mentalblog.com comments:
The Lesson of the Malach:
The truth never dies.
Name: Avrhum Dov Levine aka The Malach was the Rabbi of the Rayayz’s walked out in middle of the job and cut all of his ties to Lubavitch he then came to the United States and influenced a couple of Talmudim of yeshivas Torah Vadath and after him petirah in 1939 they grouped themselves in a Shteible in Williamsburg and they were called the Muluchim. Some bloggers wanted to know more about the Malach, my comment could start the collection of more data.
There happen to be letters (which were published and censored by Kehot) that would explain some details about the rift between Bais Harav and the Malach. I am going to highlight three Source Documents where this is apparent – perhaps someone out there can track down originals and fill in the missing pieces of the puzzle.
Source Document #1
In Letter 679 of the Rashab to his son, the Rashab writes to his son about “When yedidaynu [our close friend] Reb Avrohom Ber came to Lubavitch”. In the printing of this letter by Kehot, this opening paragraph was reduced to one line with a few dots indicating there was more about Reb Avrohom Ber that the official censors at Kehot did not want the Lubavitch public to know, things that would be flattering to Reb Avrohom Ber. Further on in the letter the Rashab wants to know from his son exactly where the Malach was learning.
Ironically, in this letter, the Rashab warned his son not to be Mevatel time from learning, even for the sake of Shmuessing about the importance of Learning, as Learning, not Shmuessing was the Ikar. This happens to be a point that the Malachim always argued is one of the many faults with Lubavitch and that the Memories of the Rayayz’s in this area is against his own fathers teachings.
Source Document #2
In Letter 695, the Rashab makes reference to his son that he had sent a letter to his son’s tutor, namely Reb Avrohom Ber Levine, the Malach. (Its understood that the Rashab was corresponding with the Malach about the status of his son)
Source Document #3
Kuntros U’Mayan – in the introduction there is a piece about how Farbrengens were changed in format. There is also a references to the Rayatz’s Diary, in which there is a chapter about the Malach (his rebbe whom he refers to in a derogatory title). This chapter about the Malach was not published due to the policy of not publishing anything with a different opinion of the official teachings of the current administration.
In that chapter of the Diary must be a lot to learn about the split between the Malach and the Lubavich.
The introduction tells the incident of when the Rayatz changed what was an established way of having a Farbrengen to what he referred to as an “Emesdike Farbrengen”. What happened , according to the Rayatz, was that the Rashab was away in 1901 and there was a Melave Malke Farbrengen in that time. The Rayatz came in and made a whole fanfare of a letter he had received from his father, indicating that he would read it aloud, stirring a frenzy about his father’s value and the importance of his letter. Acording to the Rayatz there was only one person against this episode at this Melave Malka. That one person was the Malach. Obviously the Malach did not agree with the Rayatz that promoting the messenger of truth (rather than focusing on the message) is what an “Emesdike Farbrengen” is all about.
To shed some light on the matter, an analogy is in place. At the start of the Olympics, there is the age-old rite of carrying the torch. If you are familiar with the hoopla of Olympics, you know that it is not one runner who holds the torch. The goal is to get the torch far and fast, so one runner will hand off the torch to the next, who hands it off to the next, getting closer to the end. It is not about the runners, it is not about any one person, it is about the torch, staying lit and moving forward.
I think that is something like Jewish Mesorah. There is a torch, the light of Torah, which is handed down. When a runner decides to make the holding of the torch about himself, therein lies a problem. The goal is to pass it forward to the next generation, still lit. Most times, the truth is passed onward, not from the same line, not from the same quarter, just passed on to light the way for the next generation.
What am I getting at with this introduction? Let me explain something about the Malach, who did “shtam” from the Lubavitch movement, who grabbed the torch when it was most vulnerable and passed it along, and who, if some of you are smart enough, can follow that torch further, by seeing where the torch is at this point.
Up until 1903, the Rashab and the Malach had been extremely close, as evidenced by letters and by the fact that the Rashab had asked the Malach to be the Mashpia and tutor of his son the Rayatz from the time the Rayatz was 18-years-old. It was during these years leading up to 1903 that the Malach started having grave misgivings about the leanings of the Rayatz. In one instance, as told to me by Rabbi Yankel Schorr, the Malach went to the Rashab to complain that he had caught the Rayatz reading secular books (in those days, reading secular books was akin to a Lubavitch bochur reading Rav Shach’s seyfer today )
The disagreement between the Malach and the Rayatz reached a climax when the Rashab and Rayatz came back from visiting Sigmund Freud in Vienna http://www.jhberke.com/
Freud_Lub...d_Lub_Rebbe.htm . The Malach believed strongly that a Rebbe was about passing on the Emes and about inspiring others to buckle down to Avodas Hashem. The Rayatz being led by Freud, to promote the Rashab, to aggrandize a Chassidic leader as a way to help with the leader’s depressive state. (These ideas of what Freud told the Rashab and the Rayatz are outlined in the diary of the Mamosh – see entry of May 24, 1932 where this matter is discussed with all details of Freud’s instructions). Basically, the Rayatz was tutored to work on creating a “movement” where Chassidim would extol the Rebbe and the Rebbe would then teach more. The Malach saw this Derech would make Lubavitch a political, social and emotional movement and that the torch of truth would become secondary. So he picked himself up and left.
Now, as for providing readers information about the Malach’s group of followers, know this: the Malach was not about himself. He never sought out disciples. They sought him out. Rabbi Shraga Faivel Mendlowitz sent Talmidim to him because Rabbi Mendlowitz felt the students could absorb a lot of Emes and an approach to Avdus Hashem from someone so truthful and fiery in his relationship to truth. What happened afterwards between Reb Shraga Faivel and the Malach is a story for itself, which perhaps this blogsite would like to investigate more fully.
Suffice it to say, that some great minds and leaders were ignited and inspired because of their exposure to the “fire” of the torch the Malach carried. Even today in Brooklyn and Monsey, you can see his ideals still being carried forward, for instance in the school called Bais Shifra Miriam, run by Rabbi Chaim Flohr, wherein quietly, his ideals, the truth untarnished by money and glory, is being taught to a whole new generation of children.
The torch moves onward. Gone are the runners who glorified themselves. Those Chassidim who lagged behind the pace of truth, those who unfortunately who spent years rallying behind torch bearers long after the torch moved on, those people should perhaps play “catch-up” running to find where the truth is up to at this stage in time.
Readers beware that the person who uses the name Malach on this blog was in fact never a member of the Malachim!
Here's the link to what COL stole from my site --
http://www.col.org.il/show_news...._news.asp?
10967
The first 2 pictures I took myself. Of course COL has nothing to say and won't give me any credit. Thanks for spreading this Tzemach Atlas.
YS, the part about Sigmund Freud, is that a masora of malochim or you just made it up? If it is a masora, is there another source for it?
I never heard about Freud from the Elders in M’lochim. That information is actually from the diaries from Mamash (please see the site I had put into the last post that discusses this (http://www.jhberke.com/Freud_Lub_Rebbe.htm).
What the Elders in M’lochim did say was, that the Malach had tried various means to stop the Rayatz from reading secular books which (used to be) are forbidden to a Chassidish Yid. The Malach even went so far as to talk to the Rashab about it. According to what I heard from R’ Zavel Gertner that heard it from the Malach, that the Rashab did not speak to his son for a couple of months when he found out about what he was reading. The Malach said that the end result of these Chitzonyiusdike ideas would be devastating to klal yisroel. I think we can see what he meant.
Ironically in my youth when I was speaking to Lubavitchers, the frum ones overwhelmingly denied that the Rayatz read Goyishe books. When I later met with Barry Gourary, he told me that his grandfather was actually a bookworm (Usually not a Rebisha Teivah) and he used books, in his quote, “his window to the world.” I still remember what I remarked to him that “it seems to be it was not Meitzitz Min Hacharakim (peeking through a crack)– it was more Mashgiach Min HaChalonos (looking through a window), and it seems to be a lot of people fell out of that window that was opened.” To which Barry answered, “it was just fresh air that came in.”
Can you please make this, and the previous letter into a separate blog so that we can review comments and hopefully someone will post the original ksav yad of the Rashab without the Kehot’s censorship.
Yakov Shimen,I 've never claimed to be a member of the 'Malochim' in fact I've posted elsewhere on the blog clearly that I'm not.
What I share with the Malochim is that I 'shtam' from Chabad and feel a connection to the 'real' thing.
Btw, thank you for your very informative posts,I enjoy reading them.
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