As the Chabad shluchim at Binghamton, NY, Rivky Slonim and her husband, Rabbi Aaron Slonim, spend their time giving to the thriving Jewish community they have been building over the last thirty-seven years: it is an ever-expanding student community at Binghamton University who then become alumni once they leave. As Rivky explains, “it is her whole life,” one that is filled with teaching, traveling, connecting and creating.
When she first heard of Project Likkutei Sichos, her busy schedule left little room for new commitments, despite the excitement and intrigue it left her with. But as a global pandemic began making its way into the minutiae of our daily lives, Rivky knew she could make use of the free time she now had; and with that, she joined the project and jumped right in, finding a new way to spread light during challenging times.
For close to two years, every Monday morning at 10 AM, Rivky signs onto Zoom to gather with a group of women from around the world, ready to learn a new sicha of the Lubavitcher Rebbe. As one of few classes held live each week, Rivky has the privilege of meeting her students face-to-face.
“There is a certain power that comes with people joining together to learn Torah. We have created a small community of women, and have created connections through this. I may be the one doing the formal teaching, but I feel the presence of—and learn from—everyone; we very much learn together.”
Learning live creates a space for questions and reflections, and one where the women have come to inspire one another through showing up. Most of the women have full families, day jobs and busy schedules; and yet each week, they make the time to sit with their community, and learn Torah. It is a commitment not only to the Rebbe, but to one another.
The weekly commitment has made the experience truly transformative, not only in regards to the community it has helped to build, but in the learning itself. There is a cumulative effect when we commit to consistency; we enter into a new headspace, and the experience becomes that much more powerful. As Rivky explains, the Rebbe taught us how to think, not what to think. And through showing up consistently each week, we are beginning to enter into the deep world of sichos.
“Every sicha you learn helps you to understand every other sicha. It is a science with its own rules and axioms and terrain.”
It is through entering this world that one begins to understand the vastness of the Rebbe’s teachings, and Rivky admits that it may take another one hundred- thousand years to truly appreciate the enormity, depth, and breadth of the ocean that is Likkutei Sichos.
Through the teaching process, Rivky has deepened her personal connection to the Rebbe, and has gained a whole new level of “bekius” or basic Torah knowledge. But maybe most importantly, she has gained an understanding of just how much she will never know, an understanding that will keep her an eternal student of the Rebbe’s guiding Torah.
“It is amazing how deeply each sicha speaks to you. Everything you take in becomes a part of you, and I see them integrated into my everyday life. The sichos have become my ‘North Star’.”
Every week, Rivky sets aside the time to properly choose the right sicha for that week’s learning. Of the two sichos, which seems most relevant to our moment? Which may be more compelling, especially to our community of women? Which one seems to be doable in an hour or an hour and a half?
Then, together with her husband, who has supported her role in the project from the very beginning, Rivky learns the sicha at length- and multiple times, often calling other teachers and Rabbis with questions. In a community bursting with so many Torah resources and experienced teachers, learning from others is a tool that Rivky feels privileged to have, and can bring back with her to the women in her class.
There are times when the material is challenging, as each sicha brings in something new to explore. Especially for women, some sichos enter territory many women have never explored before in Torah learning, and that can be intimidating. But with each sicha, the women show up together with the power of commitment and determination, and try their best.
“We have created a certain sisterhood among women across the globe- South Africa, England, South America and of course, across the United States…we have a web around the world; both a web of learning and a web of support. One member was able to speak on Zoom about a loved one on the day of her last Kaddish. We made a “lechaim” and we were all crying together.”
For Rivky, her weekly time with Project Likkutei Sichos is a time to cherish.
“It has become a kind of Shabbos to me, an axis around which my whole week revolves, and I am deeply grateful for it in my life. The project has ignited a fire. The heavens have opened to something unstoppable- a repository of treasures for all people to access, in our day and for all time.”
This profile is part of a featured series on the incredible Maggidei Shiurim who teach for Project Likkutei Sichos.
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For the past 2 years, Project Likkutei Sichos has taken the world by storm, with the stated mission of literally taking over the entire world, “Kibbush”, with the Rebbe’s Torah.
We turn to you, our family of Chasidim, help us spread the Sichos of the Rebbe as far and wide as it needs to be.
We are bold enough to believe that the entire world can learn, and INTERNALIZE the Rebbe’s teaching, in its entirety, and together with All Jews, EVERYWHERE!
Learn more, and TAKE THE PLUNGE at https://kibbush.com.
