[336]
Tachanun is not said on the twelfth and thirteenth of Tammuz, nor at Minchah on the eleventh.
The Previous Rebbe, R. Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, of sainted memory, was born on the twelfth of Tammuz in the year 5640 (1880).
On this day, in the year 5687 (1927), he was informed that he was freed from the exile which followed his imprisonment for his work in the strengthening of Torah study and the practice of Yiddishkeit.
The following is an extract from a letter[337] of the Previous Rebbe:
"G-d's acts of kindness are never-ending, and the merit of our holy forefathers has not been exhausted - and will never be exhausted - in protection of those who walk in their paths. Thus it was that freedom was granted to me on the twelfth day of Tammuz, on the Tuesday preceding the Shabbos on which one reads the verse [in Parshas Pinchas], 'I hereby grant him My covenant of peace.'
"It was not myself alone that the Holy One, blessed be He, redeemed on Yud-Beis Tammuz, but also those who love the Torah and observe its commands, and so too all those who merely bear the name 'Jew' - for the heart of every man of Israel (irrespective of his particular level in the observance of the mitzvos) is perfectly bound with G-d and His Torah.
"Today, the twelfth of the month of Tammuz, is the Festival of Liberation of all Jews who are involved in the dissemination of Torah knowledge, for on this day it became known and manifest to everyone that the great work in which I labored in the dissemination of the Torah and in the strengthening of the religion is permitted according to the law of the land, which grants freedom of worship to those who observe the [Jewish] religion as it does to all the citizens of this country.
"This is the day on which the light of the merit of public Torah study banished the misty gloom of calumnies and libels. It is fitting that such a day be set aside as a day of farbrengen - a day on which people arouse each other to fortify Torah study and the practice of Yiddishkeit in every place according to its needs, a day on which to offer blessings to our brethren in Russia (who are suffering from such libellers and informers), that G-d strengthen their hearts and the hearts of their children so that they will remain faithful Jews, and never again be persecuted by the above-mentioned evildoers."
In the course of the farbrengen on this day the Rebbe Shlita customarily makes an appeal to benefit the institutions named Ohalei Yosef Yitzchak.
On the thirteenth of Tammuz, in the year 5687, the Previous Rebbe was freed. His imprisonment began at 2:15 on Wednesday morning, 15th Sivan 5687, and his subsequent exile in Kostrama lasted until 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday, 13th Tammuz 5687.
[338]
The following is an excerpt from a letter[339] of the Previous Rebbe in anticipation of [the fifth anniversary of] the Festival of Liberation:
"I am enclosing a maamar.... In this way I am participating with our friends, the men of the chassidic brotherhood (May you all prosper, wherever you live!), and am together with you at the farbrengens at which you strive to strengthen the spiritual lifestyle of Chassidus - by setting aside and observing fixed times for the study of the teachings of Chassidus, with the aim of being aroused to actualize the ideals discussed there.... May our G-d and the G-d of our fathers bless the entire chassidic brotherhood - themselves, their wives, their children and their grandchildren - together with all our brothers of the House of Israel. May G-d be with you all, and bestow upon you all manner of blessings both spiritual and material."
Notes:
- (Back to text) See HaYom Yom, p. 70; Introduction to Kuntreis 14 (reprinted in Sefer HaKuntreisim, Vol. I); Kuntreis 59 (reprinted in Sefer HaMaamarim 5708); Reshimas HaMaasar ["An Account of the Imprisonment"], incorporated in Likkutei Dibburim, Vol. IV [and in Vol. V of its English translation]; HaTamim, Issues alef and zayin.
- (Back to text) Dated Sunday, 15th Sivan 5688 (1928); reprinted in Sefer HaMamaarim 5708, p. 263), [and in Igrois Koidesh (Letters of the Rebbe Rayatz), Vol. II, p. 80. The complete letter, together with the maamar it accompanies, appears in English translation in a booklet entitled Maamar Asarah SheYoshvim VeOskim BaTorah (Sichos In English, N.Y., 1990). For its historical setting, see footnote 155, above.
- (Back to text) [From Kostrama the Previous Rebbe moved to the birch forests of Malachovka, on the outskirts of Moscow, where he sought refuge in the picturesque log-cabin shul which in those days served chassidim as a mute hideout, and which today echoes to the sounds of the Chabad boys' summer camp.]
- (Back to text) [Dated Sivan 5692 (1932), Landvarov, Poland; appears in full in Igrois Koidesh, op. cit., p. 420.]
Gimmel Tammuz