Rosh Chodesh Kislev

00:00 What we're gonna be discussing tonight will be mitzvah Hashem, Rosh Chodesh Kislev, which is basically the background, um, what took place before, what took place after, and what Rosh Chodesh Kislev means for us year after year. It's already forty-eight years since we had the Rosh Chodesh Kislev, which when it began in late 1977. So it's basically a, um, a Yom Tov that Chassidim celebrate, commemorate, thank the Aibishter for the Rebbe, for the Rebbe's life, for the Rebbe's health, uh, which was very, very, uh, serious situation. And Baruch Hashem that the Rebbe, the Rebbe came out of it and was able to continue his work and, uh, lead Klal Yisroel. In general, it's mentioned that tzadikim b'klal know before if there's anything taking place with them, anything serious, they know before. We find it by the earlier Rebbeim that they hinted to certain things earlier, and later it proved that they were preparing Chassidim, preparing the world for a situation. By the Rebbe, we saw that in taf shin lamed tes, which is the Hebrew year of when this took place. It was Shemini Atzeres, the night of Shemini Atzeres, the night before. It's the first night Yom Tov of the last days of Sukkot. But already weeks before, and actually if we wanna look even earlier, two months before, the Rebbe spoke a sicha then. It was Chof Beis of was our Shabbos, and one of the sichas the Rebbe spoke was an event that took place on Chof Beis of when Yechezkel HaNavi, the

02:01 prophet Yechezkel, was told to position himself to lie on the right side, on the left side. He was going through pain for Klal Yisroel. And at a certain point, Chof Beis of, the, the, the pain, the-- this procedure stopped. It ended. So the Rebbe explains what is the point of this. Point is that the, m- the tzadikim, I don't remember the Russian the Rebbe used, is that they take tzadikim, that they take upon themselves yesurim for the generation. And therefore, also here, by Yechezkel HaNavi, he was supposed to go through an experience, uh, be- because of the generation. Ze v'zeh atzu is like the way the Rebbe interprets it. That's how it's understood. The Rebbe connected it with his father. It was two days after the yasor time of his father. He went through-- He was in exile, which is worse yet than death, as it's mentioned in Seforim. And that's where the, the, uh, uh, the Rebbe's father, Choshit, uh, uh, suffered. Uh, he got sick after that, suffered with the illness, and then he was niftar on Chof Of. When we look at it a little further down the road, exactly two months, uh, later, we find that two months later is Chof Beis Tishrei, which is exactly Shemini Atzeres to the day. So the Rebbe sixty days before... It was then that the Rebbe two months before prepared Chassidim what it means that tzadik took-- takes upon himself yesurim. Nobody expected, nobody dreamed in the wildest dream, even in a nightmare, that

03:51 such a thing will happen. Because as far as Chassidim knew, the Rebbe managed through everything. No health issues, nothing. Then came Chai Elul. Chai Elul is a month and four days before Shemini Atzeres. And the Rebbe then, again, um, uh, was meramez with a nigun. The Rebbe sang the nigun, "Venishama D'chol Nafshi," and in the words of the nigun, the Rebbe changed some words. Instead of the regular version, "Lerei'es, usch'och beidacha," the Rebbe changed it to "Lerei'es nafshi uch'oidi", which means the Rebbe was talking about something personal that's happening, that on the way. The Rebbe-- Again, nobody connected it with anything personal to the Rebbe. As the days and weeks moved on, the Rebbe dropped additional lines. There was a Erev Rosh Hashanah, the Rebbe would accept pidyonos from Chassidim. Pi- Chassidim would give the Rebbe a pan, or refer to as panim in English. Uh, basically, they would, uh, hand the Rebbe a pan. And after that, the Rebbe would greet, would accept a general pan which was written on the part of Chassidim everywhere, Yidden, general requests. Requests for the Rebbe's health, the Rebbetzin, the Lubavitch, Yidden, general brachos, general matters. The Rebbe would always respond. When it came to this point here, the Rebbe responded as follows. Usually, the Rebbe would respond with saying that the Aibishter should fulfill all the requests that are mentioned here, and the Rebbe would give his brachos. Here, the Rebbe added a line and a half which is edited, and the strange part is that I

05:44 never heard it from anybody should catch on what, what the Rebbe was hinting to, and it was very obvious. The Rebbe said, "Whatever is written here should be fulfilled, and also what is not written here which should have been written, and the Aibishter will fulfill it." This is exactly three weeks, three weeks before the heart attack Before Shemini Atzeres. Then came the farbrengen of Yud Gimmel Tishrei. The farbrengen of Yud Gimmel Tishrei was the last farbrengen before Sukkot, and the last farbrengen before Shemini Atzeres. Farbrengen is, uh, uh, recorded. It's an audio, and the person can hear it, and it's mind-boggling. The whole farbrengen was a mystery. What the Rebbe spoke at the farbrengen, people walked away, "How does this come in here now? Why is the Rebbe mentioning it?" Well, it just didn't make any sense to people. The Rebbe said a ma'amar, and then the Rebbe spoke about a letter that the Friediker Rebbe wrote in 1928. Yeah. So it's from 1977 going back to 1928, 50 years. And the Friediker Rebbe writes, "People should in-increase in joy, Sukkot, Chol Hamoed, the whole Sukkot through Shabbat Breishes. "It should be a full blast of simcha." See the mood already. When the Rebbe's asking for simcha, we knew from earlier experiences the Rebbe wants to break something through. And then the Rebbe continues that speaking about the Friediker Rebbe, that when he was in prison and after he came out, an additional Yom Tov came out, and then the Rebbe goes right into

07:40 it. And we know what the doctor said, the Rebbe said, about the previous Rebbe, that they have no idea how he existed, how he lived as a neshamah beguf the last 17 years. Friediker Rebbe suffered from multiple sclerosis, and mainly it was a, uh, ongoing, a d-degenerative illness, paralyzed, and it started in the late nine-- uh, the early 1930s. And then it went, uh... The first time he came to the United States, he didn't need a cane, he didn't need a wheelchair, nothing. When he came ten years later, he was already . The was broken. His health was very down, and, uh, and it was getting, um, m-harsher with the, with the health. So the Rebbe says, "We know what the doctor said, how they managed, how he managed." So then the Rebbe asked to sing nigunim, which are sung usually Sukkot, Shemini Atzeres and Simchat Torah, which means the later weeks. Chassidim were looking at each other after the farbrengen, "Why is the Rebbe talking about the previous Rebbe's health, which is 28 years earlier? And why didn't, why did he speak about the Keren Hashana, which is a fund that the Rebbe would make every year for Simchat Torah, and not wait till Simchat Torah?" But these are all mysteries, and, uh, we were left in the dark. We have no idea what this means. No explanation. It came-- Through Sukkot was very joyous. The Rebbe came in to shul every tefillah. The elom would sing a nigun, the Rebbe would turn around,

09:22 a motion with his hands, put his whole energy into it. Shacharit, Mincha, Ma'ariv. Through Chol Hamoed, through , and then came the night of Shemini Atzeres. In the daytime, we heard later that the rebbetzin asked, "What Sefer Torah will the Rebbe be holding by Hakafot? Is it gonna be a heavy one, a big one, or not?" So they assured the rebbetzin, some who worked in the house know that from year to year, the Rebbe has his small Sefer Torah. We also heard that the rebbetzin asked the secretariat they should shorten the Hakafot because the Rebbe is exhausted. I don't know the phrase, the words the rebbetzin used. They should shorten the Hakafot. Usually, the Hakafot are the first night from 9:00 till 10:30. That's the first night. Very... No farbrengen before. It's a very, uh... 7:00 is Ma'ariv. Then there's a break. People going to make Kiddush. 9:00 is Aleinu. 10:45, we were out. That's what usually takes place. Although it's very hard to control the crowd because, uh, the whole tumulte, the commotion, it's a big crowd. The Rebbe went to the first Hakafot as usual, and he would turn around to follow the other Hakafot and would actually, uh, uh, encourage the singing, participate. It would-- Because the Rebbe's mom is jumping sometimes by the Hakafot. And this happened also then. When it came to the fourth Hakafot, and this was others, uh, dancing by these Hakafot, the Rebbe, the Rebbe slowed down the clapping, and he became pale. And the Rebbe asked

11:22 for the chair, which he never sat down all the years in the chair, and he just, like, fell back in the chair. It was then that the commotion took place in 770. They asked everybody to walk out because they needed air. There was no air circulation, and they figured this was pashut one of the major things the Rebbe needed around him. And the elom ran out from shul then. I remember it today. I remember where I was standing. It was a greater rush than a fire. People were running from every exit. Windows were broken. It was like from everywhere in order to allow air to come in. Most of the crowd was outside. There was just a small crowd inside. I don't know how many because I followed orders, and, uh, I was outside There were, they say, about 100 to 200 people inside. But, uh, it's a whole different, uh... It's not, uh, the crowd that was there before. My father was a doctor by the Rebbe for 40 years. Many things that went through my father that people never heard, never knew, and in general, my father was a very private person. He never spoke. He didn't speak with the family, with nobody about it. Things that decades later I found out from others. He immediately ran over to the Rebbe, checked the Rebbe's pulse. He didn't have any instruments with him, but he was a, he was a doctor from Europe, not doctors from America. He was a doctor that knew on

12:57 the spot. He immediately said the Rebbe is experiencing a heart attack, and he ordered to bring oxygen. The Rebbe said he doesn't want any oxygen. So he asked the Rebbe, the Rebbe maybe wants to go upstairs to rest up for a while. So the Rebbe said that after he wants to finish Hakafas and then he'll go up to his room. They made Hakafas very quickly. The Rebbe danced the seventh Hakafa with the Rashag, his brother-in-law like usual, but the Rashag saw what was going on. He just made one turn and stopped. Tzedaka. The Rebbe looked at him, smiled, and that was it. The Rebbe went back to his room, and that's when they started to call, uh, they saw it was a heart-related thing, started to call cardiologists. Many cardiologists told the Rebbe he has to go to the hospital. The Rebbe said he's not going. The Rebbetzin came, and the Rebbetzin said, "If you think you're gonna force him..." There was one, one doctor, one Hakham, that he figured that he'll sedate the Rebbe and take him to the hospital. The Rebbe said-- The Rebbetzin said, "If you're gonna do that, you're gonna defeat the whole purpose. Uh, uh, you're gonna, you're gonna dis- you're gonna be in conflict with the Rebbe, with his wishes, and the situation-- You'll just make the situation worse." So a lot of them walked away. A lot of doctors who came from different hospitals, they walked away. Now in between, when they brought water to the Rebbe, when

14:23 the Rebbe sat down, the Rebbe said it's outside of the Sukkah, and it's before Kiddish, he's not drinking. So immediately they notified the Rebbetzin on President Street. The Rebbetzin came, and they notified the Rebbe, and the Rebbe came out to make Kiddish in the Sukkah, which is the Sukkah that's built every year right in front of Seven Seventy, which the Rebbe use- usually used it only for occasional drink or eat something, but not a seudah. Even the seudah was not a big seudah. It was just the Rebbe should have something. My father told me he was in the Sukkah, and they asked the Rebbe if he wants to make Kiddish maybe on grape juice, which is milder. So the Rebbe said, "Kiddish is made on wine." And the Rebbe washed, he ate something. He made hamotzi, he ate something, and after a while, he asked that they should tell the whole crowd to go home, not to hang around. And, uh, the Rebbe then-- When the Rebbe walked out, the Rebbe turned around to the Elul, motioned with the hand, Simcha, and walked back to his room. We can see the motion, it was very strenuous, and walked back to-- well, went back into his house, into his, uh, room. There were the doctors from-- a few doctors who were here as guests, so they set up right away, uh, equipment which they got from a hospital, and they put the Rebbe on a monitor, and they were watching. The climax of the heart attack

15:46 was five in the morning. That's where the climax of the heart attack. They immediately did what they needed to do. At that point, a group of Hasidim walked to the Elul. Problem is, they didn't know how to go. So they wandered a good few hours , but they got there. Then another group wa- walked, uh, an hour later or two hours later. So it was basically a few groups. They got someone to call Etz Chaim. It was still Yom Tov there, Shemini Atzeret. And they went to the Kehilah and to other Mekamei HaKodesh to make Mispalel. And, uh, they knew internatio-- Etz Chaim they knew, but otherwise it was just by rumor because it was in the middle of Yom Tov, you couldn't reach everybody. We went to Taluda the next night. Flatbush did not know. Flatbush didn't know anything. The shuls in Flatbush had no idea what's going on. They didn't hear anything. Nobody came to them. It was the middle of Yom Tov. The next day, uh, Shemini Atzeret, the Rebbe asked, "What's happening downstairs with the Elul?" So he told the sec- secretary told the Rebbe that, uh, they're going Taluda. The next night they go Taluda to different shuls to bring joy to different shuls. So the Rebbe said it should be with a shtreimel, with a very loud, joyous way. I remember the next night we came back to Seven Seventy. The Rebbe would usually farbrengen, and the Elul was completely broken. But the ones who were really standing and

17:28 crying were Poshut Haziknei Hasidim, the older Hasidim. The young ones were screaming at them, telling them, "The Rebbe told us on the thirteenth of Tishrei, the farbrengen we quoted earlier should be Simcha. And the Rebbe mentioned about the health of the Friediker Rebbe." So the Rebbe prepared Hasidim, but it wasn't easy. First time making a shabbes for the Rebbe. We never had it in twenty-eight years. That night, the whole shul, Seven Seventy downstairs, was singing one nigun. Originally, the nigun was the Rebbe's l'gezunt zayn, the Rebbe should be well, and after that the nigun was the Rebbe is gezunt. In the middle of the-- this whole singing, the Rebbe went off in bed and took a step off the bed The Rebbe said this is what Hasidim could accomplish. The doctors were nervous because their shul is all one building, and the vibration from downstairs was into the Rebbe's room, and they were concerned that Rebbe won't be able to rest. So the Rebbe said, "It's a sweet music." And, uh, Hasidim continued. The next morning, there was a Shacharis, a selected minyan handpicked, all the Hasidim outside the Rebbe's room. The Rebbe should be able to hear Tachanun, Kriat Shema, v'chol. What I heard from my father was that they gave the Rebbe a small Sefer Torah. I don't know if they gave the Rebbe his Sefer Torah, Sefer Torah, and he had a table, uh, near his bed, and he would move around the Sefer Torah on the table, making Aliyos on the

19:14 table. In other words, becoming the feet of the Sefer Torah. That's what the Rebbe did that morning. The Rebbe gave brochos to those that came in to give brochos. The Rebbe said he doesn't want any crying. That evening or that afternoon, a technician came into the Rebbe and said to the Re-- And was taking blood. They were doing tests. So the Rebbe asked him, "How does it work that the tube goes into the hand and the blood goes against its nature? Blood is liquid, should be going down. How is it that it goes back up into the tube? What pulls it into the tube?" So they told, told the Rebbe it's the vacuum. The vacuum pulls the blood into the tube. So the Rebbe said, "This is a lesson of Eis Hashen," that when a person comes and said he's an empty person, he's a vacuum. He, uh, he has nothing. The Rebbe said there was a person once came to Yechidus to him and said, "I'm a good for nothing. I have nothing. I, I contain nothing. I'm, I'm-- I don't have any quality." The Rebbe says, "Far keert, you are a vessel to receive more than somebody else because you're a vacuum. You consider yourself a vacuum, but mainly you can pull in more with a bigger strength." So the Rebbe says they should give over this message downstairs because we set-- we prepare a farbrengen. Hasidim farbrenged, as the Rebbe would usually farbreng, the Rebbe's place was set up. I think the

20:39 Chassidus, everything. And the secretary came with this message, and he says there's also wine that the Rebbe made Havdalah in his room, and the Rebbe usually gives Kesher Broche, so it'll be distributed by pouring over in more bottles, v'chol. Then he says, "I have a third message for you, which I cannot tell you," the Rebbe said, "till after Havdalah. Till after their Havdalah." We benched Ma'ariv, Havdalah, then came the message. Today, it's like, uh, people hear it, they don't, they don't realize what that meant then. The Rebbe is gonna speak from his room by a PA system. There is a video. There's a video how the Elul is dancing v'chol downstairs hearing it. But I think even a video does not really describe it the way the feeling was. The feeling was the Chassidim were jumping to the roof. The Rebbe is gonna speak a sicha now after such a heart attack, one in millions who survives, and it's within forty-eight hours. Yeah, point forty-eight hours after. They allowed the Rebbe to speak five minutes. The Rebbe spoke twenty-two minutes. The Rebbe included a sicha, a maimar, broches... Yeah, Chassidus. The Rebbe edited it, and actually since then, that winter, the Rebbe was editing every sicha that he spoke from the room, including Ma'amarim. No Nigunim between. The Elul was downstairs, he was in his room. The next, after the farbrengen they asked the Rebbe is he satisfied that he spoke twenty-two minutes. So that's what we heard then. I kept a diary then. The,

22:36 the Rebbe said, "If I should be satisfied to speak, twenty-four hours wouldn't be enough either." It came in Shabbos Bereishit. The Rebbe religiously farbrenged every Shabbos . He got an instruction from the previous Rebbe. They gave the Rebbe twenty minutes to speak. The Rebbe spoke fifty minutes, . And that's how the Rebbe constantly more and more, weiter and weiter. The doctors were looking at the machines, and the Rebbe continued with the farbrengens. Not every Shabbos there was a far-- Not every Shabbos there was a farbrengen. And actually, uh, by the way, for two years, the Rebbe did not farbrengen Shabbos because of that. He needed the PA system in order to, uh, the, to be able to speak, that people should be able to hear him without exertion. There was one farbrengen in the winter that the Rebbe finished early. The doctor got very nervous. The Rebbe is always adding, and here the Rebbe is cutting. He asked the Rebbe, "Why?" The Rebbe says, "I had to adjust the ledger. Here it's too much, so I balanced it, so I made this, uh, less." For weeks, the Rebbe was in his room, forty days. Therapy, walking. Some said the upstairs was closed. The Rebbe would be walking the hallway with the doctor. There's one point that the Rebbe was climbing steps, few. The doctor monitored. Um, and the Rebbe once asked if he can climb, I think it was the Everest Mountains. He was up to climb the Everest Mountain. So he said, "Rebbe, not

24:23 yet. Not yet." He asked-- The Rebbe once asked him, "Could I dance?" He says, "Not yet, Rebbe." He thought now is the Rebbe's ready now to dance. The Rebbe's like pushing ahead and, uh, to plans. Now all of Cheshvan, the Rebbe was in his room. The Rebbe fasted Monday, Thursday, Monday, the bahab after Tishrei, the Rebbe fasted. The Rebbe wanted to go to the Elul. Erev Rosh Chodesh, a week later, he wanted to go to the Elul. The doctors not wanna allow, and in fact, it's an interesting story that happened, that Dr. Weiss, who the cardiologist from, from Chicago, he came in and to the Rebbe's room and he said to the Rebbe that, um, his wife wants him to come back home. He was here already a week. So the Rebbe said, "You should listen to your wife like I listen to my wife." That when I wanted to go to the Ale, she didn't-- she said no. She, she... That wasn't a good idea. Apparently, the Rebbe did not go to the Ale till the fifth day of Hanukkah, which is probably the first time that the Rebbe said a berakhah when he went into Bais Hamikdash after thirty days. From Yud Gimmel Tishrei till Chof Ches Kislev. Okay. The Rebbe, the, the days were getting closer to the Rosh Chodesh Kislev, and the doctor saw the Rebbe should go home. And a day before, the Rebbe went out to his library. In his library, the Rebbe had, uh, a new container of

26:05 things that came from, uh, Poland, a container from the previous Rebbe's library, which there was a whole, uh, a, uh, a whole-- a lot of effort put into it to get it, and they transpor-ported it. So that's when the Rebbe came out the first time, unofficially, to the li-- walked out to the library. The next day in the evening was Thursday night, like this year, exactly. Chodesh Kislev was Thursday night already. The Rebbe went home then. The Rebbe wanted to avoid the crowd. The Rebbe asked, "When is the Elul not outside?" Some-- So the Rebbe says, "I think himself." The Rebbe is not outside, uh, this and this time because they go to eat after, after Ma'ariv. The Elul, the Bochurim go to eat. Secretary didn't realize that the Bochur knew everything that was going on. So actually, there was a very big Elul. There was a whole discussion what needing to start, uh, a Kaf Hanes, Napoleon's march. I don't even remember what the end of the thing was, but I remember we were standing outside it. The Rebbetzin was on the second floor. The, the Rebbe's wife, she watched and she said a lotion on the, uh, on Chassidim that she never saw such a simcha since her father was released from prison in nineteen twenty-seven, fifty years earlier. The Simchat Chassidim. Then started months and months of a process of therapy. The Rebbe is walking. Instead of going with the car, the Rebbe would be walking. There were times that the Rebbe

27:48 was driven to a certain corner on the way home, opened the door, and he would walk, and the car would just go along, uh, at his side to the house. Same thing the other way. Going to Seven seventy, the Rebbe would go out earlier to walk the, the block or whatever it was that, uh, the Rebbe walked. So this was like a whole different sort of a year in this, this sense. And again, the Rebbe farbrengen every Mitzoi, not Shabbos, not every, but whenever he farbrengen was Mitzoi Shabbos because that's when he had a PA system. It finally changed. Vayeira last week was exactly, uh, when the two years then finished. It was in late nineteen seventy-nine, and the Rebbe then farbrengen Shabbos and was Maggia. It was a big simcha then. Vayeira was Chof Ches then. Before the Rebbe went home, the doctors told the Rebbe that he should be very careful because there's a, there is a twenty-five percent chance that Chas v'Shalom it could recur. So the Rebbe snapped back, "There's a seventy-five percent chance that it won't recur." The, um, when-- Before he-- In those days, while before going home, the Rebbe said that he wants to make a point. "My-- The name of my street," the Rebbe says, "is President Street and not Patient Street." And the Rebbe, the Rebbe says he doesn't want any doctors in his house. The Rebbe says anything that he has to go through should be in the room, but not in the house. And

29:28 it, it's interesting because when the Rebbe was upstairs the forty days, they put barricades around Seven seventy upstairs because whoever walked in from the upstairs shul, the, it, the bank would vibrate into the Rebbe's room. And they were push it, uh, nervous. The Rebbe won't have rest. So they put a towel on. It should, it should be softer. Then they put a barricade. How did the Rebbe know about the barricade? He read it in the newspaper. In the Algemeiner, he saw a barricade. So the Rebbe said, "If they do not remove the barricade," the Rebbe says, "I will walk out and I will remove it myself." So they immediately removed it. Um, the Rebbe went home. The Rebbe came back. Um, now the Shabbos after that Shabbos, not Toyeldes, but actually this year, it's like this year, not Shabbos, still it's Parshah Vayeitzei. The Rebbe then, it was tenth Kislev, the Rebbe spoke a farbrengen from his room. The Maimon was the longest Maimon the Rebbe ever said, an hour and thirteen minutes. It's recorded on the recorder, one thirteen. It's a Maimon Kesechar. It has twenty chapters. The Rebbe was Maggid, edited it. It's called Veshavti BeShalom, very famous Maimon from the Rebbe, Veshavti BeShalom. And we think about the name of the Maimon, you realize returning in peace. Um, every year, Rosh Chodesh Kislev, Chassidim say l'chaim. Men, women, children, everybody celebrates. The nes that happened then that the Rebbe came out of this situation, and it was something that the Rebbe prepared

31:11 to Chassidim as we mentioned earlier, and from year to year, Rosh Chodesh Kislev became a Yom Tov of by Chassidim to thank the Aibishter for what took place then. And, uh, from year to year, it grows, pashut, realizing what, what was happening. Now, we think a minute about it, about Rosh Chodesh Kislev. This is one of the only dates that cannot be on Shabbos. Rosh Chodesh Kislev can never fall on Shabbos. Whatever the reason is, but al pi Chassidus, the Rebbe once said about the fifth ner, the fifth candle of Hanukkah can't fall on Shabbos because that's the geulah date of the Alter Rebbe. Likewise, the geulah date of the Rebbe is that. So the Rebbe said, "What does this mean? What's the word, the geulah date?" The Rebbe said geulah date means that when we have, for example, a certain darkness, a darkness in a certain day, which that day can never fall out Shabbos, which means that it's on a very low level. For example, you have certain days, they can be Shabbos, they can be in the w- in, in the weekday. The melech, they have a potential of being elevated to Shabbos day. But then you have certain days that they don't. They're in the dark. In fact, they can never be Shabbos day. It's a weekday. Rosh Chodesh Kislev is like that. So the Rebbe accomplished from that day a Yom Tov. A derech like the Alter Rebbe b'nigat the fifth ner of Hanukkah. So this is basically the, the,

32:40 the Yom Tov of Rosh Chodesh Kislev, how Chassidim realize what it is and farbrengen and, uh, all the inyanim, the, uh, hachlotes, making good resolutions in learning, nigleh Chassidus, hiskashrus, connecting to the Rebbe, doing his pu'alas, his activities, which is basically all the means of hiskashrus to Rebbe by following his teachings, by learning his teachings, v'chulo, v'chulo, as we have it in instruction passed on from one Rebbe to another or from one generation to another.