0328 - Rebbe's Visit to the Kollel

00:00 Everyone knows that once the Rebbe came to visit the kollel, when the kollel was still on Union Street. This was, I think, But I heard different versions of what happened there. So I'm just gonna repeat the way I remember, and the details I remember. I don't remember everything, but the details that I remember. It was one day in we were sitting in kollel. Actually, that day, the kollel was full. Not like some people say, it was empty, the guys weren't there. Happened to be a day that most of the young elite of the kollel happened to be there. Then when I was sitting in the room, which was... You could see the window to the outside, and I was sitting learning with havrusa, with my havrusa then. I think it was Rabbi Joseph Minkovitch from Montreal. He was a havrusa then in kollel. And I happened to be sitting, and I looked through the window, and I saw the Rebbe's car drive up to the front of the kollel. And I mentioned, "The Rebbe is coming," 'cause we saw the Rebbe come out of the car. Everyone right away, you know, got very nervous. The Rebbe is coming, and the Rebbe walked in through the front door. And when he came in from the front door, so when he came into the rooms there, so it was like this. On the right side was like a r- long room, and on the left side, a long room. And on both sides, there were two shutters

01:12 of tables, and people were sitting on both sides of the table. And there was space in between the shutters to a person to walk through, both sides. The Rebbe walked in. He looked around. He walked to the right side and walked till the end. He walked through the two shutters of the tables. And between the young elite, obviously everyone was standing. Everyone stood up with their Sifrei Torah open. The Rebbe walked through, looked at everybody, looked down to the Sifrei Torah that everybody is learning. And when he finished this side, which is the right side from walking in, he went to the left side, and he did the same thing. He went through the shutters there, and he looked at every person and looked what they're learning. Then the Rebbe went upstairs. And we thought... And then a few minutes later, the Rebbe came down and he w- left. We didn't know exactly why the Rebbe came. It's just, we just thought he came to see the kollel. Later we found out that upstairs there was the apartment that Rabbi Zalman Yaffe used to stay when he used to come from England. And we heard that he complained to the Rebbe that the accommodations are not so good. So the Rebbe went, pushed himself to see the accommodations and told him later on, they say, to make it nicer, whatever it is. But as far as the kollel is concerned, we were under the impression that the Rebbe was happy because he came in, uh,

02:29 uh, was full. It's mamash full. I can't say every single person was there. I don't remember that. I don't know. But it was definitely full, and most of the young elite were there. And the Rebbe saw all the Sifrei Torah and the learning. But they were learning it out, the Rebbe couldn't see because as soon as he walked in, everyone stood up, and that's how the-- everyone was standing as long as the Rebbe was there. So we were under an impression that probably the Rebbe was happy. The next day, when kollel started, Rabbi Chadokov came in, and he said he has a letter from the Rebbe to the to the young elite of the kollel, written . He said he's not giving a copy of it, but he's going to read it. And he got up to read. Everyone stood around him and listened to what he's reading. Now, there were some people that sat down and trying to write while he's reading, and that's why when he finished reading, since reading is faster than writing, so they asked him to read it again. So while he read it again, people filled in what was missing, but I don't know if they got all the words. But the of the letter was... I don't remember all the words of the letter, but I remember some of the words. One of the things that started, the way it started was, I think and it started with the words . I saw good material here, but it's

03:41 not being utilized as it's supposed to. And the Rebbe complained about the young elite of the kollel. And I remember another that it said there that you should know that the kollel is not an unemployment agency. That's exactly the the Rebbe said. The way he read the letter, it said unemployed, in English, unemployment agency, and it's a place to learn, and et cetera, et cetera. Now, I don't remember the . I had once a copy of whatever was managed to write down, but I don't know where it is. But this was the . And it seemed like also the Rebbe didn't like, seems like the library or something, the way the Sifrei Torah were. So from then on, they got more Sifrei Torah. I don't remember exactly the details, but it seems like the Rebbe was not happy with what he saw. And we couldn't figure out, what did he see? If we'd say he heard things about the kollel and that's why he's saying it, but it seems like he came in and saw something. What did he see which he didn't like? Now, one of the things that he did see, we saw that everybody was learning different things. He looked down at the Sifrei Torah. Some guys were learning Shulchan Aruch, some learning Gemara, some learning different things. And maybe to the Rebbe, that wasn't like a kollel. That's more like, you know, a maybe that people sitting, just sitting on and learn. I don't know what. But the Rebbe expressed that

04:51 his thing that it's not the way he wants, and the of it was it has to become better. Now, the wording, I don't remember. This is the that I remember from then.