0047 - R' Zalman Gurevitz's visit to Russia Part 1

00:01 In the summer of Tov Shin Chof Hey, which is nineteen sixty-five, Reb Zalman Gurevich from Montreal went to visit Russia. Reb Zalman Gurevich was the president or the head of the board of the Besrivke in Montreal. He was from, originally from Russia, but he left Russia many years before most of the Lubavitchers left Russia. But he spoke Russian, and he managed to be able to visit Russia to get a visa, and he went to visit Russia. This is in nineteen sixty-five. When he was there, since he was able to speak Russian, he was able to see more what the situation is, and he saw the hardships that the Yidden are going through. He managed underground to visit the Lubavitcher there, and he managed to see and understand the hardships and the tzaros that they have. He also managed to go to Lubavitch, even though even those people who got visas and permission to visit Russia, they only allowed them certain cities, certainly not the little towns. But he managed somehow to visit Lubavitch. He convinced them that he has a zeide that's buried there or something like that, and he went to visit Lubavitch. He also went to visit Rostov, which I think is one of those cities they wouldn't let, and he visited the, the tziyen of the Rebbe Rashab. And he came back, and he gave the Rebbe a report. And the report was the shvere keiten that the Yidden have there and the tzaros that they have, because we're still talking about

01:23 nineteen sixty-five, which only a few Yidden left Russia after the big Tov Shin Vav nineteen forty-six people who escaped. But later on, only a few, Reb Mendel Futerfas in Tov Shin Chof Daled and Reb Beckhe in Tov Shin Chof Beis and a few, but most of them were still there, and the problem, the tzaros, were still there. And he gave the Rebbe a report. One of the things actually that he said there that he told the Rebbe was that in Rostov, he saw that next to the Rebbe Rashab's kever, there's another kever. And the Rebbe had great agmas nefesh trying to find out what happened, who's buried next to the Rebbe Rashab. And later he found out that it wasn't really a person buried. They made it look like a kever for that reason, that no one should bury anybody there. And the Rebbe felt much better. One of the things he did, he brought some leaves from the trees around the kever of the Rebbe Rashab, and he put them into plastic, and he sold them in America when he came back in order to make some money for Besrivke. But he gave the Rebbe a report of all the shvere keiten that he saw there. So Shabbos Parshas Ki Seitzei, Tov Shin Chof Hey, he was there by the farbrengen. And in the middle of the farbrengen, he said l'chaim to the Rebbe, and he started crying. He was crying because he really felt these, these ruchshas. He was so emotional about the

02:33 things that he saw there. And you could see that his crying and his emotion caused the Rebbe to get very emotional. And the Rebbe started speaking, I think it was after the ma'amer, started speaking about the Rebbe Rashab. It seemed like it wasn't, who knows, but it seems like it wasn't part of the plan of the Rebbe what he was going to speak about. But when the Rebbe saw him, and the Rebbe saw how he was emotional, and he's sitting there poshet and crying. So the Rebbe started speaking about the derush Yidden. He made it as a hemshuch to what he said before, but he started speaking about the derush Yidden, that they go ameseres nefesh, and how hard it is there. And the Rebbe was crying, crying. And the Rebbe said that there is somebody here who just came back from a visit in Russia and saw exactly what was going on there. And the Rebbe says that a Yid over there wants to go ameseres nefesh, he can't even do that. For instance, he wants to pay a lot of money for a nesrik, but he can't get a nesrik. And the same with other Torah mitzvahs. The Rebbe, the Friediker Rebbe said that the Friediker Rebbe said that you could go ameseres nefesh and jump off the roof. You can't go ameseres nefesh and jump onto the roof. The Takket says it's for him that if you want to go ameseres nefesh or something, you want to do a mitzvah and you

03:35 can't, it's as if you did it, but sof kosof, you really didn't do it. So why does it come to them? Far vos kumt zey? He said they don't have no day and night. They have no time, no head. They should be able to sit and learn and daven. They can't do anything. They can't have kivui sit in the Torah, all because of the shvere keiten that they have. And why did the Aibishter do this? And he said, "Well, we have no answer. This is something that the Aibishter knows, and the Aibishter has a reason, but the time is enough and they should go out." And the Rebbe was mamish crying then, vidmoi yesholish, he was crying by this farbrengen because of what Reb Zalman Gurevich had told the Rebbe and the way the Rebbe saw him. One another thing that he did was he brought along with him the film that was known that this is the Alter Rebbe's film. But that I will leave for the next broadcast.