It was 1979, two years before the Iranian Revolution. Rabbis Sholom Ber Hecht and Hertz Illulian went to Iran from New York at the request of the Rebbe. As part of their mission, they delivered a Tanya, the basic book of Chabad Chasidic philosophy, to Iran’s Jewish spiritual leader, Rabbi Yedidia Ezrachian. One month later, Rabbi Ezrachian received a telephone call from Rabbi J.J. Hecht, who had been very involved in efforts to bring as many Iranian Jews as possible to safety in the United States. Rabbi Hecht relayed the Rebbe’s instructions to print Tanyas for the Jews in Iran.

By then, most of the Jewish population had fled Iran. It was an extremely dangerous place to live. But Rabbi Ezrachian remained at his post as head of the Jewish community in Iran and the leader of the Rabbinical Court for three more years. The Iranian Moslem Ministers, under the brutal and ruthless Khomeini, issued an edict whose purpose was to purge Iran of anything connected with the Shah of Iran, and to disobey meant a charge of treason and punishment by death.

Rabbi Ezrachian had narrowly escaped death several times already, since there was also a strict edict against anyone and anything that could be perceived to be helping the state of Israel. The death sentence was swiftly and unmercifully carried out upon anyone who dared to disobey that edict. But Rabbi Ezrachian, a scholarly, G-d fearing man, and an ardent chasid of the Rebbe, had been instructed to print Tanyas for the Persian Jews. He did so, but since most of the Persian Jews could not read, write or understand Hebrew, Rabbi Ezrachian was in the process of translating the Tanya into Persian.

One day, Rabbi Ezrachian was in the office of his synagogue in Teheran, Iran, working on his translating of the Tanya. Suddenly there was loud, insistent banging on the door and the unmistakable shouts of the Iranian Taliban. These policemen were known to be violent fanatical Moslem ministers looking for some new Jewish blood to spill, just to prove how loyal they were to their Imam.

When Rabbi Ezrachian opened the door, his heart was racing so fast that he could not think. The office was not a place for these men to search! It contained historical documents connected to the Shah. It contained large gold coins with the Magen David on one side and the Shah’s likeness on the other. And worst of all, it was filled with the receipts of the money that people had given to him to donate for charity to Israel. If these receipts were now found, it would be considered aiding the enemy, the Zionist state – and he would surely be shot on the spot.

Numbly, he stood there as the violent, screaming mob of ministers burst into his office. They immediately started to pull open doors to closets, and dump out files. Any minute they would find the receipts and then…. the Rabbi understood what was about to take place, and recited his final prayers. As the strength started to leave his body, Rabbi Ezrachian prayed to G-d. He saw certain death before his eyes, and prepared to meet his Maker.

Suddenly, one of the ministers pounced on a Tanya. He leafed through it but of course could not read the Hebrew. Roughly he asked Rabbi Ezrachian what it was, and what it said. “It is a holy book, and I am translating it into Farsi,” stammered Rabbi Ezrachian, praying silently that the merit of the Tanya would somehow save him. Opening the book at random, the radical ordered the pale, trembling rabbi to translate it exactly as it was written.

Rabbi Ezrachian did as he was told. He stood there and translated it faithfully, and after translating ten pages, he was quietly ordered to stop. The ministers, who had all stopped their raiding in order to listen, now stood in silent awe. Reverently, their leader took the Tanya, gently touched it to his eyes, and then kissed it. (A Persian custom to show respect). “A book like this we all need,” he said. He sternly told everyone that they need search no longer, because it was obvious that they were with a man who honored “Allah.” Moreover, a special edict was written to protect Rabbi Ezrachian from any form of persecution in the future as well as to allow the Rabbi to continue to translate the holy book with no more disturbances!

After they left, Rabbi Ezrachian fell to the ground in a faint. He soon regained consciousness, but found it difficult, at first, to grasp the fact that he was still alive! They had not discovered the receipts, or the letters from Israel saying that they had received the moneys sent to them. Even just one of those documents would have meant certain death, let alone a full filing cabinet of them. They had listened respectfully to ten pages of Tanya in Farsi. And he had an edict of protection issued by the Taliban radicals themselves! On the following Shabbat, Rabbi Ezrachian said the special “Gomel” prayer thanking G-d for saving him from death.

Rabbi Ezrachian visited the U.S. a few years later. At his first private audience with the Rebbe Rabbi Ezrachian was so overwhelmed that tears rolled down his cheeks. The Rebbe told him, “Serve G-d with joy!” Rabbi Ezrachian replied, “These are tears of happiness.” They spoke together for a long time, and then Rabbi Ezrachian said to the Rebbe, “The Jews who are in Iran are in physical danger, and the Jews who have left Iran are in spiritual danger. I am so worried about them.” Tears came to his eyes once again when the Rebbe answered, gently and sincerely, “So let us pray for them together.” They held each other’s hands and prayed for the Iranian Jews.

Rabbi Ezrachian had many other private audiences with the Rebbe. Each time, he tried his utmost to fulfill what the Rebbe wanted from him. Rabbi Ezrachian has translated the Abridged Code of Jewish Law, the prayer book, Psalms, as well as five other books of the Bible. The Rebbe personally checked several of the translations, though not all.

After leaving Iran, Rabbi Ezrachian lived in Israel for a while before moving to Great Neck, New York.

**From https://www25.lchaimweekly.org/lchaim/5763/781.htm**

Rabbi Sholem Ber Hecht and Rabbi Hertzel Illulian brought a Hebrew Tanya to Iran.

Rabbi Yedidia Ezrachian, by instruction of the Rebbe, “was in the process of translating the Tanya into Persian.” However, there is no records of him completing it.

I don’t think the Tanya was printed in Farsi in 1978, it is actually in the process now.