Marking a Yom Hillula

Today is the ninth of Kislev, the Yom Hillula of the Mitteler Rebbe. Why is it so important to mark a Yom Hillula of one of the Rebbeim? The Rebbe once said of this day:

In a letter, my father-in-law, the [Previous] Rebbe, explains the tremendous importance of utilizing the Yom Hillula of a tzaddik by studying Torah and taking part in a farbrengen. In this letter he describes the Yom Hillula of 9 Kislev, 5657 ... at which the Rebbe Rashab said: “Observing the tzaddik’s Yom Hillula by studying his teachings and by holding a farbrengen is the pidyon nefesh that we give him.”

It is easy to imagine that if there were an opportunity now to go to the Mitteler Rebbe and give him a pidyon nefesh, everyone would surely rush to do so.

Based on the above, we now indeed have the opportunity to hand a pidyon nefesh to the Mitteler Rebbe through the farbrengen that we are holding now, and by studying his teachings after the farbrengen, when everyone returns home. One should study a teaching from one of the works of the Mitteler Rebbe, whose Yom Hillula we are marking.

Toras Menachem 5711, Vol. 1, pp. 105-106.

The Rebbe is teaching us the tremendous importance and power of the tzaddik’s Yom Hillula, and that we tap into this by studying some of the teachings of that tzaddik and attending a farbrengen in his honor.

Moreover, this brings that tzaddik to davven on one’s behalf, just as a pidyon nefesh is a request for the tzaddik to davven on one’s behalf.