0475 - The Rebbe's Connection with R' Zalman Shimon Dvorkin Part 1 - Becoming Rav

00:01 Harav Rab Zalman Shimon Dvorkin was a first cousin to my father. Actually, it was his wife, the Rebbetzin Dvorkin, she was the cousin, because her father, which means Rab Zalman Shimon's father-in-law, was, uh, Mendel Dubrawsky, one of the Rabbonim Lubavitch in the previous generation. He was my father's uncle. Actually, whenever he spoke about him, he referred to him as the ‹feterov›. He was my father's uncle. So Rab Zalman Shimon, who married his daughter, was my father's first cousin, and our families was very, very close. Rab Zalman Shimon was a-- in Lu- learned in Lubavitch by the Rebbe Rashab, and already then he was known as a big that he, in he was very, very great. I heard from a person who says he heard himself from Rab Zalman Shimon's father-in-law, Mendel Dubrawsky, that he said about his , and Mendel Dubrawsky, as we say in Yiddish, . He wouldn't just say compliments on the person, even if it would be his son-in-law. He said to somebody, and this person tells me he heard it from him, he said, "Zalman Shimon ." Zalman Shimon knows a din very, very well. In other words, he's a real, real, real posek. I told once over before already that the Rebbe Rashab told Rab Zalman Shimon, I don't know when he was a bocher maybe, after he was married already, that he should also learn nikkur. Nikkur is when you have to take out from the behemoth, when after you shecht and you take-- you have to take

01:30 out certain fats, certain and the gid, and you know, have to know exactly what it is and how to take it out, et cetera, et cetera. So the Rebbe Rashab told him, "learn in nikkur," you should learn how to do nikkur. And then he added, Rab Zalman Shimon told this to me, "," you'll make use of it. Now, make use of it, any good thing that you know, you can make use. But he told me he realized many, many years later what it meant. That I think it was in the Lamed that there was a whole controversy concerning the hechsher on meat from the concerning the nikkur, and people claimed that they didn't do the nikkur properly, et cetera, et cetera. So then, even though Satmar and Lubavitch were not so good, a delegation of went to Rab Zalman Shimon because they heard that he is a very big in nikkur, and they came to him to learn how to do nikkur or to discuss all about the nikkur. But the Rebbe Rashab had told it to him years before. Now, when he left Russia, he went first after the war when everyone, all the Lu- Lubavitch had escaped from Russia. He came to France, like many. He was there for a few years, and he came to America in the year . And the Haye-- the, the Joint or whatever brought him to Pittsburgh, so he was there in Pittsburgh for a few years. And then, in the end of the Iuds

02:48 or the beginning of the Chofs, he moved to New York, he moved to Crown Heights. And I remember he used to come into my zeide's house a lot to talk to him because he actually lived a few houses, a few buildings away on Lincoln Place, so he used to come a lot of times to talk to my zeide different dinyonim. So, and since we were a , even though my zeide wasn't a direct , but he was also connected, so he used to come and speak to him. Now, they say, and this is what I'm gonna say now, I'm not sure. This is what the rumor was, and I can't say. I only try to say things that I saw or I heard from the person himself, try to avoid not s- not to say things which I'm not sure. But the rumor was that Rab Zalman Gurari wrote to the Rebbe in the Chofs that maybe we should make Rab Zalman Shimon the Rav, Rav of the community, or whatever the expression he used. And the rumor was that Rebbe answered, but again, I can't vouch for it, the Rebbe answered something along the lines of . What is wrong with the Rabbonim that are here till now? Why could-- should you make him the Rav when there are other Rabbonim here too from before? This the time when Rab Shmuel Witten, who was one of the Rabbonim Lubavitch, Rab Sol Jacobson and others. So why would we make him Rav? So then the

04:02 Rebbe didn't agree. So Rab Zalman Shimon was in Crown Heights, and he was one of the Rabbonim in Crown Heights. But later on, the Rebbe officially said that he's the Rav, and the first time that, as far as I know, that the Rebbe in public said that Rab Zalman Shimon is the Rav was , and that I'm going to explain in the next voice note.