Rav Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn “The Frierdiker Rebbe” of Lubavitch
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A L ife of Heroism Mesirus Nefesh, and Miracles: The “Rebbe Rayatz” Rav Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn “The Frierdiker Rebbe” of Lubavitch Derashah by Rabbi Dov Loketch via Zoom on the eve of Kislev 2, 5781, November 17, 2020 av Yosef Yitzchak Schneerson, the sixth Rebbe of Lubavitch, was born on Tamuz 12, 5640 (1880) in the town of Lubavitch. He was the only son of the fifthReb - be, Rav Shalom Dovber Schneersohn, who was known as the “RashabR.”1 Already from birth, Yosef Yitzchak was groomed to succeed his father as leader of the Lubavitch movement. On the Altar of Mesirus Nefesh In 1893, when Yosef Yitzchak was just thirteen years old, his father brought him to the cemetery, and they stood at the graves of the previous Rebbes of Lubavitch. TheRashab turned to his son and said, “Your name- sake, Yitzchak Avinu, was bound ,מוסר נפש on the Mizbei’ach, being preparing to surrender his life for 1 1860-1920. 11 “. At a very young age, Rav Yosef Yitzchak displayed the Mesirus Nefesh his father had assigned to him at his Bar Mitzvah . ” HaKadosh Baruch Hu. Yosef Yitzchak, I am now binding Litvishe, Yeshiva background to deliver the highest Shiur. you on the Mizbei’ach, on the altar of Mesirus Nefesh, of For example, Rav Yechezkel Abramsky4, a product of several unlimited and unbridled devotion to your people. From this prominent Lithuanian Yeshivos and a leading disciple of day on, you must dedicate your life to Klal Yisrael.” Rav Chaim of Brisk5, spent time as a Magid Shiur in one of the branches of Tomchei Temimim. Two years later, when Yosef Yitzchak was just fifteen, his father appointed him to serve as his personal assistant and The Yeshiva was very successful, producing numerousRab - secretary. Despite his young age, he began filling the role of banim as well as lay leaders, and branches of Tomchei Temim- his father’s emissary to rabbinical conferences throughout im were established in various cities throughout Russia. Lithuania and beyond, in places such as Kovno, Vilna and TheRashab directed his attention not only to his flock’s spir- St. Petersburg. Rav Yosef Yitzchak quickly emerged as an itual needs, but also to their material needs. He undertook effective spokesman and ambassador for the Lubavitch a particularly innovative project to help alleviate the Jewish movement, and for Klal Yisrael generally. community’s financial hardships, working with a number In 1897, at the age of seventeen, he married his second cousin, of leading industrialists to build a major textile factory in Nechamah Dinah Schneersohn, a great-granddaughter of the town of Dubrovna. The facility opened in 1902, and the third Rebbe of Lubavitch, the Tzemach Tzedek.2 The employed 2,000 Jews. couple would have three daughters. In 1905, the First Russian Revolution erupted, bringing a The Rashab launched what was then a new innovation wave of unrest aimed at ending the rule of the Czar. Al- in the Lubavitch movement, founding a Yeshiva in the though the Czarist regime succeeded in quashing the revo- town of Lubavitch, which he named ‘Tomchei Temimim’. lution, significant inroads were made in weakening support Students came from all over Russia, and they lived and for the Czar, resulting in the establishment of the Duma, a ate together in the Yeshiva, in contrast to the traditional congress that represented the people. The Czar still had the practice of lodging and eating with local Jewish families. final word, but nevertheless, theDuma marked an important The Rashab appointed Rav Yosef Yitzchak as the Menahel development, giving the people a voice in the government HaPoel (chief administrator) of the new institution. The for the first time. This period of instability saw an uptick in Yeshiva combined classic, advanced-level Gemara learning pogroms and attacks against Jews. Rav Yosef Yitzchak, only with the study of Chassidus, particularly the Sefer HaTanya, in his twenties, was sent as his father’s emissary to St. Peters- the foundational work of Lubavitch Chassidus authored burg, where he met with high-ranking government officials by the movement’s founder, Rav Shneur Zalman of Liadi and appealed for increased police protection and for greater (the “Ba’al HaTanya”).3 Interestingly, the Yeshiva would efforts to restrain the antisemitic rioters. And thus already often bring in a leadingTalmid Chacham from a typical at a very young age, Rav Yosef Yitzchak displayed the kind 2 Rav Menachem Mendel Schneersohn, 1789-1866. 3 1745-1812. 4 1886-1976. 5 1853-1918. 2 זצ״ל ”The “Rebbe Rayatz The October 1926 rabbinic conference in Korosten, Ukraine to lobby governmental authorities to recognize Jewish religious institutions was a major cause of the Rebbe’s imprisonment. of Mesirus Nefesh The Rebbe worked coura- that his father had geously to maintain Jewish assigned to him at life. Together with a number his Bar Mitzvah, of other heroic figures, such devoting himself tirelessly for the wellbeing of Klal Yisrael. as Rav Yechezkel Abramsky and Rav Shlomo Yosef Zevin6, he did what he could to perform weddings, arrange Gitten, During the ensuing years, Rav Yosef Yitzchak continued build Mikvaos, and ensure the availability of Tefilin, and he serving this role of looking after the Jews of Russia. His ran an underground Chinuch network. These efforts were wide-ranging activities led to his being arrested on four fraught with danger, and many Jews, and Rabbanim, left different occasions. None of these arrests led to a conviction, Russia. But the Rayatz and several others remained with or even a trial, but this shows just how he had emerged as a their flocks in order to sustain religious life to whatever leading activist for Jewish causes in the country. extent possible. Heroic Resistance Seeing that the future of Russian Jewry looked uncertain, to the Yevsektsiya the Rebbe began expanding the Lubavitch movement be- In 1920, the Rashab died, and Rav Yosef Yitzchak, at the age yond Russia. He established Yeshiva Tomchei Temimim in of forty, became the sixth Rebbe of Lubavitch. Warsaw, Poland, and this became a major Yeshiva in the city. Additionally, he organized an Anshei Agudas Chabad in the He assumed this role during the period that followed World United States. Rabbi Yisroel Jacobson7, one of the Rebbe’s War I, when the Bolsheviks completed their successful revo- Chasidim, was his emissary to the United States and played lution against the Czar and began implementing their vision a key role in the movement’s activities on these shores. for Russia, which included a fierce campaign to obliterate religious observance of any kind. The Jews of Russia suf- In 1923, the Rebbe assembled nine prominent Lubavitch fered from extreme poverty, wrought by the constant wars Chasidim in St. Petersburg so they would make a formal that ravaged the country, and also faced the hostility of oath in the presence of a Minyan, vowing to each other that the Communist regime, particularly of the Yevsektsiya, the they would all remain until they could no longer continue viciously antireligious Jewish faction of the Communist their underground work. He sent teachers and rabbis even party. TheYevsektsiya invested special efforts to shut down to the remotest areas in Russia, and he worked arduously even Jewish institutions which were not officially illegal. to obtain funds for Russia’s Jews, working with the Joint The government had banned formal Jewish education, but Distribution Committee, and also smuggling. Additionally, informal and private learning was allowed. TheYevsektsiya , he set up a special committee to help Jews observe Shabbos. however, consistently agitated and cast false allegations in In October, 1926, a group of Russian rabbis assembled in an attempt to destroy all vestiges of Torah Judaism in Russia. Korosten, Ukraine, for the purpose of lobbying for the legal- ization of Jewish institutions. Although the Rebbe did not 6 1888-1978. 7 1895-1975. 3 זצ״ל ”The “Rebbe Rayatz Stanislav Messing, Spalerno prison chairman of the Leningrad in Leningrad secret police, had been a Chasid but then gave up religion and embraced Communism attend the conference, he was neverthe- Spalerno prison in Lenin- less named honorary president in absentia, grad.9 The chairman of the in light of his status as the leading figure Leningrad secret police was among Russian Jewry at the time. This Stanislav Messing, who, conference was regarded by the Yevsekt- like Semyon Dimanstein of siya as an audacious expression of public the Yevsektsiya, had been a defiance, further exacerbating their fury against theRebbe . Chasid but then gave up religion and embraced Commu- nism. Messing was virulently antireligious, and, unlike the TheYevsektsiya waged an all-out war against the Rebbe. This Yevsektsiya, he had the authority to arrest the Rebbe. group felt great contempt for the Rebbe, and they hounded him relentlessly in an effort to intimidate him. The head The next morning, theRebbe demanded that he be given a of the Yevsektsiya, interestingly enough, was Semyon Di- chance to put on Tefilin. Seeing that his request would be manstein, who had learned in Telz and Slabodka, and had denied, he began putting them on, in the presence of the been a Lubavitcher Chasid, before abandoning his faith and guards, who knocked the Rebbe down the steel staircase joining the Communists. On one occasion, three agents and confiscated theTefilin . He was tortured and placed in stormed into the Rebbe’s Shul—when he was observing solitary confinement, but he remained defiant, insisting Yahrtzeit for his father—to arrest him. TheRebbe explained that he had done nothing wrong and avowing to continue to them, very calmly, that under no circumstances would his religious activities. he discontinue his activities promoting Jewish observance.