LETTERS OF ENCOURAGEMENT FROM THE REBBE-TO-BE

The Rebbe sends R’ Zalman letters full of encouragement. * Chaim yearns to learn in 770. * From the life of R’ Yehoshua Shneur Zalman Serebryanski a”h.

Along with the positive atmosphere in yeshiva, there were also more than a few difficulties, spiritually and materially. Chalav Yisroel, for example, was unobtainable in Shepparton. So the bachurim had to raise a goat and R’ Abba’s wife made dairy products from the milk. There also weren’t enough s’farim. There were a few Gemaras, one set of Shita Mikubetzes, and some commentaries on Gemara K’subos. That was all.

What was most bothersome was the small number of talmidim. There is no comparison between the atmosphere of a few dozen bachurim sitting and learning and a small group of seven to ten bachurim.

In the summer months, when schools were on vacation, some parents in Melbourne sent their sons to the yeshiva, but after the summer the yeshiva went back to the usual number of less than ten.

THE PROBLEM AND THE SOLUTION

R’ Zalman, who took responsibility for the financial running of the yeshiva, and who urged Anash in Melbourne to contribute money and to get their friends to contribute, spoke many times with Anash of Melbourne about the need to expand the yeshiva. From these conversations, he concluded that in order for the yeshiva to succeed, it had to be moved to Melbourne where there was a large Jewish community. In addition, they needed three more things: a spacious building, government approval of the school, and secular studies.

R’ Zalman came to this conclusion after studying the Australian mentality. In Australia, every self-respecting individual feels obligated to send his children to university. To Australians, someone who did not attend college is not a cultured person.

This is why, even religious Jews, who wanted to give their children a Torah education, wanted to leave that option open of their children being able to attend university afterward. Many of them told R’ Zalman that if they sent their sons to his yeshiva where they did not learn secular studies and were not recognized by the government, they would not be able to attend university later on.

In light of this sad state of affairs, in which most Jewish children, even from religious homes, went to public school and had Jewish studies only on Sundays, R’ Zalman decided that it was preferable to open a Jewish school in which both Jewish studies and secular studies would be taught. A school like that, which would be recognized by the government, could attract dozens, if not hundreds of students, from the Jewish community of Melbourne.

R’ ZALMAN ASKED THE REBBE TO SEND RABBI GRONER TO AUSTRALIA

R’ Zalman presented these ideas in a long letter to the Rebbe on 3 Sivan 5710, after a meeting with Anash in Melbourne. In his letter, R’ Zalman laments that he wasn’t able to inspire Anash. As a Chassid who looked for the good in others and blamed himself for any failure, he wrote, “surely the deficiency is in us; to enliven others, we need to be alive ourselves… Our strength is meager and poor, both in regards to knowledge and the craft of chinuch to which we are unaccustomed.”

Regarding himself, R’ Zalman wrote, “We, who were preoccupied with hard work, in great fear, day and night in our homeland, were torn away from learning and it is hard for us to learn in depth. We can only serve as the feet in raising money for the yeshiva and in teaching the lowest level (classes for young children). We lack a great deal. May Hashem have mercy on us, materially and spiritually, and of course, we certainly don’t have the wherewithal to influence and inspire others. My heart is pained to see utter neglect in the matter of chinuch due to the lack of feeling for this.”

He went on to write, “In this situation, when there is no building in which to develop the yeshiva, and the learning and guidance of the talmidim is not on the level it ought to be, the continued existence of this small mosad is in danger, and especially its expansion.”

Since he did not consider himself suited to running the yeshiva and overseeing its growth, R’ Zalman suggested that the Rebbe send a talented menahel to run the yeshiva and he would work under this new menahel. He said it was vital that this individual be fluent in English.

In his conversations with Anash in Australia, R’ Zalman found out that in the not-so-distant past, two Lubavitchers had visited Australia who had made a deep impression on the Jewish community. The first was R’ Ezriel Zelig Slonim who was sent on shlichus by the Rebbe Rayatz to Australia in Iyar 5699/1939. He stayed ten months, in the course of which he spent time in Melbourne and Sydney and even Brisbane, where he worked on a mikva. The second was R’ Yitzchok Dovid Groner who had visited Australia a few years earlier, also on shlichus of the Rebbe Rayatz.

R’ Zalman thought that R’ Groner could run the yeshiva successfully. So he wrote to the Rebbe, “They lovingly remember R’ Groner, who was here some years ago, and they say that if he was here, he could accomplish a lot. We are not pointing and saying, ‘Send us this person.’ But in general, our request, for the benefit of the matter, for the benefit of its existence and development, it is urgent that there be sent here a man of spirit to enliven the entire situation. Perhaps, for now, it is not necessary that the person settle here permanently, and he can come for a set amount of time until matters are arranged, but his coming in general is vital, and without this we cannot manage.”

At the end of the letter, R’ Zalman asked the Rebbe about the name of the yeshiva. “As of now, the yeshiva has no name. I printed receipt books and a Kol Koreh and we referred to the mosad just as ‘the yeshiva in Shepparton,’ but now perhaps the time has come to name the mosad and we request to be instructed in this, what name to give.”

R’ Zalman received a detailed response from the Rebbe dated 15 Sivan 5710, which began with thanks for the good news about the learning in the yeshiva and acknowledgment of all those who devoted themselves soul, body, and financially to the yeshiva.

As for R’ Zalman’s suggestions to expand the yeshiva quantitatively and qualitatively, the Rebbe said they were fine, but even if it wasn’t possible to achieve everything they wanted, that shouldn’t be a reason to be downcast. Rather, that should spur them on. What required great care, said the Rebbe, was not to have misplaced humility. In this letter, the Rebbe said nothing about a name for the yeshiva. It was two years later, when the yeshiva had moved to Melbourne, that they were told to name the yeshiva Oholei Yosef Yitzchok.

DO NOT BE DOWNCAST

R’ Zalman wrote to the Rebbe once again (we do not have a copy of this letter) and in the Rebbe’s response he said that being downcast and having excessive doubts were tactics of the yetzer. They were to approach the work with simcha and complete bitachon that Hashem would help them, as long as they held on to the rope of hiskashrus to the tzaddik (the Rebbe Rayatz).

The Rebbe cited what he had quoted at a recent farbrengen: All the hashpaos are by way of the leader of the generation who is the head of the generation, the Rebbe my father-in-law. And he once recounted in the talk of Simchas Torah 5693/1932, and the following is a direct quote, “Everything my father told me in 5680 (the year that the Rebbe Rashab passed away) I accepted upon myself bli neder, only on condition that it be with Chesed (Divine kindness) and Rachamim (Divine compassion). My goodness comes at great cost to me… not to harm anyone… not to distance anyone…”

WHAT IS BREITKAIT?

The Rebbe’s answer greatly encouraged R’ Zalman and after showing the letter to Anash in Melbourne, they were all inspired to help the yeshiva. A committee of balabatim was formed: R’ Zalman, Rashbatz Altheus, R’ Isser Kluvgant, R’ Nachum Gurewitz. The chairman of the committee was R’ Yosef Feiglin, the son of R’ Moshe Zalman.

R’ Zalman wrote to the Rebbe about these developments and received a response dated 25 Elul 5710. The Rebbe thanked him for the good news and responded to a number of issues relating to the future development of the fledgling institution. As far as the need for someone to serve at the helm, the Rebbe made it clear that this person has to be, “a man whose foundation is in the mountains of holiness of Lubavitch, and there is where he received most of his influence and education.

“As far as the concern that if it will be for pay, he will not be able to express his views in a broad fashion, and it will not be accepted by the general public, I have already said many times that in such matters each and every one of us is a shliach of the Rebbe, my father-in-law. And we go on his shoulders and his breitkait (broadness), and when the general public senses this, many obstacles, gossip etc. are nullified… It is understood that breitkait doesn’t mean tearing off the other person’s nose, but rather an inner fortitude and absolute resolve that ultimately it must be fulfilled and it will be fulfilled, the Rebbe’s – he being the one who made them his emissaries – will. Then, the words spoken in pleasant tones are heard and have an effect.”

R’ Zalman was especially encouraged by a letter from the Rebbe from the beginning of Tishrei in which the Rebbe told him that on Erev Rosh HaShana, he had read his pidyon nefesh at the gravesite and then read it again in the Rebbe Rayatz’s yechidus room.

REPORTS FROM CHAIM’S FRIENDS

R’ Zalman’s oldest son, Chaim, who worked in the fields as the Rebbe Rayatz told him to do, had set times to learn in the morning and the evening. At those times, he would go to the yeshiva.

During work too, Chaim used every free moment for learning. During lunchtime, which lasted an hour, he finished his meal quickly and used the rest of the time to study Nach with the Metzudos commentary. He completed all of Tanach over two years.

From his friends in America, he heard about the Rebbe’s instructions regarding spreading the wellsprings, including running Mesibos Shabbos with children. Every Shabbos, he would gather the children of the yishuv and read to them from the Rebbe Rayatz’s book of Memoirs which had just arrived in Australia.

Following the Frierdike Rebbe’s histalkus, Chaim would receive frequent reports about what was going on in 770. His friends, R’ Dovid Raskin, R’ Moshe Levertov, and R’ Yosef Reitzes wrote him in detail about the goings-on and what Chassidim were doing to persuade the Rebbe to be the seventh leader of Chabad.

His frequent correspondence with his friends in New York made him yearn to learn, once again, in Tomchei T’mimim. He asked his father to ask the Rebbe whether he could go to 770.

R’ Zalman received an answer to this question dated 8 Elul 5710. It also included a general instruction to Anash in Australia.

The Rebbe referred to his father-in-law agreeing that Chaim spend part of his time in the garden, because of his health. As for Chaim and his father feeling bad that he wasn’t with his friends and learning in yeshiva, the Rebbe said that he should continue doing what he was doing until Yud Shevat. The Rebbe said he should explain to his son as well as to himself that they were feeling aggravated for nothing since the Gemara says (and it’s quoted in Igeres HaKodesh chapter 22) that a person doesn’t know how he will earn his money etc. and when the kingdom of Dovid will be restored. The Alter Rebbe says that this also refers to earning a spiritual livelihood. Consequently, if the Rebbe Rayatz told him where his spiritual parnasa lay, surely this was the best place for the soul and the health of his body.

The Rebbe said this was also a general response to all of Anash in Australia who didn’t stop complaining about their lot which they felt was bitter, since they were distant from a certain place or certain people. The Rebbe said this was the evil inclination’s counsel in order to confuse them and prevent them from doing what they needed to do.

ANOTHER LETTER, FRIENDS’ REQUESTS, AND A GOOD WORD FROM HIS UNCLE

Chaim’s heart sank when he read this letter. He so longed to leave his farming and return to yeshiva like other boys his age who were learning in 770. He found it hard to digest the idea that he had to keep on working. However, after rereading the letter, he realized that he was in an unusual situation and that by continuing his work, he was doing what he was supposed to be doing. What made it easier for him to accept his situation was the fact that the Rebbe referred to a specific time, until Yud Shevat. Chaim figured that after Yud Shevat, he would be able to travel to the Rebbe.

On 11 Shevat 5711, the Rebbe formally accepted the Chabad leadership and the good news spread to Lubavitcher enclaves everywhere. Chaim’s friends sent him letters describing the enormous giluyim that they had seen and once again, Chaim was plotzing to leave his farming and go to 770.

He sent an emotional letter to the Rebbe in which he expressed his yearning to return to Tomchei T’mimim. He did not suffice with this letter to the Rebbe, but also sent letters to his friends and asked them to mention him to the Rebbe when they had yechidus.

The Rebbe heard their request and responded in general terms, “In a gutten oifen” (in a good manner), but said no more than that. Chaim also asked his uncle, R’ Benzion Shemtov to put in a good word for him when he had yechidus.

THIS IS YOUR SHLICHUS!

At the end of Iyar 5711, Chaim received a letter with the Rebbe’s unequivocal answer, “In my opinion, it is not worthwhile to rush this; rather, continue your work in the garden or other physical labor, and in your free time have set times for Torah, to learn on your own and to also try to spread Torah in your environment, for we don’t know which is greater, whether to be in an environment of Chassidim and absorb internally or to fulfill the mission of spreading the wellsprings outward, even though it seems as though this diminishes from your knowledge of Torah or conduct in the ways of Chassidus and Chassidim.”

The Rebbe told him not to, G-d forbid, despair of traveling to New York, but for the time being, to take part in developing the yeshiva in Australia.

“The Rebbe’s letter, and the sicha the Rebbe enclosed, served to put me in the right place as far as his holy will,” recalls R’ Chaim. “The Rebbe was able to get me to understand that fulfilling the Rebbe’s will was greater than what I wanted.”

At the same time, the Rebbe did not discourage him from continuing to yearn to leave his physical labor and return to yeshiva. He just said it wasn’t the time for it yet. R’ Chaim continued working and although his body was in the field, his heart was far away in the yeshiva and the corridors of Beis Chayeinu (770). Through the detailed letters that he received from friends, he was able to experience what was going on in 770.

During that time of longing, he recalled something his maternal grandmother (also the mother of Reb Mendel Futerfas) said. When they were in Paris after his illness, she told Chaim, “It is better that you don’t learn now and have a great desire to go back to learn, than to continue learning now for several years and then lose your desire to learn.”

From time to time, R’ Chaim wrote to the Rebbe about his desire to travel to New York, but he did not receive a positive answer. It was only before Pesach 5718/1958 that the Rebbe finally gave his consent.