24 Hour Learning in Alma Ata

This year, Chof Av, the 69th yahrtzeit – beginning the 70th year since the histalkus – of Rabbi Levi Yitzchok Schneerson, father of the Rebbe, was observed in a special and historic way.

A week in advance of the yahrtzeit, 14 select yeshiva bochurim – representing 8 yeshivos in Eretz Yisroel – arrived at the Ohel in Alma Ata to be present by Reb Levik at this special time and to participate in the Yeshivas Kayitz “Oholei Levi Yitzchok” established near the Ohel.

This project of bochurim-representatives from a variety of yeshivos coming also to enable the saying of Tehillim, learning of Mishnayos and of the Torah of Reb Levik at his Ohel on Chof Av around the clock, was founded by the initiative and generosity of the sponsoring businessmen Avraham Shaulson of Miami and Shmuly Stern of Crown Heights who have since made it customary to grant this honor to Reb Levik every year.

This year, however, it was carried out for the first time with the yahrtzeit falling out on a Shabbos—in the designated shul adjacent to the Ohel. Thus most of the guests stayed over at the Chabad House of Almaty for Shabbos together with the group of temimim—although many guests (including shluchim and Anash from Eretz Yisroel, the U.S., Europe, Russia and Australia) visited earlier and returned to their communities before Shabbos.

On Friday afternoon everyone convened at the Ohel—the Almaty community, the local shluchim, the shluchim from all over Kazakhstan, shluchim and Anash from all over the globe, the temimim of Yeshivas Kayitz “Oholei Levi Yitzchok” and many guests—and began saying Tehillim and Maaneh Lashon.

At 1:00 the crowd commenced with singing the nigunim of all the Rebbeim, after which the head shliach and chief rabbi of Kazakhstan, Rabbi Yeshaya Cohen, read aloud the “pan klali,” containing requests for blessings for the community surrounding Reb Levik, for the mosdos operating nearby and continuing his holy work, for their consistent supporters and for the donors R’ Avraham Shaulson and R’ Shmuel Stern who established the yeshivas kayitz and funded the hospitality for the numerous guests arriving to visit the Ohel, for shleimus ha’aretz, for the relocation of the writings of Reb Levik still undiscovered and for the release of all the seforim still held in captivity in Russia and their immediate return to their true home, in the Rebbe’s library near 770, and for the ultimate Geulah.

After the communal tefillah, a bris was held at the Levi Yitzchok Shul at Chabad of Kazakhstan Headquarters for an 8-day-old boy, performed by shliach Rabbi Elchanan Cohen, rabbi of Almaty.

Around the clock on Shabbos, shifts of bochurim from Yeshivas Kayitz “Oholei Levi Yitzchok” occupied the outer room adjacent to the Ohel and without respite recited Tehillim and studied Mishnayos and the Torah of Reb Levik.

Minyanim for all three tefillos were also conducted there, in addition to the regular minyanim at the Chabad House, which were followed by communal Shabbos meals, at which the assembled held farbrengens for most of the hours of the yahrtzeit. On Friday night the farbrengen carried on until 5:00 AM, while on Shabbos day the farbrengen continued until “Seder Nigunim,” at the end of which Rabbi Shalom D. Wolpo recited a maamar. After Havdala, the farbrengens continued for many hours with a festive Melaveh Malka, enhanced by the music of Yossi Cohen from New York.

On Sunday, Chabad of Kazakhstan organized a gala event marking the beginning of the 70th year since the histalkus as well as the 20th year of Chabad’s activities in Kazakhstan, together with the celebration of the Bar Mitzvah of Levi Yitzchok Cohen, son of the Chabad of Kazakhstan representative in Eretz Yisroel, Rabbi Moshe D. Cohen.

The guest of honor was the Israeli Ambassador to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, Mr. Eliyahu Tasman, who came especially from Astana (the capital of Kazakhstan) to participate in this celebration in honor of Reb Levik and his community. Many ambassadors relayed their congratulations, and dozens of shluchim and mosdos sent inspiring letters to the local community in conjunction with the events at hand.