4 weeks ago

Rare Audio Recording of the Frierdiker Rebbe Released in English

The only known recording of the Frierdiker Rebbe (12 Tammuz, 5709) has now been translated into English and made available for the first time • Full Story, Listen

The only known recording of the Frierdiker Rebbe (12 Tammuz, 5709) has now been translated into English and made available for the first time.

On the occasion of 12-13 Tammuz, this rare recording of the 12-23 Tammuz 5709 farbrengen, the last farbrengen with the Freidiker Rebbe at Beis Chayinu-770, with the lone central voice being that of the Rebbe himself, in a melody that he very much liked (Nigun of a chossid, oved Hashem that would daven with this niggun).

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The Rebbe’s Spokesmen:

On 3 Shevat, 1992—a little more than a month before he suffering a major stroke and all but losing his capacity for speech (27 Adar I, 1992)—the Rebbe shared a most remarkable thing with the Chassidim:

When Hashem appeared to Moshe at the burning bush and informed him that it was his destiny to lead the Jewish people free from exile, Moses responded, “I am utterly incapable of filling such a role as I am not a man of words. I am heavy of tongue and heavy of mouth (I stutter and slur, and cannot express myself properly).”

To which Hashem replied, A) I will fill your mouth, speaking and working through you, allowing you to find your voice and hit upon the proper words with which to fully articulate yourself.

B) Aaron your brother will serve as your spokesperson and mouthpiece, addressing the people and communicating to the masses on your behalf.

The Rebbe then said that like Moshe, the Frierdiker Rebbe was “heavy of mouth and heavy of tongue.”

כבד פה וכבד לשון

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In the last several years of the Frierdiker Rebbe’s life, he was wheelchair-bound and extremely unwell.

It was exhausting and physically painful for him to speak then, his speech grew unclear and became heavily slurred, and his words were nearly impossible to make out and decipher (other than to the trained ears of his personal secretaries).

During this time, one of the Frierdiker Rebbe’s doctors asked him, “How could G-d afflict you so and rob you of your speech of all things, when you are the Rebbe, who must teach and spread Chassidus, and who therefore requires not only an average capacity for speech, but an exceptional above-average capacity for verbal communication!”

The Frierdiker Rebbe did not reply.

Listen:

Original recording: