Chaf MarCheshvan:
The Rebbe Rashab — R. Shalom DovBer Schneersohn, of sainted memory, the fifth of the Rebbeim of Chabad — was born at 9.00 a.m. on the second day of the week in which Parshas Chayei Sarah is read, on the twentieth of MarCheshvan in the year 5621 (תרכ"א; 1860). (Transposing these four letters, [his grandfather] the Tzemach Tzedek used to refer to this year as שנת כתרא — (Heb./Aram.:) “the year of the crown.”)1
The Rebbe Rashab bore the mantle of leadership from the year 5643 (תרמ"ג; 1882) until [his passing on the second of Nissan in] the year 5680 (תר"פ; 1920).
On his birthday every year he would deliver a maamar. This was done privately, except when it occurred on Shabbos, [when in any case his chassidim would expect to hear a maamar].
