Weekly Moment With the Rebbe

Passing the Mantle

As we observe Gimmel (3) Tammuz, the 30th yahrzeit of the Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson, we must remember the link to his predecessor and father-in-law, Rebbe Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, and upcoming Yud-Beis/Yud Gimmel Tammuz (12-13) Tammuz, the Previous Rebbe’s birthday and anniversary of his liberation from Soviet arrest. The Avner Institute presents a collection of eyewitness accounts of the Previous Rebbe by the first group of yeshiva students of 770 Eastern Parkway: Rabbis Mordechai Altein, Yisroel Gordon, Yehuda Leib Posner, Yosef Dov Krinsky, and Mordechai Scharfstein, of blessed memory. These enthralling stories told by elder Chassidim at a farbrengen on 9 Adar, the day of the Previous Rebbe’s arrival to the United States, capture the essence of a legacy which under the leadership his son-in-law would become a worldwide revival.

In loving memory of Hadassah Lebovic A”H
Rabbi Yehuda Leib Posner relates:

L’Chaim on Soda

L’chaim, l’chaim! To life! To life!

I see that I’m getting looks for making a toast over soda, but to me, it’s a reminder of a story of the Previous Rebbe.

In the early days of the yeshiva Tomchei T’mimim at 770 Eastern Parkway, the Previous Rebbe would deliver instructions to our chief lecturer, Rabbi Zalman Gurary, of blessed memory, which also dealt with trivial matters like proper attire.

One time, the Rebbe told him that whenever he farbrenged with students, the farbrengen had to be without liquor, just tea or lemonade, and that G-d would help create a liquor-like effect.

So l’chaim, l’chaim! It’s on soda but at least we can say l’chaim.

Phoning DC on Yom Tov

When the Previous Rebbe arrived on 9 Adar II 5700/March 3, 1940, I was not yet in New York. (I did not go until Succoth 5701/1940.) At that time, we lived in Chicago, and I was eleven years old. My older brother Zalman, who was already past his bar mitzvah, had been sent to New York in order to learn in yeshiva, and he was one of the people who welcomed the Rebbe.

One of the memories etched deep in my mind are the events of Shemini Atzeres 5700/1939 in Chicago. At that time, the Chassidim were under terrible stress. The Rebbe and his entourage were trapped in Warsaw, which was being bombarded, and they were in great danger. On the night of Shemini Atzeres, one of the Chassidim involved in rescue work came to our house and pleaded with communal leaders to exert their influence in Washington to rescue the Rebbe. The Rebbe’s situation was so dire that Chassidim did not want to lose even a second’s time. Every moment could make a difference.

One of the leaders, a Chassid by the name of Shlomo, sat in our house and made a phone call to New York or Washington, and did what he could to get things moving.
Even we, mere students, understood that if even an ultra-Orthodox Jew was making a phone call, a forbidden act on Yom Tov, it was because of danger to life. Nevertheless, it was a bizarre sight. That night, the Chassidim made dozens of phone calls in the attempt to rescue the Rebbe.

In the end, as we all know, they were successful, and the Rebbe arrived here on 9 Adar.

“My Spiritual Children”

When, on Succoth 5701/1940 we arrived for my first private audience with the Previous Rebbe, Rabbi Simpson escorted my brother Zalman, and I entered the Rebbe’s room. The Rebbe’s assistant Rabbi Elya Simpson told the Rebbe that we were Sholom Posner’s children and the Rebbe blessed us.

During that year, the Rebbe decided to open a yeshiva for lower grades. Like many Orthodox Jews, we were learning at Torah Vodaas, which at the time was a major general yeshiva, and every so often we’d hop over to 770.

We were supposed to go home for Passover. However, since I was going to celebrate my bar mitzva on 11 Nissan that year, I asked for myself and my brother a private audience before returning to Chicago.

In those days, a private audience, yechidus, took place three times a week, Sunday night, Tuesday night, and Thursday night. Since we had to catch a bus on Sunday afternoon, our yechidus was scheduled for Thursday night. At ten p.m., Rabbi Simpson called us to say the hour was late, the Rebbe was tired, and we would go in at the next earliest opportunity.

“But we have to leave Sunday afternoon,” we argued. “We won’t be able to see the Rebbe Sunday night.”

Rabbi Simpson answered, “Well, in that case, you should meet with the Rebbe on Saturday night.”

On Motzaei Shabbos, Rabbi Simpson, who lived in Boro Park, had still not arrived. We phoned him, asking what to do? He said to go to Rabbi Shmuel Levitin.

When we told Rabbi Levitin the situation, he said, “Go to Chaim,” meaning Rabbi Chaim Lieberman, the Rebbe’s secretary. We went to his office and knocked at his door.

He said, “Go down and go in.” We stared at him in shock, but he said, “Nu, nu, go in.”

Before entering, I told my brother that he should knock at the door. He knocked and opened the door a bit.

The Rebbe, seated at his desk, looked at us. I noticed that when he saw us, he smiled, and our fears dissipated.

We stood near his desk. The first thing the Rebbe asked was, were we returning by bus?

We stared. Perhaps we hadn’t heard what the Rebbe had said? Understanding him was difficult, because at that time the Rebbe had difficulty speaking clearly.

The Rebbe repeated his question and we answered affirmatively. The Rebbe asked whether we would daven on the bus, and once again we answered affirmatively.

“With tefillin too?” he asked. When we said yes, he said, “Good.”

The Rebbe continued, “Everything must be according to the place and time, and according to the place and time, I am satisfied with you.

“But your father, who was in Lubavitch, that was completely different. You must know that when your father was in Lubavitch it was completely different. Still, from you, more is demanded than of children from the street.”

The Rebbe smiled. “You are my children. To your parents, you are fleishigdike kinder [children of the flesh], but to me, you are my spiritual children.”

Then we spoke about the upcoming bar mitzvah and the Rebbe wished us a good trip.

Innermost Desire

The way it is today: when a boy becomes bar mitzva, he starts donning two pairs of tefillin. Back then, we didn’t don Rabbeinu Tam tefillin until the age of eighteen or nineteen, and before doing so we asked the Rebbe for permission.

Half a year before turning nineteen, I asked the Previous Rebbe whether I could start wearing Rabbeinu Tam tefillin. On 4 Kislev 5707/Nov. 27, 1946, I received the following letter:

In response to your question regarding putting on Rabbeinu Tam t’fillin, if the desire is penimi [innermost] – then it is a proper thing to do. A Rabbeinu Tam bachur [yeshiva student] must have a devotion and dedication to diligence in the study of nigleh [revealed Torah] and work on correcting middos [character], and Hashem will help you materially and spiritually.”

Rabbi Mordechai Altein relates:

Mourning on Shabbos

On 3 Shvat 5710/Jan. 21,1950, my father-in-law, Rabbi Yisroel Jacobson, sat Shiva for his mother, who had passed away on Rosh Chodesh Shvat. Since his father had passed away on 3 Shvat 5708/Jan. 14, 1948, there was a big question about whether he needed to daven before the ark. On the one hand, he was in the middle of Shiva and on Shabbos, when public mourning is forbidden. On the other hand, it was his father’s yahrzeit.

My father-in-law asked me to ask the Rebbe’s “son-in-law,” as he was called at the time, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson. The future Rebbe told me that since all the people in the minyan would know that he was davening because of his father’s yahrzeit, and not because of the mourning for his mother, not davening before the ark would be considered an act of public mourning.

The future Rebbe added, “Although I’m not a legal decisor, this was an accepted thing.”

One week later, on 10 Shvat, the Previous Rebbe passed way. When the new Rebbe produced the Chassidic discourse for 10 Shvat – Basi L’Gani – the first of the series was dedicated in loving memory of Rabbi Yisroel Jacobson’s parents.

“What’s happening with the yeshiva students?”

I was among the group of yeshiva student who before the war the Rebbe Rayatz said should go to Otvock, in Poland.

When the war broke out, we went through seven levels of hell. We traveled to Warsaw, as the Rebbe said to do, to arrange the necessary papers to travel. From there, after many difficulties, we managed to arrive in Riga.

The Lubavitchers in the Latvian capital were very Chassidish. Rabbi Itche der Masmid, who was there at that time, would daven all day. I remember him learning Chassidus for a few hours and then davening Shacharis for hours. When it was time for Mincha, he would remove his tefillin and daven with a tallis over his head. By the time he finished, it was time for Maariv, the evening prayer. After davening he would learn Likkutei Torah, the Alter Rebbe’s famous work, with the students, who would then accompany him to his home and speak to him.

The Rebbe, who was trying to leave burning Warsaw for Riga, asked that a group of students wait for him in Riga. We waited several weeks. In the meantime, Jews in Latvia were growing nervous over the Nazis’ approach. We were forced to leave Latvia, which fortunately could be crossed in a half hour. From there we went via Sweden and Norway until we returned to America.

Shortly later, on 5 Teves, the Rebbe arrived in Riga. His first question was, “What’s happening with the yeshiva students?” When told that we had arrived in America already, he asked, “Why am I not informed about what is happening with them?”

We rejoiced upon hearing that the Rebbe had escaped Warsaw. We then learned that the Rebbe had asked about us. On the one hand, we were happy that the Rebbe inquired about us; on the other hand, we felt sorry that we hadn’t told the Rebbe what had happened to us.

We wrote to the Rebbe and apologized, explaining that since the Rebbe was trapped in Warsaw, we could not write to him about what was happening with us. The Rebbe’s response: even with bombs falling all over him in Warsaw, whenever he got word about the yeshiva students, he felt much better!

In general, we know that a Chassid must write to the Rebbe about what’s going on with him. There are stories about Chassidim who wrote to the Rebbe, and
although the Rebbe did not physically receive the letter, he responded.

When Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson was in Paris, he was asked about writing a letter even when it doesn’t seem as though the letter would get through. The Rebbe answered: “Writing to the Rebbe is your responsibility. Answering you is the Rebbe’s responsibility. Write!”

Rabbi Yisroel Gordon relates:

Love for His Children

There was a Chassid who lived with his family in a small Russian town where there was no fire department, running water, or medical services. When his pregnant wife became ill, they traveled to Vilna where a doctor decided they had to go to a hospital and abort the fetus, since her life was endangered.

Of course, the Chassid did nothing without consulting his Rebbe. When he wrote to the Previous Rebbe for advice, the Rebbe answered that the woman should remain at home, without an abortion, and that the child would be fine.

That’s exactly what happened! The child was born healthy. And this isn’t just “one of those stories,” since I am the child who was born!

Since there was no telephone or telegraph in the town where I was born, my father did not have a way of informing the Rebbe of my birth. Therefore, he took money as a redemption pledge, and placed it, with a letter, inside a Tanya. Within the letter he wrote that his wife had a healthy boy, and he asked that the boy merit to become a genuine Chassid.

From this story we learn that Chassidim always knew about the great love the Rebbe had for them and that they reciprocated with great love towards him. In his discourses the Rebbe Rayatz states that the Rebbe’s love for a Chassid is greater than the love parents have for their children.

Why is Everyone Crying?

We arrived in America in 5694/1934. On the way, we stopped in Warsaw, where the Previous Rebbe was residing. I was only five years old, but I remember that the Rebbe received us graciously and smiled at us.

The Rebbe, who knew my father from Lubavitch, spoke with all of us — my father, my brothers Nissan and Sholom, my sisters, my mother, and me. Everybody cried. I didn’t understand why everyone was crying when the Rebbe was smiling at us.

Only later, did I understand why they had all cried. The Rebbe said that my father is a tamim, a pure soul. Now that we were going to America, “a land which consumes its inhabitants,” we had to know that there would be many difficult tests and that he expected us to withstand them.

Visit to the Rebbetzin

While in Warsaw, we visited Rebbetzin Shterna Sarah, widow of the Rebbe Rashab—fifth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Shalom Dovber Schneersohn. (She would later move to the U.S. and live above 770.)

Rebbetzin Shterna Sarah received us with great honor. She gave my mother tea with sugar. I was a little boy, and seeing sugar, I grabbed some of it.

My mother, taken aback, scolded me that I had to behave like a mentsch and not grab sugar in front of the Rebbetzin.

The Rebbetzin calmed my mother. “Your little boy came from a small town and had never seen sugar before. How that he saw it, he got excited and grabbed it.”

She chuckled, “Let him be. He is allowed a small desire.”

Thousands on the Platform

Rabbi Scharfstein relates:

On the morning that the Rebbe Rayatz arrived in the United States, my father came from shul and took us to greet the Rebbe. Not all were permitted to approach the ship—only those to whom Agudas Chassidei Chabad had given a ticket.

When the Rebbe arrived, there were thousands of people on the platform. The pushing was terrible. Over the years I learned how to push, but in those days I still didn’t know how.

The police escorted the Rebbe to the hotel in two taxis. My father also went to the hotel, behind the Rebbe. I don’t remember whether my father went in for yechidus the day the Rebbe arrived, but I remember that my father took me with him.

When the Rebbe saw my father, he gave him a big smile and said, “How are you, Rabbi Avrohom?”

My father had seen the Rebbe on his previous visit, at the end of 5689/1929. At that time, my father was in the process of becoming a Lubavitcher, and seeing the Rebbe’s face was a decisive factor in this process.

My father was born to a Litvishe family and his journey to Chabad was via Chassidus Kopust as follows:

My father was married three times. His first two wives died in their youth. He had a son from the first wife, a son and daughter from the second wife, and then he
married my mother. The second wife had a brother who was a Chassid of Kopust, and he brought my father into to the Kopust Chassidus.

Around 1928, Rabbi Ezriel Zelig Slonim, the Rebbe’s fundraiser, came to New York. On Shabbos he davened in my father’s shul. When Rabbi Slonim came to shul at 8:30 a.m. and saw two men with full beards, sitting and learning before the davening in cold, materialistic America, he was excited.

He decided to see what Midrash they were learning. But when he approached them he said, “Oy vey, they’re not learning Midrash; they’re learning Magen Avos,” referring to a work by the Kopuster Rebbe.

Rabbi Slonim sat and learned with them a topic in Chassidus and then prepared to lay tefillin. Before Mincha he learned Midrash with them. Then he spoke with these two Jews, my uncle and my father, and persuaded them to write to the Lubavitcher Rebbe.

In his letter, the Rebbe advised my father to work on prayer service and to receive many Psalms. The Rebbe ended the letter with a blessing.

The Rebbe’s arrival in America a year later was a decisive factor in my father’s move to Lubavitch. During that visit, my father, a kosher slaughterer ordained by prominent rabbis, got to meet the Rebbe, who ate from my father’s kashrus.

Rabbi Yehuda Leib Posner relates:

To See the Good Qualities

Many years ago, before Purim, I sat and learned Chassidus in the small office located outside the Previous Rebbe’s room. It was about 8:00 when suddenly, the Rebbe’s secretary Rabbi Itzchak Mordechai Chadakov entered the room and said he wanted to speak to me.

He took me to the nearby office of Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch, where the Rebbe was present. The Rebbe told me that I had to go to New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania on behalf of Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch, to advertise their publications.

At that time, Lubavitch was not as big as it is now. I was able to pack all the holy books in one bag. I was supposed to travel for a week, return, and then take the train to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where my family lived at that time.

Before I left, I had a private audience with the Rebbe. The Rebbe told me:

“When looking at others, see their good qualities; when looking at yourself, see your deficiencies. Chassidim say that the Torah was given in different-sized letters.”

The Rebbe continued, “In the Torah there are large letters and small letters.” At first, I didn’t understand what the Rebbe meant. When I asked the Rebbe to repeat it, the Rebbe said in Yiddish “big letters and little letters,” and I understood.

The Rebbe was saying that the other person’s good qualities had to be seen with big letters, while their deficiencies should be seen with small letters. The Rebbe concluded with a blessing for a good trip.

With a Chassidic Melody

I remember back in 1944-45 that my brother, Sholom Ber a”h, who was an emissary and rabbi of a shul in Newark, New Jersey, had tremendous difficulties. His shul was very modern, without a lectern in the center. He asked the Previous Rebbe, “What am I supposed to talk to them about in shul? I speak about Shabbos and kashrus, and it doesn’t go. People in shul do all kinds of tricks in order to avoid complying. What can I do?”

The Rebbe answered, “When you go down the street and shout at someone and give him mussar (reproach), he won’t accept it. When you sit in shul and sing a Chassidic melody, and say a Chassidic word of Torah, the reproach is accepted.”

When Shalom Ber was in Dokshitz, he learned by a Chassid of the Rebbe Maharash, the fourth Lubavitcher Rebbe, who was outstanding in his prayer service. He would go to shul, study Chassidus for a few hours, and then close himself up in a room by himself where he would daven for about two hours. Watching him was a special experience.

One time, my brother asked him about the mishna in Bava Metzia: when two people deposit money with someone, one person leaving $100 and the other $200, and both show up and claim $200, the Halacha is the money remains there until Eliyahu the Prophet arrives.

What’s the connection to Eliyahu? And as great as he is, he is still just one witness, since Torah law requires two?

The melamed answered: “There’s a verse in Psalm 43: ‘Send Your light and Your truth, and they will guide me.’ According to Rashi, ‘Your light’ refers to Moshiach, and ‘Your truth’ refers to Eliyahu. Eliyahu will come to bring truth to the world. The man himself will come and admit that the $200 isn’t his.”

That is how a Chassid of the Rebbe Maharash studied the Mishnah.

“I came to welcome, not to push!”

On Shavuos 5706/1946 there were many people who came to Crown Heights. Naturally, they all wanted to daven with the Previous Rebbe. People standing in the hall tried to enter the room, and there was terrible pushing.

A tall man stood outside who did not look Lubavitch. He had the long peyos and bekeshe, shiny black coat, of other Chassidic men. When my brother Sholom asked him why he was there, he answered, “I am a Skverer Chassid from Boro Park, and I wanted to see Shavuos in Lubavitch. I asked the Skverer Rebbe permission to come here. If I could, I would go in there with you, go in good health.”

My brother asked him, “Why don’t you push inside? Why are you standing here?”

The man answered, “There’s no need to push. There’s a verse in parshas Ki Sisa, ‘And all who sought G-d went out to the Tent of Meeting.’ Rashi says, from here we see that seeking out the countenance of an elder is like welcoming the
Shechina, the Holy Spirit. I came from Boro Park to see the face of an elder and to welcome the Shechina. Pushing is not necessary.”

I think that this can give us much strength, especially in the situation we’re in now, how much we should want to see the Rebbe which is synonymous with welcoming the Shechina.

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