The Frierdiker Rebbe’s First-Hand Account in a Letter

Transcript

Welcome to our weekly program, The Inside Story of Chabad in America, through the Mindel Archives. This program is a continuation of last week - we can't understand this program before we hear last week's program, because this is going to be an answer from the Frierdiker Rebbe to Rabbi Mindel's report on the learning group.

Last week we explained about the Manhattan Learning Group and the report Rabbi Mindel gave. We mentioned [unclear] that this class gave a push to how today, Shabbos classes with the JLI and young couples descend from that class - the chayus that the Frierdiker Rebbe put and revived into that class.

So I'm going to read to you today the answer that the Frierdiker Rebbe wrote to Rabbi Mindel about his report. Rabbi Mindel wrote his report on the 20th day of Menachem Av; this was written [in response] on the 27th of Menachem Av.

"My dear friend Nissan, Sholom u'Vracha" - this is again translated from Hebrew, so I'm giving you the translation now.

Some personal remarks about the family: "The good news you reported of your family - wishing mazel tov. May Hashem give good news to report of your parents and family, and may we also hear good news from our daughter and son-in-law and family, and good news from all Jews and from Anash."

Now, I don't understand - maybe somebody can give me a comment. I know that he's talking about his daughter Shayna, because the Rebbetzin was here and Chana was here, so he's talking about Shayna and her husband. She went to the concentration [camp] - I think she was killed in '42 or '43. This was written in 1944, so I don't know what that means.

"Your brief report of the class conducted by our good and esteemed friend Mr. Elchanan Calvin [?]" - now, he called him sometimes "Mr. Alexander Cowan" [?] - "gave me much pleasure, a double measure of pleasure, that you, my friend, were present, and that you are interested in improving the class. Your suggestion to us to establish a protocol" - Rabbi Mindel is writing what he wrote last week - "(a) listing the names of the participants, (b) to put in writing the questions and answers, and (c) the reading from the text should be limited to no more than a half an hour, and together with a few words from Mr. Cowan should last about an hour, leaving time for discussion as well."

And the Frierdiker Rebbe is saying over - he's very upset saying over what Rabbi Mindel told them last week. Now the Frierdiker Rebbe continues:

"These three suggestions you, my friend, should please bring to the attention of my friend Mr. Cowan, and if at all possible it should be a very good thing for you to participate in the classes this coming week as well, and if you arrive a bit early, to discuss your suggestions with Mr. Cowan - if not earlier, then to speak with him after class. This is the suggestion of the Rebbe: it would be worthwhile for you, in addition to your participation in discussion, to also say a few words to inspire the listeners to action. This would be best accomplished with a story."

Now I will put down on paper - says the Frierdiker Rebbe - "for you, a chapter from my memoirs, where I report about my interrogation in the summer of 5681 (1921), in Tammuz, when I was summoned to the Cheka, later called the GPU, in Rostov."

Now, here is the story. Now, people know about this story - not the whole thing. They know about the Frierdiker Rebbe, about the gun on the table - but this is all taken from this letter, the Frierdiker Rebbe's handwritten letter to Rabbi Mindel, that he should read this to the class, and that it will uplift the class. So it took time to write this letter to this particular class, and I'm going to read it the way it's written, within the letter, in English:

"It was in the summer of 1921, in the month of Tammuz, when I was invited to appear at the Cheka - the Extraordinary Committee, later to be known as the GPU - the equivalent of the Nazi Gestapo, and dreaded no less. I was then in Rostov, and the invitation was the customary one. As I was then still in mourning for my father - this was in the year of [his passing] - three men, armed to the teeth with rifles, guns, Caucasian knives, and a belt of ammunition, not attempting to disguise their hatred, came up to me and told me it was requested that I accompany them immediately to the Cheka. Two of them were of the Yevsektsiya - that's the Jewish section - and the third a gentile.

"When I told them I wish to conclude my prayers, [one] grabbed him [unclear] - he wanted to finish off - the two Jews almost fell upon him, trying to tear off my tallis and tefillin, and were it not for the gentile companion, they would have forced me to accompany them before concluding my prayers. The gentile guard, however, prevailed upon them to let me conclude my prayers.

"Well, incidentally" - that he writes in parentheses - "I recognized one of the Jews as a native of Chevel [?], having once come to him for help, and I secured a position for him with a tobacco firm, and even lent him some money to start a business of his own. That was, of course, before the Revolution."

Then he continues: "When I concluded saying the Lesser Kaddish, I took off my tallis and tefillin and accompanied them to the dreaded Cheka, where I had an armed guard on each side of me, and one walked behind, like a very dangerous criminal. In those days one never knew whether one could come back alive after visiting the Cheka.

"I was led into a large room, where some fifteen men sat at a long table on each side, with two men at its head. I was placed at the end of the table, still surrounded by the armed guard. One of the two men sitting at the head of the table turned to me, saying, 'We are members of the committee investigating religious activity under the auspices of the Party. We are engaged at present in investigating the Jewish faith. We had some questions cleared up by Rabbi Berman and Goldberg, whom we had invited here. Now you have been invited to clear up some questions with regard to Kabbalah and Chassidism.'

"I replied in Yiddish, 'I have already been invited twice before to the Cheka, when I already stated that I would not deviate from my principles, and the man - or the devil - hasn't been created yet who could make me give up as much as an iota.'

"Before I managed to conclude these few words, one of the Chekists present, sitting near the head of the table, picked up the gun lying in front of him - in addition to being armed with a gun, each one had a gun lying on the table before him, no doubt to intimidate those taken for this inquisition - saying, 'This toy does away with many principles, and opens the mouth of the dumb.'

"So I said, 'You are absolutely mistaken, for this toy impresses only those who do not believe - these cowards, who have only one world and many gods, to whom each passion is a god, and they are afraid to lose this only world. But as to the Jews, who have only one God but two worlds, this toy does not frighten, and even makes no impression whatever.'

"So they told me, 'We have not called you for the purpose of annoying you,' said the chairman, 'Let's hear your principles - maybe we can get together on them.'

"So I answered, 'My principle is that I do not wish to hear, nor to speak, any language but Yiddish - even among gentiles, and especially among men who belong to the Jewish people' - because most of them were Jewish.

"So they asked, 'How do you know we are Jews?' one of them asked.

"So I answered, 'Maybe I'm mistaken, and not all those present here are Jews. My grandfather used to say that he could recognize a Jew at a glance, even in the street. Once, when he was in Kiev, walking along Khreshchatik [?] Street, he stopped a young man dressed in modern clothes, clearly anxious to disguise his Jewish origin, and asked him where a famous professor lived. The young man became incensed, and said, "How do you know that I am a Jew?" So my grandfather said, "The bris left an effect upon your nose."' Now, I said, 'I cannot recognize by that same criterion, but I still believe I am not mistaken.'

"So they told me the first question was" - as he writes - "'You observe your faith in every detail - you keep your heads covered, you wear tzitzis, and so forth. Now, all these things you do - do you do it because of conviction, or because of faith and habit?' So I answered, 'From absolute conviction.' So they said, 'If so, convince us also, and bring us to the same spiritual level as yours.'

"So I answered" - this is all written by the Rebbe - "'I am prepared to oblige you, and surely you will give me an opportunity to fulfill your request. You will admit, however, that if a student of astronomy is stopped in the street by someone with a request to explain to him the system of the stars and planets, surely the student of astronomy would tell him, "I cannot explain it to you here in the street right now, but if you really wish to learn, come up to the planetarium, and you will see with your own eyes, through this telescope, the movements of the stars and planets." Similarly, I say to you: if you really want to learn and be convinced about our faith in God and the Torah, come with me to the house of God, put on tefillin, eat kosher, keep Shabbos - then your mind will be clarified, as well as your heart, and you will be able to understand it, and I will surely bring you, little by little, to conviction in the truth of our faith and the Torah.'

"So they said, 'But first explain it to us intellectually, and then we will take it upon ourselves to observe the Jewish faith, but until then we cannot accept the religious matters as truth.'

"So I answered, 'You surely know definitely that food not merely satisfies the stomach and gives strength, but even fattens, because it turns into blood and flesh. In medicine, the process of digestion is clearly explained. But suppose someone said, "I shall refuse to eat until it is explained to me how the food turns into blood and flesh" - it is necessary to believe, and eat and drink first, then go and study medicine if you wish. And so it is also with religion.'"

And then my father-in-law just added to this letter - this was written by him - but he wrote at the bottom these words: "This made a profound impression."

This was the story that the Frierdiker Rebbe shared, that by reading this story, this will give chayus - and they were in awe when they read the story. This will uplift - and it uplifted the whole class.

Hashem - next week I'm going to read to you from the Ramash, from our Rebbe, what he wrote - what Rabbi Mindel should share with the class, pages and pages, the questions and answers that he brought up that the class should discuss - which, sure, next week we will continue.

Our Thursday night program - thank you.