Lehisraanen Episode 12: Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Gopin (Kfar Chabad)

00:00 Speaker 1 Sholom aleichem. We’re here with another episode of Lehisranein, where chassidim share their memories of the years they spent with the Rebbe—living with the Rebbe—and together we refresh the connection of the chassidim. This time we’re joined by Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Gopin of Kfar Chabad. Sholom aleichem.

00:22 Speaker 2 Aleichem sholom.

00:23 Speaker 1 Let’s start with the question I ask everyone: Fun vanen shtamt ir—where do you come from?

00:29 Speaker 2 I was born in Kfar Chabad. My father and mother were both children of Temimim. Both my grandfathers studied in Lubavitch.

00:39 Speaker 1 Your father was Reb Baruch, a"h—

00:41 Speaker 2 Reb Baruch. And my mother was Mordechai Ganshe [unclear].

00:43 Speaker 1 And what was his father’s name?

00:45 Speaker 2 His father—my father’s father—was called Reb Baruch.

00:47 Speaker 1 Reb Baruch studied in Lubavitch.

00:48 Speaker 2 He studied in Lubavitch. And my grandfather on my mother’s side was Reb Zalman Kaminetsky. He also studied in Lubavitch.

00:57 Speaker 1 And they got married in—

01:00 Speaker 2 During the war, they were both in Samarkand. Even before the wedding, both families were in Samarkand. Tomchei Temimim was there, and there was a community of chassidim there. Afterward, they left in 5706, and they got married in France.

01:14 Speaker 1 They lived in France at first.

01:16 Speaker 2 Uh, they lived in France for one year. My oldest brother, Mendel, was born in France. My mother arrived in Israel carrying a three-month-old baby.

01:26 Speaker 1 And then they came here to Kfar Chabad.

01:28 Speaker 2 Yes, yes, like everyone else. First they were in the immigrant transit camps for a few weeks, and afterward they were among the earliest founders of Kfar Chabad. At the end of Iyar 5709, they were among the first hundred. And in 5721 my father traveled to the Rebbe on the charter flight, and in yechidus the Rebbe pressed him to join the Kfar Chabad committee.

01:54 Speaker 1 What did the Rebbe say to him?

01:56 Speaker 2 It started on Simchas Torah. The Rebbe showed him a great deal of warmth at the farbrengen. At one point the Rebbe gestured to him—the Rebbe did this...

02:04 Speaker 1 Let me explain, since people can’t see: the Rebbe gestured to him with both hands, telling him to take a large cup for l’chaim.

02:08 Speaker 2 The Rebbe gestured like this toward him.

02:10 Speaker 1 Pointing at him.

02:11 Speaker 2 Yes. He couldn’t believe the Rebbe meant him. So the Rebbe said, “Baruch, Baruch.” He was sure the Rebbe meant Reb Baruch Fridsh [unclear], who was sitting in that area too. But the Rebbe said, “No, no—Baruch, Baruch,” and gestured with his finger toward a large cup. Then, again, a large cup. Three times. That was on Simchas Torah. When my father went into yechidus after Simchas Torah, the Rebbe began speaking to him about the general affairs of Kfar Chabad. He wasn’t on the committee and had never dreamed of joining it. He was busy with his family. He already had six children—no, by then he had eight, not six, eight—and money was tight. The Rebbe kept talking to him about Kfar Chabad until he told the Rebbe, “I’m not on the committee.” My father told me that back then people didn’t yet know that the Rebbe didn’t make mistakes. If the Rebbe was speaking to him, he knew; he knew everyone. My father thought perhaps the Rebbe had confused him with someone who looked like him—another young married man with a black beard who was on the committee. He said this to the Rebbe in Russian, and the Rebbe answered him in Russian: “What difference does it make, with shoulder boards or without shoulder boards?” Shoulder boards mean the insignia of rank worn on the shoulders. In other words, what difference does it make whether you have an official position or not? You have to put your shoulder to the task. The Rebbe said that in Russian too: you have to put your shoulder to the task.

03:30 Speaker 1 That’s an expression in Russian.

03:31 Speaker 2 Apparently. The Rebbe said it in Russian; I don’t know how to say it. Anyway, it seems the people on the Kfar Chabad committee understood that shoulder boards were needed after all. When elections were held that year, they pressed my father to run. He did, and he came in first. From then on he was one of Kfar Chabad’s elected representatives. He was involved mainly in construction and development. He also had the privilege of traveling to the Rebbe every couple of years, already in the 5720s. He traveled in ’21; in ’21 he traveled—

04:04 Speaker 1 On the charter flight.

04:05 Speaker 2 Yes. He made sure to take my grandfather on my mother’s side.

04:08 Speaker 1 Grandfather Kaminetsky traveled with him.

04:10 Speaker 2 He didn’t pay for his ticket, but he made sure it worked out. In ’23 he arranged for his own father to travel with him. Then he traveled again in ’26, then in ’28, then in Tammuz ’29, and then on Lag BaOmer ’33. My mother also traveled, on 6 Tishrei 5717. The sixth of Tishrei 5717 fell on a Tuesday. It was the first time 6 Tishrei was—no, uh, in the middle of the week, because in ’26 it had also fallen on Shabbos. Anyway, my mother left here on the morning of 6 Tishrei, and two young married men flew with her on the same plane. They were Reb Meir Friedman and Reb Chaim Toib, with Reb Eli Silberstrom [unclear]. They arrived in the middle of the farbrengen. My mother was in the women’s section, and she saw the Rebbe signal to the two young men to come over to him. They approached, and the Rebbe began asking them, “One of the Chabad women was supposed to arrive. Did she come here with you? Mrs. Gopin was supposed to arrive—Mrs. Gopin. Did she come here?” Apparently they were so overwhelmed that it took them a while to answer. My mother was standing in the women’s section and had no idea the Rebbe was asking them about her. Well, when she went into yechidus, the Rebbe also pressed her to join the central organization.

05:35 Speaker 1 Wow.

05:36 Speaker 2 She had, uh, ten children then, and the youngest were twins, two and a half years old. The Rebbe was telling her she had to join the Chabad women’s organization. So she said to the Rebbe, “Where will I find the time? I have a home full of children.” The Rebbe didn’t let it go. He told her, “If you want to, you’ll find the time.” “If you want to, you’ll find the time.” And that’s how he got her into the organization. She came back and joined its leadership here. Afterward, for many years she was very involved with the tzedakah boxes and the candlesticks. Those tzedakah boxes became a symbol.

06:16 Speaker 1 The yellow boxes.

06:17 Speaker 2 The tzedakah campaign, yes, for many years.

06:20 Speaker 1 So let’s go back to you for a moment. You were children here in Kfar Chabad.

06:23 Speaker 2 Yes.

06:24 Speaker 1 How far back do you remember? What’s your first memory?

06:29 Speaker 2 ’19, ’19. Why do I say ’19? I was born in ’14, and I remember that at the end of Sivan ’19, Reb Dovid Berman passed away.

06:43 Speaker 1 Reb Dovid Berman.

06:45 Speaker 2 The place where we learned in cheder was the central shul, in the second room. We studied with Reb Chanan Gerlitz for three years—three years, a class of four children. He taught us alef-beis, Hebrew reading, and Chumash. That was three years. Now, what do I remember?

07:03 Speaker 1 Were those four children all the children your age in Kfar Chabad then?

07:06 Speaker 2 That was who was in that class. More children joined later. That’s how it was; I don’t know why. Um, so I remember Reb Dovid Berman. First of all, I remember even before he passed away, when he was ill. We were neighbors, not far away, and his wife went to him at the hospital every day with pots of food. But I remember when they brought him back and put his bed in the room across from us—the third room. We learned in the second room. So that, for instance, was in 5719. I remember it very well. Whether I remember anything before that—I don’t know what I remember from before. I remember going into the central shul when it wasn’t finished yet. That must have still been in 5718. There was no floor yet, no windows. I remember that in 5718 the Rebbe gave a whole sicha about the dedication then taking place in Kfar Chabad, of the new shul.

08:02 Speaker 1 There was a closeness among the chassidim; people shared each other’s lives.

08:05 Speaker 2 Yes, very much so.

08:06 Speaker 1 They said that on Simchas Torah people would go from house to house.

08:08 Speaker 2 House to house—not exactly. There were regular places where farbrengens took place on Simchas Torah night and during the day. I remember Reb Shlomo Chaim. Uh, on Simchas Torah the bochurim would come too, even though yeshiva was on break. They came to be with Reb Shlomo Chaim. On Simchas Torah night he was always a guest, uh, farbrenging either at his daughter Mrs. Lisson’s home or at his son’s.

08:37 Speaker 1 Wow.

08:37 Speaker 2 Year after year. During the day on Simchas Torah, he was always a guest at my grandfather’s. My grandfather was a year older than Reb Shlomo Chaim and knew him very well. Still, Reb Shlomo Chaim was a model chossid, a model mashpia. I once saw this when I was thirteen: on Beis Nissan, my grandfather sat at Reb Shlomo Chaim’s feet among the bochurim, at his farbrengen. So during the day on Simchas Torah, Reb Shlomo Chaim was my grandfather’s guest every year, even back in the old house. My grandfather, too, would [unclear], and my grandmother would serve [unclear]. He could go on farbrenging until sunset. They wanted to get to the yeshiva, so they quickly made kiddush, davened Musaf, and then continued farbrenging again, and he carried on.

09:21 Speaker 1 That was already in the years when Reb Shlomo Chaim was here in Kfar Chabad, afterward.

09:24 Speaker 2 No, not necessarily. Even when Reb Shlomo Chaim was in Lod, he came here for the holidays.

09:29 Speaker 1 Oh, he would come to Kfar Chabad for the holidays?

09:30 Speaker 2 He had a room next to Rabbi Baruch’s house, and he was here for the holidays.

09:35 Speaker 1 Mm-hmm.

09:36 Speaker 2 Always. On Shabbos too—well, not Shabbos; he was at the yeshiva. But on the night of Shevi’i Shel Pesach, for example, he would spend time alone with the householders in the old shul every year. Not with the boys—with the householders.

09:54 Speaker 1 Who else were the figures you remember? Rabbi Shneur Dov Rud[unclear]?

09:58 Speaker 2 Rabbi Berel Belen was the educational director of our cheder. The buildings were old and the roof leaked, but the standard of education was very high. He was a remarkable person in every respect. He was a great educator, a great Torah scholar, and a great chossid. He had traveled to the Rebbe earlier—in 5719, I think. He was kindhearted, and he knew how to build up a gifted child and encourage a child who was struggling. He did both.

10:42 Speaker 1 He also came from Lubavitch, right?

10:45 Speaker 2 He wasn’t from Lubavitch; he came later.

10:47 Speaker 1 But he was from Russia.

10:48 Speaker 2 Yes, certainly. They called him Reb Remeiner. He was originally from Romania, and he had studied in the central yeshivos.

10:55 Speaker 1 Mm-hmm.

10:56 Speaker 2 Now, my grandfather was the administrative director of the Talmud Torah—he had also founded it—and Reb Berel was the educational director. They worked together. More than once, when there was a new teacher, I saw the two of them standing behind the door, listening to how he taught.

11:16 Speaker 1 What did you know about the Rebbe as children? Did people here talk about the Rebbe? Did people come—

11:20 Speaker 2 They talked about him, yes. In our home especially, because my father traveled to the Rebbe almost every two years, we certainly talked about him. But not like today. Today people talk much more, and children know much more.

11:39 Speaker 1 Yes, that’s how this generation is. And when your father came back on the charter flight, what did he tell you?

11:48 Speaker 2 He told us many things, I remember. He didn’t tell me about the honor he received on Simchas Torah; my mother told me that. He told my mother, and she told me. But he did tell us things.

12:07 Speaker 1 And your grandfather, who also traveled—did he have some special connection?

12:13 Speaker 2 I didn’t hear of anything special.

12:14 Speaker 1 Mm-hmm.

12:15 Speaker 2 I didn’t hear of anything special.

12:18 Speaker 1 And your grandfather had a daughter there by then too, right?

12:21 Speaker 2 Yes, yes. He already had the house there.

12:22 Speaker 1 His daughter was already living there?

12:24 Speaker 2 Yes, yes. That made it easier to persuade him to travel.

12:28 Speaker 1 Mm-hmm.

12:29 Speaker 2 The older people were old, but they weren’t that old. Still, traveling was already an ordeal for them—an ordeal for the family and an ordeal for the person himself.

12:41 Speaker 1 When did you enter yeshiva?

12:45 Speaker 2 I went to Lod in 5727. That was my first year, 5728 my second, and 5729 my third. By 5729 it was already a preparatory program—not for yeshiva, but for the senior yeshiva.

12:56 Speaker 1 For the senior yeshiva, yes.

12:57 Speaker 2 It was a special year. We studied separately and ate separately. Rabbi Abrams was the mashpia, and Rabbi Landau taught the Nigleh shiur. It was a very, very special year. From Rabbi Abrams we began hearing things about Yud Shvat that we hadn’t known. The whole idea of Yud Shvat and Basi Legani, and reviewing Basi Legani in three parts—he did that with the students. And even more so with 11 Nissan. We knew about it, but not to that extent. Rabbi Abrams brought it in.

13:35 Speaker 6 I also heard Reb Dovi Dofen[unclear] say—I came later than you—that the one who introduced them to the Rebbe was Rabbi Abrams—

13:43 Speaker 2 Right.

13:43 Speaker 6 He made a point of saying that.

13:44 Speaker 2 Right. He had gone through it himself and came from there, but he was a shliach.

13:52 Speaker 6 He was in Chabad, right?

13:53 Speaker 2 Yes, yes, yes. And he stayed here. He married here and stayed. Not long ago, there was a story in JEM[unclear] about how he began to come close. He had already started coming close in 5714, and then on 12 Tammuz. A certain rabbi brought him close, and in a yechidus on 11 Nissan he received special attention from the Rebbe. He was an American boy from Philadelphia. Above all, he was an outstanding chossid of our time.

14:17 Speaker 6 Still, Rabbi Yissachar—

14:18 Speaker 2 Yes, yes, right. What I mean is, that’s what we saw, and everything around him was thorough.

14:26 Speaker 1 So in 5729 you were in the preparatory program.

14:28 Speaker 2 In 5729 we were in the preparatory program.

14:30 Speaker 1 Rabbi Abrams was the mashpia there.

14:31 Speaker 2 Rabbi Abrams was the mashpia, and Rabbi Landau taught the shiur. With Reb Berel too, the learning was at a very high, yeshiva-level standard. Another thing: Reb Berel taught us Chabad customs. Before Pesach, for example—perhaps he did this in later years too—he devoted several days to the customs he had received from his father, from what was practiced in the Rebbe Rashab’s home. He taught them to us. And although I already knew by Tammuz 5729[?] that I was traveling to the Rebbe—

15:03 Speaker 1 That you were traveling in Tammuz?

15:04 Speaker 2 No, for Tishrei.

15:05 Speaker 1 Oh, you knew you were traveling for Tishrei—

15:07 Speaker 2 Not in Tishrei—right.

15:08 Speaker 1 The trip for Tishrei had already been arranged.

15:09 Speaker 2 Never mind, never mind. It was understood that we were going for Tishrei.

15:11 Speaker 1 Yes.

15:12 Speaker 2 I want to say something about Rabbi Abrams.

15:15 Speaker 1 Rabbi Abrams instilled chassidishkeit in you.

15:16 Speaker 2 Yes. Yud Shvat, with the three parts—reviewing the text of Basi Legani. You would review it, then review it three times, each time two sections. And 11 Nissan. Besides that, he was very thorough. He studied many chapters of Tanya with us; we covered a lot with him. Everything was thorough. You had to [unclear].

15:40 Speaker 1 You couldn’t fool him.

15:41 Speaker 2 The same was true when he farbrenged—you simply couldn’t. So, where were we? We’ll get to that in a moment. All right, we’ll come back to it later. Why was I already so eager to travel? First of all, my father brought [unclear] home. For example, when my father returned in 5723, he brought the two tape reels he had received from [unclear] of the Simchas Beis Hashoevah farbrengen.

16:07 Speaker 1 From the night of the recording.

16:08 Speaker 2 Yes, from the night of the recording. He also brought a tape recorder he’d bought—a huge tape recorder. So—

16:13 Speaker 1 It took up half the table.

16:14 Speaker 2 Yes. Now, there was a young man who had traveled with my father for Tishrei, and he kept coming over to listen to that farbrengen. He studied at the Lemel School. His name—we should mention him—was Shlomo Edelman. You surely know who he is.

16:29 Speaker 1 Of course, Rabbi Shlomo [unclear].

16:30 Speaker 2 Yes, yes.

16:32 Speaker 1 A Radzin chossid.

16:33 Speaker 2 Yes, right. His father was a deputy governor.

16:36 Speaker 1 Deputy governor of Jeru—Petach Tikvah.

16:37 Speaker 2 Petach Tikvah. So he had traveled that year, and he kept coming over to listen to the tape. I would lie in a corner on the floor, behind the record player, and listen. It was a delight. The Rebbe spoke about the whole concept of unity among the Jewish people and the Four Species: how each species represents a different kind of person, and together they form a unity; and then how each species itself shows unity in the way it grows. I would lie there and listen to it many times, whenever he played it again.

17:08 Speaker 1 I can tell—your eyes are shining now. You can see the pleasure you felt...

17:13 Speaker 2 I was a little boy. How old was I? I was—

17:15 Speaker 1 You were born in 5711, so you weren’t even ten yet.

17:17 Speaker 2 I was nine and a half. Now, the arrangement was that my father would pass it on to Rabbi Tuvia, who had also traveled that year.

17:25 Speaker 1 Yes, he was in Group C.

17:26 Speaker 2 Group C for Tishrei. So the arrangement was that after they finished listening to it in Kfar Chabad, they would pass it on to Rabbi Tuvia so people could hear it in Jerusalem. My father had already begun bringing Kfar Chabad into our home. He also brought home a record player with records of niggunim, and I already had two records: the record of [unclear] and the record of [unclear], which began with its niggun. Each record began with the new niggun from the previous year, you see. So he brought a record player and two records, and we listened to them all the time. That’s how it developed over the years. Later, my brother traveled with Group G as an assistant, and he would send back the transcripts. Not his own—he wrote those too—but the transcripts the boys had made. Once he even sent a spring binder. A spring binder was a cover you could open and insert sichos into. After Tishrei, he sent a whole spring binder full of the month’s transcripts. I read them a lot. That was another thing that brought Kfar Chabad into our home. Now there was something else, something not, not, not—

18:43 Speaker 1 Not ordinary.

18:43 Speaker 2 No. I was here, and although I didn’t study in the yeshiva gedolah, I liked spending a lot of time there. The bochurim who came back from the group spoke only about Kfar Chabad—nothing but Kfar Chabad. I knew everything going on in Kfar Chabad. I knew the prices at Reb Yankel Lipsker’s grocery store in Kfar Chabad. I even knew how much cigarettes cost, for example. I knew it all; they talked only about Kfar Chabad, and that made me want to go even more. In any case, I’d had my heart set on it since the beginning of the month, and I was longing to go, but getting my mother to agree wasn’t simple, and so on. As the month went on, I wanted it even more. I remember saying on Shabbos Mevarchim, as the new month was approaching—even though the Rebbe also held a farbrengen on Shabbos Mevarchim, of course—“I want to go to the Kfar for Shabbos. I want to be among Reb Shlomo’s friends.” Reb Shlomo would sometimes draw me close. He’d give me l’chaim, a full hand—even a fourth time once. Some bochurim criticized him for it. Anyway, that was his way.

19:50 Speaker 1 That was how he drew you close: giving you l’chaim from his hand.

19:52 Speaker 2 Yes, from his hand, a full hand, a full hand. Anyway—

19:55 Speaker 1 Even though you hadn’t studied under him, he still took you—

19:57 Speaker 2 He knew me, and he would draw me close. Yes. So, as I was saying, I went to Reb Shlomo’s farbrengen. Reb Shlomo spoke at length about something he usually didn’t discuss much: reviewing [unclear] word for word. So I decided for myself that [unclear] I needed to do that with the Shulchan Aruch.

20:19 Speaker 1 Yes.

20:20 Speaker 2 Already before Tishrei. And the Rebbe had also printed a small Shulchan Aruch with the introduction he wrote about the Tzemach Tzedek. I have it, by the way.

20:27 Speaker 1 Yes.

20:28 Speaker 2 I don’t know how it was sold; they made it in Eretz Yisroel too, with a light-blue cardboard cover. So I decided that, since I wanted so badly to travel to the Rebbe, I would review the Shulchan Aruch by heart. If Hashem wills, perhaps that would speed things up. I didn’t know when I’d go, but it might help it happen sooner.

20:47 Speaker 1 You were a fifteen-year-old child, a fifteen-year-old boy.

20:50 Speaker 2 I wasn’t fifteen yet.

20:51 Speaker 1 Not yet.

20:52 Speaker 2 I was fifteen when I came back to Lod. No, we reviewed Tanya by heart there in Lod too—that’s how they educated us. But as for the Shulchan Aruch, since the Rebbe... Well, [unclear], my father traveled. My father was one of the people heading the work. He personally handled the building projects, and one of the main things in the Kfar was to build and develop it. The Rebbe also said publicly that building was one of Chabad’s principal concerns. So my father would travel there regularly. He’d bring the plans to the Rebbe, and the Rebbe would go over them, make comments and give other instructions as well. Many times, he was involved in every detail. Among other things, I asked my father to ask the Rebbe about my wish to come. My mother asked too. She wouldn’t let me travel without the Rebbe’s consent, without the Rebbe’s bracha. So he asked the Rebbe, and the Rebbe told him that it was a matter—

21:55 Speaker 1 For the administrations to discuss among themselves.

21:57 Speaker 2 Yes.

21:57 Speaker 1 Meaning the administration of your yeshiva and the administration of the yeshiva at 770.

22:00 Speaker 2 Yes. At the place I’d be going to, though we didn’t yet know where that would be. In the end, my father spoke with them, and it was decided that I wouldn’t go to 770—I was too young. I would go to [unclear]. My father even went to Rabbi Moshe Herson and asked him how long. They spoke about ten months at [unclear], until Tishrei, because by [unclear] the students would already disperse.

22:23 Speaker 1 To learn about shlichus.

22:26 Speaker 2 And so, boruch Hashem, we merited to travel on 14 Elul 5709. It was Thursday morning when I left here with Kalman, and I arrived at 770. By ten that evening, I was already inside 770. The Rebbe wasn’t at 770; it was a day he went to the Ohel, with the fifteenth falling on Friday. The next morning, before I had even seen the Rebbe—I hadn’t noticed exactly when he came to 770—I submitted a note with my request for a bracha upon my arrival. The Rebbe’s bracha came back on the note. It was written in the margin, one word beneath the other: “May it be with great success.” I don’t remember whether it also said “in all things”; I don’t remember that. To this day I’m not sure, but I do remember “with great success.”

23:21 Speaker 1 That very same day?

23:22 Speaker 2 It came back that very same day. I still hadn’t seen the Rebbe. I first saw the Rebbe when he came out for Mincha on Erev Shabbos. By the way, since we’re talking about Erev Shabbos Mincha, I can mention this now; it doesn’t have to wait. You know, the way the Rebbe came out for Mincha—really, for davening in the zal—varied. There was a certain pattern. Perhaps you know it?

23:47 Speaker 1 I do, but tell us the details.

23:48 Speaker 2 On Erev Shabbos, the Rebbe would come in through the corridor, into the second room by the door. They would close the door, and the Rebbe would stand there.

23:56 Speaker 1 Meaning he’d go through the corridor into what’s called the small room today, turn immediately right, and stand near the space between the rooms.

24:03 Speaker 2 Near the second room, by the door. Someone would close the door. There was a shtender there by the wall, and a chair too. And he would also leave through the corridor. On Shabbos he would enter through the corridor but leave through the zal.

24:27 Speaker 1 And when would he come straight in—from the door, from the hall, into—

24:33 Speaker 2 Ah, on—

24:34 Speaker 1 On ordinary weekdays.

24:35 Speaker 2 On ordinary weekdays, if he could, he wouldn’t go through the zal; he would sit near the door. I remember one time that was probably an exception. It was also unusual that they davened Mincha upstairs in the zal in the afternoon, because downstairs they had to prepare the place for the—

24:55 Speaker 1 Farbrengen.

24:56 Speaker 2 Farbrengen. Now, before the Rebbe came in, there was only a small crowd. They were singing the niggun, um, [unclear], and the crowd was so small that, as they danced in the middle of the zal, they were right up against one another.

25:14 Speaker 1 Around the bimah.

25:15 Speaker 2 Yes. Why was the crowd small? A few reasons. Some people were already holding places for the farbrengen. Some went to eat their Shabbos meal earlier, and some went to rest a little before the farbrengen. It was a small crowd, but they sang with great enthusiasm. The Rebbe came in through the zal, and as soon as he entered, he was already moving his hands and his head.

25:37 Speaker 1 [unclear], a beautiful minute.

25:39 Speaker 2 Yes. He reached his place and jumped up onto the chair. That was a rare thing, even on Simchas Torah. It wasn’t—it wasn’t—it wasn’t the march, and he did it with such force. He looked each person in the eye. The crowd was small, and they began. So I remember that on that Simchas Torah he came in through the zal, but ordinarily, it seems, he didn’t come in through the zal.

26:03 Speaker 1 Through the corridor.

26:04 Speaker 2 Through the corridor.

26:06 Speaker 1 So at that first Mincha, on Friday, you saw the Rebbe?

26:08 Speaker 2 Yes.

26:10 Speaker 1 Did you say Shehecheyanu when—

26:12 Speaker 2 No, my mind wasn’t free to say Shehecheyanu. May His name be praised, and may His Shechinah—

26:18 Speaker 1 There wasn’t a large crowd, presumably.

26:20 Speaker 2 Right, not a large crowd. It wasn’t full or crowded.

26:25 Speaker 1 This was upstairs.

26:26 Speaker 2 Upstairs.

26:26 Speaker 1 As the Rebbe passed through the corridor.

26:28 Speaker 2 Yes, yes, yes.

26:29 Speaker 1 Did the Rebbe look at you, say something, nod his head? What happened?

26:32 Speaker 2 No, no, no, no.

26:37 Speaker 1 Was there a farbrengen that Shabbos?

26:39 Speaker 2 That Shabbos was Parshas Ki Savo. There was no farbrengen, no farbrengen. It was the first Shabbos when all the aliyos went to chassanim—that’s what they told me there. All the aliyos went to chassanim, and the baal korei was Gershon Shusterman, who was still a bochur, because his father was here. Before I left, his father had sent me with an urgent note to give to Rabbi Binyamin Klein concerning a relative who needed a complete recovery. So Gershy read the Torah. I remember that I already knew—we’d heard about him at 770—that Gershon was one of the [unclear] bochurim at 770, and he was the officer of [unclear]; he wore a tie. So I thought, there’s even an officer of [unclear] with a tie. All the aliyos, both at Shacharis and at Mincha—if I’m not mistaken, at Mincha too—all the aliyos went to chassanim. And indeed, the following week there was a wedding every day. Reb Chaim Faro got married that week; Reb Shlomo Rabkovitz got married that week; Shmuel from Morocco; Shlomo Deutsch, a"h. There was a wedding every day.

27:50 Speaker 1 And did you stay at 770, or did you stay at Neve Eliezer?

27:53 Speaker 2 I stayed another week. I thought I would stay until after Tishrei. Reb Bebe [unclear] Pliskin had been my father’s personal mashpia for all those years, going back to Samarkand, or even Kharkov. In Samarkand, he was also my mother’s uncle. He was the shadchan who brought my mother and father together. He was, how do you put it—and my father regarded him as his mashpia throughout the years. My father [unclear]. He was a deeply inward person. It was no accident that Reb Mendel was so close to him, like a real friend. So at the end of my first week he came to me and asked, “What are you thinking? Are you going to spend the holidays here?” I had already gone to Newark [unclear] for Rabbi Yisroel Friedman to test me and meet me. My brother Mendel took me at the beginning of that first week. We went to Rabbi Yisroel, and he tested me and so on. He said, “You’ve done well. You’ll go into the higher class.” There were two classes; the students in the lower class were older than I was. What had I done well? I don’t know. Oh, I wanted to tell you: I certainly wasn’t relying on my studies here. They were learning [unclear]. What was I trying to say? What I wanted to tell you earlier was that Rabbi Avraham, although he was a mashpia, also made sure we studied Nigleh. He lived there in an old house with a courtyard. He called me out into the courtyard, back in Tammuz—at the end of Tammuz, when he knew that I knew I was going to travel—and said, “So because you’re going to the Rebbe, you’ve already started neglecting your Nigleh studies?” Huh? He said it forcefully, really pressing me. So what does that tell you? How did I do well? I don’t know. But Rabbi Yisroel said, “You’ll go into the higher class.” The higher class meant that at the end of the year we would move to [unclear]. So Rabbi Yisroel had already met

29:41 Speaker 2 me, and Rabbi Yisroel had accepted me, but I hadn’t thought of leaving after Tishrei. So Reb Bebe [unclear] came to me and said, “What, are you going to spend the holidays here now?” After Tishrei there was always a bus for the yeshiva, a school bus. I went on the bus, the yeshiva school bus.

29:55 Speaker 7 After Tishrei or before?

29:56 Speaker 2 Sorry, after the second Shabbos.

29:58 Speaker 7 The Shabbos before.

29:59 Speaker 2 The Shabbos before, when there was a farbrengen, yes. I went to the yeshiva for a week, and we came back for Rosh Hashanah. Rosh Hashanah fell on Shabbos.

30:12 Speaker 7 On Shabbos.

30:13 Speaker 2 Shabbos.

30:15 Speaker 7 On Shabbos. But at the farbrengen, was there anything special about your arrival? Were there many others from Israel?

30:19 Speaker 2 No, not yet. They hadn’t arrived at all before Tishrei. There was a group, not a large one, but a quality group. [Unclear] Pesach break, a quality group, a good group. Do you know who was in it? Rabbi Moshe Havlin, Chaim Ashkenazi, alav hashalom, Rabbi Karman Druk [unclear], and Gershovitz. It was a group that both studied and lived as chassidim. Who else was there? I don’t remember.

31:02 Speaker 7 Well, that was Rosh Hashanah. So you were there for the shofar blowing.

31:07 Speaker 2 Yes, but I was so green. I didn’t have a regular place yet, but we could already see and hear.

31:23 Speaker 7 What do you especially remember from that Tishrei?

31:31 Speaker 2 At the Rosh Hashanah farbrengen, Reb Moshe Havlin [unclear] was standing at the back in line. It was an amazing thing that on Rosh Hashanah the Rebbe turned his attention to him [unclear]. Why am I saying this? Because I saw that it wasn’t mentioned in [unclear]. But apparently it’s true. I know it’s true, because I happened to see an interview with Rabbi Moshe Havlin on Kikar HaShabbat, and he mentions it there.

32:01 Speaker 7 On Rosh Hashanah there were almost no niggunim apart from—

32:03 Speaker 2 Apart from the Rebbe’s niggunim, yes, especially. Yes.

32:12 Speaker 7 And then for the Ten Days of Teshuvah you went back to the yeshiva and returned.

32:14 Speaker 2 Yes, yes. After Yom Kippur we didn’t go back.

32:28 Speaker 7 Simchas Torah, Sukkos.

32:33 Speaker 2 The march, Yom Kippur.

32:34 Speaker 7 What do you remember?

32:41 Speaker 2 I remember how wonderful it was, the first time you saw the Rebbe jump up on his chair. But, how do you put it, in those years everything was relatively short. In later years it became longer. The march, and also the blessing on Yom Kippur. Things were different in those years; there wasn’t all the... On Sukkos, the second day of Sukkos, there was the esrog campaign. Reb Moshe Klatzky was still a bochur, and he was the one who organized the groups, the pairs who went out.

33:31 Speaker 7 The first day was Shabbos, so the second day was—

33:33 Speaker 2 Monday. I was paired with Rabbi Raichik [unclear]. It made me laugh. Well, by the time Rabbi Raichik got out, by the time he came downstairs, he had [unclear]. I’m not saying that because he wasted time; he had many things to do along the way, all those matters he had to sort out. He was also the one who repeated what had been said upstairs at the Sukkos farbrengen.

33:55 Speaker 7 He would repeat it?

33:56 Speaker 2 Yes. He would be downstairs [unclear], and some bochurim—not many, but a few—would gather around him on the benches, and he would repeat what had been said. So that took time too. In short, we may have gone out at five, or five-thirty. They told us to go to [unclear]. I just want to tell you what it looks like when a Yid is engaged in a mitzvah. He spoke English with a Polish accent. There was an elderly woman there. I was holding the lulav and the building door, and he was trying to persuade people to make the brachah. So he said to that woman, “Please, please do me a favor, do me a favor, do me a favor—make the brachah on the lulav.”

34:45 Speaker 7 “Do me a favor and make the brachah on the lulav.”

34:46 Speaker 2 Yes.

34:46 Speaker 7 She didn’t understand him, but she understood “lulav.”

34:48 Speaker 2 Yes, but that was a lesson in how to be involved in mitzvos. At Simchas Beis Hashoeivah, you surely know that at the end of the farbrengen—

34:59 Speaker 7 Even if I know it, you have to tell the whole story. What happened?

35:02 Speaker 2 At the Simchas Beis Hashoeivah farbrengen, the Rebbe said that this time he was doing something out of the ordinary: people should take four cups. You understand, they drank four cups of wine and then lost count. So afterward they took eight. The whole shul was filled with it.

35:19 Speaker 7 That was at Simchas Beis Hashoeivah, the mitzvah of Simchas Beis Hashoeivah?

35:21 Speaker 2 The mitzvah of Simchas Beis Hashoeivah, yes. The whole shul was filled with it. They were simply bringing in wine from the Rebbe’s room.

35:34 Speaker 7 After Simchas Torah you went to New York.

35:37 Speaker 2 Yes. The next farbrengen was on [unclear]. On Shabbos, you weren’t sure whether there would be a farbrengen. Oh, no—we would only go in if there was going to be a farbrengen.

35:49 Speaker 7 You would travel in.

35:50 Speaker 2 Yes, we would go into New York. If it was just a regular farbrengen, then, well, [unclear] would call Groner. In the end we did go in, and there was a farbrengen. At that farbrengen the Rebbe said that the chassidim had given the Rebbe Rashab the name [unclear]. That was in the fifties then. [Unclear]. All right. Later on—oh! On the third day of Selichos, when I was already in Newark [unclear], there was suddenly a farbrengen. Oh, yes, [unclear]. And when you were there in Newark [unclear], was there some kind of walkie-talkie, a phone? No, no, no. We started rushing over by all sorts of transportation. Oh, did someone let you know in the middle that the Rebbe was coming out? They let us know that the Rebbe—ah, that the Rebbe had come out, or was coming out. Anyway, I arrived for the last quarter of an hour. The Rebbe distributed mashke. There were several guests from Nachlas Har Chabad, among its founders, and the Rebbe... What I remember is that when the Rebbe came out, he began singing, “Ofo, ofo, ofo ratzo.” “Ofo.” The Rebbe started it at that farbrengen. Then on the fifth day of Chanukah there was another unexpected farbrengen, after Minchah. On the fifth day of Chanukah, we again rushed over using all kinds of transportation, but I remember arriving when the Rebbe was already leaving. The entire farbrengen had lasted an hour, and the Rebbe was already leaving. Go back for a moment to the tish: what was it like, as a child already raised in Chabad, suddenly to arrive at the Rebbe’s tish? Well, everything—how do you put it? Every single thing filled you with wonder. It helped that I had some people there I knew from the group, three or four years older than me, even more. But I had a brother there; I had... My cousin Rivushkin [unclear] had arrived a few weeks before me. I had family there to help me materially, my aunt—no,

38:24 Speaker 2 I was asking more about the practical side. How did you manage? It was all easier. Yes, it was all easier. How many bochurim were there in [unclear]? How many of you were there? Thirty-six bochurim, two classes—thirty-six bochurim. There was a good atmosphere. Very, very good. Wonderful. Ten very sweet months. Rabbi Yisroel [unclear] was the rosh yeshivah; Rabbi Elye was the mashpia. The whole yeshivah was one big family home. One family home. Yes, they rented another two apartments for sleeping, because there wasn’t enough room. Rabbi Yisroel taught nigleh, and Rabbi Elye taught Chassidus to both classes? Yes. Mm-hm. Yes. There weren’t [unclear]. There was Yosef’s son, [unclear]. A very good atmosphere, a Chassidic atmosphere. That was when I met them and saw that the bochurim knew more Chassidus than we did, by our standards. What turned out to be the reason? Reb [unclear] had been their mashpia on Bedford before they came to— Yes, yes. And then it came time for yechidus for your birthday. Yes. [unclear]. Yes. What happened? First, how did you prepare for the yechidus? To study better, to think Chassidus. Nobody guided us; Rabbi Elye didn’t instruct us on how to review Chassidus. But, how can I put it, we heard about it there from Rabbi [unclear]—how to go about yechidus. You know, I’ll tell you about that when we get to it. So no, but there are things every bochur knows, like how to think about Chassidus. So then came the yechidus. When was it? Before your birthday? I don’t remember the exact date. I don’t remember, but it wasn’t around my birthday. I don’t remember. It was different from [unclear]. [unclear]. I don’t remember the specific date, but I remember a lot of what we discussed. So what happened? I asked the Rebbe how to keep my thoughts from becoming muddled. So—

41:13 Speaker 2 The Rebbe answered that one needs to know several chapters of Tanya and several chapters of Mishnayos especially well, so that they’re engraved in one’s mind, and to think about them all the time. I asked the Rebbe how to develop a geshmak in learning. I meant mainly nigleh. Boruch Hashem, we learned nigleh well. So the Rebbe said we should study [unclear] by the Gra. Did he answer in the order you had written things down? Not necessarily. No. No. Did he refer to the fact that you’d come from Eretz Yisroel, or were you already locals? The Rebbe didn’t ask questions. Sometimes the Rebbe asks, but here he didn’t. So it was about muddled thoughts and a geshmak in learning, and he gave a blessing. Yes, the yechidus was brief, and he gave a blessing. What did he say? That we should succeed in learning to the fullest extent. That’s all I remember now. I wrote it down at the time, and I may still have parts of what I wrote. What happened on Purim 5734? Purim 5734. The Rebbe— The Rebbe spoke then for the first time about the minority. For an hour and a half. That’s why I’m asking. An hour and a half. For me, as a sixteen-year-old bochur, all those things were foreign. I wasn’t familiar with them: coalition, opposition, the High Court. It wasn’t like today, when children know everything. But the bochurim talked among themselves and analyzed it. The Rebbe’s voice was different. He spoke very measuredly, not forcefully. We’d been through Yud Shvat and had been spoiled. Right, going back to that. The great Yud Shvat. Well. Yes. So there are things that are known. Even if they’re known, tell them—each person has his own point of view and perspective. When did you hear there was going to be a siyum of the Sefer Torah? On the seventeenth—on 28 Shvat. The Rebbe said it needed to be completed, but that letters should be sold. As yeshivah students in New Jersey, we went around to stores with [unclear] for a dollar. The Rebbe said then that the money should specifically come from outside the country. Also from here, from Eretz Yisroel, from Kfar Chabad, no?

44:39 Speaker 2 Yes. There are those who want to say that the seabed was dry, but you stopped talking about that. The sea isn’t so shallow that it would be entirely dry. There are leading scientists who cite the formula. Could be. On Thursday evening my father arrived. Although my father wasn’t planning to come, in the end he heard that I was coming—or would be there. He arrived with the group that came on Thursday evening. So there, [unclear], people crowded together and sang, because this was [unclear]. People from Eretz Yisroel went in to bring the Rebbe money—community activists—and also the list of letters they had sold. Then the Rebbe called Rabbi Simpson. He came out and said, “Tomorrow at one-thirty there will be a farbrengen.” I don’t remember whether he said they would complete the Sefer Torah. As I said, I didn’t yet know that was going to happen. We didn’t know. I don’t remember, I don’t remember. There would be a farbrengen at one-thirty, on Friday afternoon. That Friday morning— You know, when I saw the Rebbe come down with a box, Rabbi Simpson went first with the Sefer Torah. I was a long way back. I didn’t know the Rebbe had written it. A few people knew. I thought the box contained the lists of people who had bought letters. As you know, there are pictures of it, including pictures of the Rebbe. Who came from Kfar Chabad? Reb Sholom Chaim. Many people. Oh yes, many. The Rabbi’s father also came a second time. You’re asking about the older group? Many came, especially from the older group. My father came with [unclear]; Reb Kesselman came. Reb Kesselman. I remember it as though it were today. I went to meet my father at the airport. You know, you can still see it today, but back then you could see even more clearly how Reb—

46:57 Speaker 2 Sholom Chaim walked, with his two sons on either side. He walked with such vitality. I still remember that vitality. Wait, his two sons were on either side? You know, if I’m not mistaken, the Rebbe called him [unclear]. For example, there’s that reference I’m known for in connection with the pesukim, where he’s listed as Reb Sholom Chaim Kesselman. I think [unclear] is written next to it; I think we’ll get to that shortly. In connection with [unclear], the Rebbe called him [unclear]. So the Rebbe was very serious about this whole project. The Rebbe said—he simply went through it possuk by possuk. There really was tension. There was tension. It was a terrible ordeal. A terrible ordeal. For each person in his own way. Each person. And there were those who thought the Rebbe would reveal himself at any moment. I remember, you know, after the farbrengen I went with my father to my aunt’s. We went to the mikveh nearby and then, uh, along [unclear], down the steps toward 770. My aunt stood there, blessing us—well, [unclear]. I don’t remember what she said, but my father answered her, “On the contrary, in a good way—Reb, arrange it for us, the [unclear]—” I remember—

48:39 Speaker 8 What I wanted to say about the Shabbos maamar—I don’t know if it appears in the maamar—the Rebbe mentioned the analogy of the king’s son, and the Rebbe cried. Pouring and pouring and pouring and pouring. Here the Rebbe cried. You could—

49:08 Speaker 2 Drops, with the king’s son.

49:14 Speaker 8 You keep pouring and pouring, and perhaps one drop will go in.

49:17 Speaker 2 Because the king’s son is already in a condition where it’s doubtful whether any will go in at all.

49:21 Speaker 8 The Rebbe cried at that point.

49:22 Speaker 2 Yes.

49:22 Speaker 8 Shabbos.

49:23 Speaker 2 Yes.

49:26 Speaker 8 Before that, the Rebbe was the chazzan.

49:28 Speaker 2 Yes. When the Rebbe was the chazzan on Shabbos, it was quite a scene. People pushed to hear the Rebbe, and then pushed to be there for Maftir. The bochurim were, as they say—

49:40 Speaker 8 Like what’s written about the Kohen Gadol on Yom Kippur: those who see one part of the service don’t see the other.

49:44 Speaker 2 Right. By the way, the Rebbe says that about himself. Look, with the dollar from [unclear].

49:51 Speaker 8 What?

49:53 Speaker 2 Well, [unclear], and after that the Rebbe didn’t come downstairs at all.

49:59 Speaker 8 They should go and work on the issue of “Who is a Jew?”

50:00 Speaker 2 Whoever went to speak in a shul about “Who is a Jew?” would receive—the Rebbe would stand at the entrance to his room and distribute dollars. The Rebbe also issued a general-personal letter dated 7 Menachem Av about “Who is a Jew?” So in practice, the Rebbe stood at the entrance to his room and gave each person—

50:16 Speaker 8 So that was for [unclear]?

50:18 Speaker 2 Um, no. The letter was dated 7 Menachem Av. Seven—we’re going back to what we said. In any case, the Rebbe stood there and gave each person a dollar and a copy of the letter. Well, there were those who had gone on Merkos shlichus, so they didn’t receive that dollar. One of those who had gone on Merkos shlichus later wrote to the Rebbe, “Why did I cause us to miss out on the dollar?” So the Rebbe wrote—

50:44 Speaker 8 You—

50:46 Speaker 2 [unclear]. After all, they did receive one: when they went on Merkos shlichus, they received a dollar.

50:51 Speaker 8 Mm-hm.

50:53 Speaker 2 So the Rebbe wrote that about himself.

50:58 Speaker 8 [unclear]. There was also [unclear] on Shabbos, the big, official one, so to speak.

51:03 Speaker 2 Long.

51:03 Speaker 8 Long. And also on 20 Shvat.

51:12 Speaker 2 [unclear] from the tenth to 20 Shvat.

51:14 Speaker 8 Shimshon.

51:15 Speaker 2 Shimshon, I think, was much older then.

51:26 Speaker 8 And the whole group stayed until the tenth of—

51:29 Speaker 2 Shvat.

51:30 Speaker 8 Until Shvat.

51:30 Speaker 2 Except for Reb [unclear], who had already been there on 19 Kislev. So during Shvat, the Rebbe gave mashke as a blessing for my father. After all, he distributed a lot of mashke.

51:44 Speaker 8 When? During Shvat, in connection with the trip—leaving on 20 Shvat.

51:47 Speaker 2 Yes. I didn’t know, but afterward I found out that the travelers had already been secretly instructed to come to Minchah with their suitcases. I knew nothing about it. Then, suddenly, there was a farbrengen, and [unclear]. Even though I was with my father the whole time.

52:03 Speaker 8 You stayed with your father all week.

52:05 Speaker 2 No, not all week.

52:06 Speaker 8 No? Right. You went back—

52:08 Speaker 2 I was there that day. And actually, no, I remember traveling the day before. [unclear].

52:20 Speaker 8 At the farbrengen, the Rebbe said a maamar.

52:22 Speaker 2 A maamar.

52:23 Speaker 8 [unclear].

52:24 Speaker 2 [unclear]. At the time, [unclear] was the well-known tzaddik. Yes, Kennedy and [unclear]. What was I going to say about Beshalach? On Shabbos Beshalach, before the farbrengen, Rabbi Simpson [?] went up to the table and banged on it, before the Rebbe came down. We knew that the Rebbe had returned from the Ohel on Thursday, Tu BiShvat, and that Rabbi Simpson [?] had gone in. Anyway, Rabbi Simpson [?] announced that the Rebbe had asked him to convey: “Didan Notzach.” Not many people know that.

53:04 Speaker 8 What do you mean? When on Shabbos was this?

53:07 Speaker 2 The Rebbe said it on Tu BiShvat, when he returned from the Ohel.

53:11 Speaker 8 Yes.

53:12 Speaker 2 Rabbi Simpson [?] didn’t go in on Shabbos. I remember seeing Rabbi Simpson [?] go in after the Rebbe returned from the Ohel on Tu BiShvat. The Rebbe asked him to convey “Didan Notzach.” That’s what he announced.

53:23 Speaker 8 When did he announce it? Friday night?

53:25 Speaker 2 On Shabbos day, before the farbrengen.

53:27 Speaker 8 In everyone’s presence—before the Rebbe came in.

53:28 Speaker 2 Before the Rebbe came in.

53:31 Speaker 8 But Yosef didn’t explain it. “Didan Notzach”?

53:33 Speaker 2 Yes.

53:41 Speaker 8 On Shabbos, was the Rebbe still speaking about the group that had arrived from—the group that had arrived from Eretz Yisroel, or...?

53:47 Speaker 2 No, no, this was in the month of Shvat.

53:49 Speaker 8 The month of Shvat, ah. What were you starting to say about what the Rebbe said to Shalom Chaim?

53:53 Speaker 2 Ah, I think the Rebbe turned to Shalom Chaim to give him mashke and said l’chaim—that’s how I remember it. There were several people. Four received not only mashke, but the Rebbe also took an envelope out of the back of his siddur. Inside was a check for two thousand dollars. In fact, the first person the Rebbe turned to when he arrived was “the shliach of our friend, shlita.”

54:18 Speaker 8 Shazar’s shliach.

54:20 Speaker 2 Shazar.

54:20 Speaker 8 No.

54:21 Speaker 2 On Shazar’s behalf.

54:23 Speaker 8 “The shliach of our friend, shlita.”

54:27 Speaker 2 After that—

54:28 Speaker 8 The Rebbe gave him a box.

54:29 Speaker 2 Yes, that’s how I remember it. More new stories. The Rebbe would send him new stories. He would send the Rebbe stories he had managed to save. Anyway.

54:52 Speaker 8 After that, after the [unclear].

54:54 Speaker 2 I don’t remember the order, but I do remember four checks.

54:57 Speaker 8 Mm-hmm.

54:58 Speaker 2 Apparently he was the first. The first was Noach [unclear] Galitzin [?], whom the Rebbe gave mashke for Tzemach Tzedek, and he also took an envelope out of the back of the siddur. The second was Rabbi Yaroslavsky, for Nachlah—Nachlas Har Chabad was on the agenda then.

55:12 Speaker 8 Yes, so he was, like—

55:15 Speaker 2 A check for him too. After that came Reb Shlomo Maidanchik from Kfar Chabad. The Rebbe turned to him and gave him a check and mashke as well. Then the Rebbe announced, “Who here is in charge of the Kfar Chabad building?” But my father didn’t—

55:30 Speaker 8 Translate it: Is there someone here involved in the construction in Kfar Chabad?

55:37 Speaker 2 Construction. It might have been, “the person in charge of construction.” I don’t remember, and my father didn’t answer. Anyway, a few seconds passed; the Rebbe looked at the table and then said, “[unclear].” So my father went up. They were all standing together, the Kfar Chabad group, down to the Rebbe’s left, opposite him. The Rebbe gave him mashke too, to take back to Eretz Yisroel. When the first building was ready, they were to hold a farbrengen there and distribute some of the mashke. Then the Rebbe also took an envelope out of the back of his siddur, with a check for two thousand dollars toward construction in Kfar Chabad.

56:17 Speaker 8 Apart from what he gave Shlomke for Kfar Chabad, he gave money for construction in Kfar Chabad.

56:22 Speaker 2 Yes. My father asked whether it mattered which building it was—a public building or a private one. He said it didn’t matter: whichever building was ready first.

56:33 Speaker 8 Which building was it, specifically?

56:36 Speaker 2 It seems the first building actually was one of the buildings here in this neighborhood.

56:39 Speaker 8 Here in the housing development.

56:40 Speaker 2 So that was what they built.

56:41 Speaker 8 What’s called the “new housing development” today—that was exactly what they called it.

56:44 Speaker 2 It was called the “new housing development” then.

56:45 Speaker 8 Yes.

56:45 Speaker 2 And that was the new housing development. But the thing is, the Rebbe wasn’t in a hurry at all. Even though the flight was supposed to be, say, at six, he didn’t hurry, and he didn’t hurry when he came out to see them off either. I thought to myself that the secretariat had probably called El Al, because it was a large group running late. They weren’t rushed at the terminal either, so apparently that had been taken care of too. Now, there was a farbrengen that Shabbos and every Shabbos afterward, until the Shabbos near the beginning of Adar I. On all those Shabbosos there was a maamar with a niggun from the hemshech—a portion of the hemshech. What do they say, a niggun every Shabbos? Only on the Shabbos near the beginning of Adar I, that whole Shabbos near the beginning of Adar I.

57:43 Speaker 8 Did you come to the Rebbe for Pesach?

57:45 Speaker 2 Yes, certainly.

57:46 Speaker 8 Were you at the Seder?

57:48 Speaker 2 Yes.

57:49 Speaker 8 Even though you weren’t part of the group?

57:51 Speaker 2 No, by then people had already gone in. The Rebbe didn’t say—[unclear]—no.

57:58 Speaker 8 What?

57:59 Speaker 2 When it began, there was a lot of pushing at the door. The Rebbe said something about [unclear]—as if to say that if some were allowed in, everyone might as well come in. I went in; there are things I saw. No, by then it was already [unclear]. But what stayed with me especially from both nights was the way the Rebbe poured Eliyahu’s cup back into the pitcher—the cup of Eliyahu, into the—

58:27 Speaker 8 The bottle.

58:28 Speaker 2 It was a sight to see. The Rebbe poured it back, then wiped the edge of the tray against the rim of the cup, and poured it back into the pitcher. All the while they were singing “Keili Atah.” The Rebbe was very serious.

58:45 Speaker 8 Standing?

58:45 Speaker 2 And it took a while. What?

58:46 Speaker 8 Standing?

58:47 Speaker 2 No, no, sitting.

58:48 Speaker 8 Keeping his balance.

58:49 Speaker 2 Yes, it took a while. Afterward, when the Rebbe went down to his room, the bochurim stood in two rows all the way to the door, and beyond it, along the stairs to the door of the Rebbe’s room, singing “Keili Atah.” It was a very regal sight.

59:20 Speaker 8 They stood on the stairs themselves? It’s very narrow there.

59:22 Speaker 2 Yes.

59:23 Speaker 8 After all, in the past—

59:24 Speaker 2 They stood close to the door, close to the wall, and the Rebbe passed through.

59:28 Speaker 8 Was he carrying anything? A siddur?

59:30 Speaker 2 The siddur, certainly.

59:31 Speaker 8 The Haggadah?

59:32 Speaker 2 Yes. Yes.

59:33 Speaker 8 Not the cup either.

59:35 Speaker 2 I don’t remember. That night we also saw the Rebbe walking together with the Rebbetzin.

59:51 Speaker 8 Where, on Union?

59:52 Speaker 2 On Union. The Rebbe came out onto Kingston, and the Rebbetzin came out by the path near what used to be the pond—

1:00:00 Speaker 8 The Tashlich pond.

1:00:01 Speaker 2 The Tashlich pond. They met there and walked together. Many bochurim followed at a distance. It was silent, and they could hear the Rebbe’s voice. They couldn’t make out what he was saying, but they could hear the Rebbe speaking. The Rebbe was much taller than her, much taller.

1:00:26 Speaker 8 You saw the Rebbe again later—that sounds like something we’ll hear about further on.

1:00:29 Speaker 2 Yes, that’s what I mentioned in my last question.

1:00:34 Speaker 8 Something about a thermos.

1:00:35 Speaker 2 Yes.

1:00:36 Speaker 8 Maybe we should tell it now, so we don’t forget.

1:00:42 Speaker 2 The Seder was—come, let’s get to it. I have something to tell about Shavuos.

1:00:47 Speaker 8 Go on.

1:00:47 Speaker 2 About Shavuos. Why am I telling it? Because I’ve seen people tell it incorrectly.

1:00:52 Speaker 8 That’s why we’re here. We’re here to hear everything.

1:00:55 Speaker 2 There’s a newsletter, and they wrote about “Ki Elokim Yoshia Tzion” that it happened on Shavuos 5737. They got it wrong. They probably took it from somewhere else. I was an eyewitness on the second day of Shavuos.

1:01:08 Speaker 8 In 5735.

1:01:09 Speaker 2 In 5735. I don’t know where I got the nerve. Really, when I think about it today—I was only sixteen. Anyway, after Musaf, which finished late, I was in the shul and thought, I’ll go upstairs for the meal.

1:01:26 Speaker 8 You’d go upstairs to the meal the Rebbe was having in the Frierdiker Rebbe’s home.

1:01:32 Speaker 2 Yes. I got there—I got to the back stairs. It wasn’t by the stairs the Rebbe used; I took the middle stairs, where the bars are today, which lead to the back of the kitchen door. I saw Reb Dovid Raskin standing there, also waiting to get in. That door has a window at the top. The housekeeper or cook looked out and recognized Reb Dovid, so she opened the door for him, and I slipped in too. When you enter there, you come in behind the Rebbe. I didn’t want the Rebbe to see me, so I came in from that door, through the hallway. The table was right there. The Rebbe was sitting where you are; the entrance was over there, not over here. That’s how you came in. I stood behind the Rebbe.

1:02:22 Speaker 8 In other words, you stood by a door where the Rebbe wouldn’t normally see you.

1:02:25 Speaker 2 Yes. Just then, Rabbi Shalom Chaskind, who was sitting here—

1:02:32 Speaker 8 On the other side of the table.

1:02:33 Speaker 2 At the end—he sang “Ki Elokim Yoshia Tzion.” He sang it, and the Rebbe looked at him like this and listened to the niggun. He sang the whole niggun. Then the Rebbe asked, “Who composed the niggun?” Chaim Boruch volunteered that the bochurim had. So the Rebbe said it would be a good thing to sing it at the farbrengen that day. From then on, it became the farbrengen niggun—the first niggun sung at every farbrengen.

1:03:06 Speaker 8 Because it was the kapitel.

1:03:07 Speaker 2 Because that was the first time a niggun had been composed for the Rebbe’s kapitel. Then the Rebbe said everyone should say l’chaim. Those who hadn’t made Kiddush yet should make Kiddush and say l’chaim. So Rabbi Dovid started getting ready to make Kiddush. He looked at me, intending to include me in his Kiddush. I ran away. What was I doing there, saying l’chaim? I ran away. I walked out facing the Rebbe. I left. What am I trying to say? I’ve seen it written that on the first night of Shavuos, Reb Shmuel [unclear] sang it, and so on. That isn’t accurate. It isn’t accurate. I was an eyewitness. Reb Shmuel wasn’t singing. Sholom Chasni was singing. It doesn’t matter, but it isn’t accurate.

1:03:55 Speaker 8 So that was Shavuos of 5735. Just recently I asked someone whether, besides those who set up the meals, bochurim used to go upstairs for the meals.

1:04:03 Speaker 2 That’s it. They didn’t go up, and no one was there except Meir [unclear] and Reb Dovid, and Chaim Boruch was [unclear]. The ones standing there were [unclear].

1:04:13 Speaker 8 Yes, but—

1:04:14 Speaker 2 Apart from that, no one was there. I don’t know where I got that picture from. I really don’t know.

1:04:21 Speaker 8 Everything works out, so that we’ll have genuine, accurate testimony about it.

1:04:27 Speaker 2 You know, since we’re talking about a niggun that people don’t sing correctly, and the incorrect version has caught on: when the Rebbe taught “Ha’aderes Veha’emunah,” he sang it four, four, four times, and the fifth and sixth were already: “The glory and the faithfulness belong to the One Who lives forever; the understanding and the blessing belong to the One Who lives forever; the greatness and the might belong to the One Who lives forever; the knowledge and the speech belong to the One Who lives forever; the splendor and the majesty belong to the One Who lives forever; the counsel and the steadfastness belong to the One Who lives forever,” la, la, la. I remember for certain that this is how the Rebbe sang it in [unclear].

1:05:18 Speaker 8 5734?

1:05:18 Speaker 2 That was how all six went. In 5734. That was how all six went. The Rebbe put a particular emphasis on it.

1:05:28 Speaker 8 Maybe it changed later? Not when he taught it. Not when he taught it.

1:05:32 Speaker 2 Or maybe it did, yes. Most people don’t sing it that way. Those who know, know. No, no, no. There are things people don’t sing the way they were sung with the Rebbe. For example, the niggun Shalosh Tenuos. People don’t sing it the way it was sung with the Rebbe. With the Rebbe, they sang all three tenuos for each of the three: all three for the Baal Shem Tov, all three for the Maggid, all three for the Arizal. Today the custom is to do a shortened version.

1:06:06 Speaker 8 A generation that has no time.

1:06:08 Speaker 2 All three for—for, how do you say it? The second one for the Maggid, the third for the Arizal. Likewise, for example—this is important too. Since we’re talking about niggunim that aren’t sung the way they were with the Rebbe, there was one every year, the—

1:06:33 Speaker 8 A niggun they sang with the Rebbe every year?

1:06:36 Speaker 2 On the solemn day, on Yom Kippur.

1:06:37 Speaker 8 Yes.

1:06:38 Speaker 2 Every time.

1:06:40 Speaker 8 [Unclear]?

1:06:42 Speaker 2 No, no. Um—

1:06:45 Speaker 8 “Ki Anu Amecha.”

1:06:45 Speaker 2 “Ki Anu Amecha.” “For we are Your people and You are our G-d; we are Your children and You are our Father. We are…” No, no, we won’t finish it. That’s not enough.

1:07:12 Speaker 8 Tell me, then. Everyone sings it. What were you starting to say?

1:07:29 Speaker 2 “You are our G-d; we are Your children and You are our Father; we are Your servants and You are our Master.” In other words, they sing the melody all the way through, and afterward they go back to the words.

1:07:47 Speaker 8 Mm-hmm.

1:07:48 Speaker 2 That was always how it was with the Rebbe. Today they do it all together.

1:07:51 Speaker 8 They’re in a hurry.

1:07:55 Speaker 2 Anyway. And they don’t write about [unclear], because whoever noted it doesn’t mention that on Simchas Torah of 5734, the Rebbe sang it solo.

1:08:07 Speaker 8 By himself.

1:08:07 Speaker 2 The entire niggun.

1:08:08 Speaker 8 The Rebbe started it.

1:08:09 Speaker 2 Yes. He didn’t just start it—he sang the entire niggun.

1:08:11 Speaker 8 He started it and kept going.

1:08:12 Speaker 2 And sang the entire niggun. In other words, they’re missing that too. What they say there isn’t all accurate. Incidentally, since we’re talking about Simchas Torah of 5734, the Rebbe also sang [unclear] solo. There, too, the Rebbe was precise about a particular emphasis: “[unclear],” “[unclear].” “[Unclear],” “[unclear].” “[Unclear],” “[unclear].” “[Unclear],” “[unclear].” Only the first time; the second time is like in “Anim Zemiros,” for example. There’s a precise distinction the first time. Do you understand what I mean?

1:09:05 Speaker 8 That the first time—

1:09:08 Speaker 2 Ah, ah… This is one the Rebbe taught: “I shall make sweet songs and weave melodies, for my soul longs for You; my soul desires the shelter of Your hand, to know every secret of Your mystery.” “My soul desires the shelter of Your hand, to know every secret of Your mystery.” In other words, that’s the way to make the distinction. I could have also—

1:09:54 Speaker 8 That the first time there’s more—

1:09:55 Speaker 2 The first time, no. So that’s how it was with [unclear] too: the first time, but not the second.

1:10:04 Speaker 8 The first time had more of that emphasis, more of a pleading quality. What else was there on Simchas Torah of 5734? We’ve already—

1:10:16 Speaker 2 On Simchas Torah of 5734, there was a vort from the Rebbe. You probably know it better than I do, since you worked on it afterward. The Rebbe said, for example, that he doesn’t like calling a Jew “secular.” Why? Because the word means “mundane,” and no Jew is mundane. There’s a Jew who is intensely involved, passionately involved, in the Torah of Moshe, and there’s a Jew who is intensely and passionately involved in the teachings of Marx, lehavdil. Then the Rebbe smiled and said that you can’t even say “lehavdil” about that, because Marx was a Jew. You know this.

1:10:56 Speaker 8 Here we listen to everything. We want to relive it, to experience it; it doesn’t matter what we already know. To be refreshed, to have freshness—that’s the whole purpose, even with things we know. That’s why I travel—I really try to travel all over the country—so that Jews will be inspired. I’m inspired too, refreshed by hearing Jews tell their stories, seeing their eyes light up over those everyday experiences. When did that trip to [unclear] end? Do you remember Simchas Torah?

1:11:28 Speaker 2 I remember Simchas Torah. I remember that on Simchas Torah, my chavrusa and I were nearby.

1:11:31 Speaker 8 Who was your chavrusa?

1:11:32 Speaker 2 His name was [unclear]. It still is. He was later among the shluchim to Israel. He was there for a little while.

1:11:38 Speaker 8 He was the rabbi of Lod.

1:11:39 Speaker 2 Yes, he’s Rabbi Shimon [unclear]’s son-in-law.

1:11:44 Speaker 8 Rabbi Shimon [unclear]. Yes, that’s right. So, getting back to it, you came and became close to that circle.

1:11:54 Speaker 2 Yes, though we hadn’t become part of it officially yet. It was at his [unclear] that Rabbi Shlomo Zalman was appointed our mashpia. The truth is, we got a great deal from him. He consulted with us.

1:12:04 Speaker 8 So when he was appointed mashpia, there was more—

1:12:06 Speaker 2 That was when he was appointed mashpia.

1:12:06 Speaker 8 Some of them wanted to travel for the seventieth year.

1:12:08 Speaker 2 Right.

1:12:08 Speaker 8 Well, what can you tell us?

1:12:10 Speaker 2 The seventieth year was later.

1:12:11 Speaker 8 Yes.

1:12:12 Speaker 2 But he had actually wanted to travel to [unclear]. He received an instruction from the Rebbe to join the yeshivah, and he became—our class was his first class.

1:12:25 Speaker 8 So during the months when you weren’t [unclear] bochurim—I don’t remember—you were on Merkos Shlichus, and you were sixteen.

1:12:30 Speaker 2 No—yes.

1:12:30 Speaker 8 But you did [unclear].

1:12:31 Speaker 2 Yes. I understand.

1:12:33 Speaker 8 To see the Rebbe day after day.

1:12:35 Speaker 2 Yes. And besides that, especially on summer Shabbosos, the place was empty. That summer, the Rebbe spoke—the Rebbe continued the farbrengen until a quarter to seven, because there was a break for a Jew’s tea, and at many of the farbrengens the Rebbe didn’t make Kiddush. He did make Kiddush after Shabbos Sukkos.

1:12:58 Speaker 8 Yes, that was—you saw the difference: on Shabbos Sukkos he made Kiddush.

1:13:01 Speaker 2 Certainly. On Shabbos Sukkos, presumably he needed to [unclear]. But ordinarily you see the words of Kiddush over wine printed at the beginning of the transcript. So without Kiddush, without tasting anything since morning, he spoke until a quarter to seven. Several times it went until six-thirty.

1:13:24 Speaker 8 And it was a small crowd, not a large one. People were in the country—

1:13:26 Speaker 2 No, it was certainly small.

1:13:27 Speaker 8 The bochurim were on Merkos Shlichus—

1:13:29 Speaker 2 In the country, on Merkos Shlichus, at camps.

1:13:30 Speaker 8 But the farbrengens were downstairs; there wasn’t—

1:13:32 Speaker 2 Yes, of course, of course. What’s striking here is that the Rebbe didn’t need to eat. He didn’t need to eat or drink. The Rebbe could speak for hours. Ordinarily, a person’s mouth would get dry. When the Rebbe went to the Ohel and came back after many hours, he would come down to a farbrengen before going home. Now, the cake was very fresh; they baked it especially for the Rebbe. When the Rebbe came down, he would always make a mezonos blessing and then a hagafen. With the mezonos, the Rebbe generally wanted to eat the required amount. Generally. There were a few times when he didn’t eat that amount, apparently relying on the view that one can do without it too—for example, if he wanted to start speaking immediately. But ordinarily the Rebbe made a real effort to eat the required amount. It took a special effort for the Rebbe to eat that amount, even though the cake was fresh and the Rebbe didn’t need to eat.

1:14:35 Speaker 8 In other words, you’re saying that even though, physically speaking, it was supposedly fine—

1:14:38 Speaker 2 But it was a halachic measure, a spiritual measure: to eat that amount. And it took a special effort on the Rebbe’s part. Then the Rebbe made hagafen over the wine. Do you know how he would do it? Are you familiar with the way the Rebbe would first—

1:14:54 Speaker 8 I’m not familiar with it. I don’t know any of this. Go on.

1:14:56 Speaker 2 The Rebbe said his own l’chaim before he started responding l’chaim to people—his own l’chaim. So first the Rashag [?], then he took some, and then they began singing. The Rebbe started responding l’chaim to people.

1:15:10 Speaker 8 In other words, first, on his own—

1:15:12 Speaker 2 Yes.

1:15:12 Speaker 8 He would say it, as though, to himself.

1:15:14 Speaker 2 Yes.

1:15:15 Speaker 8 How much did he drink from the cup?

1:15:17 Speaker 2 Not much, not much. A taste.

1:15:28 Speaker 8 And then Elul came, Elul of 5730.

1:15:31 Speaker 2 Elul leading into 5731.

1:15:33 Speaker 8 Elul—heading toward 5731.

1:15:35 Speaker 2 Ah, 5731.

1:15:38 Speaker 8 Were you already [unclear] bochurim? Tishrei 5731.

1:15:42 Speaker 2 Tishrei 5731, Tishrei 5731. On Rosh Hashanah 5731, during the shofar blowing—I don’t remember whether it was the first day or the second, but it was when the days fell on Thursday, Friday and Shabbos. I don’t remember whether it was the first day or the second.

1:15:56 Speaker 8 That was the shofar blowing that took a long time.

1:15:57 Speaker 2 Because the shofar blowing took maybe fifty minutes.

1:16:01 Speaker 8 Fifty minutes?

1:16:04 Speaker 2 Yes, that’s what people said then. People simply fainted; they carried out people who had fainted. Whoever had been standing here ended up there, and whoever had been standing there ended up here. This was still the old shul, the smaller one. Smaller compared with [unclear], but bigger than [unclear]. Yes. What was the Rebbe doing then? He wanted a clear shofar blast to come out. He tried—he tried changing shofars, cleaning one from the other end, and adjusting his lips. He wanted it to be—Usually the Rebbe didn’t do that: when a blast came out, it came out. That was how all the shofar blowing went. Here he wanted a clear blast. There was tension. What was it? [unclear]? Yes. Who was thinking about the tension? People thought to time it, but only afterward. That’s what they say. I didn’t look at my watch. I don’t know, maybe it’s an exaggeration; maybe it wasn’t fifty, maybe it was forty-five or forty minutes. It was a very long time. And then there was a blast, and...? Yes. Then Sukkos came. On Sukkos, [unclear]... Already at the convention, at the Tzach conference, the secretaries were running back and forth so that someone from every country would speak, and so on. That had already begun then. Oh, really? Yes. There was an instruction that someone from every—Yes, yes, yes, yes. The secretaries wanted someone from every country to speak. And he was the one in charge. Yes. Simchas Torah. Simchas Torah. This was Simchas Torah. Did you feel it was something heavenly? Of course. Tell us. The Rebbe personally dealt with it, with all the deliberations over who had been in this country and who had been in that country. The Rebbe chose them himself. Afterward? On the sixteenth. When it arrived. No. When he arrived—he arrived in 5731, though. He arrived on Purim night, didn’t he? Purim night of 5741. Yes. So why did he [unclear]? There was a long maamar, based on a maamar of the Tzemach Tzedek. Afterward, the Rebbe brought out [unclear] of his own and connected it to the maamar

1:19:24 Speaker 2 of the Tzemach Tzedek. [Unclear]. A very long maamar. At the farbrengen on the night of Simchas Torah 5731—when the Rebbe appointed the representatives of the countries on Simchas Torah night, 15 [unclear] 5731—he appointed Reb Abba Pliskin as the representative of Australia, because Reb Abba Pliskin had been in Australia as a shliach of the Frierdiker Rebbe since [unclear] 5721. So at a farbrengen that year, the Rebbe spoke a sicha about Melbourne: that very day, a contract had been signed for the purchase of a building for the Tomchei Temimim yeshiva in Melbourne. The Rebbe spoke a sicha and gave blessings and instructions. When the Rebbe finished the sicha, he said, “Nu, the representative of Australia is here,” and began looking for him. Reb Abba usually stood at the very edge of the platform at the Rebbe’s farbrengens. We’ve already spoken about how Reb Abba was very much a chossid of [unclear]. So the Rebbe began looking around for him, turning to the sides and behind him. “Reb Abba, Rabbi Reb Abba, Rabbi Pliskin, where are you hiding?” As he said this, the Rebbe turned toward the chassidim seated behind him, to the left or the right, until Reb Abba finally appeared at the edge of the Rebbe’s platform and said l’chaim to the Rebbe. The Rebbe answered him with a radiant expression. [Unclear] was on Thursday evening. On Shabbos, the Rebbe spoke about several things. First, the Rebbe began: there’s a matter that needs to be completed—we still need to speak about [unclear], about his part in the matter of [unclear] z”l.

1:21:17 Speaker 9 That’s how he began.

1:21:18 Speaker 2 Yes, I think so. Or perhaps it wasn’t the first sicha; it was the second. In any event, it was among the first sichos.

1:21:25 Speaker 9 But to complete it, to speak about the matter of [unclear]—

1:21:27 Speaker 2 Yes, about [unclear], about his part in the matter of [unclear] z”l. Then the Rebbe said that those involved in educating boys should say l’chaim. The Rebbe called out to Rabbi Majeski [?]—Rabbi Majeski [?] is Shloime’s father—who was the principal of the elementary school. He wasn’t someone who would necessarily come close to Rabbi Berel, so they wanted to call him over, and he lived on Empire. When he came, the Rebbe said l’chaim to him with a smile.

1:21:59 Speaker 9 By then you were becoming [unclear]. So on those nights when there was yechidus, would you wait to hear what came out of it? Was that—

1:22:07 Speaker 2 I don’t know; I wasn’t particularly among those—

1:22:08 Speaker 9 You were one of the younger ones; you were still young.

1:22:11 Speaker 2 Yes, I wasn’t necessarily there to listen.

1:22:13 Speaker 9 When—on which days was yechidus held then?

1:22:16 Speaker 2 Sunday and Thursday.

1:22:17 Speaker 9 Sunday and Thursday. And if it was Yud Shvat, [unclear], was there still yechidus?

1:22:23 Speaker 2 No, no. Yud Shvat—that year Yud Shvat was on Friday, and the eleventh was on Shabbos. On Shabbos, two chassidim were sitting there and got into an argument during—in the middle of the first sicha.

1:22:52 Speaker 9 Right there.

1:22:53 Speaker 2 No, the arrangement then was that people sat back to back. There were benches where people sat back to back, so they wouldn’t be looking at each other. One of them—while the Rebbe was saying the sicha, he stopped and turned as white as your shirt. He rose up like this and looked. Then one of them started speaking to the Rebbe: “He’s bothering me. He knows he bothers me; he always bothers me.” The Rebbe’s face became simply—how should I put it—frightening. So Reb Yoel started a niggun. When they finished the niggun, the Rebbe turned to Reb Yoel and said, “I’ll forgo the sicha, but I won’t forgo the maamar.” What did that mean? The Rebbe signaled to Reb Yoel to begin the niggun before the maamar, and they sang that niggun.

1:23:54 Speaker 9 A very deep maamar.

1:23:55 Speaker 2 A very deep maamar. But one thing is that the Rebbe did not start a niggun. The usual practice was that when there was a farbrengen, after Minchah, as the Rebbe began to leave, he would start a niggun. Here the Rebbe didn’t start a niggun, and that continued until Shabbos Hagadol. On Shabbos Hagadol, the Rebbe started a niggun again.

1:24:38 Speaker 10 Which one? Was there a regular niggun that he always...?

1:24:41 Speaker 2 No, no. Sometimes “Nit, Nit,” sometimes another one. On Shabbos Hagadol it may have been “Lachash.” “Lachash”—

1:24:48 Speaker 10 All kinds.

1:24:52 Speaker 2 So it could vary. There were niggunim the Rebbe liked.

1:24:55 Speaker 10 But when the Rebbe heard there was an argument, it changed everything.

1:25:00 Speaker 2 Yes. He didn’t start a niggun until Shabbos Hagadol. That was—

1:25:06 Speaker 10 That was 15 Shvat, and the maamar.

1:25:08 Speaker 2 15 Shvat, and the maamar. On the Shabbos before 11 Nissan 5731—the Rebbe spoke about it. The Rebbe said that on 15 Shvat, when he had been at the Ohel, they had pushed him to hold a farbrengen.

1:25:29 Speaker 10 “They pushed me.”

1:25:34 Speaker 2 “I didn’t know whether to hold a farbrengen or not. In the end it became clear—now it’s become clear—there’s the discussion about the conquest of the Temple Mount, and now there’s an outcry about yeshiva students.”

1:25:46 Speaker 10 In America there was—

1:25:46 Speaker 2 In America.

1:25:47 Speaker 10 Something about their studies [?]. [Unclear], and not...

1:25:52 Speaker 2 “And now I know that being pushed is [unclear]. I don’t need to insist.”

1:25:58 Speaker 10 “If they push me, I don’t need to.”

1:25:59 Speaker 2 That you hold a farbrengen. And that was the Shabbos before 11 Nissan. So everyone took it into account that they needed to be ready, and—

1:26:06 Speaker 10 Until then, after all, there hadn’t been an 11 Nissan farbrengen. May we merit long life.

1:26:09 Speaker 2 Until then, there had been a farbrengen on 11 Nissan.

1:26:14 Speaker 10 The Rebbe also spoke about the group that had arrived, when there were no beds then.

1:26:18 Speaker 2 No, that was on the fifteenth of 5730.

1:26:20 Speaker 10 Ah, right, that had already happened. Right, right.

1:26:27 Speaker 2 15 Menachem Av 5731, before 17 Tammuz, before 11 Nissan—Shabbos Hagadol. Apparently now—then the Rebbe also spoke. The Rebbe spoke about the Rashi and Molech. That Rashi he spoke about was in Parshas Tzav; Molech is in Tzav.

1:26:46 Speaker 10 Yes.

1:26:51 Speaker 2 So the Rebbe said that at the wedding—his wedding, excuse me—Rabbi Meir Shapiro was there. “He wanted to discuss Torah study with me. As was my way, I avoided it. My father-in-law wanted me to discuss Torah study with him—”

1:27:09 Speaker 10 Torah study.

1:27:09 Speaker 2 “As was my way, I avoided it.” But afterward, as is known, he came over to him and said, “I must come to his hotel to speak with him a little.” They had spoken a little at the wedding, because he said to the Frierdiker Rebbe, “Nu, what is one to write? You’ve taken a son-in-law—”

1:27:24 Speaker 10 “An unknown genius.”

1:27:25 Speaker 2 But he did come to the hotel. In any event, the Rebbe said that he brought him his discourse—ah, his book.

1:27:30 Speaker 10 Or Omer.

1:27:31 Speaker 2 Or Omer. And there, if I remember correctly, he discusses what he says about that Rashi. That’s what I saw then, as I recall.

1:27:40 Speaker 10 That’s how the Rebbe put it.

1:27:41 Speaker 2 That’s how the Rebbe was, yes.

1:27:43 Speaker 10 If you remember a Rashi sicha, just describe it to me. Was it different from another sicha, from the usual sichos?

1:27:54 Speaker 2 Look, there were questions. That in itself was different. In a regular sicha, the Rebbe speaks through a subject as it develops. Here there were questions.

1:28:05 Speaker 10 Just describe it: was it as though the Rebbe was actually teaching, like a melamed? It may depend on the years. He’s talking about the earlier years. Could it be that at first they also sat with an open Chumash?

1:28:20 Speaker 2 I—I don’t know. I wasn’t there; I don’t know.

1:28:23 Speaker 10 But in your time, people knew which Rashi it would be.

1:28:26 Speaker 2 Yes, most of the time, yes. Yes. I mean, it took different forms at different times. There were times when there was a note, from what I heard; times when there was Waldman [?]. And there were times when the Rebbe would come and announce it before going up, before taking his place for davening.

1:28:56 Speaker 10 By 5731, there were no longer any arrangements?

1:28:59 Speaker 2 No.

1:29:05 Speaker 10 Where were you? Were you with the bochurim, or were you at your aunt’s?

1:29:08 Speaker 2 With the bochurim. Always with the bochurim.

1:29:10 Speaker 10 Do you remember when the Rebbe came to the hall?

1:29:12 Speaker 2 Of course.

1:29:13 Speaker 10 Was that at a farbrengen?

1:29:15 Speaker 2 Yes. By 15 Shvat he was already there. The Rebbe was very, very—how do you say it—happy, pleased with the—

1:29:22 Speaker 10 It was a more spacious place.

1:29:24 Speaker 2 A spacious place. He had already wanted it. Incidentally, the maamar [?]—[unclear]—of the farbrengen was without a microphone.

1:29:36 Speaker 10 Why?

1:29:37 Speaker 2 They hadn’t had time yet. It was really—the Rebbe came down right away.

1:29:40 Speaker 10 What happened? The Rebbe came down for the maamar [?]?

1:29:42 Speaker 2 No, for the farbrengen.

1:29:44 Speaker 10 Oh, he came down especially for a farbrengen, and nobody knew there would be one?

1:29:47 Speaker 2 Apparently not. They hadn’t had time to prepare. There was no microphone, as I recall. Not even a tablecloth on the table. They set it up as they went along.

1:29:59 Speaker 10 What happened that Purim when Shazar was there?

1:30:05 Speaker 2 The Rebbe came down with him. The Rebbe held him by the arm and walked with him—

1:30:10 Speaker 10 Arm in arm.

1:30:12 Speaker 2 Yes, all the way to his place. The room was full and crowded.

1:30:24 Speaker 10 At the Megillah reading, and...?

1:30:25 Speaker 2 The Rebbe gave him a Megillah as a gift, in a silver case. Beyond that, I don’t know many details, apart from what appears in the filmed video. I don’t know.

1:30:44 Speaker 10 The summer of 5731, “Shivti Beveis Hashem.” For you these are ordinary days; for us, every—look, you were there for so many years. This isn’t in chronological order. What do you remember?

1:31:01 Speaker 2 Look, there are always so many things I tell that ought to be told in order, but it doesn’t work out. That’s how it is. Something reminded me. Regarding the group of 15 Shvat, it wasn’t known that the Rebbe would speak on Shabbos [unclear] Nissan—a written sicha. The point was that [unclear] wasn’t planning to send affidavits to everyone who had requested them, because they had heard that certain bochurim weren’t keeping the schedules well enough and weren’t learning well enough. But the Rebbe very much wanted affidavits sent to everyone. The Rebbe said, in effect: When people come to Moshe Dayan and tell him that students want to travel to study pnimiyus haTorah, even though Moshe Dayan is involved in security, he understands it and accepts it—and precisely from here comes the obstruction. The Rebbe also spoke about the excuses they gave him: there weren’t enough towels, enough sheets, enough tomatoes. When the Rebbe said the part about Moshe Dayan at the farbrengen, he struck the table: “And precisely from here comes the obstruction.” The Rebbe struck the table—an extremely rare thing for the Rebbe to do. Then the Rebbe said, “They give me excuses: there aren’t enough sheets, there aren’t enough towels, there are no tomatoes.” The Rebbe said, “Excuses! But do I have to speak about these things? Do I have to speak about tomatoes? Do I have to speak about sheets and towels?” In any event, the Rebbe very, very much wanted them to give affidavits to all the bochurim. Of course, as became clear, the obstacle didn’t come from the Rashag. It came from other people in the administration—the yeshiva’s administrative side, not its spiritual side. Immediately after Shabbos, the Rashag gave a blanket instruction to send affidavits to everyone who requested one, without exception. Now, it was as though the Rebbe took this group under his wing in a special, personal way. As soon as they arrived, on Shabbos Hagadol, the Rebbe spoke about the intention—

1:33:15 Speaker 2 That they had come to learn and keep the schedules, and that this was to begin the very next day. Erev Pesach was on Monday; “the very next day” meant Sunday, when they should already keep the schedules. Interestingly, the zal was full—full on Sunday, the day before Erev Pesach. And Rabbi [unclear], who was known for how busy he was with the Rebbe’s matzos before Pesach, was in the zal all day. The zal was full. In that connection, the Rebbe mentioned a possuk then—it was in the eighth chapter, he says [unclear]—that they had to be in the zal all the time. On Acharon Shel Pesach, too, the Rebbe spoke about them. Over the summer, I think the Rebbe spoke about them several times. When the yeshiva administration came in, the Rebbe would also ask about the bochurim, because there really were bochurim who weren’t occupied with learning; they were busy with other things. For example, it was well known that once, during the summer, the administration came in. Rabbi Shmuel Levitin, who headed the administration—the administration would come in once a month—had always had a policy, going back even to the Frierdiker Rebbe, of speaking only about good things, nothing but good things. So here, too, he tried to speak favorably and say good things. The Rebbe said sharply, “Why are you telling me stories? I know what’s going on.” Well, on Shabbos [unclear], the Rebbe again spoke about the group. It was as though the Rebbe wasn’t pleased with how they were keeping the schedules or how they were learning. The Rebbe’s words were, going from the weightier matters to the lighter ones: “No avodah, no Chassidus, no nigleh, no avodas hatefillah, no Chassidus, no nigleh, no [unclear]—er farshteyt.” That’s what the Rebbe said: “Er farshteyt.” Presumably, the meaning is—

1:35:20 Speaker 2 “Farshteyt”—the meaning is that he is involved in it [unclear], even though he isn’t doing what he should. And the Rebbe said, “Send them back to Eretz Hakodesh.” He said, “I mean even before Yom Tov.” Of course, nobody was sent back. The Rebbe always treated everyone with kindness and mercy, especially yeshiva bochurim, and nobody was sent back. And in general, the Rebbe had a longer view. Boruch Hashem, they all became chassidim and men of action. Some of them run large Chabad Houses, and others are involved in spreading the wellsprings. But it was very important to the Rebbe that the group devote itself to keeping the schedules properly, with diligence and persistence. But in what year was the song?

1:36:11 Speaker 11 Wait, before that, I didn’t ask: on your birthday in 5731, did you go into yechidus again?

1:36:17 Speaker 2 Yes.

1:36:18 Speaker 11 Only on your birthday? You didn’t go in otherwise?

1:36:19 Speaker 2 Only on my birthday.

1:36:20 Speaker 11 What happened on your birth—what was the yechi—

1:36:21 Speaker 2 Then, when I had to leave the country in 5737.

1:36:22 Speaker 11 Yes, we’ll get to that in a moment. But what happened in the yechidus in...?

1:36:29 Speaker 2 Well.

1:36:29 Speaker 11 You wrote about it in [unclear]. Was there a difference between the first yechidus and the second?

1:36:36 Speaker 2 In the first, I asked more questions that were troubling me. The second... Look, we didn’t always know. The Rebbe himself said that. We didn’t always know how to make proper use of a yechidus. Not always. That’s why the Rebbe discontinued it. In several yechiduyos, the Rebbe urged me to be organized—to be organized in my studies. To say I followed through on that? I didn’t.

1:37:05 Speaker 11 We’re not here now to—

1:37:07 Speaker 2 No, that’s why, really—

1:37:08 Speaker 11 To engage in self-criticism. But how often was “organized in your studies” an expression that came up?

1:37:15 Speaker 2 Yes. At the end of the meetings.

1:37:17 Speaker 11 At the end of the yechidus.

1:37:21 Speaker 2 Incidentally, before you say I’m not going chronologically: in 5737, before I returned to Eretz Yisroel, at the end of Cheshvan—I left there on [unclear] Kislev—I asked several questions. The Rebbe answered and gave me brachos. At the end of the yechidus, the Rebbe said, and these were his words: “You are a Tomim. A Tomim needs to have someone in charge of him.”

1:37:54 Speaker 11 You mean a mashpia?

1:37:56 Speaker 2 What?

1:37:56 Speaker 11 What does “someone in charge of him” mean?

1:37:58 Speaker 2 Someone in charge—

1:37:58 Speaker 11 A mashpia for him?

1:38:00 Speaker 2 No, that’s what he said. Those were the words. A mashpia—or a rav, however you want to put it. [unclear] You asked for the Rebbe’s words, and that’s how he ended the yechidus.

1:38:22 Speaker 11 Nu, let’s go back to 5732. By then the Russians had arrived, in Tishrei. Who do you remember arriving?

1:38:33 Speaker 2 By the way, an interesting thing happened at the end of the farbrengen in 5731. The Rebbe called out, “Is there someone here from Jerusalem?” At the end of the farbrengen, the Rebbe looked at everyone who had responded “L’chaim.” He said “L’chaim” several times, then asked, “Is there someone here from Jerusalem?” We were looking at the Rebbe, but apparently several people stood up. In any case, the Rebbe said, “I mean one of the leaders there.” Then the Rebbe apparently looked at Reb Noach of Lubanovitch[?]. The Rebbe sent for him, he came over, and the Rebbe gave him something. Since I see that you’re also interested in people and their names, it reminded me of that.

1:39:18 Speaker 11 That really is interesting. He was there in 5708.

1:39:22 Speaker 2 Reb Noach was there in 5708?

1:39:23 Speaker 11 I think he was there for some of those years. He was certainly there in 5708. Noach was already with the Rebbe in 5708.

1:39:34 Speaker 2 Yes.

1:39:35 Speaker 11 Yes. He and Reb Shimon Schneerson, Yaankel Minsk—there were already several people from Jerusalem there in 5708. So who was there in Tishrei 5732? The ones who came were—

1:39:48 Speaker 2 Who came? I remember Reb Moti came too, Reb Motel Chazak[?], Reb Blipklein[?]. Berel Volenkin[?] also came, still as a bochur. They all traveled to the Rebbe from Speyer[?].

1:40:08 Speaker 11 Berel Volenkin too?

1:40:09 Speaker 2 Yes. Not only did he travel there, but the Rebbe told his attendant—when the Rebbe was discussing learning with him, the Rebbe told his attendant, “Give him all my seforim.”

1:40:22 Speaker 11 To Berel Volenkin?

1:40:23 Speaker 2 Yes.

1:40:32 Speaker 11 He was very impressed.

1:40:36 Speaker 2 Yes.

1:40:36 Speaker 11 How did the Rebbe relate to them when they arrived? Did they stand upstairs in the shul?

1:40:41 Speaker 2 Yes. They stood upstairs in the shul. They approached the Rebbe: a group of them organized a delegation to ask the Rebbe to hold a farbrengen on Sukkos. The Rebbe said he couldn’t hold a farbrengen in the sukkah.

1:41:01 Speaker 11 Because he had stopped doing that in 5730.

1:41:02 Speaker 2 Although in 5731 the Rebbe wanted to, he did hold a farbrengen—there was a farbrengen in 5731 too, but without l’chaim. The Rebbe said people don’t like dry farbrengens. But for the Rebbe who was [unclear], the Rebbe did hold a farbrengen. In any case, the group approached the Rebbe and asked him. The Rebbe answered that he couldn’t, but he would make it up to them. How did he make it up to them? In two ways. One was a maamar on Shabbos Chol Hamoed, at nine in the morning.

1:41:34 Speaker 11 Before davening.

1:41:35 Speaker 2 Before davening.

1:41:35 Speaker 11 Where?

1:41:36 Speaker 2 In the main shul.

1:41:39 Speaker 11 Did they know about it beforehand?

1:41:40 Speaker 2 Yes. It wasn’t new to them.

1:41:43 Speaker 11 Meaning, he told them there would be—what did he say?

1:41:45 Speaker 2 No, they didn’t know it then. After all, they made their request the day after Yom Kippur. They were informed during the following few days. The second thing was the farbrengen on Motzaei Shabbos Bereishis, about a guardian and similar matters. What can I tell you? The Rebbe gave them that afterward. Those were the two ways the Rebbe made it up to them.

1:42:17 Speaker 11 In Tishrei 5732—at the end of 5731, the Rebbe had announced that he would no longer come out for the weekly sicha. Throughout Tishrei, the chossid Reb Tzvi Shapto[?] led a campaign, encouraging chassidim to write requests and petitions asking the Rebbe to continue coming out. Chassidim spoke about it at farbrengens throughout Tishrei. Then, on Motzaei Simchas Torah, the Rebbe addressed it. The Rebbe said they should have tried to persuade him; after all, a person can be lacking in something, and he himself would study the matter from beginning to end. But there were several other things he would very much like to do and continue doing. The Rebbe listed some, such as teaching a new nigun in the early hours of Simchas Torah and saying Chassidus for the students on Chanukah. And, as the Rebbe put it in Yiddish, he was managing to get by without a sicha, though he would have liked there to be one. “But I see it’s like a refrigerator around me,” the Rebbe said. In other words, the public was cold toward all these things.

1:43:46 Speaker 2 There’s something else I mentioned that has been published inaccurately. Why does it matter? We’ll get to that in a moment. On Lag BaOmer 5730, if I’m not mistaken, the Rebbe did not come out to greet the parade. The Rebbe delivered a painful sicha. The whole matter was very painful, and the Rebbe spoke with great pain. The Rebbe cried. For example, the Rebbe said, “The parade is my affair. Rabbi Akiva will be here, Rashbi will be here, the Alter Rebbe will be here—and I cannot be.” A pan of the Tzemach Tzedek was found, written when he visited the resting place of Reb Eliezer. What did he ask for? The Rebbe did not say, but it said there, “If only I would merit that it be through me.” The Rebbe cried as he said the words “If only I would merit.” You should know that everyone was very, very broken and downcast. So immediately afterward, when the Rebbe finished the sicha, Reb Hillel Ginsburg began the nigun “Hinei Mah Tov U’mah Na’im.” What has been published is that the Rebbe started it. That isn’t accurate. Everyone was certainly in turmoil, but Reb Hillel started it. On the contrary, that must not be forgotten. Reb Hillel knew how to start it in a way that only he could.

1:45:29 Speaker 12 He had a feel for it.

1:45:30 Speaker 2 A feel for it. That was how he started it. Let me give you another example involving Reb Hillel. He was one of the surviving chassidim. Many years ago, a young married man who is very interested in these matters asked me about something he had heard from someone: that the Rebbe had started the nigun. More recently, I saw it written again somewhere. In that archive, they write about the nigunim.

1:45:53 Speaker 12 That’s a mistake in the Chassidus sources.

1:45:54 Speaker 2 They wrote about the nigun “Hinei Mah Tov U’mah Na’im,” saying when the Rebbe started it. It isn’t accurate, and it must not be forgotten. There was another matter involving Reb Hillel that Lag BaOmer, also concerning the parade. At one point, it looked as though there would be no parade. Lag BaOmer fell on a Sunday. The organizers couldn’t work things out, and there was no money. In the end, the older bochurim took matters into their own hands, and the girls took up two parts of the work too, and things began moving. There is a letter from the Rebbe, written, I think, on Pesach Sheini 5730, to the male and female students. By then, things were already headed in the right direction. The Rebbe was pleased. In the letter, the Rebbe discusses the matter and explains it in depth. The Rebbe also contributed one hundred dollars to the parade. They made a count of everyone’s contributions, and Reb Hillel oversaw the count.

1:47:00 Speaker 12 He was in Tzach, after all.

1:47:02 Speaker 2 He was in Tzach, yes, but he wasn’t doing this on behalf of Tzach, because Tzach did not organize the parade. Usually Reb Yaakov HaKohen and Reb Shmuel Gutman were the two in charge. I remember Reb Hillel saying this: Napoleon said that to wage war you need three things: gelt, gelt, gelt—money, money, and money. But Reb Hillel said it in a way that got through to people. They then decided to sell each of the Rebbe’s dollars for a thousand dollars, and they had the money. What am I trying to emphasize? Reb Hillel was also the one who started that nigun. Now, what’s interesting is that this maamar, this letter—on 27 Teves, the Rebbe suddenly fainted. There was a maamar, [unclear]. The Rebbe asked—

1:47:54 Speaker 12 On 7 Teves 5742, a weekday.

1:47:57 Speaker 2 A weekday. The Rebbe asked [unclear] to prepare the maamar for printing. They prepared it, but it wasn’t published then. When was it published? For Lag BaOmer. At the beginning of that booklet is the letter from Pesach Sheini 5730.

1:48:15 Speaker 12 And in fact, the Rebbe did come out on Lag BaOmer of 5730, then?

1:48:18 Speaker 2 Lag BaOmer of 5730, yes. The Rebbe was very, very pleased. Afterward he came to the—

1:48:24 Speaker 12 To the park.

1:48:25 Speaker 2 To the park. And that evening, after visiting the Ohel, he gave mashke to others and to those who had come. On Lag BaOmer of 5730, it wasn’t just that the Rebbe did not come out. I remember they had set up a very well-organized parade, with a great deal of work put into it.

1:48:47 Speaker 12 When did people learn that the Rebbe wouldn’t come out—on Shabbos?

1:48:49 Speaker 2 No, no, no. A few days earlier, the Rebbe wrote to Reb Yitzchak—

1:48:52 Speaker 12 No, Reb Archie[?] knew, but the public didn’t know.

1:48:56 Speaker 2 I think we knew. I don’t remember exactly, but we knew the Rebbe wouldn’t come out. They had set up the displays, the—

1:49:03 Speaker 12 Trucks.

1:49:04 Speaker 2 Along the route the Rebbe took to the car when he went to the mikveh or the Ohel. The Rebbe walked past them like this. He was so serious; he didn’t look at them. He didn’t—I was standing there at the side—

1:49:15 Speaker 12 But it wasn’t that he put up his hand, because that too—

1:49:16 Speaker 2 No, he didn’t put up his hand, but he didn’t look at them. He walked straight ahead. With the Rebbe, you could never know.

1:49:24 Speaker 12 Without going into details, the reason was that there were matters in the neighborhood that were the opposite of achdus.

1:49:28 Speaker 2 The opposite of achdus, yes. The Rebbe said that.

1:49:42 Speaker 12 What were the preparations like for 11 Nissan 5732?

1:49:47 Speaker 2 There was tremendous excitement among everyone. Tremendous. And you can see that the Rebbe also—

1:49:54 Speaker 12 The Rebbe also was—

1:49:56 Speaker 2 By Purim, he was already speaking about it and giving instructions not to bring any gifts. He said to tell those coming from abroad to return home for Pesach, because there had to be settlement of the Land of Israel.

1:50:10 Speaker 12 And anyone who wanted to give gifts should give gifts of Torah.

1:50:14 Speaker 2 There was a tremendous awakening. People were genuinely stirred and excited. You could say that, in a way, the excitement was greater than before the 14th. That was—I’ve forgotten.

1:50:37 Speaker 12 The feeling was that this was our Yom Tov. The 14th was also, in a sense, just a celebration before that.

1:50:48 Speaker 2 Right.

1:50:50 Speaker 12 There were also many guests by the Rebbe?

1:50:55 Speaker 2 They weren’t guests whom the shluchim brought in from outside. There weren’t any. I remember Shmikel saying then, “This is a family event. You’re not bringing people in, you’re not bringing them in.”

1:51:06 Speaker 12 So the guests were mainly—on the 14th in 5735, there were a great many.

1:51:09 Speaker 2 Yes, the 14th in 5735.

1:51:09 Speaker 12 There was also 5737.

1:51:10 Speaker 2 Yes. 11 Nissan 5737.

1:51:13 Speaker 12 11 Nissan 5737.

1:51:14 Speaker 2 Yes. I was also there on the 14th and 15th—

1:51:17 Speaker 12 We’ll get to that, but 11 Nissan 5732 was smaller, more of an inside event.

1:51:23 Speaker 2 Yes, yes.

1:51:23 Speaker 12 That was the feeling.

1:51:24 Speaker 2 Yes. The shluchim brought gifts; the shluchim themselves brought them. The next day there was a great deal of activity outside the Rebbe’s room. The shluchim went in and announced the gifts.

1:51:36 Speaker 12 What do you mean, went into the room?

1:51:38 Speaker 2 Yes.

1:51:38 Speaker 12 On the—

1:51:40 Speaker 2 On the—

1:51:41 Speaker 12 12 Nissan.

1:51:42 Speaker 2 The morning of the 12th, as I recall. They went in—

1:51:45 Speaker 12 They went in for yechidus? My wife—

1:51:46 Speaker 2 No, not yechidus. They went in. Shlomo—Shlomo Cunin was inside and announced that he was opening a new Chabad House in Berkeley.

1:51:54 Speaker 12 Did they travel to [unclear]?

1:51:56 Speaker 2 I think so. I think so, yes. I think so. I wasn’t there. That’s how I remember it. That’s how I remember it. Throughout Pesach, it was, how shall I put it, a celebration of 11 Nissan—a farbrengen every day.

1:52:21 Speaker 12 The chassidim.

1:52:22 Speaker 2 Not only the Rebbe.

1:52:23 Speaker 12 The Rebbe said a maamar.

1:52:24 Speaker 2 The Rebbe said a maamar each day: on the first day of Yom Tov, on the second day at three-thirty in the afternoon, and on Shevi’i Shel Pesach at three-thirty. On Acharon Shel Pesach there was a farbrengen at sunset. At each farbrengen, the Rebbe would conclude with a point from the chapter of Tehillim.

1:52:44 Speaker 12 He spoke about it extensively in connection with [unclear].

1:52:50 Speaker 2 Yes. He said those sichos, though it wasn’t official, and they came out in a separate booklet. It had a logo like [unclear].

1:53:03 Speaker 12 So [unclear] started then too.

1:53:05 Speaker 2 Yes, the Rebbe received it as one of the—no, the whole thing had begun earlier, a few weeks earlier.

1:53:13 Speaker 12 And when did that begin?

1:53:14 Speaker 2 No, no, no. The first one was in 5733. That was the first one. The Yom Tov of Lag BaOmer. Toward the end of [unclear], there was something connected with that matter, with [unclear] of Lag BaOmer. How could that be? It happened. Ah, he already knew about the incident beforehand. Yes, the bochurim—at any rate, the bochurim had behaved badly toward—

1:53:56 Speaker 12 Mendy.

1:53:57 Speaker 2 Yes. So a note came out from the Rebbe. Apparently he had immediately sat down, and so on. “Is this the gift for the conclusion of [unclear]?” Perhaps I’m not quoting it exactly. That was more or less the wording.

1:54:17 Speaker 12 Wow. “Is this the gift for the conclusion of [unclear]?” Before Lag BaOmer?

1:54:24 Speaker 2 No, no. It was before 11 Nissan 5733.

1:54:28 Speaker 12 Oh, even before 11 Nissan. So the Rebbe said a maamar; by then, it was becoming the practice for the Rebbe to say a maamar on 11 Nissan. In 5733, the Rebbe said a maamar.

1:54:41 Speaker 2 Yes, yes, there was already one every year. A maamar. A maamar with a niggun.

1:54:58 Speaker 12 You’ve mentioned several times a maamar with a niggun, and maamarim said on Shabbos without one. Could the bochurim tell it was a maamar?

1:55:08 Speaker 2 Yes.

1:55:09 Speaker 12 How?

1:55:11 Speaker 2 The tone changed when the Rebbe began.

1:55:14 Speaker 12 Even though there was no niggun, the tone changed.

1:55:16 Speaker 2 Yes, the Rebbe would put down the handkerchief. Rabbi [unclear]—when he saw the Rebbe put down the handkerchief, he would immediately get excited.

1:55:29 Speaker 12 And were there times on Shabbos when a niggun suddenly began, or was it almost always without one?

1:55:35 Speaker 2 Almost always without. A niggun on an ordinary Shabbos was rare. On Shabbos Chazon 5741, at the gathering when Tishah B’Av was postponed, the Rebbe said a maamar with a niggun. The way he sat—

1:55:55 Speaker 12 How did he sit then?

1:55:56 Speaker 2 Yes, there were times here and there, mainly at a gathering, when a niggun might begin beforehand and continue. At an ordinary Shabbos farbrengen, the niggun might not be continuous: it might stop in the middle and then resume afterward. It was something festive. A niggun was special. The style was different too, and it was easier to take in. Maamarim without a niggun were sometimes harder to absorb.

1:56:27 Speaker 12 A maamar without a niggun was harder to remember?

1:56:29 Speaker 2 Sometimes. At that gathering on the postponed Tishah B’Av, when the Rebbe said the maamar at the end, the Rebbe cried at “Moshiach is born.” The Rebbe said the maamar right away.

1:56:54 Speaker 12 Yes, there’s a hanachah in Malchus.

1:56:58 Speaker 2 No, there’s a mugah version.

1:56:59 Speaker 12 Yes, that’s what I’m saying: it’s mugah, though it’s printed as a hanachah.

1:57:02 Speaker 2 Yes. A few times there was a mugah version based on a hanachah, from what they had managed to catch, and also—

1:57:07 Speaker 12 The hanachah too.

1:57:07 Speaker 2 The hanachah, yes, but everyone knew it was mugah. Shlomo Zarchi spoke to us about how we had to repeat that maamar word for word, because it was mugah.

1:57:17 Speaker 12 Which one?

1:57:18 Speaker 2 That one, yes.

1:57:26 Speaker 12 Were you in some contact with Rabbi Yoel?

1:57:29 Speaker 2 Yes.

1:57:30 Speaker 12 He didn’t teach regularly.

1:57:33 Speaker 2 He didn’t teach?

1:57:34 Speaker 12 Did he teach you regularly in—

1:57:36 Speaker 2 At certain periods, you know. As I remember it, he didn’t always keep it up consistently.

1:57:41 Speaker 12 Yes.

1:57:41 Speaker 2 There were years when he started, and then it lasted two months. It wasn’t always regular. Later he became more organized. That was afterward.

1:57:51 Speaker 12 Yes.

1:57:53 Speaker 2 And when he began giving the class in the yeshivos, it became more regular.

1:58:02 Speaker 12 But the Rebbe generally communicated with the crowd through him at farbrengens, right? You mentioned earlier that the Rebbe told him, “For the sicha, I’ll forgo the maamar.”

1:58:12 Speaker 2 Yes.

1:58:12 Speaker 12 There were many things like that.

1:58:14 Speaker 2 Yes, yes.

1:58:14 Speaker 12 Announcing something to the public at farbrengens.

1:58:17 Speaker 2 Not necessarily announcing it—he would make announcements.

1:58:19 Speaker 12 Who?

1:58:20 Speaker 2 He did, he did. Even when I arrived, for a while he was making announcements.

1:58:25 Speaker 12 At farbrengens too?

1:58:26 Speaker 2 Yes, mainly at farbrengens. For example, on Simchas Torah night, the Rebbe sort of hinted to him to announce the order of things. He was still doing it then.

1:58:35 Speaker 12 Well, because he was a gabbai.

1:58:37 Speaker 2 No, no, no—that’s precisely the point. He wasn’t a gabbai. He wasn’t a gabbai.

1:58:39 Speaker 12 Rabbi Yechezkel.

1:58:40 Speaker 2 He would make announcements, he would make announcements. Then he began announcing it like this, with a singsong tune: “The order will be as follows. The Rebbe will go...” The Rebbe smiled broadly and said—

1:58:54 Speaker 12 Yes, “will go,” as though the Rebbe were leaving. So the Rebbe said, “I don’t intend to leave.”

1:58:59 Speaker 2 “I’m not leaving yet, I’m not—”

1:59:01 Speaker 12 “Not leaving yet.”

1:59:02 Speaker 2 So he corrected himself: “The Rebbe will go into the room.”

1:59:05 Speaker 12 The Rebbe is going out to the room.

1:59:07 Speaker 2 And [unclear] got upset. They needed to bring cups into the farbrengen. He shouted, “Cups!” He would make the announcements. Later he passed away in 5732, at [unclear]. Then Dov Telshevsky would make those announcements. After that—

1:59:25 Speaker 12 Telshevsky too.

1:59:27 Speaker 2 Reb Shaya [unclear] would make announcements.

1:59:28 Speaker 12 More or less the gabbaim, the people who handled the bigger matters.

1:59:31 Speaker 2 No, they weren’t gabbaim. I’m telling you, Telshevsky wasn’t a gabbai. It was simply whoever was given the job, whoever it was assigned to. Often, with the Rebbe, once someone had one role, he would be given additional roles. That’s how it worked.

1:59:49 Speaker 12 Rabbi Dovid Raskin is the greatest example of that.

1:59:52 Speaker 2 Yes, he was involved in absolutely everything.

1:59:54 Speaker 12 Every committee the Rebbe established—

1:59:56 Speaker 2 Sometimes the Rebbe would introduce something new. Then the Rebbe would want to give out mashke and would smile and look at him. That was Reb Dovid. When Rabbi Yechezkel Gordon passed away—

2:00:11 Speaker 12 Around the time you arrived.

2:00:12 Speaker 2 It was two weeks before I arrived.

2:00:14 Speaker 12 Elul [unclear].

2:00:15 Speaker 2 Yes, in the seventies. Now, one of the things Rabbi [unclear] did was also give the Rebbe [unclear]. So they asked Rabbi Pliskin, since he was the shamash, so to speak.

2:00:24 Speaker 12 He took over from Zalman as shamash.

2:00:26 Speaker 2 The official shamash had official duties. So he said, “That job? Under no circumstances am I taking it on. Under no circumstances.” What were my duties at 770? There were a few things. I would tell the non-Jew what to do, but the main thing was on Shabbos. We had to prepare the cup, the candle, and the spices for Havdalah.

2:00:54 Speaker 12 Not for the Rebbe—for the person making Havdalah.

2:00:55 Speaker 2 For the person making Havdalah. I heard from him that the Rebbe’s custom was an hour and five minutes after candle-lighting. I didn’t know that until he told me. An hour and five minutes. It didn’t matter when the Rebbe finished the farbrengen and went home and came back. We went, we put things in place, and [unclear]—the Rebbe returned before us.

2:01:14 Speaker 12 An hour and five minutes.

2:01:15 Speaker 2 An hour and five minutes after candle-lighting, promptly. So he had to make sure everything was ready on time.

2:01:34 Speaker 12 Now we come to 5734, the Yom Kippur War. I’d like to hear a little from Reb Yankel Katz, may he rest in peace, whether he was there that Tishrei too, but I don’t always remember clearly. You tell us: there was the pan that the Rebbe didn’t want to accept. The Rebbe wanted it to be done with joy. What happened on Yom Kippur?

2:01:55 Speaker 2 When they approached him.

2:01:56 Speaker 12 Start before that. Was there something special on Rosh Hashanah?

2:01:59 Speaker 2 Not what we saw—what we knew and saw. In general, there was no mention of these things.

2:02:06 Speaker 12 Already that previous summer, the Rebbe wanted there to be a children’s gathering.

2:02:08 Speaker 2 Right, right. A children’s gathering, because in Israel [unclear]. What you’re saying about the Rebbe saying it should be with joy—that was on the first day of Chol Hamoed, I think, when they approached the Rebbe. I’m not sure. A group of elders approached the Rebbe about his going to the Ohel.

2:02:33 Speaker 12 That was on the 13th. That—

2:02:37 Speaker 2 No, that was already on Chol Hamoed.

2:02:38 Speaker 12 Earlier, even before Chol Hamoed, I think it had already happened.

2:02:41 Speaker 2 The Rebbe went to the Ohel.

2:02:43 Speaker 12 No, before that. On the eleventh, they wanted to give the Rebbe a pan. I think Freiman was there, or—

2:02:48 Speaker 2 Yes, she, she.

2:02:50 Speaker 12 Her husband had been called up. You tell it; you’re more precise.

2:02:53 Speaker 2 I don’t know the exact details of what you’re talking about. I don’t know.

2:02:56 Speaker 12 Someone in the family was Geva Freiman, and her husband had been called up.

2:03:00 Speaker 2 Yes, she came back that same day. He informed the Rebbe that she was coming back.

2:03:04 Speaker 12 There were a few others who signed and wanted to give the Rebbe a pan. They wrote it in tears. That’s what I heard from Reb Yankel Katz; I may not have it exactly right. The Rebbe said, “Write it again with joy.” The Rebbe wouldn’t accept the pan written in tears. “Give it to me again.”

2:03:22 Speaker 2 This is the first time I’m hearing that. It could be; I don’t know.

2:03:24 Speaker 12 I may not have it exactly right.

2:03:26 Speaker 2 What happened—one moment.

2:03:27 Speaker 12 No, no, it was outside.

2:03:29 Speaker 2 What do you mean, outside?

2:03:30 Speaker 12 On the way to the car.

2:03:32 Speaker 2 Ah, yes.

2:03:36 Speaker 12 That’s how I heard it several times from Reb Yankel Katz. I don’t have the details exactly right; it needs checking. In any case, what do you remember from that Tishrei?

2:03:45 Speaker 2 The Rebbe, the Rebbe called for joy, but his face was very serious. Very, very serious. The whole time.

2:03:54 Speaker 12 Did Berel Binyamini go over at some point to tell him there was a war, in the middle of Yom Kippur? Or is that just a story?

2:04:00 Speaker 2 I don’t know. I heard the rumor that someone went over to tell the Rebbe, but what do I know?

2:04:07 Speaker 12 You had already heard that then?

2:04:09 Speaker 2 I don’t remember when I heard it. In any case.

2:04:21 Speaker 12 On 13 Tishrei the Rebbe held a farbrengen.

2:04:23 Speaker 2 Yes, the Rebbe came down. You could see that his expression was very, very restrained and grave. He spoke somewhat heavily. Yet even with all this, is there room for quarrels? Is there room for Jews to be fighting? But it’s known what the holy Zohar says about Jews showing each other hostile faces; the Rebbe spoke about that. So you could see how deeply it affected the Rebbe.

2:04:55 Speaker 12 He said something similar on the second day of Sukkos, when the Rebbe held a farbrengen: not to stand around talking about the news. Then came Simchas Torah and “Emunah.”

2:05:04 Speaker 2 The Rebbe—during Sukkos, and also on Simchas Torah, and at Simchas Beis Hashoeivah—spoke mainly about unity, joy and unity. The Rebbe gave the Midrash’s analogy: when you take many thin sticks together, no one can break them, but a single stick can, G-d forbid, be broken. That applies to all the communities among the Jewish people. You see, on Simchas Torah there were the niggunim, the two niggunim, “Atah” and “Emunah,” and—well, the one that ends with the “Atah” niggun.

2:05:54 Speaker 12 Yes.

2:05:55 Speaker 2 Wasn’t that also a niggun?

2:05:57 Speaker 12 What happened? Tell us.

2:05:59 Speaker 2 The Rebbe took the siddur and turned around. I don’t remember exactly. I don’t remember which hakafah it was. You always remember this better than I do.

2:06:15 Speaker 12 I don’t know anything; we’re hearing it from you. What happened? What did the Rebbe say? The fourth hakafah?

2:06:30 Speaker 2 No, no, not the [unclear]. It was during hakafos.

2:06:33 Speaker 12 Ah, the order of the hakafos, yes. “Emunah” was during the fifth hakafah on Shemini Atzeres.

2:06:52 Speaker 2 There was also something during one of the hakafos. Ah, it’s known which hakafah it was. We’ll see in a moment. Um—the fourth hakafah. The Rebbe turned toward the crowd with his siddur like this and began to sing: “The commandment of Hashem is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of Hashem is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of Hashem are true; they are righteous altogether.” He sang that whole passage and ended with [unclear]. That was the fourth hakafah. But I don’t remember whether it was on the night of Shemini Atzeres or on Simchas Torah.

2:08:20 Speaker 12 And “Emunah” was during the fifth hakafah on the night of Shemini Atzeres.

2:08:28 Speaker 2 I don’t—I don’t know. You know, there are things you know better afterward.

2:08:33 Speaker 12 No, I’m asking.

2:08:35 Speaker 2 I don’t know. That detail isn’t clear to me. What I told you earlier about the car is clear to me; this isn’t. The coupons. In 5734, following the Yom Kippur War, that’s where the mivtzoim developed, and that’s where the celebration with the tanks developed.

2:09:15 Speaker 12 Yes.

2:09:16 Speaker 2 But this was clear: on Shabbos Mevorchim Kislev, at the end of the farbrengen, the Rebbe said that since we were going through difficult times, especially since Yom Kippur, he was asking that this year’s Chanukah campaign be carried out with the greatest possible vigor. He asked that the message be passed on to every corner of the world, to all the shluchim and all Anash everywhere. So they really began preparing. The Chanukah campaign was on a scale never seen before. They found a manufacturer of menorahs who worked around the clock, and no matter how many he made, it wasn’t enough. The Rebbe really was very—Boruch Hashem, [unclear]. The Rebbe distributed dollars at the entrance to his room; you know about that.

2:10:06 Speaker 12 I don’t know anything. Tell us.

2:10:09 Speaker 2 So much so that they announced through the secretariat, before the night of Zos Chanukah, that anyone who had taken part in the Chanukah campaign, or undertook to take part the next day, on Zos Chanukah, would receive a dollar from the Rebbe at the entrance to his room. But first you had to get a slip from the campaign organizers. Rabbi Dovid Raskin sat downstairs on the platform with several assistants. There was a line; people went across the farbrengen platform, received a slip, and then joined the line through the shul toward Gan Eden Hatachton, up to the wooden stairs leading there, where the Rebbe stood at the entrance to his room. I remember the Rebbe was joyful, wearing, I think, a silk sirtuk and a gartel. People handed the slip to one of the secretaries standing—

2:11:08 Speaker 12 No, to the Rebbe.

2:11:09 Speaker 2 No, they were standing around the Rebbe. Then the Rebbe gave a dollar, and people went on their way. There were some troublemakers who came over, and the Rebbe asked, “Did you take part in the Chanukah campaign?” He didn’t give them one.

2:11:19 Speaker 12 He didn’t give them one.

2:11:20 Speaker 2 Shimon Jacobson approached. The Rebbe asked him, and he told the Rebbe, “I publicized the campaign.” “You publicized it? Good.” The Rebbe gave him one. The following evening, after Zos Chanukah, the Rebbe held a farbrengen. The Rebbe then used that expression—there was the wording of the [unclear], and the Rebbe immediately said that they had gone, as they say, even without a rabbi. He explained that chassidim are always before the Rebbe, and before the Rebbe there are no formalities. So he would say: whether you understand or don’t understand, whether you do or don’t—that’s how it is.

2:12:01 Speaker 12 So that, that—

2:12:01 Speaker 2 That’s how it was. It was on the evening after Zos Chanukah. By the way, after Chanukah, Rabbi Dovid came to the bochurim. This had already happened several times: Rabbi Dovid would come to ask the bochurim to prepare a sicha for the Rebbe’s editing. They wanted the bochurim to prepare it. For example, all those sichos, the passages about [unclear]—the bochurim prepared them.

2:12:34 Speaker 12 The ones included in the collection of Likkutei Sichos.

2:12:35 Speaker 2 They were always printed afterward as a collection for Likkutei Sichos. Later it was printed in the collection of Likkutei Sichos. So after Chanukah, too, Rabbi Dovid came and said the secretariat was asking for one to be prepared. The Rebbe held an unscheduled farbrengen on Parshas Vayigash, after Chanukah had already ended. What did the Rebbe discuss? That the Rambam says at the end of Hilchos Mezuzah that a Jew should seek to do another mitzvah and another mitzvah, as it says in [unclear]. The implication was that, after what had been done for the Chanukah campaign, now we had to try to seek out ways to add and continue. So they prepared the sicha and brought it in. Then Rabbi Dovid said that the secretariat was asking that Rabbi Yoel look at it too. So they arranged for Rabbi Yoel to see it. Rabbi Yoel didn’t even look at it. The Rebbe said it was fine anyway.

2:13:37 Speaker 12 Which bochurim wrote it?

2:13:40 Speaker 2 No, it doesn’t matter which bochurim. Why does that matter? Anyway, this followed the Chanukah campaign. Afterward, the Purim campaign was also on a very, very large scale, and it was, so to speak, the precursor to the tanks.

2:13:58 Speaker 12 The tanks started in the summer, around Shavuos. Didn’t they?

2:14:01 Speaker 2 Yes. After Shavuos.

2:14:02 Speaker 12 After Shavuos.

2:14:05 Speaker 2 Before Shavuos, the Rebbe spoke a great deal about the mezuzah campaign. That was when the attacks in Nahariya and Maalot happened—

2:14:10 Speaker 12 Maalot.

2:14:12 Speaker 2 And the number of people who died was exactly the same as the number of invalid mezuzahs. Then there were fifteen campaigns on the Shabbos before Shavuos. Shavuos and fifteen campaigns.

2:14:30 Speaker 12 That was on Shavuos. The Shabbos before Shavuos.

2:14:32 Speaker 2 The Shabbos before Shavuos. It was also connected with the accident involving Rabbi [unclear], when the Rebbe spoke. The Rebbe cried and said, “There is no explanation for this.”

2:14:41 Speaker 12 That was on [unclear] Nissan.

2:14:44 Speaker 2 He traveled on [unclear]. There is no explanation for it—not even the explanation of [unclear]. It is a matter of “Hashem will distinguish.” So what should the response be? The mivtzoim, in the spirit of “Hashem will distinguish.”

2:15:05 Speaker 12 And when did the tanks actually begin? When was it?

2:15:08 Speaker 2 About another week later.

2:15:10 Speaker 12 So that takes us back to Sukkos.

2:15:12 Speaker 2 It began on Sukkos; they did it on Sukkos.

2:15:14 Speaker 12 When the Rebbe went over to the sukkah.

2:15:15 Speaker 2 In 5734, 5734, the Rebbe held a sudden farbrengen and again strongly urged the mivtzoim. So the bochurim decided to go out. All the bochurim went out in pairs to various street corners, with a table or something, for Mivtza [unclear]. Then, the following Friday, the bochurim hired two vans. They called them trucks: “Truck Number One” and “Truck Number Two.”

2:15:44 Speaker 12 No need, you can say which bochurim.

2:15:48 Speaker 2 So it wasn’t just one bochur. Anyway.

2:15:51 Speaker 12 You and...?

2:15:55 Speaker 2 Exactly what was I responsible for?

2:15:57 Speaker 12 That’s what I was waiting for. Go on.

2:15:58 Speaker 2 Anyway.

2:16:00 Speaker 12 You don’t need to know. Go on, Shashiker[?]. Rabbi Yitzchak.

2:16:03 Speaker 2 Shiflu Shashiker[?].

2:16:03 Speaker 12 Shiflu Shashiker[?].

2:16:04 Speaker 2 So we wrote the Rebbe a report. We always sent our reports through Rabbi Dovi Drizkin.

2:16:16 Speaker 12 We would write them through Rabbi Dovi Drizkin,

2:16:18 Speaker 2 and he would take them in. So he took in a report, and we wrote that, with Hashem’s help, by the following Friday we hoped... They were actually learning very well then, keeping the schedule. They had started following the schedule and had been learning well since Pesach. We hoped to send out more trucks.

2:16:34 Speaker 12 They weren’t called tanks yet.

2:16:35 Speaker 2 No. So the Rebbe came—then the Rebbe answered. Reb Dovi came to the bochurim with a note the Rebbe had written. Reb Dovi was involved with both Tzach and the yeshiva. So he came and said, “No, no, no.” The Rebbe wrote back immediately, on Friday—or Sunday morning, or perhaps Motzaei Shabbos, I don’t remember. He said the Rebbe wrote: “Why, between now and next Friday you can conquer New York and all its surroundings, and do so peacefully.” So don’t go asking for vans now. I’ll provide the money. Money isn’t a problem. That’s how it started, but they were still called trucks. The Rebbe gave them the name “tanks.” There was a reporter for The New York Times named Mr. Spiegel. Rabbi Yehuda Lichtenstein was close to him and would bring him to farbrengens. He was an older man. Rabbi Yehuda brought him to write about these trucks. It was quite an attraction. He stood with him on the steps, and I stood by the door. Each time the Rebbe arrived, they would come out. We arranged for it to happen to the tune of the Rebbe’s father’s niggun.

2:17:46 Speaker 12 The Hakafos niggun.

2:17:47 Speaker 2 Yes. So as soon as the Rebbe got out of the car, he did this.

2:17:55 Speaker 12 He waved his hand.

2:17:56 Speaker 2 Yes. Then the Rebbe came up to where he was standing. The Rebbe told the reporter, “These are the Jewish tanks against assimilation.” In English: “These are the Jewish tanks against assimilation.”

2:18:13 Speaker 12 That’s why the Rebbe explained “tire.”

2:18:15 Speaker 2 Tire, zigzag, thorns.

2:18:16 Speaker 12 Tire, zigzag, thorns—[unclear] tank.

2:18:19 Speaker 2 That was at farbrengens.

2:18:25 Speaker 12 In practice, then, when did you do it—on Sunday morning, with the tanks?

2:18:28 Speaker 2 Yes, we started. We started right away, little by little. It didn’t happen all at once.

2:18:31 Speaker 12 So the Rebbe did want them to attend the study sessions.

2:18:35 Speaker 2 Yes, that was in 5735.

2:18:43 Speaker 12 5735?

2:18:43 Speaker 2 In short, regarding bochurim from abroad, not during the study schedule—of course, that was absolutely out of the question. But regarding other bochurim, it was a possibility, and there had to be a discussion about [unclear] each and every one of them.

2:18:56 Speaker 12 That was meant to break through.

2:18:56 Speaker 2 There was some sort of system to it.

2:18:58 Speaker 12 Explain it. Tell us.

2:19:00 Speaker 2 On Purim—well, what happened in Shvat 5735 with that reporter...

2:19:05 Speaker 12 Tell us, tell us everything.

2:19:12 Speaker 2 In Shvat 5735, the Rebbe defended the tank crews very, very passionately. That man had written disparaging things about them.

2:19:25 Speaker 12 Except for so-and-so, the son-in-law of so-and-so.

2:19:29 Speaker 2 What the Rebbe said on Yud Shvat or on 15 Shvat is on tape. But there’s also what the Rebbe said on Shabbos Beshalach, between Yud Shvat and 15 Shvat. He used expressions there that had never been heard before. The Rebbe began like this. That man had written that Lubavitch has a “terror brigade,” a terror battalion. So on Shabbos Beshalach the Rebbe began: “By Divine providence, I am in charge of the Lubavitch courtyard. And I myself”—he said his full name, all three names—“am the one who instructed them to travel with the tanks, with [unclear], and with the loudspeakers.” Loudspeakers means the sound systems. “And I don’t ask anyone what to do. If I need to ask, I have someone to ask who has some grasp of the whole matter.” Do you know those words? Sorry, do you know them? Yes. “I am in charge of the Lubavitch courtyard, and I don’t ask anyone what to do. And when I need to ask, I have someone to ask who has some grasp of the whole matter.” The Rebbe repeated it again: “I myself”—he said his full name—“instructed them to travel with the tanks, with [unclear]”—because that man had mocked the [unclear] and the loudspeakers—“with [unclear] and with the loudspeakers.” And then, too, on Yud Shvat—or on 15 Shvat, [unclear]—“I travel with each of the tank crews.” There were also other remarkable things the Rebbe said. As though people might then start confronting that man. “So I warn...” That’s what the Rebbe said here.

2:21:19 Speaker 13 You mustn’t touch him, not the one from the brigade.

2:21:20 Speaker 2 No, no.

2:21:21 Speaker 13 No?

2:21:21 Speaker 2 I’m quoting other expressions the Rebbe used. On Yud Shvat the Rebbe said that he accompanies every tank crew member and travels with him. But I don’t remember whether that was on Yud Shvat—or on 15 Shvat the Rebbe also...

2:21:38 Speaker 13 At the end of the booklet.

2:21:40 Speaker 2 Because the Rebbe wanted to say: Since he was speaking so sharply, people might go and confront that man. So he warned them not to confront him, and that anyone who did would be fighting against him and the Frierdiker Rebbe, the Rebbe Rashab—the Rebbe listed all the Rebbeim, back to Achiya HaShiloni, back to [unclear]. And the Rebbe repeated that twice, too.

2:22:12 Speaker 13 We’d started to say that there was a system with the, with the...

2:22:16 Speaker 2 Ah, yes.

2:22:17 Speaker 13 The bochurim who...

2:22:17 Speaker 2 Right. So on Purim the Rebbe spoke about the question of... On Purim the Rebbe began: “Some people ask, what permission is there to take bochurim away from Torah study and avodas hatefillah and send them out to engage in their work?” So first the Rebbe said that you can’t simply do that. It’s a descent in rank. As the Gemara says about Mordechai Hatzaddik: because he was “seeking the welfare of all his people,” they moved him down in the Sanhedrin from the fifth place to the sixth, or... After that the Rebbe told the story about [unclear], saying that, on the contrary, [unclear] Torah among them. Among the tank crews, apparently.

2:23:04 Speaker 13 Mm-hmm.

2:23:05 Speaker 2 That’s the meaning. How can that be? In truth, the Rebbe didn’t spell it out, but the point of “[unclear]” is only to discharge one’s obligation through his strength.

2:23:12 Speaker 13 Without the slightest exaggeration.

2:23:14 Speaker 2 Yes, I think I saw that what the Rebbe said was published somewhere. The coupons. So apparently—

2:23:20 Speaker 13 Sorry, listen, it appeared in Likkutei Sichos, volume 16.

2:23:23 Speaker 2 Yes.

2:23:24 Speaker 13 About Purim.

2:23:25 Speaker 2 After that, one might think that he was, as it were, calling for it. So on the Shabbos after Purim, Shabbos [unclear], the Rebbe used this wording. The Rebbe spoke very sharply then against those among the zealots who were interfering with the tanks, and so on. He used strong expressions. Then the Rebbe said that the study schedule of Torah students is such an essential matter that even the yeshiva administration has no authority to give a bochur permission to travel during study hours. So on the contrary, the Rebbe said—the Rebbe edited this, by the way. It was edited by the Rebbe.

2:24:03 Speaker 13 Mm-hmm.

2:24:04 Speaker 2 Not in Likkutei Sichos. It was edited for Machne Israel. There was a Machne Israel office—it still exists today, but it isn’t active now—at Kingston and President.

2:24:14 Speaker 13 Yes.

2:24:14 Speaker 2 They also used to publish summaries of the farbrengen. The Rebbe edited this; it appears there, edited by the Rebbe. There were a few words the Rebbe changed. So, speaking about 5735, there was already an edit in the Rebbe’s handwriting. Which one? That for a bochur from Eretz Yisroel to come was completely out of the question.

2:24:34 Speaker 3 Because one may leave only for two—

2:24:35 Speaker 2 Because there’s the well-known ruling of the Rambam that one may leave only in order to—

2:24:40 Speaker 3 Study Torah.

2:24:40 Speaker 2 Study Torah. But for other bochurim it was a possibility, subject to a discussion about [unclear] each and every one.

2:24:46 Speaker 3 A discussion about [unclear], for each...

2:24:47 Speaker 2 A discussion about [unclear]. So the bochurim from Eretz Yisroel were involved in it only on Fridays.

2:25:00 Speaker 3 When did you actually get to see the Rebbetzin?

2:25:05 Speaker 2 Ah, that was—I don’t remember which year, 5734 or 5735, one of my years at 770. [Unclear] I saw her many times. First of all, she would come to the Rebbe’s [unclear]. While Rebbetzin Nechama Dina was still alive, she would come several afternoons a week and stay until midnight. When she left, she would head not directly toward the front of 770 but a little farther back, toward the library. Later, when she would leave at midnight, she would come out downstairs. There are steps down there that lead to the place where, in later years, the Rebbe would come out when traveling to the Ohel.

2:25:46 Speaker 3 Ah, where the entrance to—the entrance to...

2:25:48 Speaker 2 There are stairs down there. She would come out, take the elevator down to that point, and leave from there. When she came out, got into the car, and positioned it facing 770, we knew the Rebbe would be coming out any moment. The Rebbe would come out and ride with her. That was always how it worked when she was at 770: the Rebbe would ride with her. So we saw her many times. Later, too, when she would come—[unclear]—she would stay in the car, but her sister would get out, and they would drive somewhere. But there was this routine connected with the Rebbe, between his home and 770: the secretaries would come out with yesterday’s thermos, call a bochur from the zal, and give it to him to take to the Rebbe’s house. Between the two doors there would already be a fresh thermos, and he would leave yesterday’s thermos there. They had never sent me to do that; I don’t know why. That day—

2:26:50 Speaker 3 Oh, a thermos of tea?

2:26:51 Speaker 2 Huh?

2:26:51 Speaker 3 Was there tea ready in the thermos?

2:26:53 Speaker 2 Either tea or coffee, I don’t know. I don’t know. They say some bochurim would open it and see that yesterday’s thermos was completely full, as though the Rebbe hadn’t touched it. That’s what they say. Anyway, that day one of the secretaries came to the entrance of the zal, called me over, and said, “They’ve already sent yesterday’s thermos, and there wasn’t a fresh one yet. Go—there should be a fresh thermos there by now.” I got there and carefully opened the first door—

2:27:31 Speaker 3 Of the house.

2:27:31 Speaker 2 Of the house, at the front. No thermos. All right, I carefully closed the door and started down toward the street. Then I heard a woman’s voice calling, “Entschuldigt, entschuldigt”—“Excuse me, excuse me,” the polite way you’d address an older person. I turned around, and the Rebbetzin was standing there, wearing a headscarf down over the middle of her ears and a housecoat. She said to me, “Entschuldigt, ich hob eich fartribn. I’ve put you to trouble.” That’s how she spoke to the bochurim. “Come, come right in. I’ll prepare the thermos.” I didn’t go in; I stood there at the entrance. A few minutes later she came out again with the thermos and again said, “Entschuldigt, entschuldigt. I’ve put you to trouble. Please excuse me; I’ve put you to trouble.”

2:28:27 Speaker 3 So I had never known that a thermos came from home—that the Rebbe’s drink didn’t come from the secretary, as it were.

2:28:34 Speaker 2 That was how it was until five in the evening. At five the Rebbe would generally go home, or at six in the summer.

2:28:43 Speaker 3 Did you ever escort the Rebbe home?

2:28:45 Speaker 2 Certainly, many times. I was in charge of that.

2:28:48 Speaker 3 Oh.

2:28:48 Speaker 2 It was a duty I inherited. I was in charge for several years—well, two and a half years.

2:29:04 Speaker 3 What was the arrangement? How did it work?

2:29:09 Speaker 2 Two bochurim would wait until the Rebbe went home. How did they decide who would go? A bochur knew who had arranged it for him.

2:29:17 Speaker 3 But you didn’t walk behind him? Did the Rebbe acknowledge you? The Rebbe—

2:29:20 Speaker 2 No, no. What was always interesting on Shabbos night was that when the Rebbe got home, he would first go over to the windows, put his hand behind the curtain, and check that they were locked.

2:29:37 Speaker 3 After he went into the house?

2:29:38 Speaker 2 After he went into the house, inside. Always, first thing. If you waited another quarter of a minute, you would see the Rebbe go over. There were two windows at the front. He would put his hand behind the curtain and check whether they were locked. The windows opened in two halves, one going up and one down, with a lock in the middle. He checked that they were locked.

2:30:01 Speaker 3 Every window, every time?

2:30:02 Speaker 2 The two front windows that you could see.

2:30:06 Speaker 3 Every time?

2:30:06 Speaker 2 Every time.

2:30:09 Speaker 3 But only on Shabbos.

2:30:11 Speaker 2 I’m talking about Shabbos. I never escorted the Rebbe during the week.

2:30:14 Speaker 3 Oh, you didn’t escort him on Friday?

2:30:15 Speaker 2 No. On weekdays the Rebbe drove. By my time, the Rebbe was already traveling by car. He often came on foot, but to go home he went by car. Now, here’s another interesting thing about escorting the Rebbe. I had the opportunity to escort the Rebbe on the night of Yom Kippur, after Kol Nidrei. Suddenly I saw the Rebbe wearing a scarf, a new, floral silk scarf. The Rebbe never wore a scarf. The Rebbe didn’t wear a sweater or a scarf, or carry an umbrella. It amazed me. The next year, you know, I was in charge. I could choose my own shifts—not take more than anyone else, but choose when to go.

2:31:03 Speaker 3 Which days to take.

2:31:04 Speaker 2 I chose Yom Kippur night again. He was wearing a scarf again. Once, when I was standing with Rabbi Ashkenazi, I said to him, “Maybe the meaning is that on Yom Kippur we say [unclear], but there has to be [unclear]. So maybe that’s why the Rebbe put on a holy garment?” He heard me but didn’t respond. He didn’t refute it, and he didn’t—

2:31:34 Speaker 3 Reb [unclear] Ashkenazi?

2:31:34 Speaker 2 Yes. He neither refuted nor confirmed it.

2:31:42 Speaker 3 Interesting. A floral scarf?

2:31:45 Speaker 2 Yes. You know the floral silk scarves they have in America.

2:31:52 Speaker 3 Well, you were there until 5737.

2:31:55 Speaker 2 Yes. No, until—

2:31:57 Speaker 3 Right, right, that’s what you’re saying. But you were there in 5737 too, and 5736.

2:32:01 Speaker 2 Yes.

2:32:02 Speaker 3 Were there any particular incidents, or some occasion that— You say you have to go to a class, so—

2:32:12 Speaker 2 Particular incidents? There are always particular incidents.

2:32:14 Speaker 3 Not necessarily unusual ones—things you want to share, that you feel ought to be shared. At the entrance to the lobby—you surely know that it rained on the lobby sukkah from the start of Yom Tov until the end. It simply poured throughout Sukkos. Some people farbrenged inside the sukkah, and others farbrenged outside it. There was a farbrengen with Reb Mendel and Reb Yair in the zal, with a big crowd. Lots of bochurim stood there getting wet. Reb Mendel would dart out to stick his head out and say l’chaim to those in the courtyard. He was sitting in the lobby under the s’chach above, while Reb Yair began saying l’chaim inside the zal. Reb Mendel made sure Reb Yair had some mashke, and Reb Yair spoke very well. Reb Yair davened until early morning. It was a special farbrengen. Incidentally, speaking of chassidim’s farbrengens, Reb Nissan came to spend time with the bochurim, which was unusual. I don’t remember him coming to spend time with them. He would come to the yeshiva, or when there was a family simcha. He had a widowed sister there, and when there was a simcha for one of her grandchildren, he would come and speak on Shabbos.

2:33:43 Speaker 2 Who was the sister?

2:33:44 Speaker 3 Dannenbaum, Dannenberg, or Dannenbaum.

2:33:47 Speaker 2 Dannenbaum—there is a Dannenbaum.

2:33:50 Speaker 3 That was his sister. He was a family man, so he would daven around the time before Shabbos, afterward—and on Shabbos at seven.

2:34:01 Speaker 2 So [unclear] he came.

2:34:04 Speaker 3 He sat in Reb Dovid’s room waiting for yechidus. The door was open, and we peeked in to see. He sat with his head tilted to one side. He was always red-faced, but then he was as red as a tomato. Everyone called him “Nissan der Roiter,” Nissan the Redhead. He sat like that, without a sefer, until the secretary came over to tell him he could go in. He walked down the hallway with his head tilted, in a manner of great bittul. He was inside for ten or fifteen minutes. When he came out, I remember, we stood around him. Reb [unclear] looked tall as he came out. He told us, “The Rebbe has asked me to hold a farbrengen for the students.” It wasn’t pressing, since he had been invited. Meanwhile, he would also raise money for the yeshiva. He traveled to Montreal too; he had a nephew there, his sister’s son. The farbrengen was set for the night of 10 Teves, the night of 10 Teves. Upstairs in the women’s section, all the bochurim stood along the railing. First he delivered the message he had been given, what the Rebbe had asked of him. When he went in, the Rebbe had said to him, “Yehoshua, what does this mean? A Jew can attain the level of the Ten Days of Teshuvah in the middle of the year if he davens with a minyan.” Davening with a minyan was weak among the students and needed to be strengthened. So the Rebbe asked him to hold the farbrengen and—

2:35:58 Speaker 2 To speak about davening with a minyan.

2:35:59 Speaker 3 Davening with a minyan. He carried out his mission after giving it thought and becoming fully resolved. In general, Reb Nissan didn’t need mashke in order to farbreng. He was one of the few we knew like that. All the elder chassidim needed mashke; even if it was just a little glass of mashke standing on the table, [unclear]. He didn’t need mashke. But it wasn’t that he spoke in a—

2:36:21 Speaker 2 Dry way.

2:36:22 Speaker 3 Toward the end of the night, he wanted to draw the bochurim in, so he began speaking [unclear] about himself, [unclear] about Moshiach, about Chassidus, about the Rebbe, [unclear]. He cried a great deal, really cried.

2:36:54 Speaker 2 Did your parents come during the years you were there?

2:36:57 Speaker 3 Yes, certainly. Many times.

2:37:06 Speaker 2 [Unclear] yechidus—I mean, your father wasn’t there.

2:37:11 Speaker 3 My mother—my mother came a second time, at the end of Iyar, [unclear]. And then there was a convention.

2:37:28 Speaker 2 Of Anash.

2:37:29 Speaker 3 Of Anash.

2:37:30 Speaker 2 An Anash convention.

2:37:32 Speaker 3 So as soon as she arrived—I’ll tell you this—she asked for a bracha. The Rebbe wrote to her, among other things, next to his signature, “Inform the convention organizers that she is here.” So [?] said to her, “That means you’ll have to speak at the convention.” Well, the secretary relayed that to her, but she didn’t do anything about it. It never occurred to her that she would have to speak before an audience; she had never spoken before an audience. Anyway, they scheduled her for the Motzaei Shabbos session. But she spent all of Shabbos in the Rebbe’s rooms [?], and wasn’t at the [unclear] at all, so she didn’t go. When she went in for yechidus, the first thing the Rebbe asked her was, “Nu, did you speak at the convention?” She said no. The Rebbe asked, “Why?” But how was the Rebbe supposed to know that they had scheduled her? She hadn’t arranged anything. They had told her she was supposed to speak on Motzaei Shabbos. “Why?” So she said, “I was tired.” “Tired? What kind of excuse is ‘tired’? And when you return home from here, surely you’ll have to share what was discussed here.” Years later, she would speak and encourage people about [unclear] and a tzedakah pushka. She said it was all because of what the Rebbe told her then.

2:39:05 Speaker 2 The Rebbe didn’t let her off the hook.

2:39:09 Speaker 3 Once, she came again to Lubavitch [?] for Sukkos, and stayed until the beginning of—

2:40:15 Speaker 4 There’s Rabbi Goldenbaum and there’s Rabbi Leibov. I’m not getting involved; you can decide there who to give it to. Apparently, in the end they decided to give it to Rabbi Leibov, and so on. Now, my father was always looking for ways to improve and develop the Rebbe’s activities. So he arranged with Rabbi Leibov to laminate each bill and write on it that it was from the Rebbe, shlita, for Chanukah activities for the children of the heroes. They sold each bill for a large sum, and the sales brought in a lot of money. Another time, with my father—I was standing there. It was in the lobby. My father stood by himself to receive a bracha for the journey. It was such an unusual scene: he was standing alone; there were four people in the lobby, the coupons—

2:41:10 Speaker 5 Upstairs in the lobby.

2:41:11 Speaker 4 He stood close to the doorframe. Whenever my father approached the Rebbe, he was always full of bittul. There are even pictures of him approaching at a farbrengen [?] to receive dollars for the tankists, standing with that kind of bittul. So he stood there, right against the doorframe in the lobby. The Rebbe came out, stopped in front of him, looked straight at him, and murmured something for a while, looking directly at him. They were both very devoted.

2:41:50 Speaker 5 And did he say something afterward too?

2:41:53 Speaker 4 I don’t think so.

2:41:54 Speaker 5 He didn’t give a bracha besides the—

2:41:55 Speaker 4 That was a bracha.

2:41:57 Speaker 5 Yes, but nothing anyone could hear.

2:42:00 Speaker 4 No. Maybe he said something; I don’t know. I wasn’t standing close enough to hear. I was at the entrance to the corridor. Or perhaps I don’t remember. But this I do remember: the Rebbe stood in front of him and murmured something.

2:42:26 Speaker 5 About the kapitel I mentioned earlier: when I spoke with Dovid Ofen, he said he remembers something that very few people remember. I think it was in [unclear], when it was supposed to be kapitel 36, that the Rebbe said, in the middle—after the verses of his haftorah—a few verses from his kapitel. Do you remember that? It was unusual. It was interesting.

2:42:51 Speaker 4 I don’t remember. You mean it would have been kapitel 36?

2:42:54 Speaker 5 I think 36.

2:42:56 Speaker 4 You mean that occasion? Which verses did he say?

2:42:59 Speaker 5 He said them, but I no longer remember which ones.

2:43:01 Speaker 4 I don’t remember. I don’t remember.

2:43:05 Speaker 5 How did those auctions work in your day? They were still auctioning things then—did the Rebbe get involved in the bidding, or—

2:43:09 Speaker 4 No, the Rebbe didn’t get involved, but they held auctions.

2:43:12 Speaker 5 He would stand facing the wall, and—

2:43:13 Speaker 4 Yes. Yes. They held auctions. At night, they auctioned things for the yeshivah. I remember Rabbi Chaim [?] conducting the auction. Maybe the next day it was Bogomirsky [?]; that was for the yeshivah. During the day it was for Machne Israel.

2:43:29 Speaker 5 For Merkos.

2:43:30 Speaker 4 For Merkos, Machne Israel—it’s the same thing. In any case, he would conduct the auction—

2:43:35 Speaker 5 Rabbi Hodakov wouldn’t have let you say they’re the same thing.

2:43:39 Speaker 4 You know the joke? When Rabbi Quint passed away, his funeral was, if I’m not mistaken, on Hoshana Rabbah 5734. That is, they took him to Eretz Yisroel, so it was after Yom Tov. In any event, afterward there were two condolence notices in the Algemeiner Journal: one in the name of Machne Israel and one in the name of Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch. So the bochurim around me said, “The only person who knew the difference between the two was Rabbi Quint, and he took the secret with him.”

2:44:10 Speaker 5 He dealt mainly with the accounts.

2:44:12 Speaker 4 Yes, officially he was in charge of the accounts. In practice he dealt with the accounts, but no—actually, the Rebbe would sign his name.

2:44:21 Speaker 5 They mainly used his name.

2:44:22 Speaker 4 Yes. No.

2:44:24 Speaker 5 No.

2:44:25 Speaker 4 When people traveled to New York for yechidus, the Rebbe would give them a note about a check they were to receive. It was a note addressed to him. They would bring him the note, and he would give them the check. He was—

2:44:34 Speaker 5 A learned Jew, they say [?].

2:44:36 Speaker 4 Yes, the Rebbe would sometimes discuss Torah study with him. He received seforim.

2:44:41 Speaker 5 So what were you starting to say about, uh, Zamir? He conducted the auction for Merkos?

2:44:45 Speaker 4 Yes, so he wouldn’t—uh, the auctioneer would stand like this, as though on the Rebbe’s platform, and sway. If the bidding went well, fine; the Rebbe didn’t intervene. But Rabbi Hodakov never stood like that. Hodakov stood like this. And if Rabbi Zalman managed to get a good bid, even Hodakov would smile a little. In any case, Rabbi Zalman could say to someone, with the Rebbe hearing it, “Oh, you still haven’t paid for last year.” Then someone else would say, “Oh, dos iz gelt—that’s money.”

2:45:28 Speaker 5 And then, in 5737, there was the time you traveled to Eretz Yisroel. You came back afterward because you traveled—

2:45:34 Speaker 4 For 5739, for Simchas Torah. I was working here at Tzach. Not right away, but I started working at Tzach.

2:45:40 Speaker 5 With Rabbi Eli Friedman.

2:45:42 Speaker 4 No, with Rabbi Soloveitchik.

2:45:43 Speaker 5 With Soloveitchik—there were two Tzachs.

2:45:48 Speaker 4 Yes.

2:45:48 Speaker 5 Tzach Kfar Chabad and the national Tzach.

2:45:51 Speaker 4 Yes.

2:45:52 Speaker 5 My brother-in-law was also there a bit at the time, with Menachem Cohen.

2:45:55 Speaker 4 He was the main activist, and I worked with him a lot. He was the activist.

2:46:02 Speaker 5 So you worked at Tzach in 5739.

2:46:06 Speaker 4 And by Simchas Torah 5739, Mivtza Sukkos was already over, so I came. Throughout 5738, I had no indication from the Rebbe that I should come. I very much wanted to come right after Simchas Torah 5738, for instance. At the end of Cheshvan I called Rabbi Hodakov and told him I very much wanted to come. He kept me on the line and said, “There’s no yechidus. What reason is there to come now?” I told him, “I’m not coming for yechidus. I want to see the Rebbe.” I truly longed to see the Rebbe after what had happened in 5738. Then, as Pesach approached, I wrote to the Rebbe again through Rabbi Naftali Klein, saying that I very much wanted to come. He submitted my note, and afterward sent me the Rebbe’s answer in its exact wording: “At this time, in the midst of Mivtza Matzah and Pesach [unclear], there could be no worse time for a trip from the Holy Land. [unclear].” Later, in Tammuz, my father traveled to Lubavitch and brought me a letter from the Rebbe with a kuntres, [unclear]. I hadn’t opened the letter at all when I traveled in Tammuz. The Rebbe had written there, “Rav pe’alim”—“a man of many deeds.” You could see that the Rebbe had added it, as though typed on a different typewriter: “Rav pe’alim.” Probably because I worked at Tzach.

2:47:41 Speaker 5 So I said to the Rabbi, “Rav pe’alim?”

2:47:43 Speaker 4 Yes.

2:47:44 Speaker 5 Typed, but “rav pe’alim” was on a different typewriter.

2:47:47 Speaker 4 And before the holy signature it said, “With a blessing for himself and [unclear].” In any case, I understood that I couldn’t travel for the time being. But for Simchas Torah 5739 my father cooperated, and he gave me money for a ticket. I understood. My father was already there; he came to meet me in my aunt’s car. So I was there. I went in for yechidus immediately after Simchas Torah.

2:48:17 Speaker 5 So that was the one of today—

2:48:19 Speaker 4 At Simchas Torah, the Rebbe spoke about resuming yechidus. The Rebbe said that yechidus is when one yechidah meets another yechidah, and its main purpose is that a third Jew should benefit from it. The Rebbe said that in a voice choked with tears. There are things the Rebbe said in a voice choked with tears—you could feel it. For example, what I told you earlier, what the Rebbe said to me at the end of the yechidus in 5737 [?]—

2:48:53 Speaker 5 [unclear]

2:48:54 Speaker 4 The Rebbe said that, too, in a voice choked with tears. Or what the Rebbe told me about [unclear] my studies. In my yechidus the following year, I wrote that unfortunately I hadn’t done it. So the Rebbe ended the yechidus—precisely because I hadn’t done it. [unclear] And that, too, the Rebbe said in a voice choked with tears, as though it pained him. He wasn’t just saying it.

2:49:25 Speaker 5 And then you came for yechidus in 5740. There was a restriction then: they wanted people to go in only one at a time.

2:49:32 Speaker 4 No, not everyone went in, but the point was to do it quickly. That was a different year.

2:49:35 Speaker 5 No, what happened was that the Rebbe received people on Friday morning, around midday, because that morning it became known that they had limited the number of people. So the Rebbe said he would receive everyone, both on Friday and on Motzaei Shabbos.

2:49:48 Speaker 4 I don’t remember. Maybe.

2:49:49 Speaker 5 That’s how I seem to remember it.

2:49:50 Speaker 4 Could be, could be.

2:49:52 Speaker 5 If I’m not mistaken, I once heard about Rabbi Engel coming from Newark and going in—but his son-in-law, Pesach Lipsker, no, no, hadn’t won the lottery. Pesach’s son did go in with his grandfather, and then the Rebbe asked, “Where’s your father?” The child said that he hadn’t won the lottery.

2:50:13 Speaker 4 Oh, there was a lottery to decide who would go in?

2:50:15 Speaker 5 Yes.

2:50:15 Speaker 4 That wasn’t in 5739. In 5739, everyone was going in from the start. So why have a lottery, in short?

2:50:21 Speaker 5 Maybe that was—

2:50:22 Speaker 4 It was an hour and a half a day, in the evening.

2:50:24 Speaker 5 So maybe that was a different year. Maybe 5740 or 5741.

2:50:28 Speaker 4 Or it was, it was the year—

2:50:29 Speaker 5 So the Rebbe apparently didn’t like the lottery and said he would receive everyone, both on Friday and on Motzaei Shabbos. Maybe I’m mixing up the year. It could have been 5749, but you probably remember better. A few years later, did you come for the last yechidus in 5749, or were you there again after that—

2:50:48 Speaker 4 No, no. Even on Tu BiShvat there was still private yechidus, and by 5742 there were already lotteries. In 5740 you could still choose, as it were, one or the other.

2:50:56 Speaker 5 And you had a yechidus?

2:50:57 Speaker 4 Yes.

2:50:58 Speaker 5 What happened? What did the Rebbe say?

2:51:00 Speaker 4 Brochos.

2:51:02 Speaker 5 Brochos.

2:51:06 Speaker 4 People tend to make light of that, but brochos are—

2:51:07 Speaker 5 No, no one makes light of it, G-d forbid. No one does, but that was—and the pictures are from years later.

2:51:15 Speaker 4 The picture below, the one taken around Yom Kippur, is from 5747.

2:51:19 Speaker 5 That’s from 5747?

2:51:20 Speaker 4 Yes.

2:51:24 Speaker 5 The one above is later, from 5740.

2:51:26 Speaker 4 Fifteen dollars.

2:51:27 Speaker 5 Dollars.

2:51:28 Speaker 4 Fifteen dollars.

2:51:29 Speaker 5 Well, Reb Yosef Yitzchak, you’ve brought us to life. First of all, I want to thank you. You’ve really brought us to life and renewed our hiskashrus. We just need the brocha that very, very soon we’ll see the Rebbe again. Then there will be many more revelations, and it will be wonderful—just as your sparkling eyes showed us how much vitality you have. You live with those years when you were with the Rebbe, and you bring us to life. May Hakadosh Boruch Hu grant you good health, long life and many good years.

2:52:07 Speaker 4 Amen.

2:52:08 Speaker 5 May you continue to bring us to life and to live with the Rebbe’s eyes upon us. Very soon we’ll see him again, and he will redeem us. We’re in the period before Gimmel Tammuz, when we just want to strengthen our hiskashrus to the Rebbe more and more.

2:52:21 Speaker 4 Amen.

2:52:21 Speaker 5 A big yasher koach on behalf of everyone, and may we see the Rebbe again very soon, immediately.