The Rebbe’s Yartzeit (anniversary of passing) falls this year, 5776 / 2016, on July 9th, on Shabbat Parshat Korach. There’s an endless flow of Rebbe stories, inspiration and teaching that can can find online, especially at chabad.org and therebbe.org. Here are some links to Rebbe stories and teachings etc that I’ve written or posted in the past, or that we’ve been thinking of as we approach his 22nd yartzeit – more than two decades after his passing, yet his inspiration and vision and blessing are all the more relevant.

TWO SETS OF SIX PEOPLE

Why six? I don’t know. But I follow @Mottel on twitter and enjoy his insights, witty captions and clever observations, and this post highlights six very different people who have all been inspired and transformed by the Rebbe. It’s a quick read unless you want to follow each story deeper. There’s also a longer set of videos about six different people who share stories of the Rebbe’s sensitivity and understanding of them, collected by Mendy Kaminker.

THE KORACH RASHI AND WALDO

This year the Rebbe’s yartzeit fall on the Shabbos when we read the story of Korach. Here’s a post we wrote about the Rebbe’s insight into that Rashi which are quite autobiographical about the Rebbe himself. This important Waldo message was part of our son Moshe’s Bar-Mitzvah speech.

“HERE’S MY STORY” FROM JEM’S MY-ENCOUNTER

JEM (or Jewish Educational Media) has been doing these fascinating first-person interviews with people from all walks of Jewish (and even non-Jewish) life about people’s connection with the Rebbe. See a long listing of “Here’s My Story” in online text version, or at JEM’s MYEncounter Blog for more recent interviews as well as links for easy-to-print PDF format. See “Conversations” for people’s recollections of private conversations with the Rebbe. as well as Of course, these are other people’s stories, each with their own situations, but quite a few of these resonate deeply with our own life’s experiences and are hence – MY encounter as well.

SHMURAH MATZAH – THE REBBE’S BIG PROJECT

It’s summertime now and not the season for Matzah, but this post we wrote about the Rebbe and Shmurah Matzah is relevant year-round.

A ZALMAN ZLATAPOLSKY BENCH

I wrote this article about “A Zalman Zlatapolsky Bench” for Chabad.org, it speaks of the mixed emotions as we approach the Rebbe’s yartzeit. I wrote a similar article for them to be published online this summer called “The Smoke of the Rebbe’s Train” based on a story I heard from my father-in-law Rabbi Galperin. Look for hat second article soon.

HORTON, THE REBBE AND MOSHIACH

Most of you knew that I have an affinity for Dr. Seuss and children’s books and hope to write a book on all that someday, so here’s an insight from Horton Hears a Who, the Rebbe and Moshiach. 

SOME TORAH-TUESDAY CLASSES

We have a bunch of Torah-Tuesday classes that highlight the Rebbe’s unconventional wisdom and interpretation, including “Four Sons Remixed”, “Sleepless in Shushan”, “The Ugly Man” and others. No links here, but we can send PDFs if you are interested. See vast amounts of the Rebbe’s learning and insight on Chabad.org.

MARCHING ORDERS

This 14-minute film was put together for a recent Gimmel Tammuz yartzeit. It has some beautiful clips and interactions. See it via YouTube here. Or on Chabad.org here.

This is just a little bit. There’s so much. And each bit of it is so life-affirming, uplifting, inspiring and encouraging.

To end with this note that our first-grade daughter told us last year as we left the Rebbe’s Ohel: “We are the Rebbe’s Story.”