The Dnipro Jewish Community marked an important date on the Jewish calendar – the 18th of Nissan, which is celebrated as the birthday of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson, father of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, who served as the Chief Rabbi of our city from 1909 to 1939, as well as the day of the Rebbe’s own bris milah, which took place, as is proper, on the eighth day after his birth – the 11th of Nissan.
The main event was a large men’s farbrengen held at Dnipro’s central “Golden Rose” Synagogue, attended by numerous community members, regular congregants of the synagogue, shluchim – the Rebbe’s emissaries – as well as guests who had come to Dnipro to spend Pesach and joined in marking this special day with Chassidic joy.
The key moment of the farbrengen was the address by the Chief Rabbi of Dnipro and the region, Shmuel Kaminezki, who quoted the well-known saying: “Those who sow with tears will reap with joy,” and emphasized that everyone can see the embodiment of this truth in our community. For thanks to the labor that Rabbi Levi Yitzchak carried out despite difficulties and suffering, we today have a strong, united, and cohesive community that is developing and supporting a large number of large-scale Jewish revival projects, realizing the dream and the plan that Rabbi Levi Yitzchak and his great son, the Leader of our generation, the Seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, put into practice.
Rabbi Moshe Neumann shared his deep reflections on the birthday of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak, noting that this year he would have turned 148 years old, and therefore all together recited Psalm 149 – according to Chassidic tradition, we recite the chapter of Tehillim corresponding to the age plus one.
The farbrengen took place in a warm, sincere, Chassidic atmosphere. Its participants made good resolutions in honor of this day, for the elevation of the soul of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak, and to bring nachas to the Rebbe. Many l’chaims were raised, niggunim were sung, and thus this event, made possible thanks to the support of the Dnipro Jewish Community, became for everyone a source of inspiration and spiritual uplift.
