As Heard From the Rebbe’s Childhood Melamed

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

Yesterday was Yud Shevat, the histalkus of the Frierdiker Rebbe, and today is Yud Aleph Shevat, the Kabbalas HaNesius of our Rebbe. They are not with us physically, but — as we spoke about a few weeks ago — even more than before, their influence and their work is engraved in many institutions and organizations, and their memory is in the hearts of millions of Yidden, in many generations.

I don't think there was a Rebbe that accomplished in the entire world, and brought back Yiddishkeit — Torah and mitzvos — to millions of Yidden, like the Rebbe. The Baal Shem Tov came down to this world at [unclear — possibly "the time of the Haskalah movement"], and the people were far [from Yiddishkeit] — they were in a state of fainting from Torah and mitzvos. There was that [Haskalah] movement then, and the Aibishter sent down the Baal Shem Tov into this world, and his name is Yisroel, because every Jew is called Yisroel — to wake up from the faint. When a person has fainted, you call his name, you revive him. So the Baal Shem Tov's name was Yisroel, to revive Klal Yisroel, and this is why the Baal Shem Tov came into this world. But the communication then wasn't like today — he couldn't reach the entire world.

The Rebbe became Rebbe after the Holocaust, and the Yidden were in a state of fainting. After the Holocaust, people had heretical doubts in their faith, and the Rebbe came, became Rebbe, to revive them and to comfort them. That's why his name was Menachem — to comfort millions of Yidden after the Holocaust.

And today, you heard, is the day of Kabbalas HaNesius, so it's a special day. Especially — everybody believes in Moshiach. Every chossid believes in Moshiach, every Litvak — yes, every Jew believes in Moshiach, and everybody finishes their speech with it — a Yid finishes his speech, and that's normal, they believe in Moshiach — but the Rebbe made Moshiach real. So some people ask me, "You speak about Moshiach, you're a Lubavitcher?" I said, no — Moshiach is not a Lubavitch thing, it's for everybody. The Rebbe made the Moshiach who can come — behold, this is the proof of that. So today, Yud Aleph Shevat, is the day that the Rebbe accepted the Kabbalas HaNesius, so we should learn a lesson from the Rebbe.

Now, there's not much that I want to speak about that everybody hasn't spoken about already — there are so many stories that everybody knows already. I don't know if there are more stories, and there's probably more, but I just want to mention today what my Zeide — [Reb] Isaiah [?] — who was the Rebbe's teacher, told me. He was the Rebbe's teacher from the time — I think the years — from five or six years old until about eleven.

He was born in 1902.

[The Rebbe's father] was the oldest son of [name unclear], who had seven children, but all of them were [named] after him except the oldest son — he was not [a Rav's namesake]. [The Rebbe's] mother was a special woman; she comes from a rabbinical family, and the family was named Yanovsky.

When they were expecting the first child — our Rebbe — the Rebbe Rashab instructed them how to take care of the baby, the Rebbe, in detail: wrap him around in a white sheet. You know, older babies, when they were born, were just told to wrap them around as usual, but this time the Rebbe Rashab gave specific instructions. They never even thought that the baby would become Rebbe — I mean, even the Frierdiker Rebbe was not Rebbe yet — so they never even thought about that. But this was number one, that the Rebbe Rashab told him.

And another thing the Rebbe Rashab said was what name he should give the child. Usually, as the Rebbe writes in many letters, the name is up to the parents only, not the grandparents — nobody should mix into the name of a child. But here, the Rebbe Rashab asked them, "Please, you should name him after my father" [unclear].

So [my Zeide] lived in [Pata Branch? — unclear] in Russia. The people from Yekaterinoslav asked [the Rebbe's father] to move to Yekaterinoslav because they needed a Rav. So he moved — when he moved, the child [the future Rebbe] was probably five years old, I guess — about right. And they needed a teacher for his children — he had three children — a teacher, a melamed. My Zeide was a great yerei shamayim; he was a shochet in [Pata Branch? — unclear]. So the Rav wanted him to move to Yekaterinoslav to be a teacher for his children, because at first my Zeide didn't realize who the Rav was. But he had an income, and he was paid better as a shochet than as a teacher, so he didn't want to move to Yekaterinoslav. So he wrote to the Rav that he couldn't go. Anyway, after a month or two, I'm not sure, the Rav sent a telegram again to my Zeide: "Please, I need you for a melamed, I need you" — he begged him so much. So my Zeide left and moved to Yekaterinoslav to become a teacher for the Rav's children.

Now, the Rebbe had two brothers — one was named Berel and one Leibel. In Russian, you know, "ber" means "bear." So the people in Yekaterinoslav used to tell me, they used to call them Berel and Leibel.

By the way, when my son Dovid was born, my father went in for yechidus after the bris, and the Rebbe asked him what name they had given him. So he told him. So, first of all, the Rebbe said, "He was a teacher, and everybody knows him very much," and then he said, "He put me on my feet." Can you imagine the Rebbe should say such a thing?

Now, when the Rebbe grew up, he had a phenomenal memory and a deep learning far beyond his years, and by the time he became Bar Mitzvah he was recognized as an illui. And when he was in his twenties he went to the Rogatchover [Gaon], and the Rogatchover gave him smicha — he only gave smicha to three people, and the Rebbe was one of them.

Now I just want to finish off with two short stories, since they are short. One story I heard from my Zeide, Isaiah [?], and the other story I heard from [Reb] Ablaze Hernandez [?].

So my Zeide told me that on Shabbos HaGadol — you know, that's when the Rav speaks — the Rebbe's father had a minhag to speak; people from all over came to listen to the father speak on Shabbos HaGadol, and he used to start with nigleh and then go into Kabbalah for hours and hours and hours. The Rebbe was a little boy — I don't know how old he was, eight, nine — standing in the back by the door. After an hour, an hour and a half, of the Rebbe's father speaking, he picked up his head and said, "I don't think people understand what I'm saying" — something like that. But the boy did understand — that's number one — that's what I heard from my Zeide, Isaiah [?].

The other story is from [Reb] Ablaze Hernandez [?], who passed away — I think he was over a hundred. He had been in prison for twenty years in Russia. He learned so much — when he learned in cheder he had to go home through the middle of the city. So someone told him that when he goes home he should pass by the Rav's house — I don't know if it was on the way or not. So he came to the Rebbe's father, and he said, "Everybody told me I should come to you." So the Rebbe's father said, "Come before Mincha — before Mincha there was a very holy time — come before Mincha." So he came before Mincha, and the Rebbe's father called him over and said, "Come here, I want to show you something." He opened the door to a room — it was a little dark — and he saw the Rebbe sitting and learning. And the Rebbe's father told Reb Ablaze Hernandez [?], "Now, this kid," he said, "look — look good — if you do, he will come useful to you." That's what he told him. I heard this story one of the times when he was at 770. So afterward, when he came to America, he went for yechidus to the Rebbe, and he told the Rebbe the story. So the Rebbe, with a smile, asked him, "Am I useful to you?"

This was told to me — in 1923 [unclear] — and in 1925 he met him in Leningrad, and he became a secretary there to the Frierdiker Rebbe. In 1928 he married [unnamed in transcript — the Rebbetzin], and after that they moved to Berlin.

I mean, there's much more to talk about, but there is no time. So, please God, next week I will share with you something — an important word from [the Rebbe] — before [we conclude]. Thank you.