Weekly Chasidic Story #733 (s5772-12 / 16 Kislev 5772) Thanksgiving Feast, Chasidic style That Shabbat was one of the most wonderful ever experienced by any group of chasidim of the Baal Tanya. Connection: Seaonal - Yud-Tes Kislev celebration
Thanksgiving Feast, Chasidic style
From all of this the chasidim gathered that without a doubt the rebbe would instruct them to conduct a festive meal of this kind when Yud-Tet Kislev came around, and that he would attend it himself. At the beginning of Kislev, therefore, we young men from Homil and Bobruisk and the other towns in those parts put together whatever money we had. We hired a wagon, and bought a dozen pairs of volikess (felt-lined winter boots). We set off together by foot, except that from time to time we took turns to rest on the wagon. At Brohackov, Yachov, and Shklov we were joined by more people, who hired two more wagons. By Thursday of the week in which the Portion of Vayishlach is read, we finally arrived -eighty of us! - at Liadi. That Shabbat preceding Yud-Tet Kislev was one of the most wonderful ever experienced by a group of chasidim. In the course of that one Shabbat the rebbe delivered three separate chasidic discourses: one before the prayers of Kabbalat Shabbat, the second before daybreak, and the third after the Mincha prayers. The full-time local students as well as the guests reviewed the discourses orally together, under the guidance of the chozrim, whose task it was to memorize the rebbe's public teachings, dedicatedly preserving his every word for their listeners. On Sunday and Monday people began to converge on Liadi from far and near - from Kiev, Tatarsk, Chotemsk, Chaslavitch, Amchislav, Klimovitch, Pahar, Pochip, Dubrovna, Orsha, Krupka, Tolchin, Barissov, Babinovitch, Dobromishl, Lubavitch, Rodnia, Liozna, and yet other towns and townlets in the regions of Vitebsk and Polotzk. The townsmen of Liadi announced that all the guests would receive meals without payment for a whole week, until after the forthcoming Shabbat. Even the gentile townsmen joined to a degree in the spirit of hospitality that filled the air. A few dozen of them cleared their houses to make room for the out-of-town guests to sleep. Most outstanding was the manager of the estates of Count Liubemirsky. He made it known in the Jewish community that every day a consignment of food would be delivered to them from the Count's estates, consisting of seventy-five pud (one pud = 16 k.g./35.2 lbs.) of flour for bread, and three cows and a number of calves for slaughter. In addition, he would deliver a number of wagonloads of hay for the horses of the travelers. On Tuesday, the Nineteenth of Kislev, it was announced that after an early Mincha service everyone was to assemble in the beit midrash (study hall) which stood in the large courtyard, where the rebbe would deliver a chasidic discourse. The packed synagogue was then shaken by the mighty voice of Reb Shmuel Eliyahu der Heizeriger ("the hoarse one," so called in jocular reference to his bellowing roar; his "Sha"/"shush!" was able to shake the entire room). He announced that the Rebbe would soon be arriving and everyone should be silent. This was the cue for a husky band of broad-shouldered young chasidim to plunge their way through the crowd, leaving in their wake a broad path from the door to the dais. "As soon as the rebbe appeared at the door, we were overcome by a dreadful awe," Rabbi Yitzchak-Aizik clearly recollected. "As he walked in, the rebbe was singing the tune to Tze'eyna Ure'eyna, taken from the Song of Songs. He was accompanied by his brothers on either side of him, then a third brother and two known elders behind them; his three sons followed, with the Tzemach Tzedek (his grandson and third rebbe-to-be) behind them. As the Rebbe ascended the steps leading up to the dias, he sang the melody which he had composed to the words from Psalm 118: "Keili Ata V'odecha"-"You are my G-d and I will praise You." On the dais there stood a large table at which the rebbe sat, and there he delivered a discourse expounding the verse in Psalm 55: "Padeh b'shalom nafshi"-"He has delivered my soul in peace ". When he completed his discourse, the entire gathering burst out in cheerful melody. In the smaller study hall which was used for yechidut (private audiences with the Rebbe), a table had been set for a thanksgiving meal. This was attended by the rebbe, his sons and his brothers, and a few selected elder chasidim. The rebbe's son Moshe repeated for us, after many requests, the talks which the rebbe had given at that meal -but only on condition that we would not pass their content on to anyone. "For that reason," Rabbi Yitzchak-Aizik exclaimed, "I am unable to tell you all that was said at the table. One statement of the rebbe, however, I can tell you, and this is it. "I have received a tradition from my zeide (for thus the Alter Rebbe used to call his spiritual grandfather, the Baal Shem Tov - his teacher's teacher) that foolishness, melancholy and a pride in one's own worthiness are counted by chasidim as equal to transgressions explicit in the Torah. Likewise, intelligence with good sense, joy -through perceiving in everything the element of goodness which brings joy - and enthusiasm tempered with deliberateness are counted among chasidim as equal to commandments explicit in the Torah." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Connection: Seasonal - Yud-Tes Kislev Biographical notes: Rabbi Yitzchak-Isaac of Homil [1780-1857], author of Chanah Ariel,
was such an outstanding disciple of Rabbi Shnuer Zalman and Rabbi DovBer, the
first and second Rebbes of Chabad-Lubavitch, that when the latter passed away
in 1827, Reb Isaac was seriously considered as a candidate for the succession.
He refused, instead becoming the chasid of the eventual third rebbe, the Tzemech
Tzedek, who was twenty years his junior.
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