Simchas Torah, the very walls of 770 Eastern Parkway would thunder, as thousands of visitors from all over the world gathered to rejoice with the Lubavitcher Rebbe, who would dance intensely in a circle with the Sefer Torah.
The Avner Institute presents the following article, from the New York Times, Oct. 30, 1967, where journalist Sidney E. Zion vividly shares with his readers the sheer bliss – and honor – of watching the Rebbe’s Hakafos.
Thirty five years ago marked a very memorable Simchas Torah with the Rebbe, The Avner Institute is pleased to present a letter to the Rebbe by Mr. Zalman Jaffe a”h prior to visiting 770 in 1979.
By: Sidney E. Zion
New York Times, Oct. 30, 1967,
Thousands of Hasidic Jews ended a long weekend of singing, dancing, jumping and clapping yesterday, rejoicing as ever in the Torah, if a little tired from it all.
“We hustle—religion is no picnic with us,” said a red-bearded young rabbi, Samuel Schrage, at the height of the tumultuous Simhath Torah festivities at the Lubavitcher Synagogue, 770 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn.
The happiest day in the Hebrew calendar, Simhath Torah (literally “rejoicing in the law”) marks the completion of the Torah cycle, a year-long reading through the Five Books of Moses, which detail the basic guidance and teaching imparted to Israel. The cycle ends with the chanting of the last chapter of the last book and the reading of the first chapter of the first book.
The holiday is celebrated with gaiety by all branches of Judaism, but none of the Hasidim, whose rejoicing in strict Orthodox beliefs leads them to pitches of religious excitement unknown in others less fervid.
Indeed, while Simhath Torah officially ended before sundown on Friday, Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky said confidently: “The Rebbe will keep things moving right up to Sunday.”
Converge on Brooklyn
And he did, speaking until 1:30 a.m. yesterday when the service ended with the singing of “Dem Rebbens Niggun” (“The Rabbi’s Tune”), written by Schneor Zalman, the founder of the movement.
The Lubavitcher Rebbe is Menachem M. Schneerson, who, as the rabbi of rabbis, is the leader of 250,000 people, the world’s largest Hasidic group.
Black-coated, bearded Jews from many parts of the world flocked to Brooklyn last week to be near the Rebbe, and in the early hours of Friday, the cavernous synagogue was packed.
The 65-year-old Rabbi Schneerson, whose family traces back some 200 years to the group’s birthplace in the Russian village of Lubavitch, brought 30 elderly Russian Jews to Brooklyn for a visit over the holidays.
Many had been imprisoned in the Soviet Union and were quietly released and sent to Israel within the last two years, due largely to the efforts of the Lubavitcher movement.
Some of the Russian émigrés, white-bearded and wearing peaked caps reminiscent of the Lenin period, stood behind the Rebbe’s dais for five hours as he spoke in Yiddish to 1,500 people on subjects ranging from the mystical interpretation of the scriptures as continued in the Cabala to hippies.
“That man spent 22 years in a Russian prison,” a congregant said, pointing to an old but alert man standing by Rabbi Schneerson. “All his life he’s waited to be where he is now, all his life to be with the Lubavitcher Rebbe on Simhath Torah.”
Vodka is Served
Rabbi Schneerson stopped speaking from time to time to serve vodka and sponge cake to those around him. As the Rebbe sipped, so did the Hasidim. Women of the synagogue looked down from the balcony.
But the singing and dancing was dominant as the pulsating rhythms of the melodies turned the synagogues into a festive hall.
A visitor, the Rev. William Sloane Coffin Jr., chaplain of Yale University, smiled as he watched the celebration. “Wonderful,” he said, “wonderful, just wonderful.”
Rabbi Schneerson, patriarchal figure in a long black coat and soft black hat, led the singing at the apex of the Simhath Torah ceremonies. Using his right hand to conduct, he brought followers to a high point and the chanting and jumping seemed to rock the building.
He then turned and began to pray, and the congregants stopped where they were.
Finally, the Torahs were removed from the Ark and Rabbi Schneerson walked with his closest followers between the crowds swarming to get near him.
In the middle of the synagogue, Rabbi Schneerson and a few elders did the traditional dance – one man’s arm on another’s shoulder, circling the floor with scrolls in hand.
At a high post nearby, where the rabbi had earlier led the singing, a Russian Jew looked into the eyes of a stranger, smiled, and without a word put his arm on the stranger’s shoulder and the two danced until the rabbi stopped.
Thirty five years ago marked a very memorable Simchas Torah with the Rebbe, The Avner Institute is pleased to present a letter to the Rebbe by Mr. Zalman Jaffe a”h prior to visiting 770 in 1979.
My Dear Rebbe, Shlita:
I am writing this letter at home, and I hope, please G-d, to bring it with me tomorrow. So when you receive this note, then you will realize that, B”H, Roselyn and I have arrived, together with Chaim Dovid (Avrohom’s eldest son, 14), and Chaya (Hindy’s eldest daughter, 12). Yossie and Mendel, Hindy’s eldest sons, have been at Crown Heights for the past few weeks. We are staying with Meyer and Raizy Minkowitz for one week. We would like to have stayed longer but we do not wish to impose upon friends.
I do know that Crown Heights is packed to overflowing. I hear that people are sleeping on the floor of 770 in their sleeping-bags. Yehuda Kramer wanted to go to 770 for Succoth with his wife and child. There was definitely nowhere to stay!
I have been warned by Dovid Abenson to take my oldest suit, my most battered hat, and – if possible – steel-toed boots for the farbrengen and for Simchas Torah. I will be crushed from all sides and my ribs may be broken. The heat will be stifling, and I should also take a bottle of oxygen. It sounds terrible. In fact, I do not think I will actually enjoy myself; I may not even be in a position to see or hear what is going on. But maybe I will be able to write a few pages for my next edition. I have heard that the whole seder is different than on Shavuous, the seating arrangements in particular.
Roselyn, as I have mentioned, will be with me. I surely cannot imagine what she will do all the time. To find a place to see or even hear in the women’s shul will be a sheer impossibility. It is bad enough on Shavuous. However, it will be a new experience – to which I am looking forward – with some little trepidation.
Anyway, here I am.
I wish you a happy and freileichen yom tov.
We all missed you on Shavuous.
To receive this to your inbox email: [email protected]
