2 Guests Spend a Shabbos

By COLlive reporter

This past Shabbos, the Lubavitch community of Toronto commemorated the 200th yahrzeit of the Alter Rebbe with a special program.

On hand were two special guests flown in for the event, Rabbi Yosef Y. Chitrik from Tzfas and Rabbi Shais Taub from Pittsburgh.

Friday night, Rabbi Taub spoke at a special Shabbaton dinner for the Chabad Shteeble, co-directed by Rabbi Yosef and Zelda Gansburg.

Rabbi Taub spoke about the Alter Rebbe’s revolutionary tools for emotional growth and how we can apply these to all of our relationships, especially our relationship with Hashem.

Shabbos day, Rabbi Chitrik spoke in the Shteeble, then after davening, he led a farbrengen for anash that went on until mincha.

The highlight of the weekend, however, came at the Melave Malka as shluchim and anash from all over the Toronto area gathered to pay tribute to the Alter Rebbe at the exact moment of his histalkus.

In attendance were Head Shliach Rabbi Zalman Aaron Grossbaum, the Mara D’asra Rabbi Dovid Schochet and Rabbi Moshe Spalter, Administrator of Chabad Lubavitch Community Centre who helped coordinate the event.

Rabbi Gansburg was the M.C. for the evening and coordinated the singing of the Alter Rebbe’s ten niggunim.

The keynote speaker for the evening was Rabbi Taub, a scholar of chassidus and author of the Map of Tanya who recently completed a commentary on the Sha’ar haYichud vehaEmunah section of Tanya, soon to be published by Kehot.

His talk, which was streamed live on Jewish.TV, was titled “Intelligent Faith: 200 Years of Chabad.” Using real-life terms and examples, many participants noted how the lecture summed up the entire meaning of chassidus for them.

Next, Rabbi Chitrik gave a presentation on behalf of Colel Chabad, the Alter Rebbe’s own tzedakah fund and the oldest existing charity in the Holy Land. He explained that on the 150th yahrzeit, the Rebbe encouraged people to donate in multiple of 150 and that now we should give in multiples of 200.

In the moments before 10:25pm (the exact time of the Alter Rebbe’s histalkus) the crowd sang the Alter Rebbe’s niggun. Then, precisely at 10:25pm, an audio recording of the Rebbe’s short maamar from the 150th yahrzeit was played.

Afterwards, Rabbi Taub continued to farbreng with shluchim and anash into the morning hours.