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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
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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
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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. 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, pp. 488-489, no. 9
In Toronto the Rebbe encouraged R. Eliyahu to devote himself to education, and he took a position in a Talmud Torah. Friends repeatedly pressed him toward lucrative business ventures — some who entered them became millionaires — but the Rebbe answered him: being so qualified in education, is this why you had mesiras nefesh in Russia and endured everything to reach Canada, to become a businessman? He stayed in chinuch al pi taharas hakodesh for life, never arriving late once in thirty-six years, was honored at an Eitz Chaim Talmud Torah dinner attended by five hundred people, founded the first Chabad institution in Toronto with R. Yosef Assulski funding a shul and mikva, and served two decades as a spiritual guide in Gan Yisroel camp.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
325 wordsR. Eliyahu Akiva Lipskar
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score 1.31 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.62
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, 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, pp. 141-142, no. 13
The narrator's brother Baruch studied in the Shedrin branch of Tomchei Temimim and, though he answered all his examination questions in nigleh and Chassidus when he came to Lubavitch for Rosh Hashanah 5673, he was told to remain another year in Shedrin; the Rebbe told him to follow the mashpi'im's instructions. When the narrator's father came to Lubavitch for Yud-Tes Kislev of that year and mentioned at the end of yechidus that his heart was weak, the Rebbe answered that his children were frail as well, and that he had sent the younger one back to Shedrin because it was better there in gashmius. Returning home, the father came straight from the train station burning with hispa'alus and described the Rebbe's motzaei Shabbos farbrengen that ran from 11 p.m. until seven in the morning, at which the Rebbe said lechaim on 57% mashkeh, said that Above and Below must be made equal, and drank whole glasses; the giluyim, he testified, were extraordinary.
4 min to tellvery good to tell
508 wordsRebbe Rashab
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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
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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. 211-212, no. 21
The Rebbe told how the Alter Rebbe, when it was time to enroll the Mitteler Rebbe in cheder, summoned the melamed and proposed in his customary nigun to trade one mitzvah for another: the Alter Rebbe's mitzvah of V'shinantam l'vanecha for the melamed's mitzvah of sustaining his young children. He handed his son over to learn alef-beis, explaining that an alef is a dot above, a dot below, and a line between them. The Rebbe then told R. Pinchas ben Eliyahu Chaim Althoiz that enrolling one's child in Torah study accomplishes the same as the Kohen Gadol in the Holy of Holies — drawing G-dliness down into the world.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
292 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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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. 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. 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
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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. 158-159, no. 37
R. Moshe Aizel Rabkin, a gvir from Homil, reported hearing the Rebbe speak at a farbrengen — the narrator thinks it was Purim in Menton — about the special qualities of Tomchei Temimim. The Rebbe recounted that a young man had come to Lubavitch seeking acceptance into the yeshivah, was rejected by the administration, and when sent in to the Rebbe was found to be filled with false ideas — yet the Rebbe instructed that he be accepted. Much later, after a levayah in Lubavitch, the Rebbe entered the small zal to recite Yoshev Be'seiser seven times and found that same young man standing there deeply engrossed in davening, oblivious to the commotion.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
262 wordsRebbe Rashab
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score 1.25 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.50
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 284-285, no. 2
Reb Aizel had an only son, R. Yaakov Yosef, who in turn had an only son, R. Nochum Epstein. The narrator recalls that as a boy of 11 or 12, on a chassidic festive occasion, he sat near his zeide, who told how Reb Aizel once took his grandson Nochum's hand and said, "You are my right hand — although you know Chassidus like my right hand… Be an ehrlicher Yid!" As he told it, the zeide took the boy's own hand, and his eyes flowed with tears.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
232 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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score 1.23 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.45
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 138-139, no. 10
The Rebbe Rayatz related that one erev Yom Kippur his father kept giving him tasks until, realizing that his son had not yet eaten before the fast, he told him, "Yosef Yitzchak — you haven't eaten before the fast! Go wash your hands quickly." He washed and said Hamotzi, was allowed a k'zayis, and was then told to bentsh because it was late. On motzaei Yom Kippur the Rebbe Rashab told him that the posuk "lachayosam bara'av" means the hunger itself is what enlivens.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
204 wordsRebbe Rashab
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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, p. 229, no. 46
Rebbetzin Shterna Sarah related that when the Rebbe Rayatz was still quite young and the family was away on vacation, his father the Rebbe Rashab instructed him to contemplate Chassidus until his head spun and he was on the verge of fainting, and then to come to her room and collapse on the sofa there. This went on for some time. When she came to the Rebbe Rashab and protested at his giving the boy such a difficult avodah, he answered, "Nu, what kind of son do you want?"
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
207 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000277
score 1.20 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.40
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 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, 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. 74-75, no. 1
The narrator's grandfather, the venerable chossid Reb Mordechai Yoel HaLevi Duchman of Homil, was born on the second of Sivan, apparently in 5596 (1836), and from childhood was a diligent learner and meticulous in mitzvos, tying his nightcap so his head would not become uncovered in his sleep. In Homil chassidim would learn in shul through the night, and he would tell his grandchildren that at fourteen he knew the entire Shas with Gemara and Rashi, naming the geonim who had tested him. He recounted that the Tzemach Tzedek regularly summoned his grandchildren to be tested on what they had learned; when two of them said they had learned only the laws of To'en v'Nit'an, the Tzemach Tzedek responded that they had wandered idly the whole zman — that is a condiment to wisdom, but Torah is Gemara and Rashi.
3 min to tellvery good to tell
357 wordsTzemach Tzedek
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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=0.80 length_suitability=0.68
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 240-241, no. 67
A young man told the narrator that he had concluded that transforming oneself as Chassidus demands is too difficult, so a person simply remains as he is. Then at a farbrengen the Rebbe said that a person is not his own master: if his father studied, he must study; if his zeide was a chossid, he must be a chossid.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
122 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000298
score 1.11 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.22
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 39, no. 15
The Alter Rebbe heard an infant crying in the Mitteler Rebbe's room and came in to find the Mitteler Rebbe sitting immersed in his learning, not hearing the child. He asked him, "Why don't you learn from me? In the deepest meditation, I can still hear a fly's wings beating against the wall."
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
106 wordsAlter Rebbe
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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=1.00 length_suitability=0.20
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 137-138, no. 9
On motzaei Yom Kippur 5675 (1914), after an unusually late Neilah, Maariv and Kiddush Levanah, Rebbetzin Shterna Sarah told the Rebbe that her son had not yet broken his fast. When he came in he explained that he had drunk a glass of cold water, remarking that the davening had run so late that Yechiel the chazan, who traveled to raise funds for Tomchei Temimim, could already have covered several villages. The Rebbe answered that he had long ago said that hurrying comes from a soul's lowliness, told him to sit down, and when he would not, said, "You're starting already in the new year?!"
2 min to tellvery good to tell
309 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000148
score 1.10 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.60
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 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, pp. 237-238, no. 60
The Rebbe related that when the Rashbatz (Reb Shmuel Betzalel) told him he would begin learning Chassidus with him, he refused, saying he would learn Chassidus only with his father. The Rashbatz protested that he had taught Chassidus to both his father and his grandfather. When his father asked why he would not study with the Rashbatz, he repeated that he wanted to learn only with him; his father objected that he was busy with people and had no time, and he answered, "I'll wait" — and so it was. Later his father told him he was very grateful for his insistence.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
270 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000291
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. 94-95, no. 30
The narrator's zeide related that at a tisch the Tzemach Tzedek told his son R. Yosef Yitzchak: "Your father-in-law teaches his children not to eat — while I teach my children to eat." He described the father-in-law sitting three hours in deep thought with his head thrown back, saying that had he instead studied Tur with Beis Yosef standing for six hours he would not have been uninterested in eating. The zeide said it was the same with Reb Aizel of Homil: when the Mitteler Rebbe's son R. Nochum passed through Homil he would stop to visit him, and at the table he barely touched his food, drawing Reb Aizel's rebuke, "You eat nothing, you Polisher rebbe — it's intolerable!"
2 min to tellvery good to tell
255 wordsTzemach Tzedek
story_000086
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. 468, no. 1
Yisroel HaLevi Duchman was born to Zalman and Chaya Grunya on Shabbos, 8 Tishrei 5689 (1928), and the Frierdiker Rebbe, then in Riga, sent a letter with a bracha for the newborn. He grew up in Leningrad under communist oppression, taught at home by his father together with his brother Dovber Menachem Mendel while the oldest brother Mordechai Yoel was sent to the underground Tomchei Temimim in Kutaisi. When the Nazis besieged Leningrad in Elul 5701 (1941), both brothers were lost — one fell in battle with the Soviet army, the other left the house and never returned — and their father, broken and famished, was hospitalized. The burden of feeding the family fell on eleven-year-old Yisroel, who used charm and ingenuity to obtain scraps of food from a nearby Russian army camp, sustaining his family and others who turned to the Duchmans for help.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
261 wordsR. Yisroel Duchman
story_000635
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. 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. 440-441, no. 40
Eliyahu Akiva Lipskar, a young tomim born in Poltava in 5678 (1918) to the local rav R. Chaim Tzvi — who, though not a Chabad chossid, sent his children to Tomchei Temimim as their only hope of remaining upstanding Jews — lost his father at age twelve, when he was arrested for teaching Torah and died from the suffering. Eli went into business successfully as a bochur and donated large sums to the underground operations of R. Nissan Nemenov, R. Bentzion Shemtov and R. Avraham Mayor. Drafted into the Russian army at the outbreak of World War II, he was injured and released for treatment; as an injured soldier he was permitted a helper, and R. Zalman's oldest child and only daughter, who had nursing experience, accompanied him away from the front at Leningrad. The two reached Tashkent, joined the Lubavitch community there and married; when both contracted typhus and were quarantined, a caring chossid, R. Yisroel Konson, sustained them with nourishing food and saved them from death.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
227 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000596
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, pp. 484-485, no. 4
In Tashkent R. Eliyahu was a zealous activist: he established chadarim where children were taught Torah, did many deeds of kindness, and helped the public with communal needs. R. Aharon Chazan recounts in his book Neged Hazerem that it was R. Eliyahu who recommended he take a position in the secret cheder network — R. Aharon founded the chadarim and found teachers while R. Eliyahu raised the money to pay them. After his release from the Red Army R. Eliyahu went into business and, despite the danger, profited, using most of the money to support the Chabad underground that secretly maintained yeshivos and chadarim, and to help families whose breadwinner had no work or who were denied ration coupons for refusing to work on Shabbos. Living in Moscow while many religious Jews remained in Tashkent, and with money transfers nearly impossible, he served as a conduit for smuggled goods but dealt only with merchants willing to send some of the wares to the secret yeshivos — all the while in great personal danger.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
224 wordsR. Eliyahu Akiva Lipskar
story_000663
score 1.01 ·
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As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 92-93, no. 27
R. Shalom DovBer, son of R. Yehudah Leib and grandson of the Tzemach Tzedek, told the narrator's zeide that when the Russian government school was established in Lubavitch the Tzemach Tzedek was compelled to send two of his grandchildren there, Shalom DovBer among them, and for that reason the Rebbe learned Tanya with them. Studying Chapter 50, at the words yesh mispa'el… ve'yesh mispa'el, he explained: "Mispa'el — ve'yesh: one can have an intense arousal of Elokus and still remain a self-centered yesh." He repeated the words several times and was so absorbed in dveikus that he did not finish the chapter that day.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
204 wordsTzemach Tzedek
story_000083
score 1.00 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.40
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, 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, pp. 202-203, no. 8
A rov who had been an outstanding student in Lubavitch related that he was not allotted shemurah matzah for all of Pesach, though such students expected it. He went to the Rebbe Rayatz, then the menahel po'el, and said simply, "Shemurah." The Rebbe answered, "Shemurah? Shemurah is in the trousers," and the student ran out at once.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
191 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000239
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, p. 329, no. 18
The zeide's daily practice between Mincha and Maariv was to recite Tanya. Traveling to a city, he would go to a shul, take out his Tanya and sit and study, learning a chapter with anyone who came to him. Several times a week he learned Tanya with the boys of R. DovBer Bobrov's cheder in Homil, and a few times a week he went before the morning davening to learn Tanya with Alter Shur, a wealthy gvir in Homil.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
199 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000435
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. 200-201, no. 5
R. Yisroel Neveler related that the Rebbe explained chinuch in sur meira with a parable about nursemaids: with one sort of nursemaid a child will not be soiled by age two; with a better one, not even at a year; and there is a nursemaid who knows the child's eyes, so that already at two or three months the child is always clean. 'And that,' said the Rebbe, 'is the sort of nursemaid I had.'
1 min to tellvery good to tell
179 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000236
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. 96-97, no. 33
R. Nochum of Radomishl related that in the days of the Tzemach Tzedek, one of the Rebbe's small grandsons stood holding an apple and crying. When the chassidim asked why, he said he wanted an apple; they told him he could simply eat the one in his hand. The child answered: "My zeide has said that what one wants, he must not do."
1 min to tellvery good to tell
142 wordsTzemach Tzedek
story_000089
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. 363, no. 9
When he left Leningrad the narrator and others accompanied him to the platform for Moscow-bound trains — people were not as fearful then. A young student was there as well, and R. Leivik told him, "Remember: vechazakta vehayisa l'ish — Strengthen yourself, become a man!" The narrator adds that although the young man later went through a spiritual decline, today he is doing well in a distant country.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
139 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000483
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. 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, p. 412, no. 47
On the morning of the narrator's bar mitzvah, his zeide took him to the mikveh very early. On the way back the zeide told him: mikveh is higher than fasting, because fasting unavoidably leaves a person with some element of yeshus (self-centeredness), whereas going to the mikveh has no relevance to yeshus at all — and is therefore higher.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
133 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000546
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. 398, no. 26
R. Michoel Dvorkin related that the Rebbe Rayatz said in Kostrama, "Why did I have to pay for the mikveh in Kostrama with blood?" R. Michoel also told that a few days before Yud-Beis Tammuz, while sitting in the shochet's courtyard and garden in Kostrama, the Rebbe remarked that a month had already passed in which he had not written about tishb"r (the education of young children) — for which one needs clean fingers — adding a few further words that the narrator did not wish to write down.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
113 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000525
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, pp. 407-408, no. 39
At the milchig Kiddush seudah she prepared for the first day of Shavuos, Rebbetzin Nechama Dinah would tell stories. One year she related that her grandmother, Rebbetzin Rivkah, wife of the Rebbe Maharash, davened at length like the great chassidim — which the narrator was glad to hear, since his uncle R. Yehudah Leib Chasdan, the shochet from Homil, had reported seeing her absorbed in "Echad" for more than two minutes. She also spoke of the brilliance of Devorah Leah, daughter of the Rebbe Maharash, who praised the Rebbetzin for raising her children so well, and mentioned Reb Zalman Aharon and her father-in-law the Rebbe Rashab, recalling with satisfaction that when she brought the children erev Rosh Hashanah and erev Yom Kippur for his blessing, he would bless her too, with his hands lifted over her head.
2 min to tellgood to tell
321 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000538
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=0.60 length_suitability=0.62
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 217-218, no. 31
The Rebbe (Rayatz) told a Jew named Dvorkin from Rudnia, who was living in Leningrad, that because he had brought nachas ruach to a tzaddik, his son was following a Yiddishe path. The man had built cases for the Rebbe Rashab's handwritten manuscripts in Lubavitch.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
99 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000262
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. 442-443, no. 42
In the summer of 5703 (1943), R. Zalman Duchman, Chaya Grunya and fourteen-year-old Yisroel reached Tashkent, where Chabad chassidim fleeing the German advance had been gathering since 5701 (1941) alongside the large Bukharian Jewish community. Amid homelessness, bread lines, filth and typhus, the extended family of chassidim held together and helped one another, and because the authorities' attention was fixed on the front they were able to organize minyanim, chadorim, yeshivos and mikvaos without fear. The Duchmans moved into their daughter and son-in-law's one-bedroom apartment divided by a curtain; Yisroel learned Chumash, Gemara and Tanya with the chossid R. Yisroel Nevler (Levin) and committed thirty perokim of Tanya to memory before transferring to a more advanced yeshivah in Samarkand. R. Zalman's son-in-law R. Eli Lipskar organized four chadorim serving over eighty children, from siddur reading through Gemara.
2 min to tellgood to tell
317 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000598
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=0.60 length_suitability=0.60
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 238, no. 61
The Rebbe once said that people have no idea how precious a Jewish child is. He pointed to R. Peretz, a child who escaped from Galicia, and to the wonderful family that grew from him. The text notes that this refers to the Chein family and the chossid R. Meir Simcha Chein of Nevel.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
91 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000292
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. 238, no. 62
R. Meir Simcha of Nevel told the narrator that he had pressed the Rebbe about why he never wrote him letters. The Rebbe answered that when he writes a letter to a young man, it affects him, it affects his family, and it affects the entire town.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
92 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000293
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. 203, no. 9
The narrator's grandfather, R' Mordechai Yoel, used to say that a Rebbe is a likeness of Heaven. In Leningrad right after Sukkos, apparently in 5686 (1925), R. Yechezkel Feigin (Chatzya Lukover), then the mashpia and mentor of Tomchei Temimim in Nevel, came in to the Rebbe to discuss Tomchei Temimim. The Rebbe told him he could not speak about the yeshivah now because things were in a state of Tohu; after Shabbos Bereishis, when Parshas Noach begins and Avraham is born — Tikkun — they would then discuss the matter.
2 min to tellgood to tell
274 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000240
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=0.60 length_suitability=0.53
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 216, no. 29
The Rebbe (Rayatz) told Leibel Gurary that it is natural for a person to want his children to be like him. For that to happen, he said, a person must lift himself higher and vacate his own place for his children.
0 min to tellvery good to tell
69 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000260
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. 218, no. 33
The Rebbe (Rayatz) poured mashkeh for a Tomchei Temimim student to say LeChaim. When the student later asked for a second LeChaim, the Rebbe said that giving mashkeh is a matter of kiruv — closeness — and added, "Nu, enough."
0 min to tellvery good to tell
66 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000264
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. 482, no. 1
R. Eliyahu Akiva Lipskar was born in 5678 (1918) in Poltava to R. Chaim Tzvi and Bas Sheva Lipskar. His father, a rov in Poltava who was not originally a chossid, nevertheless sent his sons to learn in Lubavitch, insisting this was the only enduring path for children to remain faithful Jews, and ignored friends who ridiculed him. In 5687 (1927) KGB agents surprised him at home and tortured him, demanding the names of supporters of the clandestine yeshivos; he disclosed nothing and shortly afterward died. His mother, Bas Sheva née Yaffe, a descendant of the Levush, passed away when R. Eliyahu was seventeen.
2 min to tellgood to tell
267 wordsR. Eliyahu Akiva Lipskar
story_000660
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=0.60 length_suitability=0.53
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 416, no. 55
R. Ben-Zion Raskin, a chassidishe Yid who owned a soda-water factory in Gzhatsk and later moved to Leningrad, rebuked the narrator in shul for letting his three children go about in short pants and socks, telling him he knew nothing about chinuch. On another occasion, when the narrator visited him while he was ill, Raskin opened a Tanya to chapter 44 and showed him the words of the Zohar that out of love for Hashem a person should rise each night and toil in His service until morning. The narrator concludes that these were the matters that occupied the chassidim of old.
2 min to tellgood to tell
233 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000554
score 0.82 ·
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=0.45
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 173, no. 58
The narrator was standing at the front of the zal, near the tall bookcase, where he could see all the tables — about 120 older students learning Chassidus with vitality. Two older Yidden beside him, later identified to him as former Kopuster chassidim from Dvinsk, remarked that it now made sense why the Tzemach Tzedek had held the Rebbe Maharash above his older brothers: his intent was for the son who would create such a yeshivah.
1 min to tellgood to tell
177 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000197
score 0.77 ·
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=0.35
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