Rare Recording of the Frierdiker Rebbe’s Farbrengen

TASK A — CLEANED TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to our weekly program, "The Inside Story," brought to you by the Mindel Archives. Today is Yud Adar, the day that the Frierdiker Rebbe came to America. Today is also my mother's yahrzeit — [Feige? bas Reb Zalman? — unclear] — her father, my zeide, was the Rav of [unclear]. So I want to dedicate this program in memory of my mother, to commemorate this special date, and also in honor of my mother.

At the end of this program I want to share with you a unique audio — a recording of the Frierdiker Rebbe. This was [unclear] just a few minutes; the audio is maybe almost an hour, but we're going to play just a few minutes. The beginning is [unclear], and everyone who hears it has a different opinion of what the Frierdiker Rebbe is saying, because we couldn't understand what the Frierdiker Rebbe is saying. And in this audio also, you cannot understand the Frierdiker Rebbe — only some people could, but nobody could really understand. "Can you understand?" "No, I can't." So we're just going to play a few minutes — at least we'll hear the voice of the Frierdiker Rebbe. You can see how he gives away his heart — whatever he speaks, he speaks with a ganze heart. And also we're going to hear the niggun that they sang at the Frierdiker Rebbe's farbrengen. And who was there — besides the Frierdiker Rebbe — [Rabbi Mindel?] was there, [Levitan? — unclear] was there, of course; he was there upstairs [unclear]. So at the end, in honor of my mother, I will play this audio at the end of this program. Maybe some people have heard it before, I don't know.

So, we already discussed in our previous programs about [the time] before they were in America, but the Frierdiker Rebbe had told Rabbi Mindel and Rabbi Hodakov — we already discussed that the Frierdiker Rebbe asked my father-in-law, Rabbi Mindel, if he should put on a striped tie before the trip. [This is] documented in the archive, which I didn't mention last time, and he gave him advice. At the same time, regarding the citizenship papers, before that he also asked Rabbi Hodakov if he should put on a striped tie. And also we spoke last time about when they arrived in America, which I will not go into today.

But today I want to mention a person who helped the Frierdiker Rebbe come to America. Now, there's a lot to speak about this person — he was in a special connection with the Rebbe, with the Frierdiker Rebbe — many, many letters and meetings that he had with the Frierdiker Rebbe — but I won't spend too much time today about that. Next week, im yirtzeh Hashem, we are going to do [a program on] the correspondence between the Frierdiker Rebbe, Rabbi Mindel, and Mr. Julius Stulman [name as heard; spelled inconsistently in source — "Thurmond"/"Tolman"] — that was his name, Julius Stulman. He was the one who sent an affidavit to Riga to help bring the Frierdiker Rebbe here in 1940.

And I did find in the archives that when the Frierdiker Rebbe was here in 1929 in America, when he returned back to Russia he was asked what he thought about the future of America, of the youth, of American Jewry, the youth of America. By the way, in those days America was considered by everybody a "treife medina," so anybody who was here and returned back to Europe or to Russia all said [unclear — "ba'al nefesh"?], and it's written, "America was a valley of dry bones." But the Frierdiker Rebbe, when he was asked, when he went back to Russia, what he thought about America — I have to read my notes, and then I'll tell you. I'm going to read now what the Frierdiker Rebbe wrote — he wrote it in Hebrew, but it was translated into English, and everybody was surprised. He explained that he was greatly impressed with the wholesomeness of heart and sincerity of the Jewish youth in America, and he continued: if Jewish youth in Europe excelled in the realm of the mind, as intellectuals and [Torah scholars — unclear], in those days Europe flourished with yeshivos, the Jewish youth in America excelled in the realm of the heart — they were more sincere, he wrote, honest, open-minded, and receptive. "Tamim tihiyeh im Hashem Elokecha" — you shall be wholehearted with your G-d — where there is such tamimus, there is great promise; it is fertile soil also for Torah scholarship, the perfect synthesis and blending of heart and mind, which is the cornerstone of the Chabad philosophy and way of life.

This is what the Frierdiker Rebbe [bore out — unclear] a decade later, in 1940, when, by hashgacha pratis — divine providence — the Rebbe was brought to America. And then he came not as a visitor — he came as an immigrant — and he knew that now it was time to implement what he had seen when he was here in 1929. People then, even his followers, said that the Rebbe would be disillusioned, and they didn't believe what the Frierdiker Rebbe would say. But the Frierdiker Rebbe, with his mesirus nefesh, showed them differently than what the people thought, and he gave life to the so-called "dry bones." This is what the Frierdiker Rebbe wrote — so he felt that America was a place where things were happening.

Now I want to read to you an affidavit — a copy of the affidavit cable that was sent by Julius Stulman on December 28, 1939, to the United States [consulate in] Riga, Latvia. I'm not going to read the whole cable, but I'm just going to read the beginning: "I am cabling you this affidavit to support the visa application [of] [unclear phrase], Chief Rabbi Joseph Isaac Schneerson, and to support the application [of] said Rabbi Schneerson and his wife, [Rebbetzin Nechama Dina]; his son-in-law, Rabbi [Shmaryahu] Gourary, and his wife, [Chana] Gourary Schneerson; and his son, Sholom Ber [Gourary]." Although I understand it's unnecessary, [he's] giving a financial guarantee, already given in favor of the American Chabad [organization] in connection with bringing [the family] to America — people already took [responsibility] for the Frierdiker Rebbe. And then he states here his residence — where he lives, Mr. Julius Stulman writes — and how much money he makes; he says he may be worth over twenty thousand dollars in assets, and a few hundred thousand dollars['] worth [of something else — unclear]. And he wrote to them that, just in case something happens, he personally takes responsibility for the Frierdiker Rebbe. In the meantime, next week we'll see what the Frierdiker Rebbe thought about Mr. Julius Stulman.

I also have over here the names — the list from the ship — the ship that the Frierdiker Rebbe came on, Wednesday, March 6, 1940, and the name of the ship was the Drottningholm. It went out from Sweden, and it has here the names of all the people who were on the ship when the Frierdiker Rebbe came here. So the Frierdiker Rebbe was [traveling] first class [with — names unclear] and his mother, and [Rabbi Gourary] with his wife was also there, also [Chaim Lieberman? — unclear] and [unclear], and Rabbi Mindel, and Rabbi Hodakov in second class.

And what I did, a year ago, I thought — since there were [other] people on the ship, some people came from Stockholm, [some] went to New York, from all different [places] — it says here where they come from — I thought I would call somebody to see what their experience was: did they see the Frierdiker Rebbe? Did the Frierdiker Rebbe ever say anything to them? Of course the people are nervous, but maybe their children would know, or the grandchildren. So finally I got in touch with some of the people, and I called them, and they told me a few stories that happened on the ship with their grandfather. In a [future] program I will share this with you — something amazing.

Now, today, since it's my mother's yahrzeit, I want to say something about my mother. My father once told me that there was a [Yid? — unclear], I think it was a [unclear], and I'm not sure — he had a yahrzeit for his mother, his elderly mother, and he had the yahrzeit and he forgot to say Kaddish for his mother. So his mother came to him in a dream, and his mother said: "My son, I know you forgot to say Kaddish — I'll forgive you; we know the importance of Kaddish — but I cannot forgive you that you didn't give lechaim, you didn't give out schnapps and cake, because when people say lechaim, the neshama [benefits], and people give brachos to each other, and people wish each other the best — the pleasure of the neshama from that is even more than from Kaddish." This is important — when people are together. So since today is my mother's yahrzeit, I want to say lechaim, that the neshama should have an aliyah, and [unclear Hebrew blessing — possibly a wish for the geulah].

I want to share with you today, in honor of my mother, a letter of the Rebbe. Our Rebbe used to go [to the Ohel] to be menachem avel in the '40s, but sometimes he couldn't go to be menachem avel, so he wrote a nichum aveilim letter — you know, nichum aveilim letters. We have, in our "Letter and Spirit" [column/book], a section [of these], but there is so much more — we could make a whole book of the Rebbe's nichum aveilim letters — but not all of them have become available. So I chose this letter to share with you today.

This letter starts with a mashal. The Rebbe writes: there was a man standing in front of an ocean, and he was meditating — quiet, still, on the shore. Then he picks up his head, and on his right side he looks and sees hundreds of people dancing and singing "oi, oi," a big simcha. What's the simcha? That day a ship was built, and today is the first time the ship is going out across the ocean for a long journey, so everybody's happy. Then the man turns to his left side, and he sees a handful of people standing and waiting for an old ship coming back to its final destination. So the man says to himself: look — here is a ship that's going out for the first time; we don't know if the ship will sink, we don't know whether the ship will overcome all the storms, all the milchamos [battles], all the winds. We don't know — nevertheless everybody signals and wishes the ship well, because they want to give brachos that nothing should happen to it. But what about that ship that's coming to its final destination, that already overcame all the milchamos, and didn't sink, and is coming back complete, the whole ship, to its final destination? Only a handful of people care [to come greet it].

The Rebbe says the nimshal is: a neshama comes down into this world, and we don't know what's going to happen to the person — this is olam hazeh, this is a dark world, and there are a lot of tests, a lot of nisyonos, and we don't know whether that person will overcome all the nisyonos, overcome all the wars of the yetzer hara, all the storms of [unclear]. Nevertheless, everybody is happy — they make a kiddush, it is possible [to celebrate at a birth]. But when a person has already left the world, and the person raised a family, had children and grandchildren, and lived a good, spiritual life — people should really care, people should put their mind to think about it. This is what the Rebbe says.

So today I want to say about my mother — you know there's a saying, "Eizehu ashir? Hasameach b'chelko" — who is rich? One who is happy with his lot. My mother was the type of person — she was a happy person. Whatever happened, she didn't have money, and she