Beis Moshiach presents a treasure-trove of moving stories that were told by R’ Binyamin Klein a”h, providing a rare glimpse into the role of a secretary of the Rebbe and what he merited to see in the Rebbe’s room. * Firsthand testimony from “Gan Eden HaElyon.”
FIRST PRIORITY: CONFIDENTIALITY
Confidentiality and privacy were an ironclad rule by the Rebbe. Thus, people did not hesitate to write personal things to the Rebbe, for everyone knew that it would be kept secret.
I was given many assignments by the Rebbe and the ironclad rule was always, every word the Rebbe said had to be carried out immediately, without questions of how and why; you just did it. If someone tried using his own ideas in carrying out a specific instruction of the Rebbe, it was made immediately clear that this was inappropriate.
“YOU DON’T KNOW HIM”
When I was a yeshiva bachur in 770, I went one summer on Merkaz Shlichus with a friend to South America. When we arrived in Uruguay, we met someone who had been with the Rebbe at the time the Rebbe was studying at the Sorbonne in France. We found the man as he sat in a corner of the women’s section of the shul.
We went over to him and introduced ourselves, “We are from Lubavitch.”
“You know the Rebbe?”
“Of course,” I said. “We see the Rebbe every day during davening.”
“You might see the Rebbe, but you don’t know him. I was with him for two years in the Sorbonne and did not know him. He hid from us all.”
The Rebbe is on a level that we cannot understand. We saw and heard many nice stories but that does not express the Rebbe’s essence.
I was the Rebbe’s secretary for nearly thirty-six years, but the more you hear about the Rebbe, you need to remember – the Rebbe is far more than that. “Rebbe” is far beyond our grasp. Whatever will be said about the Rebbe does not make him greater since he can do that and so much more; on the contrary, talking about him limits him.
AWE IN CLOSE PROXIMITY
It is very hard to describe my relationship with the Rebbe. There was always a feeling of awe before the Rebbe. One of the widespread problems in the world is routine. When you get used to something, some of the initial enthusiasm fades. But the Rebbe never let his secretaries fall into routine. I would go to the Rebbe every day and never walked in without knocking on the door and getting the Rebbe’s permission to enter his room.
The Rebbe once called me on the internal phone, asking me to come to his room. I knocked on the door and walked in, but the Rebbe was busy with something and did not turn to me. Of course, I did not dare address the Rebbe. So I stood in the Rebbe’s room for three quarters of an hour, and all that time the Rebbe was preoccupied with something else.
SIGNS OF CLOSENESS
There was usually a clear sense of awe inspired distance between the secretaries and the Rebbe, but every so often there were personal warm interactions on the part of the Rebbe, for example, at times of family simchas. After a family simcha, the Rebbe wanted to know who came and who received honors. Before the wedding, the Rebbe gave instructions about who to send invitations to among the people I was in touch with on behalf of the Rebbe including the Israeli prime minister, and would advise that it was worthwhile to honor so-and-so.
But regarding work matters, there was absolutely no manner of familiarity.
SECRET COMMUNIQUE
It was 28 Nissan 5750 and the Rebbe went out for Mincha and then indicated that he was going to say a sicha. That was surprising. The surprise was that much greater when the Rebbe spoke about intelligence information that the PLO was about to harm Jews.
Prime Minister Shamir had called me two hours earlier and asked me to tell the Rebbe that credible intelligence reports had come in that said that today, immediately, there were going to be terrorist attacks against Israeli centers around the world and he wanted a bracha that this threat would be averted. I immediately conveyed this to the Rebbe who apparently already knew the matter was serious and immediately went to work to nullify it.
It was an absolutely secret communication, but when the Rebbe went out for Mincha he spoke about it in public and said he received information to this effect and he told everyone to increase in Torah, t’filla, and tz’daka. Indeed, no attacks were perpetrated and surely, the Rebbe’s heavenly interventions thwarted them. The next day, in The New York Times, it said there were intelligence reports about the PLO’s plans to attack Israeli targets around the world.
COVERT ACTION
IS MOST EFFECTIVE
Along with the public fight regarding amending the law of “Who is a Jew,” the Rebbe did a lot secretly. I remember, for example, that through R’ Shlomo Yosef Zevin, the Rebbe tried to influence the Interior Minister, Moshe Chaim Shapiro. I remember that one time in the middle of the battle, I received orders to call one of Shapiro’s close people and to read to him, over the phone, a ten page letter which he was to urgently convey to Shapiro in the Rebbe’s name.
There were many secret activities regarding shleimus ha’aretz as well as other issues which were entirely covert, like saving Jews in Tunisia and certain countries in Europe.
THE TIME SPENT ON MAIL
The Rebbe devoted extensive time to correspondence. He went through the mail and read and answered the letters himself. All the thousands of letters that came were given to the Rebbe just as they were received. The Rebbe personally opened all the mail and did this manually.
Often the Rebbe multi-tasked. For example, while we secretaries went in to bring something or the Rebbe spoke to us, he was simultaneously busy with something else. That was usually the case when we reported about everyday matters. It was only when we reported about something unusual that the Rebbe left everything and listened intently to every detail.
In the Rebbe’s room was a desk in a certain corner on which we would leave letters with questions. We would put letters on the corner of the table and take responses that were ready for us, to pass along to the questioners. The Rebbe responded with a dank (thanks) and that was all.
R’ Chadakov once told me that he often had occasion to submit a letter to the Rebbe with a number of copies, for example, when the identical letter had to be written to several people. When the letters were brought to the Rebbe to sign, the Rebbe tried to read each one, saying, “When I sign something, I cannot say I signed just because I assumed that surely it is the same thing as in the other letter.”
The Rebbe often went over a routine letter of bracha twice and more. It was when, for example, a postscript was added in the margin (in response to a question of the bar mitzva or because of some other reason). Then the Rebbe would go over the letter again. The first time, the secretaries would prepare a letter in the usual format and the Rebbe would note what to add in a postscript. After they prepared the additional line, the Rebbe would edit it and only then sign it.
The Rebbe never signed until the letter was ready to be mailed.
The Rebbe invested tremendous work into the letters and great effort, physical exertion.
Every night, when the Rebbe went home, he took home with him many letters and when he returned the next morning to 770, answers were ready. This was after he sorted them into batches. One batch consisted of letters that needed a routine blessing response like for a bar mitzva, wedding etc. These had to be prepared and brought to the Rebbe for editing and signing. As for the rest of the mail, the Rebbe dictated an answer.
Aside from the letters that were written, there were also oral responses. The Rebbe received the letter or note that was submitted and he marked the answer on the note. The secretaries told the questioner the precise wording of the answer.
CHANGE IN ATMOSPHERE BEFORE GOING TO THE OHEL
The Rebbe would prepare to go to the Ohel like we prepare for Rosh HaShana in Elul. You felt the tension in the room the night before the trip. This was true every time the Rebbe went, with no exception, in 5752 just like in the decades that preceded it.
On the day before, the secretaries knew that the system would change since “tomorrow is the day for the Ohel.” On that day, everything was different. The answers were given more quickly. If I received a letter before a trip of the Rebbe to the Ohel and I knew that the matter could wait, I would delay giving it to the Rebbe for a day or two, because before a trip to the Ohel, the “atmospheric conditions” were different.
If it is permissible to give an analogy to the Rebbe’s practices, I would say that the Rebbe prepared to go to the Ohel like a Chassid prepares to see the Rebbe in yechidus.
During the trip to the Ohel the Rebbe was always busy. Since the enactment of the daily study of Rambam, the Rebbe learned Rambam the entire time. Before that, he was busy with other things.
WHAT THE REBBE
DID IN ONE DAY
People do not know how much the Rebbe does for the Jewish people. We secretaries can testify that the Rebbe worked for the Jewish people, collectively and for individuals, 24 hours a day! When we went to the Rebbe and the Rebbe would speak to us, we saw how the Rebbe was always, literally, always busy. He was never resting. It is unbelievable how much the Rebbe accomplished in one day. And I’m talking only about what we saw with our own eyes.
TO BE DONE WILLINGLY
There were times that the Rebbe wanted someone to go on shlichus to a particularly unsympathetic locale, but the Rebbe wanted this to be done willingly and not because the Rebbe said so. I would go to that person and offhandedly say that a certain position was available and would ask whether he wanted this shlichus.
If he refused at first and agreed only after he realized that the suggestion was coming from the Rebbe, it was too late.
HELPING BEHIND THE SCENES
Someone once called me and said he needed to see the Rebbe about something that entailed danger to life. He was not a Lubavitcher but they had told him that if he wanted salvation, he should speak to the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
He had yechidus on Sunday night in the course of which he told the Rebbe that in a distant country he had a brother who had amassed huge debts and his business was about to close and it was possible he would land in jail. The Rebbe listened but did not react.
When the man left the Rebbe’s room, I asked him what happened and he said, “I am more in despair now than before I saw the Rebbe. Until I went in, I had the hope that the Rebbe would save my brother, but the Rebbe listened and did not react to what I said but went on to speak about other subjects.”
The way it worked was, R’ Chadakov would go to the Rebbe’s room every evening before the Rebbe went home. Even on days when the Rebbe received people for yechidus all night, R’ Chadakov waited in his office until it was over, even if it was four or five in the morning.
That night, the last yechidus was at three and R’ Chadakov entered the Rebbe’s room as usual before the Rebbe left for home.
That night, it was my turn to drive the Rebbe home and I waited for R’ Chadakov to come out. When he did, he said to me, “Binyamin, come to me afterwards in the office because I received a certain instruction from the Rebbe.”
After I drove the Rebbe home, I went back to the office where R’ Chadakov was waiting for me. He said, “This is a secret matter. The Rebbe said to me that a call should be placed to so-and-so. The Rebbe said, ‘I don’t know whether this person ever saw me, but you must ask him to help a certain Jew who is deep in debt because of his business and might end up in jail.’”
After making some calls, I found the man and gave him the Rebbe’s message. I was excited when he accepted what the Rebbe said. Although he was not a Lubavitcher Chassid and had never met the Rebbe, since the Rebbe had asked him for something in a message that came at three in the morning, he happily accepted it.
Later on, the man was told that the Rebbe was interested in knowing what happened. At eight o’clock in the morning I got a call from him. “Tell the Rebbe that the matter was taken care of, down to the last cent.”
From this story we can learn many things, but the most important of all is the Rebbe’s great Ahavas Yisroel for every Jew.
RUACH HA’KODESH
It happened many times that people thought of asking certain questions in yechidus and for some reason or another they did not ask it, but the Rebbe answered their unspoken question.
In the course of my work as secretary, I would submit questions to the Rebbe that people wrote and the Rebbe would write the response on the margin of the paper. Then I would convey the answer to the questioner, orally or in writing. In my decades of experience, it never happened that the Rebbe said something and it did not happen. It may have happened immediately or days, weeks or months later, but whatever the Rebbe said was fulfilled in its entirety.
Once “dollars” began on Sunday, many people saw for themselves a bit of the Rebbe’s amazing avoda. For every dollar that the Rebbe gave and said “bracha v’hatzlacha,” there is a story.
BECAUSE HE IS THE REBBE
I once had an Israeli doctor, a gynecologist, at my house for Shabbos. He said that many of his patients write to the Rebbe and often the Rebbe gives them medical advice on an advanced scientific level.
He said, “When the Rebbe receives a medical query, he is surely helped by a medical committee in his office and he sends them the question and they give him the answer which is then conveyed to the questioner.”
I told him, I would like to tell you a story in which you are one of the protagonists and which happened just a few weeks ago:
A woman called on Friday morning and said she had visited you and you told her to do a C-section. She did not know what to do. Shabbos was approaching and she asked what she should do. She did not have much time to wait, for the doctors said if they waited a little longer the worst could happen.
I asked her to wait on the line, maybe I’d be lucky and I could ask the Rebbe immediately. I knocked on the Rebbe’s door and the Rebbe opened it. I told him the question and the Rebbe said she should wait until after Shabbos.
I told the woman the Rebbe’s answer. The doctors threatened that she was endangering her life, but she stood firm. Afterward, I was told that she gave birth naturally on Shabbos.
When I finished the story, I reminded the doctor of the name of the patient and he immediately remembered her. I said: When I went to the Rebbe that Friday, there was no medical committee with him.
“So how did the Rebbe know what to answer?” asked the doctor.
“Because he’s the Rebbe.”
AT DOLLARS
When the Rebbe gave out dollars for tz’daka, I stood on the side, helping out and watching the goings on.
People would stand on line for dollars and think of what to say to the Rebbe. As soon as they reached the Rebbe they would stammer out with great difficulty whatever they could manage due to their emotional state, but the Rebbe read their minds and answered what they intended to say even if they did not manage to say it all or even partly.
Once an author brought his book to the Rebbe and without saying a word, the Rebbe gave him an extra dollar and said, “refua shleima.” People standing there were taken aback but when the man returned home he found out that his daughter was sick and had a high fever for no apparent reason. He gave her the dollar for her to give to tz’daka and she recovered.
I have a friend in England who learned with me in yeshiva in Eretz Yisroel. He had a daughter who had no children after eleven years of marriage. He asked me to arrange yechidus for him. This was at the time when the Rebbe was no longer receiving people privately. I suggested that he come on Sunday for dollars and he agreed. He came and told the Rebbe about his daughter and asked for a bracha.
The Rebbe asked him, “Why do you ask for just one?” and gave him three dollars. A short while later she had triplets.
A talmid in the yeshiva in Morristown who received a dollar was told by the Rebbe, “This is for Australia,” when he had no plans of going there. He thought the Rebbe hadn’t heard him properly and had confused “Morristown” for “Australia.” After thinking about it a lot, he decided to go to Australia but a friend advised him to first write and ask the Rebbe. The Rebbe responded that he should not go to Australia, but should send the dollar there to be given to tz’daka. Only later did the reason for this cryptic instruction become clear.
Chazal say about Moshe Rabbeinu that the Sh’china speaks from within his throat; we saw this with the Rebbe. When the Rebbe gave a bracha, it was like the words came straight from Hashem. At the time, we did not always understand what the Rebbe meant, and sometimes only later did it become clear.
The existence of “Rebbe” is something beyond our comprehension.
The Rebbe said that our generation is the last generation of galus and the first generation of Geula, which means it will certainly happen. The Rebbe said it’s up to us. Therefore, we have to prepare for it. We, on our part, must stand at the ready, and Hashem will make it happen very soon.
LOVE FOR S’FARIM
As the Rebbe’s secretary, I saw the Rebbe’s unusual regard for s’farim. We saw this also every time we went to the Rebbe during the day with a book sent by some author, and the Rebbe immediately took it and looked through it from beginning to end.
That was the Rebbe’s standard treatment for any book, no matter who wrote it or what subject it was on. That was the Rebbe’s tremendous love for books. It reached the point that we, as members of the secretariat, faced a dilemma on more than one occasion. We had letters, some of them urgent, such as critical states of health or joyous matters, where the people were urgently awaiting a response, and we received a new book sent for the Rebbe. We could not hold back the book because of the urgency of the letters, for if we did we would be betraying our positions. And then we would see the usual sight. The second the book was placed on the desk, the Rebbe would take it and examine it.
THE REBBE “EXAMINES” A BOOK
I was once called to the Rebbe’s room. It was 3:05, ten minutes before Mincha. The Rebbe usually waited for us to come to his room and say that the minyan was ready for davening. I went from the secretaries’ office toward the Rebbe’s room.
As I walked there, I was met by an author of s’farim who is not a Lubavitcher. He was holding a new book he had written and which he wanted to give to the Rebbe. I told him I was going to the Rebbe now and would take the seifer with me.
As I was used to seeing, the Rebbe immediately took it and examined it. Less than ten minutes later, the Rebbe left for Mincha. The author stood in the corridor of the entrance to 770 and waited for Mincha. When the Rebbe saw him he said, “Yashar ko’ach for the seifer.”
The man said, “I request not only a bracha but feedback or some comment on it.”
The Rebbe said, “How come, throughout the entire book you don’t mention the Alter Rebbe even once?”
The man was flabbergasted. It wasn’t a booklet. It was a thick book of at least 250 pages. In less than ten minutes (in the course of which the Rebbe also said korbanos and prepared for Mincha) the Rebbe had managed to go through the entire book and to make a comment that astonished the author.
HELP FOR JEWS WORLDWIDE
The Rebbe helps Jews everywhere, often thanks to government figures in various countries who were secretly in touch with the Rebbe. One day, an emissary from the king of Morocco came here on a secret visit. I remember that before he saw the Rebbe he asked for guidance on etiquette. As an emissary of a king and someone who knew he had come to see royalty, he wanted to do things right, according to protocol.
I don’t know what they spoke about. I can just say that he brought thanks from the king of Morocco for Chabad’s work among Moroccan Jewry.
There was also a tremendous amount of assistance to Russian Jewry behind the Iron Curtain. Some things have been revealed but most remains classified. The Rebbe sent thousands of shipments of s’farim and religious ritual items to the Jews of Russia. It was known that only some of the shipments reached their destination and therefore huge amounts were sent.
WHY DIDN’T YOU SAY SO UNTIL NOW?
With the Rebbe, everything was handled with great urgency. One time, the Rebbe asked me to come to his room. I went in and the Rebbe told me to do something. This was at eleven o’clock at night. The Rebbe told me to report to him afterward.
I did what I was instructed and reporting meant I had to go back to the Rebbe’s room. When I arrived in the morning, I did not want to disturb the Rebbe before davening. Right after davening, I wanted to go in and report what happened but the Rebbe was preparing to go to the mikva before going to the Ohel. I was the driver to the mikva but I did not want to discuss the matter with him at that time, because I was sitting in the front and the Rebbe was sitting behind me and not looking at me. I hoped that when the Rebbe returned from the mikva, I could speak to him in his room.
On the way back from the mikva, the Rebbe brought it up, “What about the matter from last night?”
I had no choice but to report. Then the Rebbe asked, “Why didn’t you tell me? I asked you to report to me right away.” I said I had no opportunity until then.
The Rebbe asked, “Why not on the way to the mikva?”
From this I understood that when the Rebbe wants something, it had to be done right away.