Chanuka 5712 (1951) - The Wedding

00:00 This past week, Gimel Teves, the third day of Teves, was my mother's, Yahrtzeit. A year ago, I shared some stories about her which are on the audio number one sixty-five, and the link is posted after this message. This year, we'll discuss the wedding of my parents and the Rebbe's participation in the various details. The wedding took place on the fifth of Hanukkah, late 1951. At the stage of the shidduch process, the Rebbe urged Rabbi Herschel Schusterman of Chicago, who knew my mother's father from Chicago, to process and complete the shidduch that they formally become engaged. My grandfather studied in the Yeshiva of the Chofetz Chaim at a young age and was a by heart, and was a Rav in a Chicago shul. When he heard about the shidduch for his daughter, for my mother in New York, where my mother lived then, he asked Rabbi Schusterman some info about my father, including his Torah knowledge, the whole, especially hearing that he was a doctor. Rabbi Schusterman asked this question of the Rebbe, and the Rebbe responded. The lesson of the Rebbe was, "When he, my father, would be in the Lithuanian Torah circles, he would be one of the great ones there." My mother was a bas Kohen, a daughter of a Kohen. The Talmud states that one who marries a Kohen's daughter needs to be a scholar, . Around engagement time, my father inquired by the Rebbe if there's any need for him to add to his, uh, Torah knowledge, and the Rebbe assured

02:12 him there's no need for him to add anything more to his Torah knowledge. As per the Rebbe's suggestion, the the engagement took place on the twentieth day of Cheshvan, the of the Rebbe Rashab. My father had a very close relationship already at the time with the Rebbe and the Rebbe's family members. He also served as the physician in the family. The Rebbe's Moshe sent silverware from her home for the simcha that evening. The simcha took place on Eastern Parkway, 1054 Eastern Parkway and Schenectady, where our family lived till the beginning of the 1970s. In honor of the and acting upon the Rebbe's suggestion, a of the Rebbe Rashab was published. This was dedicated by my father, and this is already also relayed on the audio number one twenty-two, and the link is posted after this message. The chasuna was scheduled for the twenty-eighth of Kislev, the fifth of Hanukkah. The hall was Chateau Gardens on Houston Street, Lower East Side of Manhattan. Every choson would request of the Rebbe that the Rebbe be officiate at their wedding. The Rebbe made conditions for this. In the earlier years, it was that the choson wear a beard, and the kallah will be wearing a sheitel. At the time, my father, as a doctor from Europe, did not wear a beard. The Rebbe approached Rab Shmuel Lewitin, who was a Rav and of the older Hasidim, and asked if he may go to this wedding since he already observed this custom three times and it became a vow.

04:24 Rab Shmuel told the Rebbe that for two reasons this is different. One, the condition was given to the bachurim, the students studying in the yeshiva, and the choson does not learn in the yeshiva. Two, the choson is related to the Rebbe. My father was a fifth generation from the Alter Rebbe. As customary, before the chasuna, choson kallah and their families would go into yechidus to the Rebbe to receive a bracha before the wedding. My parents and my mother's father went into yechidus to receive brachos for the chasuna. The Rebbe spoke a while with my grandfather, and during the conversation, the Rebbe praised my father very much, saying that my grandfather merited to get such a special choson. The Rebbe also told my grandfather that the Chofetz Chaim, by whom my grandfather studied, was the Rebbe by the Litvishe. On the Shabbos before the wedding, Shabbos parshah Vayeshev, the Rebbe spoke a sicha on the blessing verse, which is used in a brachos for birth and likewise. The chuppah was obviously referring to the upcoming chasuna of my parents. The Rebbe connected this also with the parshah. The evening of the chasana, Thursday evening, at 8 p.m., the crowd already gathered at the hall in Manhattan, and the Rebbe at 8 p.m. called in a group of bacharim in 770 and spoke a sicha for the bacharim in the yeshiva, and then distributed Hanukkah gelt, a silver dollar to each student. This was the first time in the Rebbe's nasiyos that the Rebbe distributed Hanukkah gelt,

06:46 and this custom was kept up by the Rebbe through Tov Shin Hof, late 1959. Some students have already gone to the wedding, expecting that the Rebbe will be coming, and they missed Hanukkah gelt. Interesting to note that at the fabrengen of Yutas Kislev, 10 days earlier, the Rebbe stated that the bacharim should be fulfilling the chaside seder schedule in a sincere way, because in 10 days there will be something significant, and therefore the students should not complain that they were not told. We will, im yirtze Hashem, continue in the next installment. Behemsach to the earlier installment about the Rebbe's participation in the chason of my parents, we now continue to discuss the Rebbe at the Kabbalas Panim and the Chuppah. As mentioned earlier, the wedding took place on the 5th Lichol of Hanukkah, Tov Shin Yud Beis, December 1951. The Rebbe traveled by car to the wedding. The car was driven by Rabbi Slaw Gordon, zol azain gezunt, and the Rebbe arrived at 10 p.m. The Rebbe sat down at the table. At his right was my grandfather, and at my grandfather's right was my father, the chason. Around the table were the older chidim, Rabbi Shmuel Levitin, Rabbi Slaw Jacobson, Rabbi Elia Simpson. In the standing audience were present Rabbi Chodikov, the Rebbe's chief secretary, who held the Rebbe's siddur, which the Rebbe used at the Chuppah, Rabbi Meisha Leib Rotstein, the previous Rebbe and the Rebbe's maskir, Rabbi Chaim Meir Bukit, Rosh Yeshiva in Temchit Mimim Lubavitch, and Rabbi Herschel Fuchs, Magid Shir

08:59 in the Mesivta Temchit Mimim Lubavitch. My father showed the Rebbe the ksuva, and after a nigun was sung, the Rebbe began speaking a sicha in which he elaborated on the connection between Hanukkah and the Jewish woman and the self-sacrifice, mesiras nefesh, of Yidden at the time before the Hanukkah miracle. Almost 40 years later, around Tov Shin Nun 1990, the sicha was edited by the Rebbe on the occasion of the publishing of my father's biography, and to date it is published and included in Lukote Sichas, Volume 30, Page 311. During the Kabbalas Panim, my father offered to pour a l'chaim for the Rebbe, but the Rebbe told him a chason is compared to a king and it is not appropriate for him to serve during his chasana. When the chason, my father, went to Badekanish, the Rebbe would generally remain sitting at the table of the Kabbalas Panim until before the chuppah. This was customary when the Rebbe attended Kabbalas Panim and the chuppah. One of the distinguished Litvishe Rabbonim who sat at the table during the sicha said to the Rebbe that the Rebbe's sicha was one that he was also able to relate to since it was his usual learning standard curriculum, the Talmud, Halacha, in Yonim of Nigla. The Rebbe explained that it's actually all one teira, but it's on different levels. The Rebbe then asked him how would he explain this sicha according to the inner, the higher level of teira, pnimis ha-teira, chassidus. The Rav answered that this is nister and

11:05 we don't learn it. The Rebbe then said the reason that it is nister is because it is not being studied. If this part of teira would be studied, it would be considered nigla. Since the chuppah needs to be under the open sky, the wedding guests went downstairs. The Rebbe and my father went with the elevator. When entering the elevator, my father was particular that the Rebbe should go first. The Rebbe instead insisted my father should go first since he's the chason and compared to a king, therefore he needs to go in the lead. And this is evident in one of the pictures of the wedding where the Rebbe is walking behind my father. When they reached the ground floor, the Rebbe looked up to see the skylight window which was very high up, if it was open under the sky. When the Rebbe saw it was open, he nodded with his head with consent and began Siddur Kidushin and reciting the Brachos. Rabbe Elia Gross, , in his Yuman, in his diary, records the following. When the Rebbe came to the last Bracha, the seventh Bracha, the Rebbe honored my grandfather with this Bracha. But my grandfather, in turn, honored the Rebbe with this Bracha. At the Chuppah, there were four hundred guests. During World War II, many of them were refugees in Shanghai and studied in various Yeshivas. My father was their physician over their five-year stay in Shanghai. At the conclusion of the Chuppah, the Rebbe instructed that the gathered Bochurim should dance,

13:16 should go a Rikud. Rabbe Elia records that we danced for about ten minutes, during which the Rebbe spoke with our Rav Feivelson, who during the Sicha at the Kabbalas Panim, sat at the table near the Rebbe. He was a Rav in a Shul on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. The Rebbe also conversed with my uncle, my mother's only brother, Rab Fishel Pinsker, after which the Rebbe returned back to Seven Seventy. Rabbe Gross also relates in his diary that he returned back to Brooklyn in the car which was behind the Rebbe's car. He recalled that he saw that the Rebbe sat with his eyes closed, and after a long while, the Rebbe opened his eyes and looked around at all the people in the car. Around midnight, the Rebbe arrived in Seven Seventy, and immediately after, the Rebbe went home. The to the early installments about the Rebbe's participation in the Chassan of my parents. In conclusion, we continue with a few interesting short stories which took place in relationship to the wedding. On the evening of the Chassanah, a telegram sent by the Rebbetzin Chana, the Rebbe's mother, arrived at the wedding hall. Rab Azriel Chaiikin, Rabbo Roshi in Ukraine, related to me the following. He was a Yeshiva Bochur at the time. This is , late 1951. And the Rebbe requested of him that he deliver this to the Western Union Telegram Office. The Rebbe, on behalf of his mother, prepared the following telegram. The Rebbe underlined on the invitation the Chassan's name

15:22 and added the family name of my mother, the Kallah, Pinsker. That was the family name. The Rebbe also underlined the address of the wedding hall, and then the Rebbe added the following, "Mazeltov, much happiness, Chana Schneerson." This was the telegram that was sent to my parents' wedding. Another short story. A short time after the wedding, the Rebbetzin Chaim Muska asked my mother if she can borrow the wedding album for a night. My mother told me that she understood that this was also for the Rebbe to see the wedding pictures. A third event. Around the wedding time, the Rebbetzin Chana Medina and the Rebbetzin Chaim Muska and her sister gave my parents a silver set as a gift. Another short story. The Rebbetzin Chana was once shown the pictures of the Rebbe by Chuppas as he officiated the weddings. When the Rebbetzin Chana was shown the picture of my parents' Chuppah, the Rebbetzin said, "Here the Rebbe made an exception," referring to the fact that although my father was then without a beard, the Rebbe officiated the wedding, as mentioned in an earlier installment. Another interesting quote that the Rebbe once mentioned in Yechidus to my mother. It was once when my mother was in Yechidus in , around 1968, and discussed with the Rebbe the hard times that my parents experienced at the time. The Rebbe then said, "I officiated your wedding." This gave my parents Chizuk and an uplifting feeling for the future.