London Farbrengen Surprise Guest

By COLlive reporter

Over 150 Anash and bochurim joined together for the central Hei Teves Farbrengen in London, hosted by the Heichal Menachem community in Golders Green.

The MC, R’ Yechiel Wilhelm, Gabbai of the Shul, opened the evening with a short overview of the special day, the pain the Rebbe experienced and ultimately the great joy experienced at the time.

Rabbi Gedalia Lieberman, maggid shiur at the Yeshiva Gedola and a popular maggid shiur at the Shul, discussed the ultimate victory of the seforim which is to actually study them and compared it to why no blessing is recited on a freshly written Torah scroll since the real blessing is to study from it.

A special presentation was made by R’ Hershel Gorman, longtime collector of Chassidic manuscripts, who presented the assembled with a handwritten manuscript of the mehadura kama dekama (pre-print) of the first edition of Tanya.

Just a few weeks ago there had been an article in the Kfar Chabad magazine concerning this manuscript, where some experts have agreed that two handwritten commentaries is actually the handwriting of the Alter Rebbe.

The guest speaker was Rabbi Yehuda Teichtel, Shliach and Rabbi of the Jewish community in Berlin, who captivated the audience with a broad overview of the highlights of the miracle, through his own eyes as a young bochur at the time.

He spiced his remarks with clear details on how this yom tov is in fact the greatest day of the chassidic calendar.

The MC ended the official part of the evening by thanking the Vaad Hakhel in London, who continue to put in great effort to unite Anahs across the city in the many events happening throughout this year.

After the main event, a surprise guest arrived to continue farbrenging with everyone. Rabbi Shimon Lazaroff, Head Shliach of Texas, in town for his grandson’s wedding continued the farbrengen until 2:00 AM, to the delight of all assembled.