On Rosh Hodesh Tevet, Esther made Queen (and Esther was taken to King Achashwerosh, to his palace, in the tenth month, which is the month of Tevet, in the seventh year of his reign. And the king loved Esther more than all the women, and she won his favor and kindness more than all the virgins; he placed the royal crown on her head and made her queen in Vashti’s stead.” On the 8th of Tevet the Torah translated into Greek, and the 9th we celebrate the Yahrzeit of Ezra, who led the return of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel after the Babylonian exile (423-353 BCE), oversaw the building of the Second Temple, canonized the 24 books of the Bible and, as head of the “Great Assembly” legislated a series of laws and practices (including formalized prayer) which left a strong impact to Judaism until even this day. Ezra died on the 9th of Tevet of the Hebrew year 3448 (313 BCE, which is exactly 1000 years after the Torah was given on Mount Sinai). The death of Ezra marked the end of what is called the “Era of Prophesy.”

On the 18th of Tevet (469) The Exilarch (“Resh Galuta”) of Babylonian Jewry, Huna Mori bar Mor Zutra, was executed in Pumpeditha by order of the Persian emperor . Also killed on that day was Rav Mesharshia bar Pekod (the third Jewish leader who was arrested with them, Rab Amemor bar Mor Yenuka, was executed two months later). On the 20 Tevet Reb Moses ben Maimon,(Rambam -Maimonides) a famous Talmudist, Halachist, physician, philosopher and communal leader died in Egypt in 1204.

The month of Tevet also includes the Yahrzeits (anniversary of the death) of many great Rebbes who had a profound influence on the Torahs and Stories of Reb Shlomo.

On the 17th of Tevet we celebrate the Yahrzeits of Rec Aaron Zelig ben Joel Feivush of Ostrog, Russia, who authored of Toldot Aaron, (1754) and Rabbi Yaakov Wolf Krantz (1740-1804), the Maggid (itinerant preacher) of Dubna, who is particularly known for the parables (meshalim) he employed in his sermons and writings. On the 18 Tevet – (1841) – we commemorate the Yahrzeit of Rabbi Zvi Elimelech Shapiro of Dynov (1783-1841), author of the Chassidic work B’nei Yissachar. On the 24th of Tevet we celebrate the Yahrzeit of Reb Schneur Zalman of Liadi (1745-1812), the founder of Chabad Chassidism and on the 27th of Tevet we recall the Death of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808-1888), a Talmudist, scholar, philosopher, prolific author and Rabbi of Frankfurt am Main. He is noted for encouraging Orthodox Judaism to German Jewry, convincing thousands to the teachings of the Torah at a time when assimilation trends were very high for Jewish life in Western Europe.

Read Sukkot: Carrying the Torah forever

My dear friend, the deepest depths of Yiddishkeit is that I am longing for so much and I am so broken that I don’t have it yet. Yet I do have it. The Isbitzer says, if I need a hundred dollars it is because I don’t have it. But for G-d, if crying for the Torah, if crying for Yiddishkeit, it is because I really do have it. You know friends, G-d gave us the Torah on Mount Sinai and the saddest thing in the world is that we had the arrogance to think that we had it. So we lost it. When Moshe Rabbenu broke the tablets, he gave us the Torah again and the Talmud says that both tablets, the whole ones and the broken ones, are lying in the Holy Ark.

We need both.

So basically the laws of the Torah which we receive on Shavuot are not enough to protect us from the Golden Calf. So G-d in His infinite mercy gives us broken tablets –the deepest secret of the Torah, the Torah of Rabbi Akiva and Reb Shimon Bar Yochai. He gives them to us before Shavuot, on Lag b’Omer. And then on Shavuot what we receive is even deeper than the secrets of the Torah, the utmost heavenliness and G-dliness of the Torah. The Gemara says that G-d always gives the medication before the disease. So every Shavuot there is always a possibility of making another golden calf. Maybe last year we did it, maybe we are still doing it. So Lag b’Omer is the day that G-d gave us the secrets of the Torah. You know what the secret is?

The secret is something that fills your heart so much, it fills you with longing, and it fills you with depth. A secret is like a little bit of light beyond vessels. Basically, when G-d created the world, G-d was hiding in the world. G-d is the biggest secret in the world. He is so obvious and yet so hidden. So G-d gives us the secrets of the Torah before Shavuoth. And every Lag b’Omer Reb Shimon Bar Yochai and Rabbi Akiva are giving over to us the deepest depths of the Torah. Reb Zadok Hacohen says, How do you know how much somebody loves you? When somebody loves you, they want to tell you all their secrets. You know what is living on Lag b’Omer? He gives us the deepest depths, how much the Torah loves us, how much we love the Torah. Lag b’Omer we are telling the Torah all our secrets and the Torah is telling us all the Torah secrets. Reb Akiva was longing all his life to give his life for G-d. He had such deep longing for G-d. He was ready to die for G-d, to show that the way that I love G-d is beyond vessels, deeper than everything in the world. A few days after Shavuot we are mekadesh levanah (sanctifying the moon).

Everybody knows that the moon receives the inside light of the sun. Everybody knows that during the day we take care of the outside. We work, we do business. The night is the inside. The Gemara says the night is for learning, especially secrets; the night is full of secrets. Do you know what secrets are? Secrets are: after you hear the secrets you still don’t know them, there is so much more to them. The levanah, the moon, is so deep. The moon is always longing for more. When the moon is full, it is not satisfied. It knows there must be more in the world than just this light that fills it and it begins all over again. So we Yidden get together between the beginning of the month and the full moon to thank G-d for this new light. Every month the moon is new again; the sun is always the same. Inside people are always new. In other words, inside people are always so broken, but they are also always new.

My beautiful friends, I am inviting you all for Kiddush Levanah. The first Kiddush Levanah after Shavuot, whatever we didn’t do on Shavuot, whatever we missed out, we can still do, because it is the month of Shavuot, the moon of Shavuot. It is the light of Shavuot.

You know, Shavuot night we are up all night. We are reading the beginning and the end of the every parsha and tractate. We are connecting ourselves to the beginning and the end because we know the beginning is in G-d’s hands and the end is in G-d’s hands. We pray and hope that we’ll be able to do something in the middle.

The Talmud says:

If all the oceans will be ink and all the leaves will be quills to write with, we still could not tell each other the holiness of that night.

And then that morning at dawn we receive the Torah with all our hearts. G-d is telling us, I am really your G-d and I am with you always, always. And you are my people. Let’s be together that night, let’s be together on Lag b’Omer and let’s be together at Kiddush Levanah. We should be together, my friends, every Shabbat and every YomTov. And I bless you that you should always have someone to tell your secrets.

Reprinted from Kehilat Jacob News

New York, 5751.

click here to watch a video of Reb Shlomo leading the services on Hoshanna Rabbah.

Reb Shlomo shared with us many Torahs and Stories.

• Ki Va Mo’ed: When the Time Comes
• Tisha b’Av: Begging G-d for intimacy
• Tisha b’Av: Disposable Kinot
• The Third Temple: A Vision of Peace and Unity
• Don’t be a Talebearer: Become the master of your tongue

He says, “Rebbe, that’s a good commandment for all year. But Purim I have to get drunk. So I gotta drink.” The Rebbe looked at him for a long time. He says, “If you love your neighbor like yourself, you can get drunk by giving a glass of beer to somebody else.” L’Chaim! L’Chaim!”

photo is of Rabbi Shlomo Halberstam, the first Rebbe of Bobov.

Please, please, give each other strength. Don’t ever stop giving compliments to each other and most of all to your children, whose self confidence depends on you! On Rosh Hashanah, every second counts like a thousand years. Our holy master Reb Nachman says, “The greatest gift we can give somebody is to give him back his self confidence.

When we make a mistake, not only we do wrong, our soul is shriveling and we look down at ourselves. A whole year of mistakes — Gevalt! How do we look at ourselves? It doesn’t take much to give up on somebody else — but to give upon ourselves is always Federal Express. To have the guts to really begin again, takes a lot of inner strength.

So Rosh Hashanah, the holiest day of beginnings, we don’t mention our mistakes in order to have the strength to stand before G-d like newborn babies.

Our holy rabbis teach us that the sound of the shofar is the sound of our innermost soul and heart but also the sound of a newborn baby. It is everything. It wakes us up, gives us strength, reminds us how holy we are and how holy we can be, and also how close we are and how easy it is to be the best and most exalted.

Blessings and love. Shlomo

One of the last written messages Reb Shlomo gave over to the hevra.
Reprinted from Kehilat Jacob News New York, Elul 5754.