{"id":431567,"date":"2025-11-24T13:09:52","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T11:09:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/djc.com.ua\/?p=431567"},"modified":"2025-11-25T14:13:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T12:13:16","slug":"5-festive-highlights-from-the-chassidic-month-of-kislev","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/djc.com.ua\/en\/news\/5-festive-highlights-from-the-chassidic-month-of-kislev\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Festive Highlights From the Chassidic Month of Kislev"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

The cycle of the Jewish year has many starting points, and many periods of celebration. As the Mishnah<\/span> noted long ago, there is not one Rosh Hashanah<\/span>, but four: there are different calendrical cycles for different kinds of things.<\/p>

In this vein, the Rebbe<\/span> would often recall the Talmudic debate about whether the world was first created on the 25th of Adar<\/span>, making Nissan<\/span> the first month, or on the 25th of Elul<\/span>, making Tishrei<\/span> the first month. These two calendarical beginnings, the Rebbe explained, mirror one another as complementary paths in our service of G\u2011d<\/span>. Beginning in Nissan, Divine redemption and revelation is bestowed from on high. It is then that we celebrate the redemption from Egypt, and three months later\u2014in Sivan<\/span>\u2014the giving of the Torah<\/span>. Beginning in Tishrei, we seek to raise ourselves up from below. It is then that we seek within our own depths to draw forth the depth of all things, returning to our true selves and to G\u2011d. And three months later\u2014in Kislev<\/span>\u2014we celebrate the outpouring of Torah\u2019s concealed wellsprings: the teachings of Kabbalah<\/span> as expounded and explicated by the chassidic masters.<\/p>

The oldest and best-known of Kislev\u2019s chassidic celebrations occurs on its 19th day (Yud-Tes Kislev). But this month includes many other special occasions, beginning from its very first day (Rosh Chodesh<\/span>), which was first established as a chassidic celebration as recently as 1977. This is a month of freedom and edification, of joy and transformation, and it climaxes with the eight-day festival of Chanukah<\/span>. Of course, this holiday of miracles long predates Chassidism<\/span>. But as with all other aspects of Jewish, life, learning and practice, Chanukah shines with an entirely new degree of luminosity when experienced through the chassidic prism.<\/p>

So here are five celebratory highlights from the chassidic month of Kislev:<\/p>

1. Rosh Chodesh Kisle<\/h3>

By Eli Rubin<\/em><\/p>

This photo was taken at the first farbrengen<\/span> led by the Rebbe after suffering a major heart attack. Unbeknownst to most of the audience, doctors were using cardiac monitors to observe the Rebbe\u2019s condition throughout the farbrengen.<\/em><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/section>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

The first day of the month (Rosh Chodesh) marks the return of the Rebbe\u2014Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson<\/span>, of righteous memory\u2014to public life after suffering a major heart attack just thirty-eight days earlier. During the celebrations of the evening of Shemini Atzeret<\/span> in the year 1977 (5738), while dancing with the Torahs in the main synagogue, the Rebbe\u2019s face suddenly turned pale. As he sat back in his chair, the chassidim knew that something was very wrong, and the synagogue was quickly cleared. Yet the Rebbe stoically completed the last dance together with his brother-in-law Rabbi Shmaryahu Gurary. Dr. Ira Weiss, who flew in from Chicago to treat the Rebbe, testified that \u201con a scale of ten, he had the full ten heart attack\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0. it involved such extensive damage that in anyone\u2019s normal medical experience one would worry about the possibility of survival.\u201d<\/p>

Knowing that the Rebbe\u2019s life might be in danger, and that he was surely suffering intense physical pain, the chassidim had cause for deep anguish and anxiety. Yet the Rebbe instructed that the celebration must continue, and that the joy must be unconstrained. One chassid<\/span> who was present later recalled, \u201cThe fact that the Rebbe was unwell penetrated us to the very core. To begin with, we sang, \u2018The Rebbe should be healthy.\u2019 Then the words changed to \u2018The Rebbe is<\/i> healthy.\u2019 We somehow knew, axiomatically, that our faithful joy would make it so. On Rosh Chodesh Kislev, when we once again saw the Rebbe, we celebrated because we were united again with our own essence. And that was the celebration. Such a thing doesn\u2019t come through any kind of specific preparation. It comes from the very foundation of what it means to be a chassid, knowing that the Rebbe is your essence.\u201d<\/p>

Strikingly, in a talk broadcast from his room following the festival\u2019s conclusion, the Rebbe too spoke of how his bond with the chassidim was actually intensified through their enforced separation. \u201cFor a certain reason,\u201d the Rebbe began, \u201cwe speak after the festival\u2019s conclusion, which allows us to use media to communicate what we say even in faraway places, physically far, but obviously spiritually close, which is the main thing among Jews, being that their soul is primary and their body secondary.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0. Thereby there is formed a tie, a bond, a unity, among all those who hear this speech\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u201d<\/p>

These words are particularly resonant today, when we again find ourselves physically separated from the Rebbe. But knowing that our very souls are bound with the Rebbe\u2019s, we know that his spiritual life\u2014his faith, his awe and love of G\u2011d\u2014are as accessible to us as ever before. On the contrary, as the Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi<\/span> explains in Tanya<\/span>, \u201chaving departed from the world, the tzaddik<\/span><\/i> is more present in all worlds than he was in his lifetime\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0. since his soul is no longer constrained by a physical vessel or by physical space.\u201d<\/p>

Rosh Chodesh Kislev marked the beginning of sixteen additional years of life and leadership for the Rebbe. During this period he revealed ever deeper Torah secrets, and inspired many thousands of people to transform themselves and the world for good. But Rosh Chodesh Kislev wasn\u2019t just a point in the past. Rosh Chodesh Kislev continues to be celebrated as the moment that chassidim collectively recognize just how deep the bond with the Rebbe goes. Transcending any physical or temporal dimension, the Rebbe and his teachings continue to provide our essential soul connection, the bedrock of our faith, of our awe and love of G\u2011d.<\/p>

Listen to the Rosh Chodesh Kislev <\/i>niggun<\/span>, composed by Rabbi Faitel Levin as an expression of joy and thanksgiving for the Rebbe\u2019s recovery and continued leadership:<\/i><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t