11 of Nissan - Birthday of the Rebbe

00:00 Speaker 1 Today we have a very special day. Uh, we're going to be studying in the Yemei Chabad. This is Yud Aleph Nisan, the eleventh day, the eleventh day of Nisan in the year Taf Res Samech Beis. That's six hundred and sixty-two. That's the birthday of the Rebbe on the eleventh day of Nisan. Oh. April eighteenth, nineteen oh two, uh, the Rebbe was born in the city of Nikolaev, and he was named after his great-grandfather, the Tzemach Tzedek, and named Menachem Mendel after the Tzemach Tzedek, whose name was, uh, Menachem Mendel. Um, on the day-- And the Tzemach Tzedek was named after, uh, Rebbe Menachem Mendel of Horodok, who was sort of the Rebbe or a colleague of the Alter Rebbe. Yeah. The Alter Rebbe took him, uh, took him, accepted him as, as rabbi and as, as, as leader. So that's the way the name Menachem Mendel goes, and then the rest of the Menachem Mendels are history. You know, we have-- what we have today. Um, the... On the day that the, uh, Rebbe was born, uh, the Rebbe Rashab, that was the Rebbe, this fifth Lubavitcher Rebbe at the time, the father of the previous Rebbe, who later became the Rebbe's father-in-law. That was his uncle? At that-- He, he wasn't a direct uncle because the Rebbe Rashab was, uh, was a-- The Rebbe Rashab was the son of the Rebbe Maharash. And Rebbe Leviick's, uh, grandfather was Rabbi Shalom, which was a brother of the Rebbe Maharash. So this was like, um, a,

01:48 Speaker 1 a cousin once removed. A cousin. A cousin. Once-- A cousin once removed. Yeah. But anyways. But he was a Hasid of the Rebbe Rashab, Rebbe Leviick. And the Rebbe Rashab sent six telegrams. I mean, that was the way of communicating in those days. And when something was important, um, you know, we used to... I used to remember we used to go send telegrams, you know, all the time. Yeah. Western Union. We used to send a telegram. We used to actually call up and send a telegram. You don't remember that? We used to do that. My parents used to do that all the time when like for a mazel tov or a simcha, which they couldn't come, they would send people a telegram wishing them mazel tov. At the bar mitzvah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So it was a telegram. Now you remember. I remember. Yeah, yeah. Now I start to remember. But that was way back. Yeah. Okay. Way back. But then that was way before the internet, before, before anything else. Before cell phones. Yeah. Cell phones. Before cell phones, before Skype, or before FaceTime, anything. Yeah. Yeah. Well, not before, but you know. Anyways, um, but s-sending six telegrams to the father, the Rebbe Rashab sent six telegrams to Rebbe Leviick, the father of the Rebbe, on the day he was born. Uh, that was-- meant that this was a major occurrence in what the Rebbe Rashab foresaw and actually empowered, would seem, the Rebbe becoming hi- the predecessor later on after the previous

03:08 Speaker 1 Rebbe, after, uh, Rebbe, the, his father-in-law. Uh, those telegrams contained many blessings, many good wishes, and also questions and special in-instructions that he gave to them how to, uh, conduct themselves with the child's birth and also in his education. As we'll see later on, that they were very specific that the Rebbe should always have his yamaka and his tzitzit, and also that his mother said that, uh... And they-- we don't know exactly what he wrote, but it seems like that was part of the, uh, instructions, that his mother would never nurse the baby without having washed his hands first, the netilas yadayim. If the baby would sleep, she'd always wash his hands before she would, she would feed him. On the eleventh day of Nisan, um, in the year Taf Res Samech Beis, in the city of Nikolaev, there was a repeat, as we're gonna say, of the, uh, event that we read in the Torah with regards to the birth of Moshe Rabbeinu. Over there it says, Moshe Rabbeinu, who was the faithful shepherd of the Jewish people, in his time, what does the Torah say about it? The Torah says that once he was born, the entire house was filled with light. There was a, uh, tremendous, uh, illuminating light that was present with the birth of Moshe Rabbeinu. And the Goyim, even the Mitzriym, the Egyptians, they were able to see. They saw that there was something different. They said, "Today, the savior of the Jewish people was born. Today he was

04:57 Speaker 1 born." And our sages tell us that when the righteous come to the world, then they have the power to remove some bad things that were going to take place. And the Rebbe, the previous Rebbe, in the year Taf Res Samech Beis, he revealed during the second seder, he related as follows. Uh, when he was reading the aggadah, "V'achari achreihem yeitzu b'rechush gadol," that they'll go out with a great fortune. This is what the Friediger Rebbe said. During the year Taf Res Samech Beis, that was the year nineteen oh two, when the Rebbe was born, there were some terrible decrees on the Jewish people that were plotted by the non-Jews, by the government. And before Pesach, as soon as the Rebbe was born, miraculously they went away. So that means that the birth of the Rebbe was able to bring about that, um, salvation. Now, the Rebbetsin, the Rebbe's mother, uh- Related several of the instructions that they did receive from the Rebbe Rashab with regards to the birth of the Rebbe, and apparently this was in those telegrams. He says that they should be careful to wash his hands, and that they should prepare for him a yarmulke and a tallis katan. And the Rebbetzin expressed in her, uh, about her son, she says, "One thing I can tell you for sure, that this boy," about her son, "he was holy from the minute from his-- from the womb, and from birth he was holy." In other words, that they watched him, and they took

06:40 Speaker 1 care of him, and made sure that everything was done in the most proper way. And, uh, Rebbe Levi Yitzchok, the father of the Rebbe, would brag that the Rebbetzin never nursed her son before she would wash his hands first. And the Rebbetzin also expressed one time that, uh, "My husband instructed that I should wash the child's hands anytime he wakes up from his sleep and he wants to eat, starting from when he was born." As it appears that this was the instruction of the Rebbe Rashab. Now, in the beginning years, uh, the eleventh day of Nisan, we know that the Rebbe's birthday, but people didn't make such a big to-do, you know, about a birthday. Because generally speaking, you know, birthdays a lot of times are celebrated. Children make birthday parties. It's a time for, for presents and things of that sort. In the, uh, tradition, you know, a birthday is a very important day for reflection, for a person to take stock of his life, to make accounting, to, to become more committed, to study more, to give more tzedakah, get an Aliyah, to do spiritual matters. It wasn't something that is like celebrated like just a big party. You throw a bash and just make, uh, you know, uh, you know, a big, a big deal. You know, uh, in addition to that, you know, when you're younger, you know, you might be, uh, very happy to reveal to everybody that you're a year older. But I guess when When you're older, you

08:21 Speaker 1 make yourself younger. You make yourself younger, you know. Check in. I'm thirty-nine plus. Thirty-nine plus. Yeah. And you don't wanna, you know... So people don't li-like to, to, uh... And Yud Aleph Nisan was sort of the Rebbe's birthday, was not made into such a public like event. Uh, it was like a personal thing maybe for the Rebbe. And so on it was by the older Rebbes, you know, the day of their birthday wasn't made in such a public way, whether it was the Alter Rebbe in Chayelu or the, uh, Yud Beis Tammuz. I mean, th-the various, uh, the birthday of Chaf Cheshvan. The birthdays of all the Rebbes, uh, they didn't, they didn't really make it in such a, uh, big, big thing. But in a quiet way, you know, there, there was Hasidut said they were celebrated. It was celebrated, but not in a such a public way. But the Rebbe found it necessary to take every event in one's life, and every event to try to bring it in and br-- make it holy, and bring it into, uh, take advantage of it, and bring some more, uh, commitment, bring a more awareness of, of Yiddishkeit, of Torah, and Mitzvahs. And this was one of the things amongst so many other things which the Rebbe took advantage of and said, "If it's your birthday, go ahead and make a big deal about it. Gather together some friends and family. Share, give them blessings, make good decisions, increase your commitment. Take that opportunity, every

09:58 Speaker 1 opportunity that you have to get together to give support to each other, provide, uh, uh, you know, that togetherness, the expression of love, friendship, camaraderie." And the Rebbe took this un- Knowing also that we're living in a time... You know what you're gonna say?

10:17 Speaker 2 I'm just remembering in nineteen ninety-six when Ben turned six here in class, Sarah was his teacher, and she had each one of the five students give him a bracha.

10:27 Speaker 1 Give him a bracha. Yeah, yeah.

10:28 Speaker 2 It's so beautiful. And I remember Yossi Retlich said, "May you become a talmid chacham."

10:32 Speaker 1 Talmid chacham. Wow. Okay, great.

10:35 Speaker 2 Yes.

10:35 Speaker 1 Yeah. So, um, but this, this whole idea, uh, of bringing people together because it is actually so much more important in nowadays because people's lives and people's-- the situation, the circumstances are such that people are becoming more and more independent and more and more, uh, isolated from the, uh, other people because fortunately, Jewish people by, by and large are more affluent, and people can manage by themselves. They don't find it, uh, necessary to need somebody else's help, and in turn it makes us-- While they lived in a shtetl, if, uh, somebody moved, the whole town moved together. Somebody made a bar mitzvah, the whole town cooked together, and they all-- Everything was a communal. It was a, a group thing together. But now, you know, for a couple of dollars, you know, you hire yourself caterers, you hire yourself halls, yeah. Ain't nobody... You don't need a schlep. Nobody... You don't need anybody's help. So everybody does things on their own, so we lose that level of, of, of, of togetherness, of, of, of association, of, of, of support. So the Rebbe promoted use it for, for good things, for positive things. The same thing is true also with Jewish- Community life, because when, like in this, this area over here, when people lived together in Mattapan, in Dorchester, all Jewish life sort of evolved in a small section or whatever, Chelsea. But there were collections of a lot of Jews in one section, and no matter what your own level of commitment or not

12:27 Speaker 1 commitment, everybody was still part of it because outside all the butcher shops and Friday there was a Friday shop. You can tell just living in that neighborhood, the Jews lived in those neighborhoods and there was a certain sense of whatever is going on in Jewish life just by being there. But when the Jewish people started running into the suburbs all over the place, you know, that's when, you know, the minyanim, the shuls broke up. Everybody is in a different place and is a far away place, and Jewish life suffered because of that, because people no longer had the support. They no longer had the community, uh, togetherness that they used to experience. And eventually some of the children, even if the parents had with some of the children, they grew up isolated. They grew up with other neighbors, with non-Jewish people. So it's even more important nowadays because people are so independent and people are so separated, is to try to get people together, to try to, uh, support each other. That's why the Rebbe's birthday also Yud Aleph Nisan in later years became a very big and a special occasion in which many Hasidim would get together, and the timing of the Rebbe's birthday was kind of a little bit inconvenienced because it was Erev Pesach and everybody is, uh, is trying to clean the house and then everything, and then in the middle of Yud Aleph Nisan was... I'm talking about growing up in-- together with the Rebbe, and all the guests and

14:01 Speaker 1 everything would come from out of the country and, and from all over the world and participate, and it was a tremendous spiritual experience to be with the Rebbe during his birthday. And they would always have the new chapter, a new song from the Rebbe's chapter of Tehillim. They would make a new song which they would introduce. There was some competition, which song is going to be accepted by the Rebbe, and then that was the song that was, uh, sung at that time. And then you had that whole wonderful, it's hard to describe that energy that we had, that we experienced, all centered around the Rebbe's birthday. And it didn't matter about cleaning, about Erev Pesach. We ma-- we had to manage. We just took off like about a, a twenty-four hour period or more just that was dedicated right smack Erev Pesach, you know, before selling the chametz, after selling the chametz . It was very, very, uh, a very, very special time. Yeah, but, uh, the truth is that that was a, an emotional and a spiritual preparation for the Pesach holiday because just like you gotta get rid of the chametz, which is the leaven, which is the physical, of course one has to get rid of the inside, uh, leaven of the spiritual. And that was a beautiful way to prepare ourselves. So that was Yud Aleph Nisan, the eleventh day of Nisan in our experience. Yeah