When a Chabad donor was blessed by the Rebbe for something fifty years down the line, he never could have imagined how the Rebbe’s words would come to fruition so exactly at the right time.

The year was 5737 (1977), and the Rebbe was holding a farbrengen for Yud Beis Tammuz, marking 50 years since the release of the Frierdiker Rebbe from Soviet imprisonment and exile.

Chabad of S. Monica was founded several years earlier by the legendary shliach Rabbi Avraham Levitansky AH and his wife Rebbetzin Levitansky shetichye.

For four years, they moved their Chabad activities from one rental space to another. In 5737, they purchased a small house that just barely fit their needs, and S. Monica Chabad had its first permanent home.

“One of my father’s dear friends and supporters then was a lovely man named Mr. Semelman“, Rabbi Eli Levitansky, who today runs the operations at Chabad of S. Monica, tells Anash.org.

“He was very invested in the down payment and purchase of this modest, first home for the Chabad House, and he flew with my father to present the Chabad House key to the Rebbe.”

In between the sichos, Mr. Semelman approached the Rebbe and presented him with the key to the new Chabad House they had just purchased.

“This is the key to the new Chabad House in S. Monica, California, in honor of the Frierdiker Rebbe’s fiftieth year of Yud Beis Tammuz,” he told the Rebbe.

The Rebbe accepted the key and replied: “May G-d Almighty bless you to make the same thing on the second jubilee, fifty years from now!”

The Rebbe then instructed him to say l’chaim, that “it should be a good start”.

It was a short encounter that lasted half a minute and could have easily been forgotten in the flow of the farbrengen, were it not for the fact that it was caught on video.

The video was eventually uncovered some 12 years ago, and the Levitansky family was amazed to discover the highly unusual bracha the Rebbe had given them at the time.

“We looked at each other in wonder -what a unique bracha!” Rabbi Levitansky recalls. “It was so unusual and so specific. Wow. And a ‘wow’ it remained for us.”

Three years after the encounter at the farbrengen, they sold that property and purchased a bigger one, the current home of Chabad Simcha Monica.

Over the course of 46 years since then, the Shul on this property grew over time into a full-service Chabad House and Jewish center, expanding into a wide range of activities that have hosted everything from summer camp, to Hebrew School, Shabbos & yomim tovim, to Farbrengens, to adult education, to Kaparos, and literally everything in between.

“For many, many years, we’ve been busting at the seams”, Rabbi Levitansky says. “Even during my father’s lifetime, he was looking for ways to expand, but the adjoining properties were not available, and we were already maximizing our space.

“And so we marched on, always improvising, always adjusting, making do, making the best of it, and keeping an eye on the horizon, looking for opportunities.”

As the Chabad House continued to grow, the shluchim set their sights on the property adjacent to the center. Acquiring it would allow them to expand their facilities and broaden their programming for the community. But the neighboring property owners refused to sell, and for years, the conversations went nowhere.

Until two months ago.

At the beginning of March, out of nowhere, the property next door to Chabad House came on the market. Having waited for this moment for so long, the shluchim pounced without delay and made an offer on the property.

“This acquisition would truly change everything”, Rabbi Levitansky explains. “We prayed our offer would be accepted. After some jostling and back and forth, our offer was accepted, Baruch Hashem, and we entered into escrow.”

Finally, Chabad of S. Monica would have the adjacent property, the Chabad House would double in size, and open the door to a significant expansion of the Chabad House activities in the years ahead.

It was then that the shluchim recalled that video from fifty years prior: “May Hashem Almighty bless you to make the same thing on the second jubilee, fifty years from now!”

“We were thunderstruck”, Rabbi Levitasnky tells Anash.org. “We thought we knew what this purchase would mean – it would double the size of Chabad House, provide outdoor space for children, and functional space to expand our work. We even knew it would make our father’s dream come true.

“But we did not realize that it would also make the Rebbe’s statement a reality!”

In an unbelievable chain of events, the closing came just as the beginning of the fiftieth year to when the Rebbe had given his bracha. The new Chabad House was to be bought at the beginning of the second jubilee to the Frierdiker Rebbe’s shnas hageulah.

“We feel incredibly connected to the Rebbe right now”, Rabbi Levitansky says. “The Rebbe’s holy Bracha and open prophecy is coming true in these days, in our times, through our hands.”

“To say that we are excited about this story would be a terrible understatement”, he adds. “There aren’t really any words to describe our feelings at this time.”

To participate in this unique project that the Rebbe asked for fifty years ago, and to be part of bringing the Rebbe’s bracha to fruition, contribute here.

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