Story the Rebbe Sent to Intellectuals Meeting in Manhattan

Historic Treasures, Episode 5: "Story the Rebbe Sent to Intellectuals Meeting in Manhattan"

A gutten voch, welcome to our weekly program, Chabad in America through the Nissan Mindel Archives. Since this week is going to be Yud Beis Tammuz, the Chag HaGeulah of the Frierdiker Rebbe, when he went out of prison — also, Yud Beis Tammuz is the yahrzeit of Rabbi Nissan Mindel. He was born on Beis Nissan, the yahrzeit of the Rebbe Rashab, and he passed away on Yud Beis Tammuz, the Chag HaGeulah.

So I'm going to share with you a fascinating exchange of letters between the Frierdiker Rebbe, the Rebbe, and Rabbi Mindel. We don't have time for all the letters, but at least one letter — a very interesting letter. This is about a weekly learning group of intellectuals and professionals arranged by Alexander Cowen. This group was in Manhattan in 1944, where the Rebbe and the Frierdiker Rebbe were very, very much interested in this group. The Frierdiker Rebbe sent Rabbi Mindel to go every week to listen to their questions and answers and give a report on what happened in that group.

Rabbi Mindel also thanks the Ramash — he writes "Ramash," the Rebbe was called the Ramash — for helping him give answers, since this was based on Torah and science. Rabbi Mindel asked the Rebbe some questions that they had, and the Rebbe answered them. I have here, written from the Rebbe's original, that the Rebbe answered all these questions in his ksav yad kodesh (holy handwriting). This was based on the Bible, the Authorized Version.

The Frierdiker Rebbe wrote a letter to Rabbi Mindel and said that in order to inspire the class, it's always good to tell them a story. The story is a famous story, but this story comes from the letter the Frierdiker Rebbe wrote in his own handwriting — this is the Frierdiker Rebbe's handwriting. Then he told Rabbi Mindel to type it, and the Frierdiker Rebbe signed this letter. This is written to Rabbi Mindel; he signed this letter. Then he told him to have the letter translated into English, and he should read it for them in English.

Now I'm going to tell you one report that Rabbi Mindel wrote to the Frierdiker Rebbe about the class. The shiur began at 8:30 in a dentist's office — he writes exactly, because the Frierdiker Rebbe wanted to know everything. Every week the class grew. "When I came at 8:30, I found 20 men and 5 women. Alexander Cowen was sitting at the table, some people were around the table, and some people were sitting around in the room. No books — only Alexander Cowen had the Bible, the Authorized Version."

The shiur began with an introduction that the goal is not necessarily to make people religious, but to understand the importance of Torah and mitzvos. "Since you're all intellectuals, each one should take this upon themselves and think about what they can learn from it."

Alexander Cowen had the Authorized Version of the Bible, and he read starting from the creation of the world. Then he took out a clipping from an English newspaper with a message from General Smuts of South Africa, who inspires people in emunas Hashem (faith in G-d). He began to speak about how Smuts did it, and then spoke about his own youth, his bar mitzvah, how he grew up, and that his father was a [unclear] near London, and he went on about that for a while.

There wasn't much time left for questions, but Mr. Cowen asked Rabbi Mindel to say something. So he writes to the Frierdiker Rebbe that since the topic was about Torah and science — Torah's view on science — he told them what he had heard from the Ramash, from the Rebbe: that it says in the Zohar that the earth is round, and that there is an earth cycle of day and night, as mentioned in the calendar, Mi Yom L'Yom. The people were very, very impressed.

Now, I just want to mention — Mi Yom L'Yom — there's a sefer, HaYom Yom, which is given out and which everybody learns every day: a saying that the Rebbe collected from the Frierdiker Rebbe, with a saying for each day. That's the regular HaYom Yom. Before that, the Rebbe had done Mi Yom L'Yom, a calendar for children, printed and called the Young Scholar's Pocket Calendar — that's from Tof-Shin-Gimmel (5703). This was written in English. Rabbi Mindel worked together with the Rebbe on it, and by the way, Rabbi Mindel was an Englishman, so the Rebbe said to him, "I'll also do the English with you, but if I make a mistake in spelling, correct me." In the end, though, it was the Rebbe who corrected Rabbi Mindel, he said.

In Tof-Shin-Dalet (5704) there was also a Young Scholar's Pocket Encyclopedia, also in English, then printed. This was so important to the Rebbe that, I believe, you find in the Igros Kodesh that Rabbi Greenglass, who was the mashpia in Montreal, wrote to the Rebbe many times in 1943–44, and the Rebbe did not answer him. So he wrote to the Rebbe, "Why don't you answer me?" And the Rebbe replied, "I am busy writing for children."

A Mr. Stillman, one of the supporters who was at the group, gave $500 that the Frierdiker Rebbe had asked him to give for that purpose. That was very important to the Rebbe, and Mr. Stillman was the one who gave the $500.

This is about the earth cycle of day and night, as mentioned. Afterward, we spoke to Kehot, and we wanted them to print it. For whatever reason, they did not print it — this was years ago. So I asked Rabbi Mindel, what if they don't want to print what you worked on? He said, "Then you print it." And we printed it — these two years, from Tof-Shin-Gimmel and Tof-Shin-Dalet. We also translated it into Hebrew, but the main thing is the English, because we took it from the original.

Then there was a question from Mr. Stillman. He had heard that the Eibeshter (G-d) created the world through thought, not through speech — is that so? He asked Alexander Cowen, and Alexander Cowen said no, that it was created through speech, because it says that when the Eibeshter had a mind to create the world — that itself is a creation. When He had it in mind, that itself is a creation, and then the physical world was created. That was one question, which he writes to the Frierdiker Rebbe.

Then there was another question they asked: if Torah is so high and wise, how can we explain the fact that the knowledge of Torah was not widespread and not accepted by everyone, by the entire world? Mr. Cowen started to answer, but they were not impressed. So Rabbi Mindel asked, "Can I have permission to say a word?" He said: it says that when a person is in a dark room and then goes into a lit room, he appreciates the light because he was first in the dark. The same is true here — now we live in this world, which is still a dark world, but little by little we will come to appreciate the light, and that is when everybody will accept that knowledge. He wrote that the prophet prophesied that the whole world will recognize the Kingship of G-d, and everybody will come to the mountain of Zion to learn the knowledge of Torah.

When Rabbi Mindel finished saying that, Mr. Cowen said he also wanted to say a word. He said: when a person is in a factory, with the machines running, a big factory full of noise, and outside there is music, a symphony, beautiful music — that person in the factory does not hear the music, he only hears the noise of the machines. But when the noise stops, he can hear the beautiful music. The same is true now: we are in a world where the machine is working, we are in an olam he'elem, a hidden world, so not everybody knows the Torah, not everybody can appreciate it. But later on, when that noise stops, when Moshiach comes, they will appreciate it.

He writes that the meeting ended at 11 o'clock, and everybody went home.

Now Rabbi Mindel writes his own opinion, because the Frierdiker Rebbe had told him he should write what he thinks of the class. First, he said that Mr. Cowen went on too long — he was reading three pages from the Authorized Version of the Bible, and because he read so much, the people had questions piling up like seeds in a pomegranate, a rimon. After two or three lines, he should have stopped — so they should stop after two or three lines instead of reading a lot and only then taking questions.

Another suggestion Rabbi Mindel had: someone should sit and write down the questions and answers, so that the following week they could be discussed further. The third thing — which he did not say to Mr. Cowen directly — was that he thought Mr. Cowen should be able to ask the Rebbe the questions before the class, so that he would already know the answers.

And b'chlal, Rabbi Mindel writes, this is a good class, and if they really understand the Torah the way it is presented to them, the lesson, then they will start doing mitzvos ma'asiyos (practical mitzvos).

As I said before, the Rebbe said that in order to give the class a chayus (life, vitality), he wanted Rabbi Mindel to tell them this story. This story was written up in the Igros Kodesh — it was written to Nissan Mindel. The Frierdiker Rebbe wrote it in his own handwriting, as I showed you before, then told him to type it, and he signed it. Then the Frierdiker Rebbe said, "Translate that into English." This is the English version that Rabbi Mindel wrote, and this is what he told him. I will read it to you now:

"It was in the summer of 1921, in the month of Tammuz, in July, when the Rebbe was invited to appear at the Cheka — a committee, later to be known as the GPU. This is like the Gestapo, and dreaded no less — it's like the FBI. The Rebbe was then in Rostov, and the invitation was the customary one. As the Rebbe was davening, still in mourning after his father, three agents of the Cheka entered the room, armed to the teeth with rifles, guns, knives, and belts of ammunition. Not attempting to disguise their hatred, they went up to the Rebbe and told him he was required to accompany them to the Cheka. Two of the men were from the Jewish section (the Yevsektzia), and the third was a gentile.

"When the Rebbe told them he wished to conclude his prayers, the two Jews almost fell upon him, trying to tear off his tallis and tefillin, and were it not for the gentile companion, they would have forced him to accompany them before he concluded his prayers. The gentile guard, however, prevailed upon them to let the Rebbe finish his prayers. Incidentally, the Rebbe recognized one of the Jews as a native of Shavel, who had once come to him for help, and the Rebbe had secured a position for him with a tobacco firm, and even lent him money to start a business of his own — that was, of course, before the Revolution.

"When the Rebbe concluded saying the last Kaddish, he took off his tallis and tefillin and accompanied them to the dreaded Cheka. He had an armed guard on each side of him and one walking behind, like a dangerous criminal. In those days, one never knew whether one would come back alive from a visit to the Cheka.

"He was led into a large room where some fifteen men sat at a long table on each side, with two men at its head. The Rebbe was placed at the end of the table, still surrounded by the armed guard. One of the two men sitting at the head of the table turned to the Rebbe and said, 'We are members of the committee investigating religious activity under the auspices of the Party. We are engaged at present in investigating the Jewish faith. We had some questions cleared up by Rabbis Berman and Goldberg, whom we had invited here. Now you have been invited to clear up some questions with regard to Kabbalah and Chassidus.' He spoke in Russian. The Rebbe replied in Yiddish: 'I have already been invited twice before the Cheka, when I already stated that I would not deviate from my principles. And the man — or devil — has not been created yet who could make me give up so much as an iota.'

"Before the Rebbe could finish his few words, one of the agents present, sitting near the head of the table, picked up the gun lying in front of him — in addition to being armed with a gun, each one had a gun lying on the table before him, no doubt to intimidate those taken for questioning — and said, 'This toy does away with many principles and opens the mouth of the dumb.' 'You are absolutely mistaken,' the Rebbe said, 'for this toy impresses only those who do not believe — those cowards who have only one world and many gods, to whom each passion is a god, and who are afraid to lose this one world. But we Jews, who have one G-d but two worlds, this toy does not frighten, and makes no impression at all.'

"'We have not called you here for the purpose of annoying you,' said the chairman. 'Let's hear your principles — maybe we can get together on them.' 'My principle is that I do not wish to hear or to speak any language other than Yiddish, even among gentiles, and especially among men who belong to the Jewish people.' 'How do you know that we are all Jewish?' one of the men asked. 'Maybe I'm mistaken and not all of those present here are Jews.' 'My grandfather' — meaning the Rebbe Maharash — 'could recognize a Jew at a glance, even in the street. Once, when he was in Kiev walking along Kreshchatik Street, he stopped a young man dressed in modern clothes, clearly anxious to disguise his Jewish origin, and asked him where a famous professor lived. The young man became incensed and said, "How do you know that I am a Jew?" Said my grandfather, "The bris left its effect on your nose." Now, I cannot recognize it in the same way, but I still believe I am not mistaken.'

"The first question was: 'You observe your faith in every detail — you keep your head covered, you wear tzitzis, and so forth. Now, all these things you do — do you do them from conviction, or from habit?' 'From absolute conviction,' said the Rebbe. 'If so, convince us also, and bring us to the same spiritual level as yours,' they said. 'I am prepared to oblige you, and surely you will give me an opportunity to fulfill your request. You will admit, however, that if a student of astronomy is stopped in the street by someone requesting that he explain to him the system of the stars and planets, surely the student of astronomy would tell him, "I cannot explain it to you here in the street right now, but if you really wish to learn, come up to the planetarium, and you will see with your own eyes, through the telescope, the movements of the stars and planets." Similarly, I say to you: if you really want to learn and be convinced of our faith in G-d and His Torah, come with me to the house of G-d, put on tefillin, eat kosher, observe Shabbos — then your mind will be clarified, as well as your heart, and you will be able to understand it with an ethical thought, and I will surely bring you, little by little, to a conviction in the truth of our faith, in Torah.'

"'But please explain it to us intellectually first, and then we will take it upon ourselves to observe the Jewish faith. Until then, we cannot accept religious matters as truth.' 'You surely know for certain that food does not merely satisfy the stomach and give strength, but even fatness, because it turns into blood and flesh — in medicine, the process of digestion is clearly explained. But suppose someone said, "I refuse to eat until it is explained to me how food turns into blood and flesh" — it is necessary to believe, and to eat and drink first, and then go study medicine if you wish. The same is true of religion: do it, and do it, and then come to understand it.'

"The words made a profound impression."

And this is what the Rebbe told Rabbi Mindel to tell them — to explain the story to them, to read them the story. By the way, on this English letter the Rebbe made hagahos (corrections) of his own. So this is a very important letter, and it gave the class its chayus.

I hope that this program will help us in our connection to the Rebbe, and that we will merit the geulah shleimah. Next week, the program will continue again. A gutten voch!