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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
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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. 462-463, no. 72
In 5712 (1952), when chassidim were still unfamiliar with the significance of the Rebbe's answer "I will mention it at the Ohel," R. Zalman Duchman met a couple in Toronto who had been married seven years without children and promised to request a bracha for them. Back in New York he approached the Rebbe, who replied that he would mention them at the Ohel of the Frierdiker Rebbe; feeling this was short of a bracha, R. Zalman pressed, "But Rebbe, why can't the Rebbe give them a proper bracha?" and the Rebbe did not respond. The following year he found the couple in Toronto holding a baby girl, and they attributed her birth to the Rebbe's bracha and gave a substantial donation despite their means. Returning to Crown Heights he reported the news to the Rebbe by the elevator, in the same spot as the year before, and the Rebbe turned at his door and said with a smile, "Nu, Reb Zalman, 'I will mention it at the Ohel' is a proper bracha!"
3 min to tellexcellent to tell
386 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
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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. 476-478, no. 21
R. Yisroel Duchman sought to teach his children hiskashrus, and some of his most important interactions with the Rebbe concerned them. When his second son Yossi was a young child he swallowed an open safety pin that lodged in his esophagus beyond the reach of instruments; doctors planned surgery, warning of possible negative consequences while saying that leaving the pin could be life-threatening, and R. Yisroel said he would consent to nothing before consulting the Rebbe. The Rebbe objected to the surgery and asked that the scheduled surgeon speak with him; the surgeon refused, so the Rebbe spoke by phone with the head of the emergency room and gave precise instructions for removing the pin by lowering a strong magnet down the boy's throat, which worked without difficulty. Afterward the original surgeon insisted on telling the Duchmans that had his own father, himself a doctor, claimed to remove such a pin without surgery he would not have believed him — it was possible only because of their holy Rebbe; and years later, when the grown Yossi asked his father to request a blessing, the Rebbe gave a generous bracha and added, "You can tell Yossi, I think about him more than he thinks about me."
3 min to tellexcellent to tell
361 wordsR. Yisroel Duchman
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score 1.35 ·
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As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 225, no. 41
At a farbrengen in his mother's house the Rebbe told of a chossid who dreamt that his previous Rebbe said one of his children would pass away that year. His Rebbe told him "Tracht gut vet zein gut," but he remained badly shaken; on Simchas Torah he stood aside weeping until the thought struck him that it was nonetheless Simchas Torah, and he joined the dancing. In yechidus after Sukkos the Rebbe asked what he had done on Simchas Torah, and told him that with that he had nullified the decree. The Rebbe did not say the names of the Rebbeim involved.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
314 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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score 1.30 ·
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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
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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. 211-212, no. 21
The Rebbe told how the Alter Rebbe, when it was time to enroll the Mitteler Rebbe in cheder, summoned the melamed and proposed in his customary nigun to trade one mitzvah for another: the Alter Rebbe's mitzvah of V'shinantam l'vanecha for the melamed's mitzvah of sustaining his young children. He handed his son over to learn alef-beis, explaining that an alef is a dot above, a dot below, and a line between them. The Rebbe then told R. Pinchas ben Eliyahu Chaim Althoiz that enrolling one's child in Torah study accomplishes the same as the Kohen Gadol in the Holy of Holies — drawing G-dliness down into the world.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
292 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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score 1.27 ·
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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
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score 1.26 ·
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As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 486-488, no. 8
Some time later the rov's two-year-old daughter was badly burned by scalding water, and though the Rebbe gave a bracha for a complete recovery, her father was disappointed not to be told to make a kiddush as R. Eliyahu had been. Days afterward Rabbi Hadakov conveyed in the Rebbe's name that he should arrange a kiddush in the girl's merit, which he did for that Shabbos. On Motzaei Shabbos her condition collapsed and the doctors gave her hours to live; the Rebbe told them to go to the hospital and make a shturem about the incorrect medicine, and since the rov was reserved by nature, R. Eliyahu went in his place. The doctors discovered that medicine prescribed to be sprinkled on her burns was instead being given to her to drink; once administered correctly, she recovered completely.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
271 wordsR. Eliyahu Akiva Lipskar
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score 1.26 ·
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As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 476-478, no. 22
One Erev Pesach, as R. Yisroel Duchman was about to approach the Rebbe for matzah for Chaim Grade, his youngest son Boruch — by then a young man — asked him to get matzah for him too. The Rebbe asked whether Boruch was still in Miami, and on hearing that he was, happily gave R. Yisroel a piece of matzah for him, telling him to tell his son it was shmurah matzah, shmurah with all its meanings, and that it would protect him. In 5736 (1976) R. Yisroel asked for matzah for his son Sholom, who had become one of the Rebbe's special shluchim to Eretz Yisroel, and the Rebbe told him lovingly, "He's my shliach. I sent him matza myself, and I don't need an intermediary." The next year, 5737 (1977), R. Yisroel did not ask — and the Rebbe asked him why not, saying he heard Sholom was doing great things, joked at his bewildered look, "What happened? Sholom ran away?", added that Sholom should want to be at the Rebbe but in actuality should be there, and gave him a matzah for his son.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
222 wordsR. Yisroel Duchman
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score 1.21 ·
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As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 152, no. 25
In Lubavitch they tell of a Jew who asked the Rebbe whether his son should travel to America, and the Rebbe did not approve. The son traveled anyway and drowned. When the father came to Lubavitch for yechidus and asked, "Rebbe, why didn't you tell me? I wouldn't have let him travel," the Rebbe's countenance changed and he answered, "Believe me, I didn't know. But when we give advice, it should be followed."
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
208 wordsRebbe Rashab
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score 1.20 ·
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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
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score 1.20 ·
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As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 101-102, no. 41
R. Groinem the mashpia recounted that an agunah with a mute son of eight or nine came to the Tzemach Tzedek in Lubavitch and persistently pressed him to tell her where her husband was. Once she had the boy tug at the edge of the Rebbe's garment, and the Rebbe told him, "Tell your mother that your father is returning soon" — which the child did. When the Tzemach Tzedek was told what had happened, he answered, "I didn't know that the boy was mute."
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
188 wordsTzemach Tzedek
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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, pp. 486-488, no. 7
Immediately after R. Eliyahu Akiva Lipskar arrived in Toronto from Germany, his small daughter, who had been born in the German D.P. camp, fell sick and worsened until the doctors lost hope. He wrote to the Rebbe asking for a bracha, and the Rebbe instructed him to prepare a communal kiddush in shul that Shabbos. He did so, drawing the astonished protest of the community rov that he was celebrating while his daughter lay critically ill; shortly afterward her health began to improve until she recovered completely.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
145 wordsR. Eliyahu Akiva Lipskar
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score 1.14 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.28
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 39, no. 15
The Alter Rebbe heard an infant crying in the Mitteler Rebbe's room and came in to find the Mitteler Rebbe sitting immersed in his learning, not hearing the child. He asked him, "Why don't you learn from me? In the deepest meditation, I can still hear a fly's wings beating against the wall."
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
106 wordsAlter Rebbe
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score 1.10 ·
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As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 204, no. 10
At a farbrengen in Rostov in the first period after the Rebbe Rashab's passing, the Rebbe Rayatz said that a young man was standing and thinking, "The Rebbe, ay the Rebbe — but the Rebbe's son?!" The Rebbe added that this young man would see that he would have a baby boy born that year. And so it happened.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
102 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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score 1.10 ·
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As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 77-78, no. 4
The narrator's grandfather told of a Shavuos when Chaim Ber, the Rebbe's attendant, brought out large jugs of mashkeh and trays of food after davening. After the Kiddush the zeide ran off to the Rebbe's son, R. Chaim Shneur Zalman, who was sitting at a table with chassidim and asked what was going on at his father's; told it was the same as here, he replied that his actions had matched those of a great man. When blintzes were served the zeide did not take any, and R. Chaim Shneur Zalman told him the food was from there — shirayim of a tzaddik, a segulah for sons and daughters, and for one who does not need that, for love and awe of G-d. The zeide was struck that although the food had simply been sent from the Rebbe's home to all the children, R. Chaim Shneur Zalman nonetheless called it shirayim of a tzaddik.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
298 wordsTzemach Tzedek
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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 ·
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As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 112-113, no. 59
A story told in Lubavitch: after a Jewish family in Orsha was murdered, the one survivor recounted that his father's father had brought a childless poritz to the Tzemach Tzedek for a blessing for children. The Tzemach Tzedek asked why he had brought him, saying the man's son would do his son no good, but when pressed he said, "Ribono shel Olam, You create and enliven so many 'Ivans' — give him an Ivan too." A son was born and grew up friendly with the family, became a police official, and in the 1905 pogrom led the mob that murdered them.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
283 wordsTzemach Tzedek
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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. 433-435, no. 27
On Isru Chag the chassidim gathered to take leave of the Frierdiker Rebbe. R. Zalman Duchman brought his eight-year-old daughter Rochel to the Rebbe's house, where she received a warm bracha, and he accompanied the Rebbe to the train station, where the Rebbe blessed her again; R. Zalman later said it was this bracha that protected her throughout the war. Before departing the Frierdiker Rebbe handed over a farewell letter, saying, "I didn't write this letter with my heart - it is my heart." Rochel recalled the packed, weeping platform, the Rebbe standing on the train steps, the crowd running after the departing train, and a Leningrad wall newspaper that printed his picture and wrote of his G-dly face.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
286 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
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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. 491-492, no. 13
A family of twelve, chassidim of the Skulener Rebbe, arrived in Toronto; the father fell gravely ill and died, leaving a widow with ten young children. R. Eliyahu collected a large sum for them and established an official fund to support each member of the family, and as each child reached marriageable age he found a spouse, arranged everything the couple needed, and married off all ten as if they were of illustrious status, worrying for them as though they were his own children. After R. Eliyahu's passing, the Skulener Rebbe came to the shiva — arriving in Toronto at 3 A.M. after an airplane delay and asking the family to receive him at that hour — to thank them for the kindness shown to his chassidim.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
282 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, 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. 479-480, no. 25
R. Yisroel Duchman passed away on Thursday, 6 Iyar 5749 (1989) at the age of 59 and was buried in New York near the Ohel; a few months earlier, at the 22 Shvat farbrengen marking the Rebbetzin's first yahrtzeit, the Rebbe had unexpectedly told him, "Say L'chaim for your father." When his son Baruch afterward wrote that his bond with the Rebbe had run through his father and he now felt broken, the Rebbe answered that his father was certainly in Gan Eden highlighting his positive virtues, and that if Baruch gave him a k'li to work with, he would be very successful. The account closes with the Rebbe's teaching that arichus yomim is measured by the experience a person fills his life with, and with R. Yisroel's family — his wife Rochel still keeping an open house, his children and grandchildren active in the Rebbe's work.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
265 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. 313-314, no. 54
R. Yisroel — a son-in-law of Reb Aizel's son R. Yaakov Yosef, and also Reb Aizel's nephew — was seriously ill and paralyzed, and his wife struggled to support their small children through her dry goods store. When it became too much, she came weeping to her zeide, Reb Aizel. He answered her, "What do you want from me? He (the Eibershter) can do whatever He wants with me; I won't give Him any advice."
2 min to tellvery good to tell
237 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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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. 200-201, no. 5
R. Yisroel Neveler related that the Rebbe explained chinuch in sur meira with a parable about nursemaids: with one sort of nursemaid a child will not be soiled by age two; with a better one, not even at a year; and there is a nursemaid who knows the child's eyes, so that already at two or three months the child is always clean. 'And that,' said the Rebbe, 'is the sort of nursemaid I had.'
1 min to tellvery good to tell
179 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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score 0.98 ·
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As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 191, no. 83
On Simchas Torah 5679 (1918) a farbrengen was held in the home of the Rebbe Rashab's son, the Rebbe Rayatz. The table had already been broken and the Rebbe Rashab sat in the middle of the house on a round stool, calling out, "Quiet! We are talking of the loftiest matters." In the middle of it his daughter-in-law, Rebbetzin Nechama Dina, approached and asked, "Shver, is anything bothering you?" He answered, "I am doing very well; I want that for my son it should be good."
1 min to tellvery good to tell
171 wordsRebbe Rashab
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score 0.96 ·
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As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 124-125, no. 10
R. Yehoshua Nemoytin of Beshenkovitch related that a Yid from Beshenkovitch spent time in Lubavitch with the Rebbe Maharash, who told him to study Chapter 11 of Iggeres HaKodesh — Lehaskil'chah Binah — every day. The bracketed note explains that this chapter stresses belief in constant creation yesh me'ayin and that no evil descends from Above. Years later, all of that man's children passed away.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
156 wordsRebbe Maharash
story_000128
score 0.95 ·
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=0.30
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 96-97, no. 33
R. Nochum of Radomishl related that in the days of the Tzemach Tzedek, one of the Rebbe's small grandsons stood holding an apple and crying. When the chassidim asked why, he said he wanted an apple; they told him he could simply eat the one in his hand. The child answered: "My zeide has said that what one wants, he must not do."
1 min to tellvery good to tell
142 wordsTzemach Tzedek
story_000089
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. 407-408, no. 39
At the milchig Kiddush seudah she prepared for the first day of Shavuos, Rebbetzin Nechama Dinah would tell stories. One year she related that her grandmother, Rebbetzin Rivkah, wife of the Rebbe Maharash, davened at length like the great chassidim — which the narrator was glad to hear, since his uncle R. Yehudah Leib Chasdan, the shochet from Homil, had reported seeing her absorbed in "Echad" for more than two minutes. She also spoke of the brilliance of Devorah Leah, daughter of the Rebbe Maharash, who praised the Rebbetzin for raising her children so well, and mentioned Reb Zalman Aharon and her father-in-law the Rebbe Rashab, recalling with satisfaction that when she brought the children erev Rosh Hashanah and erev Yom Kippur for his blessing, he would bless her too, with his hands lifted over her head.
2 min to tellgood to tell
321 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000538
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=0.60 length_suitability=0.62
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 217-218, no. 31
The Rebbe (Rayatz) told a Jew named Dvorkin from Rudnia, who was living in Leningrad, that because he had brought nachas ruach to a tzaddik, his son was following a Yiddishe path. The man had built cases for the Rebbe Rashab's handwritten manuscripts in Lubavitch.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
99 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000262
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. 478-479, no. 23
R. Yisroel was close with his children's friends despite the generation gap and shared in their lives. When a shliach in Eretz Yisroel whom the Duchmans knew well had been childless for several years after his marriage, R. Yisroel took the initiative to approach the Rebbe during a Lag BaOmer farbrengen — the occasion on which, the story notes, the Mitteler Rebbe would work miracles, most of them blessings for childless couples — and asked for a bracha for the couple. The Rebbe gave his blessing, and shortly afterward the couple was blessed with children.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
109 wordsR. Yisroel Duchman
story_000657
score 0.90 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.20
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 442-443, no. 42
In the summer of 5703 (1943), R. Zalman Duchman, Chaya Grunya and fourteen-year-old Yisroel reached Tashkent, where Chabad chassidim fleeing the German advance had been gathering since 5701 (1941) alongside the large Bukharian Jewish community. Amid homelessness, bread lines, filth and typhus, the extended family of chassidim held together and helped one another, and because the authorities' attention was fixed on the front they were able to organize minyanim, chadorim, yeshivos and mikvaos without fear. The Duchmans moved into their daughter and son-in-law's one-bedroom apartment divided by a curtain; Yisroel learned Chumash, Gemara and Tanya with the chossid R. Yisroel Nevler (Levin) and committed thirty perokim of Tanya to memory before transferring to a more advanced yeshivah in Samarkand. R. Zalman's son-in-law R. Eli Lipskar organized four chadorim serving over eighty children, from siddur reading through Gemara.
2 min to tellgood to tell
317 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000598
score 0.90 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.60 length_suitability=0.60
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 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. 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, pp. 452-453, no. 54
At the end of the Simchas Torah farbrengen of 5726 (1965), when it was time to begin hakafos, the Rebbe instructed R. Zalman to announce "Sha, shtiller!" to quiet the crowd. After several attempts the Rebbe asked him to announce three times, "Kol mevaser, mevaser v'omer!" -- from the Hoshanos liturgy -- and as he did, the Rebbe smiled. At another Simchas Torah farbrengen, when the Rebbe asked the children to sing "Hamal'ach Hagoel," R. Zalman led the singing, to the Rebbe's great delight.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
90 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
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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, pp. 425-426, no. 14
R. Leima Minkowitz of Nevel, a respected chossid whose wife Chaya Mina ran their successful business so he could daven and study, agreed to the match between his daughter Chaya Grunya and R. Zalman, and the wedding was set for Homil. On the day of travel the Minkowitz family boarded the train in the crowded station without checking that everyone was aboard, and only after it pulled out did they realize the kallah had been left on the platform, running after the accelerating train; R. Leima demanded so authoritatively that the conductors stop the train that they did, and Chaya Grunya boarded. Though Homil was still ravaged by famine and typhus, the wedding was held on erev Shabbos with great joy and the festivities continued for days, and on Shavuos 5681 the couple was blessed with a daughter, Beila Rochel.
2 min to tellgood to tell
299 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000570
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. 198, no. 1
R. Binyamin Althoiz of Nikolayev related that at the bris milah the infant cried, and the Rebbe Maharash said, 'Shh, don't cry — you will recite Chassidus and be a Rebbe.'
0 min to tellvery good to tell
65 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000232
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. 216, no. 29
The Rebbe (Rayatz) told Leibel Gurary that it is natural for a person to want his children to be like him. For that to happen, he said, a person must lift himself higher and vacate his own place for his children.
0 min to tellvery good to tell
69 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000260
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. 125, no. 11
At the bar mitzvah of the narrator's son DovBer Menachem Mendel on 23 Cheshvan 5696 (1935), R. Elchanan Morozov recited the posuk "Hodieini Hashem kitzi" using the melody with which the Rebbe Maharash had said it. Rav Gluskin, the Rav of Minsk, sat by with tears streaming from his eyes.
1 min to tellgood to tell
131 wordsRebbe Maharash
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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. 433-435, no. 28
On Shabbos, 8 Tishrei 5689 (1928), Chaya Grunya gave birth to a third son, Yisroel, and R. Zalman Duchman received a letter of bracha from the Frierdiker Rebbe, who was then in Riga. At the end of 5689 (1929) R. Zalman received a letter from his brother Yisroel Noach HaLevi in Eretz Yisroel describing his yechidus with the Rebbe that summer. The Rebbe had asked after their mother and said of the brothers Zalman and Boruch, "I know quite well what is happening with them. Send them my regards; write to them that I do not forget them."
1 min to tellgood to tell
129 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
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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, p. 250, no. 87
The Rebbe once spoke with R. Elchanan Morozov, one of the renowned chassidim of the generation, about how difficult yechidus is. He gave an example: someone comes in and says that the children he fathered without observing family purity should pass away. "Nu, what should I answer?"
1 min to tellgood to tell
100 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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score 0.70 ·
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=0.20
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 104, no. 45
The narrator's zeide was present when Rebbetzin Chaya Mussia passed away. After the burial was completed, the Tzemach Tzedek said, "Chaya, go to Heaven and say: However much Torah came out from your belly, it is still not enough."
1 min to tellgood to tell
80 wordsTzemach Tzedek
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score 0.68 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.60 length_suitability=0.15
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 438-440, no. 39
R. Zalman Duchman's two older sons died during the war. Berel Mendel, a yeshivah bochur, was forcibly conscripted into the Russian army and word soon came that he had been killed, his whereabouts unknown. His brother Mordechai Yoel went out on one of the volunteer forages to smuggle food into the starving, blockaded city, and on his return the ice cracked beneath him as he crossed a river and he drowned. The loss of both sons visibly aged R. Zalman and turned his hair completely gray.
2 min to telltells with work
260 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
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score 0.65 ·
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=0.50
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
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 428-429, no. 18
Soon after the Frierdiker Rebbe moved from Rostov to Leningrad on 23 Iyar 5684, R. Zalman Duchman moved as well with his wife Chaya Grunya and their children — Beila Rochel, age three; Dovber Menachem Mendel, age two, born 23 Cheshvan 5683 (1922); and the newborn Mordechai Yoel, born 5 Iyar 5684 — not wanting to be far from their source of life, the Rebbe. For the next three years and three months R. Zalman observed and absorbed everything that happened in the Frierdiker Rebbe's court, and his memories of that time fill many pages of his book. He also farbrenged with the many chassidim who came to Leningrad.
1 min to telltells with work
107 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
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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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