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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
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score 1.46 ·
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=0.93
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 462-463, no. 72
In 5712 (1952), when chassidim were still unfamiliar with the significance of the Rebbe's answer "I will mention it at the Ohel," R. Zalman Duchman met a couple in Toronto who had been married seven years without children and promised to request a bracha for them. Back in New York he approached the Rebbe, who replied that he would mention them at the Ohel of the Frierdiker Rebbe; feeling this was short of a bracha, R. Zalman pressed, "But Rebbe, why can't the Rebbe give them a proper bracha?" and the Rebbe did not respond. The following year he found the couple in Toronto holding a baby girl, and they attributed her birth to the Rebbe's bracha and gave a substantial donation despite their means. Returning to Crown Heights he reported the news to the Rebbe by the elevator, in the same spot as the year before, and the Rebbe turned at his door and said with a smile, "Nu, Reb Zalman, 'I will mention it at the Ohel' is a proper bracha!"
3 min to tellexcellent to tell
386 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
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score 1.38 ·
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=0.75
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 476-478, no. 21
R. Yisroel Duchman sought to teach his children hiskashrus, and some of his most important interactions with the Rebbe concerned them. When his second son Yossi was a young child he swallowed an open safety pin that lodged in his esophagus beyond the reach of instruments; doctors planned surgery, warning of possible negative consequences while saying that leaving the pin could be life-threatening, and R. Yisroel said he would consent to nothing before consulting the Rebbe. The Rebbe objected to the surgery and asked that the scheduled surgeon speak with him; the surgeon refused, so the Rebbe spoke by phone with the head of the emergency room and gave precise instructions for removing the pin by lowering a strong magnet down the boy's throat, which worked without difficulty. Afterward the original surgeon insisted on telling the Duchmans that had his own father, himself a doctor, claimed to remove such a pin without surgery he would not have believed him — it was possible only because of their holy Rebbe; and years later, when the grown Yossi asked his father to request a blessing, the Rebbe gave a generous bracha and added, "You can tell Yossi, I think about him more than he thinks about me."
3 min to tellexcellent to tell
361 wordsR. Yisroel Duchman
story_000655
score 1.35 ·
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=0.70
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 224, no. 40
On Purim a young man submitted a pidyon nefesh through the gabbai R. Elchanan for a relative in Homil who suffered from heart disease, and at the Purim seudah that stretched into a farbrengen he asked the Rebbe aloud for a bracha for Zalman. The Rebbe spoke into his ear that he had already read the pidyon carefully, and that if the sick man would take upon himself the support of a cheder, the Rebbe would take his illness upon himself, striking his own heart and saying that a person can live with a heart defect. He added that ordinarily in yechidus he sits with a cigarette and says nothing even while his insides churn — but this time he was telling him.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
318 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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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=1.00 length_suitability=0.60
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
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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=1.00 length_suitability=0.60
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
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=1.00 length_suitability=0.60
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
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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. 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
score 1.26 ·
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=0.93
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
score 1.26 ·
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As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 183, no. 74
One erev Yom Kippur in Lubavitch, after Mincha, the narrator saw the venerable chossid R. Pesach Kuper of Taganrog emerge from the Rebbe's room in tallis and kittel, having been crying. R. Pesach had gone in to receive the Rebbe's erev Yom Kippur blessing and asked that the Rebbe place his hands on his head, as the Rebbe's grandfather and father had each done when blessing him. The Rebbe laid his hands on his head and burst into tears, and, as R. Pesach put it, both of them wept.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
214 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000213
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
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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. 172, no. 57
When the mashpia R. Michoel Bliner of Nevel grew old and weak, Lazer Kaplan, the yeshivah office manager, proposed to the Rebbe Rashab that R. Michoel's five-ruble weekly salary be discontinued. The Rebbe replied that it was worth the money to him if the students of Tomchei Temimim merely looked at him — the very image of an "alten chossid." People explained the Rebbe's phrase to mean a chossid of the Alter Rebbe.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
181 wordsRebbe Rashab
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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. 453, no. 56
After the passing of Rebbetzin Chana, the Rebbe began saying sichos at farbrengens on a Rashi of the parsha, notifying R. Zalman of the chosen Rashi so he could announce it before davening and give people time to review it. A young bochur played a trick on him, telling him on an ordinary Shabbos with no farbrengen planned that there would be one and naming a Rashi; R. Zalman trusted him and made the announcement, the Rebbe looked at him in wonderment, and no farbrengen took place. R. Zalman wrote a long letter of apology, and the Rebbe assured him it was not his fault and was meant to be b'hashgacha pratis — and at the next Shabbos farbrengen the Rebbe discussed the incident and even offered an explanation on the Rashi that R. Zalman had announced.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
181 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000612
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. 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
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, pp. 275-276, no. 120
The tomim DovBer Yudevitch wrote from Riga that on Yud-Beis Tammuz 5688 (1928), while the Rebbe was convalescing near Riga, the chassidim at the farbrengen began singing Padeh BeShalom. The Rebbe stopped them, saying, "As long as Russian Jews are suffering, I'm together with them 'in the same barrel.'"
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
126 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000351
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. 81-82, no. 8
At a farbrengen that was hot and badly crowded, a rav who wanted to get up from the table could not manage to, and said, "They won't let me out." Overhearing him, the Tzemach Tzedek said twice, "Who would dare not let a Yid out? Who would dare not let a Yid out?"
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
111 wordsTzemach Tzedek
story_000064
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. 349-352, no. 52
As a young man who came to Lubavitch in 5610 (1850) in the days of the Tzemach Tzedek, the narrator's zeide decided that a Rebbe is similar to Hashem and that he wanted to enter without any intermediary. Reb Chaim Ber, the Rebbe's meshares, called him mad and cut off his food allowance, so that for three weeks he lived on two small kichlech a day given him by his study partner, Rebbe Shalom DovBer, son of the Maharil. One night, after Reb Chaim Ber announced that no one was permitted to enter for yechidus, the zeide slipped into the Rebbe's house; as he touched the chamber door the Rebbe came out, he answered with two points, and the Rebbe took his hand and brought him inside for a yechidus 'like none before or after.' When the Rebbe learned that his food allowance had been cut off, he cried 'Oy vey iz mir,' told him he did not need Reb Chaim Ber, and gave him six silver griveniks himself every Thursday morning — through his son the Rebbe Maharash when the zeide came late.
7 min to tellexcellent to tell
926 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000469
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=0.23
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. 474-475, no. 17
In 5724 (1963), after R. Mendel Futerfas left Russia, he went straight to 770 to meet the Rebbe and appealed to the chassidic community that chassidim in Russia lacked basic necessities — some had nothing to eat, others had exit permission but no money for tickets — asking, "Why are you all sleeping?" His words moved R. Yisroel Duchman, together with several other chassidim of Russian background, to found Lishkas Ezras Achim to help Russian Jews, and R. Yisroel raised many thousands of dollars for it, saying humbly that he did not understand spiritual matters but understood material things: he wanted another Jew to have food, a bed, and to receive it with a warm, inviting smile. When the Soviet gates opened he made fundraising trips to help emigrants settle in Eretz Yisroel, and he partnered with Dr. Yirmiyahu Branover — whose own exit he had helped arrange — in Branover's organization Shamir for Russian immigrants there.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
311 wordsR. Yisroel Duchman
story_000651
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, 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
score 1.08 ·
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=0.55
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 491-492, no. 13
A family of twelve, chassidim of the Skulener Rebbe, arrived in Toronto; the father fell gravely ill and died, leaving a widow with ten young children. R. Eliyahu collected a large sum for them and established an official fund to support each member of the family, and as each child reached marriageable age he found a spouse, arranged everything the couple needed, and married off all ten as if they were of illustrious status, worrying for them as though they were his own children. After R. Eliyahu's passing, the Skulener Rebbe came to the shiva — arriving in Toronto at 3 A.M. after an airplane delay and asking the family to receive him at that hour — to thank them for the kindness shown to his chassidim.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
282 wordsR. Eliyahu Akiva Lipskar
story_000672
score 1.08 ·
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=0.55
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 102-103, no. 42
R. Mordechai Yoel related that women would travel to the Viledniker Rebbe while men went to Lubavitch, but after the Viledniker's passing everyone — including many agunos — came to the Tzemach Tzedek, who performed open miracles. His children challenged him for performing miracles "as they do in Poland." He answered that it required nothing more than a good memory: he had advised each young man where to travel for a livelihood, so when a wife later came searching for her vanished husband, he remembered where he had sent him.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
274 wordsTzemach Tzedek
story_000098
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, 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
score 1.04 ·
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=0.47
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
score 1.04 ·
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=0.47
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 387, no. 12
R. Mordechai Perlov related that he was in Lubavitch when the Rebbe was sitting shiva for his brother, Rebbe Zalman Aharon, and the mashpi'im Reb Michoel and Reb Groinem came to be menachem avel. The Rebbe asked them what the significance of comforting a mourner is, since nothing profound is said to him, and answered that the very act of coming in itself lightens the mourner's load.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
197 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000511
score 0.99 ·
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=0.38
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 491-492, no. 12
R. Eliyahu kept an open house for anyone who needed a place to stay. In 5715 (1955), some years after he arrived in Toronto, his own family still lived in a small dwelling where all five of his children slept in one small room. When a large Moroccan family arrived in Toronto on the eve of Pesach and the shul's rov urged the community to take them in, nobody responded; R. Eliyahu alone took the family of seven into his home for the entire festival and made sure they lacked nothing.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
201 wordsR. Eliyahu Akiva Lipskar
story_000671
score 0.99 ·
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=0.38
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 345-346, no. 45
The zeide, R. Mordechai Yoel, once sighed while sitting at a farbrengen with Reb Hillel Paritcher. Reb Hillel asked what he was sighing about, and he answered that he did not know. Reb Hillel pressed further — how can it be that a Yid sighs? — until the zeide replied that perhaps it was subconscious, since his older sister was still unmarried.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
163 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000462
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. 475-476, no. 19
R. Yisroel Duchman's care for others extended to those close at hand: he organized collections that enabled countless young brides and grooms to set up their homes, and recipients could feel that he was genuinely glad to be helping them. Giving was a natural, ongoing part of his life, in the spirit of the chassidic adage that "the piece of bread that I have is yours just as much as it is mine." All year round his Shabbos table was surrounded by guests from all over the world, an effort in which his wife Rochel was his tireless partner, and for which he showed her the utmost appreciation and respect.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
152 wordsR. Yisroel Duchman
story_000653
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. 280-281, no. 127
The narrator received a letter from his brother Yisroel Noach HaLevi describing his yechidus with the Rebbe during the Rebbe's visit to the Holy Land at the end of 5689 (1929). The Rebbe asked him, "Where is your mother?" and said of his brothers: "I know quite well what is happening with them. Send them my regards; write to them that I do not forget them."
1 min to tellvery good to tell
143 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000358
score 0.94 ·
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=0.28
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 250, no. 86
After delivering a strong public reprimand at a farbrengen, the Rebbe said, "Heaven protect the seed of Father" (his father's chassidim). He then turned toward his room and said that he would tell his generals not to give him any more missions like that. The account adds that the farbrengen was held in the large zal, which served as the study hall and had a door leading to his room.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
129 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000317
score 0.93 ·
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=0.25
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 450-451, no. 51
The open home R. Zalman Duchman had kept in Leningrad came with him to New York: every Shabbos he and his wife hosted guests for meals, for lodging or both, sharing their minimal provisions. Long before there was any organized hospitality, he made a special effort to look after the visitors in 770, supplying them with hot drinks to warm their frigid bones — even early on Simchas Torah morning at the end of the midnight farbrengen. Each month, when his government stipend arrived, he would deposit the money with a local grocer who had a large family and needed the cash, and collect from him only what he himself needed, when he needed it.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
134 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
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score 0.93 ·
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=0.25
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 136-137, no. 8
Rebbetzin Shterna Sarah related that when she came from Avrutch to Lubavitch to become the Rebbe Maharash's daughter-in-law, she noticed that all the children of the household were tall while she herself was short. Her father-in-law told her not to be troubled by it, since we see that low trees produce good fruit.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
111 wordsRebbe Rashab
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score 0.91 ·
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=0.22
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 320, no. 3
When Reb Hillel Paritcher passed away he left behind substantial debts, because he would borrow money in order to distribute it as tzedakah; he collected funds in the Ukraine. The Tzemach Tzedek wrote a note beginning, "Since HaRav Reb Hillel has passed away…", asking the chassidim to help pay off the debts.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
99 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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score 0.90 ·
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=0.20
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 478-479, no. 23
R. Yisroel was close with his children's friends despite the generation gap and shared in their lives. When a shliach in Eretz Yisroel whom the Duchmans knew well had been childless for several years after his marriage, R. Yisroel took the initiative to approach the Rebbe during a Lag BaOmer farbrengen — the occasion on which, the story notes, the Mitteler Rebbe would work miracles, most of them blessings for childless couples — and asked for a bracha for the couple. The Rebbe gave his blessing, and shortly afterward the couple was blessed with children.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
109 wordsR. Yisroel Duchman
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score 0.90 ·
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=0.20
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 235, no. 55
Speaking in the room of his mother, Rebbetzin Shterna Sarah, the Rebbe said that these are the days of Ikvesa diMeshicha. He observed that a hat that is too tight can be tolerated, but a tight shoe is too much to bear, and asked that the Eibershter not press us too hard.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
87 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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score 0.89 ·
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=0.18
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 218, no. 32
Handing someone a glass of mashkeh to say LeChaim, the Rebbe (Rayatz) said: "I only give sweet things. Sharp — but sweet."
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40 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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score 0.86 ·
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=0.12
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 471-472, no. 9
After Rebbetzin Chana passed away, the Rebbe asked R. Zalman, R. Yisroel's father, to watch over her apartment so that nothing would be taken by over-zealous souvenir seekers. He then turned to R. Yisroel and asked him to watch over his father, saying, "Your father will watch over the apartment and you will watch over him."
0 min to tellvery good to tell
57 wordsR. Yisroel Duchman
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score 0.86 ·
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=0.12
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 442, no. 41
Fleeing the bombing and hunger of Leningrad, R. Zalman Duchman secured tickets on a crowded train to Tashkent, where many chassidim had gathered. Instead the train carried the passengers to an unknown destination in Siberia, where the crew ordered everyone off and left them in the wastelands. A local gentile woman, impressed by R. Zalman, took the family into her home and cared for them for a long while, sparing them from hunger and the elements; it was in that nameless village that young Yisroel celebrated his bar mitzvah.
1 min to tellgood to tell
172 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
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score 0.76 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.60 length_suitability=0.32
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 433-435, no. 28
On Shabbos, 8 Tishrei 5689 (1928), Chaya Grunya gave birth to a third son, Yisroel, and R. Zalman Duchman received a letter of bracha from the Frierdiker Rebbe, who was then in Riga. At the end of 5689 (1929) R. Zalman received a letter from his brother Yisroel Noach HaLevi in Eretz Yisroel describing his yechidus with the Rebbe that summer. The Rebbe had asked after their mother and said of the brothers Zalman and Boruch, "I know quite well what is happening with them. Send them my regards; write to them that I do not forget them."
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129 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
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score 0.72 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.60 length_suitability=0.25
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 465-466, no. 76
R. Zalman Duchman passed away on the 8th of Adar I 5730 (1970) and was buried in the Old Montefiore Cemetery near the Ohel; because of a gravediggers' strike, chassidim dug the grave themselves. About a month later, at the Purim farbrengen, the Rebbe gave mashkeh to R. Yisroel Duchman and others who were in the year of mourning for a parent, to distribute to the crowd so that they could take part in the joyous occasion. At the Beis Nissan farbrengen that year the Rebbe mentioned R. Zalman by name, quoting his expression that fifty years since the Rebbe Rashab's passing is a 'Jubilee.'
1 min to tellgood to tell
132 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
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score 0.72 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.60 length_suitability=0.25
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 250, no. 87
The Rebbe once spoke with R. Elchanan Morozov, one of the renowned chassidim of the generation, about how difficult yechidus is. He gave an example: someone comes in and says that the children he fathered without observing family purity should pass away. "Nu, what should I answer?"
1 min to tellgood to tell
100 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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score 0.70 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.60 length_suitability=0.20
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 443-445, no. 45
The Frierdiker Rebbe encouraged R. Zalman to care for his fellow refugees both physically and spiritually. In a letter of 15 Av 5709 (1949) he instructed him to report any change of address so that letters would continue to reach the chassidim, to see that all the children had chadorim to attend, and, where necessary, to give them the opportunity to learn a trade so as to ease their families' financial burden.
1 min to tellgood to tell
75 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
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score 0.68 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.60 length_suitability=0.15
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 180, no. 69
The Rebbe Rayatz said a number of times in Leningrad about his father, the Rebbe Rashab: "Der tate iz geven a guter" — my father was a kind man.
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59 wordsRebbe Rashab
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score 0.66 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.60 length_suitability=0.12
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 438-440, no. 37
As the Nazi invasion neared Leningrad, hundreds of thousands of residents, among them many chassidic families, scrambled to leave. The city was encircled from the north, west and south, and the "900-Day Siege" began on 8 Elul 5701 (1941) and lasted until Shevat 5704 (1944), with an estimated one million residents dying of starvation. Eleven-year-old Yisroel would go into the Russian army barracks, where some kindhearted soldiers threw him scraps of food. R. Zalman himself fell ill from hunger, and although the hospitals were overflowing with war victims, his sister-in-law - Chaya Grunya's sister - worked at a local hospital and arranged ample medical care for him, and he recovered and came home in good health.
2 min to telltells with work
191 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
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score 0.59 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.40 length_suitability=0.38
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