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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
story_000394
score 1.41 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.82
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 462-463, no. 72
In 5712 (1952), when chassidim were still unfamiliar with the significance of the Rebbe's answer "I will mention it at the Ohel," R. Zalman Duchman met a couple in Toronto who had been married seven years without children and promised to request a bracha for them. Back in New York he approached the Rebbe, who replied that he would mention them at the Ohel of the Frierdiker Rebbe; feeling this was short of a bracha, R. Zalman pressed, "But Rebbe, why can't the Rebbe give them a proper bracha?" and the Rebbe did not respond. The following year he found the couple in Toronto holding a baby girl, and they attributed her birth to the Rebbe's bracha and gave a substantial donation despite their means. Returning to Crown Heights he reported the news to the Rebbe by the elevator, in the same spot as the year before, and the Rebbe turned at his door and said with a smile, "Nu, Reb Zalman, 'I will mention it at the Ohel' is a proper bracha!"
3 min to tellexcellent to tell
386 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
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score 1.38 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.75
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 488-489, no. 9
In Toronto the Rebbe encouraged R. Eliyahu to devote himself to education, and he took a position in a Talmud Torah. Friends repeatedly pressed him toward lucrative business ventures — some who entered them became millionaires — but the Rebbe answered him: being so qualified in education, is this why you had mesiras nefesh in Russia and endured everything to reach Canada, to become a businessman? He stayed in chinuch al pi taharas hakodesh for life, never arriving late once in thirty-six years, was honored at an Eitz Chaim Talmud Torah dinner attended by five hundred people, founded the first Chabad institution in Toronto with R. Yosef Assulski funding a shul and mikva, and served two decades as a spiritual guide in Gan Yisroel camp.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
325 wordsR. Eliyahu Akiva Lipskar
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score 1.31 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.62
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 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, pp. 157-158, no. 35
At a farbrengen in the large zal in Lubavitch, R. Yitzchak Masmid lay under the table in order to hear the Rebbe's words better. A rabbi sitting near the Rebbe objected, asking who was crawling around down there. The Rebbe answered, "Let him be — he has to go to a settlement in Kherson province and stammer these words there."
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
162 wordsRebbe Rashab
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score 1.15 ·
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=0.30
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 461-462, no. 71
The Rebbe appointed R. Zalman Duchman as a shadar, and twice a year he traveled across the country collecting funds, spending a month each winter in Chattanooga, TN with an elder chossid and relative, Rabbi Chasdan, the local shochet, and a month between Pesach and Shavuos in Toronto, where his daughter and son-in-law lived. The trips were hard on him — he could not speak English, had few contacts, and did not bring in large sums — and he wanted to stop, but the Rebbe insisted he continue, saying he was sending him to Chattanooga "az men zol zen aza hadras ponim — that they should see his remarkable countenance." The purpose of such trips had always been to sow spirituality and reap material fortune, and with his warmth and genuine care R. Zalman connected with many Yidden, opened their eyes to the concept of a Rebbe, guided them to the Rebbe's door, and carried their requests to the Rebbe himself.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
304 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
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score 1.09 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.57
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 240, no. 66
The Rebbe once asked how it can be that our holy and beautiful Torah opens with the mitzvah of "be fruitful and multiply." His answer: you are a Jew, so you must make another Jew.
0 min to tellexcellent to tell
63 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000297
score 1.06 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.12
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 192, no. 85
The narrator recalls the immense tumult in Homil in the winter of 5673 (1913), and what he heard from his brother Baruch about the events in Lubavitch. The Rebbe Rashab established Orach LeTzaddik so that people would travel to Haditch every year on Chof-Daled Teves, the Alter Rebbe's yahrzeit, and the first shluchim sent were R. Moshe Zhebiner and R. Moshe Rosenblum, whom the narrator's zeide addressed in writing as 'To the two Moshes.' His zeide explained the reason for the directive: a tzaddik's connection to the world grows distant after a hundred years, and visiting his holy resting place strengthens his influence in this realm.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
248 wordsRebbe Rashab
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score 1.04 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.47
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 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. 193-194, no. 88
Even after the Rebbe Rayatz left Russia (settling in Riga in 1927), a shliach was sent every year from Leningrad. The shliach was generally chosen by lottery, but because of the hardships of the times R. Michel Dvorkin would usually travel, and afterward Shimon Ber, the Karyokovker Rav's son, would go. Shimon Ber was once arrested; since punishments were not yet severe in those days he was given a 'minus six' verdict barring him from six major cities, and he chose to spend the three years in Haditch.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
188 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000227
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. 463-464, no. 73
Before each of his trips R. Zalman Duchman would go in to the Rebbe for yechidus to receive brachos and encouragement for the mission, and on returning he would be admitted again to report how the trip had gone. The Rebbe took great interest in the details of the work and would follow up when R. Zalman had been quiet too long. In a letter of 5 Kislev 5714 (1953) the Rebbe wrote to him, "It is very surprising that you haven't written about the 'spiritual sowing,'" citing what the Frierdiker Rebbe would tell those going on such trips: "You have to sow spirituality and reap physicality."
1 min to tellvery good to tell
115 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
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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, pp. 478-479, no. 23
R. Yisroel was close with his children's friends despite the generation gap and shared in their lives. When a shliach in Eretz Yisroel whom the Duchmans knew well had been childless for several years after his marriage, R. Yisroel took the initiative to approach the Rebbe during a Lag BaOmer farbrengen — the occasion on which, the story notes, the Mitteler Rebbe would work miracles, most of them blessings for childless couples — and asked for a bracha for the couple. The Rebbe gave his blessing, and shortly afterward the couple was blessed with children.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
109 wordsR. Yisroel Duchman
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score 0.90 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.20
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 494-495, no. 16
One of the baalei teshuva whom R. Eliyahu Akiva Lipskar brought closer to Yiddishkeit said of him, "he is like my father (spiritually)!" On Rosh Hashana night an unfamiliar man got out of a car outside R. Eliyahu's house carrying a satchel and asked whether R. Eliyahu Lipskar lived there. R. Eliyahu did not rebuke him for driving on yom tov or for the disturbance, but invited him in and included him in the yom tov meals, and the man ultimately became an observant Jew. Another baal teshuva connected to R. Eliyahu recounted that watching that Rosh Hashana incident shaped his own relationship with him.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
109 wordsR. Eliyahu Akiva Lipskar
story_000675
score 0.90 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.20
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 443-445, no. 45
The Frierdiker Rebbe encouraged R. Zalman to care for his fellow refugees both physically and spiritually. In a letter of 15 Av 5709 (1949) he instructed him to report any change of address so that letters would continue to reach the chassidim, to see that all the children had chadorim to attend, and, where necessary, to give them the opportunity to learn a trade so as to ease their families' financial burden.
1 min to tellgood to tell
75 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000601
score 0.68 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.60 length_suitability=0.15
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 194, no. 89
The shluchim from Lubavitch for the second year, 5674 (1914), were R. Shilem and R. Elchanan Morozov. The narrator greatly wanted to travel as well, but his zeide told him that a yeshivah student should not go. Afterwards there were always obstacles — even when he once won the lottery in Leningrad he was still unable to travel. He was able to go only to the Mitteler Rebbe, in the summer of 5686 (1926).
1 min to telltells with work
151 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000228
score 0.55 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.40 length_suitability=0.30
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 193, no. 87
When the Rebbe Rayatz was in Leningrad he would also send a shliach; it was usually the chossid R. Michel Dvorkin.
0 min to telltells with work
48 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000226
score 0.46 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.40 length_suitability=0.12
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