770 Eastern Parkway (1)

00:00 Be-ezras Hashem, we have reached audio number seven seventy. The Talmud tells us that a number is a siman. It has a significance. The number or icon seven seventy reminds many people universally, seven seventy Eastern Parkway, the house from which the previous Rebbe's teachings were relayed to Hasidim over the course of 10 years. The house from which over fifty years, the teachings, directives, advice, et cetera, of the Rebbe rang around the world. Every Hasid felt the seven seventy beat in his neshamah. And for every event or issue, a Hasid contacted seven seventy. Over the course of decades, Jews and occasionally also non-Jews from all over the world would consult or ask for a bracha from the Rebbe in seven seventy. In the last six, seven years from 1986 to 1992, thousands of people from all circles in Judaism and from all walks of life would come on Sunday morning to receive a dollar and a bracha from the Rebbe. By hashgacha protis, divine providence, we find ourselves between two important dates which mark the time period during which the previous Rebbe moved into seven seventy. On the twelfth of Menachem-Av, 1940, the previous Rebbe was given the keys to the building. And over a month later, on the twenty-first of Elul, he moved into his new home, seven seventy. On this occasion, he delivered a Hasidic discourse and fabrengen. We will begin with a brief background of seven seventy prior to the previous Rebbe's moving into seven seventy. The building seven seventy Eastern Parkway in the

02:20 center of Crown Heights in Brooklyn, the neighborhood then was considered a very expensive neighborhood, and the building seven seventy was one of the later additions in the neighborhood. Most of the Yidden living in the shchuna in Crown Heights at that time were not practicing Orthodox Jews, and the Jewish Center was basically the center of where they would pray, and it was considered a very distinguished center in the United States. And this is the shchuna, the neighborhood which the previous Rebbe chose to live in, and where he will have his center and do his holy work. The matzav HaYehudim, the standard of Yiddishkeit, the Orthodox Judaism, was on a low level at that point. There was a Rebbe, Rab Meshucheim Yeshua Schneersohn Twerski, who lived on Eastern Parkway between Albany and Troy, and he moved into Crown Heights in 1938, and he opened up a shul in this location. And he was later taken to court by the neighbors who opposed it. Before the previous Rebbe bought the house, he expressed to the Rebbe, Rab Meshucheim Yeshua Schneerson, Rab Meshele Twerski Schneerson as he referred to in, uh, short. The previous Rebbe said that he really cherishes Crown Heights and is interested in living there. And the previous Rebbe added that he feels that this shchuna, this neighborhood, has a potential with which it can be worked with. Many Chassidim Chabad in New York lived at the time in Brownsville. After the previous Rebbe moved into seven seventy, that is when some Chassidisha families moved into

04:53 Crown Heights. Parallel to the process of buying the building, purchasing seven seventy, there was a petition made by some of the citizens living in the neighborhood who opposed this purchase. They were afraid that when the Rebbe, the previous Rebbe and Hasidim will come into this neighborhood, which is different than what they want, it'll make a change. But Baruch Hashem, it was not successful. Their opposition did not get anywhere. One of the people who participated in this petition turned to one of the physicians who was in the group and asked him if he can also sign his name in the petition against s-selling the house to the previous Rebbe. Arguing by saying that opening up an Orthodox shul and a yeshiva in such an expensive neighborhood, that will lower the price of the houses in Crown Heights. By hashgacha protis, by divine providence, there was another Yid there in this meeting, and when he heard the attempt to oppose the previous Rebbe's purchase of the house, he said the following: "I don't understand it at all how you guys have an arrogance to fight against a Jew whose whole life was self-sacrifice for Jews and Judaism. He just arrived from Poland, which was conquered by the Nazis, and he finally wants to settle here in peace. How do you not allow him to do this?" And he then took the petition, and he tore it into pieces, and this is when the whole opposition was bottled. Im yirtze Hashem, in the next installment, we will continue

07:25 with a sicha of the Rebbe discussing seven seventy.