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Stories from As I Heard Them (Lesheima Ozen) by Reb Zalman Duchman · © The Duchman Family; please share this sheet as printed
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Ki SisaParsha 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 directStories the analysis tied to Ki Sisa at strength 3 or above. "Quite the Contrary" — The Rich and the Poor of the Half-ShekelAs I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 401-402, no. 30 In Leningrad, the Rebbe Rayatz commented on the posuk "The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less" (Shemos 30:15): it is not at all the case that the rich give more and the poor give less — quite the contrary. The remark is recorded without further elaboration. The Knot of the TefillinAs I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 53, no. 32 Reb Aizel related that the Alter Rebbe once told the Mitteler Rebbe he was lying down and asked him to stand by the door and wake him for Mincha. Standing at the door, the Mitteler Rebbe saw the bed begin to move about, and suddenly the Alter Rebbe came out and told him to run and call Reuven the sofer to bring a leather strap, whereupon the Alter Rebbe showed him how to tie the knot of the head-tefillin. Der Zeide would add that this was the equivalent of 'Hashem showed him the knot of the tefillin.' Strong thematic connections thematicStories carrying the themes this occasion is about, though not tagged to it directly. What Sort of Chossid Sleeps Until NineAs 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. The Tailors the Alter Rebbe Saw ComingAs 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. Purim 5687: "I Accept Upon Myself the Four Executions"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. "I Will Mention It at the Ohel" Is a Proper BrachaAs 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!" The Great Purim in Rogochov and Reb Yossele's Megillah GeltAs 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. The Fire That Stopped at One HouseAs 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. The Swallowed Safety Pin and the MagnetAs 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." "If People Knew How Good It Is to Tell Everything"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. The Mitteler Rebbe's Three Letters to VellizAs 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. For Whom Is the Yud-Tes Kislev Joy?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. The Bochur Full of False IdeasAs 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. Cold Water, Hot Water, LukewarmAs 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. Short enough to tell in passing thematicRelated by subject and under 3 minutes to tell. The Man Who Wept for Reb AizelAs 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. True Teshuvah Is Like the Goy of VitebskAs 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. "This Is Rosh Hashanah — A Time for Teshuvah"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. "All Your Days Are in Teshuvah"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." The Tzemach Tzedek Opens the Door at MidnightAs 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. A Mitzvah Without Joy Is NothingAs 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. One Chapter of Tanya, a Whole WeekAs I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 395-396, no. 23 R. Yochanan the shochet related that when the Rebbe stopped in Vilna on his way from Russia to Warsaw, a tomim named Yaakov Hochman (Dokshitzer) asked him for a "ruchnius'dike yechidus" — a tikkun. The Rebbe said he could not answer; R. Yaakov said the Rebbe's father used to answer, and when the Rebbe replied that he had presumably already asked him, R. Yaakov said these were newer matters. The Rebbe then gave him a tikkun: to learn one chapter of Tanya in depth for a full week, the same chapter, and thereby become clear in Tanya. R. Yaakov did so and became expert in Tanya; an outstanding oveid, he had intended to travel to America but remained in Riga, HY"D. Tears That Washed Away the SinAs 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. Teshuvah Is Resolve for the FutureAs 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. "At the Brakes He Will Do Teshuvah"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!" The Zeide on the Rebbe Rashab's Greatness, and a Pidyon for Teshuvah Ila'ahAs 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. The Footbridge DreamAs 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?" Related by subject thematicStories about the subjects this occasion concerns. Mathematics in YechidusAs I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 492-494, no. 15 An unfamiliar Jew came into the shul where R. Eliyahu was; he said he was a university student who had come to see the shul, and when he said he had no place to stay R. Eliyahu invited him home, where they spoke at length about Yiddishkeit, and he ultimately became a full baal teshuva. He is A. Teitelbaum, who became a professor of mathematics in Montreal. When R. Eliyahu once brought him to the Rebbe for yechidus, the Rebbe discussed mathematics, his field, rather than the Yiddishkeit he had expected; in time he realized how important those words were, since the Rebbe had shown him that mathematics can be used to express the unity of the Creator, and he said sorrowfully that he could not recall every detail of the yechidus. Strengthen Yourself, Become a ManAs I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 363, no. 9 When he left Leningrad the narrator and others accompanied him to the platform for Moscow-bound trains — people were not as fearful then. A young student was there as well, and R. Leivik told him, "Remember: vechazakta vehayisa l'ish — Strengthen yourself, become a man!" The narrator adds that although the young man later went through a spiritual decline, today he is doing well in a distant country. The Talking Bird: A Parable of TeshuvahAs 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. The Erev Yom Kippur Bracha: Nit AndershAs I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 155, no. 30 On erev Yom Kippur the Frierdiker Rebbe would come out from the door through which people entered for yechidus in order to give his bracha. On one occasion the wording of the bracha was that the Eibershter should grant that one be aroused with thoughts of true teshuvah, together with a powerful resolve for Torah and mitzvos, 'nit andersh' — without compromise — followed by a few additional words about gashmius. "Then You Should Certainly Daven at Length"As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 328, no. 17 When the Shabbos prayers were occasionally hurried, the narrator's zeide, the chossid R. Mordechai Yoel, would immediately object. They answered him that they had not learned Chassidus the whole week, so they had nothing to daven with. He replied that if that is the case, they should certainly daven at length — in a manner of teshuvah. The Stranger Who Arrived on Rosh Hashana NightAs I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 494-495, no. 16 One of the baalei teshuva whom R. Eliyahu Akiva Lipskar brought closer to Yiddishkeit said of him, "he is like my father (spiritually)!" On Rosh Hashana night an unfamiliar man got out of a car outside R. Eliyahu's house carrying a satchel and asked whether R. Eliyahu Lipskar lived there. R. Eliyahu did not rebuke him for driving on yom tov or for the disturbance, but invited him in and included him in the yom tov meals, and the man ultimately became an observant Jew. Another baal teshuva connected to R. Eliyahu recounted that watching that Rosh Hashana incident shaped his own relationship with him. One Needn't Fast — One Needs Krias ShemaAs I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 156, no. 32 A young man related that when he was a bochur in Lubavitch he came to the Rebbe for yechidus, handed in his tzetl, and told the Rebbe that he had been fasting. The Rebbe responded that one needn't fast; one needs to recite Krias Shema she'al hamitah before retiring at night. Seven Times, Not More Than TenAs 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. The Baal Taivah Who Calls Himself a Non-BelieverAs I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 244, no. 74 In a maamar in Leningrad, the Rebbe described a person who is a baal taivah and wants to satisfy all of his desires, but is uncomfortable with himself for it. To resolve that discomfort, he declares that he is a non-believer. Chaim Ber's Nigun, Shmuel's, and the Rebbe'sAs 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. "Such a Place for Teshuvah"As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 274, no. 117 The Rebbe related that when he came into the prison room he saw only heads there. "Ay!" he said — "such a place for teshuvah!" Tehillim Around the BimahAs I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 254-255, no. 93 On Simchas Torah 5687 (1926), at the home of his mother Rebbetzin Shterna Sarah, the Rebbe Rayatz asked that Tehillim be recited daily according to the division for the days of the month. When R. Eliyahu Chaim Althoiz said that he recites Tehillim before davening, the Rebbe answered that the Tehillim before davening are a matter of teshuvah while those after davening are a matter of Torah — a joining of tefillah with Torah — and that they should therefore be said around the table where the Torah is read. Later, in the letters from Riga and Poland, the Rebbe instructed that they be recited immediately after Aleinu, around the amud. |