Despite Rain, Children Gather

A little drizzle never stopped a soldier. Despite today’s weather, hundreds of local Tzivos Hashem soldiers gathered in front of 770 today for a live rally in honor of the Rebbe’s birthday, with another 6,000 or so joining around the world via live broadcast. The program, sponsored by NCFJE, featured a new segment of “A Quest for Oiz” series and ended off with the highly-anticipated annual mitzva tank parade.

But no doubt that the climax of the day’s event was the presentation of the Rebbe’s birthday gift. For many weeks now, Chayolim around the world have been working hard in every free moment to memorize lines of Mishnayos and Tanya Baal Peh for the Rebbe’s birthday. Together, Hashem’s army had a goal: 770,000 lines of Tanya and Mishnayos Baal Peh.

“A week ago we had only reached half of our goal,” says Chaya Illulian, who recruited France, Russia, Brazil, and Eretz Yisroel into the memorization effort. “But we knew the soldiers of Hashem’s army would come through.”

Come through they did, with a total of 371,738 lines of Mishnayos and 411,374 lines of Tanya Baal Peh. The Mishnayos gift was presented by Yosef Yitzchok Chetzroni of Yeshivas Tomchei Temimim Montreal, a chayol who himself learned over 8,000 lines of Tanya Baal Peh and whose school memorized the most lines of Mishnayos: over 60,000 lines.

“It was so powerful to see the chayolim rallying together in those last moments,” says Lakey Frimerman, Base Commander in Postville, Iowa.

“It was during Pesach vacation,” adds Devorah Leah Hershkop of Beis Rivkah Crown Heights, “and we had kids pushing themselves to learn those extra few lines. I’m so proud of their dedication.”

Proud indeed. What better birthday present could Hashem’s army have given to the Rebbe?

Watch the broadcast, which includes the new mini-episode of “A Quest for Oiz” here: