(CHASSIDISM)

Among the cognoscenti of Lubavitch Chassidim, the series of discourses delivered by R. Shalom Dov Baer Schneersohn (Rasha”b) during the cycle 666 (1905/6) are considered revelations of paramount importance. “Rasha”b linked his expounding the Hemshech [Series] of 666 with the ‘End' [of Exile] predicted in several books concerning that year…It seems that for the same reason Rasha”b instituted the drinking of four cups of wine on the final day of Passover that year, for the final day of Passover pertains to the future Redemption.” See Grand Rabbi M.M. Schneerson, Sepher ha-Ma’amorim 5666 (1991), pp. 688-9. For Russia and its' Jews, the year 1905 was truly an “annus mirabilis.” Directly precipitated by Russia’s disastrous defeat in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-5 (peace was concluded at Portsmouth, NH on September 5, 1905), Russia became a constitutional monarchy and yet the subsequent pogroms were among the most murderous in Russian-Jewish history. Shlomo Zalman Havlin (1877-1936) was sent in 1911 by R. Shalom Baer Schneersohn to the Holy Land to found and direct the Lubavitch Yeshivah, which came to be known as Yeshivath Torath Emeth, first established in Hebron, and later relocated to Jerusalem. See S.Z. Havlin, Ha-Mashpia (1982)