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As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 140-141, no. 12
In the summer of 5674 (1914) the narrator's brother fell ill with tuberculosis of the bone and was taken from Homil to Kiev for surgery, then a second and a third operation, after which he was very weak. The narrator wrote a pidyon and sent it to the Rebbe's summer dacha in Zalsha; an opening formed at the site, the phlegm drained, and the doctor, Kostritzky, said he had never seen such a thing. The narrator brought his brother to Lubavitch for Rosh Hashanah 5675, but with the war having begun on Tisha B'Av and the crowds immense they could not obtain yechidus, and lacking money to stay through Sukkos they had to leave on motzaei Yom Kippur; the Rebbetzin let him wait in the small room outside the yechidus room, and when the Rebbe finally emerged very late and the narrator said "This is my brother," the Rebbe asked, "This is the one whose leg hurt?"
4 min to tellexcellent to tell
534 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000151
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=0.98
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 48-49, no. 26
Chaim Meir, the caretaker of the Alter Rebbe's ohel, told the narrator's zeide that two young men once asked to enter the ohel and wept there at length. They explained that they had been tailors working in the villages of the Kursk region who abandoned Yiddishkeit, eating treif and worse; on their way home they stopped at a non-Jew's house near Piena and asked for sausage, whereupon he locked them in and announced he would take their money and kill them, allowing them only time to pray and recite Vidduy. After a full day of weeping he returned their money, explaining that a great tzaddik who had stayed with him and passed away there had instructed him to bring to teshuvah two Jews who would come asking to eat treif.
4 min to tellexcellent to tell
560 wordsAlter Rebbe
story_000026
score 1.46 ·
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=0.93
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 492-494, no. 14
A member of Anash phoned R. Eliyahu's house asking Mrs. Lipskar to host a family arriving in Toronto with nowhere to stay; things were difficult for her then and she did not answer at once, but when the husband himself called the next day from the road, travelling with his wife and small baby, she gave him her address and prepared her home. After they had rested she asked about their origins, and the guest, whose family name meant nothing to her, said his grandfather was Yisroel Konson of Leningrad and Tashkent — the R. Yisroel Konson who had risked his health to help her and her husband when they hovered between life and death. She was left speechless, and all who heard of the meeting were astounded by the Divine providence; the Lipskars then attended to the family's every need and offered them loans to buy a home in Toronto, so she was finally able to repay a debt that had weighed on her for years.
3 min to tellexcellent to tell
427 wordsR. Eliyahu Akiva Lipskar
story_000673
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. 306-307, no. 41
An agunah came to the Tzemach Tzedek in Lubavitch to ask about her missing husband, and the Rebbe sent her to Reb Aizel in Homil, who said he had no way of knowing where her husband was. She stayed in Homil for weeks, coming daily and weeping while Reb Aizel sent her away, until one day she refused to budge. Reb Aizel began shoving his meshares Mottel Gabeitzik, who in turn shoved the woman through all the rooms and out into the street — the Kiev-Petersburg highway that ran past the house — at the exact moment a wagon carrying her husband was passing. She screamed, the wagon halted, and a settlement was concluded.
3 min to tellexcellent to tell
391 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000400
score 1.38 ·
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=0.75
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 438-440, no. 38
Rochel, R. Zalman's only daughter, was sent by the school district with five hundred other students to dig trenches on the outskirts of Leningrad, and the grueling work left her feet numb and swollen and her fingers bleeding. Two boys in the group, one Jewish and one gentile, took pity on her and set out to bring her back to Leningrad for care, but found the local train station bombed beyond recognition. The stationmaster told them that although passenger trains no longer ran, freight trains slowed as they passed, and the three managed to jump aboard a moving train while holding the ailing girl, reaching a hospital in Leningrad where she fully recovered. Word later came that the area where they had been working was bombed by Nazi planes, and of the five hundred students only Rochel and the two who carried her survived; R. Zalman attributed the miracle to the bracha she had received from the Frierdiker Rebbe in Tishrei of 5688 (1927), before he left Russia.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
318 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000594
score 1.30 ·
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=0.60
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 278-279, no. 124
When the Soviet government forbade instruction in cheders, the Rebbe traveled to Moscow to find people close to the government who could offset the law. He sent word through Rav Rafael Kahn that Kalman of Nevel should go stay with his daughter, whose husband Bogdanov held an important government position; when Kalman objected that his son-in-law had nothing to do with education, the Rebbe told him not to leave Moscow and to remain as his daughter's guest. At a banquet in that home attended by government officials, Kalman was asked what he thought of the new government and answered that it was wonderful, but why would they not allow Jewish children to study Torah. Influential people connected with education were present, and afterwards a law was issued permitting instruction for up to six children.
4 min to tellvery good to tell
501 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000355
score 1.29 ·
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=0.97
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 376, no. 14
In the village of a chossid of Rebbe Moshe Leib of Sassov a theft occurred and the thief could not be found. The tzaddik instructed the chossid to recite chapter 119 of Tehillim as Shabbos drew to a close. As the gentiles gathered at the inn for whiskey after Havdalah, the chossid reached the posuk 'tikrav rinasi lefanecha' and said it aloud — 'ti krav' meaning 'you have stolen' in Ukrainian — whereupon a gentile who had just walked in cried out that he had not done it, his neighbor so-and-so had.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
298 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000498
score 1.29 ·
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=0.57
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 259, no. 98
On Gimmel Tammuz, when the Rebbe came out of Shpalerka, he entered the study hall, sat on a bench near the aron hakodesh, and said, 'It's a plan and we must know this — it's a libel from there.' He then said that he had seen Hashgacha Pratis at the door of Shpalerka and had thought at that moment: 'Do I take upon myself to continue writing about children's education and Torah schools? If so, it will be good; otherwise, there will be repercussions' — alluding to the verse in Bereishis. He added that a secretary had asked whether he needed to communicate anything to his home, and since she was the one who offered, he decided to refuse.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
268 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000329
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. 270-272, no. 113
The Rebbe arrived in Leningrad on Friday, the 15th of Tammuz, and before Kabbalas Shabbos gave the handwritten text of HaGomel to his son-in-law R. Shmaryahu Gurary to be studied beforehand. When asked whether there would be Chassidus on Shabbos, the Rebbe replied that "they are giving me one Shabbos." A Kiddush was held; his davening ran late and was heard through the white door with the nigun of Avinu Malkeinu, and at the table he said several times during the farbrengen, "This is the Seudas Hodaah" — for it was in Leningrad that he said the bracha of HaGomel. This surprised everyone, since the conventional assumption was that he should have said it in Kostrama, especially as the sentence had unfolded "above to below": a death decree commuted to ten years in Solovki and then reduced to three years of exile in Kostrama.
4 min to tellvery good to tell
466 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000344
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=0.80 length_suitability=0.90
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 113-114, no. 60
A chossid who was in Lubavitch and needed to travel to Petersburg was told by the Tzemach Tzedek at the end of his yechidus to deliver a letter to "the soldier" in Petersburg. On the way he glanced at the letter, saw it was a blank sheet, and concluded there was nothing for him to do. As he entered Petersburg near Troitsky Bridge, a soldier approached his wagon and asked whether he had a letter for him from the Rebbe; too astonished to think, he handed it over, and the soldier vanished from sight.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
230 wordsTzemach Tzedek
story_000116
score 1.23 ·
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=0.45
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 266, no. 106
When the Rebbe reported to the G.P.U. on a Tuesday, he was told to appear again eight days later, on Wednesday — the law requiring a weekly appearance. He insisted on coming on Tuesday instead, and they laughed at anyone wanting to come to them a day early. When he came that Tuesday, Yud-Beis Tammuz — although it was a local festival — he was told that a telegram signed by Dzerzhinsky had arrived and that he was free; mistakes happen, even major ones, they said, asking his forgiveness, and the directive had come from Moscow.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
239 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000337
score 1.23 ·
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=0.45
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 97-98, no. 34
R. Yitzchak Raskin the shochet related that in the days when rabbonim wore a shtreimel on Shabbos, a rov who came to Lubavitch for Shabbos had forgotten to bring his; the Tzemach Tzedek's Rebbetzin lent him the Rebbe's weekday shtreimel, which he returned after Shabbos. When the Rebbe later went to put it on, it seemed to have shrunk, so the local hatter took it home, moistened it, stretched it over a wooden form and left it in the oven overnight to dry. The next morning the hatter ran to the Rebbe: while he was davening, his wife had lit the oven, not knowing what was inside, and the shtreimel burned. "Nu, nu," the Rebbe replied, "if that's what happened, it's likely a sign that I shouldn't wear it again."
3 min to tellvery good to tell
397 wordsTzemach Tzedek
story_000090
score 1.19 ·
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=0.78
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 453, no. 56
After the passing of Rebbetzin Chana, the Rebbe began saying sichos at farbrengens on a Rashi of the parsha, notifying R. Zalman of the chosen Rashi so he could announce it before davening and give people time to review it. A young bochur played a trick on him, telling him on an ordinary Shabbos with no farbrengen planned that there would be one and naming a Rashi; R. Zalman trusted him and made the announcement, the Rebbe looked at him in wonderment, and no farbrengen took place. R. Zalman wrote a long letter of apology, and the Rebbe assured him it was not his fault and was meant to be b'hashgacha pratis — and at the next Shabbos farbrengen the Rebbe discussed the incident and even offered an explanation on the Rashi that R. Zalman had announced.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
181 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
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score 1.18 ·
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=0.35
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 275, no. 119
The tomim DovBer of Minna related that in 5684 (1924) he accompanied the Rebbe to look at a house on Frantzoska Novereznya, a side street near Shpalerka, from which one could see the Nieva River and the Petropavlovsk Fortress where the Alter Rebbe had been imprisoned. The Rebbe remarked, "Yes, it will be nice. That's where the zeide sat, and that's where his grandchild will sit." The narrator concludes, "And so it was."
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
172 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000350
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. 247-248, no. 81
Alter Dvinsker, a Tomchei Temimim student, was to be hired as a shochet in a shtetl, but the community first wanted the Rebbe's approval. He came to Moscow for yechidus at the end of 5682 (1922), and the Rebbe told him not to be a shochet, explaining with the posuk "For man sees what is visible to the eyes" that the second half — "While G-d sees into the heart" — has been given to us, and advised him to learn photography for the time being. He did so and earned a good living, but when photography became unprofitable around 5695 (1935) he became a shochet in Horodok, and when the persecution of Yiddishkeit intensified he was arrested in 5698 (1938).
2 min to tellvery good to tell
314 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000312
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=0.80 length_suitability=0.60
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 447-449, no. 49
Leaving the shul after Mincha, the Rebbe stopped to speak with Reb Zalman Duchman about the Frierdiker Rebbe's wedding and sheva brachos, noting that R. Zalman was now in the same period of celebration for his son. The Rebbe related that the Frierdiker Rebbe's wedding took place on 13 Elul 5657 (1897) — his father the Rebbe Rashab's had been on 11 Elul 5635 (1875) — and that on that Sunday the Frierdiker Rebbe was summoned for army service; his face was blackened so he would look older, and he was sent home, the festivities continuing apart from the coloring on the chosson's face. The Rebbe then told how the Rebbe Maharash had gone to the provincial governor to demand the Rebbe Rashab's release, warning that if the governor would not rescind the call he would go to Moscow himself and the governor would pay a steep price; the governor refused and sent a second notice, the Rebbe Maharash resolved the matter in Moscow, and meanwhile the governor fell gravely ill and died after much suffering. On Sunday, 15 Elul, while Reb Yisroel Duchman celebrated his wedding in distant Paris, his parents merited to go into yechidus and receive a special bracha for the wedding.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
306 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000605
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=0.80 length_suitability=0.60
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 456-457, no. 61
In a diary entry R. Zalman records an exchange in the hallways of 770 on Chof Daled Teves 5712 (1952), after mincha had been davened outside the Rebbe's room when the Rebbe returned from the Ohel. The Rebbe asked him, "You're probably named [after the Alter Rebbe]?" R. Zalman answered that he was, and that his bris had been on Chai Elul, though at that time it was not yet known that Chai Elul was the Alter Rebbe's birthday. The Rebbe replied, "But in Heaven they knew."
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
85 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000617
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=1.00 length_suitability=0.18
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 50, no. 27
Reb Nochum, a son of the Mitteler Rebbe, told the narrator's zeide that he accompanied the Alter Rebbe's body from Piena to Haditch, dressed in a fur coat as though alive. The cold was so severe that he and Reb Chaim Avraham, a son of the Alter Rebbe, took turns sitting beside him. At an inn along the way two young gentiles were overheard planning to search the Jews' sleigh — dangerous in wartime, with Napoleon fighting Russia — when an old gentile came in, sat down beside them, and signaled Reb Nochum with his hand to leave; he went out at once and they continued on their way.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
282 wordsAlter Rebbe
story_000027
score 1.08 ·
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=0.55
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 277, no. 123
In Reshimos Hama'asar the Rebbe writes that by Divine Providence the investigators spent far more time in his home than they had planned, and their attempts to hurry were ineffective. Beryl Menier (may G-d avenge his blood) related that in the middle of that night the Ramash came running to take him to Chaim Lieberman, they told him what was happening with the Rebbe, and they arranged everything so that nothing incriminating would be found — and the police indeed came afterward to arrest R. Chaim. Later, once the Rebbe was already in Riga, great efforts were made and R. Chaim too was permitted to leave Russia.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
292 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000354
score 1.08 ·
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=0.55
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 483-484, no. 3
Drafted into the Red Army in the Second World War and wounded at the front, R. Eliyahu Akiva Lipskar was permitted to leave besieged Leningrad for medical treatment and to take one person with him; the lot fell on Rochel, daughter of Schneur Zalman Duchman, who was knowledgeable in medical matters. After great difficulties they reached Tashkent, where they married. Conditions there were desperate — people starving in the streets and sickness raging — and Rochel contracted typhus; R. Eliyahu, caring for her when she was alone without family, caught it as well, and both became critical. A chossid in Tashkent, R. Yisroel Konson, cooked porridge for them and brought it to the hospital, leaving it on the windowsill when he was refused entry because of the contagion, and so sustained them and saved them from certain death.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
288 wordsR. Eliyahu Akiva Lipskar
story_000662
score 1.08 ·
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=0.55
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 62-63, no. 2
The narrator's zeide related what Shlomo der Itcher told him about the "Great Shavuos" when the Mitteler Rebbe was in Homil. Shlomo said that although he was neither wealthy nor well known, ten minyanim of people sat at his table — so one could imagine how many thousands filled the town, given the wealthy and prominent residents there. There would not have been enough food, but the Homil river was running with saz fish, and people went down to the river with pails and caught them.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
245 wordsMitteler Rebbe
story_000044
score 1.04 ·
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=0.47
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 165, no. 47
R. Fallik Gurary related that he and his uncles R. Shmuel Gurary and R. Nosson were stopped in Rostov by a Chekist from Kremenchug, who taunted them that they could not hide there, took their passports, recorded the numbers, and ordered them to report to the Cheka. They went to the Rebbe and told him what had happened, and he replied, "When there is nothing to answer, no questions are asked." No one bothered them again.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
250 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000186
score 1.04 ·
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=0.47
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. 440-441, no. 40
Eliyahu Akiva Lipskar, a young tomim born in Poltava in 5678 (1918) to the local rav R. Chaim Tzvi — who, though not a Chabad chossid, sent his children to Tomchei Temimim as their only hope of remaining upstanding Jews — lost his father at age twelve, when he was arrested for teaching Torah and died from the suffering. Eli went into business successfully as a bochur and donated large sums to the underground operations of R. Nissan Nemenov, R. Bentzion Shemtov and R. Avraham Mayor. Drafted into the Russian army at the outbreak of World War II, he was injured and released for treatment; as an injured soldier he was permitted a helper, and R. Zalman's oldest child and only daughter, who had nursing experience, accompanied him away from the front at Leningrad. The two reached Tashkent, joined the Lubavitch community there and married; when both contracted typhus and were quarantined, a caring chossid, R. Yisroel Konson, sustained them with nourishing food and saved them from death.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
227 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000596
score 1.01 ·
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=0.43
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 46-48, no. 25
Leaving the Alter Rebbe's ohel in Haditch, the narrator's zeide is invited by Reb Nochum, a son of the Mitteler Rebbe, for mashkeh and blintzes, and asks why Aunt Freidka is buried there. Reb Nochum relates that after the Alter Rebbe's passing the Mitteler Rebbe lost consciousness repeatedly for twenty-four hours, and that Freidka, already frail, weakened further and was taken to Serotina. When her health failed she asked the Kremenchug chassidim to bury her in Haditch at her father's right side; they hesitated because she was a woman, but after she summoned them, stood them around her bed in a burial shroud, recited Elokai Neshama, raised her ten fingers and cried "Tateh, wait!" as her soul left her, they understood they must obey. Still uncertain at the crossroads between Kremenchug and Haditch, they dropped the reins — and the horses took the road to Haditch.
7 min to tellvery good to tell
868 wordsAlter Rebbe
story_000025
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. 107-108, no. 51
R. DovBer Menachem Mendel told his son that at the end of summer 5639 (1879), after his bar mitzvah and while the family lived in Mena, his zeide traveled to the Rebbe Maharin in Nezhin. The Rebbe greeted the zeide as "brother Mordechai Yoel" and spoke with him at length; when the boy was called in, the Rebbe asked why he was dressed so poorly (though a new jacket and boots had been made for the trip) and then asked what they planned to do about his military conscription — eight years before he was eligible. The zeide assumed a waiver would come; in the end nothing helped, and the father was drafted after his wedding and served nearly four years.
3 min to tellgood to tell
350 wordsTzemach Tzedek
story_000107
score 0.94 ·
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=0.68
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 151-152, no. 24
During the First World War the narrator repeatedly traveled to the Rebbe in Rostov on behalf of his brother Baruch, who was serving in the army. When Baruch's unit was sent toward the front, the narrator informed Yerucham, the tomim and chozer who served as gabbai for pidyon shevuyim, and Yerucham brought the matter in to the Rebbe, who answered, "I hope to the Eibershter that they won't send him there." A few weeks later a telegram came from Oryol: a German warplane had thrown his unit into chaos at Minsk and they were diverted to Oryol, after which Baruch himself came to Rostov and received the Rebbe's blessing, and everything was then fine.
3 min to tellgood to tell
353 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000163
score 0.94 ·
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=0.68
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 272, no. 114
The narrator recounts his part in the efforts surrounding the Rebbe's arrest: it was known in advance that the Rebbe was being sent to Kostrama, since R. Michoel Dvorkin traveled there for Shabbos. With expenses covered by the Rashag, the narrator traveled to Rav Rafael Kahan in Nevel, where the chossid Meir Simcha also was, and they approached the father of the investigator who had arrested the Rebbe, asking him to travel with the narrator to Leningrad. The father resisted, saying he was on bad terms with his son over the son's marriage, but he went anyway; being a landsman of R. Michoel Dvorkin — both from Osvet — he would meet him in a garden and report everything. The narrator says he does not know what benefit the meetings produced, but the information itself was quite important.
3 min to tellgood to tell
354 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000345
score 0.94 ·
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=0.68
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 167, no. 50
The narrator recalls coming to the Rebbe Rayatz in Rostov for the first time for Rosh Hashanah 5683 (1922) and hearing many accounts, most of which he assumes are recorded in Ashkavta D'Rebbe by R. DovBer Rivkin. He records one: Rebbetzin Shterna Sarah dreamt she was holding a Sefer Torah when her mother-in-law, Rebbetzin Rivkah, snatched it from her hands and ran; she chased her without catching her until Rebbetzin Rivkah reached a river and vanished. When she told the dream to the Rebbe, he said, "Nu, you came to the water" — a good sign — and told her to recite the Ribono Shel Olam of Birkas Kohanim.
3 min to tellgood to tell
332 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000189
score 0.93 ·
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=0.65
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 456-457, no. 63
When R. Zalman had to be hospitalized for surgery, the Rebbe gave him a siddur and Tanya to place on the operating table; he did so and the surgery was successful. Later, on a visit to Chicago, he misplaced the siddur and — as he did with everything that happened to him — informed the Rebbe, but received no response. Not long afterwards R. Yankel Katz of Chicago arrived at his home with it: a non-Jewish woman had found the siddur and brought it to a shul, the gabbai recognized it as a Chabad siddur and brought it to the Chabad shul, and R. Yankel recognized R. Zalman's name and returned it.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
123 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000619
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. 276, no. 121
The tomim Avraham Baruch Pevsner related that he once traveled with the Rebbe in Rostov, and when they passed the Cheka building the Rebbe discussed whether one is obligated to recite the bracha said at a place where a miracle occurred. The Rebbe then pointed out to him, "Here I was imprisoned, and here they guarded me." A note explains that in the winter of 5681 (1921) there was a court case against the yeshivah in Rostov and the Rebbe was apparently placed under house arrest at that time.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
108 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000352
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. 252, no. 90
Rebbetzin Shterna Sarah related that when the Rebbe Rashab spoke with her about shidduchim for the grandchildren, he said, "Nu, that one is for Chana; and for Musya (Chaya Mushka), I think, one of Leivik's children." She added, "How he thought about everything!"
1 min to tellvery good to tell
93 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000321
score 0.89 ·
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=0.18
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 269, no. 111
Pinchas, son of R. Eliyahu Chaim, held two letters dated Yud-Beis Tammuz. One was a general letter to Anash saying that on such an occasion one should write about Torah and avodah but there was no time, and thanking everyone and their families for reciting Tehillim and asking G-d to help him. The second, to R. Eliyahu Chaim Althoiz, opened by noting that he was the first of those connected to the writer's father whom he met when he was taken to Shpalerka, and the first to bless him Mazel Tov when he was notified he was free, adding that Divine Providence according to Chassidus means tangibly perceiving G-dliness. The narrator remembers no further wording, only the content: one must know how to conduct himself.
2 min to tellgood to tell
293 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000342
score 0.89 ·
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=0.57
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 293, no. 21
The Alter Rebbe blessed him, "Aizik, you should be wealthy!" The blessing was fulfilled through the funds that people would deposit with him for safekeeping, and he became wealthy.
0 min to tellvery good to tell
46 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000380
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, p. 442, no. 41
Fleeing the bombing and hunger of Leningrad, R. Zalman Duchman secured tickets on a crowded train to Tashkent, where many chassidim had gathered. Instead the train carried the passengers to an unknown destination in Siberia, where the crew ordered everyone off and left them in the wastelands. A local gentile woman, impressed by R. Zalman, took the family into her home and cared for them for a long while, sparing them from hunger and the elements; it was in that nameless village that young Yisroel celebrated his bar mitzvah.
1 min to tellgood to tell
172 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000597
score 0.76 ·
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=0.32
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 44, no. 22
The chassidim once complained to the Alter Rebbe about the poverty Jews were suffering. He answered that present-day neshamos are reincarnations from the era of the first Beis Hamikdash, whose destruction was caused in large part by idolatry — a sin whose punishment is death — and that every occasion when a person's material needs go unmet serves in place of that punishment.
1 min to tellgood to tell
134 wordsAlter Rebbe
story_000022
score 0.72 ·
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=0.25
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 438-440, no. 37
As the Nazi invasion neared Leningrad, hundreds of thousands of residents, among them many chassidic families, scrambled to leave. The city was encircled from the north, west and south, and the "900-Day Siege" began on 8 Elul 5701 (1941) and lasted until Shevat 5704 (1944), with an estimated one million residents dying of starvation. Eleven-year-old Yisroel would go into the Russian army barracks, where some kindhearted soldiers threw him scraps of food. R. Zalman himself fell ill from hunger, and although the hospitals were overflowing with war victims, his sister-in-law - Chaya Grunya's sister - worked at a local hospital and arranged ample medical care for him, and he recovered and came home in good health.
2 min to telltells with work
191 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000593
score 0.59 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.40 length_suitability=0.38
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