הִתְיַסְּדוּת יְשִׁיבַת "תּוֹמְכֵי תְּמִימִים": יוֹם א' ט"ו אֱלוּל תרנ"ז. הַתְחָלַת הַלִּמּוּד בְּנִגְלֶה וְדִבְרֵי אֱלֹקִים חַיִּים: יוֹם ד' חַ"י אֱלוּל תּרנ"ז.
בְּלֵיל שִׂמְחַת תּוֹרָה תּרנ"ט אַחֲרֵי הַהֲקָפוֹת הִכְרִיז אַאַמוּ"ר: הַיְשִׁיבָה שְׁמָהּ "תּוֹמְכֵי תְּמִימִים" וְתַלְמִידִים הַלּוֹמְדִים וּמִתְנַהֲגִים בְּרוּחָהּ שְׁמָם "תְּמִימִים".
[Today is the anniversary of] the founding of Yeshivas Tomchei Temimim (the Central Lubavitcher Yeshivah), on Sunday, 15 Elul, 5657 (1897). Actual study in both nigleh (the revealed realm of the Torah) and Chassidus began on Wednesday, Chai Elul,1 5657 (1897).
After the Hakkafos on the night of Simchas Torah, 5659 (1898),2 my father, [the Rebbe Rashab,] announced: “The name of the Yeshivah is Tomchei Temimim, and the students who study and conduct themselves in its spirit are called temimim.”3
Peering Over the Horizon
On Simchas Torah, 5661 (1900), shortly after the Yeshivah’s third anniversary, the Rebbe Rashab stirred its students into action by a historic call to arms: Kol HaYotzei LeMilchemes Beis David (“Whoever goes out to a battle of the House of David…”). With this Talmudic phrase4 the Rebbe Rashab issued all past and present students of the Yeshivah with their lifelong marching orders — on a self-sacrificing trek whose unrelenting exertion will ultimately bring about the coming of Mashiach, for the “House of David” alludes to the revelation of Mashiach, David’s ultimate descendant.
The teachings of Chassidus would provide its students with a foretaste of that future era, he explained, and diffusing the light of those teachings would precipitate the revelation of Mashiach.5 This would create a setting in which the truth of his teachings would be eagerly received.
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