Minhagei Melech - Yom Kippur - Rabbi Tuvia Zilberstrom shlita

00:02 Speaker 1 You are listening to the Lema’an Yishme’u podcast of Machon Halacha Chabad.

00:09 Speaker 2 On Erev Yom Kippur, we have the custom of kapparos. They would bring a rooster to the Rebbe in his room, and the Rebbe would perform kapparos inside the room. Then he would go out to the courtyard and hand the rooster to the shochet, Rabbi Yisroel Shimon Kalmenson. The shochet would take it from the Rebbe, shecht it, and prepare earth for the mitzvah of covering the blood. He would leave that mitzvah for the Rebbe to perform. There was a shovel [?], with sand in it, and he would pour the rooster’s blood into it. He would lift the shovel [?], and after the rooster had died, he would pluck a bunch of feathers from it and hand them to the Rebbe. The Rebbe would use them to cover the blood, moving them around and covering the blood with earth. I’ll show you here what I still have from one of those years. I caught the feathers and gave some away, though not to everyone. I kept two feathers myself. These are rooster feathers, and we can also see here traces of the blood from the kapparos the Rebbe performed for all of us. During the shechitah, and also while covering the blood, the Rebbe would make a certain movement, a kind of contraction of his face. We don’t know why, because he would make that same movement when he made the blessing of hamotzi over bread. That’s by the way. So Erev Yom Kippur was another occasion when everyone could approach the Rebbe, receive a blessing, and get a piece of lekach cake with a blessing for a good, sweet year. My father, a”h, told me that when he first came to the Rebbe, the secretary was standing there and said that, with such a long line, he must not ask for anyone else under any circumstances. Other people were asking for this one and that one and another one. “Take one piece of cake, and you

02:30 Speaker 2 can divide it.” After all, you don’t make a whole cake out of it. The Rebbe always said to make a cake out of it and share it with everyone, but not to ask for anyone else. Each person who passed by could take a piece for himself. When my father came for the first time, his mother—my grandmother—was already not in such good health. He wanted to use the opportunity, while he was near the Rebbe, to ask the Rebbe for a blessing for her. But the secretary said, “Absolutely not.” But she was his mother; a person has only one mother in the world. Still, the secretary said no. So he was torn. He was already standing before the Rebbe, and the Rebbe gave him lekach. Of course, he didn’t dare ask. But the Rebbe called him back and said, “Surely you want some for your mother too. Give it to her, and may she have a good, sweet year.” Things beyond nature would always happen during those minutes when the Rebbe distributed lekach. We’re used to that from the distribution of dollars, too. But I will tell a story about one of our neighbors, whose name was Chaimson. He came to the Rebbe for the first time. Of his whole family in Jerusalem, he was the first to come to the Rebbe. He went to the Rebbe during the distribution of lekach. He had never written to the Rebbe before, had never been to the Rebbe, and had never sent a photograph. Among the thousands of people in line, as soon as he reached the Rebbe, the Rebbe said to him, “Are you Chaimson?” He said yes. The Rebbe said, “Your grandfather went to the Tzemach Tzedek, didn’t he?” He said to the Rebbe, “Yes. Chaim Ber Chaimson was also a gabbai.” The Rebbe said to him, “Today it’s easier.” We spent many hours farbrenging about what “today it’s easier” means: easier to come, to connect, and all the ways available to us. It was something special. The Rebbe distributed lekach on Erev Yom Kippur

04:20 Speaker 2 and again on Erev Sukkos, for the guests who arrived after Yom Kippur. Then, on Erev Hoshana Rabbah, the Rebbe stood and distributed lekach again, this time in the sukkah. First the men who had arrived went through the line, and afterward there was a line for the women. They too received the Rebbe’s lekach in the sukkah on Erev Hoshana Rabbah. On Yom Kippur, the Rebbe wore a kittel, as we all do. The Rebbe’s practice was to put on his sirtuk, the kittel over it, and then his gartel and tallis, which he wore throughout Yom Kippur. The Rebbe’s kittel wasn’t exactly his size. It was a little shorter than the sirtuk, which showed beneath it. Why? Because it too was a gift he had received from the Frierdiker Rebbe, and it was a kind of robe that the Rebbe Rashab had worn. We mentioned the cloth used during the sounding of the shofar; that too came from the Frierdiker Rebbe, who had received it from the Rebbe Rashab. And the Rebbe’s kittel was also a kind of robe worn at home at night, so naturally it wasn’t exactly his size. It was hard to see, but I was told that the Rebbe Rashab’s initials were embroidered on the robe in red, as was customary then. That is also one of the reasons for embroidering initials. As I said, the Rashag told me about the cloth and the Rebbe’s kittel. I studied with him for a time and would ask him about things I could learn from him. As for the other fabrics and tablecloths, I had another chavrusa, one of the elder chassidim, who had also studied in Lubavitch. His name was Rabbi Moishe Dubinsky. He came from Russia to Eretz Yisroel, but in 5709 he traveled to the United States and remained there for the rest of his life. So what

06:37 Speaker 2 is the connection to these things? When he arrived in the United States, they put a tablecloth on the Rebbe’s table. He asked, “Why don’t you put tablecloths out for the whole farbrengen? The tables are long; you could cover them all the way down. Why just one tablecloth on one table?” They told him, “You want to? Do it!” So he went and put tablecloths along the full length of the tables at the farbrengen. Those were the tablecloths he kept. It became his established role to put out both the tablecloths for the farbrengen and the covers for the Rebbe’s shtender. He kept them once they were no longer presentable. They had many stains from farbrengens, from kos shel bracha, or, in the case of the Rebbe’s shtender, from so much use during davening. So they replaced them with nicer ones. He called me to his home and, baruch Hashem, gave me the cover from the shtender and another tablecloth from a farbrengen. A shirt was also made from it, to be worn when needed. It isn’t nice to tell this, but when I arrived, the table the Rebbe used on Chol Hamoed had no tablecloth, and neither did the Rebbe’s table for the reading of Megillas Esther. So I bought a tablecloth myself and put it on those tables during the years I was there for Chol Hamoed and the reading of Megillas Esther. Rabbi Moishe Dubinsky told me the following. He had studied in Lubavitch, where the mashgiach was the well-known Yaakov Baruch Krasik, called Yankel Baruch. He was very, very strict, especially about the study schedules, and both the Rebbe Rashab and the Frierdiker Rebbe were involved in this. There was a well-known saying among the chassidim: when he arrived at twelve, the second study session began. If a bochur arrived at twelve-oh-one, he would say, “One minute is one minute; there’s no ‘infinity upon infinity.’” Moishe Dubinsky told me that he was late one morning, and the mashgiach called him over and said,

08:42 Speaker 2 “Moishe, come to seder.” So he looked at him. He was already an older bochur. He said to Moishe, “I promise you, you’ll be helping the alte bobbe, the old grandmother, get to Selichos. Come to seder.” Moishe said to the mashgiach, “What do you mean? What alte bobbe?” He said, “A bochur needs to come to yeshiva. He gets older, and the time comes when he’s eligible for the Russian army. Then he has to spend a lot of time traveling to other cities so, G-d forbid, he won’t be arrested and taken away.” It was a physical and spiritual danger: they always put the Jews on the front lines, and, needless to say, anyone who went in did not come out a G-d-fearing Jew, to put it mildly. He came out a committed Communist. So, of course, it was a mitzvah to avoid going in there. Well, how can you ask a bochur in the morning, “Where were you last night?” when he’s busy trying to evade that Red Army? Then he’s finished with the army, and he’s reached the age for shidduchim. How can you ask a bochur in the morning, “Where were you?” Maybe he was busy with a shidduch. That’s over; boruch Hashem, he’s engaged. Well, how can you ask him where he was when he’s busy with the wedding? Boruch Hashem, he’s married, and again he’s preoccupied until children are born. He has a child, and again he’s preoccupied until the child turns three, when they’ll put him in cheder and give him payos. The child is in cheder, and he’s preoccupied until his bar mitzvah. Now the son is a bochur learning in yeshiva, and he’s busy finding him a shidduch. Years pass, and he’s preoccupied again. What will happen? When will his son have children? Boruch Hashem, a grandson is born to his son. What is he busy with now? “How am I going to get the old woman up at four in the morning to go to Selichos?” So the mashgiach in Lubavitch told him, “You’ll be helping the alte bobbe get to Selichos.

10:48 Speaker 2 “Don’t worry. Come to seder.” And he says it all came true. All of it. The only difference is that she takes me to Selichos instead of my taking her, because she would bring him every day to [unclear], and we would learn in the afternoon, when he could no longer see. I would read Gemara Kesubos to him, and we would learn together. So from that Dubinsky I merited these precious gifts that stay with us for the shofar blowing, for Yom Kippur, and for other good things. On Erev Yom Kippur, a person eats whatever he puts on his table, but our custom is to eat fish at the first meal, the one we eat in the afternoon. There is the story in the Tur about a Jew who spent his money on a fish and found a diamond inside it. In remembrance of that, we eat fish on Erev Yom Kippur, and at the final meal before the fast we eat meat. It says not to eat fatty meat; it is better to eat chicken. But there are two customs connected with that final meal. First of all, during the meal—actually, first, a general custom for Tishrei: we dip the hamotzi bread in honey. We dip the hamotzi in honey on four occasions. That is something we are very particular about; the rest depends on people’s customs. We are very particular about doing it on Rosh Hashanah: at the meals on both days of Rosh Hashanah, we dip the slice of hamotzi bread in honey three times, as with any dipping, during the day as well. The same applies on Erev Yom Kippur and after Yom Kippur: we dip it in honey. Also on the first day of Sukkos and the last day of Sukkos, Hoshana Rabbah. Some also do it on the Shabbosim in between—Shabbos Teshuvah and Shabbos Chol Hamoed—and some do it throughout Tishrei, from Rosh Hashanah until after Hoshana Rabbah. But those four occasions are recorded in Sefer Haminhagim. So that includes Erev Yom Kippur. Another custom on Erev Yom Kippur is to eat kreplach, dumplings made of meat wrapped in dough. Once, when the Rebbe did not

12:58 Speaker 2 have any, he took a piece of chicken and wrapped it in a piece of challah, and said, “That’s all right; I’ve fulfilled the custom.” So you can see how particular he was about observing this custom. Another thing we eat—it appears in the Frierdiker Rebbe’s sichos—is the soup with those dumplings in it. The custom is to eat three bowls of soup on Erev Yom Kippur. If someone can’t, and almost nobody can, they sip some soup, add a little more with another spoonful and eat that, and then add another spoonful. That way we’ve done it three times: we’ve poured soup into the bowl three times. I haven’t found a reason, but the Frierdiker Rebbe writes that this was the custom. On Erev Yom Kippur, the Rebbe would give a blessing. There was a blessing after Minchah, a blessing for the entire Jewish people. Minchah was held in the beis midrash with a large crowd, and it was broadcast as well. But there was something else: the blessing for the sons, the bochurim, the Temimim. That was a special occasion. Its location changed as their numbers grew. In the early years they would enter the Rebbe’s room for the blessing. Later it was outside, in Gan Eden Hatachton, and then upstairs in the beis midrash, when it was still a small room. Once it was no longer possible to fit everyone into that small room, they set a minimum age and did not allow younger boys in. It was dangerous for them to enter, too. Eventually the small room could no longer hold everyone, so they opened the women’s section—the second room, where the library was, next to the small room. Later, even that was no longer feasible, with everyone crowding around, so it moved down to the beis midrash. The sight was of a father coming to bless his children on Erev Yom Kippur.

15:22 Speaker 2 The Rebbe began the blessing for the sons with—after giving the students a detailed blessing, which always included something special—Birchas Kohanim. Now, Birchas Kohanim is recited only by kohanim: “May Hashem bless you … and grant you peace.” Whenever people use that blessing outside of Birchas Kohanim, they take care not to run into the prohibition of adding to a mitzvah and the like. We saw the Rebbe’s practice in this regard on another occasion too, at a farbrengen. But at the blessing for the sons, the Rebbe would begin with “Hashem spoke to Moshe, saying,” recite the entire passage, and include “They shall place My name upon the Children of Israel, and I will bless them.” It was an especially majestic sight. The Rebbe would come up wearing a kittel onto a platform made as narrow as possible, because every centimeter of space could accommodate another bochur. The Rebbe would cover his head. It was an uplifting sight with which to begin the holy day. In practice, the bochurim had a certain difficulty—a difficulty in observing the custom in its fullest form. Yom Kippur lasts around twenty-four hours plus, generally close to twenty-five hours. The Frierdiker Rebbe writes that Yom Kippur is associated with Hashem’s Name, which has the numerical value of twenty-six, and therefore, the Rebbe writes, the fast should last twenty-six hours. So those who were especially careful would always wait until twenty-six hours had passed. I remember it was very, very hard for the Temimim, because the Rebbe would finish the blessing at sunset, when they could no longer drink, and then to extend the fast for another hour afterward was very, very, very hard for everyone, especially the Temimim. But later I found a letter in which someone wrote to the Rebbe that surely one must fast for twenty-six hours. The Rebbe replied that twenty-six means twenty-five and a bit. So that was a relief.

17:40 Speaker 2 It was a relief to some, at least, that once we had entered the twenty-sixth hour, the Rebbe already called it twenty-six hours. I would emphasize that it does not work this way for everything. For example, with meat and milk, this is only a spiritual matter, a spiritual level: you have already reached the twenty-sixth hour. Of course, that has no bearing on the halacha of meat and milk, where we are careful to wait six hours. The Rebbe gave a long sicha about this—not only for adults, but also for children who already fast and who have already waited five and a half hours. Nevertheless, they should wait until the full six hours are over. So it does not apply to everything, but it does apply to hiddurim and things of that sort. The Rebbe wrote that twenty-five hours and something is already considered entering the twenty-sixth hour. We can learn something else from this. In Sefer Haminhagim, regarding the laws of tefillin, the Rebbe writes about the length of the straps. In halacha there are several opinions about how long the straps of the head tefillin should be. Of course, the minimum is that they reach down in front to the shoulder. If they do not reach the shoulder, the tefillin are invalid. But once they pass the shoulder and hang down in front, they are kosher. As for their length, there are several measurements of how far down they should go. The Rebbe points out, based on Eitz Chaim, that they extend down to the legs. Since it says they should not be tucked into the gartel, that indicates they go down to the legs. I have seen people whose straps reach all the way to the bottom of their legs, and that calls for special care, because the straps must not be on the floor. If they are that long, it is impossible to keep them from touching the floor. But we saw how the Rebbe conducted himself throughout the years.

19:40 Speaker 2 The straps extended two centimeters past the knees. That is considered passing the knees. It is already considered reaching the legs, to the bottom of the legs, because they have passed the knee, the last section. For example, on Yom Kippur the Rebbe arrived, as we said, wrapped in his tallis, with the appearance of a Kohen Gadol—the Rebbe’s face, the kittel and the hat. There was a special majesty to his appearance on Yom Kippur. Let’s speak about a few things concerning Yom Kippur. First of all, on Yom Kippur there are the confessions. On the eve of Yom Kippur—and on Yom Kippur itself—we say Al Chet. In practice, we say Al Chet ten times. When are those ten times? At Maariv, Shacharis, Musaf and Mincha. Those are four prayers in which we say Al Chet, and there are repetitions as well: the repetitions of Shacharis, Musaf and Mincha. At Maariv it is not a repetition, but there are the piyutim and yotzros. Those are the eight times we say Al Chet. At Neilah we do not say Al Chet, only Ashamnu. There are two times we say Al Chet on the eve of Yom Kippur: once before Mincha, lest a person eat and drink and become intoxicated at his meal, so the Sages instituted saying Al Chet already at Mincha; and once as the day begins, before Kol Nidrei. We say Al Chet standing, just as we say Ashamnu standing, because confession is always said standing. How do we say the confession? It is like when we say “Forgive us” in the Amidah. We should say it with a slight bow, in submission. When we say, “Forgive us, our Father, for we have sinned,” we strike our chest, and likewise at “for we have transgressed.” Similarly, when we say Ashamnu from alef to tav, we strike our chest at “we have been guilty, we have betrayed,” with a slight bow of submission. That is how we say Ashamnu. With the Rebbe, we saw it at other places too: “We have turned from Your mitzvos and Your good judgments,” and then, at the end, “and we have acted wickedly.” The Rebbe—

22:06 Speaker 2 The Rebbe said again, “But we have acted wickedly.” Here too, and also before Ashamnu: “But we and our fathers have sinned.” The only difference was that when he said Ashamnu, the Rebbe always turned toward the east to say it. The first “we have sinned” and “we have acted wickedly” he said standing where he was, with a bow of submission and a strike over the heart, but not facing east. The same applies to Al Chet. Whenever we say, “For the sin that we have sinned before You,” we should say Al Chet with submission and strike our chest at “we have sinned before You.” Likewise, between the Al Chet passages we say, “And for all of them, forgive us, pardon us, grant us atonement.” We strike our chest, over the heart, at those three places as well. Toward the end of Yom Kippur—these are all the Days of Awe, all extraordinary things—but toward Napoleon’s March at the end of Neilah, the Rebbe would first tap his hand on the shtender at the start of the march. Then the Rebbe would turn and clap toward the crowd, and afterward the Rebbe would climb up. At first it was onto a chair; later they arranged steps. It was a scene of tremendous majesty. The tallis would fold around him; the Rebbe was entirely covered by it, and the march was very special. One year, in the middle of Neilah, the Rebbe asked for all the children to be brought up onto the platform. There is a special story about it, but I remember the scene. All the children were passed over people’s heads toward the Rebbe. There was tremendous weeping during Avinu Malkeinu, and afterward, during the march, there was a reason for it that I do not remember right now. Later that year, people learned what the Rebbe had accomplished that Yom Kippur.

24:23 Speaker 2 An illness was removed from someone—I do not remember. There was a particular illness that the Rebbe took away from someone. On Yom Kippur in general, the Rebbe’s face—after all, it was very rare for the Rebbe’s expression to change like that, yet it could happen. Within moments it could become a face of joy and then another expression. These were extraordinary things, beyond nature altogether. But it was very noticeable. It could happen during a maamar and then during the niggun afterward, or between the niggun before the maamar, the maamar itself and the niggun after it. During sichos too, it was not only the content that changed; the Rebbe’s face changed as well, everything. It was especially noticeable on Yom Kippur. When the Rebbe entered on Yom Kippur, he looked like an angel, especially with the white kittel and his pale face. Also when the Rebbe came in for Mincha after the break between Musaf and Mincha. We mentioned already that the Rebbe entered with a hat on his head. That sight—the black hat, everything else white, the tallis and kittel, the pale face—was the face of an angel, the face of a Kohen Gadol. But his face on Yom Kippur—there was no smile. It was solemn. It was Yom Kippur; you could see it on the Rebbe’s face. That continued through Neilah. Then came the march. It was a march of victory, of course, but his face still reflected Yom Kippur. On the night after Yom Kippur, the Rebbe would begin the niggun of “Vesamachta,” or tell others to begin “Vesamachta Bechagecha,” and Sukkos would begin immediately that night. As it says in halacha, a heavenly voice goes out and says, “Go, eat your bread with joy, for G-d has accepted your deeds.” You could feel it. The atmosphere of Sukkos, of the season of our rejoicing, began with the niggun the Rebbe went out to, and people kept dancing to it for a long time, for several more hours.

26:50 Speaker 2 [unclear] Yes. On Yom Kippur itself, we saw the Rebbe’s practice—how the Rebbe wore the kittel and tallis. We wear a tallis at night only once a year, for Maariv on Yom Kippur. We never wear one at night during the rest of the year—not on Rosh Hashanah, not on Yom Tov, and not on Shabbos. We’re particular about that. So, of course, one has to make the blessing on the tallis while it’s still day, when the blessing may be made. But then Motzaei Yom Kippur arrives. On the one hand, we’re particular never to wear a tallis at night, not even on Friday night; on the other hand, our custom is to keep wearing the tallis and kittel until after Havdalah. So when Ne’ilah ends and it’s time for Maariv, what do we do? The Rebbe would come in for Minchah after a break—there’s a break between Musaf and Minchah and Ne’ilah. The Rebbe had left the shul after Musaf. When he came in for Minchah, he brought his hat so he could wear it for Maariv after Ne’ilah. Bringing a hat on Yom Tov for use that night is forbidden because of preparing from Yom Tov for a weekday. So the Rebbe would enter the shul. It was a striking sight: his pale, white face from the fast and the [unclear] of Yom Kippur, and the black hat he brought in while it was still the atmosphere of Yom Kippur. In the lectern there were doors that opened, and the Rebbe would put the hat inside. After Ne’ilah, the Rebbe would take the tallis off his head, take out the hat, and put it on. He davened Maariv wearing a hat. Now, we can learn a practice from this for chassidim throughout the year. When we take the tallis off our heads, it’s considered as though we’re not wearing a tallis, even though we’re still

29:00 Speaker 2 wearing the tallis. From this we should understand something chassidim have always been—and still are—particular about during davening: we need to be wrapped in the tallis. It has to be not only on the body but also on the head, both during davening and during the Torah reading. A bochur, boruch Hashem, always wears a hat. When he gets married, he no longer wears the hat, but he needs to put the tallis over his head. If we lower the tallis onto our shoulders at a time when we need to be wearing it, it’s considered as though we don’t have a tallis on. That’s fine on Motzaei Yom Kippur, when there’s a hat on the head.