Rosh Chodesh Kislev
Chassidic date · 1 Kislev
The Rebbe's recovery and return home (1977)
Assembled live from the corpus. Nothing on this page is stored or written
ahead of time, so it grows as more stories are analyzed.
Stories of The Rebbe
whose day it is
Rosh Chodesh Kislev is their day, so their stories belong on it even where the analysis did not tie them to the date.
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. 268-269, no. 110
On Yud-Beis Tammuz, after being unofficially informed of his freedom, the Rebbe related that on Yud-Beis Tammuz 5654 (1894), his fourteenth birthday, they were on vacation and his father the Rebbe Rashab poured LeChaims. The Rashbatz asked where he had seen such a practice — by his father or his grandfather — and the Rashab answered, "Trust me"; the Rebbe concluded, "And I am grateful to him." Years later, in a yechidus about birthdays, the narrator told the story and the Rebbe Shlita corrected his understanding: the gratitude was directed to the Rashbatz, whose question drew from the Rebbe Rashab the words "Trust me" — and that, said the Rebbe, was the miracle of Yud-Beis Tammuz.
3 min to tellexcellent to tell
362 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000341
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. 488-489, no. 9
In Toronto the Rebbe encouraged R. Eliyahu to devote himself to education, and he took a position in a Talmud Torah. Friends repeatedly pressed him toward lucrative business ventures — some who entered them became millionaires — but the Rebbe answered him: being so qualified in education, is this why you had mesiras nefesh in Russia and endured everything to reach Canada, to become a businessman? He stayed in chinuch al pi taharas hakodesh for life, never arriving late once in thirty-six years, was honored at an Eitz Chaim Talmud Torah dinner attended by five hundred people, founded the first Chabad institution in Toronto with R. Yosef Assulski funding a shul and mikva, and served two decades as a spiritual guide in Gan Yisroel camp.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
325 wordsR. Eliyahu Akiva Lipskar
story_000668
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 430-432, no. 22
R. Zalman first met the Rebbe -- then known as the Frierdiker Rebbe's future son-in-law -- in Tishrei 5683 (1922) in Rostov, and afterward met him often in Leningrad, where the Rebbe would visit the Frierdiker Rebbe alone or with his brother R. Yisroel Aryeh Leib. On the 15th of Sivan 5687 (1927) the N.K.V.D. came to arrest the Frierdiker Rebbe and searched the house for incriminating evidence; the Rebbe, who was not home, went at once with R. Elyeh Chaim Althoiz to hide whatever documents could be used against him, and that evening deposited a trunk of manuscripts with R. Zalman for safekeeping. A later exchange of letters is quoted: the Rebbe recalled entrusting him with the sacred documents, and R. Zalman replied that he had returned the large box of manuscripts on the 12th of Tammuz while the Rebbe sat on the west side of the study hall, and that the Rebbe then told him that in return for his efforts he would give him good news -- that the Rebbe would return from exile in time for Shabbos. Once at a Yud-Beis Tammuz farbrengen in 770, R. Zalman rose and said that if the chassidim knew of the Rebbe's part in the Frierdiker Rebbe's release their celebration would be far greater; the Rebbe turned to him and said "Sha!", and R. Zalman never disclosed anything further.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
302 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000578
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 447-449, no. 47
After four years in a DP camp, R. Zalman Duchman and his family received United States visas and arrived in New York on Wednesday, 4 Elul 5711 (1951), settling in Crown Heights near the Rebbe. Having lost two sons and narrowly escaped the N.K.V.D., he resolved to devote the rest of his life to Torah, davening and acts of kindness. The day after his arrival he went into yechidus; the Rebbe rose from his place and said, "So, if one is persistent enough, one succeeds!" and spent a long time reminiscing with him about their shared years in Leningrad with the Frierdiker Rebbe, remarking that in America they could finally speak openly and freely. When the Rebbe said, "Nu, Reb Zalman, from Leningrad to New York and we are seeing each other, Boruch Hashem!" R. Zalman answered somberly that the "ticket" had been very expensive.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
288 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000603
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. 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. 474-475, no. 18
R. Yisroel Duchman tried to connect everyone he helped to the Rebbe, and so brought a guest of honor from a Shamir fundraising dinner to the Rebbe, after putting on tefillin with him for the first time beforehand. When R. Yisroel proudly reported the first-time tefillin as they passed by, the Rebbe gently remarked that this was not something to be proud of, and then asked the philanthropist with a warm smile whether he would put on tefillin every day if the Rebbe gave him a pair; the man said he would. The Rebbe told R. Yisroel — who asked to be his partner in it — that they would be partners in other projects, and asked him to buy the tefillin at once and bring back a paid receipt. When R. Yisroel returned with the receipt, the Rebbe began handing him bills; R. Yisroel stopped after a few, saying he wanted to be the Rebbe's partner, but the Rebbe insisted he take the full amount for the tefillin, "We will be partners in other things."
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
247 wordsR. Yisroel Duchman
story_000652
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 485-486, no. 6
The Lipskars arrived in Canada in 5712 (1952), and that year the Rebbe sent R. Eliyahu a ticket so he could travel to him for Purim. When he told the Rebbe's secretary Rabbi Hadakov that he lacked the documents to reenter Canada, the Rebbe answered with a smile that his mother had told him how well R. Eliyahu handled the Russian border guards — and now he couldn't sort something out? At the Purim farbrengens of those years the Rebbe would tell him to say l'chaim, and on one occasion sent him back for a second cup, then a third, then indicated the cup should be full and told him to drink yet another, until after four large cups he was rolling under the table. Before he returned home the Rebbe told him in yechidus to repeat in Toronto what he had heard in New York; R. Eliyahu answered that he could repeat what was said before chatzos but had not heard the teachings from chatzos onward, and the Rebbe replied that after chatzos they were much better than before.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
246 wordsR. Eliyahu Akiva Lipskar
story_000665
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. 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
Also falling on Rosh Chodesh Kislev
the date itself
Tied to the date, but about someone other than The Rebbe.
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 473-474, no. 16
R. Yisroel Duchman's intimate attachment to the Rebbe moved him to spontaneously throw a huge Kiddush in 770 on the night following Rosh Chodesh Kislev 5738, when the Rebbe first went home after his heart attack. He was overwhelmingly happy and wanted others to share in his happiness. The same connection showed in his love for 770: whenever he was in town he visited every day, and after a long day of work he would go to 770 before going home.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
93 wordsR. Yisroel Duchman
story_000650
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. 38-39, no. 14
While the narrator's zeide, R' Mordechai Yoel, was a yoshev in the Tzemach Tzedek's study hall, the conscription agents were hunting for the young men, so the Rebbe sent them out of Lubavitch — some to Kalisk, some to Liozna — and the zeide spent Yud-Tes Kislev in Liozna. There they brought large bottles of mashkeh and sacks of liver, and Reb Yossele, an elder who had been alive when the Alter Rebbe was arrested, sat at the head of the table and told the whole account from beginning to end, weeping when he reached the soldiers striking the Alter Rebbe's wife and knocking out two of her teeth. He then described the second Yud-Tes Kislev, the first celebrated in Liozna, when a huge crowd gathered, the weather was warm, tents were set up in the courtyard, and the Alter Rebbe himself went around urging everyone to eat, drink and rejoice, saying his Yom-Tov was especially great because the arrest concerned both spiritual and physical matters and Hashem had helped.
3 min to tellexcellent to tell
396 wordsAlter Rebbe
story_000014
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. 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. 344-345, no. 44
At Reb Hillel Paritcher's farbrengens the custom was to list every participant with a note beside each name — 'giver' for one who contributed toward the mashkeh, 'drinker' for one who did not. Once, after the list was compiled, someone at the end of the table objected that so much money for mashkeh would be better given to tzedakah. Reb Hillel agreed that he was right and that the money should go to tzedakah, then added that now that the mitzvah of tzedakah had been fulfilled, he wanted everyone to contribute for simcha shel mitzvah — and everyone gave even more than before.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
268 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000461
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, p. 322, no. 7
The narrator's zeide recalled that when Reb Hillel Paritcher stayed at an inn in Lubavitch he offered a piece of kugel to a young man from Homil, who said he never eats kugel. Reb Hillel cited the Alter Rebbe that eating kugel on Shabbos sweetens Divine judgment as the shofar does on Rosh Hashanah, and answered the obvious objection by noting that when Rosh Hashanah falls on Shabbos we do eat kugel and do not blow shofar. He conceded it was only a vertel — but the Alter Rebbe's vertel — and concluded that one should eat kugel.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
263 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000424
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. 173-174, no. 59
In Lubavitch it was the custom at the conclusion of Rosh Hashanah, after the Rebbe's second maamar, to sing the nigun of R. Shlomo der Geller of Nevel and break into a lively dance. One year the dancing grew so intense that it spilled out of the large zal into the courtyard. The Rebbe sent his attendant R. Nachman to deliver a message in his name: "Vegilu bir'ada" — Rejoice, in awe — and the crowd was quieted by sheer fright.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
180 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000198
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. 380-381, no. 2
On the fifth night of Chanukah the narrator's zeide would hold a large farbrengen at which they began the study of Shas (the tractates apportioned on Yud-Tes Kislev). The zeide would also repeat, in the name of the older chassidim — the Alter Rebbe's own chassidim — that the Alter Rebbe was released from prison on the third night, but the chassidim arrested with him were released only on the fifth. That, he explained, is why the celebration was fixed on the fifth night.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
165 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000501
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 433-435, no. 26
In Malachovka the Frierdiker Rebbe remained under constant surveillance and concluded he had no choice but to leave Russia entirely, scheduled for Isru Chag of Sukkos 5688 (1927). That Tishrei was highly emotional for chassidim, since for many it would be their last time seeing him, and for Simchas Torah they traveled from all across the Soviet Union to be with him before he left. R. Zalman, who was with the Frierdiker Rebbe for that Tishrei, recalls that the last dance engraved in his memory took place on the last Simchas Torah during the day, when the Rebbe held his holy hands up high and sang Nye Zhuritze Chloptzi.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
142 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000582
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
Short enough to tell in passing
thematic
Related by subject and under 3 minutes to tell.
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 279-280, no. 125
The narrator heard the Rebbe speak twice in Leningrad about the nigun known in Lubavitch as 'The Beinoni' (Sefer HaNigunim #46). Once, apparently on Yud-Tes Kislev 5687, the Rebbe said that he himself was not a singer but his father was, and that when Aharon Charitonov, the shochet of Nikolayev, composed the nigun, had he only pictured himself standing in yechidus before his father — something is missing. On motzaei Yom Kippur 5688, after the nigun was sung, the Rebbe said, "This is a nigun of a beinoni. What is a beinoni? You know. Then why aren't you...?" The narrator later wrote the story to the Rebbe in Brooklyn, concluding that each person can find the meaning within himself, and the Rebbe concurred.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
315 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000356
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 214-215, no. 26
On what the narrator believes was Purim 5686 (1926), after the Alter Rebbe's nigun and the dancing, the Rebbe sat down by the western wall. The narrator approached and told him a teaching he had heard from his zeide in the name of the Tzemach Tzedek: one who repeats a teaching is no more than as though its author stands before him, but with a nigun it is the composer of the nigun himself. The Rebbe answered, "Emes, emes."
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
175 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000257
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 275-276, no. 120
The tomim DovBer Yudevitch wrote from Riga that on Yud-Beis Tammuz 5688 (1928), while the Rebbe was convalescing near Riga, the chassidim at the farbrengen began singing Padeh BeShalom. The Rebbe stopped them, saying, "As long as Russian Jews are suffering, I'm together with them 'in the same barrel.'"
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
126 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000351
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 391-392, no. 17
When the nigun that the Rebbe Rayatz had named "The Beinoni" was sung in Leningrad, he said, "I am not a singer; my father was a singer." The narrator raises a difficulty: the Rebbe's sichah of Lag B'Omer 5709 (1949) contains his own notes from 20 Iyar 5656 (1896), written when he was sixteen, describing in detail the nigun his father davened with and the meaning of each of its three stanzas. The resolution offered is that singing a nigun and understanding a nigun are two different things.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
248 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000516
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 59, no. 42
Reb Groinem the mashpia would imitate the way chassidim heard the Alter Rebbe sing, with a nigun, the words "K'ayal taarog al afikei mayim" followed by "V'ahavta es Hashem Elokecha." Reb Groinem explained that Chassidus hints at the connection between the two pesukim: the first expresses ratzo and the second shov. A footnote notes that other sources cite the second phrase as "V'hayu l'totafos bein einecha," since V'ahavta is itself a ratzo.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
203 wordsAlter Rebbe
story_000042
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 215, no. 27
On Yud-Tes Kislev of what the narrator thinks was 5688, a chazan from Leningrad named Nachbeh came, and the Rebbe's son-in-law the Rashag asked him to sing. The Rebbe told the chazan it would be better for him to take from them than for them to take from him: since he was a musician and said his zeide had been a prominent chossid of the Tzemach Tzedek in Orsha, if he would learn one of their nigunim and sing it on his own it would certainly bring him to something.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
177 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000258
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 242-243, no. 71
The narrator recalls the last dance engraved in his memory, on the last Simchas Torah during the day: the Rebbe held his holy hands up high and sang Nye Zhuritze Chloptzi. In the middle he stopped and said that a gift is given, but had the recipient not pleased the benefactor it would not have been given to him — and he spoke lofty words that the narrator could not understand.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
158 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000302
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 156-157, no. 33
The same young man came to the Rebbe for yechidus one summer day in the large zal in Rostov, and the Rebbe's face was radiant. He asked whether, being accustomed to sing while davening, it would be better to hold himself back. The Rebbe answered, 'No, no — these are the G-dly soul's powers revealing themselves.'
1 min to tellvery good to tell
108 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000172
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 184, no. 76
On Shabbos during the summer in Lubavitch, people would stand near the Rebbe's room and listen through the wooden walls to the nigun with which the Rebbe davened. The narrator says that by G-d's kindness he can still hear that nigun in his ears to this day, and that he believes it is one of the Alter Rebbe's ten nigunim.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
93 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000215
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 452-453, no. 54
At the end of the Simchas Torah farbrengen of 5726 (1965), when it was time to begin hakafos, the Rebbe instructed R. Zalman to announce "Sha, shtiller!" to quiet the crowd. After several attempts the Rebbe asked him to announce three times, "Kol mevaser, mevaser v'omer!" -- from the Hoshanos liturgy -- and as he did, the Rebbe smiled. At another Simchas Torah farbrengen, when the Rebbe asked the children to sing "Hamal'ach Hagoel," R. Zalman led the singing, to the Rebbe's great delight.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
90 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000610
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 214, no. 25
At a farbrengen the Rebbe instructed that the Alter Rebbe's nigun be sung, with the last section repeated no fewer than seven times and no more than ten, and the ninth repetition running directly into the tenth. He added that everyone should have thoughts of teshuvah while singing.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
76 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000256
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 206-207, no. 13
When the chassidim were about to sing the Alter Rebbe's well-known nigun, the Rebbe said, "We will sing Chaim Ber's nigun, and then Shmuel's, and then the Rebbe's." The narrator explains the older names: what is now called Shmuel Gurary's nigun the Rebbe called Chaim Ber's, and what is today called the Rebbe's (the Rebbe Rashab's) he called Shmuel's — the nigun the Rebbe Rashab could sing endlessly, as the narrator recalls from Simchas Torah 5676 (1915), when the chassidim would stop and the Rebbe Rashab would begin it again. It was a true Simchas Torah, an awakening to teshuvah.
2 min to tellgood to tell
275 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000244
Related by subject
thematic
Stories about the subjects this occasion concerns.
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
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As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 109, no. 53
R. Shneur Zalman Schneerson, Rav of Homil, related in the name of his father R. Shalom Ber of Retzitza, who heard it from his own father the Maharil, son of the Tzemach Tzedek: at the gathering known as the "Great Shavuos" there were seventy rabbonim, and the occasion came to be called the "Festival of Matzos" — a play on the fact that a rov is called a Mot"z. The Maharil heard how the Tzemach Tzedek recited the verse in Tehillim "I am a worm and not a man, the scorn of men and despised of the people," and he imitated his father's nigun.
1 min to tellgood to tell
173 wordsTzemach Tzedek
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As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 360-361, no. 5
In Leningrad, R. Leivik stayed as a guest of DovBer Shilums, the son-in-law of Reb Boruch Shalom, the Tzemach Tzedek's eldest son. At the Shabbos Kiddush — the narrator believes it was Parshas Toldos, since he spoke about Yitzchak and Rivkah and how children's conduct deeply affects their parents — he began singing Asader LeSeudasa. When the "shpitz chassidim" raised their eyebrows at the singing of zemiros, he explained that it appears in Eitz Chaim.
1 min to tellgood to tell
172 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 125, no. 11
At the bar mitzvah of the narrator's son DovBer Menachem Mendel on 23 Cheshvan 5696 (1935), R. Elchanan Morozov recited the posuk "Hodieini Hashem kitzi" using the melody with which the Rebbe Maharash had said it. Rav Gluskin, the Rav of Minsk, sat by with tears streaming from his eyes.
1 min to tellgood to tell
131 wordsRebbe Maharash
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As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 330-331, no. 21
The narrator describes his zeide's (רמ"י) Shabbos practice of saying Chassidus twice — between Kabbalas Shabbos and Maariv, and again at Shalosh Seudos. His grandmother would bake small challos, a minyan washed for bread, and fish and compote were served. Bnei Heichalah was sung to its familiar nigun, another nigun preceded the Chassidus, and bentching followed the maamar.
1 min to tellgood to tell
136 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 328, no. 16
The narrator recalls that in the middle of davening his zeide would burst into a nigun. Listening to him, he says, was pure delight.
0 min to telltells with work
36 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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