Dr. Mindel’s Most Painful Mission for the Rebbe

Welcome to our weekly Mivtzah Shabbos program.

First of all, in a few days is going to be the Yom Tov of Didan Notzach. Since we're speaking about that, I want to share with you that the Rebbe sent three people to Russia in 1988 to bring back the seforim which were in the library in Russia.

First I want to give a brief background: since the Rebbe wanted that this should be brought back here to America, so unfortunately it's not here yet. The Rebbe himself said that because of [unclear] we should bring this back here - it's taking too long - and since the Rebbe sends [people on a mission], it's not just in vain, so I'm sure that b'mheira it will be [brought back]. Now, since this happened over twenty-five years ago, many people never even heard of it, or many people weren't even born yet.

So I just want to mention a little bit about who the Rebbe sent and what happened. And what I'm going to tell you is accurate, because it's written by Rabbi Mindel, and the Rebbe saw everything. Now, as a matter of fact - okay, I'll show you soon.

In 1988, the Rebbe sent three people to Russia. Rabbi Nissan Mindel - he was the senior rabbi, shliach, and rav - to bring back the seforim from Russia.

Now, Rabbi Mindel was born in Russia, and he knew many languages, including Russian, and he had been many times even to Russia - we'll talk about that another time.

And now I want to speak about this trip. So the Rebbe sent him - Rabbi Mindel, you know - with Rabbi [Salam?] - in the fifties, even in the forties he went - and he knew the Russian mentality. He knew how Russian things worked, you know - especially in those days, it wasn't like today.

So they went officially as Lubavitch - not like the other [trips] he had made to Russia, which were supposed to be hidden, like a tourist. But here it was official - this, in 1988.

So all three of them left on January 10th, 1988. Rabbi Mindel was only there a few weeks. He came back - as soon as he came back, I remember, because he came back to this house, the Rebbe called him. He wanted to see him - he should go in for between forty-five minutes and an hour - and the Rebbe wanted to hear a one-hundred-percent report.

The other two stayed in Russia, and Rabbi Mindel gave the Rebbe a report - a very important one. And Rabbi Mindel writes that of all the missions to Russia that the Rebbe had sent him on before - and all the others, he went to Morocco, he went to England, to Paris, to Africa, it was a big [undertaking] - we'll talk about it - but this trip in 1988 was the most painful trip he ever had. He had a lot of anguish, and I don't want to go into it today. And he told everything to the Rebbe.

And he also gave the Rebbe the report of the other two - [names unclear] - that they gave him to give to the Rebbe. He also showed - this whole packet is about Russia, how he went, and what [the officials] said and what they didn't say, and what happened there. This is the Russia packet - it's a very, very important packet that I have here. So some of the things he saw, and some of the things he didn't see.

Now, also the Rebbetzin was very close to Rabbi and Mrs. Mindel - very close. She always said she thought that Rabbi and Mrs. Mindel were the most honest people in the world. She was very close to them - they spoke to each other in Russian. It went through Manya also - Manya the nurse - they were together, which is another program, not for today.

So she called Rabbi Mindel, and she said, "Please" - you know, she comes from Russia, she knows about this also - so she wanted to speak to Rabbi Mindel. So Rabbi Mindel said, "Well, I'm back, but the other two are not back yet." She said no, she doesn't have to see the other two, she wants to see him. But he wasn't feeling well, so he said, "In a few weeks, in two weeks, I'll see you." Unfortunately, before that could happen, she passed away. So he never saw her.

Now I want to share with you what Rabbi Mindel wrote to a friend who asked him about the trip to Russia. I found this note, and I want to share it with you - this note was written in Yiddish, and I'm going to translate from the Yiddish that he wrote into English.

This is to a friend - he asked him, "Tell me about your trip." So he writes like this - okay, I'm doing it in English:

"Our [purpose] was to investigate the Lubavitch library, because of the outbreak of the First World War. This collection was moved from Lubavitch to Moscow in the year 1915, and then it fell into the hands of the Communist regime."

I'm reading from the Yiddish, I'll try my best: "Twelve thousand [volumes], among them very rare [ones]. We went officially as guests of the Ministry of Culture, thanks to the intervention" - he says in English - "of Dr. Hammer, for whom all doors are open in the Soviet Union. We were promised by the Minister of Culture - his name was Zakharov - that if they find the Lubavitch collection, they will allow it to be taken back to the original owner, which is [Agudas Chasidei Chabad] of America.

"Ignoring the official help of the ministry, they did not open any doors for us. But we did know where the library should be - in the main branch in Moscow - and it was called the Lenin Library in Moscow."

He writes: "G-d helped - they found out that the entire collection is intact, not spread out, which is good - not how they wanted to convince us, but under another name, not Lubavitch.

"We were also in Leningrad when we completed our [work] in Moscow and Leningrad. I returned to New York" - he writes to the friend - "the other two stayed in Russia. They traveled to Kiev and to Odessa and more, to look for more, and faced the stressful, impossible bureaucracy - and everything with a smile. Unbelievable.

"In the past, I had to hide - not under Lubavitch, and it was unofficial. Here he did not have to hide - it was [official]." And then he had to hide [on an earlier occasion], but this time he had to deal with the Russian bureaucracy.

He writes that he davened with a minyan in Moscow, he read the Torah in Leningrad - on Yud Shevat - and letters between [him and the Rebbe], Rabbi Mindel did not share with anybody. He did not share this even with the members of his [family/staff].

And I showed you - this is the packet that he showed to the Rebbe. The Rebbe saw the whole packet.

[clears throat] But I will tell you what the Rebbe said before the trip - this he doesn't write, this is what I heard from Rabbi Mindel: he told the three shluchim they should go with one body, with one heart - not one body and two hearts. When people go on a mission, everyone should prepare and not hold back anything.

In the next program, I will show more of Rabbi Mindel's trip to Russia.

Now I want to share with you another note that I found in the archives - a memo that Rabbi Mindel wrote: "The present Rebbe's father, Reb [Levi Yitzchok?], was chief rabbi of the Jewish community of Dnepropetrovsk, formerly called Yekaterinoslav. When he was banished in the spring of 1939, his wife followed him into exile."

I think he wrote - I found it in the archives, I think he wrote it - I'm not sure, I think maybe not, I'm not sure - I'm just reading what is in the archives, and the Rebbe saw that too.

"They left behind the library and home, with some four thousand to five thousand volumes, many of which contained scholarly notations in the margin. In addition, they left behind hundreds of handwritten scholarly pamphlets.

"The chief rabbi and his wife were settled in Alma-Ata. Since, on account of the war, they cannot return to their home, we have reason to believe," he writes, "that this collection, for its [most] part, may have been transferred to other libraries in the city, such as the university library or the city library. We wish to go to Dnepropetrovsk after Kiev in order to trace the collection, or what has been left of it."

Rabbi Mindel wrote this - I'm sorry, I see it was his writing. "Needless to say, this collection too is part of the Rebbe's heritage, and especially cherished by him, being the son of the owner, and also because of the significance of these books for Chabad literature, its history and its development."

So this is what I wanted to share with you. There is much more to talk about regarding that trip, but I can't do everything, and number two, it's something we have to leave for another time. But now, since Shabbos is coming up, it's time to wrap up, and next week we'll continue our weekly program, which is about the other trips that Rabbi Mindel was sent on by the Rebbe. Thank you.