The Klausenburger Rebbe’s Defense for Mivtza Tefillin

Historic Treasures — Episode 143 Transcript

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

In this program I want to share with you an interesting farbrengen that I had with others, and probably we won't be able to finish this in one program, so we'll have to do a few programs — this is a continuation of a few programs.

This farbrengen took place not in Crown Heights. This farbrengen was on Shabbos before Yud Beis Tammuz, between Gimmel Tammuz and Yud Beis Tammuz, with a vort Friday night, a vort on Shabbos by kiddush, and then also by shalosh seudos — a very unique farbrengen. And I'll tell you soon what the reason for that is.

Because before Yud Beis Tammuz — my [father-in-law], Reb [Nissan] Mindel's yahrzeit is Yud Beis Tammuz [?] — he was born on Beis Nissan, he passed away on Beis Tammuz [?]. And also, someone connected to the Klausenburger Rebbe — [an attendant of his] [?] — his [yahrzeit], I think, is Tes Tammuz, and he passed away that year on Erev Gimmel Tammuz. And so they gathered together — that was the reason — so we got together.

Now, there was Klausenburg, Belz, [and] the Tasher from Montreal, and they were [also joined by] Vizhnitz, and since they also had yahrzeits together, they gathered around the Klausenburger. So we made one farbrengen for everybody, and each one shared a story about their Rebbe — they wanted to share a story. So they were all saying that this was a unique farbrengen, because — usually, this is what they were saying, and they're listening now to the program, they told me to listen — with themselves and also with Lubavitcher people, to farbreng together, maybe happens one or two times a year, but usually it doesn't happen too often, they say. So this was a very enthusiastic farbrengen. They also said that we should know that — but we also should know that Klal Yisroel is also Yisroel, so it's good to farbreng with other Yidden, also with other frum Yidden. It was a very good farbrengen.

Now I will share with you two stories that they said, and then they asked me to say two stories — but not stories that I heard, because sometimes it's not accurate, that's what they told me — stories that happened with me, or that I was involved in. And now I'm going to share with you, if I have time, the four stories: first what they said, and then what I told them.

So, one of the people there was a Klausenburger — he's an older man, but he used to be an attendant [?] by the old Klausenburger [Rebbe]. So he was there, and he was telling the story. He says that when the Klausenburger Rebbe first came to Eretz Yisroel, he met Ben-Gurion, and Ben-Gurion told him, "What can I help you with?" The Klausenburger Rebbe did not want to take money from the government — they used to distribute money to all institutions, but he did not want to take, and there was politics, and I don't want to go into it today. So he didn't want to take. So Ben-Gurion said, "I'll try to help you another way." Until today, they don't take any money. This is story number one, he said.

Then he was saying: after the Six-Day War in 1967, the Rebbe, Lubavitch, made a whole tumult, a big noise, about Mivtza Tefillin — that was one of the first mivtzoim, with tanks [mobile tefillin stands] [unclear phrase], and it was publicized in the world, and b'frat in Eretz Yisroel. So the yeshivas came out against Mivtza Tefillin — they boycotted, he said. Then he was telling us why they boycotted: because they had the bochurim on tanks — the bochurim went on tanks. So they went to Haifa — Haifa is a place where it's not for frum people — then they went with a tank to the beach in Tel Aviv, and because they put it on film, and because of that, they got together in a whole tumult to boycott Lubavitch — that we have nothing to do with Lubavitch, that all the money that goes to the yeshivas should take Lubavitch out — because of that, because the bochurim stand by the beach and put it on film. So the yeshivas got together — they needed a person to represent all the yeshivas. So ten Roshei Yeshiva went to the Klausenburger Rebbe. They went to the Klausenburger Rebbe and they asked him, "We are making a campaign against Lubavitch, because they go to the beach, they send bochurim to the beach to put it on film." So the Klausenburger Rebbe said to one Rosh Yeshiva, "How many talmidim do you have in your yeshiva?" He says, "Four hundred." Then he asks another Rosh Yeshiva, "How many talmidim do you have in your yeshiva?" So he says, "Two hundred fifty." Another one, "A hundred." One says, "Four hundred seventy." And anyway, all ten. So he said to them, "Is there any sign in the yeshivas by you that you're not allowed to go to the beach?" They said, "No, we have no signs." So the Klausenburger Rebbe said to them — and I heard this from the person who was there — "You are not against the beach, you are against Mivtza Tefillin. I am not going to be part of it." And he said this in Yiddish [unclear phrase]. He suffered a lot, you know — he lost in the Holocaust, he lost eleven children, he lost a wife, and he went through a lot. So he knew, he says — they were against tefillin, and he saw the way they were against tefillin — "I will not be part of it, because it's not against the beach, it's against tefillin — otherwise you would have a sign in your yeshiva that you're not allowed to go." That's one thing he said.

Then a Vizhnitzer chossid said, at the farbrengen, a story about the Vizhnitzer Rebbe. Now, the cousin — he is a cousin of this person — this person had a very bad heart problem, the doctors gave him a few months to live. So he went to the Vizhnitzer Rebbe in Monsey — there used to be a Vizhnitzer [Rebbe] in Monsey — and he came to the Vizhnitzer Rebbe [saying it was] higher than nature. So the Vizhnitzer Rebbe said to him, "Why are you coming to me? You should go to a person who lives higher than nature — you came to the wrong person." Okay. Then, a few weeks later, he decided he'll go to the Rebbe. Unfortunately, he couldn't get in. He called — Marcus [?] was the secretary who answered — you know, it was very hard to get into yechidus. He said, "I must see the Rebbe," but they said he can't go in. So, unfortunately, he didn't go in — that's what they were telling me, he couldn't go in. So he went to the Tasher [Rebbe] in Montreal — he sent his son, he couldn't go himself. So the Tasher [Rebbe] said, "Go to the Vizhnitzer" — that's what they said. The son went to the Vizhnitzer [Rebbe] and he told him about his father. So he said, "If that's so, I will carry him on my shoulders," and gave him [a brocha] [?]. The [this person] lived twenty years after this — I'm sorry, not the Klausenburger — the Vizhnitzer Rebbe, that day, passed away in Israel, [and] this person passed away in America that [same] day. This is a story that a cousin — he was there [and told it].

Now they asked me to say something about the Rebbe, but something personal, something that I know. So I am going to say two stories — I don't know if I'll have time for the second one, but I'll tell you the first story.

In the eighties, my wife and I went to a bris in Long Beach, Long Island. There was — Rabbi Abittan [?] — Abittan was the Rav there, a shliach in Long Beach, a very, very nice person. Anyway, there was a bris there. I was sitting, and across from me sat a Yid — not religious — and we got into conversation. So he asked me, "Are you a Lubavitcher?" I said, "Yeah." So he says he wants to tell me something.

He says: he was married sixteen and a half years and did not have children. Some doctors said he couldn't have children, others said he could, but no children. His wife was going crazy — she didn't sleep, she needed children, and I didn't know what to do. I met somebody who told me, "There are three big rabbis in New York, go to them." And he said, "No" — because he wasn't religious — "I don't believe in all this, I don't believe in God, doctors are the ones to cure, if not doctors, I don't want [rabbis]." But, you know, some people called and called again, called again, called again. He says, "So I agreed to go."

So first they went to the Satmar Rebbe — he was the oldest — he went, he came, and he told him they need a brocha for children. So the Satmar Rebbe opened up his drawer and took out a piece of cloth, a thick cloth sewn around, about as big as a napkin, probably, or maybe even a little bigger — a piece of cloth, hard inside, sewn all around. And he said to him, "I want to give this to you — don't ever open it, and always carry it with you wherever you go, carry that cloth. But remember, you have to promise that you're going to carry it, except on Shabbos and Yom Tov." So I asked him, sitting there, "Do you have it?" "Yes." He took it out of his pocket — a piece of cloth sewn around, hard in the middle, he can't open it. And he says whenever he travels — he was in business, he had to travel a lot — he says, "Remember, I'm carrying it in this pocket." That's it.

Then he went to the Bobover Rebbe — he told me so. The Bobover Rebbe told him, "You know, once you wear a yarmulke, you're a Yid, you'll be able to see [you're] a Yid." Okay. So he says to me he does wear a yarmulke when he eats, he makes a brocha, but that's something he is not so careful about — he didn't ask him to promise to wear a yarmulke always, but he does try to wear a yarmulke.

Then they took him to the Rebbe. He went into the room. He says the interest that the Rebbe took in him, asked him all kinds of questions about the family, about his background, and you could see that nothing else counted, just directly focused on him. He was amazed. Then the Rebbe asked him about taharas hamishpacha, that his wife should keep taharas hamishpacha, and what else — to learn — and gave him tefillin. And he says, "Where is the tefillin?" He says, "This I want to tell you." Then he says to me, "Come with me." He went — at that bris there was a room for the ladies — and he went to his wife, and there was a little girl, six years old. He says, "You see this girl? She is a miracle girl. After my wife got pregnant, she gave birth to this little girl — she's the girl."

So I — I said to the wife, I was by the wife, I said to the wife, "Your husband told me the whole story about the Satmar and the Bobover." So I said to her, "Who did the miracle? She was born — but who did it? Was it the Satmar? Was it the Bobover? Who was it?" She says, "I'll tell you: the Rebbe gave him a piece of cloth" — a piece, maybe, he said, he holds in his pocket, he doesn't know what it is, he's holding it, that's all, that's all it is. Told him to wear a yarmulke — yes, he tries. "But I'll tell you one thing: he never misses davening with tefillin every single day, wherever he goes, he puts on tefillin. And also, we learn from time to time the halachos about mikvah, when she goes to the mikvah." So she says, what the Rebbe accomplished is — she goes to the mikvah, and he puts on tefillin every day. So, who did the miracle? I don't know.

This is the one story that I told the people there at the farbrengen. Now, since we — how long have we been? We're about sixteen minutes — so I wanted to tell you another story, but, im yirtzeh Hashem, I will continue next week with the other story. Thank you.