While battling a difficult illness, Mrs. Chavi Goldberg a”h found strength in Igeres Yud Alef of Tanya – known as Lehaskilcha Bina – and she had its words set to Chassidishe niggunim. In connection with the upcoming Chitas, her family is sharing the recording in her memory.

By Anash.org reporter

While struggling with a terrible illness, Mrs. Chavi Goldberg, a beloved mother of a large Lubavitch family, a pillar of the Toronto community, founder of CyberSem, and a renowned kallah teacher, drew deep strength from Igeres Yud Alef in Tanya.

The chapter, known as Lehaskilcha Bina, explains at length how everything is truly good, and that even suffering should be seen as good, that is merely hidden and disguised.

At one point, she hired the talented musician R’ Elor Velner from Eretz Yisroel to set the words of this chapter to the tune of Chassidishe niggunim, making it easier to sing, memorize, and repeat.

“My mother made it a point to learn this perek in Tanya daily,” her son Rabbi Zalman Goldberg told Anash.org. “She found immense bitachon in the words of the Alter Rebbe. It is well known that the life of the Rebbe’s grandfather, Harav Meir Shlomo Yanovsky, was saved in the merit of this very chapter. We hope that this special story, together with the song, will be a source of nachas for the neshamah of our mother.”

Harav Meir Shlomo Yanovsky was the Rav of Nikolayev. Once, there was a typhus epidemic, and Reb Meir Shlomo fell ill. At that time, there was no known cure for the illness. All the victims were quarantined in a building outside the city to avoid spreading the disease, and they were treated by a doctor who visited daily. Very few people returned from the building alive.

When the renowned chossid and local shochet Reb Asher Grossman found out that Reb Meir Shlomo was quarantined, he came to visit him. He was not allowed to go into the building, so he stood outside, as close to Reb Meir Shlomo’s room as possible. He started to read aloud from a Tanya, Igeres Hakodesh “Lehaskilach Bina“. In that Igeres, the Alter Rebbe explains that nothing bad comes from Hashem, and if a person is imbued with this awareness, he will merit to see open good.

Reb Asher did not even know if Reb Meir Shlomo heard him or not; he just hoped. He returned every day and read the section of Tanya again.

After a few weeks, Reb Meir Shlomo was discharged from quarantine, having made a full recovery. When he saw Reb Asher, he called to him excitedly, “You saved my life! The reading of those holy words gave me the strength to overcome all the pain and depression, and I was able to overcome the illness!”

Sadly, Mrs. Goldberg passed away on Yud Shevat of this past year. In connection with the Chitas of this coming Shabbos, which includes the study of this chapter, the family is sharing the recording in her memory, Chava Leah bas Reb Shimshon HaKohen, may her neshamah have an aliyah.

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