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Stories from As I Heard Them (Lesheima Ozen) by Reb Zalman Duchman. © The Duchman Family; used with permission — share this sheet as produced, do not republish the stories in other formats.
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Chodesh Elul

Herschel der Schvartzer's Night Journey to Vitebsk

As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 91-92, no. 26

ביי דעם רבי'ן דעם צ"צ זי"ע איז געווען אַ משרת הירשל דער שוואַרצער. האָט ער דערציילט דעם זיידן אַזאַ מעשה. איינמאָל מוצש"ק וואָס מ'דאַרף זאָגן די ערשטע סליחות, זאָגט צו אים דער רבי דער צ"צ, אַזוי ווי ער דאַרף אָפּשיקן אַ בריוו אַ נויטיקן אין וויטעבסק, דאַרף ער גיין און אָפּגעבן דעם בריוו אין דעם און דעם בהמ"ד צו די און די גבירים פאַר סליחות. האָט ער אים געגעבן אויסטרינקען אַ גלאָז בראָנפן און האָט אים פאַרבונדן מיט זיין, ד.ה. מיט דעם רבי'נס, גאַרטל און האָט אים אָנגעגאָסן אין אַ בוטל נאָך בראָנפן, און האָט אים געזאָגט, אַז אין דער קרעטשמע זאָל ער אויסטרינקען די בוטל בראָנפן. ער איז אַרויס פון ליובאַוויטש אין טאָפּטשעט אין דער פינצטער, אויף וואָסער וועלט ער איז ווייס ער ניט, און וויפל ער איז אָפּגעגאַנגען ווייס ער אויך ניט, נאָר ער האָט דערזען די קרעטשמע איז ער אַריין און האָט אויסגעטרונקען די בראָנפן און ער איז אַוועק ווייטער. וואָס מיט אים האָט זיך געטאָן ווייס ער ניט, נאָר ער האָט דערזען וויטעבסק און איז געקומען אין ביהמ"ד און האָט אָפּגעגעבן דעם בריוו. פרעגט ביי אים דער גביר: הירשל, וואו ביסטו געווען שבת? ענטפערט ער: נו, נו, און האָט זיך אויסגעדרייט צוריק.

די מעשה האָט ער דערציילט נאָך דעם רבי'נס צ"צ הסתלקות. פון ליובאַוויטש ביז וויטעבסק איז וויאָרסט. 100בערך אַ

Herschel der Schvartzer [with black hair], the Tzemach Tzedek’s attendant, told my zeide the following story:

Once, on the motzaei Shabbos when the first Selichos were to be recited, the Tzemach Tzedek told him that he had to send an important letter to Vitebsk, and Herschel should deliver the letter to certain wealthy people in a particular shul before Selichos. The Rebbe poured him a glassful of mashkeh to drink, wrapped his own — the Rebbe’s — gartel around him, and then poured him a bottle of mashkeh with instructions to drink it when he reaches the inn along the way.

Setting out from Lubavitch on foot and groping in pitch darkness, oblivious to whatever world he was in and how far he had progressed, he saw the inn, went inside to finish off the bottle of mashkeh and continued walking. Whatever was happening, he had no idea. Realizing before long that he had reached Vitebsk, he went to the shul and delivered the letter. “Herschel, ” asked one recipient, “where were you on Shabbos?”

“Nu, nu…,” he answered, and turned back toward home.

He recounted this story after the Tzemach Tzedek had passed away. From Lubavitch to Vitebsk is roughly 66 miles.

Holiday: chodesh_elul (4/5): The story is set on the motzaei Shabbos when the first Selichos are recited, and the errand is timed to be completed before Selichos — a natural piece for the Elul season.

Also this occasion

R. Zalman's Candid Exchanges with the Rebbe

As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 456-457, no. 27

R. Zalman Duchman's directness and warmth gave him an unusually open relationship with the Rebbe, so much so that chassidim would choose him among the elder chassidim to bring their requests. His diary records a yechidus in Elul 5728 (1968) in which he told the Rebbe two accounts he had heard about the Rebbe Rashab and eating before davening — one about the Rebbe's grandfather Meir Shlomo the rov, heard from R. Binyomin Althoiz, and one from Yehoshua Beshenkovitzer, a rov in Vitebsk — after which the Rebbe remarked that those were early chassidim and that today one must eat, though not as they do in Kfar Chabad. Another entry records that on Chof Daled Teves 5712 (1952), after mincha outside the Rebbe's room, the Rebbe asked whether he was named after the Alter Rebbe, and when R. Zalman noted his bris was on Chai Elul before that date was known as the Alter Rebbe's birthday, the Rebbe answered, "But in Heaven they knew." The story adds that when R. Zalman was ill and went to the mikvah anyway "since this is the way of chassidim," the Rebbe blessed him and the ailment left him that day; that the Rebbe gave him a siddur and Tanya to place on the operating table before surgery, which was successful; and that a siddur he lost in Chicago was returned to him after a non-Jewish woman brought it to a shul and it reached R. Yankel Katz, who recognized his name.

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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.

SimchaTeshuvah out of love

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