15 Elul - the founding of Tomchei Temimim

00:00 Every year was different. There were years when the Rebbe made a big stir about it, and years when he didn’t. The Rebbe always held farbrengens at 770, but it wasn’t with the same intensity every year. Some years there was less of a stir, some years more. In later years, the Rebbe began speaking about it more. Just to give you a general picture: 5737 marked eighty years, so the Rebbe made a big stir about it. The Rebbe spoke about 15 Elul in several sichos, spoke about the farbrengen, and said there should be a big stir. There was a special letter and special sichos. The Rebbe explained the significance of the eighty years. In 5742 it was eighty-five years. The Rebbe held a special farbrengen. I think it was the only time the Rebbe held a farbrengen on a weekday. There was a farbrengen on 13 Elul 5742. The Rebbe farbrenged that day, in the middle of the week, and spoke very forcefully. The Rebbe spoke about the wedding of the Frierdiker Rebbe and the Rebbetzin, and, in connection with it, about the chassidim’s subsequent trip. The Rebbe also spoke very forcefully about Tomchei Temimim. At that farbrengen in 5742, the Rebbe gave a bottle of wine to the Rashag. The Rashag, Reb Shmaryahu Gurary, was the Rebbe’s brother-in-law and cousin, and was in charge of the administration of Tomchei Temimim, Rabbi Kozitz[?]. In the middle of the farbrengen, the Rebbe took a bottle of wine and gave it to the Rashag, saying it was for a special farbrengen they should hold on 15 Elul, where they should distribute some of that wine. So there was a tremendous farbrengen. The Rashag himself spoke about it. It was something historic. That was in 5742. The next time was in 5746. In 5746, the Rebbe delivered the well-known sicha. The Rebbe said that when he returned from the Ohel on Friday, 15 Elul, he was certain there would be a complete upheaval—a whole commotion,

02:14 with dancing and rejoicing—but he saw nothing. It was as though it were an ordinary day. This pained the Rebbe greatly. How could 15 Elul, such a day, pass with such coldness? The Rebbe took all of us to task—the mashpi’im, the staff, the Temimim, the bochurim, and Anash. Everyone: nobody had been working on it for days beforehand. The Rebbe caused a major change and then said they should make up for it; there was also a response about that. After Shabbos, they organized something big. Later in Elul, the Rebbe said they should continue it. In any case, that is by way of introduction. In 5737, the eightieth year, the Rebbe also made a big stir and spoke about it again at a farbrengen. The Rebbe instructed that a large meal be held at 770. The following year, after they had already been taken to task by the Rebbe, they understood that they needed to do something big for 15 Elul. They held a very large meal at 770 and brought all the elders, the grandfathers—those who had still merited to study in Lubavitch. It was quite something, with everyone there. It was a big event. In 5749, the Rashag passed away. The head of Tomchei Temimim passed away in 5749. It was in India. So Elul 5749 was the first Elul after the Rashag’s passing, and one could see that the Rebbe made a special point of it. The Rebbe spoke openly and mentioned the custom of [unclear]. The Rebbe explained it then, spoke about the matter, and said they should make a big stir and hold farbrengens everywhere. At the farbrengen, in those sichos, the Rebbe said there should be farbrengens and meals and so on—the whole stir. And, as I remember it, the Rebbe used an expression something like: “There were no days as festive for the Jewish people as the fifteenth of Elul.” The Rebbe said you could say, “There were no days as festive for the Jewish people as the fifteenth of Elul.” That was the idea: “There were no days as festive for the Jewish people as the fifteenth of Elul.”

04:28 The Rebbe explained very forcefully then, at that farbrengen, how Tomchei Temimim had brought about a revolution in the world—something plainly visible. And today, the work of Tomchei Temimim and its fruits can be seen in the way it has spread throughout the world and in everything it has accomplished. The Rebbe took the whole matter very seriously. So there had to be a big stir, and people had to farbreng. The Rebbe also said then that they should print the sicha “Kol Hayotzei Lemilchemes Beis Dovid,” the well-known sicha of the Rebbe Rashab explaining the purpose of Tomchei Temimim. The Rebbe made a very big stir about that 15 Elul, which he had initiated. Then, in 5751—the final year—there was again a big stir about 15 Elul, both on Shabbos and on Sunday, as it falls this year. And there was [unclear] at great length about holding a farbrengen in connection with 15 Elul. So this gives us some sense of the importance the Rebbe attached to the matter. We see the Rebbe’s special affection for Tomchei Temimim in general—that is understandable—but also a special affection for this day, 15 Elul: that it should be an auspicious day, with farbrengens and so on, and that it should all be done with a big stir. In any case, let’s get to the beginning of the story. Let’s go back a little. As we said, 13 Elul 5657 was the wedding of the Frierdiker Rebbe. The Frierdiker Rebbe married on a Friday. As is well known, the chuppah was on Friday before Shabbos. That year, 13 Elul fell on a Friday, and they held the chuppah before Shabbos. Then came Shabbos. The Rebbe Rashab delivered the maamar—[unclear]—and afterward there were farbrengens. On Sunday they held the meal with the chassidim. That was the order of events. Yes, they made it

06:29 something like a long wedding. It began on Friday and continued through Sunday. The large meal was on Sunday. Sunday was 15 Elul, the same as this year. On Sunday, before the meal, earlier in the day, the Rebbe Rashab convened a gathering of all the rabbis and chassidim who had come to Lubavitch for the wedding. The Frierdiker Rebbe was an only son. People came from all over—from across Russia and from everywhere they could reach Lubavitch. Chassidim came from many places, including elderly rabbis and elderly chassidim, great chassidim who had been with the Rebbe Maharash and even with the Tzemach Tzedek. Yes, there were great chassidim among the elders there. The names of all sorts of chassidim from that period are mentioned; they had all come to celebrate the wedding of the only son, the wedding of the Frierdiker Rebbe. It was a great wedding, with much joy. On Sunday, the Rebbe Rashab called a gathering, and there he said that an idea had arisen to open a yeshivah for young bochurim where they would study Chassidus. He wanted to hear the opinions of the rabbis and elderly chassidim: what did they think of it? The Rebbe Rashab gave everyone who wanted to express an opinion the opportunity to do so. One second. So, as the story goes, at that gathering all the elderly chassidim said no; they didn’t think it was suitable. A yeshivah—yeshivahs were not common in those days. At the time, each town had something like its own yeshivah: there was a rabbi, and those who wanted to learn would gather in the shul and study. But the formal kind of yeshivah existed then only among the misnagdim. In Lithuania there were large yeshivahs, such as Mir and Brisk, and other names that aren’t worth mentioning here. And the Polish yeshivahs were also

09:01 But large yeshivos—among chassidim, that wasn’t something that existed. Not just in Chabad; among chassidim generally, it didn’t exist. A yeshivah was something else. What’s more, by the way, the Rebbe writes in his letters [unclear]—this is something new that we hadn’t known, but the Rebbe writes about it in his letters. The Rebbe relates what he heard from the chossid Kaliboder[unclear]: that Kaliboder[unclear] was actually the first to propose the idea of the yeshivah. Kaliboder[unclear] was still a young man, and he was the first to tell the Rebbe Rashab that they wanted to establish a yeshivah where Chassidus would be studied. When Kaliboder[unclear] said this to the Rebbe Rashab, as he later told the Rebbe, the Rebbe Rashab also said, “What’s a yeshivah? That’s for misnagdim...” In simple terms, what he apparently meant was: that’s something for misnagdim; what does it have to do with us? The Rebbe Rashab initially thought the same way. A yeshivah wasn’t the goal; they didn’t see it as something to pursue. So, back to the point: that’s also what the elder chassidim said at the meeting. Everyone saw the idea of young men studying Chassidus as a danger. They understood that young people couldn’t study Chassidus. Chassidus was for older people who had already spent a long time studying halachah and Gemara, as the Rambam writes. There were authorities who ruled that until you’ve filled yourself with Shas and halachah, Shas and the halachic authorities—if you’re not a Torah scholar, you’re certainly not a chossid. These are abstract matters. In short, there was a back-and-forth debate. Then the Rebbe Rashab said that he had reached the conclusion that they did need to establish a yeshivah. He spoke about it there and pointed out that there are many yeshivos in the world, but what was needed now was something entirely different: a yeshivah where there would be fear of Heaven and where Hashem’s Torah would be a complete Torah, with sincerity, and the Torah would be studied as Torah—Torah together with fear of

11:17 Heaven, and so on. He spoke at length about the kind of quality it needed. And that was the founding of the Tomchei Temimim yeshivah on that day, 15 Elul, during the sheva brachos. The Rebbe Rashab gave the... There are several versions of exactly how it happened—whether it was during the meal, before it, or afterward. In several places it isn’t clear exactly how it took place, but the founding was on Sunday, 15 Elul, at the sheva brachos meal for the chossid Kaliboder[unclear]. That was when the announcement about Tomchei Temimim was made. In the days that followed, the Rebbe Rashab began gathering the young men. Who was there? There weren’t many. If I’m not mistaken, it began with nine young men—eight or nine. That was the entire yeshivah, the original nucleus of Tomchei Temimim. One of the first Temimim we know of was Reb Chanina Rozov. He was among the first Temimim. He had just arrived then from his mother’s home—he was an orphan—and he stayed. Later, he became one of the great chassidim. Chanina Rozov became one of the Rebbe Rashab’s secretaries; he even knew his contract, knew about that too, and he was one of the well-known chassidim of that period. Another of the first was Schneur Gorelick, who later became the rabbi of Kfar Chabad. His name was Schneur—Kfar Chabad’s first rabbi, Rabbi Schneur Gorelick. He was one of the first students in Tomchei Temimim. He was the... he was the grandfather of Rabbi Ashkenazi, of Rabbi Koppel. There was also Shmuel Vitin, a well-known chossid, who later became one of the great mashpi’im. In any case, that was the first generation of Tomchei Temimim. So on 15 Elul,

13:30 they began establishing the yeshivah in practice. The announcement was in Elul, and then it took time to arrange things. On Chai Elul, the studies began. In practice, they didn’t stay in Lubavitch. They went to a town near Lubavitch, another town, Zembin—I don’t know how to pronounce it properly. In any case, the yeshivah was there for its first year, and that’s where they studied all year. The Rebbe Rashab received constant reports and also gave advice. There was an ongoing back-and-forth about how to run it, what to do, how to arrange the Chassidus studies and how to arrange the revealed Torah studies. Everything was new. They didn’t yet know how many hours of Chassidus there should be in a yeshivah, how many hours of revealed Torah, when to daven, when to do this, what to do and what not to do. The Rebbe Rashab began giving instructions about how to do it. That was throughout 5658. The yeshivah was outside Lubavitch. In Elul 5658, at the end of 5658, they came to the yeshivah. The Rebbe Rashab decided to move the yeshivah closer to him, so they set it up in Lubavitch itself. They used the large zal in Lubavitch, which became the yeshivah’s zal. They also arranged for the beds to be right there in the zal. In the wall of the zal there was something like—what do you call it, a folding bed? At night they would lower it and it would become a bed. The dormitory, everything, was in that same place. That was the arrangement. They took care of food too. The Rebbetzin herself cooked. There wasn’t yet... the Rebbetzin, Rebbetzin Rivkah, the Rebbe Rashab’s wife. There was a period when they didn’t even know where the money to run it all would come from. I don’t remember who asked whom what would happen, who would feed them. I think the Rebbetzin asked. I don’t remember exactly, but the answer was: “What we eat, they

15:37 will eat.” In other words, the young men would eat whatever was eaten in the Rebbe’s home. For a while, they cooked for everyone together. Afterward, little by little, they arranged for an administration, a director for practical matters and a director for spiritual matters, and they sent people out to collect money. Various chassidim became fundraisers and went out to collect money for the yeshivah. Among them was a well-known chossid named Yechiel Ashkenazi. He composed the niggun “Hu Elokeinu” that we sing, the one the Rebbe taught. “Hu Elokeinu.” The Rebbe related that this niggun came from Yechiel Ashkenazi. In any case, he was a fundraiser who traveled—even to America several times, if I’m not mistaken. There were several others too, and little by little the enterprise expanded and more chassidim became involved. It’s very interesting: you can see in the Rebbe Rashab’s Igros Kodesh that in the early period it wasn’t called a yeshivah at all. It wasn’t official; they didn’t call it a yeshivah. They called it a trading house. It was like a factory or a business, because of the government, to avoid problems. Officially, it was forbidden to establish an institution for Torah study, so it was called a place of business. What was the business? Supposedly, it was writing Torah scrolls, tefillin and mezuzos. That was supposedly what they did; that was the business. It explained why young men were coming and going there, conducting the business. You can even see in the early letters—there are photographs of the handwriting—“trading house, trading house.” In fact, the yeshivah in Lubavitch had no name. In 5658—because 5658 became 5659—that was when the regular routine of the Lubavitch students began. That’s why, as is known, there was the maamar series of 5659, which they studied. So it was in 5659 that they entered the yeshivah. In those years it still didn’t have—until Simchas Torah 5659, the yeshivah had no name. And then we all

17:43 You know the story: on Simchas Torah 5659, during hakafos, the Rebbe Rashab was in a state of great joy. In the middle of hakafos, he said that an announcement had arrived. He did not say where the announcement came from: the yeshiva, which until then had existed without a name, now had a name. He announced that its students would be called Temimim, and the yeshiva would be called Tomchei Temimim. Students who learned there and conducted themselves in its spirit would be known as Temimim. Then, during the seventh hakafah, he said the words recited with the Sefer Torah, “Tomchei Temimim.” And how does it read there? “Save us, Temimim; mighty for all time, grant us success; [unclear] as in days of old.” He explained their meaning and how the wording should be corrected. That was the foundation of Tomchei Temimim. He danced with the boys for a long time, with tremendous joy. So the name Tomchei Temimim was given on that Simchas Torah, 5659. It is also known that on that same Simchas Torah, the Rebbe Rashab delivered the maamar beginning “Heichaltzu.” As the Frierdiker Rebbe writes, the maamar Heichaltzu became a foundation of the Temimim’s lives. It explains how to work on one’s middos and how to love our brothers rather than hate them. This maamar, so fundamental to avodah and to the school’s approach, became a cornerstone in the training of the Temimim, delivered on the very Simchas Torah when we received the name Tomchei Temimim. You can even see that it is not part of the series of maamarim. He delivered it on its own, as a separate subject. There was a maamar for Shemini Atzeres; in addition to that maamar, there was Heichaltzu, which he began delivering on Simchas Torah after [unclear]. That was in 5659. In 5661, the Rebbe Rashab wrote Kuntres Hatefillah. They say this, too, followed a sicha on Simchas Torah—Simchas Torah 5661. The Rebbe Rashab gave a sicha. He spoke about

19:58 the guidance of the Temimim. By then, three years had passed, and people could already see the effect the Temimim were having on chassidim in general and throughout Russia. At first, as we said, people thought the whole idea was unsuitable. But in practice they saw the power of the boys. Once the yeshiva was established, the Rebbe Rashab invested in the boys, and the Frierdiker Rebbe even became its acting director. It generated such a powerful spirit that it brought about a revolution throughout Chassidus, throughout Lubavitch, and across the surrounding communities. So much so that, as the Frierdiker Rebbe relates, letters began arriving from chassidim in cities everywhere. They, too, wanted to know what Chassidus was, what avodah was, and how to daven. Over the many years, amid the concealments of exile, chassidim had lost many of the fundamentals and no longer knew exactly what the avodah of Chabad Chassidus should look like. That was when the Rebbe Rashab wrote Kuntres Hatefillah. And that is why you see that Kuntres Hatefillah begins with the Rebbe Rashab’s words: “Many are asking and seeking to know how to daven.” Yes, this arose directly from the foundations laid by Tomchei Temimim. Suddenly there were boys davening at length, and the elder chassidim and other members of Anash began to take an interest: What was happening? How does one daven? How does one do it? There were the writings of the Mitteler Rebbe, but there was no detailed guidance on exactly how to put it into practice. There were great chassidim and rabbis, but what was missing was systematic guidance suited to the generation of the Rebbe Rashab’s time. So the Rebbe Rashab wrote Kuntres Hatefillah, the first kuntres he wrote in connection with Tomchei Temimim. You can see that Kuntres Hatefillah has an introduction, handwritten by the Frierdiker Rebbe. It is a very beautiful introduction, and I suggest that the boys read

21:59 it if you have not read it yet. There he gives something of a panorama, so to speak, of what happened in those years at the Tomchei Temimim yeshiva and the effect it had on all the communities. He paints a picture of that period, those years, very beautifully. That was in 5661, when the Rebbe Rashab gave out Kuntres Hatefillah. In 5661 there was also the great stir surrounding “All who go out to the war of the House of David.” That was the Rebbe Rashab on Simchas Torah 5661. Each time it was Simchas Torah—interestingly, Tomchei Temimim has a special connection with Simchas Torah. On Simchas Torah 5661, the Rebbe Rashab gave a long sicha about the fact that three years had passed. For three years the fruit is orlah, and one may not eat it. In the fourth year, one can begin to benefit from the fruit. He said to the boys, “Look, you were boys then, students of the Temimim.” Boys were living amid the atmosphere of the world, and something had to be done; it is done with the warmth of Chassidus. After that, the Rebbe Rashab also gave practical guidance: how the study of nigleh should be conducted, how Chassidus should be studied, how the avodah of davening should be conducted, and how chassidim should relate to one another. There are very strong, important foundations there concerning what is expected of a boy in Tomchei Temimim. Each of us should review it—even if he has studied it already—to engrave it in our minds and hearts. That was Simchas Torah 5661. The Frierdiker Rebbe relates that this sicha created a tremendous stir throughout Russia and the wider world, and sparked a great awakening. Throughout those years, Tomchei Temimim kept growing. Boys came from all over Russia—not only Lubavitcher boys, but boys who were not Lubavitchers as well. Boys came

25:09 from everywhere. The Frierdiker Rebbe relates that within a few years it began to take hold. As we said, at first there had not even been a minyan, but within a few years there were already several hundred boys, and they could not accept everyone. They had to turn applicants away; out of a hundred boys, they might accept only ten. Space was that limited and demand was that great. They examined each boy carefully to make sure he was genuinely G-d-fearing, and they did not accept everyone who wanted to come. Incidentally, a little later, as we said, the great awakening around Tomchei Temimim continued, and it brought about a tremendous revolution. A little later, the Rebbe Rashab also wrote Kuntres Umaayan. Umaayan appeared in 5664. It, too, is one of the foundational works of Chassidus that the Rebbe Rashab wrote in response to the difficulty faced by chassidim who wanted to know what Chassidus was. That was Kuntres Umaayan. In 5664, the Rebbe Rashab wrote Kuntres Eitz Hachayim. Kuntres Eitz Hachayim, from 5664, explains the purpose of Tomchei Temimim. It is a wonderful maamar explaining what Chassidus is, why Chassidus must be studied, why both nigleh and Chassidus are necessary, the role of the avodah of davening, and how each complements the other. Then the entire second half of the kuntres explains the purpose of our sacred foundations: what Tomchei Temimim is meant to accomplish, what its schedule should be, how the Chassidus and nigleh study sessions should work, what Shabbos should look like, and how to learn. That is Kuntres Eitz Hachayim. It is a kuntres that belongs to each and every one of the Temimim. The Rebbe Rashab wrote it in 5664, specifically for the Temimim. Kuntres Haavodah was not written until 5671, several years later. By then [unclear], and the Rebbe Rashab felt that something was lacking

27:15 Still, there is the question of avodah: what serving Hashem should look like, and davening in particular. How do we come to love Hashem, and how do we come to fear Hashem? What are the different ways of contemplating these things? That is why he wrote Kuntres HaAvodah. He wrote it as a continuation of Hemshech 5672, which was being delivered at the time. There, too, the Rebbe Rashab laid the foundations of avodah, and as a continuation he wrote Kuntres HaAvodah, which he began writing in 5672. You can see that in Kuntres HaAvodah he refers several times to Hemshech 5672. He finished writing it in 5671, and then it was published in Tomchei Temimim. These kuntreisim we’ve mentioned—Kuntres HaTefillah, Kuntres U’Maayan, Kuntres Eitz HaChayim, and Kuntres HaAvodah—are the foundational kuntreisim on which Tomchei Temimim was built. Through them, we can get some picture of what our Rebbeim wanted from us, what the Rebbe Rashab wanted, what the aim was, and what is expected of a student in Tomchei Temimim. Now, as time went on, Tomchei Temimim had already existed for years. Then the Communists came, and they had to flee Lubavitch, and the mesirus nefesh began. Lubavitch and Tomchei Temimim—wherever one place was closed, another opened. There was upheaval; there was a revolution in Russia. At that time, [unclear] established Tomchei Temimim in Paris. Then Tomchei Temimim began in Poland. Yes? In 5681 they immediately began Tomchei Temimim in Warsaw, and afterward, gradually, when the Rebbe Rashab had to leave Russia, it became the central Tomchei Temimim. Many years passed this way, until World War II, when the Frierdiker Rebbe arrived in America in 5700. And the first thing he did, on the day he arrived, was establish Tomchei Temimim. Yes? On 16 Adar. The Frierdiker Rebbe arrived on 11 Adar, and he had already gathered the first students. The first thing he said was that there had to

29:24 be Tomchei Temimim here. We saw with the Rebbeim that Tomchei Temimim had become the source, the foundation for spreading Yiddishkeit, spreading the wellsprings, saving the world from exile and destruction, and bringing the Geulah. Over the years, people thought: Fine, Lubavitch was Lubavitch; Tomchei Temimim was something on a special level, for people who love intellectual study and all that. But afterward came another generation, another era, different times, and today things aren’t as they were then. Today people think differently, and so on. From time to time, the Rebbe spoke in sichos about how the kuntreisim the Rebbe Rashab wrote for Tomchei Temimim, and the talks the Rebbe Rashab gave in Tomchei Temimim, are for Tomchei Temimim for all generations. The foundations of Tomchei Temimim never change. What the Rebbe Rashab demanded of students in 5657, 5660, 5661, 5670, and 5672 is the same foundation, without change. The Rebbe spoke about this many times. He even cried out against those who want to say otherwise, G-d forbid. Tomchei Temimim will always remain the same. Its sanctity [unclear], like Tomchei Temimim. Its soul is in this. Accordingly, in 5751 the Rebbe himself distributed Kuntres Eitz HaChayim. It was extraordinary; it caused a tremendous stir. On 20 Cheshvan 5751, the Rebbe personally gave a copy of Kuntres Eitz HaChayim to each and every person. It made an enormous impression, and afterward the Rebbe spoke about it on Shabbos. He specifically chose to distribute this kuntres. The Rebbe came out and went down to distribute it on Shabbos Parshas Chayei Sarah. In other words, the Rebbe said—and he specifically chose this particular kuntres—that there are people who want to say things have changed. So the message is about Tomchei Temimim and Lubavitch. The Rebbe even read the passage at the end of the kuntres, where the Rebbe Rashab writes at the end of Kuntres Eitz HaChayim that it is difficult for him to repeat

31:33 these things again and again, to keep repeating them. So he wrote the kuntres so that generations would know what Tomchei Temimim is, what its order is, what its purpose is, and what its intention is. That brings us to where we are now, close to 15 Elul: to awaken ourselves and strengthen ourselves in these foundations. How fortunate we are, how good our lot is, that we merited for our souls to be in Tomchei Temimim. We were chosen. As the Rebbe Rashab says in a sicha, the souls of those who study in Tomchei Temimim are souls that were chosen. Our souls were chosen to be in Tomchei Temimim, and we should truly take that seriously. It isn’t enough that you’re doing all right. Your father sent you to yeshiva, they accepted you here, and you landed here by chance, as they say. “I ended up here, so fine, I’ll spend these years here.” Rather, we must really know what the inner purpose is, what it demands of us; study the kuntreisim and review them from time to time. Study the sicha about the yeshiva as a whole, look for its foundations and live by them, and at least try, each of us as much as we can, to live these things personally. And what is most important? May Hakadosh Boruch Hu help us make the fullest use of these special days. Above all, may the ultimate inner intention be fully realized. May we merit to see the battle of the House of David come to an end and the Geulah come through Moshiach ben David. This is our particular task. And as the Rebbe said on Purim 5748, the Temimim will be at the head of the group; they will go first to welcome Moshiach Tzidkeinu. May the Rebbe say of each of us, “See what we have raised.” The Rebbe said this on Purim 5748. And may the Rebbe not be ashamed of any of us. What have I done here?