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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
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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. 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. 63-64, no. 3
The narrator's zeide told that at the "Great Purim" in Rogochov, Reb Yossele der chazzan of nearby Korma — a chossid whom the Alter Rebbe had once blessed to become wealthy — was honored by the Mitteler Rebbe with reading the Megillah. In the middle of the reading, at Haman's words "Whom would the king wish to honor more than me?", he spat out, "Feh, kelipah!" Everyone assumed that the Mitteler Rebbe, who detested outward displays of hispaalus, would give the reading to someone else the next morning, but he called Reb Yossele again and told him he did not know that one must first lay Megillah gelt on the table — then laid down a golden rendel, and each of the more than a thousand gvirim present did the same. So the Alter Rebbe's blessing was fulfilled and Reb Yossele became wealthy.
3 min to tellexcellent to tell
372 wordsMitteler Rebbe
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score 1.36 ·
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As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 169-170, no. 53
The narrator cites the popular saying that the ministering angel of fire flees before the ministering angel of Torah, and says he saw it himself. When a fire broke out at the home of Yehoshua the shamash opposite the Rebbe's court in Lubavitch, wagon-drivers filled the courtyard to be paid to carry out its contents; the blaze grew huge, Lubavitch had no water system and the wind was strong. The Rebbe Rashab came out, walked through the courtyard, stood opposite the burning house and looked intently at the fire — and only that one house burned, though ordinarily whole streets would go up. The narrator adds that in Homil, when a neighbor's house belonging to a gentile named Krasnitzky burned in the middle of the night, his zeide went out, looked at the fire, and it subsided.
3 min to tellexcellent to tell
367 wordsRebbe Rashab
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score 1.35 ·
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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
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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. 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 ·
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As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 88, no. 20
A senior chossid in Lubavitch related that in the days of the Tzemach Tzedek he suffered from headaches, and the Rebbe instructed him to put cold water on his forehead, which helped well. After the Tzemach Tzedek passed away it stopped working, so he came to the Rebbe Maharash, who told him that if cold no longer helps he should use hot water — and the headaches disappeared. After the Rebbe Maharash passed away he came to the Rebbe Rashab, who instructed him that if neither hot nor cold help, he should apply lukewarm water.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
219 wordsTzemach Tzedek
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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. 98-99, no. 35
R. Michoel Dvorkin related that during the Sebastopol (Crimean) War, chassidim were sitting with the Rebbe's son R. Chaim Shneur Zalman, the Rebbe of Liadi, when the Tzemach Tzedek walked in. They were saying that the decree of a third army conscription in a single year surely meant it was the time of Moshiach. The Tzemach Tzedek responded: "We do not know darkness. We know only light. And as to the light that will be revealed when Moshiach comes — who knows what sort of darkness will have to precede such a light?"
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
217 wordsTzemach Tzedek
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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, p. 251, no. 88
The narrator recalls receiving the bitter news of the Rebbe's passing on Yud Shevat 5710 (1950), falling to the ground with only his lips moving: "We are lost, we are lost." He recalls hearing from the senior chassidim that chassidim who said "he" in every generation were mistaken, and admits that after the Rebbe Rashab's passing he himself had asked, "If my father is not here, can I take another father?" — until he grasped that it is the same father, with even greater strength. He adds that when he came for Rosh Hashanah 5683 (1922), the Rebbe told him at his first yechidus, "We provide parnassah for our children."
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
222 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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score 1.21 ·
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As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 262, no. 101
The Rebbe's mother, Rebbetzin Shterna Sarah, and his wife, Rebbetzin Nechama Dinah, wearing white silk scarves, accompanied the Rebbe to the train station. From the coach window the Rebbe told his mother that it is true that "Hashem our G-d will be with us, as He was with our forefathers," and it will surely be, "Let Him not leave us, nor forsake us." Then, turning to those standing there, he said, "Ah, such an unnecessary trip. Nu, you'll probably say Yevarechecha."
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
217 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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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. 475-476, no. 20
In 5723 (1962), when R. Yisroel Duchman was earning very little, he served as a chazan in a nearby shul for Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, earning around $300, which he set aside to buy the family a washing machine. That year an uncle came from Eretz Yisroel for a bracha to marry off his three older daughters; in yechidus the Rebbe told him that if he grew a beard he would find good shidduchim for them, but the uncle, clean shaven and ten years older than his wife, was certain she would not agree. Knowing that their aunt badly wanted a leather coat the couple could not afford, the Duchmans gave away all the money saved for their much-needed washing machine so the uncle could buy it for her. He began to grow his beard, and within a few months all three daughters found good shidduchim.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
216 wordsR. Yisroel Duchman
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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
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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. 445-446, no. 46
After the Frierdiker Rebbe's passing on Yud Shevat 5710 (1950), R. Zalman Duchman wrote a long letter to our Rebbe accepting him as successor, though the Rebbe did not take up the leadership until a year later. Some months later R. Zalman wrote that the honorifics would now have to change — wishes for health replaced by mention of his righteous memory — recalling that his grandfather R. Mordechai Yoel of Homil, speaking of the Tzemach Tzedek years after his passing, would still say "the Rebbe, may he be well," then catch himself and add "in Gan Eden." The Rebbe answered that there is nothing to fear in saying it: Tanya, Epistle Twenty-Eight explains that the life of a tzaddik is faith, love and fear — in that sense he is very healthy.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
194 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
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score 1.19 ·
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=0.38
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 343-344, no. 43
The zeide used to recount at length the story of the Baal Shem Tov's sukkah. His students once gathered in the sukkah and, looking it over, noticed many features that raised halachic questions. Sensing their thoughts, the Baal Shem Tov asked for a piece of parchment, leaned on it and fell into deep contemplation; when he drew it out from beneath the tablecloth it was inscribed: 'The sukkah of the Baal Shem Tov is kosher — signed Matat.'
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
186 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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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. 285, no. 3
Reb Aizel used to say that we are not capable of real bitachon. If a person does everything a good friend asks of him, he can trust that the friend will do what he requests; but when he does the opposite of what is asked of him, on what basis can he trust? What he does have, Reb Aizel said, is emunah — faith that G-d is good and desires kindness, and therefore will certainly fulfill his request.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
164 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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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, p. 313, no. 53
One Pesach, after davening had finished and everyone was ready to leave, the narrator's zeide asked them to wait. They went to Reb Aizel's room, where he was sitting on a sofa, and upon seeing them he said, "You have no concept of how one must love a Yid. What is a Yid? Neshamah, emunah, and Torah and mitzvos. How could one not love that?" He repeated the words, and all who had stayed were very glad they had.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
174 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000412
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. 329-330, no. 19
The zeide used to relate the story of a farbrengen with Reb Hillel Paritcher in Retzitza. Reb Hillel told the baalei batim that he had a request of them: their children must study with proper teachers, since they have no idea of the strength such teachers impart to the children. He then added that if one learns Tanya with small children, the result will be that they never become apikorsim.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
166 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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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. 129-130, no. 21
The narrator's uncle, R. Yehudah Leib Chasdan, the shochet from Homil, said he heard directly from the Rebbe Maharash an interpretation of "Everything is in the hands of Heaven except the fear of Heaven": everything is given only if Heaven wishes to give it and withheld if not — except yiras shamayim, which, when one asks for it, is given. A footnote observes that this reverses the plain meaning, which places yiras shamayim in a person's own hands, into a promise that sincere supplication draws it down from Above without restriction.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
153 wordsRebbe Maharash
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score 1.15 ·
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As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 149-150, no. 22
It was told in Lubavitch that the Rebbe once came to the ohel. A small door led into the ohel from the adjoining shul, one of whose walls formed a wall of the roofless ohel. On that occasion the door was found locked, and the flustered shamash came running with the key. The Rebbe said to him, “If a pile of earth doesn't obstruct, will such a thin door?”
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
155 wordsRebbe Rashab
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score 1.15 ·
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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
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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. 276-277, no. 122
In Kostrama the Rebbe told the chassidim R. Eliyahu Chaim (may G-d avenge his blood) and Michoel Dvorkin: "They say that the Baal Shem Tov and the Mezeritcher Maggid visited the Alter Rebbe in Taini Soviet. It doesn't surprise me now at all… My father never left me."
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
149 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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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. 263, no. 102
On the Shabbos when the Rebbe was already in Kostrama, a Kiddush was held for a few people at his home in Leningrad. The children said their mother was making Kiddush because their father was now free — though the Rebbe himself held otherwise, since he had not received Maftir and had not recited HaGomel. Rebbetzin Shterna Sarah, seated on the sofa near the dining room window, recounted that the Rebbe had told her, "Mama, mama, robbers! They wanted to take revenge," and that every day he was in prison he recited Aneinu, and that his interrogators had asked him, "Are you the Lubavitcher Rebbe, the Jewish leader?" Repeating the words "the Jewish leader," she asked why he must be under the regime of such robbers.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
306 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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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. 145-146, no. 17
Rebbetzin Shterna Sarah told R. Yaakov Mordechai that she wanted to describe how two outstanding Jews meet after such an event. The Rebbe Rashab's first words to the Rebbe Rayatz were, "Where did you put her?" — and on hearing that she had been buried on the other side of the ohel near her husband, the Rebbe Maharash, he answered, "Good; I thought that had you placed her elsewhere I would have had to move her to her husband's side." R. Yaakov Mordechai further related that, in keeping with the halachah of three days of weeping, the Rebbe Rashab could not stop crying in those first days; arriving in Lubavitch he went to his mother's house to daven Mincha, and wept deeply at the words "Tzadik Hashem b'chol drachav."
2 min to tellvery good to tell
301 wordsRebbe Rashab
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score 1.09 ·
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As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 433-435, no. 29
R. Zalman Duchman records that on Purim 5695 (1935) in Leningrad, R. Elchanan Morozov said to him and to Pinchas Althoiz a vort on the posuk "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light" (Yeshayahu 9:1). Morozov asked how people in darkness could be said to see a great light, and answered: one can only go through darkness when earlier one has seen a great light.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
88 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
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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. 433-435, no. 27
On Isru Chag the chassidim gathered to take leave of the Frierdiker Rebbe. R. Zalman Duchman brought his eight-year-old daughter Rochel to the Rebbe's house, where she received a warm bracha, and he accompanied the Rebbe to the train station, where the Rebbe blessed her again; R. Zalman later said it was this bracha that protected her throughout the war. Before departing the Frierdiker Rebbe handed over a farewell letter, saying, "I didn't write this letter with my heart - it is my heart." Rochel recalled the packed, weeping platform, the Rebbe standing on the train steps, the crowd running after the departing train, and a Leningrad wall newspaper that printed his picture and wrote of his G-dly face.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
286 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
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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, p. 382, no. 4
R. Yisroel Neveler related that someone once came to the Tzemach Tzedek and said that he does not believe. The Tzemach Tzedek exclaimed, "Rabbi Yishmael believes; Rabbi Akiva believes — and you don't believe?! Ay, that's not possible!"
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
80 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000503
score 1.07 ·
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=0.15
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 346-347, no. 47
The narrator's zeide once visited a very poor relative of the Tzemach Tzedek in Nezhin and asked him why he stayed silent about his poverty. The man explained that he had once sent a pidyon with a chossid traveling to Lubavitch; the Tzemach Tzedek accepted the pidyon but gave no response, and when the chossid asked before returning how he should answer, the Rebbe said, "Look, there are many poor people. Apparently, this is how it's meant to be." The man concluded, "Nu, what more can I do?" The zeide's own telling included the names of those involved.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
268 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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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. 479-480, no. 25
R. Yisroel Duchman passed away on Thursday, 6 Iyar 5749 (1989) at the age of 59 and was buried in New York near the Ohel; a few months earlier, at the 22 Shvat farbrengen marking the Rebbetzin's first yahrtzeit, the Rebbe had unexpectedly told him, "Say L'chaim for your father." When his son Baruch afterward wrote that his bond with the Rebbe had run through his father and he now felt broken, the Rebbe answered that his father was certainly in Gan Eden highlighting his positive virtues, and that if Baruch gave him a k'li to work with, he would be very successful. The account closes with the Rebbe's teaching that arichus yomim is measured by the experience a person fills his life with, and with R. Yisroel's family — his wife Rochel still keeping an open house, his children and grandchildren active in the Rebbe's work.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
265 wordsR. Yisroel Duchman
story_000659
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. 354-358, no. 57
The narrator's zeide (רמ"י) asked how to understand the Gemara's teaching that when Adar arrives we increase in joy. He cited the Gemara's resolution of two verses — "In secret my soul will weep" versus "Might and joy are in His place" — that one speaks of the inner chambers and the other of the outer chambers. His point: even in the inner chambers, where the soul weeps in secret, when Adar comes one increases in joy.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
246 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000474
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. 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. 286-287, no. 6
Hirsch Ber, of Reb Aizel's grandchildren, transported goods from Moscow to Homil and later served as a rov in Homil for many years after Reb Aizel's passing. Returning from Moscow once with a swollen cheek, he came to Reb Aizel and mentioned that he had yahrzeit the following day. Reb Aizel told him, "If you promise to give mashkeh tomorrow, everything will be all right." Hirsch Ber smiled skeptically, and Reb Aizel countered that this custom of the early chassidim — giving mashkeh at a yahrzeit — was "fire and flame."
2 min to tellvery good to tell
225 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000365
score 1.01 ·
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=0.43
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 295, no. 25
When R. Avraham HaLevi of Borshtzovk, the father of the narrator's zeide, grew weak, the narrator's uncle Rav Shneur Zalman traveled from Korma, where he served as rov, and stayed several weeks before returning home. The narrator's father was present at the parting and heard the uncle say, "Nu, the first thing is: be healthy!" — adding, with a nigun, "and if not, do not be afraid of any angel or any seraph, only of Hashem Himself."
2 min to tellvery good to tell
204 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000384
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, p. 288, no. 9
Reb Aizel told his students about the decree conscripting Jews into the Russian military, and about an individual who wept and fasted over it until his teachers came to him from Above. He demanded of them how they could remain silent in the face of such a decree. They answered that they had indeed protested, but once they were shown the pleasure Above that comes from the spiritual refinement produced by it, they were too embarrassed to say that below it counts as an evil decree.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
195 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000368
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. 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. 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
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. 124-125, no. 10
R. Yehoshua Nemoytin of Beshenkovitch related that a Yid from Beshenkovitch spent time in Lubavitch with the Rebbe Maharash, who told him to study Chapter 11 of Iggeres HaKodesh — Lehaskil'chah Binah — every day. The bracketed note explains that this chapter stresses belief in constant creation yesh me'ayin and that no evil descends from Above. Years later, all of that man's children passed away.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
156 wordsRebbe Maharash
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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, p. 166, no. 49
R. Yosef Lipschitz of Kariokovka lay in the hospital in Homil under the care of Dr. Brook, the eye doctor, and the narrator went with his zeide to visit him. R. Yosef recounted hearing from the Rebbe that when something happens to a Yid, every Yid has the power to open the Tanya and say, "Rebbe, help me!" The recorder adds that this seems to be the source of the custom of placing a pidyon inside a Tanya.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
151 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000188
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. 377-380, no. 15
On Purim 5695 (1935) in Leningrad, R. Elchanan Morozov told the narrator and his friend Pinchas Althoiz a vort on the posuk "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light." He asked how people in darkness could be described as seeing a great light. His answer: one is only able to walk through darkness at all because earlier they had seen a great light.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
153 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000499
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. 361-362, no. 7
The speaker's second comment: the Kosel Hamaarovi remains whole because it corresponds to the final letter hei of the Divine Name — that is, Malchus, or Knesses Yisroel, the source of Jewish souls. For that reason the Jewish people are whole and will remain whole until the swift arrival of Moshiach.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
131 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000481
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, p. 396, no. 24
Throughout the winter of 5685 (1925) in Leningrad, the Rebbe made Havdalah himself every motzaei Shabbos. He would stand at the end of the table nearer the door, while his mother, Rebbetzin Shterna Sarah, stood by the other door together with Rebbetzin Nechama Dinah. The narrator says the words Evtach v'lo efchod — "I trust and shall not fear" — still ring in his ears to this day.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
118 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000523
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. 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
story_000286
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. 106, no. 48
The Tzemach Tzedek said a maamar of Chassidus about tzitzis, explaining that tzitzis embody the concept of remembering, whose opposite is forgetting. He then asked what forgetfulness actually is, and answered: forgetfulness means forgetting Hashem.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
82 wordsTzemach Tzedek
story_000104
score 0.88 ·
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=0.15
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
score 0.88 ·
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=0.15
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 258-259, no. 97
Shmuel from Kremenchug, known as 'Shmuel der Porush' (the ascetic), related that when the Rebbe was arrested, Rebbetzin Shterna Sarah opened the aron hakodesh and screamed, 'Holy Sifrei Torah! Why are you silent?!'
1 min to tellvery good to tell
73 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000328
score 0.88 ·
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=0.15
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 246, no. 80
At a farbrengen in Leningrad, the Frierdiker Rebbe said, "My posuk is known; I only have to begin, and Hashem will finish for me." The footnote explains the custom of reciting a posuk at the conclusion of Shemoneh Esrei whose first and last letters match one's name, and that the posuk for the name Yosef (Tehillim 138:8) begins with the words "Hashem will finish for me."
0 min to tellvery good to tell
70 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000311
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. 44, no. 22
The chassidim once complained to the Alter Rebbe about the poverty Jews were suffering. He answered that present-day neshamos are reincarnations from the era of the first Beis Hamikdash, whose destruction was caused in large part by idolatry — a sin whose punishment is death — and that every occasion when a person's material needs go unmet serves in place of that punishment.
1 min to tellgood to tell
134 wordsAlter Rebbe
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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. 380, no. 1
The narrator's zeide (רמ"י) would write pidyonos to Haditch, to the Alter Rebbe. In them he would write "The Thirteen Attributes of Divine Compassion of Moshe Rabbeinu and of the prophet Michah." He explained that the Attributes of Moshe Rabbeinu are for gashmius, while those of Michah are for ruchnius.
1 min to tellgood to tell
88 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000500
score 0.69 ·
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=0.18
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 84-85, no. 15
Two of the Tzemach Tzedek's sons passed away during his lifetime, one of them R. Yerachmiel of Orsha. When the Rebbe's wife came to him crying in her grief, he responded, "And Hashem hid it from me." Regarding R. Yaakov he said, "A prisoner cannot free himself."
1 min to tellgood to tell
79 wordsTzemach Tzedek
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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, pp. 236-237, no. 59
On Purim 5687 (1927) the Rebbe said that imprisonment comes about when the tzirufim, the letter combinations, do not hold together, producing confinement below. He added that when a person passes away, G-d forbid, it is because the combinations are removed entirely.
1 min to tellgood to tell
77 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000290
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
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