Girls Describe ‘Hachnosas Orchim’ in Crown Heights

Dramatic change came this year for girls who stayed in Crown Heights for the month of Tishrei. Thanks to the help of a number of donors Bnot Chabad provided dignified accommodation for some 200 girls, meaningful programing throughout their stay, daily meals and trips to the Ohel. As the guests make their way back home with renewed Chayus and Hiskashrus, some share their experiences spending ‘Tishrei with the Rebbe’.

Tishrei 5775 has come to an end and the girls who came in for the month are slowly making their way back home to Eretz Yisroel, to continue the school year with renewed Chayus, a deep Hiskashrus, and with spiritual suitcases that were filled during a month well-spent near the Rebbe.

This year’s Tishrei definitely made its mark in the histories of Tishrei for the girls who participated in the official program of Bnot Chabad, with significant improvements in arranged meals and living quarters. This was done thanks to the generous donation of those heading the Hachnosas Orchim in Crown Heights that was established by Rabbi Moshe Yeruslavsky OBM: R’ Avrohom Lokshin, R’ Shneur Minsky, R’ Shlomo Hershkop and R’ Nachman Lokshin.

The initiative to have organized classes with a variety of Rabbonim, daily trips to the Ohel for those interested, authentic Chassidishe Farbrengens, Mivtzoim, all in a proper, tzniusdike and chassidishe atmosphere has gained momentum over the years. It became more organized this year, with counselors and staff, a program well-prepared in advance, and most importantly: taking care of the gashmiyus of the girls so that they could spend their time and energy gaining as much of possible from being in the Rebbe’s daled amos.

This year for the very first time, instead of being located in apartments far-out, the girls got to stay in a beautiful four-story house on President near Kingston, right in the ‘heart’ of Crown Heights. In the “Hachnosas Orchim house” of Bnot Chabad, thanks to Mrs. Sarah Labkowsky, the girls had spacious rooms, nice bathrooms and showers, a classroom, a comfortable lunch room where they received hot and nutritious meals daily, a nice porch, couch areas for those looking for a quiet corner, and more, as you will see from the pictures below.

Bnot Chabad would also like to thank Rabbi Menachem Mendel Sharfstein and Rabbi Yirmiya Berkowitz from Merkos Leinyonei Chinuch for all their help during the month of Tishrei.

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This time, though, we choose to bring you from the girls’ point of view, letters the girls themselves wrote that are being publicized here, obviously, with their consent:

1.

Dear Tati and Mommy,

Boruch Hashem, I’m really enjoying my stay by the Rebbe. We have great counselors! They are chassidishe girls, responsible and caring, and make themselves available to us 24/7.

Every morning, we wake up to learn Chassidus in a special shiur arranged for us at 770. There is no better way to prepare ourselves for davening than in the midst of all the guest in the Rebbe’s Shul.

The staff made sure to arrange for us the best of the best in ruchniyus. We heard from and farbrenged with: Mrs. Henya Laine, Mrs. Chani Kalmenson, Mrs. Sarah Labkowsky, Mrs. Tzivya Jacobson, and more.

The shiurim are all about the Rebbe’s teachings, halachos of the next yom tov coming up, inyanei geula umoshiach, chassidishe hashkafa, bayis hayehudi, and memories of the beautiful times of Tishrei with the Rebbe throughout the years. We had fantastic shiurim and farbrengens with great rabbonim, some from Crown Heights and some visitors, a few that I remember include:

Rabbi Shlomo Segal, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Segal, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Katzman, Rabbi Menachem Kenig, Rabbi Dovid Dubov, Rabbi Yisroel Shimon Kalmenson, Rabbi Shmuel Pevzner, Rabbi Efrayim Mintz, Rabbi Chaim Yehuda Krinsky, Rabbi Michoel Aharon Zeligson, Rabbi Levi Kaplan, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Kanelsky, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Butman, Rabbi Boruch Kahana, Rabbi Kalman Weinfeld, Rabbi Nota Shemtov, Rabbi Nochum Kaplan, Rabbi Avrohom Holtzberg, Rabbi Shlomo Sternberg, Rabbi Zev Katz, Rabbi Shalom Dovber Levin, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Katz, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Gorelik, Rabbi Zalman Posner, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Gordon.

Besides for hearing, we also get to see. We saw some rare footage of the Rebbe thanks to Rabbi Elkana Shmotkin, director of JEM. We also went on a tour of JEM where we saw first-hand the amount of work that the yungerleit and bochurim are putting in in order that thousands of pictures and videos should be available to all.

On Shabbos and Yom Tov, we were divided up between amazing families who graciously opened their hearts and houses to host us all. Even the meals over here have a chassidishe atmosphere – we always got to hear short personal stories of the Rebbe from our hosts. It makes it all the more special when we get to hear something first hand.

I must say that the gashmiyus is also great (just so you shouldn’t be worried…) BH, we have everything we need, thanks to Minsky, Lokshin and Hershkop who really care for us. They always check up on us to make sure we’re okay and that nothing’s missing. The food is nutritious, yummy and hot. We’re really well taken care of.

Ashreinu!

Racheli S.

2.

My dearest sister Rivkah tichye,

I wanted to share with you some of the inspiring moments that I experience here every so often, during my first Tishrei by the Rebbe.

Besides for just being a whole month in Chatzros Kodsheinu, there are certain days when I feel connected to the Rebbe in a real way.

Firstly and most importantly, it’s the fact that I’m here, that I traveled all the way here. Just to be by the Rebbe’s Ohel is inspiring. We always prepare before going, learning on our own and participating in shiurim about what it means to go in to the Rebbe for “yechidus”. This is the time to open our hearts and request all our heart’s desires. Lots of ruchniyus and some gashmiyus (we learnt that it’s okay..)

Next to the Ohel are buried the Rebbetzins: Rebbetzin Chana OBM, the Rebbe’s mother, and Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka OBM, the Rebbe’s wife. We always make a point to stop there and daven after we come out of the Ohel, just like the Rebbe did.

Also in Crown Heights itself, we had special moments. Like when we went in to the Rebbe’s Yechidus Room. We were so full of awe, just stepping over the threshold. Thanks to the mashbak Rabbi Shalom Ber Gansburg, we got permission to stay a little longer.

We also had a tour in the WLCC. Our tour guide was Rabbi Chaim Boruch Halbershtam. It was then that we realized the real greatness of Chabad. We were the first to take advantage of technology to spread the wellsprings of Torah and Chassidus. We saw the window where Rabbi JJ Hecht sat and translated the Rebbe’s words into English. Imagine seeing the real microphones the Rebbe spoke hours of Chassidus into!

Already the first week we were zoche to step into the very house where the Rebbe and the Rebbetzin lived for many years. Every one of us poured out her heart in her Siddur or Tehillim, we couldn’t get enough, we just tried soaking it all in.. the simpleness of the home is so.. loud! We were told that even this is after some basic renovations.. I think we felt for the first time some real bittul..

Let me know how things are going by you,
Chani V.

3.

To my oldest brother,

I know that you’re on shlichus now, working hard with mesirus nefesh far away in Ukraine and that you really miss Tishrei. But I think that any updates and anything there is to see about Tishrei this year, you already heard. So I have something else I wanted to tell you.

You always told us how it was to spend Rosh Hashana near the Rebbe, and how special Yom Kippur is by the Ohel, what it’s like to dance hakafos in the rain right outside the Ohel. And I know that girls (and women) don’t usually spend too much time near the Ohel. Usually we just come for a short visit and go right back to Crown Heights.

This year, though, thanks to Bnot Chabad opening an official program for Israeli girls, we were zoche to organized trips and full days near the Ohel in a really organized way.

After davening Shachris with the minyan in 770, the whole group (and whoever wanted to join) got on to comfortable buses that take us to the Ohel. During the ride, girls were busy learning with the booklets we got, one was saying chitas, while the other was learning Maamar Hahishtatchus. No matter what they were doing, the seriousness was evident on everyone.

When we got there, we heard a special shiur on what it means to come to the Rebbe. We also got clear instructions on how to write a pan and a duch and how to approach coming to the Rebbe after Gimmel Tammuz. Basically, an all-around pnimiyusdike preparation.

Our counselors made sure we all had a maaneh lashon and a tehillim, and we were given ample time at the Ohel without being pushed out, just like a real yechidus with the Rebbe.

There’s no words to describe what it’s like to walk in, to the Kodesh Hakodoshim…

After we came out, we got refreshements, or more precisely, a beautiful lunch was set out for us. It turned into a happy farbrengen, just like in the stories we heard of Chassidim, that after they came out from yechidus, there was a tnuah of simcha. Afterwards, we learnt a bit in chavrusos, just because we wanted to take advantage of being in close proximity to the Ohel.

So from this year on, be prepared to hear a girls version of visiting to the Ohel, too!

See you soon,
Mushky B.