My zeide told three amazing stories about Reb Aizel. The first one:
At the Chalukas HaShas8 in the Lubavitcher shul in Homil, Reb Aizel had a list of everyone who had taken upon himself to learn a mesechta (tractate). He would call each person’s name and ask if he had completed it; when the person answered yes, he would call the next person.
One year, when he called someone’s name (and here my zeide mentioned the individual’s name and the mesechta) and asked whether he had completed the tractate, the person answered yes . Reb Aizel asked him a second time, and he again replied yes . The third time Reb Aizel asked him, “Did you learn it this year?”
“No, ” came the reply. “I learned ten pages of it last year before Yud-Tes Kislev.”
Reb Aizel immediately instructed those present to take Gemaros and divide the ten missing pages among themselves.
-
Chalukas HaShas: the custom established by the Alter Rebbe for each person to learn a complete tractate of Talmud during the year — and finish it by Yud-Tes Kislev. ↩