When the Alter Rebbe had to enroll the Mitteler Rebbe in cheder, he summoned the melamed and said to him in his customary nigun, “I want to trade one mitzvah for another with you. I have the mitzvah of V’shinantam l’vanecha – Teach Torah to your children;65 you have the mitzvah of One who does tzedakah at all times: he who sustains his young children.66 I am enrolling him in your cheder to learn alef-beis. What is an alef? A dot above, a dot below, with a line in between — that is an alef.”
And the Rebbe commented to R. Pinchas ben Eliyahu Chaim Althoiz (may G-d avenge his blood), “When you enroll your child to study, you do the same as the Kohen Gadol in the Kodesh HaKodoshim (Holy of Holies ). What did he do? He brought G-dliness down into the world. ”
The Alter Rebbe's Nigun: K'ayal Taarog and V'ahavta
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 59, no. 42
Reb Groinem, the mashpia, imitated how chassidim heard the Alter Rebbe say, with a nigun, “K’ayal taarog al afikei mayim – V’ahavta es Hashem Elokecha” (As a deer yearns for streams of water1 — You shall love Hashem, your G-d).2 (Reb Groinem said that the relationship between the two pesukim is hinted in Chassidus: the first indicates ratzo; the second, shov.3)
Other sources cite the second possuk as, "V'hayu l'totafos bein einecha" (And they shall be for a reminder between your eyes (Devarim 6:8), since V'ahavta, love for Hashem, is also a ratzo.
Ratzo VeShov (“run and return”): ratzo is the longing to cleave to Hashem, the soul’s desire to transcend its material environment and cleave to its Source; shov is the soul’s determination to “return” and fulfill its mission in the body, within a material reality, for this is Hashem’s intent. See Yechezkel 1:14. ↩
My zeide recounted that the Alter Rebbe said, “Hashem, the King of kings, issued a decree to recite the Shema twice daily and thus unify His blessed Name. But people exchanged this for lunch and supper. ”
The last occasion I was with the Rebbe Rashab was in Rostov, on Simchas Torah, 5679 (1918). His words are printed in Toras Shalom, and I can remember that he talked about the Alter Rebbe in regard to the posuk, כי בך ’בחר ה – For Hashem has chosen you.51
“For we are the descendants of Dovid, ”52 the Rebbe said.
Once Alexander2 — people called him Aharon ben Ber — went to say LeChaim to the Rebbe, and the Rebbe said, “My father once told Uncle Zalman, ‘The אלקיכם ה’ ובין ביניכם עומד אנכי( I stand between you and Hashem your G-d)3 was the Mitteler Rebbe, and you are a descendant of the Mitteler Rebbe!’” And the Rebbe concluded, “And you are Zalman’s descendant!”
Alexander’s grandfather, R. Shneur Zalman, was the son of R. Aharon Alexandrov of Shklov and Rebbetzin Chaya Sarah, the Mitteler Rebbe’s daughter. ↩
Mara DeChushbana — Years of Bitterness in Davening
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 245, no. 76
The Rebbe once said in Leningrad that for days and years the efforts in davening should be in a manner of deep introspection9 — that is to say, the bitterness necessary to inspire one toward self-refinement.
In the original: Mara deChushbana, a “master of introspection, ” deeply aware of his true spiritual state. ↩
My zeide recounted what he heard from Reb Mordechai, Reb Aizel’s meshares:
Reb Aizel arose very early one morning, as he was accustomed, and recited Birkos Hashachar . And standing in the middle of the room he began Tehillim 119, Ashrei Tmimei Darech. When he finished three hours later it was necessary for the meshares to sweep away the tears that had collected on the floor.
On Simchas Torah , 5687 (1926), at the home of his mother, Rebbetzin Shterna Sarah, the Rebbe asked people to recite Tehillim daily as they are divided into the days of the month.
R. Eliyahu Chaim [Althoiz] (may G-d avenge his blood) said that he recites Tehillim before davening, and the Rebbe answered, “The Tehillim before davening are connected with teshuvah, while the Tehillim after davening are connected with Torah — joining davening together with Torah. For that reason they should be recited around the bimah where the Torah is read. ”
Later, in the letters from Riga and Poland, the Rebbe already instructed people to recite them immediately after Aleinu, around the amud.16
Amud: the prayer lectern where one stands when leading the prayers . ↩
My uncle, R. Yehudah Leib Chasdan — the shochet from Homil — said that he heard this interpretation directly from the Rebbe Maharash:
“Everything is in the hands of Heaven…”, meaning that if G-d wants to, He will give; if He doesn’t want to, He won’t give;
“…except the fear of Heaven”, when one asks for fear of Heaven it is granted to him.14
The simple meaning is that fear of Heaven, unlike man's other needs, is in his own hands to toil and attain. The Rebbe Maharash’s non-literal interpretation reversed the meaning to say that with sincere supplication one will be granted fear of Heaven from Above without restriction. ↩
On motzaei Yom Kippur 5688 (1927) the Rebbe said, “My father told me (he mentioned the year) that, through two things, one draws down material abundance for the entire coming year: through reciting LeDovid Mizmor with great concentration on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur after praying Shemoneh Esrei, and through breaking the fast motzaei Yom Kippur expansively. ”