Before Chabad Books Were Stolen

By Rabbi Yosef Greenberg, the Rebbe’s Shliach to Alaska

In the Frierdiker Rebbe’s Igros vol. 4 (page 263) the Frierdiker Rebbe tells the story how the Alter Rebbe had sent the Tanya to print in Elul 5656 and had stipulated with the printer to have it printed in the beginning of Kislev to enable to learn from the printed Tanyas on Yud Tes Kislev, the Yortzeit of the Maggid. When Yud Tes Kislev came around and the Tanyas hadn’t arrived yet, the Alter Rebbe suffered much anguish over this. Finally on the second day of Chanukah a special courier from Slavita arrived with 200 copies of the printed Tanya which were finished being printed on the 20th of Kislev.

The Alter Rebbe looked at the Sefer for a long while and then commented: Rabbos Mach’shovos belev Ish, I wanted the Sefer to be ready in the beginning of Kislev to enable learning from it on the Yortzeit of my Rebbe, but Atzas Hashem he sokum, and the printing concluded only on the 20th of Kislev (and the Alter Rebbe repeated three times) Chof Kislev, Chof Kislev, Chof Kislev. He concluded: Kol d’avid Rachmono letav avid (all Hashem does is for the good).

Nobody understood why the Alter Rebbe was so pained over the delay of the printing by two weeks or why he repeated the date three times.

Only in the year 5659 (two years later) when the Alter Rebbe was released from prison on Yud Tes Kislev and by mistake entered the home of the Misnaged, from which he was able to leave only at a late hour in the night of Chof Kislev, did people remember the strange words of the Alter Rebbe about Chof Kislev which were said two years before, on Chanukah 5657.

Similarly we find a wondrous thing that happened by the Rebbe in regards to Hey Teves:

At the Farbrengen of Erev Rosh Hashanah 5744 the Rebbe brought two newly published Seforim with him to the Farbrengen. One was a volume of Or Hatorah of the Tzemach Tzedek’s Maamorim and the other was the fifth volume of the Frierdiker Rebbe’s Igros Kodesh, which the Rebbe had requested to be published then.

In the middle of the Farbrengen the Rebbe said that considering that everything is behashgachah pratis, and as two new Seforim had just arrived this evening from the binder, this needs to be utilized at this Farbrengen. The Rebbe opened up the first Sefer and explained something brought down at the beginning of that Sefer. Then the Rebbe opened the Igros Kodesh and began reading from the first letter in the Sefer.

The Rebbe explained that this letter was written by the Frierdiker Rebbe while he was under the rule of the Nazis yemach shemom vezichrom, written in German out of fear of the censor. In it the Frierdiker Rebbe writes that he is homeless and resides at the home of friends, the entire family in one room, and therefore has no room for the Seforim which were lent to him by Agudas Chassidei Chabad. He then writes that he would be happy if Agudas Chassidei Chabad would take back these Seforim.

The Rebbe read the letter, and stressed again that this letter was written in a manner that also non-Jews should be able to understand, and that the intention of the Frierdiker Rebbe in writing this letter was that together with saving him and his family, the Seforim and holy manuscripts should be saved as well. The Rebbe then proceeded to teach a lesson in Avodas Hashem from this letter.

At the time, this was a wondrous occurrence in the eyes of the Chassidim. Never before or after did the Rebbe read from the Igros Kodesh of the Frierdiker Rebbe which were published throughout those years. Not from any of the previous volumes published (not even when the first volume was published), and not from any which were published afterwards.

Only years later, after the court case and the “Didan Notzach”, did Chassidim recall this realizing that the Rebbe had preempted the entire saga in a manner of “makdim refuah lemakkah”, two years before the beginning of the court case, more than three years before the Didan Notzach, in the Farbrengen of Erev Rosh Hashanah 5744.

In the ruling of the Judge which was handed down on Hey Teves 5747, the first letter quoted by the judge as basis for his ruling was that very letter, printed at the beginning of the fifth volume of the Frierdiker Rebbe’s Igros, which was read by the Rebbe at that Farbrengen!