Rebbe's parents, siblings & his bio, He's alive bc his Mission is alive- Mashiach - RC Dalfin

So good to everyone and this is the second part of Akiml Thomas Fabang. Yesterday we fabrained about the history ofism really and its importance its development and we tackled some very important uh subjects which are not finished at all but we did speak about the idea of is it proper to chew to have multiple rebies I mean and that's a very big issue that was in the last part of our brain and yesterday yonyi uh brought it up and we discussed that. We also spoke about the four different groups that have a come you know son after son directly from the students of the mid of Mr. who was the student of the palmtov and overall we spoke about the rebba whose yard's yard site is this coming shabas on Sunday that any any sadic and any rebber has a tradition and you can't separate the two so the the focus of my faban part one yesterday was that when when you admire ire a reba today you need to understand that you have to first admireism and to admireism you need to admire Torah and and there's a a trajectory a healthy trajectory what we call a masura that's the Hebrew word which is the English is tradition tradition that famous fiddler on the roof uh song Right. Misora the tradition and it's a very important thing tradition I would say without tradition there's a breakdown and that's what happened by the way that's what happened in the 50s and 60s in our country where there was a breakdown in tradition and in a way it's happening again now there's a big breakdown in tradition you know, why tell me that a marriage is between a male and a female, not a male and a male or a female and a female, etc. And all of these issues that we're encountering today. And just the other day, someone sent me an email about someone who hugged someone, a a man, a rabbi hugged another congregant, not a congregant, a person that came into shul and someone went over to him afterwards and said, "Uh, you know, this is aidic rabbi, you have to do chuva because you were hugging a female. He said, "What is, yeah, that person is really a female. There's nothing wrong to to hug a female, but in the context of of a rabbi and and a married man and all of that that you know, and he would want to know that that um this is a situation." But what be that as it may, the idea is that there's a breakdown in tradition. So msora is is for us the most important thing. Once we deviate from msora we have nothing. You can have you know flat ideas and fascinations. At the end of the day there's a breakdown. And this is Moshe. This is this is part of what hap happened and is happening to the Jewish people. The assimilation is a breakdown in tradition. Okay. But today I want to talk about the Reb for bringing about the Reb. So the rep was born in 1902 and his father Rabli Yitzk was his name was an a reduced scholar a great Talmud but more importantly a cabalist and a real cabalist. Now, what do I mean? A real cabalist. Not a voodoo serving, you know, cabalist who says, I can make a miracle or you know, how much you know, how much are you leaving on a table and I'll I'll do a miracle. We're not talking about that. Talking about a regular person like all of us here, happens to be a rabbi, happens to be a scholar, but he looks at life and he looks at Torah from a cabalistic lens and it's very, very unique. and he he wrote about it and it's printed and and today there is English translations. A friend of mine has a very good uh translation of several we we've studied together and he's put out some books on it. Very very good. So so he looks at at uh you know the months, the years, the days, the names all from a cabalistic perspective. And why is it that we all four of us are on this screen right now? And if we were in a room and Moshe was sitting next to Iser and I was sitting next to Manasha, he would say, "What's the reason you're sitting next to him? It has to do with your name, has to do with your birthday." That type of a a vantage point is a more of a cabalistic one. And Reb's father was a mubal, the word in Hebrew is a makubel. He was a serious cabalist. So the Reb the Reb's father was a capitalist and the ra the rabbi since 1909 in a a sh in the city of yakrinis which is the neper today they call neperk which is in Ukraine and it's an industrial port city very very prominent has always been and he was one of the two rabbis orthodox rabbis in in in in in a shul. There was one shul he was a rabbi the rabbi. Other one was another shul and he was there from 1909 to 1939. 30 years and 39 they incarcerated him. They took him away. They sent him away to Siberia to and in 1944 his health deteriorated because of the conditions and everything else and he passed away. He was born in 1878 I believe. So the Reb comes from from that type of father. What about his mother Moshe? What about his mother? His mother's name was Kana. We call her in Kabad Rebbit and Khana. And she's buried. She came to America in 1947. The Reb went to Paris to bring her over. And she lived from 47 to 64 when she passed away. And she said those were her best years being with her son. Now of course you know being with her husband is special but they were very hard years for her. There was nothing to eat. There was illness and then her husband is taken away. So it was very painful. The Reb's mother comes from a rabbitic family as well. A rabbitic family. They were rabbis in what's being you know Nikolia or today it's called Mikolv you know some of the places that were bombed in the last few years was where they were rabbis there raon kabadim for generations they were levim Levites and they had beautiful voices and they composed nigunim that's the rebba's mother's side rebana So we have a a father who by the way was a great grandson of the of the third Reb of Kabad the third generation rebend of the first which was called and his great grandson was whose son is our Reb and his mother comes from the family Yanovski. there were levian and prominent kabadim and who also was associated with the family lav and the the the there's a um comments on the alterbish cider by rabbi lav that are very important. So she comes from that was a believe her father's uh father-in-law I believe. Anyway, the rebre wasn't a lady, right? The reb no are. So the Reb is the first of three boys. The next boy next son was Ari and the third son was uh Barl. Barl. Yeah. Um, Barl passed away, you know, was killed uh in by the Nazis. Yak Shimom and uh, Isra passed away in Liverpool, England in 1952. young man, but he did marry. I think in 1939 he married a woman named uh Mgr and they had a daughter named Dalia. Dalia is still alive. She lives in Raavot, Israel. She's your neighbor. She's uh in her, you know, in her 80s, the probably 85 to 90 or so. Um so her father was Aries but he changed his name to Gurari to get out when he got out from Russia he was he had a passport to the name Gurari. So those were the three boys and in the memoirs of people who knew them when they were children primarily the Reb's cousin Aram Scholansski who came to Eritis and he was a poet and a writer and uh his me memoirs were documented and I have uh by a woman uh I forget her name now but uh I've read I've read them in Hebrew. Uh she says uh fascinating things about what he said. They lived in the same building in Yeer across the hall, I believe. And he said he would hear from his cousin's house the nigunim that the boys sang with their father at a table and he gravitated into them. I'm not sure if his parents were from and even if they were they were very modern and um you know they came from came from Kabadim but they were already on the modern side that's my understanding Shalonski so the house was also not only a veryidic house it was a very bright house an intellectual house for example Shalomsky writes that on the on in the bedroom of the boys. Can you there were astronomy charts, you know, uh you think of what kids have today on the chart on the walls, you know, right? And here there was astronomy charts. And in in other words, there was an intellectualism. These were, you know, they were boys and they played. In fact, he says another tidbit for you guys to to know is that the Red B would have a competition who could jump over, you know, mattresses, more mattresses. I don't know how they had so many mattresses. One, two, three. You know, you jump over you, you probably, you know what I'm talking about. That type. And and and and they played that way. I that's my recollection for something he writes. Just showing you that, you know, they weren't square. They had fun. Okay. But they were very bright and they were raised in a a home of you know mul mumad you know intellectualism Torah um writing dikduk and even Hebrew the rabbitson kana was was was proficient in Hebrew writing that's what I read and that was very unusual in the in the early 1900s. It was it was unusual. I mean, you know, Zionism was taking off. But here is a a a very from woman, the daughter of a of a rabbi and and she marries this uh this this G scholar and she has this strong uh background in in in in Hebrew writing and language. And this also impacted you know uh the children. So the Reb pretty much went to a a local and then at a certain point the the word on the street is that you know he outgrew his Malamid and his Mama told him you know I really can't teach you more because you you know so much he's such a genius. So he learned with his father. Again, I I don't have any sources to prove that, but you know, that's what they that's what that's what's said. But regardless, he did learn by by a Mhammed. And because we see we see um kind of several years that we don't h we don't have him in a yeshiva and he's still at home and we know that he learned. Now the Reba also went to some to some equivalent of a high school. Okay, this is also not so clear. A lot of this is discussed in the book early years which you've seen. But if I understand correctly what I read there, the implication is he had like the equivalent of a high school studies. Okay. And in fact, when he gets to Lennengrad in 1927, he left his home. The last time the Reba saw his parents was when he was 25 years old in 1927. And he left to Lenrad because he was already engaged officially to the previous Reb's daughter. So he goes to his future father-in-law and his future bride. He goes to live over there. They say again this is also discussed in the early years that he was a partial uh secretary for the previous as a single unmarried man yet but yet engaged and he get goes to Lenagat. And I what I read is that he he graduated he graduated or he graduated from a high school or he graduated something or and he started university. I something about some secular studies I identified in 1927 in Lenigrad. Okay. For the particulars you have to look up the early years. So the Reb is a 25 years old, full grown man, a massive Talmud, very very f and yet very uh educated and cultured in a way. Cultured in the sense that you know you see later that when he was he was in wait let me in France the Reba wore a gray a gray hat and and white gloves. He was a real gentleman. I'm just saying that's what I mean by cultured, you know, together with his beard and, you know, he was um a gentleman. He he knew the the way of the, you know, the world as far as behaving and acting and intermingling, but retaining his religiosity, his kite, his kite. Then in 1928, he gets married in Poland in Warsaw. And that's because the previous reba wanted to have a very respectful wedding and the uh it wasn't in Russia. Russia was closing down. Stalin was chasing everyone away and scaring everyone saying when goes over and unfortunately because of that at least that's one reason his parents did not attend his wedding. rather they had a wedding in their home and they were up all night fabbranging and dancing and people who were there gave testimony to that. It's not a madeup story. Reb gets married in in Warsaw and then moves to Berlin to pursue a parnosa. And it's very very important now here's his point. The Reb did not go to Berlin to become a philosopher and to get a degree in um a an academic degree. The Reb went to get Parnos and what but in order to to be able to get an engineering degree you need to have pre-classes and you need so you needed to register University of Berlin and even to get into University of Berlin he needed the CD Rabbi Weinberg was his name who gave him the document that said that he is knowledgeable and he should be accepted without that he couldn't get into university which shows you guys that with all of his with with his study in in Lengrad it still wasn't good enough for Berlin you understand you want to get into University of Berlin you better have a strong degree you know what I mean obviously he didn't have it so he needed to he needed Rabbi Weinberg to give him that letter and he gave it to And there's a whole story with that. We're not going to go into it now, but it's all written up and printed. He gets in, he gets in, he studies, and he's there till 1933. In 1933, he moves to um to Paris and that's when he attends the SBON and he finishes off and gets a degree in engineering as a civil engineer. I believe he's in Paris from 1933 to 1940 about 67 years he's there and that's a lot of time but in between he's constantly going back to his father-in-law first in Warsaw and then in Poland in in Ottok when he moved to south of of Warsaw 1935 to 1939 before the war broke out. So we find in the writings of his father, he's always blessing him for children. And if you you have to pay attention carefully to the letters, it's very worthwhile learning those red letters. They're not, you know, you can kabala is too heavy. You can just read the letter part without it. a friend of mine has done it and maybe next time we see each other I'll I'll give you some you know some of those copies because it's um very very important letters very important I spoke inad when I was inro and I spoke about one of the letters it's a brief short letter you know the reb the reb's father writes to him there because he's he's wrote he wrote him this 1928 [Music] Arab pesak got married November of 28. So he writes to him, he says, "Why should a person get married? Why should a male get married?" He said, "It I'm paraphrasing. This makes no sense. Why should you take upon yourself the uh responsibility of another person?" He writes that. Do you understand Rabbi Leerson who's the rabbi of of of a shul in a in a community and writes to the rabbi his son and he and the point is is he looks to make the point that it's only because of faith mark you hear that marrying a woman at the end of the day is faith faith in God that God wants this to build a family. But logically, Misha, logically, he says, "Why should you, you're a single man, you're doing fine, you're supporting yourself, all of a sudden you take someone else into your life, you have to support them." That's what he says there. That's why I say these letters are very, very poignant. They're very, very important. Anyway, so so um in these letters you could see that the father and I'm sure the mother are you know thinking when is our son and daughter-in-law going to have a child? It's it's pretty evident you know like re normal parents they want their children to have a child. He expresses them in different ways over different years. We have about I don't know four, five, six, seven years of of letters and you could kind of you know pick up a certain theme there. Anyway, some say, and I don't have evidence to this, but it might be a thought that the Reb spent those years in Berlin and also in Paris, especially Paris when he was there for seven years because he he was go they were going to doctors to try, you know, and and the good doctors were there to help him have a child. Again, I don't have evidence and I don't believe anyone really knows. But that's a thought that you know I heard by by some that that that's a possibility cuz like what are you doing in Paris? Seven years. I mean your father lives in Warso. So okay, but it's not a it's not strong evidence cuz what Warso didn't have doctors? Good doctors. I don't know. Anyway, comes to America. He he saved. He went to Marseilles and then to Vish and Marseilles. He saved miraculous comes to America. Actually uh yesterday was the day Hebrew day 1941. previous Reb tells the elders to go greet his younger son-in-law who is an individual who knows Shas Bavi Babylonian Talmet Jerusalem Talmud all commentaries and all printed he knows it all that's the way he that's what he tells and I heard this from Rabbi Groner Rabbi Yeetszk Groner who was the the in Melbourne he's mis who was in yeshiva and heard it from his teacher who walked out of the Reb's room with two other three other and they told the boys in 770 and Groner was one of the boys one of the boys one of the young men that were going to the port to greet this this person who they didn't know they really didn't know or maybe they saw him but they didn't really know him and he's very very modest I there was an individual ritual who's also passed on. Men sat he fought in the Korean War and the Reb called him a soldier. Mendle the soldier the Yiddish word mark for soldier is sat and uh Mendle who I knew and I spent time with he was a great man and and Mendel told me that he remembers seeing the Reb at at a Mina and he had no idea who it is. They went over to the Mashia and and and he said who and the Reb was, you know, I think he was dressed with a gray hat and a gray suit. He he looked very distinctive and you know distinguished and he said and who is that? So he says that's the the Reb, the previous Rebi who called who he called the Reb is younger son-in-law and he's called the Ramash Reb Me Shin. His first name Me Shinne acronym is Ramash. So he told me he saw him. He had opened the gamura and he was looking in the gamura and very quiet and unobtrusive and and all that. He works at the Brooklyn Navyyard not far from here. in Williamsburg. Actually, I think Bushwick Williamsburg as a um an engineer during the war years and um was the like the rabbi. Yes. Yes. Uh Iser, you mentioned before that he he studied civil engineering, but I thought he was an electrical engineer. Yeah. I said I think I I I you know, I always get confused. I I have to check check in in early years either electrical or civil. Thank you for the uh the the note. Anyway, so he he was in a room with 300 people drafting the draftsman, you know, and they say that he developed an under for the submarines a light that that is, you know, under the submarine. That's what they say. I don't know. Anyway, I heard from someone probably today he's 96 or 97 from in Florida Mark uh at in Deerfield Beach and and he invited me once for Shabaton. Anyway, so he told me I work with the Reb in that in the Brooklyn Navyyard. He told me that and and I said share something. He says, "What I could tell you is that he was the one that got us to D min every day and he made a minion for Mina. It was the He had no idea who this man is. He had no idea. Only later did he find out that this is came to Baba. And then he told me that we did some very very important clandestine work helping the Jews over the Nazis." He said, "I can't tell you what, but your Reba and I were involved in some very important things." That's what he told me. So, I I can't tell you what it is, but you know, he says it was top secret. It was top secret. Anyway, so he works there, but then his father-in-law becomes more more ill, the previous Reb. So, he needs the Reb. So I don't know if it's 1945, 46, 47, somewhere around those years. I think he stops working at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, I believe. And um is or even if he didn't stop, he's much more involved with with with the three organizations measro. And then there's the uh after the passing the previousb most want him to be the the rebba and he doesn't want because he knows the family of his older brother-in-law is upset and and uh you know so he he plays a low key and only after tremendous tremendous pressure and there's a lot to talk about this but time is short he accepts the leadership in January of 1952 and he says the first mimer bosani And from there he takes Kabad on some would say another course will tell you the same course but in a different way that fits for America. Now here it's worth for a second to understand we spoke about Rabbi Salvich yesterday and changing from aga to misrai right the rebba is very much a traditionalist very much but at the same time innovative so innovative but within the confines of his father-in-law's directions direction so he doesn't he doesn't uh give up give away the tradition of the older generation. What he does is he takes the older generation's ideas and makes them applicable to the new generation to the postholocaust generation. And namely he he rallies around his father-in-law's call in the 1940s. A fire is burning. The fire is assimilation. We need to save a Jew. Jews need to be saved from assimilation. Do whatever it is. Close your gumas. Close your books ofus. Go out in the street. Speak about shabas. speak about Jewish marriage, speak about kosher. But how can you do that? We have to learn. We have to d says there's a fire that's burning when there's a fire is and that's that that you could say it was. So again, the previous said in the 40s, but because he was ill and you know, he needed someone to take charge. So the Reb took charge and primarily after he finally passed away he he went all out with it and this was shocking for surely other kididic groups but also for Kabad the elders they they weren't used to this and the from 1950 to 60 those 10 years where he established the the groundwork the ground rules for example women the kabad the women's organiz ation starts in 1955. This is never heard of it was never heard of that women have such a prominent place in a kid group. You know we had the Bakov of women's school which was also started in 1933 or 35 by Esther um Schneer Sneer. Thank you. But that was learning. Here the Reb is talking about outreach, women involved in outreach. It's like revolutionary. Yeah, it was revolutionary, but it was necessary. And and I can tell you from my own mother of blessed memory who was a girl, a sur a survivor, a child survivor of the Holocaust, then was raised in Costa Rica without a Jewish school. Okay. Parents were Orthodox, but there was no Jewish education. She didn't know. She wasn't educated. And she comes, she marries my father who's this this this zero haircut student in the yeshiva, right? And and only eats potatoes and burnt matzah on Pesak. He's so fanatical. Okay. And she wants to go to Radio City and the movies and the Big Apple. I've told you this over several times, right? And who who brings her into the fold of Kabad? The women. There were women in the Kabad community took the younger new women that came in and educated them and got them involved and they became what we call women of the Reb of Labavich. And that was a whole culture in the 1960s. It needs to be really studied better. the the culture of the women in Kabad in the 60s. In the 50s, the women were mostly from Russia, the Kabad women. So they still were kind of uh they were very much with a certain mindset, but they in the 60s just as the counterrevolution of the 60s broke out, it broke out in the Jewish world too in the Kabad world too with the women. But the Reb started that in 1955. The whole idea of outreach which you have in Israel Moshe right started by the Reb in the 1950s in New York. Then came the so the 1950s to six and then the whole idea of going out. You know here are people is sir who were were chased were persecuted many of their relatives were killed. You come to the free country, you go h I can breathe finally my old bones, right? Come to the bar. Reba says there's no time for that. Get up and do something for another Jew. Go away to another country. Reb, I just came here. And I I I don't want to say names, but I know from another group that the Reb told them to go in the last 30 years to go to Russia, Ukraine to and they said no. Now in Kabad, there were some parents who said no, but the kids the Bakarim were soidic that they said we're doing it anyway. You see, you have a choice. you didn't give us your blessing the way we're doing it because they were so committed to the idea and the call of the hour and ultimately the parents agreed you know so the Reb introduces this idea of leaving your comfort zone and he spoke a lot about this in the 50s you won't have co you won't have your orange juice every morning you won't have your baked goods yeah you're going out to Wyoming not Wyoming now Wyoming ing 50 40 50 years ago or Timbuktu that's what he wanted so these things is what he planted within the lab system of 1950 to 60 60 to 70 I told you was that counterrevolution time counter culture and there was that also in kabad with the women getting involved and and the men etc and then 70s really starts the and he opens 70 institutions and things you know the the fill in and the muzas and all of this time he's teaching Torah saying and hoping and speaking about Mashiach's coming 1980s and 1988 his wife passes away Rabbay Mushka um which was you know the the closest person that he had in his life his wife and then we have and then we have the um the Reb's passing in 1994. [Music] Give me a second. Hello. Hello. Yes. Yes. The what? To go where? So I have to bring him to Crown Heights. Okay, I'll try. I'm learn. I'm teaching now. I'm teaching. I can't talk. Byebye. So, I'm sorry. I wouldn't do that, but I there's an emergency situation, so I had to take the call. But it wasn't the emergency. So listen, the the Reb listening to him, you know, I I heard the Reb from when I'm a child. And I saw this person yearn for Msiah. I really did. You know, I see a lot of Rabonim and a lot of rebas. No one that I saw spoke this way. And I'm not talking about just the last six years of his life, you know, where his wife passed away and it's like, if not now, Moshe when? Right. No, you you see this in 1952 he said they they they go for a dance right and he says there was something called Mashiach's dance let us dance now Mashiach's dance and he jumps into the the dance together 52 not 88 to 1992 52 1952 too. When the Reb told that Times reporter, you know, they say I'm like obsessed about Msiah. He was, but in a very positive way, in a very holy way. And this is something we can emulate to to go beyond any limitation and do whatever it is to bring Mashiach Beel in actuality. And I argue that since it hasn't happened yet, we don't have Msiach. That means the Reb's mission isn't finished. This is my interpretation of what it means. The Reb is alive. A person is defined by their mission. His mission was to bring Moshiach into this real world. Since it didn't happen, then his mission continues. Naturally, there's a yard site. We light a candle. We say, we learn Mishnay, we say kadesh. But but as far as the mission is concerned, it's very much alive. This is a um a brief synopsis of the Reba's life and it's important Yonyi to share this with your daughters in detail not just you know a general but in detail review these last two fabians online on YouTube so you have details and share them so especially your daughters they're the future of the gen of the Jewish people don't what I didn't hear you say so I'm just saying that and our grandchildren children and friends it's it's a special time and that's what the Reb writes that on the yard site besides the you know all the yards had been hug starting with the lighting of the candle which we should do matzah shabas and this the the saying of of Mishnayas for the Reb's name to give saddaka and to share with other people the of the person. That's what he writes about the previous. So the same applies to him. So everyone should should do that you know should do that. Hashem should help us. We should have the andesh and uh would you do you have anything you would like to say or anyone? Rebie question. What what um if I if I recall because when I go to the Oel I try going around to a lot of the firm is the Reb's mother also Kana also buried there near the rebel. Yeah. Yeah. She passed she passed away 1964. She Yeah. Yeah. She's but she has a separate place. That's another story for another time why that is. I actually just uh Go ahead. Because when I when I called when I called you from there the first time many years ago. Yeah. And I found Rav Kazinowski. Yes. He was very close to Rav Kazinowski's ke like mom is right next to it. Not next to it. Across. And Kazanovski is on the men. The the men and women are separated in the Kadisha section of Kabad. Not in other sections in the oh the entire cemetery doesn't belong to Lab. It's already a very little part, a small part. In that section men and women are separate. So the rebbit what the two rabbitson and the rebba they're also very close. Yeah. The the the rebbitson of of three rebas there are rebbitson there are yats rebbitson and and the rebreushka those three are one next to the each other then there's a separation and the next one over with a separation is the rebba's mother. Okay, just for the record, since you mentioned that the Reba bought eight or nine places, so no one should be around his mother and it's that way till today. Wow. Wow. Yeah. I was always wondering I was always wondering why it was like empty over there. The Reb never explained, but that that's what he did. And in fact when he came there after he bought it and his mother was buried he realized there was one woman buried towards the end of that and he came to the head of the kadish. He said I thought you he said I forgot he forgot to tell the rabbis there was one out of the nine or eight there was someone there so what should he do? Okay. But he he want in in other words there is a I think daladas you have to you know the there's an Indian of of being may maybe I'm not saying maybe the person buried there wasn't a show mash shabas could be and people were mockbbit and that you know to be maybe that's why he wanted to create kind of a border separate So when he when he saw that he said like you know but that's the way it is but everyone else it's it's it's it's empty. Yeah. Mashia now I wish I could be with you and I wish you guys could be be here at at to celebrate together. We'll be back on Monday. Thank you. Byebye. Take care. Byebye.