BORN ON THE ORIGINAL YUD-BEIS TAMMUZ

R’ Yechiel Mandel was born in Mezhibuzh on the actual day of the first Chag Ha’Geula, 12 Tammuz 5687/1927, the day the Rebbe Rayatz was freed. * Almost the only Jewish memory he had from his parents’ home was the fact that his mother would clean the holy Baal Shem Tov’s gravesite. * At age 77 he visited the Chabad house in Texas. He was invited by his son who had become a Chabad Chassid. There he decided that upon his return to Eretz Yisroel he would also go to a Chabad house and become a Chassid of the Rebbe. * Presented for 12 Tammuz

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TIDINGS OF REDEMPTION

The news spread and even before the Rebbe returned to his host, the shochet, they already knew the good tidings. When the Rebbe arrived, he saw the Chassid, R’ Michoel Dworkin dancing around the outside of the house, holding a small bottle of vodka and singing, “Nyet, nyet …” The young son of the shochet danced on the fence with feet in the air and his hands down below. * A description of the release of the Rebbe Rayatz from exile, based on diaries and stories of Chassidim. * Presented for 12-13 Tammuz.

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THE REBBE HID ME IN THE CLOSET

In the Rebbe Rayatz’s final years, only the senior Chassidim were allowed to attend his farbrengens. R’ Dovid Goldstein, who lives in Tzfas now, and was a young bachur in those days, tells of many creative ways he used to try and attend the farbrengens or the t’fillos with the Rebbe Rayatz. * About the hiding place the Rebbe suggested in the Rebbe Rayatz’s apartment, about the hakafos in the Rebbe’s room, and when the Rebbe blocked the way to the second floor. * R’ Dovid was present in the early days after the Rebbe accepted the nesius and he has fascinating memories of what the Rebbe told him in yechidus, and how he secured a promise from the Rebbe for children for the Admur of Komarna after the Rebbe said, “Promising is something only Hashem can do.”

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EVERYONE NEEDS TO FEEL HE’S A PARTNER

Lectures used to be the way people learned. A teacher or lecturer who knew the information would come and convey it to students. Nowadays, workshops and round-table discussions are more popular, in which everyone brainstorms together. Each one feels he is taking part in finding the answer or solution. In this way, no one feels put upon. That is how it is supposed to be with Geula too.

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EDUCATIONAL REVOLUTIONARY

R’ Aharon Popack was a little boy when he emigrated with his family from Russia to the United States, a fact that the Rebbe Rayatz emphasized to him in yechidus. The Russian born boy, who grew up in America, was one of the Rebbe Rayatz’s first emissaries, and was appointed to the committee of Yeshiva students for strengthening proper chinuch, a shlichus he labored in all his life until his untimely passing. * To mark his passing on 13 Tammuz 5736/1976.

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THE ULTIMATE TZ’DAKA

G-d is always counting the Jewish people. One example is a census ordered by G-d as recorded in this week’s parsha, Pinchas. This census is unique in that all of the families within each of the 12 tribes are mentioned.

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DID THE GOVERNMENT DO ALL THAT IT COULD?

Our government speaks in high and mighty terms about taking harsh retribution against Hamas. But they are lying. Bombing a few empty buildings won’t accomplish anything. This government has released terrorists wholesale, more than any previous administration. And on the night the students’ bodies were discovered, the terrorists fired rockets on cities throughout southern Eretz Yisroel, forcing the children of Sderot to sleep in bomb shelters, while children in Gaza danced in the streets reveling in this atrocious murder.

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THE FLOWERPOT MYSTERY

One evening, with no prior notice, I made an announcement, “We are going to grow a plant.” “What for?” asked Sarale, my sister. “In my good friend Shmuli’s house, they are growing a tomato plant on their porch,” I told her.

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A SCEPTER WILL ARISE AMONG THE JEWISH PEOPLE

Shvat,” means “shivtei moshlim – the scepters of rulers.” This is especially evident in the rule of the Davidic dynasty, as it is said, “the scepter [of the dynasty] of Yehuda will never be withdrawn from (Dovid and his descendants – the rulers of the Diaspora in Babylon, who assert their dominion b’sheivet, with a scepter) until the advent of Shilo” (a reference to Melech HaMoshiach), regarding whom it is said, “A sheivet (a king, ruler, and dictator) will rise up among the Jewish people” – “this refers to Melech HaMoshiach.”

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CHABAD HOUSE IN THE JUNGLE

It’s hard to believe but in the heart of the jungle in Bolivia, a young couple, Yehoshua (“Shuki”) and Chana Gur, have opened a Chabad house which is visited by thousands of Israelis every month. They farbreng, are exposed to Torah, Chassidus and the Rebbe.* In a village that can be reached only by a small plane which lands on the grass, they are getting ready to inaugurate a new mikva building.

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MESSIANIC CONSCIOUSNESS AFTER GIMMEL TAMMUZ

This year is the 20th anniversary of Gimmel Tamuz. In this article, Rabbi Ginsburgh describes how to continue to feel connected to the Rebbe and in what ways we can advance his life’s goal.

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GIMMEL TAMMUZ FROM ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE

Erev Gimmel Tammuz, when questions arise, I visited the mashpia, R’ Zushe Posner, one of the veteran shluchim that the Rebbe sent to Eretz Yisroel, to hear answers. R’ Zushe makes no concessions to anyone and he demands living with the Rebbe not for ourselves, but for the Rebbe! * Part 2 of 2

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THE REBBE: A SCHOOL FOR GIRLS IS A MUST!

From the life of R’ Yehoshua Shneur Zalman Serebryanski a”h In the months that followed, Mrs. Hertz worked as a supervisor for the secular studies in the boys’ school. She saw, from close-up, the wonderful work and dedication of R’ Zalman and the other teachers in the school. She was very impressed and slowly softened in her demands regarding running the girls’ school. When the topic would come up in conversation with R’ Zalman, she expressed her consent, in principle, that the school be Lubavitch and only asked that the schooling take place in her house.

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