Blessings Before Kol Nidrei

It is told that the Rebbe spent the afternoon before his first Kol Nidrei after the war alone, immersed in learning and meditation, getting ready unhurriedly for the holiest night. Then came a knock. Edith Cohen, a young survivor, stepped in. “My father died in the camps,” she pleaded. “I have no one to bless me before Kol Nidrei.” The Rebbe covered her head with a handkerchief and gave her his blessing.

A short while later another orphaned girl knocked and asked for the same, and he blessed her too. More knocks followed, and eventually dozens of girls were waiting in line. The Rebbe gave each one his personal attention until the time came for Kol Nidrei, and the stillness he had hoped for before the day was gone.

His devotion to these girls was already well known. During the first year after liberation he founded a network of schools, and hundreds of girls enrolled. He knew each one personally, followed her spiritual state, heard out her troubles and encouraged her. Each week he wrote them a page of Jewish thought and the Torah portion, which they called the Letter to Girls. On Shabbos he taught them himself in the beis medrash, seated behind a curtain, and he took it upon himself to find them fitting matches. He treated them as a father would, and some consider this work the peak of everything he did.