What the Rebbe Did Before Reading a Letter

Welcome to our weekly Mitzvah Shabbos program. Today is a special program.

I want to share with you, Baruch Hashem, we have the new book that is going to be sold in stores soon. You can buy it in the stores, and B'ezras Hashem in about a week or two, I think you can all buy it in the stores. But right now I just want to show you a sample of the new book of Chabad in America, through the Mindel archives — the early years of Chabad in America.

Now today I want to share with you something which I feel I should, because a few weeks ago I was asked by many people to share with them about Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch in America — how it started and how the mashpi'im, all the secretaries, their relationship with the Rebbe, how did it go.

And I had a program about that, but I want to explain something here today, something that I missed, and I think it's important for people to know the truth the way the whole thing went. Very important, and I have here written from Rabbi Hodakov and Rabbi Mindel, which I will share with you in a minute.

Now, by the way, it would be very helpful if people would read the letter, and the spirit — the introduction that Rabbi Mindel himself wrote. Shluchim ask for it all the time. As a matter of fact, a few months before Rabbi Sholom Ber Lipskar passed away, on August 8th, he wrote to me a letter and he asked for my permission if he can make a whole kuntres of just the introduction that Rabbi Mindel wrote to Letter and Spirit, an introduction.

And I think that's very important — if people read that introduction, they would know more or less how the whole system of the letters went, and what happened in the room when the Rebbe took dictation. That was written by Rabbi Mindel himself, so I think everybody should read the introduction.

But today I want to share with you something about the Moshiach — now I want to say something. Whoever says does not know, and whoever knows does not say. It's very important to prevent revision of Chabad history, especially the recent history, especially the last 80 years. People say this, people say it that way, and people don't know.

Now, how do I know? Because I have over here written material from Rabbi Hodakov himself, and from Rabbi Mindel. What can be more accurate? Rabbi Hodakov was the menahel. Rabbi Mindel was the mashpia rashi. Rabbi Mindel took dictation.

So I want to share with you certain things that they wrote themselves. This is an answer to most of the people who don't know this — how the letters went, how it was, the English letters, the Hebrew letters, how did the whole thing go. So again, how do I know? I don't know on my own — what I do know is because it's written by Rabbi Hodakov himself, from years ago.

Rabbi Hodakov writes: every mashpia had their job. There was, of course, Rabbi Hodakov and Rabbi Mindel — they started Merkos. This was the beginning of Merkos in America. They worked together with the Rebbe. Then there were other mashpi'im: there was Rabbi Simpson, olav hashalom; there was Rabbi Groner; there was Rabbi Klein; there was Rabbi Krinsky, olav hashalom; then there was Rabbi Quint; there was also Rabbi Rodstein in the beginning years, because he passed away in Tav Shin Chof-something [year unclear]. And each one had their duties and their department.

But I'm going to focus today on the letters — maybe in another program I will focus on what each one's job was. What was Rabbi Simpson's job, what did he have to do? Rabbi Hodakov writes here — he became a rabbi in Brighton Beach. What year, and why did he move? What was Rabbi Groner's job? What was Rabbi Klein's job? More or less — even though they had other jobs, what was their main job? It's all written here. I have it written from Rabbi Hodakov.

Now, Rabbi Hodakov and Rabbi Mindel — they were in a different category altogether. Let's say, for example, if a mashpia had to go somewhere, they had to ask permission from Rabbi Hodakov. He couldn't just leave — he had a boss. Rabbi Mindel did not have to ask Rabbi Hodakov what he has to do. They worked together with the Rebbe — Rabbi Mindel, and the Rebbe. And sometimes, in the same office, Rabbi Hodakov felt this way and Rabbi Mindel felt another way, so they just left it the way it is. But he didn't have to ask him permission for what he should do. The other secretaries were in a different category — they were working for Merkos. Even though Rabbi Mindel was also working and got a check from Rabbi Hodakov, both of them were in a different category than all the other mashpi'im.

Now, going back to the letters, which is what I want to focus on today — I want to make it clear so people shouldn't have a doubt about how the letters went, and whether they were edited or not edited, what happened, how did it go.

So first of all, I want to show you something. Here are the notebooks — here, hundreds of notebooks. I don't know if you can see them, there are much more. All the Igros — again, I'm not going to say all, most of the Igros. The Igros Kodesh, and the English ones, are in here. These notebooks were in the Rebbe's room. Rabbi Mindel went in — these are the dictation notebooks; he knew shorthand. And he went in to the Rebbe with a notebook.

Sometimes he walked in to the Rebbe while the Rebbe was sitting and learning. As soon as he walked in for dictation, to take letters — the Rebbe's letters were holy. This is not just a letter, this is very serious. The Rebbe put on his sirtuk, the Rebbe put on his hat, because he was sitting and learning sometimes without a hat, with just a yarmulke. I don't remember — did he put on a gartel? I don't remember.

And Rabbi Mindel sat down. The Rebbe opened up every single letter himself. Sometimes the Rebbe spoke about other things with Rabbi Mindel, so Rabbi Mindel has notes about that too, and that I've shared with you many times — there's much more in his notes about what the Rebbe spoke. I mean, they were working together.

But with the letters' dictation, he came in with these notebooks. So all the letters — again, most of the letters — that you see in the Igros Kodesh, and the English letters, are all in here. Rabbi Mindel took dictation. Here they are, I have them all — I couldn't bring all of them, here there's seventy, there's much more.

So I want to let people know how the letters went. The Rebbe said to Rabbi Mindel, after opening a letter, "This letter you should answer in Yiddish." So he knew. Then the other letters that he opened up: "This letter in Yiddish, this letter in English, this letter in Russian, this letter in Spanish, this letter in whatever language." The Hebrew letters too — the Rebbe said, "This letter should be in Hebrew."

Now, I'm not talking about letters that were sent back, that were given to the secretaries, that were not typed — I'm not talking about those. I'm talking about the letters that were typed, that the Rebbe signed, that Rabbi Mindel typed. So — this one should be in this language, this one in that language — this is what the Rebbe told him.

Now, he was there sometimes an hour, sometimes half an hour, sometimes less, and he wrote down nekudot, he wrote down the shorthand. And then the Rebbe opened up another letter and told him this, and he wrote it down in these notebooks. That's it. Then he went home with the notebook.

He had a secretary in his house, and he composed the letter. He typed one copy — only one paper he typed with a typewriter. As a matter of fact, in the new book, when you buy it, you'll see the typewriter — there's a Hebrew typewriter, an English typewriter, and he typed one letter, one paper, I mean.

Why only one? Because he had to give it back to the Rebbe to correct it, to look it over. He took shorthand — maybe he missed things, maybe he didn't understand everything the Rebbe said. And I have letters here where you see the Rebbe sometimes changed the whole letter, because Rabbi Mindel didn't understand what the Rebbe meant. So, ninety percent of the time the Rebbe corrected some words — that's why he typed only one letter.

Next time he came in for more dictation, he showed the Rebbe what he had composed previously, and the Rebbe wrote corrections on that paper — sometimes a word, sometimes ten words, sometimes more, sometimes less. The Rebbe wrote corrections on that paper if it had to be corrected — some didn't have to be corrected, the nusach was there exactly. So the Rebbe wrote what it should be, and Rabbi Mindel took more dictation then.

He went home, he took those letters that the Rebbe made corrections on. Now he had to type it over again, because the Rebbe had corrected it — now it's the real thing, the Rebbe put in his corrections. Then — Rabbi Mindel typed one on the Rebbe's stationery. He took the Rebbe's stationery, and he had under that paper a carbon copy — one carbon copy under that — and a paper, an onion skin paper, was under that. Under that was a carbon paper, and under that was an onion skin paper. And then he typed the final.

Why was it final? Because the Rebbe never corrected them again — the text was set. So what did he do? After he finished typing that, he took one paper after the correction, and the Rebbe told him to take the paper and put one copy by himself, one copy leave in Merkos, and the top copy he gave to the Rebbe. That was on the Rebbe's stationery. And then the Rebbe signed.

So the copy that was in Merkos is the same copy as the one he has. The corrections — the paper with the corrections that he didn't use — sometimes you just put it away. And many times, years ago, he worked in the Farband on Kingston Avenue, he typed there, he worked over there, so he just left it on the table, and someone took it. That's how they have the Rebbe's ksav, but that's not the final — the final is after the Rebbe signed. But he doesn't have the Rebbe's chasima [signature], because he took one for himself and gave one to the Rebbe. Sometimes he gave Rabbi Groner to type also.

But this is how the letters went. So any letter — whether it's English or Hebrew, whatever Rabbi Simpson collected in Merkos — that came from this, and it's the same copy as he has, and the same as they have in Merkos. The same thing. The top copy, on the stationery, was given straight to the Rebbe. Then after the Rebbe signed, what the Rebbe signed was sent to the people, to whoever it had to be sent to. So it's all the same thing.

Now, some people I heard saying that the English letters that Rabbi Mindel had were unedited, that it's a draft. It's not. This is why — I have here what the Rebbe wrote on the paper, and I have what he typed, so I see a difference — here is before, before the Rebbe signed, and that's after. Before was edited. So every letter that I have in my possession, that Rabbi Mindel — the Rebbe said, "Keep a copy for yourself and one copy leave in Merkos." This is more or less how it went.

I'm not talking about letters sent for a chassan's letter, that's a mazel tov letter, or letters sent for a bar mitzvah — that was standard. But we're talking about letters to people — this is what it is.

In the beginning years, the Rebbe didn't tell him to leave letters in Merkos — the Rebbe said, "Take a copy for yourself." This was before the Rebbe was Rebbe — he also worked for [the Previous] Rebbe. So I have those letters — Merkos doesn't have those. But those letters only have two copies — one was sent to the person, and one Rabbi Mindel kept for himself.

The only thing — and people don't know this — the Rebbe said to Rabbi Mindel about the English, Letter and Spirit — Rabbi Mindel thought about it much, much before Gimmel Tammuz. So the Rebbe told him he is responsible, especially for the English, that he should put the letters in book form. Very important.

Meaning, sometimes I took a letter, a copy, and I looked in the book Letter and Spirit, and sometimes there's one or two words that are not there. So I was wondering — but because Rabbi Mindel wrote that they had to be in book form, to make a book, sometimes you can change a word here and there. He got permission from the Rebbe for all of this. It's very important to know all this.

So the rumors that are going around, that the English letters are only a draft — it's not so. They are the same letters.

Now, here I also have — so this is how the letters went. Rabbi Hodakov wrote down — Rabbi Mindel has it — all the letters, what the responsibility of the mashpi'im would be. So I know what Rabbi Simpson had to do, and I know what Rabbi Simpson could not do. I know what Rabbi Groner had to do, or what Rabbi Groner could not do — the same thing with Rabbi Krinsky, or the same thing with Rabbi Klein, or the same with the others. Everything was written, Rabbi Hodakov wrote it down.

So if anybody comes with certain rumors or certain claims about the letters — whether there were two copies, three copies, five copies — how would they know? Here I have everything on paper, and here are the notebooks. So I just want to make clear that people, you know, they say a word — don't believe what you hear, believe half of what you see. Everybody has their opinions, and everybody is nogeia b'davar. But what you see, you see.

This is how it's written, and this is how the letters went. And the Rebbe approved Letter and Spirit — the Rebbe approved it. So when the Rebbe said that the English ones are not yet [ready], the Rebbe meant because Rabbi Mindel was busy with it. And the Rebbe knew about the English letters, about the book, Letter and Spirit, that Rabbi Mindel was working on — the Rebbe knew about Letter and Spirit well before Gimmel Tammuz. The first Letter and Spirit English letter, Rabbi Mindel himself was involved in. But then he gave it to us to finish, and there's much more letters to do.

So, with this program, I wanted to make things clear, that people shouldn't just speak — you have to know from the source, and that's the most important thing: to know the truth of how it went, it has to be accurate. And that's what I wanted to discuss today.

And about the work of the other mashpi'im, what they had to do and what they couldn't do — that's also written here, but I'm not going to share this with you today. This is for another program, another time. Next week I'll continue the program. Thank you very much.