Educating Children for the Month of Adar - Rabbi Yosef Avraham Pizam shlita

00:02 Speaker 1 You’re listening to the L’maan Yishme’u podcast from Machon Halacha Chabad.

00:09 Speaker 2 9 Adar is the day the Frierdiker Rebbe arrived on the shores of the United States in 5700. Why is that important? Two points. First of all, it is the day the Frierdiker Rebbe was saved from the terrible Holocaust. To think that the leader of the generation was saved on this day is a source of joy, both collective and personal, for all Chabad chassidim and for everyone in the Jewish world who appreciates this turning point. Second, 9 Adar is the day the Frierdiker Rebbe arrived in the United States—in the lower hemisphere. Spiritually, this is the lowest place, because the Giving of the Torah did not take place openly in the lower hemisphere. And it is specifically through the work done there before the Geulah that the Geulah will come. It’s like the analogy that when you want to lift a house, you place a crane beneath its foundations. So too, to elevate the world so that it can receive the light of the Geulah, you have to elevate, refine, and prepare it starting from the lowest place: the lower hemisphere, where the United States is located. That work began in a settled, permanent way, through sustained activity, when the Frierdiker Rebbe arrived there and began working in America from within America. It should be noted that when the Frierdiker Rebbe arrived in the United States, he said, “America is no different.” America is not different. Just as Jews had observed Yiddishkeit, Torah, and mitzvos with the greatest care, and served Hashem in the most wonderful way, when we were in Russia, Poland, and all those other places, so it had to be in America as well. The Frierdiker Rebbe went against the tide on this and succeeded. The sight of young men walking around America with beards and their tzitzis showing was something the Frierdiker Rebbe introduced. It inspired Jewish pride among Jews of every circle. Let’s add to this the matter of

02:57 Speaker 2 establishing Tomchei Temimim. The very first thing the Frierdiker Rebbe announced when he arrived in the United States was that he was establishing Tomchei Temimim there. And he immediately established Tomchei Temimim in America: a place where nothing but sacred subjects would be studied, where students would engage in the study of Chassidus, avodas hatefillah, a distinctive chassidic fear of Heaven, and in-depth study of the revealed parts of Torah. That, too, went completely against the tide in America. So we understand that 9 Adar is the day something great—tremendous—happened in the history of Chabad, and really in the history of the Jewish people. It marked the final stage of preparation for the true and complete Geulah. That’s why our children need to know about it: first, what happened, and then what it means, each child according to their age. But it is very important to mark this date and not just let it pass. 25 Adar is the birthday of Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka, the wife of the Rebbe, the leader of our generation. On that day in 5748, the Rebbe brought the birthday customs to the attention of the wider world. When I say “brought them to the attention of the wider world,” birthday customs were already practiced within Chabad. That, too, was the Rebbe’s work: the Rebbe instituted them, revealed them, and gave them to us. But on 25 Adar, the Rebbe instructed us and sent us to spread them throughout the Jewish people, to give Jews the opportunity to know that a birthday is a day when a person’s mazal is especially strong. A birthday, the day Hashem decided to send that Jew into the world, is a special day for them. It is a good day for making good resolutions, and the Rebbe explains what should be done on such a day. So 25 Adar, Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka’s birthday, is also the birthday of the birthday campaign, and we need to mark it. The Rebbe speaks about receiving an aliyah to the Torah before one’s birthday. So someone over the age of

05:13 Speaker 2 thirteen can receive an aliyah. Someone under thirteen cannot. What I’m trying to say is that perhaps he could be given gelilah. Some parents feel that the father should try to receive an aliyah, if possible. If it doesn’t displace someone else who is obligated to receive one, why not? But that comes from personal feeling; it isn’t written anywhere. There is also the practice of holding a farbrengen with good resolutions: sharing words of Torah and making good resolutions. And the Rebbe says to make those resolutions specifically in public. Why? Because when you make a good resolution on your own, you may not ask yourself very much about what became of it. But when you make a good resolution in public, as the Rebbe Rashab already writes, it has the strength of the community and the merit of the community behind it. And a person knows that, whatever their age, others know what they have committed to doing. That makes them feel more obligated to actually do it. Others can also ask, “So, what happened with that good resolution? How did it work out?” Along with that, there is the practice of giving a lot of tzedakah on one’s birthday, and saying Tehillim—if possible, all five books of Tehillim; that would be wonderful. If not, then at least one book of Tehillim. If even that is very hard for children, especially young children, then a chapter of Tehillim. There is also the general birthday custom of studying a verse or two from the person’s or child’s chapter of Tehillim—the new chapter they are entering. For example, if someone turns ten, they begin chapter 11. So they should study chapter 11, and study a verse or two from it on their birthday with the available commentaries—Rashi, Metzudas David, Radak, and so on and

07:07 Speaker 2 so forth. As the Rebbe publicized in his instructions for the birthday campaign, one can add a special Torah study session that day and do something for another person that day. If it means doing mivtzoim, then carry out various activities to spread Yiddishkeit and Ahavas Yisroel—all the better. I hope I’ve remembered more or less everything, but of course, all these things can be found in the sichos and instructions of the Rebbe Melech HaMoshiach.