1312 - Elul 12 – Chabad History

00:00 Speaker 1 The 12th day of Elul, Yom Chabad, the days of Chabad. The 12 days of Elul is the day that the previous Lubavitcher Rebbe came for a visit to America, to the United States of America. Yes. Uh, you realize that the, uh, the previous Rebbe was arrested in 1927 in the-- so by the Russian government over there. Right. And, you know, it was, uh, originally they wanted to, uh, condemn him to death, and then they exchanged it, but eventually he was freed totally, and they made him leave the country, or he, he was able to leave the country. So that was-- He left the country. He went to Poland. Then he went to Poland. And actually he, he was in Lithuania in, in, in, in, in, in-- He settled temporarily in the city of Riga, uh, in, in, in, in, in Latvia. In Latvia. And, um, in, in, in Latvia, in, in, in Riga. And, um, he was looking really... That was only a temporary sort of place until they can figure out where the Chabad, you know, uh, uh- Should settle ... settle, where the, you know, the Rebbe and the headquarters, where it should settle. And we already learned about, uh, discussed about the Rebbe also went, the previous Rebbe went to visit Israel. That was not so much to look to settle perhaps in Israel, but as we read in the Rebbe's writing, that he went there to go to the cemeteries, to the grave sites of, uh, the, uh, forefathers, the holy

01:36 Speaker 1 places in Israel, because he couldn't visit, as was his custom, to be at the, uh, grave site of his ancestors, of his parents, his father and grandfather. So he came to the United States on the thirteenth day of Elul in the year Taf Res Pey Tes. That was, uh, 1929. The end of 1929. Okay, it must have been somewhere like in, like now, like in August, somewhere in August, uh, 1929. And there were thousands of Jews that came, uh, to greet the Rebbe at the, uh, when they came by boat. They came and, uh, uh, they all started to sing Baruch Haba, when the Rebbe means, "Blessed is the one that comes." And when the Rebbe left the port to, uh, uh... They had hundreds of cars following in an escort going behind the Rebbe. And, um, there were signs on all these cars saying, "Baruch Haba, uh, the Rebbe of Lubavitch." You know, in Hebrew, Baruch Haba, the Rebbe of Lubavitch. The Rebbe first came to the home of Rebbe Eliyahu Simpson, who lived in Borough Park, in Brooklyn, in Borough Park. Now, Rebbe Eliyahu Simpson was one of the, uh, previous Rebbes and his father. He was a Hasid and a, a scholar and a, a very knowledgeable, uh, person in the, uh, Hasidic teachings. He used to be one of the chosidim, one of those who would review the Rebbe's talks, uh, out of memory. He would, uh, be... So he was a very distinguished rabbi. He happens to be-- my brother-in-law

03:42 Speaker 1 is his grandson. Also, my brother-in-law is his grandson. But anyways, that was Rebbe Eliyahu Simpson. Uh, that was the home which, uh, the Rebbe came, and there were thousands of people waiting for the Rebbe. And the Rebbe went out to the people as soon as he came out, and he, uh, he said that, uh, God has sanctified us with the, uh, expression. God call-- God calls us a "Goy Echad Be'eretz," one nation. Echad Be'eretz in the singular. We are one nation, which means that all Jews in all countries are really one. We're tied. There is a string of love of your fellow Jew that unites and binds us all. Rebbe says, "I'm very overjoyed. My heart is full with joy to see such a gathering of Jews. May they multiply. I am hopeful," the Rebbe says, "that the warmth of the old home, the home back in Europe, which was a place of Torah, will continue also in this country, in the United States, and very quickly this will turn into a place which Torah will be spread out." Now, remember, we're talking about in 1929, before yeshivas, before- Right ... the, the, uh, landscape was a little different than it is today. Uh, the Rebbe concluded by wishing them all a «כתיבה וחתימה טובה» a, a being written and inscribed for good for the coming year. It was every year. The Rebbe-- What? The next month it was the stock market crash. Yeah. The- I said it was- Yeah ... August, September. Yeah. It

05:32 Speaker 1 was October the twenty-ninth, '29. Really? Yeah. When the whole economy- Crashed ... changed. Yeah. The Rebbe actually was here for about a year during that whole period. Yeah. Um, Rebbe visited various different community, all large communities. He was in Chicago, Boston, different, in different, various different communities. And actually, he visited with President Hoover. He visited with President Hoover before he left. Yeah, I think had a, um- Before he left ... a party at the White House. Yeah. And the Rebbe basically thanked him for freedom of religion and expression in this country. Uh, the-

06:13 Speaker 2 Plus, during World War I, after the war was over, the United St- he was in charge of distribution of food in Europe-

06:20 Speaker 1 I mean

06:20 Speaker 2 ... to feed the people. That's how he became president.

06:24 Speaker 1 Ah. So, um, okay, good. So the Rebbe stayed, the previous Rebbe stayed in this country till the 21st day of Tammuz, Chaf Alef Tammuz, Taf Eretz Sadik, which was till 1930. He stayed until 1930, so it was about, uh, two months shy of a month and a half shy of a year that he spent in this country, and then he went back home to, uh, Riga, and the rest we know, that eventually, uh, the previous Rebbe decided to relocate, uh, to this country, uh-

07:01 Speaker 2 During the war, so afterwards?

07:03 Speaker 1 Yeah, during the war on, you know, in... Unfortunately, he was caught up-

07:08 Speaker 2 Right

07:08 Speaker 1 ... in the beginning in 1939, I believe, in Warsaw, Poland. I mean, a lot of things transpired. It took 10 years before the Rebbe came to this country, and miraculously, that's a whole nother story-

07:21 Speaker 2 Right

07:21 Speaker 1 ... and there's actually books been written about that, how the, uh-

07:26 Speaker 2 His grace

07:27 Speaker 1 ... previous Rebbe was basically extracted together with the family members from-

07:31 Speaker 2 From

07:32 Speaker 1 ... underneath the nose of the... He w- uh, actually, people from the, uh, their regime, from the Germans themselves, some of the, uh, people of that party, uh, high people in the army have helped, uh, the Rebbe escape. But that's a whole nother story to read that.

07:51 Speaker 2 What it very briefly was he was in Warsaw-

07:53 Speaker 1 Yeah

07:53 Speaker 2 ... and he went to Berlin, and the war broke-

07:56 Speaker 1 Yes

07:56 Speaker 2 ... then, and Hitler came to power, and he was, I think w- He was there when Hitler came to power or not?

08:01 Speaker 1 No, he... No, no, he was-

08:02 Speaker 2 He was there when-

08:02 Speaker 1 Th- this you're talking about, there's two, you're talking about the Rebbe.

08:05 Speaker 2 Oh, the Rebbe was the one that was in Berlin.

08:06 Speaker 1 Yeah, the Rebbe was in Berlin-

08:08 Speaker 2 And then he went south or something

08:09 Speaker 1 ... then he went to France. No, France, and then he went to-

08:11 Speaker 2 Vichy

08:12 Speaker 1 ... to Vichy. That was by the Rebbe-

08:13 Speaker 2 Okay. Oh, okay

08:13 Speaker 1 ... but the previous Rebbe-

08:15 Speaker 2 Okay

08:15 Speaker 1 ... he was, 'cause previous Rebbe was in Warsaw at the time-

08:18 Speaker 2 Right

08:19 Speaker 1 ... his headquarters, and then, uh, the Rebbe at that time was studying in the University of Berlin and then eventually-

08:24 Speaker 2 Right

08:24 Speaker 1 ... in the Sorbonne in, in, in-

08:25 Speaker 2 Right. He was an electrical engineer

08:28 Speaker 1 ... and then he went further, uh, south.

08:30 Speaker 2 At one point at the-

08:32 Speaker 1 And then he was saved after the last boat that crossed the co-

08:35 Speaker 2 Right

08:35 Speaker 1 ... transcontinental that passed, went through, uh, and after that, you know.

08:39 Speaker 2 There were 40 boats-

08:40 Speaker 1 Yeah

08:40 Speaker 2 ... that they blockaded-

08:41 Speaker 1 Yeah

08:41 Speaker 2 ... the North Atlantic. But I also read something that the Rebbe, uh, was electrical engineer-

08:46 Speaker 1 Yeah

08:46 Speaker 2 ... from University of Berlin.

08:47 Speaker 1 Right, yeah.

08:48 Speaker 2 When he came to America-

08:49 Speaker 1 Right

08:49 Speaker 2 ... he worked in the War Department and-

08:53 Speaker 1 In the Brooklyn Navy Yard, I do believe

08:54 Speaker 2 ... in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and he was responsible for the wiring of the USS Missouri-

09:00 Speaker 1 Right

09:00 Speaker 2 ... which turned out being the ship that was in Tokyo Harbor that gave the surrender with, uh, the surrender of Japan-

09:09 Speaker 1 Oh, really?

09:09 Speaker 2 ... with, uh, General, uh, Douglas MacArthur.

09:13 Speaker 1 Right. But I just wanted-

09:15 Speaker 2 I brought this-

09:15 Speaker 1 I do want, I do want you to know that the-

09:16 Speaker 2 Yeah

09:18 Speaker 1 ... um, uh, the Rebbe's, um, involvement in the Navy Brooklyn, uh, shipyard was very, very short-lived.

09:26 Speaker 2 Oh, no, it, it was a couple years.

09:27 Speaker 1 The Rebbe was just very, uh, just-- I don't think, not even a couple years.

09:30 Speaker 2 A little bit of that. No.

09:30 Speaker 1 Not even that, no.

09:31 Speaker 2 Well, he wanted to work for the war effort at that point. He wanted to do something, so-

09:34 Speaker 1 What happened, what happened really was, um, there was, that was a, a, uh, a question that they had when they were trying to get papers for the Rebbe, to get the Rebbe to the United States.

09:46 Speaker 2 Okay, okay.

09:46 Speaker 1 His father-in-law was already here-

09:48 Speaker 2 Right

09:48 Speaker 1 ... um, since 1940-

09:50 Speaker 2 Right

09:50 Speaker 1 ... but he was stuck in, in, in, in, in, in France-

09:53 Speaker 2 Right

09:54 Speaker 1 ... and they were trying to get him a visa. And there was a question, uh, the Rebbe was both a, a grand scholar, a, uh, and he was also had an education.

10:05 Speaker 2 Right, a secular education, right.

10:05 Speaker 1 And they weren't sure, um, what would work best to get the Rebbe here for the government to say to get the Rebbe here. They were, uh, under the impression that, um, that, that, that putting the Rebbe in as, as a, um, I guess as a graduate would probably be more helpful, and I, I don't think... I forget exactly, but that's, that's, that's a whole, that's, that's a whole nother story.