The Exchange Between Gerrer Rebbe and Frierdiker Rebbe

TASK A: CLEANED TRANSCRIPT

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

Last week we mentioned and we read about the massacre that happened in Kfar Chabad in 1956. It was written up in the newspapers in Israel. We saw from last week that after such a massacre, the Rebbe wanted that people should start building more and more. We see that they built, and we see that the population of Kfar Chabad grew, because after such a tragedy you have to build more.

So today I want to share with you a letter that the Gerrer Rebbe — his family name was Alter — wrote. He passed away in 1948, and he was buried, I believe, in the courtyard of the shul in Yerushalayim. He wrote to the Frierdiker Rebbe — they had correspondence — this was in the '40s, after the war.

So first I want to read you the letter that he wrote to the Frierdiker Rebbe. This is all written in Hebrew, so I tried to translate it into English. It's a short letter. He wrote:

"To the Rebbe and Tzadik, our teacher — his letter I received, and understandably it is not possible to reply briefly. It is a number of years since the outbreak of the war, a war which also disrupted the observance of Yiddishkeit that was established in Warsaw and other cities in Poland. An Orthodox organization called Agudas Yisroel [?] was established. The purpose of this organization," he writes, "is to preserve and protect all matters of Yiddishkeit, and with great care not to deviate from the ways of the Torah, and to have no connection with foreign and evil elements, even in matters of a mitzvah. I found it right to become a member of this organization, and to encourage my acquaintances to do so as well, so that we fulfill the verse, 'I am a friend of all who fear You and keep Your statutes.' In the organization of support and development there is also a branch to strengthen the settlement of the land, according to the holy Torah."

And then he signs off.

So I guess he wanted that the Frierdiker Rebbe should also be involved in Agudas Yisroel, and of course the Frierdiker Rebbe did not agree — which I don't want to go into. So this was... in other words, after the war it's always — I mean, this is — it's not only that after the war you should always build, build more, as we read last week.

Now I want to read you another letter, that [heard as "Gore" — unclear] of Yerushalayim wrote to our Rebbe, the Frierdiker Rebbe. This was written in [the year is not stated]. It's a beautiful letter that they wrote to the Rebbe about Yerushalayim's role, and then I'll tell you afterward what the Rebbe answered. Again, it's written in Hebrew, and this is a translation into English — it's not easy.

"The holy city, the capital — Yerushalayim — in each stone a story of years and of generations, each stone built layer upon layer of history" — that's what they write to the Rebbe — "of tragic history, of tragedies and hopes, periods of greatness and periods of depression, of desolation and of upheavals. Its history is known to us from the time of 1900 B.C.E., a time of 3,800 years. Yerushalayim is not merely a city in a certain spot in the world. Yerushalayim is a concept. Yerushalayim is a symbol to the Jewish people. Yerushalayim was always the heart and soul of its eternal existence.

"In our Jewish tradition, the world is seen as one big eye — perhaps God's eye, Hashem's eye — and Yerushalayim is at its center. The Midrash describes the world like this: the world is compared to the ball of a man's eye. The white part is the ocean which surrounds it. The dark part is the earth. The pupil is Yerushalayim" — that's what they write to the Rebbe — "and the face within the pupil is Yerushalayim, may it be rebuilt speedily in our days. [Yerushalayim] is described as the center of the world, the place upon which the entire world is built, and the place toward which all eyes are focused. For the Jewish people, Yerushalayim was not just their eternal capital and the place where the Beis HaMikdash, the Temple, was built, but also the city toward which our best hopes, our loftiest prayers, and our sweetest songs were directed.

"For a thousand years, during the time of the first and second Beis HaMikdash, Yerushalayim was the capital of the Jewish nation. In it were centered the hopes and longings of the Jewish people. The strong bond between Yerushalayim and the people began at the time of [heard as "Rome" — unclear] and continues until today. The love of our people for Yerushalayim is reflected in the seventy names which our people used to refer to their beloved city. Each name is sourced in our tradition — in Tanach, in our prayers, in the sacred songs of our people."

This is what they wrote to the Rebbe. I guess this came together with a letter — they sent a copy to the Rebbe of what they wrote. Then they also wrote about the unity of the Jewish people:

"As is the nature of the world, when one takes a bundle of many reeds, it is impossible to break it, yet taking one reed at a time, even a young child is able to break it. It is possible for one nation to fall into the hands of another nation only if it first experiences a fall within its own ranks, through divisiveness, splintering, and bickering among its own people. As this is the case with great and mighty nations and empires which fall, how much more so a small and weak nation like the Jews, which has experienced millennia of trials and tribulations. The condition for its survival, in the face of its history of persecution, is that of unity — being united. This is our strength."

So apparently they wanted that the Rebbe should also be part of this together with them, and the Rebbe answered. Let me see what the Rebbe answered here. The Rebbe answered them like this: first of all, that they should strengthen in putting on tefillin — that Jews should put on tefillin, that they should do more in mitzvos, that they should check their tefillin and mezuzos, that they should keep Shabbos — and then there will be a big [unclear]. And then the Rebbe says that if there is a lack — a negative — then the earth: he writes that the earth will swallow them if there's a lack in mitzvah observance, something like that. I don't really understand exactly what it says here, but this is what the Rebbe answered them — that they should do more in mitzvos. So this is the answer to these people. Apparently that's what they wanted, and the Rebbe answered this.

So I thought that since this was written in that period, I would mention it today, at a time when we're speaking about the need for tefillin. So, as we spoke about last week, the more Jews put on tefillin, that will help the Yidden in Eretz Yisroel and in Shomayim. And we will continue our program next week again. Thank you.