A Permanent Home for Jewish Life

The Beis A PERMANENT HOME ChabadFOR JEWISH LIFE KISLEV 5778 18 A CHASSIDISHER DERHER לע"נ ר' יהודה ע"ה בן ר' משה יעקב ע"ה נלב"ע ר"ח כסלו התשנ"ט ת'נ'צ'ב'ה' נדפס ע"י בנו הרה"ת השליח ר' יוסף יצחק וזוגתו מרת ביילא רחל ומשפחתם שיחיו ביסטאן KISLEV 5778 A CHASSIDISHER DERHER 19 CHABAD OF CALIFORNIA CHABAD RABBI SHLOMO CUNIN BRINGS THE REBBE THE KEY TO THE NEW CHABAD HOUSE IN BERKLEY. “Feeling quite proud and accomplished,” Rabbi Shlomo Cunin recalls, “we prepared to present the Rebbe with the key to the first Chabad House. To recordThe the occasion First for posterity, of Rabbi Many Hodakov instructed us to bring along a photographer. “We were ushered into the Rebbe’s room; the donor approached the Rebbe and handed him the key in a special case. “‘This is the key to the Chabad House.’ “The Rebbe looked up and asked, ‘To which one?’ “Surprised, the donor replied, ‘Rebbe, there is only one.’ “‘Don’t be so humble,’ the Rebbe answered, ‘from here it will spread north, south, east, and west.’” KISLEV 5778 20 A CHASSIDISHER DERHER PART I SPIRITUAL FOUNDATIONS A Campaign of a DifferentThe year 5746 Genre was a difficult one on the Chabad calendar. The ownership of the Rebbe’s library was in court, and Chassidim felt as if the very validity of the Rebbe’s nesius was being put on trial.1 The Rebbe did not attempt to downplay the severity of the issue. During sichos at the start of the battle and during the trial itself, the Rebbe spoke in pained tones about how this was a battle against the very concept of a Rebbe, referring back to the arrest and liberation of the Alter Rebbe, when the whole of Chassidus was put on trial. The response to a spiritual kitrug, the Rebbe said, is through a spiritual reawakening. As he had often done during hard times in the past, the Rebbe announced a new initiative, which would serve as an antidote to the dark gloom of the kitrug. This initiative, however, was different from all others. In the past, the Rebbe’s mivtzoim had focused on specific fields; there was the tefillin campaign, usually accomplished as a “mitzvah on the go.”2 There were initiatives that focused on unlike the shluchim of today who go transforming the Jewish home, such out armed with the experiences and as mezuzah, Shabbos candles,3 and What Did Shluchim Today, the word “shliach” is advice of thousands of their older bayis malei sefarim.4 And there were Do Until Then? synonymous with Chabad House. The peers, some of the early shluchim had campaigns to unite the whole Jewish first objective of every shliach moving a much more ambiguous idea of the nation, such as Rambam5 and the sifrei to a new town is to establish a Chabad specifics of their mission. Torah hakloli’im.6 House that will serve as the nerve When Rabbi Nachman Sudak, a”h, This new campaign didn’t focus center of his activities, and all other left for England in 5719, the Rebbe on one specific mitzvah or another; it institutions are an outgrowth of this instructed him to establish a branch went back to the core of the mission of base. of Merkos. When he asked which dor hashvii, of the Rebbe’s call to make However, this was not always the activities his Merkos branch should this world a place where the Aibershter case. do, the Rebbe replied, can dwell. The first shluchim sent by the “What should I tell you? There are This was the campaign of Batei Rebbe were sent on a mission of a thousands of things to do.” Chabad.7 broad and general nature. In fact, When Rabbi Avrohom Korf moved to Florida in 5721, he asked the Rebbe KISLEV 5778 A CHASSIDISHER DERHER 21 Today, the word shliach is synonymous with Chabad House. However, this wasA few yearsnot later, always the case. another milestone was marked in the LUBAVITCH HOUSE, LONDON. establishment of Chabad Houses. what his mission was, and the Rebbe Rabbi Shlomo replied: Cunin, who had “Vu es felt in Yiddishkeit, if there is come to California an area of Yiddishkeit that is lacking, it in 5725, acquired a is your job to fill the void.”8 building to serve as Armed with a broad outline of their a Jewish home for mission, each shliach opened a branch students at UCLA. of Merkos and represented the Rebbe Because it was a in his city. In keeping with the Rebbe’s place for students instructions, the shluchim each found to “come home” their own way to contribute to the to, he decided to local Yiddishkeit. Some shluchim call it a “Chabad focused on Torah classes, some Hous e.” opened schools, while others held When they events on local college campuses, all presented the obviously with the close attention and Rebbe with the guidance of the Rebbe. key, as mentioned The concept of having a local center at the beginning for Chabad activities hadn’t yet taken of this article, the hold. Rebbe said that In 5725, this idea was discussed it would spread during a yechidus with Mr. Peter far and wide. Kalms,9 an activist close to the The Rebbe told shluchim in London. The “Lubavitch Rabbi Cunin to House” of London was in the early call all similar stages of construction, and the Rebbe institutions with told him that “the proposed new the name Chabad Lubavitch House should not only be a House, so that it ARCHIVESJTA school, but a symbol and a center for would become THE JTA REPORTS ON HUNDREDS OF NEW CHABAD HOUSES TO BE OPENED. 17 KISLEV 5747. as many activities as possible.” like Gimbels—a many London’s permanent facility, famous more shluchim took up posts over the which hosted a wide range of Chabad department store chain at the time. 5730s and 40s, the idea of a Chabad activities, was created with the step Just as when someone arrives in a new House was no longer an anomaly; by step guidance of the Rebbe, and city he knows he can find Gimbels in nevertheless, it wasn’t a major focus brought the Rebbe a lot of nachas. the phone book, a Jew should know either. When speaking to young potential that the same holds true with Chabad shluchim, Rabbi Hodakov would tell Houses. As the years went by, Chabad them to visit London to learn from the The campaign for new Chabad Houses began to spring up in cities The Mivtza way things are run there. Houses, as mentioned earlier, began and countries around the world. As KISLEV 5778 22 A CHASSIDISHER DERHER CHABAD OF CALIFORNIA CHABAD TWO LETTERS FROM THE REBBE TO THE FRIENDS OF LUBAVITCH IN CALIFORNIA, ACKNOWLEDGING THE RECEIPT OF THE KEYS TO THE TWO CHABAD HOUSES IN UCLA (19 ADAR 5729), AND BERKLEY (14 TAMMUZ 5732). during the sefarim trial, and the Rebbe single person to join the Rebbe’s “Whoever will dedicate themselves continued speaking about it on a shluchim. Shlichus in these days is wholeheartedly to the avodas regular basis. a derech slula, a clear and open path, hashlichus of spreading Torah, A strong boost to the campaign which is within the ability of every single Yiddishkeit, and Chassidus through came in the beginning of 5747. On person, without exception! founding Chabad Houses will see this Simchas Torah, the Rebbe dedicated “Uv’chanuni na b’zos—test me on success for themselves!”10 an entire sicha to the importance of this: Throughout the following years, Chabad Houses, and declared the the topic of Chabad Houses—and mission of the year to be to establish shlichus—was never far from them all over the world. The Rebbe the Rebbe’s lips. A clear shift was pointed out the success of the existing noticeable during the Rebbe’s ones, and in powerful and energetic farbrengens. From the 5730s, when tones, exhorted every single person to “Test me on the Rebbe announced many of the take part. this: Whoever mivtzoim, the Rebbe had often Thirty years earlier, the Rebbe dedicated the last sicha of farbrengens noted, one could have debated a will dedicate to the campaigns. The Rebbe would Chabad House’s potential for success. list each one of the mivtzoim, and But now, after so many years of themselves often focus on the most recent one, hafatzas hamaayanos with unbelievable or the one most relevant to that time growth and expansion, it is clear that wholeheartedly of year. Listening to those sichos, every place could and must have a to avodas Chassidim would be kept abreast of Chabad House. the Rebbe’s latest koch, and knew to “All that is left,” the Rebbe hashlichus, will plan their activities accordingly. continued, “is the decision for every see this success KISLEV 5778 for themselves!” A CHASSIDISHER DERHER 23 From 5746-47 onward, many out to one individual Jew at a time, it every Jew, anywhere, at any time, as Chassidim noticed that the topic of automatically attracts many Jews. Rabbi Shlomo Cunin relates: Batei Chabad had taken the place of A Chossid is a lamternchik, a “When we presented the Rebbe the usual mivtzoim. The Rebbe, again lamplighter, the Rebbe said, and the with the first key, the Rebbe asked, ‘Is and again, spoke about going on lamp is the Chabad House; people will this key mine?’ shlichus and opening Chabad Houses gather around it just as people gather “The benefactor answered, ‘Yes, in every city in the world, in any place around a torch during a dark and cold R ebb e.’ where Jews might find themselves.

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