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As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 263-265, no. 103
The Rashag, the Rebbe's son-in-law, came from Kostrama for Shabbos and after Minchah, near the balcony in the large zal, told a few people in the Rebbe's name what he had undergone and the questions the interrogators had asked. The interrogation room had thin plywood walls, an investigator with a stubby nose and a stutter, and senior officials seated further back. When Lulav and Nachmanson came in, the Rebbe said that history would record the disgrace of who was appointed to interrogate the Lubavitcher Rebbe; when they accused him of espionage he demanded they retract it at once and asked whether they wanted another Beilis Affair; and when they raised his spreading of Torah he said, "I am not a teacher; I salute learning Torah." He refused to answer any questions until his tefillin were returned, and when he put on his hat to say Shehakol over a glass of water and was told he could be made shorter by a head, he answered, "The whole earth is filled with His glory."
4 min to tellexcellent to tell
504 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000334
score 1.49 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.97
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 256-257, no. 95
At a terrifying Purim farbrengen in 5687 (1927), the Rebbe screamed against the Yevsektzia — 'a rabbi's son, a butcher's son, a villager's son' — declaring he was not frightened of them, and unbuttoned his kapota until his tallis katan showed, calling out that he accepted upon himself the four forms of execution and that when they saw his body aflame they should have no compassion. When the chossid R. Meir Simcha shouted that the Rebbe was needed here, the Rebbe kept repeating that one must be ready to give one's life but must not send the children to their schools. Because informers were known to be present, those there called his mother the Rebbetzin to restrain him; he rose when she came but sent her back to her room to say Tehillim with tears where no one would see, saying that would help, and told her he was not acting on his own initiative but had asked his father. She kept standing and speaking until he fainted and barely revived; everyone was in dread, and the arrest came after Shavuos.
3 min to tellexcellent to tell
445 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000326
score 1.43 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.85
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
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score 1.40 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.80
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 216-217, no. 30
The Rebbe (Rayatz) told Chaim Amstislovsky that he became who he was from a tzaddik's glance. Reb Chaim would relate how, as a tall, handsome and wealthy young man walking in Petrograd, R. Yitzchak Yoel Rafaelovitch — the Kremenchug rov's son — told him the Lubavitcher Rebbe (the Rebbe Rashab) was in town, and after great effort he was admitted to yechidus. He was so shaken he did not know whether it was day or night, remembering only the Rebbe Rashab's words, "May you be successful wherever you turn." He noted that only the day before he had stood before Comrade Soldier Minister Bilyovsky and spoken without a trace of fear, yet before the Rebbe he was utterly nullified.
3 min to tellexcellent to tell
349 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000261
score 1.34 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.68
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 176, no. 63
R. Pinchas, son of R. Eliyahu Chaim Althoiz, related what he heard from the Rebbe Rayatz: late one erev Shabbos in Lubavitch his father had the large blue teakettle brought in and placed it himself between two cushions. R. Asher, the shochet of Nikolayev, was there that Shabbos, and after Chassidus his father called him to the table and told him to make Kiddush over liquor, wash, eat a kazayis of challah, and drink all the tea in the kettle. Afterwards his father explained that R. Asher had wanted to fast a hafsakah from Shabbos to Shabbos and had come to Lubavitch to ask; since he had already fasted through Wednesday, the Rebbe told him to complete the fast.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
325 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000202
score 1.31 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.62
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 338-340, no. 37
R. Yitzchak HaCohen Kahaneman of Sosnitza, who transported tobacco from Sosnitza to Riga, passed through Homil on erev Yom Kippur on his way home and was greeted briefly by his son-in-law, the narrator's zeide, Mordechai Yoel. R. Yitzchak finished davening, completed the entire Tehillim with a minyan, and lay down to rest, waking hours later to find his son-in-law still standing and davening — he stood the whole night and day. After the fast ended at Maariv, the zeide told him, "Shver, don't be upset with me, but Reb Aizel said that after an entire day without Torah study one must sit and learn," and went off to study.
4 min to tellvery good to tell
521 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000454
score 1.30 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=1.00
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
score 1.29 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.57
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 211-212, no. 21
The Rebbe told how the Alter Rebbe, when it was time to enroll the Mitteler Rebbe in cheder, summoned the melamed and proposed in his customary nigun to trade one mitzvah for another: the Alter Rebbe's mitzvah of V'shinantam l'vanecha for the melamed's mitzvah of sustaining his young children. He handed his son over to learn alef-beis, explaining that an alef is a dot above, a dot below, and a line between them. The Rebbe then told R. Pinchas ben Eliyahu Chaim Althoiz that enrolling one's child in Torah study accomplishes the same as the Kohen Gadol in the Holy of Holies — drawing G-dliness down into the world.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
292 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000252
score 1.27 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.55
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 219-221, no. 36
At a Yud-Tes Kislev farbrengen in 5685 or 5686, the Rebbe related that his father had received a letter from the Rav of Chevron reporting that missionaries were trying to buy the shul held by tradition to be Avraham Avinu's, and that 25,000 rubles were needed for a counteroffer. Father and son traveled to Moscow, where a meeting of Moscow gvirim went badly until R. Shmuel Gurary offered to give the entire sum on condition that the shul be purchased in the Rebbe's name, sending in the morning a note and a check for 5,000 rubles though he was then deeply in debt. When the Rebbe brought the note and check to his father, his father said: Rasag accomplished the opening of Jewish minds, and Rashag accomplished the opening of Jewish hearts.
4 min to tellvery good to tell
493 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000267
score 1.27 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.95
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
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score 1.25 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.50
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
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score 1.24 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.47
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 40, no. 16
The Alter Rebbe came out to the chassidim and distributed mashkeh, and his brother Fetter Leibele asked what the celebration was for. The Alter Rebbe answered that he had that day fulfilled what he had written in Tanya — that one must humble oneself even before the lowliest of men, to which he had added the word 'mamash' — because when a man who had transgressed the entire Torah came to him, he put his head down and found seven areas in which he was inferior to that man. When Reb Aizel would retell the story he would pound the table and say that only the Rebbe could do such a thing.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
235 wordsAlter Rebbe
story_000016
score 1.23 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.45
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 54-55, no. 34
Reb Groinem, the mashpia in Lubavitch, told how one Simchas Torah the Alter Rebbe was called to recite the pesukim of Atah Horeisah with the title 'Adoneinu Moreinu VeRabbeinu.' Seeing his face glow, they repeated the phrase again later. The next day he was overheard pacing his room, bitterly repeating the words with a nigun and saying that had he had a pit he would have buried himself alive; when asked how this fit with the glow they had all seen, he answered that when afflictions are sent one must accept them with love.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
218 wordsAlter Rebbe
story_000034
score 1.21 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.43
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 297-298, no. 29
Reb Aizel approached the narrator's zeide and Eliezer Shimon and asked whether they feared "the one with many eyes" — the Angel of Death. They answered that they were not thinking of him at all, only of a little mashkeh, and when he pressed them again they said that if they fear anyone it is G-d. Reb Aizel told them this delighted him, because the Alter Rebbe had once asked him and his fellows the identical question and they had given the identical answer.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
212 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000388
score 1.20 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.40
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 304, no. 38
When Reb Hillel Paritcher passed through Homil he would stay with Reb Aizel, and at a festive meal he asked Reb Aizel to say Chassidus. Reb Aizel deflected the request back to him, and Reb Hillel protested that he was neither the gaon nor the tzaddik nor the one who had been by the Alter Rebbe. Reb Aizel answered that being a gaon means nothing since the Torah is the Eibershter's, and that he was no tzaddik — but at the mention of time with the Alter Rebbe he rose to his full height and cried out his thanks to the Ribono Shel Olam for letting him serve the Rebbe for nineteen years.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
204 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000397
score 1.20 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.40
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 101-102, no. 41
R. Groinem the mashpia recounted that an agunah with a mute son of eight or nine came to the Tzemach Tzedek in Lubavitch and persistently pressed him to tell her where her husband was. Once she had the boy tug at the edge of the Rebbe's garment, and the Rebbe told him, "Tell your mother that your father is returning soon" — which the child did. When the Tzemach Tzedek was told what had happened, he answered, "I didn't know that the boy was mute."
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
188 wordsTzemach Tzedek
story_000097
score 1.18 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.35
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
score 1.18 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.35
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 100, no. 39
Der zeide R' Mordechai Yoel related what he heard in Lubavitch: when the Tzemach Tzedek became Rebbe, R. Binyamin Kletzker, the well-known chossid of the Alter Rebbe, came and challenged him — if he had become a rebbe, let him say Chassidus from his zeide, the Alter Rebbe. The Tzemach Tzedek agreed on condition that R. Binyamin not look at his face. R. Binyamin lowered his head, the Tzemach Tzedek said Chassidus, and R. Binyamin declared, "He will grow, he will grow."
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
170 wordsTzemach Tzedek
story_000095
score 1.16 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.32
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 388-389, no. 14
At a Purim farbrengen in Leningrad, which the narrator thinks was 5667, the Rebbe sat at the head of the long table while chassidim stood around it. People standing on a chair behind them and leaning on them to hear better caused the chair to break, and Beryl (Minaer) Yudevitch muttered quietly, "Even better." The Rebbe heard him and afterwards repeated many times, "To be broken is even better."
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
169 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000513
score 1.16 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.32
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 157-158, no. 35
At a farbrengen in the large zal in Lubavitch, R. Yitzchak Masmid lay under the table in order to hear the Rebbe's words better. A rabbi sitting near the Rebbe objected, asking who was crawling around down there. The Rebbe answered, "Let him be — he has to go to a settlement in Kherson province and stammer these words there."
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
162 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000174
score 1.15 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.30
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 314, no. 55
The narrator's zeide relayed what he heard from Reb Aizel in the days of glass kerosene lamps: some people see a bluish-red circle surrounding the glass, while others see a pure flame. Reb Aizel explained that those with weak vision see the circle, while those with pure, lichtike eyes see no circle at all — meaning they perceive no concealment, only G-dliness.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
157 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000414
score 1.15 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.30
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 65-66, no. 6
Reb Aizel related that he once came in to the Mitteler Rebbe during the last years of his nesius and found him lying in bed. The Rebbe complained to him of his great suffering, but said that when he sits down to write Chassidus on the posuk "Your hair is like a flock of goats," he forgets all his pain. With that he jumped out of bed and sat down to write Chassidus.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
147 wordsMitteler Rebbe
story_000048
score 1.14 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.28
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 58, no. 41
In his old age Reb Chaim Avraham, a son of the Alter Rebbe, would travel to hear the Tzemach Tzedek blow the shofar. The Rebbe Maharash asked him why he troubled himself when he could easily assemble a minyan of his own for the tekios. He answered that the posuk says 'ashrei ha'am yodei teruah' — happy are the people who know the teruah, not those who blow it.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
132 wordsAlter Rebbe
story_000041
score 1.12 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.25
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 170-171, no. 55
In 5685 (1925) the tomim R. Yisroel Zuravitzer — R. Yisroel Jacobson, who lived in Homil — was in Leningrad, and the Frierdiker Rebbe sent him to Rostov for Beis Nissan. Coming out of yechidus he reported that the Rebbe had told him to speak at the ohel as one speaks in yechidus — "Rebbe, I am a shliach of my mother, you know her name, and of myself" — and to go to the ohel early, since for him it would be after davening while for the Rebbe it would be before davening, "maybe as a result I will daven better." The narrator testifies that on that Beis Nissan, after Shemoneh Esrei and before chazaras hashatz, the Rebbe signaled him to bring a chair and sat down, so exhausted was he from his davening.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
322 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000194
score 1.11 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.62
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 213, no. 23
On Yud-Tes Kislev 5688 (1927) the Rebbe sent R. Shmuel Michel Treinin to dance with the younger men. Earlier the older men had danced among themselves and the Rebbe joined them. Afterwards he said, "Now let us mix with everyone. What is a dance? When one mixes together with everyone" — and he began to dance.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
111 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000254
score 1.11 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.22
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 385-386, no. 10
Reb Moshe Zhebiner, the mashpia and chozer, recalled that in the first years after the passing of the Rebbe Maharash he handed a tzetel in yechidus to the Rebbe Rashab about a certain matter. The Rebbe answered him, "For this one needs to have a Rebbe. If there were one somewhere, I would travel there myself." The narrator adds: how can such humility not move you?
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
121 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000509
score 1.11 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.22
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 393-394, no. 20
R. Eliyahu Chaim Althoiz related that he once challenged the Rebbe about not lying down to rest during the day, pointing out that his father, the Rebbe Rashab, had done so at the same age. The Rebbe answered, "Ay! — where my father was at my age…!"
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
123 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000519
score 1.11 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.22
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 39, no. 15
The Alter Rebbe heard an infant crying in the Mitteler Rebbe's room and came in to find the Mitteler Rebbe sitting immersed in his learning, not hearing the child. He asked him, "Why don't you learn from me? In the deepest meditation, I can still hear a fly's wings beating against the wall."
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
106 wordsAlter Rebbe
story_000015
score 1.10 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.20
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 137-138, no. 9
On motzaei Yom Kippur 5675 (1914), after an unusually late Neilah, Maariv and Kiddush Levanah, Rebbetzin Shterna Sarah told the Rebbe that her son had not yet broken his fast. When he came in he explained that he had drunk a glass of cold water, remarking that the davening had run so late that Yechiel the chazan, who traveled to raise funds for Tomchei Temimim, could already have covered several villages. The Rebbe answered that he had long ago said that hurrying comes from a soul's lowliness, told him to sit down, and when he would not, said, "You're starting already in the new year?!"
2 min to tellvery good to tell
309 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000148
score 1.10 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.60
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 177, no. 64
In the winter of 5683 (1923) the narrator, in Nevel on business, heard that the Rebbe Rayatz was in Leningrad and traveled there; the Rebbe was staying with the prominent chassidic gvir R. Shmuel Michel Treinin. In the dining room on Rizenska Prospect, R. Shmuel Michel said to R. Meir Simcha of Nevel that "he gave his son everything," and that there are matters in which the son's strength exceeds the father's. The narrator, then a young man leaning on the sturdy tree of his zeide R. Mordechai Yoel, related that he had heard of an incident with the Mitteler Rebbe in which people said the son's strength is greater than the father's, and the Mitteler Rebbe cried out, "But it all comes from the father's strength."
2 min to tellvery good to tell
318 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000203
score 1.10 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.60
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 371, no. 7
Reb Groinem, the mashpia in Lubavitch, related words of the Baal Shem Tov: "I could ascend in a Heavenly whirlwind like Eliyahu the prophet, but I want to carry out the Torah in full — and there it states: For dust you are, and to dust you will return." The Baal Shem Tov thus chose to remain within the natural order and die a natural death rather than depart as Eliyahu did.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
99 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000491
score 1.10 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.20
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 58, no. 40
Reb Aizel was once offered the position of rebbe in Retzitza. He was already about to seat himself in the carriage to travel there when he remembered that the Alter Rebbe had once told him, "Aizik, do my children a favor" — and he declined the appointment.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
96 wordsAlter Rebbe
story_000040
score 1.09 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.18
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 153-154, no. 27
During the First World War R. Zalman Havlin passed through Homil with his brother Lipa of Postov, near Kiev, whom he had gotten released from his regiment for half a year. R. Zalman related that when he asked the Rebbe about his brother's draft notice, the Rebbe told him to think about obtaining a passport; being well versed in such matters, R. Zalman raised other ideas instead. The Rebbe answered, "Listen, Zalman, there's a life at stake. What was said — was said. But when you start reasoning with me this way, I don't know what to say." R. Zalman concluded that after a great deal of hard work he had just about gotten his brother out, and even so he was not completely free.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
305 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000166
score 1.09 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.57
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 399-400, no. 28
R. Shneur Zalman Chasdan, a shochet and the narrator's cousin, related that while he stood in yechidus with the Rebbe Rashab in Lubavitch the door suddenly opened — not the door guests used, but the door of the small room between the dining room and the zal where yechidus was held — and the Rebbe's son walked in. The Rebbe Rashab said to him, "You found a way to come in," and the cousin left at once. The narrator adds that when he told the Rebbe Shlita what he had himself heard from the Rebbe Rayatz in Leningrad — that the Rayatz wanted to go together with everyone on erev Rosh Hashanah to give his father the pidyon — the Rebbe replied, "Even more: at times he even wanted to go with everyone for yechidus."
2 min to tellvery good to tell
301 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000527
score 1.09 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.57
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 32, no. 5
Reb Aizel said at a farbrengen that if the Rebbe ordered them to walk into fire, they would go. He then rejected the assumption that he meant they would be miraculously saved: no — to be burned.
0 min to tellexcellent to tell
64 wordsAlter Rebbe
story_000005
score 1.06 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.12
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 386-387, no. 11
At tekias shofar on the second day of Rosh Hashanah, the narrator recalls seeing in Lubavitch how the Rebbe Rashab, after all the lengthy preparations and weeping during the Haftorah and the pesukim, simply arranged his tallis and said the brachos. He connects this to a conclusion reached at a chassidic farbrengen: after all the kavanos, the mitzvah must be done with kabbalas ol. Visualizing this in the same setting, he adds, brings to mind his zeide's teaching that the crowns descend one from another, i.e. that the Rebbeim are extensions of one another.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
276 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000510
score 1.06 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.53
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 78-79, no. 5
The Alter Rebbe once asked his son, the Mitteler Rebbe, what he was thinking about, and was told "Atik and Arich"; he then asked his grandson, the Tzemach Tzedek, who answered "Sovev and Memalei." When the exchange repeated a few weeks later, the Tzemach Tzedek asked the Alter Rebbe what he himself was thinking about. Pointing to an infant lying in a crib nearby — either R. Baruch Shalom or R. Yehudah Leib — the Alter Rebbe answered that he could explain his own thoughts to the Tzemach Tzedek only as well as the Tzemach Tzedek could explain Sovev and Memalei to the baby. The narrator adds that when the Tzemach Tzedek's children retold this, their father would weep.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
255 wordsTzemach Tzedek
story_000061
score 1.05 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.50
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 300-301, no. 32
The zeide related what the Tzemach Tzedek's children recounted about Reb Aizel's brilliance. The Tzemach Tzedek once asked him a halachic question and Reb Aizel answered immediately; later he asked about a subject Reb Aizel was not currently engaged in, and Reb Aizel delayed his reply, though the Tzemach Tzedek told his children he saw that Reb Aizel could have answered at once. The Tzemach Tzedek described him as either a genius whose grasp spans the world from one end to the other, or a soldier who is given whatever he desires for serving the king selflessly.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
261 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000391
score 1.05 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.50
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 304-305, no. 39
The narrator's zeide told the preceding story to Rav Tzvi Auerbach (Hershel Tsurivetzer), a chossid of the Tzemach Tzedek, adding that although one might think it forbidden to serve a person of flesh and blood, that is nevertheless what Reb Aizel cried out. The narrator then relates that after Rosh Hashanah 5673 (1912), when the Rebbe had said the maamar beginning Shuvah, he returned home from Lubavitch and reviewed the maamar in public. R. Tzvi, a Shas Yid expert in every part of Talmud, heard about it and came to have the maamar repeated for him — which the narrator presents as the bittul of a great chossid.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
231 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000398
score 1.02 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.45
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 313-314, no. 54
R. Yisroel — a son-in-law of Reb Aizel's son R. Yaakov Yosef, and also Reb Aizel's nephew — was seriously ill and paralyzed, and his wife struggled to support their small children through her dry goods store. When it became too much, she came weeping to her zeide, Reb Aizel. He answered her, "What do you want from me? He (the Eibershter) can do whatever He wants with me; I won't give Him any advice."
2 min to tellvery good to tell
237 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000413
score 1.02 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.45
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 92-93, no. 27
R. Shalom DovBer, son of R. Yehudah Leib and grandson of the Tzemach Tzedek, told the narrator's zeide that when the Russian government school was established in Lubavitch the Tzemach Tzedek was compelled to send two of his grandchildren there, Shalom DovBer among them, and for that reason the Rebbe learned Tanya with them. Studying Chapter 50, at the words yesh mispa'el… ve'yesh mispa'el, he explained: "Mispa'el — ve'yesh: one can have an intense arousal of Elokus and still remain a self-centered yesh." He repeated the words several times and was so absorbed in dveikus that he did not finish the chapter that day.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
204 wordsTzemach Tzedek
story_000083
score 1.00 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.40
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 321-322, no. 6
On motzaei Shabbos Reb Hillel Paritcher hurried to leave; the narrator's zeide later observed that he was hastening toward Kherson and the 11th of Menachem Av, within the thirty days before his passing, which a neshamah senses. Before departing Reb Hillel lay down for a nap while people noisily packed suitcases in his room, and when the zeide told them to be quiet Reb Hillel answered that he was the baal habayis of his own body: when he orders it to sleep, it sleeps.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
202 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000423
score 1.00 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.40
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 207-208, no. 15
On Simchas Torah the Rebbe spoke about davening Mincha. A person who must travel to the Petrogradska side to sell twenty sacks of oats and ten sacks of flour has no excuse when the time for Mincha arrives. And the same is true of a yosheiv ohel sitting absorbed in a deep concept when the clock reaches 4:45 — tearing himself away from that learning to daven is, the Rebbe said, self-sacrifice of the highest order.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
178 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000246
score 0.98 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.35
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 53-54, no. 33
Der Zeide described how the chassidim in Liozna wanted to observe how the Alter Rebbe ate. Watching stealthily through a window late one evening, they saw a bowl of buckwheat kasha brought to him, and as he reached in to take a handful he said with a nigun, 'It is necessary to take a kometz' — the handful of the meal-offering in the Beis Hamikdash. The onlookers were seized with fear and fled.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
168 wordsAlter Rebbe
story_000033
score 0.96 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.32
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 89-90, no. 22
A young man from Liepli told the Tzemach Tzedek that heretics had appeared in his city and asked how he should fulfill the directive to know what to answer a heretic. The Tzemach Tzedek told him to have no dealings at all with the flesh-and-blood apikorsim walking around there. For his own inner apikores, however, the antidote is "Da ma" — know "what" — which in Chassidus refers to Chochmah and bittul.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
163 wordsTzemach Tzedek
story_000078
score 0.96 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.32
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 373-374, no. 11
Reb Elchanan Morozov related in the name of the Rashbatz that Reb Michel Opotzker was asked why he did not travel to the Tzemach Tzedek. He replied that he had given the Yechidah of his soul to the Alter Rebbe — so what could he still bring to him?
1 min to tellvery good to tell
163 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000495
score 0.96 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.32
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 427-428, no. 16
In the winter of 5683 (1923), while in Nevel on business, R. Zalman Duchman heard the Rebbe Rayatz was in Leningrad and traveled there, where the Rebbe was staying at the home of the chassidic gvir R. Shmuel Michel Treinin. In the dining room R. Shmuel Michel told R. Meir Simcha of Nevel that the Rebbe Rashab had given his son everything, and that there are even matters in which the son's strength is greater than the father's. R. Zalman, then a young man, offered a story he had heard from his zeide R. Mordechai Yoel: something once occurred by the Mitteler Rebbe for which he was told that the son's strength is greater than the father's, and the Mitteler Rebbe cried out, "But it all comes from the father's strength."
1 min to tellvery good to tell
168 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000572
score 0.96 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.32
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 122, no. 7
The narrator's zeide, R' Mordechai Yoel, related how the sons of the Tzemach Tzedek led the davening at the amud after their mother, Rebbetzin Chaya Mussia, passed away. Reb Yehudah Leib and Reb Chaim Shneur Zalman davened with tremendous hispa'alus, Reb Yehudah Leib beginning from Yishtabach with intense weeping. The Rebbe Maharash would begin from Hodu, word by word in a powerful voice, and by the time he reached Vayevarech Dovid beads of sweat poured from his forehead.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
150 wordsRebbe Maharash
story_000125
score 0.95 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.30
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 381-382, no. 3
The narrator's zeide recounted in the name of Reb Aizel Homiler that the Mitteler Rebbe once asked how Areleh (Strasseler) could know what his father, the Alter Rebbe, had said. The Alter Rebbe, out of overwhelming hispa'alus while saying Chassidus, would roll on the floor in the middle of his words, and Areleh would roll along with him. The Mitteler Rebbe said that he, by contrast, would roll up his peah and roll alongside his father — and that is how he heard what was actually being said.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
158 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000502
score 0.95 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.30
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 421-423, no. 5
Zalman describes how, while the Rebbe Rashab said a maamar, the Rebbe Rayatz would stand opposite him, and in the middle of the maamar the Rebbe would stop and the two would look into each other's eyes. On Shabbos Teshuvah 5673 (1912) the maamar was extraordinary: the Rebbe paused frequently and rapped on the table, and at each pause they looked into each other's eyes. He compares it to what he recorded in the name of his zeide about the Tzemach Tzedek and Reb Aizel of Homil — that he saw how two souls were talking with one another — adding that each pause lasted a while and that his memory retains it as though he saw it yesterday.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
157 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000561
score 0.95 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.30
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