The Customs of the "King" Rosh Chodesh - Rabbi Tuvia Zilberstrom shlita

00:02 Speaker 1 You’re listening to “Lemaan Yishme’u,” a podcast from Machon Halacha Chabad.

00:09 Speaker 2 From 5749 onward, we also merited to daven Shacharis with the Rebbe every day, with tallis and tefillin. Before that, we davened Mincha and Maariv with the Rebbe every day, and Shacharis on Shabbos. On weekdays, the Rebbe did not daven Shacharis together with us, but he would come out especially for the Torah reading. The secretary would go to bring the Rebbe around the time they began Shemoneh Esrei, and the Rebbe would arrive toward the end of the chazzan’s repetition and Tachanun. A few minutes later, the Rebbe would come out for the Torah reading. He would put on his gartel inside the zal, and the bochurim would place a Chumash for that day’s reading on a special shtender for him, according to a lottery. When I was there, whoever put the Chumash there first got that privilege. They would also put out a Tehillim, which the Rebbe used. The Rebbe said “Avinu Shebashamayim” by heart, because there was no siddur there. During the Torah reading, he followed the first two aliyos in the Chumash, since the Rebbe was always called up for the third aliyah. After the reading, the Kaddish and hagbah, the Rebbe would return to his place and wait until Kaddish Tiskabel, after Uva Letzion. While the congregation said Ashrei and Uva Letzion, the Rebbe would use the Tehillim and say two chapters: his own chapter and the Rebbetzin’s chapter. If they were long, he would say them; when they were short, he would start again. He would say the Rebbe’s chapter and the Rebbetzin’s chapter—the Rebbetzin was a year older—and if he finished, he would begin the same chapter again. So, as I said, the bochurim

02:24 Speaker 2 would put them there. During the Torah reading, the Rebbe would also look into Rashi between aliyos. It is worth noting that, to those standing very close, it looked as though the Rebbe was choosing which Rashi he would speak about the following Shabbos. That was how it was at the weekday Torah readings. On Rosh Chodesh, we had the Torah reading, but not that Kaddish, so at the end of Uva Letzion the Rebbe would return to his room. On Rosh Chodesh, when Hallel began during the davening, the secretary would go to bring the Rebbe, and that was when the Rebbe would arrive. That reminds me of something worth telling. One Rosh Chodesh, the chazzan was someone who davened with deep feeling and at length. When the Rebbe returned, they had not yet finished Hallel, and the sight was extraordinary. What had happened? There was a resident of Kfar Chabad who had been unconscious for a long time, bedridden and in a vegetative state. A gathering was held in Kfar Chabad. The rabbi and all the residents came to the shul for a day of Selichos, fasting and saying Tehillim. At the end, each resident contributed a dollar coin, and together they appointed a shliach to travel to the Rebbe. Everyone signed a pan asking for the recovery of that young man from Kfar Chabad who was confined to his bed, like a vegetable. The shliach chosen was the chossid Reb Berke, and he came to the Rebbe. We bochurim already knew that a special shliach was coming from Kfar Chabad to bring the Rebbe the panim for that young man. Reb Berke arrived, and when the Rebbe

04:58 Speaker 2 came out for Mincha—or as the Rebbe passed through the corridor—he approached him with all the panim on behalf of the residents of Kfar Chabad, for that Tomim. The Rebbe told him to take all the panim back, travel with them to the Ohel, and, after he had been there and davened, return and bring them to him. And that is what he did. The next day was Rosh Chodesh. Even someone who is davening because of a personal obligation does not lead the davening on a day when there is Musaf. So Reb Berke went up to lead the davening. Berke davened slowly and with deep feeling, and above all, in a voice that stirred people to great concentration. When they began Hallel, the secretary went to bring the Rebbe. We had Hallel, the Shir Shel Yom and Borchi Nafshi, and then the Rebbe would come in. Sometimes they would wait a minute or two. But Reb Berke said Hallel with such feeling and enthusiasm that, when the Rebbe returned, he was still at “Min Hameitzar,” after “Hodu” and before “Ana Hashem.” It was a sight that stays with you for life. As the Rebbe walked in, he would already have the key ready, so that when he reached the door he only had to put it in the lock and open it. Every second was accounted for; he had prepared the key on the stairs. Then the Rebbe stood in Gan Eden Hatachton, the key in the lock, and you could hear Berke, with all his enthusiasm, saying, “This is the day Hashem has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” You could hear him all the way to the door of the Rebbe’s room. The Rebbe remained standing there, saying it together with the congregation. It appears in photographs, but that sight—Reb Berke calling out from his heart, in a powerful voice, “Please, Hashem, save us now,” four times: twice “Please, Hashem, save us now,” and then “Please, Hashem, grant us success now.” Only then did the Rebbe enter the room.

07:05 Speaker 2 That sight, and the lesson from it, remained engraved in my mind for life: the Rebbe standing in Gan Eden Hatachton with the key to enter Gan Eden Haelyon, the key already in the lock, but hearing chassidim cry out, “Please, Hashem, save us now,” he remained standing with them, joining them in their prayer. It is a sight that is always before my eyes. Well, afterward the Rebbe came out for the Torah reading. As we said, on Mondays and Thursdays he received the third aliyah, and on Rosh Chodesh, the fourth. There are a few things to mention about the Rebbe’s aliyah. As is well known, he would first kiss the end and the beginning of the reading. After the Torah reading, he would kiss the end, the beginning and then the end again. Then he would close the Sefer Torah, turn his face slightly to the right and lift the Sefer Torah several times. Where Hashem’s Name is mentioned, the Rebbe would lift it: at “Borchu es Hashem hamevorach,” and again at “Boruch Hashem hamevorach le’olam va’ed”; then at “Boruch Atah Hashem,” and again at “Boruch Atah Hashem.” This was an additional practice of the Rebbe’s. And of course, as stated in halacha, when saying the words about the Torah in the first blessing—“Who chose us from among all the nations and gave us His Torah”—and in the second blessing, “Who gave us the Torah of truth,” the Rebbe would lift it at those points. So we saw the kissing and the lifting of the Sefer Torah.