We are at the thirty-seventh lesson in the chain of the generations, in the seventh part of the life story of the Rebbe Rayatz. We have reached the year "5702".
It is written: "Founds Yeshivas Tomchei Temimim with preparatory divisions in the city of Montreal, Canada" - a short sentence that contains an entire history within it.
As we have already related, the Rebbe Rayatz decided that he would not rest nor be still until he rescued all the students of Tomchei Temimim who remained in Europe. This was during the war, under mortal danger, and enormous efforts were made to help them escape from Poland to Vienna. After they arrived in Vienna, many efforts began to obtain visas for them to the United States, in order to get them out of that inferno - and this too was an entire story, until they succeeded in obtaining them.
In the winter of 5701, thirty-six students managed to leave for Japan, and there they waited for the visas. The visas were at the consulate in Russia and they had to be transferred to Japan, and this too was an entire story; the students remained stuck in Japan for a long time, waiting. And after the visas reached their hands, the United States canceled them, and so they could not travel there. Japan did not want them either, and expelled them to Shanghai in China.
While the group of students was stuck in China, the Rebbe Rayatz, while in the United States, managed, through connections and funds, to make use of an arrangement of eighty visas that the Canadian government agreed to give to students of various yeshivos. Out of those eighty, the Rebbe Rayatz obtained nine visas to Canada for those few young men who had managed to get out, while the rest remained stuck in Shanghai for a long time.
They arrived in Montreal on 2 Cheshvan 5702, and on that very day Yeshivas Tomchei Temimim opened there. The Rebbe Rayatz sent there the mashpia Rabbi Shmuel Levitin, to assist them in founding the yeshivah at the start of its path, and he stayed in Montreal for about a month and arranged matters. Over time the yeshivah grew and developed, and a yeshivah ketanah was added to it - and this is the meaning of "with preparatory divisions", a preparatory division for the yeshivah. And why specifically in Montreal? Because that was the only place to which they succeeded in bringing the survivors.
Another thing written about the year 5702: "Founds Merkaz L'Inyonei Chinuch". The Rebbe Rayatz established a center called "Merkaz Yeshivos Tomchei Temimim", which included the network of Achei Temimim yeshivos and the network of Chadrei Torah, and at its head stood the older son-in-law of the previous Rebbe, Rabbi Shemaryahu Gourary - the Rashag.
In addition to this center, the Rebbe Rayatz founded the "Merkaz L'Inyonei Chinuch", at whose head he placed our Rebbe, his younger son-in-law. What was the purpose of this institution? To deal with all the educational matters of Jewish sons and daughters, apart from the yeshivos and the chadarim - and there is much work in dealing with the education of the Jewish people. At the end of the "Hayom Yom", and in other places, the list of the program and goals of this center is printed: fifteen different clauses with which Merkaz L'Inyonei Chinuch is occupied, in areas connected to strengthening Judaism among the Jewish people.
It is further written: "Founds Yeshivas Achei Temimim in the cities of Newark, Worcester and Pittsburgh". These yeshivos were established in the provincial cities of the United States, and in every place they were called by the name "Achei Temimim". And this was the order of their establishment:
Pittsburgh: the first yeshivah, established in the winter of 5702, right at the beginning of the year, in the month of Kislev. The Rebbe Rayatz sent there the student Rabbi Mordechai Altein, in order to arouse the chassidim and the young people, and he succeeded in founding a yeshivah there. This was not at all easy, in a city where those who observed the mitzvos were very few; people had never seen what a yeshivah looks like - all of the United States did not know then what a yeshivah looks like.
Newark: there the Rebbe Rayatz sent the chassid and student Rabbi Sholom Ber Gordon, who stood at the head of the yeshivah.
Worcester: in Teves 5702. In the first period the yeshivah was directed by the chassid Rabbi Avraham Hecht, and later the Rebbe Rayatz sent his brother there, Rabbi Moshe Yitzchak Hecht, who remained there as a permanent shliach.
It is further written about that same year: "Founds the publishing house Karnei Hod Torah - Kehot - Lubavitch". And so that the understanding will be complete, let us also look at the year 5703, about which it is written: "Founds "Sifriyat Otzar HaChassidim Lubavitch".
What is the difference between these two institutions?
In almost every Chabad sefer the two institutions appear combined together: on the title page appears "Sifriyat Otzar HaChassidim Lubavitch", or it is written that the sefer was published by Otzar HaChassidim, and in the middle appears the Kehot emblem. So above and so below - so what, then, is the difference between them?
The difference, as I have seen from one who makes this distinction: the publishing house Kehot - "Karnei Hod Torah", and by the way, as we have already mentioned, Kehot is also the year in which the Alter Rebbe was born - its purpose is to publish seforim, in nigleh and in chassidus, of all kinds, and it makes no difference who the author is, rather any Jew who authors a sefer. This is a center called a "publishing house", a place that publishes seforim of Torah and seforim of Judaism, in nigleh and in chassidus, from all over the world. This is the first organization that the Rebbe Rayatz established.
The second center, which was established afterward, has a different purpose: "Sifriyat Otzar HaChassidim" - seforim authored by our Rebbeim, the leaders of Chabad, or by the chassidim. This is not merely the publishing of ready seforim, but a library whose purpose is to edit seforim and compose them. There is the "Otzar HaChassidim" staff, which works on preparing the seforim, and there is a publishing house whose purpose is to print them. These are two different organizations, and even though in practice their roles are very much intertwined with one another - they are two roles.
The three institutions that the previous Rebbe established and at whose head he placed the Rebbe, and about all three of which we have learned: "Machne Israel", "Merkaz L'Inyonei Chinuch" and "Kehot". And over the course of the years from 5703 until 5705, under the conditions that prevailed in those years, dozens of different seforim and pamphlets were printed and published by the publishing house "Kehot" and by "Sifriyat Otzar HaChassidim".