Parshas Shemos

 

Hey there kinderlach!
Wow, what a busy start of a week this has been. And Boruch Hashem, only simchas! The phone hasn’t stopped ringing with good news! At last count, I had two new einaklach, a new cousin and the Judge had cancelled the speeding ticket that I got on the way to mivtzoyim. You see I promised him I’d never speed again, because I realise how dangerous it is, and as even Judge Thompson knows, a chossid always tells the truth!
But all that means is, that it is already Thursday and I haven’t invented any new lenses, and more importantly, I haven’t written my column for next weeks’ Connections newsletter. ‘Next week,’ I hear you ask, ‘doesn’t that mean there is still a whole week for it to get done?’ Well actually not. You see on some special occasions like the Kinus Hashluchim, or things like that, the Connection’s Editor agrees to wait a bit so I can tell everyone what I’ve been up to, but normally, my column has to be in very early, because there is still so much that needs to be done till the Connections gets sent out to you. It needs to be edited and formatted, and emailed to the proofreaders, and proofread, and emailed back to the editor and corrected, and emailed to the Shluchim Office and uploaded on shluchimkids.org and emailed out to all the Shluchim around the world. Now that may not sound like a lot to you, but it sure takes a long time to do. In fact normally the Chinuch Yaldei Hashluchim division of the Shluchim Office starts working on a Connections two weeks (!) before it gets sent out to you.
I know all this you see, because if I am ever more than a couple of days late sending in my column I get a call from Head Office. It always sounds the same – it goes something like this:
‘Hi there Dr Getzel, this is Mrs..... calling from the Shluchim Office.’
‘Oh hi there, don’t tell me I forgot again!’ I answer.
‘Well, I don’t know if you forgot or not Dr Getzel, but it is already Tuesday afternoon, and the Connections still needs to be needs to be edited and formatted, and emailed to the proofreaders, and proofread, and emailed back to the editor and corrected, and emailed to the Shluchim Office and uploaded on shluchimkids.org and emailed out to all the Shluchim around the world. Now that may not sound like a lot to you, but it sure takes a long time to do, and it all needs to be done by next Wednesday night so please send in your column as soon as you can.’ Mrs....... tells me.
‘Sure, Mrs ......... I’ll get straight down to it, as soon as I clear some stuff of my desk so I have some space to work.’ I reply.
And I get straight down to work. Which just goes to show, like I just said before, a chossid always tells the truth.

Anyway kinderlach, have a good Shabbos,
Dr. Getzel

 

 

כ"ד טבת

The founder of חב“ד חסידות , the אלטער רבי , passed away on the night of כ“ד טבת , at approximately 10:30 pm, shortly after saying הבדלה at the end of שבת . The Rebbe was in the village of Piena, fleeing from Napoleon's army, which had passed through the Rebbe's hometown of Liadi three months earlier as they were pushing towards Moscow. The אלטער רבי was 68 when he passed away and his son, ר‘ דובער , became Rebbe after him. Theאלטער רבי  is buried in Haditch.

 

This Shabbos is שבת מברכים חודש שבט

שבת morning I made sure to say תהילים .  (Remember to say your quota for the World-Wide Tehillim club)  

I went to Shul and made the special ברכה for the new month of שבט . (The ברכה can be found in the סידור after שחרית for שבת )

כ"ח טבת

כ“ח טבת is the birthday of רביצין חנה Schneerson, the Rebbe's mother. She was born on  כ“ח טבתin the year תר“מ (1880).  Her parents were ר‘ מאיר שלמה ינובסקי , the רב of Nikolayev and רבצין רחל . She was their oldest child and had 2 younger sisters - גיטל and עטל and a younger brother - ישראל לייב .

When רביצין חנה was a teenager, she would write out and copy the מאמרים for the חסידים of Nikolayev.  Whenever there was a new מאמר , either heard from a חסיד who heard the Rebbe saying the מאמר , or from notes that were sent to her father’s house, רביצין חנה would copy it out and make it available for the חסידים .

She  married ר‘ לוי יצחק Schneerson on  י“ג סיוןin 1900. ר‘ לויק became the Rav of Yeketrinoslav. רביצין חנה and ר‘ לויק had three sons: מנחם מענדל (the Rebbe), דובער and ישראל ארי‘ה לייב .
In 1939 ר‘ לוי יצחק was arrested and sent into גלות in Kazakhstan for the "crime" of spreading אידישקייט . Even though it was very dangerous, רביצין חנה chose to go with him  to far-away Chili, Kazakhstan and suffered along with him. רביצין חנה had great מסירת נפש to make ink from grass for ר‘ לויק ’s כתבים . The Rebbe wrote a lot about the מסירת נפש of his mother, and this מסירת נפש made it possible  us to have the great works of ר‘ לויק .

רבצין חנה passed away on ו‘ תשרי תשכ“ה .

 

In 1812, about 200 years ago, Napoleon invaded Russia. and the route his army took led through White Russia (what is now known as the Ukraine). The אלטער רבי , who was the leader of the חסידים living in White Russia, had been accused twice of disloyalty to the Czar but now showed his loyalty to the Russians. Many אידן thought that Napolean would be good for the אידן and would let them live in freedom but the אלטער רבי saw that the French conqueror was a threat to אידישקייט and רוחניות .

The אלטער רבי didn’t like Napolean. He was arrogant and had an endless desire for power. To the אלטער רבי , Napolean represented the opposite of what חסידות teaches us to be: humble and holy. The Rebbe encouraged his many חסידים to support the Russian war effort against the invaders in every possible way. With the help of his followers behind the enemy lines, some of whom were employed by the French Military Command, the אלטער רבי was also able to give Russian army valuable intelligence and advice.

When the French armies approached Liadi, the Russian generals advised the אלטער רבי to flee. That summer the Rebbe hurriedly left Liadi, leaving everything behind, and fled with his family towards Smolensk. For about five months the אלטער רבי and his family suffered the hardships and dangers of the road and of an unusually terrible and cold winter, until they reached a village in the district of Kursk. Here the אלטער רבי fell ill and passed away at the age of sixty-eight.

The אלטער רבי ’s family kept records about those days and they have some interesting details about them. From the writings of ר‘ נחום , the grandson of the Rebbe, relating his personal experiences, we learn the following details:

It was on Friday, כ“ט מנחם אב that the Rebbe fled from Liadi on the advice of the generals in charge of the Russian armies in that area. He was given sixty wagons to use, but they were not enough, and many had to walk on foot. A number of armed troops were assigned to accompany and protect the caravan. Since the French army was moving so quickly, the generals suggested that the best route for the flight of the Rebbe would be through the town of Bayev. But the Rebbe decided to head for Krasna, urging the caravan to move as fast as possible, in order to cross the river Dnieper at the earliest possible time.

After covering a distance of about two miles, the Rebbe suddenly requested the accompanying troops to let him go back to Liadi. Arriving at his deserted house, he ordered his men to search the house carefully to make sure that nothing at all, however unimportant it might seem, had been left behind. The only things found were a pair of worn-out slippers, a rolling pin and a sieve, which had been left in the attic. He ordered these to be taken along, and to set the house on fire before the enemy arrived, first removing the holy ספרי תורה from the Shul next door. Then he blessed the townspeople who remained in the town, and quickly left again.

Very soon after he left the town on the road leading to the Dnieper, then the advance-guard of Napoleon's army reached the town from the opposite end. Not long later, Napoleon himself with his important officers entered the town on their galloping horses. Napoleon asked where the house of the Rebbe was, but when he reached it, he found it ablaze, the fire burning beyond control. Napoleon wished to have something which belonged to the Rebbe and offered a rich reward to anyone who could bring him anything. But nothing was there. [It seems that Napoleon practiced some sort of sorcery for which such an object was required.]

During all his long and hard journey the אלטער רבי kept in touch with the situation of the Russian Jewry who were caught in the gigantic Franco-Russian war. The retreating Russian armies burned the towns they went through in order to leave nothing for their enemies to conquer. At the same time the invading armies stole and looted everything they could lay their hands on. Throughout the land people were starving and had their source of פרנסה ruined and the Rebbe's heart went out to his suffering brethren, who were the most affected by the invasion.

The Rebbe had predicted Napoleon's invasion of Moscow as well as the fact that he would be defeated there. At the same time he knew that the retreating French armies, starving and desperate, would raid and rob the Jewish communities which lay in their path. Arriving in Piena, the Rebbe began a relief campaign to help the Jewish victims of the war, including plans to help them resettle in other towns, fund raising, and plans for distributing the help they would need to start their lives again. For ten days after his arrival in Piena the Rebbe worked very hard on his plans and projects to lessen the plight of his brethren. Then, he fell ill, getting worse from day to day. At the end of שבת he wrote a letter full of mystical allusions, and a few minutes later he returned his נשמה to ה‘ .

(Adapted from ‘Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi’)

 

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