Yom Holedes - Part VIII

00:01 The hemsech to the earlier installments regarding yemei ledes birthday and its customs, aspects, and lessons, we continue now with installment number eight, discussing one's reaching a significant age or completing an entire decade in life. In a Sicha Yud Aleph Nisan taf shin chaf beis, nineteen sixty-two, the Rebbe then became sixty years old and the Rebbe farbrenged and spoke Sichas and delivered two discourses and also concluded the Tractate of Pesachim. The Rebbe then, amongst the Sichas, said the following, that by every yemei ledes, by every birthday, we find that although it is mazal gever, the fortune of the person is stronger on that day than the other days of the year. Nevertheless, the priority is to correct things from the past that need correction, need fulfillment. And for this, we need to utilize the energy that we have from the fortune, the mazal that is strong on that day in a very unique way. In addition to that, we find amongst the customs of the world which also reached the Jewish nation that there are specific birthdays, special birthdays that are different than a regular birthday. In general, it is a birthday when a person reaches a complete decade in life. Every ten years, it is a new era, it is a new tekufa, it is a new shleimus in the person. As we find in the Mishnah, after Bar Mitzvah and fifteen and eighteen years old, the Mishnah continues twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, seventy, eighty, ninety till a hundred. Twenty years old shows a

02:06 certain maturity in the person as the halakha in the Talmud is that a son who has reached twenty years old could already deal with the property of his father. He is mature enough to handle it, to deal with it, to make decisions. From here we see that every ten years there is a new era, a new and a higher standard. In a Sicha taf shin mem, nineteen eighty, the Rebbe said that in addition to the increase that a person gains every year in his life, every additional year that arrives, there are certain years and tekufahs which are special, unique, that when a person reaches them, the increase is completely not proportional to an earlier year, completely beyond the earlier year. For example, the Rebbe says every decade in life that a person reaches it is a special concept, it is a special era. And as the Mishnah tells us, as the Rebbe mentioned it in the earlier Sicha we just quoted. So the Rebbe says this refers in a physical sense, number one, that in every tekufa of ten years, the person reaches a new era in life, a special era, a unique era, which also shows on a higher standard in the person's life. And the reason why it is in a physical sense is because it is a chain reaction of the attributes and of the root of all these numbers as they are in the spiritual higher spheres. It was customary that when the Rebbe would distribute dollars, which the Rebbe began

04:25 distributing on Yud Aleph Nisan taf shin mem vav nineteen eighty-six, and from then nonstop, whenever halakhically a person was permitted to handle money, the Rebbe was there standing on his feet for hours, giving a dollar to each person that came to the Rebbe and giving him berachos. People used out this occasion to mention to the Rebbe that they have a birthday coming up, and if it was a special decade birthday, they would make mention of it. When someone came over to the Rebbe and told the Rebbe that he's now reaching forty years old. So the Rebbe told him forty, the Mishnah tells us, "Ve'arba'im le'binah." Binah means intuition. You should utilize the intuition that you reach by forty for good things. When someone approached the Rebbe and told the Rebbe that he is reaching or has reached sixty years old, the Rebbe said, quoting from the Talmud, that by sixty years old, a person should make a Yom Tov, should make a special gathering, a special feast for the Rabbonim, because this is a year that shows that the person went out of a certain category of a heavenly punishment, that he lived through the sixty years. We'll mention here briefly Numbers of years that the Rebbe referred to them in letters to specific individuals who have reached that age, and the Rebbe connected it either with Pirkei Avos, as we mentioned earlier, what every decade in life means, or the Rebbe referred to the new chapter of Tehillim that that person would begin saying

06:27 on his birthday. To mention briefly what ages the Rebbe discusses over the years in his letters, 15 years old, 16 years old, 22 years old, 23 years old, 40 years old, 51 years old, 74 years old, 75 years old, 79 years old, 80 years old, 81 years old, 90 years old, and 91 years old. The Rebbe would always connect it with the Inyan and Teyre, as we mentioned, either from the Pirkei Avos, which is Ethics of Our Fathers, or the new chapter in Tehillim corresponding to the age of the person on his birthday. We can also add in regards to 18 years old, it was customary until Tov Shin Lamed Vav, until 1976, that a bocher, a student who would merit to go on to Yechidus to the Rebbe, would ask the Rebbe if he can begin putting on everyday Tefillim of Rabbeinu Tam, which is a set of Tefillim in addition to the Tefillim of Rashi that the person put on from Bar Mitzvah. And the Rebbe would answer, mostly the answer was yes. By 18 years old, there was a certain maturity which allows the person to also begin putting on Rabbeinu Tam's Tefillim. It was put in 1976 that the Rebbe said from now on, people should not ask any longer, but as they reach Bar Mitzvah, they should put on Rashi's Tefillim and Rabbeinu Tam's Tefillim. In regards to the age of 72, the Rebbe once responded to a Chassid that there is an interesting verse in the Chumash, Parashat Mishpatim,

08:39 Es Mispar Yomecha Amalei. I will cause the days of your lives to be full. The Ba'al HaTurim, who is one of the popular commentators on the Chumash, states that the numerical value of the word Amalei, which means full, is 72. Im Yirtza Hashem, after Shavuot, we will continue with the Yemei Ledet series, and for Shavuot, we will be discussing the Yom Tov of Shavuot by the Rebbe.