By COLlive reporter
A glimpse into the battle of the Rebbe to halt the mass emigration of Jews from Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood appears in the newly printed volume 56 of Toras Menachem – Hisvaaduyos.
Featuring the public and a few semi-private talks the Rebbe gave between the month of Nissan to Tammuz in the year 5729, the new volume offers insight into the state of affairs of the time.
One of them was Jews fleeing from the crime-ridden neighborhood – most of them associated with chassidic groups that had lived there for decades and which owned homes and shuls in the area.
In a sicha on Acharon shel Pesach that year, the Rebbe said that “Since various and strange rumors have been spread” that he supposedly supports the migration, “I am compelled to express my opinion openly and clearly,” “although it isn’t my way to deny rumors,” the Rebbe said.
The Rebbe went on to call the “emigration phenomenon from Jewish neighborhoods” a “plague” and is leading to the destruction of the fabric of Jewish life and the livelihood of fellow Jews.
And then the Rebbe made a vow: “All those who behave according to Shulchan Aruch and stay here, those returning here and those coming to settle in this neighborhood will be bestowed with blessings in the good and visible, concretely.”
In addition, the Rebbe said that this will have a positive effect also on Jews living in Williamsburg, Boro Park, Washington Heights, as well as Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Washington, Melbourne, London and even on the safety of Israel.
The new 400-page volume in Hebrew and Yiddish is published by the New York-based Lahak publications, directed by Rabbi Chaim Shaul Brook, in conjunction with Kehot Publication Society.
This is the third book of the Rebbe’s teachings said in 5729. As with previous books in the Toras Menachem series, the new volume includes talks the Rebbe has given in smaller settings, rather than the large farbrengens in the main synagogue at Lubavitch Headquarters – 770 Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn, NY.
Among them is an address the Rebbe gave to the first group of Talmidim Shluchim traveling to the Jewish community in Australia during which each received $36. There is also talks to students graduating Beis Rivkah High School and to the staff of the girls Camp Emunah of New York.
There is also the maamar (“Hachodesh Haza Lachem”) the Rebbe said after receiving a new Torah brought by Rabbi Michoel Lipsker, a gift from the students of the Chabad school in Meknes in appreciation of the Rebbe and the Shluchim’s care for Moroccan Jewry.
The new Toras Menachem is sold at Kehot and leading Judaica and book stores.
If you had something for sale, and you could get $100 for it, would you give it away for $75? So what gives you the right to demand that someone else do that?
A promise, or a bracha is not a vow
So, so far, as far as comment number 7, I see the reason for why housing/renting is so expensive is because wicked men are doing “all they can to raise the cost of housing here,” and because ” buildings are off limits to Jewish families.” That all may true, but how can it be verified, and how also does this account for the well documented fact that rental prices in proportion to income have been rising across the entire country, in the aggregate, since 1979, when the data began being collected. How also does it account for that Brooklyn rents… Read more »
BS”D There are nearly a dozen frum Jews who own buildings in Crown Heights, a good lot of them are Lubavitcher Chassidim, and yet these buildings are off limits to Jewish families. They will rent to goyim, yuppies, etc, but not to Jews. There is a problem that many renters take advantage of the way the laws give a lot of leeway to renters to basically take advantage of the renter. And with the halacha being that a Jew has to take a Jew to Beis Din and not to goyishe courts, the situation becomes impossible. First of all there… Read more »
i TOTALLY agree with you!! couldn’t say it better!!
This is a wonderful article
the emigration we are seeing today is beacause of some of our fellow yidden who are doing all they can to raise the cost of housing here, making it impossible for many families to survive. the struggle of so many families here to meet their daily needs is heartbreaking.
this is the plague going on here
forcing many to leave, or drown.
the stories are horrific that ppl will do anything for the sole purpose of raising the costs
shame on all those involved in this dirty work- even if they give tzedaka from their greedy profits
but that those not give people in the community the right to raise/hike rents to levels that make it impossible to have people stay around.
the manuscripts shown are not the rebbe’s holy handwriting
but an unedited “hanocha” of one of the persons writing the rebbes holy talks that he spoke at the farbrengen.
it is so wonderful and nice to post these type of articles,
please post more
Thank you!