בְּיוֹם הַהוּלֶּדֶת, עַל הָאָדָם לְהִתְבּוֹדֵד, וּלְהַעֲלוֹת זִכְרוֹנוֹתָיו וּלְהִתְבּוֹנֵן בָּהֶם, וְהַצְּרִיכִים תִּקּוּן וּתְשׁוּבָה יָשׁוּב וִיתַקְּנֵם.

On one’s birthday one should spend some time in seclusion, bringing to mind recollections from the past and pondering over them. As to those [of his bygone actions] that call for rectification or repentance, one should repent and rectify them.1

Delving Deeply

The concept that the birthday of a tzaddik should be treated like a festival was revealed to the chassidic community in gradual stages. In 5703 (1943), the Rebbe Rayatz related that on the eve of Chai Elul2 exactly fifty years earlier, soon after his bar-mitzvah in 5653 (1893), his father, the Rebbe Rashab, told him that on the next day he should wear his Shabbos clothes and omit Tachanun.3 And the next day, for the first time on that date, his father greeted him with a festive smile: Gut Yom-Tov! The Rebbe Rashab then proceeded to deliver a maamar for his son alone, as he also did on his own birthday, 20 MarCheshvan.

However, this practice was not made public. Even when HaYom Yom was first published, in 5703 (1943), not all chassidim realized that the above teaching on birthday customs was located in the present work on the date of the Rebbe’s birthday.4

To explain the significance of a birthday, the Rebbe would often cite the statement of the Talmud Yerushalmi5 that on that day, mazalo gover — “a person’s spiritual root is dominant” and helps him. Now, as is taught in the Tanya,6 a Rebbe has a comprehensive soul, which is intimately linked with the souls of the entire Jewish people. Yud-Alef Nissan is thus a day on which the spiritual root of the entire Jewish people also shines powerfully.