A Yud Tes Kislev story

00:01 Speaker 1 This was in Russia, during very difficult years. There were years of famine, there was nothing to eat, and people, rachmana litzlan, died simply because they had no food. It was wartime. There was a Jew who was very ill, and he too had nothing to eat. He was fading away. The day he passed away was 19 Kislev. A farbrengen was being held in the shul. This Jew was very ill, but in his final days, in the last hours of his life, he asked to be taken, bed and all, to the shul where chassidim were farbrenging in honor of 19 Kislev. He wanted to take part in the farbrengen. They brought him in on his sickbed, and there he passed away. Years later, a Jew who had witnessed all this left Russia and once went in to see the Rebbe. He told the Rebbe the story, and the Rebbe told him that this was an aspect of 19 Kislev. The Rebbe said: At this year’s 19 Kislev farbrengen, when chassidim gather to farbreng, open the farbrengen with this story. What is the story? What is its message? That for chassidim, a 19 Kislev farbrengen is so precious: what was this Jew thinking about before he passed away? Sitting with chassidim at a 19 Kislev farbrengen. 19 Kislev, a chassidic farbrengen in general,

01:47 Speaker 1 This is, after all, the day, the beginning of something chassidic [unclear] in the sichos. It is a farbrengen where Jews sit together, even with young children, and farbreng together in honor of 19 Kislev. That is the lesson from that Jew [unclear], from 19 Kislev, and from everyone sitting together in unity. L’chaim, l’chaim.

02:12 Speaker 2 L’chaim, l’chaim.