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What Sort of Chossid Sleeps Until Nine

As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 204-206, no. 12

At Simchas Torah 5685 (1924) in Leningrad, the Rebbe Rayatz spoke passionately against the chossid who sleeps until nine, has davened and eaten by ten, and then strolls Nevsky Street looking where he should not, imagining that a kapotah and gartel or three rubles given to the Rebbe make him a chossid. He cited R. Hillel Paritcher's remark that he does not care for one who strayed and did teshuvah — who knows what sort of teshuvah it was — and explained the teaching that baalei teshuvah stand where perfect tzaddikim cannot: the baal teshuvah is not the same person, he is someone else. He then turned to a young man from Kherson living in Moscow, told him "It's not you," and instructed him to accept divrei chavrus and give a Kiddush on Shabbos Bereishis, adding that everyone must accept upon himself not to sleep past seven in the morning.

4 min to tellexcellent to tell 518 wordsRebbe Rayatz story_000243

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The Tailors the Alter Rebbe Saw Coming

As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 48-49, no. 26

Chaim Meir, the caretaker of the Alter Rebbe's ohel, told the narrator's zeide that two young men once asked to enter the ohel and wept there at length. They explained that they had been tailors working in the villages of the Kursk region who abandoned Yiddishkeit, eating treif and worse; on their way home they stopped at a non-Jew's house near Piena and asked for sausage, whereupon he locked them in and announced he would take their money and kill them, allowing them only time to pray and recite Vidduy. After a full day of weeping he returned their money, explaining that a great tzaddik who had stayed with him and passed away there had instructed him to bring to teshuvah two Jews who would come asking to eat treif.

4 min to tellexcellent to tell 560 wordsAlter Rebbe story_000026

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The Man Who Wept for Reb Aizel

As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 307-308, no. 42

The zeide related that when Reb Aizel passed away, one man who was not among his students wept uncontrollably. Asked why, he explained that in his youth he had set out to commit a transgression, and Reb Aizel, walking behind him after davening in the Lubavitcher shul, shouted twice, 'Where are you going!? Go to shul and recite some Tehillim!' He said Reb Aizel had saved his life, and asked how he could not cry over such a tzaddik. Reb Aizel used to tell him, 'You have mazel,' and the zeide revealed the man's identity only after he passed away.

3 min to tellexcellent to tell 337 wordsRebbe Rayatz story_000401

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"If People Knew How Good It Is to Tell Everything"

As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 392, no. 18

The narrator's zeide, R. Mordechai Yoel, used to say that the Rebbeim disliked hearing about people's wrongdoings and preferred to speak Chassidus; yet at the Simchas Torah farbrengen of 5685 (1924) the Rebbe spoke at length about viduy devarim, and people became baalei teshuvah. A yungerman from Nevel, whose infant had suffocated in its sleep, chased the Rebbe from Leningrad to Moscow and finally to Rostov, apparently in the winter of 5683 (1923). At that yechidus the Rebbe told him that if people knew how good it is to tell everything — literally everything — once in six months or once a year, it would be truly good.

2 min to tellexcellent to tell 315 wordsRebbe Rayatz story_000517

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The Mitteler Rebbe's Three Letters to Velliz

As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 221-222, no. 37

At the Lag B'Omer farbrengen of 5685, held in the dining hall after the maamar KaShemen HaTov, the Rebbe related that a relative of theirs, a rov in Velliz, was persecuted by two gvirim and a wealthy woman and wrote to the Mitteler Rebbe, who was then in Staraya Russa. The Mitteler Rebbe wrote back to each: to the first, have immediate remorse and G-d will forgive; to the second, take great care lest I go out to you with the sword; to the woman, a woman's wisdom is only in her spindle. The first gvir relented, the second mocked the letter and was beheaded that day by a passing Cossack, and the woman lost everything in a court ruling over unpaid taxes on her spirits factory. When this was later related to the Mitteler Rebbe, he was deeply pained that their punishment had come through him.

4 min to tellvery good to tell 553 wordsRebbe Rayatz story_000268

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True Teshuvah Is Like the Goy of Vitebsk

As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 37-38, no. 13

The Alter Rebbe once said that true teshuvah is like what the goy in Vitebsk felt. A river divides Vitebsk and, before there was a bridge, people crossed in a small boat. On a very windy day the bystanders warned a man not to set out because it was dangerous; he ignored them, went anyway, and drowned. The Alter Rebbe concluded that the anguish he felt in the moment he saw he was drowning — over not having listened and having gone — is what true teshuvah is.

2 min to tellexcellent to tell 266 wordsAlter Rebbe story_000013

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The Bochur Full of False Ideas

As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 158-159, no. 37

R. Moshe Aizel Rabkin, a gvir from Homil, reported hearing the Rebbe speak at a farbrengen — the narrator thinks it was Purim in Menton — about the special qualities of Tomchei Temimim. The Rebbe recounted that a young man had come to Lubavitch seeking acceptance into the yeshivah, was rejected by the administration, and when sent in to the Rebbe was found to be filled with false ideas — yet the Rebbe instructed that he be accepted. Much later, after a levayah in Lubavitch, the Rebbe entered the small zal to recite Yoshev Be'seiser seven times and found that same young man standing there deeply engrossed in davening, oblivious to the commotion.

2 min to tellexcellent to tell 262 wordsRebbe Rashab story_000176

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"This Is Rosh Hashanah — A Time for Teshuvah"

As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 233, no. 51

On the first night of Yud-Tes Kislev, 5685 or 5686, the Rebbe sat in the zal looking very serious and then related an earlier Yud-Tes Kislev: people had gathered but his father did not come out, and when he went in to ask him to come out and farbreng, his father's expression was frightening. His father told him, "Things must be taken literally — this is Rosh Hashanah, the time for teshuvah." When the son said that people were waiting, his father came out, but only briefly. Having finished the story, the Rebbe returned to his room.

2 min to tellexcellent to tell 237 wordsRebbe Rayatz story_000282

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"All Your Days Are in Teshuvah"

As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 82, no. 9

In his later years the Tzemach Tzedek held yechidus with chassidim standing back-to-back, each audience beginning the moment the one before it ended. Reb Itzele Rover of Homil, a venerable chossid of the Alter Rebbe, came for yechidus and asked the Rebbe to bless him that he not die without doing teshuvah. The narrator's zeide, standing directly behind him, heard the Tzemach Tzedek cry out, "Reb Itzele, what do you want from me? — All your days are in teshuvah."

1 min to tellexcellent to tell 166 wordsTzemach Tzedek story_000065

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The Tzemach Tzedek Opens the Door at Midnight

As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 82-83, no. 10

One of the yoshvim in Lubavitch was seized in the middle of the night by a longing to do teshuvah and ran to the Tzemach Tzedek, even though the fixed schedule in Lubavitch was to retire at ten and rise at four. He called out the words of the Rosh Hashanah Musaf, "He who opens the gate for those who knock in repentance." The Tzemach Tzedek opened the door.

1 min to tellexcellent to tell 141 wordsTzemach Tzedek story_000066

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Tell Me What You Don't Want to Say

As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 385, no. 9

A story told in Lubavitch: a yungerman came in to the Rebbe Maharash and poured out the troubles of his heart. The Rebbe said to him, "Yungerman, tell me the thing you don't want to tell." Chassidim would add the words, "From me you will not hide."

1 min to tellexcellent to tell 92 wordsRebbe Rayatz story_000508

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A Mitzvah Without Joy Is Nothing

As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 106, no. 49

The Tzemach Tzedek once spoke about teshuvah, and when he lifted his holy head and looked at the chassidim, the entire crowd burst into weeping. He then said that teshuvah is a mitzvah like all other mitzvos, and a mitzvah without simcha is nothing.

1 min to tellexcellent to tell 83 wordsTzemach Tzedek story_000105

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One Chapter of Tanya, a Whole Week

As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 395-396, no. 23

R. Yochanan the shochet related that when the Rebbe stopped in Vilna on his way from Russia to Warsaw, a tomim named Yaakov Hochman (Dokshitzer) asked him for a "ruchnius'dike yechidus" — a tikkun. The Rebbe said he could not answer; R. Yaakov said the Rebbe's father used to answer, and when the Rebbe replied that he had presumably already asked him, R. Yaakov said these were newer matters. The Rebbe then gave him a tikkun: to learn one chapter of Tanya in depth for a full week, the same chapter, and thereby become clear in Tanya. R. Yaakov did so and became expert in Tanya; an outstanding oveid, he had intended to travel to America but remained in Riga, HY"D.

2 min to tellvery good to tell 261 wordsRebbe Rayatz story_000522

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Tears That Washed Away the Sin

As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 101, no. 40

Chassidim relate that a question came before the Tzemach Tzedek regarding a woman accused of adultery, and he inclined toward ruling her forbidden to her husband. She traveled to the tzaddik R. Mordechai of Chernobyl, who said he saw no sign of the transgression on her face. The Tzemach Tzedek then wrote that perhaps the abundance of her tears had erased the sin from her face. A parenthetical note records that the Rebbe wrote, on 13 Elul 5709, that he had heard the halachic deliberation in this matter was with the Tzemach Tzedek's brother-in-law, R. Yaakov Yisroel of Cherkass, son of R. Mordechai of Chernobyl.

2 min to tellvery good to tell 246 wordsTzemach Tzedek story_000096

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Teshuvah Is Resolve for the Future

As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 208-209, no. 16

A young man related over mashkeh that he was deeply affected by that Simchas Torah, especially by the story told about R. Hillel, and that he went into yechidus on the seventh of Cheshvan. The Rebbe told him that the main point of teshuvah is resolve for the future, asked about his health, and then gave him a practical regimen: fast Shovavim on Mondays and Thursdays, and in the meantime fast until 1 p.m. on Mondays and Thursdays, rise at 6 a.m. and learn as he was accustomed, and in addition learn three mishnayos of Seder Kodashim daily — but really in depth.

2 min to tellvery good to tell 248 wordsRebbe Rayatz story_000247

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"At the Brakes He Will Do Teshuvah"

As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 210-211, no. 20

One Yud-Tes Kislev the Rebbe lifted his head, looked up toward the assembled crowd, and spoke of someone who had been in Lubavitch in Tomchei Temimim and about whom it was now questionable whether he put on tefillin at the proper time — saying that even as a steward of a train carriage, at the brakes he would do teshuvah and melt like a candle. A parenthetical note records that the young man was later in Tashkent, critically ill and with a foot amputated, and told the narrator that he had become a different person years earlier when the Rebbe Rashab came to him and said, "Moshe, enough!"

2 min to tellvery good to tell 224 wordsRebbe Rayatz story_000251

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The Zeide on the Rebbe Rashab's Greatness, and a Pidyon for Teshuvah Ila'ah

As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 333-334, no. 26

The narrator recalls how his zeide would speak of the greatness of the Rebbe Rashab, saying that he knew how dear the Rebbe Maharash was to the Tzemach Tzedek, and that since the Rebbe Maharash left such a son — a leader of the Jewish people — that son is granted whatever gashmius and ruchnius he needs. The zeide would also give the narrator a pidyon to bring when he traveled to the Rebbe for Rosh Hashanah. The narrator once read one of these pidyonos and saw that it was a request for teshuvah ila'ah, the higher level of return to Hashem.

2 min to tellvery good to tell 194 wordsRebbe Rayatz story_000443

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The Footbridge Dream

As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 55-56, no. 36

The Mitteler Rebbe dreamt of a footbridge over a stream that had to be crossed: his teacher the Maggid of Mezritch went first and stumbled, while his father the Alter Rebbe crossed without incident. When the Mitteler Rebbe later asked the Alter Rebbe about the dream, the Alter Rebbe replied, "How can you compare me with the Rebbe? Has the Rebbe made as many baalei teshuvah as I have?"

1 min to tellvery good to tell 163 wordsAlter Rebbe story_000036

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Mathematics in Yechidus

As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 492-494, no. 15

An unfamiliar Jew came into the shul where R. Eliyahu was; he said he was a university student who had come to see the shul, and when he said he had no place to stay R. Eliyahu invited him home, where they spoke at length about Yiddishkeit, and he ultimately became a full baal teshuva. He is A. Teitelbaum, who became a professor of mathematics in Montreal. When R. Eliyahu once brought him to the Rebbe for yechidus, the Rebbe discussed mathematics, his field, rather than the Yiddishkeit he had expected; in time he realized how important those words were, since the Rebbe had shown him that mathematics can be used to express the unity of the Creator, and he said sorrowfully that he could not recall every detail of the yechidus.

1 min to tellvery good to tell 175 wordsR. Eliyahu Akiva Lipskar story_000674

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Strengthen Yourself, Become a Man

As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 363, no. 9

When he left Leningrad the narrator and others accompanied him to the platform for Moscow-bound trains — people were not as fearful then. A young student was there as well, and R. Leivik told him, "Remember: vechazakta vehayisa l'ish — Strengthen yourself, become a man!" The narrator adds that although the young man later went through a spiritual decline, today he is doing well in a distant country.

1 min to tellvery good to tell 139 wordsRebbe Rayatz story_000483

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The Talking Bird: A Parable of Teshuvah

As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 227, no. 44

During his stay in Leningrad the Rebbe Rayatz spoke about teshuvah and used the image of a talking bird. A person who has offended the king and wants forgiveness takes a bird and painstakingly teaches it the words of the request for pardon. The point of the parable: consider how deep his remorse and repentance must already be, that he was able to invest himself in teaching a bird to speak those words.

1 min to tellvery good to tell 124 wordsRebbe Rayatz story_000275

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The Erev Yom Kippur Bracha: Nit Andersh

As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 155, no. 30

On erev Yom Kippur the Frierdiker Rebbe would come out from the door through which people entered for yechidus in order to give his bracha. On one occasion the wording of the bracha was that the Eibershter should grant that one be aroused with thoughts of true teshuvah, together with a powerful resolve for Torah and mitzvos, 'nit andersh' — without compromise — followed by a few additional words about gashmius.

1 min to tellvery good to tell 120 wordsRebbe Rashab story_000169

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"Then You Should Certainly Daven at Length"

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

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The Stranger Who Arrived on Rosh Hashana Night

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

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One Needn't Fast — One Needs Krias Shema

As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 156, no. 32

A young man related that when he was a bochur in Lubavitch he came to the Rebbe for yechidus, handed in his tzetl, and told the Rebbe that he had been fasting. The Rebbe responded that one needn't fast; one needs to recite Krias Shema she'al hamitah before retiring at night.

1 min to tellvery good to tell 91 wordsRebbe Rashab story_000171

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Seven Times, Not More Than Ten

As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 214, no. 25

At a farbrengen the Rebbe instructed that the Alter Rebbe's nigun be sung, with the last section repeated no fewer than seven times and no more than ten, and the ninth repetition running directly into the tenth. He added that everyone should have thoughts of teshuvah while singing.

1 min to tellvery good to tell 76 wordsRebbe Rayatz story_000256

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The Baal Taivah Who Calls Himself a Non-Believer

As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 244, no. 74

In a maamar in Leningrad, the Rebbe described a person who is a baal taivah and wants to satisfy all of his desires, but is uncomfortable with himself for it. To resolve that discomfort, he declares that he is a non-believer.

1 min to tellvery good to tell 72 wordsRebbe Rayatz story_000305

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Fast With Your Mouth

As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 369-370, no. 5

R. Yisroel Neveler quoted the Rashbatz's sharp rebuke: "Why do you fast with your stomach? Fast with your mouth!" The saying redirects the effort of self-affliction from abstaining from food to guarding one's speech. A footnote records that R. Yisroel Neveler passed away on 9 Iyar 5708 and is buried in Munich.

1 min to tellvery good to tell 82 wordsRebbe Rayatz story_000489

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Weaken My Desires

As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 109-110, no. 54

The Tzemach Tzedek once said, on the verse "Hashem my G-d, I cried out to You and You healed me": reading vatirpa'eini in its other sense, of weakening — weaken me away from the desires of This World.

0 min to tellvery good to tell 58 wordsTzemach Tzedek story_000110

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Chaim Ber's Nigun, Shmuel's, and the Rebbe's

As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 206-207, no. 13

When the chassidim were about to sing the Alter Rebbe's well-known nigun, the Rebbe said, "We will sing Chaim Ber's nigun, and then Shmuel's, and then the Rebbe's." The narrator explains the older names: what is now called Shmuel Gurary's nigun the Rebbe called Chaim Ber's, and what is today called the Rebbe's (the Rebbe Rashab's) he called Shmuel's — the nigun the Rebbe Rashab could sing endlessly, as the narrator recalls from Simchas Torah 5676 (1915), when the chassidim would stop and the Rebbe Rashab would begin it again. It was a true Simchas Torah, an awakening to teshuvah.

2 min to tellgood to tell 275 wordsRebbe Rayatz story_000244

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"Such a Place for Teshuvah"

As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 274, no. 117

The Rebbe related that when he came into the prison room he saw only heads there. "Ay!" he said — "such a place for teshuvah!"

0 min to tellvery good to tell 54 wordsRebbe Rayatz story_000348

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Tehillim Around the Bimah

As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 254-255, no. 93

On Simchas Torah 5687 (1926), at the home of his mother Rebbetzin Shterna Sarah, the Rebbe Rayatz asked that Tehillim be recited daily according to the division for the days of the month. When R. Eliyahu Chaim Althoiz said that he recites Tehillim before davening, the Rebbe answered that the Tehillim before davening are a matter of teshuvah while those after davening are a matter of Torah — a joining of tefillah with Torah — and that they should therefore be said around the table where the Torah is read. Later, in the letters from Riga and Poland, the Rebbe instructed that they be recited immediately after Aleinu, around the amud.

2 min to tellgood to tell 213 wordsRebbe Rayatz story_000324

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Shir HaShirim, Posuk by Posuk

As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 309-310, no. 45

Reb Aizel once explained all of Shir HaShirim posuk by posuk according to Chassidus. The elder chassidim told the zeide that when he reached the posuk 'Shuvi shuvi haShulamis' his face burned like a torch. When he finished the entire Shir HaShirim according to Chassidus, he made a festive seudah.

1 min to tellgood to tell 142 wordsRebbe Rayatz story_000404

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Mara DeChushbana — Years of Bitterness in Davening

As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 245, no. 76

The Rebbe said in Leningrad that for days and years one's avodah in davening should be conducted with the quality of mara dechushbana — deep self-accounting. That is, the bitterness that moves a person toward refining himself.

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