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As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 263-265, no. 103
The Rashag, the Rebbe's son-in-law, came from Kostrama for Shabbos and after Minchah, near the balcony in the large zal, told a few people in the Rebbe's name what he had undergone and the questions the interrogators had asked. The interrogation room had thin plywood walls, an investigator with a stubby nose and a stutter, and senior officials seated further back. When Lulav and Nachmanson came in, the Rebbe said that history would record the disgrace of who was appointed to interrogate the Lubavitcher Rebbe; when they accused him of espionage he demanded they retract it at once and asked whether they wanted another Beilis Affair; and when they raised his spreading of Torah he said, "I am not a teacher; I salute learning Torah." He refused to answer any questions until his tefillin were returned, and when he put on his hat to say Shehakol over a glass of water and was told he could be made shorter by a head, he answered, "The whole earth is filled with His glory."
4 min to tellexcellent to tell
504 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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score 1.49 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.97
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 302-303, no. 35
The zeide related Reb Aizel's own account of how he became a chossid of the Alter Rebbe: whenever the Alter Rebbe heard of a promising young scholar he would send a shliach to draw him close to Chassidus, and such a shliach came to Homil after Sukkos and brought Reb Aizel to Liozna. Returning home for Pesach, Reb Aizel established a minyan davening nusach Chabad, but his father R. Mordechai — who spent much time in Leipzig and kept his distance from chassidim — returned shortly before Pesach and forbade him, on the grounds of honoring one's father, from davening there. At the seder, hearing his son's brilliant expositions on the Haggadah, R. Mordechai understood that Chassidus had not harmed him, permitted him to return to the minyan the next morning, joined the minyan himself for the rest of Pesach, and by Shavuos traveled with Reb Aizel to Liozna.
3 min to tellexcellent to tell
423 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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score 1.41 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.82
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 352-353, no. 53
The narrator's zeide, Mordechai Yoel, related that the Rebbe Maharash held Reb Aizel of Homil's Chassidus in high regard — though he called him "der Hieger" or "der Homiler" and reserved the title "Rebbe" for the Tzemach Tzedek — since he had been Reb Aizel's outstanding disciple. Early one summer morning, walking through the Rebbe's courtyard after a late farbrengen and a generous measure of mashkeh, the zeide was called over by the Rebbe Maharash at the window. When the conversation turned to Reb Aizel's Chassidus, the zeide said with a nigun that the Rebbe and his children do not need it, but the Rebbe's grandchildren and ordinary chassidim should learn it. Glancing up as he finished, he saw the Tzemach Tzedek in the second window — and, as he recounted, he sobered instantly and fled.
3 min to tellexcellent to tell
376 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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score 1.36 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.72
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 260-261, no. 99
When the narrator and his brother-in-law Yitzchak Minkovitch came into the children's room, the Rebbe asked whether they had learned Chassidus during the period of his imprisonment; they answered that they had recited Tehillim. The Rebbe said that he himself had written maamarim until his pencil was taken away. A few hours later he gave them the Shavuos maamarim, inscribed "Written in prison, 19 Sivan 5687" and "Written in prison, 20 Sivan 5687"; the last word of the text was "light." When the narrator later asked in Malachovka for the end of the maamar, the Rebbe answered, "Nothing more came."
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
276 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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score 1.26 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.53
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 85-86, no. 16
Introducing a story he had written, the Rebbe said at a farbrengen in New York that whoever repeats a statement in the name of its author brings redemption to the world, and that everyone is obligated in this. The Tzemach Tzedek had said, "I'm like someone who sews hats. Later on, when someone buys the hat, it's a sign that I had sewn it for him." The narrator also heard in Lubavitch from R. Groinem the mashpia that the Tzemach Tzedek said, "I have no one specifically in mind when I discuss a spiritual predicament. But if someone thinks I am talking about him — then indeed I mean him."
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
262 wordsTzemach Tzedek
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score 1.25 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.50
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 41, no. 17
Chassidim traveling to the Alter Rebbe in Liozna hired a wagon and driver as usual. A few days after arriving, the driver vanished and his horse stood unfed; they searched and found him wandering in the woods, shouting over and over, "If you were to ask a goy, 'Do you love G-d?' — he, too, would answer, 'I love Him!'" He had heard Chassidus from the Alter Rebbe and those were the only words he could grasp, yet their impact made him forget all of his work and responsibilities.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
217 wordsAlter Rebbe
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score 1.21 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.43
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 476-478, no. 22
One Erev Pesach, as R. Yisroel Duchman was about to approach the Rebbe for matzah for Chaim Grade, his youngest son Boruch — by then a young man — asked him to get matzah for him too. The Rebbe asked whether Boruch was still in Miami, and on hearing that he was, happily gave R. Yisroel a piece of matzah for him, telling him to tell his son it was shmurah matzah, shmurah with all its meanings, and that it would protect him. In 5736 (1976) R. Yisroel asked for matzah for his son Sholom, who had become one of the Rebbe's special shluchim to Eretz Yisroel, and the Rebbe told him lovingly, "He's my shliach. I sent him matza myself, and I don't need an intermediary." The next year, 5737 (1977), R. Yisroel did not ask — and the Rebbe asked him why not, saying he heard Sholom was doing great things, joked at his bewildered look, "What happened? Sholom ran away?", added that Sholom should want to be at the Rebbe but in actuality should be there, and gave him a matzah for his son.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
222 wordsR. Yisroel Duchman
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score 1.21 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.43
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 329-330, no. 19
The zeide used to relate the story of a farbrengen with Reb Hillel Paritcher in Retzitza. Reb Hillel told the baalei batim that he had a request of them: their children must study with proper teachers, since they have no idea of the strength such teachers impart to the children. He then added that if one learns Tanya with small children, the result will be that they never become apikorsim.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
166 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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score 1.16 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.32
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 157-158, no. 35
At a farbrengen in the large zal in Lubavitch, R. Yitzchak Masmid lay under the table in order to hear the Rebbe's words better. A rabbi sitting near the Rebbe objected, asking who was crawling around down there. The Rebbe answered, "Let him be — he has to go to a settlement in Kherson province and stammer these words there."
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
162 wordsRebbe Rashab
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score 1.15 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.30
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 65-66, no. 6
Reb Aizel related that he once came in to the Mitteler Rebbe during the last years of his nesius and found him lying in bed. The Rebbe complained to him of his great suffering, but said that when he sits down to write Chassidus on the posuk "Your hair is like a flock of goats," he forgets all his pain. With that he jumped out of bed and sat down to write Chassidus.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
147 wordsMitteler Rebbe
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score 1.14 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.28
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 354, no. 56
The narrator's zeide, Mordechai Yoel, used to repeat a teaching in the name of Reb Aizel of Homil on the verse "Remember what Amalek did to you." Amalek can only attack one who is "lecha" — to himself, separated from others. But one who mingles with chassidim is beyond Amalek's reach.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
107 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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score 1.10 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.20
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 461-462, no. 71
The Rebbe appointed R. Zalman Duchman as a shadar, and twice a year he traveled across the country collecting funds, spending a month each winter in Chattanooga, TN with an elder chossid and relative, Rabbi Chasdan, the local shochet, and a month between Pesach and Shavuos in Toronto, where his daughter and son-in-law lived. The trips were hard on him — he could not speak English, had few contacts, and did not bring in large sums — and he wanted to stop, but the Rebbe insisted he continue, saying he was sending him to Chattanooga "az men zol zen aza hadras ponim — that they should see his remarkable countenance." The purpose of such trips had always been to sow spirituality and reap material fortune, and with his warmth and genuine care R. Zalman connected with many Yidden, opened their eyes to the concept of a Rebbe, guided them to the Rebbe's door, and carried their requests to the Rebbe himself.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
304 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
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score 1.09 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.57
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 472-473, no. 13
R. Yisroel Duchman told the Rebbe that guests unfamiliar with the chassidic lifestyle were visiting for Simchas Torah, and that his wife, worried about the impression they would form of him, had advised him to restrain himself. The Rebbe responded, "Du zolst nispael veren fun zei?! Zei zol nispael veren fun dir! — You be impacted by them?! Let them be impacted by you!"
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
72 wordsR. Yisroel Duchman
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score 1.07 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.15
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 240, no. 66
The Rebbe once asked how it can be that our holy and beautiful Torah opens with the mitzvah of "be fruitful and multiply." His answer: you are a Jew, so you must make another Jew.
0 min to tellexcellent to tell
63 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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score 1.06 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.12
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 287-288, no. 7
The Tzemach Tzedek sent Reb Aizel on a mission to Rebbe Yisroel of Ruzhin, who asked him why a maamar in Lubavitch opens with a posuk when the maamar itself discusses entirely different matters. Reb Aizel answered that among Lubavitcher chassidim there are also simple people who cannot grasp the depths of a maamar, yet can understand the posuk as explained according to Chassidus. Afterward Reb Aizel remarked that he had not given the Ruzhiner the true reason, and that there is a completely different intent behind the practice.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
230 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000366
score 1.02 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.45
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 341-342, no. 40
The narrator's zeide told how R. Chazkel Droyer once came to Homil and Reb Aizel spoke with him: "All in all, I shouldn't even look at you — you were opposed to my Rebbe," meaning the Mitteler Rebbe, "yet I see that the Rebbe's radiance is still with you. Stay here, you have a room." He stayed a few weeks and people came to hear Chassidus from him. His downfall was mashkeh — he drank heavily and words flowed freely — yet from him they learned how to listen to Chassidus.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
233 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000457
score 1.02 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.45
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 443-445, no. 44
R. Zalman wrote to the Frierdiker Rebbe asking for recent sichos and maamorim he had not received. In a letter of Cheshvan 5709 (1948) our Rebbe replied that although the policy was to send a single packet for all the chassidim in the camp, he would send them to R. Zalman on two conditions: that he share them rather than keep them to himself, and that, since he had signed as the grandson of R. Mordechai Yoel of Homil, he send in recollections of his grandfather and great-uncle for the Frierdiker Rebbe's project of collecting the details of elder chassidim. In a postscript the Rebbe added that, if he was not mistaken, R. Zalman had been among those entrusted with the sacred documents at the time of the Rebbe's arrest. R. Zalman answered that he had indeed been given a large box of manuscripts, and that by Divine providence he had returned them on the 12th of Tammuz while the Rebbe sat on the west side of the study hall — and was told then that for his efforts he would be given the good news that the Rebbe would return from exile in time for Shabbos.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
232 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000600
score 1.02 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.45
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 489-490, no. 10
R. Eliyahu farbrenged with every layer of the community — schoolboys, yeshiva students, middle-aged men and the elderly — always knowing which story or saying suited his listeners, and his Shabbos afternoon farbrengens in shul often lasted until sunset. He was a pillar of the community: he assisted the Chabad institutions in Toronto, those who had escaped Soviet oppression, Colel Chabad in Eretz Yisroel and Lishkas Ezras Achim, and he was among the Rashag's foremost local aides when the Rashag came on behalf of the central Yeshivas Tomchei Temimim in New York. Past retirement age he trained educators in a teacher's seminary, guided youngsters at camp as though he were one of them, and was among the first to open a Kollel Tiferes Zekainim - Levi Yitzchok when the Rebbe proposed it. Well-versed in nigleh and Chassidus, he gave Tanya shiurim to professors and doctors and, for twenty consecutive years, to the community's leading businessmen, and he publicly repeated the Rebbe's maamarim and sichos, all alongside an intense personal learning regimen acquired despite years of hardship and suffering.
3 min to tellgood to tell
440 wordsR. Eliyahu Akiva Lipskar
story_000669
score 1.02 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.60 length_suitability=0.85
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 454, no. 57
R. Zalman helped organize shiurim in 770 and was charged with reporting their progress to the Rebbe. In Elul 5724 (1964) he reported that the shiurim were continuing but attendance was down because many were away, and the Rebbe wrote that an effort should be made to have at least ten participants, in line with the Alter Rebbe's "wondrous words" in Igeres HaKodesh. In his next report R. Zalman confirmed more had committed to come and asked why the Rebbe said "wondrous words" rather than the usual "holy words"; the Rebbe answered that "wonder" refers to keser, which is above the ten sefiros and is drawn down by ten people gathering, adding that it is easier to influence the nefesh habehamis with "wondrous" than with "holy." When R. Zalman worried he was burdening the Rebbe with weekly reports, the Rebbe replied that it was a subject of great pleasure from those who participate, though the opposite could be said of those who do not yet participate.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
205 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000613
score 1.00 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.40
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 329, no. 18
The zeide's daily practice between Mincha and Maariv was to recite Tanya. Traveling to a city, he would go to a shul, take out his Tanya and sit and study, learning a chapter with anyone who came to him. Several times a week he learned Tanya with the boys of R. DovBer Bobrov's cheder in Homil, and a few times a week he went before the morning davening to learn Tanya with Alter Shur, a wealthy gvir in Homil.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
199 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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score 0.99 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.38
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 69, no. 11
Der Zeide (רמ"י) would portray the Mitteler Rebbe's histalkus as it is described in Beis Rebbi, but added something he heard from the Tzemach Tzedek's sons. When they told their father of the histalkus, the Tzemach Tzedek said that his father-in-law could not endure a single moment without revealing G-dliness to others, and that therefore, as long as his neshamah was in his body he spoke words of Chassidus — and now, too, he is saying Chassidus, and chassidim are listening.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
163 wordsMitteler Rebbe
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score 0.96 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.32
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 370, no. 6
At a farbrengen with Reb Groinem in Lubavitch in 5667-68 (1907-08), the familiar complaint came up again that Lubavitcher chassidim were not prosperous. One of the Temimim answered that he had seen an old manuscript stating that someone bound up with pnimius haTorah does not receive his life-force through the seventy ministering angels who bestow material bounty on the nations. Receiving from a loftier source, he said, is no easy matter and requires merit.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
175 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000490
score 0.96 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.32
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 492-494, no. 15
An unfamiliar Jew came into the shul where R. Eliyahu was; he said he was a university student who had come to see the shul, and when he said he had no place to stay R. Eliyahu invited him home, where they spoke at length about Yiddishkeit, and he ultimately became a full baal teshuva. He is A. Teitelbaum, who became a professor of mathematics in Montreal. When R. Eliyahu once brought him to the Rebbe for yechidus, the Rebbe discussed mathematics, his field, rather than the Yiddishkeit he had expected; in time he realized how important those words were, since the Rebbe had shown him that mathematics can be used to express the unity of the Creator, and he said sorrowfully that he could not recall every detail of the yechidus.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
175 wordsR. Eliyahu Akiva Lipskar
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score 0.96 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.32
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 463-464, no. 73
Before each of his trips R. Zalman Duchman would go in to the Rebbe for yechidus to receive brachos and encouragement for the mission, and on returning he would be admitted again to report how the trip had gone. The Rebbe took great interest in the details of the work and would follow up when R. Zalman had been quiet too long. In a letter of 5 Kislev 5714 (1953) the Rebbe wrote to him, "It is very surprising that you haven't written about the 'spiritual sowing,'" citing what the Frierdiker Rebbe would tell those going on such trips: "You have to sow spirituality and reap physicality."
1 min to tellvery good to tell
115 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000629
score 0.91 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.22
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 42, no. 19
One Yom Kippur the Alter Rebbe called the Mitteler Rebbe in and told him that regarding his judgment for the coming year there were forces speaking in his favor but also many speaking against him. The Mitteler Rebbe left the room, went straight to the chassidim, and told them that this was an auspicious time and that they should go ask his father to say Chassidus.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
107 wordsAlter Rebbe
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score 0.90 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.20
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 118, no. 2
R. Elchanan Morozov related that a chossid who was heavily occupied with business and had very little time to study asked the Rebbe Maharash whether he should learn nigleh or the Alter Rebbe's Likkutei Torah. The Rebbe Maharash answered, "Surely Likkutei Torah — it is the Torah's inner dimension."
1 min to tellvery good to tell
106 wordsRebbe Maharash
story_000120
score 0.90 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.20
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 442-443, no. 42
In the summer of 5703 (1943), R. Zalman Duchman, Chaya Grunya and fourteen-year-old Yisroel reached Tashkent, where Chabad chassidim fleeing the German advance had been gathering since 5701 (1941) alongside the large Bukharian Jewish community. Amid homelessness, bread lines, filth and typhus, the extended family of chassidim held together and helped one another, and because the authorities' attention was fixed on the front they were able to organize minyanim, chadorim, yeshivos and mikvaos without fear. The Duchmans moved into their daughter and son-in-law's one-bedroom apartment divided by a curtain; Yisroel learned Chumash, Gemara and Tanya with the chossid R. Yisroel Nevler (Levin) and committed thirty perokim of Tanya to memory before transferring to a more advanced yeshivah in Samarkand. R. Zalman's son-in-law R. Eli Lipskar organized four chadorim serving over eighty children, from siddur reading through Gemara.
2 min to tellgood to tell
317 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000598
score 0.90 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.60 length_suitability=0.60
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 83, no. 12
After Likkutei Torah was printed, chassidim would still ask the Tzemach Tzedek to say Chassidus. He would answer: "I pieced together the best of my zeide's teachings — and you want more Chassidus?!"
0 min to tellvery good to tell
62 wordsTzemach Tzedek
story_000068
score 0.86 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.12
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 443-445, no. 43
After the war the Russian government let Polish citizens return home by freight train, and many Russian Jews crossed the border at Lvov/Lemberg on forged Polish passports while the authorities looked away. Chassidim ran an escape committee that urged people to go, produced false documents, raised bribe money and kept safe houses in Lvov. In Elul 5706 (1946) R. Zalman and his family were permitted to travel to Lvov, crossed the border, and went on through Krakow and Austria to the Pernveld DP camp in Germany; they wrote at once to the Frierdiker Rebbe of their travels and their wish to be reunited with the Rebbe, and on 23 Nissan 5707 (1947) the Rebbe told them to turn to the Rashag, who handled such arrangements. While waiting in the camp for papers, R. Zalman gave regular shiurim, especially in Tanya, wrote regularly to the Frierdiker Rebbe, and copied out the letters he received to share with fellow chassidim who read every word.
2 min to tellgood to tell
249 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000599
score 0.84 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.60 length_suitability=0.47
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 173, no. 58
The narrator was standing at the front of the zal, near the tall bookcase, where he could see all the tables — about 120 older students learning Chassidus with vitality. Two older Yidden beside him, later identified to him as former Kopuster chassidim from Dvinsk, remarked that it now made sense why the Tzemach Tzedek had held the Rebbe Maharash above his older brothers: his intent was for the son who would create such a yeshivah.
1 min to tellgood to tell
177 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000197
score 0.77 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.60 length_suitability=0.35
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 437-438, no. 35
In 5689 (1929) Shabbos observance was banned in Russia and the N.K.V.D. together with the Yevsektzia began persecuting those spreading Yiddishkeit. Though the Frierdiker Rebbe had already left Russia, chassidim held to the promise they had made and continued disseminating Torah and Judaism, and R. Zalman opened his home for Torah study all day long. He knew the building superintendent had been placed there by the government to report on the occupants and that the stream of visiting chassidim was being watched, yet he continued teaching. On one night in the winter of 5698 (1938) the N.K.V.D. arrested dozens of chassidim and shot ten prominent chassidim, a night chassidim called "The Night of the Ten Martyrs" - and still R. Zalman was not deterred.
1 min to tellgood to tell
184 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
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score 0.77 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.60 length_suitability=0.35
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 382-383, no. 5
The narrator's zeide used to say that when a sefer is printed, one must study it — he said this about Derech Mitzvosecha of the Tzemach Tzedek, which he called Taamei HaMitzvos. R. Chaim Eliezer Bichovsky, visiting the zeide's home at the time, said that the olamisher velt had complained to him: they had expected a sefer of nigleh, and found instead that it was all Chassidus.
1 min to tellgood to tell
153 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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score 0.75 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.60 length_suitability=0.30
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 483, no. 2
In Russia R. Eliyahu Akiva Lipskar worked tirelessly for the underground Yeshivas Tomchei Temimim alongside R. Avraham Mayor, R. Nissan Nemanov, R. Bentzion Shemtov and others. He raised large sums for the yeshivos and chadarim, and whenever he paid income tax he would donate an equal amount to the yeshivos. He used his connections with high-ranking government officials to help yeshiva bochurim imprisoned for their work in preserving Yiddishkeit, and hid R. Nissan Nemanov in his home for a long period when the authorities sought his arrest. Years later R. Nissan stayed at R. Eliyahu's Toronto home while visiting on behalf of Tomchei Temimim of Brunoy.
1 min to tellgood to tell
150 wordsR. Eliyahu Akiva Lipskar
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score 0.75 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.60 length_suitability=0.30
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 309-310, no. 45
Reb Aizel once explained all of Shir HaShirim posuk by posuk according to Chassidus. The elder chassidim told the zeide that when he reached the posuk 'Shuvi shuvi haShulamis' his face burned like a torch. When he finished the entire Shir HaShirim according to Chassidus, he made a festive seudah.
1 min to tellgood to tell
142 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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score 0.74 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.60 length_suitability=0.28
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 84, no. 14
The Tzemach Tzedek would say that he very much wanted chassidim to learn the Chassidus of his father-in-law, the Mitteler Rebbe — but who has the time, when a single mashal can take an hour? Likkutei Torah, he said, has everything.
1 min to tellgood to tell
92 wordsTzemach Tzedek
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score 0.69 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.60 length_suitability=0.18
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 484-485, no. 5
R. Eliyahu aided Rebbetzin Chana in her efforts to escape Russia; his tombstone records that he "assisted greatly in the rescue of Rebbetzin Chana, the mother of the Rebbe." After he and his wife merited to leave the Soviet Union they reached the D.P. camps in Germany, where he stayed four years. Wherever he was, he worked hard for the good of Anash and for spreading Yiddishkeit and the teachings of Chassidus.
1 min to tellgood to tell
78 wordsR. Eliyahu Akiva Lipskar
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score 0.68 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.60 length_suitability=0.15
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 459-460, no. 70
In 5719 (1959) R. Moshe Schneerson, a relative of the Rebbe who lived near 770, passed away. The Rebbe personally took part in the lavaya and arranged the burial. After returning from the cemetery, the Rebbe asked R. Zalman Duchman whether he would recite kaddish for him throughout the year, telling him that this too is connected to "Uforatzta" — expanding the realm of holiness.
0 min to tellgood to tell
66 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
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score 0.66 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.60 length_suitability=0.12
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