The Rashag’s Hiskashrus to the Rebbe

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

This Shabbos we're going to bentch Rosh Chodesh, and some people say that [unclear] also falls on it. In a week and a half is Yud Aleph Shevat. Yud Aleph Shevat is the yahrzeit of the Rashag. He was the son-in-law of the Frierdiker Rebbe, and he was the brother-in-law of our Rebbe.

So I want to dedicate these two programs [to him]. Now, I found in the archives of Rabbi Mindel many letters — maybe I'll share with you some next week. The Rashag wrote to the Rebbe all the years, from the beginning, asking for advice and brachos for people that he used to go around and raise money for him, and people would ask him their questions, and he wrote letters to the Rebbe. He called the Rebbe "Chossid Admor sheyichye" and brachos... [unclear]. He also asked the Rebbe for brachos a few times, even in the beginning years, for himself and his wife and his son, like a chossid.

Now I can tell you that his devotion to the Rebbe was unbelievable. He had much hiskashrus, which is not common that we would expect from a brother-in-law — to be mekushar like it was his brother-in-law. And I think, the way it looks from the letters, he was probably more mekushar to the Rebbe than maybe even to his father-in-law, the Frierdiker Rebbe.

He was part of the people who came to America — he came with the Frierdiker Rebbe on the boat, he came with Rabbi Mindel — and he was part of Chabad in... in my early years of Chabad in America. I think he's the one who purchased 770.

So I want to say, sadly, at least I didn't hear many Chabad speakers mentioning or recognizing or appreciating his dedication to the level I know we have speakers — we always commemorate, we always speak about Yud Tes Kislev or Yud Shevat, but I don't remember hearing speakers speak about the Rashag, and it's unfortunate. If you would learn the sicha the Rebbe said on his yahrzeit — this was Parshas... [unclear] — he spoke about him, he praised him, and he said his name in the sicha. I don't want to go into it, I mean how much mesiras nefesh he had — we didn't hear anything, we didn't hear people speak about him.

There's a lot to speak [about] — even if a regular Yid, he or she, passes away, and everybody has good deeds that they did in this world, we always speak about them — especially the Rashag, who was the Rebbe's brother-in-law and the Frierdiker Rebbe's son-in-law, and his mesiras nefesh for... for the Rebbe — which maybe I'll share with you next week — the Rebbe wrote that now he's working lemaalah even more than before on behalf of Tomchei Temimim.

So, in any case, this reminds me of a letter that I once mentioned, and I will mention it again. In the '40s, the Rebbe was supposed to be menachem avel, to pay a shiva call to someone — I think he lost his father or his mother, I'm not sure, I have to look it up — and the Rebbe couldn't go, so instead he wrote a nichum aveilim letter. You know, we have in Letters and Spirit a section of nichum aveilim — I don't think I put this letter in yet, maybe in the next volume I'll put in this letter that the Rebbe wrote.

And the Rebbe started with a mashal — maybe this mashal is written somewhere, I don't know — the Rebbe said it like this: there was a man standing in front of a river — you know, that's a place to meditate — and he was standing with his eyes closed, thinking. After ten minutes, fifteen minutes, he lifted his eyes and turned to his right side, and from far he saw hundreds, thousands of people celebrating, singing, eating, having a simcha. What's the simcha? A ship was built, and today is the first time that ship is going across the ocean — its first journey across the ocean. So everybody's happy.

Then he turns his head to the left side, and from far he sees an old ship, after many years, coming back to its final destination. Who is there to greet it, to be mekabel ponim that ship? Ten people — a handful of people.

The man says to himself: look, here is a new ship on the right side, going out for the first time — of course we give a bracha, we don't know what's going to happen with the ship, will the ship sink, G-d forbid, will the ship overcome all the storms, all the wars — we don't know — and yet it's going out for the first time, we don't know, nevertheless we're happy and we give a bracha. What about an old ship that already, baruch Hashem, went through everything, and finally it's coming to its final destination — who is there to be mekabel ponim? A handful of people.

And the Rebbe writes the nimshal in that letter: a person comes down to this world — we don't know, we hope, we make a kiddush, we make a seudah, we give brachos — because we give brachos, we don't know what's going to happen, with this child, we don't know, we hope, we give brachos that this child will overcome [the difficulties of life]. But what about a person who is already old, and he's already, baruch Hashem, passed through his nisyonos, he went through everything — who, who cares, how many people are there to recognize that? And this is the mashal the Rebbe gave, and that mashal, I think, belonged to that family — he had to tell them.

So that's why I want to say today: I sincerely hope that we will recognize and appreciate what the Rashag did in this world with his mesiras nefesh. Next week we will continue our second program on the Rashag. Thank you.