The thirty-sixth lesson in the Shalsheles HaYachas, continuing the account of the life of the Rebbe Rayatz found in part six. We will read the events listed from the year 5700 onward.
It says there: "5700 - on 9 Adar Sheni - he came to the city of New York and settled in the Brooklyn section of the city." Let us expand a little. This was the time when World War II broke out, in Elul 5699. The Rebbe Rayatz was then in Otwock, and he traveled from there to Warsaw with the intention of reaching Riga; but when he arrived in Warsaw it was no longer possible to travel to Riga easily, and he remained in Warsaw until Teves - Tishrei, Cheshvan and Kislev - several months during which there were bombardments, and as described there, it was an extremely difficult period.
In the midst of the war, in the month of Teves, the Rebbe succeeded in leaving Warsaw and arrived in Riga. In Riga he was delayed about another two and a half months, until 24 Adar Rishon of that same year, 5700, and at the end of Adar Rishon he flew to Stockholm, and from there to a place called Gladbrug, from which a ship departed for the United States. The voyage lasted about a week and a half, and the ship arrived on 8 Adar, but in the afternoon; and according to the law in force at the time, when a ship arrives after four o'clock it is not possible to disembark, but one must wait until the next morning. Therefore, although the ship actually arrived on 8 Adar, it is written that the Rebbe arrived in New York on 9 Adar, the following day.
At first the Rebbe stayed at the "Great Stone" hotel in Manhattan. What is written here, that he settled in the Brooklyn section of the city, refers to Seven Seventy, but before things reached that stage a period of time passed: the Rebbe entered Seven Seventy on 19 Elul 5700, after the building had been purchased, and a few days later the dedication of the house was held; and throughout the period in between he stayed in several places. Here all the details are not spelled out, but it is stated briefly that in the year 5700 he arrived in New York and settled in Brooklyn.
About that same year it further says: "He is occupied with rescuing his students and succeeds." Even after he left there, the Rebbe Rayatz did not cease doing everything in his power to rescue his students, the students of Tomchei Temimim who had remained in Poland, and the many chassidim who remained there in the midst of the war. The Rebbe made tremendous efforts to bring them out of Poland to Lithuania, and afterwards to obtain permits and bring them over to the United States and Canada. All of this involved great financial expense, since the routes were in complete disarray, and it was an undertaking that spanned the globe, continuing from the year 5700 into 5701. These matters are detailed in the Igros Kodesh of the previous Rebbe, I believe in part one, which contains many letters on this subject. And here it is put in two words: "occupied and succeeds" - the Rebbe succeeded in rescuing from the war many dozens of students and families, who arrived intact in the United States and Canada.
The next thing stated for that year: "He founds the central Yeshiva Tomchei Temimim." And when did he found the yeshiva? As mentioned, the Rebbe arrived in the United States on 9 Adar Sheni, and the next day - and even on that very day - a reception was held for him at the hotel in Manhattan. There the Rebbe announced that he wished to share with the chassidim the decisions that had been reached in the standing committee, and that the following day Yeshivas Tomchei Temimim would open in the "Oneg Shabbos" synagogue in America. That is how the Rebbe acted, even though there were those who tried to tell him that America is not what he thinks, that it is not like Russia and not like Poland. The Rebbe followed the line that America is no different in any way, and he succeeded in founding Tomchei Temimim yeshivos there as well; and subsequently additional branches of Tomchei Temimim were founded in a number of cities in America, as detailed in the letters and in the book "Toldos Chabad in the United States", which contains a most interesting account of all this.
Let us move on to the following year, "5701", which included several stages. First - "the beginning of the publication of "HaKriah VehaKedusha"", a Yiddish journal that appeared between the years 5701 and 5705, during which dozens of issues were published. The purpose of this platform was that there be a place where the Rebbe's clear and lucid voice would be heard. In the wake of the war people were under pressure and there was great confusion in the world, and therefore the Rebbe wanted there to be one place where his voice would be heard very clearly. This platform brought great calm to the Jewish people, and expressed the conclusion that the only solution is the redemption, Moshiach ben Dovid. In that period the Rebbe issued the great call - "immediately to teshuvah, immediately to redemption", and there were several kol koreis on this subject.
Everything was printed in this paper, which had several sections; and although it was not officially written that the Rebbe Rayatz was the editor, everything passed through him and under his hand. In the first issue it was even written explicitly that the material passed his review, and in the second issue this was already stated in a more veiled manner - but everything went through the Rebbe Rayatz. There are many interesting sections there, most of them in Yiddish.
One of the heavenly pieces that appeared from time to time in those issues, and of which to this day almost nothing is understood, appeared under the heading "Osios Porchos" (Flying Letters). These were passages of words that appear to have no meaning, and no one understood what was written in them; but hidden within them were heavenly prophecies of the previous Rebbe, and virtually all of them have not been deciphered to this day.
There is one example - I do not remember in which issue - that after America and other countries invaded Europe during the war, it was written in one of the issues of "HaKriah VehaKedusha": "we knew this", and a passage was brought that had been printed two or three years earlier, and when deciphered it turned out that it stated what would happen and in which month, in all its details - only that the matters were written in a concealed manner. And so there are dozens of prophecies there that have not been deciphered to this day, written in a most interesting way. They exist and one can look at them, but one should not try to decipher them, since these are not ordinary matters on our level.
The next passage in that same year, 5701: "He founds the Machne Yisroel organization." "Machne Yisroel" is an organization that was established at the beginning of 5701, and at its head stood, of course, the Rebbe Rayatz. When the Rebbe arrived in the United States, in the summer of 5701, in the month of Sivan, he was appointed chairman of the organization's executive committee. The purpose of the organization was to strengthen the observance of Torah and mitzvos among the Jewish people, to arouse Jews to return in teshuvah, and to publicize the call of the redemption - "immediately to teshuvah, immediately to redemption".
Various departments were established within it, some immediately and some over the course of time, among them:
A department for spreading Shabbos observance - whose entire purpose was to arouse the matter of keeping Shabbos, which was very difficult for people who had come to work and were forced to desecrate Shabbos.
"Mishnayos by heart for the purification of the air" - a lottery on the chapters of Mishnayos, so that each person would have a few Mishnayos that he learns by heart, and together everyone completes all six orders of Mishnah.
A Tehillim society.
The division of the Shas.
Bikur cholim - to visit the wounded of the war.
It is interesting that at first this organization was secret. That is, the members of the organization were concealed, and even friends and family members did not know of a person's membership in it - a covert organization. An interesting example of this: in Sivan 5701 the previous Rebbe wrote a letter in which he mentioned the "Machne Yisroel" organization, and one of the well-known chassidim, Rabbi Avraham Axelrod, sent a letter to another well-known chassid, Rabbi Yisroel Jacobson, and asked him what this organization, "Machne Yisroel", was - even though the organization had already existed for several months, he did not know what it was about. He asked what the organization was, how one could join, what it depended on, and whether it was in accordance with the Rebbe's wishes; for everything was done in a very covert manner. Afterwards, of course, the organization became public, and it exists to this very day. This matter too, and everything surrounding it, is detailed at length in the book "Toldos Chabad in the United States".