26 of Tamuz - The miracle that took place on this day.

00:00 So this is for the twenty-sixth day of Tammuz, the, uh, the special, uh, Yemei Chabad in the history of Chabad. Um, and I don't know if you're aware of, but, uh, there were Jewish groups like the false Messiahs. I don't know if you're familiar with the history. Uh, there was the, uh, Shabtai Zvi, um, you know, if you look it up in, uh, in Wikipedia. So they have the Shabtai Zvi, um, he's-- They have him as born in, in sixteen twenty-six, in August of sixteen twenty-six, and dying in, um, um... He died when? He died here it says in sixteen seventy-- from twenty-six to seventy-six. Now, he, um, he was known as one of the false Messiahs. What he did was, uh, he, he, he gathered a lot of Jewish people around him and he, he, he decided that he was the Messiah. And he was somewhat of a learned person, and he had a lot of, uh, followers. And at some point, um, they arrested him, and they, uh, gave him a choice to either become Muslim, you know, to convert to, uh, Musl- to their religion, and which he did, uh, you know, at that point. Um, so some of him-- There was a follower from him who was somebody by the name Yaakov Frank. Uh, he was born in seventeen ninety-- uh, no, seventeen twenty-six, and he died in seventeen ninety. And this guy was also another false Messiah. He was in Poland in the end of the eighteenth century. Uh, um,

01:46 he was, uh, very, very active, and he, um, he was sort of a follower of the, uh, Shabtai Zvi, of those, uh, of those, of those Messiah. And, um, he actually eventually, uh... He was in disguise. He was like a Christian in disguise, and he was almost like some of the, uh, uh... Let me see. Um, so actually, the Jewish people suffered a lot from them. Uh, this guy became, at the end, he became actually a Christian at the end, uh, this, this Frank. And-- But he, to begin with, he was, um, um, you know, he was, uh, not even a learned person or anything else, you know. So anyways, that's the history. You can look up the history. Now, how does that relate to, uh, Chabad? How does that relate to the date? So there's interesting-- There is a bunch of letters that are known as the hidden letters that they found in Genizah Chersones, it's called. Uh, they've been printed in, in, in this Chabad publications. Those have been letters about the Baal Shem Tov and his students. Uh, others, you know, there were some question about the authentication, but they've been authenticated. They know that that is actually, uh... So in any event, um, in those, there's-- This is part of the history, what it's written over there. Uh, there are several letters brought down about a holiday that takes place on the twenty-sixth day of Tammuz. There's actually a letter, and this is the, the letter. The-- This letter is, is

03:24 signed by these people. They say that we have established to make the day of the twenty-sixth day of Tammuz every year as a day of celebration. It's a holiday. It's, uh, with a meal and a day of joy because of the great miracle and the great kindness that God has done with us on that day. Why? Because there was this, uh, enemy, uh, evil and hateful person, may his name be erased, Yimach Shemo, who was called Jakob Frank, and, uh, may his name be rot. I mean... So he went, and he got many, many Jewish people to convert away from Judaism. And now he says what happened is Hashem, uh, has, uh, stopped his, him and his path or his bad thoughts, and Hashem has paid him back what he deserves. And he says that the bishop, his name is Tikulsky from Lviv, that was the city over there. Poland. In Poland, yeah. So he says, "He called us three, uh, for the designated day in Lviv on the..." This was on the twenty-third day of Tammuz in the year Tet kuf yud tes. Uh, "For us to give our view, uh, versus us against these evil people. And based on the arguments and the investigations that took place between us, Hashem stood in our side, and He allowed us to continue to practice and to survive. And on the twenty-sixth day of the month of Tammuz, we were victorious over these evil people, and we were able to save many Jewish people, uh, from

05:23 any, any bad. Uh, and we therefore decided to make that day as a day of a celebration, a day of a, uh, party, joy, happiness for us and all of our children." And it is signed later by Chaim Rapoport and by the Baal Shem Tov, Yisroel Baal Shem of Mezhibezh, and Yitzchak Dober Margolis. They signed this, this letter. Um, and there's then another, um, another, the, the, the-- Baal Shem Tov also asked, then they had the Maggid of Mezritch, Dober Mezritch and Yaakov Yosef of Polonne, Zev Wolf Kitzes, they also signed it. So this, this seems like it was a, um- Proclamation ... uh, pr-proclamation, and it was, uh... Now, the question is- We don't find this being celebrated actually, and, um, notwithstanding the fact that the Baal Shem Tov and his students have declared this as a holiday, we don't see this holiday practiced. And there's a letter of the Rebbe, that the Rebbe addresses this question, um, how come we don't do it? And the Rebbe says, "Although I didn't hear a clear explanation, but it seems to me, um, that you find this generally with regards when you establish a certain holiday, that only after the time you found out, you find out how it was really accepted." Like he says, for example, he says, "You see in the festival of, of Hanukkah. The festival of Hanukkah has not really been determined in the first year, but it's the following year that they set it up." Uh, so the Rebbe says, "Because

07:02 this took place on, in Taf Kuf Yut Tes, that means that, um, the Baal Shem Tov actually passed away over there, uh, before the first year that they could, uh, celebrate that festival." So it turns out, um, that they couldn't really accept it. They didn't really, um, weren't able to go through with this in a way that could, uh, last. So that's why they, uh, sort of, uh, it, it, it, it fizzled out at the end. So that's why the holiday didn't, basically did not stick, uh, but yet it was. The twenty-sixth day of Tammuz used to be a, a holiday in which the, the, uh, Hasid and the Baal Shem Tov, they celebrated the fact that they were able to be saved from a lot of these, uh, groups. Unfortunately, you know, we have remnants of those groups today, you know, in the forms of J for J, and you have, uh, other various different groups. And they come in different shapes and different forms, and they, and they disguise themselves as, um, as, you know, as Jewish. Some of them do things, uh, like he used to do. You know, they used to outwardly pretend to be Jewish, but they were really, uh, doing, practicing the Christian religion, you know, and they didn't refer sometimes directly to, to, to, to their, you know, to their God, what they refer to it. They used to use all kinds of tricks. Uh, and, uh, you know, unfortunately, they sometimes go after Jewish people who are

08:40 vulnerable or who are, feel disenfranchised or feel themselves somehow not belonging. And they, you know, they, they prey on the, on these people, and they, uh... So it's, it's, it's, it's something which is still plaguing the Jewish people. But at that time, some of these messianic groups, I mean, some of the, uh, with the Shabtai Zvi, I mean, he, he, he actually was able to get a lot of the religious Orthodox, you know, Jewish people to follow him because people thought he was a mystic and he was a, a Kabbalist. Actually, that's why the study of the Kabbalah was somewhat restricted after a lot of the troubles that took place, you know, during that period of time in Jewish history, because people misused it. I mean, today you find, you know, also all kinds of people using the Kabbalah. They use the, you know, they have the, the Kabbalah. You know, you have Goysha people, and then you have, like, this Madonna and the rest of the things. You know, they're all k- all claiming to study and to know the Kabbalah. So it's come very easily to misconstrue, to, to, to, to manipulate and to do different things. And that's why, you know, um, we're, we're very wary, you know, because it's, it's, it's sometimes it's very appealing, and it sometimes, uh, seems, uh, you know, that it's a way of mystic, and it's mystical. You know, we're living in, in lives that we're looking sometimes for something. Uh, and so you gotta be

10:11 very, very careful what you're doing. Pardon me? Oh, really?