On Wednesday evening Rosh Chodesh Tammuz, the Greater Boston Jewish community came together for an evening of inspiration in honor of the upcoming Hillula of Gimmel Tammuz. Dozens of Chabad Centers and their communities from within Boston and North, South and West of Boston as well as Central Mass all collaborated together to make this into the special evening that it was.
Rabbi Shais Taub was the keynote speaker and focused his message on the theme of the Rebbe’s infinite belief in the power of the individual. Interlaced with anecdotes and powerful stories and messages, Rabbi Taub inspired the crowd with the theme of how the Rebbe approached one Mitzvah and one individual at a time and how the Rebbe’s actions and words emphasized how lack of quantity didn’t diminish a specific action or person from being an intrinsic part of the infinite potential of G-d and the purpose of creation.
Rabbi Segal of the Beth El Synagogue in Newton which hosted the evening, gave a beautiful Dvar Torah highlighting the role of true leadership as seen by Moshe in this week’s Parsha. Rabbi Segal also spoke about the concept of Shlichus and praised the Rebbe’s work and the work of the Shluchim all over the world.
Four local Rabbonim and Leaders shared beautiful messages which were shown via video at the event. These included a message from Rabbi Naftali Horowitz, the Bostoner Rebbe, Rabbi Chaim Prus of Beth Menachem Chabad of Newton, Rabbi Samuels of Congregation Sharei Tefillah and Rabbi Mark Baker of the Combined Jewish Philanthropies.
A moving JEM video of the Rebbe was shown to the crowd which interlaced the Rebbe’s words with comments from Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, highlighting the Rebbe’s belief in each and every individual.
Rabbi Yisroel Freeman of Chabad of Sudbury was the Master of Ceremonies for the evening, and opened the evening with a collective thank you on behalf of the many Chabad Centers to the host Shul, Beth El of Newton, which the Frierdiker Rebbe visited many years ago (at its prior location in Dorchester (see attached announcement of the Frierdiker Rebbe’s arrival at this shul from Sefer Toldos Chabad)), for hosting the evening, and then shared an idea that the Rebbe taught on the name of this week’s Parsha, which led into the theme of the evening.
On behalf of the many Chabad Houses who participated in the evening, a big thank you was given to Rabbi Nechemia Schusterman of Chabad of Peabody for spearheading the Evening of Inspiration and for tirelessly working over the last two months to pull everything together to make this evening the success that it was.
Rabbi Taub concluded the evening with a call to action and a reminder to everyone, that they are the ones whose actions and choices can be the ones that tip the scales of the world.
The crowd of well over three hundred people then sang the Niggun of Tzomo Lecho Nafshi together, accompanied on the keyboard by Zalmy Kievman who provided the beautiful music for the evening.
Rabbi Shais Taub – Keynote Lecture
The Rebbe and the Infinite Value of the Individual
JEM video presentation
