Devorah Leah the second daughter of founder of the Chabad Movement, Rabbi Shneur Zalman , also known as the Alter Rebbe.

 

It was in the year 5552, the teaching of the Chassidim was very successful and widely spread as well, the Hasidic movement was fast growing and did gain more and more strength by leaps and bounds. Behind the vast growing movement  was Alter Rebbe the pillar of learning, understanding and knowledge. What should have been a great time of great joy and excitement as Judaism became  much more meaningful to more Jews than ever before, and they welcomed the dramatic changes in Jewish studies.

 

So this should have been the greatest time, but gray and dark clouds where haging over the Alter Rebbe's head, as he was very aware that in the spiritual worlds,  a strong opposition  was against him, this and a revelation of the deep secret of the Torah. So he did all he could and all he could think of to prevent disaster from happening.

 

He sent therefore a appointed messenger to the gravesite of founder of the Hasidic movement, Baal Shem Tov and Dov Ber ben Avraham, also known as the Maggid Mezeritch, his own spiritual mentor, to beg them on his behalf and for the benefit of the Jewish people. He then notified the Maggid students and colleagues of the dangerous time ahead of them, this however was not only for himself but also for the entire Jewish nation. He asked a colleague Reb Nochem of Chernobyl, as he was one of the most respected and admired follower of the Maggid, for a blessing. After that, as sort of last resort he locked himself up in his study, no one was allowed to come in. The Alter Rebbe then went into a deep prayer and supplicated to G'D. But inspite of everything he done, he sensed that his attempts where without success.

 

One day, while anxiety was high, the Alter Rebbe called for his daughter, Devorah Leah, he then informed her about everything that lays ahead, and that there was a very strong opposition against revealing most important aspects of the Chassidim, he then described his vision what he had seen, the faces of the Baal Shem Tov and that of the Maggid, they were so dark and so cloudy, Devorah Leah understood her father's life was in danger.

 

Devorah Leah made a discission of her own and gathered three of her fathers senior Chassidim. She made a request and they had to promis to fullfil whatever she ask of them, they also had to swear not to tell anybody of het request, it was only after they agreed to these conditions that she would proceed. But first she reminded them of the fact that they all were Chassidim of her father and therefore they must prepare themselves to do whatever is necessary. It was important they knew this will save her fathers work and that of Baal Shem Tov importance of successful and impressive teaching.

 

Devorah Leah then broke down in tears and begged the three  Chassidim "I ask you to swear a solemn oath, one that cannot be annulled, that you will fallow my request even when a human life is at stake ".

 

One of the Chassidim became a bit apprehensive about commiting himself to such a request, the other two tried to calm him down by saying that Devorah Leah would never act so recklessly and must had contemplated the matter thoroughly.

 

As the air grew heavy with a lot of emotions, Devorah Leah then told the Chassidim how urgent the present situation was, and the threat hanging her father's life. She went on and stated " You three Chassidim wil now constitute a beit din, a court of Jewish law. I have decided to give my own life in lieu of my fathers. " I will die and he will live ".

 

It was on the end of Rosh Hashanah  of the year 5552, fallowing the afternoons prayers, when Devorah Leah went into a small synagogue, where her family and some if the elder Chassidim were praying. As she walked towards the Aron Kodesh, she proclaimed in a loud voice " You are all witnesses before the Torah scrolls, that , I  Devorah Leah, daughter of Sterna  accept and with a clear mind to exchanges lives with my father, Shneur Zalman, son of Rikvah that through my death will be the Atonement.

 

On that night, it was the first night of Rosh Hashanah, that the Alter Rebbe left his study in search of Devorah Leah, as she approached her father, he began to bless her, with the customary blessing " Leshanah Tovah ", she then interrupted his blessings with  " Father, Leshanah Tovah Tikatev Veteichatem " ! When, in turn, he finised his blessing to her, but she kept on pleading, " Father, say no more "!

 

At the end of Rosh Hashanah, the Alter Rebbe called Devorah Leah and also her husband, Rabbi Sholom Shnacha. Rabbi Sholom broke down when asking " What are we to do? " Our son Menachem Mendel, is so special, but still so young, he just had his third birthday.

 

Devorah Leah had another and final request, that after she past away, her father should personally invovle himself with the studies of her only son. Reassuring her, the Alter Rebbe promised and said " Your young son Menachem Mendel, will be a Nachamah to me, a Nachamah  to you, and a Nachamah to all of the Jewish people" .

 

The fallowing day, that was on the 3rd of Tishrei, Devorah Leah's prayers came true, she suddenly felt ill and died a natural death, and her soul left her body.

 

For the seven days of Shiva, Menachem Mendel performed the Kaddish for his departed mother,  and on the eve of Yom Kippur, the Alter Rebbe where with his grandson and prayed at Devorah Leah's grave. Then the Alter Rebbe announced " Even greater are the rightous in their death than they are in their lives!" The power of blessings is so much greater when the soul departs, than when the soul confined to the body. The Alter Rebbe then asked  his departed daughter  "Devorah Leah, bless your only son now, on the eve of Yom Kippur". This child, he went on, should be blessed for many years to come, because he will become extrodinary in his knowledge of the Torah as well as the Chassidim, the hidden Torah and the good deeds. " Please pray Devorah Leah, that our G'D has mercy on our Chassidim and the teaching of the Baal Shem Tov.

 

The fallowing day, at Yom Kippur the 11th of Tishrei, the Alter Rebbe arranged a Chassid, Rabbi Avraham to be the personal teacher of Menachem Mendel, that same day, the Alter Rebbe took his grandson and his father Rabbi Sholom Shnacha to his mothers grave. Mazal Tov, Alter Rebbe said, Devorah Leah, today is the day we are going in introduce the Torah to your son. Bless your son as he has been introduced to the Torah, he should enter the Chuppah and will have many good deeds and a ver long life. 

 

The Alter Rebbe kept his promis and daily studied with Menachem Mendel the Torah, who later became famous for his knowledge in all aspects of the Torah, he became known as the " Tzemach Tzedek " named after one of the masterful words. The Alter Rebbe decided that the bed of Menachem Mendel should be in his private chambers. From that night on, Menachem Mendel slept sound and peacefully at the side of his grandfather.

 

However, there was an incident,  one night, in de middle of the night Menachem Mendel cried in his sleep " Mommy, Mommy take me with you "!  Devorah Leah appeared to her son and reassured him " No my son, sleep peacefully, you zaidy is right next to you.

 

She gave up her own life, to save that of her father's, but in order to do that, she had to give up the gift of life itself, just stand still by this for one moment to fathom the immense spiritual willpower, what was needed for a act like this. She also had this with the self- scrifice to choose to depart from this world and leave  behind a son so small, who was still so in need of her. But the legacy of Devorah Leah doesn't stop there and runs even deeper.

 

Devorah Leah was a loving and devoted mother, but she knew that she had to do this for the sake of the Jewish people. She was very much aware of the importance of her fathers teaching, in respect even more than her own life. Devorah Leah did understood  how valuable the need of spreading these teachings were of the inner aspects of the Torah.

 

With the self- scrifice of Devorah Leah, the Hasidic movement was able to continue the teachings of her father and that of the Baal Shem Tov.

 

Menachem Mendel, her little son, she left behind grew up to be one of the greatest Jewish leaders of his generation. After his uncle Dov Ber died, he took over the leadership of Chabad Chassidim, and brought the movement to expectional growth. His own fallowers reached over half a million, and he was very much respected by all Hasidic and non- Hasidic as well.

 

Menachem Mendel carried out the task for which his mother schrifice, not only her life, but also a chance to have a intimate bond with her son, one that only a mother could have. Devorah Leah played a very important part of essential teaching of the inner dimension of the Torah. She will aways be remembered for her immense self- scrifice, her pure Neshama will shine a light on the importance of our faith, our Torah and the Jewish people.

On the morning of  March 19, 1940,  at  57th street Pier in New York habor, waiting for the arrival of the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, also known as the frierdiker Rebbe.

The Rebbe was the leader of Chabad Chassidim, a great scholar and respected among Jews around the world. The Rebbe Rayatz personified Jewish ideas of sanctity, learning and devotion to others. He was the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe in a dynasty of great rabbinical leaders of Russian Jewry since the late 1800s. Until the outbreak of WW2, the spiritual center of Jewish life was in Europe. The Rebbe's arrival in the US represented a shift in focus of Jewish spiritual life from the old world in the new.

On the ship with the Rebbe were his mother, his wife and eldest daughter and son in-law and some followers. His two other daughters, their husbands and thousands of his Chassidim remaind trapped in Europe. A year later, his second daughter, Chaya Mushka, and her husband, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson did manage to escape the Nazis and joined him in America. Unable to get a visa, his youngest daughter Shaina and het husband Mendel Horenstein, tragically met their fate in the Nazi death camp of Treblinka.

Before the war the Rebbe had been living in Poland for six years, in Otvotsk, a suburb of Warsaw. There he had re- established a center of Chabad movement after escaping from Russia's communist regime. More than three hundred students studied in his Yeshiva Tomchei Temimim.

Avraham Hecht stood on the pier to welcome the Rebbe to America, he had been one of the American yeshiva students who arrived in Otvotsk just seven days before the war broke out. When the war broke out the Rebbe adviced the American students to flee to Latvia and contact Mordechai Dubin a member of the Latvian Parliament and follower of the Rebbe.

The Nazi invasion began on a friday. A few days later, the Latvian Embassy, with orders from the Rebb's Chossid Dubin, sent a diplomatic car to take the Rebbe to Warsaw. The Rebbe took refuge in the home of one of his Chassidim, Rabbi Zalman Shmorkin.Days later, on Rosh Hashanah, the Nazis started bombing again and  firebombs fell on the Shmorkin house. They found some protection under a arch of a nearby building.

That night, there was not even a minyan for Rosh Hashanah services, as a nearby Chassidim could not reach the Rebbe, due to the bombardments. As the Rebbe endured the siege of Warsaw, his supporters in America en Latvia set up a campaign to free him from  the hands of the Nazis.

Still neutral at that point, America retained diplomatic presence in Nazi Germany. The Secretary of State Cordell Hull agreed to help the Rebbe, and he instructed Raymond Geist, his consul in Berlin, to enlist the help of a German offical,  Helmut Wohlthat. Before the war he  had been a student in the US and friendly with the Amercians. Geist and Wohlthat had developed a personal rapport during the Evian Conference held in June 1938 and they tried to find ways to save the European Jews, it was doomed to fail due to immigration restrictions of the US and other countries. 

Wohlthat confided in Geist that he a plan to smuggle the Rebbe out of country, with little chance of succes but worth the try. Wohlthat now enlisted the help of Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, he was head of the German military intelligence service. Canaris send three officers of the Jewish descent to Warsaw. Lt. Colonel Ernst Bloch, whose father was Jewish, led the group.

The officers searched the whole of Warsaw to find the Rebbe, fearing he had been killed in the bombing, finally, they found the Rebbe in his hideout. Family members hiding the Rebbe denied he was there. When the Rebbe heard that the Germans were looking for him, he said " I have never hidden and I will not hide now " and came out and met his captors.

Bloch told the Rebbe about his plan to help him escape. The Rebbe, his family and followers would have to act like prisoners. Bloch told the Rebbe that he had to speak harshly to  him. As an ss unit walked by, Bloch addressed the group of Jews callously, loading them on the vericles and heading to a railway station on the outskirts of Warsaw. A long the way the ss officers repeatedly challenged Bloch, asking why and where they were taking the Jews. At one checkpoint, Bloch treatened to inform Canaris himself that the soldiers was an obstacle to a important investigation, after a few tense moments the ss officer lifted the barrier, and let the group pass.

From Warsaw the group traveled first class on the train to Berlin. At the station, a army officer asked Bloch " Why is a group of Orthodox Jews traveling first class?" After staying the night in Berlin, the group left and were heading to Lavtia by train, still escorted by Bloch's unit and a delegation from the Lavtian Embassy. The next day, the Rebbe arrived in Riga and the Chassidim celebrated the miraculous escape. In New York, a telegram arrived telling the Chabad community that the Rebbe had been saved.

For two and a half month, the Rebbe, his family and his follows waited in Riga for the State Department to issue visas. Finally in March, they boarded the ss Drottingholm to the United States. The trip across the Atlantic was terrifying. Twice, German submarines stopped the ship searching for military cargo. A British warship also detained the ship. After thirteen days on the Atlantic, the ship pulled up into New York harbor.

1929, the Rebbe spend almost a year in the US, in support of the Russian Jewry. There the Rebbe received a hero's welcome, he visited major Jewish communies, in Baltimore, Boston and in the west , St Louis. The Rebbe also got a warm welcome when he arrived in Chicago and Detroit and throughout his visit, he gained a lot understanding of challenges American Jewry where facing. 

His visit did set the stage for a revolution, which would start a decade later, after his escape from Nazi Europe. During this visit, he also strenghten agudas Chasidei  Chabad.. Which has been started in 1924 by Morris Kramer. In total there were some eighty Nusach Ari Shuls that followed Chabad custom, the members were mostly Russian immigrants, who had a ancestrial connection with Chabad.

Just before the Rebbe returned to Europe, he went to President Hoover to thank him for his help in saving him from the death sentence.

A decade later, on 57th street Pier, the American Chassidim celebrated the Rebbe's escape from worn- torn Europe. It was on a morning in March 1940, when a delegation of important Chassidic leaders went to the ship to welcome the Rebbe, among them was the Kramer family, and Rabbis, Shmuel Levitin and Shlomo Aaron Kazarnovsky and Israel Jacobson. Rabbi Levitin was a scholar, who had studied in the original yeshiva in Lubavitch and was sent to the US before the war as a " Shadar " ( Sluchan Derabanan, a private emissary of the Rebbe ). Rabbi Levitin had also been send by the 5th Rebbe, Rabbi Sholom DovBer. This was to realize Jewish education in a very remote Russian Georgia. During his stay he was arrested by the communist and sentenced to three years in prison.

Rabbi's Shmuel's wife and some of his family members, who were trapped in Poland lost their lives in the Holocaust. After the Rebbe arrived in the US, Rabbi Shmuel  became the mashpiah, a spiritual mentor of the students at a yeshiva in Brooklyn.

Rabbi Shlomo Aaron Kazarnovsky arrived in 1924 in the US, he was a key figure in the Rebbe's effort and arranging the purchase of the Rebbe's home in Crown Heights. He was a very good fundraiser and also played a leadership role in the Chabad development.

In Riga the Rebbe had prepared for this day by inviting Rabbi Chaim Hodakov to come with him to help organize a Jewish school system. At fist, he refused the Rebbe's request, but as it was now or never, Hodakov joined him on the ship to America, woth the intention returning back to Europe after a short while. Rabbi Chaim Hodakov was serving as  Jewish representative on the Riga council as head of the Jewish school system. During the cross on Atlantic, the Rebbe started to draw up a plan to start a Jewish school system in the US.

On the ship the Rebbe received the delegation one by one in his Stateroom. It was when Rabbi Israel Jacobson entered the room, that the Rebbe told in him: " The suffering I endured in prison in Russia do not compare to the torments of twelve weeks under their rule " Now we will take care of the formalities quickly and get to our work immediately. Our work is Torah and Yiddishkeit. As for the contention that we are weak physically, that we have no strength, the Aibister, is after all, He who gives strength to the weary.

 

The Rebbe's arrival in the US was a joyful moment, as he was wheelchair bound, he did not walk off the ship, as he done eleven years before. The Rebbe appeared on the gangway wearing his Shtreimel, usually worn only on Shabbos. Transported in a wheelchair, his face, while radiant, reflected the tribulations he has suffered. No one knew the Rebbe was suffering  from Multiple Sclerosis, which he had been diagnosed with seven years earlier.

The police had a hard time to control the crowd, the Rebbe was the leader of the Jewish people. He was spiritual royalty. A few hours later in a hotel in Manhatten, the Rebbe wanted Jewish education to intensify, and therefore be wanted to establish schools and yeshivas.

It was a few months after his arrival in NY, when 770 Eastern Parkway was bought, and a commitee of Chassidim, headed by the attoney Sam Kramer and Rabbi Shlomo Aaron Kazanovsky organized the campaign in fundrasing, 770 Eastern Parkway was located in upscale Crown heights, a three story building. The Rebbe moved into the second floor, the yeshiva in the Beis Medrash on the ground floor. Chassidim began to call the Lubavitcher center " 770 " after the street number.

The location in Crown Heights is a expression of the Rebbe's vision to change the American Jewry. The Rebbe settled in the neighborhood and this representing Jews first step away from observance, while he was making his first step with his campaign to change Jewish life in the US.

The Rebbe's move into one of the most affluent and secular  neighborhoods was intentional. The yeshiva was the first initiative and would always remain the crown jewel of the Rebbe's efforts. Eventually, it would be the largest network of college-level rabbinical colleges (yeshivas ) in North America. He was not sastified with creating a small institution with a limited in students.

The vision was beyond the scope of others in small American Orthodox community. Other prominent roshei yeshiva ( rabbinical scholars) had fled Europe and arrived in the US. They too,were setting up establishment of centers of Jewish learning, but their philosophy was different.they created small fortresses of Torah, which included little engagement with the wider community. These were similar to those in Europe. Through encouraging  an elite group of scholars in citadel of Torah, they hoped to ensure the survival of Judaism in the US.

In Russia, the Rebbe remained and defied the Communists, moving Jewish life underground. He was concerned for the welfare of all Jews, not just the scholarly elite, when he set up a network of secret schools. He left the Soviet Union only when there was no choice. Now on American soil, the Rebbe again took the offensive.

The Rebbe's vision included all Jews. Jewish education was essential for Jewish survival. Every Jewish child must be placed in a Jewish school. The Rebbe did not want to wait for a generation of scholars that might create a trickledown effect on the broader community. The Rebbe wanted immediate action directed towards every Jew, practicing or not, in America.

At the time, Rabbi Hershel Fogelman was a student in Yeshiva Torah Vodaath in Brooklyn. Later, he would become on the Rebbe's early Shluchim, moving to Worchester, Massachusetts to run the school there. He explained that the Rebbe wanted to change the whole mindset of religious Jews. 

The desire to withdraw from the broader society was undrstandable. Starting in the mid- nineteenth century, the yeshiva system was under attack in Europe. First, there was Haskalah ( the effort to secularize the Jewish community that started in Germany and the moved eastward ). It drew many students away from the study of Torah to secular subjects.

The Rebbe's new strategy for America received little support from the secular Jewish establishment. The Reform and Conservative Movements had emrrged as the major forces in Jewish life in the US. Both the Reform and the Conservative viewed with disdain the Rebbe's strategy of remolding communties by building yeshivas and day schools. For most American Jews, the public schools were the ticket to advancement in the new society. Jewish schools were viewed as a handicap to getting ahead in America. In 1940, there were only seven thousand children, a bit more than one percent of Jewish school- age children, in the US and Canada who were enrolled in Jewish day schools and yeshivas.Some children attended Hebrew Schools or Chadarim. Avraham Hecht says, " The majority of the teachers were personally not religious and poorly  trained. 

Jewish social scientist, Charles Silberman, wrote that the principle of Jewish identity in the 50s and 60s was " Shah " or " Don't be too Jewish in public ". The Jewish moguls of Hollywood bent over backward to be more American than most Americans, as did the Sulzberger family, owners of The New York times, who published few stories on the Holocaust, fearing too much coverage might turn the war into a " Jewish issue ".

Antisemitism was still strong in the US. Jewish immigrants discovered that when they changed their names from Cohen to Colton, Levine to Levitt, they suddenly received job interviews and their children were accepted to prestigious colleges.

Progress had been made in the early decades of the twentieth century to strength  Orthodoxy. The Orthodox Union, which united many Shuls in the US. Young Israel, Agudath Israel of America, Yeshiva University, and the Mizrachi. Yeshivas such as Torah Vodaath in Brooklyn created centers of classical Jewish learning. The University produced young Rabbis. 

The push for Americanization was causing many Orthodox Shuls to drop the traditional separation of the genders, and affiliate with the Conservative Movement.

Time and again the Rebbe stated,  " Just as Yiddishkeit flourished in Europe, so too it could in America. He challenged the status quo of both Orthodox and the broader community. He started by drafting his Chassidim and students to seize the initiative. In that first year, no more than fifty people were present at the Farbrengen that the Rebbe led. After one of these celebrations, his small group of American yeshiva students came together on a Saturday night to decide how to impliment the Rebbe's goals. They gathered in a small dining room in the basement of 770.

In 1943, the Rebbe established the organization that would have the deepest impact on Jewish life in the US: Merkos L' inyonei Chinuch  (Central Organization  for Jewish Education ) and Machne Israel. The mandate  of Merkos was Jewish education.. Machne focused on the needs of the observant community. Named to head these institutions was the Rebbe's second son in-law, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, known at the time as the Ramash.

Within ten years of the Rebbe's arrival in America, the number of children in Jewish day schools in the US and Canada grew by three and a half times to 23.100. But the Rebbe's vision was to reach Jews everywhere. In the period prior to his passing, with help of the Ramash, he began  to investigate the situation of Jews in Marocco, Tunisia and Libya. He instructed his representative in Paris, Rabbi Benyomin  Gorodetsky, to review the status of Jewish education in those countries. A week before his passing, he asked his son in-law, the Ramash, to arrange to send a shliach to North Africa to revitalize Jewish education.

On the last Thursday evening on January 1950, the Rebbe received visitors of yechidus until late in the evening. The visitors that night  include Rabbi Yitzchak Dubov, a Chabad Rabbi from Manchester, England. When he asked the Rebbe how he felt, he answered, " We have to be satisfied and with G-d's help we will hear good news about the Jewish people."

Late the following Friday night, a loud noise woke up seventy- four year old Moshe Feiglin. He lived some ten thousand miles from Brooklyn in the agricultural community of Shepparton, Australia, a hundred miles north of Melbourne.

He jumped out of bed, waking up his grandson, twelve year old Uri. Together, they investigated the source of the strange noise. Moshe Feiglin had been the first Chabad follower to move to Australia and had established his farm, as the first beachhead for Chabad down under.

Moshe and his grandson hurried to the dining room to find out the cause of the noise. The framed picture of the Rebbe, hanging on the wall of the room for years, had fallen, it's frame broken on the floor. " Something has happened, " Moshe told his grandson. Uri tried to calm his grandfather, who was deeply disturbed, suggesting " It was just the wind that blew through the window, and knocked the picture of the wall.

Moshe Feiglin was inconsolable, convinced the shattered picture was a foreboding sign. Throughout shabbos, Moshe was deeply troubled. The next day, a telegram arrived with two simple words, "Histakut Admore." The Rebbe had passed away during Shabbos in New York.

The news shocked the Chassidim. The Rebbe had suffered from illness, but none thought his situation was critical. The heart attack was fatal, taking the soul of the sixty- nine year old Rebbe on January 28, 1950, the tenth day of the month Shevas.

The next day, thousands gathered to pay their last respects to the Rebbe. The aron had been hastily made from the wood of a prayer- stand and tables the Rebbe used for the Torah study. Before the levaya, Chassidim walked by the aron paying their last respects, asking forgiveness. At 12:30 p.m, the aron was taken through the front door of 770 and draped with the Rebbe's long Shabbos coat. The levaya continued down Eastern Parkway and finally to Montefiore Cemetery in Queens.

On Sunday, Chassidim around the world gathered for memorial services. In Tel Aviv, hundreds of Chassidim held a special service in the Chabad Shul on Nachalat Bimyamin street. Jewish law requiers that when a great leader passes away, every Jew should sit Shiva. Together they tore their clothes and sat on the ground.

The somber mood was shattered by Rabbi Avraham Pariz. He had  traveled to New York before the outbreak of war and was stranded there during the 1940s. The stood up and said :

" Jews we have a Rebbe !" 

Referring to the Ramash, the frierdiker Rebbe's son in-law. No one thought, at this moment of mourning, about a succesor. His audacity shattered the somber feeling in Shul. Many of the Chassidim wete disturbed about this outburst. Despite the consternstion, he continued: " I had the honor to get to know him. He tries to hide is greatness. He is fooling us. I worked with him in the same room for ten years.

Rabbi Pariz asked the Chassidim in Tel Aviv to send a letter requesting the Ramash to become the 7th Lubavitcher Rebbe.

No official invitations had been sent. It wasn't a formal event. The Chassidim and many other Jews gathered in Shul on the main floor of 770 Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights NY. Along the hallway in this space of worship and study, in a simple sanctuary a start of a new era in Chabad leadership.

The room itself was not  very large, simple tables and benches ran down the length. The room was packed from wall to wall, they were even standing on the benches and tables,. Not even a needle could fit between the crowds. In hallways, lobby's and even on the street, some trying to peek in from a window. But also in the adjoining office, blocked the view into the Shul.

All of these people had come, and were hopeful that the forty- nine year old , Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, known as the Ramash,  would accept the position of the Seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe. Officially the gathering was just a farbrengen, to mark the first yahrzeit of the Frierdiker Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn.

 

The event  was planned for January 17, 1951, the 10th day of the month Shevas. In the twelve months since  the Rebbe's passing, Chassidim had been lobbying his son in-law Rabbi Menachem Mendel, to take the position of Rebbe. Time and again he refused, but as the yahrzeit approached, the effords of the Chassidim intensified. Rabbi Menachem Mendel was in this case the most appropriate descendant of the Frierdiker Rebbe to carry out his legacy. The Rebbe had three daughters. The oldest was married to Rabbi Shemaryahu Gurary. The second, Chaya Mushka, to the Ramash. The youngest, Shaina, perished with her husband in the Holocaust.

 

The grassroots movement from the Chassidim started almost as soon as the Frierdiker Rebbe passed away, Rabbi Yitzchak Dubov, an elder Chassid from Manchester, had already approached Rabbi Menachem Mendel during de Shiva of his father in-law. As his friend Avraham Pariz, did in Tel Aviv, Rabbi Bentzion Shemtov, the leader of Chabad community in London, sent a letter to the Ramash declaring him Rebbe, as did Chassidim in other parts of the world.

In New York, some began to treat the Ramash with the deference usually reserved for a Rebbe, refushing  to sit in his presence, not taking his hand, or addesssing the Ramash in a formal third party in Yiddish. When a Chassid, who had long been close to the Ramash, refused to shake his hand in a meeting, the Remash said, " You too? " . They turned to him for advice on personal and communal matters. A knock on his door, and he would find time for anyone. Just a few months after the Frierdiker Rebbe's passing, Rabbi Shmuel Letvin told a group of students, " The fact that the Ramash answers questions about issues of spiritual service is not proof he is a Rebbe. That, he could have learned from Jewish classics. 

The fact that he is willing to give advice on worldly issues, questions of health, that is a sign he is accepting the position of Rebbe. A few weeks before the first yahrzeit,  a group of senior Chassidim met with the Ramash. They had been following of the Frierdiker Rebbe and even his father  the Fifth Rebbe, Rabbi Sholom DovBer. Thirty of them, headed by the community elders, entered the Ramash office. Emotions filled the air as they presented him with a Kav Hiskadhtuth, or Pledge of Loyalty, from the US community. Hundreds of Chassidim had signed, asking the Ramash to accept the leadership and pledging their loyalty to him.

 

When they entered the office, he asked, " What do you want? " Reading the first line, the Ramash closed the letter and began to cry. Sobbing, he asked them to leave, saying, " This has no connection to me. " Time and again through the year the Ramash had turned down the request of the Chassidim.

 

Later that week, Jewish newspaper reported that the Chassidim presented a petition accepting the Ramash as the new Lubavitcher Rebbe. The Ramash directed his assistant, Rabbi Hodakov, to notify the papers that this was an incorrect report. Before calling the media, recognizing how fateful the moment was, Rabbi Hodakov informed the Chassidic elders, Rabbis Shlomo Aaron Kazarnovsky, Shmuel Levtin and Israel Jacobson. He told them he could wait a few hours until he actually called the press, but he urged them to intervene with  the Ramash. The three rushed to the Ramash's office, pleaded with him not to make a public retraction. They discovered  that he had prepared a formal public statement that he was not accepting the position. Rabbi Letvin argued the paper did not say the Ramash had accepted the leadership, only that the Chassidim had presented him with a letter. Rabbi Kazarnovsky begged the Ramash to, at least, not place a retraction in the paper. They the told him  " All the statement said was that the Chassidim are accepting the Ramash as their leader. And that,they are doing." Reluctantly, the Ramash agreed.

 

In anticipation of the yahtzeit, the Ramash had issued a letter to the Chassidic community encouraging everyone to learn specific teachings of the Rebbe, visit his grave in prayer, light a yahrzeit candle, and perform other observances common in a Jewish memorial.

As is customary on a yahrzeit, the Ramash would lead a  Chassidic farbrengen. For Chassidim, a farbrengen is an event of great  joy and celebration. The structure was simple, the Rebbe would give a series of talks ranging from fifteen minutes to forty- five minutes. The topics could vary from a deep explantion of a concept in Torah, Talmud, or mysticism to a comment on contemporary issues. Between the talks, the Chassidim would sing and toast the Rebbe, saying, " L'Chaim !"  As the directive of his father in-law, the Ramash had begun occasionally leading farbrengens shortly after his marriage in 1928. When he arrived from Europe in 1941, he started doing this monthly, as requested by his father in-law.

 

Rabbi Yitzchak Groner recalled the Ramash's arrival in New York in spring of 1941. The Rebbe has asked Rabbi Jacobson to lead a delegation of prominent Chassidic elders and the students to welcome his son in-law. Describing him, the Rebbe said, " My son in-law knows the entire Shas, the commentaries, Chassidic works, and the codes, all by heart. All the students of the yeshiva came to greet him. Down came a young man, his beard tied under. He came over to every bochur, and he projected much warmth. A few days later the community organized a formal welcome. Rabbi Leibel Groner attented with his father, and he observed, " For two hours, the Ramash explored the obligation of giving thanks accourding to the  Talmud. For another two hours, he explained the Chassidic perspective of the same theme.

 

Finally , he connected it all, showing how to apply these ideas to one's personal service of HaShem. The Chassidic elders were in awe of the depth of scholarship, his ability to intergrate various diimensions of Jewish learning, and their application to daily life.

 

Earlier on the day of the yahrzeit, delegations of Chassidim from various communities met the Ramash, presenting him yet again with requests for him to become Rebbe. The Ramash entered the Shul at 9:45 p.m. The room was packed, there was barely place for him, and he sat on a simlple chair on a small podium in the front room.

The Chassidic elders positioned themselves around a small table. Two tables down the middle of the room, and hundreds of people stood on the floor and on benches, trying to get a glimpse. Chassidim have no formal ceremony to appoint a new leader. The farbrengen would be the vanue. A farbrengen led by the Rebbe was unique. It would be highlighted by a Maamar. A Maamar explores the philosophical depths of Chassidic philosophy and is delivered only by a Rebbe. Traditionally, Chassidim stand when a Maamar is presented, and sing a special melody, the Maamar nigun, before a Rebbe's statement of the Maamar. Everyone wondered, would this be a Maamar ? If yes, it would mean that he had finally accepted the position of Rebbe.

In his first talk, the Ramash spoke of the need to strengthen the connection to the Frierdiker Rebbe: " Each one of us must continue the task the Rebbe entrusted us with. He, himself, was carrying on a sacred mission entrusted by his father in-law. As the second talk began, it seemd a change was happening. The tone was different. " Its customary, " he said in Yiddish, " that in America, when you begin something new, you issue a statement." This caused a ripple in the crowd, many thought he was refering to his acceptance of the leadership

 Then he explained, " Three loves are intertwined:  the love of HaShem, the love of Torah, and the love of our fellow Jews. If you have only love of HaShem, and not  the love of your fellow, that is a sign that the service of HaShem is deficient. The love of your fellow will bring you to the love of HaShem and the love of Torah. The Ramash concluded the talk asking that this statement be publicized.

 

The crowd remained restless. Statements were not Maamarim. The Chassidim waited, singing during a break between talks. About an hour after the farbrengen began, Rabbi Sender Nemtzov, past eighty years, stod up. A distinguished  Rabbi in Manchester, England, decades earlier, he was one of the early students of the yeshiva in the town of Lubavitch, Russia. He surprised the crowd when in the middle of the farbrengen he stood up and faced the Ramash in Yiddish, " The crowd wants the Rebbe to say Chassidus, a Maamar. The talks are wonderful, but we are asking the Rebbe to say a Maamar, a Chassidic discourse.

 

Absolute silence filled the room: the crowd held its breath, the hearts of the Chassidim pounding, waiting to see how the Ramash would respond. The quiet was shattered as the new Rebbe began the first Chassidic discourse, starting quoting the verse from Songs of Songs, " Basi Legani Achosi Kallah." The verse refers to the time of the construction of the Mishkan by Moshe, when the Shechinah, came into its garden, for it was then that the Divine Presence, distant for a time, was again revealed to the world.

Realizing what was happening, the crowd rose to its feet and came forward. As Chassidim, they wanted to be closer to theit new Rebbe. When the Rebbe finished the first section of the Maamar, he paused and asked the crowd to say " L'Chaim, "

 

Rabbi Nemtzov surprised everyone a second time. Despite his age, he jumped on a table and said " Chassidim, we have a Rebbe !

Say, Shehecheyanu! Loudly, he said the blessing and everyone answered, " Amen ".

Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, managed to escape the horrors of Nazi - controlled France, via Vichy France and Portugal, arriving in America in spring of 1941. Merkos was the first  national Jewish  organization dedicated to the developement of Jewish education in the US. Under leadership of Rabbi Menachem Mendel, it blossomed. Within four years, it had eighteen schools operating. Merkos launched a network of youth clubs known as Mesibos Shabbos, where children would gather on Shabbos afternoon.Shalah, a commitee for further Jewish Education, released that time at public schools throughout New York and other cities. State law permitted children to be released for an hour a week of religious studies. The Rebbe stood up to the Jewish establishment that opposed the program on grounds that it lowered the barriers between church and state..

Merkos launched a publication division, Kehot Plublication Society. In 1943, Merkos initiated a summer outreach program that sent yeshiva students to visit Jewish communities outside the New York area.

The Rebbe was a pacesetter and other Orthodox groups followed. In 1944, there were already seven thousand students in yeshivas in the New York. The Rebbe had proved to al that Torah education could succeed in the US. One of his Chassidim brought him news that a coalition of yeshiva scholars had started a similar organization called Torah Umesorah, whose plan was to develop Jewish schools. Expecting that the Rebbe would be upset by the competition, the Chassid was surpriced to hear the Rebbe's joy. He said: "Thats what I hoped they would do " . The initiative for Torah Umesorah came from Rabbi Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz, one of the founders of America's pionerring yeshiva, Yeshiva Torah Vodaath.

An overcast November morning in Brooklyn, there was a temporary row of wooden benches in front of 770, Chabad HQ. Hundreds of children wrapped up in warm coats were waiting, when they got the word, six hundred children marched in a straight line and claimbed on the wooden benches. The children had come from around the world, joining their father at the annual Kinus Hashluchim. Speaking in a dozen languages, and ranging from age six to the bar mitzvah age, they enjoyed the three-day, summer camp style conference while their fathers were busy attending workshops a d sessions. Here, they belong. At home, these Chassidic children live in community with a few or no religious friends. Here, they see their fellow classmate in person and not just online in the virtual school, for those who live in smaller communities with no proper Jewish education. The program is designed to make the children feel special as Tze' irei hashluchim.

 

Just as the photographer was ready to take a picture, Rabbis Krinsky, Kotlarsky and Brennan, the conference leadership, squeezed onto the bench in middle of the picture. The photographer turned on his microphone and telling the Rabbis to move to one side, so he could take the picture. A song arose from the crowd and again the photographer turned on his microphone for everyone to settle down. Finally the photographer gave the all clear. The  children got of the benches, and disorder followed as thousands of Rabbis rushed to fill the places of six hundred children. When the benches were filled, more benches appeared from the side. Almost everone was settled, as a final row of benches was placed for the senior shluchim.

 

Those on the front row had been the first to answer the Rebbe's  call over a century ago. They were young idealistic men full of dreams and ambition. In the 1940, the first generation of shluchim had been dispatched by Frierdiker Rebbe, with a specific task, to open a school, become a Rabbi of a Shul, or a teacher.

 

The second generation that left New York a decade later under leadership of the new Rebbe had a broader mandate. In most of the cases they were not sent  to specific institution, but to identify the needs of the community and build Judaism from the ground up. As Rabbi Hodakov, the Rebbe's chief of staff, would brief them before they left, " You are responsible for the welfare of every Jew in you city, state or country. "

 

Soms of these shluchim were born in Russia. There families practiced Judaism in secret, almost all of them had relatives who were arrested and imprioned in Siberia for there loyalty to Judaism, many didn't servive. The Russian Jewry had left during the Great Escape. As teens they came to Brooklyn in 1950s and 60s to study at 770, inspired by the dynamic personality of the new young Rebbe.

 

Not all second- generation shluchim were Russian. Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky, who would become a member of the Renbbe's secretariat and later chairman of Chabad education, Merkos, and  Machne, began his education in Boston at the first student in the Maimonides Academy. Yisroel Shmotkin, Rabbi Moshe Herson,Yitzchak Groner, this small group had close personal contact with the Rebbe and would eventually become the generals in his army of shluchim.

 

Soms European scholars critized the Rebbe's plan. They claimed that by leaving the Orthodox world in New York, young Rabbis would place their observance at risk. They also questioned how young couples could raise their children in environment that didn't support tradition. European cities had structured communities, centuries old, supported by government funding and a new element, independed and not under local control, did not met a warm welcome.in these communities strained relationship between the Rabbis and their followers, " We will come to Shul, but don't be too demanding. " The Rabbis didn't want to rock the bost. The new arrival shluchim would have to overcome a lack of self- confidence that pervaded most of the Rabbinical leaders. 

 

In the US, the new Rabbis with beards and hats were viewed as a old- fashioned leftover from a European Jewish culture on its last breath. In many cities, there were few fully observant Jewish families. A Consrvative Rabbi claims, " They look like they belonged in another century, they spoke good English, and they made for a intereseting evening." They  would get invited to a local temple to put on a program, " An evening with Chabad, " a bit of nostalgia for Jews drifting from tradition. It was a cultural curiosity like " Fiddler on the Roof. "

In our time especially, there are many infants and children who, for one reason or another, have "fallen from their cradle." They have been cut off from the true Jewish "cradle" (or they were never in it in the first place), and they are crying...because of the distress of their soul, which is truly a part of God above; it is hungry and thirsty for the word of God and for His Torah and mitzvot. But there is no one to care for them and fulfill their need with education about purity and holiness.... 

 

It is forbidden to ignore the cry of these Jewish children, whether they are children according to their age or children according to their knowledge of Torah and mitzvot. Every man and woman is commanded: Do not sin against the child. Stop all your other activities and care for the child. Return him to his Father, our Father, the compassionate Father. He will learn the Torah of our Father and fulfill the mitzvot, and he will thereby attain eternal life, a life that is full, complete, and good.

 

The Rebbe 

Igrot Kodesh vol 22, page 369