‘We Shouldn’t Really Be Here’

By COLlive reporter

Members of the Chabad community in Montreal, Canada, gathered on Tuesday to celebrate the Chabad holiday of Hei Teves.

Organized by the Lubavitch Youth Organization in Montreal, headed by Rabbi Berel Mochkin, the event took place at the spacious Beth Chabad MADA center.

A full crowd came to mark the 30th anniversary of the “Seforim Case,” when books were stolen from Chabad’s official library in Brooklyn, NY, leading to a legal battle over the identity of Chabad.

Among the people addressing the farbrengen were Rabbi Mochkin, Rabbi Chaim Shlomo Cohen and Rabbi Yosef Kessler.

The guest speaker at the festive evening was Rabbi Yosef Greenberg, the Shliach in Anchorage, Alaska, who was active as a bochur in activities at 770 Eastern Parkway.

Rabbi Greenberg recalled those trying times in 5747, the meaning of the legal victory and its relevancy to Chabad chassidim today.

He then added on a personal note, asking why participants were currently there in Montreal and haven’t been to the Rebbe’s Ohel in New York on that day.

“The Rebbe said that this day is a day of merit (segulah) and a time of grace (es ratzon) for our material and spiritual needs. We must see and be seen (by the Rebbe). How much cost traveling to New York?”

Rabbi Greenberg called on the chassidim and bochurim present to keep constant and direct communication with the Rebbe on a regular basis as was done before Gimmel Tammuz.