Editing Yeshiva Ohr Elchanan - Chabad (section)

==== Establishing the Chabad Yeshiva ====
In order to establish and solidify the yeshiva that had now moved to Lubavitch, the Rebbe appointed the Gaon Rabbi Ezra Binyamin Schochet as its head and the well-known Chassid Rabbi Shmuel Dovid Reitchik as the mashpia (spiritual mentor).

The Rebbe also sent a special group of student-shluchim (emissaries) to study with the yeshiva students and serve as living examples for them. This was the arrangement during the yeshiva's first years until 5743 (1983).

The first group was granted a special privilege - to enter for a yechidus (private audience) in which the Rebbe instructed them about the purpose of the yeshiva.

On the 18th of Tevet 5738 (1978), the student shluchim traveling to study in Los Angeles stood in Gan Eden Hatachton (the lower Garden of Eden - the anteroom to the Rebbe's office), along with the Rosh Yeshiva. The Rebbe entered his room with a siddur in his hand, and emerged holding several Ahavas Yisrael booklets, a collection of blessing letters, and a package of dollars. When the Rebbe sent a group of student shluchim to the yeshiva, he would address them with words of blessing before their departure for their shlichus. Each of the Temimim (yeshiva students) received an Ahavas Yisrael booklet and two dollars. Rabbi Schochet also received the collection of blessing letters, and the Rebbe told him this was an addition, since he was the one "overseeing them."

The bochurim (young men) who were part of the first group of students sent by the Rebbe were:

* [[Rabbi Menachem Nachum Gerlitzky]]
* Rabbi Gershon Menachem Mendel Avtzon
* Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Bornstein
* Rabbi Asher Pinchas Silverberg
* Rabbi Yaakov Biderman - Vienna
* Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Yehoshua Hecht
* Rabbi Gershon Zirkind
* Rabbi Yaakov Baruch Karp
* Rabbi Yosef Elimelech Kessler
* R' Menachem Mendel Itkin

Thus, each year the departing group would enter and receive the Rebbe's blessing, and when they completed their shlichus, they would enter again and receive a special blessing from the Rebbe. These blessings were collected and printed in the compilation "Migdal Ohr 9."