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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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Stories for

Sukkos

Thicker, and Thicker Still

As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 31, no. 4

דער זיידע פלעגט דערציילן, אַז ער איז געווען אַ קליינער אינגל, שטייט ער ביי ר' אייזלען אין סוכה און מ'דעקט זייער געדיכט. זאָגט ער צו ר' אייזלען: עס שטייט דאָך אַז עס דאַרף זיין "כוכבים נראים"? זאָגט ער צו אים: הער יואל'קע, איך בין געווען ביי דעם רבי'ן אין ליאָזנע, האָט מען געדעקט די סוכה, איז געשטאַנען דער רבי און געמאַכט מיט דער הייליקער האַנט: נאָך געדיכטער און נאָך געדיכטער. און ר' אייזל האָט אַ געשריי געטאָן: און אַנדערש קען איך ניט. (דער זיידע פלעגט מיר זאָגן אַז ביי אים איז געווען אַ וואונדער, ער איז אַ נאָמען נאָך דער זיידע ר' מרדכי איז געווען דעם אַלטן רבי'נס אַ חסיד און דער זיידע יואל אַ בעל הבית, און פונדעסטוועגן אי דער רבי צמח צדק אי ר' אייזל האָבן אים גערופן: יואל'קע).

My zeide said that as a small child he was in Reb Aizel’s sukkah while the s’chach was being piled up thickly. He asked Reb Aizel: “Doesn’t the halachah state that the stars should be visible through the s’chach?”

“Listen, Yoel’ke, ” Reb Aizel told him, “I was with the Rebbe in Liozna when they put the s’chach on the sukkah. The Rebbe stood and signaled with his holy hands: Make it thicker…thicker.” And Reb Aizel cried out, “And I can’t do it any other way!”5 (My zeide told me something that had always puzzled him. He was named after his two grandfathers: Reb Mordechai, a chossid of the Alter Rebbe, and Yoel, a businessman. Nevertheless both the Rebbe — the Tzemach Tzedek — and Reb Aizel called him Yoel’ke.)

5 Sefer Haminhagim (p. 65) records that it is our custom to use a lot of s'chach.

Holiday: sukkos (5/5): The entire story takes place in Reb Aizel's sukkah around the laying of the s'chach, and turns on the custom of thick s'chach.

Also this occasion

The Sukkah Certified by Matat

As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 343-344, no. 43

The zeide used to recount at length the story of the Baal Shem Tov's sukkah. His students once gathered in the sukkah and, looking it over, noticed many features that raised halachic questions. Sensing their thoughts, the Baal Shem Tov asked for a piece of parchment, leaned on it and fell into deep contemplation; when he drew it out from beneath the tablecloth it was inscribed: 'The sukkah of the Baal Shem Tov is kosher — signed Matat.'

Sanctity of a tzaddikEmunah

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How Chassidim Came to Use the Rebbe's Lulav and Esrog

As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 455, no. 26

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.

HiskashrusInfluence of one JewTemimus (sincerity)

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The Last Dance and the Platform at Leningrad

As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 433-435, no. 10

Under constant surveillance in Malachovka, the Frierdiker Rebbe decided to leave Russia, departing on Isru Chag of Sukkos 5688 (1927); chassidim traveled from across the Soviet Union for that last Simchas Torah, where R. Zalman Duchman remembered the Rebbe raising his hands and singing Nye Zhuritze Chloptzi. R. Zalman brought his eight-year-old daughter Rochel for a bracha at the Rebbe's house and again at the train station — a bracha he later said protected her through the war — and recorded the Rebbe's farewell words, "I didn't write this letter with my heart — it is my heart." Rochel recalled the black-packed platform, the crowd running after the departing train with not one dry eye, and the newspaper article describing the Rebbe's G-dly face. Even after the departure the Rebbe kept them in mind, sending a bracha for their newborn son Yisroel and, through R. Zalman's brother Yisroel Noach in Eretz Yisroel, the message "I know quite well what is happening with them... I do not forget them."

HiskashrusSimchaBitachon

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