I know, it really does warm their hearts. It doesn’t make them feel like objects of pity. They are

09:25 Speaker 3 in a difficult situation now, but it does make them happy when people come, remember them, and bring them light—light from the heart, light, light. So we have also invited—and the emcee said this, but I’ll say it again—women who want to go to the hotels and help those people with encouragement, love, and joy. They can contact the office, and we will assign them a place. May Hashem help everyone here bring a great deal of light. And together, may Hashem help Moshiach come, may the Beis Hamikdash finally be rebuilt, and may we know that our umbrellas had a part in it too. Much success.

10:12 Speaker 4 Thank you very, very much. May this year’s project succeed through our efforts. Where is Chanaleh? We invite the well-known singer Chana Harel to sing for us a mother’s prayer at the lighting of the Shabbos candles. Please.

10:54 Speaker 5 May it be Your will, Hashem, my G-d and the G-d of my fathers, that You show favor to me, my husband, my sons, my daughters, my father, and my mother. Grant us and all Israel good, long lives. Remember us for good and blessing, and visit us with salvation and mercy. Bless us with great blessings, bless us with great blessings. Make our homes complete, make our homes complete, and let Your Shechinah dwell among us. Grant me the merit to raise wise and understanding children, who love Hashem, fear G-d, are people of truth, holy offspring who cleave to Hashem and illuminate the world with Torah. Grant me the merit to raise wise and understanding children, who love Hashem, fear G-d, are people of truth, holy offspring who cleave to Hashem and illuminate the world with Torah. Please hear my cry as I light the Shabbos candle. Please hear my cry in the merit of the mothers. Make my candle shine so it will never go out, never go out for all eternity; shine Your face upon us and we will be saved. Amen. Please hear my cry as I light the Shabbos candle. Please hear my cry in the merit of the mothers. Make my candle shine so it will never go out, never go out for all eternity; shine Your face upon us and we will be saved. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you. A vessel for blessings. Erev Shabbos Kodesh, the twilight hour. The light of the Shabbos candle rises and breaks through, and from our hearts bursts a deep prayer that the light should rise and break through the darkness of exile. That the children should rise higher and higher, that their light should shine from one end of the world to the other, that their fortunes should shine, that they should illuminate the world, that the home should glow with precious light. The prayers keep flowing. May they be accepted. If only. If only. We will give. At this uplifting moment, when light rises from our homes and prayers burst from our hearts, let us care for homes in darkness, for hearts whose light has gone out. Let us donate candle-lighting kits to places the light has not yet reached. Let us make sure to illuminate more Jewish homes and the hearts of more Jewish women. At this holy hour, when we yearn for our prayers to rise on high, let us give our donation to Keren Chana. Together with our donations, may our prayers rise; may the glory of our Moshiach be exalted, and may all our prayers be favorably received. A vessel for blessings. Did we say a vessel for blessings? Oh, if only.

16:44 Speaker 5 If only? We will give. And how? Through three ways, three options. Perhaps, as we heard, just as the Rebbe said: more tzedakah and more tzedakah and more tzedakah. The first option is membership in the fund. The membership fee, as we heard, is 380 shekels a year, and it can be spread over the whole year. Membership in the fund will entitle you to a vessel for blessings, a holder for silver bentchers—the one we see here. In addition, at the end of the evening there will be a drawing among all the membership envelopes received for a diamond ring, among all the members participating in the fund at 380 shekels. The second option is to buy a raffle ticket. Some were bought at the entrance, and you can still buy them until the end of the evening. And what are the prizes? Weekends; a two-day hotel stay during the week; a subscription to JEM; a $400 voucher toward the purchase of a custom wig from Moti Wigs through Bracha, the wig stylist; a set of Shabbos-table books and [unclear]. And the third option: an auction for a dollar from the Rebbe. Starting price: 7,000 shekels. We have a box here, and those of you who can are asked to take part. You can choose one or another or another—or you can choose more than one. The choice of how large your vessel for blessing will be is in your hands. And this is the opportunity we have been given to improve and sweeten the final sealing in the merit of the mother of royalty. The girls will now pass among you with envelopes. We’ll take a short break so you can fill out the checks and pledges and write down names. The girls are coming around; for every envelope they collect, each person will receive the gift. Let’s not forget the opportunity to buy [unclear] and the chance to take part in the auction for a dollar from the Rebbe. Chanaleh, they’re calling you. Yes, just that? Do they want anything else?

22:04 Speaker 6 La la la la lai lai la la la la lai lai la la la la lai lai lai lai lai lai. Lai lai, lai lai, lai lai. Lai lai, lai lai, lai lai. Both palm. La, la la la lai, lai. Lai, la la la lai. Lai lai, lai lai, lai lai. La, la la la lai, lai. La, la la la lai. Lai lai, lai lai. The little bird is calling. It wishes to return. The little bird is wounded. It cannot fly far. It’s captured by the vultures. It’s crying bitterly. Oh, to see my nest again. Oh, to be relieved. La, la la la lai, lai. Lai lai, lai lai, lai lai. La, la la la lai, lai. La, la la la lai. Lai lai. The little bird of silver, so delicate and rare. Still chirps amongst the vultures, now shining all that’s there. How long, how long it suffers? How long will it be? Oh, when will come the eagle and set the little bird free? The little bird is Israel. The vultures are our foes. Our painful wound is Golus, which we all feel and know. The nest is Jerusalem where we yearn to be once more. The eagle’s wings, Moshiach, whom we are waiting for.

26:58 Speaker 7 Thank you so much. Mom, thank you. Now I’ve moved on—the next song is the first song I wrote. I started singing and writing six years ago. At first, only my mother and my broth—my sisters heard my music. Little by little, my friends heard it too, and the CDs started making the rounds. Eventually I decided to release something, and now I’m in Israel recording my third CD. Boruch Hashem, it’s a great privilege to be able to come and sing with you. Thank you so much. So this is the song “Teach Me Your Way, Hashem.” Had I not believed I would see the goodness of Hashem. Had I not believed I would see the goodness of Hashem. In the land of the living, in the land of the living. Teach me Your way, Hashem, and lead me on a level path. Teach me Your way, Hashem. Let my joy arise. Had I not believed I would see the goodness of Hashem. Had I not believed I would see the goodness of Hashem. In the land of the living, in the land of the living, in the land of the living. Teach me Your way, Hashem, and lead me on a level path. Teach me Your way, Hashem. Let

31:30 Speaker 8 Thank you so much. Now I have a song that I wrote only recently, here in Israel. When I came to Israel, I started writing the songs for my fifth album, and this was the first song I made. It’s about the famous prophetess, Miriam. We know that after the Exodus from Egypt, she took the women with her to dance and sing with tambourines, with dancing, all singing together to thank Hakadosh Boruch Hu for all the miracles of the Exodus from Egypt. The song is called “Miriam the Prophetess Took.” Miriam the prophetess took the tambourine in her hand, and all the women went out after her with tambourines and dancing. Miriam the prophetess took the tambourine in her hand, and all the women went out after her with tambourines and dancing. And they sang: La la la la la la la, la la la la la la la, la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la. Sing to Hashem, for He has triumphed gloriously; horse and rider He cast into the sea. Sing to Hashem, for He has triumphed gloriously; horse and rider He cast into the sea. Miriam the prophetess took the tambourine in her hand. And all the women went out after her with tambourines and dancing. Sing to Hashem, for He has triumphed gloriously; horse and rider He cast into the sea. Sing to Hashem, for He has triumphed gloriously; horse and rider He cast into the sea. Sing to Hashem, for He has triumphed gloriously; horse and rider He cast into the sea. Sing to Hashem, for He has triumphed gloriously; horse and rider He cast into the sea. Thank you so much. How wonderful! We know that the Rebbe would speak about Moshiach at every farbrengen, at every rally when the young children came to 770. The Rebbe would sing with them in English, “We want Moshiach, we want Moshiach now.” And these words that the Rambam writes are the most important words

37:12 Speaker 8 For us as Jews. That is the foundation of our faith, and that’s why every singer has a special tune for the words “I believe with complete faith in the coming of Moshiach.” And this is my tune. I believe with complete faith in the coming of... I believe, I believe. I believe with complete faith in the coming of Moshiach. I believe, I believe. And even though he may delay, nevertheless I await him every day, that he should come. And even though he may delay, nevertheless I await him every day, that he should come. I await him every day, that he should come. I believe. With complete faith. In the coming of Moshiach. I believe. I believe. And even though he may delay, nevertheless I await him every day, that he should come. And even though he may delay, nevertheless I await him every day, that he should come. I await him every day, that he should come. I await him every day, that he should come. I believe. He will come and he will come home. And every day I wait for him. I know, oh I know. I await him every day, that he should come. And even though he may delay, nevertheless I await him every day, that he should come. I await him every day, that he should come. And even though he may delay, nevertheless I await him every day, that he should come. I await him every day, that he should come. I await him every day, that he should come. I believe. Thank you. Thank you all again, so much. I want to finish with a Chabad niggun, a niggun of the Alter Rebbe, “Eili Atah Veodeka.” And... please, everyone, sing along with me. It’s—it's customary that when Chabad chassidim sit together, it’s good to sing Chabad niggunim. So please, “Eili Atah Veodeka.” 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,

44:07 Speaker 8 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. My G-d, I will exalt You. Thank you very much. Good night.

45:43 Speaker 9 Yasher koach, that was wonderful. You delighted us, Chanele. And with our spirits so uplifted, we’ll move on to the raffles. Maybe we can invite someone to draw a name? We’re moving on to the diamond ring, right? Yes. I’ll draw it. Who’s drawing? Racheli [unclear]. Yes, before people disperse. What? One of the girls. Where’s one of the girls? One of the girls, yes, please. What, what, what did they tell you to do? One of the girls, no? Time is short and there’s a lot to do. Come on. And the winner of the ring—yes, the diamond ring—is Orly Zalmanovitch from Rechovot. Orly Zalmanovitch from Rechovot is invited to come and receive the diamond ring.