The Miracle at the Soviet Passport Control

The Miracle at the Soviet Passport Control

Welcome to our weekly program, the Inside Story of Chabad in America, through the Mindel Archives. This is the third or fourth program about the trips Rabbi Mindel made to Russia to bring manuscripts from the Frierdiker Rebbe.

Now, throughout the years, the Rebbe sent him to different places. He was sent to Israel many times. The Rebbe sent him to print the Tanya in Cairo, through the Suez Canal. The Rebbe sent him to see Shazar — he was close with Shazar, the President of Israel. And the Rebbe sent him one time in the '50s to Prime Minister Ben-Gurion.

I remember he was telling us that — I think it was about meeting with him to speak to him — this was in the early '50s. Even so, he says Ben-Gurion told him — I mean, he really liked Rabbi Mindel, he sees how smart he is — he says, "If you're like that, I can imagine what the Rebbe is."

So in conversation, Rabbi Mindel mentioned he knew Hebrew very well, like poetic Hebrew, so he mentioned something from the siddur. So Ben-Gurion said, "It's such a beautiful — which is so beautiful." So he says, "What do you mean? It's a saying from the siddur." So he tells Rabbi Mindel, "You see the whole wall full of books from ceiling to the floor? I never — not one siddur here. I never held a siddur." That's what he told him. So maybe — I hope, I hope — maybe from then on he went to buy a siddur, I don't know, but this is a maaseh.

So he sent him to Israel many times. Also he went to Morocco with Rabbi Yomi Garadetsky [?] — this is a program by itself, everything is written. He sent him to Africa — there was a rabbi there, Bernhard [?], I think. So he sent Rabbi Mindel for shlichus to see him. In France, England, Belgium, Argentina, Germany, and also to the Frierdiker Rebbe — excuse me, let me — I didn't really know how much. So he sent him to the Frierdiker Rebbe in 1942, when he went to Chicago. You know, because Chicago — so yes, Rabbi Mindel, can he come with him? So he went with him, and he is the one, I think, that told the Frierdiker Rebbe, being in Chicago, that the Rebbetzin had passed away. So they took a train back — that's another program, which is not for now.

But he went to many, many shlichuyos of the Rebbe that represented him. But today I want to share with you a shlichus — a continuation from last week. Last week we told a story of the first time that he went to Russia. This is the second time that the Rebbe sent him to Russia. This was in 1961.

As we spoke last week, this was under the Communist regime, a very dangerous time — nobody was supposed to know that he is a shliach of the Rebbe. The Rebbe sent him to bring back manuscripts of the Frierdiker Rebbe.

Now, he had two sisters in Riga. Can he — his family wants to go with him to see the sisters. His family means his wife — the Rebbetzin's mother, his wife — and also he had two brothers, one was in Argentina, one was in Mexico, with their family. Can they come? At the airport, he was very happy that — I even gave him my money for — I have the money that we gave them, the dollars. It wasn't dollars, it was Israeli dollars [unclear]. Anyways, so he took them with him and they went to the sisters, and he went to do his shlichus.

It wasn't easy to get the manuscripts. He found out where it is, and he got a suitcase of the manuscripts. The kids — they stayed there a few days, I think it was a week or twelve days — time to go home, go back to New York.

Now, those days this was dangerous. They had to go by train to the airport, but they had to change trains. So the rule there was, if you change a train, you get off at the station — it's called the vokzal, he says. I remember him saying "vokzal" — that's the station. So they had to take out their belongings, all the suitcases, and there was a guard standing — there were two guards — and they were checking. They had to open up the suitcase and check. They spot-checked — they didn't check every suitcase, but they spot-checked. That's the rule they had then. Then they go to another train, until it got to the airport.

Can you imagine how Rabbi Mindel felt? One suitcase was the manuscripts of the Frierdiker Rebbe, and if they would, God forbid, open that suitcase — I can't even say what would happen. He would not be in New York, especially since he was born in Russia — that's besides the point. Second is the fact that he said — I mean, it was the whole family, when they all went out, they had maybe nine or ten suitcases. They had to line them up at the station, and the guard said to his brother — he pointed to him — "Come here, open the first suitcase." He made like this — like this — so he opened it. The guard bent down and looked — mamash he took everything out, he looked thoroughly, he looked at everything, and he put everything back, closed it, fine.

Then he pointed to another suitcase — he didn't open the second one, he skipped the second one — the third suitcase, also opened. Bent down, took everything out, made a thorough investigation, mamash, closed it — then he went to another. So he skipped — went back — then he was pointing to the suitcase that had the manuscripts. Unbelievable. Can you imagine, Rabbi Mindel standing there, and he is picking up his finger — that second, he remembered telling us, he picked up the finger — that second, the guard that was in the back tapped him on his shoulder. He looked back, and he told him something for half a minute, maybe. So his finger moved to the other suitcase. If he wouldn't have tapped him, he would have — because he pointed to that suitcase. So he skipped that suitcase and he went to the other one.

Rabbi Mindel said this was the biggest miracle in his lifetime. This is called — I mean, they were all standing, he was shaking, but by tapping him, it was that — anyways, the kitzur [short version] — they came to New York. He came to the Rebbe and he told the Rebbe this story.

Now, one more thing I forgot to say before: before he left to Russia, the Rebbe told him not to wear a yarmulke — he should wear, put on a beret, not a yarmulke. And he explained to him what — in Russia, what they did, the KGB, when they see a tourist, the first thing they ask him is to take off his hat — they'll see right away if he's a religious person, because a religious person has a yarmulke, so if he has a yarmulke, they'll know who he is. And it did happen that he was walking on the street, in the middle, and they stopped him and asked him to take off his yarmulke — but that's the thing I forgot to tell you before.

Anyways, he came back to the Rebbe and he told the Rebbe the whole story, and he told the Rebbe about the yarmulke, that — why are you excited? It's a miracle that — this means here we see that when you go on shlichus, the Aibishter helps you.

So this is another story of one of his trips. Next week we will continue with the next trip of the program. Thank you.