Dear Friend,

I sported a light backpack and a classical guitar that summer night I first trudged up the hill to the yeshiva in Morristown. Once I decided I was staying, it didn’t take long to find other musicians and start up the first chassidic hard rock band, the Baal Shem Tov Band.

Recently, a friend reminded me of the time he caught us in a huddle just before a concert. He figured we were just reviewing our program. Coming closer, he realized it wasn’t that at all. We were studying Basi Legani, the classic final legacy work of Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak, of righteous memory, sixth rebbe of Chabad and father-in-law of the Rebbe, of righteous memory.

We were on chapter five, which discusses channeling the wildest and craziest energy of this world into the divine. Which is just what we understood we were doing.

This Friday is the 65th anniversary of the passing of Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak, and the day the Rebbe ascended to Rebbeship. So on Thursday night, I’m inviting you for an online huddle over that same chapter again. I won’t have my guitar, but It will be an interactive huddle—everyone will be able to type in a question or comment.

Partnering with JNet—the one-on-one, your-time-your-place Torah study program—we’ve produced a fresh, very readable translation, available both as a pdf booklet and on its own page. Michael Kigel, the newest member of our editorial team, discusses the theme of the chapter in his essay, “In Praise of Chassidic Folly.”

It’s a packed week. That’s the great thing about working for Chabad.org. It’s like I never left that yeshiva.

Tzvi Freeman
on behalf of the Chabad.org Editorial Team