0042 - Shnas Hakan (5723) Part 3

00:01 So Sunday was Chovdale Teives, and as I said, everyone thought that for the fabregen the night before, the Rebbe's inyonim, which make the tumula of Chovdale Teives was finished. The pilot wasn't like that. Sunday night, about twelve o'clock, close to twelve o'clock, around chatzos midnight, I was already getting going, ready to go to sleep. I was, I stayed in my Zeta's house, and I was already getting ready to go to sleep. There was a knock on the door, and then I opened the door. It was a good friend of mine, Harav Shomber Levitan. He was a bochur in yeshiva then, a friend, came knocking on the door saying that there's going to be a fabregen very, very soon. So right away, feshteitzach, I start, get up, got up and ran straight to seven seventy. Came to seven seventy and went in, and the table's ready for fabregen. And, and in a mamish, a minute after I came in, that's when the Rebbe walked in. Now, we heard that what happened was that on that night, Chovdale Teives was the dinner of the Lubavitcher yeshiva. So obviously, the Rebbe didn't wanna interrupt, disturb the dinner, so the Rebbe didn't say there will be a fabregen. And they say that the Rebbe kept on asking many times, "Did Rashak come back yet?" Rashak was the head of the yeshiva, so he was the one that was heading the dinner. So the Rebbe didn't wanna say anything till Rashak came back. When he told him that Rashak just

01:18 came back, that's when the Rebbe was medea that now there's going to be a fabregen. That's why the fabregen was so late, because after the dinner, till the dinner finished, till they came back, it was already twelve o'clock. So that's when the Rebbe was medea there'd be a fabregen. Now, this fabregen was completely different than the night before. This fabregen was a very freilecha fabregen. The night before was a very serious fabregen. Like I said, there was not even mezeinis and wine, and the Rebbe was serious and pale. You could see his ruchnis dikyodemis like a thunder, and you can't imagine. But this one, the Rebbe was very ufgeleckt, very freilech. The Rebbe came in. First, he said they should sing one of the Alter Rebbe's nigunim. Then he said a sicha. And then he said they should sing another nigun of the Alter Rebbe. And then the Rebbe again said a maimer. And this time was also a very short maimer, four or five minutes. And the maimer started, "Kim hazei nigim pneiish." Which these mamorim come from the Mamorim Ksorim of the Alter Rebbe, which was not printed then. But the Rebbe said in a very short mamorim. He was basically chazor-- uh, saying over based on the mamorim of the Alter Rebbe, the Mamorim Ksorim. Then the Rebbe made a Siyum. Poshe made a Siyum on the Alter Rebbe's Shulchan Aruch. And he said that before he-- the night before he made a Siyum on Tanya, he spoke a day on him

02:24 and the Siyum on Tanya. Now he made a Siyum on Alter Rebbe's Shulchan Aruch, which is later printed in the Kuti Sichas Chedek Dalet Pashek Tzeiseh. And he said afterwards that there are three things. There's the Shulchan Aruch that we made the chaluke. There's Tanya chaluke. So we said a Siyum on Shulchan Aruch and Tanya. But there's a third thing, which is tzdlake. Now he's gonna speak about tzdlake. So now he added something that he hasn't said before. The pnegetz tzdlake that should be given, special tzdlake, should be given in a mispor of a hundred and fifty. Sim-similar to the way it was a few years before, Shnas Tov Shin Hof, when it was Shnas Hamasa'im, two hundred years from the hishtalmut of the Baal Shem Tov. The Rebbe made a whole big fuss, and the Rebbe said that everyone should give two hundred dollars for two hundred years. And there, the Rebbe said it should come in a certain right of way, right before Shabbos, I think he said everyone should give it. I don't remember exactly, but he should give it right away. This time, the Rebbe said he's not gonna say it. He's not gonna make this hag-hag-hag bola in zman, but it could be done throughout the whole year. But nevertheless, better to do it bizrizis and do it as soon as you can. And he didn't say it should be a dollar tzdlake. It should be any way. The best way is if you give the more, the better. Remember,

03:30 if you give two hundred dollars, I don't know if he has the word two hundred dollars, then a hundred and fifty dollars, I mean, that would be the best. But akaponym, it should be in the madbe'es of a hundred and fifty. And then he added also another thing, that a pers-- everyone should add a hundred and fifty hours, the meshich of the year, in learning the Torah of the Alter Rebbe, which is shochets to Tanya and the Alter Rebbe's Shulchan Aruch. So it should be done throughout the whole year. But he said better would be if you make the hundred and fifty hours as soon as possible. But, uh, if not akaponym throughout the year, a hundred and fifty dollars, hours, in addition to the time that you have in learning anyway. And talking of what happened throughout the year, the bochurim walked around with little booklets, that every time you had a chance and you learned another half hour, you would write down, "I already had another half hour." So that throughout the year should become a hundred and fifty extra hours. But there's a whole thing. The whole year b'chlal was the hergesh of Shnas Hakan. So you always-- the whole year you were putting down, "Did I learn another minute, another few minutes to add up to a hundred and fifty years?" But getting back to the fabregen, then the Rebbe by the fabregen said that by-- we know by the Baal Shem Tov didn't want that any m-money should stay overnight

04:36 by him, and you always make sure to give it away before. So bemeila, the Rebbe said now also it's kedai that anybody who has the money should empty out their pockets from all the mezuman, all the cash that you have. And you might be zecha. He told the story of the Baal Shem Tov, that it was once Shabbos, Motzei Shabbos, and it was just right after Motzei Shabbos, so everyone was still Shabbos dik. And the Baal Shem Tov wanted they should buy candles, so he said people should put their hand-- the talmidim should put their hands in their pockets and find money to buy, buy candles. They had such yomuna. They knew there's no money in their pocket. It was Shabbos. Nevertheless, they put their money in the, in-- their hands in their pocket, and they got money. So here also, the Rebbe came out, the Rebbe was like saying, he didn't say mamish the word, "You shall, everyone shall empty." But he was saying basically that you should empty their pockets. And he said like, "We should say bechsim." And he finished the sicha, I think, with these words, "Zhid davai groshe," which in Russian means, "Yid, give gelt. Yid, give money." And the Rebbe himself, I saw the Rebbe himself emptied his pockets. He took out all the money in his pockets. Uh, I remember thr-- It, it was a yellow envelope there, like the big yellow en- manila envelopes. The Rebbe put it into the envelope. I remember him putting in coins.

05:48 I think he also put in dollars, but I don't remember exactly. But the Rebbe himself put-- emptied his pockets. And the-- all the other people also emptied their pockets. And whatever money people had, they gave, they put into this-- they gave it over to the Rebbe, and they put it the, into that envelope. Then the Rebbe said to sing the nigun by the Keisi Lach and Bracha. Interesting, somebody told me that he, till he heard about the fabregen, till he came towards the end of the fabregen, as he walked in, he-- we heard the words, "Zhid davai groshe." It hit him that the Rebbe's like saying, "Yid." And the Rebbe said this all with a smile. The Rebbe, the whole fabregen, it was a freilecha fabregen. It was fabregen. The Rebbe was ufgeleckt. And the Rebbe, you know, you could see it's not, like I said, not like the night before. And, uh, the Rebbe himself a whole year would give money to this, uh, Keran Schneer, put in the pushke, like I said, and everybody would give the money in a way the Rebbe said to give it out separate. The bochurim, I remember, would give ten times a day give tzdlake. If a person, a bochur, wanted to give a dollar, in those years, we're talking those yechiduv shim chov kimu, a dollar was a lot of money for a bochur. He would give it in ten times or fifteen times, give it a few pennies here, because the Rebbe said by the

06:52 fabregen chayil, you should divide it into more, uh, times. And still aft- even after this, and the Rebbe-- after the fabregen, the Rebbe left, the whole mood of Shnas Hakan, the tzechon gehet, the whole year tzechon gehet, this is a Shnas Hakan of the Alter Rebbe, the first that the Rebbe made. And from this Keren Taka, this Keren Schneer, that's when they started really printing a lot of, of Sforim of the Alter Rebbe.