The Requested Report of the Torah Class in Manhattan

The Requested Report of the Torah Class in Manhattan

Welcome to our weekly program, "The Inside Story of Chabad in America," through the Mindel Archives. Last week we spoke about Mr. Stulman in our program; we also mentioned the Manhattan learning group led by Mr. Alexander Cowan, for professionals, scientists, and intellectuals.

Now I will explain: in the early years, when the Frierdiker Rebbe came to America in 1940, when he arrived, one of his important projects was that he began with education. The same thing also—when the Rebbe (known then as the Ramash) came in 1941, he continued what the Frierdiker Rebbe began: education.

So one such effort was the weekly Torah program established in Manhattan, taught by Mr. Cowan, with the participation of Rabbi Mindel. The Frierdiker Rebbe encouraged Rabbi Mindel to attend and to write to him a detailed report every time he went to the class—it was once a week. So the Frierdiker Rebbe took a big interest in these early classes, and with such detail—this is, I think, more [unclear] as we'll see soon. And Rabbi Mindel wrote—every week he wrote a report, a detailed report.

Now we might say that this was a forerunner for the couples' group today, the JLI, and also Young Professionals today that Chabad has—that it is matzliach [successful] because of that class, that the Frierdiker Rebbe and the Rebbe put so much koach [energy] into. Now we might say, following the concept of "maaseh avos siman labanim" [the deeds of the fathers are a sign for the children], this class set a path for how we should continue today, and it enabled us to be matzliach today. Just like in its time, when Avraham Avinu went to Mitzrayim—Avraham Avinu went to Mitzrayim to make a path for the Yidden later on, when they would be in Golus Mitzrayim, so that they would be able to go out of Mitzrayim. So too, this was the beginning—this was a path for the Yidden, that they would be able to overcome everything, years later.

Now I want to read to you in detail, and I will read it because this was written in Hebrew—Rabbi Mindel wrote the report in Hebrew, and I will translate it into English. And if we have time today we are going to also read what the Frierdiker Rebbe answered in this letter; if we don't have time, we'll have to leave it for next week.

So here, this is from the Hebrew that Rabbi Mindel wrote, the report to the Frierdiker Rebbe, the 20th of Cheshvan, 5704 (1944):

"Kevod Kedushat [Your Holiness], Shalom u'Vracha [peace and blessing]. This is to give a short report on the learning group given by Mr. Alexander Cowan, which I attended this week. As is known, the learning takes place weekly on Wednesday night at 8:30 p.m. in the waiting room of the dentist"—the dentist's name was Dr. Morris; the Frierdiker Rebbe wanted to know such details—"When I arrived, exactly at 8:30, I already found some people, which increased shortly to over 20 men and about five women, in addition to a few singles, all around approximately in their 30s. These people were all new to me except two: Mr. Stulman and Rabbi Alexander Cowan (he was a lawyer; he called him rabbi). He was seated at the small table, full of books and more, and the rest were sitting in various places around the room—a relatively small room. Mr. Alexander Cowan introduced me to the assembled, and took the opportunity to introduce them to the work of the Rebbe. He does this regularly, to acquaint them with the Rebbe's work."

This is from the reading, from the Hebrew: "The learning began with an introduction that the goal of this learning group is not to make them ultra-religious, frum, but rather to acquaint them with the great value of the Torah and mitzvos, and after that, being that they are mature, thinking individuals, they will come to their own realization on the matter of religion.

"The lesson itself is the reading by Rabbi Cowan from a text, 'The Bible Unauthorized'—and as we once mentioned, there was a whole program about who wrote 'The Bible Unauthorized,' but that's another program, we're not going to do that today. He finished the chapter from the previous lesson about Hashem, and he started the chapter of Creation. He read the first two verses as explained in the book; altogether they were around six pages, which took over an hour. He reads and everyone listens attentively, without explanation—he just reads, as they are mature enough and surely able to understand.

"After this he took out a paragraph from an English newspaper, a message by General Smuts from South Africa, for English youth, in which he inspires them to faith in Hashem, and also shares memories from his youth, when his father was a bookseller in London, and how he would come to the store, and how he celebrated his bar mitzvah.

"For questions and discussions there was not much time left, but before that he asked me to say a few words. And because the topic was Torah and secular science, I related what I had heard from the Rebbe."

By the way, since Rabbi Mindel worked with the Rebbe (the Ramash) for ten years, the Rebbe, over the course of many hundreds of hours, told him many inyanim [topics]—he wrote it down; that's something we could spend more programs on. But the Rebbe told him things, so—once he mentioned what the Rebbe told him from the Zohar regarding the fact that the earth is round, the cycles of day and night, as it is stated also in the English calendar which is in print now.

Now, what it means by the English calendar: here we gave out a book—it's called "From Day to Day" [Hayom Yom]. This was given out as a small booklet, like a calendar, by Kehot years ago, and then they stopped printing it, so we reprinted it—we made it two years ago. This was very important to the Rebbe. As a matter of fact, Rabbi Greenglass [?]—I think I mentioned once—wrote to the Rebbe in 1944: "I write you so many letters and you don't answer." So the Rebbe answered that he is busy with the Hayom Yom, "From Day to Day," for the children. By the Rebbe, this was a very choshuve inyan [important matter].

Continuing the letter: "In passing I told him about the Zohar in general; this topic made a very strong impression, and they seemed to be in awe."

Then he writes of two questions which this topic inspired. "Number one: Mr. Stulman asked Rabbi Alexander Cowan—he was under the impression that the world was created by thought, by the thought of the Creator, and not with speech. Is that so? Rabbi Alexander Cowan answered that this cannot be, as it is written that with ten utterances the world was created, so it cannot be with machshava [thought] alone—it has to be with dibbur [speech]."

Then Rabbi Mindel writes: "I made a comment here that, according to my understanding, both are correct—though this is not entirely clear, and I think he heard something from the Rebbe about this—but that's what he answered. Because in truth, when it came to the thought of the Creator to create the world, with the thought it was created, and the speech is the combination of the letters and the tzimtzumim within which the material things were clothed, since the Creator had no one at this point to whom to speak, because Adam HaRishon wasn't created yet—there was no creation yet. In general this is a deep concept which cannot so easily be understood."

I promise, with Hashem's help, in a few programs I will share with you from the Rebbe's pages and pages how the Rebbe answered this question about creation—we'll do that in a few programs later. So this is what Rabbi Mindel answered, that it could be [understood differently]—a deeper question.

"Question number two: If the Torah is so exalted and wise, how do you explain the fact that the knowledge of Torah is not so widespread, nor accepted the world over? If it's so wise, shouldn't everybody know it? Here Rabbi Alexander Cowan started to go on at length into an explanation without quite touching on the question; the matter remained unresolved. At this point I asked permission to answer, and I said that the advantage of light comes about through darkness—when there is both the one and the other, as when one goes from a dark room to a bright room. The intention of the Creator is that man should come to the recognition of truth after searching without finding it in other places, and the prophets already prophesied that the day will come when all who inhabit the earth will recognize the Kingship of Hashem, and all will come to Mount Zion to learn the wisdom of the Torah." This is what Rabbi Mindel answered.

Now Rabbi Cowan added—and this is what Rabbi Mindel recorded—that this could be compared to a person who is in a factory where the noise of the machines is very loud, and due to the great noise one is not able to hear the sweet music of the symphony playing outside, because he's in the factory. So he says the world is now engrossed in science and is not paying attention to what is written in the Torah. This is the answer that Rabbi Alexander Cowan gave.

This is just giving a report to the Rebbe: at 11:30 all went home.

"My comments"—because the Rebbe wanted Rabbi Mindel to tell him his comments on what he saw—so he writes: A, B, and C.

"[A] The reading from the text is too long. Since the topic is as deep as this, it needs a great deal of focus, and this can be done for a maximum of half an hour. Actually, I noticed from the expression of some people that it was only after at least an hour that they began to comprehend; besides, after half an hour of reading there is plenty of room for discussion."

"[B] There needs to be more time allowed for questions, as I was told by some that they have so many questions and not enough time to deal with them. Part of the difficulty here is that Rabbi Cowan likes to talk, and he tends to touch on a topic and then jump from one topic to another—not that this is not interesting, it is interesting—but the time does not allow for this, and the question is not answered satisfactorily.

"[C] This is the main point, in my opinion: I think we should have one person designated to write down the questions and the answers. This has a double advantage: number one, we will be able to know what questions are troubling the people, and be able in the future to use the books which deal with these topics, and in general with the spiritual challenges of these times for Americans. And number two, as to the answers, we will be able to study them later and see if they were sufficiently and accurately answered. And if we see that the questions were not adequately answered, Rabbi Cowan will be able to get the full answer and explain it at the next session.

"The above suggestions I did not mention to Rabbi Cowan, nor to the group. If the Rebbe deems these valid and necessary, he will surely find a way to apprise Rabbi Cowan of them.

"The people of the group, he writes, are thirsty for the truth—an indescribable thirst which pulls them to the utmost depths of the truth. As to the level of their understanding, I do not know; although they seem to be knowledgeable, in matters of Yiddishkeit they are ignorant. They likely can barely read Hebrew, but it could be I am mistaken. In their eyes, Rabbi Cowan is the highest authority and the last word of halacha, even though Rabbi Cowan himself tells them they cannot count on his legal decisions—there are questions that he addresses to the Rebbe for answers.

"It is a pity that Rabbi Cowan does not exert his greatest effort into such a challenging task as this. It's hard for me to understand how one can conduct such a class without the proficiency necessary in matters of Torah learning—plain reading, Mishnah, Gemara, the revealed and hidden parts of Torah. With all of this, I find that this class is not only interesting, but that it has great potential. If things go as planned, we should aim to grow and draw more people into this circle."

And Rabbi Mindel signs.

Now we have an answer from the Frierdiker Rebbe, a very, very important answer about the whole class, how much koach he put into it—which we have no time to do today, we will do it next week. But I want to say something today, because it's a week before Tisha B'Av is coming up, and some people want to know about fasting—some people have health problems—so I want to relate to you a very short story that I once mentioned, and each one should do what they have to do.

Rabbi Mindel, when he was in his 20s in Russia, was badly beaten up by a few people, and he had a problem with his ear afterward—he couldn't hear that well. But that wasn't the main problem; the main problem was that it affected his whole body, and he had to eat every three or four hours. So he went to the Frierdiker Rebbe and asked what he should do about fasting on Tisha B'Av. About fasting on Yom Kippur, of course there was no question—he fasted; he went to shul part-time, he lay down, so he managed. But Tisha B'Av is not Yom Kippur—what should he do as far as fasting? So the Frierdiker Rebbe told him, "Ask a Rov." Okay—so before he walked out, the Rebbe called him back, and he smiled, and said, "You shouldn't forget to ask a smart Rov."

So he went—his Rov was Rabbi Levitton [?], he was a smart Rov—so he told him that the Rebbe said he should ask a smart Rov what he should do on Tisha B'Av. So Rabbi Levitton told him: "If the Rebbe says 'ask a smart Rov,' you can eat half a day. The Rebbe didn't say 'ask a Rov who is machmir [strict],' the Rebbe didn't say 'ask a Rov who is meikel [lenient]'—'ask a smart Rov'—because every person can ask one thing, and the answer to him is completely different." So a person should have a [unclear]—the same thing, I think, when people have a problem, they don't know what to do on Tisha B'Av—ask a smart Rov.

Since we have no time to answer today the beautiful answer from the Frierdiker Rebbe, we will have to leave it for next week. Thank you very much.