Tevet 5 is celebrated as a day of rejoicing in the Chabad-Lubavitch community. On this date in 1987, U.S. Federal Court issued a decision in favor of Agudas Chassidei Chabad ("Union of Chabad Chassidim") regarding the ownership of the priceless library of the 6th Rebbe of Chabad-Lubavitch, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn. The ruling was based on the idea that a Rebbe is not a private individual but a communal figure synonymous with the body of Chassidim. The Lubavitcher Rebbe (Rabbi Yoseph Yitzchak's son-in-law and successor) urged that the occasion be marked with time devoted to study from Torah books ("sefarim") as well as the acquisition of new Torah books.
In the Chabad-Lubavitch community, the 5th day of the Hebrew month of Tevetis marked as a most special and joyous day. The day celebrates the "victory of the sefarim"--the victory of the Torah books.
On this date in 1987, a US Federal court issued a ruling regarding the Chabad-Lubavitch library housed at 770 Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn, NY. Several books, many of them priceless, rare volumes, had been wrongfully removed from the library. When the case went to court, what was at stake was not just the part of the collection that had been removed but ownership of the entire library. What was on trial was our collective relationship to the library and the teachings they represent.
The court's decision--upheld in subsequent appeals--was that the library does indeed belong not to any individual but to the Chabad-Lubavitch community. The pivotal testimony, delivered with absolute sincerity, was the statement of theRebbetzin, daughter of the previous Lubavitcher Rebbe and wife of the Rebbe. In response to the question as to whom the books belong, she answered "The books, like my father, belong to the Chassidim."
The books, the court affirmed, are not the property of an individual but rather of a communal library--and by extension, everyone who makes use of that library.
The Rebbe never regarded this victory as a personal, or even a Chabad-Lubavitch victory. He regarded it a victory for all of the Jewish people. More than that, he regarded it a victory of the books themselves, and even more so, as he stated on the first anniversary of the decision, for those bedecked Torah scrolls we honor every Shabbat.
The real completion of a Sefer Torah--the Rebbe said--is in the sefarim, the printed Torah books--books such as the ones returned to us on the 5th of Tevet. Books that you carry around with you, stealing a few moments to learn from while you wait for the train or stuck at a red light. Books that you read with your kids over cereal and warm mugs of cocoa. Books that you use to bribe them into brushing their teeth. Books you curl up with as soon as your work, for this day at least, is done.
It is only to the extent that we use our books that we complete--in a spiritual sense--the books themselves, and the Torah scroll whose words they are based on.
Upon the Rebbe's instructions, Chabad-Lubavitch Chassidim have a tradition- almost 20 years old now- of celebrating the 5th Tevet not only with Chassidic gatherings but also with book sales. Because the real victory for the books--for the Torah itself--is when we fill our homes with volumes of Jewish books, and our days with their teachings.
