It was on Yud Shevat 5733, and the Rebbe was speaking of the feverish efforts throughout the past year to establish 71 new mosdos. “Hashem is compassionate, and to our good fortune, He has provided us with an extra month until Yud Aleph Nissan to complete all of our hachlatos,” the Rebbe said. “We ought to know that so long as we decide to do something in kedushah, Hashem provides the resources to carry it through.”
And so it is this year 5782, as well: As we approach the milestone birthday of 120 years, it’s worth noting that on this day of Yud Aleph Shevat, we have once again been gifted with an extra month to up the ante in our efforts to give the Rebbe the ultimate birthday gift.
Of course, “birthday gifts” for the Rebbe are not just any gift. As the Rebbe expressed on such occasions, the best gift a chassid can give is a hachlatah tovah, a firm decision to take on something new, or add to something already in place. For a birthday of such magnitude as 120 years, enthusiasm around the world has taken grip, inspiring many to bring the number of new initiatives to an exponential sum.
In an effort to facilitate this unprecedented level of hachanah, the staff at Or Vechom Hahiskashus are busy preparing multiple resources to be made available in these coming weeks.
First off is a focus on learning the Rebbe’s Torah. “When chassidim around the world unite to learn the same thing, it brings an added chayus and everyone is able to help each other in learning,” said Menachem Wolf, the curriculum author. “So, we took a specific maamar and prepared a full curriculum, complete with a teacher’s guide, a student handout and many other resources to bring the maamar to life.”
Over the course of three weeks, starting towards the end of Adar I leading up to Yud Alef Nissan, the curriculum will explore the complex and beautiful ideas in the Rebbe’s maamar of Vekibel Hayehudim, 5711.
To keep the inspiration alive throughout the weeks and months, a daily bite-sized snippet from the Rebbe’s Torah will be sent out to an ever-increasing Whatsapp broadcast, click here to sign up.
One of the Rebbe’s inyanim that gets particular attention in the period around Yud Alef Nissan is mivtza matzah, the Rebbe’s push that every Jew should receive hand-made shmurah matzah to use at the Seder. Images of mitzvah tanks rolling through Manhattan with bochurim piling out to distribute these boxes across the city are a classic feature of the Yud Alef Nissan fervor.
“We wanted to make mivtza matzah as widely available as possible,” said Mordechai Rosenwzeig, director of this initiative. “If in past years there has always been good work done, this year calls for an even greater push, for that many more communities to get involved.”
And so, the wheels have been set in motion to bring this mivtzah well beyond the typical spheres of bohurim in mitzvah tanks, and out to community members in every small city across the country. Promotional materials will be available to explain this mivtza in clear language to all constituents, and subsidized matzah is available for those communities who need it. Beautiful boxes with unique messaging have been drawn up as well.
To really jumpstart things, a generous donor has come forth and sponsored the first twelve pounds of matzah for the first 50 communities that sign up. “The idea is to really push this mivtza forward into places it has never been before,” continued Mordechai, “to place a box of matzah into the hands of a member of Anash who can then go ahead and give it to someone he or she knows to use for the Seder. IYH, in the zechus of the Rebbe’s birthday, we will be collectively successful.”
For more information email [email protected] or call (607)-348-6961
VIDEO
The Big 120 is here!
I waited for this date since I was a child and it’s so exciting that’s it’s actually here!