Living Torah Archives

Mrs. Chaya Hecht served as an early education teacher in Brooklyn, New York, for over five decades. In the early 1950s, shortly after he had assumed leadership of the Chabad movement, she had an audience with the Rebbe. The Rebbe asked her if she was praying every day. When she answered that she didn’t really have the time to pray, the Rebbe suggested a new approach. And she’s adopted it as a part of her daily life.

Our sages teach that the Holy Temple was destroyed because of the baseless hatred that Jews harbored towards one another. It follows then, that rectifying that problem will be the catalyst for rebuilding it. And Speedily.

The Prayer books which you distribute begin with the prayer of “Modeh ani – I give thanks.” May you always merit to thank G-d for all good things.

Rabbi Joseph Karasick was president of the Orthodox Union from 1966 till 1972. One day during his tenure, he received an unexpected call from the Rebbe’s office inviting him for a meeting with the Rebbe. In the course of their conversation about his organization, Rabbi Karasick asked the Rebbe an unrelated question. The Rebbe’s answer has been with him, and shared with others, to this day.(1967)

Rabbi Meir Tzvi Gruzman taught a class of adolescent yeshiva boys. When he noticed that his encouragement of “chasidic prayer” was not always having the desired results, he decided to bring the issue up in an audience with the Rebbe.(1960's)

Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Lubavitch, known as the Tzemach Tzedek, lived at a time when the Jews of the Russian Empire faced many anti-Semitic decrees at the hands of the czars.

The Rebbe leads morning prayers on the fourth yahrzeit of his wife, Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka

Rabbi Shlomo Zarchi shares some recollections of 770, where he was a student in the mid- 1960s. He recalls the Rebbe’s mother’s passing in 1965, as well as one particular morning prayer that became seared into his memory.

Newly discovered and restored footage of the Rebbe leading morning services in 770 on the occasion of his father’s yahrtzeit.

Once, after Rosh Hashanah prayers, the Alter Rebbe asked his son, the Mitteler Rebbe, “With what meditation did you pray this Rosh Hoshanah?” He replied, “With the verse, ‘All mankind shall prostrate themselves before You’.” Then the Mitteler Rebbe asked his father, “With what meditation did you pray?” The Alter Rebbe responded, “I prayed with my lectern.”

To counter escalating conflicts in the world, the Rebbe requests that all Jews add in prayer for world peace and tranquility: It is crucial for all Jews, without exception, to begin their daily prayers by declaring, “I hereby accept upon myself the Mitzvah to ‘Love your fellow as yourself.’” This not only prevents quarreling in general; it will bring an end to the exile, itself caused by a lack of love for others. (19 Kislev, 5744 • November 24, 1983)