Thursday, July 11, 2024
Tens of thousands visit gravesite of Lubavitcher Rebbe on 30th anniversary of his death
On the evening of July 5, hundreds of Hasidic men crowded into a squat building at a cemetery in Queens, sitting shoulder-to-shoulder at cafeteria-style tables, studying Jewish texts and preparing to visit the gravesite of their late leader.
The men were some of the 50,000 people who this week visited the gravesite of Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, known as the Rebbe, to mark the Jewish anniversary of his death, which fell on Monday night and Tuesday. Some had met the Rebbe when he held court at Chabad's home base of Crown Heights, Brooklyn.
But for those born after his passing 30 years ago, a visit to the Ohel, as his gravesite is known, is the closest they can physically be to the last leader of their global movement.
"People of my generation, we have a yearning," said Levi Shmotkin, 26, who was one of the visitors to the Old Montefiore Cemetery on Rabbi Schneerson's yahrzeit. "Instead of me studying the Rebbe's interaction with another teenager, I wish I could be that teenager."
Like some other Chabadniks under 30, Shmotkin has immersed himself in Schneerson's teachings, which are organized in compendia of letters he wrote and talks he gave in Crown Heights. Shmotkin felt drawn to the letters the Rebbe exchanged with those seeking his counseling. He has now published his own book on the correspondence, called "Letters for Life."
"It is only after the teacher leaves and the students are left alone that the students can then take apart and really understand what the teacher said," Shmotkin said while visiting the site. He spent five years organizing Schneerson's 13,000 archived letters, thematically, with a focus on emotional wellness.
"We didn't have that all-encompassing experience of being in the Rebbe's presence. That gives us the ability to dissect what he's saying and make a comprehensive picture of it," Shmotkin said.
Chabad has not had a leader after Rabbi Schneerson – the seventh rebbe of the movement, which was founded in the 18th century in the Russian Empire. In the years following his passing, a contingent of Hasidim have professed that he is the messiah, creating tensions in the movement.
Those tensions were absent on Monday night, when visitors packed into Rabbi Schneerson's walled gravesite, where he is buried alongside his father-in-law and predecessor, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn. Men and women filed into the enclosure and, per Orthodox practice, stood with a barrier between them. Nearly all said prayers or left notes on top of the graves. One man left several pictures of Israeli hostages held in Gaza and said a prayer wishing for their safe return.
A long line wound outside the tomb into the street outside, where attendees lit candles in the hot summer night.
Over the decades, the Ohel has become a pilgrimage site for celebrities and politicians as well as Chabad Hasidim. At 1 a.m. on Tuesday morning, New York City Mayor Eric Adams became one of the thousands who visited the grave.
"His influence shaped our city for the better by reminding us even small deeds can change the world," Adams posted on X. "Let's honor his worldwide legacy by increasing our acts of kindness."
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