The founder of Chabad Chassidism, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi (1745-1812), passed away on the eve of the 24th of Tevet, 5573, at approximately 10:30 pm, shortly after reciting the Havdalah prayer marking the end of the Shabbat. The Rebbe was in the village of Peyena, fleeing Napoleon's armies, which had swept through the Rebbe's hometown of Liadi three months earlier in their advance towards Moscow. He was in his 68th year at the time of his passing, and was succeeded by his son, Rabbi DovBer of Lubavitch.
Link: The Life and Teachings of Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi
A devastating earthquake struck northern Israel, killing four thousand Jews in Safed and between 700 to 1000 Jews in Tiberias. Many of the survivors migrated to Hebron, rejuvenating the developing Chabad community established there 10 years earlier by the second Rebbe of Chabad, Rabbi DovBer of Lubavitch.
One of the first hospitals in America under Jewish direction, Mount Sinai Hospital, was founded in New York on this date in 1852.
A Torah scroll is a high-precision document.
Journey deep inside the mysteries of this scroll and you will discover an amazing network of words and letters similar to the neuro-network of a human being.
Each letter of the scroll is a world of its own, surrounded by its own white space, without any other letter touching it.
Each letter is of equal value. Even if one of them is missing, flawed, or incomplete, the scroll is not a Torah scroll.
Alter a single letter and the meaning of a word is changed,
whereby a sentence is inverted,
whereby a story is distorted
—indeed, every other letter of the Torah scroll will be somehow profoundly affected.
The Jewish people, too, are a Torah scroll.
We are all connected in every mitzvah we do, every nugget of Torah we learn, every meaningful task of life we fulfill.
That is why every Jew, especially a Jewish child, must have a letter written for them in a Torah scroll. Our lives are all mysteriously entangled, our destinies inextricably chained together.
You are a letter in that scroll. Everything depends on you. Get your letter here.