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As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 306-307, no. 41
An agunah came to the Tzemach Tzedek in Lubavitch to ask about her missing husband, and the Rebbe sent her to Reb Aizel in Homil, who said he had no way of knowing where her husband was. She stayed in Homil for weeks, coming daily and weeping while Reb Aizel sent her away, until one day she refused to budge. Reb Aizel began shoving his meshares Mottel Gabeitzik, who in turn shoved the woman through all the rooms and out into the street — the Kiev-Petersburg highway that ran past the house — at the exact moment a wagon carrying her husband was passing. She screamed, the wagon halted, and a settlement was concluded.
3 min to tellexcellent to tell
391 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000400
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. 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
story_000654
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. 101-102, no. 41
R. Groinem the mashpia recounted that an agunah with a mute son of eight or nine came to the Tzemach Tzedek in Lubavitch and persistently pressed him to tell her where her husband was. Once she had the boy tug at the edge of the Rebbe's garment, and the Rebbe told him, "Tell your mother that your father is returning soon" — which the child did. When the Tzemach Tzedek was told what had happened, he answered, "I didn't know that the boy was mute."
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
188 wordsTzemach Tzedek
story_000097
score 1.18 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.35
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 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. 483-484, no. 3
Drafted into the Red Army in the Second World War and wounded at the front, R. Eliyahu Akiva Lipskar was permitted to leave besieged Leningrad for medical treatment and to take one person with him; the lot fell on Rochel, daughter of Schneur Zalman Duchman, who was knowledgeable in medical matters. After great difficulties they reached Tashkent, where they married. Conditions there were desperate — people starving in the streets and sickness raging — and Rochel contracted typhus; R. Eliyahu, caring for her when she was alone without family, caught it as well, and both became critical. A chossid in Tashkent, R. Yisroel Konson, cooked porridge for them and brought it to the hospital, leaving it on the windowsill when he was refused entry because of the contagion, and so sustained them and saved them from certain death.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
288 wordsR. Eliyahu Akiva Lipskar
story_000662
score 1.08 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.55
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 491-492, no. 13
A family of twelve, chassidim of the Skulener Rebbe, arrived in Toronto; the father fell gravely ill and died, leaving a widow with ten young children. R. Eliyahu collected a large sum for them and established an official fund to support each member of the family, and as each child reached marriageable age he found a spouse, arranged everything the couple needed, and married off all ten as if they were of illustrious status, worrying for them as though they were his own children. After R. Eliyahu's passing, the Skulener Rebbe came to the shiva — arriving in Toronto at 3 A.M. after an airplane delay and asking the family to receive him at that hour — to thank them for the kindness shown to his chassidim.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
282 wordsR. Eliyahu Akiva Lipskar
story_000672
score 1.08 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.55
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 102-103, no. 42
R. Mordechai Yoel related that women would travel to the Viledniker Rebbe while men went to Lubavitch, but after the Viledniker's passing everyone — including many agunos — came to the Tzemach Tzedek, who performed open miracles. His children challenged him for performing miracles "as they do in Poland." He answered that it required nothing more than a good memory: he had advised each young man where to travel for a livelihood, so when a wife later came searching for her vanished husband, he remembered where he had sent him.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
274 wordsTzemach Tzedek
story_000098
score 1.06 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.53
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 101, no. 40
Chassidim relate that a question came before the Tzemach Tzedek regarding a woman accused of adultery, and he inclined toward ruling her forbidden to her husband. She traveled to the tzaddik R. Mordechai of Chernobyl, who said he saw no sign of the transgression on her face. The Tzemach Tzedek then wrote that perhaps the abundance of her tears had erased the sin from her face. A parenthetical note records that the Rebbe wrote, on 13 Elul 5709, that he had heard the halachic deliberation in this matter was with the Tzemach Tzedek's brother-in-law, R. Yaakov Yisroel of Cherkass, son of R. Mordechai of Chernobyl.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
246 wordsTzemach Tzedek
story_000096
score 1.04 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.47
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 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, pp. 345-346, no. 45
The zeide, R. Mordechai Yoel, once sighed while sitting at a farbrengen with Reb Hillel Paritcher. Reb Hillel asked what he was sighing about, and he answered that he did not know. Reb Hillel pressed further — how can it be that a Yid sighs? — until the zeide replied that perhaps it was subconscious, since his older sister was still unmarried.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
163 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000462
score 0.96 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.32
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 475-476, no. 19
R. Yisroel Duchman's care for others extended to those close at hand: he organized collections that enabled countless young brides and grooms to set up their homes, and recipients could feel that he was genuinely glad to be helping them. Giving was a natural, ongoing part of his life, in the spirit of the chassidic adage that "the piece of bread that I have is yours just as much as it is mine." All year round his Shabbos table was surrounded by guests from all over the world, an effort in which his wife Rochel was his tireless partner, and for which he showed her the utmost appreciation and respect.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
152 wordsR. Yisroel Duchman
story_000653
score 0.95 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.30
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 62, no. 1
The Mitteler Rebbe said that an ayin hara does more damage spiritually than physically. The narrator's zeide related that at Der Groiser Chassuna (the Great Wedding) in Zhlobin, the Alter Rebbe did not want R. Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev to hear the Mitteler Rebbe reciting Chassidus. When R. Levi Yitzchak once entered the room, the Alter Rebbe came running and called out, "Mechutan! What are you doing here?!" — and immediately took him away.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
146 wordsMitteler Rebbe
story_000043
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. 89, no. 21
A Jew from the village of Pokolovitch came to the Tzemach Tzedek and complained that he suffered because his wife ruled over him. The Tzemach Tzedek answered that the Torah says "and your desire will be for your husband" and then "and he will rule over you" — but when the first part is reversed, the second part is reversed as well.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
117 wordsTzemach Tzedek
story_000077
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. 136-137, no. 8
Rebbetzin Shterna Sarah related that when she came from Avrutch to Lubavitch to become the Rebbe Maharash's daughter-in-law, she noticed that all the children of the household were tall while she herself was short. Her father-in-law told her not to be troubled by it, since we see that low trees produce good fruit.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
111 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000147
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. 252, no. 90
Rebbetzin Shterna Sarah related that when the Rebbe Rashab spoke with her about shidduchim for the grandchildren, he said, "Nu, that one is for Chana; and for Musya (Chaya Mushka), I think, one of Leivik's children." She added, "How he thought about everything!"
1 min to tellvery good to tell
93 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000321
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, pp. 425-426, no. 14
R. Leima Minkowitz of Nevel, a respected chossid whose wife Chaya Mina ran their successful business so he could daven and study, agreed to the match between his daughter Chaya Grunya and R. Zalman, and the wedding was set for Homil. On the day of travel the Minkowitz family boarded the train in the crowded station without checking that everyone was aboard, and only after it pulled out did they realize the kallah had been left on the platform, running after the accelerating train; R. Leima demanded so authoritatively that the conductors stop the train that they did, and Chaya Grunya boarded. Though Homil was still ravaged by famine and typhus, the wedding was held on erev Shabbos with great joy and the festivities continued for days, and on Shavuos 5681 the couple was blessed with a daughter, Beila Rochel.
2 min to tellgood to tell
299 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000570
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=0.60 length_suitability=0.57
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 195, no. 90
The Rebbe Rashab spoke to the narrator's brother-in-law, R. Yitzchak Minkowitz, shortly after his wedding. He told him that being an ehrlicher Yid while still a yeshivah bochur is no great feat; remaining an ehrlicher Yid once one is a married yungerman is the real accomplishment.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
75 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000229
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. 368, no. 3
The Mezritcher Maggid's disciples approached his second wife and persuaded her to demand her conjugal rights, hoping another son on the level of R. Avraham "the Malach" would be born, and she agreed. When the Maggid entered the room she was seized with terror and cried out that she waived her rights. The Maggid remarked that his first wife had heard no more than the door opening as he came in and closing as he left — so removed was she from materiality.
2 min to tellgood to tell
219 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000487
score 0.81 ·
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=0.43
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 104-105, no. 46
After her passing, the Tzemach Tzedek was deeply broken and had no desire to say Chassidus or to conduct yechidus. To his children he said that they had had a mother here and now have a mother in Gan Eden, but that for him she is missing. Chassidim explained that since she was Malchus of Atzilus, it was through her that he had a connection to the worlds of Beriah, Yetzirah and Assiah.
1 min to tellgood to tell
146 wordsTzemach Tzedek
story_000102
score 0.74 ·
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=0.28
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 230, no. 48
The Rebbetzin also related an episode about a shidduch proposed for a Tomchei Temimim student, in which she gave one opinion and her son, the Rebbe, held differently. Afterward she remarked, "It seems to me that 'the wife of a Torah scholar is comparable to a Torah scholar' — nonetheless, it passed over to him, and he does better (macht besser)."
1 min to tellgood to tell
130 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000279
score 0.72 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.60 length_suitability=0.25
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 447-449, no. 48
On Shabbos Parshas Ki Teitzei, a week after arriving in New York, Reb Zalman Duchman led Shacharis and Mincha with great joy in anticipation of his son Yisroel's wedding, which was to take place the next day in faraway Paris. A chossid's diary records the atmosphere in 770 that Shabbos: after the farbrengen, R. Yochanan Gordon, the gabbai of 770, told the Rebbe that since Reb Zalman had made kiddush and was in high spirits he davened Mincha so joyously. The Rebbe replied, "Shacharis was also very joyous!"
1 min to tellgood to tell
113 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000604
score 0.71 ·
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=0.22
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 155-156, no. 31
R. Aharon Eliezer Ceitlin of Zuravitz related that after his marriage the Rebbe gave him particular instructions. He asked the Rebbe whether such a thing was only relevant for Talmidei Chachomim, and the Rebbe answered that in this matter everyone may consider himself a Talmid Chochom.
1 min to tellgood to tell
89 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000170
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, p. 104, no. 45
The narrator's zeide was present when Rebbetzin Chaya Mussia passed away. After the burial was completed, the Tzemach Tzedek said, "Chaya, go to Heaven and say: However much Torah came out from your belly, it is still not enough."
1 min to tellgood to tell
80 wordsTzemach Tzedek
story_000101
score 0.68 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.60 length_suitability=0.15
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 191, no. 84
The narrator relates that in yechidus the Rebbe spoke with him about how the ohr klali shines on the day of one's chuppah, and about the preparations a person must make in order to receive such a light.
1 min to tellgood to tell
72 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000223
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. 325-326, no. 12
The narrator relates that his zeide slept wearing his hat, yarmulke and chalat, and covered himself only in the bitter cold of winter. His grandmother had a separate room, and the zeide ate together with her at the same table only on Shabbos and Yom-Tov. In her old age she told the narrator that from the time of Aunt Sarah Rivkah's birth he lived in separate quarters; they had three sons and two daughters.
1 min to telltells with work
181 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000429
score 0.57 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.40 length_suitability=0.35
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 468-469, no. 2
When the Leningrad siege broke, the Duchman family fled to Samarkand, Uzbekistan, where a chassidic community was flourishing, and after the war they escaped Russia on false Polish passports. They lived for the next few years, with thousands of other refugees, in the displaced persons camp in Poking, Germany. Yisroel then left his family to study in the Tomchei Temimim yeshivah in Brunoy, France under the mashpia R. Nissan Nemenov, and in 5710 he became engaged to Rochel Rubashkin, daughter of R. Getzel and Rosa, marrying her on the 15th of Elul.
1 min to telltells with work
110 wordsR. Yisroel Duchman
story_000636
score 0.50 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.40 length_suitability=0.20
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