בס״ד
Farbreng.ing
Stories for
Ki Savo
This Is How Jews Brought Bikurim
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 55, no. 35
סיפר ר' אייזיק האָמליער, אַז אַמאָל אין ליאָזנע האָט געזען אדמו"ר הזקן זי"ע, ווי עס גייען חסידים און פריער פאָרט אַן אָקס און עס ליגן אויף דעם וואָגן די פּעקעלעך. זאָגט אדמו"ר הזקן: אַזוי האָבן אידן געפירט ביכורים אין בית המקדש.
Reb Aizel related that once the Alter Rebbe saw chassidim walking along the road in Liozna and, in front of them, an ox pulled a wagon filled with their bags. “This is how Jews brought their bikurim to the Beis Hamikdash ,” the Rebbe said.
Parsha: ki_savo (4/5): Bikurim, which the Alter Rebbe invoked over the chassidim's procession, is the mitzvah that opens Ki Savo, including the ascent to the Mikdash with the basket.
Also this week
Reb Pesach's Yechidus: Before Davening
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 323-324, no. 9
Reb Pesach Malastovker described to the narrator's zeide his yechidus with the Tzemach Tzedek. Asked what he does before davening, Reb Pesach answered that it is already written — in Likkutei Torah: mikveh, tzedakah and Zohar. The Tzemach Tzedek replied that tzedakah is a mitzvah extending through the entire day, that one is not required to have mesirus nefesh for mikveh, and that his zeide's (the Alter Rebbe's) intention in saying Zohar was Chassidus.
HiskashrusEmes
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"I Want to Be the Rebbe's Partner"
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 474-475, no. 7
After R. Mendel Futerfas left Russia in 5724 (1963) and came to 770, he rebuked the chassidic community for ignoring the material plight of chassidim still in Russia. R. Yisroel Duchman responded by co-founding Lishkas Ezras Achim, raising large sums for Russian Jews and later partnering with Dr. Yirmiyahu Branover's Shamir to settle Russian immigrants in Eretz Yisroel. At a Shamir dinner he brought a philanthropist to the Rebbe after putting tefillin on him for the first time; the Rebbe gently noted this was nothing to be proud of, then offered the man tefillin of his own and instructed R. Yisroel to buy them and bring a paid receipt. When R. Yisroel tried to refuse full reimbursement so as to be the Rebbe's partner, the Rebbe insisted he take the money, saying, "We will be partners in other things."
thematic
Ahavas YisraelCompassionHiskashrus
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"I Think About Him More Than He Thinks About Me"
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 476-478, no. 9
R. Yisroel Duchman worked to train his children in hiskashrus, and several of his most significant exchanges with the Rebbe concerned them. When his young son Yossi swallowed an open safety pin lodged dangerously in his esophagus, the Rebbe opposed the planned surgery and instead instructed the head of the emergency room by phone to remove it with a magnet lowered down the boy's throat; the surgeon who had refused to speak with the Rebbe afterward told the Duchmans it was possible only because of "your holy Rebbe." The Rebbe later sent Yossi a blessing with the message, "I think about him more than he thinks about me," and gave shmurah matzah for his son Boruch in Miami. In 5736 the Rebbe declined a matzah request for his son Sholom, a shliach in Eretz Yisroel — "He's my shliach... I don't need an intermediary" — yet in 5737 asked R. Yisroel why he had not requested one, and gave it.
thematic
HiskashrusEmunahSanctity of a tzaddik
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Purim 5687: "I Accept Upon Myself the Four Executions"
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 256-257, no. 95
At a terrifying Purim farbrengen in 5687 (1927), the Rebbe screamed against the Yevsektzia — 'a rabbi's son, a butcher's son, a villager's son' — declaring he was not frightened of them, and unbuttoned his kapota until his tallis katan showed, calling out that he accepted upon himself the four forms of execution and that when they saw his body aflame they should have no compassion. When the chossid R. Meir Simcha shouted that the Rebbe was needed here, the Rebbe kept repeating that one must be ready to give one's life but must not send the children to their schools. Because informers were known to be present, those there called his mother the Rebbetzin to restrain him; he rose when she came but sent her back to her room to say Tehillim with tears where no one would see, saying that would help, and told her he was not acting on his own initiative but had asked his father. She kept standing and speaking until he fainted and barely revived; everyone was in dread, and the arrest came after Shavuos.
thematic
LeadershipMesiras NefeshBittul
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