The Opening Ceremony of the "Lubavitch Museum" in the Town of Lubavitch

00:14 Speaker 1 Move it, move it; it’s a problem when you’re speaking. May I please welcome you to the opening of the museum in Lubavitch and the rebuilding... and the rebuilding of the Rebbes’ courtyard in Lubavitch. We will soon tell you how it started and how we got to this day. But before we start, as you all asked, I’ll give you a general description of where we are, where the yeshiva was, and where the Rebbe’s house was. It’s easy, since we’re standing here in front of a large reconstructed map of Lubavitch, showing the neighborhood and the courtyard as they were in those days. Using it, we can see where we are today. As you can see, where it says “the Rebbe’s courtyard” is the entire courtyard: where the yeshiva was, where the Rebbe Maharash’s house was, where the small zal and the shul were, and where the houses of the Rebbe Rashab and the Frierdiker Rebbe were. Again, this whole corner was the main part of the Rebbes’ courtyard. In the corner was the yeshiva, the large zal. Next to it was the small zal. Next to that was the Rebbe Maharash’s house, then the Rebbe Rashab’s house, and here is the Frierdiker Rebbe’s house. We just came over the bridge, came up that street, and stopped right here. We went through this door into the museum, which stands on part of the small zal, which was the shul and the

02:34 Speaker 1 center, the center of the courtyard. Through that window, we can see the corner where we plan to rebuild the large zal where the yeshiva was. Looking out this window toward the boundary, we see the Rebbe Maharash’s house, which was L-shaped. The first part, closest to us and attached to this zal, was the yechidus room, followed by his study and then all the rooms of his house. In that corner, visible from that window, we see the Rebbe Rashab’s house, more or less directly across from us on this side. And when we look through this window toward the corner, we see the Frierdiker Rebbe’s house. So now we have already— We are opening the museum in the center of the courtyard, on part of the small zal where the shul was, in the center of the courtyard. As the Rebbe said many years ago, there should be a special museum in this courtyard, so that whoever comes to Lubavitch to see the courtyard and visit the Ohel of the Rebbes can see some of Lubavitch’s history, what it was like here when the Rebbes were here. It started about eighteen years ago with Rabbi Noson Gurary, who over the years received so much encouragement and so many instructions from the Rebbe to bring this plan about. He will now tell us some of how it started, and

04:47 Speaker 1 then how Mr. Ilya Siegel became involved and took the whole project upon himself. He’ll tell us how, over the last six years, he brought this whole plan from scratch to where we are today. Please, Rabbi Noson Gurary.

05:21 Speaker 2 First, I would like to say a blessing: “Who has granted us life, sustained us, and brought us to this time.” It is a tremendous simcha to be here in this holy courtyard, where so many of our Rebbes lived and taught Chassidus, and where hundreds and thousands of chassidim came to seek the Rebbes’ advice and be inspired by their teachings. Because of this little shtetl and the Rebbes who lived here, there are now literally over three thousand centers around the world called Lubavitch Centers, named for this place where it all began. So it is an incredible experience to be here where it all began and to see the power of Lubavitch spread to every corner of the world. This whole display is meant to explain where we are, and the lights represent how Chabad-Lubavitch illuminated the world with the love of Lubavitch—the word “Lubavitch” means love, as everyone knows—with love for our fellow Jew and the light of the teachings of Chassidus. For me personally, it is a very, very special experience to be here and to see this dream come true, all with Hashem’s help and the Rebbe’s blessings. Most of the stories of how this all came about you already heard on Shabbos and on Shabbos [unclear], so there’s no need to repeat them. But what I do want to say is that G-d runs the world, and by Divine Providence,

07:37 Speaker 2 I befriended a wonderful person who lives in Buffalo and does business in Russia. He volunteered to take on this beautiful project. I believe that no one—not even he, I suppose, at the beginning—could have imagined that this dream would come true. Mr. Ilya Segal, together with his brother Shalom Segal, gave their effort, time, and dedication to make it a reality. So, in front of everyone, I want to bless him, his brother, and his whole family with everything they need. May he have much Yiddishe nachas from his children and his brother’s children. May his brother have nachas. And this zechus, this merit of doing this for Lubavitch throughout the world, is priceless. There are no words for this merit: what he is doing for world Jewry, for Lubavitch around the world, for chassidim everywhere, and for all the Rebbes who lived here. This zechus is priceless. If you did nothing else in your life but this, it would be worth coming into this world just for this project. When Mr. Segal is in Russia, traveling all around Russia and Ukraine, he calls me on his cell phone from wherever he is and gives us a report on what’s happening here. This is like his baby, and this

09:44 Speaker 2 is his pride, and it will be his pride forever. Thank you very much. I’d like to ask Mr. Segal to say a few words—or a lot of words—in English, because I, at least, don’t understand Russian. So please speak a little English.

10:12 Speaker 5 Too bad. You have to learn Russian now, because—

10:16 Speaker 2 Well, now I have—

10:18 Speaker 5 At least to be—

10:19 Speaker 2 Huh?

10:21 Speaker 6 Give him a yarmulke. Just to keep the top of your head warm.

10:25 Speaker 2 Yeah? Okay.

10:30 Speaker 5 Next time I’ll bring my sons here.

10:32 Speaker 2 Ah.

10:32 Speaker 5 They’ll speak English. Thank you, Rabbi. You said a lot of good things about me and my family. Thank you very much. I don’t know why we’re doing this today. Do you know why? Can anybody explain why today?

11:10 Speaker 2 Because yesterday was the yahrzeit of the great Rebbe who founded the Lubavitch yeshiva here.

11:19 Speaker 5 Okay.

11:19 Speaker 2 So right after that, we’re going— He has another explanation.

11:22 Speaker 7 If you want me to explain, I will. I don’t want to take away Mr. Ilya Segal’s opportunity to speak, but I want to explain why we are doing this today. It is explained very specifically in the little booklet we gave out, and as we told you, we are going to give it out to everyone on this occasion. Ze’ev? In that little booklet, we explain that eighty-one years ago yesterday, the Rebbe Rashab, the Rebbe who led this yeshiva here, passed away far away in Rostov, where we have all just come from. Yesterday, we marked eighty-one years since his passing, and we held a special gathering, a sobranie, of all the students who have learned in our yeshiva in Rostov over the last three years. One year after the Rebbe passed away in Rostov, at the beginning of Nissan, exactly eighty years ago, the whole courtyard, with all its houses, burned down. There was a large fire here, and everything was destroyed. The Frierdiker Rebbe explains that when they left Lubavitch because of the war, they hoped to come back, so they left the houses and the yeshiva intact. After the Rebbe passed away in Rostov and the situation here grew so much worse, they did not come back. But on this day eighty years ago, the whole courtyard burned down and nothing was left. All the houses were made of wood, and everything burned to the ground. It took us exactly eighty years to regain

14:05 Speaker 7 this courtyard and start rebuilding it. For that, we are so very grateful to Mr. Ilya Segal. We chose this day for three reasons. First, today marks eighty years since the whole place burned down, and today it is being rebuilt. Second, yesterday was the yahrzeit of the Rebbe Rashab, who is buried in Rostov. Yesterday we all went to the cemetery, to the Ohel of the Rebbe Rashab, and today we are coming to the Ohelim of the Rebbe Maharash and the Tzemach Tzedek, who are buried here. So we felt there was reason to combine the occasions. And the third reason is that all these boys sitting here have learned in the yeshiva we opened in Rostov. A few years ago, we purchased and rebuilt the house there, the Chabad center in Rostov, where the Rebbe lived after he fled Lubavitch. After these three years, when we saw how successful we could be in rebuilding a place with this long tradition, we decided that this was the right time to celebrate rebuilding the original place, here in Lubavitch. That is just to explain why. And now, back to you. Please feel free to tell us how you feel, and then we’ll continue.

15:54 Speaker 8 Okay. L’chaim.

15:59 Speaker 9 L’chaim, l’chaim.

15:59 Speaker 8 What? L’chaim, l’chaim just for the three of us?

16:04 Speaker 9 Everybody has a drink.

16:05 Speaker 8 Everybody? I didn’t see.

16:07 Speaker 9 Everybody.

16:08 Speaker 8 Still, bottoms up? I don’t know. Okay, boys, boys. Now that we’re here, you have to start thinking about living here.

16:50 Speaker 9 Yes.

16:50 Speaker 8 At least ten of us.

16:52 Speaker 9 Yes.

16:55 Speaker 8 Because there aren’t many people here, and there are no Jews here. So it’s a big problem. It was a problem before, and it’s a problem now, because now we have a building here. We need at least enough people for a minyan. So maybe—

17:20 Speaker 10 It’s not a problem.

17:26 Speaker 8 Maybe in a few years we’ll have a shul here too. Maybe not. It’s not important. We have—

17:34 Speaker 10 It is important. Maybe we’ll do it. It will just take time.

17:37 Speaker 8 We have, what, three thousand Chabad houses?

17:42 Speaker 10 Yes.

17:44 Speaker 8 So now, as Chabad comes back to Russia—

17:49 Speaker 10 Comes back to its source.

17:50 Speaker 8 Yes, so we have to think about starting over, and we need three thousand more.

17:54 Speaker 10 Right. So.

18:08 Speaker 9 L’chaim, everybody.

18:09 Speaker 8 L’chaim.

18:09 Speaker 10 L’chaim, l’chaim, and to you. May it bring you only blessings throughout your life.

20:12 Speaker 9 The last thing Elias Siegel mentioned was the three thousand Chabad centers around the world. Lubavitch started in this courtyard, but it grew so large that there is a Lubavitch center in every part of the world, as we can see on the special globe with all the lights. Wherever there is a Chabad center, a little light blinks. Let me mention that about two hundred and forty of these three thousand centers are in Israel. You can see on that globe how many lights little Israel has. In fact, there are two hundred and forty Chabad houses in Israel under the leadership of Rabbi Aronov, who is with us today. Eleven years ago, the Rebbe sent a special mission to Russia and appointed its members to be Agudas Chassidei Chabad of Russia: Rabbi Aronov, myself, Rabbi Kogan, and Rabbi Kunin. We worked together for several years in Russia. Then the Rebbe told us that Russia was not where we were to stay permanently. Each of us had work to do where we were: I in the library, Rabbi Aronov with the Chabad houses in Israel, Rabbi Kunin in California, and Rabbi Kogan, who has since been in Moscow, leading the work of Agudas Chassidei Chabad there. Several years ago, as you all know, Rabbi Aronov took on the project of rebuilding the yeshivas that the Rebbeim had established here in Russia many years ago and that were

22:45 Speaker 9 destroyed by the Communist regime. He started in Rostov. You all know how the house was purchased and rebuilt, and how the first ten bochurim came there to learn. It was so successful that another twelve came the next year, and another fourteen in the third year. After three years, as the Gemara says, “Three years establish a chazakah”: when something happens three times, we know it is established, not merely temporary. After he demonstrated such devotion to rebuilding the yeshivas and the houses of the Rebbeim here in Russia, starting in Rostov, we have the great satisfaction of seeing him take on the responsibility of rebuilding Chabad here. The first stage of the museum has been completed, but Mr. Elias Siegel mentioned that ten of you should come here and open a yeshiva. We may do that outside the museum. The museum is a museum, but a yeshiva may come too. It all depends on the devotion and effort that go into it, and we’ll see how successful it will be. May I have the honor of asking Rabbi Aronov to say a few words on this occasion?

24:57 Speaker 11 Mr. Siegel, it is an honor and a pleasure to meet you here today. As Rabbi Gurari mentioned, how long has he been working with you? Six years? How long? Let’s hope that in less time than he has been working with you, we’ll be able to have him here again for the opening of the yeshiva. And, as he said, he should come with his children, and they’ll be able to speak our language and then put up the mezuzah. But now we’ll ask Mr. Siegel to put up the mezuzah on the front door, and that should be a good beginning for the yeshiva.

33:06 Speaker 12 May I just add that Mr.

40:26 Speaker 3 I was very short, eh, be—

40:32 Speaker 4 English. English. Hebrew, Hebrew. English. English. That is here for you.

40:38 Speaker 3 How ... the courtyard as a whole. Or you’ll see it yourselves from the street. That’s an easy thing to see when you go out onto the street; you can see everything. Now I want to be a little more specific. At the same time, we need to see where things were. We still don’t have an exact... We can’t point out precisely where each of the buildings was, where each one began and where it ended. In general, though, it’s easy to see here. Why is it easy to see here? It’s an entire block. You have this street, this street, and this street. But those three streets haven’t changed. So can we know exactly where all the buildings began? We have the size of the building that stood on the corner, recorded in the Frierdiker Rebbe’s writings from back then. He writes that it was thirty amos by thirty amos. Elsewhere he explains that he means thirty arshin by thirty arshin. An arshin is a large amah, about seventy-one centimeters. So that means the large hall was approximately sixty-five feet by sixty to sixty-five feet. Well, that’s about a third of the entire width. And I measured it: the full width of the block, from here to there, which you saw, is around seventy-six meters, meaning two hundred and fifty feet. And seventy feet is about a third. So that gives us the exact location.

42:31 Speaker 3 I didn’t make it [unclear], so that it would be higher. After the courtyard, after the large hall, the records always mention a small passageway, nine arshin, nine amos, which means a passageway of around eighteen feet. Then comes the small hall, which is narrower but long, about thirty arshin in length. That means another thirty arshin from here to there. You can see exactly how it runs, beginning here and going to there. So we can know exactly where the large hall was. We can know exactly where the passageway was. We can know exactly where the small hall was, which is approximately where we are now. And beyond that, toward the end of the courtyard, begin the Rebbe Maharash’s rooms. On the other side you can see the long buildings of the Frierdiker Rebbe and the Rebbe Rashab. Here runs the boundary of our courtyard, which we have now fenced in. Do you understand all that clearly? I measured the courtyard we have now fenced in: its length is around ninety-four meters. That means around one hundred and eighty-six feet. Its length is almost one and a half times its width. And in this picture, too, I could see approximately that the length is about one and a half times the width. So we have ... your question. ... But let’s get [unclear] clear. ...

44:27 Speaker 3 ... This street is [unclear], and that one is [unclear]. The little street between them is a side street called [unclear]. But didn’t they used to call it [unclear]? Didn’t they always call it the Cold Street? Why did they call it the Cold Street? Because it’s the street below which the monastery stands. ... Didn’t they call that the Cold Street? But more or less, as far as we know, [unclear], this is [unclear] Street and that is [unclear]. [Unclear] continues along the street until you reach [unclear]. Up there, right where the trees are today, we can see a lot of open space. Why is there open space? Because the large market used to be there, so no trees were planted there. So we have [unclear] here. The one possible difference is this: today the street curves here, and they made it curve considerably farther along. But [unclear] is straight, and presumably it used to be straight. Still, it may have worked out this way. We have to assume that the large hall began right at the corner of what is now the street, not on our plot, because today the street curves and the hall is at the corner. That puts it where the street is now. At first glance, that would make sense. But it isn’t clear, because it may have been set back a little at the time. And the point from which we start measuring the two, three, the thirty feet—the thirty arshin—begins

46:35 Speaker 3 a little farther along, where the front wall is today. How can we know whether it really began where the street in front is now, or where our fence stands today? At first glance, we would need to look for other signs. But today we have no other signs we can check. All those buildings burned down.