When my zeide described how Reb Aizel would become excited about the Alter Rebbe, it was awesome: “He was the loftiest of men — higher even than Adam HaRishon before the sin. ”
Reb Aizel would say, “If Moshe Rabbeinu came by with the Rebbe, and the Rebbe said, Do this, and Moshe Rabbeinu said, Do that; I would say, ‘ You can do whatever you wish; but there is no way I’ll do anything other than what my Rebbe says. ’”
(Regarding this story the Rebbe wrote to me: As in the story of Rabbeinu Tam and Moshe Rabbeinu, in Seder HaDoros, Section 1, 49304.)
Then, too, on motzaei Yom Kippur, 5688, when Menashe (may G-d avenge his blood) — my dear friend, the tomim Menashe, the son of Binyamin Althoiz - cleared the dishes from the table, the Rebbe told him, “ …But you should become proficient in Tanya.”
Menashe fulfilled the Rebbe’s words and achieved an expertise in Tanya.
In the time of the First World War, R. Zalman Havlin2 passed through Homil with his brother Lipa from Postov, near Kiev, whom he had gotten released from his regiment for a half year. R. Zalman related that when he asked the Rebbe about his brother’s draft notice, the Rebbe replied that he should think about obtaining a passport. Now R. Zalman was quite well- versed in these matters, and he came up with some other ideas.
“Listen, Zalman, ” the Rebbe told him, “there’s a life at stake. What was said – was said. But when you start [reasoning] with me this way, I don’t know what to say. ”
“In short, ” R. Zalman concluded, “after a lot of hard work, I’ve just about managed to get him out of there, and he’s still not completely free. ”
An early tomim in Lubavitch and later Rosh Yeshivah in a branch of Horoditch. In 5672 (1912) he was sent by the Rebbe Rashab to establish a yeshivah in Chevron. He passed away in Yerushalayim in 5696 (1936). ↩
Shmuel from Kremenchug (known as “Shmuel the porush” [ascetic]) related that when the Rebbe was arrested, Rebbetzin Shterna Sarah opened the aron hakodesh and screamed, “Holy Sifrei Torah! Why are you silent?!”