Ears to Hear 32 | "Lubavitch Has Gone Into Ten Exiles"

00:00 Speaker 1 “And Hashem has not given you a heart to know, eyes to see, or ears to hear.”

00:08 Speaker 2 Ears to Hear. Audio programs for the Temimim, from World ATA.

00:14 Speaker 4 The Rebbe says in several places that Lubavitch went into exile from Lubavitch until 770—and, he says, beyond. There are, of course, different ways to count the ten exiles. There was Rostov, where the Rebbe Rashab moved from Lubavitch; the Frierdiker Rebbe moved from Rostov to Leningrad. Later, the Frierdiker Rebbe moved to Malakhovka, and from there to Riga, Warsaw, Otwock, Riga again, Greystone in Manhattan, Lakewood in New Jersey, and 770.

00:53 Speaker 2 Shalom aleichem to all the Temimim in Tomchei Temimim Lubavitch yeshivos throughout the Holy Land and the world. We’re now beginning a very special program in the Ears to Hear audio series. These programs are permeated with a spirit of firm hiskashrus to the Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach shlita, and with our precious mission of bringing about the days of Moshiach in actual practice. Among the programs in Ears to Hear that have discussed Beis Rabbeinu Shebebavel, Beis Moshiach, and the unique publication of the special kuntres on 28 Cheshvan 5719, this program takes up a fascinating subject that hasn’t been discussed very much. We’re sitting here with Rabbi Schneur Berger, a researcher of Chabad history, to hear a very special perspective on the ten exiles of Lubavitch: the places, the years, and everything that happened along the way, from the days of the Alter Rebbe, where it all began, to Beis Moshiach, 770, in our generation. So first, let’s say hello. Shalom aleichem, Rabbi Berger.

02:03 Speaker 4 Shalom. It’s a pleasure to be a guest on your program.

02:07 Speaker 2 Boruch Hashem. As we said in the introduction, the Temimim know the kuntres from a completely different angle—a more scholarly angle, with in-depth discussion of what the Rebbe added in section five beyond section four. And when they reach the passage in the kuntres about Lubavitch’s ten exiles, where the Rebbe lists those places both in the notes and in the sicha itself, they don’t always stop over it. The Rebbe mentions the ten exiles of Lubavitch to explain the special quality of 770, Beis Moshiach. But when you decipher the sicha, identify those cities, and take a moment to understand where each exile took place, how many years it lasted, and what happened to Lubavitch there, then you understand the unique quality of the final destination: Beis Rabbeinu, Beis Moshiach, the home of the Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach. It certainly casts the subject in a completely different light. That’s why we’re sitting down to hear about it. You’ve dealt with this subject before.

03:07 Speaker 4 Yes. The Rebbe really changed the way people understood this when he said that 770 is Beis Rabbeinu Shebebavel, Beis Moshiach. Although the idea was known in some sense, the Rebbe presented it in a kuntres that was clear and, at the same time, written in a very accessible style, unlike other sichos. The Rebbe emphasized several things, including that 770 is Beis Rabbeinu Shebebavel. When the Jewish people were exiled from Eretz Yisroel and came to Bavel, they had a leader, and that leader had a large beis midrash. It was the central beis midrash from which Torah and halachic rulings went out to the entire Jewish people. That is what “Beis Rabbeinu Shebebavel” means. But the Rebbe explains, based on passages from the Gemara, Midrashim, and so on, that the central “mikdash me’at,” as it is called in the Gemara and Midrashim, has been in Beis Rabbeinu Shebebavel from the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash until today—and today it is at 770. The Rebbe also explains that in recent generations there have been other locations of Beis Rabbeinu Shebebavel: wherever the leaders of the Jewish people, the Chabad Rebbeim, were. The Rebbe also says that the Beis Hamikdash is called Talpiyos, “the hill toward which all mouths turn,” because everyone turns toward it in prayer. And the Rebbe says the same applies to 770. In Tractate Berachos, from which the Rebbe quotes that description of Talpiyos, the discussion concerns which direction a Jew should face when praying. In practice, the point is that a Jew must always pray toward the Beis Hamikdash. Whether he is to its east or west, he must face the Beis Hamikdash. Even if he is behind the Beis Hamikdash, he must face toward it. Incidentally, that is what we do today as a matter of halachah, both in the Land of Israel and throughout

05:19 Speaker 4 the world. Whether someone is to the south or north, always—

05:22 Speaker 5 Toward Jerusalem.

05:23 Speaker 4 He faces toward Jerusalem. And by analogy, the Rebbe says that everyone, in effect, turns toward 770 as well. Now, in the sicha about Beis Rabbeinu Shebebavel, the Rebbe recounts the journeys of its successive locations. He begins with Lubavitch, where the Mitteler Rebbe, the Tzemach Tzedek, the Rebbe Maharash, and then the Rebbe Rashab lived, until the Rebbe Rashab moved to Rostov. The Rebbe lists Rostov and Petersburg, where the Frierdiker Rebbe moved. From there, the Frierdiker Rebbe moved to Latvia and Poland, until the exile to America.

06:04 Speaker 5 Mm-hmm.

06:05 Speaker 4 Of course, in the kuntres the Rebbe speaks at length about the Frierdiker Rebbe’s move to America as the conquest and refinement of the lower hemisphere. The Rebbe also emphasizes that even after the Frierdiker Rebbe’s passing, the holiness does not leave its place. He stresses that several times.

06:22 Speaker 5 Forever.

06:24 Speaker 4 Forever, until the coming of the righteous redeemer.

06:25 Speaker 5 Mm-hmm.

06:26 Speaker 4 It says explicitly that until the coming of the righteous redeemer, Beis Rabbeinu Shebebavel will remain holy; it will remain Beis Rabbeinu Shebebavel.

06:32 Speaker 5 Mm-hmm.

06:33 Speaker 4 Yes, without any limitation.

06:35 Speaker 5 So that’s our introduction. First, as you said, there is the unique status of Beis Rabbeinu as the hill toward which all mouths turn. Then, as the Rebbe sets out in the kuntres, we can understand what that means. The general qualities of Beis Rabbeinu listed in the kuntres, apart from its being the Rebbe’s dwelling place, apply to every Beis Rabbeinu. In other words, when the Rebbe speaks about a place where the Shechinah rests, that also applies to Beis Rabbeinu in Lubavitch. And [unclear] it will be connected to the Third Beis Hamikdash. All of that concerns the Beis Hamikdash. Then there are unique qualities belonging only to our Beis Rabbeinu, 770, as the Rebbe’s dwelling place, where the future Beis Hamikdash will be revealed. Those do not apply to the earlier locations. That’s for those who study and discuss the subject in depth. But what we want to ask you, as someone who works in this field and has a clear picture of Chabad history, is to take us back and tell us about those mikdashei me’at, those locations of Beis Rabbeinu Shebebavel, starting with the first one the Rebbe counts in the sicha. So why does the Rebbe apparently not count the Alter Rebbe?

07:46 Speaker 4 Right. The Rebbe does not count the Alter Rebbe. The Alter Rebbe’s central beis midrash was first in Liozna and then in Liadi. Later, as is well known, during the war with Napoleon, the Alter Rebbe fled from Napoleon and passed away in the village of Piena. After the Alter Rebbe’s passing, the Mitteler Rebbe traveled with a group of chassidim and family members until they eventually settled in Lubavitch. That is where the Rebbe begins counting Lubavitch’s ten exiles.

08:15 Speaker 5 How did they come to Lubavitch? Were they looking for a place where—

08:17 Speaker 4 They were looking for a place where they could live and settle. There were several possibilities, and they chose Lubavitch. At the time, Lubavitch was in White Russia, near the border with Russia. After several decades the situation changed: today it is in Russia, near White Russia, along the border.

08:38 Speaker 5 So in that year, 5573, after the Alter Rebbe’s passing, the Mitteler Rebbe arrives in Lubavitch. How do they settle there, and on what basis do they decide that this will be the world center of Chabad? I mean, what…?

08:54 Speaker 4 The Mitteler Rebbe decided that he would live in Lubavitch, that it would become, as they say, the worldwide center of Lubavitch. That is, as soon as the Mitteler Rebbe arrived in Lubavitch, he built both his private home and a large, magnificent shul. Incidentally, there’s a detailed account of how he even brought lamps from distant Petersburg. He built it on a very large and beautiful scale. Clearly, it wasn’t just for the people living in Lubavitch or the surrounding area; it was intended for chassidim to come from everywhere. Of course, distances were enormous then, and in the time of the Mitteler Rebbe, later in the time of the Tzemach Tzedek, and even in the time of the Rebbe Maharash, people still traveled by horse and wagon.

09:40 Speaker 5 Mm-hmm.

09:41 Speaker 4 That means that to travel to Lubavitch for Tishrei, say, some people would set out several weeks beforehand.

09:49 Speaker 5 Oh.

09:50 Speaker 4 Because traveling enormous distances by horse and wagon took time. They would travel in caravans, and at every Jewish town or village they passed through, more chassidim would join them.

10:03 Speaker 5 It really brings to mind the pilgrimage to the Beis Hamikdash.

10:05 Speaker 4 Yes.

10:05 Speaker 5 People making the pilgrimage, with everyone joining in.

10:07 Speaker 4 Joining them. And of course, all along the way—they didn’t have today’s technology to see or hear the Rebbe—they would discuss Chassidus. When they reached villages where they needed to spend the night, they would farbreng at night and talk about their journey to the Rebbe. Of course, it depended on the distance. Some lived twenty kilometers from Lubavitch, while others lived thousands of kilometers away and still made the trip. Some would even try to find a bit of work along the way to earn money to continue and cover the cost of the journey. Some made a point of walking part of the way. Others walked because the horses couldn’t carry everyone and all their belongings. In practice, these were very, very long journeys, and the closer they got to Lubavitch, the more people joined them. Now, in the Mitteler Rebbe’s time, they built a large shul, as we said, a large building. But unfortunately, in those generations there was a terrible scourge: fires. In the time of the Tzemach Tzedek, there was a very large fire, and everything burned down. The shul the Mitteler Rebbe had built was destroyed. Toward the end of the Tzemach Tzedek’s life, they began rebuilding the shul, and they kept building and building.

11:37 Speaker 5 Was the second shul actually bigger than the first?

11:39 Speaker 4 They built a large, beautiful shul, and by the time they finished building it, the Tzemach Tzedek had passed away. Just a few years later, it burned down again. When we say it burned down, we don’t mean there was a fire in the shul; there was a fire in the village. Since they didn’t have firefighting equipment then, a large fire in the village was a terrible blow. Many houses burned down, and the shul burned down too.

12:03 Speaker 5 There are many stories about the fires, and about the well-known fire in the Tzemach Tzedek’s time—what happened to his manuscripts, what survived and what didn’t.

12:09 Speaker 4 Yes, yes. So there were several fires in Lubavitch. That was the major fire in which the entire shul burned down, and—

12:15 Speaker 5 But from that account, it seems the next fire was after the passing of the Tzemach Tzedek.

12:21 Speaker 4 There was one fire during—

12:23 Speaker 5 During the Tzemach Tzedek’s lifetime, and a major one afterward.

12:25 Speaker 4 They rebuilt everything, and then it burned down again.

12:27 Speaker 5 And after [unclear], after the passing of the Tzemach Tzedek.

12:29 Speaker 4 Yes. Then they rebuilt it once more. And there was a halachic issue involving the Tzemach Tzedek’s will.

12:36 Speaker 5 Here we’re talking about the Rebbe Maharash.

12:37 Speaker 4 The Rebbe Maharash.

12:38 Speaker 5 He alone, of all the sons, remained to continue the—

12:41 Speaker 4 Yes, and he rebuilt the courtyard. Now, from the time of the Mitteler Rebbe, the shul and the Rebbe’s home were on the same site, known as the courtyard of our Rebbeim in Lubavitch. The buildings formed something like a U shape, you could say, or an enclosed square with a small opening, with a courtyard in the middle. Horses and wagons could enter that courtyard. It contained the Rebbe’s home, the homes of some of the family’s sons, and a large shul. Later, when the Rebbe Rashab founded the Tomchei Temimim yeshivah, the large shul in the courtyard of our Rebbeim became the Tomchei Temimim yeshivah.

13:31 Speaker 5 Mm-hmm.

13:32 Speaker 4 It’s told that when they opened the yeshivah, they naturally renovated and refurbished the large zal, as they called it, so the students could sit and learn there for hours—to make it suitable for a yeshivah. In the Rebbe Rashab’s time, it was rather like 770: for decades, the Tomchei Temimim yeshivah was in the same courtyard where the Rebbe himself lived.

13:57 Speaker 5 Mm-hmm.

13:58 Speaker 4 And the Frierdiker Rebbe was the one who ran the yeshivah in practice.

14:01 Speaker 5 Mm-hmm.

14:02 Speaker 4 The students were under the constant, close supervision of the Rebbe Rashab. They were also present for all the events, such as the delivery of the maamar—every Friday night the Rebbe Rashab would say a maamar—the farbrengens, and all the events that took place in what was called [unclear]. The Temimim were part of it all.

14:20 Speaker 5 Mm-hmm.

14:20 Speaker 4 Because it was all in the same courtyard.

14:22 Speaker 5 Mm-hmm.

14:22 Speaker 4 And that went on for about twenty years. That’s why graduates of Tomchei Temimim in Lubavitch have so many stories about the Rebbe Rashab and the Frierdiker Rebbe: they were part of the courtyard.

14:32 Speaker 5 They were there.

14:33 Speaker 4 More than that, they received close guidance on how to daven with avodah—even individual guidance. A student who was beginning to advance would go into yechidus with the Rebbe Rashab and ask which maamar he should study for davening, what he should learn, and so on. It was all done under the Rebbe Rashab’s direction.

14:53 Speaker 5 It sounds almost [unclear]—to be in a yeshivah just two meters from the Rebbe Rashab and the Frierdiker Rebbe. Everything happened in that one place, in that one courtyard, shaped like an enclosed square.

15:03 Speaker 4 Yes, yes. And that continued until World War I began in 5674, and then—

15:09 Speaker 5 So here, with all the fires we’ve mentioned—at least three of them—we can treat this as one Beis Rabbeinu Sheb’Bavel. In other words, from [unclear], from 5573, when Beis Rabbeinu was established in Lubavitch, until 5676, it was one Beis Rabbeinu Sheb’Bavel.

15:27 Speaker 4 One Beis Rabbeinu Sheb’Bavel.

15:28 Speaker 5 Yes.

15:28 Speaker 4 Each time it was destroyed, they rebuilt it.

15:30 Speaker 5 The central location stood for 103 years.

15:32 Speaker 4 Yes, you could also look at it this way: it’s one exile, one place.

15:37 Speaker 5 Yes, one place that—

15:38 Speaker 4 Among the ten exiles we’re talking about. Now—

15:42 Speaker 5 What led the Rebbe Rashab to leave Lubavitch?

15:44 Speaker 4 Before we leave Lubavitch, perhaps we should also understand what it was like there. The first thing is the distances, the enormous distances we spoke about. Anyone who travels there today can see it. For example, about thirty years ago I was in Lubavitch, and I traveled there from Moscow. I left Moscow at around midnight on Motzaei Shabbos and arrived in Lubavitch on Sunday afternoon.

16:14 Speaker 5 Right.

16:15 Speaker 4 Granted, that’s a relatively long trip to Lubavitch too, but there was heavy snow. Still, you have to bear in mind that the chassidim traveled in all kinds of weather and under all kinds of conditions. Sometimes a wagon broke down; sometimes a horse died.

16:26 Speaker 5 Right.

16:27 Speaker 4 And there were other problems of one kind or another.

16:30 Speaker 5 The stories people tell—we know those things happened, yes.

16:32 Speaker 4 Yes, yes. And they traveled—always, always, always traveled. Now, the way people related to Beis Rabbeinu Shebebavel, meaning the Rebbe’s beis midrash in Lubavitch, was also very special. We see this in a note in the booklet Beis Rabbeinu Shebebavel, which quotes Rabbi Yirmiyahu of Bobruisk. His son, Avraham Ber of Bobruisk, related what he had said, and it was published in an account in an issue of Hatamim in the [unclear] years. Hatamim was published by the Frierdiker Rebbe, and the Rebbe was its acting editor. What happened was that when Avraham Ber of Bobruisk was a child, his father brought him, at age six, to the Tzemach Tzedek. He simply didn’t understand why the Tzemach Tzedek was held in such great esteem or why yechidus was so special. He saw his father burst into tears, crying so hard that he couldn’t control himself, and it mattered so much to him. Then, when they came out of yechidus, people danced and rejoiced, and he didn’t understand it. So his father asked him, “Is there a Beis Hamikdash today?” He said, “No. The Beis Hamikdash was destroyed.” His father told him, “From the day the Beis Hamikdash and the Holy of Holies were destroyed, until Hashem, may He be blessed, has mercy and sends us the righteous redeemer, who will gather us from the four corners of the earth, bring us to Eretz Yisroel, and rebuild Jerusalem and the Beis Hamikdash with its Holy of Holies—Lubavitch is our Jerusalem. This shul, where the Rebbe davens, is our Beis Hamikdash, and the room where the Rebbe sits is our Holy of Holies. The Rebbe is the Ark containing the Tablets of Hashem’s Torah for us.” In other words, even then they knew that the Rebbe’s place was like the Beis Hamikdash, and they treated it in a special way. It wasn’t just another shul

18:24 Speaker 4 belonging to another Rebbe. Rather, you might say that the center of holiness for the Jewish people in that generation was in Lubavitch, in the Rebbe’s court.

18:34 Speaker 5 It’s fascinating that you bring this from that angle, because when we hear “Beis Rabbeinu Shebebavel,” we immediately think of 770. 770 is Beis Rabbeinu Shebebavel and Beis Moshiach. But the earlier locations aren’t usually described as being like the Beis Hamikdash or Jerusalem. From this account, we suddenly understand that throughout those 103 years in Lubavitch, people really regarded it as Jerusalem, the Beis Hamikdash, the Holy of Holies, and the Ark of the Covenant. They meant those things quite literally even then.

19:01 Speaker 4 Yes.

19:01 Speaker 5 And now it has reached its fullest expression, with all the qualities the Rebbe lists in the booklet, but it all began back then.

19:06 Speaker 4 Yes, that’s what we see. That issue of Hatamim was circulated then among [unclear] and also to the general public, so everyone saw it. It was known that, throughout the generations in Lubavitch, they understood that Beis Rabbeinu in the time of the Tzemach Tzedek was the Beis Hamikdash.

19:35 Speaker 5 And that brings us to the move from Lubavitch to Rostov.

19:39 Speaker 4 Right.

19:39 Speaker 5 What led the Rebbe Rashab to decide to leave Lubavitch?

19:44 Speaker 4 They had been in Lubavitch for 103 years, and World War I began in 5674. As the war intensified and they feared the Germans were approaching Lubavitch, the Rebbe Rashab decided to leave. He left Lubavitch in Shvat 5676. Around that time, the students of Tomchei Temimim Lubavitch also began leaving and dispersing to different places. When the Rebbe Rashab left Lubavitch, he traveled from place to place, and after a short time he arrived in Rostov. He came to Rostov because local Jews who had ties to Lubavitch—though they weren’t Chabad chassidim—asked him to come there.

20:34 Speaker 6 Was it intended from the outset as a permanent residence, or was the clear goal to return quickly to Lubavitch?

20:40 Speaker 4 No.

20:40 Speaker 6 Meaning, what—

20:41 Speaker 4 They weren’t thinking of settling there.

20:42 Speaker 6 Had they moved Lubavitch there now, or did they say, “We’re leaving for a month or two, and then we’ll return”? What was it?

20:49 Speaker 4 No, no.

20:50 Speaker 6 What happened?

20:50 Speaker 4 The thinking throughout was that it was temporary. For example, there’s evidence of that from when the Rebbe Rashab passed away four years later. At the time—

21:02 Speaker 6 In 5680.

21:03 Speaker 4 Yes. At the funeral, the Frierdiker Rebbe convened a beis din, and they stipulated that when it became possible, they would move the Rebbe Rashab to Lubavitch.

21:14 Speaker 6 Mm-hmm.

21:14 Speaker 4 Because they thought it might become possible to return to Lubavitch. In practice, that didn’t happen, and they remained in Rostov for eight years. The move to Rostov brought about a major change. Lubavitch was in a region with a great many Jews. Rostov was at the other end of Russia, where there were far fewer Jews. What’s more, their first years in Rostov were during World War I, and following that war, the Communist Revolution began.

21:44 Speaker 6 Mm-hmm.

21:44 Speaker 4 It was, in effect, a real and serious war. Various forces were fighting one another—the Reds, the Whites, and others.

21:53 Speaker 6 Yes.

21:53 Speaker 4 Besides the war with Germany itself. At that time, traveling to Rostov from anywhere was literally life-threatening. There was especially antisemitism directed against Jews, and—

22:06 Speaker 6 Was Rostov considered a safe place?

22:09 Speaker 4 No.

22:11 Speaker 6 Okay. But safer than Lubavitch.

22:13 Speaker 4 At first, it was safer than Lubavitch. Later on, different forces fought there. Not the Germans, but there was a revolution within Russia that was essentially a war between different groups. The Reds captured Rostov, then the Whites captured it, and so on. There was considerable danger. Even so, there were chassidim who moved to live in Lubavitch—I mean, in Rostov. Not many, but a few did. Others came to Rostov for Tishrei or at other times, though the numbers were very small. Some came with genuine mesirus nefesh, traveling by train—train service had begun in the time of the Rebbe Maharash.

22:59 Speaker 6 Mm-hmm.

22:59 Speaker 4 Some arrived by train, some came by boat along the river, and others came by ship. Sadly, some were harmed along the way, because it was a difficult, bloody war.

23:11 Speaker 6 To think that even during a war—and that certainly resonates with everyone in this period—chassidim traveled to the Rebbe. They did everything they could to get to Rostov under those conditions. That’s extraordinary. In Rostov, was there one location that served as Beis Rabbeinu Shebebavel, or were there several?

23:26 Speaker 4 When the Rebbe Rashab first arrived in Rostov, they lived temporarily in a house. Of course, they looked for a suitable, spacious place that could serve as Beis Rabbeinu Shebebavel, where farbrengens and communal davening could be held. Eventually they settled in a large, two-story building at 44 Brodsky Street in Rostov. That building still exists today. It served as Beis Rabbeinu Shebebavel for eight years. The Rebbe Rashab was there for four years. After he passed away in Nissan 5680, the Frierdiker Rebbe remained there for another four years. In—

24:11 Speaker 6 So can I call this stop number two, or is it already number three?

24:16 Speaker 4 No, it’s Rostov.

24:17 Speaker 6 It’s Rostov.

24:18 Speaker 4 Yes.

24:18 Speaker 6 In other words, Rostov counts as one stop, not two because the Rebbe Rashab lived in two places there.

24:23 Speaker 4 No, no. One stop.

24:24 Speaker 6 One stop. And then we come to the Frierdiker Rebbe’s move from Rostov—

24:29 Speaker 4 To Leningrad.

24:29 Speaker 6 To Leningrad. Petersburg.

24:31 Speaker 4 Yes. What happened was that in 5684 the Frierdiker Rebbe was outside the city and was preparing to return to Rostov. He was informed that if he returned, he would be arrested. By then the Communist Revolution was over. The Communists ruled the entire Soviet Union with an iron hand and suppressed everything they could connected with Yiddishkeit. They knew about the Frierdiker Rebbe’s activities: he was running an underground network of yeshivos, chadarim, mikvaos, shuls, and so on. They tried in various ways to stop him. At that point, the warning was that if he returned to Rostov, he would be arrested. At first he stayed somewhere temporarily, but only for a very short time. As a compromise, he went to live in Leningrad.

25:23 Speaker 6 Mm-hmm.

25:23 Speaker 4 It’s worth noting that the city had previously been called Petersburg, and it’s called Petersburg today as well. But during the Communist period, it was called Leningrad, and—

25:30 Speaker 6 Mm-hmm.

25:31 Speaker 4 As is well known, the Rebbe spoke about this several times.

25:32 Speaker 6 Yes.

25:34 Speaker 4 When he first arrived in Leningrad, he stayed in a hotel for a very short time, then moved to an apartment at 22 Mokhovaya Street [unclear], in central Leningrad, where he lived for several years. The problem was that, of course, the secret police knew the address and knew what the Frierdiker Rebbe was doing in Leningrad too. Nevertheless, chassidim came. One account says that very early on, there were already three hundred chassidim at the davening. The Chabad community there already existed, but it wasn’t very large.

26:12 Speaker 6 But the house had already acquired the designation “Beis Rabbeinu Shebebavel.” In other words, the move had happened. Lubavitch had moved to Leningrad.

26:22 Speaker 4 Yes.

26:22 Speaker 6 It wasn’t a matter of going back to Rostov again.

26:26 Speaker 4 No.

26:26 Speaker 6 They moved to Leningrad.

26:26 Speaker 4 They moved to Leningrad, and at the very beginning there were difficulties getting organized. But they organized themselves very quickly, and chassidim streamed into Leningrad. They came for davening, farbrengens and yechidus. And, of course, there was all the underground activity throughout Russia. The Frierdiker Rebbe directed it from Leningrad, from the house at 22 Mokhovaya Street. Everyone came there whenever they needed to, and from there the Frierdiker Rebbe sent all the letters, messages and other matters to everyone. This continued until 5687, when, as is well known, the Frierdiker Rebbe was arrested on 15 Sivan.

27:09 Speaker 6 So it was a very short period—just over two years in—

27:13 Speaker 4 Three years.

27:13 Speaker 6 Three years in Leningrad, at 22 Mokhovaya Street.

27:16 Speaker 4 They were in Leningrad for three years before he was arrested. A little over three years.

27:20 Speaker 6 Okay.

27:21 Speaker 4 The Frierdiker Rebbe was in Leningrad for a little over three years. He was arrested, released, and after his release spent a short time in a place called Malakhovka, a small town on the outskirts of Moscow.

27:34 Speaker 6 Moscow. From what I understand from the kuntres, you could say that was another stop.

27:38 Speaker 4 Yes. A note in the kuntres Beis Rabbeinu Shebebavel mentions that the Frierdiker Rebbe was also in Malakhovka. Here’s what happened with Malakhovka. When the Frierdiker Rebbe returned after being released from his well-known imprisonment in Kostroma, he came back to Leningrad. Immediately, the local newspapers wrote against him, and it was clear that the secret police would not remain silent. There was a danger that they would arrest him again. As a compromise, it was decided that he would go to Malakhovka, a town on the outskirts of Moscow, in a different city. He stayed there only a very short time, a few months, until he left Russia. Because of the danger, and because they feared the secret police would take revenge on him in Malakhovka too, the chassidim were told not to come. Only a few chassidim came to visit and spend time with him there. After the Yomim Tovim of 5688, after Tishrei 5688, the Frierdiker Rebbe left Russia. Before leaving, he came to Leningrad at the end of Tishrei, and all the chassidim came there to say goodbye. After Tishrei 5688, the Frierdiker Rebbe left Leningrad.

29:01 Speaker 7 He actually left Russia.

29:02 Speaker 4 He left Russia, arrived in Latvia and settled in Riga.

29:06 Speaker 7 Riga.

29:07 Speaker 4 Now, there was a growing Chabad community in Riga for a simple reason: Jews who somehow managed to leave Russia in those years needed a country they could go to. Unfortunately, many countries wouldn’t allow new arrivals in. Just as there are issues with immigration today. The United States wouldn’t let them in either, and in the Holy Land the British were in control and wouldn’t let them in. Latvia, for some reason—because its economy was struggling, among other reasons—allowed anyone who wanted to settle there. So a Chabad community gradually grew there, and when the Frierdiker Rebbe arrived in Riga, there was already a Chabad community. But the main Chabad community was, of course, in the Soviet Union, scattered among cities, villages and towns. Physically, the Frierdiker Rebbe was now separated from them, because they couldn’t leave Russia. But as is well known, the Frierdiker Rebbe told them that, G-d forbid, he was not parting from them. As soon as he left Russia for Latvia, he began looking after the Jews of Russia in all sorts of ways. He kept up correspondence as much as possible, and passed along messages and money by other means—money to help the underground Tomchei Temimim yeshivos, and so on. In Riga, the Frierdiker Rebbe settled at 10 Pulkov Brizi Street, in a building called the Leibowitz House. Some places mistakenly call it the Lubavitch House, but it wasn’t “Lubavitch.” It was named for a wealthy Jew whose surname was Leibowitz.

30:51 Speaker 7 Did he host the Frierdiker Rebbe?

30:52 Speaker 4 He rented the Frierdiker Rebbe several apartments in that building, which was known as the Leibowitz House. The Frierdiker Rebbe was in Riga, and alongside the change we mentioned—that Jews from Russia could no longer come—a new opportunity opened up for Jews living in Europe, the United States and the Holy Land. They could now come to the Frierdiker Rebbe, whereas until then he had been in Russia and they couldn’t reach him.

31:23 Speaker 7 That’s an interesting point, a turning point of sorts for the rest of the Jews around the world.

31:27 Speaker 4 In the other direction.

31:28 Speaker 7 Yes.

31:28 Speaker 4 And indeed, in those years there were chassidim living in Poland—in Warsaw, Łódź and other cities. Chabad communities had begun taking shape there decades earlier, and suddenly they could come to the Frierdiker Rebbe. The same was true of the Holy Land. Not many came from there, but some did manage to reach Riga.

31:51 Speaker 7 So the community gradually grows in numbers.

31:54 Speaker 4 The community kept growing because of Jews leaving Russia. Jews continued to leave in small numbers, since the Russian government didn’t really allow people to leave, but more gradually arrived, and a large community developed in Riga. Even before the Frierdiker Rebbe was there, they already had Chabad shuls, established communities, mashpi’im and Torah scholars, and everything kept growing. The Frierdiker Rebbe’s shul was inside the house, and everyone came there for yechidus, farbrengens, to hear maamarim, for Tishrei and for everything else. Meanwhile, the chassidim in Poland asked the Frierdiker Rebbe to come to them, and he did. He traveled several times to visit them.

32:42 Speaker 8 That’s from 5688, then.

32:44 Speaker 4 Until—

32:44 Speaker 8 They’re in Riga until—

32:45 Speaker 4 Until Elul 5693.

32:47 Speaker 8 Mm-hmm. So there are six years when the center of Beis Rabbeinu, it sounds like, is in a good place both physically and spiritually.

32:55 Speaker 4 Yes. Latvia had a relatively democratic government, and there was no problem observing mitzvos or holding farbrengens publicly—anything they wanted. But from Riga, the Frierdiker Rebbe also directed the underground networks in Russia and the yeshivos in Poland, which were growing and flourishing. There was also activity in the United States and the Holy Land, and—

33:18 Speaker 8 Mm-hmm.

33:18 Speaker 4 All of it. It’s also worth noting that a few days after the Frierdiker Rebbe left Russia for Riga, the Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach, also left Russia and arrived in Riga. He was together with the Frierdiker Rebbe for a short time, and afterward went to study in Berlin, Germany.

33:49 Speaker 8 So what led the Frierdiker Rebbe to leave Riga in 5693 and move Beis Rabbeinu to Shlobovka [unclear]?

33:59 Speaker 4 Actually, it’s not really a question. Riga, and Latvia as a whole, had Jewish communities, but they were small. The Chabad community there was growing too, but it wasn’t that large. In Poland at the time, there were hundreds of thousands of Jews. It was the center of Jewish life in the world. More Jews lived in Poland than anywhere else at that time.

34:25 Speaker 8 That was the time. That was the time.

34:26 Speaker 4 Yes. Warsaw was the very center of Poland, home to huge numbers of Jews, Rebbes, rabbis and others as well. At that time, the central Tomchei Temimim yeshiva was in Warsaw, and it had hundreds of students.

34:43 Speaker 8 Mm-hmm.

34:44 Speaker 4 In fact, it was a gradual process. They invited the Frierdiker Rebbe several times to visit Poland, and he made several visits. The best-known visit, of course, was for the Rebbe’s wedding in 5689. Eventually, it was decided to move the center of Lubavitch from Riga to Warsaw. The Frierdiker Rebbe arrived in Warsaw in Elul 5693, and once again the Temimim could see him more regularly. Although, during the period in Poland, the Frierdiker Rebbe didn’t live right next to the yeshiva. Still, they could come on Shabbos and Yom Tov.

35:24 Speaker 8 Where was Beis Rabbeinu Shebebavel—the place where the farbrengens took place? Was it where the Temimim were?

35:30 Speaker 4 It was in the Frierdiker Rebbe’s home in Warsaw, at 7 Muranowska Street, apartment 9.

35:38 Speaker 8 Some distance from the yeshiva.

35:40 Speaker 4 A certain distance from the yeshiva. They couldn’t get there at any moment, but when there were special occasions, farbrengens and so on, the bochurim would of course come and have the privilege of being in the Frierdiker Rebbe’s presence. They went in for yechidus. And when this was in Poland, Chabad communities were growing throughout the country at that time, partly as a result of the Tomchei Temimim yeshivas, whose branches had spread across Poland—in Lodz and other cities. So those living in Poland, and in neighboring countries like Lithuania and Latvia, had small Chabad communities there. Together, though, they were many chassidim. They would come to the Frierdiker Rebbe for the holidays, or even on an ordinary weekday, for davening, farbrengens, yechidus and so on. And so the Frierdiker Rebbe’s home, which was also the beis midrash, became Beis Rabbeinu Sheb’Bavel—a central place from which the Frierdiker Rebbe led Lubavitch.

36:46 Speaker 9 So what brought about the next move? They were in such a special place, Warsaw—among the courts of all the Rebbes, you could say—with the Frierdiker Rebbe at its center, and Lubavitch there in all its glory. What prompted the next move?

37:00 Speaker 4 The next move was to Otwock. The next move was to Otwock: the Tomchei Temimim yeshiva had moved there for various reasons, and the Frierdiker Rebbe then moved to be near the yeshiva.

37:14 Speaker 9 Mm-hmm.

37:15 Speaker 4 Now, there’s something interesting about that period. If we think of today’s Beis Chayeinu, back then the chassidim did everything they could to come to the Frierdiker Rebbe from time to time, but distances were a factor. Some chassidim lived in the United States, some lived in Eretz Yisroel, and others lived elsewhere. But the Frierdiker Rebbe had a secretary called Chezkel Feigin, Rabbi Yechezkel Feigin. Besides being a secretary, he had a head for administration and managed all the Tomchei Temimim yeshivas. He was also an excellent writer. He wrote well, and he had something like a mailing list of prominent chassidim with whom he corresponded. A large part of his letters contained up-to-date reports on what was happening at Beis Chayeinu, with the Frierdiker Rebbe. Just like—

38:06 Speaker 9 Like a Beis Chayeinu bulletin.

38:07 Speaker 4 Like a Beis Chayeinu bulletin, only shorter. It might be half a page, or sometimes a page. It might describe the situation, where the Frierdiker Rebbe was traveling, which maamarim he was saying. Here and there, those letters even contain reconstructions of the Frierdiker Rebbe’s sichos and maamarim—passages from his sichos and maamarim—

38:24 Speaker 9 Written down by Chezkel Feigin.

38:26 Speaker 4 Yes. He simply wrote these things to people. For example, one of the last letters he wrote in 5699, before the Holocaust, was to Rabbi Eli Simpson, who lived in the United States and later served as the Frierdiker Rebbe’s gabbai. He wrote to him: “In his conduct during the Yamim Nora’im, and also in his sichos, one could see his great concern about the general situation of our fellow Jews.” He went on to explain how deeply concerned the Frierdiker Rebbe was. At that time, the Nazis were gaining strength and there was fear of war. And, remarkably, in all the maamarim he mentions the subject of Moshiach; he mentions the days of Moshiach from time to time. It seems that he wants to bring it up—perhaps he is already beginning to sense revelations of Moshiach, speedily in our days, amen.

39:15 Speaker 9 That’s very interesting. Where can we see that?

39:17 Speaker 4 It’s in the book about Rabbi Simpson, Chossid Ne’eman, page 304.

39:23 Speaker 9 Chezkel Feigin’s description of the Frierdiker Rebbe’s [unclear] at that time, just before the war began.

39:28 Speaker 4 Yes. Since he wrote to several chassidim, these letters appear in a number of books and places. Collected booklets have also been published with some of the letters he wrote to chassidim. Taken together, they’re like Beis Chayeinu. They also include, by the way, practical instructions for individual chassidim—whatever each one needed from the Frierdiker Rebbe—but they have these reports as well, which are very interesting.

39:51 Speaker 9 So after Warsaw and Otwock, we come to Elul 5699. At that point, before his journey to America, the Frierdiker Rebbe returns to Riga.

40:07 Speaker 4 When World War II broke out in Elul 5699, the Frierdiker Rebbe left Otwock and came to Warsaw. In Warsaw he hid in several people’s homes. Eventually he stayed in the home of Rabbi Hershel Gourary[?], one of the prominent chassidim of the time. And in Nissan he managed to leave Poland, which was already occupied by the Nazis, and reached Riga.

40:38 Speaker 9 Meaning he returned to the previous home that—

40:41 Speaker 4 He didn’t go to the previous home.

40:41 Speaker 9 I mean, to Riga.

40:42 Speaker 4 He went to a hotel. He arrived in Riga on a very interesting date: 5 Teves 5700.

40:48 Speaker 9 It’s interesting that in the kuntres the Rebbe notes that it was on 5 Teves. I was just looking recently, and every time it’s mentioned, it says the year 5699—

40:57 Speaker 4 The year 5699.

40:58 Speaker 9 Or the month, or 5 Teves.

40:59 Speaker 4 5 Teves 5699. Yes, 5 Teves 5700.

41:02 Speaker 9 5700.

41:03 Speaker 4 Yes. The Frierdiker Rebbe arrived in Riga on 5 Teves 5700, and even then he managed to meet with all the chassidim and with various community leaders and rabbis. You could say that, although Riga was then in a free, democratic country and the Nazis had not yet set foot there, everyone understood that there was a serious risk of the Nazis occupying Latvia too. So the Frierdiker Rebbe and the elders around him did everything they could to enable the Frierdiker Rebbe, and other chassidim as well, to leave—

41:35 Speaker 9 Riga.

41:36 Speaker 4 Riga. Now, there were various problems with documents and other issues, but the Frierdiker Rebbe’s documents happened to be in better order, so he was able to leave. Ultimately, the Frierdiker Rebbe left Riga for Sweden, and from Sweden went to the United States.

41:58 Speaker 9 So if the Frierdiker Rebbe arrived in Adar 5700, that means he was in Riga for a few months.

42:04 Speaker 4 He was in Riga for several months and then arrived in the United States. His escape from Europe, which the Nazis were beginning to occupy and which had become very difficult to leave, was of course a great miracle. When the Frierdiker Rebbe arrived in the United States in Adar II 5700, he stayed at the Greystone Hotel, at the corner of Broadway and 91st Street in Manhattan.

42:29 Speaker 9 Mm-hmm.

42:30 Speaker 4 For a short time, davening, farbrengens, yechidus—everything that was needed—took place there.

42:39 Speaker 9 Something tremendous happened: Beis Rabbeinu Sheb’Bavel moved—

42:42 Speaker 4 To the United States.

42:42 Speaker 9 To the United States, to the lower hemisphere. All the Rebbe’s sichos about the lower hemisphere really begin here.

42:47 Speaker 4 Yes.

42:47 Speaker 9 In that hotel there in Manhattan.

42:50 Speaker 4 Manhattan. Now, what did the move mean? First of all, there’s the spiritual aspect. Until then, Lubavitch’s activities had been in Europe, in Russia, and now they moved to the lower hemisphere, to the United States. In fact, during those years, during the Holocaust and afterward, very many Jews moved to the United States. Tragically, there was a great catastrophe in Poland and many Jews were killed. In practice, from that period onward, the largest Jewish population—the center of Jewish life—was in the United States.

43:24 Speaker 9 Mm-hmm.

43:25 Speaker 4 And that’s what the Rebbe says: the Frierdiker Rebbe came to work in the place with the most Jews. The Frierdiker Rebbe and the Rebbe work in the place with the most Jews.

43:32 Speaker 9 The majority of the Jewish people, in both number and stature.

43:34 Speaker 4 In stature, yes.

43:36 Speaker 9 But it sounds as though the Frierdiker Rebbe came early—that is, he was among the earlier arrivals in America.

43:40 Speaker 4 Yes.

43:40 Speaker 9 Not right at the start of the war, no.

43:43 Speaker 4 Right, at the beginning of the war. But in the United States there were a great many Jews with ties to Chabad. They weren’t Chabad chassidim, but their grandfather had been a Chabad chossid, or they had previously lived in Russia or somewhere in Poland. They had some connection to Chabad; perhaps they had davened in a Chabad shul. So at that time there were many shuls in the United States that were called “Nusach HaAri z”l.” They had all sorts of names—Tzemach Tzedek, HaAri, and other interesting names. Some of the people studied Chassidus, and some even held farbrengens on 10 Teves, but they weren’t exactly classic Chabad chassidim. On the other hand, in each such place there was a Chabad chossid or two who really were Chabad chassidim and tried to do more and more. The Frierdiker Rebbe mobilized both those committed Chabad chassidim in different parts of the United States and, of course, those who had begun to develop a connection to Chabad. There was potential here. You can see footage of the Frierdiker Rebbe arriving in the United States even ten years earlier, on a visit [unclear], and thousands of people are waiting for him in the streets. Yes, thousands waiting. They weren’t really Chabad chassidim, but they were people who had some connection to Chabad.

45:05 Speaker 10 So after the hotel in Manhattan, the Frierdiker Rebbe moved to another place.

45:10 Speaker 4 After the hotel in Manhattan, for Pesach 5700 the Frierdiker Rebbe stayed in Lakewood with a private individual who had asked to host him. But that was only for Pesach, the month of Nissan and the beginning of Iyar. The Frierdiker Rebbe returned to the hotel in—

45:27 Speaker 10 Manhattan.

45:27 Speaker 4 Manhattan, the Greystone. And all the while they were looking for a suitable place from which the Frierdiker Rebbe could work—a place suitable for farbrengens and davening.

45:45 Speaker 10 Beis Rabbeinu.

45:46 Speaker 4 Beis Rabbeinu. It’s worth stressing that the Frierdiker Rebbe regarded this idea of Beis Rabbeinu—a place from which the Rebbe could work, even temporarily—as something that had to be large, spacious and suitable. Not some hotel room where you have to figure out where to put the shul and where people can daven. When the Frierdiker Rebbe had come to the United States on a visit ten years earlier [unclear], they initially put him in a hotel. The Frierdiker Rebbe wanted a large, spacious, attractive place, with room for davening, for farbrengens and for receiving people for yechidus. They kept looking until, as is well known, they found 770. Right? Crown Heights was a Jewish neighborhood then. A great many Jews lived there, and there were shuls. The activists helping the Frierdiker Rebbe, together with the Frierdiker Rebbe, bought the building in Menachem Av 5700. They purchased it in the name of Agudas Chassidei Chabad, and the Frierdiker Rebbe established his residence at 770. From then on, 770 became the Chabad center, Beis Rabbeinu Sheb’Bavel. Already in the Frierdiker Rebbe’s time, of course, it was a place everyone turned to: chassidim and Jews from all sorts of other circles came for yechidus, farbrengens and davening. The Frierdiker Rebbe continued writing letters to all those places, and that is how 770 became Beis Rabbeinu Sheb’Bavel.

47:20 Speaker 10 So now we’ve reached Beis Moshiach; we’ve reached 770. What, then, are the ten stations of Lubavitch’s exile? The ten exiles Lubavitch underwent. To sum up, what have we covered? From 5503 to...

47:33 Speaker 4 To 770.

47:34 Speaker 10 To—5700.

47:35 Speaker 4 The Rebbe listed a number of places to which Lubavitch went in exile, from Lubavitch to 770, and he adds, “and others.”

47:43 Speaker 10 Mm-hmm.

47:44 Speaker 4 And in interpreting that, there are, of course, different approaches to how to count the ten exiles. Let’s use the approach—

47:52 Speaker 10 That’s from your perspective.

47:56 Speaker 4 Yes. Rostov: the Rebbe Rashab moved from Lubavitch to Rostov. The Frierdiker Rebbe moved from Rostov to Leningrad. Later the Frierdiker Rebbe moved to Malakhovka, and from there to Riga, Warsaw or Otwock, then Riga again, the Greystone in Manhattan, Lakewood in New Jersey, and 770.

48:19 Speaker 10 So that’s what I was missing. We’re actually counting Riga twice.

48:24 Speaker 4 Yes.

48:24 Speaker 10 The first time, when the Rebbe was young there, and then again after Warsaw, when he returned because of the outbreak of the war—that counts as another exile of Lubavitch.

48:33 Speaker 4 He was there for months, yes.

48:34 Speaker 10 And as the kuntres notes, even here in New York there were several moves: Manhattan, Lakewood, and then 770. Those are the ten exiles Lubavitch underwent. So, Rabbi Berger, as we come toward the end of the program, talking about Lubavitch’s ten exiles, it’s amazing to see. We’ve only touched on the history of Chabad and Lubavitch over all those years, and on Beis Rabbeinu Sheb’Bavel. How, as we quoted earlier from Hatamim, did they already regard Beis Rabbeinu then? They understood that this was our Beis Hamikdash during exile. Now we reach Beis Moshiach, and the kuntres suggests that this isn’t just an ordinary Beis Rabbeinu like those of previous generations—not even like the ones associated with Rabbeinu Hakadosh or Rav, or those in Nehardea or Shaf Veyasiv. This is something more significant in several respects. Every Beis Rabbeinu derived its distinction, as we said earlier, from its connection to the Beis Hamikdash, from which the Shechinah rests upon it. But our Beis Rabbeinu is the place where Moshiach, the redeemer of the Jewish people in this generation, is found—the one who actually redeems the Jewish people, not merely someone fit to be Moshiach. That’s what the sicha seems to say. And, more importantly, its chief distinction is that the future Beis Hamikdash will be revealed there, because it is the...

50:03 Speaker 4 More than that: the Rebbe says that it is already the site of the Beis Hamikdash now.

50:08 Speaker 10 That it is the very site of the future Beis Hamikdash, because...

50:11 Speaker 4 Yes, yes. In other words, the place where the Beis Hamikdash will first be revealed is 770. So it is already the site of the Beis Hamikdash now.

50:22 Speaker 10 That’s its uniqueness. What we’re trying to convey in this program, in this podcast, is an understanding—both intellectual and emotional—of what makes Beis Moshiach unique. If you look back at everything Lubavitch went through, at all ten exiles, and trace the journey from Lubavitch to Rostov, Otwock, Riga and Warsaw, you say: there were Batei Rabbeinu, but they didn’t have the special distinction of our Beis Rabbeinu. Ours is Beis Moshiach, the place where the future Beis Hamikdash will be revealed. That truly moves us as we bring this program to a close. So perhaps, from your own perspective and experience, you could tell us about your connection to the Rebbe Melech HaMoshiach, to Beis Rabbeinu, to Beis Moshiach, as someone who spent time as a bochur in 770.

51:03 Speaker 4 We need to understand that travel to 770 developed over time, too. At first, in the early years [unclear], people sailed on ships. It may sound a little funny, but that was true even from Eretz Yisroel. People boarded a ship in Eretz Yisroel and traveled all the way to New York. Later they traveled part of the way by ship and part by plane. After that came the charters: Chabad rented a plane, or part of a plane, and people traveled in groups. Groups also came from other places, of course—from England and France. But none of that prepared us for what happened, you might say, at the end of the 5740s and from then until today. When I was a young bochur standing in line for dollars, you could see it wasn’t just Chabad chassidim or people close to Chabad waiting to receive a dollar from the Rebbe—it was everyone. The line of people seemed endless. Every Sunday, because of the enormous crowd, the men’s line wound like a snake through 770. The entire rear, western side of 770 was filled with people waiting in line to go upstairs and receive a dollar from the Rebbe.

52:17 Speaker 10 You’re pointing to a turning point there. We don’t know of anything like that in the time of the Tzemach Tzedek, when all of Lubavitch [unclear]. There were chassidim and there were those places—Warsaw, and the Frierdiker Rebbe was here, the Rebbe Rashab was here, the Rebbe Maharash was in one place or another. It wasn’t as though the whole world traveled—

52:36 Speaker 4 To seven-seventy.

52:38 Speaker 10 And so on. That gives us something different.

52:39 Speaker 4 Here it became something new: everyone started coming to 770. Yes. We’re talking about the later years, the 5740s and onward, right up to today, when simply everyone comes. You stand in line for dollars and see people who have only just put on a kippah. You see charedim with long peyos, right? At the same time, rabbis and other Rebbes come to the Rebbe, as do public figures—from Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin to the Gerrer Rebbe and Rabbi Lau, and all kinds of senators in the United States. Everyone comes to the Rebbe. As the Rebbe says, “Talpiyos”—the hill toward which all mouths turn. That’s simply how it is. Of course, other Rebbes before him also had some rabbis from other circles and the occasional Jewish public figure visit them, but with the Rebbe it became something else entirely. And that’s still true today.

53:31 Speaker 10 And even afterward, in the time of [unclear], you see that it all continues.

53:34 Speaker 4 Yes, even today. I was at the Rebbe’s not long ago, and you see it: you stand outside 770 and people are constantly arriving to see 770. Some of them have never been there in their lives. They barely understand what Chabad is or what a Rebbe is. They want to see where the Rebbe davens, where the Rebbe holds farbrengens, the large zal—all kinds of things. And you ask yourself, where does this come from? It can only be because this is Beis Moshiach. Because the Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach, is in Beis Rabbeinu Shebebavel, and everyone, everyone, everyone comes. Whether it’s to see, to daven, or to join a farbrengen, they come from every circle and of every kind—young people, children, older people. And it goes without saying that far more people are traveling to the Rebbe now. Chabad chassidim come from all over the world, and groups come too. You see groups of people with long hair and so on, and they all come to the Rebbe.

54:38 Speaker 10 That really is such a special perspective. When we hear what it was like in earlier years and earlier generations, and see what makes 770 Beis Moshiach unique—the home of Melech HaMoshiach—it’s truly inspiring. As we come to the end of the program, when was the first time you had the privilege of being at the Rebbe’s?

54:53 Speaker 4 The first time I had the privilege of being at the Rebbe’s was in 5750, and I want to—

54:57 Speaker 10 Kislev?

54:58 Speaker 4 No, actually Chanukah. And I want to add something important about the kuntres Beis Rabbeinu Shebebavel. Of course, every kuntres of the Rebbe is important, but I recommend that all the Temimim—and everyone in Anash—learn Beis Rabbeinu Shebebavel before traveling to 770. I can say that I’ve been doing this for many years, both myself and with my family. Whenever I can, I learn Beis Rabbeinu Shebebavel with each family member who is traveling to the Rebbe, and I learn it myself as well. We learn it anew each time. Because when you learn Beis Rabbeinu Shebebavel, the Rebbe explains in simple, clear language—as we said, without complicated arguments—exactly why we travel there. What is in Beis Rabbeinu Shebebavel? It is, in fact, the place to which the Beis Hamikdash moved. It is the center of Jewish life in the world. That is where the Rebbe is; that is where the Rebbe revealed himself and continues to reveal himself. That is where the Geulah will begin. The Rebbe writes this explicitly. I remember when I was a young bochur in yeshivah ketanah, we used to have farbrengens with the well-known mashpia Reb Zushe Posner, a"h, on Shabbos nights at his home. He would laugh and tell us, “Guys, when Moshiach comes, by the time you wake up, you’ll be standing on President Street—because people will be coming from all over the world. By the time you realize what’s happening, you’ll be out on President Street.” To him it was clear. What did he mean? That Moshiach would be revealed in the neighborhood. For him, there was no question at all about Moshiach. We’re talking about 5749, 5750. He would say this, and we would look at him and respect his personal longing, but the other mashpi’im weren’t even talking along those lines. Then suddenly the Rebbe published the kuntres Beis Rabbeinu Shebebavel, and we said, “Okay, now we understand.” A chossid with genuine feeling

56:55 Speaker 4 understood it even before then. As we said, back in the time of the Tzemach Tzedek, [unclear] said it too. He had heard from his father that the home of the Tzemach Tzedek was the Beis Hamikdash. May we merit, with Hashem’s help, that the Rebbe be revealed and that the true and complete Geulah come very soon.

57:15 Speaker 11 Amen. Thank you so much, Rabbi Berger. A truly fascinating and inspiring program. Thank you very much.

57:21 Speaker 4 Thank you, Rabbi Sasson. Long live our master, our teacher and our Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach, forever and ever.

57:27 Speaker 3 Ears to Hear. Audio programs for the students of Tomchei Temimim, from the Or Yomi website. For more programs, dial *6358. Long live our master, our teacher and our Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach, forever and ever.