On display in the Central Chabad Library are a number of items from the Seder tables of our Rebbeim. See stunning photographs, read a brief history, and watch Chief Librarian Rabbi Berel Levine describe the items.
On display in the Central Chabad Library are a number of items from the Seder tables of our Rebbeim. See stunning photographs, read a brief history, and watch Chief Librarian Rabbi Berel Levine describe the items.
The library has the following Pesach-related items on display:
A) The silver bowl of the Alter Rebbe.
A bowl that was used by the Alter Rebbe’s seder table, and subsequent Chabad Rebbes would serve soup on the seder night from this bowl. During the sedorim in the Frierdiker Rebbe’s apartment, the bowl would be passed around, and the Rebbe, followed by the rest of the participants, would each take three spoons of soup from the bowl.
B) The shtar mechiras chometz of the Rebbe Maharash
A mechiras chometz document signed with the holy signature of the Rebbe Maharash.
A) The Frierdiker Rebbe’s ka’arah.
On the underside, there a hallmark that indicates that it was created in Russia in 1856, during the leadership of the Tzemach Tzedek. Thus, there is reason to assume that this Ka’arah was also used by the Rebbes who preceded the Frierdiker Rebbe.
B) The Rebbe’s ka’arah.
On the underside, there is a hallmark that indicates that it was created in the USA in 1950. Prior to Pesach 5711 (1951), the Rebbe sent Rabbi Yaakov Hecht to purchase a ka’arah with eight corners, and from then on the Rebbe used it for the Seder.
The Rebbe writes in his Haggadah: “In the household of the Rebbe, the matzos are arranged on a cloth, not on a ka’arah. Except for the Rebbe who arranges the matzot on a ka’arah.”
From this we learn that until the year 1950, when the Rebbe was sitting at the Seder-table of his father-in-law, the Frierdiker Rebbe, the Rebbe would arrange the matzot on a cloth, not on a ka’arah.
C) A gold Kiddush cup, which the Rebbe used for Kiddush in the later years on Pesach.
This cup was given to the Rebbe by the Chosid R’ Aharon Klein on the 11th of Nissan 5722 (1962). He had the cup engraved with the Hebrew words “ימים על ימי מלך תוסיף” (“Add days to the days of the king”) – from a verse in Chapter 61 of Tehillim, which the Rebbe began to say that day, when he turned 60 years old.
D) A broken vessel (especially broken), which was used for pouring the wine into, when reciting the ten makkos.
VIDEO: The Pesach ka’aros of the Rebbeim and the Rebbe’s gold becher.
VIDEO: Chief Librarian Rabbi Sholom Ber Levine discusses the history of the Alter Rebbe’s silver bowl.
Discussion
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