By R’ Nison Gordon, z’l
Translated By P. Samuels
Rosh Hashanah 5689 (the end of 1928) was the first Rosh Hashanah that the Rebbe Reb Yosef Yitzchok was out of the boundaries of Russia, which he left right after Simchas Torah 5688 (1927).
The first stop of the Rebbe was in Riga, where the parliament deputy, the chassid Reb Mordechai Dubin, lived and worked. Reb Mordechai probably played the largest role in rescuing the Rebbe from the nails of the Soviet animals.
The Rebbe Rayatz lived in Riga until 5694 (1934) when he moved to Warsaw. For that first Rosh Hashanah in Riga, chassidim from far and near came to be with the Rebbe after so many years of separation. One of the chassidim who came was the shochet (ritual slaughterer) of Dokschitz, Reb Yochanan Gordon, for whom the trip was a major financial undertaking as well as an even greater spiritual experience. Reb Yochanan, a shochet in a small town, couldn’t pass up that first Rosh Hashanah—as well as the following Rosh Hashanahs—of being near the Rebbe, to whom he was so close, and whose closeness he sorely missed.
That Rosh Hashanah, Reb Yochanan saw the current Rebbe for the first time. He was then engaged to the middle daughter of the Rebbe Rayatz, the Rebbetzin Musia. The wedding took place two and a half months later, 14 Kislev, in Warsaw.
Reb Mendel, or how others called him then, Ramash, did not come to Riga together with his future father-in-law (after Simchas Torah 5688) but he came a few weeks later. He went home to Yekaterinoslav for yom tov, to bid farewell to his family. After yom tov, his mother, Rebbetzin Chana Schneerson, accompanied him to Leningrad, from where he continued on to Riga.
The second day of Rosh Hashanah, (5689) in the evening after the Rebbe Rayatz ended his chassidic discourse, the crowd started a lively dance, the first dance in the Rebbe’s shul after so many years of forced separation.
Today Reb Yochanan recounts how after that dance, on Motzaei Rosh Hashanah in Riga, 36 years ago, the chassid Reb Elya Chaim Althous, H’yd (may Hashem avenge his blood), who was one of the closest people to the Rebbe, first in Russia and later in Riga, wished the Rebbe mazal tov.
“You have just attained a new chassid, your own Mendel. He couldn’t be torn away from the dance!” he exclaimed with obvious joy.
Even though he was born in a house that considered itself a part of the Rebbe Rayatz household, the Rebbe had to become a chassid of the Rebbe Rayatz to whom he became attached with his entire heart and soul to the point where he always acted as if the Rebbe Rayatz was still alive.
The relationship between the Rebbe’s father Reb Levik and the Rebbe Rayatz was very close, and to a certain extent a friendship. Reb Levik, a devout chassid of Reb Sholom Ber, was about the same age as the Rebbe Rayatz and saw him as a virtual successor to his great father, but at the same time there existed between the two of them a certain friendliness.
Reb Levik’s son, the current Rebbe, became a chassid of the Rebbe Rayatz in whom he found everything that his soul thirsted for, in nigleh as well as in nistar.
By nature, the Rebbe has a strong and stable personality. He does not allow himself to be easily influenced by others. But once he is convinced of the truth in something, whether it’s a solution to a problem or something as critical as choosing a rav, no one can change his feeling and understanding.
The close relationship of Rebbe and chassid began to develop between him and his future father-in-law the first time they met, and through the years it developed strong roots.
The first time they met was in Rostov in 5683 (1923), a year before the Frierdike Rebbe moved to Leningrad. Later, in Leningrad, he became a frequent visitor to the Rebbe.
During the tragic night of Tuesday into Wednesday 15 Sivan 5687 (1927) when the GPO agents Lulov and Nachmansonhn burst into the Rebbe Rayatz’s house and arrested him, and everyone, except the arrestee himself, was frightened and immobile, the future son-in-law undertook a dangerous mission.
In Kuntrus HaMeassar chapter 1 (Likutei Dvorim P 1246) [Translator’s note: apparently this is referring to a pamphlet the Rebbe Rayatz wrote about his arrest and imprisonment] the Rebbe Rayatz describes in his unique way, his feelings and thoughts that accompanied him as he wandered through the corridors of the Shpalierka prison right after his arrival there.
Among the things he was worrying about: What’s happening with my future son-in-law Menachem who went to the apartment of my secretary, Mr. Lieberman? Was he chas v’shalom arrested?
From the fact that the Rebbe Rayatz worried so much if his future son-in-law was arrested, you can imagine how dangerous the mission that he undertook was. There were definite reasons to believe that the GPO would, the same night, spread a net around Reb Chaim Lieberman’s apartment to catch whoever came to warn him.
Earlier, in the same Kuntrus HaMeassar, the Rebbe Rayatz writes about his great concern, that Reb Chaim Lieberman should find out the news as soon as possible, so he should have time to conceal the documents and letters which would have revealed to the GPO the entire network of yeshivos, elementary schools, and other entities for strengthening Judaism. He also worried that Lieberman himself would also be arrested, and “why should he also suffer?”
First and foremost, though, the Rebbe Rayatz worried that during the time that he would be under arrest, there should be at least one person who knew the ins and outs and could continue the work, and he, Lieberman, was the only one capable of continuing it.
It was this dangerous mission that the current Rebbe undertook that fateful night when the mesirus nefesh of the Rebbe Rayatz and his closest people turned into a “pillar of fire that split the heavens.”
There was another dangerous mission that the Rebbe undertook voluntarily. The chassid Reb Zalman Duchman, the author of the sefer L’Sheima Ozen, told me that Ramash distributed the documents to be hidden. The Rebbe Rayatz writes that the entire time he was imprisoned, his whole body shuddered at the thought: “Who knows? Maybe they took away the documents.”
The chassidic documents, and the handwritten manuscripts of the holy forefathers, were the dearest treasures preserved and protected by generations and they passed on as inheritance from Rebbe to Rebbe, beginning with the Alter Rebbe, the composer of the Tanya and the Shulchan Aruch. The Rebbe Rayatz considered this the greatest riches, and he carried these documents and manuscripts wherever he wandered.
Securing these documents was a primary object of the future son-in-law, who disregarded the peril that the brutal rulers could have interpreted his actions as an attempt to hide “who knows what” documents of the underground anti-revolutionary forces.
Long before the arrest of the Rebbe Rayatz, the Rebbe felt a personal connection to him as his Rebbe and leader. The shared danger and troubles of that difficult summer of 5687 brought them closer and strengthened the ties that bound them as rebbe and chassid.
However, the first time this bond was exposed to the public was probably that first Motzaei Rosh Hashanah in Riga, during the dance, when Reb Elya Chaim Althous wished the Rebbe mazal tov upon acquiring a new chassid.
Who knows if that mazal tov of more than 30 years ago doesn’t come up in the mind of the Dokschitzer shochet, who is now the gabbai in the Lubavitcher Shul on 770 Eastern Parkway, each time he calls up the Rebbe to the Torah “Ya’amod (Rise) Our Leader, Our Teacher, Our Rebbe, the son of Reb Levi Yitzchok, to Maftir.”
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