Unknown Writings of the Mitteler Rebbe Discovered

By COLlive reporter

On Sukkos 5748 (1988), hundreds of bochurim and guests from around the world crammed in the Sukkah at 770 Eastern Parkway, waiting for the Rebbe to enter and deliver the annual sicha to the guests.

Due to the large crowd, the Rebbe could not get through. The Rebbe just stood there, waiting. To those standing in the Sukkah, it was as if time had stopped. After 30 seconds of the Rebbe waiting, pandemonium broke out.

Rabbi Aryeh Kaltmann, who directs today Chabad of Columbus in Ohio, was a bochur at the time. He remembers the events of that day like it was yesterday, the details etched in his mind.

“The Rebbe stopped right in front of me,” Rabbi Kaltmann told COLlive.com. “We were all just waiting for someone to do something. And soon, over a minute went by. Each second felt like an eternity.”

Finally, someone brought a crate, and the Rebbe was able to climb to the podium and recite the sicha.

“After it was over, the entire place erupted,” Kaltmann says. “We couldn’t believe we had caused the Rebbe to wait for an entire minute.”

It is this same utter urgency, of the Rebbe needing his Chassidim to take action, that Rabbi Kaltmann says he feels every day.

A longtime collector of Chassidic seforim and manuscripts, Rabbi Kaltmann has discovered numerous priceless treasures in recent years. One of those finds are 53 Maamarim of the Alter Rebbe written by the Mitteler Rebbe, R’ Dovber of Lubavitch (1773-1827).

Also discovered in the last few years were some halachic works of the Mitteler Rebbe, which were said to have been burned in a fire that broke out in the town of Lubavitch at the same time as the Mitteler Rebbe’s passing on 9 Kislev (which was also his birth date).

Most of the thousands of his manuscripts that were in the room were destroyed in the fire. Included in those manuscripts were almost all of his writings in Nigleh, as is explained in the Sefer Hatoldos.

The discovered pages are the Mittler Rebbe’s halachic commentary, many of which have never been seen before – some of which have never even been printed before, Rabbi Kaltmann says.

Rabbi Kaltmann said he is working with the Kehot Publication Society, Chabad’s official publishing house to prepare them for printing, “all of which comes at an exorbitant cost,” he said.

The team is looking for donors to fund the editing and printing of these seforim, which are nearly complete.

“It is with the same sense of urgency that Chasidim felt that day in the Sukkah that Chasidim must feel that the rebbe has been waiting for us now for 27 years. He is waiting for us to do something for him, to reveal this to the world,” he says.

“When it came to printing the Rebbe’s Torah, the Rebbe told someone, ‘I can’t describe the zechus – merit’ of those who undertake this project,” Kaltmann says. “We can only imagine the great zechus for anyone who will step up and help sponsor this revolutionary project helping to complete the Mittler Rebbe’s life work, that has been waiting literally 193 years to be completed. This is a historic opportunity.”

Donations for these projects as well as other printing projects of chasidus and other seforim by our Rebbes can be made on the website: www.kehot.org