Aseres Yemei Teshuvah
Holiday · 1 Tishrei
Assembled live from the corpus. Nothing on this page is stored or written
ahead of time, so it grows as more stories are analyzed.
Directly connected
direct
Stories the analysis tied to Aseres Yemei Teshuvah at strength 3 or above.
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 134-135, no. 4
While the Rebbe Rashab said a maamar, the Rebbe Rayatz would stand opposite him, and at pauses in the middle the two would look into each other's eyes. On Shabbos Teshuvah 5673 (1912) the maamar was extraordinary: the Rebbe paused frequently and rapped on the table, and at every pause they gazed at one another. The narrator compares it to what he had written in the name of his zeide, the chossid R. Mordechai Yoel, about the Tzemach Tzedek and Reb Aizel of Homil — that he saw 'two souls talking with one another' — and says his memory of it remains as fresh as if he had seen it yesterday.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
292 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000143
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 421-423, no. 5
Zalman describes how, while the Rebbe Rashab said a maamar, the Rebbe Rayatz would stand opposite him, and in the middle of the maamar the Rebbe would stop and the two would look into each other's eyes. On Shabbos Teshuvah 5673 (1912) the maamar was extraordinary: the Rebbe paused frequently and rapped on the table, and at each pause they looked into each other's eyes. He compares it to what he recorded in the name of his zeide about the Tzemach Tzedek and Reb Aizel of Homil — that he saw how two souls were talking with one another — adding that each pause lasted a while and that his memory retains it as though he saw it yesterday.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
157 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000561
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 106, no. 49
The Tzemach Tzedek once spoke about teshuvah, and when he lifted his holy head and looked at the chassidim, the entire crowd burst into weeping. He then said that teshuvah is a mitzvah like all other mitzvos, and a mitzvah without simcha is nothing.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
83 wordsTzemach Tzedek
story_000105
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 227, no. 44
During his stay in Leningrad the Rebbe Rayatz spoke about teshuvah and used the image of a talking bird. A person who has offended the king and wants forgiveness takes a bird and painstakingly teaches it the words of the request for pardon. The point of the parable: consider how deep his remorse and repentance must already be, that he was able to invest himself in teaching a bird to speak those words.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
124 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000275
Strong thematic connections
thematic
Stories carrying the themes this occasion is about, though not tagged to it directly.
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.
4 min to tellexcellent to tell
518 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000243
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 48-49, no. 26
Chaim Meir, the caretaker of the Alter Rebbe's ohel, told the narrator's zeide that two young men once asked to enter the ohel and wept there at length. They explained that they had been tailors working in the villages of the Kursk region who abandoned Yiddishkeit, eating treif and worse; on their way home they stopped at a non-Jew's house near Piena and asked for sausage, whereupon he locked them in and announced he would take their money and kill them, allowing them only time to pray and recite Vidduy. After a full day of weeping he returned their money, explaining that a great tzaddik who had stayed with him and passed away there had instructed him to bring to teshuvah two Jews who would come asking to eat treif.
4 min to tellexcellent to tell
560 wordsAlter Rebbe
story_000026
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 392, no. 18
The narrator's zeide, R. Mordechai Yoel, used to say that the Rebbeim disliked hearing about people's wrongdoings and preferred to speak Chassidus; yet at the Simchas Torah farbrengen of 5685 (1924) the Rebbe spoke at length about viduy devarim, and people became baalei teshuvah. A yungerman from Nevel, whose infant had suffocated in its sleep, chased the Rebbe from Leningrad to Moscow and finally to Rostov, apparently in the winter of 5683 (1923). At that yechidus the Rebbe told him that if people knew how good it is to tell everything — literally everything — once in six months or once a year, it would be truly good.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
315 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000517
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 221-222, no. 37
At the Lag B'Omer farbrengen of 5685, held in the dining hall after the maamar KaShemen HaTov, the Rebbe related that a relative of theirs, a rov in Velliz, was persecuted by two gvirim and a wealthy woman and wrote to the Mitteler Rebbe, who was then in Staraya Russa. The Mitteler Rebbe wrote back to each: to the first, have immediate remorse and G-d will forgive; to the second, take great care lest I go out to you with the sword; to the woman, a woman's wisdom is only in her spindle. The first gvir relented, the second mocked the letter and was beheaded that day by a passing Cossack, and the woman lost everything in a court ruling over unpaid taxes on her spirits factory. When this was later related to the Mitteler Rebbe, he was deeply pained that their punishment had come through him.
4 min to tellvery good to tell
553 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000268
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 158-159, no. 37
R. Moshe Aizel Rabkin, a gvir from Homil, reported hearing the Rebbe speak at a farbrengen — the narrator thinks it was Purim in Menton — about the special qualities of Tomchei Temimim. The Rebbe recounted that a young man had come to Lubavitch seeking acceptance into the yeshivah, was rejected by the administration, and when sent in to the Rebbe was found to be filled with false ideas — yet the Rebbe instructed that he be accepted. Much later, after a levayah in Lubavitch, the Rebbe entered the small zal to recite Yoshev Be'seiser seven times and found that same young man standing there deeply engrossed in davening, oblivious to the commotion.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
262 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000176
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 44-45, no. 23
Someone told the Alter Rebbe that his chassidim were only putting on a show ("tzvu'im," literally colored). He answered, "Good — they'll get what they deserve," citing the Sages that one who is neither lame nor blind but pretends to be will not leave the world without truly becoming so; so they will truly become chassidim. The same complaint was brought to the Tzemach Tzedek, who replied that it is a sign they are fond of this color, and on another occasion that when a person soaks himself in dye all day, some of it inevitably works its way inside as well.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
200 wordsAlter Rebbe
story_000023
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 82, no. 9
In his later years the Tzemach Tzedek held yechidus with chassidim standing back-to-back, each audience beginning the moment the one before it ended. Reb Itzele Rover of Homil, a venerable chossid of the Alter Rebbe, came for yechidus and asked the Rebbe to bless him that he not die without doing teshuvah. The narrator's zeide, standing directly behind him, heard the Tzemach Tzedek cry out, "Reb Itzele, what do you want from me? — All your days are in teshuvah."
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
166 wordsTzemach Tzedek
story_000065
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 82-83, no. 10
One of the yoshvim in Lubavitch was seized in the middle of the night by a longing to do teshuvah and ran to the Tzemach Tzedek, even though the fixed schedule in Lubavitch was to retire at ten and rise at four. He called out the words of the Rosh Hashanah Musaf, "He who opens the gate for those who knock in repentance." The Tzemach Tzedek opened the door.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
141 wordsTzemach Tzedek
story_000066
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 101, no. 40
Chassidim relate that a question came before the Tzemach Tzedek regarding a woman accused of adultery, and he inclined toward ruling her forbidden to her husband. She traveled to the tzaddik R. Mordechai of Chernobyl, who said he saw no sign of the transgression on her face. The Tzemach Tzedek then wrote that perhaps the abundance of her tears had erased the sin from her face. A parenthetical note records that the Rebbe wrote, on 13 Elul 5709, that he had heard the halachic deliberation in this matter was with the Tzemach Tzedek's brother-in-law, R. Yaakov Yisroel of Cherkass, son of R. Mordechai of Chernobyl.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
246 wordsTzemach Tzedek
story_000096
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 210-211, no. 20
One Yud-Tes Kislev the Rebbe lifted his head, looked up toward the assembled crowd, and spoke of someone who had been in Lubavitch in Tomchei Temimim and about whom it was now questionable whether he put on tefillin at the proper time — saying that even as a steward of a train carriage, at the brakes he would do teshuvah and melt like a candle. A parenthetical note records that the young man was later in Tashkent, critically ill and with a foot amputated, and told the narrator that he had become a different person years earlier when the Rebbe Rashab came to him and said, "Moshe, enough!"
2 min to tellvery good to tell
224 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000251
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 333-334, no. 26
The narrator recalls how his zeide would speak of the greatness of the Rebbe Rashab, saying that he knew how dear the Rebbe Maharash was to the Tzemach Tzedek, and that since the Rebbe Maharash left such a son — a leader of the Jewish people — that son is granted whatever gashmius and ruchnius he needs. The zeide would also give the narrator a pidyon to bring when he traveled to the Rebbe for Rosh Hashanah. The narrator once read one of these pidyonos and saw that it was a request for teshuvah ila'ah, the higher level of return to Hashem.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
194 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000443
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 55-56, no. 36
The Mitteler Rebbe dreamt of a footbridge over a stream that had to be crossed: his teacher the Maggid of Mezritch went first and stumbled, while his father the Alter Rebbe crossed without incident. When the Mitteler Rebbe later asked the Alter Rebbe about the dream, the Alter Rebbe replied, "How can you compare me with the Rebbe? Has the Rebbe made as many baalei teshuvah as I have?"
1 min to tellvery good to tell
163 wordsAlter Rebbe
story_000036
More loosely connected
direct
Tagged to Aseres Yemei Teshuvah, but at a weaker strength.
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 304-305, no. 39
The narrator's zeide told the preceding story to Rav Tzvi Auerbach (Hershel Tsurivetzer), a chossid of the Tzemach Tzedek, adding that although one might think it forbidden to serve a person of flesh and blood, that is nevertheless what Reb Aizel cried out. The narrator then relates that after Rosh Hashanah 5673 (1912), when the Rebbe had said the maamar beginning Shuvah, he returned home from Lubavitch and reviewed the maamar in public. R. Tzvi, a Shas Yid expert in every part of Talmud, heard about it and came to have the maamar repeated for him — which the narrator presents as the bittul of a great chossid.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
231 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000398
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 433-435, no. 28
On Shabbos, 8 Tishrei 5689 (1928), Chaya Grunya gave birth to a third son, Yisroel, and R. Zalman Duchman received a letter of bracha from the Frierdiker Rebbe, who was then in Riga. At the end of 5689 (1929) R. Zalman received a letter from his brother Yisroel Noach HaLevi in Eretz Yisroel describing his yechidus with the Rebbe that summer. The Rebbe had asked after their mother and said of the brothers Zalman and Boruch, "I know quite well what is happening with them. Send them my regards; write to them that I do not forget them."
1 min to tellgood to tell
129 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000584
Short enough to tell in passing
thematic
Related by subject and under 3 minutes to tell.
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 307-308, no. 42
The zeide related that when Reb Aizel passed away, one man who was not among his students wept uncontrollably. Asked why, he explained that in his youth he had set out to commit a transgression, and Reb Aizel, walking behind him after davening in the Lubavitcher shul, shouted twice, 'Where are you going!? Go to shul and recite some Tehillim!' He said Reb Aizel had saved his life, and asked how he could not cry over such a tzaddik. Reb Aizel used to tell him, 'You have mazel,' and the zeide revealed the man's identity only after he passed away.
3 min to tellexcellent to tell
337 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000401
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 337-338, no. 36
R. Yosef Lubavitcher, known as Der Fetter Yosele and an uncle of the Tzemach Tzedek, spent Yom Kippur in Chernigov, where R. Nochum Chernigover — a student of Reb Aizel and a chossid of the Mitteler Rebbe — served as rov. Before Kol Nidrei he took his place along a wall and stood there until the following evening. When the customary joyous singing broke out after Neilah, he ran to R. Nochum and protested, "What an unprincipled city you have! After Kol Nidrei they're already singing?!" The narrator's zeide told the story to describe the depth of the chassidim of earlier generations.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
304 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000453
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 376, no. 14
In the village of a chossid of Rebbe Moshe Leib of Sassov a theft occurred and the thief could not be found. The tzaddik instructed the chossid to recite chapter 119 of Tehillim as Shabbos drew to a close. As the gentiles gathered at the inn for whiskey after Havdalah, the chossid reached the posuk 'tikrav rinasi lefanecha' and said it aloud — 'ti krav' meaning 'you have stolen' in Ukrainian — whereupon a gentile who had just walked in cried out that he had not done it, his neighbor so-and-so had.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
298 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000498
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 368-369, no. 4
R. Yitzchak Masmid related that in a small town lived an eminent chossid, R. Itchele. A wealthy man whose daughter had fallen ill gave him money for a pidyon nefesh — and instead the chossid gathered his chassidim for a festive seudah and farbrengen. Challenged by the gvir, he explained that Itchele fasting and weeping is nothing new before G-d, but when Itchele gathers his chassidim and farbrengs, Heaven asks what the occasion is and discovers that the gvir's daughter is ill — which he applied to the verse "And He looked upon their distress when He heard their rejoicing."
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
287 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000488
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 37-38, no. 13
The Alter Rebbe once said that true teshuvah is like what the goy in Vitebsk felt. A river divides Vitebsk and, before there was a bridge, people crossed in a small boat. On a very windy day the bystanders warned a man not to set out because it was dangerous; he ignored them, went anyway, and drowned. The Alter Rebbe concluded that the anguish he felt in the moment he saw he was drowning — over not having listened and having gone — is what true teshuvah is.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
266 wordsAlter Rebbe
story_000013
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 160-161, no. 39
R. Yekusiel Golodetz also related that R. Yitzchak Yoel Rofolovitz, the rov of Kremenchug, was arguing late one Friday afternoon with R. Shmuel Gurary over whether one should drink tea first or daven Mincha first. The Rebbe passed by and they told him what they were debating. The Rebbe answered: if you want to drink tea in a relaxed manner, daven Mincha first; but if you want to daven Mincha in a relaxed way, you can drink the tea first.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
254 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000178
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 312, no. 51
Reb Aizel explained, with a nigun, that when the Alter Rebbe would say Chassidus the nefesh ha'bahamis would flee, whereas nowadays one can listen to and study Chassidus while the animal soul remains at full strength and untroubled — it resists only davening at length and traveling to the Rebbe. The narrator adds that his zeide (רמ"י) reported hearing from the baalei batim of Sosnitza, where the zeide was a son-in-law, that whenever they needed to travel to the Tzemach Tzedek the greatest obstacles would arise; yet once they overcame them and set out, on the way back from Lubavitch they saw that the obstacles had been utterly nothing.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
246 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000410
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 233, no. 51
On the first night of Yud-Tes Kislev, 5685 or 5686, the Rebbe sat in the zal looking very serious and then related an earlier Yud-Tes Kislev: people had gathered but his father did not come out, and when he went in to ask him to come out and farbreng, his father's expression was frightening. His father told him, "Things must be taken literally — this is Rosh Hashanah, the time for teshuvah." When the son said that people were waiting, his father came out, but only briefly. Having finished the story, the Rebbe returned to his room.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
237 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000282
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 54-55, no. 34
Reb Groinem, the mashpia in Lubavitch, told how one Simchas Torah the Alter Rebbe was called to recite the pesukim of Atah Horeisah with the title 'Adoneinu Moreinu VeRabbeinu.' Seeing his face glow, they repeated the phrase again later. The next day he was overheard pacing his room, bitterly repeating the words with a nigun and saying that had he had a pit he would have buried himself alive; when asked how this fit with the glow they had all seen, he answered that when afflictions are sent one must accept them with love.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
218 wordsAlter Rebbe
story_000034
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 262, no. 101
The Rebbe's mother, Rebbetzin Shterna Sarah, and his wife, Rebbetzin Nechama Dinah, wearing white silk scarves, accompanied the Rebbe to the train station. From the coach window the Rebbe told his mother that it is true that "Hashem our G-d will be with us, as He was with our forefathers," and it will surely be, "Let Him not leave us, nor forsake us." Then, turning to those standing there, he said, "Ah, such an unnecessary trip. Nu, you'll probably say Yevarechecha."
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
217 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000332
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 343, no. 42
The zeide told of a young man who came out of yechidus with the Tzemach Tzedek bursting with joy and turning somersaults in the courtyard, because the Rebbe had said Chassidus to him in the meeting. Asked how it happened, the young man related that he had requested, 'Rebbe, say Chassidus for me,' and when the Rebbe asked what he needed Chassidus for, he answered, 'I need something to daven with.' The Rebbe told him to meditate on how Hashem fills all worlds, encompasses all worlds, and how everything is utterly nothing before Him. The young man was Bera, the Patzitzer Rav.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
224 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000459
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 311-312, no. 50
Reb Aizel related that when they were yungeleit they would learn standing on their feet the entire night. In the morning they went out without fur coats — not for lack of them but by choice — took axes to chop through the ice, immersed, and only then davened. He added that this cannot be expected of yungeleit today, but learning and davening are still doable.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
172 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000409
Related by subject
thematic
Stories about the subjects this occasion concerns.
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 256-257, no. 95
At a terrifying Purim farbrengen in 5687 (1927), the Rebbe screamed against the Yevsektzia — 'a rabbi's son, a butcher's son, a villager's son' — declaring he was not frightened of them, and unbuttoned his kapota until his tallis katan showed, calling out that he accepted upon himself the four forms of execution and that when they saw his body aflame they should have no compassion. When the chossid R. Meir Simcha shouted that the Rebbe was needed here, the Rebbe kept repeating that one must be ready to give one's life but must not send the children to their schools. Because informers were known to be present, those there called his mother the Rebbetzin to restrain him; he rose when she came but sent her back to her room to say Tehillim with tears where no one would see, saying that would help, and told her he was not acting on his own initiative but had asked his father. She kept standing and speaking until he fainted and barely revived; everyone was in dread, and the arrest came after Shavuos.
3 min to tellexcellent to tell
445 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000326
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 302-303, no. 35
The zeide related Reb Aizel's own account of how he became a chossid of the Alter Rebbe: whenever the Alter Rebbe heard of a promising young scholar he would send a shliach to draw him close to Chassidus, and such a shliach came to Homil after Sukkos and brought Reb Aizel to Liozna. Returning home for Pesach, Reb Aizel established a minyan davening nusach Chabad, but his father R. Mordechai — who spent much time in Leipzig and kept his distance from chassidim — returned shortly before Pesach and forbade him, on the grounds of honoring one's father, from davening there. At the seder, hearing his son's brilliant expositions on the Haggadah, R. Mordechai understood that Chassidus had not harmed him, permitted him to return to the minyan the next morning, joined the minyan himself for the rest of Pesach, and by Shavuos traveled with Reb Aizel to Liozna.
3 min to tellexcellent to tell
423 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000394
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 79-80, no. 6
The Alter Rebbe asked the Tzemach Tzedek where his dowry money was; told it had been given to a wealthy man in Vitebsk to invest, he asked whether the Tzemach Tzedek would take it back and place it in the chest of contributions for the Rabbi Meir Baal HaNess fund. The Tzemach Tzedek remained silent, and shortly afterward the wealthy man went bankrupt and the money was lost. When the Tzemach Tzedek's wife came in tears to her grandfather, the Alter Rebbe said, "Should my own children not listen to me?" — and told how the Maggid had once sent him and a companion on a mission, where a Jew living fifty verst from the nearest town, hearing them wonder aloud how a Jew could never hear Borchu or Kedushah, had his wagons loaded to move to town before they had even finished davenen, once he learned they were the Rebbe's students.
3 min to tellexcellent to tell
403 wordsTzemach Tzedek
story_000062
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 338-340, no. 37
R. Yitzchak HaCohen Kahaneman of Sosnitza, who transported tobacco from Sosnitza to Riga, passed through Homil on erev Yom Kippur on his way home and was greeted briefly by his son-in-law, the narrator's zeide, Mordechai Yoel. R. Yitzchak finished davening, completed the entire Tehillim with a minyan, and lay down to rest, waking hours later to find his son-in-law still standing and davening — he stood the whole night and day. After the fast ended at Maariv, the zeide told him, "Shver, don't be upset with me, but Reb Aizel said that after an entire day without Torah study one must sit and learn," and went off to study.
4 min to tellvery good to tell
521 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000454
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 255-256, no. 94
A note written by the Rebbe was found on the high table in his room after his arrest on Wednesday, 15 Sivan 5687 (1927) in Leningrad, and was later printed in Kuntres Yud-Beis Tammuz 5708. R. Pinchas, son of R. Eliyahu Chaim [Althoiz], kept the note hidden in Leningrad and would take it out, together with two letters the Rebbe wrote on Yud-Beis Tammuz, at the farbrengen held in his home every Yud-Beis Tammuz, and they would be read aloud. In the note the Rebbe instructs that in every chassidishe shul the daily portion of Tehillim be said with a minyan after Shacharis, including Shabbos, followed by Kaddish, and that shopkeepers and businessmen come to daven and to the Ein Yaakov class, promising Hashem's help with abundant livelihood. He tells chassidim to say that he instructs them, and other Yidden that out of Ahavas Yisroel and their well-being he begs them, closing with a blessing for a good year in ruchnius and gashmius and the complete Redemption through Moshiach.
4 min to tellvery good to tell
502 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000325
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 270-272, no. 113
The Rebbe arrived in Leningrad on Friday, the 15th of Tammuz, and before Kabbalas Shabbos gave the handwritten text of HaGomel to his son-in-law R. Shmaryahu Gurary to be studied beforehand. When asked whether there would be Chassidus on Shabbos, the Rebbe replied that "they are giving me one Shabbos." A Kiddush was held; his davening ran late and was heard through the white door with the nigun of Avinu Malkeinu, and at the table he said several times during the farbrengen, "This is the Seudas Hodaah" — for it was in Leningrad that he said the bracha of HaGomel. This surprised everyone, since the conventional assumption was that he should have said it in Kostrama, especially as the sentence had unfolded "above to below": a death decree commuted to ten years in Solovki and then reduced to three years of exile in Kostrama.
4 min to tellvery good to tell
466 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000344
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 129-130, no. 21
The narrator's uncle, R. Yehudah Leib Chasdan, the shochet from Homil, said he heard directly from the Rebbe Maharash an interpretation of "Everything is in the hands of Heaven except the fear of Heaven": everything is given only if Heaven wishes to give it and withheld if not — except yiras shamayim, which, when one asks for it, is given. A footnote observes that this reverses the plain meaning, which places yiras shamayim in a person's own hands, into a promise that sincere supplication draws it down from Above without restriction.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
153 wordsRebbe Maharash
story_000139
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 58, no. 41
In his old age Reb Chaim Avraham, a son of the Alter Rebbe, would travel to hear the Tzemach Tzedek blow the shofar. The Rebbe Maharash asked him why he troubled himself when he could easily assemble a minyan of his own for the tekios. He answered that the posuk says 'ashrei ha'am yodei teruah' — happy are the people who know the teruah, not those who blow it.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
132 wordsAlter Rebbe
story_000041
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 170-171, no. 55
In 5685 (1925) the tomim R. Yisroel Zuravitzer — R. Yisroel Jacobson, who lived in Homil — was in Leningrad, and the Frierdiker Rebbe sent him to Rostov for Beis Nissan. Coming out of yechidus he reported that the Rebbe had told him to speak at the ohel as one speaks in yechidus — "Rebbe, I am a shliach of my mother, you know her name, and of myself" — and to go to the ohel early, since for him it would be after davening while for the Rebbe it would be before davening, "maybe as a result I will daven better." The narrator testifies that on that Beis Nissan, after Shemoneh Esrei and before chazaras hashatz, the Rebbe signaled him to bring a chair and sat down, so exhausted was he from his davening.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
322 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000194
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 137-138, no. 9
On motzaei Yom Kippur 5675 (1914), after an unusually late Neilah, Maariv and Kiddush Levanah, Rebbetzin Shterna Sarah told the Rebbe that her son had not yet broken his fast. When he came in he explained that he had drunk a glass of cold water, remarking that the davening had run so late that Yechiel the chazan, who traveled to raise funds for Tomchei Temimim, could already have covered several villages. The Rebbe answered that he had long ago said that hurrying comes from a soul's lowliness, told him to sit down, and when he would not, said, "You're starting already in the new year?!"
2 min to tellvery good to tell
309 wordsRebbe Rashab
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As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 163-164, no. 44
R. Yosef Yozik Gurevitch of Warsaw related that when he and his son-in-law R. Feivel Zalmanov came to the Rebbe outside of Russia, the Rebbe instructed them to be mekabel shalom. Invited to the Rebbe on Shabbos evening when no wine was available, the Rebbe said it does not feel right to hold a knife while reciting Kiddush and told them to make Kiddush over liquor, though he himself recited Kiddush over challah. When they returned Shabbos morning the Rebbetzin asked whether they had davened, and said of the Rebbe, "Ah! How he davened! I barely survived!"
2 min to tellvery good to tell
317 wordsRebbe Rashab
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As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 263, no. 102
On the Shabbos when the Rebbe was already in Kostrama, a Kiddush was held for a few people at his home in Leningrad. The children said their mother was making Kiddush because their father was now free — though the Rebbe himself held otherwise, since he had not received Maftir and had not recited HaGomel. Rebbetzin Shterna Sarah, seated on the sofa near the dining room window, recounted that the Rebbe had told her, "Mama, mama, robbers! They wanted to take revenge," and that every day he was in prison he recited Aneinu, and that his interrogators had asked him, "Are you the Lubavitcher Rebbe, the Jewish leader?" Repeating the words "the Jewish leader," she asked why he must be under the regime of such robbers.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
306 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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