A large collection of over 50 letters, greetings, instructions, and correspondence between the important leaders of the Chabad community to the Rebbe Rayatz and the Rebbe was unveiled these past few days.
The inscriptions include the signatures, handwritten notes and letters written in the handwriting of the Rebbe Rayatz. The collection of letters has been unveiled at the Kedem Auction House in Jerusalem and is currently for sale.
Inside the package of letters is a dated invitation to his daughter Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka Schneerson‘s marriage to the Rebbe, signed by the Rebbe Rayatz. In the moving letter, the Rebbe Rayatz refers to the Rebbe as his “friend who seeks his wellbeing” and blesses him.”
Some of the letters found were never printed and amongst them are extensive correspondence between the Rebbe and Rabbi Israel Hess, who established a high school yeshiva in Ra’anana and was the rabbi of the Bar Ilan University campus.
As a young man, Rabbi Hess became interested in Chabad and since then corresponded extensively with the Rebbe on pertinent issues and questions regarding Chassidim actions.
In a letter that was newly discovered and never printed, the Rebbe reveals how personal the reply he gave to all those who wrote to him was: “It is understood and clear that I myself read all the letters written to me, and the responses are written at my instruction, even though for several reasons they are signed by the secretariat.”
Rabbi Yosef Shmotkin, a Chabad chossid who immigrated to Israel and was one of the founders of the Chabad community in Rishon LeZion, was another frequent writer to the Rebbe. His grandson suffered paralysis in his lower limbs after having polio as a child. In the various letters, the Rebbe is well versed in the boy’s medical condition and also advises Rabbi Shmotkin and his family on treatment, recommending certain doctors and other such medical recommendations.
The medical proficiency exhibited by the Rebbe, as evidenced by the letters, is impressive as his field of practice was not medical and his place of residence at all times of the correspondence was in the United States, officials at the Kedem Auction House said.
“This extensive collection of letters includes personal and exciting aspects of the Sixth and Seventh Rebbes and, in fact, the last Chabad Rebbe,” Meron Eren of the Kedem Auction House says, “It allows us to meet some of their interlocutors and reveals to us their personal and tender sides. The ability to discover humanity on the one hand and their unique nobility on the other proves what exemplars they were.”
