HaRav Levi Yitzchak Schneerson spent his final years in exile in Kazakhstan, banished there by the Soviets for his work strengthening Jewish life across the Soviet Union.

Soon after arriving there in 1940, he wrote a brief account of his imprisonment.

It reads like no ordinary memoir: each line is a kabbalistic commentary on his own life, shaped by a deep belief in personal divine providence.

Gathering to honor his yahrzeit on the twentieth of Av, we studied this account and worked to unpack its esoteric terms.

It isn’t the easiest material to understand, but it does paint a vivid picture of this special leader and his worldview.

Click here to follow along in the original Reshima

HaRav Levi Yitzchak, In His Own Words: A Commemorative Study