Purim Story Draft Found in Nissan Mindel’s Archives
In honor of Purim, we present a manuscript found in the Archives of the Rebbe’s trusted secretary and celebrated author of children’s books Nissan Mindel, featuring the annotated draft of a fascinating Purim story.
The manuscript was made available by Nissan Mindel Publications, under the leadership of his son-in-law Rabbi Sholom Ber Shapiro.
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The story is printed
The story was printed. See here in a Chabad newspaper from 1984:
http://newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/2002222009/1984-03-01/ed-1/seq-19/ocr.txt
Page 2 is missing
Instead of page 2, page 5 is published (and appears again in its right place, as page 5).
So people know
It’s his corrections not the rebbes handwriting
F. Schapiro
Obviously, these are Rabbi Mindel’s corrections and a rough draft of the story.
What is also well known – is that the entire text of each month’s Talk and Tales (for 48 years), which Rabbi Mindel wrote in its entirety, was carefully checked by the Rebbe before going to print. As this what the Frierdiker Rebbe had requested. So although the Rebbe’s notations are not on this manuscript, the story was certainly checked by the Rebbe before its final draft.
In addition – whatever Rabbi Mindel wrote – the dozens of his works for young and old during his illustrious career- the Rebbe looked over before going to print.
Rabbi Mindel had the distinct privilege of the Rebbe’s careful scrutiny of all his writings for Chabad. Of all of them – Talks and Tales remains unique, in that the Rebbe checked and noted each word.