The Story of Lubavitch’s Library

Tevet 5 is celebrated as a day of rejoicing in the Chabad-Lubavitch community.

On this date in 1987, U.S. Federal Court issued a decision in favor of Agudas Chassidei Chabad (“Union of Chabad Chassidim”) regarding the ownership of the priceless library of the 6th Rebbe of Chabad-Lubavitch, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn. The ruling was based on the idea that a Rebbe is not a private individual but a communal figure synonymous with the body of Chassidim.

The Lubavitcher Rebbe (Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak’s son-in-law and successor) urged that the occasion be marked with time devoted to study from Torah books (“sefarim”) as well as the acquisition of new Torah books.

From the Rebbe’s first public references to the theft of Lubavitch’s treasured manuscripts in the summer of 1985, it was clear that this was not merely a legal challenge, but also as a spiritual struggle over the soul of the movement, and over the very definition of what a Rebbe is.

This video pulls back the cover on a painful yet fascinating saga. The Rebbe’s ultimate victory – or in the Rebbe’s words, “the victory of the books” – and the celebration that followed have been forever enshrined in the narrative of the Lubavitch movement in modern times.

Experience events as they unfold, together with Chasidim at 770 – from the Rebbe’s first talk on the subject through the court battle, the victory, the books’ return, and the Rebbe’s post-victory addresses on the subject.

Excerpted from A Movement on Trial, available on jemstore.com.