Masei
Parsha
Assembled live from the corpus. Nothing on this page is stored or written
ahead of time, so it grows as more stories are analyzed.
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. 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. 119-120, no. 4
In the summer of 5675 (1915), lodging in Pinsk with R. Yisroel Yitzchak Lubinsky, the narrator heard this from him. The Rebbe Maharash would always say that a matter should be heard as it seems and answered as it seems — in a general manner. When the authorities in Semyanovka, Chernigov province, discovered untaxed alcohol being taken from the factory, a major trial was set for thirteen defendants with R. Yisroel Yitzchak as a witness, and the well-known investigator Stalietov was coming from Petersburg; R. Yisroel Yitzchak went to the Rebbe Maharash in Lubavitch and, because many Yidden faced prison, asked the Rebbe to hear out his prepared answers, ending with one question he did not know how to answer. The Rebbe told him that he is a Yid with a good head who is not sunk in physical desires, while Stalietov is a goy without such a mind and caught up in desires, so it would never occur to him to ask such questions — and so it was: the trial ended favorably.
4 min to tellexcellent to tell
488 wordsRebbe Maharash
story_000122
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, 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, 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, p. 392, no. 18
The narrator's zeide, R. Mordechai Yoel, used to say that the Rebbeim disliked hearing about people's wrongdoings and preferred to speak Chassidus; yet at the Simchas Torah farbrengen of 5685 (1924) the Rebbe spoke at length about viduy devarim, and people became baalei teshuvah. A yungerman from Nevel, whose infant had suffocated in its sleep, chased the Rebbe from Leningrad to Moscow and finally to Rostov, apparently in the winter of 5683 (1923). At that yechidus the Rebbe told him that if people knew how good it is to tell everything — literally everything — once in six months or once a year, it would be truly good.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
315 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000517
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 396-398, no. 25
While the Rebbe was imprisoned in Shpalerka, chassidim received reports from contacts inside the G.P.U., so already on Friday they knew he was to be released, and Shabbos morning davening was delayed in anticipation. On Sunday, the third of Tammuz, the narrator and his brother-in-law R. Yitzchak Minkovitch had stepped out when Pinya (Pinchas ben R. Binyomin Althoiz) came running to tell them the Rebbe was already home; they ran back and found him sitting in the children's room. Asked whether they had learned Chassidus during that time, the brother-in-law answered that they had said Tehillim, and the Rebbe replied that he had written the maamarim of Shavuos until they saw him and took away the pencil; hours later he brought out the maamarim, one inscribed "written in prison, 19 Sivan 5687" (Anochi) and the second (Vaydaber) "20 Sivan 5687," the last word written being Or. Later, at the dacha in Malachovka, the narrator asked for the conclusion of the maamar and the Rebbe answered, "It does not write itself." At the departure the chassidim formed two rows; R. Binyomin Althoiz began to speak and the Rebbe stopped, answering a remark about the Alter Rebbe leading b'yad ramah after Petersburg with the vort said on Shavuos on yad hagedolah, yad hachazakah and yad ramah — ramah being keser, the letters of kares, may it be 'v'chol oyvecha yikoreisun.' At the station the Rebbe stood at the open window of a yellow second-class car; Rebbetzin Shterna Sarah approached and he said to her, "Mama, it says yehi Hashem Elokeinu imanu ka'asher hayah im avoseinu — surely there will also be al ya'azvenu v'al yitesheinu," and to those seeing him off, "An altogether unnecessary journey," adding, "You will presumably say Yevarechecha."
6 min to tellexcellent to tell
725 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000524
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 337-338, no. 36
R. Yosef Lubavitcher, known as Der Fetter Yosele and an uncle of the Tzemach Tzedek, spent Yom Kippur in Chernigov, where R. Nochum Chernigover — a student of Reb Aizel and a chossid of the Mitteler Rebbe — served as rov. Before Kol Nidrei he took his place along a wall and stood there until the following evening. When the customary joyous singing broke out after Neilah, he ran to R. Nochum and protested, "What an unprincipled city you have! After Kol Nidrei they're already singing?!" The narrator's zeide told the story to describe the depth of the chassidim of earlier generations.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
304 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000453
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 111-112, no. 57
The narrator's zeide told how the Tzemach Tzedek, in Petersburg for the government ministry conference, fought intensely against the authorities' plans. Asked where his determination came from, he said it lay in his suitcase; when they opened it they found his burial shrouds. The minister replied, "You are looking to sacrifice your life, but we only give lashings." The zeide also related that when the children objected that their mother would be terrified by the shrouds, the Tzemach Tzedek answered that this was exactly what he wanted — that she should beg the Eibershter for help, since she is truly the daughter of a Torah sage.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
292 wordsTzemach Tzedek
story_000113
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. 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. 195-196, no. 91
R. Yisroel Neveler related in the name of the gvir R. Nosson Gurary that R. Nosson traveled with the Rebbe Rashab to the Alter Rebbe's ohel in Haditch, where both gvirim and melamdim were to enter yechidus. The Rebbe instructed that the melamdim be admitted first and the gvirim afterwards, but R. Nosson reversed the order and told the gvirim to leave their contributions on the table. At the train station the Rebbe asked R. Nosson whether he had money for the tickets; when R. Nosson, who knew the gvirim had left money, was astonished, the Rebbe explained that since the melamdim came in afterwards there was money on hand, and he gave them whatever was in his pocket.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
277 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000230
Short enough to tell in passing
thematic
Related by subject and under 3 minutes to tell.
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 75-76, no. 2
The narrator's grandfather had such retention that he had no need for the chozer's repetition of a maamar. When chassidim returned from Lubavitch reporting that the Rebbe Rashab recited maamarim lasting several hours, he said he could not have absorbed them, and when they later reported that the maamarim were growing shorter, he said that as the Rebbe rises higher the maamarim will be shorter still. At fourteen he set out on foot to Lubavitch with a group of older chassidim; at an inn along the way a distinguished Jew berated him for a child going off to Lubavitch, and he answered that after they ate he would reply. When they finished he said, "Show me where there is a difference between a boy who is bar mitzvah and an eighty-year-old Jew," and the man — a chossid of the Alter Rebbe — embraced and kissed him.
3 min to tellexcellent to tell
347 wordsTzemach Tzedek
story_000058
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. 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. 312, no. 51
Reb Aizel explained, with a nigun, that when the Alter Rebbe would say Chassidus the nefesh ha'bahamis would flee, whereas nowadays one can listen to and study Chassidus while the animal soul remains at full strength and untroubled — it resists only davening at length and traveling to the Rebbe. The narrator adds that his zeide (רמ"י) reported hearing from the baalei batim of Sosnitza, where the zeide was a son-in-law, that whenever they needed to travel to the Tzemach Tzedek the greatest obstacles would arise; yet once they overcame them and set out, on the way back from Lubavitch they saw that the obstacles had been utterly nothing.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
246 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000410
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, 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, p. 262, no. 101
The Rebbe's mother, Rebbetzin Shterna Sarah, and his wife, Rebbetzin Nechama Dinah, wearing white silk scarves, accompanied the Rebbe to the train station. From the coach window the Rebbe told his mother that it is true that "Hashem our G-d will be with us, as He was with our forefathers," and it will surely be, "Let Him not leave us, nor forsake us." Then, turning to those standing there, he said, "Ah, such an unnecessary trip. Nu, you'll probably say Yevarechecha."
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
217 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000332
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 152, no. 25
In Lubavitch they tell of a Jew who asked the Rebbe whether his son should travel to America, and the Rebbe did not approve. The son traveled anyway and drowned. When the father came to Lubavitch for yechidus and asked, "Rebbe, why didn't you tell me? I wouldn't have let him travel," the Rebbe's countenance changed and he answered, "Believe me, I didn't know. But when we give advice, it should be followed."
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
208 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000164
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 201, no. 6
After Shavuos in the summer of 5669 (1909), while the Rebbe Rashab was at a dacha in Babinovitch, the narrator came out of yechidus and was called over in the woods by the Rebbe's son, who asked what his father had spoken about. Told it concerned the trip to Warsaw, the Rebbe's son walked with him and spoke at length about not being overwhelmed by the world and carrying oneself exactly as in Lubavitch. He pointed out that the Chinese who come here walk around just as they do at home, because they know that at home everyone conducts himself that way.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
208 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000237
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 213-214, no. 24
The Rebbe described the difference between two ways of traveling to a Rebbe: one man went to Liadi to visit a relative and, since he was already there, also went in to the Alter Rebbe; the second traveled specifically to the Alter Rebbe. Since the Supernal World mirrors the Lower World, when the two passed on, the one who had come only for the Rebbe was admitted as a true chossid, while the other was left with the anguish of asking why he had not gone solely to the Rebbe.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
180 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000255
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. 424-425, no. 13
Half a year after the deaths in his family, on 2 Nissan 5680 (1920), the Rebbe Rashab passed away in Rostov — a difficult period for R. Zalman Duchman, who had been so connected to him. His love for the Rebbe Rashab drove him to make the long and arduous trip to the Ohel for the yahrtzeit every year. Before Beis Nissan he would board the train to Rostov without knowing what lay ahead, even though Communist spies rode the trains watching for "suspicious persons" and anti-Semitic thugs regularly attacked anyone they recognized as Jewish. His burning desire to be by his Rebbe on that day made him ignore those fears.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
118 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000569
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 143-144, no. 15
In the summer of 5674 the railroad added a cheap fourth class, halving the fare from Homil to Krasnoye. Wanting to be in Lubavitch for Shavuos, the narrator took his tefillin and slipped away to the train, telling his brother to announce that evening that he had left; on his return his zeide, R' Mordechai Yoel, told him he had acted correctly but should have told him, since he would have given him a three-ruble note for the road. From Krasnoye he walked to Lubavitch on foot, and the spiritual pleasure of that Shavuos was extraordinary: the Rebbe himself led the weekday davening during the mourning period for his mother, Rebbetzin Rivkah, and once, saying 'echad' of Shema in deep concentration, he snapped his fingers.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
302 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000154
Related by subject
thematic
Stories about the subjects this occasion concerns.
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. 245-246, no. 78
On Isru Chag Sukkos 5688 (1927), in the train car leaving Leningrad for Riga, he handed over a farewell letter. He said of it: "I didn't write this letter with my heart — it is my heart."
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
86 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000309
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 461-462, no. 71
The Rebbe appointed R. Zalman Duchman as a shadar, and twice a year he traveled across the country collecting funds, spending a month each winter in Chattanooga, TN with an elder chossid and relative, Rabbi Chasdan, the local shochet, and a month between Pesach and Shavuos in Toronto, where his daughter and son-in-law lived. The trips were hard on him — he could not speak English, had few contacts, and did not bring in large sums — and he wanted to stop, but the Rebbe insisted he continue, saying he was sending him to Chattanooga "az men zol zen aza hadras ponim — that they should see his remarkable countenance." The purpose of such trips had always been to sow spirituality and reap material fortune, and with his warmth and genuine care R. Zalman connected with many Yidden, opened their eyes to the concept of a Rebbe, guided them to the Rebbe's door, and carried their requests to the Rebbe himself.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
304 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000627
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 50, no. 27
Reb Nochum, a son of the Mitteler Rebbe, told the narrator's zeide that he accompanied the Alter Rebbe's body from Piena to Haditch, dressed in a fur coat as though alive. The cold was so severe that he and Reb Chaim Avraham, a son of the Alter Rebbe, took turns sitting beside him. At an inn along the way two young gentiles were overheard planning to search the Jews' sleigh — dangerous in wartime, with Napoleon fighting Russia — when an old gentile came in, sat down beside them, and signaled Reb Nochum with his hand to leave; he went out at once and they continued on their way.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
282 wordsAlter Rebbe
story_000027
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 483-484, no. 3
Drafted into the Red Army in the Second World War and wounded at the front, R. Eliyahu Akiva Lipskar was permitted to leave besieged Leningrad for medical treatment and to take one person with him; the lot fell on Rochel, daughter of Schneur Zalman Duchman, who was knowledgeable in medical matters. After great difficulties they reached Tashkent, where they married. Conditions there were desperate — people starving in the streets and sickness raging — and Rochel contracted typhus; R. Eliyahu, caring for her when she was alone without family, caught it as well, and both became critical. A chossid in Tashkent, R. Yisroel Konson, cooked porridge for them and brought it to the hospital, leaving it on the windowsill when he was refused entry because of the contagion, and so sustained them and saved them from certain death.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
288 wordsR. Eliyahu Akiva Lipskar
story_000662
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 270, no. 112
R. Michoel Dvorkin recounted that the Rebbe wanted to say the maamar HaGomel in Kostrama on Wednesday, the 13th of Tammuz, when people came, but a message arrived from Leningrad warning that Messing, head of the G.P.U., had let it be known that he dared not return to Leningrad. Traveling to Kharkov or Moscow was considered, but the Rebbe said, "We are going home." Later, when travel to Staraya Russa or Malachovka was weighed, the Rebbe said, "Leningrad G.P.U. arrested me; Moscow G.P.U. released me. I'll do better with Moscow" — and he traveled to Malachovka.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
276 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000343
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 62-63, no. 2
The narrator's zeide related what Shlomo der Itcher told him about the "Great Shavuos" when the Mitteler Rebbe was in Homil. Shlomo said that although he was neither wealthy nor well known, ten minyanim of people sat at his table — so one could imagine how many thousands filled the town, given the wealthy and prominent residents there. There would not have been enough food, but the Homil river was running with saz fish, and people went down to the river with pails and caught them.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
245 wordsMitteler Rebbe
story_000044
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 76-77, no. 3
On the way to Lubavitch the narrator's grandfather resolved to do three things: see the Rebbe right away, arrange lodging near the Rebbe's courtyard, and spend Shabbos in the company of the Rebbe's sons. They arrived on Friday and he was told the Rebbe could not be seen, as he had already returned from the mikveh, but he ran to the Rebbe's home anyway, and the Tzemach Tzedek came out and said, "No meetings now" — so the first resolution was fulfilled, since he had already seen the Rebbe. He obtained lodging near the courtyard, and because the Rebbe's son R. Shneur Zalman, the Rebbe of Liadi, had a father-in-law in Homil who had sent greetings through him, he was invited for Shabbos — and remained his guest for Shabbos and Yom-Tov for years afterward.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
243 wordsTzemach Tzedek
story_000059
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 347-348, no. 48
In his youth the narrator's zeide traveled from Lubavitch and the Tzemach Tzedek to Homil, where Reb Aizel questioned him in detail about the trip, since his interest in Lubavitch and the Tzemach Tzedek was intense and he wanted every particular. When the subject of Tisha B'Av came up, Reb Aizel asked where he had been; the zeide said Korma, and that they had recited Chassidus. Reb Aizel retorted, "You think you're so special, to recite Chassidus on Tisha B'Av?!"
2 min to tellvery good to tell
217 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000465
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 99-100, no. 38
The Tzemach Tzedek's sons related that when he spoke about why he did not travel to the Holy Land, he would answer with a joke. It is written that the wicked who pass away in the Holy Land are carried out of it by angels; and just as hiring a carriage for a private trip is expensive while the same carriage returning empty after dropping its passengers charges far less — an "abretna," a discount trip — so, he said, he wanted to travel with the "discount travelers."
2 min to tellvery good to tell
206 wordsTzemach Tzedek
story_000094
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 45, no. 24
Until he reached the age of seventy, Reb Aizel traveled every year to the Alter Rebbe's ohel in Haditch and the Mitteler Rebbe's ohel in Nezhin; after seventy he said he had taken leave of them and told them he would not be coming again. The narrator's zeide related that when he asked Reb Aizel about traveling to the Alter Rebbe's ohel, Reb Aizel told him that traveling to a Rebbe one knew is not the same as traveling to a Rebbe one did not know — but even the latter makes one's avodah easier.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
196 wordsAlter Rebbe
story_000024
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 353, no. 54
When the Rebbe Maharash, already Rebbe, once passed through Homil, the narrator's zeide noted three things. The Rebbe drank strong tea, explaining that one cannot sleep while traveling and tea soothes the nerves; he ate preserves, saying "Don't learn from this — for me it is a matter of health"; and he asked to see Reb Aizel's writings, and when told the copies were flawed, answered, "For us, inaccuracies don't conceal anything."
2 min to tellvery good to tell
200 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000471
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