Chanuka by the Rebbe - Part 1

00:00 The COVID Hanukkah will discuss some aspects by the Rebbe b'negeah to Hanukkah. One is b'negeah to Mivtza Hanukkah. In Taf Shin and Vav, late nineteen eighty-five, the Rebbe requested that on this Hanukkah, if possible also in the daytime, they should light the public Menorahs without a bracha, and they should, um, take pictures in order to fulfill Mitzvah l'fa'as hem ese Mitzvah. That's a Mitzvah to publicize those that are doing Mitzvahs. On another occasion, in Taf Shin Nun Beis, in the Chanich and the Talmedei Chachamim in Orot Halita in Kfar Chabad in Eretz Israel, Rab Shlomo Yosef Hershkowitz made a project with his class making good resolutions bekesher relating to the yemei ha'zgula of Cheshvan, Rosh Chodesh Kislev, Yud Kislev, and Yud Dalet Kislev. And they reported these resolutions and this project to the Rebbe. The Rebbe responded two points. One, everyone who blesses someone else is blessed with the bracha of Hashem, that its addition is more than the original bracha. Two, to distribute to everyone of his class Hanukkah gelt, symbolic of one shekel. If it's possible, it should be from silver. This should be Hanukkah gelt for the students, and the Rebbe concludes, "Askir al hatzion." And now an interesting short story that took place Kislev Taf Shin Lamed Heh, late nineteen seventy-four. Rab Shmuel Betzalel Althauss came from Australia for a visit to Seven Seventy. He visited the Rebbetzin, who expressed herself that the Rebbe there's no Chassidim. My father, referring to the previous Rebbe, he had Chassidim, but the Rebbe does

02:23 not have any Chassidim. Rab Shmuel Betzalel commented and very puzzled. He said, "Everywhere, in every place, there is a feeling of bikur from Chassidim to the Rebbe." He even pointed out at many institutions and different mosdos that were established all over the world with the Rebbe's spirit and in order to give the Rebbe nachas ruach. So the Rebbetzin said, "If so, please give this over to the Rebbe." Rab Shmuel Betzalel responded that he prefers that the Rebbetzin should be the one to relay it to the Rebbe. That's how the conversation ended. Shabbos Hanukkah, Erev Habringen, the Rebbe, looking at Rab Shmuel Betzalel Althauss said, "The Nikolaev Rebbe Chazan zal zogen a nigun." The Chazan of Nikolaev, this is where he comes from, should say a nigun, should sing a nigun. After Hanukkah, when Rab Shmuel Betzalel went into Yechidus, the Rebbe told him, "Ir hat mamash mechayeg ven di Rebbetzin. You have given the Rebbetzin a very good, positive feeling."