RELEASE

Dear Family.

Hope everyone is well.

We want to wish Batsheva success with her make-up course she will be joining in New York. We will miss you in London Batsheva, but understand that it is a good opportunity!

This week we celebrated the RELEASE from prison of the Alte Rebbe (19th Kislev) and on the 10th of Kislev we also celebrated the release of the Mitteler Rebbe from prison.

I heard an interesting point about the connection between these 2 releases from a sicha of the Rebbe in Likutei Sichos Vol 25.

Both the Rebbes, at the time of their release, were saying the Psalm 55 which contains the verse "padah beshalom nafshi ..." -" He has redeemed my soul in peace from the battle against me, for many were with me".

Psalm 55 is found in Day 10 of the month, where the 150 psalms are split up into the 30 days of the month.

The Psalms are also split up into Days of the Week ie 150 Psalms divided by
7. In this case Psalm 55 occurs on Tuesday.

So it can be seen that the Alte Rebbe was saying this Psalm because he was released on a Tuesday

And the Mitteler Rebbe was also saying it because he was released on 10th Kislev.

This in itself is interesting, but what I found more interesting was the point in the sicha as follows:

The sichos and maamarim of the Alte Rebbe were very short and highly concentrated, and therefore difficult to understand by the many.

And he was reading Tehillim at the time of his release relating to the day of the week. - not many people read it in this set up because it involves reading many more Psalms per day.

The Mitteler Rebbe who was the next Rebbe after the Alte Rebbe (and was his son) had a style of voluminous expounding of the sichos and maamarim of the Alte Rebbe.

There was therefore much more explanation, and therefore more accessiblity for "the many"

And, yes, you got it, he was saying the day of month Tehillim ie Day 10, which is less Tehillim per day and therefore said by many more people!

In relation to Channukah coming up next week, this was also a RELEASE for our People from the Greek enemy battling against us at that time.

There was a huge military victory, and there was also the miracle of the oil of the Menorah.

And isn't it interesting that down the centuries we commemorate this victory with the lighting of candles, and Chanukkah has become synonymous with the lighting of candles, while the military victory has faded into the background. (not in any way to minimise the importance of military victory, and the massive role the army plays for our security)

Wishing everyone a lichtiche Shabbos and Chanukkah (and not to forget to read Tehillim every day, at least as divided up into 30 portions)