חגיגת י״ב–י״ג תמוז

00:00 This is Igris, and this is our last Igris year before Yud Beis and Yud Gimel Tammuz, so we're gonna do a Yud Beis, Yud Gimel Tammuz styled year. However, this is not officially a special episode, and the reason why, we're able to link it to something happening in the year Taf Shin Lamed Gimel. Remember that letter we've been working on all week by picking up little details in the, in the Michdav Prati at the bottom of it? Turns out the Michdav Klali is all about Yud Gimel Tammuz, or a little bit about Yud Gimel Tammuz. So we are for the third time this week looking at the letter that is labeled Yud Taf Taf Chaf Tes, and instead of rating the interesting bits at the bottom, we're going to look at the main body, which is all the way at the top. So you have that letter on your screen. This is the top of the letter. It was sent on Tes Tov Tammuz, which is, uh, which is after Yud Beis and Yud Gimel Tammuz. That's the fifteenth, so you know it's sometime next week, but that's okay. The Rebbe writes, "Shalom Uvracha." Says, "Hem shech li mei ha-geulah Yud Beis Yud Gimel Tammuz." It's already been the days of geulah of Yud Beis and Yud Gimel Tammuz. This is-- Th-these of course are the days where we celebrate the liberation of the Frieda Kneba from prison and from a death sentence. "Asher lo es kav kedoshim merecha mead meir bilvad galakadarbachu Yud Beis

01:01 Tammuz." It was not just the Frieda Kneba, my father-in-law, who was redeemed on Yud Beis Tammuz. It wasn't just him who was saved from prison. "Ki im gam es kol mechavei teresei nakdesha." This also is a geulah for all those who love the Holy Torah. "Sheim nimitzveh," these are people who keep mitzvahs. "Ve gam es hashem Yisrael yeichuna," and anybody about whom the name Yisrael is at least their nickname, anybody who is at least somewhat called Jewish. This is not just a geulah for the Frieda Kneba. It's about-- It's a geulah for those who love Torah, those who keep mitzvahs, and even those who only faintly identify as Jewish, even if it's just in the way of a nickname, it's their day as well. "Lamdenu besiyam v'chesed rav yamim matan Torah," says we're also standing around forty days post Matan Torah. "Sherakam yad kasamri Yisrael venenu yehi arevim sh- veneinu yehi arevim, arevim shalanu." That's when the Jewish people said that our children would be our guarantors, guaranteeing that we would keep the Torah throughout the ages. "She-she-shehecheyam haTorah," that we would keep the Torah. "Nas nakadsh barach as haTorah l'Yisrael." So this is, uh, in the day, the fifteenth of Tammuz is shortly after the Frieda Kneba reminded us that's a, that's a day of geulah for everybody who is interested in Torah and mitzvahs, and also shortly after we accepted the Torah at Sinai and promised we would involve our children. And based on that, the Rebbe launches into a long-ish discussion about

02:11 how he wants us to use this to strengthen Chinuch Atyrus Hakedush. I don't think we need to read all of it because this is actually something we've covered in previous shiurim, because here what the Rebbe talks about mainly is how particularly in the summer months, it's the time to double down on Chinuch Atyrus Hakedush. We actually have a whole shiur on it. Let's just read one paragraph, and then we'll, uh, we'll move on to the, the point for today. "Vebezeid apam lahai zker lamdu bezeid kar apam begedalah chashivas vegdedalah hechrich." We mentioned before several times the great importance and the great necessity. "Vegedalah zechus," and also the great merit. "Ma'ases kolev shar b'Chinuch Atyrus Hakedush," to be able to do whatever is possible to strengthen Chinuch Atyrus Hakedush, Jewish education done right. "Kol-- Shekol ech avechanu mineinu neis Israel ve'ases ve'aser as," as it applies to every single Jew in a stronger way, a constantly growing way. "Maschu b'chinuch shel katnik tanim." And this starts with the way that we do Chinuch for our very youngest children. And he says, as it's explained in the passage, "Mi'eydim ineichim esapta eyz, uh, lash mis'eyd misnakem." He goes on to say in the rest of this letter that as we enter the Benei Mitzarim, it's a time of suffering for the Jewish people, it's a time of danger for the Jewish people, and that it is our, it is our way to send the Refuah before the Makah. So it would make sense for us to take

03:14 the solution to the problems of the world, which is the, which is the Chinuch of small children, and put that up in front of the negative seasons of the three weeks until they're turned to a time of Simcha. That's really the thrust of this letter. You have a link to the letter, um, and you should be able to read it afterwards on your own. I don't wanna spend too much time on it because what I really wanna focus on is this part at the top. See this quote? I-- Can I highlight it? Maybe I can. A-ha. "Ulevad galakadarbachu beyev Beis Tammuz ki im gam es kol mechavei teresei nakdesha sheim nimitzveh, ve gam es hashem Yisrael yeichuna." Does this ring a bell for anybody, this line from this letter? You heard this one before? You have. You've heard this one before because the Rebbe quotes this line from this letter from the Frieda Kneba in almost every Yud Beis, Yud Gimel Tammuz Sicha, and sometimes for the entire month of Tammuz leading up, and in every letter, almost every letter that the Rebbe writes during the summer that has anything to do with str-strengthening Torah and mitzvahs. This is like-- This might be one of the Rebbe's most common quotes. When I put it into my Etz HaChochma to see how often the Rebbe uses this line from the Frieda Kneba, it was almost every year. Almost every year, at least once, the Rebbe quoted this line from the Frieda Kneba. This comes from a

04:18 much longer letter. I wanted to look at that letter with you today mainly, and to look at some of the ways the Rebbe has used this letter throughout the years, because of course, we are coming up on Yud Beis and Gimel Tammuz. So the, uh, the letter that the Rebbe's quoting is a letter from the Frieda Kneba that he wrote exactly one year after being freed from prison. Before I show you that letter, though, I just wanna give you an idea just to prove what I'm talking about. If this isn't familiar for you already, but the Rebbe considers this letter and this line the theme of Yud Beis and Gimel Tammuz, take a look at the Sicha I have here for you from-- Oh, sh-- you know, I wish I had the year. I thought I had the year somewhere. Does it say it down here in small print? Yeah, Mem Ches. This is from Taf Shin Mem Ches. This is a from . Look at how the Rebbe describes this letter and this sentence just up here in the top of Zion. When it comes to figuring out the point of , we don't have to look very far, right? You've, you've been to many farbrengens. You know how every Mashpia starts a farbrengen about Yom HaGeulah. He goes, "What is the main point of the day?" And then they come up with something. He goes, "When it comes to , there is only one main point of the day, and we don't have

05:20 to look very far for it." Because the Frieda Kneipeh himself, the Ba'al Ha'Geulah himself, explained what the point of these days are. On the first , the first anniversary of , the Ba'al Ha'Geulah, the Frieda Kneipeh wrote, "I was not the only one redeemed on ." Exactly the line we quoted earlier. as he mentioned earlier in his own . This alone emphasizes the importance and the great , the great advantage of . That it is the day of redemption for the entire Jewish people. Men, women, and children. Even the lowest people even people who only use the word Jewish as a nickname that is attached to them rather than it being their-- how they identify themselves. Not a single Jew is outside the, is outside the circle that the Frieda Kneipeh set up for who is to this . This is, uh, is to every single Jew, even the Jews who don't necessarily consider themselves all that Jewish. He goes into more details here. He says Let's just read this one paragraph, then we'll move on. That this is a time of . It's a time to emphasize , spreading Yiddishkeit, spreading Hasidishkeit, spreading Hasidus. As is well known, that the started mainly after the geulah of Yud-- of Yud Tes Kislev, the geulah of the Alter Rebbe. We should think of as very similar to Yud Tes, uh, to, uh, Yud Tes Kislev. In that because this caused-- this was the moment of increase in the ability of us to spread Torah and mitzvahs

07:11 in a way that had not been possible before. including spreading it to further places. This is a symbolism of spreading, spreading the wellsprings of Hasidus outside of Eastern Europe because the immediate thing that precipitated-- the im-- the immediate cause precipitating Hasidus Chabad to, uh, to leave Eastern Europe and spread throughout the entire world was really . Had it not been for the Frieda Kneipeh's arrest, we would have probably continued being a very Eastern European-based Hasidus, and it was after that that we started spreading around the entire world. Okay. So the Rebbe says that in this letter itself, you have the entire farbrengen, and you have the entire So if that's the case, I think we should learn the letter. The letter is a little bit on the long side. I don't wanna cut any corners, though. I want us to read this letter from the Frieda Kneipeh. And if we have time, I wanna show you over here, I have on my screen a couple interesting ways the Rebbe used this letter throughout the years, which we may not have time for. But if all we have time for today is to see that the Rebbe frequently uses this letter and then to understand and read the full content of the letter, I think we will have accomplished something we can use going into, uh, going into the weekend, where there should be plenty of time to farbrengen about this letter. This is the letter the Frieda Kneipeh wrote one year after the anniversary of

08:17 his arrest. He was arrested on the fifteenth day of Sivan. As many of us know, he was actually freed on , which was celebrated as a day of geulah and as a day of farbrengen long before its current connotation. It's also the day that the sun stopped for Yehoshua, I believe. So it has a history, but prior to the-- the Rebbe frequently farbrenged on and one of the reasons for that is because it was a-- uh, before it was as we understand it, because it was also a time of the original geulah. That's when the Frieda Kneipeh got out of prison. Uh, but then he was supposed to be in a three-year exile in Kostroma. He was supposed to be three years in a, uh, in a, in a far-- in a faraway city, in exile, and those three years were cut short to, like, a couple of days, and he was finally let go on, uh-- The news came that he would be freed on . He was freed actually on . Okay. So s- the anniversary of his imprisonment, which was Sivan, the Frieda Kneipeh writes to our dear Anash, Be ready for flowery writing. The Frieda Kneipeh knows how to write. No one writes quite like the Frieda Kneipeh. If I make mistakes, it's your job to fix me. I need . Today is the first day of my imprisonment, the day-- the, the original day of the day that I was imprisoned. I guess it's I was imprisoned in the prison,

09:38 which was in the city of Leningrad. I was in the-- I think this is the section in the prison that he was in. I was in the sixth section in the room that is number one hundred and sixty. He remembers that he has the prison cell down. This was on Erev Wednesday, so this was Tuesday night of the Seder That's exactly the day and the time of year that the Frieda Kneipeh was arrested. There I suffered until the Sunday That's Sunday of Parshas Balak which was the third day of Tammuz. That was where I was sent to the place where I was supposed to be in exile in Kostroma. I was supposed to be there for three years. Everybody knows very clearly Everybody knows that the reason why I got arrested, the reason why I was exiled was via the , the, uh, tail bearing. Is there a better translation, ? I want something stronger than tail bearing. Um, I might not have one. Uh, the informing, the informing of our own brothers who hate us, who are, uh, who are-- I, I think that's like a lushan of midot there. Who are, uh, who are rejected. Those who take revenge against those who keep the Torah of Mishnah, the Jewish people. Those who go against the laws of the Medina, the laws of the land. I don't believe he's-- I, I think that is not going on the Shem Re'Tirah. I think it's going on the, uh, the, the, the, uh, the, um, Isazkil.

11:18 So you have a bunch of Yidden who are working for the KGB, and it's their job to arrest other Jews, but they're Jews who like to inform on other Jews and attack the Jewish people, uh, especially Perim Jewish people. And the Friediker Rebbe says, as he says many times in his diaries around this, that everything they did was illegal, that legally the Friediker Rebbe was allowed to do what he was doing. The Friediker Rebbe, unlike some of our other heroes, was not technically breaking any laws. It's just very interesting. The Friediker Rebbe didn't even on a technical note br- break any Russian laws, even technically. Whereas the Altad Rebbe, I guess you could construe that he sent money to Israel, which was controlled by an enemy country at the time. You can use lawyerly wiles to convince yourself that the Altad Rebbe broke rules. The Friediker Rebbe was actually innocent and was nonetheless gonna be put to death. He hadn't done anything that was illegal. He hadn't, uh-- He was, he was running underground networks, I guess that was illegal, but, uh, he wasn't arrested for that. The things he was arrested for were things that were legal. So, uh, . Against the law, against the law, and against the king. These people, these Jews who hate us, were unable to tolerate the blossoming of the rose of Jacob. They weren't able to handle the fact that we were spreading Torah across all corners of our Medina. Says that, um, th-therefore, they came up with

12:38 lies to crush me. I think that's to crush me. Uh, and nonetheless, and, and in, in addition to that, to make a destruction among Bet Yaakov, may it never hap-- may it happen and may it never happen, it never did happen, it never will happen. was from the kindness of God that we did not get destroyed. And through the merit of our holy fathers that we were not consumed. They weren't able to destroy us, uh, and or any of those who follow in our footsteps uh, eternally. Nobody-- They, they were never able to get us. On the twelfth day of Tammuz, that's Yud Bais Tammuz. That would be Pinhas. The Parshah is Pinhas, right? Pinhas. That was when I was finally redeemed. Here's the line. I was not the only one who was redeemed on or that God redeemed on Yud Bais Tammuz. Also anybody who loves our holy Torah, people who keep mitzvahs, and also Jewish people who are at least called Jewish. Because every single Jew because every Jew, regardless of exactly how well they keep Torah and mitzvahs, their heart remains pure with God and His Torah. It's hard not to notice the, the shift going on here i-in the Friediker Rebbe's writing. I just-- I, I don't have answers to it. I just notice it that a paragraph ago, we were talking about Jews who arrested him, who informed on him, who really have no share in any of this. And in the paragraph below, right here, we're talking about how

14:16 every single Jew, no matter how distant they are, has a share in all of this. It's-- There's just, um, there's a, there's a dichotomy here that I'm not sure how to deal with. Onwards. This day of Yud Bais Tammuz should be seen as a Chag HaGeulah for all those who are involved in Habat Satara. That is, if you are involved in spreading Torah, Yud Bais Tammuz is a day set aside for you. On that day, it was revealed to everybody it was then made clear that the great avoda that I was involved in, that I was working on in spreading Torah and strengthening the religion, it was declared muta, was declared allowed according to the laws of the country. And we were given permission to practice our religion like all other citizens of the country. So this is the day of Geulah, not just for me, but practically for everybody who spreads Torah and mitzvah as an announcement that you're safe, that they're not allowed to do anything to you. It's so beautiful. Says, "On this day, the light and the merit of Torah in public, um, uh, kicked out the deep darkness of informers and people who tell lies." So this is a great time to set up, uh, brangins and days of inspiration to strengthen the Torah and Yiddishkeit in all places each according to its inion. Um, this is a time to give a bracha to our brothers who are dwelling in Russia. May God should strengthen their hearts. They should be

15:57 true Jews. That they-- the, the, these, uh, these terrible people will not be able to make them suffer any further. Look at what he calls it here. In welcoming the day of Geulah for the The Friediker Rebbe has already said it a couple times, and now he's calling it that. It's the Chag HaGeulah of . Not of the Friediker Rebbe, but on anybody who's involved in spreading Torah, this is their day. Anybody who loves Torah and who teaches it and who gives shiurim in public, God should, uh, God, God should give them life God should open up his storehouse for them. And have among all the Jewish people as well. A flow of life and blessing. He should give them strength and power, so that they should be able to strengthen Torah and religion. All of us should merit to see children and grandchildren. Expansiveness and good . He then says in this paragraph down here, which we don't need to read inside, I'll just tell you, but he says that, "I told you a while ago, uh, the year before the arrest, that I wanted you at the end of davening to make a real priority of saying the Tehillim as it's split up according to the month, and, um, and that was important for the time that I was in prison, and I would like you now to continue that, uh, in- indefinitely, that it should be a thing that now in all shuls, whether they're national or not, they should have a

17:31 policy that after davening they say the Tehillim as it's broken up according to the month and then Kaddish afterwards." So what we get from this letter from the is about a million things, but the main thing I think is that this for anybody who spreads Torah and mitzvahs, and that even nowadays we still have sort of a fear tickling in the back of our heads reminding us that if we're too crazy at work or too crazy out there or too much into the ra ra, spread Torah and mitzvahs, tell everybody about it, that somehow it won't be expe- acceptable, that somehow will violate a law or a social norm. And the says, "Uh, we might have thought that, and then I was arrested for it, and then I got out. And by getting out, that was, that was himself declaring that this was a time where nothing could stop you from spreading Torah and mitzvahs, social mores, legal systems, nothing is allowed to get in the way anymore. This is the for those who spread Torah and mitzvahs." We don't have a ton of time left, so I'm not sure how many of these I can show you. Let me show you just, uh, this one over here is in volume four of Igrot. The letter is Alef Ayin Hey, and here the Rebbe goes into depth explaining what this thing, means. He says that means it's a nickname, and he says a nickname could apply to somebody who doesn't even kind of have that

18:35 name, that sometimes you get a nickname and it's not even related to your name. Sometimes you get a nickname, it's not even related to your job. Sometimes you get a nickname, and it has nothing to do with you at all. But the fact that that nickname is attached to you is enough for you to be one of us according to the . So some Jews, it's not just that they, uh, that they, that they don't cons-- It's not just that they consider themselves a little less Jewish, you know, that they say, "I'm, I'm Jewish on Yom Kippur." That even a Jew who only vaguely has the nickname Jew attached to them is part of the It's a very nice letter and a very important letter. You should take a look at it. I'll send you the link. Um, what I have over here, definitely something that I want us to see because I highlighted these letters. This is a letter from-- This letter, and this is a general letter sent to, uh, And once again, here he is, uh, he is driving home the importance of this part of the letter. It says If I wanna explain to you what is about, I'm going to lean, that's the word lean, I'm gonna lean heavily on the words of the that this is about, that this is about, uh, it's a geulah for anybody who loves Torah, anybody who keeps mitzvahs, and even somebody who is only There is a, uh, I found in the Dehar.

19:48 I wanna show you this, and then I think we'll call it for the day, um, unless there's some-- Oh, there is something there. One, two, one more thing after that. There's a that I found in Dehar, uh, I don't think it's been published anywhere else, where the Rebbe writes to a shliach that specifically if they're having trouble in their shlichas and they're starting to feel a little down, they're not sure they'll be able to spread Torah and mitzvahs as they're supposed to, his advice to him is that, uh, That the that, uh, that the Rebbe, excuse me, the Rebbe's advice to a shliach who's suffering on a shlichas was for inspiration to look at the letter that we just read to remember that, uh, that he has the strength of the, the So, uh, this is also considered this, uh, this letter that we read is something that the Rebbe uses in some letters to, to as a, as a strengthening point for people who are struggling in other areas. Uh, kinda like, you know, we-- when we were looking at like people who were worried about stuff, people who need to overcome worry, and the Rebbe kept recommending that they learn It seems that when shluchim are having trouble, the, the Rebbe frequently recommends that they review this letter. Somebody who's involved in spreading Torah and mitzvahs, when they're having trouble, emotional trouble, he tells them, "Read this letter and remind yourself that the got your back and that we're in a time of

20:55 geulah for all those who spread Torah and mitzvahs." Uh, I did wanna just end on this because I hadn't seen this before, and this shook me a little bit. Um, so over here, this is a section from tav shin mem hey. This is from nineteen eighty-five. The Rebbe says, from everything we talked about is that you should look at the letter, the letter that we've already quoted. We q- quotes the letter once again, as he does almost every sicha, and, uh, he says that this is also a good time for, uh, fabrengens and the like. And then he says this, Every single year, we need to get stronger in these areas. Following? Try to read this and at least try to read this with two minds and, and tell me it doesn't shake you a little. Since the beginning of the redemption was on Gimmel Tammuz. It is understood that we should not wait until for these inyanim to kick in that we just talked about in the letter. We should already be starting our celebration of from Gimmel Tammuz. It should be a continuum. Somebody could ask, why would I start celebrating geulah on Gimmel Tammuz? Especially since even the one who is the baal geulah was unaware on Gimmel Tammuz that this would be a day of celebration for him, that this would be a Gimmel Tammuz, even from the perspective of the one who Gimmel Tammuz happened to, did not understand it as at the time, so how can I celebrate? How

22:41 can you ask me to have an inyan that wasn't, wasn't an inyan of geulah by, uh, on a day when the baal geulah himself was not feeling geulah? At the very least, I should be acting the way he acted the first time. Now that it's been explained that Gimmel Tammuz is the day of as the beginning of the redemption, of this after this happens now retroactively. Going all the way back to the original Gimmel Tammuz. Therefore, every Gimmel Tammuz, we need to act in a way that is We need to treat every Gimmel Tammuz Every Gimmel Tammuz must be treated as the beginning of a redemption. And every year we have to do it more strongly because Obviously, we can read this at the simplest level that we absolutely need to be celebrating Gimmel Tammuz as the day that the was, uh, was first freed from prison, and that this is the day of beginning of redemption, that the begin then. Absolutely. Uh, but I think you'd have to, you'd have to be missing something in your heart not to read this two ways. I, uh-- It, it's also telling us that even a Rebbe, whether or not a Rebbe knows what he's saying all the time, is always saying something that's pure holiness. And here the Rebbe is very clearly telling us that every Gimmel Tammuz is an inyan of the beginning of the redemption, and every Gimmel Tammuz forever is up, up, up, up, up, and that every single year we, uh, we

24:06 relive these inyanim and make them stronger, specifically the inyanim of geulah itself. Okay, that's it.