Gimmel Tammuz

When the Rebbe was im­pris­oned in Sh­palerka we re­ceived re­ports from sources in­side the G.P .O. (The Rebbe him­self wrote that in Sh­palerka the in­ves­ti­ga­tor ad­dressed him as “Rebbe. ”) Hence, we al­ready knew on Fri­day that the Rebbe would be re­leased. (It was ac­tu­ally known even ear­lier, when R. Mi­choel Dvorkin trav­eled to Kos­trama for Shab­bos.) And in an­tic­i­pa­tion of his re­lease the Shab­bos morn­ing dav­en­ing was de­layed.

On Sun­day, the third of Tam­muz — when the Rebbe still hadn’t come — and my brother-in-law R. Yitzchak Minkovitch and I went out­side for a while, Pinya (Pin­chas ben R. Biny­omin Al­thoiz) came run­ning to us with the news that the Rebbe had al­ready reached home. We im­me­di­ately ran there, and the Rebbe was sit­ting in the chil­dren’s room. [When I re­lated this story one Yud-Beis Tam­muz, the Rebbe Shlita in­ter­rupted me with a re­quest to ex­plain what the “chil­dren’s room” was.]

One of the daugh­ters en­tered the room and said, “Tateh, the yun­geleit want to see you. ”

“Have you been learn­ing Chas­sidus dur­ing this time?” the Rebbe asked us im­me­di­ately when we came in­side.

“We’ve been say­ing Tehillim,” my brother-in-law an­swered.

The Rebbe replied im­me­di­ately, “I wrote the maa­marim of Shavuos un­til they saw me and took away the pen­cil. ”

A few hours later the Rebbe Shlita brought us the maa­marim. The first maa­mar, be­gin­ning Anochi, was in­scribed “19 Sivan 5687” (1927); the sec­ond maa­mar, be­gin­ning Vayd­aber, was in­scribed “20 Sivan 5687 . ” The last word writ­ten was Or (“light”).

When I was in Mala­chovka — when the Rebbe was there in his dacha — and asked for the end of the maa­mar, the Rebbe an­swered, “Noth­ing more came. ”³⁸

38. See above: The Rebbe Rayatz, #99. ↩

On Gim­mel Tam­muz, when the Rebbe came out of Sh­palerka,¹⁸ he went into the study hall and sat on a bench near the aron hakodesh. He said, “It’s a plan and we must know this. It’s a li­bel from ‘there. ’”

Then he said, “I saw Hash­gacha Pratis around the door at Sh­palerka and thought at that mo­ment, ‘Do I take upon my­self to con­tinue writ­ing about chil­dren’s ed­u­ca­tion and Torah schools? If so, it will be good. Oth­er­wise, there will be reper­cus­sions. ’¹⁹ A sec­re­tary asked, ‘Rebbe, per­haps you need to com­mu­ni­cate some­thing to your home?’ Since she of­fered I de­cided to refuse. ”

18. The notorious prison on Spalerno Street. He was released from prison and was to leave immediately for exile in the distant town of Kostrama. ↩
19. In the original: at the entrance… See Bereishis 4:7. ↩

On Gim­mel Tam­muz, when the Rebbe was re­leased from prison for a few hours be­fore con­tin­u­ing to his ex­ile in Kostroma, R. Zal­man was ad­mit­ted en­try to the Rebbe. As he re­lates:

“On Sun­day, the third of Tam­muz — when the Rebbe still hadn’t come — and my brother-in-law R. Yitzchak Minkovitch and I went out­side for a while, Pinya came run­ning to us with the news that the Rebbe had al­ready reached home. We im­me­di­ately ran there, and the Rebbe was sit­ting in the chil­dren’s room.

“One of the daugh­ters en­tered the room and said, ‘Tateh, the yun­geleit want to see you. ’

“‘Have you been learn­ing Chas­sidus dur­ing this time?’ the Rebbe asked us the mo­ment we came in­side.

“‘We’ve been say­ing Tehillim,’ my brother-in-law an­swered.

“The Rebbe replied im­me­di­ately: ‘I wrote the maa­marim of Shavuos un­til they saw me and took away the pen­cil. ’”

A few hours later, the Frierdiker Rebbe gave out the maamorim of Shavuos through our Rebbe, on which he noted that they had been writ­ten in prison.

The Rebbe’s mother Reb­bet­zin Shterna Sarah, and his wife Reb­bet­zin Nechama Di­nah, wear­ing white silk scarves, ac­com­pa­nied the Rebbe to the train sta­tion.

The Rebbe told his mother from the coach win­dow, “ Mama, it is true that, Hashem our G-d will be with us, as He was with our fore­fa­thers; and it will surely be, Let Him not leave us, nor for­sake us.²⁴ Then, turn­ing to us, “ Ah, such an un­nec­es­sary trip. Nu, you’ll prob­a­bly say Yevarechecha.”²⁵

24. Melachim I 8:57; Shachris before Shir Shel Yom. "יהי הוי' אלקינו עמנו כאשר הי' עם אבותינו, אל יעזבנו ואל יטשנו"The Rebbe elaborated upon that posuk in his talk at the train station. ↩
25. Birkas Kohanim. ↩

When my brother-in-law Yitzchak Minkovitch and I came into the chil­dren’s room,²⁰ the Rebbe asked, “Did you learn Chas­sidus dur­ing this time?”

“We re­cited Tehillim,” I an­swered.

“I wrote the maa­marim, ” the Rebbe said, “un­til they took away the pen­cil. ”

A few hours later the Rebbe gave us – through the Rebbe Shlita – the maamorim of Shavuos, and on the first maa­mar, be­gin­ning Anochi, it was writ­ten, “Writ­ten in prison, 19 Sivan 5687 . ” On the maa­mar be­gin­ning Vayed­aber it was writ­ten, “Writ­ten in prison, 20 Sivan 5687 . ” The last word was “light. ”

(When I was in Mala­chovka²¹ and asked for the end of the maa­mar, the Rebbe an­swered, “Noth­ing more came. ”²²)

20. In the Rebbe's home on 3 Tammuz before he left for exile. ↩
21. A suburb of Moscow. ↩
22. In the original: Es schreibt zich nit mer. ↩