Amongst chassidim Yud-Tes Kislev was traditionally celebrated as an actual Yom-Tov. All would dress in their finest attire and would greet each other throughout the day with a meaningful “gut yom-tov!” Tremendous feasts were held in all shuls and homes in honor of the occasion. As a child, the Rebbe collected the funds for a special children’s feast – this being the only time when he would be involved in something else other than Torah.
Year after year, as if for the first time, Reb Nachum, the Alter Rebbe's grandson, would relate in patient detail all the events that took place during the stormy time of the Alter Rebbe's arrest. He would describe the tense atmosphere of that period, the libelous accusation the misnagdim brought to the czarist authorities, and their exultation when the Alter Rebbe was arrested. Reb Nachum would then describe the Alter Rebbe's stay in prison, his geula, the way in which the good news spread, and the Rebbe's return trip to Liozna from the prison in Petersburg. When he recalled the arrest, his voice would drop, as if he were weeping; when he described the liberation, his voice would rise with the simcha of a remembered victory. Like the Megilla Reading on Purim, he would tell the whole story once at night and again by day. Moreover, if one of the dignified elder chassidim would join the gathering after he had begun, he would go back to the very beginning and start all over again!
