Where Nazis Burned a Shul, Shliach Prints a Tanya

85 years after Kristallnacht, a Tanya was printed in Krefeld, Germany, not far from the site where a shul proudly stood until the Nazis and their helpers torched it on that horrific night.

85 years after Kristallnacht, a Tanya was printed in Krefeld, Germany, not far from the site where a shul proudly stood until the Nazis and their helpers torched it on that horrific night.

“When will you come, my master?” the Baal Shem Tov asked Moshiach. “When your wellsprings will be disseminated outward,” Moshiach replied.

In 1984, exactly 40 years ago, the Rebbe, began a campaign to have the book Tanya, the magnum opus of the Alter Rebbe printed all over the world.  

“It is a great honor that we here in Krefeld, Germany have the opportunity to make our contribution by printing the Tanya,” said Rabbi Yitzchak Mendel Wagner, shliach to Krefeld.

“The publication of any Jewish book, especially the Tanya, torah shebichsav of Chassidus, in a country where 85 years ago Jewish books were publicly burned fills us with pride,” he said.

Rabbi Chanaya ben Teradyon, one of the asara harugei malchus read about on Yom Kippur, was wrapped in a Sefer Torah and set on fire by the Nazis of his generation, the Romans. His students asked him, “Our teacher, what do you see?” He replied, “I see the parchment burning, but the letters are flying away” (Avoda Zarah 18a). 

How meaningful and significant his answer was for the rest of Jewish history. All attempts by the nations to destroy Jewish life will fail. Even if the parchment burns, as happened in Germany in the Shoah, the letters of the Torah will fly away and land again. 85 years after the destruction of our synagogue, we see flourishing Judaism everywhere in Germany, and editions of the Tanya are already being printed here from west to east and north to south.

“A big thank you to Mr. Borodin, the Grafmann family and all the donors who made this project possible,” Rabbi Wagner said.