What R’ Mendel Futerfas Did Without a Crowd

Welcome to our weekly program, "The Story of Chabad in America," through the Mindel Archives.

In the late 1930s, the Frierdiker Rebbe, with his holy vision, was preparing the groundwork to spread Chassidus to the entire world. Chassidus was like a closed book, because Chassidus is written in Hebrew, in Lashon Kodesh, and whoever didn't know Hebrew couldn't learn Chassidus. People that spoke English couldn't learn Chassidus. People that spoke Russian, people that spoke Spanish, they couldn't learn. So the Frierdiker Rebbe needed to have somebody who knew languages to translate, starting with the Tanya in English. Just like by Moshe Rabbeinu it says that he explained the Torah in seventy languages, so he needed somebody to join him — somebody who has a Torah hashkafa, and somebody who also knows languages.

So the Frierdiker Rebbe asked Rabbi Hodakov, who was the principal in Riga, in the yeshiva, under the teaching of Rabbi [unclear], that he should recommend a talmid who could help him in his work — someone who knew Torah and also knew limudei chol. So he recommended Rabbi Mindel. He was a good talmid, he knew how to learn, and he also knew limudei chol. So he came to the Frierdiker Rebbe, the Frierdiker Rebbe liked him, and he later became the secretary of the Frierdiker Rebbe. As we know from the previous programs, the Frierdiker Rebbe asked him to come with him to America, and later he also became the mazkir of our Rebbe. Since then, Rabbi Mindel worked with the Rebbeim until his passing. He passed away, as you know, on Yud Beis Tammuz.

One area of Rabbi Mindel's work, as we spoke about in the previous program, was the Rebbe's Igrot Kodesh, the letters. Another area Rabbi Mindel was busy with was writing books, publications for Kehot. He wrote Talks and Tales. He translated the Tanya into English. He wrote the Commandments, he wrote the Memoirs, Philosophy of Chabad, My Prayer, and many, many more. Even when he went to lecture in college, he would first go to the Rebbe for dictation. The Rebbe asked him — he told the Rebbe that he was going to speak, and the Rebbe said, "You probably wrote down your speech." The Rebbe wanted to see it, and the Rebbe was magiah his speech also. So he was always busy with this work — publications.

Now, it's interesting that when the introduction of the English Tanya came out, the Rebbe wrote an introduction to the Tanya, and the Rebbe says that for almost two hundred years people tried to translate the Tanya and couldn't, until Rabbi Mindel came and did the job. In 1962, in the first printing, Rabbi Mindel gave the Rebbe the English Tanya — the first print. The Rebbe took it, the Rebbe's face lit up, and the Rebbe said — the youngsters probably don't know about the Sputnik — it was the Sputnik that in 1958 caused a whole tumult, and it developed into the sixties. In Yiddish the Rebbe said there should be a tumult, like the tumult when the Sputnik went up, there should be a tumult when the English Tanya came out — the world should storm about the Tanya that came out in English. This was the second project that Rabbi Mindel was involved in.

The third was shlichus. The Frierdiker Rebbe and the Rebbe sent him on shlichus all the time — sometimes things we know, sometimes hidden things that we don't know. The first shlichus he went on was in 1944, sent by the Frierdiker Rebbe, where there were five hundred rabbis who went to Washington on behalf of the European Jews — this was at the time of the war. The Rebbe sent a delegation — we will speak about the five hundred rabbis in future programs, probably we'll need about three or four programs on that, very interesting. But the Rebbe sent this delegation: Rabbi Mindel, Rabbi Quint, Rabbi Levitin — not Rabbi Shmuel, but Rabbi Shmuel's son, Rabbi Binyamin Levitin — and Rabbi Shneur Zalman Gourary. We'll talk about the shlichus another time.

After that, the Rebbe always involved Rabbi Mindel — the UN, the moment of silence, release time — always Rabbi Mindel was involved. The Youth and Aging conventions — he had to go to Washington, he had to go to Albany. This was shlichus. Besides that, shlichus in Russia — we already spoke about it, and there's more we have to speak about how it went with the shlichus in Russia. In Israel, when the Rebbe asked him to go and print the Tanya — in Cairo, in England, in France, in Morocco, South Africa, Brazil. There's a letter from the Frierdiker Rebbe that he wrote to England, that they should be mekabel panim Rabbi Mindel, and he wrote there what type of person Rabbi Mindel is. So this was the third area that he was involved in.

Now I want to share with you something very interesting. In 1965, the Rebbe told Rabbi Mindel he should go on a shlichus, on a mission. But [the Rebbe said], "Before you go on the mission, come to the Shabbos farbrengen" — the Rebbe's farbrengen on Shabbos. Now, Rabbi Mindel lived in Long Beach, and he didn't go to farbrengens generally, but the Rebbe asked him to come, so he came to the farbrengen. The Rebbe told him that the farbrengen was a higher revelation, a great revelation. Rabbi Mindel says that this farbrengen saved him a lot on the shlichus, but the Rebbe spoke generally, and he understood why the Rebbe told him to come to that farbrengen.

Now, since we're talking about a farbrengen, I want to share with you something about my father, Reb Sholom. We lived in Cleveland — we came in the fifties to Cleveland, Ohio. My father used to go to the Rebbe for every Simchas Torah. My father was a shochet. In those days it was very hard to get a job — it was almost impossible. My father had a full house of children, and there was supposed to be a union meeting for the shechitah a day after Simchas Torah. My father didn't know what to do, because the Rebbe in those days would farbreng after Simchas Torah until maybe three or four in the morning, and he wouldn't be able to stay for the whole farbrengen. And if he missed the meeting, he surely would have no job. So he didn't know what to do.

So he came for lekach. The Rebbe had a minhag, a custom, that every Yom Kippur the Rebbe gave lekach to all the people around, who live in New York. The Rebbe stood the whole day giving brachos, lekach, "mach a simen tov." Hoshana Rabbah he also gave lekach to the orchim, the guests who came from out of town for Simchas Torah. So my father went to take lekach, and he said to the Rebbe, "What should I do?" — he might not be able to stay for the whole farbrengen, and he told the Rebbe the whole story about the union, the shechitah union, that there's a meeting the day after.

So the Rebbe told him, in these words, "Fun a farbrengen fort men nisht avek" — you don't leave a farbrengen. It means the Rebbe took it upon himself that everything would be okay. And this is what happened. Of course, he knew he had to stay. After the farbrengen, he went and stayed by Rabbi [unclear] — he came to eat the meal of Hoshana Rabbah. Rivka, Rabbi [unclear]'s wife, said to him, "You just got a call from your wife, from my mother, that the meeting is postponed to another day." I don't know exactly when this happened, whether it was as soon as the Rebbe said it or not, I don't know. But here we see how the Rebbe takes things upon himself.

Another thing I want to speak about, since we're speaking about a farbrengen already — generally, in the world of Chassidim, Chabad, we never made a big deal of a Yom Huledes, of a birthday. Let's say the Maggid's birthday — we don't even know it. Even the Baal Shem Tov's birthday we just found out, I think in the time of the Rebbe Rashab, maybe just before, but we never knew it was Chai Elul. As a matter of fact, other Chassidim claim the Baal Shem Tov was born on another day. But we know he was born on Chai Elul, because we didn't make a big fuss — excuse me — of a farbrengen, I'm sorry, of a Yom Huledes. But the Rebbe came out with a campaign that everyone who has a Yom Huledes should make a farbrengen.

So Rabbi Mindel asked the Rebbe, "What's the idea of making a farbrengen on the Yom Huledes, that everybody should make one?" The Rebbe said to him, "There's not one person in the world who doesn't have a birthday — everyone has a birthday. A farbrengen means brachos. It gives the one who has the Yom Huledes an opportunity, at least once a year, to give brachos. And we need brachos in this world to bring Moshiach. This is the inyan of a farbrengen — a farbrengen is brachos."

As my father used to say, when Yitzchak Avinu blessed Yaakov, before "V'yiten lecha," you say every motzaei Shabbos — it says in the Torah, "Vayochal," and he ate; "Vayesht," and he drank; "Yisrael l'chaim"; "Vayevarcheihu," and then he blessed him. When can the blessing come? B'dav kein hu farbrengen — this is the importance of a farbrengen. So when a farbrengen is keday, they say, "ki rafui l'malach b'cholni tofton" [as heard].

That reminds me — I heard from somebody who heard from Reb Mendel Futerfas: there was a chossid, a big chossid in Russia, in the bitter times, when they were afraid for Yiddishkeit. As a result of some chastira [concealment], he told his wife, "Put away a few pennies, a few groshen, for the seudah — we'll have to make a meal on Yud Tes Kislev," which is six weeks after Simchas Torah. "We have to make a seudah, a farbrengen, and we'll call a few people." So, Reb Mendel Futerfas said, she saved up, and they came to Yud Tes Kislev — they had a table full of food, and nobody came. He called people — nobody came.

So the husband sat down for Yud Tes Kislev, he poured a cup, said "l'chaim," made a brachah, said "l'chaim," looked around, said "l'chaim, l'chaim, l'chaim, l'chaim," and then he started to speak about Yud Tes Kislev. His wife asked him, "Who are you talking to? There's nobody here." He said two things: "Number one, you're here. Number two, today is Yud Tes Kislev — it's an inyan to make a farbrengen, you have to make a farbrengen. A farbrengen touches so many inyanim. If nobody is here, I can't help it." This is what a farbrengen does.

It's said somewhere that there was a Rishon, a gadol, who had a yahrzeit for his mother, and he forgot to say Kaddish. His mother came to him in a dream and said, "My son, I know you forgot to say Kaddish — I'll forgive you for that. But I will not forgive you that you didn't give schnapps and cake on the yahrzeit." Because when you make a farbrengen, and people are together, and people say l'chaim together, this is the biggest pleasure for the neshamah, even more than Kaddish.

So the lesson today is: "Borcheinu Avinu, kulanu k'echad" — when will the Eibershter bless us? When we are all united. And at a farbrengen, we are all united. And we say, "Ashreinu, mah tov chelkeinu" — that we are Yidden; "u'mah na'im goraleinu" — that we are Chassidim; "u'mah yafah yerushaseinu" — that we are Chabad Chassidim.

[Transcript ends abruptly.]

Next week we will continue the program. Thank you.