A new year is approaching, and in the undercurrent of every Chossid’s “Elul-wind” is a special urgency: the year of Hakhel is upon us. The Rebbe transformed Hakhel from a rare event involving the King’s recitation of the Torah, to a widespread campaign obligating every one of us to inspire our sphere of influence.
Hakhel is considered so vital, that on Sukkos, Shnas Hakhel 5748, the Rebbe veered from the way he had observed the Friediker Rebbe unite the arbah minim during the recitation of Hallel. “Despite personal hardship and raising a notion, chas veshalom, of a lack of hiskashrus to my Rebbe,” the Rebbe later stated, “I held the lulav and esrog together so extensively to affect the great unity of Hakhel!”