1325 - Elul 25 – Chabad history

00:00 The Yom Chabad for the twenty-fifth day of Elul, um, that's the day that the Alter Rebbe, Mirzaman, uh, was brought into the covenant of Abraham, our father, peace unto him, which is the bris. They made the bris because the Alter Rebbe was born on the eighteenth day of Elul, so eight days later is the twenty-fifth day of Elul. And besides the fact that it is the bris of the Alter Rebbe, and we're talking about specifically Yom Chabad, but we could also mention that the twenty-fifth day of Elul is the day that the world was created. Because man was created on the sixth day of creation. The beginning of creation started six days before. So if you go back six days, it turns out that on the twenty-fifth day of Elul was when the first creation started, the world first began. Uh, so we celebrate Rosh Hashanah on the day man was created because the man was the purpose and the goal of the entire creation was for the human being, and therefore it only makes sense to celebrate at the main part of creation, which is the creation of man. That's called the birthday of the world. That's the Rosh Hashanah. That's the first day of the year. And also, uh, so during this day, the Alter Rebbe had his bris and the Baal Shem Tov, who was very involved, as we learned earlier, he was very involved with the birth. First, miraculously, it was the blessing of the Baal Shem Tov that they had

01:57 the Alter Rebbe. Uh, his parents, Rebbetsen Boruch and Rivka, came to the Baal Shem Tov, uh, after not having a child in the first, uh, the first beginnings, uh, for ten months, they didn't have a child. And they came to the Baal Shem Tov during the Baal Shem Tov's birthday, which was also on Hjai Elul, and he promised them that exactly to the year you will have a son, which the Alter Rebbe was born then. So then later on for his opshereness, they came to the Baal Shem Tov, and he cut his hair also. His first haircut, and we, we had it also. So, um, this is the bris, you know, going back to the bris before the year, going back to the year that he was born. The Alter Rebbe made a big meal, and during the meal, he gave over, uh, Torah thoughts on the verse which starts with the, "B'yom hashmini yimil b'sar lasechah," that on the eighth day he shall circumcise the foreskin. Uh, that has to do with the bris, of course, of the Alter Rebbe. And on the Shabbos of the portion of Nitzavim that followed the bris, mila, the Baal Shem Tov gave a talk also on the wor- on the words on the verse, "Osis B'Hashem," and he was in great joy, and I will be delighted. My delight will be in Hashem. And he was great joy. Pe- people didn't realize the reason, and the reason, of course, was because of the, uh, bris of the

03:33 Baal Shem Tov and the, of the Alter Rebbe and all that the Alter Rebbe stood for. So