Introduction to this Mamor This mamor was delivered in the new format that only our Rebbe delivered some of his mamorim: Mamor Kein Sicha - Mamor in Like Kind of a Shicha. The reasons the Rebbe gave for this new style of mamorim is (a) “It will be easier for me and for you”, and (b) “This way I can ‘smuggle through’ another mamor”. By a mamor a specific preparatory melody was song, the Rebbe would tie his hand with a handkerchief, as his predecessors did while delivering a mamor, all Chasidim would stand, the Rebbe would close his eyes, and the Rebbe would speak in a special sing-song fashion.
By a Mamor Kein Sicha - Mamor in Like Kind of a Shicha, there was no preparatory melody, the Chasidim would not stand (some Chasidim, the moment they realized that this was a Mamor Kein Sicha - Mamor in Like Kind of a Shicha would stand up), the Rebbe’s holy eyes were open, and most often, the mamor was delivered not in the specific sing-song fashion of a mamor. However, the Rebbe did tie his hand with his handkerchief. Simply speaking, the “easier for you” that the Rebbe was speaking of was that Chasidim did not need to stand.
What the “easier for me” meant, I can only share what I witnessed, that in a regular mamor there was an intensity to the Rebbe’s delivering the mamor, a far quicker pace to the Rebbe’s talking, and an intensity in the Rebbe’s breathing. Deeper than this, it is beyond me to know what the Rebbe was referring to with the “and easier for me”. Concerning the “‘smuggle through’ another mamor”, it was clear throughout all the generations that there was a danger and self-sacrifice every time that a Rebbe would bring us a mamor teaching from above.
The Alter Rebbe was told be his teachers, the Baal Shem Tov and the Mezritcher Maggic, how there was a Heavenly Tribune upon him for revealing the Tanay. The Alter Rebbe sat in the Tzar’s Prison until the Heavenly Tribune was over. The days of prison for the Alter Rebbe was 53 days, coinciding with the 53 chapters that the Tanya consists of. The Alter Rebbe was called upon to defend his teacher’s life, the Mezritcher Maggid, for the Maggid’s teaching of Chasidus. The Alter Rebbe did this with a metaphor of a prince who needed to digest the minerals of the center gem of his father’s crown in order to save the prince’s life.
In Heaven they accepted the Alter Rebbe’s defense that Chasidus, the center gem of G-d’s crown, was needed down here in order to save the spiritual life of the Jews in these hard and dark times of exile. These are among the stories that were told to us by the Rebbeim throughout the generations. Based on this, we can understand the Rebbe’s statement “‘smuggle through’ another mamor”, in how the Rebbe is risking his life and bringing us beyond just the allotted amount of mamorim that the Heavenly Court is allotting to be brought to us down here.
No one had any way of knowing that in this ‘nonchalant’ way of “‘smuggle through’ another mamor” the Rebbe was delivering what would later become the Rebbe’s “Mamor Hahilulah”, which Chasidim would learn and recite on every “Yom HaHilulah - Anniversary of the Day of Passing” of the Rebbe. This is based on a directive that the Rebbe gave for the first “Yom HaHilulah - Anniversary of the Day of Passing” of the Previous Rebbe in 5751. The Previous Rebbe, due to his health, was not delivering mamorim orally.
Rather, he was directing the Rebbe on mamorim that he had previously delivered, the Previous Rebbe worked it over, and the Rebbe added on sources to verses and teachings cited. The Rebbe would then prepare them for print, and the Previous Rebbe would date them for when they should be given out. The calender date of the Previous Rebbe’s Yom Hilulah (the 10th of Shevat) was also the yahrtzeit - Anniversary of the Day of Passing for his grandmother, the saintly Rebbitzin Rivkah, and the Previous Rebbe gave out a Four Mamor Series, and the first was to be given out for this date, which on that year he himself returned his holy soul to Heaven.
The Rebbe called this series the Previous Rebbe’s Hemshech HaHilulah - The Series of His Passing”. Next year, for the Previous Rebbe’s first “Yom HaHilulah - Anniversary of the Day of Passing”, the Rebbe directed on how after each of the three prayer services of the day, pieces of the mamor should be publicly recited. The Rebbe, in the later years, would not deliver his mamorim orally.
Rather, Chasidim would work on a previously delivered mamor of the Rebbe, writing the mamor with the sources, and with a clear flow, and the Rebbe would edit, correct, delete, and add to what they wrote, and this would go back and forth to the Rebbe, until the Rebbe was satisfied, and allowed it to be called “Mugah - Edited” by the Rebbe. In the later years, the Mugah Mamor would carry a cover page, calling it a Kuntres - Pamphlet of the specific holiday it was being given out for.
In our case, the mamor Chasidim chose to work over and send in to the Rebbe for the Rebbe to be magiah was this mamor in like kind of a sicha that the Rebbe had delivered on Shabbos Tetzaveh, 5741. The mamor, after being edited by the Rebbe carried the cover page of “Kuntres Purim Kattan, 5752”. This was the last mamor that the Rebbe would edit and then hand out personally to each and every Chosid, one by one, as they passed in front of the Rebbe. This all took place just weeks before the Rebbe’s stroke. Thus, Chasidim understood this mamor to be the Rebbe’s Mamor Hahilulah.
As we learn through the mamor we can clearly see the Rebbe giving us guidance, strength, and directive for the bitter and dark time, until the Rebbe will physically be with us once again, with the arrival of the righteous Moshiach and the Resurrection of those who “dwell in the earth”, imminently in our days.
If I may, I do want to point out how: (a) The Rebbe followed the way of his predecessor, the Previous Rebbe, in having his Hilulah Mamor being of a mamor delivered orally in the past, and than reworked and edited for print at the time it was to be released to the public, and (b) that this mamor would even in its original oral delivery be of the innovation of the Rebbe, in “‘smuggle through’ another mamor”.
The Rebbe’s mamor is built upon a mamor of the Previous Rebbe, which was a must unique mamor. The Previous Rebbe said at that farbrengehn that he knows that the Jewish party of the N.K.V.D. (later known as the K.G.B.), the Yevisetska, were present, and it is dangerous from him to speak, and nevertheless, he will speak openly. What the Rebbe said at this farbrengehn led to their taking revenge in arresting the Previous Rebbe two months later, first sentencing him to death, which was turned over to being sent into exile, which was turned into the Previous Rebbe being released, but that he would need to leave the USSR.
The mamor that the Previous Rebbe delivered at that farbrengehn was all about the self-sacrifice that Mordechai had brought out of each and every Jew at the dark times of Haman’s death decree upon the entire Jewish People. In order to understand the Rebbe’s mamor, we are going to have to first understand the structure of the Previous Rebbe’s mamor, for the Rebbe builds a lot on the order of the concepts that the Previous Rebbe explains in his mamor. For starters, the Previous Rebbe’s mamor is based in a verse of the Purim Megillah, and then connects to the Shabbat Torah-portion of Tetzaveh.
The Rebbe’s mamor opens with a verse of the Torah-portion of Tetzaveh, and then connects with the verse of the Purim Megillah. I am not going to explain the concepts presently, as we will do that in length, chapter by chapter when learning the Rebbe’s mamor.