Chabad’s Terror Victims Project (CTVP) has just returned from making highly emotional shiva calls to the families of two young Israelis brutally murdered during the recent wave of horrific terror attacks sweeping across Israel.
Marking Yud Tes Kislev, the Kehilah of Empire Shteibel hosted a Farbrengen with Rabbi Mordechai Gurary in honor of the auspicious day.
Yankel and Chaya Mushka (nee Katzman) Raskin (Crown Heights)
Mendy and Dini (nee Benjaminson) Avtzon (Marina Del Rey, CA)
Leshana Tovah Belimud HaChasidus ve Darchei HaChasidus, Tikosaivu VeTichosaimu!
Today, Yud Tes Kislev, “The Rosh Hashanah of Chassidus,” marks 217 years since the release of the Alter Rebbe, R. Schneur Zalman of Liadi, founder of Chasidus Chabad, from prison in the year 5559 (1798). This year also marks 203 years since the Alter Rebbe’s Histalkus. In honor of this auspicious day, which is referred to by Chasidim as the “Holiday of Holidays,” Farbrengens are being held around the world!
Steaming-hot chicken soup with carrots, a fluffy matzah ball sitting in the golden broth. Potato latkes piled high, covered with a healthy dose of sour cream or applesauce. And gefilte fish—that sometimes maligned but secretly loved mixture of ground carp, eggs, matzah meal, pepper and sugar, eaten with the mandatory chrein (Yiddish for “horseradish”). Jewish food has a way of stirring up our fondest memories: a grandmother’s Formica kitchen, a snowy Chanukah evening, a traditional Shabbat meal.
This Thursday, 21 Kislev, soldiers in Tzivos Hashem in elementary and middle schools across the world will unite by studying the orders of their commanding general through a new, specially created curriculum.
During a brief meeting in Paris between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in which Israeli-Russian military cooperation on Syria to prevent “unnecessary accidents” was discussed, Putin praised the holiday of Chanukah, saying it symbolizes the triumph of light over darkness.
After a 3-week-long trial, former New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D), who was one of New York’s most powerful politicians, has been convicted by a federal jury of bribery and extortion.
Concerned that second graders in Beis Rivka are not being educated on the proper foundations of Chumash study, one parent and occupational therapist, Chani Klein, raised this concern with school administrators to no avail.
Uniting Boston’s Jewish community, over 20 Chabad Centers gathered Motzei Shabbes for an inspiring program in honor of Yud Tes Kislev. The evening was filled with powerful ideas of Chassidus and warm spiritual insights to the Yud Tes Kislev story and the applied lessons to our times.
In a sight yet to be seen in Moscow, some 2,000 people gathered to partake in a grand Yud Tes Kislev Farbrengen, marking the day the Alter Rebbe was freed from Czarist prison.
With the approach of the Chag HaGeulah of Yud-Tes Kislev, Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky released an open letter to the community, reminding everyone to to take part in the annual ‘Chalukas Hashas,’ an initiative begun by the Alter Rebbe following his release from prison.
Chabad Lubavitch of Baltimore organized a special Maleveh Malkah last night, Motzaei Shabbos, to celebrate the 34th Siyum HaRambam, the yahrzeit of the Maggid of Mezrtich and the Chag Hageulah of 19 of Kislev. The crowd, numbering around 300, gathered in Cheder Chabad for the event, to hear words of Torah and inspiration from both local and guest Rabbonim.
Rabbi Yossi Jacobson delivers a passionate oration at the annual Melave Malka and Farbrengen in honor of Yud Tes Kislev in Monsey, NY, which was attended by hundreds of Jews of all backgrounds and stripes.
Mendy and Malka (nee Rosenfeld) Katsman (Crown Heights)
Last night, Motzei Shabbos, Reb Yoel Kahan, the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s head ‘Chozer,’ paid a visit to the Belzer Rebbe, Rabbi Yissachar Dov Rokeach, with whom he discussed deep concepts in Torah and Chassidus.
