Stories from As I Heard Them (Lesheima Ozen) by Reb Zalman Duchman · © The Duchman Family; please share this sheet as printed

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Stories for the week

Parshas Ha'azinu

Ti Krav — The Thief at the Inn

As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 376, no. 14

In the village where a chossid of the tzaddik Rebbe Moshe Leib of Sassov lived, a theft had occurred — and no one could find the thief. When the chossid asked the tzaddik for guidance, Rebbe Moshe instructed him that, as Shabbos was coming to a close, he should recite chapter 119 of Tehillim.

Now, the schedule in the village was familiar to the gentiles : on motzaei Shabbos after Havdalah they were able to purchase whiskey. Accordingly, with the approach of nightfall, they began gathering at the inn.

The chossid, meanwhile, had nearly completed his Tehillim and when he recited aloud the posuk, רנתי לפניך תקרבMay my song of prayer draw near (tikrav) before You²⁵ — at that moment a gentile entered.

The Ukrainian phrase “Ti krav” means “You have stolen.”

“I didn’t do it!” cried the man. “My neighbor, so-and-so, did it!”

Ibid. 119:169. ↩

Hashgacha PratisSanctity of a tzaddik

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"But In Heaven They Knew"

As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 456-457, no. 61

Continued from the biography of R. Zalman Duchman:

In another entry, he records a conversation that took place in the hallways of 770:

It was Chof Daled Teves 5712 (1952). We had davened mincha outside the Rebbe’s room after the Rebbe returned from the Ohel. The Rebbe said to me, “You’re probably named [after the Alter Rebbe]?” I replied, “Yes, and my bris was Chai Elul, though at that time it was not yet known [that Chai Elul was the Alter Rebbe’s birthday]. ” The Rebbe replied, “But in Heaven they knew. ”

Hashgacha PratisHiskashrus

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"That's Where the Zeide Sat, and That's Where His Grandchild Will Sit"

As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 275, no. 119

I heard from the tomim DovBer of Minna that when he went with the Rebbe in 5684 (1924 ) to look at a house on Frantzoska Novereznya, on a side street near Shpalerka — on the opposite side you can see the Nieva River and the Petropavlovsk Fortress where the Alter Rebbe was imprisoned — the Rebbe said, “Yes, it will be nice.³ That’s where the zeide sat, and that’s where his grandchild will sit. ” And so it was.

In the original: Es vet zein shayn. ↩

Hashgacha PratisSanctity of a tzaddikMesiras Nefesh

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