What do Rabbi Zalman Abelsky a”h, shliach to Moldava; Rabbi Avrohom Tauber a”h, of B’nei Brak; Rabbi Yitzchok Yadgar, shliach in Taanach and Rabbi Yitzchok Kogan, shliach in Moscow, have in common? * They all received a special ability to bless people on behalf of the Rebbe!
The various stages of the life of R’ Hershel Finkelman were stormy and filled with upheavals. In an amazing fashion, at every juncture in his life, the Rebbe concerned himself with his welfare. * He was born in Morocco, and even before he was born, the Rebbe guided his adoptive father to reach out to him and his sister.
When the Rebbe came to America, he was appointed by the Frierdike Rebbe to be in charge of Merkos L’Inyanei Chinuch and Kehos. One of the responsibilities he was given was the printing and spreading of Chassidus throughout the world.
It was during the difficult years that Crown Heights went through that he lived on the southern border of the neighborhood and began regularly attending the Rebbe’s farbrengens. * For a period of time he prepared the mikva on Union Street for the Rebbe and immersed right after the Rebbe came out.
62 years ago, a special shul was founded in Shikkun Dalet in Beer Sheva for Holocaust survivors. It was named in memory of the K’doshei Auschwitz, may Hashem avenge their blood. * Like many other shuls, the shul went into decline over the years and nearly closed until R’ Moshe Dickstein, a child of Holocaust survivors, decided to revive the place.
Beis Moshiach presents the maamer the Rebbe MH”M delivered on Yud Shvat 5719, in accordance with the custom established by the rebbe to review each year a section of the Rebbe Rayatz’s Hemshech “Basi L’Gani” of 5710. • This year we focus on the ninth section of the profound and foundational Chassidic discourse.
The beginning of the Book of Shmos-Exodus describes the enslavement of the children of Israel in Egypt after the passing of Joseph and his brothers. Their enslavement continued for many years, but it came to a head when Pharaoh died.
He was an expert sharpshooter in the Israel Defense Forces, and his life was spared on more than one occasion. He dealt in jewelry in Japan and Australia, and he owned his own vacation island. He moved from one spiritual mentor to another, studied the teachings of the Far East, and went to the most remote monasteries and mysterious caverns, where he met “religious” people dabbling in the powers of spiritual impurity. Everything changed the moment he obtained an audiocassette on Jewish meditation.
Why did the “unsuccessful Tanya” class actually succeed big time? Who controlled the life of a Jewish woman who lived in the distant mountains to the extent that it was necessary to extricate her in a secret operation? And when “out there” saving Jews, sometimes we have to look for those closer to home. * Three moving stories about collecting and rescuing souls that happened with Rabbi Shlomi Peleg, a shliach to Cozumel, a Mexican island
You can find R’ Yerachmiel Schiff standing bent over the anvil in his old-world shop in the center of B’nei Brak, as he solders and gently fixes items of silver and gold. You probably wouldn’t guess that this man was born in Soviet Russia and grew up under mesirus nefesh conditions and was privileged to receive extraordinary kiruvim from the Rebbe.
I would like to start off with a story that I heard from the first Shliach to Cincinnati, where I live on Shlichus, Rabbi Shalom Ber Kalmanson: Shortly after my marriage in Montreal, I began working at Beis Rivka there and founded camp Pardes Chana in memory of Rebbetzin Chana a”h, the Rebbe’s mother. Later on, I had various shlichus opportunities, and on Lag B’Omer, 5734 (1974), I and my wife had yechidus with the Rebbe.
January 3, 2019