As the town of Lubavitch prepares for hundreds of visitors for 15 Elul, the house in the town that was purchased by the Rebbe was given an address for the first time. Shliach Rabbi Gavriel Gordon noted that the number held special significance.
By Anash.org reporter
As the town of Lubavitch prepares for hundreds of visitors for 15 Elul, the founding date of Tomchei Tmimim, the house in the town that was purchased by the Rebbe was given an address for the first time. Shliach Rabbi Gavriel Gordon noted that the number held special significance.
The house was given an address thanks to a special project by Shliach Rabbi Gordon, in collaboration with local authorities, of giving names to the streets of the town. After the streets had names, the houses were then numbered and addresses given.
The house in question is a house that was purchased by the Rebbe in 5750/1990. The Rebbe considered the house to be his personal property, even selling it before Pesach.
In order to sell it, the Rebbe asked for the house’s address. However the town, with no organized roads and no street names, did not have addresses for its buildings. Instead, the house was given the name ‘Beis Schneerson’, and that was what the Rebbe wrote on the mechiras chometz document.
Recently, the authorities decided, thanks to the vigorous efforts of Rabbi Gordon, to name the street “Olitza Chabadskaya” (Chabad Street) in honor of the special house on the street. Numbers were also given to the street houses. The number given to the Rebbe’s house was number 14.
In addition, the inscription painted on the house at the time of the purchase, ‘Chabad House 770’, was restored and repainted.
“The number 14, given to the house, is no regular number,” Rabbi Gordon told Anash.org. “Fourteen is the numerical value of Chabad! So b’hasgacha protis, the Rebbe’s house is the ‘Chabad’ house on ‘Chabad Street’ in Lubavitch…”
All of the restoration projects in Lubavitch are fully sponsored by philanthropists Yossi and Batshevah Popack, in conjunction with the ‘Gader Avot’ organazation, through the efforts of the askan Mendel Levin.
What an intriguing story! Can you please provide more background about why the Rebbe would purchase a home in Russia in the 90’s?
Thank you
This house was purchased because it’s the closest house to the ohel, the last house before the field that leads to the cemetery. Since in that time it wasn’t possible for non-russian citizens to buy properties in Russia, the house was legaly put under the name of R’ Nochum Tamarin, a Bucher at the time and today a shliach in Zhitomir, Ukraine. For years (until R’ Zalman Gurary bought the “Chatzar Raboseinu Nesienu” in 5761) this house was the only place for chassidim who came to Lubavitch to stay, rest, write the Pan, and eat something after the visit to the Ohel. There was an wall in the house that everybody who came write theire name and it had thousands of names on it… Good memories, thank you!