Nitzavim
Parsha
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Strong thematic connections
thematic
Stories carrying the themes this occasion is about, though not tagged to it directly.
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 204-206, no. 12
At Simchas Torah 5685 (1924) in Leningrad, the Rebbe Rayatz spoke passionately against the chossid who sleeps until nine, has davened and eaten by ten, and then strolls Nevsky Street looking where he should not, imagining that a kapotah and gartel or three rubles given to the Rebbe make him a chossid. He cited R. Hillel Paritcher's remark that he does not care for one who strayed and did teshuvah — who knows what sort of teshuvah it was — and explained the teaching that baalei teshuvah stand where perfect tzaddikim cannot: the baal teshuvah is not the same person, he is someone else. He then turned to a young man from Kherson living in Moscow, told him "It's not you," and instructed him to accept divrei chavrus and give a Kiddush on Shabbos Bereishis, adding that everyone must accept upon himself not to sleep past seven in the morning.
4 min to tellexcellent to tell
518 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000243
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 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. 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. 492-494, no. 14
A member of Anash phoned R. Eliyahu's house asking Mrs. Lipskar to host a family arriving in Toronto with nowhere to stay; things were difficult for her then and she did not answer at once, but when the husband himself called the next day from the road, travelling with his wife and small baby, she gave him her address and prepared her home. After they had rested she asked about their origins, and the guest, whose family name meant nothing to her, said his grandfather was Yisroel Konson of Leningrad and Tashkent — the R. Yisroel Konson who had risked his health to help her and her husband when they hovered between life and death. She was left speechless, and all who heard of the meeting were astounded by the Divine providence; the Lipskars then attended to the family's every need and offered them loans to buy a home in Toronto, so she was finally able to repay a debt that had weighed on her for years.
3 min to tellexcellent to tell
427 wordsR. Eliyahu Akiva Lipskar
story_000673
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 307-308, no. 42
The zeide related that when Reb Aizel passed away, one man who was not among his students wept uncontrollably. Asked why, he explained that in his youth he had set out to commit a transgression, and Reb Aizel, walking behind him after davening in the Lubavitcher shul, shouted twice, 'Where are you going!? Go to shul and recite some Tehillim!' He said Reb Aizel had saved his life, and asked how he could not cry over such a tzaddik. Reb Aizel used to tell him, 'You have mazel,' and the zeide revealed the man's identity only after he passed away.
3 min to tellexcellent to tell
337 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000401
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, 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. 255-256, no. 94
A note written by the Rebbe was found on the high table in his room after his arrest on Wednesday, 15 Sivan 5687 (1927) in Leningrad, and was later printed in Kuntres Yud-Beis Tammuz 5708. R. Pinchas, son of R. Eliyahu Chaim [Althoiz], kept the note hidden in Leningrad and would take it out, together with two letters the Rebbe wrote on Yud-Beis Tammuz, at the farbrengen held in his home every Yud-Beis Tammuz, and they would be read aloud. In the note the Rebbe instructs that in every chassidishe shul the daily portion of Tehillim be said with a minyan after Shacharis, including Shabbos, followed by Kaddish, and that shopkeepers and businessmen come to daven and to the Ein Yaakov class, promising Hashem's help with abundant livelihood. He tells chassidim to say that he instructs them, and other Yidden that out of Ahavas Yisroel and their well-being he begs them, closing with a blessing for a good year in ruchnius and gashmius and the complete Redemption through Moshiach.
4 min to tellvery good to tell
502 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000325
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 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. 429-430, no. 21
R. Zalman's poverty was dreadful -- when Chaya Grunya pointed out that their chairs were so battered it was an embarrassment to have them around, he could only suggest moving them to a room where they would not be seen -- yet he never hesitated to bring guests home, and his tiny apartment had a partition set up to make a sleeping area for them. Every Shabbos after davening he brought home the most unfortunate individuals; when his wife wondered whether there were any normal guests needing a meal, he explained that by the time he finished davening the shul was empty and only these people remained. One day a Yid came needing a place to stay, and R. Zalman gave him his own "private quarters" while the family crowded into the other cordoned area; in the middle of the night loud moaning was heard from behind the curtain and R. Zalman watched over him the whole night. The family later realized the man suffered from epilepsy and that R. Zalman had placed him apart so as to spare embarrassment, and his children took on the same extraordinary kindness -- sharing their food with guests and giving away their own beds while they slept on the floor in a corner.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
280 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000577
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. 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
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
Short enough to tell in passing
thematic
Related by subject and under 3 minutes to tell.
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 37-38, no. 13
The Alter Rebbe once said that true teshuvah is like what the goy in Vitebsk felt. A river divides Vitebsk and, before there was a bridge, people crossed in a small boat. On a very windy day the bystanders warned a man not to set out because it was dangerous; he ignored them, went anyway, and drowned. The Alter Rebbe concluded that the anguish he felt in the moment he saw he was drowning — over not having listened and having gone — is what true teshuvah is.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
266 wordsAlter Rebbe
story_000013
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 158-159, no. 37
R. Moshe Aizel Rabkin, a gvir from Homil, reported hearing the Rebbe speak at a farbrengen — the narrator thinks it was Purim in Menton — about the special qualities of Tomchei Temimim. The Rebbe recounted that a young man had come to Lubavitch seeking acceptance into the yeshivah, was rejected by the administration, and when sent in to the Rebbe was found to be filled with false ideas — yet the Rebbe instructed that he be accepted. Much later, after a levayah in Lubavitch, the Rebbe entered the small zal to recite Yoshev Be'seiser seven times and found that same young man standing there deeply engrossed in davening, oblivious to the commotion.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
262 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000176
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 233, no. 51
On the first night of Yud-Tes Kislev, 5685 or 5686, the Rebbe sat in the zal looking very serious and then related an earlier Yud-Tes Kislev: people had gathered but his father did not come out, and when he went in to ask him to come out and farbreng, his father's expression was frightening. His father told him, "Things must be taken literally — this is Rosh Hashanah, the time for teshuvah." When the son said that people were waiting, his father came out, but only briefly. Having finished the story, the Rebbe returned to his room.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
237 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000282
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 82, no. 9
In his later years the Tzemach Tzedek held yechidus with chassidim standing back-to-back, each audience beginning the moment the one before it ended. Reb Itzele Rover of Homil, a venerable chossid of the Alter Rebbe, came for yechidus and asked the Rebbe to bless him that he not die without doing teshuvah. The narrator's zeide, standing directly behind him, heard the Tzemach Tzedek cry out, "Reb Itzele, what do you want from me? — All your days are in teshuvah."
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
166 wordsTzemach Tzedek
story_000065
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 82-83, no. 10
One of the yoshvim in Lubavitch was seized in the middle of the night by a longing to do teshuvah and ran to the Tzemach Tzedek, even though the fixed schedule in Lubavitch was to retire at ten and rise at four. He called out the words of the Rosh Hashanah Musaf, "He who opens the gate for those who knock in repentance." The Tzemach Tzedek opened the door.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
141 wordsTzemach Tzedek
story_000066
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 106, no. 49
The Tzemach Tzedek once spoke about teshuvah, and when he lifted his holy head and looked at the chassidim, the entire crowd burst into weeping. He then said that teshuvah is a mitzvah like all other mitzvos, and a mitzvah without simcha is nothing.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
83 wordsTzemach Tzedek
story_000105
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, 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.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
261 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000522
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 101, no. 40
Chassidim relate that a question came before the Tzemach Tzedek regarding a woman accused of adultery, and he inclined toward ruling her forbidden to her husband. She traveled to the tzaddik R. Mordechai of Chernobyl, who said he saw no sign of the transgression on her face. The Tzemach Tzedek then wrote that perhaps the abundance of her tears had erased the sin from her face. A parenthetical note records that the Rebbe wrote, on 13 Elul 5709, that he had heard the halachic deliberation in this matter was with the Tzemach Tzedek's brother-in-law, R. Yaakov Yisroel of Cherkass, son of R. Mordechai of Chernobyl.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
246 wordsTzemach Tzedek
story_000096
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 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, pp. 210-211, no. 20
One Yud-Tes Kislev the Rebbe lifted his head, looked up toward the assembled crowd, and spoke of someone who had been in Lubavitch in Tomchei Temimim and about whom it was now questionable whether he put on tefillin at the proper time — saying that even as a steward of a train carriage, at the brakes he would do teshuvah and melt like a candle. A parenthetical note records that the young man was later in Tashkent, critically ill and with a foot amputated, and told the narrator that he had become a different person years earlier when the Rebbe Rashab came to him and said, "Moshe, enough!"
2 min to tellvery good to tell
224 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000251
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 333-334, no. 26
The narrator recalls how his zeide would speak of the greatness of the Rebbe Rashab, saying that he knew how dear the Rebbe Maharash was to the Tzemach Tzedek, and that since the Rebbe Maharash left such a son — a leader of the Jewish people — that son is granted whatever gashmius and ruchnius he needs. The zeide would also give the narrator a pidyon to bring when he traveled to the Rebbe for Rosh Hashanah. The narrator once read one of these pidyonos and saw that it was a request for teshuvah ila'ah, the higher level of return to Hashem.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
194 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000443
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 55-56, no. 36
The Mitteler Rebbe dreamt of a footbridge over a stream that had to be crossed: his teacher the Maggid of Mezritch went first and stumbled, while his father the Alter Rebbe crossed without incident. When the Mitteler Rebbe later asked the Alter Rebbe about the dream, the Alter Rebbe replied, "How can you compare me with the Rebbe? Has the Rebbe made as many baalei teshuvah as I have?"
1 min to tellvery good to tell
163 wordsAlter Rebbe
story_000036
Related by subject
thematic
Stories about the subjects this occasion concerns.
As 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.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
175 wordsR. Eliyahu Akiva Lipskar
story_000674
As 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.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
139 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000483
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 227, no. 44
During his stay in Leningrad the Rebbe Rayatz spoke about teshuvah and used the image of a talking bird. A person who has offended the king and wants forgiveness takes a bird and painstakingly teaches it the words of the request for pardon. The point of the parable: consider how deep his remorse and repentance must already be, that he was able to invest himself in teaching a bird to speak those words.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
124 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000275
As 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.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
120 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000169
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.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
114 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000434
As 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.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
109 wordsR. Eliyahu Akiva Lipskar
story_000675
As 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.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
91 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000171
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, 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.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
72 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000305
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
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!"
0 min to tellvery good to tell
54 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000348
As 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.
2 min to tellgood to tell
213 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000324
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