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From Moscovitch to Lubavitch...

20/07/2012 02:07:03 PM

Jul20

 
An Extract From Our Travel Diary
 
It's Thursday morning, July 19th and we are in the car again. We are driving to the famous townlet of Lyubavichi in Smolensk Oblast, the place it all started almost three hundred years ago.
 
As a young teen I remember trying to find Lubavitch in the very large Readers Digest atlas that my grandma had in her home. I had read and heard so much about the tiny village that I wanted to see where it was on the map. I remember finding Vitebsk, the capital of Moholiev Oblast, to which Lubavitch belonged at the time of the Baal Shem Tov - Vitebsk had featured heavily in the early period of our movement.
 
(Sometime during the nineteenth century the borders were redrawn and Lubavitch was moved from Belorus (=White Russia) to Russia and became part of Smolensk Oblast).
 
I struggled to find Lyubavichi (both because of its smallness and because of alternate spellings) but do seem to remember finding it in the end.
 
One thing is certain - it didn't occur to me in my wildest imaginings that I would ever visit it. Lubavitch was part of another world, locked securely behind the impenetrable Iron Curtain. And now here we are, just four hours away!
 
To be honest, I never dreamed of visiting Mezibush, Anipoli, Niezhin, Hoditch or Rostov on Don (the homes and/or resting places of five generations of the Chassidic movement) either. And yet we did! Lyubavichi - the resting place of the third and fourth Lubavitcher Rebbes - completes the cycle.
 
We have travelled several thousand kilometers through Ukraine and Russia, the vast majority by car, and it's beginning to take its toll. We are both exhausted and today's it's mummy's turn to be feeling ill. But there are no regrets. This is a journey that has been at the back of our minds for several years - and with Hashem's help we are finally doing it.
 
In typical Milecki fashion the idea to actually embark on this journey was made only three weeks before we left, and the final decision just thirteen days before. In that time we did what people said was impossible. Although it did mean a quick trip to Canberra we got our Ukranian visa in a day and our Russian visas in a week. (Actually getting our visas was easy. Figuring out how to get them was not. Mummy and I are now ready to open a "FSU Travel Advisory Service"...) 
 
ultra modern refurbished synagogue in DnepropetrovskI must give credit where it's due. I had originally proposed to mummy that we only go to St Petersburg and Lubavitch but she would hear nothing of it. "How can we not go to Dneperprotrovsk where both the Rebbe and my father were brought up? How can we not go to Rostov where my father lived as a child in the same home as the fifth Lubavitcher Rebbe? I want to see the house! How can we not go to Mezibush? I want water from the Baal Shem Tov's spring! And of course, how can we not go to Lubavitch where my father was born?"
 
I tried to pull out a map and show her that what she was asking was impossible. We would be transversing Ukraine from west to east, continuing the drive into Southern Russia, then travelling all the way up north... Her response, "Maps, shmaps, you can do it. What's wrong, are you an old man already?" Nu, the only way to get over the insult to my manhood was to rise to the challenge!
 
Nevertheless, it would have been impossible without the help of the Shluchim who are spread through the towns and cities of Russia and Ukraine.  Their guidance and hospitality are absolutely unequalled. They live to serve in a manner we have never seen anywhere. The Rebbe must be so proud of his Shluchim! May Hashem bless their sacrifice and holy mission with great success!
 
Very special thanks must go to our nephew Rabbi Yossi Marozov, shliach in the city Ulyanovsk, two hours east of Moscow by air. He connected us with all the Shluchim and gave us invaluable advice in the preparation of our itinerary. We so wanted to visit him but unfortunately couldn't manage. Isolated in a distant city he and his young family epitomize the sacrifice of shlichus. May Hashem bless and protect them and may they see great success in all their endeavours.
 
We are only two hours from Lubavitch now and the emotions are beginning to build. May the warmth, the inspiration, the spiritual highs - that we have experienced on this pilgrimage continue to uplift us for the rest of our lives. And may we merit to translate it all into a deeper and even more meaningful contribution in our own South Head Community.
 
Benzion and Henya Milecki
Thu, 19 June 2025 23 Sivan 5785

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