Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] The previous lived through the probably worst period in the world's history. He lived through World War I, communist revolution, civil war, World War II. You can imagine how all of this impacted the Jewish world. And he had to be in a leadership position throughout all of these years, trying to save Jewish life and trying to save Jewish lives.
[00:00:31] So his story is really beginning when he was very young. His father, Rebbe Rashab, Rabbi Sholem Dov Bear, who was the Lubavitch Rebbe of Those times in 1895, when the previous rebbe was 15 years old, takes him to the grave site of his father of previous Trevor's grandfather. And the previous Trevi is feeling that it's some sort of a monumental event.
[00:01:02] He feels that it's something special. He doesn't know yet what, but he just feels that something big is about to happen. And Rebbe Rasha, previous Rebbe's father, says Avraham had this son whose name was Yitzhak, and he brought him as a sacrifice to God. I have a son whose name is Yitzhak and I'm bringing him as a sacrifice. And then he turns to his 15 year old son whose name was Yosef Yitzhak, his second name was Yitzhak. And he says, are you ready to dedicate yourself to the communal work, to the communal needs, to the point of self sacrifice? He said yes. He asks them, do you know what self sacrifice means? He understood that if his father is asking this question, he probably has something to say about it. He said no. He said, if you are going in the direction where you know you need to go, if you are walking down the road that you need to go and you see a brick wall, you first try to knock it down with your hands, with your fists, and then your fists cannot punch it anymore. You try to kick it with your feet and then your feet are all bloody and they hurt and they cannot punch anymore. And you don't have any other means of knocking this wall down, then you start knocking it with your head and you knock it with your head till it falls down.
[00:02:19] This was the message of self sacrifice that he was given when he was 15 years old. And from the time when he was 15 years old, he became his father's right hand man. What has been his father's right hand man. He would write letters with his father's handwriting, answering people's questions. Obviously he did it because he was directed to do so by his father. There were meetings of rabbis that his father, Reb Rashab would send them to when he was 15 16, 17 years old. But it doesn't look good when this young guy who doesn't even have a beard is sitting among big rabbis with white beards who are 60 or 70 years old.
[00:03:05] So he called in one of his older Hasidim who he knew he can rely on, and he said, go with my son to this meeting, but you should know I'm sending him, and the less you will mix in, the better.
[00:03:21] So this other chosid with a long beard was just sitting there. And really the one who was calling the shots was 16 year old, previous Rebbe. He wasn't rabbi yet, obviously.
[00:03:34] Why was it that Rabbi Rashab felt that there was a need to speak about sacrificing his son to communal affairs?
[00:03:43] He obviously foresaw what's going to be in the Jewish world.
[00:03:46] There was a Farbringen simchastorum when Rebbe Rashab was for bringing. He was talking to people, and it was a very lively Fabrenian. People drink a lot of l'. Chaim.
[00:03:57] And Rebbe Rashab also drank a lot of l'. Chaim. Rebbe Rashab was trying to inspire people. And he spoke very, very strongly.
[00:04:06] And because he was already up on his age, his wife who was there, she wanted him to come down a little bit. And she tells him, diruz nisht gut, which means in English, you're not feeling well. In Yiddish and in Russian, it also means that you are not doing well.
[00:04:26] So he looked at her and he said, mira Nijd, I'm not feeling good or I'm not doing well. Miriz Gorgut, I'm doing very good. Compare to how my son will be doing, I'm doing very good. Hallevai I hope that my son will be doing nearly as well as I'm doing now. In other words, he foresaw what's going to be when his son is going to take over. It was still tsarist Russia. It was still Russian Empire. Under the Tsar, Jews have suffered tremendously. There were czars who were more viciously anti Semitic, and then there were czars who were less viciously antisemitic. For example, Czar Nikolai I, he made a lot of decrees against the Jews and made their lives terrible. And then there were czars who were not so bad. There was Pale of Settlement. Jews were prohibited from owning real estate. Jews were prohibited from living in large cities. Jews were prohibited from having certain jobs.
[00:05:30] Government antisemitism was in full swing. And I'm not talking about street antisemitism. Small towns, villages, didn't have any police presence at all. But even in large cities, if there was a Jew who was beaten up by a non Jewish, police wouldn't even mix in Jews suffered under the Tsar. But there is one rule that we have learned throughout the thousands of years of our history.
[00:05:55] We Jews are never asking for new government.
[00:05:59] Whatever government we have, no matter how bad it is, we never ask for new one. Because when new one will come, it's going to be a shake up and we will always end up being the one who are hurt. We will always be at fault. Then comes World War I. Germans then were just officially treating Jews well.
[00:06:21] And that's why the areas that were conquered by the Germans were at least giving hope for normal Jewish life.
[00:06:31] Rebbe Rashab, the fifth Lubavitch Rebbe, previous Rebbe's father, who was living in Ljubavi, saw that Germans were advancing into Russia and they were about to come to the area of Lubavitch. He got up and he said, I hate Germans. I don't want to be under their rule even for one minute. And he moved. Rostov, which is southeast from Lubavi, Jews are suffering tremendously from the war because there's a havoc and Jews have to flee. There's nowhere to run and communities are destroyed and people are misplaced. And Rebbe Rashab was putting a lot of effort into simply trying to make order in Jewish life. He was trying to find new communities, find where people could relocate.
[00:07:22] Then comes the Revolution of 1917. The Revolution was in Petersburg, which was the capital. Rostov is a little further out. So the communist rule didn't fully come to Rostov for a while. There was a civil war.
[00:07:38] During the civil war, there were fractions of different groups or gangs, paramilitary operations that were fighting with each other. And the common denominator between all of them was hating Jews. There were many historic researchers about which ones of them were truly antisemitic, which ones of them were bad to Jews just because they didn't have any other scapegoats, which ones of them went after Jews on purpose, and which ones of them used Jews just as easy targets during the civil war. Again, Jewish communities were suffering tremendously. And Rebbe Rashab was trying to help them with whatever he can organizationally. And then in 1920, this is when the communist regime officially secured itself in the southern part of Russia where Rostov was. And once they did it, they actually instituted martial law in entire Rostov. And there is Purim coming up. Reb Rashab sends a message to all the Hasidim who were in Ostov, and there were plenty that there was a Purim Farbrangen. A Fabrengen is dangerous. But the question is, how are you getting there? And. And people come and it's crammed. There's people everywhere, there's nowhere to turn.
[00:08:57] And he is speaking very emotionally. And people sing. Obviously, it's making a lot of noise. The police comes, police comes, they see what's going on. And he starts yelling at the police in Russia. And he starts telling them that we celebrating Purim. And Purim is a holiday of Jewish freedom. The people who were there were sure that everybody's going to be either shot right there or, in the best case scenario, arrested. What happens is police turned around to leave. They were sure that they're going to come back to Rebbe Rashab afterwards to arrest him. It didn't happen. But what happened was something else. Rebbe Rashab said that he does not feel that he can lead the Jewish nation, which is under Communists. And after that, Purim, he got very sick, and soon he passed away.
[00:09:56] He literally felt that it's not his job, it's his son's job. And he felt bad that his son will have to do it.
[00:10:05] So this is 1920, and the previous Trebe is becoming the. The Rebbe in communist Russia, in the ussr. And he originally started doing what rebbes usually do. What do Rebbes do? Teach Torah. He teaches Torah. He inspires people. But then he sees that all of the rabbis, all of the people of community leadership, teachers, shoikhtim who provide kosher meat, moelim who do circumcisions, they all flee. They all leave their positions and leave the ussr, whoever can, just because they see you cannot fight Communists. So the previous Rebbe stops his efforts of teaching and inspiring, and he simply starts organizing people to take over for all of the rabbis, for all of the teachers and community leaders who have abandoned their post. And he has long, long lists of places, schools, synagogues, shuls. He sends his people there and he wants reports about what's going on. He starts a real organized effort to make sure that every place has someone there. He wants reports, he wants to know what's going on, details. He wants to know how many people came to class, how many people came to show he understands that also these people, while they're doing it, they're simply risking their lives because they're being arrested. The previous Rebbe, at that moment, during his Fabrengens, is talking all the time about misru snefesh self sacrifice. At one of the Farbrangians he opened his shirt and he said, you will see this body burning in fire, but you should not stop teaching Torah.
[00:11:54] He was ready to go. And then the communists raid his house in Rostov. The people who were there said that the raid was not even to look for things. The raid was just to intimidate. They were just breaking furniture and making havoc. First they tell him that they're going to arrest him, but then they're telling him that if he's going to move to Petersburg, then they're going to leave him alone. Why Petersburg? Because Petersburg was a large city with large encavadhe presence. And Petersburg also had a very strong Yevsekce. Yevsekcei Yevreska.
[00:12:34] This was the Jewish division of Enkivada. And it was comprised of Jews, Communist Jews who were out to finish any remnants of anything Jewish.
[00:12:48] And the center of Yafche was actually in Leningrad. So they, they believe that if he'll move to Petersburg, he will be kind of under their watch and he's going to be much easier to control.
[00:13:01] So they are forcing him to move to Petersburg.
[00:13:05] So he's in Petersburg and he is continuing all of this work. But now he knows full well he's been watched every second. And he knows full well that they could barge into his apartment anytime with searches. He cannot have anything in writing.
[00:13:21] Everything is in his head.
[00:13:23] Names, numbers, addresses, everything is in his head because every piece of paper is a danger.
[00:13:30] So one of the things that he was doing, he was sending teachers and sending rabbis and sending shoetim who would provide kosher meat and everything else. But another thing he was taking care of the financial well being because all of these people need some money to survive.
[00:13:47] It was during nep. NEP Novaya Economica, which means that communists started allowing small businesses. This was the discord between Trotsky and Lenin whether this NEP New Economic Policy should be allowed or not. So there were a couple years that the communists were allowing small businesses. And the previous Trevor was trying to help those Jews in far from places who were teaching the Torah. He was trying to help them through these small businesses to start those businesses so they should have some money. And also the thing about small businesses was that you are on your own schedule. Then nobody sees if you are working on Shabbos or not. So this was a way of making sure that Jews are able to not work on Shabbos or Jewish holidays. So this is why he started a whole business entrepreneurship enterprise where Was money coming from a big part of money was coming from the US from joint.
[00:14:39] And there was a person whose last name was Rosen, who was coming from the US and he was the joint point man for distribution in the former Soviet Union.
[00:14:53] They understood very well that communists are trying to kill every Jewish presence in the ussr.
[00:15:01] So they were willing to give money to the previous Trebe. As a matter of fact, the largest sums of their money were going specifically through the previous Trebbe. The previous Trebbe was distributing them between yeshivas and these business ventures. And they trusted him. Only one problem, that this Dr. Rosen did not understand how dangerous it is to have anything in writing in the USSR like here in America they usually do. If you spend money, you need to submit a report how the money is spent. He wants names, addresses. And the previous Trevor was trying to explain to him, I cannot give you names and addresses because if I'm stopped and searched on the way to the meeting and they take this report from me, all of these people are going to be dead. And he just didn't understand it. So in order to get this money, the previous Trevi had to do it. So previous Trevor would not trust anybody. The previous day would travel himself to Moscow with these reports.
[00:15:56] He knew he was followed all the time. And to avoid being searched, he was doing every trick possible, including he would book for himself two hotel rooms, one under his name, one under somebody else's name, and he would switch between them just to avoid being stopped and searched.
[00:16:19] But he managed to actually meet Dr. Rosen whenever he had to. And he got huge amounts of money back then. At one point joining gave through Dr. Rosen $40,000 in 1920s. $40,000. It was crazy money. So the communist authorities devised a plan of how to fight this Jewish life. There were many rabbis who were sent directly by the previous Rebbe to various places. There were many rabbis who were still holding on from the previous years. And then there were others who came there who were kind of semi affiliated with the previous Rebbe. There was a large spectrum of different Jewish activists on various levels.
[00:17:01] And the communist authorities, together with Yakse, made announcement that they want to have a meeting with all the rabbis of the USSR to see how they can better help them and to see how Judaism could work within the framework of the new countries that they are building, how they could work together, and so on and so forth. Just as a point of perspective, we today understand that these were already tolerance times and there was no hope that the communist government would be even entertaining the idea of working together. With the Jews and with the rabbis. We know that today, looking at history. But back then, many people still had a hope. They were saying, listen, why do we need to fight them? If they are willing to work with us, let's try to work with them. So this was already 1927. And the communist authorities sent this letter to every Jewish community. That they're making a gathering, a meeting with all of the rabbis. To listen to their concerns and to see how they could work together with them, how they could help them. And many rabbis, including prominent rabbis, were very supportive of this. And they were planning to attend. As an example, there was a rabbi in Moscow whose name was Katzinellenbogin. Who was a very old. Even by today's standards, or even he was already up in age. And he was of a belief that we need to try to work with the new government. And try to see how we could get their help. And instead of fighting them, we should try to befriend them. He believed that if he'll have an opportunity to meet with the Communist officials. He will explain to them how they are not a threat and that they are good people. The previous Rebbe simply sent out a letter to every rabbi saying, do not come. It is a trap. This is how they are going to get us all together in one room. And make sure that we are not going to come out of there. It's a trap. And he was sending out those letters. There was no copy machines, and every letter was handwritten. And it was a while. You also have to understand that every letter that was coming out from Friedrich Kreber. Was read by the authorities. So he knew that these letters are read. But he was sending them out anyway. Just in hope that maybe at least some of them will get to the destination.
[00:19:32] And one night, it was the 15th day of month of Sivan. When they barged into his apartment and made a search and arrested him. And actually, when they were doing it, he was in the middle of writing a letter to one of the rabbis. They arrest him, and they bring him to Shabbat jail in Leningrad. The way he was behaving in jail, he was doing everything to make a point that he is dealing with them on his own terms. And he's not afraid of them. For example, he was speaking only Yiddish. He would not stand up when one of the officers would walk into the room. Even though according to the rules and regulations, you have to. And he was beaten for it. He was once in the middle of davening, in the middle of prayers in jail. And a Guard walked in. He simply didn't even pay attention to him because he was busy. There were four people in the cell. They tapped him on the shoulder and said, the guard is here. He's going to beat you if you will not turn to him. He continued praying as if nothing ever happened, and they beat him for it. And after they finished beating, he got up and continued his prayers. He would totally disregard them. The way people say how he behaved. He sincerely was not planning to come out of their life.
[00:20:56] And he was doing everything what he thought to be right thing to do. And he had total disregard for what is going to happen to him in there. He was submitted to harsh interrogations that ruined his health for the rest of his life.
[00:21:12] And they were demanding from him the names of all of the people that worked for him. He was obviously not planning to give these names. During the interrogations, an Ein Kavada officer took out his handgun, put it to Priya Strebbe's head, and he said, do you see this little toy? This little toy has opened mouths of many people who were refusing to talk. So the previous Rebbe replied to him, this story opens mouths of only those who have one world and two gods. And when he said two gods, he picked up his eyes and looked at portraits of Stalin and Lenin that were hanging there. I have two worlds and only one God. The thing is, though, that what he said was not only a clever comeback. What he said has a very big significance in Hasidic thought.
[00:22:05] Because you would think, what is he saying? I have two worlds. I have this world and the world to come. And that's why I'm not afraid to die, because my soul is going to be living in the world to come forever.
[00:22:17] That's what you would think, he said. And probably that's what this interrogator thought, he said. But really, he himself explained later that what he said was something very different. He meant that I am have one God and I have two worlds. Right now. I'm living right now in two worlds. I have a body, and my body lives in the physical world. And I have right now a soul. And my soul is living in the spiritual world. So I have right now two worlds. And right now I am doing what's best for the spiritual world, not for the physical world. So it's not about whether I am afraid to die or not.
[00:22:58] It is about in what reality I am living. We could fast forward the previous Treve was put in jail in Petersburg, and the Jews all over the world were able to create an International uproar and a tremendous pressure was put on the Soviet government.
[00:23:18] Usually USSR's government is not known for giving in to the demands of other countries.
[00:23:24] The very fact that they did in this case was a miracle of miracles. And what helped this miracle was that USSR back then, being a new country, new state, was seeking for international recognition. And the countries who were able to put pressure on the USSR to free the previous Rebe were the us, Germany and Latvia. The reason why Latvia was so significant, because there was a Chabad Khossid who was a member of Latvian government and Latvia back then. They were at the crossroads whether to recognize USSR as a country or not. USSR's authorities were given a message that if anything happens to Robert Schneerson, Latvia is for sure not recognizing you as a state. Justice Brandeis played a big role in making sure that the US government would put pressure on the ussr. It was a very big operation.
[00:24:25] And first he was sent to jail to be murdered right away. Then they decided to change his jail sentence with exile. Exile in Kostrama.
[00:24:38] So they put him on a train from Leningrad to Kastrama and Hasidjim. Find out when he's going to be at the train station. It's 1927, Stalin's times.
[00:24:50] You have thousands of people coming 3am to a train station to see off the previous Rebe. They purposely were putting him on the train sometime middle of the night, not to have too many people around. And he is being brought by the guards to the train and thousands of people are there. The previous Rebbe himself, as he wrote later, he was shocked. He didn't expect it. So he is standing there at the train station and they're waiting for the train. They obviously didn't come. The second train arrives. There are thousands of his followers there in the middle of the night. There's nobody else on this train station. It's just other Jews who came to see him off.
[00:25:28] So he gets up on top of a milk crate and he delivers a speech. The speech is written down and sprinted. His speech that he delivers is saying that we have a body and a soul, and only our bodies are in exile. Our souls have never been in exile. They will not be in exile because they are not subject to any exiles. Our souls are above, and whatever other people can do to us, they can only do to our bodies. They cannot do anything to our souls because our souls are only in our hands.
[00:26:06] And this is the same idea as what he told to the guard, that we have two worlds. We have a body and a soul. And we have a physical world and a spiritual world. And we are recognizing that you only have the authority of doing something with our bodies. Our souls are beyond your reach. Delivering this speech was a very dangerous affair. The guards, obviously were a little bit lost. They didn't know what to do. But they put him on a train to Kostroma. He spent eight, nine days in Kostroma. And then he was told he is released.
[00:26:41] And they brought him back to Leningrad. And then they told him that he needs to leave Russia with his family.
[00:26:50] So they were telling him that he needs to leave with his wife. And he had three daughters. His daughter, Chaya Mushka was then engaged to the Rebbe. They were not married yet. He said, I'm leaving with my wife, my daughters, and my daughter's fiance, who she's engaged to. They said, no, no, somebody's engaged. It's not part of a family. You could not live with him together. He's staying here. So he said, without him, I'm not leaving. They told him, you're going to find a different husband for your daughter. He said, no, such a husband I won't find. And he convinced them to let the Rebbe live with him. And they were so desperate to get him out that they even allowed him to go out to live with the Rebbe. So he moved to Riga. He spent three years in Riga. Then he moved to Warsaw in Poland. And he was in Warsaw in Poland for 10 years, till the war. Then he miraculously escaped Warsaw after it was already occupied by the Nazis. And he came to the US in 1941.
