What Was Written in Both Wills of the Rebbe

A gute Voch, welcome to the story of Chabad in America through the Mindel Archives. Tonight is a special program in honor of Gimel Tammuz. In tonight's program, we are going to speak about the visit of Rabbi Mindel to the Rebbe after the first stroke, in Adar. Also, we're going to speak about the letter that the Rebbe had written to a dear supporter on the topic of a tzavaah, a will. And finally, the Rebbe's will that was prepared in 1988. People want to know about the will, if I have anything in the archives, and we are going to discuss the will.

But before I begin, I just want to say something. Today is Gimel Tammuz. It's already twenty-five years since we don't see the Rebbe begashmiyus. It's already twenty-seven years since we don't hear the Rebbe begashmiyus. Begrochnis we do. The Rebbe is with us all the time, as the Alter Rebbe says in Tanya, after a Rebbe passes away. Also, Yud Shvat. After Yud Shvat, the Rebbe wrote many letters. The Rebbe wrote telegrams, and I have here telegrams from the Rebbe's ksav yad, that the Frierdiker Rebbe is mamshich to do yeshuos and brochos and hatzlochos after Yud Shvat. The same thing also with the Rebbe begrochnis, for sure.

But unfortunately, it seems to me that some people are satisfied that they communicate with the Rebbe through dreams, through chalomos, that the Rebbe answers them through chalomos, and it could be that's true, and they get answers. Or they put a piece of paper in the Igros, whatever they need, and they claim that they get answers, which is probably true. I know myself that people have told me of many miracles from putting a paper in the Igros. Even though, by the way, I've seen that the Rebbe writes that if we need a brocha, you can put it into a sefer, but I personally never saw that the Rebbe said that you should put it in the Igros, but I would like to know, maybe there is.

Also, people have mashpiim that the Rebbe said. The Rebbe did say we should make mashpiim, or we should have yedidim, yedidim the Rebbe did say, but we still, it's not enough. We don't want that. We want to see the Rebbe b'guf gashmi. And since today is Gimel Tammuz, and so many people are listening to this program, I just want to say that the Rebbe says that we should see the Rebbe b'guf gashmi, Mashiach now.

Now let's go to the visit. Rabbi Mindel, besides working with the Rebbe from 1941 on, worked on the Tanya, worked on Talks and Tales, worked on the Writings, worked on Igros, worked on shluchim, hundreds and hundreds of inyonim that Rabbi Mindel did with the Rebbe. Besides that, he was poshut a personal — he had a personal relationship with the Rebbe, and he was a chosid of the Rebbe.

So when the Rebbe had a stroke, in Adar, the first Adar, he just couldn't go in to the Rebbe. He didn't feel — he had been working for so many years with the Rebbe, and now the Rebbe could not speak. He could not see the Rebbe in such a situation. So he was waiting for the opportunity, for the Rebbe to feel better and be able to walk in to the Rebbe. After four months, he found out that the Rebbe felt a little better. He went in to the Rebbe, and he says to the Rebbe, "Rebbe, I am an eirach, I am a guest here. I didn't see you for four months." He used to see the Rebbe almost every single day. "I'm an eirach," he says to the Rebbe.

Eirach, he says, is from two words: eir and ches. Eir means light, ches is eight — the eighth brocha should shine upon the Rebbe. The eighth brocha in Shemoneh Esrei is Refa'einu Hashem — the Rebbe should give you a refuah sheleimah. After he heard this, the Rebbe's face shined, he smiled for a long time. So I think from here we see that an eirach has a koach to give a brocha.

Next I will share with you the Rebbe's thought in a letter that he wrote to a dear supporter on the concept of a will. In this letter — and I will read it soon, just a couple of paragraphs — he writes that both of us, the supporter and myself, the Rebbe, merited to be in the presence of the Frierdiker Rebbe before his histalkus, and we both heard what the Rebbe said. Even though we have different opinions, it's important for both of us to carry out the Rebbe's will.

And here I want to read you what the Rebbe writes in this letter. Now, this is a letter that the Rebbe wrote to him, full of hagahos, full of hagahos that he wrote to this supporter, and I just want to read a paragraph or two of what the Rebbe said:

"According to my late father-in-law, our revered Rebbe of saintly memory, he has told you explicitly what your soul's mission in life is, and indicated the channels, the areas of work, and how to do it. It is unnecessary on my part to elaborate on this, inasmuch as you have been privileged to hear it direct from the Rebbe of saintly memory, on more than one occasion, your last interview —"

The Rebbe writes now in Hebrew: "I was then in the Rebbe's presence" —

"Moreover, so soon before his aliyah, before he went up to the other world, that his influence — this and this in this world — should be considered in the nature of the last will and testament to you and to me, as a guiding light to your path."

And this is what he writes to this supporter. In other words, the Rebbe is saying what a true will is. The Frierdiker Rebbe said what his soul's mission in life is, and this is called a true tzavaah. A tzavaah is not just a piece of paper that someone puts down to leave an estate to somebody else. A tzavaah means the wish — a true will is someone giving over his ratzon. A will is called a ratzon, a wish, to the next generation. This is what a real will is.

So now it's clear what a real will is. Now I will come to the final topic of this program, and this is all from Rabbi Mindel's archives.

The Rebbe prepared two wills, two tzavaos. The first was an English tzavaah — it's right here, "Will." This is the last will and testament of the Rebbe, written February 14th, 1988. And I believe this is a couple of days after the passing of Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka.

This tzavaah was a legal document that had to be signed to avoid any problems, since there had been a problem before with sforim, so to avoid any problem, it had to be signed right away. This is a standard form used for an estate — a physical tzavaah. For this, the Rebbe didn't have to call a rav. He needed two witnesses and an executor. This is the will that the Rebbe signed, and we all saw the tzavaah that the Rebbe signed.

The essential will, the essential tzavaah, which was the real ratzon and the wish of the Rebbe, dealt with what the Rebbe dealt with in Chabad. This is the essential tzavaah. The first one was secondary — that was the gashmiusdike one that he needed. But when he called in Rabbi Hodakov and Rabbi Mindel and Rabbi Pekarski twice, and he told them, and he asked Rabbi Mindel to write notes, to write down and then compose the letter about the three pillars — Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch, Machne Yisroel, and Agudas Chassidei Chabad — to be mamshich until today. This was the ratzon of the Rebbe, to be mamshich all these inyonim.

And the same thing, as we know, at the last farbrengen, Parshas Vayeilech, what did the Rebbe speak about? This is what the Rebbe left us with: ahavas Yisroel, tzedakah, hafotzas hamaayanos. This is the real tzavaah — this is the essential one, not the secondary. The first tzavaah, the one that is signed, is secondary. He didn't have to sign that tzavaah. Chassidim hear something, they know what it is.

The Rebbe said it twice — again, twice. One was in the month of Sivan, when he called them in and spoke to them. And we have it right here, in English, that the Rebbe asked Rabbi Mindel to translate.

"It is considered auspicious for long life to make a will. I have invited the three of you — first and foremost, Rabbi Hodakov and Rabbi Mindel, since you were among the first persons whom my saintly father-in-law, the Rebbe" — and he said the Rebbe's name here — "had made his close associates in his work ever since he came to the United States, bringing you over with him, and he invested you with the chief tasks and responsibilities in the administration of his newly founded organization, and you have continued to serve in this capacity to this day. And with you, I have invited Rabbi Yisroel Yitzchok Piekarski, dean of the Central Lubavitcher Yeshiva, for the purpose of making my last will and testament in the presence of the three of you, as it says..."

And this is only part of the tzavaah. This is the main tzavaah. Again, it did not have to be signed officially, because when the Rebbe says something — and Rabbi Hodakov, by the way, wrote elsewhere that when it says of Avraham Avinu, "ki yedativ asher y'tzaveh es bonov v'es beiso," this is a tzavaah, and Avraham Avinu didn't have to sign it. And when Yaakov Avinu blessed the children, he didn't have to sign. It does not have to be signed. The only thing that has to be signed is the legal tzavaah.

Another thing that Rabbi Mindel wrote on the side — besides that, there is a law: when someone writes a will, and tomorrow he wants to write a second will, or next week, or next year, the first tzavaah is nullified, the first tzavaah means nothing. If the Rebbe would have officially signed this second tzavaah, this will, then the first legal will would have been nullified, and that couldn't be, because the first one had to remain signed to avoid any problems, if there were problems.

But whatever it is, to say, chas v'sholom, that this tzavaah, the one that wasn't signed, is not that important — that is not so. This is the ikar tzavaah. And again, as I said, the Rebbe called them in and told them a few times, and Rabbi Hodakov made notations on the English tzavaah here — I have here the notations of Rabbi Hodakov.

But some people may ask — I hope he's not here, Rabbi Mindel is not here — so what's the difference about this whole tzavaah, that he called them in, that he didn't call them in? What's the difference? So let me share with you a very small story.

Rabbi Nissan Mindel lived in Long Beach, Long Island, and he davened in a shul. At the end of davening, the people there, maybe by Aleinu, already had one foot out the door, and they ran to catch a train, the Long Island Railroad, to go to Manhattan to go to work. So by the end there was nobody there. After Aleinu, there was an empty shul, and Rabbi Mindel stayed extra, maybe ten, fifteen minutes, alone in the shul.

What had these people done? Before they finished, they took their siddurim and their chumashim, and instead of putting them back on the shelf, they put them on the chair, they put them on the table, and they left. Rabbi Mindel was not a gabbai, he was not a shamash, but he stayed extra. He was a very proper person, poshut a mensch. He did it. He was a very busy man, but he did it because that's the proper thing to do — to take the chumashim and put them on the shelf.

I remember there was somebody named Willie Wolf, a member of the shul. He says to Rabbi Mindel, "Rabbi Nissan, you're the Rebbe's mazkir, you work for the Rebbe, for the Frierdiker Rebbe, you're very busy, maybe even more busy than the people running to catch the Long Island Railroad. You have time every single day to stay extra and put away the chumashim and siddurim? Tell me."

So Rabbi Mindel said that a year ago, he had spoken to the Rebbe about certain things, and one of the things he told the Rebbe was that he puts away the chumashim and siddurim after he leaves. So the Rebbe said to him, "When a person puts away the chumashim and siddurim in this world, he'll also put away the chumashim and siddurim in the other world."

And the reason I'm telling this story is: after Gimel Tammuz, the world didn't think that Lubavitch would be like it is today. They thought that was the end of Lubavitch. We see how Lubavitch grew, how Chabad grew. We see it in the whole world — we see the hashpaah, that the Rebbe is mashpia here. And Rabbi Mindel and Rabbi Hodakov are working there with the Rebbe as a mazkir, whatever they did in this world, they do there too.

And this is what we can learn from this story — that whatever we do here, we also do there. And we need whoever the mazkirim are here, and we'll continue that, be'ezras Hashem, before Yud-Beis Tammuz, which is also the yahrzeit of Rabbi Mindel.

A gute Voch.