Parshas V'Zos HaBerachah

Sim­chas Torah stood out as a spe­cial time be­tween R. Yis­roel and the Rebbe. On Sim­chas Torah morn­ing, R. Yis­roel would lead Shacharis, and then be­fore hakafos, he would joy­ously re­cite kid­dush over mashkeh. He would en­ter with two large trays of cake that his wife had pre­pared, en­cour­ag­ing ev­ery­one to take a bite. Thus be­gan the day of ex­u­ber­ant cel­e­bra­tion in 770.

The Rebbe en­joyed R. Yis­roel’s nat­u­ral chas­sidic hap­pi­ness, and when R. Yis­roel was more sub­dued, the Rebbe would mo­tion to him, seek­ing an ex­pla­na­tion for the change.

The open home that R. Zal­man main­tained in Leningrad ac­com­pa­nied him to New York. Ev­ery Shab­bos, R. Zal­man and his wife would host guests, for eat­ing or sleep­ing or both, shar­ing their min­i­mal pro­vi­sions.

He would make spe­cial ef­fort to care for the vis­i­tors in 770, long be­fore there was any or­ga­nized hos­pi­tal­ity, and he would sup­ply them with hot drinks to warm their frigid bones. He did so even early on Sim­chas Torah morn­ing at the con­clu­sion of the mid­night far­bren­gen.

Each month, when he re­ceived his monthly stipend from the gov­ern­ment, he would head over to a lo­cal gro­cery and de­posit the money with the shop­keeper, who had a large fam­ily and needed the cash. When­ever R. Zal­man needed some money, he would go and col­lect just the amount that he needed.

The Rebbe cried at his bris mi­lah . “Shh, don’t cry ,” the Rebbe Ma­ha­rash said. “You will re­cite Chas­sidus and be a Rebbe. ”

I heard this from the chos­sid R. Binyamin Al­thoiz of Niko­layev.