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As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 123-124, no. 9
R. Yisroel Neveler related in the name of R. Menachem Mendel Gurary that R. Avraham, son of the Rebbe Maharin of Niezhin, told him how as a young man he came to his father and said he was coming not as a son to a father but as a chossid to a Rebbe; his father's advice was that he travel to his uncle in Lubavitch, the Rebbe Maharash. In Lubavitch, Rebbetzin Rivkah prepared a festive welcome and the Rebbe Maharash sat with him for half an hour, but when R. Avraham asked for yechidus the Rebbe answered that the previous night a vein had burst and he had suffered terribly until he tore a piece from his shirt to stop it — yet all that suffering was nothing compared to the difficulty of answering a young man in yechidus; today he could not, tomorrow with G-d's help. He did have yechidus the next day. Returning through Niezhin, his father asked him, "Nu, did I give you good advice?"
4 min to tellexcellent to tell
539 wordsRebbe Maharash
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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=0.98
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
story_000334
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. 256-257, no. 95
At a terrifying Purim farbrengen in 5687 (1927), the Rebbe screamed against the Yevsektzia — 'a rabbi's son, a butcher's son, a villager's son' — declaring he was not frightened of them, and unbuttoned his kapota until his tallis katan showed, calling out that he accepted upon himself the four forms of execution and that when they saw his body aflame they should have no compassion. When the chossid R. Meir Simcha shouted that the Rebbe was needed here, the Rebbe kept repeating that one must be ready to give one's life but must not send the children to their schools. Because informers were known to be present, those there called his mother the Rebbetzin to restrain him; he rose when she came but sent her back to her room to say Tehillim with tears where no one would see, saying that would help, and told her he was not acting on his own initiative but had asked his father. She kept standing and speaking until he fainted and barely revived; everyone was in dread, and the arrest came after Shavuos.
3 min to tellexcellent to tell
445 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000326
score 1.43 ·
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=0.85
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. 38-39, no. 14
While the narrator's zeide, R' Mordechai Yoel, was a yoshev in the Tzemach Tzedek's study hall, the conscription agents were hunting for the young men, so the Rebbe sent them out of Lubavitch — some to Kalisk, some to Liozna — and the zeide spent Yud-Tes Kislev in Liozna. There they brought large bottles of mashkeh and sacks of liver, and Reb Yossele, an elder who had been alive when the Alter Rebbe was arrested, sat at the head of the table and told the whole account from beginning to end, weeping when he reached the soldiers striking the Alter Rebbe's wife and knocking out two of her teeth. He then described the second Yud-Tes Kislev, the first celebrated in Liozna, when a huge crowd gathered, the weather was warm, tents were set up in the courtyard, and the Alter Rebbe himself went around urging everyone to eat, drink and rejoice, saying his Yom-Tov was especially great because the arrest concerned both spiritual and physical matters and Hashem had helped.
3 min to tellexcellent to tell
396 wordsAlter Rebbe
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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. 75-76, no. 2
The narrator's grandfather had such retention that he had no need for the chozer's repetition of a maamar. When chassidim returned from Lubavitch reporting that the Rebbe Rashab recited maamarim lasting several hours, he said he could not have absorbed them, and when they later reported that the maamarim were growing shorter, he said that as the Rebbe rises higher the maamarim will be shorter still. At fourteen he set out on foot to Lubavitch with a group of older chassidim; at an inn along the way a distinguished Jew berated him for a child going off to Lubavitch, and he answered that after they ate he would reply. When they finished he said, "Show me where there is a difference between a boy who is bar mitzvah and an eighty-year-old Jew," and the man — a chossid of the Alter Rebbe — embraced and kissed him.
3 min to tellexcellent to tell
347 wordsTzemach Tzedek
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score 1.34 ·
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=0.68
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 261-262, no. 100
The Rebbe had asked that a large crowd be at the station when he boarded the train to Kostrama for three years of exile, but word was hard to spread and most who came arrived early. On Sunday at dusk, the third of Tammuz, the chassidim formed two lines as the Rebbe approached the train, and R. Binyamin Althoiz said at the door that after his imprisonment in Petersburg the Alter Rebbe had begun leading with a high hand (yad ramah). The Rebbe replied that the Shavuos maamarim discuss three "hands" — yad hagdolah, yad hachazakah and yad ramah — and that ramah signifies Kesser and has the letters of koress: all the enemies should be cut off. By the time the narrator reached the station the Rebbe was already standing at the window of the yellow second-class car.
3 min to tellexcellent to tell
346 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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score 1.34 ·
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=0.68
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 176, no. 63
R. Pinchas, son of R. Eliyahu Chaim Althoiz, related what he heard from the Rebbe Rayatz: late one erev Shabbos in Lubavitch his father had the large blue teakettle brought in and placed it himself between two cushions. R. Asher, the shochet of Nikolayev, was there that Shabbos, and after Chassidus his father called him to the table and told him to make Kiddush over liquor, wash, eat a kazayis of challah, and drink all the tea in the kettle. Afterwards his father explained that R. Asher had wanted to fast a hafsakah from Shabbos to Shabbos and had come to Lubavitch to ask; since he had already fasted through Wednesday, the Rebbe told him to complete the fast.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
325 wordsRebbe Rashab
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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. 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. 396-398, no. 25
While the Rebbe was imprisoned in Shpalerka, chassidim received reports from contacts inside the G.P.U., so already on Friday they knew he was to be released, and Shabbos morning davening was delayed in anticipation. On Sunday, the third of Tammuz, the narrator and his brother-in-law R. Yitzchak Minkovitch had stepped out when Pinya (Pinchas ben R. Binyomin Althoiz) came running to tell them the Rebbe was already home; they ran back and found him sitting in the children's room. Asked whether they had learned Chassidus during that time, the brother-in-law answered that they had said Tehillim, and the Rebbe replied that he had written the maamarim of Shavuos until they saw him and took away the pencil; hours later he brought out the maamarim, one inscribed "written in prison, 19 Sivan 5687" (Anochi) and the second (Vaydaber) "20 Sivan 5687," the last word written being Or. Later, at the dacha in Malachovka, the narrator asked for the conclusion of the maamar and the Rebbe answered, "It does not write itself." At the departure the chassidim formed two rows; R. Binyomin Althoiz began to speak and the Rebbe stopped, answering a remark about the Alter Rebbe leading b'yad ramah after Petersburg with the vort said on Shavuos on yad hagedolah, yad hachazakah and yad ramah — ramah being keser, the letters of kares, may it be 'v'chol oyvecha yikoreisun.' At the station the Rebbe stood at the open window of a yellow second-class car; Rebbetzin Shterna Sarah approached and he said to her, "Mama, it says yehi Hashem Elokeinu imanu ka'asher hayah im avoseinu — surely there will also be al ya'azvenu v'al yitesheinu," and to those seeing him off, "An altogether unnecessary journey," adding, "You will presumably say Yevarechecha."
6 min to tellexcellent to tell
725 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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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. 255-256, no. 94
A note written by the Rebbe was found on the high table in his room after his arrest on Wednesday, 15 Sivan 5687 (1927) in Leningrad, and was later printed in Kuntres Yud-Beis Tammuz 5708. R. Pinchas, son of R. Eliyahu Chaim [Althoiz], kept the note hidden in Leningrad and would take it out, together with two letters the Rebbe wrote on Yud-Beis Tammuz, at the farbrengen held in his home every Yud-Beis Tammuz, and they would be read aloud. In the note the Rebbe instructs that in every chassidishe shul the daily portion of Tehillim be said with a minyan after Shacharis, including Shabbos, followed by Kaddish, and that shopkeepers and businessmen come to daven and to the Ein Yaakov class, promising Hashem's help with abundant livelihood. He tells chassidim to say that he instructs them, and other Yidden that out of Ahavas Yisroel and their well-being he begs them, closing with a blessing for a good year in ruchnius and gashmius and the complete Redemption through Moshiach.
4 min to tellvery good to tell
502 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000325
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, 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, pp. 430-432, no. 22
R. Zalman first met the Rebbe -- then known as the Frierdiker Rebbe's future son-in-law -- in Tishrei 5683 (1922) in Rostov, and afterward met him often in Leningrad, where the Rebbe would visit the Frierdiker Rebbe alone or with his brother R. Yisroel Aryeh Leib. On the 15th of Sivan 5687 (1927) the N.K.V.D. came to arrest the Frierdiker Rebbe and searched the house for incriminating evidence; the Rebbe, who was not home, went at once with R. Elyeh Chaim Althoiz to hide whatever documents could be used against him, and that evening deposited a trunk of manuscripts with R. Zalman for safekeeping. A later exchange of letters is quoted: the Rebbe recalled entrusting him with the sacred documents, and R. Zalman replied that he had returned the large box of manuscripts on the 12th of Tammuz while the Rebbe sat on the west side of the study hall, and that the Rebbe then told him that in return for his efforts he would give him good news -- that the Rebbe would return from exile in time for Shabbos. Once at a Yud-Beis Tammuz farbrengen in 770, R. Zalman rose and said that if the chassidim knew of the Rebbe's part in the Frierdiker Rebbe's release their celebration would be far greater; the Rebbe turned to him and said "Sha!", and R. Zalman never disclosed anything further.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
302 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
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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, pp. 111-112, no. 57
The narrator's zeide told how the Tzemach Tzedek, in Petersburg for the government ministry conference, fought intensely against the authorities' plans. Asked where his determination came from, he said it lay in his suitcase; when they opened it they found his burial shrouds. The minister replied, "You are looking to sacrifice your life, but we only give lashings." The zeide also related that when the children objected that their mother would be terrified by the shrouds, the Tzemach Tzedek answered that this was exactly what he wanted — that she should beg the Eibershter for help, since she is truly the daughter of a Torah sage.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
292 wordsTzemach Tzedek
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score 1.27 ·
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=0.55
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 447-449, no. 47
After four years in a DP camp, R. Zalman Duchman and his family received United States visas and arrived in New York on Wednesday, 4 Elul 5711 (1951), settling in Crown Heights near the Rebbe. Having lost two sons and narrowly escaped the N.K.V.D., he resolved to devote the rest of his life to Torah, davening and acts of kindness. The day after his arrival he went into yechidus; the Rebbe rose from his place and said, "So, if one is persistent enough, one succeeds!" and spent a long time reminiscing with him about their shared years in Leningrad with the Frierdiker Rebbe, remarking that in America they could finally speak openly and freely. When the Rebbe said, "Nu, Reb Zalman, from Leningrad to New York and we are seeing each other, Boruch Hashem!" R. Zalman answered somberly that the "ticket" had been very expensive.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
288 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000603
score 1.27 ·
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=0.55
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. 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. 437-438, no. 36
The Yevsektzia eventually targeted R. Zalman, assigning a Jewish communist named Sorkin to bring him in for interrogation. Unlike most who were taken in, he was released each evening only to be forced back the next morning for long and painful interrogations day after day. His fingers were placed in a doorway's hinges and the door slammed on his hand repeatedly - for the rest of his life his fingernails did not grow - yet he would not give the interrogators the names and addresses of his fellow teachers of Torah. His daughter Rochel, about seventeen, accompanied him and waited outside, but he told even her nothing, refusing to add to his family's pain; only years later did he mention some of what he had endured.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
262 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
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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. 312, no. 51
Reb Aizel explained, with a nigun, that when the Alter Rebbe would say Chassidus the nefesh ha'bahamis would flee, whereas nowadays one can listen to and study Chassidus while the animal soul remains at full strength and untroubled — it resists only davening at length and traveling to the Rebbe. The narrator adds that his zeide (רמ"י) reported hearing from the baalei batim of Sosnitza, where the zeide was a son-in-law, that whenever they needed to travel to the Tzemach Tzedek the greatest obstacles would arise; yet once they overcame them and set out, on the way back from Lubavitch they saw that the obstacles had been utterly nothing.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
246 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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score 1.24 ·
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=0.47
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 324, no. 10
While traveling together, the narrator's zeide and Reb Hillel were forced to abandon their wagon when it became stuck in mud. Reb Hillel, who was physically weak and suffered from a hernia, carried his own unusually heavy tallis and tefillin bag, which held Shimusha Rabbah and Raavad tefillin in addition to Rashi and Rabbeinu Tam, along with the sefer Emek HaMelech. When the zeide offered to carry it for him, Reb Hillel answered that he was very dear to him and he would give him everything, but his own self and essence he could not give away — and these were his very essence.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
245 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000427
score 1.24 ·
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=0.47
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 478-479, no. 24
After a weekday farbrengen of the Rebbe, bochurim gathered with R. Yoel Kahan, the Rebbe's chozer, whose office was then in R. Yisroel's basement, to review the farbrengen, and afterward began an informal farbrengen of their own. R. Yisroel brought down mashkeh along with frankfurters and cold cuts from his butcher store, and the hungry bochurim ate heartily while R. Yoel explained how the Rebbe was giving them a foretaste of Toraso shel Moshiach. R. Yisroel looked at them and remarked, "M'est frankfurters un m'redt zich veggen Moshiach" — "You're eating frankfurters and you're speaking about Moshiach." The story explains the double meaning: a critique from a generation that held spirituality and material desire could not be mixed, and at the same time an awareness that a new light was dawning in which the material and the spiritual would no longer contradict, their fusion complete with Moshiach's coming.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
252 wordsR. Yisroel Duchman
story_000658
score 1.24 ·
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=0.47
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 168-169, no. 52
The narrator's brother Baruch told him in Homil, over a few lechaims, that while he was a student in Tomchei Temimim in Lubavitch the Rebbe Rashab instructed him in yechidus to stay up and learn ("zitzen") for seven nights — from Thursday morning through the following night and the whole next day until evening, without lying down. Each time he feared he might have dozed off, so he repeated the practice. In the end he stayed awake in this fashion for fifteen nights.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
221 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000191
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. 475-476, no. 20
In 5723 (1962), when R. Yisroel Duchman was earning very little, he served as a chazan in a nearby shul for Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, earning around $300, which he set aside to buy the family a washing machine. That year an uncle came from Eretz Yisroel for a bracha to marry off his three older daughters; in yechidus the Rebbe told him that if he grew a beard he would find good shidduchim for them, but the uncle, clean shaven and ten years older than his wife, was certain she would not agree. Knowing that their aunt badly wanted a leather coat the couple could not afford, the Duchmans gave away all the money saved for their much-needed washing machine so the uncle could buy it for her. He began to grow his beard, and within a few months all three daughters found good shidduchim.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
216 wordsR. Yisroel Duchman
story_000654
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, p. 229, no. 46
Rebbetzin Shterna Sarah related that when the Rebbe Rayatz was still quite young and the family was away on vacation, his father the Rebbe Rashab instructed him to contemplate Chassidus until his head spun and he was on the verge of fainting, and then to come to her room and collapse on the sofa there. This went on for some time. When she came to the Rebbe Rashab and protested at his giving the boy such a difficult avodah, he answered, "Nu, what kind of son do you want?"
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
207 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000277
score 1.20 ·
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=0.40
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 162-163, no. 43
The Rebbe said that when they were in Lubavitch they could not have imagined the darkness of Rostov. For someone whom the darkness does not bother, it brings him no benefit; but one who is disturbed by the darkness and overcomes it reaps its additional light.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
171 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000182
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, 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. 311-312, no. 50
Reb Aizel related that when they were yungeleit they would learn standing on their feet the entire night. In the morning they went out without fur coats — not for lack of them but by choice — took axes to chop through the ice, immersed, and only then davened. He added that this cannot be expected of yungeleit today, but learning and davening are still doable.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
172 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. 430-432, no. 24
On Gimmel Tammuz, when the Frierdiker Rebbe was released from prison for a few hours before continuing to his exile in Kostroma, R. Zalman was admitted to see him. As he relates, he and his brother-in-law R. Yitzchak Minkovitch had stepped outside when Pinya came running with the news that the Rebbe had reached home; they ran in and found the Rebbe sitting in the children's room, and one of the daughters told him the yungeleit wanted to see him. The Rebbe's first question was whether they had been learning Chassidus during that time; when the brother-in-law answered that they had been saying Tehillim, the Rebbe replied at once, "I wrote the maamarim of Shavuos until they saw me and took away the pencil." A few hours later the Frierdiker Rebbe gave out the maamorim of Shavuos through our Rebbe, noting on them that they had been written in prison.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
175 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
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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. 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, pp. 276-277, no. 122
In Kostrama the Rebbe told the chassidim R. Eliyahu Chaim (may G-d avenge his blood) and Michoel Dvorkin: "They say that the Baal Shem Tov and the Mezeritcher Maggid visited the Alter Rebbe in Taini Soviet. It doesn't surprise me now at all… My father never left me."
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
149 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000353
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, pp. 413-414, no. 50
Before his passing, the renowned chossid R. Yaakov Mordechai Bezpalov said that he had slept on a chair for thirty years, and that putting on tefillin even once is more precious than those thirty years of sleeping on a chair. Chassidim commented that in order to feel the preciousness of tefillin the way he felt it, one must first sleep on a chair for thirty years. A note adds that at the end of his life he regretted the self-denial, thinking that had he not weakened himself he might have lived to put on tefillin one more time.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
137 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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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, pp. 433-435, no. 26
In Malachovka the Frierdiker Rebbe remained under constant surveillance and concluded he had no choice but to leave Russia entirely, scheduled for Isru Chag of Sukkos 5688 (1927). That Tishrei was highly emotional for chassidim, since for many it would be their last time seeing him, and for Simchas Torah they traveled from all across the Soviet Union to be with him before he left. R. Zalman, who was with the Frierdiker Rebbe for that Tishrei, recalls that the last dance engraved in his memory took place on the last Simchas Torah during the day, when the Rebbe held his holy hands up high and sang Nye Zhuritze Chloptzi.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
142 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
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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, pp. 87-88, no. 19
The mashpia R. Groinem recalled that Rebbetzin Chaya Mussia came to the Tzemach Tzedek and told him that their son, the Rebbe Maharash, does not sleep at all. The Tzemach Tzedek asked his son, "Why don't you sleep? I sleep, as well." The Rebbetzin could not bear to hear it — "You sleep…?!" — and he answered, "But I lie down!" R. Groinem would conclude: to lie down and not sleep is even harder.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
135 wordsTzemach Tzedek
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score 1.12 ·
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=0.25
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 170-171, no. 55
In 5685 (1925) the tomim R. Yisroel Zuravitzer — R. Yisroel Jacobson, who lived in Homil — was in Leningrad, and the Frierdiker Rebbe sent him to Rostov for Beis Nissan. Coming out of yechidus he reported that the Rebbe had told him to speak at the ohel as one speaks in yechidus — "Rebbe, I am a shliach of my mother, you know her name, and of myself" — and to go to the ohel early, since for him it would be after davening while for the Rebbe it would be before davening, "maybe as a result I will daven better." The narrator testifies that on that Beis Nissan, after Shemoneh Esrei and before chazaras hashatz, the Rebbe signaled him to bring a chair and sat down, so exhausted was he from his davening.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
322 wordsRebbe Rashab
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score 1.11 ·
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=0.62
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 349-352, no. 52
As a young man who came to Lubavitch in 5610 (1850) in the days of the Tzemach Tzedek, the narrator's zeide decided that a Rebbe is similar to Hashem and that he wanted to enter without any intermediary. Reb Chaim Ber, the Rebbe's meshares, called him mad and cut off his food allowance, so that for three weeks he lived on two small kichlech a day given him by his study partner, Rebbe Shalom DovBer, son of the Maharil. One night, after Reb Chaim Ber announced that no one was permitted to enter for yechidus, the zeide slipped into the Rebbe's house; as he touched the chamber door the Rebbe came out, he answered with two points, and the Rebbe took his hand and brought him inside for a yechidus 'like none before or after.' When the Rebbe learned that his food allowance had been cut off, he cried 'Oy vey iz mir,' told him he did not need Reb Chaim Ber, and gave him six silver griveniks himself every Thursday morning — through his son the Rebbe Maharash when the zeide came late.
7 min to tellexcellent to tell
926 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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score 1.11 ·
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=0.23
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 424-425, no. 13
Half a year after the deaths in his family, on 2 Nissan 5680 (1920), the Rebbe Rashab passed away in Rostov — a difficult period for R. Zalman Duchman, who had been so connected to him. His love for the Rebbe Rashab drove him to make the long and arduous trip to the Ohel for the yahrtzeit every year. Before Beis Nissan he would board the train to Rostov without knowing what lay ahead, even though Communist spies rode the trains watching for "suspicious persons" and anti-Semitic thugs regularly attacked anyone they recognized as Jewish. His burning desire to be by his Rebbe on that day made him ignore those fears.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
118 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
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score 1.11 ·
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=0.22
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 263, no. 102
On the Shabbos when the Rebbe was already in Kostrama, a Kiddush was held for a few people at his home in Leningrad. The children said their mother was making Kiddush because their father was now free — though the Rebbe himself held otherwise, since he had not received Maftir and had not recited HaGomel. Rebbetzin Shterna Sarah, seated on the sofa near the dining room window, recounted that the Rebbe had told her, "Mama, mama, robbers! They wanted to take revenge," and that every day he was in prison he recited Aneinu, and that his interrogators had asked him, "Are you the Lubavitcher Rebbe, the Jewish leader?" Repeating the words "the Jewish leader," she asked why he must be under the regime of such robbers.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
306 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000333
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. 143-144, no. 15
In the summer of 5674 the railroad added a cheap fourth class, halving the fare from Homil to Krasnoye. Wanting to be in Lubavitch for Shavuos, the narrator took his tefillin and slipped away to the train, telling his brother to announce that evening that he had left; on his return his zeide, R' Mordechai Yoel, told him he had acted correctly but should have told him, since he would have given him a three-ruble note for the road. From Krasnoye he walked to Lubavitch on foot, and the spiritual pleasure of that Shavuos was extraordinary: the Rebbe himself led the weekday davening during the mourning period for his mother, Rebbetzin Rivkah, and once, saying 'echad' of Shema in deep concentration, he snapped his fingers.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
302 wordsRebbe Rashab
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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, p. 267, no. 108
R. Michoel Dvorkin also related that a day or two before Yud-Beis Tammuz, in the shochet's courtyard and garden in Kostrama, the Rebbe said that nearly a month had passed in which he had not written about the education of children — "What do I need fingers for…?!"
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
86 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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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=1.00 length_suitability=0.18
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 458-459, no. 65
Select elder chassidim joined the Frierdiker Rebbe for the Yom-Tov meals in his home, with the Rebbe seated to his left; after the Frierdiker Rebbe's histalkus the meals continued and the Rebbe kept attending, still sitting at the side of the table in his revered silence. Over the years chassidim began asking him questions in Chassidus, minhagim and chassidic stories, and much of what was discussed was later published in the two volumes of Hamelech Bimesibo. R. Zalman was an active participant, drawing on his knowledge of chassidic history. At the Acharon Shel Pesach 5727 (1967) day meal, after a question in Tanya that R. Zalman had raised, the Rebbe said, "We have with us a 'master of stories'; tell a story!" and R. Zalman immediately related that the Rebbe Rashab insisted one wear a silk garment on Shabbos, even telling someone without the means to sell his gold and silver for it -- and that those who could not part with their valuables were in the end arrested on account of the gold and silver they owned.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
305 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, 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
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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
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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. 187-188, no. 79
The venerable R. Nochum of Radomishl came to Lubavitch in the summer of 5667 or 5668 (1907 or 1908) and spent three hours in yechidus with the Rebbe. He related that the Alter Rebbe's son R. Moshe had lived in Radomishl in seclusion on the mountain by the study hall, fasting and afflicting himself — R. Nochum once saw in the bath-house the long groove a rope had etched into his back — and that no one knew who he was; in Lubavitch they said R. Nochum gave R. Moshe's writings to the Rebbe. He remembered R. Moshe telling him, "Listen, my child: every mitzvah from which the body takes pleasure, you should run from." He also told how his father-in-law in Mosier once pointed out Avigdor, an old Jew with a rope tied around him running after gentile women, as a sight worth seeing, and how that father-in-law fainted when the picture of the Alter Rebbe was brought to him.
4 min to tellgood to tell
500 wordsRebbe Rashab
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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=0.60 length_suitability=0.95
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 32, no. 5
Reb Aizel said at a farbrengen that if the Rebbe ordered them to walk into fire, they would go. He then rejected the assumption that he meant they would be miraculously saved: no — to be burned.
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64 wordsAlter Rebbe
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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, p. 258, no. 96
Hershel, the Rebbe's meshares, related that at 12:30 a.m. on Tuesday night someone knocked at the door while the Rebbe was in the dining room after yechidus. His daughter Chana went to ask who was there and was told it was the house superintendent, but the Rebbe said, 'It's not the superintendent — it's the G.P.U.' After searching a while and finding nothing, the Rebbe asked to be left under house arrest, but the agents telephoned and said their instructions were to arrest him. The Rebbe told them, 'You should consider carefully whether it's to your advantage to do this.'
2 min to tellvery good to tell
262 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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score 1.05 ·
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=0.50
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 468, no. 1
Yisroel HaLevi Duchman was born to Zalman and Chaya Grunya on Shabbos, 8 Tishrei 5689 (1928), and the Frierdiker Rebbe, then in Riga, sent a letter with a bracha for the newborn. He grew up in Leningrad under communist oppression, taught at home by his father together with his brother Dovber Menachem Mendel while the oldest brother Mordechai Yoel was sent to the underground Tomchei Temimim in Kutaisi. When the Nazis besieged Leningrad in Elul 5701 (1941), both brothers were lost — one fell in battle with the Soviet army, the other left the house and never returned — and their father, broken and famished, was hospitalized. The burden of feeding the family fell on eleven-year-old Yisroel, who used charm and ingenuity to obtain scraps of food from a nearby Russian army camp, sustaining his family and others who turned to the Duchmans for help.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
261 wordsR. Yisroel Duchman
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score 1.05 ·
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=0.50
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 324-325, no. 11
The narrator describes his zeide Mordechai Yoel's daily order: he went to sleep at 12:30 or 12:45 a.m. and rose at 3:30 or 3:45 a.m. His father related that until the age of 50 or 55 the zeide never lay down to sleep at all, but only dozed lightly while sitting at the table. The narrator remembers a slightly scorched Gemara Beitzah in the house — his father explained that the zeide had been sitting and learning, dozed off, and the candle singed the volume.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
247 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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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, 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
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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. 465, no. 75
Even in his final years R. Zalman Duchman remained steadfastly dedicated to the ideals of Chassidus. His son-in-law R. Eliyahu Lipskier related that during R. Zalman's last days, when his situation was not good, he came in from Toronto and visited him in the hospital on a Friday morning; R. Zalman immediately asked him to bring a question to the Rebbe that day and to relay the answer, saying it was causing him much agony. The question was that he had been careful for so many years to go to the mikvah daily and remain in a state of purity, but in the hospital, where purity mattered so much to him, he was attended by non-Jewish nurses. Though the son-in-law was uncomfortable asking and did not think it was a big deal, he went at once to 770, relayed the question when the Rebbe came out of his room, and the Rebbe considered it seriously and responded — and when the answer was brought back, R. Zalman's face shone.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
238 wordsR. Zalman 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, pp. 209-210, no. 18
The narrator recalls that it was, he thinks, on Yud-Tes Kislev 5685 (1924) that the Rebbe described a Jew from Tsaritsin living in a city where people do not go to sleep early, who nevertheless rises every day at 2 a.m., takes up the Siddur, and contemplates what his zeide stood for, what his father stood for, and what he himself stands for. When the narrator repeated this at a farbrengen in Homil on Pesach 5685, R. Shlomo Tomarkin of Karyokovka told him, "Don't you understand? By 'Tsaritsin' he meant the royal family."
2 min to tellvery good to tell
226 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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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
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