| | 6 Tishrei: Yahrtzeit of Rebbetzin Chana | | |
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Sunday, Vov Tishrei marks 41 years since the passing of Rebbetzin Chana Schneersohn, mother of the Lubavitcher Rebbe King Moshiach. The day will be marked by Chassidim around the world with farbrengens and special activities in Rebbetzin Chana's memory.
Brief biography of Rebbetzin Chana in full article.
Rebbetzin Chana Schneerson was born on the 28th of Tevet, 5640/1880, in Nikolaiev, a city near Odessa. In 1900, Rebbetzin Chana married the renowned scholar and kabbalist, Rabbi Levi Yitzchok Schneerson. They had three sons, the eldest of whom was the Rebbe. The second son, Dov Ber, was killed by the Nazis and the youngest son, Yisroel Aryeh Leib, passed away in England in 1952.
In 1907, the couple moved to Yekatrinoslav (presently Dnepropetrovsk), where Rabbi Levi Yitzchok had been appointed to the prestigious post of Rav of this major Jewish community. For all practical purposes he was the spiritual leader of the entire Jewish population of the Ukraine.
Throughout the 32 years that her husband served as Rabbi of Yekatrinoslav, Rebbetzin Chana stood at his side, assisting in his holy work. The Rebbetzin had a good rapport with the members of their sophisticated congregation, and she communicated especially well with Jewish university students, in whom she took special interest, befriending them and trying her best to imbue them with the spirit of Torah.
In 1939, Rabbi Levi Yitzchok was arrested because of his energetic work to preserve religious observance; a year later, he was exiled to a small village in the Republic of Kazakhstan. When Rebbetzin Chana learned of her husband's location, she joined him, paying no heed to the difficulties and danger involved.
Rebbetzin Chana made a valuable spiritual contribution to her husband, one from which the entire Jewish people benefited. Her son, the Rebbe, described this special contribution:
"In the remote Russian village where my father was exiled, there was no ink available. After my mother was permitted to join him, she gathered various herbs in the fields, and by soaking them made a sort of ink, which enabled my father to record his original Torah commentaries. My mother devoted her energies to this task despite their lack of even minimally sufficient amounts of bread and water."
Rabbi Levi Yitzchok passed away in exile in 1944. In 1947, Rebbetzin Chana succeeded, with tremendous difficulties, in emigrating from the Soviet Union. At the same time, she also managed to smuggle out her husband's writings at great danger to herself. Later that year she arrived safely in Paris where she was reunited with her eldest son, whom she had not seen for twenty years. The two traveled by ship to New York, where the Rebbetzin lived for the last seventeen years of her life.
Rebbetzin Chana passed away in the late afternoon on the Shabbat between Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur, the sixth of Tishrei, 5725/1964, at the age of 85.
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| | Exhorbitant Prices for Lulavim Expected | | |
NEW YORK, Oct. 3 (JTA) - American legislators, Israeli officials and Jewish groups are working diplomatic channels in an effort to stave off a looming lulav shortage ahead of Sukkot.
Their efforts follow a surprise move by Egypt, which - after years as the world�s primary supplier of the palm fronds that form the spine of the ritual lulav - said it no longer would provide the leaves to suppliers in the United States, Israel and beyond.
�We�ve got everybody on the case, and I told them to shake a leg,� Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-N.Y.) told JTA, pun intended.
(Continued in full article)
Ackerman has raised the issue in meetings with the Egyptian ambassador to the United States and America�s ambassador to Egypt, and says he also has put a call in to Osama el Baz, a top political adviser to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
In addition, Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) has sent a letter to the Egyptian ambassador urging Egypt to �consider the needs of Jewish communities around the world and allow for a sufficient number of these palm fronds to be exported this year.�
Staff members from the office of Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) also have voiced concerns on the issue to the Egyptian Embassy.
Israel�s Ministry of Agriculture also is in contact with its Egyptian counterpart, which has said that palm-leaf exports had to be cut because removing the fronds damages the trees.
The pressure seems to be having some effect: Israeli officials say they now believe some lulav shipments from Egypt - the source in past years of about 1 million lulavs worldwide - could go forward, and Rabbi Abba Cohen, Washington director and counsel for Agudath Israel of America, said Monday he�d received word from the Egyptians that �a partial release� was in the works.
Still, with a significant cut in the number of lulavs reaching distributors still likely, Jewish officials are concerned they may shortly have a �lulav crisis� on their hands for Sukkot, which falls this year in mid-October.
�The Egyptian action will not only create a tremendous shortage, so that some people won�t have lulavim, but those who do might have to pay an exorbitant price,� Cohen said.
Cohen said his group has been in contact with the Egyptian Embassy, the White House and the State Department on the issue.
Egypt�s concerns are backed up by horticulturalists, who say removing the fronds could damage a tree�s ability to produce fruit and thrive.
�It is detrimental to the health of the palm to remove the green, productive leaves,� said John Begeman, a horticulture agent with the University of Arizona�s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, in Tucson. �They are doing the work of the palm in manufacturing food� through photosynthesis.
Date palms typically have 15-20 healthy green leaves at any one time, and removal of leaves should be limited to the dead and dying brown leaves at the trees� base, Begeman said.
The Encyclopedia Judaica translates the Hebrew word lulav as �a young branch of a tree� or �a shoot.� The lulav is one of the arba�ah minim, or four plant species, that are joined together and shaken on Sukkot. The others are willows and myrtle, which are bound to the lulav with strips of palm; and the etrog, or citron, which is held beside the lulav as it is waved.
Calls to the Egyptian Embassy were not returned.
Those in contact with the Egyptians say they have been receptive to Jewish concerns. No one interviewed believed that the Egyptian move was politically motivated. They said they hoped the Egyptians might take steps to cushion the blow in light of the appeals.
�We�re surely sensitive� to Egypt�s needs, Cohen said. �What we�re looking for is some way to allow them to pursue what�s in their best interest, but at the same time allow us to adjust and develop or tap into other sources.�
Cohen suggested, for example, that instead of cutting off lulav shipments at once, a decrease could be gradual.
While Egypt long has been the major producer of lulavs - the majority come from the El Arish region of northern Sinai - some distributors have gotten portions of their supplies from California, Arizona and Israel. In light of the news out of Egypt, several Israeli distributors reportedly visited Jordan recently to determine if the Hashemite Kingdom could become a new source.
As Erev Rosh Hashanah fell, Judaica stores that supply lulavs to local consumers were unsure about the status of their orders.
�I�m very nervous about it,� said Madelyn Heyman, proprietor of Bala Judaica in suburban Philadelphia.
Heyman said her distributor had promised that the lulavs would arrive - and already had raised the price on them.
�It�s very unusual just to raise the price on the one item,� she said. �We sell them as a set.�
Heyman was able to get relatively inexpensive etrogs, and as such was not planning to raise the price on the lulav-etrog sets.
�I�m hoping that we�re all wrong and that there�s going to be plenty of supply,� she said. �We have to be optimistic at this time.��
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| | Nachlas Har Chabad Aids G. Katif Expellees | | |
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Now that the spotlights are off of the Gush Katif residents, few people are paying any attention at all to their dire circumstances. However, there are a few true Baalei Chesed who have not forgotten the needs of the hundreds of families who have been forcibly evicted from their homes and left stranded with no job, possessions or place to live.
Among these Baalei Chesed is the Chabad community of Nachalas Har Chabad, who have come to the aid of the expellees of Elei Sinai, who have set up a tent camp at the Yad Mordechai junction. The community has provided the Elei Sinai expellees with warm food for Rosh Hashana, blankets and other necessities that the families requested.
The former residents of Elei Sinai, who are fed up with the false promises of the government and other official organizations, were very grateful to Chabad who not only promised but delivered in a substantial way. In particular, the Eida family of Nachalas Har Chabad was instrumental in preparing and distributing freshly cooked meals.
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| | Earthquake in India; Shluchim are safe | | |
An earthquake that measured 7.6 on the richter scale hit Southern Asia today, killing over 3,000 people. R. Baruch Shenhav, shliach in Manali, India, reports that there was no damage to his Chabad House except for a few pictures that fell from the walls. All the Israeli tourists to India are accounted for and are safe B"H.
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| | Heightened Security on NYC Subways | | |
 | | Camp Machaneh Moshiach in the subway, on way to mivtzayim |
(Newsday) With a security clampdown in the city's subway system continuing indefinitely, a city official said Saturday that three men arrested in Iraq in connection with a suspected terrorist plot were believed credible because they are not low-level insurgents, are well-connected outside of their country and had traveled abroad.
The three men, whom authorities have not identified and who are being questioned by U.S. forces, were believed to have planned to leave Iraq and travel through Syria to arrive in the United States on Friday and deliver a London-like bombing on or around Sunday, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
(Read more in full article)
The many Chassidim of the Rebbe now staying in New York for Tishrei went on their regular Mivtza tefillin rounds on Friday, despite the threat, keeping in mind the words the Rebbe often quoted: "The nations of the world will see the name of Hashem upon you and will fear you."
Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, who spoke to reporters at a press briefing Saturday in Astoria, continued their staunch defense of the decision to ramp up subway security.
"Over the last couple of days, we've become more convinced that the threat was real," Bloomberg said just before the kickoff of the Columbus Day Parade in Queens.
A Defense Department informant in Iraq who leaked the plot to authorities said that as many as 19 people were aiming to detonate explosives concealed in briefcases, suitcases or baby carriages in the subway system, law enforcement officials have said.
"There was something being attempted," said the city official who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Of course, we don't know if they would have made it."
Little was known about a fourth person who officials said may be in the New York City area, having entered the country from Syria. It remaine! d unclear if the person actually exists.
"We did precisely the right thing based on the information that we have," Kelly said of the threat and the city's response to it.
Added Bloomberg: "If you make a mistake in the other direction, the consequences are much too tragic."
Since Thursday, when federal and city officials went public with word of the plot, federal officials have pointedly expressed doubt about the credibility of the threat information.
In a slight shift of emphasis Saturday, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff released a statement saying he "respects the mayor's judgment and believes that the security precautions being taken by Mayor Bloomberg and other New York officials are absolutely an appropriate response."
But a Homeland Security department spokesman said federal officials still believe the threat to be unconvincing.
"The intelligence community's assessment of this threat has not changed; although speci! fic, it continues to be of doubtful credibility," department s! pokesman Russ Knocke said.
Kelly and Bloomberg said increased security in the labyrinthine subway system, which has nearly 470 stations, will remain indefinitely.
"You are not going to see the same face twice," the police commissioner said. "We continue to change it. We'll cover different locations with different resources."
The mayor said, "Every day we are going to change what we do, so it's not predictable."
Bloomberg downplayed the date of Oct. 9 for the purported attack, saying there was "nothing magical about tomorrow."
Most straphangers interviewed Saturday said they remain undeterred about taking the train.
"If it's going to happen, it's going to happen," said Virginia O'Brien, 31, a consultant from Astoria. "They have said this stuff before and nothing has happened, so I just keep going. I don't know what else to do."
Tiffany Winston, 23, a student from the Moshulu section of the Bronx, said she will take the train Sunday if ! she needs to.
"I'd still get on the train," Winston said. "Life's got to go on."
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A large percentage of the guests in 770 for Tishrei are mekuravim of Chabad from all over the world. In the picture you can see a common sight - a bachur and mekurav engrossed in studying a sicha of the Rebbe outside of 770.
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| | Aishel to Help with Flight Expenses | | |
Chabad philanthropist and California Shliach R. Naftali Estulin has iniated a new fund to provide $100 to every tamim visiting 770 for Tishrei, to help with the expense of the flight. The money will be disbursed to temimim who attend regular sdarim and farbrengens.
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| | Motzei Rosh Hashana in 770 | | |
Enter full article to view a gallery of pictures of Motzei Rosh Hashana in 770.
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| | Tishrei in Video - Part II | | |
Following the success of the first Tishrei Video featured on Chabad.info, photographer Meir Alfasi did not rest on his laurels but immediately set to work recording video #2 of the beautiful and exciting scenes of Tishrei in 770. We guarantee that that this video is just as moving and inspiring as the first!
To enter the video section of Chabad.info, click here.
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| | Georgetown Children Visit 770 and Museum | | |
 | | Group Picture outside 770 |
For a full year, temimim Chaim Shalom Segal and Aryeh Leib Kaplan have been teaching the children of Georgetown in the Sunday School run by Chabad. On Sunday before Rosh Hashana, the temimim decided to give the children a special experience in honor of the new year, with a visit to 770 and the Tzivos Hashem Jewish Children's Museum. The 4-hour trip ended with the children reciting the 12 pesukim outside the Rebbe's room and beseeching that Hashem send Moshiach immediately.
R. Are'le Sheinberg, Shliach in Georgetown, reports that the response of the parents was overwhelming and there are many requests to continue the Sunday School next year. The parents warmly thanked the dedicated teachers and counselors for everything they did for the children.
Gallery of pictures of the trip in full article. (By Shmulik G.)
 | | Model Kosher store in Tzivos Hashem museum |
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| | Shiurim for 770 Tishrei Guests | | |
Eishel-Hachnasas Orchim of Crown Heights does not just see to the physical accommodations of the many guests visiting Crown Heights for Tishrei. It also concerns itself with their spiritual needs, and has arranged a full schedule of shiurim. Each morning, shiurim in Chassidus are delivered by a number of mashpiim, led by R. Yosef Yitzchok Offen. Shiurim in Nigleh are also offered according to the age and level of the guests.
Of course, the primary shiur is the public lecture in Inyanei Geulah U'Moshiach, which is held every day after mincha. Each day a different mashpia delivers the shiur
Enter full article for a gallery of pictures of shiurim in 770.
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