“A wedding, in general, for every private person – is a public matter. But for me … it is the day that connected me to you, and you to me, and together we will toil and bring the true and complete redemption, with Hashem’s help, we shall see the fruit of our labor.” (The Rebbe, about his wedding day)
The original invitation to the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s wedding, typewritten with the addition of [15] words in the very hand of the Rayya”tz written while he was staying in Riga, on Tuesday, 16 Cheshvan, in honor of the wedding that took place in Warsaw, about a month later. Historic item, one of a kind – its segulah value is inestimable.
Not many know it, but in honor of this royal wedding, several variants of invitations were printed, and they were distributed according to the prominence of the recipient, beginning with an invitation bearing a handwritten addition from the Rayya’tz sent to the elders and more prominent Chassidim, and through a printed invitation sent to the general population ( Yemei HaMelech Part I p. 264). Before us is the highest-level invitation, received only by elder Chassidim! (In Iggerot Kodesh Admo”r HaRayya”tz Part II p. 126, in the introduction, that only three copies of the highest-level variant reached the Rebbe’s library).
A chill of sanctity runs through one’s body while holding this invitation to the Rebbe’s marriage to Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka. Every Jewish wedding symbolizes lofty, hidden matters, and in the words of the Rebbe, “A wedding, in general, for every private person – is a public matter. But for me … ” All the more so, the wedding of one of the tzaddikim of the generation. (The gaon of Tchebin related that before the Ruzhiner Rebbe married his second wife, he summoned the officiating rabbi to a room where he spoke with him for a while, and when the officiating rabbi left the room, he was white as a sheet. “This story teaches us, ” continued the gaon of Tchebin, “that officiating at weddings of rabbinic leaders of generations are lofty matters, far beyond our comprehension.”) How much more so – many times more so – in Chaba”d Chassidism – the power and segulah of the sanctity of the wedding day of the Rebbe, ‘the seventh and final nasi , ‘ to his pure wife, scion of sanctified seed, a well-suited match [‘ענבי הגפן בענבי הגפן’]. This day was celebrated in all Chaba”d strongholds as an eternal holiday, and many books and compilations have been written about this festival – ‘The bright day of 14 Kislev.”
This match was between two lofty souls from the world of nobility, both from the heights of dynastic pedigree – from the family of the Davidic Kingdom. This match is based in the most sanctified foundations. Already ten years previously, in 1919, when the Rebbe and the Rebbetzin were at the beginning of their youth, a year before the Rebbe, the Rasha”b, passed away, he summoned his son, the Rayya”tz, and spoke to him about a match for his daughter Chaya Mushka: “Consider the son of Levi’k [the gaon Rabbi Yitzchak Schneerson, the Rebbe’s father].” Yet not only today, with the perspective of time, but even then, when it was actually happening, those present, especially Chaba”d Chassidim, felt the exaltedness of the sanctity of the occasion, as attested in the preserved diaries of the elders [זקני התמימים] regarding the great event. The famous Chassid Rabbi Eliyahu Chaim Althaus (one of the Rayya”tz’s closest household members) wrote a description in his diary that recalls the giving of the Torah at Sinai: “And all the people heard his voice and actually saw the fire burning in it(!) … and they trembled and moved away, and immediately with this startling opening, the Rebbe, shlit”a, delivered the sermon ‘Lecha Dodi Likrat Kallah.’ Another testament from the wedding, from Rabbi N. Ben Yochanan (R’ Nissan Gordon): When Rabbi Baruch Shalom (firstborn son of the Tzemach Tzeddek) descended and came to his grandson’s (the Rebbe’s) wedding in Warsaw … he saw how the latter walked not only towards the chuppah, but also the seat of the nesi’ut [presidency] … as they saw the chosen one for the seventh generation of the dynasty of nesi’im of Chaba”d walk to the seat of the nesi’ut.”
As in the story related above, about the Rebbe of Ruzhin, the Rebbe the Rayya”tz called the Rebbe to his room, and removed everyone else from there; he girded the Rebbe with a sash, while saying “What I said this morning with respect to “‘אוזר ישראל בגבורה'” – this is what I intended.” (Rabbi Berel Chaskind, who was the only one present at this momentous encounter, asserted to the Rebbe, that at this encounter the Rebbe the Rayya”tz transmitted the leadership to him and the Rebbe silently gave his assent.)
Before us, therefore, is a one-of-a-kind item, of which, as aforementioned, we know of only three remaining copies in the world aside from this copy before us. The original invitation to the wedding handwritten by the Rayya”tz, and as the gemara says, “הזמנה מילתא, ” in honor of the special event, the day of the construction of the sanctified home of the unique among tzaddikim of the generations (which hints at the lofty matches and the building of the Holy Temple), the kindling of the Western Candle, the seventh candle in the seven-branched golden menorah, was the day of the beginning of the transfer of the leadership of the Rayya”tz to his son-in-law as his beloved son and disciple, the final leader in the dynasty of Chaba”d.
[1] leaf paper, approximately 16×24 cm. Paper, thick and high-quality. Official stationery of the Rayya”tz, typewritten with the addition of [15] words handwritten by the Rayya”tz and with his signature.
Very fine condition: Fold marks, aging stains.