Shtreimel

[pretzel999]

mainyan leinyan beoisoi inyan did you know the FR wore a GREEN hat at times when he went on business trips?

What do you mean by 'business' trips?
Where did you hear this?

[RebYid]

Re the FR in business: see LS 12, page 166 regarding the FR asking the R' Rashab for a brocha when he started out in business.

[pretzel999]

do you have any idea what kind of business and for how long the FR was in business?

[bochur770]

1. The reason the Rebbe did not wear the Spodik from the FR is because he felt he deserved it as a right in his yerusha, while his mother in law, at fis did not want to gove it and later agreed to give it as a gift.

2. In 5730, Yud Shevat HAgadol, Mr Perrin from England, a fur manufacturer, made a Spodik for the Rebbe, and the elder Chassidim, including R' B Shemov, R' S Levitin etc went to present it to the Rebbe, but none had the courgae to actually knock on the door and present it. I heard from many people who were present that Yud Shevat in NY, that the general atmosphere was that the Rebbe will don a shtriemel that year.

[Yankel Nosson]

What is the significance in chassidus of a shtriemel vs. a spodik, vs. any other type of hat?

[ccw22]

I heard that the previous Skulener Rebbe (who was very close with the Rebbe) once told the Rebbe, "we are both fooling the world, I with my shtreimel, and you with your hat."

[Jude]

When the Skulener Rebbe came to see the Rebbe, the Rebbe stood up for him. To avoid having the Rebbe do so again, when he would attend farbrengens he would not wear his shtreimel and he would "sneak in" to 770.
When he moved to Williamsburg and wanted to attend the 19 Kislev farbrengen, certain people who didn't want him to go would mislead him about when the farbrengen was going to take place so he would miss it.

(unverified)

[Chabad Friend]

I have trouble envisioning a Shtreimel or Spodik going well with a two-button-in-the-back kapote.

Did the FR wear a litvish-style kapote or a bekeshe?

[mordechai7215]

I heard that the previous Skulener Rebbe (who was very close with the Rebbe) once told the Rebbe, "we are both fooling the world, I with my shtreimel, and you with your hat."

I heard it being the Rebbe's ti e, not his hat.

Did the FR wear a litvish-style kapote or a bekeshe?

perhaps this picture may help.

[Chabad Friend]

I'm getting a blank screen. Is it my computer or was it not uploaded properly?

[mordechai7215]

Sorry for the problems, the image is now there.

[hishtatchus]

Your problem may be that the filetype is a bitmap (.bmp)

On that assumption, perhaps THIS might help .

[Chabad Friend]

Thank you.

Well, I can't see the back, but it looks like a bekeshe, not a kapote. Then the question extends beyond the shtreimel. The Rebbe and the Chassidim not only eschewed the shtreimel, they also began wearing the litvish-style kapote insted of the chassidishe-style bekeshe?

[Gevurah]

see Algemeiner Journal April 11... Rabbi YY Jacobson writes on why the Rebbe did not wear a streimel....

[Chabad Friend]

Would someone be able to put the article (or the relevant sections) up on the site. I have no access to the Algemeiner Journal here.

Thank you,

[Gevurah]

its called subscribing.....or do copywrite laws prohibit
Sorry in either case I have no scanner here and it is a taka full page.

[Yankel Nosson]

How about giving us an excerpt or summary?

[Chabad Friend]

Copyright laws allow for quoting of select relevant passages or summarizing the point of the article.

[shmuelb]

Originally posted by mordechai7215
Sorry for the problems, the image is now there.

Amazing photo...any details about it? Date, place?

Could I ask for a higher-resolution scan, rotated 2 degrees clockwise?

[mordechai7215]

You could, but you'll have to wait.

[shmuelb]

Originally posted by mordechai7215
You could, but you'll have to wait.

It would be worth waiting for! Such a photo...

[nochayner]

I heard on one of Rabbi Jacobsons tapes that a poilisher once came to the Rebbe and asked him Lubavitcher Rebbe if you would take off your hat and put on a shtreimel you would attract thousands more chasidim from all diffrent chasidisen. The Rebbe asked him how many more kibutzniks,not frum people would he attract with a shtreimel as for the other chasidisen whats wrong with the way they are now?

[Jude]

The Rebbe Rashab and the Rebbe Rayatz wore a shtreimel only in Lubavitch. It is told (Migdal Oz, p. 221), that before the Rebbe Rashab traveled to his wedding in Avrutch, his father the Rebbe Maharash told him not to wear a shtreimel at his wedding, because the shtreimel was only to be worn in Lubavitch.

The Rebbe Maharash was so particular about this point that he sent the servant R’ Levik along with the Rebbe Rashab to the wedding, so that he would make sure that his order was carried out. Indeed, at the wedding, the Rebbe Rashab’s mechutan (relative by marriage), R’ Yosef Yitzchok of Avrutch, wanted to put a shtreimel on his head and R’ Levik quickly removed it.

The Rebbe Rashab wore a shtreimel only in Lubavitch, and when he traveled out of the city to health resorts and the like, he did not wear a shtreimel. His son, the Rebbe Rayatz, did the same and so from the time he left Lubavitch in the year 5676 (1916), he did not wear a shtreimel.

Even after accepting the Chabad leadership in 5680 (1920), when he was in Rostov, and afterwards in Leningrad, he did not wear a shtreimel (as remembered by R’ S.Z. Gurary a’h).

The Rebbe Rayatz began wearing a shtreimel once again starting with the wedding of the Rebbe on 14 Kislev 5689 (1928) and on. The shtreimel he wore at the Rebbe’s wedding was the shtreimel of the Rebbe Maharash.

The first time the Rebbe Rayatz wore the shtreimel was on Monday, 13 Kislev, in the evening, at the “groom’s meal.” This was recorded in the memoirs of a friend of the Rebbe’s household, R’ Elya Chaim Altheus (may Hashem avenge his blood), where he says that the Rebbe Rayatz walked in to this meal dressed, “in Shabbos clothes with a gartel and a shtreimel from the holy head of our master and great teacher zt’l [referring to the Rebbe Maharash]. And we who were especially close, were literally frightened by the awesomeness which rested upon his pure face, as his countenance shone forth rays of light from the holy shtreimel. I cannot describe it but you will certainly merit to see it because from the time of the wedding and on, thank Heaven, he wears this shtreimel every Shabbos like in Lubavitch, blessed that I have lived and endured and attained this time.”

Apparently, this is what the Rebbe Rayatz told the Rebbe shlita after the wedding (5 Teves 5689 – Sefer Ha’Maamarim 5689 p. 65-6):

Tonight I saw my father [the Rebbe Rashab, who had passed away], with a silk handkerchief in his hands and looking extremely happy, and he said to me: “Mazal tov” far dem hittel (mazal tov for the hat I (wore)). The hat I wore is my grandfather’s [the Rebbe Maharash]. I wanted to wear my father’s hat but I ended up wearing my grandfather’s hat. This was the second time I was seeing my father after the wedding [of the Rebbe MH”M]. The first time I saw my father after the wedding, I was wearing the hat too but he didn’t say “mazal tov” then; he only said “mazal tov” the second time.

This aforementioned seems to refer to the shtreimel of the Rebbe Maharash that the Rebbe Rayatz wore at the Rebbe’s wedding. The obvious reason it was not worn until the wedding, is because the shtreimel was worn only in Lubavitch. Being that until that time, even though they had already left the town of Lubavitch for Rostov and from there to Leningrad, the town of Lubavitch still remained the permanent and main place for the Rebbeim, although temporarily they were in exile, therefore he didn’t wear the shtreimel out of Lubavitch.

However, at the wedding of the Rebbe, on 14 Kislev 5689, “the day which connected me with you and you with me” – when the connection of the seventh nasi, the Rebbe MH”M, began with our generation, the seventh, and the purpose and mission of the seventh generation began, to bring “Lubavitch” and its wellsprings to the entire world, which brings the true and complete Geula – the Rebbe Rayatz began to wear a shtreimel, since “Lubavitch” had moved to “Warsaw” as seen in the letter from the Rebbe Rayatz [quoted in the next paragraph].

This might also be the reason why the Rebbe’s wedding was in Warsaw, (and not in Riga where the Rebbe Rayatz lived), since the main yeshiva of the yeshivos Tomchei Tmimim was in Warsaw. As the Rebbe Rayatz writes to his uncle, R’ Moshe Horenstein in a letter dated 14 Cheshvan 5689, “We wanted that the kabbolas panim (reception), badekenish (unveiling) and chuppa take place, l’mazal tov, in the house and yard of the yeshiva Tomchei Tmimim, and we will experience the delight of the spirit as a microcosm of a microcosm of Lubavitch.”

[Torah613]

AFAIK the FR did not wear a shtreimel later (except on one occcasion, when he was in EY).
Where was the above taken from?

[RebMoshe]

Originally posted by Jude
The Rebbe Rashab and the Rebbe Rayatz wore a shtreimel only in Lubavitch. It is told (Migdal Oz, p. 221), that before the Rebbe Rashab traveled to his wedding in Avrutch, his father the Rebbe Maharash told him not to wear a shtreimel at his wedding, because the shtreimel was only to be worn in Lubavitch.

Thank you, this was very interesting.

(BTW techinically the name we give for the type of fur hat the FLR ZT'L wore is a Kolpik.)