It was the Rebbe's custom to meet one-on-one ('Yechidus') with each guest who arrived for Tishrei, before they traveled home. In late 1981, when the volume of guests made it impossible to meet with all of them, a general meeting ('Yechidus Klolis') was instituted in its place, which lasted for about 10 years until the Chof Zayin Adar.

Video: ‘Yechidus Klolis’ in 2012

It was the Rebbe’s custom to meet one-on-one (‘Yechidus’) with each guest who arrived for Tishrei, before they traveled home. In late 1981, when the volume of guests made it impossible to meet with all of them, a general meeting (‘Yechidus Klolis’) was instituted in its place, which lasted for about 10 years until the Chof Zayin Adar.

After a 20 hiatus, the Yechidus Klolis appears to have been reinstituted, as can be seen in these photos and videos.

99 Comments

  • Oh Come On, Really?

    You were having such a good day today, you posted such good stories, charges dropped, a school pays respect, you featured a beautiful organization, a Shabbaton, and now this junk.

    What for?

  • i have met the enemy and it is us

    are you kidding me
    i believe that if thats what these crackposts do do not allow them into 770
    there is something wrong with this and i hope krinsky shemtov kptlarsky do domething

    this makes it embarrassing to call yourself lubavitch

  • Mr. Face Reality

    Why isn’t the Microphone connected?
    Why is the rest of the shule doing there own thing?
    How do they know how long the Rebbe is gonna stay for?
    How come there is no women for this Yechiduse?

  • Yossi

    These people have to get over it. The Rebbe passed away in 1992. Who are these people are they from Israel?? Where are they from. Here in Florida there a group of these people they all have this crazy look in their eyes. You know how the Taliban and other Muslims believe that killing us infidels is all lsheim shamayim. Its the same warpped belief that these people have . Crazy

  • Sad

    Not even worth to comment, nothing will help except the real Moshiach, which these people know nothing about.

  • dovid

    sad! im sure these guys are sincere….but this is misguided…this worse then adults playing house…or hide and seek….this worse then just laughable….never in lubavitch history did we have such imbeciles…this has no place in lubavitch…shame on the people behind this….wonder what sb drizin thinks of this!

  • steadicam

    Don’t try doing a stabilize motion effect on very shaky footage, it doesn’t look right… save it for the good footage

  • Just Asking….

    What happened to PaNs once the yechidus was over? Someone took them to the Ohel?

  • Real Meshichist

    This should be moved to R-building. An EST therapy machine can be used instead of the chair.

  • Milhouse

    One can talk about chitzonius, and how they should go to the Ohel, but essentially they are following what the Rebbe wrote in his letter after the Frierdicker Rebbe’s histalkus, that one who was in yechidus should recall that event and imagine himself back there, standing before the Rebbe, and write a Pan and put it in one of the Rebbe’s maamorim. Staging it like this, like it used to be, seems on the one hand like chitzoniyus, but on the other hand it helps with the recollection for those who were there, and it certainly helps those who were not zoche to be there to imagine themselves there, just as learning Hilchos Beis Habechira and looking at models of the Beis Hamikdosh helps us, who never saw it, to imagine ourselves there when we read the Avodah of Yom Kippur. So instead of criticising, let us give these people a yasher koach, and learn a lesson from them, as the Baal Shem Tov said, and the Rebbe often repeated, that one should learn a lesson from anything that comes to ones attention. And this restraint from criticism and taking a positive lesson will itself be a mitzvah of ahavas yisroel, so how could it be bad?

  • the equalizer

    i think i see shwei and braun standing and watching, they are both not well.

  • horrified

    its enough that they are meshugoyim and we have to deal with this—but why put it out there so that all ourcritics have food for fodder??

  • David

    This makes me very very sad. This behavior is not the way of the Torah. Likely close to Avodah Zarah. These people need serious Physcological help…

  • ahavas yisroel

    Live and let live. If this makes them feel closer to the rebbe and improves their deafeningearning and Bahamas Israel let. It be are we going to forget how the world laughed at the ways of classicism in genrall starting from the bsht soon mosaic will come so let’s start seeing the good in others.

  • circus

    welcome to clown heights.

    how did they get the rebbes chair? i feel thast when ever i go near the rebbes podium im in danger of being attacked by tzfatim.

  • chillul

    millhouse
    stick your yellow flag in your………….pocket
    you can do this mentally, you dont need this show that is a chillul Lubavitch

  • moshe

    nebach and these brainwashed kids….they have no chance of growing up normal chasideshe frum kids…

    where is rabbis braun and shchwe on this.? is this what drizin pays for?

  • dear yossi

    bs”d

    to #12- the reason you (and most others) are writing like that is because you are ignorant. mainly showing by the fact that you wrote 1992. but the probable reason for that is that once you couldn’t communicate with the rebbe(the way you used to be able to) you decided that the rebbe might as well not be here anymore. but by the way,putting a letter in the ohel is just as avodah zoro as this, and the rebbe explains why its not in at least one probably more sichos. but i can tell you as somone who never saw the rebbe b’enei bosor, that this would realy help in hiskashrus for most people under my status,just like going into the rebbe’s room.

    but the main thing is achdus,wether you agree with what i said or don’t, wether you are mishichist or not, wether you think/know that tzfatim act like animals or not, this wont help, and the only way to realy bring moshiach is to work together.

  • dear yossi

    bs”d

    to #12- the reason you (and most others) are writing like that is because you are ignorant. mainly showing by the fact that you wrote 1992. but the probable reason for that is that once you couldn’t communicate with the rebbe(the way you used to be able to) you decided that the rebbe might as well not be here anymore. but by the way,putting a letter in the ohel is just as avodah zoro as this, and the rebbe explains why its not in at least one probably more sichos. but i can tell you as somone who never saw the rebbe b’enei bosor, that this would realy help in hiskashrus for most people under my status,just like going into the rebbe’s room.

    but the main thing is achdus,wether you agree with what i said or don’t, wether you are mishichist or not, wether you think/know that tzfatim act like animals or not, this wont help, and the only way to realy bring moshiach is to work together.

  • Correction.

    To #12 – I’m not sure which Rebbe you’re talking about because as I remember it the histalkus was in 1994!(not1992)

    To #23 – They couldn’t take their Panim to the Ohel because these guys believe that there is no Ohel. After all,nobody died!

  • yankel

    Now we know were MILLHOUSE stands!!!
    Closet Meshichist, Apologist extraordinaire!
    Never fooled me, though.
    Millhouse is as yellow as can be

  • contamination

    Dollars must have become too expensive… At least they’re confined just to this space, and they don’t cpntaminate the rest of 770. to Millhouse: The Rebbe said IMAGINE. The Rebbe said where to put the Pan. Once you begin tampering, and then changing, the Rebbe’s words, you get this fiasco, complete with scribbles on Yarmulke’s and flags on suits and garbage cans. This is not Chitzoniyus. This is madness.

  • Real Meshichist

    Downstate Hospital 6 Floor

    Sorry, but they need a whole building and not just a floor!

    R-building it must be!

    Then again, they may have enough multiple personalities and diagnoses to take up gantz Kingsboro!

  • Dr Freud

    I’m sorry to say that whoever supports such behavior must be nuts and should be treated as such. We have never seen such behavior in Lubavitch, not after any Rebbe. This must not be allowed to go on. Who is running the asylum?

  • me and me

    how utterly sad and insane…too bad as this is what many see of us for shame…misguided zombies…yup!

  • amerika iz nisht andresh

    It amazes me how many people almost 54 comments are making fun of these people calling them names.. etc…
    They are so worried about Chilul Lubavitch… Avoideh Zoreh… etc..
    After all is said and done….the only bochrim that I saw doing Mivtzeh Lulov …etc
    I want to say that i am NOT a mechichest .. at least what the traditional meaning of the word …
    BUT BUT BUT leman Hashem…. I would 100 times over would want to have a child…going to so called YEchidus… then bumming around the streets dressed like a——!!!!! with ISSUES,,,, this yeshiva is no good this menhael is no good…
    We in Crown Heights in general and as Chassdim in general have much igger fish to fry….
    Af a Iden darf men shtendik kooken wmit a rectin oig!!!

  • Yosef C.

    When JB Soloveichik was by the Rebbe for an Hour Sicha, he remarked that Ittche (Yitzchok Hutner) could say this in 20 minutes, and I (JB) can say it in three minutes. So they asked him, so why dont you say it?, He answered, because it is not important.

  • CH

    this happens every shabbos at 130pm, they hold up their cups to say lechaim and are quit so the Rebbe can say a sicha, at 1:35 they sing again.

  • Why is this allowed?

    These sick people, and whoever allows such things to take place, OSID LITAIN ES HADIN. But enough already, this craziness must stop immediately and never be allowed to be repeated.

  • Only a lunatic could support this

    Whoever supports such lunacy demonstrates he is most certainly a lunatic as well.

  • Mordechai

    To #57

    Very interesting. I never considered JB Soloveichick, an admirer of the Rebbe, because he never recomended anyone to come visit the Shchuna or to a Farbrengen.

  • the people in that room and this article

    The people in the room are sincerely trying to have a kesher with the Rebbe. If you agree with them or not, they are NOT out to hurt anyone and are trying to be closer to the Rebbe.

    This article and many of the comments, on the other hand, were put up with the purpose of belittling others.

    Now who should be embaressed?

  • Ahavas Yisroel

    I remember hearing a story about some ‘crazy’ chassidm in Russia turning over a bench and sitting on it like they were travelling to the Rebbe in America and were scoffed at by some watching on the side (60 years before we had ch.info) So the story goes, they all ended up in America! I would not do that but deep down I kinda envy them, somewhat. Don’t you?

  • BT-s

    I believe that the Rebbi made a mistake by integrating all the BT’s into mainstream Lubavitch, and although me being a son of one, I’ll still admit that he was wrong. They’re destroying Lubavitch year after year, and most of them never even met the Rebbi.
    Skver also makes a ton BT’s, but they have separate schools for them until they’re ready to integrate or move on to a different Jewish group.

  • So disturbed

    So disturbing!!! Refuah sheliama to all of them. The saddest part is if any of these nut jobs had experienced the real thing they wouldnt dare have the audacity to attempt to re create it!!

  • tales of yellow flags ........

    Yellow flags,meshugena ideas and behavior, this is not what i signed up for- I can’t understand it much less explain to my family what the heck has gone wrong here.
    What I can’t understand is why the bigshots in control aren’t doing anything about this?
    Why allow disturbed people to do this and to make such a chilul Hashem?
    The final straw was when my kids came home and mixed up G-d , Moshiach and the Rebbe .
    Too much stress on the Rebbe and not enough on AVODAS HASHEM.
    My answer was we all serve/daven to HASHEM only and everyone the Rebbe and Moshiach work for Hashem.
    Sorry but if that makes me not a Lubab, then I’d rather be a simple Jew. At least I know and my kids know what the emes is.

  • not surprised!

    by the way – most in the bais menachem in North Miami Beach shul are closet Meshichists , some don’t even bother with hiding in the closet…

  • WHY BLAME JUST THE BT-S?

    stop blaming the BT’S
    THE FRUM FROM BIRTHNIKS ARE ALLOWING THIS AND BELIEVERS AS WELL

  • to 62

    62
    do not try to justify this narishkait, You wanna get close to the Rebbe: learn all sichos and maamorim by heart.You dont get close to the Rebbe making yourself a stupid in the eyes of the world and instilling incredibility to Chabad,This is chitznonius and because is not for a pnimi .you only can damage everything that the rebbe stood for: to bring people closer to Yddishkait and not to merachek (as is the only outcome for such behavior on the name of chabad> People have to know that this is NOT CHABAD,

  • Chosid

    I wouldn’t do this myself but I would take their hiskashrus over any of yours. A little varinkeit wouldn’t kill you, just like a little shtus is not destroying anything by them.

  • concerned

    Poor Rebbe, He needs to put up with the smell of all these people, why no unsmelly people came?

  • Yankel

    To # 57

    I heard the story of JB Soloveichik right after his coming to the Farbrengen and sitting right next to the Rebbe for an Hour.

    It bothered me that on his ride home, he degraded the value of the Rebbe’s Sichos.

  • To #64

    Do you really not have a problem saying the Rebbe made a mistake?? !! you even think you have a better solution…. What Chutzpah!

    Im not sure you understand what a Rebbe is, time to educate yourself – for your own good if you consider yourself a Chossid.

  • Ad mosai!!!

    Can Anash take a vote if we really want this taking place in 770 Genug Shoin!!! Can we bring back the kavod to 770 and not bring all this bizyoinas!! When will we be able to bring our children to 770 and allow them to see atleast a semblance od normalcy.. Hashem Yerachaim

  • Sruly C

    These guys need 1. Hardcore maediction. And 2. A taxi ride to the Ohel where giving Panim is acceptable.

  • Ad Mosai!!!!!

    We always hear about hiskashrus. Where are these same chassidim when such bizyonos take place in the Rebbes Bais Medraesh all these years!!!
    When will the necessary action take place and bring back normalacy in 770. Does anyone really care about the Rebbes kavod!!!

  • to 64

    the problem is not bt’s. how dare u. the problem is that u dont know what to do with them.

  • millhouse, you-re way off base

    The Rebbe told chassidim in 5710 who lived with & saw the Frierdiker Rebbe to recall the yechidus, davening, giving a pan, etc.
    He never said it in the later years, where most of the chassidim did not see the Rebbe and it wouldn’t apply to them.

    We have some kids who are trying to re-enact something they don’t begin to understand. Supposedly the Rebbe is taking letters, u have some kids playing right there, the bochurim didn’t even bother tucking in their shirts, whom are they kidding?

    Millhouse, i know u personally. Did u ever go to the Rebbe for a dollar, yechidus klolis, kois shel brocha, lekach, maamar, looking like a total slob? would u dare approach the Rebbe with a towel that u just jumped out of the mikva? This is young confused guys with no idea of what derech eretz for for the Rebbe means, who watch videos and try to somehow channel the Rebbe in a totally ridiculous way.

    L’havdil, this would be like we all put on high socks, white wigs and girdles, and decide to re-enact the constitutional convention in philly 1779. we might look right, but do we have the intensity of the discussions, arguments, final agreements? and this is even worse, bec it totally distorts yechidus, the Rebbe, and what we should be doing to connect.

  • Sane BT Meshichist

    Sorry, but these nuts are not necessarily from BT families or BTs themselves. Some are from top gezhe families in EY and others are second-generation Lubavitchers from frum families who came in from other communities in EY.

    Belz is the Chassidus that supposedly makes and segregates BTs, not Skvere that just invites modern kids from YU over for a Shabbos or two. While they have some educational programs and social programs that others use, I have never met a single product of their supposed BT yeshivas.

  • To 26 & 27

    I agree with no 26. As for the chutzpa of number 27, all I could say is:“מדחציף כולי האי ש”מ ממזר הוא”

  • Maskil

    It’s amazing how these meshichistim hold views very similar to those of Shias,rather than to Roman Catholics(as many detractors accuse them):while Catholics view Yoshke as G-d chas ve shalom,and worship amulets,pieces of the cross,blood of dead saints,etc(things that Protestant Yoshkians don’t do) the Shias(which I don’t consider real Muslims)claim that their Imams,expecially Ali have divine nature but they don’t claim they are G-d.
    The difference might seem subtle,but it ain’t!

  • to #64

    i dont know where you are living. my parents are BT and theie yiddishkeit is more sinceer than almost all of the FFB lubavitchers i met. to be able to give up a comfortable life and live with less just because they beleive in hashem takes a very high level. b’makom shebaalei teshuva omdim, ein tzadikim gemurim yecholim la’amod

  • Milhouse

    #79, you’re right that they don’t really get it — how can they? Those who do remember, and participate in this reenactment, do so properly. Those who don’t remember are trying their best, and nebach they don’t understand. For this they should be pitied, not condemned. At least they’re trying. At least they *want* to be mekushar, and this is how they think they can come closest to it.

    You bring up historical reenactments. You are aware that people *do* exactly this, in order to better understand and try to get a feeling for what the historical events were like. Why do you think they have places like Historic Williamsburg, or for that matter ren faires? Because getting into a scene helps the koach hadimyon. So why are you down on this? If the reenactment is not accurate, then teach them. Assuming you can’t dissuade them from this strange behavior altogether, of course. To that they won’t listen. But maybe if you play along with their worldview, you can at least teach them how one goes before the Rebbe. It will stand them in good stead when bimheiro the Rebbe will return to us, together with the Frierdiker Rebbe and the earlier Nesi’im; at least they’ll know how to behave then. (See the halocho that one should go to see goyishe kings, so that when Moshiach comes we’ll know how to appreciate him.)

  • Sane BT Meshichist

    770 is not a site for some corny Renaissance Faire.

    If the farkokters want to do this, let them do it in the ruins of the old G-building, where they can build a replica of 770 and anything else they want.

    These nuts are ruining the Rebbe’s shul for everyone.

  • Most of the comments - Ignorance

    BS“D

    While reading most of the comments here, the main thing I see is ignorance.

    Even according to those that think that there was a histalkus, most of those commenting here are not aware of how the Rebbe himself behaved.

    There is the known picture of the Rebbe sitting in the dining room of the Rebbe Rayatz and the chair of the Rebbe Rayatz at the head of the table. Everyone is silent. If you think that’s my observation, read Hamelech BeMsibo, or speak with its author Rabbi Menashe Laufer, who will tell you that all chassidim who were at those meals recount how the Rebbe sat in complete silence, just as if you could see the Rebbe Rayatz.

    Those who read a little more know that the Rebbe Rashab entered the Yechidus room of the Rebbe Maharash after the histalkus, and placed a P”N on the table, waited a few moments, and then took the P“N back.

    Who are you making aggressive comments against? Rabboseinu Nessienu?

    And when several of you say ”this has never been in Lubavitch“ – you clearly couldn’t know any less.

    Instead of living vicariously and making yente comments, why don’t you open up Reshimos Dvarim, Shmuot VeSippurim (both sets stories of Lubavitch history encouraged to be printed by the Rebbe), Hamelech BeMssibo, etc. And if you get some extra time, open also Sefer Hasichos 5752 and learn the Sicha of Bo 5752, where the Rebbe says that in our generation there won’t be histalkus hanshama min haguf, in the words of the Rebbe: ”Mah She’eion ken be’dorenu zeh”.

    I would say all the above in a softer tone, if the comments were people wondering things innocently, as opposed to aggressiveness towards the Rebbeim and the Chassidim, arising out of pure ignorance.

  • Tsfati

    to Yudi 89. No one is forcing you to stay. We will be better off without you. You could join all the leftists who don’t believe in TORAH and MOSHIACH

  • Tsfati

    to Yudi 89. No one is forcing you to stay. We will be better off without you. You could join all the leftists who don’t believe in TORAH and MOSHIACH

  • Maskil

    #88,nobody says this is not the way of Lubavitchers;people say it’s not the way of the Torah!In other words,necromancy is clearly forbidden!

  • Maskil

    #88,so bowing to an empty chair which belonged to a deceased Rebbe is perfectly ok for you?Is this Judaism,in your opinion?

  • Hiskashrus My Foot

    To those claiming this is just “hiskashrus” — you are totally wrong. This is the very opposite of “hiskashrus.” As the Rebbe zt“l himself characterized those who did things even much less outrageous, they are ”FIGHTING A WAR AGAINST THE REBBE AND THE ENTIRE DERECH HABAAL SHEM TOV“!

    To Milhouse, #88, and those claiming this is fine upstanding behavior, with precedents in Lubavitch history – you are way off your rockers! If the Rebbe zt”l sat with and empty chair of the Previous Rebbe, and if the Rashab gave a Pan that way to the Maharash, these were only one time events to express that sentiment which occurred immediately after the histalkus, which they fully recognized, and after which they right away moved on to deal with the reality.

    In contrast, what we are dealing with here is 18 plus years of Phoniness and Open War Against the Rebbe, by disturbed people who refuse to recognize that there has been a histalkus.

    This is NOT hiskashrus, it is total SHEKER and OPEN REBELLION against the Derech HaChassidus and the Derech HaShem – and it must be stopped immediately.

  • Chai V-kayom L-olom Voed

    Beautiful. A big kiddush Hashem. Making Litzanus will get you nowhere. You probably don’t open the door for Eliyohu at the Seder on Pesech- even if you do join a seder. People like you who don’t believe are a disgrace for Chabad.

  • To 92, 93, 94

    BS“D

    Number 92 – in your claim you’re not refuting what the Rebbe and Rebbe Rashab themselves did, you’re simply refuting what the Rebbeim do and Lubavitch in general as being anti-Torah.
    This is a separate discussion, and not really the focus of this post. I wouldn’t mind sitting and learning the sources with you that explain that not only is Lubavitch derech not against the Torah, but is the center of the Torah path, being that Chassidus is the pinimiyus of all 4 levels of PARDES.
    Come to 770 and we’ll learn. With regards the necromancy (chas veshalom) claim, again your claim is raised against the behaviour of Rabboseinu Nessienu HaKdoshim. By this token, even someone who went to the Arizal’s kever and said Maaneh Lashon would be accused of the same (rachmana litzlan) by you.

    Number 93 – Judaism in my opinion is believing every word of the Rebbe in complete faith. I don’t bow down to chairs, and never have, but if you are referring to someone bowing slightly towards the Rebbe’s place when laying the P”N on the table, that’s what seems to be was how the Rebbe Rashab laid the P“N down on his father’s table, if you read the lshon in the story that’s how it appears. There is nothing wrong with having complete reverence and awe for a Tzaddik, it’s actually completely right. The Tzaddik is a complete Mishkan and Mikdash to Hashem, and if you look at videos of Chassidim passing by the Rebbe by dollars, you see that they are lowering their head in submission.

    Number 94 – I’m not really sure which sicha you’re quoting and what the Rebbe was speaking against in that sicha. Perhaps you can quote a book and page number?

    Also – you’re clearly not knowledgeable with regards to facts, and even distorting them. Read the Hakdamah to Hamelech BeMsibo, volume 1, and you’ll see that this was the way the Rebbe behaved for years on end, as a matter of fact till 5731, when Rebbetzin Nechama Dina was nistalek, and then the Rebbe stopped eating the meal by the Rebbe Rayatz’s apartment. That’s about 21 years from 5710.

    It may be hard for you to leave your sechel and its limitations. But if you can’t identify with the hergesh and hitkashrus of Chassidim, and of the Rebbeim, why don’t you daven to Hashem to give you ‘ptichas halev’ so you’ll also feel the same hergesh. They, those attending the Yechidus, were not trying to shut you down or win anyone, they were behaving with emunah. Your way of trying to ”shut things down” doesn’t sound to me like any kind of Derech HaChassidus or Derech Hashem.

  • Sane BT Meshichist

    Unless the Rebbe specifically told us to do something like this, we cannot make fools of ourselves and of Chabad by doing it. Show me where the Rebbe said we should engage in such leitzonus.

  • levi keller

    It’s not a big leap from yechides kloles to a mes chai… if everything can be it’s opposite, then it only follows, like #96 said, that you have already left ‘your seichel and its limitations’