Posted to Chabad News on

Rebbe’s Items Sold for $80,000

Nine items which used to belong to the Lubavitcher Rebbe or have been associated with him – including a Tehillim, a Siddur andShabbos dinner tableware – were sold to collector last week for a total sum of more than NIS 300,000 (about $80,000).

From Ynet:

Nine items which used to belong to the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, or have been associated with him were sold to collector last week for a total sum of more than NIS 300,000 (about $80,000), 21 years after the Chabad leader’s death.

The items include a Book of Psalms he used to read from, a prayer book signed by him and Shabbat dinner tableware. Experts say the items were sold for record prices for such artifacts in the past generation.

Many items which were used by the last rebbe of the Chabad movement, who was one of the most prominent and influential Jewish leaders in the world, exchanged hands over the years. Some of them are kept in his home in Brooklyn, New York, others are in the hands of the synagogue managers who served him, and some found their way into the hands of ordinary Chabad Hasidim.

Some of these items were purchased recently by the Kedem Auction House, one of the largest auction houses in the field of Judaica, which sold them to collectors.

Click here to continue reading at Ynet.

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22 Comments

    • Milhouse

      The same reason any collectables end up on the market. Either the owner needs the money, or the owner dies and the heirs are not interested in keeping it.

  • Jim M.

    For eighty thousand, apparently.
    So, who bought them, already?
    “Gold as silver, the work of man’s hands.”
    (Wealth is the undoing of man).
    Sad to sell these precious items, for a few pieces
    of silver.

  • sold for what?

    these items are invaluable who had the right to sell them? Who actually sold them? what a shame!

  • since when

    How does anyone have the right to sell ANYTHING which belonged to the Rebbe?????I hate to be in their place when they have to give a din vicheshbon for virtually “stealing” the Rebbe’s belongings without his reshus!!!!

    • Milhouse

      What are you talking about? These items belonged to various people, who had every right to sell them. There is no reason to suppose anything was stolen.

  • To number 4

    Din v’chesgbon???sorry to burst your bubble, but the Rebbe is not God. He gave them to ppl, and they could do what they want with it. ( not to mention the Rebbe had ruach hakodesh, and knew these items would be sold.

  • it seems

    It seems that some say that the whole thing might be a fake!

    The person that sold it to the auction made up that it was from the Rebbe’s House

  • Yossi A

    I don’t know about all the items authenticty.
    However, until כ”ב שבט. The Rebbe would use a tihillim and Chumash every Monday and Thursday .
    There would be a raffle at 7am to see who would put them for the Rebbe to use. Anyone there was able to put his name into the raffle.
    After the Rebbe went up to his room, that bachur would take the tihillim/ Chumash for himself.
    I personally have one of each.
    AND NO THEY AREN’T FOR SALE.

    • Milhouse

      The raffle was in later years, when there was a high demand. Earlier there was no raffle, and it was kol hakodem zocho; if you saw that someone had already put a tehillim there, then you just came earlier the next day.

  • Yossi A

    The Rebbe gave out a siddur to each child from tzivos Hashem, if I remember correctly, it was Shevuos 1978
    It was given by the Rebbe to a lot of children. It surly NOT a one of a kind item.

  • Milhouse

    Over the years the Rebbe and Rebbetzin gave away a lot of things. I knew someone who had a becher that the Rebbe gave him and his wife as a wedding present. His sons are not interested in selling it, but if they wanted to they would have every right.

  • to millhouse

    You comment waaay too much. We hear your point. Enough already.
    You seem pretty bored to say the least.

  • Yechi Hamelech L'olom Voed

    Remember the Sichos when Barry sold the Rayets’ seforim. !!!!

    • Milhouse

      Barry stole the seforim. There is no suggestion that any of these things were stolen, and there is no reason why they should not be sold. How do you think the Rebbe had the Baal Shem Tov’s tefillin, and how did the previous Rebbe have the Baal Shem Tov’s siddur? Someone bought them and then gave them to the Rebbe. Should he not have bought them? Should the previous owner not have sold them?

  • Baruch Trappler

    The sale of items belonging to the Rebbe or Rebbetzen raises several questions pertaining to Halacha as well as Hashkofah.
    For those who say “V`Kitzu V`Rannenu Shochnei Aphar”, when the Rebbe returns, might he want to live in his house on President Street ? If all the Rebbeim return with their families would they move freely between all the Schneursohn properties here and in Eretz Yisroel ? Presumably that’s why a house was built for the Rebbe in Kfar Chabad. Or will the Rebbe`s identity be so spiritual that he wont need any physical Kelim ? My position is that until we know, all items belonging to the Rebbeim are Hekdish. That would be supported by the Rebbe`s reaction upon hearing about the sale of the Baal Shem`s Siddur. So why should his Siddur be treated any differently ?

    • Milhouse

      You can’t be serious. Do you think children should not sell their parents’ property after they die?!