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Stories from As I Heard Them (Lesheima Ozen) by Reb Zalman Duchman. © The Duchman Family; used with permission — share this sheet as produced, do not republish the stories in other formats.

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Stories for

Vayikra

A Kometz of Kasha

As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 53-54, no. 33

דער זיידע דערציילט, ווי אַמאָל האָבן חסידים אין ליאָזנע געוואָלט זען ווי אדמו"ר הזקן עסט. האָט מען צוגעהיט שפעט ביינאַכט דורכן פענסטער ווי מ'האָט אים געבראַכט אַ שיסעלע מיט גריקענע

2 R. Reuven of Yanovitch was the Alter Rebbe's chossid and personal sofer.

3 Berachos 7a. See Shemos 33:18- 23, where Moshe asks Hashem, Show me Your glory, and Hashem answers, You will see My back.

קאַשע. האָט מען געזען ווי ער האָט אָנגענומען מיט דער הייליקער האַנט און האָט געזאָגט מיט אַ ניגון: מ'דאַרף מאַכן אַ קומץ. איז אויף זיי אָנגעפאַלן אַ שרעק און זיי זיינען אַנטלאָפן.

My zeide described an occasion when the chassidim in Liozna wished to observe the Alter Rebbe’s eating habits.

Late one evening, watching stealthily through a window, they saw someone bring him a bowl of buckwheat kasha. When the Rebbe, reaching in to take a handful, said with a nigun: “It is necessary to take a kometz (the handful of the meal-offering in the Beis Hamikdash).”

The onlookers retreated in terror.

Parsha: vayikra (3/5): The kometz — the handful taken from the minchah offering that the Alter Rebbe named as he reached into the bowl — is the procedure set out in the minchah passages of Vayikra.

Also this week

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.

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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."

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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."

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