בס״ד
Farbreng.ing
Stories for
Yisro
"Serve G-d With Joy" at the Machine
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 414-415, no. 52
איינמאל שטייענדיג בא דער מאשינע, מ'האט געארבעט מיט'ן האנד, גייט אריין החסיד המפורסם ר' מיכאל ז"ל דווארקין. האט ער מסתמא דערזען אויף מיין פנים, זאגט ער: עבדו את הוי' בשמחה... ווייל מ'האט געהאלטן ווי אדמו"ר זי"ע האט געזאגט, ששת ימים תעבוד — איז א מצוה.
was regretful: perhaps had he not weakened himself he could have lived to put on tefillin even one more time.
48 Bereishis 29:35.
R. Michoel Dvorkin came in once when I was working at the machine. Noticing my expression which, in all likelihood, was gloomy, he said: “Serve G-d with joy!” 49 — mirroring the Rebbe Rayatz’ words, “Six days you shall work50 — is a mitzvah.”
Parsha: yisro (3/5): The verse the Rebbe Rayatz reads as a mitzvah, "Six days you shall work" (Shemos 20:9), is part of the Aseres HaDibros in Yisro.
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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Why R. Yosef Ber Learned With the Greatest Scholars of Brisk
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 199-200, no. 3
The Frierdiker Rebbe related that at a rabbinical conference in Petersburg, R. Chaim Brisker told him about his father R. Yosef Ber. A wealthy Brisk contractor, who worked to free Jewish prisoners, challenged the rov for spending his time learning seemingly irrelevant laws with the two greatest scholars of the town, 'Beryl the Hump' and the 'Klutz.' R. Yosef Ber answered that his learning with them is what keeps a chain of study alive down through the town — Gemara in one beis midrash, Mishnayos in another, householders who come daily, weekly, or only on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur — down to the pharmacist's son who fasts and comes to shul; without it, the pharmacist's son would still fast but would not come to shul. When the Frierdiker Rebbe repeated this to his father, the Rebbe Rashab called it an avodah from above to below.
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