Shluchim Armed to Teach Rashi Sichos Like Never Before

This fall, over 300 shluchim worldwide are launching an exciting new initiative in their communities. It’ll be 5785. That’s sixty years since the Rebbe delivered the first Rashi sichah in 5725. To celebrate, they’re teaching a brand-new series of parshah classes from JLI’s Torah Studies based on the Rebbe’s Rashi sichos.

For twenty years, Torah Studies has produced forty-eight annual engaging, relevant, and uplifting original classes on the parshah. This curriculum has enabled countless shluchim to empower their communities through relevant and consistent Torah learning—without straining their busy schedules.

The new series for 5785 will do all that, and much more: It gives Chabad House community members a structured template to taste the Rebbe’s Torah and experience its richness and depth alongside its direct personal relevance. “By the year’s end, students will have enough background knowledge to anticipate the Rebbe’s questions on a Rashi,” says Rabbi Ahrele Loschak, Torah Studies’s editor.

For many shluchim, this initiative is an opportunity to master the Rebbe’s approach to Rashi through teaching this material. “We’re covering several of the Rebbe’s klalei Rashi in each lesson,” says Rabbi Loschak. “By the end of the year, we and our students will gain a real understanding of how the Rebbe unearthed deep wells of meaningful Torah—in a simple Rashi.”

The Rebbe began delivering sichos analyzing Rashi in memory of his mother, Rebbetzin Chana. Over the decades, the Rebbe’s deep appreciation for those who engaged with and “koched in” these sichos made it clear that they were dear to his heart.

Today, a growing body of Torah scholars are discovering the Rebbe’s Rashi sichos and the profound Torah scholarship and relevant spiritual guidance they contain. When Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb of the OU prepares his weekly sermon, he writes, “I rely on the Rebbe’s Biurim LePirush Rashi al HaTorah, irrespective of whether those around the table are learned elders or schoolchildren.”

As Rosh Hashanah approaches, growing numbers of shluchim are looking to bring this groundbreaking new initiative to their communities, celebrating sixty years of Rashi sichos. For them and their communities, it’s an obvious and powerful point of connection with the Rebbe and his Torah.

Contact TorahStudies@myjli.com for more information.