20 of Nissan - Rebbe escapes France with visa to the USA

00:00 Speaker 1 Um, we'll talk about, uh, the Rebbe's, um, escape, um, how the Rebbe escaped from France. Uh, basically, um, this was on the, uh, 20th day of Nisan, um, where the Rebbe finally got his visa, uh, to, uh, from America. The, the biggest problem was to get the Rebbe a visa, uh, to the United States. Um, originally I thought, I, I, if I remember correctly, I'm not sure, but if I remember correctly, originally they had, um, thought that the best way to get the Rebbe to the United States would be by saying that he was an engineer, and therefore he's not going to be a burden-

00:52 Speaker 2 Mm

00:52 Speaker 1 ... uh, to the-- He can support himself. You know, that was a big thing. Um, so they thought that that would be the best way to get the Rebbe over here. But apparently, they had enough engineers over here, and they didn't, they didn't necessarily, um, look for more engineers, if I remember correctly. So it was only when they were able to get the Rebbe a visa as a rabbi, he got a position as a rabbi over here, and there was a family name, it was Rabinovich was the family who the father was a Hasid, and the son was a lawyer, was an attorney in Washington. And um, he, he worked very hard and finally, on the 20th day of Nisan, uh, the Rebbe received his, uh, visa over there. Now, it was under the, um, under the, uh, chairman at the time, uh, they, uh, the Vichy regime, regime, they, um... And the Rebbe originally, uh, there was not a, uh, it never became a French citizen. Uh, it did not become a French citizen, but they did, um, they did enlist the, I guess all, all young men were still enlisted to go, I guess, to the war, and they wanted to take, you know, the Rebbe, who was of age to be taken to the, to the war. But they did not, um, of course, they did not, Baruch Hashem, touch the Rebbe. And um, the Rebbe at that time, um, um, um, was looking for ways, you know, to get out. Uh,

02:35 Speaker 1 okay, now he got the visa, but the question is, this is, uh, we're talking about, uh, this is already 1941, and you know, war was raging at the time. How do you get out from France, which was under the Germans now, how do you get out and get to the United States? And um, the previous Rebbe, you know, worked intensely, uh, to get them out. So now-- And they sent them, you know, uh, this visa, but um, the only way was they had to go to Portugal, and from Portugal they had to go to Spain, from there, from Portugal to Spain. And after great efforts and uh, many, uh, many different, uh, avenues, um, uh, the Rebbe and the Rebbetzin, uh, they went onto a boat that traveled to Portugal. I guess Portugal was neutral at the time. Were-

03:35 Speaker 2 Yes

03:35 Speaker 3 So was Spain. They're both neutral.

03:36 Speaker 1 Well, they were neutral at the time.

03:37 Speaker 2 Spain was neutral.

03:37 Speaker 3 But they were pro-- But Spain was pro-Nazis.

03:40 Speaker 2 Yeah.

03:41 Speaker 1 Yeah. But-

03:41 Speaker 3 They were into-

03:42 Speaker 1 And from Portugal-

03:43 Speaker 3 They were into the war

03:44 Speaker 1 ... they had to, uh, cross the border. They s-

03:48 Speaker 3 Into Spain

03:48 Speaker 1 ... snuck into Spain, across Portugal into Spain, and they came to Barcelona. In um-

03:56 Speaker 3 All the way across.

03:58 Speaker 1 There was a boat, uh, that traveling from Barcelona to the United States was a very dangerous, uh, uh, tra-trip because the Nazis, Yemach Shemam, they would shoot on all the boats that were, were traveling. Uh-

04:15 Speaker 3 Well, that was

04:16 Speaker 1 ... on this boat itself was shot many times by the, by the Germans, by the Nazis. Yeah, what were you saying? They had to go through the Strait of Gibraltar someday. They, they, they, that's where they

04:24 Speaker 3 Well, it wasn't that. It was, it was shipping-

04:26 Speaker 1 They were o- They knew where they had to go.

04:27 Speaker 3 Yeah.

04:28 Speaker 1 They, uh-

04:28 Speaker 3 Yeah, but also the shipping coming-- The, the um-

04:31 Speaker 1 Yeah

04:32 Speaker 3 ... well, no, what it is, is they were cutting out all of the cargo ships that were supporting Britain. So that was the main problem because the United States-

04:40 Speaker 1 There was still a lot of wars, yeah

04:40 Speaker 3 ... the United States wasn't in the war yet.

04:43 Speaker 1 Mm-hmm. They were hitting anything. All cargo

04:44 Speaker 3 They were hitting and everything, and that's why-

04:46 Speaker 1 So-

04:46 Speaker 3 They actually sunk a US ship off of Greenland at that time.

04:49 Speaker 1 Right It was the 28th day of Sivan in the year 1941. This was like, uh, just about, uh, two months later, uh, after Rebbe received the vis- visa. He actually, um, came, uh, came to the United States, and he was greeted by the, by the older Hasidim that lived over here in the United States. Um, it's interesting to see the Rebbe, the previous Rebbe wrote a, a note at the time to, I guess, to his father. Uh, he prayed. The Rebbe's father lived in um, he was buried in Rostov. He was actually back in uh, in Russia, Ukraine. But he wrote a, a, a special, a pidyon in which he's, which he asks his father to pray to Hashem to, uh, help them out so that they can escape. And um, and he, he-- It's interesting to see how the Rebbe writes his, his request to his father to be read at the graveside of his father. He's asking for his, his grandson, that's the Rebbe Salant Mushka, the Rebbe Rashab's grandson- And her husband saying the Rebbe's name, Menachem Mendel Ben Chana. And it's also interesting, the first time the Rebbe writes the word here, I'm reading from the text over here. First time he writes Mendel, mem, ayin, nun, dalet, lamed. But later on, he writes Mendel with a yud between the dalet, Mendil. Apparently, when you're writing the name in the beginning, you have to have it the precise. And then that was more the slang, more the Yiddish version of Mendel,

06:33 Speaker 1 more the, you know, it's- Familiar ... looks like that. And the Rebbe writes there that he's, he's not a French citizen. And during the time of war, they had signed them up, those people who are going to, uh, be protecting the country. But thank God they hadn't, um, called them. And the Rebbe's asking great mercy for them that they should be protected from all, any troubles. And, uh, um, and they should give, uh, Hashem should give the good, good view to the American consul that they should give them the American visa. The Rebbe was praying for them. And to give them the right mind to go, and Hashem should protect them. This is what the Rebbe was asking. Uh, the, um, guy, the lawyer's name was Asher Rabinovich, and he was the son of a Chassid of David Meir Rabinovich. It's also interesting to see, you know, the Chassidim or people who were always involved only in spiritual matters. But yet it was very important that some of the, the children's descend- and descend- descendants, that they were attorneys and they were able to help out. It wasn't like, you know, you had to, um, you had to, uh, go to somebody who didn't, who did, wasn't that willing to help. Here you had people of your own group. And actually, it also changed a lot in, in, in, in the financial aspect of things. You know, in the olden days, uh, the Chassidim, most of the local, most, most of the, uh, people that

08:11 Speaker 1 were very close to the Rebbe were, were poor, didn't have means then. And, you know, if you had to go, you had to go beg from, uh, other people from the outside. But the Rebbe wanted that his own Chassidim should be wealthy and his own Chassidim should, uh... So that when you need the support, you know, your cause, you don't have to come on to other people who don't understand and maybe don't, uh, wish, but you should have your own. So I'm saying, you know, while the general philosophy is to go ahead and sit and study and, and teach and do outreach work and everything else, but it's also important at the same time that, you know, we have that partnership between Yissachar and Zevulun. Both were children of Yaakov. Some of them were studying and other people were, they made a pact, they were supporting them so that together they can sort of make it work. And you see this, that all the time, the Aibishter helps in natural ways. It doesn't just fly down from the, the himmel like, you know, if you wanna be a millionaire, you gotta buy the lottery. Something you gotta do, a little bit you gotta do. Of course, we want the Aibishter's help, and we need Hashem's help, but we still got to put, uh, they call the own hishtadlus. You have to put your own effort in to work things to the nature. And what better example is from the miracle of Chanuk- of Purim that

09:28 Speaker 1 we're going to celebrate, that notwithstanding was an outstanding miracle, but it still had to go through all the natural, you know, with the Queen Esther and with the asking for the king and- Yes ... and so it went through natural means. It didn't just happen by itself. So there is always that, that part of it which also needs to, uh, be there to accomplish that. There was another thing that took place in the twentieth day of Nisan. This goes before. This was in the year Taf Resh Ayin. Uh, that was the, uh, day of passing of the Admor Yitzchak Duber. At Yitzchak Duber, he authored actually a siddur. It's called the Siddur Maharid. He authored a siddur, um, based on the siddur of the Alter Rebbe and based on the Chassidist teaching of the Alter Rebbe. He was a grandson of the Tzemach Tzedek. His father was Chaim Schneur Zalman of Liadi. During, after he was born in Lubavitch, this Admor, uh, the Maharid, the Yitzchak Duber, um, he was, uh, born in the city of Lubavitch, and he was an only son to his father, who became an Admor, also a Rebbe. His name was Chaim Schneur Zalman of Liadi, and he was a very devout student and a follower of his grandfather, the Tzemach Tzedek. However, um, after the passing of the Tzemach Tzedek, he went together with his father. He went to the city of Liadi. His father became, uh, the Admor over there. Um, again, parallel to the Rebbe Maharash, who

11:16 Speaker 1 was in Lubavitch. And at the age of forty-five, his father passed away. Um, when he, when he was forty-five, his father's passed away, so he took over his, um, leadership, and he's actually interned in the, uh, in the city of, of Liadi.