This week, over 5,000 Lubavitcher children in 262 cities spanning 31 countries will be reading the 100th issue of HaChayol Magazine.
Rabbi Shimmy Weinbaum, director of Chayolei Tzivos Hashem, reflects on HaChayol’s five year journey from a 20 page monthly magazine in honor of Shnas Hakhel 5768 to the 12-16 page weekly publication that serves as the means toward hiskashrus and Chassidishe chayus for today’s youth, and expresses hakoras hatov to the one standing behind it.
“Year after year, a survey filled out by shluchos following the Kinus HaShluchos indicated that what shluchos want most is something to support their children’s Chassidishe chinuch,” explains Rabbi Mendy Shanowitz, director of MyShliach. “Tzivos Hashem also kept on getting calls from schools around the world saying, ‘We need something to help keep our children in the fold,’” expresses Rabbi Yerachmiel Benjaminson, executive director of Tzivos Hashem. Rabbi Benjaminson approached Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, vice chairman of Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch, and proposed the Chayolei Tzivos Hashem program and HaChayol Magazine. “We felt this program would be of benefit to yaldei hashluchim and believed that implementing it within the Lubavitch school system would help fill the void of Chassidishe education and pride that was rampant 15 years post Gimmel Tammuz,” says Rabbi Benjaminson. “Rabbi Kotlarsky accepted our proposal and has been single handedly raising the funds necessary to subsidize the annual budget for HaChayol Magazine.”
HaChayol is not just a regular magazine. It is the weekly farbrengen for today’s young chossid. Working in tandem with the Chayolei Tzivos Hashem program under the guidance of Rabbi Shimmy Weinbaum, advisory board members Rabbi Sholom Heidingsfeld, Rabbi Shmuel Vaisfische, and Rabbi Mendy Shanowitz, and skillfully led and edited by Chava Leiba Sneiderman, each and every article sets out to connect readers to the stories and lessons surrounding the yomei depagra and empower them with missions to fulfill as soldiers in the Hashem’s army.
Featuring columns such as “Parshafier” by Mrs. Bruria Efune, where the Chassidisher parsha is presented as a weekly skit in which the entire family can participate at the Shabbos table, and “Routes to Roots,” a rendition of the Frierdiker Rebbe’s Sefer HaZichronos in a child’s language by Rabbi Mendel Moscowitz, HaChayol has made Lubavitch history and the Rebbe’s Torah come alive to today’s children. Senior designer Chana Cohen artfully arranges the work of specially commissioned artists Stelian Dobrescu, Petar Krystic and Nikolinka Vukadinova, coordinated by managing editor Rivky Franklin, highlighting special features such as the highly popular comic series.
“We owe it to Rabbi Kotlarsky for changing the face of Lubavitch youth today,” Weinbaum states. “Not only are children excited about Lubavitcher inyonim, HaChayol has made the children realize that, whether they live in Istanbul, Copenhagen or Crown Heights, they are part of something far larger than themselves and their classmates. They realize that the two or five or twenty lines of Tanya they memorized made the entire army indeed be able to achieve its goal and memorize 200,616 lines of Tanya this year.”
“We are living in Moshiach’s tzeiten, that of v’haishiv leiv ovos al bonim,” says Weinbaum. “Parents used to have to cajole their children to learn a line of Tanya, put negel vasser by their beds, or sing a Chassidisher nigun. Now it is the children who are begging their parents to hold farbrengens, read about the Chassidisher parsha with them, and find them mashpiim and mashpios. Children run to their mailboxes every day to see whether that week’s HaChayol has arrived; even adults have subscribed to HaChayol. Through HaChayol Magazine, Rabbi Kotlarsky has indeed turned the tide of today’s Lubavitcher youth, giving us hope for a terrific Lubavitcher tomorrow.”
As HaChayol marks 100 issues this week, we can pride ourselves by the fact that, though they may not have merited to physically see the Rebbe, it is indeed this generation that will lead us out of golus and stand on the front lines as we greet Moshiach, speedily in our days.
I agree 100%. These are priceless. It’s amazing to think of what kind of amazing stuff is available for our children’s chinuch today!
Your Parshafier is amazing!
That’s exactly what it is. Our family loves it.
that an unassuming little article about a kids magazine would make it to the top of the list of commented articles! And all the comments are positive!
Just goes to show what kind of amazing impact HaChayol and Chayolei Tzivos Hashem has had on Lubavitch.
Thank you so much Rabbi Kotlarsky and all the hardworking staff. Please keep up the great work!
awesome, can’t wait!
stay tuned for the Kids Magazine, it will be coming back soon 🙂
2 mothers commented to me in as many days how they put the hachayol magazine into shaimos each week (even complaining how annoying it is to cut out all the little rebbe pictures all over the place). whyyy would anyone be throwing these out?? besides for the clear amount of hard work, talent and money that goes into producing them, these magazines are a treasure trove of information. put them into an organized binder (one for the house, if not one for each kid) and save them for when your kids get older. trust me, they’ll still be pulling them… Read more »
thanks so much!
Thanks for roots we love it and only wish it would be weekly.
What they don’t write about in this article is about the amazing teacher resources that comes with hachyol. As a teacher I find they have created a treasure of material that is so helpful in my class. Thanks to all involved. It must be made clear so that people don’t forget. 5 years ago i was struggling with the kids in my class to that they should have some kind of feelings towards the rebbe, a chassidishe yom tov or even a regular yom tov. struggling to get the children involved in davening. 5 years later I can honestly say… Read more »
Why don’t you print a book. It’s an amazing story. I have been following from the first part of the story with reb yosef yuspa the father of the first baal shem. for those who are only joining now they don’t even know what they are missing.
thanks to the entire hardworking team! u are doing amazing work!
Hatzlocha in all that you do!
Just wanted to point out that the possuk mentioned on p5 והחי יתן אל לבו is from perek 7, possuk 2 in Koheles (in the magazine it says perek 6, possuk 2)
Again, beautiful beautiful publication!
Go sholom lane any good thing in lubavitch the print house sponsors.
a true shliach of the rebbe. your children and grandchildren are proud of you
Thank you for all you do for our children
Well written and great design. The content is beautiful as well. Great job!! A big yasher coach to everyone who made this happen.
Malchus is Hashem’s energy metzamtzem for the world so we can benefit from it…So too this magazine takes the Torah and Chassidus makes its accessible
Let’s hope that with efforts like these we will bring Moshiach!!!
On behalf of everyone in yttl…you do so much for us and are so grateful
It shows me what the Rebbe wants of me. also it teaches me about special days that I can celebrate like yud tes kislev. And the dvar Torah about the parsha is so fun rto read. Me and my brother say it at the Shabbos table every week
Shimmy Weinbaum is truly a leader unlike any other, pushing his staff to the limits of their creative ability, demanding excellence in all areas, willing to spend on what matters, communicate through difficulties, and show appreciation when appreciation is due. All who work with him are lucky!!
Because of your dedication to tzivos Hashem, they are able do to such amazing things, furthering the rebbes vision and bringing Moshiach!!!
If I remember correctly, Rabbi Shimmy Weinbaum has made this his life’s mission to raise the standard for anash and shluchim’s children. This has always been his dream and deciding to stay in CH and not go out on shlichus was the hardest decision he and his wife ever made. BH reading all these comments and hearing first hand from shluchim and anash how important this is for their families chinuch, will surely make him feel it was all worthwhile and is giving the Rebbe nachas. So Yasher Koach to Shimmy and may you go from strength to strength. Many… Read more »
So proud to see your name up there with all the execs. It’s an inspiration for women everywhere to get out there and make a difference.
Tzivos Hashem is working on developing an app. It will be a few years in the making, but bear with us!
Keep an eye out–Hachayol is featuring a spread focused on health. The mission of the month for Shvat is going to bed on time!
Is there a way to sign up my kids that are in OT
Like maybe through another school or if someone would take responsibility to have the program in CH for all those in schools that don’t participate
And maybe TH can have a general program where kids not just from CH can sign up without a school
It’s an amazing program
You cannot imagine what it’s like to have current, up to date, Chassidishe magazine delivered to your door on time when you live 4000 miles away from New York and your kids rattle around the house searching for something new and good to read. Hachayol is their fuel – it’s become the center of conversation between the kids (never mind the arguments about whose turn it is to have the magazine) and the missions do wonders- they have upgraded the way we do Torah and mitzvos and shlichus and the way we live period. Thank you Rabbi Kotlarsky and everyone… Read more »
It’s nice to see one of the top commented articles be about something so purely positive.
To the incredibly hardworking people behind Tzivos Hashem and HaChayol and to Rabbi Kotlarsky, thank you so much for turning dreams into a reality that our children can use as a tool for real growth through such a refreshingly positive and holy approach.
This is the preventive medicine to having kids feel the need to look elsewhere.
G-d bless you all.
sounds like a really good idea does anyone know someone in the OT PTA that would undertake this. it would be the best thing they have ever done (and i know they do great work)!
Please help save our children!
perhaps the pta can make it a campaign to get someone hired to oversee CTH @ OT. I think one survey to parents will be all that’s necessary to show how much it is wanted. I’d be glad to translate the mission sheets to Yiddish if that’s the issue.
CTH and hachayol are awesome! plz keep it coming!
of course the new hahayol is better in the old one it was missions that every lubavitch kid did anyway it was geared towards fry kids
of course you go to shul yom kippur
in the new program they have missions like going every shabbos not just yom kppur
when will Hachayol have an app. JEM has and App. why cant Tzivos Hashem have an app. it would so much better if i could enter my kids missions on my phone or just give them the ipad and let them do it each night. if this could be done i think so many more kids would be filling out their missions each night and that’s what you guys want – right!
i like the way hachayol and tzivos Hashem has recently become very simple. i used to find out very complicated and i gave up on it. now the Hachayol works together with the mission sheets, each page points out what mission it is connected with and which day of the week it should be read. it so simple that even someone stupid like me has been able to figure it out.
what you do for the Lubavitcher Kids is very important. BUT what happened to the KIDS magazine for the not yet frum children we used to send it out to 2,000 families. REB MOSHE we need it back again! PLEASE PLEASE the children in the chabad house keep asking for it!
Do our kids need a magazine each week?
whats wrong with the old Tzivos Hashem when we got newsletters 6 times a year. it was simple. you went to shul on Yom Kippur, you ate Matzos on Pesach you got points you went up in rank. Now things seem so much more complicated, every day the kids have missions, every week a magazine, a month a rally, every month a raffle, isn’t this too much?
Please don’t take this the wrong way, we really appreciate the hachayol, my kids read it cover to cover, over and over and over again. BUT because it is such a powerful tool as parents it would help if you could focus on basic things. Like going to sleep on time, eating healthy food. this is also part of being a chosid. if our children would sleep properly and eat healthy food they would be able to focus in class so much more then they do now. Am i the ONLY person who thinks this way?
No words will ever be enough to describe what hachayol has done. just for example, we always took negel vasser from the bathroom, since they had in hachayol that “negel vasser is not to be taken from the bathroom” my kids go downstairs each night and get negel vasser from the kitchen. Now we are putting in a sink upstairs, so my kids don’t flood their house each night with their negel vasser ;). it really has had an amazing impact on our children thank you to all who make it possible.
My children do not learn in a chabad school, they go to the local day school and dont have a chassidisher Chniuch. The Myshliach program has been a life savor for us. My child looks forward all week to the one hour he gets to learn with his big chavrusa. they review Hachayol together, he reviews what Missions my son has done and encourages him to do more. Its very diffrent when it comes from a bochur then when it comes from a parent. I know Rabbi Markowitz was very behind getting this program off the ground back in the… Read more »
100 issues is 100 farbrengens we have had with our family each issue has been rich with amazing toichen and has truly enhanced our lives. I big thank you goes to Rebbi Kotlarsky for funding this project and to Yerachmiel and all his staff / team who create such an amazing product!
I am another very thankful parent, who reads Hachayol to my children every night before they go to sleep.
i remember as a child getting the black and white newsletters (amazing for that time) five or six times a year. it was so exciting to get them in the mail. To be able to get full color magazines each week is something amazing. our kids look forward each week to getting them! You truly deserve a big thank you!
when we grew up Tzivos Hashem did not cost money. Rallies did not cost Money, everything was for free and everyone participated. Today everything cost money and then you wonder why people are not part of it.
My kid is in Oholei Torah and he hates going to Tzivos Hashem rallies. he says “why should we sit and watch all the kids who have gone up in rank and win amazing prizes, and we don’t even get missions. Tzivos Hashem does amazing things but they need top find away of getting everyone involved. just Oholei Torah and Beis Rivka from pre 1a – 2nd grade who are not yet in Tzivos Hashem is over 1,000 children! can you imagine what the Rebbe would say about this!
When I contacted Oholei Torah they never laughed at me. They simply said “we have no one to run it in our school”. i have done my research, and unless you have someone dedicated to running Tzivos Hashem it dose not work. i dont have kids in the school anymore, but perhaps it would be worth suggesting that they should just give out the magazine, watch the rallies and get the amazing siddur that each child gets a gift, I am sure most parents would want to get it for their children.
Tzivos Hashem was made to finish off golus and bring Moshiach. Much Hatzlocha in all that you do.
My heart goes out to you and to all of us who are so painfully aware that so much more needs to be put into the children’s chinuch besides actual learning. I suggest that you write a separate op-ed, and ask parents to sign that they want tzivos Hashem to be in the school curriculum. Or, maybe you have another idea? You can e-mail me for support in this. [email protected]. Hatzlacha Rabba!
rabbi Benjaminson is the main man who has kept tzivos hashem alive for 33 years. His partnership with rabbi kotlarsky has definitely changed the face of tzivos hashem but at the end of the day the man who the rebbe chose for tzivos hashem is yerachmiel. we salute you and stand behind ALL the incredible work you do.
hachyol is an amazing tool for the shabbos table. Our shabbos table used to be a place where we spent the meal chatting with a devar torah or two from the kids. now the meal became a chassidishe farbrengen.
Is there a reason you deprive our children from this amazing magazine. Our children would gain so much from it. 700 children from pre1a till 7th grade could and should be instilled with the sichos of the rebbe about what it means to be a soldier in hashems army and….. Tzivos hashem is the tool that the rebbe gave us to bring up this generation of children. how can you not have this in your school. i still remember when i was a child in mem aleph. Oholei Torah had the most amazing tzivos hashem. we all had army hats… Read more »
hachayol is a great magazine, the kids love reading it every week. It is so creative and well done, and the kids really learn from it! wish it was around when i was a kid. thank you hachayol and whoever is behind it!
Hachayol started as a monthly and is now weekly
Keep it up
Why not have it in Chinese and Spanish
If they would translate it it should be to Hebrew or Yiddish before anything else
They have incredible stories of the rebbe submitted by kids in tzivos hashem
This weeks story as can be seen above is one such story
We get the magazine shipped to Russia. my kids love it and I wish they had more. why can Bina bunch make a 48 page weekly and we get 12 pages a week. I think we can do better.
Why is this magazine not in French?
I look forward to the rebbe story each week
If you would only know how much we struggled with my older kids on shlichus and what you have done for my younger kids i can not put into words. Thank you rabbi kotlarsky and rabbi shanowitz and your partners at tzivos hashem.
He is my hero.
Who does their graphics? They are so nice.
Very painful to find out now about issue 100. why do all good things have to be kept s secret?
I am not a child but a subscribe to hachyol and it’s worth every penny.
Your support will help them get to 100000000000000000000000000000000
So true
Everyone MUST donate to them for it says the people of your city come first
Is shimmy Weinbaum he is the main person behind hachayol and the rest of tzivos hashem
You can donate to tzivos hashem for the continuance of hachayol https://www.mashpia.com/donate.php
I read most of them and their awesome
100 is a milestone
corresponds with 100 years since rebbetzin rivkas passing
from us in LA. we appreciate all you do for our kids and the support to head quarters.
rabbi kotlarsky is a real visionary. He has done so much for the shluchim around the world but this shows what a real visionary he is. He understands that in order to have shluchim to send out you need to invest in the future shluchim.
I feel very indebted to rabbi kotlarsky. I have read every one of the 100 issues and grown so much from them. I get them for my children and they love them. But as parents we need this as well. Thank You.
Let’s not forget the rebbe’s shliach to tzivos hashem.
We all know that without you this would NOT happen!
Go Chava!!!
Chava is the most incredible person I know!!
Super dedicated and talented!! Rock on dear! Missing u!
Thank you rabbi kotlarsky from a very thankful parent for all that you do. As shluchim we all know how much you do for the family of shluchim, but there is nothing more meaningful to us that you care so much about our children’s well being. bringing children up on shlichus comes with many challenges and to have hachyol is nothing less the a life saver.
I always wanted to know how they can afford to pay for so much that they give our kids. I guess the cat is out of the bag it’s reb moshe. Rabbi kotlarsky you are an amazing man.
100 is big. how do you come up with such an amazing magazine each week?
Why was hachyol not around when we were kids?
Thanks to you and my shliach our kids are proud to be who they are and are motivated to bring moshiach. reb moshe we always knew you are behind this amazing program, may hashem give you the kochos to continue for many years to come.
My best article is roots, the story is so gripping and packed with yiras shomayim. go mendel moscowitz.
We love the parshafier most. so important for our children to hear about the sichos the rebbe said at the rallies. they are given over in such a creative manner. we all take part by the shabbos meal each acting out another part of the feature. The whole shabbos table comes alive each week.
So focused, we’ll written and designed. Anyone who does not have hachyol at their shabbos table is missing out on rich chassidishe values saturated with yiras shomayim. Thank you my shliach. you are what we need most.
I am not a child, but I will never miss a week. Hachyol is catching me up on so much of what I missed out on as a child. thanks rabbi kotlarsky for all that you do.
My children look forward to reading hachyol each week
Reb moshe is an amazing man