Thursday of this week was a special day for the Chabad Hasidim in particular, and for the entire Jewish people in general.
In 1987, a public trial took place in the United States where the federal court was trying to decide who owned the books in the library of the previous Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Itzjak Schneerson.
The story is that a direct descendant of the previous Rebbe wished to sell the precious books, while the Hasidim organization wished to keep the books for the consultation of the entire community within the library.
One of the most significant testimonies in reaching a decision was that of the daughter of the previous Rebbe and wife of the Rebbe, Rebbetzin Chaia Mushka, who declared that "The books, as well as my father, belong to the Hasidim.".
This testimony has a much more comprehensive content than a simple investigative statement, since it expresses the true essence of what a Rebbe is and his relationship with the Hasidim.
The Rebbe is not an individual with possessions and belongings, personal matters to attend to, but rather a Rebbe, a true Rebbe, is the head of the Jewish people, as the word itself indicates. In Hebrew, Rebbe is written resh, bet, yud, which together form the words Rosh Bnei Yisrael – The Head of the Jewish People.
The head in a human being has no personal interest beyond the well-being of the body itself; moreover, the head belongs to the body because it guides it and gives it vitality. Similarly, a Rebbe is not an individual person, but rather "belongs to the Hasidim." (It should be clarified that the Rebbe is not only the leader of his Hasidim, but, as the name indicates, the Head of the entire Jewish People.)
The importance of this date is that a non-Jewish federal court, made up of non-Jewish members, which answers to a country that has no Jewish rulers, declared, before the whole world, what the meaning of a Rebbe of the Jewish people is.
The Rebbe always emphasized that this victory of the books should be used to increase in the study of Torah (they were Torah books, of course) and to enlarge the libraries of every home with new and more Torah books, in the spirit of one of the Rebbe's worldwide campaigns to fill every Jewish home with Torah books.
That is why that day came to have a special meaning, and was called "didan notzaj" - ours is the victory.