Title: Rebbe
By:Joseph Telushkin
Publisher: Harper
Although this definitive biography of the late last Lubavitcher Rebbe was written ten years ago, the upcoming calendar date 19th Kislev, a major Chabad “holiday,” marking the anniversary of the release of the first Lubavitcher Rebbe from prison, has brought this title to mind.
While this book brilliantly recounts Rav Menachem Mendel Schneerson’s ascent to lead the world wide Chabad movement – and the Rebbe’s various “campaigns” including girls lighting candles, mitzvah/tefillin “tanks,” mezuzah inspections, and an “army” of shluchim, etc. – it was the Rebbe’s world view of ahavas Yisrael which successfully “grew” the Chabad movement.
The Rebbe is both a tutorial of the Lubavitch movement, combined with a non-stop vignettes, describing both the Rebbe’s formative years before being “coronated,” and continuing with his leadership practices during his 40 years at the helm of the movement. The book ends sadly as it recalls his two and a half years of illness before he was niftar.
The 600-plus page biography, accompanied with astounding photos, is encyclopedic in its coverage of the Rebbe’s life. You will be intrigued when reading about the Rebbe’s years in Berlin as an engineering student, and then escaping to Paris to continue his studies, where he meets up with the Rav (Rabbi Joseph Ber Soloveitchik). Rav Soloveitchik recalled that the Rebbe was not only unaffected by the Berlin/Paris/Sorbonne environment, but kept a key to the local mikveh, where he as a young man immersed daily after classes.
For those ignorant or confused with the Lubavitcher movement’s beginnings and dynasty, Rebbe weaves its history into a beautiful and comprehensive tapestry.
There were seven Rebbes. The “Alter” Shneur Zalman (1785-1812), the “Mitteler” Dovber (1733-1827), The “Tzemach Tzedek” Menachem Mendel Schneersohn (1780-1866), The “Maharash” Shmuel Schneersohn (1834-1882), The “Rashab” Sholom Dovber Schneersohn (1860-1920), The “Frierdicker” Yosef Yitzhok Schneersohn (1880-1994), and “Ramash” Menachem Mendel Schneerson (1900-1984), who is the subject of this book. These Rebbes were all the sons or grandsons of the previous Rebbes, including the last Rebbe, who was both a 4th generation grandson of the third Rebbe, and son-in-law of the sixth Rebbe.
Rebbe explores the unspoken rivalry between the Friedicker Rebbe’s two daughters, Chana Gourary and Chaya Mushka Schneerson, as to which of their respective husbands, both the sons-in-law of the Friedicker Rebbe, would succeed him – Rav Schneerson or R’ Shmaryahu Gourary (Rashag). A third daughter and her husband were murdered by the Germans, yemach shemam, in Treblinka.
While both sons-in-law were eminently capable and worthy, Telushkin avers that the Friedicker Rebbe favored his younger son-in-law, and did not hesitate to make his feelings known, tactfully, in letters he wrote to and about Ramash. Rebbe recounts the famous legend concerning the mailman, who while delivering mail to 770 Eastern Parkway addressed to Ramash as the Rebbe, declared aloud one day, that “Ramash would be the successor to the Friedicker Rebbe, because,” he said, “most of the mail sent after the death of the Friedicker Rebbe was addressed to Ramash.” This tidbit reflects, in my opinion, that Rav Schneerson was “coronated” from the “bottom up” by the masses, the chassidim, rather than being hand-picked by the elite of “770.” And because of this, Rav Schneerson was so beloved by the chassidim world wide.
The book does not hesitate to discuss many of the well known and controversial episodes in which the Ramash was involved, including his own reaction to world events, and how he was able to shape some of them, especially in regard to Israel, a country he never visited. The reason for his never visiting Israel, according to the author in my interview with him, was supposedly based on a letter written by the Rebbe to 10 young chassidim who were sent by the Rebbe to be menachem aveilim the murdered members of Kfar Chabad by Arab terrorists. The Rebbe wrote that they had to return to America within 30 days, or remain permanently in Israel.
Two well-known controversial positions of the Rebbe deal with the Holocaust and Israel’s exchanging land for peace.
Regarding the Holocaust, the Rebbe took great issue with Rav Eliezer Shach, the head of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah in Israel, who, the author states in his book, referred to the Holocaust as “divine punishment,” and quotes Rav Shach as saying, “G-d kept count of each and every sin in a running count over hundreds of years, until the count amounted to six million Jews, and that is how the Holocaust came about. And after the Holocaust of the six million, He began counting again….”
The Rebbe never responded directly to Rav Shach’s statements, but instead included in a speech about this topic, as cited by Telushkin, the following words, “In relation to these awful events of the last generation (the Holocaust), it is clear and obvious (“borer ve’pashut”) that this did not come as punishment. To say that these very people were deserving of what transpired, that it was a punishment for their sins, is unthinkable. There is no explanation or understanding of the Holocaust. No scales of judgment could ever condemn a people to such horrors.”
Concerning the Rebbe’s position on Israel, the Rebbe is also quoted by Telushkin as saying, “I am totally opposed to the surrender of any areas under negotiation because this needlessly endangers Jewish lives and even Arab lives in case of war.” The Rebbe would modify his stance if the military approved of a land surrender, but he said, it is always the politicians who decide, and pikuach nefesh was more important than diplomatic aspirations.
The book describes in painful but historically-necessary detail, the infamous dispute and trial between the Chabad organization and Chana Gourary, relating to the legal ownership of the irreplaceable sefarim and manuscripts left by the Friedicker Rebbe. At first, sefarim were missing from his library, and it was discovered that they were being sold throughout the world by reputable Jewish booksellers. A camera was secretly installed in the library located at “770,” and it was discovered that the person removing them, often late at night, was a relative of Chana Gourary. The Rebbe approved of Chabad asking for an injunction in federal court against any further sales, and that all sefarim found in this relative’s possession were to be held in storage until released by the Court. The Rebbe also announced that Chabad would pay to re-purchase any sefer purchased by any innocent buyer. Gourary’s argument was that the sefarim were privately owned by her father, and since there was no son to succeed him, she and her sister were entitled to divide the sefarim. This was in effect a direct attack on the Rebbe’s role as the universally recognized leader of Chabad. In response, Chabad countered that the sefarim belonged to the Chabad community, and they were never privately owned by the Friedicker Rebbe. While Chabad wanted the case transferred to beis din to decide the merits of the case, Gourary refused, saying she was already in court, having been sued by Chabad. The reader will be engrossed by the fascinating transcript of the depositions and trial, which the author has painstakingly included in the book. However, in my opinion, the author was not objective as he described the trial, as his sympathies were obviously aligned with the Chabad side of things.
The Rebbe as the purported Mashiach, according to some very passionate chassidim mostly living in Israel, is probably the most vexing and inexplicable chapter in this book. While the author cites proofs from Rambam that the Rebbe did not satisfy the Rambam’s requirements of who is eligible to be Mashiach, this debate lives on.
The Rebbe may well influence the reader to adopt the Rebbe’s positive attitude towards non-observant Jews, which the author has skillfully embedded in the book, and to reject one’s “home grown” prejudices against irreligious Jews. Instead, the “takeaway” from the Rebbe is that a person must welcome every Jew into their heart, as the Rebbe did throughout his life. If there is a leitmotif which runs through this book, it is that no Jew ever is permitted to estrange himself from another Jew.
Ironically, despite the Rebbe having been niftar childless, and despite the fact that there is not an eighth Rebbe on the horizon, Chabad’s enormous post-Rebbe growth has been the Rebbe’s living legacy to the world in general, and its chassidim in particular.
The book reads easily and makes for time well spent. I highly recommend the Rebbe.
