Pesach
Holiday · 15 Nissan
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 Pesach at strength 3 or above.
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. 476-478, no. 22
One Erev Pesach, as R. Yisroel Duchman was about to approach the Rebbe for matzah for Chaim Grade, his youngest son Boruch — by then a young man — asked him to get matzah for him too. The Rebbe asked whether Boruch was still in Miami, and on hearing that he was, happily gave R. Yisroel a piece of matzah for him, telling him to tell his son it was shmurah matzah, shmurah with all its meanings, and that it would protect him. In 5736 (1976) R. Yisroel asked for matzah for his son Sholom, who had become one of the Rebbe's special shluchim to Eretz Yisroel, and the Rebbe told him lovingly, "He's my shliach. I sent him matza myself, and I don't need an intermediary." The next year, 5737 (1977), R. Yisroel did not ask — and the Rebbe asked him why not, saying he heard Sholom was doing great things, joked at his bewildered look, "What happened? Sholom ran away?", added that Sholom should want to be at the Rebbe but in actuality should be there, and gave him a matzah for his son.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
222 wordsR. Yisroel Duchman
story_000656
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 409-410, no. 41
The narrator's zeide told this story to illustrate both Reb Aizel's qualities and the innocent sincerity of earlier generations. In Homil the Pesach flour ran out entirely, and the only flour to be had came from mills whose wheat had not been washed; Reb Aizel, the rov of Homil, permitted its use. A balabusta came to him and said, 'Rebbe, they told me that you said it was all right to bake matzah for Pesach from chometzdike flour!' — and he answered that chometz on Pesach is forbidden to eat, but one may bake matzah from simple flour. This went on the entire day, and one can imagine how he suffered.
3 min to tellvery good to tell
351 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000540
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 471-472, no. 8
On Erev Pesach afternoon the Rebbe personally distributed a piece of matzah to each member of the community, and R. Yisroel would take a piece not only for himself but also for the Yiddish writer Chaim Grade, traveling the several hours to Grade's home so he would have the Rebbe's matzah for the Seder. Grade would send back greetings to the Rebbe together with a poem or short story as a gift, which R. Yisroel would deliver on the second night of Pesach, and the Rebbe would press him for details of the interaction. One year R. Yisroel was unsure whether to collect matzah and decided not to; regretting it, he came on the second night and explained that he should not lose out now that Grade had passed away, and the Rebbe replied that he had wondered the previous day why he had not come. From then on R. Yisroel received matzah every year, and after his passing his son R. Sholom inherited the merit, receiving a whole matzah "far der gantzer colel" — for Colel Chabad.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
249 wordsR. Yisroel Duchman
story_000642
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 491-492, no. 12
R. Eliyahu kept an open house for anyone who needed a place to stay. In 5715 (1955), some years after he arrived in Toronto, his own family still lived in a small dwelling where all five of his children slept in one small room. When a large Moroccan family arrived in Toronto on the eve of Pesach and the shul's rov urged the community to take them in, nobody responded; R. Eliyahu alone took the family of seven into his home for the entire festival and made sure they lacked nothing.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
201 wordsR. Eliyahu Akiva Lipskar
story_000671
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 465-466, no. 77
Because of the strike, installation of the matzeiva was delayed. When R. Yisroel Duchman passed by the Rebbe to receive matza on erev Pesach, the Rebbe asked him why he had not insisted that the matzeiva not be installed on chol hamoed; R. Yisroel later discovered that it had indeed been brought before Pesach with the intent of installing it on chol hamoed, and he intervened to have it rescheduled for after yom tov. At the Rebbe's seder that night the Rebbe repeatedly looked around as if searching for someone and glanced several times at R. Yisroel, and afterwards told him with a smile, "Where were you? I was looking for you! Why didn't you stand where your father would normally stand?"
1 min to tellvery good to tell
162 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000633
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 458-459, no. 65
Select elder chassidim joined the Frierdiker Rebbe for the Yom-Tov meals in his home, with the Rebbe seated to his left; after the Frierdiker Rebbe's histalkus the meals continued and the Rebbe kept attending, still sitting at the side of the table in his revered silence. Over the years chassidim began asking him questions in Chassidus, minhagim and chassidic stories, and much of what was discussed was later published in the two volumes of Hamelech Bimesibo. R. Zalman was an active participant, drawing on his knowledge of chassidic history. At the Acharon Shel Pesach 5727 (1967) day meal, after a question in Tanya that R. Zalman had raised, the Rebbe said, "We have with us a 'master of stories'; tell a story!" and R. Zalman immediately related that the Rebbe Rashab insisted one wear a silk garment on Shabbos, even telling someone without the means to sell his gold and silver for it -- and that those who could not part with their valuables were in the end arrested on account of the gold and silver they owned.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
305 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000621
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 162, no. 42
R. Zavil Zeidenfeld would always recount this story with overwhelming hispa'alus: R. Yaakov Korinitzer told him in Rostov that days before the Rebbe's last Purim, the Rebbe gave him instructions about checking the wheat to be ground for shemurah matzah. The Rebbe concluded, "The term tzav (command) always refers to the present moment — and to future generations."
1 min to tellvery good to tell
122 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000181
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 313, no. 53
One Pesach, after davening had finished and everyone was ready to leave, the narrator's zeide asked them to wait. They went to Reb Aizel's room, where he was sitting on a sofa, and upon seeing them he said, "You have no concept of how one must love a Yid. What is a Yid? Neshamah, emunah, and Torah and mitzvos. How could one not love that?" He repeated the words, and all who had stayed were very glad they had.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
174 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000412
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 95, no. 31
Der Zeide (רמ"י) related that the chometz sold by the Tzemach Tzedek's household included fully baked challah. When Pesach ended he saw Chaim Ber, the Rebbe's attendant, carrying a bowl of soup and the challah into the Rebbe's room. Chaim Ber told him: "You chassidim can think whatever you like, but I know the Rebbe is an elderly Jew who has eaten nothing the whole week, and everything is prepared accordingly."
1 min to tellgood to tell
162 wordsTzemach Tzedek
story_000087
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 202-203, no. 8
A rov who had been an outstanding student in Lubavitch related that he was not allotted shemurah matzah for all of Pesach, though such students expected it. He went to the Rebbe Rayatz, then the menahel po'el, and said simply, "Shemurah." The Rebbe answered, "Shemurah? Shemurah is in the trousers," and the student ran out at once.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
191 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000239
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 110, no. 55
The narrator's zeide transmitted a vort he believes comes from the Tzemach Tzedek: the phrase "Vatis'chak l'yom acharon" ("and she rejoiced for the last day") refers to Acharon shel Pesach. The narrator adds that when his zeide told this over, the listeners were deeply moved, since they did not yet know then everything that is known now.
1 min to telltells with work
89 wordsTzemach Tzedek
story_000111
On the subjects Pesach is about
by subject
Reached through the occasion's own subjects — seder, matzah, haggadah — rather than a tag.
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 327-328, no. 15
The narrator describes his zeide's fixed order of davening: a lengthy Maariv every evening, Hallel at the amud with the same nigun on both nights of Pesach, a minyan at home on Shabbos and Yom Tov but davening in the study hall during the week, and a home minyan with lengthy davening on a yahrzeit. On Shabbos he began earlier than on weekdays because he was careful to daven Musaf no later than 1 p.m. When the narrator's father was going through a difficult time, the zeide said it was because he davens Musaf later than 1 p.m., against the opinion of Rabbi Yehudah.
2 min to tellgood to tell
272 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000432
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 30, no. 3
The zeide described how awesome it was to hear Reb Aizel become impassioned about the Alter Rebbe, whom he called loftier than all men — higher even than Adam HaRishon before the sin. Reb Aizel would say that if Moshe Rabbeinu and the Rebbe came together and the Rebbe said to do one thing while Moshe Rabbeinu said another, he would answer: do as you wish, but I cannot do anything other than what my Rebbe says. The Rebbe wrote to the author regarding this story that it parallels the account in Seder HaDoros of Rabbeinu Tam and Moshe Rabbeinu.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
221 wordsAlter Rebbe
story_000003
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 452-453, no. 55
Following the farbrengen on motzaei Rosh Hashana 5725 (1964), R. Zalman announced in his usual tune the order of the evening -- maariv, then havdala by the Rebbe, then kos shel bracha -- adding that no one should push, by instruction of the new Vaad Hamesader, and that everyone should follow it. The Rebbe then closed his eyes and announced in the same tune his own seder: first we will enter the new year, then we will learn much Torah, nigleh and Chassidus, and as a result fulfill many mitzvos with hidur, and even before all of this Hashem will give a kesiva vachasima tova, a good and sweet year in every respect, with children and grandchildren, money, blessings, success, salvation and comfort, good both materially and spiritually. He concluded, "This is the instruction of the new Vaad Hamesader, and everyone should follow it!" -- and smiles overtook the room.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
186 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000611
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 449-450, no. 50
Though he lived in America for over twenty years, R. Zalman never learned English and continued to live exactly as he had in Lubavitch. He slept from 11 pm until before 3 am and kept a fixed daily study program — Zohar on the parsha, Torah Ohr or Likutei Torah on the parsha, and the daily portion of Tehillim — always completing the full weekly cycle of each, followed by mikvah, more study, and shacharis. In his corner of the original 770 shul he would wait for kaddish, chazoras hashatz and krias haTorah and then daven for hours, on Shabbos until two or three in the afternoon. He devoted much of his day to maamorim and the Rebbe's sichos, attended R. Mentlik's weekly sicha shiur, and in old age enjoyed the bochurim's company, unhesitatingly asking a bochur fifty years his junior to repeat a sicha or learn with him as a chavrusa.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
302 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000606
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 208-209, no. 16
A young man related over mashkeh that he was deeply affected by that Simchas Torah, especially by the story told about R. Hillel, and that he went into yechidus on the seventh of Cheshvan. The Rebbe told him that the main point of teshuvah is resolve for the future, asked about his health, and then gave him a practical regimen: fast Shovavim on Mondays and Thursdays, and in the meantime fast until 1 p.m. on Mondays and Thursdays, rise at 6 a.m. and learn as he was accustomed, and in addition learn three mishnayos of Seder Kodashim daily — but really in depth.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
248 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000247
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 286, no. 5
The narrator's zeide, R. Mordechai Yoel, related that toward the end of his life Reb Aizel said, "The world is falling; we need the Rebbe (the Alter Rebbe) back again in the world." Later he added, "The world is falling seriously; we need an orderly seder — that is, the Baal Shem Tov, the Mezritcher Maggid and the Alter Rebbe."
1 min to tellvery good to tell
131 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000364
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 452-453, no. 53
R. Zalman's announcements in their unique sing-song -- "The seder will now be as follows..." -- became part of life in 770: the regular announcements after davening, the call to wash hands at the start of farbrengens, and the program of kos shel bracha at the close of Yom Tov farbrengens. The Rebbe showed him special affection and would often comment on his announcements. At one farbrengen, when the huge crowd grew noisy and R. Zalman shouted his classic "Sha, shtiller!", someone told him he was causing a disturbance -- and the Rebbe interjected, "R. Zalman's 'sha' doesn't disturb."
1 min to tellvery good to tell
119 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000609
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. 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. 462-463, no. 72
In 5712 (1952), when chassidim were still unfamiliar with the significance of the Rebbe's answer "I will mention it at the Ohel," R. Zalman Duchman met a couple in Toronto who had been married seven years without children and promised to request a bracha for them. Back in New York he approached the Rebbe, who replied that he would mention them at the Ohel of the Frierdiker Rebbe; feeling this was short of a bracha, R. Zalman pressed, "But Rebbe, why can't the Rebbe give them a proper bracha?" and the Rebbe did not respond. The following year he found the couple in Toronto holding a baby girl, and they attributed her birth to the Rebbe's bracha and gave a substantial donation despite their means. Returning to Crown Heights he reported the news to the Rebbe by the elevator, in the same spot as the year before, and the Rebbe turned at his door and said with a smile, "Nu, Reb Zalman, 'I will mention it at the Ohel' is a proper bracha!"
3 min to tellexcellent to tell
386 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000628
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 63-64, no. 3
The narrator's zeide told that at the "Great Purim" in Rogochov, Reb Yossele der chazzan of nearby Korma — a chossid whom the Alter Rebbe had once blessed to become wealthy — was honored by the Mitteler Rebbe with reading the Megillah. In the middle of the reading, at Haman's words "Whom would the king wish to honor more than me?", he spat out, "Feh, kelipah!" Everyone assumed that the Mitteler Rebbe, who detested outward displays of hispaalus, would give the reading to someone else the next morning, but he called Reb Yossele again and told him he did not know that one must first lay Megillah gelt on the table — then laid down a golden rendel, and each of the more than a thousand gvirim present did the same. So the Alter Rebbe's blessing was fulfilled and Reb Yossele became wealthy.
3 min to tellexcellent to tell
372 wordsMitteler Rebbe
story_000045
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 169-170, no. 53
The narrator cites the popular saying that the ministering angel of fire flees before the ministering angel of Torah, and says he saw it himself. When a fire broke out at the home of Yehoshua the shamash opposite the Rebbe's court in Lubavitch, wagon-drivers filled the courtyard to be paid to carry out its contents; the blaze grew huge, Lubavitch had no water system and the wind was strong. The Rebbe Rashab came out, walked through the courtyard, stood opposite the burning house and looked intently at the fire — and only that one house burned, though ordinarily whole streets would go up. The narrator adds that in Homil, when a neighbor's house belonging to a gentile named Krasnitzky burned in the middle of the night, his zeide went out, looked at the fire, and it subsided.
3 min to tellexcellent to tell
367 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000192
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 299-300, no. 31
Although the Tzemach Tzedek had already taken leave of Reb Aizel before going to sleep, he came out again at two or three in the morning to say goodbye. The narrator's zeide watched them exchange the ordinary blessings of older men and then rest each one's head on the other's shoulder — he had no watch, he said, but he could attest they stood that way for between twenty and thirty minutes, and he saw two souls speaking with one another. Reb Aizel then called out that they would likely not see each other again unless Moshiach comes, and the Tzemach Tzedek raised his hands and said, "Go in peace, go in peace."
3 min to tellexcellent to tell
362 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000390
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 476-478, no. 21
R. Yisroel Duchman sought to teach his children hiskashrus, and some of his most important interactions with the Rebbe concerned them. When his second son Yossi was a young child he swallowed an open safety pin that lodged in his esophagus beyond the reach of instruments; doctors planned surgery, warning of possible negative consequences while saying that leaving the pin could be life-threatening, and R. Yisroel said he would consent to nothing before consulting the Rebbe. The Rebbe objected to the surgery and asked that the scheduled surgeon speak with him; the surgeon refused, so the Rebbe spoke by phone with the head of the emergency room and gave precise instructions for removing the pin by lowering a strong magnet down the boy's throat, which worked without difficulty. Afterward the original surgeon insisted on telling the Duchmans that had his own father, himself a doctor, claimed to remove such a pin without surgery he would not have believed him — it was possible only because of their holy Rebbe; and years later, when the grown Yossi asked his father to request a blessing, the Rebbe gave a generous bracha and added, "You can tell Yossi, I think about him more than he thinks about me."
3 min to tellexcellent to tell
361 wordsR. Yisroel Duchman
story_000655
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 261-262, no. 100
The Rebbe had asked that a large crowd be at the station when he boarded the train to Kostrama for three years of exile, but word was hard to spread and most who came arrived early. On Sunday at dusk, the third of Tammuz, the chassidim formed two lines as the Rebbe approached the train, and R. Binyamin Althoiz said at the door that after his imprisonment in Petersburg the Alter Rebbe had begun leading with a high hand (yad ramah). The Rebbe replied that the Shavuos maamarim discuss three "hands" — yad hagdolah, yad hachazakah and yad ramah — and that ramah signifies Kesser and has the letters of koress: all the enemies should be cut off. By the time the narrator reached the station the Rebbe was already standing at the window of the yellow second-class car.
3 min to tellexcellent to tell
346 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000331
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, p. 33, no. 7
On Yud-Tes Kislev in the Lubavitcher shul in Homil, Reb Aizel demanded excitedly to know why everyone had gathered, omitted tachnun and was drinking mashkeh. He answered that the joy cannot be for the Rebbe's sake — to the Rebbe it was all the same whether he sat in the Taini Soviet prison or lay at home in bed — but rather "LaHashem hayeshuah": without the liberation we would not have known there is a G-d in the world. "Now go dance!" Der zeide added that in his youth he said Chassidus on this idea, and that he could say Chassidus on any subject and would single out each Yom-Tov or chassidic festival as higher than all the rest.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
264 wordsAlter Rebbe
story_000007
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 85-86, no. 16
Introducing a story he had written, the Rebbe said at a farbrengen in New York that whoever repeats a statement in the name of its author brings redemption to the world, and that everyone is obligated in this. The Tzemach Tzedek had said, "I'm like someone who sews hats. Later on, when someone buys the hat, it's a sign that I had sewn it for him." The narrator also heard in Lubavitch from R. Groinem the mashpia that the Tzemach Tzedek said, "I have no one specifically in mind when I discuss a spiritual predicament. But if someone thinks I am talking about him — then indeed I mean him."
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
262 wordsTzemach Tzedek
story_000072
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 478-479, no. 24
After a weekday farbrengen of the Rebbe, bochurim gathered with R. Yoel Kahan, the Rebbe's chozer, whose office was then in R. Yisroel's basement, to review the farbrengen, and afterward began an informal farbrengen of their own. R. Yisroel brought down mashkeh along with frankfurters and cold cuts from his butcher store, and the hungry bochurim ate heartily while R. Yoel explained how the Rebbe was giving them a foretaste of Toraso shel Moshiach. R. Yisroel looked at them and remarked, "M'est frankfurters un m'redt zich veggen Moshiach" — "You're eating frankfurters and you're speaking about Moshiach." The story explains the double meaning: a critique from a generation that held spirituality and material desire could not be mixed, and at the same time an awareness that a new light was dawning in which the material and the spiritual would no longer contradict, their fusion complete with Moshiach's coming.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
252 wordsR. Yisroel Duchman
story_000658
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 266, no. 106
When the Rebbe reported to the G.P.U. on a Tuesday, he was told to appear again eight days later, on Wednesday — the law requiring a weekly appearance. He insisted on coming on Tuesday instead, and they laughed at anyone wanting to come to them a day early. When he came that Tuesday, Yud-Beis Tammuz — although it was a local festival — he was told that a telegram signed by Dzerzhinsky had arrived and that he was free; mistakes happen, even major ones, they said, asking his forgiveness, and the directive had come from Moscow.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
239 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000337
More loosely connected
direct
Tagged to Pesach, but at a weaker strength.
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 209-210, no. 18
The narrator recalls that it was, he thinks, on Yud-Tes Kislev 5685 (1924) that the Rebbe described a Jew from Tsaritsin living in a city where people do not go to sleep early, who nevertheless rises every day at 2 a.m., takes up the Siddur, and contemplates what his zeide stood for, what his father stood for, and what he himself stands for. When the narrator repeated this at a farbrengen in Homil on Pesach 5685, R. Shlomo Tomarkin of Karyokovka told him, "Don't you understand? By 'Tsaritsin' he meant the royal family."
2 min to tellvery good to tell
226 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000249
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 468-469, no. 3
The Rubashkin family of Nevel were known for exceptional hachnosas orchim; Shalom Rubashkin would buy a whole cow before Pesach and distribute the meat to yeshivah students, and his son R. Getzel and his wife Rosa continued that tradition. R. Getzel, deeply bonded to the Rebbe, stood through entire farbrengens even at an advanced age; when the sofer who wrote his new megillah remarked that it was nicer than the Rebbe's, R. Getzel brought it to the Rebbe as a gift, and the Rebbe insisted on paying a token eighteen dollars and used that megillah every year afterward. Separately, R. Yisroel, whose parents had moved to New York, joined a group of Lubavitcher shochtim in Ireland preparing meat for sale in Europe and Eretz Yisroel, and his first child, Sholom, was born there.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
169 wordsR. Yisroel Duchman
story_000637
Short enough to tell in passing
thematic
Related by subject and under 3 minutes to tell.
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 306-307, no. 41
An agunah came to the Tzemach Tzedek in Lubavitch to ask about her missing husband, and the Rebbe sent her to Reb Aizel in Homil, who said he had no way of knowing where her husband was. She stayed in Homil for weeks, coming daily and weeping while Reb Aizel sent her away, until one day she refused to budge. Reb Aizel began shoving his meshares Mottel Gabeitzik, who in turn shoved the woman through all the rooms and out into the street — the Kiev-Petersburg highway that ran past the house — at the exact moment a wagon carrying her husband was passing. She screamed, the wagon halted, and a settlement was concluded.
3 min to tellexcellent to tell
391 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000400
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 224, no. 40
On Purim a young man submitted a pidyon nefesh through the gabbai R. Elchanan for a relative in Homil who suffered from heart disease, and at the Purim seudah that stretched into a farbrengen he asked the Rebbe aloud for a bracha for Zalman. The Rebbe spoke into his ear that he had already read the pidyon carefully, and that if the sick man would take upon himself the support of a cheder, the Rebbe would take his illness upon himself, striking his own heart and saying that a person can live with a heart defect. He added that ordinarily in yechidus he sits with a cigarette and says nothing even while his insides churn — but this time he was telling him.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
318 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000271
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 225, no. 41
At a farbrengen in his mother's house the Rebbe told of a chossid who dreamt that his previous Rebbe said one of his children would pass away that year. His Rebbe told him "Tracht gut vet zein gut," but he remained badly shaken; on Simchas Torah he stood aside weeping until the thought struck him that it was nonetheless Simchas Torah, and he joined the dancing. In yechidus after Sukkos the Rebbe asked what he had done on Simchas Torah, and told him that with that he had nullified the decree. The Rebbe did not say the names of the Rebbeim involved.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
314 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000272
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 438-440, no. 38
Rochel, R. Zalman's only daughter, was sent by the school district with five hundred other students to dig trenches on the outskirts of Leningrad, and the grueling work left her feet numb and swollen and her fingers bleeding. Two boys in the group, one Jewish and one gentile, took pity on her and set out to bring her back to Leningrad for care, but found the local train station bombed beyond recognition. The stationmaster told them that although passenger trains no longer ran, freight trains slowed as they passed, and the three managed to jump aboard a moving train while holding the ailing girl, reaching a hospital in Leningrad where she fully recovered. Word later came that the area where they had been working was bombed by Nazi planes, and of the five hundred students only Rochel and the two who carried her survived; R. Zalman attributed the miracle to the bracha she had received from the Frierdiker Rebbe in Tishrei of 5688 (1927), before he left Russia.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
318 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000594
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. 211-212, no. 21
The Rebbe told how the Alter Rebbe, when it was time to enroll the Mitteler Rebbe in cheder, summoned the melamed and proposed in his customary nigun to trade one mitzvah for another: the Alter Rebbe's mitzvah of V'shinantam l'vanecha for the melamed's mitzvah of sustaining his young children. He handed his son over to learn alef-beis, explaining that an alef is a dot above, a dot below, and a line between them. The Rebbe then told R. Pinchas ben Eliyahu Chaim Althoiz that enrolling one's child in Torah study accomplishes the same as the Kohen Gadol in the Holy of Holies — drawing G-dliness down into the world.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
292 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000252
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, p. 259, no. 98
On Gimmel Tammuz, when the Rebbe came out of Shpalerka, he entered the study hall, sat on a bench near the aron hakodesh, and said, 'It's a plan and we must know this — it's a libel from there.' He then said that he had seen Hashgacha Pratis at the door of Shpalerka and had thought at that moment: 'Do I take upon myself to continue writing about children's education and Torah schools? If so, it will be good; otherwise, there will be repercussions' — alluding to the verse in Bereishis. He added that a secretary had asked whether he needed to communicate anything to his home, and since she was the one who offered, he decided to refuse.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
268 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000329
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 486-488, no. 8
Some time later the rov's two-year-old daughter was badly burned by scalding water, and though the Rebbe gave a bracha for a complete recovery, her father was disappointed not to be told to make a kiddush as R. Eliyahu had been. Days afterward Rabbi Hadakov conveyed in the Rebbe's name that he should arrange a kiddush in the girl's merit, which he did for that Shabbos. On Motzaei Shabbos her condition collapsed and the doctors gave her hours to live; the Rebbe told them to go to the hospital and make a shturem about the incorrect medicine, and since the rov was reserved by nature, R. Eliyahu went in his place. The doctors discovered that medicine prescribed to be sprinkled on her burns was instead being given to her to drink; once administered correctly, she recovered completely.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
271 wordsR. Eliyahu Akiva Lipskar
story_000667
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 113-114, no. 60
A chossid who was in Lubavitch and needed to travel to Petersburg was told by the Tzemach Tzedek at the end of his yechidus to deliver a letter to "the soldier" in Petersburg. On the way he glanced at the letter, saw it was a blank sheet, and concluded there was nothing for him to do. As he entered Petersburg near Troitsky Bridge, a soldier approached his wagon and asked whether he had a letter for him from the Rebbe; too astonished to think, he handed it over, and the soldier vanished from sight.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
230 wordsTzemach Tzedek
story_000116
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 238-239, no. 63
R. Aharon Leib Lein, a grandson of R. Chaim Dovid the shochet of Nevel, related that he came from Poltava to spend Purim in Leningrad and entered yechidus after Purim. The Rebbe asked him whether he had heard what was spoken there; he answered that he wanted a bracha. The Rebbe replied that a blessing from a Jew is noteworthy, from a Torah scholar certainly so, and from the son of holy pure tzaddikim all the more — but that a bracha is like rain: when one plows and sows and Hashem sends rain, good kernels grow, whereas on an untilled field nothing comes of it.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
233 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000294
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 88, no. 20
A senior chossid in Lubavitch related that in the days of the Tzemach Tzedek he suffered from headaches, and the Rebbe instructed him to put cold water on his forehead, which helped well. After the Tzemach Tzedek passed away it stopped working, so he came to the Rebbe Maharash, who told him that if cold no longer helps he should use hot water — and the headaches disappeared. After the Rebbe Maharash passed away he came to the Rebbe Rashab, who instructed him that if neither hot nor cold help, he should apply lukewarm water.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
219 wordsTzemach Tzedek
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Related by subject
thematic
Stories about the subjects this occasion concerns.
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 140-141, no. 12
In the summer of 5674 (1914) the narrator's brother fell ill with tuberculosis of the bone and was taken from Homil to Kiev for surgery, then a second and a third operation, after which he was very weak. The narrator wrote a pidyon and sent it to the Rebbe's summer dacha in Zalsha; an opening formed at the site, the phlegm drained, and the doctor, Kostritzky, said he had never seen such a thing. The narrator brought his brother to Lubavitch for Rosh Hashanah 5675, but with the war having begun on Tisha B'Av and the crowds immense they could not obtain yechidus, and lacking money to stay through Sukkos they had to leave on motzaei Yom Kippur; the Rebbetzin let him wait in the small room outside the yechidus room, and when the Rebbe finally emerged very late and the narrator said "This is my brother," the Rebbe asked, "This is the one whose leg hurt?"
4 min to tellexcellent to tell
534 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000151
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, pp. 91-92, no. 26
Herschel der Schvartzer, the Tzemach Tzedek's attendant, related that on the motzaei Shabbos of the first Selichos the Rebbe sent him to deliver an urgent letter to wealthy men in a particular shul in Vitebsk before Selichos. The Rebbe gave him a glass of mashkeh to drink, wrapped his own gartel around him, and gave him a bottle of mashkeh to finish at the inn along the way. Setting out from Lubavitch on foot in pitch darkness, unaware of where he was or how far he had gone, he passed the inn, drank the bottle, and soon found himself in Vitebsk, where he delivered the letter; asked where he had been for Shabbos, he answered only "Nu, nu" and turned back. He told the story only after the Tzemach Tzedek's passing; Lubavitch to Vitebsk is roughly 66 miles.
3 min to tellexcellent to tell
417 wordsTzemach Tzedek
story_000082
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. 475-476, no. 20
In 5723 (1962), when R. Yisroel Duchman was earning very little, he served as a chazan in a nearby shul for Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, earning around $300, which he set aside to buy the family a washing machine. That year an uncle came from Eretz Yisroel for a bracha to marry off his three older daughters; in yechidus the Rebbe told him that if he grew a beard he would find good shidduchim for them, but the uncle, clean shaven and ten years older than his wife, was certain she would not agree. Knowing that their aunt badly wanted a leather coat the couple could not afford, the Duchmans gave away all the money saved for their much-needed washing machine so the uncle could buy it for her. He began to grow his beard, and within a few months all three daughters found good shidduchim.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
216 wordsR. Yisroel Duchman
story_000654
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 229, no. 46
Rebbetzin Shterna Sarah related that when the Rebbe Rayatz was still quite young and the family was away on vacation, his father the Rebbe Rashab instructed him to contemplate Chassidus until his head spun and he was on the verge of fainting, and then to come to her room and collapse on the sofa there. This went on for some time. When she came to the Rebbe Rashab and protested at his giving the boy such a difficult avodah, he answered, "Nu, what kind of son do you want?"
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
207 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000277
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 101-102, no. 41
R. Groinem the mashpia recounted that an agunah with a mute son of eight or nine came to the Tzemach Tzedek in Lubavitch and persistently pressed him to tell her where her husband was. Once she had the boy tug at the edge of the Rebbe's garment, and the Rebbe told him, "Tell your mother that your father is returning soon" — which the child did. When the Tzemach Tzedek was told what had happened, he answered, "I didn't know that the boy was mute."
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
188 wordsTzemach Tzedek
story_000097
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 343-344, no. 43
The zeide used to recount at length the story of the Baal Shem Tov's sukkah. His students once gathered in the sukkah and, looking it over, noticed many features that raised halachic questions. Sensing their thoughts, the Baal Shem Tov asked for a piece of parchment, leaned on it and fell into deep contemplation; when he drew it out from beneath the tablecloth it was inscribed: 'The sukkah of the Baal Shem Tov is kosher — signed Matat.'
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
186 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000460
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 275, no. 119
The tomim DovBer of Minna related that in 5684 (1924) he accompanied the Rebbe to look at a house on Frantzoska Novereznya, a side street near Shpalerka, from which one could see the Nieva River and the Petropavlovsk Fortress where the Alter Rebbe had been imprisoned. The Rebbe remarked, "Yes, it will be nice. That's where the zeide sat, and that's where his grandchild will sit." The narrator concludes, "And so it was."
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
172 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000350
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 276-277, no. 122
In Kostrama the Rebbe told the chassidim R. Eliyahu Chaim (may G-d avenge his blood) and Michoel Dvorkin: "They say that the Baal Shem Tov and the Mezeritcher Maggid visited the Alter Rebbe in Taini Soviet. It doesn't surprise me now at all… My father never left me."
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
149 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000353
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 486-488, no. 7
Immediately after R. Eliyahu Akiva Lipskar arrived in Toronto from Germany, his small daughter, who had been born in the German D.P. camp, fell sick and worsened until the doctors lost hope. He wrote to the Rebbe asking for a bracha, and the Rebbe instructed him to prepare a communal kiddush in shul that Shabbos. He did so, drawing the astonished protest of the community rov that he was celebrating while his daughter lay critically ill; shortly afterward her health began to improve until she recovered completely.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
145 wordsR. Eliyahu Akiva Lipskar
story_000666
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 35-36, no. 10
R. Chaim Meir was the caretaker of the Alter Rebbe's ohel in Haditch; his son-in-law Zalman Ber Klimavitzky held the post in the narrator's own time, and the narrator often sent him two or three rubles from his grandfather to help him and to buy olive oil to burn near the ohel. R. Chaim Meir told the grandfather that all the directives concerning the ohel were issued by the Mitteler Rebbe. Once, hurrying in with an urgent pidyon nefesh, he apparently forgot to knock before entering and was hurled out; lying in the courtyard he dreamt that Freidka told him he had not knocked, that the birds he saw were neshamos coming there, and that since chassidim have little regard for dreams he would be given a sign. On waking, a bee stung him in the ear, and he was deaf in that ear for the rest of his life.
3 min to tellvery good to tell
332 wordsAlter Rebbe
story_000010
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