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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. 256-257, no. 95
At a terrifying Purim farbrengen in 5687 (1927), the Rebbe screamed against the Yevsektzia — 'a rabbi's son, a butcher's son, a villager's son' — declaring he was not frightened of them, and unbuttoned his kapota until his tallis katan showed, calling out that he accepted upon himself the four forms of execution and that when they saw his body aflame they should have no compassion. When the chossid R. Meir Simcha shouted that the Rebbe was needed here, the Rebbe kept repeating that one must be ready to give one's life but must not send the children to their schools. Because informers were known to be present, those there called his mother the Rebbetzin to restrain him; he rose when she came but sent her back to her room to say Tehillim with tears where no one would see, saying that would help, and told her he was not acting on his own initiative but had asked his father. She kept standing and speaking until he fainted and barely revived; everyone was in dread, and the arrest came after Shavuos.
3 min to tellexcellent to tell
445 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000326
score 1.43 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.85
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 261-262, no. 100
The Rebbe had asked that a large crowd be at the station when he boarded the train to Kostrama for three years of exile, but word was hard to spread and most who came arrived early. On Sunday at dusk, the third of Tammuz, the chassidim formed two lines as the Rebbe approached the train, and R. Binyamin Althoiz said at the door that after his imprisonment in Petersburg the Alter Rebbe had begun leading with a high hand (yad ramah). The Rebbe replied that the Shavuos maamarim discuss three "hands" — yad hagdolah, yad hachazakah and yad ramah — and that ramah signifies Kesser and has the letters of koress: all the enemies should be cut off. By the time the narrator reached the station the Rebbe was already standing at the window of the yellow second-class car.
3 min to tellexcellent to tell
346 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000331
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. 396-398, no. 25
While the Rebbe was imprisoned in Shpalerka, chassidim received reports from contacts inside the G.P.U., so already on Friday they knew he was to be released, and Shabbos morning davening was delayed in anticipation. On Sunday, the third of Tammuz, the narrator and his brother-in-law R. Yitzchak Minkovitch had stepped out when Pinya (Pinchas ben R. Binyomin Althoiz) came running to tell them the Rebbe was already home; they ran back and found him sitting in the children's room. Asked whether they had learned Chassidus during that time, the brother-in-law answered that they had said Tehillim, and the Rebbe replied that he had written the maamarim of Shavuos until they saw him and took away the pencil; hours later he brought out the maamarim, one inscribed "written in prison, 19 Sivan 5687" (Anochi) and the second (Vaydaber) "20 Sivan 5687," the last word written being Or. Later, at the dacha in Malachovka, the narrator asked for the conclusion of the maamar and the Rebbe answered, "It does not write itself." At the departure the chassidim formed two rows; R. Binyomin Althoiz began to speak and the Rebbe stopped, answering a remark about the Alter Rebbe leading b'yad ramah after Petersburg with the vort said on Shavuos on yad hagedolah, yad hachazakah and yad ramah — ramah being keser, the letters of kares, may it be 'v'chol oyvecha yikoreisun.' At the station the Rebbe stood at the open window of a yellow second-class car; Rebbetzin Shterna Sarah approached and he said to her, "Mama, it says yehi Hashem Elokeinu imanu ka'asher hayah im avoseinu — surely there will also be al ya'azvenu v'al yitesheinu," and to those seeing him off, "An altogether unnecessary journey," adding, "You will presumably say Yevarechecha."
6 min to tellexcellent to tell
725 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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score 1.30 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.60
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 255-256, no. 94
A note written by the Rebbe was found on the high table in his room after his arrest on Wednesday, 15 Sivan 5687 (1927) in Leningrad, and was later printed in Kuntres Yud-Beis Tammuz 5708. R. Pinchas, son of R. Eliyahu Chaim [Althoiz], kept the note hidden in Leningrad and would take it out, together with two letters the Rebbe wrote on Yud-Beis Tammuz, at the farbrengen held in his home every Yud-Beis Tammuz, and they would be read aloud. In the note the Rebbe instructs that in every chassidishe shul the daily portion of Tehillim be said with a minyan after Shacharis, including Shabbos, followed by Kaddish, and that shopkeepers and businessmen come to daven and to the Ein Yaakov class, promising Hashem's help with abundant livelihood. He tells chassidim to say that he instructs them, and other Yidden that out of Ahavas Yisroel and their well-being he begs them, closing with a blessing for a good year in ruchnius and gashmius and the complete Redemption through Moshiach.
4 min to tellvery good to tell
502 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000325
score 1.29 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.97
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 278-279, no. 124
When the Soviet government forbade instruction in cheders, the Rebbe traveled to Moscow to find people close to the government who could offset the law. He sent word through Rav Rafael Kahn that Kalman of Nevel should go stay with his daughter, whose husband Bogdanov held an important government position; when Kalman objected that his son-in-law had nothing to do with education, the Rebbe told him not to leave Moscow and to remain as his daughter's guest. At a banquet in that home attended by government officials, Kalman was asked what he thought of the new government and answered that it was wonderful, but why would they not allow Jewish children to study Torah. Influential people connected with education were present, and afterwards a law was issued permitting instruction for up to six children.
4 min to tellvery good to tell
501 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000355
score 1.29 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.97
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 430-432, no. 22
R. Zalman first met the Rebbe -- then known as the Frierdiker Rebbe's future son-in-law -- in Tishrei 5683 (1922) in Rostov, and afterward met him often in Leningrad, where the Rebbe would visit the Frierdiker Rebbe alone or with his brother R. Yisroel Aryeh Leib. On the 15th of Sivan 5687 (1927) the N.K.V.D. came to arrest the Frierdiker Rebbe and searched the house for incriminating evidence; the Rebbe, who was not home, went at once with R. Elyeh Chaim Althoiz to hide whatever documents could be used against him, and that evening deposited a trunk of manuscripts with R. Zalman for safekeeping. A later exchange of letters is quoted: the Rebbe recalled entrusting him with the sacred documents, and R. Zalman replied that he had returned the large box of manuscripts on the 12th of Tammuz while the Rebbe sat on the west side of the study hall, and that the Rebbe then told him that in return for his efforts he would give him good news -- that the Rebbe would return from exile in time for Shabbos. Once at a Yud-Beis Tammuz farbrengen in 770, R. Zalman rose and said that if the chassidim knew of the Rebbe's part in the Frierdiker Rebbe's release their celebration would be far greater; the Rebbe turned to him and said "Sha!", and R. Zalman never disclosed anything further.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
302 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
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score 1.29 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.57
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 447-449, no. 47
After four years in a DP camp, R. Zalman Duchman and his family received United States visas and arrived in New York on Wednesday, 4 Elul 5711 (1951), settling in Crown Heights near the Rebbe. Having lost two sons and narrowly escaped the N.K.V.D., he resolved to devote the rest of his life to Torah, davening and acts of kindness. The day after his arrival he went into yechidus; the Rebbe rose from his place and said, "So, if one is persistent enough, one succeeds!" and spent a long time reminiscing with him about their shared years in Leningrad with the Frierdiker Rebbe, remarking that in America they could finally speak openly and freely. When the Rebbe said, "Nu, Reb Zalman, from Leningrad to New York and we are seeing each other, Boruch Hashem!" R. Zalman answered somberly that the "ticket" had been very expensive.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
288 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
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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, p. 259, no. 98
On Gimmel Tammuz, when the Rebbe came out of Shpalerka, he entered the study hall, sat on a bench near the aron hakodesh, and said, 'It's a plan and we must know this — it's a libel from there.' He then said that he had seen Hashgacha Pratis at the door of Shpalerka and had thought at that moment: 'Do I take upon myself to continue writing about children's education and Torah schools? If so, it will be good; otherwise, there will be repercussions' — alluding to the verse in Bereishis. He added that a secretary had asked whether he needed to communicate anything to his home, and since she was the one who offered, he decided to refuse.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
268 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000329
score 1.26 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.53
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 260-261, no. 99
When the narrator and his brother-in-law Yitzchak Minkovitch came into the children's room, the Rebbe asked whether they had learned Chassidus during the period of his imprisonment; they answered that they had recited Tehillim. The Rebbe said that he himself had written maamarim until his pencil was taken away. A few hours later he gave them the Shavuos maamarim, inscribed "Written in prison, 19 Sivan 5687" and "Written in prison, 20 Sivan 5687"; the last word of the text was "light." When the narrator later asked in Malachovka for the end of the maamar, the Rebbe answered, "Nothing more came."
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
276 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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score 1.26 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.53
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 437-438, no. 36
The Yevsektzia eventually targeted R. Zalman, assigning a Jewish communist named Sorkin to bring him in for interrogation. Unlike most who were taken in, he was released each evening only to be forced back the next morning for long and painful interrogations day after day. His fingers were placed in a doorway's hinges and the door slammed on his hand repeatedly - for the rest of his life his fingernails did not grow - yet he would not give the interrogators the names and addresses of his fellow teachers of Torah. His daughter Rochel, about seventeen, accompanied him and waited outside, but he told even her nothing, refusing to add to his family's pain; only years later did he mention some of what he had endured.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
262 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
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score 1.25 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.50
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 266, no. 106
When the Rebbe reported to the G.P.U. on a Tuesday, he was told to appear again eight days later, on Wednesday — the law requiring a weekly appearance. He insisted on coming on Tuesday instead, and they laughed at anyone wanting to come to them a day early. When he came that Tuesday, Yud-Beis Tammuz — although it was a local festival — he was told that a telegram signed by Dzerzhinsky had arrived and that he was free; mistakes happen, even major ones, they said, asking his forgiveness, and the directive had come from Moscow.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
239 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000337
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, p. 455, no. 59
On the first morning of Sukkos 5712 (1951), the first Tishrei after the Rebbe accepted the nesius, R. Zalman Duchman asked the Rebbe for permission to make the bracha on the Rebbe's lulav and esrog, explaining that in Leningrad the daled minim were hard to obtain and they would use the Frierdiker Rebbe's set. The Rebbe agreed. R. Zalman shared his delight with the other chassidim, who asked for the same privilege and were also granted it, and from this developed the standing practice of chassidim using the Rebbe's own lulav and esrog each year. The text notes that R. Zalman had also used the Rebbe Rashab's lulav and esrog in Rostov.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
177 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
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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. 430-432, no. 24
On Gimmel Tammuz, when the Frierdiker Rebbe was released from prison for a few hours before continuing to his exile in Kostroma, R. Zalman was admitted to see him. As he relates, he and his brother-in-law R. Yitzchak Minkovitch had stepped outside when Pinya came running with the news that the Rebbe had reached home; they ran in and found the Rebbe sitting in the children's room, and one of the daughters told him the yungeleit wanted to see him. The Rebbe's first question was whether they had been learning Chassidus during that time; when the brother-in-law answered that they had been saying Tehillim, the Rebbe replied at once, "I wrote the maamarim of Shavuos until they saw me and took away the pencil." A few hours later the Frierdiker Rebbe gave out the maamorim of Shavuos through our Rebbe, noting on them that they had been written in prison.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
175 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
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score 1.16 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.32
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 265, no. 104
While imprisoned in 5687 (1927), the Rebbe was asked his age. Unwilling to answer according to the birthdate on his passport — one of the fictitious dates produced by the secretary Zalman Eidel — he answered instead that it is a golden chain extending 150 years, to which every generation adds a pendant. One pendant is more precious, another less precious, but the chain itself is golden.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
141 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000335
score 1.14 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.28
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 433-435, no. 26
In Malachovka the Frierdiker Rebbe remained under constant surveillance and concluded he had no choice but to leave Russia entirely, scheduled for Isru Chag of Sukkos 5688 (1927). That Tishrei was highly emotional for chassidim, since for many it would be their last time seeing him, and for Simchas Torah they traveled from all across the Soviet Union to be with him before he left. R. Zalman, who was with the Frierdiker Rebbe for that Tishrei, recalls that the last dance engraved in his memory took place on the last Simchas Torah during the day, when the Rebbe held his holy hands up high and sang Nye Zhuritze Chloptzi.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
142 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000582
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. 275-276, no. 120
The tomim DovBer Yudevitch wrote from Riga that on Yud-Beis Tammuz 5688 (1928), while the Rebbe was convalescing near Riga, the chassidim at the farbrengen began singing Padeh BeShalom. The Rebbe stopped them, saying, "As long as Russian Jews are suffering, I'm together with them 'in the same barrel.'"
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
126 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000351
score 1.12 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.25
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 424-425, no. 13
Half a year after the deaths in his family, on 2 Nissan 5680 (1920), the Rebbe Rashab passed away in Rostov — a difficult period for R. Zalman Duchman, who had been so connected to him. His love for the Rebbe Rashab drove him to make the long and arduous trip to the Ohel for the yahrtzeit every year. Before Beis Nissan he would board the train to Rostov without knowing what lay ahead, even though Communist spies rode the trains watching for "suspicious persons" and anti-Semitic thugs regularly attacked anyone they recognized as Jewish. His burning desire to be by his Rebbe on that day made him ignore those fears.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
118 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000569
score 1.11 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.22
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 263, no. 102
On the Shabbos when the Rebbe was already in Kostrama, a Kiddush was held for a few people at his home in Leningrad. The children said their mother was making Kiddush because their father was now free — though the Rebbe himself held otherwise, since he had not received Maftir and had not recited HaGomel. Rebbetzin Shterna Sarah, seated on the sofa near the dining room window, recounted that the Rebbe had told her, "Mama, mama, robbers! They wanted to take revenge," and that every day he was in prison he recited Aneinu, and that his interrogators had asked him, "Are you the Lubavitcher Rebbe, the Jewish leader?" Repeating the words "the Jewish leader," she asked why he must be under the regime of such robbers.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
306 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000333
score 1.10 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.60
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 474-475, no. 17
In 5724 (1963), after R. Mendel Futerfas left Russia, he went straight to 770 to meet the Rebbe and appealed to the chassidic community that chassidim in Russia lacked basic necessities — some had nothing to eat, others had exit permission but no money for tickets — asking, "Why are you all sleeping?" His words moved R. Yisroel Duchman, together with several other chassidim of Russian background, to found Lishkas Ezras Achim to help Russian Jews, and R. Yisroel raised many thousands of dollars for it, saying humbly that he did not understand spiritual matters but understood material things: he wanted another Jew to have food, a bed, and to receive it with a warm, inviting smile. When the Soviet gates opened he made fundraising trips to help emigrants settle in Eretz Yisroel, and he partnered with Dr. Yirmiyahu Branover — whose own exit he had helped arrange — in Branover's organization Shamir for Russian immigrants there.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
311 wordsR. Yisroel Duchman
story_000651
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. 267, no. 108
R. Michoel Dvorkin also related that a day or two before Yud-Beis Tammuz, in the shochet's courtyard and garden in Kostrama, the Rebbe said that nearly a month had passed in which he had not written about the education of children — "What do I need fingers for…?!"
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
86 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000339
score 1.09 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.18
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 433-435, no. 29
R. Zalman Duchman records that on Purim 5695 (1935) in Leningrad, R. Elchanan Morozov said to him and to Pinchas Althoiz a vort on the posuk "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light" (Yeshayahu 9:1). Morozov asked how people in darkness could be said to see a great light, and answered: one can only go through darkness when earlier one has seen a great light.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
88 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=1.00 length_suitability=0.18
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 277, no. 123
In Reshimos Hama'asar the Rebbe writes that by Divine Providence the investigators spent far more time in his home than they had planned, and their attempts to hurry were ineffective. Beryl Menier (may G-d avenge his blood) related that in the middle of that night the Ramash came running to take him to Chaim Lieberman, they told him what was happening with the Rebbe, and they arranged everything so that nothing incriminating would be found — and the police indeed came afterward to arrest R. Chaim. Later, once the Rebbe was already in Riga, great efforts were made and R. Chaim too was permitted to leave Russia.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
292 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000354
score 1.08 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.55
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 483-484, no. 3
Drafted into the Red Army in the Second World War and wounded at the front, R. Eliyahu Akiva Lipskar was permitted to leave besieged Leningrad for medical treatment and to take one person with him; the lot fell on Rochel, daughter of Schneur Zalman Duchman, who was knowledgeable in medical matters. After great difficulties they reached Tashkent, where they married. Conditions there were desperate — people starving in the streets and sickness raging — and Rochel contracted typhus; R. Eliyahu, caring for her when she was alone without family, caught it as well, and both became critical. A chossid in Tashkent, R. Yisroel Konson, cooked porridge for them and brought it to the hospital, leaving it on the windowsill when he was refused entry because of the contagion, and so sustained them and saved them from certain death.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
288 wordsR. Eliyahu Akiva Lipskar
story_000662
score 1.08 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.55
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 270, no. 112
R. Michoel Dvorkin recounted that the Rebbe wanted to say the maamar HaGomel in Kostrama on Wednesday, the 13th of Tammuz, when people came, but a message arrived from Leningrad warning that Messing, head of the G.P.U., had let it be known that he dared not return to Leningrad. Traveling to Kharkov or Moscow was considered, but the Rebbe said, "We are going home." Later, when travel to Staraya Russa or Malachovka was weighed, the Rebbe said, "Leningrad G.P.U. arrested me; Moscow G.P.U. released me. I'll do better with Moscow" — and he traveled to Malachovka.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
276 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000343
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=0.80 length_suitability=0.53
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 258, no. 96
Hershel, the Rebbe's meshares, related that at 12:30 a.m. on Tuesday night someone knocked at the door while the Rebbe was in the dining room after yechidus. His daughter Chana went to ask who was there and was told it was the house superintendent, but the Rebbe said, 'It's not the superintendent — it's the G.P.U.' After searching a while and finding nothing, the Rebbe asked to be left under house arrest, but the agents telephoned and said their instructions were to arrest him. The Rebbe told them, 'You should consider carefully whether it's to your advantage to do this.'
2 min to tellvery good to tell
262 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000327
score 1.05 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.50
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 468, no. 1
Yisroel HaLevi Duchman was born to Zalman and Chaya Grunya on Shabbos, 8 Tishrei 5689 (1928), and the Frierdiker Rebbe, then in Riga, sent a letter with a bracha for the newborn. He grew up in Leningrad under communist oppression, taught at home by his father together with his brother Dovber Menachem Mendel while the oldest brother Mordechai Yoel was sent to the underground Tomchei Temimim in Kutaisi. When the Nazis besieged Leningrad in Elul 5701 (1941), both brothers were lost — one fell in battle with the Soviet army, the other left the house and never returned — and their father, broken and famished, was hospitalized. The burden of feeding the family fell on eleven-year-old Yisroel, who used charm and ingenuity to obtain scraps of food from a nearby Russian army camp, sustaining his family and others who turned to the Duchmans for help.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
261 wordsR. Yisroel Duchman
story_000635
score 1.05 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.50
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 165, no. 47
R. Fallik Gurary related that he and his uncles R. Shmuel Gurary and R. Nosson were stopped in Rostov by a Chekist from Kremenchug, who taunted them that they could not hide there, took their passports, recorded the numbers, and ordered them to report to the Cheka. They went to the Rebbe and told him what had happened, and he replied, "When there is nothing to answer, no questions are asked." No one bothered them again.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
250 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000186
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. 440-441, no. 40
Eliyahu Akiva Lipskar, a young tomim born in Poltava in 5678 (1918) to the local rav R. Chaim Tzvi — who, though not a Chabad chossid, sent his children to Tomchei Temimim as their only hope of remaining upstanding Jews — lost his father at age twelve, when he was arrested for teaching Torah and died from the suffering. Eli went into business successfully as a bochur and donated large sums to the underground operations of R. Nissan Nemenov, R. Bentzion Shemtov and R. Avraham Mayor. Drafted into the Russian army at the outbreak of World War II, he was injured and released for treatment; as an injured soldier he was permitted a helper, and R. Zalman's oldest child and only daughter, who had nursing experience, accompanied him away from the front at Leningrad. The two reached Tashkent, joined the Lubavitch community there and married; when both contracted typhus and were quarantined, a caring chossid, R. Yisroel Konson, sustained them with nourishing food and saved them from death.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
227 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000596
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. 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. 408-409, no. 40
In the interrogation following his arrest in 5687 (1927) the Rebbe Rayatz said that he did not speak Russian, and later gave his reasons for saying so. The narrator, however, once heard him speak it: on Motzaei Rosh Hashanah in Rostov, he believes in 5683 (1922), when the landlord wanted to shut down the Beis HaMidrash at 44 Brotsky, the Rebbe came to him and rebuked him in Russian for entering a house of prayer and causing a serious disturbance, calling it both indecent and foolish. The man's face turned red like a thief caught in the act and he hurried away.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
185 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000539
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. 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. 377-380, no. 15
On Purim 5695 (1935) in Leningrad, R. Elchanan Morozov told the narrator and his friend Pinchas Althoiz a vort on the posuk "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light." He asked how people in darkness could be described as seeing a great light. His answer: one is only able to walk through darkness at all because earlier they had seen a great light.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
153 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000499
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, p. 272, no. 114
The narrator recounts his part in the efforts surrounding the Rebbe's arrest: it was known in advance that the Rebbe was being sent to Kostrama, since R. Michoel Dvorkin traveled there for Shabbos. With expenses covered by the Rashag, the narrator traveled to Rav Rafael Kahan in Nevel, where the chossid Meir Simcha also was, and they approached the father of the investigator who had arrested the Rebbe, asking him to travel with the narrator to Leningrad. The father resisted, saying he was on bad terms with his son over the son's marriage, but he went anyway; being a landsman of R. Michoel Dvorkin — both from Osvet — he would meet him in a garden and report everything. The narrator says he does not know what benefit the meetings produced, but the information itself was quite important.
3 min to tellgood to tell
354 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000345
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=0.60 length_suitability=0.68
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. 398, no. 26
R. Michoel Dvorkin related that the Rebbe Rayatz said in Kostrama, "Why did I have to pay for the mikveh in Kostrama with blood?" R. Michoel also told that a few days before Yud-Beis Tammuz, while sitting in the shochet's courtyard and garden in Kostrama, the Rebbe remarked that a month had already passed in which he had not written about tishb"r (the education of young children) — for which one needs clean fingers — adding a few further words that the narrator did not wish to write down.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
113 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000525
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. 430-432, no. 25
On Tuesday, Yud-Beis Tammuz, chassidim in Leningrad held a celebration farbrengen; because the Rebbe had asked that his release be kept secret, it was held privately by special invitation (bli pirsum), and before dancing they removed their shoes so as not to make noise. After a few days in Leningrad the Frierdiker Rebbe received threats of being arrested again and decided to relocate to Malachovka, a quiet suburb of Moscow. Though chassidim were cautioned not to visit him, R. Zalman and his family spent the summer there to assist him, and many of the known stories of the arrest and release come from R. Zalman.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
116 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000581
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. 442-443, no. 42
In the summer of 5703 (1943), R. Zalman Duchman, Chaya Grunya and fourteen-year-old Yisroel reached Tashkent, where Chabad chassidim fleeing the German advance had been gathering since 5701 (1941) alongside the large Bukharian Jewish community. Amid homelessness, bread lines, filth and typhus, the extended family of chassidim held together and helped one another, and because the authorities' attention was fixed on the front they were able to organize minyanim, chadorim, yeshivos and mikvaos without fear. The Duchmans moved into their daughter and son-in-law's one-bedroom apartment divided by a curtain; Yisroel learned Chumash, Gemara and Tanya with the chossid R. Yisroel Nevler (Levin) and committed thirty perokim of Tanya to memory before transferring to a more advanced yeshivah in Samarkand. R. Zalman's son-in-law R. Eli Lipskar organized four chadorim serving over eighty children, from siddur reading through Gemara.
2 min to tellgood to tell
317 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000598
score 0.90 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.60 length_suitability=0.60
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 258-259, no. 97
Shmuel from Kremenchug, known as 'Shmuel der Porush' (the ascetic), related that when the Rebbe was arrested, Rebbetzin Shterna Sarah opened the aron hakodesh and screamed, 'Holy Sifrei Torah! Why are you silent?!'
1 min to tellvery good to tell
73 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000328
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, 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. 265-266, no. 105
The Jews of Kostrama told the Rebbe that a tzaddik had once been there for seven years. He replied, "We will do it faster."
0 min to tellvery good to tell
71 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000336
score 0.86 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.12
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 482, no. 1
R. Eliyahu Akiva Lipskar was born in 5678 (1918) in Poltava to R. Chaim Tzvi and Bas Sheva Lipskar. His father, a rov in Poltava who was not originally a chossid, nevertheless sent his sons to learn in Lubavitch, insisting this was the only enduring path for children to remain faithful Jews, and ignored friends who ridiculed him. In 5687 (1927) KGB agents surprised him at home and tortured him, demanding the names of supporters of the clandestine yeshivos; he disclosed nothing and shortly afterward died. His mother, Bas Sheva née Yaffe, a descendant of the Levush, passed away when R. Eliyahu was seventeen.
2 min to tellgood to tell
267 wordsR. Eliyahu Akiva Lipskar
story_000660
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, pp. 443-445, no. 43
After the war the Russian government let Polish citizens return home by freight train, and many Russian Jews crossed the border at Lvov/Lemberg on forged Polish passports while the authorities looked away. Chassidim ran an escape committee that urged people to go, produced false documents, raised bribe money and kept safe houses in Lvov. In Elul 5706 (1946) R. Zalman and his family were permitted to travel to Lvov, crossed the border, and went on through Krakow and Austria to the Pernveld DP camp in Germany; they wrote at once to the Frierdiker Rebbe of their travels and their wish to be reunited with the Rebbe, and on 23 Nissan 5707 (1947) the Rebbe told them to turn to the Rashag, who handled such arrangements. While waiting in the camp for papers, R. Zalman gave regular shiurim, especially in Tanya, wrote regularly to the Frierdiker Rebbe, and copied out the letters he received to share with fellow chassidim who read every word.
2 min to tellgood to tell
249 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000599
score 0.84 ·
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=0.47
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, p. 483, no. 2
In Russia R. Eliyahu Akiva Lipskar worked tirelessly for the underground Yeshivas Tomchei Temimim alongside R. Avraham Mayor, R. Nissan Nemanov, R. Bentzion Shemtov and others. He raised large sums for the yeshivos and chadarim, and whenever he paid income tax he would donate an equal amount to the yeshivos. He used his connections with high-ranking government officials to help yeshiva bochurim imprisoned for their work in preserving Yiddishkeit, and hid R. Nissan Nemanov in his home for a long period when the authorities sought his arrest. Years later R. Nissan stayed at R. Eliyahu's Toronto home while visiting on behalf of Tomchei Temimim of Brunoy.
1 min to tellgood to tell
150 wordsR. Eliyahu Akiva Lipskar
story_000661
score 0.75 ·
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=0.30
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 212, no. 22
At the cemetery during the levayah of R. Shmuel Michel Treinin, baalei batim from Leningrad approached the Rebbe asking for financial support for their chadarim. The Rebbe answered that in our cities boys like these would be learning Chumash with Rashi, but since we are in Petersburg, he wanted them at least to learn the way our fathers and our grandfathers learned.
1 min to tellgood to tell
148 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000253
score 0.74 ·
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=0.28
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 399, no. 27
In Riga, winter 5688 (1928), Anshel Zvogin, a Neveler Yid, related that after visiting his daughter in Dvinsk he traveled to Riga for yechidus with the Rebbe Rayatz. He asked the Rebbe why he was so unhappy, since when he used to come to him in Leningrad the Rebbe was joyful. The Rebbe answered, "They drove me out" (or, in another version of his words, "they expelled me").
1 min to tellgood to tell
124 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000526
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. 435-436, no. 31
R. Zalman Duchman relates that even after the Frierdiker Rebbe left Russia, Leningrad remained a center of chassidic life, and that it was there that he merited to meet and spend time with the Rebbe's father, Rav Levi Yitzchak Schneerson, rov of Yekatrinoslav. Quoting his first letter to the Rebbe, he writes that he met his father in Leningrad in the winter of 5688 (1928) and had seen him in Lubavitch in 5666 or 5667 (1906 or 1907). He adds that in Lubavitch he heard that the Rebbe Rashab said he would pride himself with three yungeleit both in this world and in the World to Come: HaRav Levi Yitzchak Schneerson, HaRav Menachem Mendel Chein and HaRav Shneur Zalman Schneerson.
1 min to tellgood to tell
112 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000587
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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