The Man Panicked About the Dollar From the Rebbe

Welcome to our weekly program, The Inside Story of Chabad in America, through the Mindel archives. Since this Shabbos we have Yud Shevat, the Yahrzeit of the Frierdiker Rebbe, so, as the Rebbe wrote in the early years, there's going to be a farbrengen for men, and also Mishnayos learning for men and women. So somebody asked the Rebbe a question, and after I read this I will tell you what the questions were — if we have time; if not, we'll have to leave it for next week.

So before I do this, I want to just share with you something. My father-in-law, Rabbi Mindel, in the early '50s, introduced Rabbi Meir Greenberg, and this was something the Rebbe wanted — that he should introduce him. And when he went to do it, he wrote it down, as you know that Rabbi Mindel, whenever he spoke, he wrote everything down. There were many times when he spoke — in Hillel, he spoke at different colleges, NYU — he spoke when he was a representative overseas. So he wrote things down, and then he wanted to check it over; he always made notations.

So this is that he introduced Rabbi Meir Greenberg in the early '50s. So I want to read to you Rabbi Mindel's notations: "The Rebbe, of saintly memory, when he visited the United States for the first time in 1929–1930, was asked upon his return what he thought of the future of American Jewry."

You know that the Frierdiker Rebbe — before 1940 is when he settled here, but before that he came here in 1929. He also went to Israel, and you know the famous story — he left Israel in the month of Elul, and there was the Hebron massacre. So he was on the boat, and they told him about the Hebron massacre, and the Frierdiker Rebbe got sick.

So they were looking for a doctor — there was one doctor on the ship, his name was Dr. Volachia [?], a big doctor, a religious doctor; he lived in Cicero. So he was on the boat, and they called him to see him. He came to the Frierdiker Rebbe, and he started to cry. He said, "I want to ask mechila, forgiveness, for being on this boat," because it says that God brings the cure before the sickness — if there is a sickness, there is a cure — "so if I wouldn't be on this boat, you wouldn't have gotten sick." So he asked the Frierdiker Rebbe for mechila. This was in 1929, when the Frierdiker Rebbe went [unclear].

This reminds me also of something with regard to the Rebbe. There was someone, a Chabad chossid, who always used to come here to my house. He used to take care of the line for the dollars — you know, he liked to make sure that people didn't go out of line, that they stayed in line. He liked to do these things, but he never took a dollar for himself. Somebody told him once, "Why don't you take a dollar from the Rebbe?" So he took a dollar. He came running to the house — I remember he called me over, in the basement — and he said, "You know, the Rebbe told me, [unclear Yiddish phrase] — 'I'm not sick.'" He was very nervous. I said, "I don't know what that means to you — I would also be nervous." So Rabbi Mindel was sitting at the table, and he said, "Go over there, by the chair." So I said, "You know what, why don't you ask Rabbi — I mean, Rabbi Mindel, he'll tell you what happened." He went to Rabbi Mindel and told him that the Rebbe had told him he's not sick. Rabbi Mindel started to laugh, and he said, "'[He] brings the cure before the sickness' — so if you were destined to get sick, the Rebbe gave you a brocha that you should be healthy." But of course, he was still nervous. That was Sunday; [by] Wednesday they took him to the hospital — he had internal bleeding; he was in the hospital three months, and baruch Hashem, now he's fine, he's walking around, everything is fine.

So, before [continuing], I wanted to bring this up — in 1930 he wasn't yet settled here; then he came, then he was in America. So then he continues writing — this is part of the speech: "I need hardly add that at that time, at any rate, American Jewry was generally viewed with a great deal of pessimism. Visitors returning from America were almost unanimous in their verdict that, insofar as Yiddishkeit was concerned, America was a valley of dry, dead bones" — and the Rebbe erased the word "dead" — "a valley of dry bones."

"He was asked, 'Frierdiker Rebbe, what do you think of American Jewry?' He replied that he wished to study the notes and impressions which he had brought back with him." By the way, the Frierdiker Rebbe always had a suitcase when he traveled — he had a suitcase with manuscripts. When he came to America the first time, he was carrying that suitcase with manuscripts in it. And in 1940, when he was on the plane — I think I mentioned once the small plane that took him from Riga to Sweden, and from Sweden [onward] — the Frierdiker Rebbe did not let go of that suitcase. And as I heard from Rabbi Mindel, that suitcase was — and still is — in the Frierdiker Rebbe's room, all the time. Now, the Frierdiker Rebbe opened the suitcase and he gave [something] to Rabbi Mindel, because when he was working on [editing] the Tanya, he needed something, so he gave him [material] to make a copy of whatever was in there. I don't know everything [that was in it], but that suitcase the Frierdiker Rebbe was always holding onto.

"Subsequently he declared, to everybody's surprise, that he was quite optimistic about American Jewry. He explained that he was greatly impressed with the quality of temimus — wholesomeness of heart and sincerity — of Jewish youth in America. If Jewish youth in Europe excelled in the realm of the mind, as intellectuals, because yeshivas were flourishing there, then Jewish youth in America excelled in the realm of the heart — they were full of temimus, sincere, honest, open-minded and receptive." As the posuk says, "Tamim tihiyeh im Hashem Elokecha" — "You shall be wholehearted with the Lord your God." "Where there is such temimus, there is great promise; it is fertile soil also for Torah scholarship, the proper blending of heart and mind, which is the cornerstone of the Chabad philosophy, the way of life."

"A decade later, in 1940," Rabbi Mindel writes, "when Divine Providence brought the Lubavitcher Rebbe to these shores — this time not as a visitor, but as an immigrant and a refugee — he knew that the time had come for him to implement his confidence in American Jewish youth. His optimism appeared naive to many a well-meaning but disillusioned rabbi. Even [unclear] cautioned him not to expect too much, so as not to be overly disappointed. They were seriously concerned about his frail health, which clearly showed the scars of two world wars and the Communist regime. He brushed aside their concern and their skepticism, openly denounced the fearful attitude which had for too long paralyzed Jewish life in America, and, with unbounded determination and mesirus nefesh, set out on a far-reaching program designed to breathe life into the so-called lifeless bones. Whether his confidence in American Jewry was justified, there can now be no doubt. Like the scoffers who came to mock but stayed to pray, many of the skeptics became ardent supporters; others began to emulate the Lubavitch approach. The face of American Jewry looks quite different now than it looked twenty years ago. Wherein lies the secret of the Rebbe's appeal and success? Our distinguished [collaborator and] representative will no doubt enlighten us on this. He can speak to us from his own experience, for he personifies the goal which the Frierdiker Rebbe had envisaged for Jewish youth in America."

Then he continues to speak about Rabbi Meir Greenberg — Meir Greenberg was a big topic; he speaks about him here — and that the Rebbe wanted this, they had, I think, a dinner, and this is what he spoke [about].

So we see from here how the Frierdiker Rebbe looked at every single Jew — how important [each one was], and the tremendous [love he showed]. On the other hand, when the Frierdiker Rebbe came to America, he was very strong about Hilchos Shabbos. Everybody knows that in those days there was a problem with Hilchos Shabbos; he was very insistent about it — that women shouldn't carry pocketbooks, and that they shouldn't drive with cars. So he was very strong [about that]. But on the other hand, how he loved — how he loved the Jewish people in America!

I think that we don't have time now to read that letter that the Rebbe wrote, but the question that people asked — so, b'ezras Hashem, next week we will continue; I will answer whatever he wrote, the answers for these people. Thank you.