Picture of the author

When the Lubavitcher Rebbe Spoke about Not Giving up on Souls Buried in Rubble

When You Encounter a Person Living in a Meaningless and Crazy World, Help Him Clear the Chaos

1 hr 34 min

Class Summary:

This weekly women's class was presented on Tuesday, Parshas Pinchas, 19 Tammuz, 5781, June 29, 2021, live from Rabbi YY Jacobson's home in Monsey, NY. It happened 88 years ago, in 1932. The Lubavitcher Rebbe came from Berlin to Riga to spend Sukkos with his father-in-law, the sixth Chabad Rebbe. On Chol Hamoed, the Rebbe farbrenged all night in the Sukkah of the yeshiva. But nobody ever had a record of the words. After the Rebbe's passing in 1994, his personal journals were discovered and published as the "Reshimos." There they found the Rebbe’s transcript of that 1932 address, a major part of it dealing with the Torah laws about searching for people trapped in the rubble of a collapsed building. As the Mishna states (Yuma 83a), we never give up hope and never stop searching for anyone who might be alive. The Rebbe spent a few hours analyzing all the details of this halacha (which will be studied in the Daf Yomi this week), and then explaining it from an emotional and spiritual perspective, applying these laws to people living in a chaotic N What does it mean that a person is emotionally trapped under a collapsed building? How do we extract them? Do we ever give up? What are the signs of life we are looking for? Was the rebbe perhaps also addressing what would become his mission following the greatest catastrophe in Jewish history?

Please leave your comment below!

  • Anonymous -2 years ago

    Is the word "Ironic" or just plain horrific. The day it happened, that the building collapsed was a new Day called Holocaust Remembrance Day. How many don't know or even still deny that the Holocaust  happened? Now that the last survivors of the Concentration Camps or those who were hidden or those who miraculously escaped are dying off in droves, "Who will tell our Story.?" It's the name of a movie worth looking up. Don't believe that all the Polish and European Jews were peasants in a Shtetl. A culture was almost destroyed along with a people. The Champlain Towers were witching walking distance of a Shul, near a neighborhood called BAL Harbour, Florida. My first in-laws lived there. It was not that long ago that it was "No Jews Allowed, No Italians, no blacks." We are still here. As an Attorney (not Jewish, by the way) told me recently, "EVERY JEW IS A HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR." As a young DP camp Survivor I had to think about that. I had never heard that before. But she is correct. We are still here. Baruch HaShem.

    Reply to this comment.Flag this comment.

  • Anonymous -2 years ago

    CZ MINK

    With much appreciation and awe!! So much information... so many lessons... so clear... brought down tangible!!TY

    Reply to this comment.Flag this comment.

  • BS

    Bailey Smith -2 years ago

    Inspiration

    Every Class Or Live I Watch, Rabbi YY Gives, I Walk Away  Inspired.  

    Thank You, 

    Bailey 

    Reply to this comment.Flag this comment.

  • Anonymous -2 years ago

    Really helpful. Thank you

    Reply to this comment.Flag this comment.

  • Anonymous -2 years ago

    Passed away in 2015 not 2005 as written erroneously above.

    Reply to this comment.Flag this comment.

  • SM

    Sara Metzger -2 years ago

    Someone asked...

    What is the name of this Sefer the Rebbe wrote?

    Reply to this comment.Flag this comment.

    • YG

      Yochanan Gordon -2 years ago

      Reshimos

      Reply to this comment.Flag this comment.

  • SM

    Sara Metzger -2 years ago

    Someone asked...

    How do I pull myself out of the rubble, when davening and reciting Tehillim and giving Tzedakah and bentching licht, etc. is not uplifting me?

    Reply to this comment.Flag this comment.

    • Y

      Yonah -2 years ago

      There's a game, "count your blessings". and you'll be rich and happy. Make.a list, keep adding to it. Appreciating everything we have is gift, even every moment, that's why it's called the present.

      Our Rabbis call it hakores hatov.

      Reply to this comment.Flag this comment.

    • Anonymous -2 years ago

      I get this way too. The only thing that uplifts me is to speak to Hashem. To go for a walk with Him and speak to him in my own words. To thank Him and to ask for his help and to confess averas. This uplifts. Teshuva is like a ton lifted off the soul. And Hashem always gives help and advice through different events, people we encounter, etc etc. We just have to look for the messages because Hashem always listens and He always answers us. And it's uplifting to know that He is with us. 

      Reply to this comment.Flag this comment.

    • S

      S -2 years ago

      Learn chassidus! It uplifts you and connects your soul and mind to Hashem exactly the boost it needs to propel you fwd with meaning!!

      Reply to this comment.Flag this comment.

    • G

      Gilah -2 years ago

      Learning chassidus, can open your heart ( as it onened my heart). I found it very painful not to feel the connection thru the mitsves only. Listening to Rabbi YY also helped.

      [email protected]

      Reply to this comment.Flag this comment.

  • SG

    Sarah Goldberg -2 years ago

    We can see that even as a young man, in the prescence of the

    Previous Rebbe, the Rebbe was a real "Rubble Rouser".  Later he went on to continue the work of the Shver to rebuild a shattered Jewish world, to envigorate a world of  ignorant yidden to become bts, to establish what people now describe as a branch of Judaism.  

    Reply to this comment.Flag this comment.

  • SM

    Sara Metzger -2 years ago

    Someone commented...

    Rabbi, I’m in Israel and please I need to hear chizuk, so much world wide is happening and it saddens me to see so many of our people asleep. 

    Reply to this comment.Flag this comment.

  • SG

    Sarah Goldberg -2 years ago

    These words said in 1932

    Could the Rebbe have been referring to the great Russian famine of 1932-33 that killed 5 million people including 4 million from the Ukraine, the Rebbe's birthplace?

    Or the Wall Street crash of 1929 and ensuing great depression where many died? 

    In our time there was, of course, 9/11 that collapsed the tallest buildings in  the  world killing 3,000. It is interesting that loved ones didn't have closure, often for years, till a speck of  DNA confirmed what they already knew. 

    Reply to this comment.Flag this comment.

    • SG

      Sarah Goldberg -2 years ago

      Or perhaps the Rebbe was referring to the destruction of the 2 botei Migdash?

      Reply to this comment.Flag this comment.

    • Anonymous -2 years ago

      This commenter is actually Moshe Isenberg, who uses an alias because he is not allowed to participate in R. Jacobson's shiurim until he gives his wife a get. 

      Reply to this comment.Flag this comment.

      • Anonymous -2 years ago

        So inappropriate  and wrong to post this!

        Reply to this comment.Flag this comment.

        • B

          Berel -2 years ago

          Really? And it is appropriate to refuse to give a get to your wife for more than five years? This is a crime against Torah, G-d, and humanity. Why do you support Mr. Isenberg who writes comments as a woman Sarah Goldberg since he knows that the rabbi will not let him participate in any classes till he gives a get?

          None of us should support abusers.

          Reply to this comment.Flag this comment.

          • C

            Chaim -2 years ago

            I agree. Let's stop protecting get refusers. Shame on you who protect these people and are accomplices to evil.

            Let's fight for justice and fairness. No more cruelty.

            Reply to this comment.Flag this comment.

        • C

          chaya -2 years ago

          Moshe, so why do all Sarah Goldbergs comments become suddenly "anonymous?" The rabbi or his staff are embarrassed to have your voice here, because you are abusing innocent people.

          Let's be honest and stand up to get refuses. Thank you Rabbi YY for speaking the truth to abuse.

          Reply to this comment.Flag this comment.

      • SG

        Sarah Goldberg -2 years ago

        That's ridiculous.  I am Sarah Goldberg who comments here frequently.  I suggest that you, Mr anonymoud,  with your pashkvill,  cease your slander of whoever that person is. I remind you that the Alter Rebbe ruled that any public slander type pressure  that results in  a gett invalidates that gett completely. The couple remains married.   You are engaging not only in forbidden slander but in self defeating behavior.  

        Reply to this comment.Flag this comment.

        • TMATC

          the men at the class -2 years ago

          Sadly, Moshe, we all know it is you. Not Sarah. Your style has been uniform, and your type of comments has not changed from Moshe Isenberg to Sarah Goldberg.

          We miss your brilliant comments at the classes of the Rabbi. Please give a get, so we can welcome you back into society.

          The only one who will cry if you give a get is your yatzer hara.

          Reply to this comment.Flag this comment.

          • SG

            Sarah Goldberg -2 years ago

            If you think you're right, and you're not smarter than Rabbi YY,  then why does YY answer my comments? 

            Reply to this comment.Flag this comment.

          • YH

            yosef hersh -2 years ago

            Gentlemen and ladies. I happen to know the person named in these comments. This couple has a binding psak that they must first go to therapy.

            She did go to therapy, and the therapist stated that they should get divorced. The therapist spoke to him, to her, and to both of them, and concluded that the marriage is dead, and Moshe needs to give a get.

            Also, his children stopped talking to him. Because they see how wrong he is.

            It is sad; please help Moshe Isenberg give a get and get his dignity restored. He means well, but he has become evil.

            Reply to this comment.Flag this comment.

  • S

    Sara -2 years ago

    Is there such a person alive

    that is totally objective? Someone who is truly looking for emes without any bias, without any other preceonceived perspectives, without any of that? So very hard to believe.

    Reply to this comment.Flag this comment.

  • Anonymous -2 years ago

    How do I get the sheets for this lecture?

    Reply to this comment.Flag this comment.

    • I

      Isaac -2 years ago

      Below the video, you see the download. Click on it.

      Reply to this comment.Flag this comment.

Surfside Tower Collapse/Tuesday Women's Class

Rabbi YY Jacobson

  • June 29, 2021
  • |
  • 19 Tamuz 5781
  • |
  • 21685 views

Dedicated by our dear friends Liz and Dr. Michael Muschel, in memory of his father, HaRav Nachum ben Meir (1924-2015), for the 6th yartzeit, on 18 Tamuz.

Born in Tarnow, Poland, escaping the Germans to Siberia, he arrived in the US, and for more than 50 years headed the ASHAR Yeshiva day school in Monsey, mentoring thousands of students, inspiring hundreds of families, instilling in his disciples love for Torah, Yiddishkeit, and Israel.

Classes in this Series

Please help us continue our work
Sign up to receive latest content by Rabbi YY

Join our WhatsApp Community

Ways to get content by Rabbi YY Jacobson
Connect now
Picture of the authorPicture of the author