What Disturbed the Frierdiker Rebbe in America

Welcome to our weekly program, Historic Treasures — the inside story of Chabad in America through the Mindel archives. This program is a continuation of last week's program about the Frierdiker Rebbe coming to America, and how much he suffered, and what he told Rabbi Mindel and Rabbi Hodakov on the boat. So today I want to continue what he told Rabbi Hodakov and Rabbi Mindel after coming. They were together, they went to the Greystone Hotel — we'll talk about that. So Rabbi Mindel was there, so there are certain notes over here that I have, that Rabbi Mindel wrote down. Some of them are already in [a published account of the Frierdiker Rebbe in America], but I just put down some of the content of some notes.

The Frierdiker Rebbe said: "I am disturbed by what I saw eleven years ago, when I came for a visit in 1929." The Frierdiker Rebbe had come in 1929 to America for a visit. He went also [further on this topic], and he wrote: "People of our so-called enlightenment, for years they wanted to uproot the Jewish schools and teachers, to contaminate the minds of children with fear, with atheism, with abstraction."

"In those days, we were on the boat — the trip took thirteen days. I did not want to come to America, but I came here by Hashgacha Protis [Divine Providence], despite my protest. And I am asking Hashem we shouldn't fall into the gashmius [materialism] of America, and [that we] raise our children with yiras shamayim [fear of Heaven] and not be influenced by the culture — as we spoke last week — called the apathy of America."

The Frierdiker Rebbe, coming to America, took everything to heart. When he saw the terrible disregard for Torah and mitzvos, he saw the perversion of the Talmud Torahs. Again, like last week, he said: "Oy, vey iz mir, Yidden" — chillul Shabbos, they desecrate the Shabbos. Stores were opened on Shabbos, women were going with pocketbooks — this was forbidden by him, pocketbooks and driving cars — and they were shopping on Shabbos.

Again he mentioned, this is from his writing: "All this pains me. We have to tell the fathers and mothers and sisters who desecrate the Shabbos, keep Taharas HaMishpacha, the importance of family purity, the importance of tznius, the importance of Shabbos, send the children to kosher Talmud Torahs, and be careful with eating kosher food."

I'm taking this from the notes of Rabbi Mindel, what the Frierdiker Rebbe said in the hotel: "Save your children from shmad. We have to go from house to house to awaken parents, to awaken zaydes and bobbes, grandfathers and grandmothers — they should send their children to kosher Talmud Torahs. Whoever does not send their children to kosher Talmud Torahs is giving their children over to shmad. We have to explain to parents, not with arguments — and this is the work of the Agudas [unclear] — to wake up Jews and call out nefesh achas [a single soul]: whoever saves one Jew is like saving the whole world."

"A Jew comes to me," the Frierdiker Rebbe said, "for a brocha, for a refuah. So I asked him — I'm not a doctor, I cannot give a prescription, I can just give a blessing in the name of the Torah. So I asked him: if you believe in me, why don't you believe in G-d and His Torah and mitzvos? So he answered me that in America there are 'washed-out mitzvos' — this is what he told him. So I told him: the Torah and mitzvos do not change, forever, at all times and in all places. The air of America is spoiled. I want my words to reach the entire world. Yidden, Torah is our life, and G-d should give everyone a long life."

These were [the words] — the Frierdiker Rebbe had to break the ice of America. Yidden, teachers, educators — there is a G-d in this world, don't fall asleep. Go to mikvehs and shuls that have religious rabbonim. Show your children love for Torah and mitzvos, and G-d will bless everyone, and we should all merit [to see the good]. That's the notes that the Frierdiker Rebbe spoke — to Rabbi Hodakov, to Rabbi Mindel, or maybe at a farbrengen. These are among his notes from 1940.

The Frierdiker Rebbe was the warmest person, he was a very sincere person, he was refined, soft — but when he came to America in 1940 and he saw what was going on, he had to speak mussar, he had to speak sharp words. And baruch Hashem, look what he accomplished — today, how America has changed. Baruch Hashem we have yeshivas, we have mikvehs, we have Yiddishkeit — all this started from the Frierdiker Rebbe coming [and refusing] to compromise, in order to break the ice of America. No compromise — that's what the Frierdiker Rebbe [taught], and I'll tell you soon a story about compromise — it's unbelievable, the Frierdiker Rebbe.

Now, the Frierdiker Rebbe also spoke to the talmidim. Rabbi Mindel writes that he said to them like this: there is a thin line between da'as [knowledge of G-d] and apathy, called coldness, and the purpose of the reform rabbis is to poison Yiddishkeit — this is something that needs to be taken care of.

I had a program once about the five hundred rabbis that the Frierdiker Rebbe sent — also a delegation. This was in 1944, '45. They went to Washington to President Roosevelt. He sent then Rabbi Mindel, he sent Rabbi Krint [?] — he was also a secretary — he sent Harav Zalman Gurari [?] and Alter Shalom [?] also, and he sent Rabbi Binyomin Levitan [?] — all of them he sent as a delegation to Washington. And [the delegation] said to President Roosevelt, in the name of the Frierdiker Rebbe, that it cannot be said that the problem was [him] — the problem was the reform rabbis. If not for the reform rabbis, they would accomplish what they had to accomplish. It wasn't President Roosevelt['s fault] — it was [the situation caused by the reform rabbis, and] the Frierdiker Rebbe was very much against that.

Now he continued speaking to the talmidim — this is a continuation of the notes: when a chossid learns Torah, or a chossid gives a maamar, he has to know that the knowledge, the wisdom, and the will of the lecturer — he should put aside his own thoughts. He gave mussar also, he said: here is his yeshus [ego], his sense of self-importance, and not lecturing only intellectually — it was very sharp — and trying to impress others, and he prepares a few speeches, a few maamarim, mainly he wants to impress that he's a good speaker, but it's not yet alive — it has to be pnimi [internalized] and not superficial.

Very sharp words — some people the Frierdiker Rebbe called "shoitim" [fools]. I've written down here: fools learn for the sake of being clever — they think of themselves that they understand everything, they know a few maamarim and they speak empty words. They lecture and explain matters, and then the listeners would just gain knowledge, but it will not bring them to be chassidim.

The lecture has to be [given in such a way] — that's why the Frierdiker Rebbe spoke then — [that if] their intention is only to understand chochmas ha'Elokus, and not avodah, serving G-d, that's the opposite of the purpose of chassidus. G-d should awaken them from Above and they should do teshuva. The purpose of learning chassidus and lecturing chassidus should be that they become a servant of Hashem with good character.

The same goes also with a niggun [?] — it should be [sung] simply, and it should be with gashmius [simple sincerity, unclear], and not with their yeshus; if it's with their yeshus, it becomes gashmius. They have to have bittul, nullification. This is from the notes.

Now I want to say something here. When the Frierdiker Rebbe came, he came to the Greystone Hotel. He was there a few — it was after a few months. He didn't have any money, and he came to break the ice of America, and without money you can't do anything. But there were a few well-to-do people, and they came — they wanted to make a melave malka, a dinner, to help the Frierdiker Rebbe. There were a few people there — the Kramer brothers were there, they were [prominent] men, there were more people — and they got together to make a melave malka. I think it was after three months after the Frierdiker Rebbe came to America that they made this melave malka. I think I mentioned this once, but whoever didn't hear it, I can mention it again.

So they made this [event] in the Jewish Center, I think of the shul of Rabbi Young [?] — there used to be a Rabbi Young, that's a program by itself about Rabbi Young and the Frierdiker Rebbe, but we're not going into that, we have no time for this today.

So the people were ready for the melave malka. The Frierdiker Rebbe was sitting in a wheelchair in the kitchen while they were preparing. Rabbi Stannis Soda [?] was also there. So they called over Rabbi Mindel and they said to him: tell the Rebbe we are ready for the melave malka, you can bring in the Rebbe, and here is the list of our program tonight — [the speaker indicates] that he has the list.

So he went with the list to the Frierdiker Rebbe in the kitchen, and he showed him the list, and he told him there's a program. The Rebbe said, "Read it." So he started to read: the first thing is they're going to sing a Zionist song. The Frierdiker Rebbe looked up and he stopped, and he said: "They're not going to sing this song."

Rabbi Mindel was shocked — here he is, he's not well, here are people that want to help him, and he's telling them that they're not going to sing the song. To them this was important. But the Frierdiker Rebbe said: "Zog zei" — tell them — he said to Rabbi Mindel, tell them they're not going to sing the song. So he went to the people and he told them that this song is not going to be sung. So they said, "Okay, we're going to walk out — this is a must for us." So he went back to the Frierdiker Rebbe and told him that they said they're going to walk out if he doesn't [allow it].

So the Rebbe said to Rabbi Mindel: "Tell them, zog zei — let them go, and be well. Just as G-d was with us in Europe, G-d will be with us in America." Rabbi Mindel was shocked. So he went back to the people and told them that the Rebbe said: go home, be well — just as G-d was with us in Europe, [He will be] with us in America.

Three-quarters of the people left — only a few people remained. And from these few people that remained, they then wheeled in the Frierdiker Rebbe. They didn't make much money, because most of the people had left. But from these people who stayed — it became, later on, that these people built 770; basically, whatever we have today came from these people that were left at that melave malka.

So this is how the Frierdiker Rebbe did not compromise. We know what happened in Russia, when they had a gun on the table and he did not compromise either. So from this we can learn that in Yiddishkeit you cannot compromise — if you are strong, you will succeed.

Our reminder: next week is Purim, and Purim is on Thursday, so we're not going to have a program on Purim. We'll have a program a week after. We should all have a freilichen Purim.