0440 - The Rebbe Would Make a Siyum and Pour R' Mentlik Wine at Farbrengens 5725

00:01 In the year Tov Shin Chof Hei, the Rebbe started this inyan that by every weekday farbrengen, he would start the farbrengen or middle farbrengen. I think it was starting the farbrengen, he would say a siyum on a mesichta. And the way it came about was because since Chof Hei was the year when the Rebbe was an oval after his mother, so the first weekday farbrengen was going to be Yud Tes Kislev. So the Rebbe told the maskirim that he has a havamin a not farbrengen Yud Tes Kislev at all because it's the weekdays, and he's oval, so not to make a farbrengen. Imagine what the maskirim thought. So they ran right away to Reb Shmuel Witten, who was from the Eltz Chassidim, and he was very choshev, and he was the Rov of Beis HaRav, that he should speak to the Rebbe about it. So he went to the Rebbe, and he told the Rebbe, "How could you not farbrengen Yud Tes Kislev? Tes Kislev in Lubavitch, how could you not farbrengen?" I think the way they said over, because obviously I wasn't there, didn't hear it, but it was very famous in 770 then, that I think the Rebbe, he told the Rebbe, "How is it possible the Rebbe, basically the Lubavitcher Rebbe, should not farbrengen Yud Tes Kislev?" But the Rebbe told him, "But what about aveilus?" So he told the Rebbe, "You know what? Make a siyum. If you make a siyum, then that's a reason that you'll be allowed." And the

01:14 Rebbe accepted it, and the Rebbe farbrenged Yud Tes Kislev, and the same thing with all the other weekday farbrengens in the year of Tov Shin Chof Hei. But because of that, he would make a siyum by the farbrengen to make it, so to speak, mutter that he's able to have a farbrengen. But I want to add another thing that he did that year. At every time there was a weekly farbrengen, when the Rebbe sat down, before he started talking, before he did anything, the first thing he did, he took a cup, a regular paper cup that was a plastic cup that was around by the farbrengen, and he poured, I think, samashke. I don't remember if it was mashke or wine, because I'm thinking about the mashke, where did the bottle come from? But maybe there was a bottle there. But upon him, he took mashke or wine, I don't remember, and he poured it into the cup, and he handed it over to Rabbi Mentlik. And we understood, he didn't say why he did it, but we understood that since it's aveilus, but there is a din that if you are needed at a party to help, then even an oval is allowed to be there. So the Rebbe poured in samashke and served it to Rabbi Mentlik. Vemeilech, the Rebbe is helping, serving, and therefore it was allowed. That's what it seems the reason. But we see how much the Rebbe was machpid that everything should be uzgehalten al pi halacha, so he

02:26 made a siyum, and he also did something to serve by the party, by the farbrengen.