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As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 204-206, no. 12
At Simchas Torah 5685 (1924) in Leningrad, the Rebbe Rayatz spoke passionately against the chossid who sleeps until nine, has davened and eaten by ten, and then strolls Nevsky Street looking where he should not, imagining that a kapotah and gartel or three rubles given to the Rebbe make him a chossid. He cited R. Hillel Paritcher's remark that he does not care for one who strayed and did teshuvah — who knows what sort of teshuvah it was — and explained the teaching that baalei teshuvah stand where perfect tzaddikim cannot: the baal teshuvah is not the same person, he is someone else. He then turned to a young man from Kherson living in Moscow, told him "It's not you," and instructed him to accept divrei chavrus and give a Kiddush on Shabbos Bereishis, adding that everyone must accept upon himself not to sleep past seven in the morning.
4 min to tellexcellent to tell
518 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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score 1.50 ·
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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 ·
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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 ·
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As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 91-92, no. 26
Herschel der Schvartzer, the Tzemach Tzedek's attendant, related that on the motzaei Shabbos of the first Selichos the Rebbe sent him to deliver an urgent letter to wealthy men in a particular shul in Vitebsk before Selichos. The Rebbe gave him a glass of mashkeh to drink, wrapped his own gartel around him, and gave him a bottle of mashkeh to finish at the inn along the way. Setting out from Lubavitch on foot in pitch darkness, unaware of where he was or how far he had gone, he passed the inn, drank the bottle, and soon found himself in Vitebsk, where he delivered the letter; asked where he had been for Shabbos, he answered only "Nu, nu" and turned back. He told the story only after the Tzemach Tzedek's passing; Lubavitch to Vitebsk is roughly 66 miles.
3 min to tellexcellent to tell
417 wordsTzemach Tzedek
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score 1.40 ·
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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. 63-64, no. 3
The narrator's zeide told that at the "Great Purim" in Rogochov, Reb Yossele der chazzan of nearby Korma — a chossid whom the Alter Rebbe had once blessed to become wealthy — was honored by the Mitteler Rebbe with reading the Megillah. In the middle of the reading, at Haman's words "Whom would the king wish to honor more than me?", he spat out, "Feh, kelipah!" Everyone assumed that the Mitteler Rebbe, who detested outward displays of hispaalus, would give the reading to someone else the next morning, but he called Reb Yossele again and told him he did not know that one must first lay Megillah gelt on the table — then laid down a golden rendel, and each of the more than a thousand gvirim present did the same. So the Alter Rebbe's blessing was fulfilled and Reb Yossele became wealthy.
3 min to tellexcellent to tell
372 wordsMitteler Rebbe
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score 1.36 ·
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As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 352-353, no. 53
The narrator's zeide, Mordechai Yoel, related that the Rebbe Maharash held Reb Aizel of Homil's Chassidus in high regard — though he called him "der Hieger" or "der Homiler" and reserved the title "Rebbe" for the Tzemach Tzedek — since he had been Reb Aizel's outstanding disciple. Early one summer morning, walking through the Rebbe's courtyard after a late farbrengen and a generous measure of mashkeh, the zeide was called over by the Rebbe Maharash at the window. When the conversation turned to Reb Aizel's Chassidus, the zeide said with a nigun that the Rebbe and his children do not need it, but the Rebbe's grandchildren and ordinary chassidim should learn it. Glancing up as he finished, he saw the Tzemach Tzedek in the second window — and, as he recounted, he sobered instantly and fled.
3 min to tellexcellent to tell
376 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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score 1.36 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.72
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 268-269, no. 110
On Yud-Beis Tammuz, after being unofficially informed of his freedom, the Rebbe related that on Yud-Beis Tammuz 5654 (1894), his fourteenth birthday, they were on vacation and his father the Rebbe Rashab poured LeChaims. The Rashbatz asked where he had seen such a practice — by his father or his grandfather — and the Rashab answered, "Trust me"; the Rebbe concluded, "And I am grateful to him." Years later, in a yechidus about birthdays, the narrator told the story and the Rebbe Shlita corrected his understanding: the gratitude was directed to the Rashbatz, whose question drew from the Rebbe Rashab the words "Trust me" — and that, said the Rebbe, was the miracle of Yud-Beis Tammuz.
3 min to tellexcellent to tell
362 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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score 1.35 ·
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As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 299-300, no. 31
Although the Tzemach Tzedek had already taken leave of Reb Aizel before going to sleep, he came out again at two or three in the morning to say goodbye. The narrator's zeide watched them exchange the ordinary blessings of older men and then rest each one's head on the other's shoulder — he had no watch, he said, but he could attest they stood that way for between twenty and thirty minutes, and he saw two souls speaking with one another. Reb Aizel then called out that they would likely not see each other again unless Moshiach comes, and the Tzemach Tzedek raised his hands and said, "Go in peace, go in peace."
3 min to tellexcellent to tell
362 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000390
score 1.35 ·
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=0.70
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."
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361 wordsR. Yisroel Duchman
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score 1.35 ·
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As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 216-217, no. 30
The Rebbe (Rayatz) told Chaim Amstislovsky that he became who he was from a tzaddik's glance. Reb Chaim would relate how, as a tall, handsome and wealthy young man walking in Petrograd, R. Yitzchak Yoel Rafaelovitch — the Kremenchug rov's son — told him the Lubavitcher Rebbe (the Rebbe Rashab) was in town, and after great effort he was admitted to yechidus. He was so shaken he did not know whether it was day or night, remembering only the Rebbe Rashab's words, "May you be successful wherever you turn." He noted that only the day before he had stood before Comrade Soldier Minister Bilyovsky and spoken without a trace of fear, yet before the Rebbe he was utterly nullified.
3 min to tellexcellent to tell
349 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, 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.
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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, p. 224, no. 40
On Purim a young man submitted a pidyon nefesh through the gabbai R. Elchanan for a relative in Homil who suffered from heart disease, and at the Purim seudah that stretched into a farbrengen he asked the Rebbe aloud for a bracha for Zalman. The Rebbe spoke into his ear that he had already read the pidyon carefully, and that if the sick man would take upon himself the support of a cheder, the Rebbe would take his illness upon himself, striking his own heart and saying that a person can live with a heart defect. He added that ordinarily in yechidus he sits with a cigarette and says nothing even while his insides churn — but this time he was telling him.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
318 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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score 1.30 ·
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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.
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314 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, p. 392, no. 18
The narrator's zeide, R. Mordechai Yoel, used to say that the Rebbeim disliked hearing about people's wrongdoings and preferred to speak Chassidus; yet at the Simchas Torah farbrengen of 5685 (1924) the Rebbe spoke at length about viduy devarim, and people became baalei teshuvah. A yungerman from Nevel, whose infant had suffocated in its sleep, chased the Rebbe from Leningrad to Moscow and finally to Rostov, apparently in the winter of 5683 (1923). At that yechidus the Rebbe told him that if people knew how good it is to tell everything — literally everything — once in six months or once a year, it would be truly good.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
315 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. 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. 141-142, no. 13
The narrator's brother Baruch studied in the Shedrin branch of Tomchei Temimim and, though he answered all his examination questions in nigleh and Chassidus when he came to Lubavitch for Rosh Hashanah 5673, he was told to remain another year in Shedrin; the Rebbe told him to follow the mashpi'im's instructions. When the narrator's father came to Lubavitch for Yud-Tes Kislev of that year and mentioned at the end of yechidus that his heart was weak, the Rebbe answered that his children were frail as well, and that he had sent the younger one back to Shedrin because it was better there in gashmius. Returning home, the father came straight from the train station burning with hispa'alus and described the Rebbe's motzaei Shabbos farbrengen that ran from 11 p.m. until seven in the morning, at which the Rebbe said lechaim on 57% mashkeh, said that Above and Below must be made equal, and drank whole glasses; the giluyim, he testified, were extraordinary.
4 min to tellvery good to tell
508 wordsRebbe Rashab
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score 1.29 ·
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As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 231-232, no. 50
The narrator recalls an erev Rosh Hashanah in Lubavitch, in a year he does not remember, when the Rebbe Rashab came out repeatedly through the red door to receive pidyonos while his son, the Rebbe Rayatz, stood watching for a long time. On Yud-Tes Kislev of 5685 or 5686, the Rebbe Rayatz described how his father took pidyonos differently from different people — from some in his hand, from others between his fingers — and told Pinchas ben R. Binyomin Althoiz that as a small child his pidyon had been taken between the fingers, as from those closest, and that this should be a meditation for his whole life and for his entire "otriad," of which he is the leader. The Rebbe added that he had wanted to go in with everyone, and after the "soaring" and "descent" wanted to be with him alone.
4 min to tellvery good to tell
532 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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score 1.29 ·
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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. 362-363, no. 8
The narrator notes that chassidic farbrengens open with an introduction, and recounts that at a Kiddush commemorating R. Leivik's hilulah he related that his zeide heard first-hand from the Tzemach Tzedek that the Alter Rebbe had said, "On whom are you relying? My door in Gan Eden will be concealed from you," and that the Rebbe Rashab said, "I'm going to Heaven; I leave you the writings." In Rostov the narrator heard a different version: "The writings and my son I leave with you." He adds that Yosef Nemotin, grandson of R. Yehoshua Nemotin, told him that R. Leivik said before his passing, "It will take a little time; it's necessary to journey to another world, a higher world."
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
283 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000482
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.
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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. 31, no. 4
As a small boy the zeide stood in Reb Aizel's sukkah while the s'chach was being piled on very thickly, and asked why, given the halachah that the stars should be visible through the s'chach. Reb Aizel answered that he had been with the Rebbe in Liozna when the s'chach was laid, and the Rebbe stood and motioned with his holy hands: thicker, and thicker still — and then cried out, "And I can't do it any other way!" The narrator adds that his zeide, named for his two grandfathers Reb Mordechai (a chossid of the Alter Rebbe) and Yoel (a businessman), was always puzzled that both the Tzemach Tzedek and Reb Aizel nonetheless called him Yoel'ke.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
278 wordsAlter Rebbe
story_000004
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, p. 33, no. 7
On Yud-Tes Kislev in the Lubavitcher shul in Homil, Reb Aizel demanded excitedly to know why everyone had gathered, omitted tachnun and was drinking mashkeh. He answered that the joy cannot be for the Rebbe's sake — to the Rebbe it was all the same whether he sat in the Taini Soviet prison or lay at home in bed — but rather "LaHashem hayeshuah": without the liberation we would not have known there is a G-d in the world. "Now go dance!" Der zeide added that in his youth he said Chassidus on this idea, and that he could say Chassidus on any subject and would single out each Yom-Tov or chassidic festival as higher than all the rest.
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264 wordsAlter Rebbe
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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, pp. 485-486, no. 6
The Lipskars arrived in Canada in 5712 (1952), and that year the Rebbe sent R. Eliyahu a ticket so he could travel to him for Purim. When he told the Rebbe's secretary Rabbi Hadakov that he lacked the documents to reenter Canada, the Rebbe answered with a smile that his mother had told him how well R. Eliyahu handled the Russian border guards — and now he couldn't sort something out? At the Purim farbrengens of those years the Rebbe would tell him to say l'chaim, and on one occasion sent him back for a second cup, then a third, then indicated the cup should be full and told him to drink yet another, until after four large cups he was rolling under the table. Before he returned home the Rebbe told him in yechidus to repeat in Toronto what he had heard in New York; R. Eliyahu answered that he could repeat what was said before chatzos but had not heard the teachings from chatzos onward, and the Rebbe replied that after chatzos they were much better than before.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
246 wordsR. Eliyahu Akiva Lipskar
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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. 233, no. 51
On the first night of Yud-Tes Kislev, 5685 or 5686, the Rebbe sat in the zal looking very serious and then related an earlier Yud-Tes Kislev: people had gathered but his father did not come out, and when he went in to ask him to come out and farbreng, his father's expression was frightening. His father told him, "Things must be taken literally — this is Rosh Hashanah, the time for teshuvah." When the son said that people were waiting, his father came out, but only briefly. Having finished the story, the Rebbe returned to his room.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
237 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000282
score 1.23 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.45
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 238-239, no. 63
R. Aharon Leib Lein, a grandson of R. Chaim Dovid the shochet of Nevel, related that he came from Poltava to spend Purim in Leningrad and entered yechidus after Purim. The Rebbe asked him whether he had heard what was spoken there; he answered that he wanted a bracha. The Rebbe replied that a blessing from a Jew is noteworthy, from a Torah scholar certainly so, and from the son of holy pure tzaddikim all the more — but that a bracha is like rain: when one plows and sows and Hashem sends rain, good kernels grow, whereas on an untilled field nothing comes of it.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
233 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000294
score 1.23 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.45
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 318-320, no. 2
R. Mordechai Yoel related that Reb Hillel Paritcher was first a chossid of Reb Mottele of Chernobyl and later became a follower of the Mitteler Rebbe. Traveling in the days of the Tzemach Tzedek, Reb Hillel met Rebbe Mottele, who asked him, "Hilke, why did you leave me?" and observed that when a leaf falls from a tree it is a sign the tree is lacking something; the exchange ended with Rebbe Mottele saying that Reb Hillel would never have a hadras panim and would lie with his pupik facing up. Reb Hillel went straight to the Tzemach Tzedek, who answered that a person traveling in a wagon that overturns also ends up with his pupik facing upward; the Rebbe was not troubled by that second matter. In the end Reb Hillel did not have a beautiful countenance — that is, a handsome beard.
3 min to tellvery good to tell
443 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000419
score 1.23 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.85
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 30, no. 3
The zeide described how awesome it was to hear Reb Aizel become impassioned about the Alter Rebbe, whom he called loftier than all men — higher even than Adam HaRishon before the sin. Reb Aizel would say that if Moshe Rabbeinu and the Rebbe came together and the Rebbe said to do one thing while Moshe Rabbeinu said another, he would answer: do as you wish, but I cannot do anything other than what my Rebbe says. The Rebbe wrote to the author regarding this story that it parallels the account in Seder HaDoros of Rabbeinu Tam and Moshe Rabbeinu.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
221 wordsAlter Rebbe
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score 1.21 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.43
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 54-55, no. 34
Reb Groinem, the mashpia in Lubavitch, told how one Simchas Torah the Alter Rebbe was called to recite the pesukim of Atah Horeisah with the title 'Adoneinu Moreinu VeRabbeinu.' Seeing his face glow, they repeated the phrase again later. The next day he was overheard pacing his room, bitterly repeating the words with a nigun and saying that had he had a pit he would have buried himself alive; when asked how this fit with the glow they had all seen, he answered that when afflictions are sent one must accept them with love.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
218 wordsAlter Rebbe
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score 1.21 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.43
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 88, no. 20
A senior chossid in Lubavitch related that in the days of the Tzemach Tzedek he suffered from headaches, and the Rebbe instructed him to put cold water on his forehead, which helped well. After the Tzemach Tzedek passed away it stopped working, so he came to the Rebbe Maharash, who told him that if cold no longer helps he should use hot water — and the headaches disappeared. After the Rebbe Maharash passed away he came to the Rebbe Rashab, who instructed him that if neither hot nor cold help, he should apply lukewarm water.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
219 wordsTzemach Tzedek
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score 1.21 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.43
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 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
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score 1.21 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.43
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 251, no. 88
The narrator recalls receiving the bitter news of the Rebbe's passing on Yud Shevat 5710 (1950), falling to the ground with only his lips moving: "We are lost, we are lost." He recalls hearing from the senior chassidim that chassidim who said "he" in every generation were mistaken, and admits that after the Rebbe Rashab's passing he himself had asked, "If my father is not here, can I take another father?" — until he grasped that it is the same father, with even greater strength. He adds that when he came for Rosh Hashanah 5683 (1922), the Rebbe told him at his first yechidus, "We provide parnassah for our children."
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
222 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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score 1.21 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.43
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 262, no. 101
The Rebbe's mother, Rebbetzin Shterna Sarah, and his wife, Rebbetzin Nechama Dinah, wearing white silk scarves, accompanied the Rebbe to the train station. From the coach window the Rebbe told his mother that it is true that "Hashem our G-d will be with us, as He was with our forefathers," and it will surely be, "Let Him not leave us, nor forsake us." Then, turning to those standing there, he said, "Ah, such an unnecessary trip. Nu, you'll probably say Yevarechecha."
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
217 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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score 1.21 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.43
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 343, no. 42
The zeide told of a young man who came out of yechidus with the Tzemach Tzedek bursting with joy and turning somersaults in the courtyard, because the Rebbe had said Chassidus to him in the meeting. Asked how it happened, the young man related that he had requested, 'Rebbe, say Chassidus for me,' and when the Rebbe asked what he needed Chassidus for, he answered, 'I need something to daven with.' The Rebbe told him to meditate on how Hashem fills all worlds, encompasses all worlds, and how everything is utterly nothing before Him. The young man was Bera, the Patzitzer Rav.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
224 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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score 1.21 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.43
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 476-478, no. 22
One Erev Pesach, as R. Yisroel Duchman was about to approach the Rebbe for matzah for Chaim Grade, his youngest son Boruch — by then a young man — asked him to get matzah for him too. The Rebbe asked whether Boruch was still in Miami, and on hearing that he was, happily gave R. Yisroel a piece of matzah for him, telling him to tell his son it was shmurah matzah, shmurah with all its meanings, and that it would protect him. In 5736 (1976) R. Yisroel asked for matzah for his son Sholom, who had become one of the Rebbe's special shluchim to Eretz Yisroel, and the Rebbe told him lovingly, "He's my shliach. I sent him matza myself, and I don't need an intermediary." The next year, 5737 (1977), R. Yisroel did not ask — and the Rebbe asked him why not, saying he heard Sholom was doing great things, joked at his bewildered look, "What happened? Sholom ran away?", added that Sholom should want to be at the Rebbe but in actuality should be there, and gave him a matzah for his son.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
222 wordsR. Yisroel Duchman
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score 1.21 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.43
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 56, no. 37
In his old age Reb Aizel would speak self-deprecatingly, saying he had nothing to bring to the next world except one thing: shimush talmidei chachomim, service on behalf of Torah sages. The story behind it was that walking down a street in Liozna one summer he saw the Alter Rebbe by his window when a gust of wind carried off a page of the Alter Rebbe's writing, and Reb Aizel picked it up and brought it to him. When a listener smirked, Reb Aizel insisted, "Why are you laughing? According to halacha this is true shimush talmidei chachomim!"
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
209 wordsAlter Rebbe
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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, 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 ·
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, p. 183, no. 74
One erev Yom Kippur in Lubavitch, after Mincha, the narrator saw the venerable chossid R. Pesach Kuper of Taganrog emerge from the Rebbe's room in tallis and kittel, having been crying. R. Pesach had gone in to receive the Rebbe's erev Yom Kippur blessing and asked that the Rebbe place his hands on his head, as the Rebbe's grandfather and father had each done when blessing him. The Rebbe laid his hands on his head and burst into tears, and, as R. Pesach put it, both of them wept.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
214 wordsRebbe Rashab
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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, p. 201, no. 6
After Shavuos in the summer of 5669 (1909), while the Rebbe Rashab was at a dacha in Babinovitch, the narrator came out of yechidus and was called over in the woods by the Rebbe's son, who asked what his father had spoken about. Told it concerned the trip to Warsaw, the Rebbe's son walked with him and spoke at length about not being overwhelmed by the world and carrying oneself exactly as in Lubavitch. He pointed out that the Chinese who come here walk around just as they do at home, because they know that at home everyone conducts himself that way.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
208 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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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, p. 304, no. 38
When Reb Hillel Paritcher passed through Homil he would stay with Reb Aizel, and at a festive meal he asked Reb Aizel to say Chassidus. Reb Aizel deflected the request back to him, and Reb Hillel protested that he was neither the gaon nor the tzaddik nor the one who had been by the Alter Rebbe. Reb Aizel answered that being a gaon means nothing since the Torah is the Eibershter's, and that he was no tzaddik — but at the mention of time with the Alter Rebbe he rose to his full height and cried out his thanks to the Ribono Shel Olam for letting him serve the Rebbe for nineteen years.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
204 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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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. 44-45, no. 23
Someone told the Alter Rebbe that his chassidim were only putting on a show ("tzvu'im," literally colored). He answered, "Good — they'll get what they deserve," citing the Sages that one who is neither lame nor blind but pretends to be will not leave the world without truly becoming so; so they will truly become chassidim. The same complaint was brought to the Tzemach Tzedek, who replied that it is a sign they are fond of this color, and on another occasion that when a person soaks himself in dye all day, some of it inevitably works its way inside as well.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
200 wordsAlter 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, 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, pp. 179-180, no. 68
R. Gershon Chein, the Rav of Alexandria, related in 5686 that when he was in Lubavitch, Mendel the attendant summoned him to the Rebbe, who told him that Koppel would be bringing the esrogim early the next morning and that he should be there to receive them, adding that he most likely would not sleep that night. He stayed awake in the zal all night, went to the mikveh at dawn, met Koppel's wagon and took the esrogim. When he brought the box inside, the Rebbe took it from him, set it on the table, clasped his hands, bent slightly and circled the table again and again like hakafos, with extraordinary deveikus, then carried the box into his room.
3 min to tellvery good to tell
405 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000207
score 1.19 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.78
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 445-446, no. 46
After the Frierdiker Rebbe's passing on Yud Shevat 5710 (1950), R. Zalman Duchman wrote a long letter to our Rebbe accepting him as successor, though the Rebbe did not take up the leadership until a year later. Some months later R. Zalman wrote that the honorifics would now have to change — wishes for health replaced by mention of his righteous memory — recalling that his grandfather R. Mordechai Yoel of Homil, speaking of the Tzemach Tzedek years after his passing, would still say "the Rebbe, may he be well," then catch himself and add "in Gan Eden." The Rebbe answered that there is nothing to fear in saying it: Tanya, Epistle Twenty-Eight explains that the life of a tzaddik is faith, love and fear — in that sense he is very healthy.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
194 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
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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, pp. 29-30, no. 2
Reb Aizel would describe the ruach hakodesh of the Rebbeim: the Alter Rebbe's never left him for a moment, the Mitteler Rebbe had it whenever he wished (and at times neither had it nor wanted it), and the Tzemach Tzedek had it two or three times a day. When he said this to Reb Hillel Paritcher, Reb Hillel asked whether he himself had ruach hakodesh; Reb Aizel said no, and to Reb Hillel's challenge — if you don't have it, how do you know? — he answered, "A mayvin I am." The zeide would add a related account: the Alter Rebbe once emerged singing that by the Maggid there was true ruach hakodesh and that he did not wish even to glance at the wonders of the Volhynian tzaddikim; when Feter Leibele objected that what matters is what is by us, the Alter Rebbe repeated himself and then cited the teaching about Simchas Beis HaShoeivah, "from there they draw ruach hakodesh."
3 min to tellvery good to tell
385 wordsAlter Rebbe
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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=0.80 length_suitability=0.75
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, pp. 173-174, no. 59
In Lubavitch it was the custom at the conclusion of Rosh Hashanah, after the Rebbe's second maamar, to sing the nigun of R. Shlomo der Geller of Nevel and break into a lively dance. One year the dancing grew so intense that it spilled out of the large zal into the courtyard. The Rebbe sent his attendant R. Nachman to deliver a message in his name: "Vegilu bir'ada" — Rejoice, in awe — and the crowd was quieted by sheer fright.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
180 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000198
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. 213-214, no. 24
The Rebbe described the difference between two ways of traveling to a Rebbe: one man went to Liadi to visit a relative and, since he was already there, also went in to the Alter Rebbe; the second traveled specifically to the Alter Rebbe. Since the Supernal World mirrors the Lower World, when the two passed on, the one who had come only for the Rebbe was admitted as a true chossid, while the other was left with the anguish of asking why he had not gone solely to the Rebbe.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
180 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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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
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