By COLlive reporter
There was a fair chance that the Rebbe would have visited the land of Israel a few years after his marriage to Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka Schneerson, a new book claims.
“Toras Emes – 100 Years of Lubavitch in the Holy Land,” a book about the known Chabad Yeshiva in Jerusalem, attributes the revelation to letters and documents written in the year 5695 (1935).
In a letter, R’ Yechezkel Feigin, the personal secretary of the Previous Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, asks to made necessary arrangements for a trip in 5696.
It came in response to a request from Rabbi Alter Simchovitch, Mashpia of Toras Emes, inquiring whether he should come visit the Frierdiker Rebbe for Tishrei, or remain home because the Rebbe himsef was going to come visit them.
According to a letter, the Frierdiker Rebbe’s reply in Yiddish was, “In the winter, when we’ll be able, we will consider it, G-d willing.”
Rabbi Feigin then noted that walking has been difficult for the Rebbe after recently falling down and so “I don’t know if it is even possible to think” about the trip.
The Frierdiker Rebbe paid a historic visit in 1929 to what was then Palestine, where he was greeted by leading rabbis and the masses.
This planned second visit was meant to include his son-in-law and future Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, the book’s author Rabbi Yosef Ashkenazi says.
“It was the The Frierdiker Rebbe’s holy wish that the Rebbe would accompany him in his visit,” Ashkenazi wrote, but didn’t note where he got that fact.
A letter to Rabbi Isaac Herzog, then Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of the British Mandate of Palestine, requesting a visitation permit and mentions the Frierdiker Rebbe by name “and his household.”
It was a few years earlier, on 14 Kislev, the Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka married the Rebbe.
“In the coming years, the (Frierdiker) Rebbe repeated his wish to pay a visit to the Holy Land,” the author said.
The 500-page book was published in connection with the 100th anniversary of the Toras Emes institutions. For many years, the Yeshiva has served as the headquarters for Chabad in Israel.
While the Rebbe encouraged aliyah to Israel, he never visited there himself.
“Living in Israel and enduring the responsibilities that would come with it, my influence on world Jewry would be restricted,” the Rebbe once commented on why he does not move to Israel, saying that New York was “most conducive for my work.”
The Rebbe was married 14 Kislev 5689. The summer of that year (5689), the Frierdiker Rebbe visited Eretz Yisroel.
While the Rebbe encouraged aliyah to Israel,?? really??
the Rebbe never encouraged aliya. In fact when he sent shluchim he emphasized that its shlichus like every place and C”V Aliya.
very interesting thank you for sharing!
this isn’t a new claim, this is clearly documented and printed in the Friediker Rebbe’s Igros to the Rebbe and Rebitzin