The Maamorim on Shabbos Mornings in the Room

00:00 With this installment, we begin, im yirtzeh Hashem, a new series on the topic, the Rebbe delivering maimarim discourses in his room on occasional Shabbos mornings before davening. Generally, on these Shabbosim, the Rebbe did not farbreng after davening. This began to take place in the year Taf Shin Yud Ches, 1958, and concluded in the year Taf Shin Chaf Alef, 1961. The first maimer was on Shabbos Parshas Zachor, the Shabbos before Purim, and the last maimer was on Shabbos Parshas Kedoshim. As we will mention further, there was a short notice prior to the delivery of the maimer. The episodes were recorded either in personal yemanim diaries or in interviews with Likvar Chabad weekly. And the maimer was written up and published after Shabbos, it should be available for the public. The first event, as mentioned, was Shabbos Zachor. This week, it is 68 years since this took place. We now continue with the story. A few bochurim who were in the shul upstairs in 770 that winter morning followed with astonishment. They were not accustomed to seeing the Rebbe like this. For some of them, it was a complete surprise. A few moments earlier, the Rebbe arrived from his home to 770. The time was about 9 a.m. The date was the 9th of Adar, Taf Shin Yud Ches, 1958, 18 years since the arrival of the previous Rebbe in the United States from the burning Europe during the days of World War II. It was the morning of Shabbos Parshas Tetzaveh, Shabbos Zachor, close to Purim.

02:15 That morning, instead of turning as usual to his room on the left, the Rebbe turned to the right, to the shul upstairs, where at that hour, Shabbos morning Chassidus Shiur and Seder was taking place. Not many bochurim were present at that session. In general, there were not so many bochurim in 770 in those early years. The Rebbe entered the zal shul upstairs from the first door near the entrance to the building and surveyed, looked around on those present with his gaze and exited through the door to the adjacent small room, the cheider sheini. And from there, the Rebbe walked through the corridor, the long hallway parallel to the zal, back to his room, opened the door with the key, and without entering, returned back to the zal. Those present already understood that something was happening. The Rebbe called Rab David Raskin, who was from the Anheler, mashpiyim in yeshiva, and he was standing at the entrance to the zal and said to him, those who want to hear Chassidus should enter my room. And as he spoke, the Rebbe motioned with his hand toward the direction of his room. The bochurim rose from their places and hurried toward the open yechidus room, the Rebbe's room. We were completely stunned by what was happening, related Rab Yankev Minsky, a veteran educator and a resident of Kra Chabad, who was present in 770 that morning. Aside from yechidu yoyes, private audiences for which we would go after preparation into the room, we were not familiar at all

04:22 with any other possibility of entering the Rebbe's room. In addition, we had no way of guessing the nature of this sudden gathering at an early morning hour. Was this some kind of a private yechidus, or perhaps a farbrengen, or maybe some other type of event? The details became clear quickly. Rav Tzvi Hirsch Gansburg was a young man, already married, and that unique Shabbos, he entered 770 just as the bochurim were rising from their places into the zal and advancing toward the Rebbe's room. Without thinking much, he described in a personal diary he wrote on the Tzvi Hirsch Shabbos, I removed my overcoat and my talis and pressed toward the Rebbe's room. A moment or two later, no more, the door opened and those standing crowded by the door entered inside. I took my place by the window, the first place on that side near the Rebbe's table, which was to the Rebbe's right. According to Rabbi Gansburg's recollection, about three minyanim, 30 people entered the Rebbe's room at that time, including additional bochurim who were elsewhere in 770, and upon hearing the Rebbe's call, hurried in, among them about five yungeleit, five people who were already married. The Rebbe sat in his chair, Rabbi Gansburg described those unique moments, wearing his hat and his face inclined slightly to his left. When the crowd finished entering, the Rebbe instructed that the door be closed. The Rebbe repeated and emphasized this, Rabbi Minsky recalls. Only after the Rebbe was answered a second time that the door was

06:22 indeed closed did he suddenly begin saying a maimer chsidus beginning with the words There were those who, to their disappointment for various reasons, were unable to enter the Rebbe's room. They were in 770 at the time, heard that the Rebbe was in his room with bocherim and yungalayt, but when they reached the room, they found the door closed. They were forced to listen to the maimer from outside. There was a certain point when we were inside the Rebbe's room, Rabbi Minsky recalls, that we heard strong knocking on the door and on the windows. There were additional bocherim and yungalayt who had arrived in the meantime. We did not dare to open the door, of course, since we understood that the maimer was intended only for those who were present at the time of the Rebbe's arrival in 770. In retrospect, we assumed that through this, the Rebbe also intended to encourage the bocherim to maintain the Rebbe's Shabbos morning chsidus seder. The maimer was delivered in the regular tune of a maimer, not in the tune of a sicha. Nevertheless, no nidin was sung beforehand. In addition, during the delivery of the maimer, the Rebbe's face was turned to the left, toward the southern wall of the room, the wall in which the door was located. This was while the crowd stood relatively close to the Rebbe's right and behind him. Most of the crowd apparently stood closer to the window and the table. Unlike maimerim that were said at fabrengens and the like, where

08:15 the public stood facing the Rebbe from a distance. We will im yirtza Hashem continue in the next installment.