Hakhel - Part I: Year 5692 (1931)

00:01 We find ourselves in a year which is when Hakel took place in the Beis Hamikdash. In ancient times, when the Beis Hamikdash stood atop the Temple Mount, Am Yisrael would converge on Yerushalayim once every seven years to fulfill the mitzvah of Hakel. There, as the king read out selected passages of the Torah, they would all relive the experience of the giving of the Torah at Har Sinai. They were then ready to return to their homes, having revitalized their reverence for the giver of the Torah. Eventually, however, the Beis Hamikdash was destroyed. Over 1,900 years passed by, and in observant circles, the mitzvah of Hakel was spoken about very little. We will now focus what the Rebbe would speak about on Hakel and what heroic directives we received from the Rebbe during the years of Hakel. Beginning as early as Tafresh Tzadik Beis, late 1931, we read of an interview with our Rav, Moshe Elia Galitsky, a Hasid who was by the previous Rebbe in Poland. He later settled in Montreal and was a distinguished Hasid in the community of Chabad in Montreal. And he relates the following. We came to Atvatsk in Poland. The whole month of Tishrei was a very special, sacred, and uplifting experience. But Sukkot, we merited to a very deep and exceptional experience that remained engraved in us for all the future years. It was one of the nights of Chelamed, Chelamed Sukkot, the previous Rebbe instructed his son-in-law, the Rebbe, that he should fabreng with the Elam. He should speak

02:41 for the Elam, and we all gathered in the big Sukka. In addition to us, as Talmidim from Lodz, there were tens of Hasidim who arrived from Warsaw and Hasidim from Atvatsk who filled the area. Self-understood that not one of us knew what we were going to be experiencing that evening. The Rebbe began the fabrengen eight in the evening and continued till the morning, seven in the morning. It was the first time that the Rebbe fabrenged with Hasidim. But from the moment that the Rebbe began speaking, the whole audience were all captivated by every word that the Rebbe said. As Rabbi Galitsky mentions, as I will soon relate. The Rebbe spoke about the Mishnah, Yehuda ben Teimei, Eimer, Heve Az, Kanomer, Kal Kaneser, Rotz Katzvi, Vigiber Kari, which is also the beginning of the Shulchan Aruch. A person should be bold like a leopard, should be light like an eagle, run like a deer, strong like a lion to do the will of Hashem. And the Rebbe explained all the different aspects in this Mishnah. What does Az Kanomer mean? What is Kal Kaneser v'cholo? The individual explanations consisted one after another with an unbelievable pace. Long hours we were hearing from the Rebbe and as he expresses it, Afusham, it was flying in the air. Words of Gehenas, Gemaras, Medrashim, Bavli and Yerushalmi, which is the Babylonian Talmud and the Jerusalem Talmud, Zeyar and Kabbalah and stories of Hasidim. This was something very strong and immense. The whole crowd and particularly the Orchem of Varsha

05:05 and the Yidden from Atvatsk was standing there astonished from the Rebbe's Gehenas. Till then, nobody knew the Rebbe and nobody knew his Gehenas. The Rebbe was a very private person and did not really speak much in public. And this is the first time, the first experience that Hasidim had becoming familiar with the Rebbe's Gehenas. If before this Fabrengen, the audience had a very special respect for the Rebbe as the Rebbe being the son-in-law of the Rebbe, the previous Rebbe, now this Derech Eretz converted into a level of respect and Yiras HaKovet on a completely different standard. Imzeis, nevertheless, with this, it is also an obligation to note that the Rebbe was always a private person and this was the only time that it happened. Which came as a result of the previous Rebbe instructing the Rebbe to Fabreng. The Hatzna Leches, the modesty of the Rebbe, expressed in many ways. I don't forget when, for example, the Rebbe would come to listen how the Bochrim would review the Maymorim, the discourses that the previous Rebbe delivered. The Rebbe would sit amongst the Bochrim and would listen and almost not interfere at all. From time to time, he would also listen how the Bochrim are learning and randomly, remotely, there were times that the Rebbe would correct us. We will, im Zeishem, continue in the next installment.