Publisher of Rambam With Rebbe’s Sichos Tours North America

A unique event held last Thursday in Crown Heights celebrated the landmark completion of the English edition of the Rambam Pardes Hamelech, comprising a fresh translation of the Mishneh Torah alongside over two thousand explanations and lessons curated from the breadth of the Rebbe’s Sichos.

The ceremony was the latest stop in Rabbi Eliyahu Meir Elituv’s over two-week tour across North America, in which he participated in various celebrations marking the completion of the daily Rambam study cycle, where he encouraged the assembled to study the Rambam together with the Rebbe’s teachings.

On Shabbos Rosh Chodesh Iyar, Rabbi Elituv was hosted by Rabbi David Weber in Monsey, New York, where he led a farbrengen celebrating the Siyum Harambam. On Motzei Shabbos he participated in Melaveh Malka alongside Rabbi Yitzchak Raskin, where he shared with the audience the extraordinary miracles which accompanied the release of this Rambam.

On Sunday evening, Rabbi Elituv addressed the Siyum Harambam at the community Siyum at Chabad Zichron Kedoshim in Montreal, Canada, where he encouraged the audience to learn Rambam with the Rebbe’s Sichos, and on the following evening, Rabbi Elituv joined the Siyum Harambam in Buffalo, New York, where he led the farbrengen deep into the night, elaborating on the unique, innovative quality of the Rebbe’s approach to the Rambam’s works.

This past Shabbos, he spoke at The Shul in Bal Harbour, where he farbrenged at length with the community, and on the eve of Lag B’Omer, he farbrenged in 770, at the siyum to mark the conclusion of Hilchos Avodah Zarah and the beginning of the Hilchos Teshuvah.

Prior to the ceremony on Thursday, Rabbi Meir Elituv, editor in chief of the Pardes Hamelech, together with Rabbi Chai Amar, Shliach to Golden Beach, Florida, along with a large group of supporters who dedicated the various volumes of the Rambam, brought the complete set into the Rebbe’s room, and placed it on the Rebbe’s desk.

At the subsequent event, the speakers included Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, Vice Chairman of Merkos L’inyonei Chinuch and Rabbi Shmuel Butman, Chairman of the World Committee of Rambam, who praised the both the Hebrew and English editions of Pardes Hamelech, which allow access the wealth of Rebbe’s explanations on the Rambam to both Chasidim, as well as to the Jewish world at large.

Rabbi Nissan Tovi, who, at the request of Rabbi Elituv, worked on the translation of the entire Rambam in a record time of a year and a half, spoke next. He shared a lesson from a halachah, which by Hashgacha Pratis, was the final halachah that he merited to translate as part of the project. Rabbi Tovi compared those who contributed to this project to those who donated the finest grade of olive oil to the Beis Hamikdash, and expressed his confidence that Hashem will reward them physically and spiritually.

Rabbi Chai Amar, an enthusiastic supporter of the publication of both of the editions, shared how he first met Rabbi Elituv at the Kinus Hashluchim conference four years ago, back when only the first volume of the Hebrew edition had been published. He recalled how he admired the beautiful layout of the Rebbe’s teachings on the page together with the Rambam’s commentaries, and immediately committed himself to the success of the project in Hebrew and then English.

Rabbi Leizer Avtzon, who served as the Rebbe’s shliach in Morocco at the time of the Rebbe’s establishment of the daily Rambam study cycle, then shared stories of the initial days of Rambam study, including previously unknown details, as well as the unique encouragement the Rebbe gave regarding the study of the Rambam in Morocco before the global daily cycle was established.

Rabbi Elituv – who initiated and led the project to completion – closed the evening by describing the enthralling sequence of events that brought the project to completion. The dream of bringing the Rebbe’s teachings into the Rambam-page, Rabbi Elituv shared, for twelve years felt like a distant possibility. “At the beginning, I didn’t even have one percent of the funds necessary for the Hebrew edition, and I didn’t even dream of the English edition at the time. But when I started working, I experienced miracles every day. If someone had told me four years ago that I would get to this moment when both sets, both the Hebrew and English, were completed, I really wouldn’t have believed it.”

In his remarks, Rabbi Elituv spoke about the immensity of the Rebbe’s contribution to Rambam; the breadth of scholarship and depth of understanding that emerges from these teachings. Considering the scope of the Mishneh Torah, and the incredible range of the Rebbe’s teachings, there is hardly a single Torah topic, more or less known, that is not discussed in the Rebbe’s explanations on Rambam scattered throughout Reshimos, Likkutei Sichos, Igros Kodesh, and Toras Menachem.

One special theme that arises from the Rebbe’s explanations of the Rambam, Rebbe Elituv noted, is the perspective given based on the inner dimension of the Torah, as well as the relevant life lessons we can derive from these laws. “I understood at the outset of my work, and certainly I think so today, that the study of Rambam without the Rebbe’s sichos is a form of ‘spiritual anorexia.’ It was time to ‘put the Rebbe on the page,’ just like the classic commentaries.”

True, no great Jewish scholar in recent generations lived to see his innovations printed on the page alongside the Rambam, yet, none of them composed more than two thousand explanations in Rambam!

Rabbi Berel Zucker, who sang at the event, preformed a special rendition  of the famed Chazzan Yossele Rozenblatt’s composition, “Racheim Na”, at the special request of Rabbi Shmuel Butman.

To purchase the full set of Pardes Hamelech, in Hebrew or English, visit rambam-rebbe.com