Educating Children About the Chassidic Dates in the Month of Tammuz - Rabbi Yosef Avraham Pizam shlita

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

00:09 Speaker 2 For anyone reading this, for every Jew—and especially for a Chassidic Jew—what the Frierdiker Rebbe went through is a very powerful experience. Then, as Gimmel Tammuz approaches, he is released from prison and sent to Kostroma, the city of his exile. He takes leave of the chassidim at the train station and says to them: “Let all the peoples on the face of the earth know that only our bodies were handed over to exile and subjugation by the nations; our souls were not handed over to exile and subjugation by the nations. We must declare openly, for all to see, that in everything concerning our religion—the Torah of Israel, its mitzvos and its customs—no one can impose his opinion on us, and no coercive power has the right to enslave us. We must declare this with the full force of our Jewish stubbornness and the full force of the Jewish spirit of mesirus nefesh that has endured for thousands of years. ‘Do not touch My anointed ones, and do My prophets no harm.’ This is our request of Hashem: may He not abandon or forsake us. May Hashem grant us the strength not to shrink from physical suffering, but on the contrary, to accept it with joy. And may every punishment, G-d forbid, imposed on us for maintaining a cheder for Torah study and observing mitzvos only strengthen us and strengthen Yiddishkeit.” What words. What mesirus nefesh. All this, of course, while the place was crawling with secret police. So Gimmel Tammuz is, first of all, a day to strengthen ourselves in our mission to bring the Geulah. “Do not touch My anointed ones” refers to the children learning in cheder. And “My anointed ones” also alludes to the nossi of the generation being Moshiach. We need to strengthen our mission to bring the Geulah, to educate Jewish children and to reinforce every aspect of what is sacred to the Jewish people, wherever we are. It was already a date marked by mesirus nefesh. Hashem willed that, although the Frierdiker Rebbe had been exiled to Kostroma for three years, that period ended very quickly. Not three years at all: on 12 Tammuz he received word that he was being released from his exile, and on Gimmel Tammuz he received the official documents. So, the Rebbe says,

03:18 Speaker 2 Gimmel Tammuz is a day of the greatest joy for chassidim. Why? Because on Gimmel Tammuz, most chassidim may still not have been able, so to speak, to see or hear the Rebbe, but the Rebbe’s life had been saved. After all, the Communists—may their names be erased—the Yevsektsiya and all the others, wanted to kill the Frierdiker Rebbe. When he was released from their hands and sent into exile, he had, first and foremost, been saved from death and restored to life. So that alone made it a day of joy. The Rebbe’s release from prison was already a cause for joy. And surely it was better for the Frierdiker Rebbe to leave prison and arrive in a city of exile that had a shul and a shochet, and where a cheder was also established for him [?]. Surely it was better for the Rebbe. The Rebbe says that the chassidim must celebrate Gimmel Tammuz. Why? Because it was better for the Rebbe. A chossid cares about the Rebbe, not about what he himself will get. What is the Rebbe’s situation? Is it better for the Rebbe? If it is better for the Rebbe, the chossid is already happy. Chassidim must celebrate Gimmel Tammuz. Year after year, the Rebbe spoke of Gimmel Tammuz as a day of Geulah, the beginning of the Frierdiker Rebbe’s Geulah, and connected it with the future Geulah. The Rebbe also said about this day—it was in 5742—“May it be Hashem’s will that on Gimmel Tammuz we come to the fulfillment of the promise, ‘He will revive us after two days; on the third day He will raise us up, and we will live before Him.’” So Gimmel Tammuz is a festive day, a day the Rebbe established as a celebration of the great salvation experienced by the Rebbe’s Rebbe. It is Geulah, the beginning of Geulah. Then came Gimmel Tammuz 5754. The Rebbe became hidden from our eyes, just as it is said of our righteous Moshiach that there will be a time when he will be hidden from them. All this is so that he may reveal himself to them. The Tzemach Tzedek writes

06:01 Speaker 2 about this in Or HaTorah on Parshas Tazria. The Tzemach Tzedek says: “Moshiach will be hidden from them for a time, and afterward he will return and reveal himself.” So the Rebbe’s being hidden from our eyes is only part of the process of his revelation. First he was revealed to us and told us, “Behold, Moshiach is coming.” “The time of your redemption has arrived”—and this was said as a prophecy. This is what it means that Moshiach’s name is Menachem, across the three generations, as it relates to us: the initials of “Miyad”—Moshiach, Menachem is his name; Yosef Yitzchak; Dovber—the Rebbe Rashab, the Frierdiker Rebbe and the Rebbe, the final redeemer, who will come and redeem us. So what must we do on Gimmel Tammuz? We must add to everything that hastens the Geulah, in a way that will give strength for all the days that follow, so that we will indeed merit to bring the Geulah in actual fact, with Hashem’s help. Of course, Gimmel Tammuz is a fitting time to speak with people and hold farbrengens and gatherings. What should we speak about at them? We should share the Rebbe’s teachings and make the Rebbe’s love for every Jew clear to everyone. No Jew will remain in exile. We should publicize and explain the Rebbe’s directives, including the study of Rambam by each and every person: three chapters a day, one chapter a day, or Sefer Hamitzvos. And explain to Jews: Do you want, so to speak, to hold on to the Rebbe’s handle? Do you want to be part of this great undertaking? There is something to hold on to. There are the general mitzvah campaigns established by the Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach: the Ahavas Yisroel campaign, the education campaign, the Torah campaign, the tefillin campaign, the mezuzah campaign, the tzedakah campaign, the campaign for a home filled with Jewish books—“Yavneh and its sages” [?]—the Shabbos and Yom Tov candles campaign, the kashrus of food and drink campaign, and the family purity campaign. The Rebbe also instructs us to unite all the Jewish people through the writing of general sifrei Torah

08:47 Speaker 2 for adults and children. The Rebbe further instructs us to encourage the children of Noach to observe their seven mitzvos. And then there is the latest campaign, which we are all engaged in now, the campaign that is the gateway to all these matters until the Geulah: teaching everyone about the Geulah. We must publicize everywhere the prophecy that the time of Geulah has arrived and that, immediately, right now, Moshiach is coming. And we must strengthen ourselves in the final effort asked of every Jew to bring Moshiach: studying Torah about Melech HaMoshiach, the Geulah and the Beis Hamikdash, so that we begin to live with Moshiach and Geulah. More than that: to believe in it so deeply, to study Geulah and Moshiach so much, and to live with it so fully that we reach the point of rejoicing in the joy of the Geulah, because Moshiach is coming any moment now. In particular, alongside all the Rebbe’s campaigns, we need to strengthen the study of Geulah and Moshiach, especially in the maamarim and Likkutei Sichos of the Rebbe, the nossi of our generation. This is what we should be occupied with on Gimmel Tammuz: joy, confidence, and matters of Geulah and Moshiach. And not only among ourselves—we should spread these messages everywhere: through schools and kindergartens, through parents’ groups and through shuls. It is very, very important. And may we merit, as the Rebbe says, to see the Rebbe again here below, so that everyone will see him with their own eyes. He will reveal himself to us, and we will declare before him what we declared even during the exile—and still declare now, at the end of the exile, in the days of Moshiach in which we now find ourselves—the sacred declaration accepting the Rebbe’s kingship over us: “Long live our master, teacher and Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach, forever and ever.” And, of course, 12 Tammuz is the Frierdiker Rebbe’s birthday. We saw afterward that on 12 Tammuz his fortune truly prevailed and he was saved—even from exile in Kostroma.

11:40 Speaker 2 It happened on an ordinary day when his mazal is especially strong. So, the Frierdiker Rebbe’s birthday is 12 Tammuz. His mother, Rebbetzin Shterna Sarah, told the story of his birth: “Several years had passed since our marriage, and I had not yet been blessed with a child. This weighed heavily on my heart. I was very young and far from my parents’ home. Once, on Simchas Torah, during the kiddush at my father-in-law’s, the Rebbe Maharash, they made a Mi Shebeirach for all the women and girls of the Rebbe’s household. For some reason, they overlooked me and did not bless me. Of course I was deeply hurt. Although they later went back and blessed me, the hurt remained in my heart. I went into my room and thought about the fact that I still had no child. I thought about my loneliness, being far from my parents’ home, and what had happened with the Mi Shebeirach, and I burst into tears. As I cried, I fell asleep and dreamed. In my dream, I saw a dignified man enter my room and ask me, ‘My daughter, why are you crying?’ I told him why. He answered, ‘Do not cry, my daughter. I promise you that this year you will have a son. But I have one condition: immediately after the festival, you must give eighteen rubles of your own money to tzedakah.’ When he finished speaking, he left and disappeared. A few minutes later he returned with two other men. He repeated the condition he had set for me in their presence, and they agreed with him. The three tzaddikim blessed me and left my room. Several hours later, my husband, the Rebbe Rashab, returned happy and in good spirits. Everyone could see that his spirits were high. I told him about the dream. My husband hurried to his father, the Rebbe Maharash, and told him what I had dreamed. The Rebbe Maharash called me in and asked me to recount the dream in every detail. When I finished, my father-in-law, the Rebbe Maharash, said to me, ‘The first one who visited you was my father, the Tzemach Tzedek, and the other two were the Mitteler Rebbe and the Alter Rebbe.’ After

14:28 Speaker 2 the festival, I had to fulfill the condition. But where would I get eighteen rubles of my own money? I had a dress made in the height of the fashion of those days, but my father-in-law, the Rebbe Maharash, did not want me to wear such a dress. I called a woman who was involved in communal affairs and asked her to sell the dress. From the money I received for it, I gave eighteen rubles to tzedakah.” And Rebbetzin Shterna Sarah concluded her story: “That year my son, the Frierdiker Rebbe, was born.” On 12 Tammuz, the Frierdiker Rebbe’s festival of Geulah—12 Tammuz was, even before that, the Frierdiker Rebbe’s birthday. In this story we see how the first three Rebbes, the founders of Chabad Chassidus—the Alter Rebbe, the Mitteler Rebbe and the Tzemach Tzedek—already initiated, prepared for and brought about from Above the birth of the Rebbe who would carry on their work: our Rebbe’s Rebbe, the Frierdiker Rebbe. So 12 Tammuz is first of all a birthday, the Frierdiker Rebbe’s birthday. Now let’s turn to the great, famous and joyous event: the festival of Geulah in our generation, in 5687. Just as there is 19 Kislev, the Alter Rebbe’s festival of Geulah, there are 12 and 13 Tammuz, the festival and days of Geulah of the Frierdiker Rebbe, our Rebbe’s Rebbe, whom the Rebbe calls “my teacher and father-in-law, the Rebbe.” As we related, on Gimmel Tammuz the Frierdiker Rebbe was exiled for three years to the distant city of Kostroma. The committee established to save him decided to keep working and to find ways to secure his complete release before matters became complicated again—before it was too late. They again approached Mrs. Peshkova, chairwoman of the Russian Red Cross, who appealed to the leaders of the Soviet government for the Rebbe’s release. Working against her was the head of the GPU in Leningrad, a man named Messing. He opposed the Rebbe’s release and threatened that if the Rebbe were freed and returned to Leningrad, he would be arrested immediately. When the Frierdiker Rebbe arrived in Kostroma, GPU officials ordered him to report

17:28 Speaker 2 to their offices every Tuesday. And so, on Tuesday, 12 Tammuz, the Frierdiker Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak, came for his weekly check-in, accompanied by the chossid Rabbi Eliyahu Chaim Althaus [unclear]. The GPU official greeted him warmly and said, “You are exempt from reporting here any further. An order has come to grant you a full release, and I am happy to be the first to tell you of your liberation.” Because 12 Tammuz was a holiday in Kostroma, a non-Jewish holiday, the office was not issuing release papers that day. The Frierdiker Rebbe therefore had to wait until the following day, 13 Tammuz, to receive the official document. In his letter concerning the festival of Geulah on 12 Tammuz, the Frierdiker Rebbe writes: “It was not me alone whom Hakadosh Boruch Hu redeemed on 12 Tammuz, but also all who cherish our holy Torah, those who observe the mitzvos, and even those who are merely called by the name Israel.” Even a Jew who is only called a Jew was redeemed on that day. “This day, the twelfth of Tammuz, is a festival of liberation for those engaged in spreading Torah, for on that day it became known to all that the great work I had done to spread Torah and strengthen religion was permitted under the law of the land.” The fact is, they released me. So that happened on 12 Tammuz, the Frierdiker Rebbe’s festival of Geulah. As for 13 Tammuz 5687: after the Frierdiker Rebbe received his release document that day, many people gathered at his residence. The Rebbe held a farbrengen and delivered a maamar of Chassidus beginning “Baruch Hagomel Lechayavim Tovos.” On 14 Tammuz, at ten in the morning, the Rebbe left Kostroma a free citizen, accompanied by two representatives of the Jewish community there. On Friday, 15 Tammuz—yes, the day of the passing of the holy Ohr Hachaim [unclear], the Moshiach of his generation—the Frierdiker Rebbe arrived home in Leningrad. What do we do

20:10 Speaker 2 on 12–13 Tammuz? The Rebbe tells us, so that we know: quite simply, we do not say Tachanun. These are days of Geulah—not on the 12th, not on the 13th, and not at Minchah the day before the 12th, the Minchah of 11 Tammuz. We, too, do not say Tachanun; we are filled with joy. The Rebbe called it “the festival of festivals,” as the Frierdiker Rebbe writes. The festival of festivals. The Rebbe explains that a festival marks a miracle, but 12 Tammuz is the overarching festival and miracle: the miracle of the leader of the Jewish people, from which all the particular festivals and miracles flow. That is the festival of festivals. It is both the Frierdiker Rebbe’s birthday—he was born in 5640—and the day in 5687 when he was told that he was free from his exile in Russia, after being imprisoned for his work to strengthen Torah and Jewish life. In short, it is a day for farbrengens, for awakening and for strengthening Torah in every place according to its circumstances. We encourage one another to grow stronger in the ways of Chassidus, to set and keep regular times to study Chassidus, and to put what we learn into practice. What we study must be carried out both in our spiritual work and in practical action, each place according to its circumstances. The Rebbe was known to hold an appeal on 12 Tammuz, during his farbrengen, for the institutions known as Oholei Yosef Yitzchak, named for the Frierdiker Rebbe. We also increase in Torah study, prayer and tzedakah for the Rebbe’s institutions. Above all, we strengthen our faith that just as the Frierdiker Rebbe was redeemed through great and open miracles, we too will merit the true and complete Geulah very soon. That is what we need to convey to our children. These days of Geulah turn the month of Tammuz from a month of sorrow into a month already illuminated by the light of Geulah. We study matters of Geulah and Moshiach and matters concerning the Beis Hamikdash, preparing for the Geulah that is coming at any moment. “Suddenly, the Master whom you seek will come to His sanctuary.” And we make that preparation with great joy and with a deep longing for the Geulah and for the Rebbe who will bring it.