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

Once, in a year when Yud-Tet Kislev fell on a Friday after the Kabbalat Shabbat and Maariv prayers, the famous chasid Rabbi Yitzchak-Aizik of Homil, intoned Kiddush with the festive tune of Simchat Torah over a goblet of strong liquor. Then, after everyone else had also recited Kiddush, he announced that he was going to give us a gift: he would tell us all about the first thanksgiving seudah for Yud-Tet Kislev with the Alter Rebbe (Rabbi Shneur Zalman, founder of Chabad), held at Liadi in 1801.

Two months earlier, he began, in Tishrei, the elder chasidim had sensed that something was afoot for Yud-Tet Kislev that year. On Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah the rebbe was exceedingly joyful, and several times told his sons and the inner circle of older chasidim that for various spiritual reasons he had not accepted the suggestion made by his chasidim three years previous, after his miraculous release from prison in 1798, to establish Yud-Tet Kislev as a day of public feasting and rejoicing. Nor had he himself yet made a seudat hoda'ah, a festive meal of thanksgiving, even though this would be reckoned a mitzvah occasion and he had an obligation to do so.

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."

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[Source: Adapted and supplemented by Yerachmiel Tilles from the rendition in A Treasury of Chassidic Tales (Artscroll), as translated by the esteemed Uri Kaploun from Sipurei Chasidim by Rabbi S. Y. Zevin (in the name of the great scholar, Rabbi David Zvi Chen of Charnigov, who related it in 1894, at the gathering of chasidim presided over by Reb Shalom Ber of Lubavitch); and from Lma'an Yishme'u #??.]

Connection: Seasonal - Yud-Tes Kislev

Biographical notes:
Rabbi Shnuer Zalman [18 Elul 1745 - 24 Tevet 1812], one of the main disciples of the Maggid of Mezritch, is the founder of the Chabad-Chasidic movement. He is the author of Shulchan Aruch HaRav and Tanya as well as many other major works in both Jewish law and the mystical teachings.

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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Yerachmiel Tilles is co-founder and associate director of Ascent-of-Safed, and chief editor of this website (and of KabbalaOnline.org). He has hundreds of published stories to his credit, and many have been translated into other languages. He tells them live at Ascent nearly every Saturday night.

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