Find a story
50 stories
Add the stories you want to your picks as you browse, then build
a newsletter or farbrengen sheet from them.
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 123-124, no. 9
R. Yisroel Neveler related in the name of R. Menachem Mendel Gurary that R. Avraham, son of the Rebbe Maharin of Niezhin, told him how as a young man he came to his father and said he was coming not as a son to a father but as a chossid to a Rebbe; his father's advice was that he travel to his uncle in Lubavitch, the Rebbe Maharash. In Lubavitch, Rebbetzin Rivkah prepared a festive welcome and the Rebbe Maharash sat with him for half an hour, but when R. Avraham asked for yechidus the Rebbe answered that the previous night a vein had burst and he had suffered terribly until he tore a piece from his shirt to stop it — yet all that suffering was nothing compared to the difficulty of answering a young man in yechidus; today he could not, tomorrow with G-d's help. He did have yechidus the next day. Returning through Niezhin, his father asked him, "Nu, did I give you good advice?"
4 min to tellexcellent to tell
539 wordsRebbe Maharash
story_000127
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=0.98
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. 199-200, no. 3
The Frierdiker Rebbe related that at a rabbinical conference in Petersburg, R. Chaim Brisker told him about his father R. Yosef Ber. A wealthy Brisk contractor, who worked to free Jewish prisoners, challenged the rov for spending his time learning seemingly irrelevant laws with the two greatest scholars of the town, 'Beryl the Hump' and the 'Klutz.' R. Yosef Ber answered that his learning with them is what keeps a chain of study alive down through the town — Gemara in one beis midrash, Mishnayos in another, householders who come daily, weekly, or only on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur — down to the pharmacist's son who fasts and comes to shul; without it, the pharmacist's son would still fast but would not come to shul. When the Frierdiker Rebbe repeated this to his father, the Rebbe Rashab called it an avodah from above to below.
4 min to tellexcellent to tell
542 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000234
score 1.48 ·
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=0.95
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. 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
story_000045
score 1.36 ·
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=0.72
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 305-306, no. 40
The zeide told three stories about Reb Aizel; in the first, Reb Aizel kept the list of the Chalukas HaShas in the Lubavitcher shul in Homil, calling each participant by name to ask whether he had finished his mesechta before the Yud-Tes Kislev siyum. One man answered yes twice, but when asked a third time whether he had learned it that year, he admitted he had learned ten pages of it the previous year before Yud-Tes Kislev. Reb Aizel immediately instructed those present to take Gemaros and divide the ten missing pages among themselves.
3 min to tellexcellent to tell
372 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000399
score 1.36 ·
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=0.72
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 261-262, no. 100
The Rebbe had asked that a large crowd be at the station when he boarded the train to Kostrama for three years of exile, but word was hard to spread and most who came arrived early. On Sunday at dusk, the third of Tammuz, the chassidim formed two lines as the Rebbe approached the train, and R. Binyamin Althoiz said at the door that after his imprisonment in Petersburg the Alter Rebbe had begun leading with a high hand (yad ramah). The Rebbe replied that the Shavuos maamarim discuss three "hands" — yad hagdolah, yad hachazakah and yad ramah — and that ramah signifies Kesser and has the letters of koress: all the enemies should be cut off. By the time the narrator reached the station the Rebbe was already standing at the window of the yellow second-class car.
3 min to tellexcellent to tell
346 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000331
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, pp. 396-398, no. 25
While the Rebbe was imprisoned in Shpalerka, chassidim received reports from contacts inside the G.P.U., so already on Friday they knew he was to be released, and Shabbos morning davening was delayed in anticipation. On Sunday, the third of Tammuz, the narrator and his brother-in-law R. Yitzchak Minkovitch had stepped out when Pinya (Pinchas ben R. Binyomin Althoiz) came running to tell them the Rebbe was already home; they ran back and found him sitting in the children's room. Asked whether they had learned Chassidus during that time, the brother-in-law answered that they had said Tehillim, and the Rebbe replied that he had written the maamarim of Shavuos until they saw him and took away the pencil; hours later he brought out the maamarim, one inscribed "written in prison, 19 Sivan 5687" (Anochi) and the second (Vaydaber) "20 Sivan 5687," the last word written being Or. Later, at the dacha in Malachovka, the narrator asked for the conclusion of the maamar and the Rebbe answered, "It does not write itself." At the departure the chassidim formed two rows; R. Binyomin Althoiz began to speak and the Rebbe stopped, answering a remark about the Alter Rebbe leading b'yad ramah after Petersburg with the vort said on Shavuos on yad hagedolah, yad hachazakah and yad ramah — ramah being keser, the letters of kares, may it be 'v'chol oyvecha yikoreisun.' At the station the Rebbe stood at the open window of a yellow second-class car; Rebbetzin Shterna Sarah approached and he said to her, "Mama, it says yehi Hashem Elokeinu imanu ka'asher hayah im avoseinu — surely there will also be al ya'azvenu v'al yitesheinu," and to those seeing him off, "An altogether unnecessary journey," adding, "You will presumably say Yevarechecha."
6 min to tellexcellent to tell
725 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000524
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. 231-232, no. 50
The narrator recalls an erev Rosh Hashanah in Lubavitch, in a year he does not remember, when the Rebbe Rashab came out repeatedly through the red door to receive pidyonos while his son, the Rebbe Rayatz, stood watching for a long time. On Yud-Tes Kislev of 5685 or 5686, the Rebbe Rayatz described how his father took pidyonos differently from different people — from some in his hand, from others between his fingers — and told Pinchas ben R. Binyomin Althoiz that as a small child his pidyon had been taken between the fingers, as from those closest, and that this should be a meditation for his whole life and for his entire "otriad," of which he is the leader. The Rebbe added that he had wanted to go in with everyone, and after the "soaring" and "descent" wanted to be with him alone.
4 min to tellvery good to tell
532 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000281
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=0.80 length_suitability=0.98
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 255-256, no. 94
A note written by the Rebbe was found on the high table in his room after his arrest on Wednesday, 15 Sivan 5687 (1927) in Leningrad, and was later printed in Kuntres Yud-Beis Tammuz 5708. R. Pinchas, son of R. Eliyahu Chaim [Althoiz], kept the note hidden in Leningrad and would take it out, together with two letters the Rebbe wrote on Yud-Beis Tammuz, at the farbrengen held in his home every Yud-Beis Tammuz, and they would be read aloud. In the note the Rebbe instructs that in every chassidishe shul the daily portion of Tehillim be said with a minyan after Shacharis, including Shabbos, followed by Kaddish, and that shopkeepers and businessmen come to daven and to the Ein Yaakov class, promising Hashem's help with abundant livelihood. He tells chassidim to say that he instructs them, and other Yidden that out of Ahavas Yisroel and their well-being he begs them, closing with a blessing for a good year in ruchnius and gashmius and the complete Redemption through Moshiach.
4 min to tellvery good to tell
502 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000325
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=0.80 length_suitability=0.97
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 278-279, no. 124
When the Soviet government forbade instruction in cheders, the Rebbe traveled to Moscow to find people close to the government who could offset the law. He sent word through Rav Rafael Kahn that Kalman of Nevel should go stay with his daughter, whose husband Bogdanov held an important government position; when Kalman objected that his son-in-law had nothing to do with education, the Rebbe told him not to leave Moscow and to remain as his daughter's guest. At a banquet in that home attended by government officials, Kalman was asked what he thought of the new government and answered that it was wonderful, but why would they not allow Jewish children to study Torah. Influential people connected with education were present, and afterwards a law was issued permitting instruction for up to six children.
4 min to tellvery good to tell
501 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000355
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=0.80 length_suitability=0.97
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 111-112, no. 57
The narrator's zeide told how the Tzemach Tzedek, in Petersburg for the government ministry conference, fought intensely against the authorities' plans. Asked where his determination came from, he said it lay in his suitcase; when they opened it they found his burial shrouds. The minister replied, "You are looking to sacrifice your life, but we only give lashings." The zeide also related that when the children objected that their mother would be terrified by the shrouds, the Tzemach Tzedek answered that this was exactly what he wanted — that she should beg the Eibershter for help, since she is truly the daughter of a Torah sage.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
292 wordsTzemach Tzedek
story_000113
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, 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 ·
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=0.53
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 259, no. 98
On Gimmel Tammuz, when the Rebbe came out of Shpalerka, he entered the study hall, sat on a bench near the aron hakodesh, and said, 'It's a plan and we must know this — it's a libel from there.' He then said that he had seen Hashgacha Pratis at the door of Shpalerka and had thought at that moment: 'Do I take upon myself to continue writing about children's education and Torah schools? If so, it will be good; otherwise, there will be repercussions' — alluding to the verse in Bereishis. He added that a secretary had asked whether he needed to communicate anything to his home, and since she was the one who offered, he decided to refuse.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
268 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000329
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=1.00 length_suitability=0.53
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 344-345, no. 44
At Reb Hillel Paritcher's farbrengens the custom was to list every participant with a note beside each name — 'giver' for one who contributed toward the mashkeh, 'drinker' for one who did not. Once, after the list was compiled, someone at the end of the table objected that so much money for mashkeh would be better given to tzedakah. Reb Hillel agreed that he was right and that the money should go to tzedakah, then added that now that the mitzvah of tzedakah had been fulfilled, he wanted everyone to contribute for simcha shel mitzvah — and everyone gave even more than before.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
268 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000461
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=1.00 length_suitability=0.53
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 476-478, no. 22
One Erev Pesach, as R. Yisroel Duchman was about to approach the Rebbe for matzah for Chaim Grade, his youngest son Boruch — by then a young man — asked him to get matzah for him too. The Rebbe asked whether Boruch was still in Miami, and on hearing that he was, happily gave R. Yisroel a piece of matzah for him, telling him to tell his son it was shmurah matzah, shmurah with all its meanings, and that it would protect him. In 5736 (1976) R. Yisroel asked for matzah for his son Sholom, who had become one of the Rebbe's special shluchim to Eretz Yisroel, and the Rebbe told him lovingly, "He's my shliach. I sent him matza myself, and I don't need an intermediary." The next year, 5737 (1977), R. Yisroel did not ask — and the Rebbe asked him why not, saying he heard Sholom was doing great things, joked at his bewildered look, "What happened? Sholom ran away?", added that Sholom should want to be at the Rebbe but in actuality should be there, and gave him a matzah for his son.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
222 wordsR. Yisroel Duchman
story_000656
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. 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
story_000196
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. 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
story_000436
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. 430-432, no. 24
On Gimmel Tammuz, when the Frierdiker Rebbe was released from prison for a few hours before continuing to his exile in Kostroma, R. Zalman was admitted to see him. As he relates, he and his brother-in-law R. Yitzchak Minkovitch had stepped outside when Pinya came running with the news that the Rebbe had reached home; they ran in and found the Rebbe sitting in the children's room, and one of the daughters told him the yungeleit wanted to see him. The Rebbe's first question was whether they had been learning Chassidus during that time; when the brother-in-law answered that they had been saying Tehillim, the Rebbe replied at once, "I wrote the maamarim of Shavuos until they saw me and took away the pencil." A few hours later the Frierdiker Rebbe gave out the maamorim of Shavuos through our Rebbe, noting on them that they had been written in prison.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
175 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000580
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. 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, p. 265, no. 104
While imprisoned in 5687 (1927), the Rebbe was asked his age. Unwilling to answer according to the birthdate on his passport — one of the fictitious dates produced by the secretary Zalman Eidel — he answered instead that it is a golden chain extending 150 years, to which every generation adds a pendant. One pendant is more precious, another less precious, but the chain itself is golden.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
141 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000335
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, p. 168, no. 51
During a cheerless period in the Rebbe's court, the Rebbe Rashab paced back and forth in the zal at 44 Brotsky in Rostov with the door open. He stopped and said that he saw no end to "them" — the Bolsheviks — but that "we, and everyone holding onto us, will remain intact."
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
112 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000190
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. 204, no. 10
At a farbrengen in Rostov in the first period after the Rebbe Rashab's passing, the Rebbe Rayatz said that a young man was standing and thinking, "The Rebbe, ay the Rebbe — but the Rebbe's son?!" The Rebbe added that this young man would see that he would have a baby boy born that year. And so it happened.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
102 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000241
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. 247-248, no. 81
Alter Dvinsker, a Tomchei Temimim student, was to be hired as a shochet in a shtetl, but the community first wanted the Rebbe's approval. He came to Moscow for yechidus at the end of 5682 (1922), and the Rebbe told him not to be a shochet, explaining with the posuk "For man sees what is visible to the eyes" that the second half — "While G-d sees into the heart" — has been given to us, and advised him to learn photography for the time being. He did so and earned a good living, but when photography became unprofitable around 5695 (1935) he became a shochet in Horodok, and when the persecution of Yiddishkeit intensified he was arrested in 5698 (1938).
2 min to tellvery good to tell
314 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000312
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. 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
story_000333
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. 447-449, no. 49
Leaving the shul after Mincha, the Rebbe stopped to speak with Reb Zalman Duchman about the Frierdiker Rebbe's wedding and sheva brachos, noting that R. Zalman was now in the same period of celebration for his son. The Rebbe related that the Frierdiker Rebbe's wedding took place on 13 Elul 5657 (1897) — his father the Rebbe Rashab's had been on 11 Elul 5635 (1875) — and that on that Sunday the Frierdiker Rebbe was summoned for army service; his face was blackened so he would look older, and he was sent home, the festivities continuing apart from the coloring on the chosson's face. The Rebbe then told how the Rebbe Maharash had gone to the provincial governor to demand the Rebbe Rashab's release, warning that if the governor would not rescind the call he would go to Moscow himself and the governor would pay a steep price; the governor refused and sent a second notice, the Rebbe Maharash resolved the matter in Moscow, and meanwhile the governor fell gravely ill and died after much suffering. On Sunday, 15 Elul, while Reb Yisroel Duchman celebrated his wedding in distant Paris, his parents merited to go into yechidus and receive a special bracha for the wedding.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
306 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000605
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. 245-246, no. 78
On Isru Chag Sukkos 5688 (1927), in the train car leaving Leningrad for Riga, he handed over a farewell letter. He said of it: "I didn't write this letter with my heart — it is my heart."
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
86 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000309
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, p. 267, no. 108
R. Michoel Dvorkin also related that a day or two before Yud-Beis Tammuz, in the shochet's courtyard and garden in Kostrama, the Rebbe said that nearly a month had passed in which he had not written about the education of children — "What do I need fingers for…?!"
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
86 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000339
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, p. 270, no. 112
R. Michoel Dvorkin recounted that the Rebbe wanted to say the maamar HaGomel in Kostrama on Wednesday, the 13th of Tammuz, when people came, but a message arrived from Leningrad warning that Messing, head of the G.P.U., had let it be known that he dared not return to Leningrad. Traveling to Kharkov or Moscow was considered, but the Rebbe said, "We are going home." Later, when travel to Staraya Russa or Malachovka was weighed, the Rebbe said, "Leningrad G.P.U. arrested me; Moscow G.P.U. released me. I'll do better with Moscow" — and he traveled to Malachovka.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
276 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000343
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. 258, no. 96
Hershel, the Rebbe's meshares, related that at 12:30 a.m. on Tuesday night someone knocked at the door while the Rebbe was in the dining room after yechidus. His daughter Chana went to ask who was there and was told it was the house superintendent, but the Rebbe said, 'It's not the superintendent — it's the G.P.U.' After searching a while and finding nothing, the Rebbe asked to be left under house arrest, but the agents telephoned and said their instructions were to arrest him. The Rebbe told them, 'You should consider carefully whether it's to your advantage to do this.'
2 min to tellvery good to tell
262 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000327
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. 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, p. 192, no. 85
The narrator recalls the immense tumult in Homil in the winter of 5673 (1913), and what he heard from his brother Baruch about the events in Lubavitch. The Rebbe Rashab established Orach LeTzaddik so that people would travel to Haditch every year on Chof-Daled Teves, the Alter Rebbe's yahrzeit, and the first shluchim sent were R. Moshe Zhebiner and R. Moshe Rosenblum, whom the narrator's zeide addressed in writing as 'To the two Moshes.' His zeide explained the reason for the directive: a tzaddik's connection to the world grows distant after a hundred years, and visiting his holy resting place strengthens his influence in this realm.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
248 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000224
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. 150-151, no. 23
Yechidus was hard for the tomimim of Tomchei Temimim to obtain, so when one had a small question he would watch for an opportune moment to catch the Rebbe, since the Rebbe had said that yechidus must be attended at its scheduled time, because beforehand he gives tzedakah and asks the Eibershter that his advice succeed. When the narrator's brother Baruch had to travel from Lubavitch to Shedrin, where there was a branch of Tomchei Temimim, he found such a moment and told the Rebbe he was traveling there. The Rebbe answered, “You should study there, and daven and serve the Eibershter” — which the narrator notes marks serving Hashem as a third, further stage.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
237 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000162
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. 489-490, no. 10
R. Eliyahu farbrenged with every layer of the community — schoolboys, yeshiva students, middle-aged men and the elderly — always knowing which story or saying suited his listeners, and his Shabbos afternoon farbrengens in shul often lasted until sunset. He was a pillar of the community: he assisted the Chabad institutions in Toronto, those who had escaped Soviet oppression, Colel Chabad in Eretz Yisroel and Lishkas Ezras Achim, and he was among the Rashag's foremost local aides when the Rashag came on behalf of the central Yeshivas Tomchei Temimim in New York. Past retirement age he trained educators in a teacher's seminary, guided youngsters at camp as though he were one of them, and was among the first to open a Kollel Tiferes Zekainim - Levi Yitzchok when the Rebbe proposed it. Well-versed in nigleh and Chassidus, he gave Tanya shiurim to professors and doctors and, for twenty consecutive years, to the community's leading businessmen, and he publicly repeated the Rebbe's maamarim and sichos, all alongside an intense personal learning regimen acquired despite years of hardship and suffering.
3 min to tellgood to tell
440 wordsR. Eliyahu Akiva Lipskar
story_000669
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=0.60 length_suitability=0.85
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 33-34, no. 8
Der zeide related in the name of Reb Aizel Homiler that the Alter Rebbe once went on Shabbos to the home of his daughter Freidka, whose health was weak, to recite Chassidus, and the chassidim crowded among the trees around the house. Reb Aizel said he too merited to be there. The Alter Rebbe turned to his son the Mitteler Rebbe — "Newspapers? They want newspapers?!" — seized his lapel and said, "Why aren't they learning Tanya? I tell you, through Tanya one can become a chossid like Avraham Avinu."
2 min to tellvery good to tell
225 wordsAlter Rebbe
story_000008
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. 241, no. 68
On Yud-Tes Kislev 5685 (1924) the Rebbe looked at R. Leivik, the shamash of the Znamenskaya shul, and quoted "He called forth the shamash and he radiated light." He then spelled out what a shamash's work is: in the morning, when people come and it is still too dark and early to daven, he brings them a Tehillim; it is also his work to see that the children of the baalei-batim learn; and a shamash must know where a housewife buys her meat and similar matters.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
206 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000299
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. 454, no. 57
R. Zalman helped organize shiurim in 770 and was charged with reporting their progress to the Rebbe. In Elul 5724 (1964) he reported that the shiurim were continuing but attendance was down because many were away, and the Rebbe wrote that an effort should be made to have at least ten participants, in line with the Alter Rebbe's "wondrous words" in Igeres HaKodesh. In his next report R. Zalman confirmed more had committed to come and asked why the Rebbe said "wondrous words" rather than the usual "holy words"; the Rebbe answered that "wonder" refers to keser, which is above the ten sefiros and is drawn down by ten people gathering, adding that it is easier to influence the nefesh habehamis with "wondrous" than with "holy." When R. Zalman worried he was burdening the Rebbe with weekly reports, the Rebbe replied that it was a subject of great pleasure from those who participate, though the opposite could be said of those who do not yet participate.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
205 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000613
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. 463-464, no. 74
In a letter of 5 Av 5722 (1962) the Rebbe set out the importance of Colel Chabad and the benefits of supporting it, and the letter became the basis of R. Zalman Duchman's fundraising: he would simply learn and discuss its points and the listener would be inspired to give. Not long after receiving it, R. Zalman read the letter at a bris and, reporting everything to the Rebbe as a devout chossid, mentioned the talk; the Rebbe commented on that point, "With the sources?" Chof-Daled Teves of the following year, 5723 (1963), marked 150 years since the Alter Rebbe's histalkus, which the Rebbe emphasized greatly in many letters and sichos, and in one pointed letter that year he asked whether the Colel Chabad letter was being used to its utmost for the organization, since it was "the Alter Rebbe's organization."
2 min to tellvery good to tell
207 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000630
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. 408-409, no. 40
In the interrogation following his arrest in 5687 (1927) the Rebbe Rayatz said that he did not speak Russian, and later gave his reasons for saying so. The narrator, however, once heard him speak it: on Motzaei Rosh Hashanah in Rostov, he believes in 5683 (1922), when the landlord wanted to shut down the Beis HaMidrash at 44 Brotsky, the Rebbe came to him and rebuked him in Russian for entering a house of prayer and causing a serious disturbance, calling it both indecent and foolish. The man's face turned red like a thief caught in the act and he hurried away.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
185 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000539
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. 340-341, no. 39
While R. Yitzchak was living in Baba, a village near Sosnitza, he chose the narrator's zeide as a son-in-law. On one visit a gentile village woman who knew his wife Rochel greeted the zeide with a hug and the words "Ay, Rochel's husband!"; he fled and wanted nothing but a divorce. The Tzemach Tzedek held that Reb Aizel, the zeide's teacher, should order him not to divorce, but Reb Aizel answered that the Rebbe of the generation was the one whose place it was to give orders. R. Yitzchak traveled back and forth over the matter, once slamming Reb Aizel's door in Homil and being asked "Itche, why are you slamming doors?!", and he suffered from malaria for a year; in the end the Tzemach Tzedek ordered the zeide to make peace, and the zeide's firstborn son was named after Reb Aizel.
3 min to tellgood to tell
390 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000456
score 0.97 ·
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=0.75
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 181, no. 70
On Simchas Torah 5667 (1906) the Rebbe spoke very strongly against rolling up one's beard. He told the tomim Shmuel Katzman that he should obey this with kabbalas ol, while to the tomim Shmuel Yitzchak Beuder, a maskil, he used different words. Years later in Rostov he spoke about the matter again, saying that in those days not rolling the beard was truly a matter of mesirus nefesh, and that to continually demand mesirus nefesh is very hard to do.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
164 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000209
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. 191, no. 83
On Simchas Torah 5679 (1918) a farbrengen was held in the home of the Rebbe Rashab's son, the Rebbe Rayatz. The table had already been broken and the Rebbe Rashab sat in the middle of the house on a round stool, calling out, "Quiet! We are talking of the loftiest matters." In the middle of it his daughter-in-law, Rebbetzin Nechama Dina, approached and asked, "Shver, is anything bothering you?" He answered, "I am doing very well; I want that for my son it should be good."
1 min to tellvery good to tell
171 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000222
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. 394, no. 22
The oven in Tomchei Temimim in Lubavitch had a built-in vat for boiling tea water, and because it never emptied completely some water always remained in it overnight. A number of students stopped drinking from it out of concern for water left overnight in a metal vessel, and the Rebbe, who served as the yeshivah's active director, discreetly asked for a list of those unusually meticulous students.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
147 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000521
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, pp. 423-424, no. 9
In the winter of 5673 (1913) the Rebbe Rashab established Orach LeTzaddik (The Way of the Tzaddik), so that people would travel to Haditch every year on Chof-Daled Teves, the Alter Rebbe's yahrzeit, and the news caused a great tumult in Homil. In the narrator's recollection — partly from what he heard through his brother Baruch about the events in Lubavitch — his zeide, his father, the wealthy men Alter Shur and Moshe Leviant, and other chassidim from Homil joined the Rebbe's two shluchim who were passing through Homil by train; he thinks they were a minyan. They established the practice that every year people would learn a chapter of Tanya in Haditch.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
139 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000565
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, p. 286, no. 5
The narrator's zeide, R. Mordechai Yoel, related that toward the end of his life Reb Aizel said, "The world is falling; we need the Rebbe (the Alter Rebbe) back again in the world." Later he added, "The world is falling seriously; we need an orderly seder — that is, the Baal Shem Tov, the Mezritcher Maggid and the Alter Rebbe."
1 min to tellvery good to tell
131 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000364
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. 162, no. 42
R. Zavil Zeidenfeld would always recount this story with overwhelming hispa'alus: R. Yaakov Korinitzer told him in Rostov that days before the Rebbe's last Purim, the Rebbe gave him instructions about checking the wheat to be ground for shemurah matzah. The Rebbe concluded, "The term tzav (command) always refers to the present moment — and to future generations."
1 min to tellvery good to tell
122 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000181
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
|