Yud-Beis Tammuz

When the Rebbe came to the G.P .O. on Tues­day, they told him to ap­pear again eight days later, on Wednes­day. (It was a law that one has to present him­self weekly.) When he said that he wants to come on Tues­day, they laughed, who would want to come to them a day ear­lier? Yet, when he came on Tues­day, Yud-Beis Tam­muz, some­one told him that that - al­though it was a lo­cal fes­ti­val - a tele­gram signed by Dz­erzhin­sky¹ had ar­rived and he was free. Mis­takes can hap­pen, ma­jor mis­takes, they told him, and they asked for his for­give­ness. That was the di­rec­tive from Mos­cow.

1. The founder of the Cheka secret police. ↩

The tomim DovBer Yude­vitch wrote to me from Riga that on Yud-Beis Tam­muz, 5688 (1928) —when the Rebbe was con­va­lesc­ing near Riga — and they started singing Padeh Be­Shalom at the far­bren­gen, the Rebbe stopped them. “As long as Rus­sian Jews are suf­fer­ing, ” he said, “I’m to­gether with them ‘in the same bar­rel. ’”

On Tues­day Yud-Beis Tam­muz, chas­sidim in Leningrad held a cel­e­bra­tion far­bren­gen. Since the Rebbe had asked that his re­lease be kept a se­cret, the far­bren­gen was held in pri­vate at spe­cial in­vi­ta­tion ( bli pir­sum ). Be­fore danc­ing, they re­moved their shoes so as not to make noise.

Af­ter spend­ing a few days in Leningrad, the Frierdiker Rebbe re­ceived threats of be­ing ar­rested again and he de­cided to re­lo­cate to Mala­chovka, a quiet sub­urb of Mos­cow. Though chas­sidim were cau­tioned not to visit the Rebbe, R. Zal­man and his fam­ily va­ca­tioned there for the sum­mer to as­sist him. Many of the sto­ries known from the time of the ar­rest and the re­lease come from R. Zal­man.

The note that they found [ see be­low ], printed in Kun­tres Yud-Beis Tam­muz, 5708, af­ter the Rebbe’s ar­rest, was kept by R. Pin­chas, the son of R. Eliyahu Chaim [Al­thoiz], in Leningrad. Ev­ery Yud-Beis Tam­muz they would make a far­bren­gen in his home and he would take the note from a hid­ing place, as well as two let­ters that the Rebbe had writ­ten on Yud-Beis Tam­muz; one was a gen­eral let­ter, the other writ­ten per­son­ally to R. Eliyahu Chaim — and they would read them.

And this is the note that was found on the high ta­ble in the Rebbe’s room af­ter his ar­rest on Wednes­day, the 15th of Sivan, 5687 (1927), in Leningrad:

“Lis­ten, chas­sidim and all Yid­den who yearn for Moshi­ach; give over in my name to all chas­sidim in the world: I have in­structed that in ev­ery chas­sidishe shul — af­ter the daily morn­ing prayers, in­clud­ing Shab­bos — ev­ery­one should re­cite with a minyan the por­tion of Tehillim as they are di­vided into the days of the month, and af­ter­wards re­cite Kad­dish; and all the lo­cal shop­keep­ers and busi­ness­men should come to shul to daven and for the class in Ein Yaakov, and Hashem will help them with abun­dant liveli­hood. “Chas­sidim: you should say that I in­struct you — and for other Yid­den, say that for Ahavas Yis­roel and for the well-be­ing of Yid­den, I beg them — to ful­fill this; and Hashem will help them with a year of good for­tune in ruch­nius and gash­mius, and we will merit the com­plete Re­demp­tion through Moshi­ach, Amen.”

The Rebbe ar­rived in Leningrad on Fri­day, the 15 th of Tam­muz. Be­fore Kab­balas Shab­bos he gave the hand­writ­ten text of HaGomel to his son-in- law, R. Shmaryahu Gu­rary, to be stud­ied be­fore Kab­balas Shab­bos. Eliyahu Chaim re­lated that when he asked whether there would be Chas­sidus on Shab­bos, the Rebbe replied that “they are giv­ing me one Shab­bos. ”⁴

A Kid­dush was held on Shab­bos. The Rebbe’s dav­en­ing ex­tended to a late hour and we heard through the white door that he dav­ened with the ni­gun of Avinu Malkeinu.

At the ta­ble he said, “This is the Seu­das Ho­daah,” and a num­ber of times dur­ing the far­bren­gen he re­peated the words, “This is the Seu­das Ho­daah” — for here, in Leningrad, the Rebbe said the bracha of HaGomel.

Ev­ery­one was sur­prised at this, for the con­ven­tional ap­proach ( daas baalei ba­tim) would have been for him to say the bracha in Kos­trama, par­tic­u­larly since we knew what had hap­pened — as the Rebbe him­self said — that events un­folded “above to be­low, ” namely that the orig­i­nal de­cree was death, which was then com­muted to ten years in Solovki⁵ — as stated in the of­fi­cial records — and re­duced af­ter­wards to three years of ex­ile in Kos­trama.

4. See Negaim 3:3. ↩
5. I.e., ten years’ hard labor at Solovki, an island near the Arctic Circle. ↩

I also heard from R. Mi­choel Dvorkin that a day or two be­fore Yud-Beis Tam­muz, in the shochet’s court­yard and gar­den in Kos­trama, the Rebbe said, “Nearly a month has passed that I haven’t writ­ten about chil­dren’s ed­u­ca­tion. What do I need fin­gers for…?!”

The let­ters that Pin­chas (R. Eliyahu Chaim’s son) had were dated Yud- Beis Tam­muz. One was a gen­eral let­ter for Anash: “On an oc­ca­sion like this one should write about Torah and avo­dah, but there is no time. ” And he thanked ev­ery­one - the fam­i­lies, as well - for recit­ing Tehillim and ask­ing G-d to help him.

The other let­ter was ad­dressed to R. Eliyahu Chaim Al­thoiz. I re­mem­ber the be­gin­ning quite well: “You were the first of those con­nected to my fa­ther, etc., whom I met when they took me, lo aleinu, to Sh­palerka; and you were the first to bless me with Mazel Tov when they no­ti­fied me that I was free. Di­vine Prov­i­dence, ac­cord­ing to Chas­sidus, is tan­gi­bly per­ceiv­ing G-dli­ness — and For­tu­nate is one who sets his path in life in ac­cord with G-d’s will...” I don’t re­mem­ber any more words, only the con­tent: one must know how to con­duct him­self.

I heard from the chos­sid R. Mi­choel Dvorkin that the Rebbe said in Kos­trama, “Why did I have to pay for the mikveh in Kos­trama with blood?”