Yemei Chabad - 20 Kislev

00:00 Today we're going to do the, uh, Yemei Chabad for the twentieth day of Kislev in the year Taf Kuf Nun Zayin, which corresponds to December twentieth in seventeen ninety-six. So the-- On this day, they completed to printing the Tanya for the very first time. The Mitteler Rebbe relates that the Alter Rebbe labored for and wrote the Tanya, Likutei Amarim. He added, he took away, and he was specific on every word and word to the extent that he had totally purified, and he has had nothing extra, nothing lacking in the Tanya. And then he gave permission- This is two hundred years ago. Yes. More than- More than. More than two hundred years ago. Uh, and he gave... Two hundred and fifty years ago. And he gave... Uh, no, no. Not no, no, no. No, no, not just two hundred and ten- Uh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Uh, what are we? This is, uh, Nun Zayin. This is, uh, Ayin Gimel. Yeah. Okay. Almost, almost. Oh, yeah, two hundred and something years ago. Now, only after putting in that meticulous kind of words-- work, he allowed people to copy it and to publicize it, uh, to give it out to the public. Now, I've also noticed, like in the Rebbe's work, that the Rebbe was very, very meticulous to make sure that things that are published are accurate, precise, are the real thing. Unfortunately, today, a lot of times people are so intent on trying to get their work out. They wanna, you know, share with the world,

02:03 or they want... Whatever the reasons are, and they don't take the time to really make sure that what they're producing is quality, is, is, is real, and is, is, is, is beautiful. But you see how much before the Alter Rebbe was going to, uh, let others in on his safer, he wanted to make sure there was to be not one extra and not one, uh, short. Now, you have to understand, I mean, we understand that that takes a tremendous amount of effort, and that limits your ability how much you can publish. Because if you have to go through everything so meticulously, and you have to make sure, it, it, it, it hampers your ability. But, you know, uh, Talmud says, a chaver, a person who's a sage, doesn't let out of his hand something which is not perfect, which is totally fixed. So this was more important. And again, I say this because I see, like somebody said, there's so much more to read about less and less, you know what I mean? There is just a, a, a, a, um, you know, uh, information, I guess, a flood of... But a lot of it is, you know, is, is, is, is not accurate, is not precise. People don't get it. They don't understand it. They, they just do things, and they know just everybody thinks that, no, if you're an author, you know, that makes you, uh, you know, a big shot. In any event, what happened that because the-- it was copied. How

03:33 did they copy it? They would handwrite. They would copy it from one person to the other one. So there were thousands and thousands of copies, which many different handwriting, and some of the contents became, uh, became blemished because there's no longer so many types, one from the other one. There was mistakes. So then the Alter Rebbe sent special messengers to the Tzadikim, Rabbi Yehuda Leib Koidin and Rabbi Zusya of Hanipoli. He consulted them whether he should print it. Before it wasn't printed, it was just copies. After he had received their, uh, agreement, the Alter Rebbe agreed, gave permission to print the safer. On the month of Elul, in the year Taf Kuf Nun Vav, that was, um, the summer before it was actually printed, the Alter Rebbe gave the Tanya to be printed in the printing press in Slavita. That was a very big press over there. And he conditioned with the printer that up till the beginning of the month of Kislev, Taf Kuf Nun Zayin, um, which is that year, of that year, which is the seventeen ninety-six, uh, twenty... In that, in that year, he has to have it ready. It should be ready, and he wants people to be able to study in it on Yut Kislev, which is the Yahrtzeit of the Maggid, as we have studied that on Yut Kislev is the Yahrtzeit also from the, uh, Maggid of Mezritch in the year Taf Kuf Lamed Gimel. That would be December seventeenth in seventeen seventy-two. That's when his teacher,

05:31 the Maggid, passed away. So he wanted that those Tanyas should be printed in time for that. Uh, and I also remember that the Rebbe would many times print for a certain occasion, and the Rebbe would rush the people, and he would tell them to work very hard in order to get the books ready for publishing. Sometimes things seem to be You know, impossible for them to be ready at a certain time for a certain Yahrzeit from a certain... The Rebbe gave the instruction, and the Rebbe's instructions were certainly-- We don't know the Rebbe's reasonings. They were spiritual reasonings. But the people didn't know and didn't understand how is it possible for them to get it out in such a short period of time. The Rebbe expected a tremendous amount out of himself, and the Rebbe taught the Hasidim that they can do a lot more than they think. The Rebbe always told us that you can do a lot more than you think. And, you know, a lot of the times with the Chabad houses when they started, you know, they thought to raise like a million dollars was a lot, and the Rebbe said, "No, no, this is easy stuff. You gotta..." The Rebbe opened up, you know, opened up our minds to think out of the box and to be able to reach to the skies and beyond the limits. You know, the sky isn't the limit, you know, just to go and you can achieve. And you see that people who set

07:02 themselves, you know, bigger goals, you know, and go beyond, beyond the goals. So this seemed also, I would think, from the end of Elul, the year before till Kislev, with the printing press they had over there, seems to be not a very long time. And-- But the Alter Rebbe wanted that this should be available to study on the Yut Kislev, um, on the Yahrzeit of the Maggid of Mezritch. But when Yut Kislev came and the Tanya wasn't ready, so as it was opened, he was in a lot of pain. Uh, on the second day of Hanukkah, that was the second day, which is the twenty-sixth day of Kislev of that year, a special messenger, they call it a rots, somebody, a runner. They, they call it runners. A special runner came from Slavita, and he brought with him two hundred books of Tanya, the first books of Tanya. Twenty-sixth is only, uh, seven days late, you know. I mean, it was supposed to be ready for Yutess, and this is the twenty-sixth, so it's, uh, it's eight days late. Better later than never. So well, they came, but they actually were printed on the twentieth day of Kislev. But it took from Slavita, from out of the, the, uh, out of the press, I guess. Maybe the binding, I'm not sure exactly. It says it was printed on the twentieth day of Kislev. It was gonna... But it took him time. Maybe it took time to get there, maybe it took time, I'm not sure

08:42 exactly. And the Rebbe wrote the Tanya. The Alter Rebbe. The Alter Rebbe wrote the- Yeah, the Schneur Zalman. When they showed the Alter Rebbe the, uh, the sefer, the book, the Tanya, so he reflected for a long time. And then he said that, "Rabos machshavos belavish." People-- There's a lot of thoughts in people's minds. You know, we have a lot of things that we think. "And I wanted," the Rebbe said, "that this book should be completed in the beginning of Kislev." So actually, the Rebbe wanted to learn it in Yut Kislev, so it was more than just six, eight days late. It was eight days late after Yut Kislev, but the Rebbe wanted it to be there by the beginning of the month of Kislev so that they should have enough time for the distribution, so they can learn it in Yut Kislev. But he wanted to study it then. That's what I want. "Ve'at Zah Hashem yisakum." We think, but Hashem, in Yiddish they say, "A mensch tracht und Got lacht." God plans and- Um, human thinks and God laughs. In other words, Hashem's plan was no, that the printing was finished on the twentieth day of the month. Now, the Alter Rebbe repeated and said, "Twentieth day of Kislev, twentieth day of Kislev, twentieth day of Kislev." People didn't know. Everything that Hashem does, he said, is for the good. That's the Rebbe . Nobody understood what the Alter Rebbe was talking about. Why is it such a big deal that the Alter

10:15 Rebbe was in pain that it was two weeks late? You know, two weeks late. And why did he keep on saying about the day, the twentieth day of Kislev, twentieth... Why keep them, uh, surprised? But we know two years later in the year Taf kuf nun tes, which was in, um, uh, what was it then? Uh... So it would be nine-- uh, eight-- uh, seventeen nine-- uh, seventeen ninety-nine. Ninety-eight or something. Yeah. Okay. So at that time in Taf nun tes, we know what happened when the Alter Rebbe went out of prison. Uh, he went-- It was on Tuesday, on Yut Kislev, they freed him. He accidentally entered into the home of one of the opponents of the Hasidim. Oh, yeah. And it was late at night. The Alter Rebbe was even respectful of this Misnagid, this opponent of Hasidism. Uh, he offered the Rebbe tea, and he was-- But he was giving the Rebbe a hard time about the Rebbe's, uh, teachings, about his siddur that he changed. And, and, uh, there's an expression that those times spent in the home of the opponent were, uh, worse than the time that he spent in the prison. But, uh, it was only late at night of that night, uh, on the night of twentieth of Kislev, which means it brought him to Chabad Kislev. He had actually been freed even from the, uh, Misnagid's home. So then the people realized the surprising words of the Alter Rebbe as he talked Twenty Kislev, twenty Kislev, twenty

12:07 Kislev, what he was saying then- Then I need to hear- Because he was referring to these twenty days, and he said that it should be, if you remember, "Kol ma dorech rah m'nutav," that God does everything for the best. The Mitteler Rebbe, uh, said in the name of his father, the Alter Rebbe, that the two years, uh, of energy in the study of Torah and the service of Hashem, which the book of Tanya that preceded his, uh, arrest, those two years, because from Taf Kuf Nun Zai to Taf Kuf Nun Tes, his book of Tanya that added the extra fervor and extra intensity in the study and the love of Hashem and Torah, that saved the Rebbe's life from certain death. He would have been... If he wouldn't have done that, and the tens of thousands, thousand, thousand, ten thousand and ten thousand of the angels that were created from the words, from the letters and the words of the collection of the holy sayings of our Rebbes, they were the ones that have said good about, uh... And they were melitz yosher. They, uh, were the ones that protected him, that the Rebbe, the Rebbe should help for him, that he should go out righteous. Okay. Now we're going to- I gotta run. All right. No? Okay. We're going to do now- All right, I'll see you. Another piece. Yeah. See you tomorrow Mitzvashem? We'll leave that. Leave that there. Okay. So tomorrow, uh, then we have another piece, which is the actual day

13:49 of the twentieth day of Kislev of Taf Kuf Nun Tes. That was the year that the Alter Rebbe was actually freed. So what happened, as mentioned earlier, on Yut Kislev, the judgment came out in favor of the Alter Rebbe, that he's innocent, and he hasn't done anything wrong, and they freed him from his incarceration. So they asked the Alter Rebbe when they freed him, "Where do you want to go?" So the Alter Rebbe says he wants to go to the home of the Hasid of Reb Mordechai Melepeler who lived in the city of Petersburg, where he was arrested. In that same house where the Hasid Reb Mordechai Melepeler lived, on the lower floor, on the first floor, there lived one of the great opponents of the Misnagdim, who was one of the slanderers who went to the government, and they slandered the Alter Rebbe, and they caused him the problem in the first place. And by mistake, they led the Alter Rebbe to the home of the Misnaged. When the Misnaged saw the Alter Rebbe coming into his home, he got frightened, and he, he, he just didn't know. He was stunned. He was turned white like a stone. But yet, he asked the Alter Rebbe to sit, and he instructed the family member to put down the hot water, the, the, the, the, the chaisik, the tea kettle. And on his own, he cleaned off the plate. And as they were waiting, he started to talk very harshly, uh, to the Alter Rebbe. And

15:49 he was saying to the Alter Rebbe, "You think that you've already been freed, but I want you to know that now you have fallen into my hands. You are not going to leave this room, this home, until you sign that you are stopping that new version of davening, that you're going to move out the version of davening that you instituted. And also those other things that you came up with that we have not had by tradition from our fathers. They were as great as you are. What were they missing? If they would be saying Na'arit Yoch instead of Nagdi Yoch, they say the Alter Rebbe's sitter and, I mean, or not Kesser. Instead of Kesser, they would say Na'arit Yoch. Why do you need to say it? You don't need to change anything. It's good enough for them." Alter Rebbe was in a... Had a big problem. He didn't know what to do. But Hashem, who answered him and helped him in all of his problem, also helped him then as well. And his salvation was quick to come that the Hasidim who were waiting all day for the Alter Rebbe to come, they were very confused. They said, "Maybe it's true what the Misnagdim said, that all the rumors that the Alter Rebbe is going to be freed were false." So the Hasidim decided that they're gonna go to the Misnaged, who lives on the lower floor of the house of Reb Mordechai Leper, to hear what he says. Maybe he knows that the

17:35 Alter Rebbe wasn't freed. And as they were coming to the house of the Misnaged, the door was locked. So from behind the door, they heard the voice of the Misnaged who was arguing. "Na'arit Yoch isn't, uh, find favor in your eyes. You only have the new Nusach of Kesser. That's the only way you like it." So the Hasidim understood that it was by mistake that they brought the Alter Rebbe to the home of the Misnaged. They were-- started to bang on the door very loudly, uh, until they opened up, and they were amazed to sit that the Alter Rebbe was sitting with his hands-- with his head leaning on his hands, and he would-- and he was listening to the curses and to the blasphemy from the Misnaged. The Misnaged, as he saw the Hasidim came in, he got frightened, and, uh, Reb Mordechai Melepeler, who lived, who was upstairs, he was angry. He ran to beat up the Misnaged. But the Alter Rebbe hinted him that he shouldn't do anything to him. He should just leave him alone. "What are you doing here, Rebbe?" Reb Mordechai says to the Alter Rebbe. "Suru na me'al ole ha'nashim ha'ele." This is paraphrasing the verse in which Moshe said to people to separate themselves from the group of Korach. He says, "Get out. Move. Let's move away from this home." The Alter Rebbe said, "You have to be respectful to the host." And he drank the cup of, of tea or the cup of hot, and he

19:26 went with Reb Mordechai to his home. "You have revived me. You have lied me," the Alter Rebbe says to Reb Mordechai. And he said to him, "I want-- Believe me that all the days that I was sitting in prison were not as difficult as those three hours that I spent in the house of the Misnaged."