Author’s Note: For generations, this unique Sefer Torah was referred to as “The Sefer Torah of Mesirus Nefesh,” an obvious reference to the continuous mesirus nefesh shown for over twenty-one years by the Schapiro brothers of the famed Slavita Press. There are, however, varying accounts as to how the Sefer Torah came to be and how the brothers received it. The two main versions of its history are recounted in the text below.
A collection of relevant halachos regarding Sukkos from AskTheRav.com & Halacha2Go.com By Horav Yosef Yeshaya Braun, Mara D’asra and member of the Crown Heights Beis Din
Over a period of thirty-five years, Rabbi Abba Brenenson of Kfar Chabad has been involved in the holy work of a scribe, writing strictly kosher tefillin, mezuzos, and Torah scrolls, and the demand for his merchandise is extremely high.
I was on shlichus in Tashkent in 5753. My friends and I used military trucks for Mivtza Succa. At the time, I wrote the following journal entries:
In conversation with someone about Swords into Plowshares back in the mid-1990s. It was not long after the Rebbe MHM had said the famous Sicha explaining that this Messianic prophecy of Isaiah had begun to be fulfilled, and I had been speaking and writing about it.
The winter of that year—5547 (1786–7)—was most severe, the first snow falling in Liozna during the festival of Sukkot. Sitting in the sukkah required a fur coat and fur-lined boots, and on several occasions the snow had to be removed from the sukkah.
The Festival of Sukkos is so called because of its central Mitzvah: to dwell in a Sukka for seven days.
During the Sukkos holiday, the village residents saw Itzik, a Jew overburdened with financial debt, concentrating with extra kavana as he shook his lulav and esrog. He closed his eyes and shook the Dalet Minim to the right, to the left, in the middle, up and down with amazing fervor. “Itzik,” they asked him, “what exactly do you think about so intensely when you shake your lulav?”
The dalet minim market in Warsaw was busy. Many stalls with lulavim were scattered about the large market. Next to them were piles of haddassim and aravos, but esrogim? Where were the esrogim? There wasn’t a single esrogim stand!
לו. קטעים משיחות ש”פ ראה, א’ דר”ח אלול תנש”א (2) 36. Elul 1, 5751 − August 10, 1991 (2)
After the Rebbe’s traditional blessing on Erev Yom Kippur of 5729 (1969), the Rebbe’s secretary, Reb Leibel Groner, wrote to the Rebbe that “some pointed out and are worried that in the Bracha of Erev Yom Kippur after Mincha, in which the Rebbe Shlita blessed Klal Yisrael, the usual blessing of “a Chasima and Gmar Chasima Tova” were not mentioned as in every year.”
“All a man’s provisions are allotted for him from Rosh HaShana until Yom HaKippurim” * The Aron did not occupy any space; its measure did not count. The funny thing is that the measurements of the Aron are very precise, 1.5 x 2.5 cubits – yet it took up no space?!
October 15, 2019