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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. 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 ·
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=0.80
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. 376, no. 14
In the village of a chossid of Rebbe Moshe Leib of Sassov a theft occurred and the thief could not be found. The tzaddik instructed the chossid to recite chapter 119 of Tehillim as Shabbos drew to a close. As the gentiles gathered at the inn for whiskey after Havdalah, the chossid reached the posuk 'tikrav rinasi lefanecha' and said it aloud — 'ti krav' meaning 'you have stolen' in Ukrainian — whereupon a gentile who had just walked in cried out that he had not done it, his neighbor so-and-so had.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
298 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000498
score 1.29 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.57
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 429-430, no. 21
R. Zalman's poverty was dreadful -- when Chaya Grunya pointed out that their chairs were so battered it was an embarrassment to have them around, he could only suggest moving them to a room where they would not be seen -- yet he never hesitated to bring guests home, and his tiny apartment had a partition set up to make a sleeping area for them. Every Shabbos after davening he brought home the most unfortunate individuals; when his wife wondered whether there were any normal guests needing a meal, he explained that by the time he finished davening the shul was empty and only these people remained. One day a Yid came needing a place to stay, and R. Zalman gave him his own "private quarters" while the family crowded into the other cordoned area; in the middle of the night loud moaning was heard from behind the curtain and R. Zalman watched over him the whole night. The family later realized the man suffered from epilepsy and that R. Zalman had placed him apart so as to spare embarrassment, and his children took on the same extraordinary kindness -- sharing their food with guests and giving away their own beds while they slept on the floor in a corner.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
280 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
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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. 375-376, no. 13
An elder Chernobyler chossid passing through Leningrad told of a chossid who used to fast from one Shabbos to the next and was told by his teacher that this was unnecessary. The chossid objected that the Baal Shem Tov fasted from Shabbos to Shabbos during his solitary meditations. His teacher answered that the Baal Shem Tov took a sack full of food with him when he walked the mountains from Kitov to Kosov, and only on Friday discovered the sack was still full — his 'I have forgotten to eat my bread' came from deveikus to G-dliness, not from undertaking a fast.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
272 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. 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 ·
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. 160-161, no. 39
R. Yekusiel Golodetz also related that R. Yitzchak Yoel Rofolovitz, the rov of Kremenchug, was arguing late one Friday afternoon with R. Shmuel Gurary over whether one should drink tea first or daven Mincha first. The Rebbe passed by and they told him what they were debating. The Rebbe answered: if you want to drink tea in a relaxed manner, daven Mincha first; but if you want to daven Mincha in a relaxed way, you can drink the tea first.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
254 wordsRebbe Rashab
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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. 270-272, no. 113
The Rebbe arrived in Leningrad on Friday, the 15th of Tammuz, and before Kabbalas Shabbos gave the handwritten text of HaGomel to his son-in-law R. Shmaryahu Gurary to be studied beforehand. When asked whether there would be Chassidus on Shabbos, the Rebbe replied that "they are giving me one Shabbos." A Kiddush was held; his davening ran late and was heard through the white door with the nigun of Avinu Malkeinu, and at the table he said several times during the farbrengen, "This is the Seudas Hodaah" — for it was in Leningrad that he said the bracha of HaGomel. This surprised everyone, since the conventional assumption was that he should have said it in Kostrama, especially as the sentence had unfolded "above to below": a death decree commuted to ten years in Solovki and then reduced to three years of exile in Kostrama.
4 min to tellvery good to tell
466 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000344
score 1.25 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.90
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 322, no. 7
The narrator's zeide recalled that when Reb Hillel Paritcher stayed at an inn in Lubavitch he offered a piece of kugel to a young man from Homil, who said he never eats kugel. Reb Hillel cited the Alter Rebbe that eating kugel on Shabbos sweetens Divine judgment as the shofar does on Rosh Hashanah, and answered the obvious objection by noting that when Rosh Hashanah falls on Shabbos we do eat kugel and do not blow shofar. He conceded it was only a vertel — but the Alter Rebbe's vertel — and concluded that one should eat kugel.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
263 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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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. 97-98, no. 34
R. Yitzchak Raskin the shochet related that in the days when rabbonim wore a shtreimel on Shabbos, a rov who came to Lubavitch for Shabbos had forgotten to bring his; the Tzemach Tzedek's Rebbetzin lent him the Rebbe's weekday shtreimel, which he returned after Shabbos. When the Rebbe later went to put it on, it seemed to have shrunk, so the local hatter took it home, moistened it, stretched it over a wooden form and left it in the oven overnight to dry. The next morning the hatter ran to the Rebbe: while he was davening, his wife had lit the oven, not knowing what was inside, and the shtreimel burned. "Nu, nu," the Rebbe replied, "if that's what happened, it's likely a sign that I shouldn't wear it again."
3 min to tellvery good to tell
397 wordsTzemach Tzedek
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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=0.80 length_suitability=0.78
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, pp. 163-164, no. 44
R. Yosef Yozik Gurevitch of Warsaw related that when he and his son-in-law R. Feivel Zalmanov came to the Rebbe outside of Russia, the Rebbe instructed them to be mekabel shalom. Invited to the Rebbe on Shabbos evening when no wine was available, the Rebbe said it does not feel right to hold a knife while reciting Kiddush and told them to make Kiddush over liquor, though he himself recited Kiddush over challah. When they returned Shabbos morning the Rebbetzin asked whether they had davened, and said of the Rebbe, "Ah! How he davened! I barely survived!"
2 min to tellvery good to tell
317 wordsRebbe Rashab
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score 1.10 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.60
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, 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. 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
story_000621
score 1.09 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.57
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 76-77, no. 3
On the way to Lubavitch the narrator's grandfather resolved to do three things: see the Rebbe right away, arrange lodging near the Rebbe's courtyard, and spend Shabbos in the company of the Rebbe's sons. They arrived on Friday and he was told the Rebbe could not be seen, as he had already returned from the mikveh, but he ran to the Rebbe's home anyway, and the Tzemach Tzedek came out and said, "No meetings now" — so the first resolution was fulfilled, since he had already seen the Rebbe. He obtained lodging near the courtyard, and because the Rebbe's son R. Shneur Zalman, the Rebbe of Liadi, had a father-in-law in Homil who had sent greetings through him, he was invited for Shabbos — and remained his guest for Shabbos and Yom-Tov for years afterward.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
243 wordsTzemach Tzedek
story_000059
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. 489-490, no. 10
R. Eliyahu farbrenged with every layer of the community — schoolboys, yeshiva students, middle-aged men and the elderly — always knowing which story or saying suited his listeners, and his Shabbos afternoon farbrengens in shul often lasted until sunset. He was a pillar of the community: he assisted the Chabad institutions in Toronto, those who had escaped Soviet oppression, Colel Chabad in Eretz Yisroel and Lishkas Ezras Achim, and he was among the Rashag's foremost local aides when the Rashag came on behalf of the central Yeshivas Tomchei Temimim in New York. Past retirement age he trained educators in a teacher's seminary, guided youngsters at camp as though he were one of them, and was among the first to open a Kollel Tiferes Zekainim - Levi Yitzchok when the Rebbe proposed it. Well-versed in nigleh and Chassidus, he gave Tanya shiurim to professors and doctors and, for twenty consecutive years, to the community's leading businessmen, and he publicly repeated the Rebbe's maamarim and sichos, all alongside an intense personal learning regimen acquired despite years of hardship and suffering.
3 min to tellgood to tell
440 wordsR. Eliyahu Akiva Lipskar
story_000669
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=0.60 length_suitability=0.85
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 33-34, no. 8
Der zeide related in the name of Reb Aizel Homiler that the Alter Rebbe once went on Shabbos to the home of his daughter Freidka, whose health was weak, to recite Chassidus, and the chassidim crowded among the trees around the house. Reb Aizel said he too merited to be there. The Alter Rebbe turned to his son the Mitteler Rebbe — "Newspapers? They want newspapers?!" — seized his lapel and said, "Why aren't they learning Tanya? I tell you, through Tanya one can become a chossid like Avraham Avinu."
2 min to tellvery good to tell
225 wordsAlter Rebbe
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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
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 484-485, no. 4
In Tashkent R. Eliyahu was a zealous activist: he established chadarim where children were taught Torah, did many deeds of kindness, and helped the public with communal needs. R. Aharon Chazan recounts in his book Neged Hazerem that it was R. Eliyahu who recommended he take a position in the secret cheder network — R. Aharon founded the chadarim and found teachers while R. Eliyahu raised the money to pay them. After his release from the Red Army R. Eliyahu went into business and, despite the danger, profited, using most of the money to support the Chabad underground that secretly maintained yeshivos and chadarim, and to help families whose breadwinner had no work or who were denied ration coupons for refusing to work on Shabbos. Living in Moscow while many religious Jews remained in Tashkent, and with money transfers nearly impossible, he served as a conduit for smuggled goods but dealt only with merchants willing to send some of the wares to the secret yeshivos — all the while in great personal danger.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
224 wordsR. Eliyahu Akiva Lipskar
story_000663
score 1.01 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.43
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 227-229, no. 45
Purim in Leningrad — the narrator thinks 5686 (1926) — fell on a Friday. When it grew late, chassidim asked the Rebbe Rayatz to make Kiddush before Maariv so the farbrengen could continue, and he refused, saying, "It is not appropriate for you to want this." He recounted that his father, the Rebbe Rashab, had made Kiddush before Maariv on a Simchas Torah that fell on Friday, reasoning that although Kabbalah requires at least one person in the world not to do so, "I am not alone — there are great rabbis, there are 'gute Yidden'"; and that after doing the same on Simchas Torah 5680 (1919) he told his son it pained him greatly. After Maariv the Rashag emerged from the Rebbe's room with his words: just as all the supernal lights of Yom Kippur depart after Ne'ilah, so all the lights of Purim departed once Maariv was davened and Shabbos entered. The leftover Purim food became the Melaveh Malkah after Shabbos, at which the Rebbe sat silent despite repeated requests to say Chassidus, and R. Meir Simcha of Nevel protested that it was a "Poilisher tisch."
5 min to tellgood to tell
614 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=0.60 length_suitability=0.82
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 298-299, no. 30
The narrator's zeide, RMY, came to the Tzemach Tzedek in Lubavitch in the summer of 5610 (1850). In the winter of 5611 (1851) Reb Aizel, who was fluent in spoken and written Russian, was carrying out a mission for the Tzemach Tzedek in Petersburg and was expected back for Shabbos; he did not arrive, and the Tzemach Tzedek said no Chassidus that Shabbos. When Reb Aizel finally came after Shabbos he recognized the boy as Avraham Borshtzovker's younger son, blessed him abundantly with children and grandchildren, and at Rebbe Chaim Shneur Zalman's request took him along to Homil.
3 min to tellgood to tell
418 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000389
score 1.00 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.60 length_suitability=0.80
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 321-322, no. 6
On motzaei Shabbos Reb Hillel Paritcher hurried to leave; the narrator's zeide later observed that he was hastening toward Kherson and the 11th of Menachem Av, within the thirty days before his passing, which a neshamah senses. Before departing Reb Hillel lay down for a nap while people noisily packed suitcases in his room, and when the zeide told them to be quiet Reb Hillel answered that he was the baal habayis of his own body: when he orders it to sleep, it sleeps.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
202 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000423
score 1.00 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.40
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 429-430, no. 20
Life in Leningrad was hard: housing was scarce and dilapidated, and most families had to share apartments and a common kitchen, which was especially difficult for Jewish families whose apartment-mates were not Jewish. R. Zalman was fortunate to rent an apartment in the home of a prominent doctor and did not have to share it. One small sewing machine gave him a minimal income -- the government supplied raw materials and he sewed them into garments -- which let frum Yidden set their own schedules and not worry about taking off for Shabbos and Yom-Tov. Those who saw him at work recall him in full Chassidic garb, one hand turning the machine and the other clutching a Tehillim, lovingly reciting its words.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
179 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000576
score 0.98 ·
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=0.35
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 435-436, no. 32
Continuing his letter, R. Zalman Duchman describes the indescribable pleasure of the time spent with the Rebbe's father in Leningrad: they went to visit him nearly every night and he explained Midrashim according to Chassidus, with Pinya Althoiz asking R. Zalman whether he was overwhelmed yet. When R. Michoel Dvorkin mustered the courage to ask him how he knew all this, he answered that the Rebbe Rashab had given him the basic rules. He adds that since Shabbos in wintertime Leningrad begins at three in the afternoon, the group — R. Michoel Dvorkin, both Pinyas, Menashe and himself — would come to him after the Shabbos dinner; finding him once resting on a small sofa, he told them that the Rebbe Rashab had said to him that above all one must always be engaged in thought, even when resting for a while.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
173 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000588
score 0.96 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.32
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 132-133, no. 2
The Rebbe Rashab insisted that a Kohen and a Levi be present for the Torah reading; his attendant R. Nachman was the Kohen, while a Levi had to be sought out in the courtyard. The narrator, a Levi, was at first afraid to be called up in the Rebbe's presence and trembled the first time, but afterward sought out the opportunity during the few weeks before the Rebbe left for the country. He describes the Rebbe's radiant countenance, the way he gazed at the Torah at hagbah while voicing 'Yagdil Torah veya'adir,' and the overwhelming way he said the word 'Psach' in 'Psach libi b'sorasecha.'
3 min to tellgood to tell
375 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000141
score 0.96 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.60 length_suitability=0.72
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 421-423, no. 5
Zalman describes how, while the Rebbe Rashab said a maamar, the Rebbe Rayatz would stand opposite him, and in the middle of the maamar the Rebbe would stop and the two would look into each other's eyes. On Shabbos Teshuvah 5673 (1912) the maamar was extraordinary: the Rebbe paused frequently and rapped on the table, and at each pause they looked into each other's eyes. He compares it to what he recorded in the name of his zeide about the Tzemach Tzedek and Reb Aizel of Homil — that he saw how two souls were talking with one another — adding that each pause lasted a while and that his memory retains it as though he saw it yesterday.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
157 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000561
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. 475-476, no. 19
R. Yisroel Duchman's care for others extended to those close at hand: he organized collections that enabled countless young brides and grooms to set up their homes, and recipients could feel that he was genuinely glad to be helping them. Giving was a natural, ongoing part of his life, in the spirit of the chassidic adage that "the piece of bread that I have is yours just as much as it is mine." All year round his Shabbos table was surrounded by guests from all over the world, an effort in which his wife Rochel was his tireless partner, and for which he showed her the utmost appreciation and respect.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
152 wordsR. Yisroel Duchman
story_000653
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. 312-313, no. 52
The narrator's zeide related what he heard from Reb Aizel's wife, Rebbetzin Elka: Reb Aizel once fasted from Shabbos to Shabbos while keeping his routine entirely unchanged, so that no one knew of it. On the following Shabbos, as he was about to make Kiddush, he coughed loudly and his wife became anxious; he told her, “It's nothing, I'll be all right.”
1 min to tellvery good to tell
149 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000411
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, p. 346, no. 46
The narrator's zeide related that Rebbe Michel of Zlotchov gave his students their Shabbos expenses every Friday morning. When they asked him to give the money on Thursday instead, he said he would ask, and afterwards reported the answer he received from Above: "A petack is not money, but suffering is precious." A footnote explains that although he could have arranged the money a day earlier, their distress and humility over their circumstances was treasured in Heaven.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
139 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000463
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, p. 359, no. 3
Shabbos in wintertime Leningrad begins at three in the afternoon, and after the Shabbos meal the narrator would come with R. Michoel Dvorkin, both Pinyas and Menashe to visit R. Levi Yitzchak. Once they arrived and found him resting on a small sofa, and he told them that the Rebbe Rashab had said to him that above all one must always be engaged in thought, even when resting for a while.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
134 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000477
score 0.93 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.25
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 414, no. 51
At a Shabbos Kiddush on 11 Elul 5696 (1936) — a Kiddush made on mashke, since wine was available only for Pesach — the narrator spoke at great length in gratitude for G-d's kindness. The chossid R. Michoel Dvorkin told him, "Zalman, the Torah states that when Leah said, 'This time I will thank Hashem,' she stopped bearing." These were the instructions of a venerable chossid on how careful one must be in speech.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
134 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000550
score 0.93 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.25
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 450-451, no. 51
The open home R. Zalman Duchman had kept in Leningrad came with him to New York: every Shabbos he and his wife hosted guests for meals, for lodging or both, sharing their minimal provisions. Long before there was any organized hospitality, he made a special effort to look after the visitors in 770, supplying them with hot drinks to warm their frigid bones — even early on Simchas Torah morning at the end of the midnight farbrengen. Each month, when his government stipend arrived, he would deposit the money with a local grocer who had a large family and needed the cash, and collect from him only what he himself needed, when he needed it.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
134 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000607
score 0.93 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.25
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 470-471, no. 5
In 5714 (1954) R. Yisroel and his family immigrated to America and settled near the Rebbe in Crown Heights. On his first Shabbos the Rebbe looked for him at the farbrengen and did not see him; when the chassidim heard the Rebbe was searching, they thrust R. Yisroel onto a table, and the Rebbe smiled and said, "He hasn't had time to rest from the trip and he already wants 'shishi'." From then on the relationship with the Rebbe became the focus of his life, and he would say that while some people live for business deals, the stock market or their professions, his own vitality came from spending time speaking with the Rebbe.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
126 wordsR. Yisroel Duchman
story_000639
score 0.93 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.25
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 182, no. 72
R. Yisroel Neveler, who served as a melamed for R. Shmuel Gurary in Kremenchug, was questioned by the Rebbe Rashab about a number of matters concerning R. Shmuel, among them whether he davened at length on Shabbos. When R. Yisroel answered that he did, the Rebbe responded, "Indeed. If otherwise, he would not be a chossid."
1 min to tellvery good to tell
113 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000211
score 0.91 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.22
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 328, no. 17
When the Shabbos prayers were occasionally hurried, the narrator's zeide, the chossid R. Mordechai Yoel, would immediately object. They answered him that they had not learned Chassidus the whole week, so they had nothing to daven with. He replied that if that is the case, they should certainly daven at length — in a manner of teshuvah.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
114 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000434
score 0.91 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.22
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 396, no. 24
Throughout the winter of 5685 (1925) in Leningrad, the Rebbe made Havdalah himself every motzaei Shabbos. He would stand at the end of the table nearer the door, while his mother, Rebbetzin Shterna Sarah, stood by the other door together with Rebbetzin Nechama Dinah. The narrator says the words Evtach v'lo efchod — "I trust and shall not fear" — still ring in his ears to this day.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
118 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000523
score 0.91 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.22
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 189, no. 80
A young man from Nikolayev told the narrator that the Rebbe Rashab asked him whether he davened at length on Shabbos. He answered that when the most distinguished chassidim daven with a minyan, should he be the one to daven at length? The Rebbe replied, "Is that so? They daven with a minyan? Nu, maybe they don't need to daven at length."
1 min to tellvery good to tell
108 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000219
score 0.90 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.20
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 184, no. 76
On Shabbos during the summer in Lubavitch, people would stand near the Rebbe's room and listen through the wooden walls to the nigun with which the Rebbe davened. The narrator says that by G-d's kindness he can still hear that nigun in his ears to this day, and that he believes it is one of the Alter Rebbe's ten nigunim.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
93 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000215
score 0.89 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.18
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 415, no. 53
Rav Menachem Mendel Gluskin, rov of the chassidim in Leningrad, was summoned repeatedly to the N.K.V.D., who told him, "Your Kiddushim find no favor in our eyes at all." The narrator remarks: as the Sages said, the assembly of the righteous benefits them and benefits the world.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
77 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000552
score 0.88 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.15
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 327-328, no. 15
The narrator describes his zeide's fixed order of davening: a lengthy Maariv every evening, Hallel at the amud with the same nigun on both nights of Pesach, a minyan at home on Shabbos and Yom Tov but davening in the study hall during the week, and a home minyan with lengthy davening on a yahrzeit. On Shabbos he began earlier than on weekdays because he was careful to daven Musaf no later than 1 p.m. When the narrator's father was going through a difficult time, the zeide said it was because he davens Musaf later than 1 p.m., against the opinion of Rabbi Yehudah.
2 min to tellgood to tell
272 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000432
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=0.60 length_suitability=0.53
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 219, no. 35
A young man came to yechidus and complained that times were hard for making a living, citing the Rebbe's letter of Kislev 5672 to Yeshivas Toras Emes in the Holy Land, which said one must keep his dwelling clean or the owner will drive him out in disgrace — and to cleanliness there is no limit. The Rebbe gave no reply at the time. On Shabbos he said the maamar Mashcheini acharechah and noted that the word can also be read Mishkani ('My sanctuary'), and that besides a dwelling's cleanliness there is also its goodness and beauty.
2 min to tellgood to tell
224 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000266
score 0.81 ·
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=0.43
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 421-423, no. 3
Zalman relates that once he overcame his fear of coming near the Rebbe, he sought out chances to be in his presence. The Rebbe Rashab insisted on having a Kohen and a Levi for the Torah reading; the Kohen was R. Nachman, the Rebbe's attendant, while a Levi had to be found outside in the courtyard, and when the children called out 'Here's a Levi' Zalman would go in. The first time he was called up his hands and legs trembled, but afterwards, in the weeks before the Rebbe left for the country, he looked for the chance to be called up; he describes the Rebbe's beauty and radiance, that from his shoulders up he was taller than the people, and the pleasure of watching him gaze at the Torah at hagbah and say 'Yagdil Torah veya'adir.'
2 min to tellgood to tell
224 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000559
score 0.81 ·
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=0.43
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 266-267, no. 107
R. Michoel Dvorkin, who sat there the whole time, described how the Rebbe davened that Shabbos in Kostrama, while R. Eliyahu Chaim went off to make Kiddush and returned. The Rebbe paced back and forth in the study hall, and after davening told R. Michoel, "I warmed up today in davening." Leaving shul he walked alongside R. Michoel rather than with R. Eliyahu Chaim, with whom he always walked, R. Michoel being off to the side.
2 min to tellgood to tell
204 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000338
score 0.80 ·
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=0.40
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 437-438, no. 35
In 5689 (1929) Shabbos observance was banned in Russia and the N.K.V.D. together with the Yevsektzia began persecuting those spreading Yiddishkeit. Though the Frierdiker Rebbe had already left Russia, chassidim held to the promise they had made and continued disseminating Torah and Judaism, and R. Zalman opened his home for Torah study all day long. He knew the building superintendent had been placed there by the government to report on the occupants and that the stream of visiting chassidim was being watched, yet he continued teaching. On one night in the winter of 5698 (1938) the N.K.V.D. arrested dozens of chassidim and shot ten prominent chassidim, a night chassidim called "The Night of the Ten Martyrs" - and still R. Zalman was not deterred.
1 min to tellgood to tell
184 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000591
score 0.77 ·
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=0.35
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 360-361, no. 5
In Leningrad, R. Leivik stayed as a guest of DovBer Shilums, the son-in-law of Reb Boruch Shalom, the Tzemach Tzedek's eldest son. At the Shabbos Kiddush — the narrator believes it was Parshas Toldos, since he spoke about Yitzchak and Rivkah and how children's conduct deeply affects their parents — he began singing Asader LeSeudasa. When the "shpitz chassidim" raised their eyebrows at the singing of zemiros, he explained that it appears in Eitz Chaim.
1 min to tellgood to tell
172 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000479
score 0.76 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.60 length_suitability=0.32
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 321, no. 5
In Tammuz 5624 (1864), the year Reb Hillel Paritcher passed away, the narrator's zeide was in Sosnitza when a wagon arrived from Karop one Friday morning with a message that Reb Hillel was asking for wine. The zeide told the town's rov and the local chassidim that this was Reb Hillel's way of saying they should come spend Shabbos with him in Karop.
1 min to tellgood to tell
134 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000422
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. 330-331, no. 21
The narrator describes his zeide's (רמ"י) Shabbos practice of saying Chassidus twice — between Kabbalas Shabbos and Maariv, and again at Shalosh Seudos. His grandmother would bake small challos, a minyan washed for bread, and fish and compote were served. Bnei Heichalah was sung to its familiar nigun, another nigun preceded the Chassidus, and bentching followed the maamar.
1 min to tellgood to tell
136 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000438
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. 393, no. 19
The Rebbe said the maamar Vekibel HaYehudim (Kuntres 79) on Parshas Tetzaveh, opening with the verse V'atah Tetzaveh, at the time of Shalosh-Seudos in the study hall. The lights had not yet been lit and the experience was overwhelming, and immediately on motzaei Shabbos he left for Moscow. When the kuntres, together with the Rebbe's letter of 5689 (1929), reached the narrator's circle in Germany in 5711 (1951), they relived those days.
1 min to tellgood to tell
135 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000518
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. 410-411, no. 44
There was a minyan in the narrator's zeide's home on Shabbos and Yom-Tov, and he had to pass through the outer room where the women davened. He asked that a mechitzah be set up so that the women would not look at him, explaining: "When one possesses the semblance of a mensch, and they look, it drains one's spiritual energies."
1 min to tellgood to tell
118 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000543
score 0.71 ·
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=0.22
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 447-449, no. 48
On Shabbos Parshas Ki Teitzei, a week after arriving in New York, Reb Zalman Duchman led Shacharis and Mincha with great joy in anticipation of his son Yisroel's wedding, which was to take place the next day in faraway Paris. A chossid's diary records the atmosphere in 770 that Shabbos: after the farbrengen, R. Yochanan Gordon, the gabbai of 770, told the Rebbe that since Reb Zalman had made kiddush and was in high spirits he davened Mincha so joyously. The Rebbe replied, "Shacharis was also very joyous!"
1 min to tellgood to tell
113 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000604
score 0.71 ·
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=0.22
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