Simchas Torah 1980 & Photos of the Rebbe

This year marks thirty years to a very memorable Simchas Torah with the Rebbe and a subsequent year blessed with many interesting and joyful events. The Avner Institute is pleased to present an interesting letter to the Rebbe composed by the legendry Zalman Jaffe a”h prior to visiting 770 in 1979.The material is taken from Zalman Jaffe’s “My Encounter with the Rebbe, Volume 3” currently being prepared for print (www.myencounter.com).

We have included some wonderful photos of the Rebbe, courtesy of The Rebbe Archive.

Good Yom Tov.
Menachem.

My Dear Rebbe, Shlita:

I am writing this letter at home, and I hope, please G-d, to bring it with me tomorrow. So when you receive this note, then you will realize that, B”H, Roselyn and I have arrived, together with Chaim Dovid (Avrohom’s eldest son, 14), and Chaya (Hindy’s eldest daughter, 12). Yossie and Mendel, Hindy’s eldest sons, have been at Crown Heights for the past few weeks. We are staying with Meyer and Raizy Minkowitz for one week. We would like to have stayed longer but we do not wish to impose upon friends.

I do know that Crown Heights is packed to overflowing. I hear that people are sleeping on the floor of 770 in their sleeping-bags. Yehuda Kramer wanted to go to 770 for Succoth with his wife and child. There was definitely nowhere to stay!

I have been warned by Dovid Abenson to take my oldest suit, my most battered hat, and – if possible – steel-toed boots for the farbrengen and for Simchas Torah. I will be crushed from all sides and my ribs may be broken. The heat will be stifling, and I should also take a bottle of oxygen. It sounds terrible. In fact, I do not think I will actually enjoy myself; I may not even be in a position to see or hear what is going on. But maybe I will be able to write a few pages for my next edition. I have heard that the whole seder is different than on Shavuous, the seating arrangements in particular.

Roselyn, as I have mentioned, will be with me. I surely cannot imagine what she will do all the time. To find a place to see or even hear in the women’s shul will be a sheer impossibility. It is bad enough on Shavuous. However, it will be a new experience – to which I am looking forward – with some little trepidation.

Anyway, here I am.

I wish you a happy and freileichen yom tov.

We all missed you on Shavuous.