Chabad Center will hold a virtual tribute program “Alone, With G-d,” to mark the 26th yahrtzeit of the Lubavitcher Rebbe on Tuesday, June 23, at 7:30 pm, via Zoom at www.Jewishbu.com/virtual. Prior registration for the program is not necessary. The multimedia program, produced by Yuval Films, explores through film and study the personal journals of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, much of which was written during his years as a refugee in Nazi Europe.
Combining readings of eight entries from these journals with archival footage from the time and place in which they were written, the 35-minute film offers what has been called “a powerful and immediate encounter with the Rebbe’s way of thinking in the face of devastating uncertainty.”
“This program is not a Holocaust program,” explained Rivkah Slonim. “Though the entries were written during the war, they are focused on how an individual confronts a world that suddenly feels hostile and vastly unfamiliar. In some ways – and thankfully, it is only some – this is how many of us feel today. A study of the Rebbe’s thinking during those challenging times can offer all of us new ways to think constructively – even during very difficult times.”
“There is no question that the time in which these entries were written was a sad time,” said Rabbi Aaron Slonim. “But after we see how the Rebbe ‘spoke’ during the darkest of times, the film also allows us to see how he ‘spoke’ after the war ended. There is sadness, but there is also the profoundest kind of hope. In a time where many are offering easy answers and solutions, this program suggests new questions and, perhaps more importantly, a new way to ask them.”
From his earliest years, the Rebbe would record his insights and ruminations. These private writings, which he himself called reshimot, accompanied him in all his travels. The reshimot span the period from 1928-50.
“In these hundreds of pages, written with extreme concision in a small and crowded hand, are novel insights and collections of sources in all areas of the Torah, the legal and non-legal passages of the Talmud, ethics and homiletics, customs and practices, stories, lessons in the service of the Creator and more,” said organizers of the event. “The reshimot contain many ideas and concepts which were barely hinted at in his later public career, and represent a new stage in the revelation of the Rebbe’s message for the world.”
One of the entries featured in the film will be explored further in a series of classes allowing participants to experience the way the Rebbe thought and wrote. The entry explores such topics as hashgocho protis, Divine providence, and dirah b’tachonim, building a dwelling place for the Divine, and the centrality of man to both. The three-part course will be offered on three successive Monday nights at 7 pm beginning June 29 via Zoom. To register for the classes, e-mail rslonim@Jewishbu.com.