What Did the Rebbe Do in the Early Years

Welcome to our weekly program, The Inside Story of Chabad in America, through the Mindel archives.

I mentioned last week about the farbrengen I had in Israel — go click back and see it. There were some questions that the people had. They also had this question about when the Rebbe came with the Rebbetzin to America in 1941: what was the Rebbe busy with? The Frierdiker Rebbe, the Rebbe Rayatz, was the Rebbe then. So what did the Rebbe do, and they wanted to know about his coming to America.

Besides learning — for they knew the Rebbe was a big lamden and the Rebbe learned all the time — is there anything else the Rebbe was involved with here? So they wanted to know: number one, where did the Rebbe live? What was his parnassa? And how did Merkos begin?

I did mention once how Merkos began — a letter, how it was established, that Rabbi Mindel wrote to the Rebbe, to the Previous Rebbe, about Merkos, which I'm going to share with you.

But before that, I want to say that we discussed at that farbrengen in Israel that the Frierdiker Rebbe sent Rabbi Shmuel Levitin, and I think Rabbi Jacobson also, as a couple he appointed to meet the Rebbe when he came with the Rebbetzin in 1941, on the boat. He said: "Go meet my son-in-law, who is boki in all of Shas, poskim, Talmud Yerushalmi, Talmud Bavli, Kabbalah, kol haTorah kulah — everywhere." This is all written by Rabbi Mindel.

A person who walks in the street very modestly [unclear], and he goes with his hat down. Rabbi Mindel writes this. And I think that's what he said: "Go, be mekabel panim that person," because nobody knew the Rebbe before. The Rebbe was very modest, he didn't show anything, nobody really knew him — maybe a few people who knew him from France, but nobody knew the Rebbe. But as soon as the Frierdiker Rebbe said, "Go be mekabel panim that person," they knew what type of person the Rebbe was.

So the Rebbe came to 770. He didn't have yechidus right away, the way Rabbi Mindel writes. But the Rebbe moved in — he lived in his yechidus room. That was his apartment, that was his bedroom. At night the yechidus room was a bedroom, and in the daytime it was an office. And the Rebbe worked with Rabbi Mindel in that office from 1941.

The Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka was upstairs with her mother, Rebbetzin Nechama Dina, with her bubbe, Rebbetzin Shterna Sara, the first year, until she passed away in Tof-Shin-Beis. And also his sister Chana, and also Manya.

We spoke about Manya — Manya was the nurse of Rebbetzin Shterna Sara, and then she became the nurse of the Rebbetzin, of the Rebbe. There's a whole story with Manya — how she gave me the coat — which I don't want to go into; we have no time for that.

Manya came on the boat with the eleven people who came in 1940 to America. They came by a small plane from Riga to Sweden; from Sweden they took a boat. There were eleven people there, and Manya was part of it. Manya was the nurse — there's a lot to talk about with Manya, but anyway, so in the daytime she was over there, and she got very close to Manya. That's why she and Manya were like sisters. And they used to give presents to his daughters; to Chana he also gave a present, because he considered her like a daughter. She lived upstairs. She was married then.

Rabbi Mindel writes that the Frierdiker Rebbe used to say a maamar every Wednesday night in the yechidus room, with a microphone.

And the Rebbe worked at a Navy Yard, pushing an honest parnassa — can you imagine, the Rebbe coloring [unclear] — but he pushed an honest parnassa. He went to the Navy Yard almost every day — almost, not every day, almost. He went to Manhattan, to West End Avenue; there was a doctor, Dr. Alexander. He was a big specialist, a lung doctor. People in those days, in the '40s, refugees — broken and sick people — used to come to this doctor from Europe, and the Rebbe used to go and speak to them, give them hope, sit at the doctor's office. The nurse was named Feige, the doctor's wife — that office, I was [there] then. And they loved the Rebbe; as a young man they didn't know he was the Lubavitcher Rebbe, but they saw the way the Rebbe acted toward these refugees that came. This was in the '40s — that's what the Rebbe did.

And Rabbi Mindel saw also — Rosh Chodesh Tammuz, the Rebbe came at the end of Sivan, Rosh Chodesh a few days later — that the Rebbe davened. It was Rosh Chodesh Tammuz; you daven Shacharis with tefillin, and then before Mussaf you have to put on [the additional pair of] tefillin. So the Rebbe went to a corner — he didn't want anybody to see — but Rabbi Mindel saw that he put on four pairs of tefillin. And the Rebbe was particular in that halacha, that he didn't want people to know that he puts on four pairs of tefillin — as it should be: Moshe Rabbeinu's tefillin, Rabbi Nesanel's [?] tefillin, Rashi's tefillin. And then later on we know that the Rebbe — the Previous Rebbe — said about a guf naki, that only whoever has a clean body puts on [the extra] tefillin.

Anyway, one of the things he wrote — one of the things about the Rebbe's halacha — is that the Rebbe, Rabbi Mindel writes, went to the Frierdiker Rebbe and stayed a long time, twice a week, in the '40s — every week before Kabbalas Shabbos and after Havdalah.

Rabbi Mindel writes something interesting, that the Rebbe danced Simchas Torah a whole night, and in order not to make too much noise — because the Frierdiker Rebbe lived upstairs and the shul was downstairs — the Rebbe took off his shoes and danced without shoes the whole night of Simchas Torah, so as not to make noise and bother the Frierdiker Rebbe.

Also he saw the Rebbe went to the mikveh every day; he traveled many, many times to the mikveh.

And a few more things. So in the daytime he worked there. He worked on Talks and Tales — you know, all the writings. The beginning was Rabbi Mindel and the Rebbe: the Tanya in English, the Shulchan Aruch, the letters, the memoirs — the Rebbe looked them over and made hagahos, notations, on everything. That was done in that room in the daytime. Whenever Rabbi Mindel finished his work, the Rebbe used to come back and right away they worked together — Rabbi Mindel showed him what he did, and the Rebbe checked it over.

So Rabbi Mindel did the Talks and Tales, and Rabbi Chodakov had to distribute it, to send it out. And the Rebbe began with this publication — that's why it's called Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch; chinuch was the ikar for the Rebbe. That's how he started — with chinuch, with children. That's why Talks and Tales was mamash, by the Rebbe, [regarded] as holy as a sefer. As you see on the back of the siddur, the names [listed] are the Frierdiker Rebbe, the Rebbe, Chodakov, and Mindel.

So while the Rebbe was working, the Frierdiker Rebbe saw that he, Rabbi Mindel, was working with the Ramash — the Rebbe was called Ramash — so he asked him, could he work for Merkos all day? Because Rabbi Mindel worked part-time for Agudas Chassidei Chabad, for the Lubavitcher Yeshiva — Agudas Chassidei Chabad needed him. And this was before Rabbi Klein was there, and before Rabbi Groner, and before Rabbi Cunin, before Rabbi Simpson — this was all the way in the beginning. So to set up an office — there was no office, they had to set up. They were working in the room, but there was no Merkos, there was nothing.

So how did it come about? Rabbi Mindel wrote a letter to the Previous Rebbe in Hebrew, and I will read this letter in English.

A letter from Rabbi Mindel to the Previous Rebbe, Erev Shabbos Parshas Shoftim, 5704 (1944), where he makes suggestions to the Previous Rebbe how to organize Merkos.

"To the great holiness, our teacher and leader, the Previous Rebbe. Greeting and blessing.

The Rebbe is surely aware" — meaning the Previous Rebbe — "of the technical challenges we are facing working in Merkos, an organization which, baruch Hashem, has spread and grown, and especially as the operation has remained the same as when Merkos was first established, this has caused setbacks and losses.

In brief, the basic things that are lacking:

There is no orderly office. There is no office — he needed an office.

There is no suitable secretary — every office has a secretary and telephones. [Later on, as you know, Rabbi Klein filled part of this job; he was, as it were, in the office.]

There are not sufficient hands to assist in the publication of the material, and this results in delays, literally until minutes before Shabbos, at which point there is no time for distribution — when they have to send out Talks and Tales or whatever else they send out every week. There was no time, because there were no hands.

There is no warehouse for the printed material, which is now lying in piles all over the Merkos office — I guess there was another room.

There is no administrator in charge, and no fundraiser. That's how he writes.

Then he writes: We already discussed the above matters with the Rebbe's son-in-law, the Ramash, who is familiar with the nature of the situation. Understandably there are great hurdles, among them financial, which stand in the way of bettering the situation. In my opinion there is much that can be done to improve the situation, and we should certainly make the effort to improve it and fill the gap. And although it would initially entail expenses, experience has proven that these expenses would not have been spent in vain, but rather every penny will be returned double and triple-fold. I believe I would be able to correct much of the lack enumerated above, given the necessary resources. And I therefore suggest the following:"

And now he says what should be done. And as a matter of fact, then Julius Stolman — Julius Stolman was one of the first who gave, then, $5,000 — and that's how they printed the booklet for children that I printed, the little "Mayim Mayim." He gave then — but that's beside the point. So now I'm going to read what Rabbi Mindel suggested be done.

"I am prepared to accept a position in Merkos for 30 hours a week" — because he still had to finish his work with the Rashag — "in addition to my work in Tomchei Temimim, with the Rashag. We will rent a room near 770 for an office. The cost of this would be approximately $10 a week, and will include a telephone. Setting up the office will not be more than $100" — to set up the whole office: a telephone, a desk, and everything — those days, in the early '40s. "Hire a secretary, whose responsibility would be, number one, to assist me in my literary work, in typing" — because he wrote [by hand], but it had to be typed — "and to reply to correspondence — this calls for another $35 a week."

You see that he wrote, the Rebbe corrected it, then he had to write it over, corrected, and then it had to be typed. So Rabbi Mindel didn't type — so he needed a typewriter, he needed somebody to type. And by the way, I have the typewriter here — the typewriter that they typed on in Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch.

And then he writes: "Until we find a fundraiser, I would undertake this task in the interim, of course with the participation of the Ramash and Rabbi Chodakov, since no action can be taken without their approval." And that's where he got Stolman.

"These suggestions and conditions mentioned above are connected one to the other. Being that within the next week to ten days I will be scheduling my work for the coming winter, I would be grateful to receive a reply to the above, and if possible within the week. With deep respect," and he signs his name. And this was copied to the Ramash, to the Rebbe. And the Rebbe — the Previous Rebbe — was very, very happy, and that's when Merkos actually started.

And by the way, before I finish here, I do want to mention that the Kehot stamp — the emblem of Kehot — [came about when] Rabbi Chodakov, Rabbi Mindel, the Rebbe, and the Previous Rebbe were sitting and figuring out how it should look. Each one had their own idea of the emblem, their own way, and they chose one, and this is what Kehot's emblem is. This is how it happened — the whole Kehot story, I'm sorry, the point [is] —

So I'm mentioning this only because this is one of the questions that the people in Israel, as I mentioned last week, wanted to know — more or less, what did the Rebbe do in the first years. The Rebbe was very busy in the house.

And since now it's before Rosh Hashanah, I want to give a blessing that we should all have a good table in shul, a good year, a happy year, a sweet year, and we should know all the good things. And we should always — if we have a question, what we should do — think: what would the Rebbe answer me? Then you're on the right, on the right track — what would the Rebbe say — and that's what will help you succeed.

Next week we're not going to have a program because it's Rosh Hashanah, so our next program will be a week after Rosh Hashanah. Thank you.