A Chassidic tradition holds that the last twelve days of the year (Elul 18 to 29) are parallel to the twelve months of the closing year. On each of these twelve days, a person is given another chance to review the deeds and achievements of the corresponding month: Elul …
“Chai Elul” (Hebrew for “the 18th of Elul,” also meaning “the Vitality of Elul”) is celebrated by the Chassidic community as the birthday of the “two great luminaries” – Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Chassidism; and Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi (the Alter Rebbe), the founder …
On the 15th of Elul, 5657 the Rebbe Rashab announced his plan to open a new and kind of yeshiva which will ultimately be named “Tomchei Tmimim”. The challenge was unique – a lifestyle change: “The Yeshiva is not only for Torah, there’s no shortage of houses of Torah …
The wedding day of the 6th Rebbe of Chabad-Lubavitch, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, the Rebbe Rayatz, and Rabbanit Nechama Dina in 5657 (1897) became a significant date in the Chassidic calendar. As the Rebbe explains, this is a day when, year after year, the energy of joy is awakened …
In 5687 (1927), Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn – the Rebbe Rayatz – was arrested and sentenced to death by the Communist regime. A worldwide pressure forced the soviet authorities to re-qualify the sentence to exile from which he was subsequently released. Nethertheless, after the Tishrei holidays of 5687-5678 the …
Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman – Torah scholar, Kabbalist, philosopher, physician, poet and Jewish leader – was born in the year 4954 from Creation. He was raised, studied, and lived for most of his life in Girona, Catalonia. Being a brilliant scholar, he did not wish to make any profit …
On the early morning of the 1st of Elul of the year 2448 Moshe Rabbeinu ascended Mount Sinai, taking with him the stone tablets he had hewn by divine command. Each stone was made as a cube measuring 6x6x3 tefachim (a tefach, “handbreadth”, is approximately 3.2 inches). They were …
It is a Jewish custom to blow the shofar throughout the entire month of Elul (except for the eve of Rosh Hashanah) in order to strengthen the concept of Teshuvah (return/repentance), as it is stated: “Shall a shofar be blown in a city, and the people not tremble?” (Amos …
A renown kaballist, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak wrote thousands of manuscripts of Torah analysis and novella. At the behest of the Rebbe, some of his writings, penned on the margins of the scarce books available to him in exile, have been published in a five volume set under the name …
The Rebbe: “Beginning from the Chamisha Asar BeAv it’s customary to greet people with the blessing “May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year” (ספר-השיחות תנש”א ח”ב עמ’ 770). ——– The Talmud says that from the Fifteenth of Av onward, the power of the sun decreases and …
