בס״ד
Farbreng.ing
Stories for
Ki Seitzei
Amalek Cannot Reach One Who Is With Chassidim
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 354, no. 56
ָמליער: זכור את אשר עשה "לך" עמלק אָגן בשם הרה"צ ר' אייזל ה אדער זיידע מרדכי יואל פלעגט ז ָס איז מיט חסידים, יענעם קען אָבער דער וו אַר זיך, אָס איז "לך", פ אּט עמלק, דער וו פַ אוועמען כ ּן. פַ אעמלק ניט כ
My zeide recounted what he heard from Reb Aizel of Homil:
עמלק לך עשה אשר את זכור – Remember what Amalek did to you [on the way, when you went out of Egypt.]31 Amalek can only attack someone who is “לך – to you” 32 — who separates himself from others. But one who mingles with chassidim is beyond Amalek’s reach.
Parsha: ki_seitzei (5/5): The vort expounds 'Zachor es asher asah lecha Amalek,' the closing passage of Ki Seitzei, reading the word 'lecha' as the condition that makes a person vulnerable to Amalek.
Also this week
From Leningrad to New York: R. Zalman Duchman's First Yechidus
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 447-449, no. 19
After four years in a DP camp, R. Zalman Duchman and his family received American visas and arrived in New York on 4 Elul 5711 (1951), settling in Crown Heights near the Rebbe. The day after arriving he went into yechidus, where the Rebbe rose and said, "So, if one is persistent enough, one succeeds!" and reminisced at length about their shared Leningrad days with the Frierdiker Rebbe, remarking that in America they could finally speak openly. On Shabbos Parshas Ki Teitzei R. Zalman led the davening joyously in anticipation of his son Yisroel's wedding in Paris, and after Mincha the Rebbe spoke with him about the Frierdiker Rebbe's wedding on 13 Elul 5657 and the draft summons that interrupted it, and about how the Rebbe Maharash secured the Rebbe Rashab's release from army service after warning an unyielding governor who later fell ill and died. On Sunday, 15 Elul, while their son married in Paris, R. Zalman and his wife entered yechidus and received a bracha for the wedding.
HiskashrusPerseveranceMesiras Nefesh
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What Sort of Chossid Sleeps Until Nine
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 204-206, no. 12
At Simchas Torah 5685 (1924) in Leningrad, the Rebbe Rayatz spoke passionately against the chossid who sleeps until nine, has davened and eaten by ten, and then strolls Nevsky Street looking where he should not, imagining that a kapotah and gartel or three rubles given to the Rebbe make him a chossid. He cited R. Hillel Paritcher's remark that he does not care for one who strayed and did teshuvah — who knows what sort of teshuvah it was — and explained the teaching that baalei teshuvah stand where perfect tzaddikim cannot: the baal teshuvah is not the same person, he is someone else. He then turned to a young man from Kherson living in Moscow, told him "It's not you," and instructed him to accept divrei chavrus and give a Kiddush on Shabbos Bereishis, adding that everyone must accept upon himself not to sleep past seven in the morning.
thematic
EmesKabbolas OlTeshuvah out of love
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"History Will Record This Disgrace"
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 263-265, no. 103
The Rashag, the Rebbe's son-in-law, came from Kostrama for Shabbos and after Minchah, near the balcony in the large zal, told a few people in the Rebbe's name what he had undergone and the questions the interrogators had asked. The interrogation room had thin plywood walls, an investigator with a stubby nose and a stutter, and senior officials seated further back. When Lulav and Nachmanson came in, the Rebbe said that history would record the disgrace of who was appointed to interrogate the Lubavitcher Rebbe; when they accused him of espionage he demanded they retract it at once and asked whether they wanted another Beilis Affair; and when they raised his spreading of Torah he said, "I am not a teacher; I salute learning Torah." He refused to answer any questions until his tefillin were returned, and when he put on his hat to say Shehakol over a glass of water and was told he could be made shorter by a head, he answered, "The whole earth is filled with His glory."
thematic
Mesiras NefeshBittulEmes
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