Making Ink From Grass!

After the passing of his mother, Rebbetzin Chana Schneerson, in 1964, the Rebbe began holding a farbrengen, chassidic gathering and public address, on the date of her yahrzeit. This gathering would be dedicated to her legacy, and to the mission of the Jewish woman. Rebbetzin Chana voluntarily followed her exiled and ailing husband, Rabbi Levi Yitzchok Schneerson of righteous memory, into government-imposed exile in a remote town called “Ch’ili” in Kazakhstan. He had been sent there for “counterrevolutionary activities”—his religious activism—and was allowed only the bare minimum of personal belongings. Rebbetzin Chana would go out into the fields, gather herbs, and grind and mix them to create ink. Using this multicolored ink, Rabbi Levi Yitzchok inscribed his Torah thoughts in the margins of the few books that he had with him. The notes have since been published, and whenever people study them, it is in her everlasting merit. The lesson to us: Even when we face seemingly insurmountable obstacles, we must never give up.