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770 Eastern Parkway[1] is the street address of the central headquarters of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement, located on Eastern Parkway in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, New York, in the United States of America.
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History
The building originally served as a medical clinic.[2] After it was used to perform illegal abortions it was closed down by officials.[citation needed] In 1940 it was purchased by Agudas Chasidei Chabad and adapted for the needs of Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn. Rabbi Schneersohn was paralyzed and required a wheelchair when he arrived in the United States in 1940. A building with an elevator needed to be purchased for his use as both a home and as a synagogue. After 770 was purchased, the synagogue was given the name "Congregation Lubavitch". The Crown Heights neighborhood was chosen as the air was felt to be better for the Rebbe's ailing health.
After Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok's demise in January 1950, his son-in-law and successor, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, continued to use his own office on the main floor to lead the movement, while maintaining his personal residence on President Street, several blocks away. Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok's wife remained resident in her apartment on the 2nd floor until her passing. Her 2 daughters would often visit her in her apartment, and during her lifetime the new Rabbi would conduct semi-private meals there for the family and selected visitors on festive occasions. Today, the previous Rabbi's apartment and office are closed to the public. Since 1994, Rabbi Menachem Mendels's office on the first floor is used on Saturdays and Holidays as an additional prayer room which is open to the public during prayer times.
From its inception the synagogue has served three parallel purposes. It is a place of daily prayer services, a study hall for advanced students, and an assembly hall for Chabad gatherings, known as Farbrengens. Here the Lubavitcher Rebbe or elder Chassidim would address Chassidim and other visitors about Torah observance and Chassidic philosophy and practice.
As the Lubavitch movement grew in the United States, the original small synagogue was soon too small to house the growing number of worshipers and students who regularly came to pray and study there. The synagogue was expanded in several stages. The first annex was added in 1960, with subsequent expansions taking place in the late 1960s and again in the mid 1970s. The synagogue then reached its current size. The original synagogue remains as a small study hall used by rabbinical students during the week. In 1988, Rabbi Schneerson laid the cornerstone for a larger renovation project which is yet to be completed.
The original building is part of a larger block maintained by the Agudas Chasidei Chabad. This block includes the larger synagogue, a Kollel, and the community's library. It also houses the offices of the secretariat of the Lubavitch Movement, and other related offices.
As it served as the home and offices of the last 2 Lubavitch Rebbes the site is considered holy by Lubavitch chasidim. It is visited by thousands of people from around the world every year. While the building is recognized as an Orthodox Jewish synagogue, it is open to all people, with a men's section on the ground floor and a women's section on the floor above it. On the Shabbat and holidays, smaller prayer groups can be found congregating throughout the building, including the lobby and office used by the Rebbe within the original 770 building.
The synagogue's official name is "Congregation Lubavitch of Agudas Chasidei Chabad", although it is referred to by several other names throughout the worldwide Chabad community, including: Beis Moshiach ("Messiah's House")[3] and Beis Rabeinu Sheb'vovel the "Babylonian" house of our teacher),[4]
Because Lubavitch Chassidim attach great significance to everything that played a role in the Rebbe's life, Lubavitch Chassidim all over the world have built replicas or near-replicas of the building. These include replicas in Kefar Chabad and Jerusalem Israel; at Rutgers University on College Avenue in New Brunswick, NJ; on Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles, California; in Melbourne, Australia; Milan, Italy; Brazil and Argentina. Several artists have also created Tzedakah boxes and Mezuzah cases in the building's likeness. Joseph Zakon Wineries in New York City makes a wine called "Seven-seventy". Since the early 1990s, tefillin bags with an embroidered picture of seven-seventy[1] have become extremely popular among Lubavitcher Bar Mitzvah boys.
Importance of 770
Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson described[4] 770 as "beis rabbenu shebevavel" (the "Babylonian" house of our teacher), "And we may explain, according the above, that as regards 'our teacher's Babylonian house' in this generation - it means the home and synagogue of my holy father-in-law, the leader of our generation... 'Our teacher's house' is the primary 'little Temple' in this last exile ... which is the place of the future Temple itself, and not only that, but there will be revealed the future Bais Hamikdash, and from there is will go to Jerusalem. This idea is suggested in the name of 'our teacher's house' in our generation: ... it is universally referred to by its number, 770, which has the same gematria as paratzta (you will spread out)."[5]
Zalman Jaffe was a lay leader in Manchester, England and had a very close relationship with the Lubavitcher Rebbe, in his book "My Encounter with the Rebbe", he relates that, "I found a Tehillim in 770 which, on the front piece, was inscribed, 'The gematria of Beis Moshiach (the house of Moshiach) is 770.' I showed it to the Rebbe who laughed heartily."[6]
A full size replica of 770 Eastern Parkway was constructed in Kfar Chabad.[7] More than a dozen more replicas or near-replicas have been built in Israel, the United States, Canada, South America, Europe, and Australia.
Gallery
 770 Eastern Parkway, Lubavitch world headquarters |
 770 replica in Melbourne, Australia |
References and notes
- ^ commonly abbreviated to 770 or Seven-seventy
- ^ Illustrating That Looks Aren't Everything
- ^ The gematria value of Beis Moshiach is 770.
- ^ a b Kuntres b'inyan mikdash m'at zeh bais rabeinu shbabavel", 5752, pg.465
- ^ A central Chabad motto is "and you shall spread to the west, the east, the north and the south" (Genesis 28:14)
- ^ In the Rebbe’s Presence - Shavuos 5730 (1970)
- ^ Building 770 in Kfar Chabad: Changing Israeli Landscapes: Buildings and the Uses of the Past, Alex Weingrod, Cultural Anthropology, Vol. 8, No. 3 (Aug., 1993), pp. 370-387
External links
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