“I Didn’t Want to Come to Settle in America”

Welcome to our weekly Motzei Shabbos program.

I mentioned a few times last week that Rabbi Mindel, being by the Frierdiker Rebbe for ten years — he came with him on the boat from 1940 to 1950 — wrote notes of what the Frierdiker Rebbe told him, amazing notes, certain things. So I want to share with you some notes. Rabbi Groner, alav hashalom, always asked Rabbi Mindel for notes, as he knew that he had notes. So a lot of things that Rabbi Groner used to say over were from those notes, because he would ask him about certain things that he had written down. So I want to share with you some of the notes about when the Frierdiker Rebbe came to America, that Rabbi Mindel wrote down in Hebrew, and I'm going to say over in English.

What the Frierdiker Rebbe said — interesting — about coming to America: "I very much did not want to come to America to settle, because people scared me that nothing can be done in America. America was considered a treife medina. But by Divine Providence, Hashem Yisborach brought me here, l'ovda ul'shomra — to work it and to guard it, and to warm up the streets with the light of Torah and mitzvos, and to make America a makom Torah." This is why the Frierdiker Rebbe came to America.

As I once spoke about, the Frierdiker Rebbe said that America is a piece of ice, and we came to break the ice of America. But he didn't want to come here just because of that.

Now, this reminds me — I heard a very interesting thing from him. He told me, "I was in yechidus. He said to me, you should say every day — machshava, a person has a lot of thoughts." But I asked him, "What will be?" So he says, "Of course, whatever will be. But machshava means not that you have thoughts of who-knows-what, and then you wish to choose something else." Let's say you want to move — you want to move to New York, you want to move to Chicago, you want to move to Cleveland, you want to move to Philadelphia — and then you wish to choose California. No. You have in your mind to move to New York, or to Philadelphia, or to Cleveland, or whatever — machshava is to choose one of those, not something else. [unclear] That's how they wished to look at it. That's how it has to go.

So he writes: "The first forty-two hours of coming to America, I asked myself, Ribono Shel Olam, why did You bring me to this country?" The Frierdiker Rebbe said, "When I decided to come to America, it was not an easy decision. It was not easy for me to come to terms with. It was bitterly hard to leave the exile, to leave the country of Russia, to leave the Yidden, the Jews, in Russia, and especially to come into a cold medina."

This is Rabbi Mindel writing what he heard from the Frierdiker Rebbe, written in Hebrew: "The ten days coming from Riga — he took a plane." As I mentioned once, he took a small plane, the last plane before the war. He went from Riga to Sweden, and from Sweden he took a boat to America.

I've spoken many times about that plane — it was small, seventeen seats. The Frierdiker Rebbe had with him eleven people: the Frierdiker Rebbe, Rebbetzin Chana Gourary (the Frierdiker Rebbe's daughter), Rebbetzin Shterna Sarah (the Frierdiker Rebbe's mother), Manya (the Frierdiker Rebbe's nurse), Berke (Rashag's son), Rashag and his wife, Rabbi Hodakov and his wife, Chaim Lieberman, and Reb Mindel. Reb Mindel's wife had left earlier, because she didn't want to stay — she was afraid of the war.

There were six seats left on that plane. So the Frierdiker Rebbe said, "I was in Yisroel before the war." He said, "We can't leave with empty seats from Riga — we have to choose Jews who should fill up these six seats." So he took six more, and the plane was full.

So he says: coming to America was like coming into a new status, like making teshuva — my hachlata, my decision, my way of life, that with God's help I would have to make into my shlichus. It was hard. A few days before I left Riga, the Frierdiker Rebbe says, the Alter Chassidim told me, "We are sure that you are not traveling to America alone. You're not traveling alone — but God is taking you to America whether you like it or not."

And he writes the names of the chassidim who told him this. They told me, "You always have to remember about the iron chains." It says regarding Yaakov Avinu that if he had not wanted to go to Mitzrayim, they would have had to pull him with iron chains. This is what they meant here — they told the Rebbe, "You will have to come to America by iron chains. We are sure God is taking you to America for hard work, but we are sure God will give you much hatzlacha, and you will carry through the hard work with much success, because with you are traveling — whoever has to travel — [unclear]." The chassidim told the Frierdiker Rebbe that the souls and the neshamos of his holy parents were traveling with him.

You know, in those days, America had — there was no [unclear], nothing. People today cannot imagine what America was. America was called an empty nation. People came from Europe then — it was the time of [unclear], after [unclear] — it was around in the forties, early fifties. America was terrible; shmiras Shabbos was impossible.

Somebody told me once that if you had a job, and you didn't come in on Shabbos, they gave you a pink slip. So this one person saved up hundreds of pink slips, and he decorated his sukkah with the pink slips to show what it means to keep Shabbos. He was proud of it.

Those are certainly considered good for him. I don't know what year exactly — Rabbi Hodakov related this, it happened in Bronxville, I don't know the city for sure. Rabbi Hodakov once was walking home from shul on Shabbos with his tallis, and there was a street where all the stores were closed — it was a Jewish area. Except for one person — during the war he was angry at [unclear] for what happened [unclear], so he kept his store open on Shabbos.

Reb Chaim always passed by and looked into the store — looked and looked and looked. It made the storekeeper angry. One time, Reb Chaim passed by on Shabbos and stood there, looking and looking and looking. The storekeeper watched him look, and it got him so angry — he knew he had to close on Shabbos, but it upset him so much. He wanted Reb Chaim to leave already, because he knew he was doing wrong. But Reb Chaim did not leave — he stood and looked. So after five minutes, ten minutes, the storekeeper opened the door and said to Reb Chaim, "Go! Get out of here! Go already! Go already! Okay, I'll close — I'll close my store on Shabbos, I'll close it — just go away already!"

So, I remember — because in those days Shabbos was a big thing. So the Frierdiker Rebbe coming to America wasn't so easy.

Then the Frierdiker Rebbe says: in Europe, Yidden were not embarrassed to show their face. They wore beards, they wore payos, they wore tzitzis. But here in America, some Rabbonim are ashamed — some Rabbonim are ashamed to show their face, their beards, their payos.

And he said about the Nazis, yemach shemam — they did not necessarily want people to take pictures of how they killed Jews, but they did want to take pictures of two things: the way they cut a Sefer Torah, and when they cut the beards and payos of Yidden, to take away the tzelem Elokim. That's what they wanted.

And this reminds me — in 1970, I picked up my uncle Yosef from Russia. He had just come from Russia then, with his family — I picked him up. The first thing he told me was that he wanted me to take him to the Rebbe — he wanted to see the Rebbe. It was Maariv time, so I took him to 770. The Rebbe was about to come out for Maariv, and my uncle was standing near the [unclear] in the hallway — the first time seeing the Rebbe. He didn't have a beard, because you weren't allowed to have a beard there — it was a sakanah. So he came to see the Rebbe. All of a sudden, before the Rebbe came out, he took his hand like this and shook — I saw his face, and I said, "Yosef, what's happening?" He said, "Yosef? The Rebbe is coming out — the Rebbe is going to see me without a beard. How can I face the Rebbe like that? That's what it means to have a beard — you must have a nefesh for it. And now in America, people trim their beards."

The Rebbe said, "The problem is that the Rabbonim and the lecturers are embarrassed about our Yiddishkeit. A little Yiddishkeit they give to the barber, a little Yiddishkeit they give to the tailor. We have to stop being embarrassed. Here in America the father, the grandfather, the son, the grandson look the same."

And then the Frierdiker Rebbe said, "[unclear]. Yidden, chassidim, dress like Yidden. Don't be ashamed. Don't trim your beards. Be tznius, ladies, girls — please stop carrying pocketbooks on Shabbos." That's what Reb Mindel wrote that the Frierdiker Rebbe was saying.

And he mentioned why Yidden went out of Golus [unclear] — because they didn't change their names, they didn't change their clothes, they didn't change their language. They spoke Yiddish, they spoke properly, they wore tzniusdike clothes. And this will bring Moshiach.

And don't be ashamed — America is nisht andersh. America has compassion, rachmonus, gemilus chassodim, kindness. But what's missing in America, I would say, is bayshanus, bashfulness. They are not embarrassed by their own ignorance. Years ago, they learned — not through speeches — with chavrusas, sitting down and learning. Now people in America fulfill their obligation with speeches, not learning.

And the Frierdiker Rebbe said, in another note here that Reb Mindel wrote — it's only in Hebrew — that America is "who-ha." They live a life of distraction. A person never has time. When he wakes up in the morning from his sleep, he has no time to daven with a minyan — he davens quickly. He has no time to learn. Later in the afternoon he does a fast Mincha, and then Maariv, and he's in such a hurry he has no time to learn. At night, he suddenly realizes — the Frierdiker Rebbe says — "Where did the day go?" Then he falls into his bed and sleeps well. The next morning he realizes, "Where did the night go?"

Even if someone has shanim and lives to 120 long years, they are not long days. But when a person gets up peacefully, says brachos, davens with a minyan, says Tehillim, learns Mishnayos and Ein Yaakov, goes to shul and learns Chitas — this is called long days. Treasure time. Once time is lost, you can never get it back.

These are the words that Reb Mindel wrote, that he heard from the Frierdiker Rebbe. And we should take this to heart, since we're getting closer now to Elul and Rosh Hashanah, a time of [unclear] for men and women. So we should keep this in mind, that the Rebbe says, "Where are you in life?" We should all know that Elul is coming up. And, please God, next week we should continue our weekly program. Thank you.