The Demanding Letter Sent After Yud Shevat 5710

Historic Treasures — Episode 291: "The Demanding Letter Sent After Yud Shevat 5710"

Welcome to our weekly Motzei Shabbos [?] program. [unclear] Next week we will go into more detail about this, but today I want to share with you a letter that Rabbi Nemoy [?], Rabbi Mindel's father-in-law, wrote to the Rebbe after Yud Shevat, 5710.

Now, the reason he wrote the letter is that the Rebbe did not want to be involved [unclear]. The Rebbe said that he didn't have [confirmation] from his father-in-law, the Frierdiker Rebbe, and [people] had been pleading with him the whole year, but the Rebbe didn't want [to accept]. The Rebbe is very humble; the Rebbe is a private person. Nobody at all knew who the Rebbe was. When the Rebbe came in 1941, [the Frierdiker Rebbe] asked Rabbi [Olim?] [?] and Rabbi Jacobson — I think it was those two — to go and greet his son-in-law, who wore his beard trimmed, that's what I heard, [unclear], and who was fluent in Talmud, Shas, Kabbalah, and all the rest. So then they saw who the Rebbe was. They heard from the Rebbe. Nobody, before that, knew the Rebbe.

The Rebbe was very, very humble, and the Rebbe didn't want to show off; he didn't make a fuss of himself. You know, the Rebbe wore, in the '40s, a white hat — I think you can see it in the photographs, I think in '49 — and a white suit, a suit he wore. He worked in a navy yard. He put a newspaper in his pocket so that people should see that he's a [worker].

Even after — can you imagine — after the Rebbe became the Rebbe, [someone] asked, what kind of answer is that? I will mention it to you, because the Rebbe didn't [make himself out to be anything]. He is nothing. He's a tzaddik. This is what the Rebbe [believed]. So the Rebbe didn't want to become [the Rebbe]. Rabbi Nemoy knew the Rebbe; he worked with the Rebbe together. So there was nobody else. They felt there couldn't be a better candidate than the Rebbe. So he wrote a letter to the Rebbe, and I think this is what made the Rebbe think [about accepting].

Now, as an introduction, Rabbi Nemoy wrote that there was a very somber and heartbroken feeling among Jews the world over. We can see this from a letter that was written and signed at that time by respected rabbonim, in which they say: we are like a ship at sea without a captain — who will comfort us? The rabbonim wrote that we commit ourselves to continue and increase the holy work of the Nasi [?]. We plead with all our brothers to uphold all that the Rebbe told us, his holy mission to spread the wellsprings outward. So, in the midst of all this uncertainty, people didn't know [what would happen]. So Rabbi Nemoy wrote a letter to the Rebbe, and I'm going to share with you this very, very important letter.

Now, Rabbi Nemoy was an ish emes, a man of truth. When he was in France, the Frierdiker Rebbe wasn't feeling well, but he wanted to see him, that he should come to him — I think even though the doctors didn't like it — he called him, and the Frierdiker Rebbe said to Rabbi Nemoy: "Do you search for the truth? You found the truth, and you lived with the truth." This was Rabbi Nemoy.

So Rabbi Nemoy wrote a powerful letter with beautiful handwriting, and I will show you soon his handwriting. Now, why am I going to show you his handwriting? I'll tell you why: Rabbi Mindel writes here that it was his beautiful handwriting that saved him from being sent to the battlefront while serving in the Russian army. When he was drafted into the army, the Russian officials noticed that he had very clear and beautiful handwriting, so they assigned him to work in the office, where he would be writing documents. Thus it happened that while Rabbi Nemoy served in the Russian army, he was writing instead of fighting, Baruch Hashem. So I'm going to show you his handwriting soon, what he wrote to the Rebbe. I'll read it in Hebrew and in English, and you can see it.

I want to say something here. Now, we are familiar with our custom of referring to our lunar calendar year with a scriptural reference for that year. Rabbi Nemoy is the one who actually began this, and from then on we followed that custom. But he's the one who actually wrote — the week's parsha was "Hinei anochi sholeach malach lefanecha lishmorcha baderech" ("Behold, I am sending an angel before you to guard you on the way") — now, this was, of course, the parsha that week, so this was three weeks after the passing of the Frierdiker Rebbe.

"To the honorable Rabbi, the tremendous Gaon, a link in the great chain of our Rabbis' family, his honor Rabbi M. M. Schneerson, shlita. Shalom.

"Behold, our spirit has broken and fallen tremendously ever since the passing of the Frierdiker Rebbe. To us, his holiness was equivalent to that of a [unclear — a Torah scroll]. Since the time of the Alter Rebbe until the passing of our Rebbe, of whom it can be justly said, tzaddik yesod olam — a tzaddik is the foundation of the world — for he was the sixth Rebbe of Chabad, corresponding to the sixth attribute. He truly built up the House of Israel worldwide, spreading Chassidus, strengthening proper Jewish education and support, helping the refugees of the war spiritually and physically. Who can describe the great and holy work that he accomplished?"

Now, by the way, before I continue — you know the Rebbe, he was the sixth, and the sixth is a Yud. The Frierdiker Rebbe's name, Yosef, was also Yud; Yitzchok was also Yud. That's why — as a mussar, maybe we'll talk about it next week — in the last year of the Frierdiker Rebbe, from Tof-Shin-Tes [5709] until his histalkus in Tof-Shin-Yud [5710], when he signed his name, you see a big Yud — a Yud with a lot of ink. That has some meaning. And he passed away.

I just want to mention that — now I'll continue — this is all aside from his wisdom and advice, through which he guided those of all walks of life who consulted him.

"Now that the tzaddik has passed on and has departed from the earth, there is the possibility, God forbid, of the destruction of the entire Chabad movement. There is no comforter for it, to comfort it, by ensuring that the chain of Chabad Rebbes and the chain of the holy lineage is not broken, thus not desecrating God's name. We find in the Midrash that the Holy One, blessed be He, traveled a distance of 500 years in order to make Himself a name, and we are destroying the name that we already have. We are also distressed to watch this happen.

"It is stated: 'the comforter who should restore my soul is far from me,' implying that we had a comforter, but he is removed from us in the sense that he refuses to continue leading — these two chains — to ensure that they do not break, because he is so humble. He claims he's unworthy of this position. Moreover, he claims he has no empowerment from the Frierdiker Rebbe to do so."

And this is what the Rebbe said all the time. Therefore, Rabbi Nemoy writes — that's what he says. He's from England.

[The letter is signed with Rabbi Nemoy having reached] eighty years old, with the blessing "Amen." Now I'll translate it into English:

"Therefore, we proclaim that according to our understanding, you are worthy, and it is incumbent upon you to shoulder this position. As to your claim that you were not empowered by the Frierdiker Rebbe, we answer the following: Rabbi Yitzchok Dubov, whose name implies gevurah, the attribute of severity and strength, as his name indicates — and I, who, baruch Hashem, has reached the age of gevurah, the eighties, have gathered the strength to be the first in the Chabad movement to give you the power and strength, which you can consider equivalent to the empowerment, to place upon your head the royal crown, the title Admor, enabling you, with God's help, to draw down the seventh attribute, the crown of royalty of the Chabad Rebbes, until the coming of Moshiach, may it be speedily in our days."

I'll translate that into English:

"There is nothing which is not hinted at in the Torah. We can find reference to all of the above. Just like the revelation of Moshiach, whose name is alluded to [from a verse], being his descendant, so too the revelation of our Moshiach, God's anointed, is hinted to in the parsha with which we read, the words 'vayismahmah' ('and he delayed'), and the subsequent words, 'vehaish hecheziq beyado' ('and the man took hold of his hand'), implying that you are delaying the continuation of the chain of Rabbis, claiming that you are unworthy and do not have the empowerment to do so. Therefore it is stated, 'and the man took hold of his hand' — we hereby empower you, and you can now accept the mantle of being called Rebbe, thus continuing the chain. This is also hinted at by another verse, the words, 'Oh God,' for when you will become Rebbe, you will say words of the living God, and you will be a source of living waters for the entire world and all the Jewish people, physically and spiritually, for scholars and the unlearned alike, with God's help."

This is the letter that he wrote to the Rebbe — a very important, very serious letter.

And the Rebbe read the letter. The Rebbe said something which I'm not going to say now, but he wrote afterwards to Rabbi Mindel. He wrote like this:

"I originally wanted to write the above to the Rebbetzin [?] immediately after the passing of the Frierdiker Rebbe. However, Rabbi Nemoy [?], from England, told me I must wait for the return of Rabbi Dubov from the United States of America. He was in America, and Rabbi Dubov went back to England. When Rabbi Dubov arrived, I planned on sending the letter straight to the Rebbetzin. However, Rabbi Dubov traveled to London, and [unclear] did not allow me to travel. [Someone] again withheld me from sending the letter until the return of Rabbi Dubov with the conclusion of the matter there. Therefore, for now, I am sending you the letter, and I will send it to the Rebbetzin after Shabbos, please God."

And this is the letter.

Now, this letter is an important letter, and the way I understand it — which I'm not going to mention today — the Rebbe took this letter very, very seriously. As we all know, which we'll talk about maybe next week, the Rebbe was the one who actually stood on the table and said [unclear]...

Next week I will continue this with more details. Thank you.