By Alan Feuer for the New York Times

CROWN HEIGHTS — According to the sages, sanctity lingers. “Holiness,” the Talmud says, “does not depart its place.”

There are many places holy to Jews — the Western Wall and Joseph’s Tomb among them — but one of the plainest and least-known is the empty ground-floor study on your left just inside Lubavitch World Headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn.

The Rebbe’s Room – No One There, but This Place Is Far From Empty

By Alan Feuer for the New York Times

CROWN HEIGHTS — According to the sages, sanctity lingers. “Holiness,” the Talmud says, “does not depart its place.”

There are many places holy to Jews — the Western Wall and Joseph’s Tomb among them — but one of the plainest and least-known is the empty ground-floor study on your left just inside Lubavitch World Headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn.

There, in 1942, a young rabbi and electrical engineer named Menachem Mendel Schneerson settled in, having fled the war in Europe and spent a year doing classified military work at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

Rabbi Schneerson was the son-in-law (and cousin) of Yosef Yitzchok Schneerson, who then led the Lubavitch movement. Over the next half-century, as he took the reins, no other physical location, from his house on President Street to his eventual grave in Queens was ever more connected to the great, respected man.

“People look toward the rebbe’s room today as they did to the rebbe himself, as a beacon of light,” said Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky, a leader of the Lubavitch community. “One might think of it as suffused — with awe.”

Before Rabbi Schneerson died in 1994, few people realized how small the study was, a tiny, although tasteful, place with a chandelier and ornamental moldings. It is a testament to his presence that while many were permitted in, they were so intimidated that they scarcely had the wit to look around.

During his life, in fact, the study was a mess, a disorderly scholar’s cave strewn with books, religious tracts and mountains of correspondence. The small space functioned as an office and, despite the clutter, as a throne room: for there, among the letters and the papers, the rebbe courted mayors, senators, presidents and every prime minister of Israel.

On Sunday and Thursday nights, from 8 p.m. until 6 the following morning, the study was transformed into a parlor, as Rabbi Schneerson met his flock, listening and solving problems, not unlike a clubhouse politician. The sessions were so popular that reservations were required — often months in advance. People got as little as a minute. When your time was up, a buzzer would sound.

In 1988, after Rabbi Schneerson’s wife died, he moved into the study full time. He slept there, and disciples brought his meals. Four years later, when he had a stroke, the study became his private I.C.U. Medicine went to him.

These days, the study is a shrine of sorts, mostly empty beyond a clock, a desk, some glass-fronted bookcases and a decorative style that is classic old-time Brooklyn. There is a 1950s-era telephone, and the window facing Eastern Parkway is made of bulletproof glass.

Grooms meditate there before their wedding days, and people pray. On any morning when the Torah is read, the worshipers flow from the study out into the hall.

“This great world leader lived in one room, as simple and as plain as could be,” Rabbi Krinsky said. “There was no embellishment, no opulence. It was exactly like the man.”

One more thing about the all-night advice sessions: A story is told that when Senator John F. Kennedy was running for president, he sought an audience with Rabbi Schneerson. He happened by one night when a session was afoot. As the senator had no reservation, he was politely turned away.

5 Comments

  • Slichos in Rebbes Room

    As I enter your room
    And find a place that is barely sufficient for my ample frame
    But never sufficient for my torn neshomo
    I remember that cold winter Shabbos morning
    When after walking through the dark, wet, snowy streets of golus
    Your gaze settled on me and somehow my legs which could no longer carry me
    Danced until dawn, propelled by your Divine spark.

    And I remember how your advice started me on a journey across the oceans
    But I strayed, Rebbe, further than you could have imagined
    Yet those memories brought me right back to your room
    Where I could only imagine what you must have done for me
    And for everyone else who called upon you

    But as I left your room, I remembered all too well that you are not here with us
    Your absence screamed out to me, in the darkness of night:
    Do all that you can to bring Moshiach Now….
    And I hope that this time I will remember, forever, until we are united once again
    So that I can once again dance until dawn
    In Yerushalayim habnuya.

  • A Chosid

    To “visiting crown heights”

    Contact Reb Sholom Gansbourg and he will accomidate you.

    He is the only one that the rebbe zy“a trusted with responsibilty & keys to the room. As a matter of fact the Rebbe zy”a told specifically not to give anyone the keys.

    It is surprisingly noted that his name is not mentioned in the article although he has dedicated his whole life to the room, accomidating chasanim, guest’s, and visitors to daven in the room without any compensation etc.