A few days after his meeting with R’ Dovid on Shabbos Parshas Nitzavim-VaYeilech, a telegram was delivered to R’ Zalman from the Rebbe with a response to his question about opening a school in Mrs. Hertz’s house. It said, “Since there is no room in the yeshiva, they should start Beis Rivka somewhere else, with blessing.”
- From the life of R’ Yehoshua Shneur Zalman Serebryanski a”h
Right after Shabbos, R’ Zalman informed R’ Shmuel Betzalel Altheus about the telegram and went with him to the Hertz home. They told Mrs. Hertz that they wanted to finalize on the last offer they had made her, about the preschool and school being run from her home albeit under the direction of the yeshiva, with Mrs. Hertz being devoted solely to Beis Rivka. After a brief discussion, they concluded that she would give her answer the next day, 26 Elul, at 3:30.
Sunday morning, R’ Zalman hurried to R’ Dovid Feiglin’s home and updated him. He emphasized that the haste was in order to fulfill the Rebbe’s wishes. He also said that he wanted to get ads into the papers that would be coming out for Rosh HaShana which would be in four days. The ads would announce the opening of a Chabad girls’ school which would be opening immediately after Rosh HaShana.
R’ Dovid Feiglin was caught up in R’ Zalman’s enthusiasm and agreed to attend an urgent meeting at 5:15. The other members of the committee were also informed of the developments and confirmed their attendance at the meeting.
At 3:30, R’ Zalman and R’ Shmuel Betzalel went to the Hertz home. To their delight, Mrs. Hertz agreed to all their terms and R’ Zalman negotiated her salary. From there, R’ Zalman went to the yeshiva office where the members of the vaad were already convened and they concluded the final details for the opening of the school.
That same day, the vaad took out an ad in the Jewish papers in Melbourne, which said that right after Rosh HaShana, the name of the school in the Hertz home would change to “Beis Rivka” under the auspices of Lubavitch and girls could register for the first grade. They also announced in the papers that registration had begun for first, second, and third grade for the following year which, in Australia, begins in February.
The next day, R’ Zalman sent a telegram to the Rebbe about the opening of the school and two days later, on Erev Rosh HaShana, R’ Zalman wrote a long letter about the opening of the school with all the details. He was happy to say that thanks to the decision to open the school in the Hertz house, the school was able to open that much more quickly. If they had waited until classrooms would have been made ready in the yeshiva building, they would only have been able to open a few months later, at the beginning of the school year. During the interim months, the possibility existed that Mizrachi would have spoken to Mrs. Hertz and finalized with her about transferring the school to their party and Chabad might have lost both the school and an excellent principal.
In his letter, R’ Zalman stressed the open divine providence in that R’ Moshe Zalman Feiglin went to the Rebbe with his son and daughter-in-law. That visit was so inspiring to them that they suggested and demanded hurrying up the opening of a girls’ school. When the suggestion came from the Feiglin family who were heads of Mizrachi, all possible obstacles that could have arisen had the suggestion come from Chabad Chassidim fell away.
R’ Zalman also reported to the Rebbe about the conversations he had with R’ Dovid regarding relations between Lubavitch and Mizrachi. It seemed that on his visit to the US, R’ Dovid had met with senior members of Mizrachi who tried to cool off his ardor for Chabad. They made it sound like Chabad fights Mizrachi. When R’ Zalman heard this from him, he made it clear that although Lubavitch is in no way Zionistic, it has no ties with any party, neither for nor against. He stressed that Chabad Chassidim cherish every Jew and are supportive of every good venture when it is done to strengthen Judaism.
After R’ Dovid was swayed to the truth of these assertions and admitted to R’ Zalman that in fact, Chabad Chassidim kept far from any disputes, R’ Zalman asked him sadly: Why do your friends, of Mizrachi, speak against the Lubavitch yeshiva? If they want to open their own yeshiva, they should open one. But why speak against the yeshiva whose only purpose is to educate an upright generation and draw everyone close in friendship and love?
R’ Zalman finished his report with his personal impression of R’ Dovid Feiglin: Although he is a fervent Mizrachi supporter, he is a p’nimi and he has an inner point of truth, especially now after being by the Rebbe. With Hashem’s help he can be a big help to the mosdos if he doesn’t cool off. For this we need Hashem’s mercy and help.
It is amazing to read the end of R’ Zalman’s letter that after all the mighty efforts he made to carry out the Rebbe’s wishes and to open the girls’ school right after Rosh HaShana, he still was not satisfied with himself and was bothered by the thought that if he was more mekushar he would have found a way to more completely fulfill the Rebbe’s wishes by opening the school in the yeshiva building which was the Rebbe’s initial request. He asked for guidance in this and similar situations since all he wanted was to do what the Rebbe desired, and sometimes he did not understand the Rebbe properly.
After Rosh HaShana, R’ Zalman received two letters which the Rebbe sent before Rosh HaShana, one with blessings for the new year written during the days of Slichos, and one with a response to the letters and telegrams.
Before Sukkos, he received a response from the Rebbe about his letter from Erev Rosh HaShana in which the Rebbe reassured him that he did the right thing in opening the school not in the yeshiva building. The Rebbe said that although at first he had written that Beis Rivka should start out in the yeshiva, those who described the yard and the house were not accurate. Based on information that the Rebbe just received, this arrangement would allow for mixing of boys and girls which is altogether undesirable (in addition to which, this arrangement would require postponing the opening which was out of the question). The Rebbe concluded with: Obviously, this did not negate thinking about a suitable building of their own near the yeshiva as opposed to learning in a house that they rented. Surely he would use the days of Tishrei for yeshiva matters and blessings for outstanding success and a chasima and a g’mar chasima tova.
R’ Moshe Zalman Feiglin also received a long letter from the Rebbe in which the Rebbe expressed his gladness at the good news about the opening of the school and enclosed money as his participation in the founding of the Chabad school in Australia. The Rebbe said this was even though he was sure money wasn’t lacking in Australia. The Rebbe wrote that since the holy Torah tells us that Hashem does not remain in debt, surely this would bring increased blessing and success to those who were involved and those at the top in particular. The Rebbe concluded the letter with blessings for the new year and for the entire family, especially for Dovid and his wife who were also taking part in founding the school, and with blessings for health, long life, and true nachas, i.e. Yiddishe nachas.