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As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 199-200, no. 3
The Frierdiker Rebbe related that at a rabbinical conference in Petersburg, R. Chaim Brisker told him about his father R. Yosef Ber. A wealthy Brisk contractor, who worked to free Jewish prisoners, challenged the rov for spending his time learning seemingly irrelevant laws with the two greatest scholars of the town, 'Beryl the Hump' and the 'Klutz.' R. Yosef Ber answered that his learning with them is what keeps a chain of study alive down through the town — Gemara in one beis midrash, Mishnayos in another, householders who come daily, weekly, or only on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur — down to the pharmacist's son who fasts and comes to shul; without it, the pharmacist's son would still fast but would not come to shul. When the Frierdiker Rebbe repeated this to his father, the Rebbe Rashab called it an avodah from above to below.
4 min to tellexcellent to tell
542 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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score 1.48 ·
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=0.95
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. 79-80, no. 6
The Alter Rebbe asked the Tzemach Tzedek where his dowry money was; told it had been given to a wealthy man in Vitebsk to invest, he asked whether the Tzemach Tzedek would take it back and place it in the chest of contributions for the Rabbi Meir Baal HaNess fund. The Tzemach Tzedek remained silent, and shortly afterward the wealthy man went bankrupt and the money was lost. When the Tzemach Tzedek's wife came in tears to her grandfather, the Alter Rebbe said, "Should my own children not listen to me?" — and told how the Maggid had once sent him and a companion on a mission, where a Jew living fifty verst from the nearest town, hearing them wonder aloud how a Jew could never hear Borchu or Kedushah, had his wagons loaded to move to town before they had even finished davenen, once he learned they were the Rebbe's students.
3 min to tellexcellent to tell
403 wordsTzemach Tzedek
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score 1.39 ·
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=0.78
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 307-308, no. 42
The zeide related that when Reb Aizel passed away, one man who was not among his students wept uncontrollably. Asked why, he explained that in his youth he had set out to commit a transgression, and Reb Aizel, walking behind him after davening in the Lubavitcher shul, shouted twice, 'Where are you going!? Go to shul and recite some Tehillim!' He said Reb Aizel had saved his life, and asked how he could not cry over such a tzaddik. Reb Aizel used to tell him, 'You have mazel,' and the zeide revealed the man's identity only after he passed away.
3 min to tellexcellent to tell
337 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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score 1.32 ·
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=0.65
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 488-489, no. 9
In Toronto the Rebbe encouraged R. Eliyahu to devote himself to education, and he took a position in a Talmud Torah. Friends repeatedly pressed him toward lucrative business ventures — some who entered them became millionaires — but the Rebbe answered him: being so qualified in education, is this why you had mesiras nefesh in Russia and endured everything to reach Canada, to become a businessman? He stayed in chinuch al pi taharas hakodesh for life, never arriving late once in thirty-six years, was honored at an Eitz Chaim Talmud Torah dinner attended by five hundred people, founded the first Chabad institution in Toronto with R. Yosef Assulski funding a shul and mikva, and served two decades as a spiritual guide in Gan Yisroel camp.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
325 wordsR. Eliyahu Akiva Lipskar
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score 1.31 ·
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=0.62
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 64-65, no. 4
Der Zeide (רמ"י) used to tell in the name of Reb Aizel that the Mitteler Rebbe once called him in and asked why he was not involved with the chassidim. Reb Aizel answered that he did not have a single peaceful moment for himself, so how could he ponder over others. The Mitteler Rebbe sighed, "Aizik … Aizik, why don't you learn from me? When I see that I'm already a lost case, the least I can do is help out someone else." The account adds that this seems to have taken place during the Alter Rebbe's lifetime.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
198 wordsMitteler Rebbe
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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=1.00 length_suitability=0.38
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 172, no. 57
When the mashpia R. Michoel Bliner of Nevel grew old and weak, Lazer Kaplan, the yeshivah office manager, proposed to the Rebbe Rashab that R. Michoel's five-ruble weekly salary be discontinued. The Rebbe replied that it was worth the money to him if the students of Tomchei Temimim merely looked at him — the very image of an "alten chossid." People explained the Rebbe's phrase to mean a chossid of the Alter Rebbe.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
181 wordsRebbe Rashab
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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. 455, no. 59
On the first morning of Sukkos 5712 (1951), the first Tishrei after the Rebbe accepted the nesius, R. Zalman Duchman asked the Rebbe for permission to make the bracha on the Rebbe's lulav and esrog, explaining that in Leningrad the daled minim were hard to obtain and they would use the Frierdiker Rebbe's set. The Rebbe agreed. R. Zalman shared his delight with the other chassidim, who asked for the same privilege and were also granted it, and from this developed the standing practice of chassidim using the Rebbe's own lulav and esrog each year. The text notes that R. Zalman had also used the Rebbe Rashab's lulav and esrog in Rostov.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
177 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. 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. 474-475, no. 17
In 5724 (1963), after R. Mendel Futerfas left Russia, he went straight to 770 to meet the Rebbe and appealed to the chassidic community that chassidim in Russia lacked basic necessities — some had nothing to eat, others had exit permission but no money for tickets — asking, "Why are you all sleeping?" His words moved R. Yisroel Duchman, together with several other chassidim of Russian background, to found Lishkas Ezras Achim to help Russian Jews, and R. Yisroel raised many thousands of dollars for it, saying humbly that he did not understand spiritual matters but understood material things: he wanted another Jew to have food, a bed, and to receive it with a warm, inviting smile. When the Soviet gates opened he made fundraising trips to help emigrants settle in Eretz Yisroel, and he partnered with Dr. Yirmiyahu Branover — whose own exit he had helped arrange — in Branover's organization Shamir for Russian immigrants there.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
311 wordsR. Yisroel Duchman
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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=0.80 length_suitability=0.60
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. 471-472, no. 8
On Erev Pesach afternoon the Rebbe personally distributed a piece of matzah to each member of the community, and R. Yisroel would take a piece not only for himself but also for the Yiddish writer Chaim Grade, traveling the several hours to Grade's home so he would have the Rebbe's matzah for the Seder. Grade would send back greetings to the Rebbe together with a poem or short story as a gift, which R. Yisroel would deliver on the second night of Pesach, and the Rebbe would press him for details of the interaction. One year R. Yisroel was unsure whether to collect matzah and decided not to; regretting it, he came on the second night and explained that he should not lose out now that Grade had passed away, and the Rebbe replied that he had wondered the previous day why he had not come. From then on R. Yisroel received matzah every year, and after his passing his son R. Sholom inherited the merit, receiving a whole matzah "far der gantzer colel" — for Colel Chabad.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
249 wordsR. Yisroel Duchman
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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. 52, no. 31
Der Zeide related that while a group was sitting over a drop of mashkeh in Homil, a poor man with a beggar's sack came in asking for tzedakah, and they noticed a distinct radiance on his face. They asked whether he had spent time with the Alter Rebbe; he said yes but claimed he could not recall anything to repeat. After they pressed him, he repeated the Alter Rebbe's explanation of the Gemara that Hashem extended His little finger and burned the angels: the little finger is the sefirah of Malchus, Knesses Yisroel — Hashem showed the angels a Yiddishe neshamah, and they were consumed.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
230 wordsAlter Rebbe
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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. 470-471, no. 6
R. Yisroel first took a job in a butcher store and later opened his own poultry business; in yechidus, when the Rebbe asked him for good news, he reported opening his own butcher shop and asked the Rebbe to be his partner, and the Rebbe gave him a $50 bill. In his characteristic way he told the Rebbe, "If you're giving the money to be a partner, $50 is nothing, and if you're giving it as a segulah, then one dollar is also enough." He rose at four a.m. daily for his delivery route, but used his warmth and humor with his Williamsburg customers to move them to give to charitable causes and to change their view of the Rebbe and Lubavitch; his wife Rochel worked in a factory so that he could give his time to the Rebbe and to helping others, and their children nonetheless felt their parents were devoted to them.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
237 wordsR. Yisroel Duchman
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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, p. 241, no. 68
On Yud-Tes Kislev 5685 (1924) the Rebbe looked at R. Leivik, the shamash of the Znamenskaya shul, and quoted "He called forth the shamash and he radiated light." He then spelled out what a shamash's work is: in the morning, when people come and it is still too dark and early to daven, he brings them a Tehillim; it is also his work to see that the children of the baalei-batim learn; and a shamash must know where a housewife buys her meat and similar matters.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
206 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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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, pp. 55-56, no. 36
The Mitteler Rebbe dreamt of a footbridge over a stream that had to be crossed: his teacher the Maggid of Mezritch went first and stumbled, while his father the Alter Rebbe crossed without incident. When the Mitteler Rebbe later asked the Alter Rebbe about the dream, the Alter Rebbe replied, "How can you compare me with the Rebbe? Has the Rebbe made as many baalei teshuvah as I have?"
1 min to tellvery good to tell
163 wordsAlter 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, 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
story_000674
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. 363, no. 9
When he left Leningrad the narrator and others accompanied him to the platform for Moscow-bound trains — people were not as fearful then. A young student was there as well, and R. Leivik told him, "Remember: vechazakta vehayisa l'ish — Strengthen yourself, become a man!" The narrator adds that although the young man later went through a spiritual decline, today he is doing well in a distant country.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
139 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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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=0.80 length_suitability=0.28
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 322-323, no. 8
Reb Pesach Malastovker had an enormous influence on the narrator's zeide, Reb Mordechai Yoel. Reb Pesach once told him the reason: "Because your zeide Mordechai learned my first chapter of Tanya with me and brought me to the Rebbe."
1 min to tellvery good to tell
99 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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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, pp. 494-495, no. 16
One of the baalei teshuva whom R. Eliyahu Akiva Lipskar brought closer to Yiddishkeit said of him, "he is like my father (spiritually)!" On Rosh Hashana night an unfamiliar man got out of a car outside R. Eliyahu's house carrying a satchel and asked whether R. Eliyahu Lipskar lived there. R. Eliyahu did not rebuke him for driving on yom tov or for the disturbance, but invited him in and included him in the yom tov meals, and the man ultimately became an observant Jew. Another baal teshuva connected to R. Eliyahu recounted that watching that Rosh Hashana incident shaped his own relationship with him.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
109 wordsR. Eliyahu Akiva Lipskar
story_000675
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. 238, no. 61
The Rebbe once said that people have no idea how precious a Jewish child is. He pointed to R. Peretz, a child who escaped from Galicia, and to the wonderful family that grew from him. The text notes that this refers to the Chein family and the chossid R. Meir Simcha Chein of Nevel.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
91 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000292
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. 238, no. 62
R. Meir Simcha of Nevel told the narrator that he had pressed the Rebbe about why he never wrote him letters. The Rebbe answered that when he writes a letter to a young man, it affects him, it affects his family, and it affects the entire town.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
92 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000293
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. 415, no. 53
Rav Menachem Mendel Gluskin, rov of the chassidim in Leningrad, was summoned repeatedly to the N.K.V.D., who told him, "Your Kiddushim find no favor in our eyes at all." The narrator remarks: as the Sages said, the assembly of the righteous benefits them and benefits the world.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
77 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000552
score 0.88 ·
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=0.15
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 495-503, no. 17
A character portrait of R. Eliyahu Akiva Lipskar, described as a man of immense knowledge, serious and vigilant, who never did anything merely to discharge an obligation. Though he held no position as a community rov or official communal activist, he was a teacher and guide of Torah whose influence was felt across the city, and people are still moved today at the mention of his name. Many sought his counsel on business and other matters, and he would contemplate a question in depth before giving his opinion. The passage closes with 'May his memory be a blessing.'
1 min to telltells with work
134 wordsR. Eliyahu Akiva Lipskar
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score 0.53 ·
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=0.25
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 326-327, no. 14
In the narrator's minyan the entire Shas was divided among the members as a Chalukas HaShas. Once, when many mesechtos had gone unclaimed, he instructed Avner — a Homil resident who traveled to Lubavitch every year — to write "בא"ה", standing for "Ben Avraham HaLevi."
1 min to telltells with work
109 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000431
score 0.50 ·
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=0.20
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