Parshas Vayishlach

 

Hey there kinderlach!
So how has your Chodesh Kislev been so far? I’m sure it has been action-packed just like mine! Do you remember where I said that I was going to be this week? Yup! Got it right first time – in the city of Petersburg (once upon a time known as Leningrad), Russia. A long way from the sunny (or at this time of year more like rainy) cornfields of Iowa.
It all started a few months ago when I got a phone-call from deep in Siberia. It was my good old friend Professor Ivanovitch on the phone. He is not only a good and old friend of mine, but he is also (as far as I know) the only other Seeing and Lens Making Professor in the world. Unfortunately Professor Ivanovitch however is not Jewish, so he makes totally different types of lenses to me – the Russians are not really interested in COL lenses or any other type of Chassidishe lens. Recently though, we have started working together on a new S.MI.LE. lens. Can you guess what S.MI.LE. stands for? Well of course! Sheva Mitzvos Lens!
Anyway, Professor Ivanovitch was calling to invite me to come and see the making of this lens in his new, state-of-the-art laboratory. Well, to be honest, the idea of travelling to deepest Siberia in the winter didn’t exactly make me feel all warm inside. But then Professor Ivanovitch reminded me that his new laboratory wasn’t in Siberia. It was actually in a little town called Pavlova which is just outside Petersburg.
‘Ahh, Petersburg,’ I said to Professor Ivanovitch, ‘now that is a totally different story.’ You see like most of you, I’ve never actually been to Russia, and a chance to go see the Petropolsky Prison and the Shpalerna Jail, and all the other ‘tourist attractions,’ of Petersburg was something that I was not going to turn down. Especially if the trip was going to be sponsored by the Russian Ministry of Science and Industry.
And so started the preparations for the grand trip. Every time Mrs Getzel went to the store I would remind her to buy tuna and crackers. And crackers and tuna. And tuna and crackers. Then, just as I think we had managed to buy every box of crackers and every can of tuna between here and New York, Mrs Getzel reminded me that boruch Hashem, communism had officially ended over fifteen years ago (although I think someone forget to tell that to the Russian Consulate in New York, it took them so long to give me my visa!), and now there are kosher stores, and kosher restaurants and hundreds of Shluchim across the whole of Russia, and especially in Petersburg!
The weeks flew by, and before I knew it, it was time to go. Professor Ivanovitch had kindly managed to arrange the trip so that I would be able to be in Petersburg for Yud Tes Kislev! I was so excited!
Anyway, I got to run now, I’m very busy here! More news from Petersburg next week!
Missing you all and my favourite Tropicana too. And my favourite goldfish Dovid, and my favourite half-chewed red pen that Mrs Getzel got me as a 39th birthday present that I left behind in case the Russian customs agents decided that it was a secret weapon and confiscated it. And my super-duper extra-large, expanding umbrella that......

Dr. Getzel

 

י“ט כסלו

י“ט כסלו is the יאהרצייט of the מעזריטשער מגיד . The מעזריטשער מגיד , ר‘ דובער , was a תלמיד of the founder of חסידות , ר‘ ישראל בעל שם טוב .   After the בעל שם טוב passed away, the מעזריטשער מגיד  was the leader of the חסידים from תקכ“א (1761) until he passed away on י“ט כסלו תקל“ב (1772).  

י“ט כסלו is the חג הגאולה  of the אלטער רבי . On י“ט כסלו תקנ“ט (1798), ר‘ שניאור זלמן of Liadi, the first Rebbe of חב“ד חסידות - was released from prison in the Peter-Paul fortress in Petersburg, where he was held for 52 days.  (The 52 פרקים of the first part of תניא - ליקוטי אמורים correspond to the 52 days the  אלטער רביspent in prison). He was accused of threatening the authority of the Czar. The אלטער רבי ’s arrest wasn’t just because of a קיטרוג (accusation) here on earth, it was also and mainly because of a קיטרוג from שמים . 

The מלאכים were upset that the אלטער רבי was spreading חסידות .  So, י“ט כסלו is more than just a חג הגאולה for the אלטער רבי , it’s also a special day for חסידים , the ראש השנה לחסידות .

The אלטער רבי was saying תהילים at the time that he was told that he could go free.  He was saying קאפיטל נ“ה and was up to the words “פדה בשלום נפשי ”.
כ‘ כסלו was the day that the אלטער רבי was actually released from prison.

חסידים joyfully celebrate  י“ט & כ‘ כסלוas the ראש השנה לחסידות , with farbrengens and החלטות to learn more חסידות and behave in a more חסידישע way.  We also don’t say תחנון on these days. The cycle of learning תניא as part of חת“ת starts again on י“ט כסלו and so does the היום יום .

י"ט כסלו Rally for ילדי השלוחים

When?
Sunday
י“ט כסלו תשס“ז

What time?
11:30 am ET - HEBREW via phone conference
1:00 pm ET - via web conference
4:00 pm ET - via phone conference
6:00 pm ET - via web conference

What?
Join together with hundreds of fellow ילדי השלוחים from around the world in a giant י“ט כסלו  farbrengen. Say the פסוקים , hear a דבר תורה , Hear a great story. Sing ניגונים . Say a לחיים .

You MUST register for the rally online.
For more information, visit www.shluchimkids.org

(Go to Latest News and click on Rallies)

 

 

The אלטער רבי once sent one of his חסידים on a mission to raise a large sum of money for an important cause.

The רבי gave him a ברכה for a safe trip but mysteriously warned him not to enter any house that had its door on the east side. The trip went well and soon most of the money had been collected. But one day the חסיד found himself caught in a snowstorm on a lonely road winding through the forest. The wind grew steadily stronger and colder. He urged his horse on, hoping to reach some sort of an inn before he lost his way entirely in the snow; but hours passed and still he didn’t see any kind of house.

He was numb and freezing, and the snow was falling so thickly that he couldn't see where he was going. He davened to ה‘ for a נס .

Suddenly through the white sea of swirling snow he saw what looked like the outline of a house just off the road. With his last ounce of strength he forced the horse in its direction, and sure enough it was a house! It even had a מזוזה on the door. A אידישע house! He thanked ה‘ as he jumped from his wagon onto the front porch and knocked on the door.

An elderly woman opened the door and let him in to the warm house. "Come in you must be freezing," she said. "Come have a cup of tea, sit here by the stove. In just a minute my sons will return, they will put your horse in the barn, please sit down." Just as he sat and began thawing out he remembered that it was almost night and he hadn't yet davened מנחה . So he asked the woman which direction was מזרח - east and davened, thanking ה‘ for helping him.

As he finished davening, he noticed that something was wrong: the eastern wall was the one with the main entrance of the house in it!

Without hesitation he put on his coat and walked to the door saying apologetically, "I'll be right back" but the door was locked. He went to a window but it too was locked. "I forgot something in the wagon," he called to the old woman, who had slipped out of the room "Could you please open the door?" Suddenly a key turned in the door from the outside, and four big strong young men came inside. As soon as they saw their visitor they immediately grabbed him, emptied his pockets, tied him up, laid him on the ground in a corner, and sat down to eat while their mother examined what they had stolen.

"Ho ho!" She exclaimed. "Look what we have here!" As she held up the pack of money she found in his wallet, that he had collected for the אלטער רבי . "Looks like we caught a big fish this time." One of the sons examined the money, went to the cupboard, took out a large bottle of vodka and put it on the table with a bang. "Brothers, lets celebrate! G-d has been good to us! We have enough money here to be happy for a long, long time! But first, let's take care of our guest." He pulled a large knife from somewhere under his coat while one of his brothers was pouring him a drink. He took a cup of vodka in his free hand, raised it high and said, "To long life, except for you!" as he looked at the tied-up חסיד .

One of the brothers, surprised by the joke, laughed so hard that the vodka came spraying out of his mouth on the others, and they all began to laugh, and then someone began a song and they had some more vodka, then some more. Then the door opened again and it was their father. "Aha!" He shouted as he looked at the money on the table and the tied-up Chassid on the floor.

"Good work boys! Excellent! We'll have to kill him though … I'm glad you left him for me. You know what? In the morning I'll take care of him. Now let's drink to our good fortune!" And before long they were all drunk and forgot completely about our poor חסיד .

Late that night, when they were all sleeping soundly, the father woke, looked around to make sure that no one else was awake, tiptoed over to the חסיד , motioned him to be silent, cut his ropes and silently told him to follow. He tiptoed to the door, opened it and gave the חסיד his coat. "Here is your money back," he whispered in the חסיד 's ear as he pushed the wallet his coat pocket. Then he pressed a gold coin in the חסיד 's hand. "This is for צדקה from an old man who has done many עבירות . Tell your רבי to please daven for me. Now go! Get out of here as fast as you can … run for your life." The sun was beginning to rise, the storm had stopped, and the grateful חסיד was on the road back home.

When the חסיד entered the אלטער רבי 's room, the רבי looked up at him and said: "I know what happened, you don't have to tell me. I was up all night davening on your behalf."

The חסיד took out the golden coin and told of the old thief's request. The אלטער רבי took the coin and wedged it in a crack in the wall next to his desk and said no more.

Fifteen years passed and the חסיד , who was now married with a family, became one of the אלטער רבי 's גבאים . One day he answered the door to an old beggar and told him to wait. When he entered the אלטער רבי 's room and informed him that there was a beggar at the door, the רבי pulled the gold coin from the crack where it had been for the past fifteen years and told the חסיד that this was the old man who had released him years ago.

It seems that when his wife and sons awoke and realized what he had done, they beat him and sent him out of the house just a few hours before the police came and took the mother and sons off to prison. The old man began a life of גלות , waiting for a sign that his תשובה had been accepted in שמים .

 

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