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

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

00:09 Speaker 2 Now we’re going to talk about the chassidic month, Kislev. It should be clear what a chassidic month means: a month filled entirely with farbrengens, an abundance of Chassidus, and chassidic vitality. The whole month is full of life, light, and joy. There are so many chassidic dates throughout the month, with instructions from the Rebbe about what to do before those dates, on the dates themselves, and afterward. Kislev, the chassidic month, should be felt in every educational institution—yeshivos, girls’ schools, Talmud Torahs, cheders, and kindergartens. Let’s begin with Rosh Chodesh Kislev. On Rosh Chodesh Kislev, the Rebbe shlita left his room for the first time since Shemini Atzeres. After the heart incident on Shemini Atzeres 5738, the Rebbe remained in his room at 770 until Rosh Chodesh Kislev. On the eve of Friday, Rosh Chodesh Kislev, the Rebbe went home for the first time. Rosh Chodesh Kislev became a Yom Tov, a day of feasting, joy, and farbrengens, when chassidim thank Hakadosh Boruch Hu for the miracles and wonders He performed in those days. With just a little thought, anyone can understand this. Take the Hayom Yom calendar, for example, okay? Look there at the account of the Rebbe’s life, and at everything the Rebbe went on to add—literally, openly, in speech and in writing—after Tishrei 5738. So much activity, so many letters and campaigns, such tremendous growth throughout the entire world, continuing to this very day. How much we need to thank Hashem—not only for that year or those years, but for the very fact that the Rebbe survived that serious health problem, the heart condition he experienced. “He bore our illnesses and carried our pains.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu enabled him and helped him to continue transforming the entire world with new initiatives. Take, for example, the daily Rambam study instituted by the Rebbe. That did not exist before 5738. It came in the middle of the 5740s,

02:41 Speaker 2 and so on and so forth. Chabad dates were added, activities were added, and the story of those days is recorded in the Megillas Rosh Chodesh Kislev, which you can find on Chabad websites. From there, let’s move to 2 Kislev 5748. It’s an especially joyous day for the Temimim, because this is when it happened in practice. 5 Teves was the declaration of victory. The ruling in this world matched the ruling in Heaven: Lubavitch is active; Lubavitch is alive and well. One must use the wording of one’s teacher: “Stand ready, all of you, for the building of the Third Beis Hamikdash.” Those are among the Rebbe’s words from 5 Teves. But it was only on 2 Kislev 5748 that the books and manuscripts of our Rebbeim were returned to their place in the Lubavitch Library, at the home of Agudas Chassidei Chabad, 770. Put simply, once all the court proceedings had ended, the books were actually returned. Books that had been taken from the Lubavitch Library were returned to their place in the Rebbe’s library. It’s a joyous day, something especially felt among the Temimim. Let’s move on. The next date in Kislev is 9 Kislev, the birthday of the Mitteler Rebbe. Fourteen years had passed since the wedding of His Holiness the Alter Rebbe, who married in 5520. In 5534, on 9 Kislev, His Holiness the Mitteler Rebbe was born. Since his wedding, the Alter Rebbe had had only daughters—righteous, exalted, wonderful daughters. But he wanted a son. When the Alter Rebbe was with his teacher and Rebbe, the Maggid of Mezritch, he asked for a blessing to have a son. The Maggid told him, “How does one merit a boy? Through his guest: through hospitality, one merits the birth of a boy.” Before his passing, the Maggid called His Holiness the Alter Rebbe and revealed to him the procedure for a shalom zachar—which he called a “shalom ben zachar”; today everyone calls it a shalom zachar. Then he said to him, “A vision of Ovadiah: the servant of G-d sees. A son will be born to you, and you shall name him

05:30 Speaker 2 after me. And on the night of vigil before bringing your son into the covenant of Avraham Avinu, remember and recall what I revealed to you tonight.” A year passed, the Alter Rebbe related, and my son Rabbi Dovber was born. I named him after my teacher and Rebbe, the Maggid—what was his name? Rabbi Dovber. I did as he instructed. On the night of vigil before the day the child entered the covenant of Avraham Avinu, peace be upon him, I remembered and carried out what my Rebbe had told me a year earlier: “Remember and recall what I told you tonight.” When the Mitteler Rebbe was born, his father, the Alter Rebbe, provided a special piece of cloth he had kept to swaddle the baby for the first time after birth. He did the same when his grandson, the Tzemach Tzedek, was born. The secret behind this is known to our Rebbeim. So 9 Kislev is a birthday, but not only a birthday: it is also a yahrzeit. The Mitteler Rebbe’s passing was on 9 Kislev. The Mitteler Rebbe would always say that he feared the year 5588, because decrees were alluded to in that year. On 9 Kislev 5588, he began hinting to the chassidim about his passing as an atonement for the Jewish people. In Kislev, a week before his passing, doctors visited him and found him lying there with almost no sign of life. On 8 Kislev, he wanted to write Chassidus on Chanukah. Then he said, “The whole world is in distress, and I am enjoying myself so much?” He stopped writing. He told the chassidim, “Go home, say l’chaim, and be happy.” The chassidim said to him, “Soon it will be Kislev—the 10th of Kislev, 10 Kislev, the day celebrating the Mitteler Rebbe’s Geulah. That is a time for joy, but why rejoice now?” The Mitteler Rebbe told them, “Nevertheless, go and do as I said. Be happy starting now.” On the night of 9 Kislev, he fainted several times. At one point he told the chassidim, “I heard a voice calling: What

07:57 Speaker 2 is a soul like this doing in this world at all? Such an exalted, holy soul.” Afterward, he delivered a maamar on the verse, “You shall follow Hashem your G-d.” He delivered it with tremendous fervor and asked several times in the middle, “Well, has dawn broken yet?” Before dawn, he concluded the maamar with the words “For with You is the source of life,” from the Life of all life, and immediately his spirit and soul departed, bound in a single bond with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. The Mitteler Rebbe’s son-in-law, His Holiness the Tzemach Tzedek, said: We have not seen a passing like this since the passing of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, who passed away in the midst of delivering Torah teachings. On the day he turned fifty-four, he passed away and was gathered to his people, fulfilling the verse, “I shall fill the number of your days.” Our Sages of blessed memory said that Hakadosh Boruch Hu fills the years of the righteous from day to day. He was born on 9 Kislev and passed away on 9 Kislev, the day before the celebration of his first Geulah, which was to be on 10 Kislev. That year there was deep mourning among the chassidim and the entire Jewish people. He is laid to rest in the city of Nezhin. What should we do on a day like this? The Rebbe says—and pay close attention to the Rebbe’s actual words—that each and every person, men, women, and children, should use this auspicious time to increase their study of the teachings of the one whose birthday and yahrzeit it is, and do so in the manner of “broad rivers.” After all, the Mitteler Rebbe would speak and write at great length, expanding and elaborating extensively on his Chassidus. Study Chassidus in depth and at length; devote yourselves to the service of prayer; give tzedakah—preferably to a cause connected with the Mitteler Rebbe’s particular work, or to institutions engaged in his work and that of the Rebbeim who succeeded him. Fourth, hold a joyous farbrengen at which those gathered make good resolutions concerning Torah and mitzvos. We’ll also talk about preparations for the farbrengens of the chassidic month, 10 Kislev, and continuing them with farbrengens during Chanukah. Chanukah, too, falls partly within the chassidic month, and there are farbrengens then as well.

10:17 Speaker 2 To do it and come to terms with it, and to complete it in the coming days. At Mincha on 9 Kislev, leading into 10 Kislev, the day of the Mitteler Rebbe’s liberation, we also do not say Tachanun. 10 Kislev is the festival of liberation, when the Mitteler Rebbe, whose soul is in Eden, was released from prison in 5587. It is a day of joy for the chassidim. We do not say Tachanun, and the custom is to hold a large farbrengen. There is a saying from the Rebbeim: 10 Kislev is when a chossid is born; 19 Kislev is a chossid’s bris. 10 and 19 Kislev are the birth. It starts on the tenth. A Chassidus farbrengen is the birth of a chossid. 14 Kislev is the anniversary of the wedding of our Rebbe, the Rebbe, leader of our generation and our righteous Moshiach, to Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka a"h, daughter of the Frierdiker Rebbe, whose soul is in Eden. It took place on Tuesday of Parshas Vayishlach, 14 Kislev 5689, in Warsaw. The wedding was an enormous event. Tens of thousands of Jews attended in Warsaw, Poland. Great Torah figures from every part of the Jewish people, chassidim and non-chassidim alike, were all invited by the Frierdiker Rebbe. At that holy wedding, people began—especially the guests began—to recognize that the Rebbe would be the next Rebbe. The significance of this day, in the Rebbe’s words: “In general, a wedding is an event of broad significance in an individual’s life. In my case, however, it was the path by which I became involved in communal affairs. This is the day my connection with you was formed,” when the Rebbe became the Frierdiker Rebbe’s son-in-law and took, and continues to fill, his place. And may Hashem help us see good fruit from our efforts. In other words, this is a day of tremendous joy for all Chabad chassidim and for the entire Jewish people. We merited such a great Rebbe, a Rebbe whom we have merited to see revealed as Moshiach, who will come and redeem us and lead us upright to our land, immediately, right now, truly. We will now discuss matters connected with 19 Kislev, the festival of liberation and the Rosh Hashanah of Chassidus. The subject

12:57 Speaker 2 of this series we are working on now is education: educating Jewish children about the Jewish festivals, and about Chassidic festivals and dates. This is truly one of the Rebbe’s innovations: bringing every date to public attention, together with its background, its meaning and its depth, and involving the entire generation in it. First, I must say that, as parents and educators—as parents who educate and educators who are parents—we need to divide our approach to Chassidic festivals and dates into two parts. The first is that we really need to know. We need to know what happened, when it happened, what took place, and what was said about it in sichos over the years. From all the Rebbeim, from the Frierdiker Rebbe, who spoke at length, explained and told the stories, and from the Rebbe, our Rebbe, who is so precise about every word and every detail in revealing to us and explaining its depth and importance, and the practical lessons it holds. That is one part. Alongside it is the principle that action is the main thing. The Rebbe gave clear instructions for men, women and children, both within our own circles and beyond them—that is, spreading the wellsprings outward. What will we do in our home, in our shul, in our community? What will we do to spread the wellsprings outward, to other shuls, other yeshivos and other places where there are people who may still need considerable encouragement in Torah and mitzvos, or in getting to know Chassidus and drawing closer to it? Action is the main thing. Again, I want to point out those wonderful sheets on Chabad Info under the heading “Action Is the Main Thing.” There are wonderful sheets for every week, or for every Chabad date, with practical instructions. What does the Rebbe want us to do right now? This is very important, because then we are precise. These instructions, then, were given for where we are now, at the date of 19 Kislev: the festival of liberation of the Alter Rebbe, Rabbi

16:41 Speaker 2 Schneur Zalman of Liadi, the author of the Tanya and the Shulchan Aruch. At the Rosh Hashanah of Chassidus, we are addressing the general question of how to approach each date and each festival, for ourselves, for everyone around us and for our children’s education. On the one hand, simply to know what happened, to learn, to absorb the spirit and the vitality. On the other, to know the Rebbe’s instructions for the here and now. As we now approach 19 Kislev, the festival of liberation, it is important for every one of us to know the whole story from beginning to end. There is what is called the Megillas Yud-Tes Kislev. The Megillas Yud-Tes Kislev. The Frierdiker Rebbe wrote and said that he wanted it studied and read in every chassidic home on 19 Kislev, and the Rebbe also spoke about it and encouraged it. We really need to strengthen this practice of reading the Megillas Yud-Tes Kislev. What does it contain? The main stories of the imprisonment and liberation. It is important that we live it, that we experience it. On that point, I must mention how moved I was as a child when my father, of blessed memory, Rabbi Gad ben David Shimon Yehuda[?], would tell us these stories at home from the account of the Alter Rebbe’s life: how it all happened, how the Alter Rebbe came to the Maggid, what the reaction of his father-in-law, the Maharil Segal, was, how the Alter Rebbe began to establish Chabad Chassidus, and the connection to the holy Baal Shem Tov. Those stories, the stories of the imprisonment and liberation, what the Alter Rebbe said to send to Vilna, and all those wonderful stories moved us, made us happy and awakened something in us. There was an uplifting feeling that something higher was here, something pure. We were connecting, connecting to something immense. That is how education should be. We need to bring it into the home, into the atmosphere, to the Shabbos table, to the table on

20:13 Speaker 2 19 Kislev. One of the Rebbe’s instructions for 19 Kislev is to hold several farbrengens—I say three farbrengens. One of them, the Rebbe writes explicitly, should be with the members of the household. We need to hold a farbrengen with our family. Now, how do you hold a farbrengen with your family? Incidentally, in the Talmud Torah classroom, there were always questions like this: How do we hold a farbrengen? What is a farbrengen? The Rebbe tells us that here, too, there are two ways of looking at a farbrengen. There is the authentic side. A child needs to encounter authentic things as well. Their souls will recognize it. It may come to light today or many years from now, but this is education. And there is the practical side: what does the child take away from it right now? It is simple, and everyone understands it. A teacher can teach and teach and teach and teach. The question now is not, “How much did I manage to teach?” The question is what the children understood and absorbed, both in knowledge and in the lesson they learned. What are they taking from it into their lives? That is the question. I may have said A, B and C, but it may have helped them only about a tenth as much as I said. Because I poured out too much material and did not, did not, did not adapt it to their age, or to their inner world and their ability to absorb it. So I went on and on and on. But there is also the question of how I said it. Not long ago I attended a siyum—a siyum on Chumash—that a teacher held at our Talmud Torah. The teacher was deeply moved and moved the students too. At one point, the students, in that wonderful, excited way of such Chassidic children, such pure souls, said, “The teacher is crying.” They saw that the teacher was crying, that tears were running from his eyes. Not little tears—tears, tears of emotion, streaming from his eyes. That is worth millions. It is worth billions. All the little extras he arranged for them there, the treats he brought them and so on, all of it

23:09 Speaker 2 That pales beside the fact that the teacher was moved because they had finished an entire Chumash. He cried tears of joy. What kind of education is that? What a joy to hear that even today there are Jews who cry with emotion because they succeeded in teaching Jewish children an entire Chumash. We should envy people like that and aspire to be like them. The same applies here. You spoke with enthusiasm. If we are talking about heartfelt emotion, then fine: whether you cried or expressed tremendous joy, the children understood that something special was happening. That is important; it is one part of it, and it is authentic. But we also need to ask what stayed with them in their understanding, in their grasp of the subject, in their hearts—both the light and the vessels. That is the second part. You asked: What did they come away with? Ask them. What did you understand from the story? Ask them about details of the story. What did you take from it for your own life? What did it teach you? Okay. We are talking now about 19 Kislev. One part is what happened—the wonderful stories of 19 Kislev. The other part is the practical lessons. Again, when we say, “Let’s hold a farbrengen at home,” or “Let’s hold a farbrengen in class,” a farbrengen also has two parts. If we bring in an elderly chossid who speaks Yiddish and the children cannot understand him, that is excellent. It matters; it is authentic. Who is greater than the Rebbe, who instructed that this be done? There is a story about a student who asked the Rebbe whom to bring to speak about Chassidus at a nonreligious school. Should he bring Reb Meir of Potichov[?] or Reb Berke Chaim[?]? I cannot remember their names right now, but the point of the story holds true for both. Bring an elderly chossid who does not know how to speak Hebrew. His authenticity, his sincerity, the sacrifices he made for his faith—nothing can compete with that or replace it. And it had its effect.

25:43 Speaker 2 Clearly, that is not enough. You need someone who speaks Hebrew, who will bring the students joy and connect with their hearts, their feelings, their souls. That is very important too. You need both. That is what I am trying to say. At a farbrengen in class or at home, there is the authentic side: you might bring a guest, say, a grandfather from the previous generation—things that convey the power of the soul. But you also have to tell them what happened, who was involved, and what year it happened. You tell a story about the Alter Rebbe, and the children think it happened fifty years ago. You have to know how to put things in order for them. There are two parts here: on the one hand, an authentic chossid, a niggun—an authentic niggun—vitality, enthusiasm, feeling, mesirus nefesh, the Rebbe. On the other hand, tell them what happened and where. Tell them the story of 19 Kislev. What was it about? What was the dispute, and why did it arise? What did people then fail to understand that people understand today? And how does all of this relate to the true and complete Geulah? So first of all, when we speak about 19 Kislev, we have to recognize that it is a major occasion. Hold the farbrengens, first and foremost. Make a siyum on Tanya if possible, each place according to its circumstances; arrange the completion of the Shas, each place according to its circumstances, and the division of the Shas for study. And if that is not exactly something for children, let it at least be done before everyone, before the children. They need to be educated into all of this, into the elevated atmosphere of 19 Kislev. I remember from my childhood: the Chabad rabbi in Haifa, Rabbi Yechiel Michel Dubruskin, a"h, had one date in the year when he would do something on a grand scale. Throughout the year he was occupied with the kollel, farbrengens, classes, and his duties as a rabbi. But into this farbrengen he poured all his vitality and all his strength, even until shortly before his passing. It was the 19 Kislev farbrengen.

28:32 Speaker 2 He invited all the rabbis he knew, from every community—every community—and all sorts of other people he knew. Of course, he also invited all the Chabad chassidim in Haifa, along with some from the nearby communities that had begun to grow close at the time, in the Krayot and Kiryat Ata. His shul, which was in the living room of his home, was packed; there was not room for a pin. I remember there was no room for me inside. I came with a classmate of mine. We studied in a Talmud Torah that was not Chabad—there was no Chabad Talmud Torah yet—and he was a Vizhnitzer chossid. His father was a shochet and bodek. Rabbi Dubruskin invited his father too. Everyone, from every community, respected and admired Rabbi Dubruskin. He was a rabbi of the old generation, a genuine rabbi. Everyone knew that at his farbrengen they would read the account of 19 Kislev, sing the niggunim, and light candles on the table. There was an atmosphere of holiness. My friend and I stood on the shul’s balcony, looking in through the windows. We were moved by the elderly men with their white, white beards. We also talked and played a little. But when we met in class the next day, we felt uplifted. We had been at a 19 Kislev farbrengen! Granted, we had not managed to do anything at all—we had not even managed to get inside—but we had been at a 19 Kislev farbrengen. That leaves an educational impression for the entire year, for an entire lifetime. The proof is that I remember it now, after so many years. So when we speak about 19 Kislev as the Festival of Liberation and the Rosh Hashanah of Chassidus, we should talk a little about what that means. There is so much the children need to know, and that we need to know. But the gateway to all these matters today is Moshiach. We need to know that the holy Baal Shem Tov merited to have his soul chosen by Hakadosh Boruch Hu to descend into the world and reveal the teachings of Chassidus.

31:23 Speaker 2 The holy Baal Shem Tov once merited to ascend in soul to the chamber of Moshiach, where he asked, “When will the Master come?” Moshiach answered him, “When your wellsprings spread outward.” In other words, when the wellsprings of Chassidus reach the outside, the Geulah will come. Our Rebbeim related that the holy Baal Shem Tov told the Maggid of Mezritch: “One day Rabbi Schneur Zalman, the son of the hidden tzaddik Reb Baruch, will come to you. He will leave and then return to you. At that point, tell him, ‘You are a new soul.’ That is what you should say to Reb Schneur Zalman: ‘You are a new soul.’” By way of explanation, a “new soul” is not merely a soul that has never been in this world. It is a soul that was not even included in the soul of Adam Harishon. Rather, it is one of the souls of the Geulah—souls of the Jewish people that would first be revealed in the world when the Geulah comes. Hakadosh Boruch Hu sends such a soul, the soul of Reb Schneur Zalman. He will take the lofty, wondrous light of Chassidus that I revealed in the world, based on what I learned from my teacher and master, Achiyah Hashiloni, and clothe those wondrous teachings in chochmah, binah, and daas, so that people can grasp them with their own intellectual faculties. In other words, the Alter Rebbe will take Divine understanding and bring it into human understanding. Then we will be able to do the work of spreading these teachings outward, on which the Geulah depends. Divine understanding will be clothed in human understanding, in the intellect itself. “And tell him,” the Baal Shem Tov said to his student, the Maggid, “tell your student Reb Schneur Zalman of Liadi: ‘You will face great difficulties and great battles. Your path will be dangerous, but I will watch over you. I will protect you, and I will work

34:42 Speaker 2 for you and for those connected to you, so that you will succeed until the coming of Moshiach.’ The whole purpose of Chabad Chassidus is to bring the days of Moshiach, the true and complete Geulah.” May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year in the study of Chassidus and the ways of Chassidus.