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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. 91-92, no. 26
Herschel der Schvartzer, the Tzemach Tzedek's attendant, related that on the motzaei Shabbos of the first Selichos the Rebbe sent him to deliver an urgent letter to wealthy men in a particular shul in Vitebsk before Selichos. The Rebbe gave him a glass of mashkeh to drink, wrapped his own gartel around him, and gave him a bottle of mashkeh to finish at the inn along the way. Setting out from Lubavitch on foot in pitch darkness, unaware of where he was or how far he had gone, he passed the inn, drank the bottle, and soon found himself in Vitebsk, where he delivered the letter; asked where he had been for Shabbos, he answered only "Nu, nu" and turned back. He told the story only after the Tzemach Tzedek's passing; Lubavitch to Vitebsk is roughly 66 miles.
3 min to tellexcellent to tell
417 wordsTzemach Tzedek
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score 1.40 ·
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=0.80
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 75-76, no. 2
The narrator's grandfather had such retention that he had no need for the chozer's repetition of a maamar. When chassidim returned from Lubavitch reporting that the Rebbe Rashab recited maamarim lasting several hours, he said he could not have absorbed them, and when they later reported that the maamarim were growing shorter, he said that as the Rebbe rises higher the maamarim will be shorter still. At fourteen he set out on foot to Lubavitch with a group of older chassidim; at an inn along the way a distinguished Jew berated him for a child going off to Lubavitch, and he answered that after they ate he would reply. When they finished he said, "Show me where there is a difference between a boy who is bar mitzvah and an eighty-year-old Jew," and the man — a chossid of the Alter Rebbe — embraced and kissed him.
3 min to tellexcellent to tell
347 wordsTzemach Tzedek
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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. 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, p. 392, no. 18
The narrator's zeide, R. Mordechai Yoel, used to say that the Rebbeim disliked hearing about people's wrongdoings and preferred to speak Chassidus; yet at the Simchas Torah farbrengen of 5685 (1924) the Rebbe spoke at length about viduy devarim, and people became baalei teshuvah. A yungerman from Nevel, whose infant had suffocated in its sleep, chased the Rebbe from Leningrad to Moscow and finally to Rostov, apparently in the winter of 5683 (1923). At that yechidus the Rebbe told him that if people knew how good it is to tell everything — literally everything — once in six months or once a year, it would be truly good.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
315 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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score 1.30 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.60
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 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. 438-440, no. 38
Rochel, R. Zalman's only daughter, was sent by the school district with five hundred other students to dig trenches on the outskirts of Leningrad, and the grueling work left her feet numb and swollen and her fingers bleeding. Two boys in the group, one Jewish and one gentile, took pity on her and set out to bring her back to Leningrad for care, but found the local train station bombed beyond recognition. The stationmaster told them that although passenger trains no longer ran, freight trains slowed as they passed, and the three managed to jump aboard a moving train while holding the ailing girl, reaching a hospital in Leningrad where she fully recovered. Word later came that the area where they had been working was bombed by Nazi planes, and of the five hundred students only Rochel and the two who carried her survived; R. Zalman attributed the miracle to the bracha she had received from the Frierdiker Rebbe in Tishrei of 5688 (1927), before he left Russia.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
318 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000594
score 1.30 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.60
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 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. 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. 447-449, no. 47
After four years in a DP camp, R. Zalman Duchman and his family received United States visas and arrived in New York on Wednesday, 4 Elul 5711 (1951), settling in Crown Heights near the Rebbe. Having lost two sons and narrowly escaped the N.K.V.D., he resolved to devote the rest of his life to Torah, davening and acts of kindness. The day after his arrival he went into yechidus; the Rebbe rose from his place and said, "So, if one is persistent enough, one succeeds!" and spent a long time reminiscing with him about their shared years in Leningrad with the Frierdiker Rebbe, remarking that in America they could finally speak openly and freely. When the Rebbe said, "Nu, Reb Zalman, from Leningrad to New York and we are seeing each other, Boruch Hashem!" R. Zalman answered somberly that the "ticket" had been very expensive.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
288 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, p. 312, no. 51
Reb Aizel explained, with a nigun, that when the Alter Rebbe would say Chassidus the nefesh ha'bahamis would flee, whereas nowadays one can listen to and study Chassidus while the animal soul remains at full strength and untroubled — it resists only davening at length and traveling to the Rebbe. The narrator adds that his zeide (רמ"י) reported hearing from the baalei batim of Sosnitza, where the zeide was a son-in-law, that whenever they needed to travel to the Tzemach Tzedek the greatest obstacles would arise; yet once they overcame them and set out, on the way back from Lubavitch they saw that the obstacles had been utterly nothing.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
246 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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score 1.24 ·
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=0.47
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 324, no. 10
While traveling together, the narrator's zeide and Reb Hillel were forced to abandon their wagon when it became stuck in mud. Reb Hillel, who was physically weak and suffered from a hernia, carried his own unusually heavy tallis and tefillin bag, which held Shimusha Rabbah and Raavad tefillin in addition to Rashi and Rabbeinu Tam, along with the sefer Emek HaMelech. When the zeide offered to carry it for him, Reb Hillel answered that he was very dear to him and he would give him everything, but his own self and essence he could not give away — and these were his very essence.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
245 wordsRebbe Rayatz
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score 1.24 ·
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=0.47
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 485-486, no. 6
The Lipskars arrived in Canada in 5712 (1952), and that year the Rebbe sent R. Eliyahu a ticket so he could travel to him for Purim. When he told the Rebbe's secretary Rabbi Hadakov that he lacked the documents to reenter Canada, the Rebbe answered with a smile that his mother had told him how well R. Eliyahu handled the Russian border guards — and now he couldn't sort something out? At the Purim farbrengens of those years the Rebbe would tell him to say l'chaim, and on one occasion sent him back for a second cup, then a third, then indicated the cup should be full and told him to drink yet another, until after four large cups he was rolling under the table. Before he returned home the Rebbe told him in yechidus to repeat in Toronto what he had heard in New York; R. Eliyahu answered that he could repeat what was said before chatzos but had not heard the teachings from chatzos onward, and the Rebbe replied that after chatzos they were much better than before.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
246 wordsR. Eliyahu Akiva Lipskar
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score 1.24 ·
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=0.47
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 113-114, no. 60
A chossid who was in Lubavitch and needed to travel to Petersburg was told by the Tzemach Tzedek at the end of his yechidus to deliver a letter to "the soldier" in Petersburg. On the way he glanced at the letter, saw it was a blank sheet, and concluded there was nothing for him to do. As he entered Petersburg near Troitsky Bridge, a soldier approached his wagon and asked whether he had a letter for him from the Rebbe; too astonished to think, he handed it over, and the soldier vanished from sight.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
230 wordsTzemach Tzedek
story_000116
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. 238-239, no. 63
R. Aharon Leib Lein, a grandson of R. Chaim Dovid the shochet of Nevel, related that he came from Poltava to spend Purim in Leningrad and entered yechidus after Purim. The Rebbe asked him whether he had heard what was spoken there; he answered that he wanted a bracha. The Rebbe replied that a blessing from a Jew is noteworthy, from a Torah scholar certainly so, and from the son of holy pure tzaddikim all the more — but that a bracha is like rain: when one plows and sows and Hashem sends rain, good kernels grow, whereas on an untilled field nothing comes of it.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
233 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000294
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. 318-320, no. 2
R. Mordechai Yoel related that Reb Hillel Paritcher was first a chossid of Reb Mottele of Chernobyl and later became a follower of the Mitteler Rebbe. Traveling in the days of the Tzemach Tzedek, Reb Hillel met Rebbe Mottele, who asked him, "Hilke, why did you leave me?" and observed that when a leaf falls from a tree it is a sign the tree is lacking something; the exchange ended with Rebbe Mottele saying that Reb Hillel would never have a hadras panim and would lie with his pupik facing up. Reb Hillel went straight to the Tzemach Tzedek, who answered that a person traveling in a wagon that overturns also ends up with his pupik facing upward; the Rebbe was not troubled by that second matter. In the end Reb Hillel did not have a beautiful countenance — that is, a handsome beard.
3 min to tellvery good to tell
443 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000419
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=0.80 length_suitability=0.85
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 41, no. 17
Chassidim traveling to the Alter Rebbe in Liozna hired a wagon and driver as usual. A few days after arriving, the driver vanished and his horse stood unfed; they searched and found him wandering in the woods, shouting over and over, "If you were to ask a goy, 'Do you love G-d?' — he, too, would answer, 'I love Him!'" He had heard Chassidus from the Alter Rebbe and those were the only words he could grasp, yet their impact made him forget all of his work and responsibilities.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
217 wordsAlter Rebbe
story_000017
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. 262, no. 101
The Rebbe's mother, Rebbetzin Shterna Sarah, and his wife, Rebbetzin Nechama Dinah, wearing white silk scarves, accompanied the Rebbe to the train station. From the coach window the Rebbe told his mother that it is true that "Hashem our G-d will be with us, as He was with our forefathers," and it will surely be, "Let Him not leave us, nor forsake us." Then, turning to those standing there, he said, "Ah, such an unnecessary trip. Nu, you'll probably say Yevarechecha."
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
217 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000332
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. 152, no. 25
In Lubavitch they tell of a Jew who asked the Rebbe whether his son should travel to America, and the Rebbe did not approve. The son traveled anyway and drowned. When the father came to Lubavitch for yechidus and asked, "Rebbe, why didn't you tell me? I wouldn't have let him travel," the Rebbe's countenance changed and he answered, "Believe me, I didn't know. But when we give advice, it should be followed."
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
208 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. 201, no. 6
After Shavuos in the summer of 5669 (1909), while the Rebbe Rashab was at a dacha in Babinovitch, the narrator came out of yechidus and was called over in the woods by the Rebbe's son, who asked what his father had spoken about. Told it concerned the trip to Warsaw, the Rebbe's son walked with him and spoke at length about not being overwhelmed by the world and carrying oneself exactly as in Lubavitch. He pointed out that the Chinese who come here walk around just as they do at home, because they know that at home everyone conducts himself that way.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
208 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000237
score 1.20 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.40
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 213-214, no. 24
The Rebbe described the difference between two ways of traveling to a Rebbe: one man went to Liadi to visit a relative and, since he was already there, also went in to the Alter Rebbe; the second traveled specifically to the Alter Rebbe. Since the Supernal World mirrors the Lower World, when the two passed on, the one who had come only for the Rebbe was admitted as a true chossid, while the other was left with the anguish of asking why he had not gone solely to the Rebbe.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
180 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000255
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. 433-435, no. 26
In Malachovka the Frierdiker Rebbe remained under constant surveillance and concluded he had no choice but to leave Russia entirely, scheduled for Isru Chag of Sukkos 5688 (1927). That Tishrei was highly emotional for chassidim, since for many it would be their last time seeing him, and for Simchas Torah they traveled from all across the Soviet Union to be with him before he left. R. Zalman, who was with the Frierdiker Rebbe for that Tishrei, recalls that the last dance engraved in his memory took place on the last Simchas Torah during the day, when the Rebbe held his holy hands up high and sang Nye Zhuritze Chloptzi.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
142 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000582
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. 58, no. 41
In his old age Reb Chaim Avraham, a son of the Alter Rebbe, would travel to hear the Tzemach Tzedek blow the shofar. The Rebbe Maharash asked him why he troubled himself when he could easily assemble a minyan of his own for the tekios. He answered that the posuk says 'ashrei ha'am yodei teruah' — happy are the people who know the teruah, not those who blow it.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
132 wordsAlter Rebbe
story_000041
score 1.12 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.25
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 424-425, no. 13
Half a year after the deaths in his family, on 2 Nissan 5680 (1920), the Rebbe Rashab passed away in Rostov — a difficult period for R. Zalman Duchman, who had been so connected to him. His love for the Rebbe Rashab drove him to make the long and arduous trip to the Ohel for the yahrtzeit every year. Before Beis Nissan he would board the train to Rostov without knowing what lay ahead, even though Communist spies rode the trains watching for "suspicious persons" and anti-Semitic thugs regularly attacked anyone they recognized as Jewish. His burning desire to be by his Rebbe on that day made him ignore those fears.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
118 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000569
score 1.11 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.22
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 163-164, no. 44
R. Yosef Yozik Gurevitch of Warsaw related that when he and his son-in-law R. Feivel Zalmanov came to the Rebbe outside of Russia, the Rebbe instructed them to be mekabel shalom. Invited to the Rebbe on Shabbos evening when no wine was available, the Rebbe said it does not feel right to hold a knife while reciting Kiddush and told them to make Kiddush over liquor, though he himself recited Kiddush over challah. When they returned Shabbos morning the Rebbetzin asked whether they had davened, and said of the Rebbe, "Ah! How he davened! I barely survived!"
2 min to tellvery good to tell
317 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000183
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. 177, no. 64
In the winter of 5683 (1923) the narrator, in Nevel on business, heard that the Rebbe Rayatz was in Leningrad and traveled there; the Rebbe was staying with the prominent chassidic gvir R. Shmuel Michel Treinin. In the dining room on Rizenska Prospect, R. Shmuel Michel said to R. Meir Simcha of Nevel that "he gave his son everything," and that there are matters in which the son's strength exceeds the father's. The narrator, then a young man leaning on the sturdy tree of his zeide R. Mordechai Yoel, related that he had heard of an incident with the Mitteler Rebbe in which people said the son's strength is greater than the father's, and the Mitteler Rebbe cried out, "But it all comes from the father's strength."
2 min to tellvery good to tell
318 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000203
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. 474-475, no. 17
In 5724 (1963), after R. Mendel Futerfas left Russia, he went straight to 770 to meet the Rebbe and appealed to the chassidic community that chassidim in Russia lacked basic necessities — some had nothing to eat, others had exit permission but no money for tickets — asking, "Why are you all sleeping?" His words moved R. Yisroel Duchman, together with several other chassidim of Russian background, to found Lishkas Ezras Achim to help Russian Jews, and R. Yisroel raised many thousands of dollars for it, saying humbly that he did not understand spiritual matters but understood material things: he wanted another Jew to have food, a bed, and to receive it with a warm, inviting smile. When the Soviet gates opened he made fundraising trips to help emigrants settle in Eretz Yisroel, and he partnered with Dr. Yirmiyahu Branover — whose own exit he had helped arrange — in Branover's organization Shamir for Russian immigrants there.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
311 wordsR. Yisroel Duchman
story_000651
score 1.10 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.60
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 58, no. 40
Reb Aizel was once offered the position of rebbe in Retzitza. He was already about to seat himself in the carriage to travel there when he remembered that the Alter Rebbe had once told him, "Aizik, do my children a favor" — and he declined the appointment.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
96 wordsAlter Rebbe
story_000040
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. 143-144, no. 15
In the summer of 5674 the railroad added a cheap fourth class, halving the fare from Homil to Krasnoye. Wanting to be in Lubavitch for Shavuos, the narrator took his tefillin and slipped away to the train, telling his brother to announce that evening that he had left; on his return his zeide, R' Mordechai Yoel, told him he had acted correctly but should have told him, since he would have given him a three-ruble note for the road. From Krasnoye he walked to Lubavitch on foot, and the spiritual pleasure of that Shavuos was extraordinary: the Rebbe himself led the weekday davening during the mourning period for his mother, Rebbetzin Rivkah, and once, saying 'echad' of Shema in deep concentration, he snapped his fingers.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
302 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000154
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=0.80 length_suitability=0.57
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 153-154, no. 27
During the First World War R. Zalman Havlin passed through Homil with his brother Lipa of Postov, near Kiev, whom he had gotten released from his regiment for half a year. R. Zalman related that when he asked the Rebbe about his brother's draft notice, the Rebbe told him to think about obtaining a passport; being well versed in such matters, R. Zalman raised other ideas instead. The Rebbe answered, "Listen, Zalman, there's a life at stake. What was said — was said. But when you start reasoning with me this way, I don't know what to say." R. Zalman concluded that after a great deal of hard work he had just about gotten his brother out, and even so he was not completely free.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
305 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000166
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=0.80 length_suitability=0.57
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, pp. 461-462, no. 71
The Rebbe appointed R. Zalman Duchman as a shadar, and twice a year he traveled across the country collecting funds, spending a month each winter in Chattanooga, TN with an elder chossid and relative, Rabbi Chasdan, the local shochet, and a month between Pesach and Shavuos in Toronto, where his daughter and son-in-law lived. The trips were hard on him — he could not speak English, had few contacts, and did not bring in large sums — and he wanted to stop, but the Rebbe insisted he continue, saying he was sending him to Chattanooga "az men zol zen aza hadras ponim — that they should see his remarkable countenance." The purpose of such trips had always been to sow spirituality and reap material fortune, and with his warmth and genuine care R. Zalman connected with many Yidden, opened their eyes to the concept of a Rebbe, guided them to the Rebbe's door, and carried their requests to the Rebbe himself.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
304 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000627
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=0.80 length_suitability=0.57
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 50, no. 27
Reb Nochum, a son of the Mitteler Rebbe, told the narrator's zeide that he accompanied the Alter Rebbe's body from Piena to Haditch, dressed in a fur coat as though alive. The cold was so severe that he and Reb Chaim Avraham, a son of the Alter Rebbe, took turns sitting beside him. At an inn along the way two young gentiles were overheard planning to search the Jews' sleigh — dangerous in wartime, with Napoleon fighting Russia — when an old gentile came in, sat down beside them, and signaled Reb Nochum with his hand to leave; he went out at once and they continued on their way.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
282 wordsAlter Rebbe
story_000027
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. 433-435, no. 27
On Isru Chag the chassidim gathered to take leave of the Frierdiker Rebbe. R. Zalman Duchman brought his eight-year-old daughter Rochel to the Rebbe's house, where she received a warm bracha, and he accompanied the Rebbe to the train station, where the Rebbe blessed her again; R. Zalman later said it was this bracha that protected her throughout the war. Before departing the Frierdiker Rebbe handed over a farewell letter, saying, "I didn't write this letter with my heart - it is my heart." Rochel recalled the packed, weeping platform, the Rebbe standing on the train steps, the crowd running after the departing train, and a Leningrad wall newspaper that printed his picture and wrote of his G-dly face.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
286 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000583
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. 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. 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. 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, pp. 62-63, no. 2
The narrator's zeide related what Shlomo der Itcher told him about the "Great Shavuos" when the Mitteler Rebbe was in Homil. Shlomo said that although he was neither wealthy nor well known, ten minyanim of people sat at his table — so one could imagine how many thousands filled the town, given the wealthy and prominent residents there. There would not have been enough food, but the Homil river was running with saz fish, and people went down to the river with pails and caught them.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
245 wordsMitteler Rebbe
story_000044
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. 76-77, no. 3
On the way to Lubavitch the narrator's grandfather resolved to do three things: see the Rebbe right away, arrange lodging near the Rebbe's courtyard, and spend Shabbos in the company of the Rebbe's sons. They arrived on Friday and he was told the Rebbe could not be seen, as he had already returned from the mikveh, but he ran to the Rebbe's home anyway, and the Tzemach Tzedek came out and said, "No meetings now" — so the first resolution was fulfilled, since he had already seen the Rebbe. He obtained lodging near the courtyard, and because the Rebbe's son R. Shneur Zalman, the Rebbe of Liadi, had a father-in-law in Homil who had sent greetings through him, he was invited for Shabbos — and remained his guest for Shabbos and Yom-Tov for years afterward.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
243 wordsTzemach Tzedek
story_000059
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, p. 404, no. 36
In S. Louis, a frum Yid with a Polish accent told the narrator with great enthusiasm that "your Rebbe has ruach hakodesh." He explained that when the Rebbe visited the major American cities, a long line of Jews came in that very shul to hand him pidyonos; from one man the Rebbe took the pidyon, rolled it up like a cigarette, and said, "It is not possible to help you." It later became known that the man's daughter, who was living with a non-Jew, was critically ill.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
238 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000535
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. 347-348, no. 48
In his youth the narrator's zeide traveled from Lubavitch and the Tzemach Tzedek to Homil, where Reb Aizel questioned him in detail about the trip, since his interest in Lubavitch and the Tzemach Tzedek was intense and he wanted every particular. When the subject of Tisha B'Av came up, Reb Aizel asked where he had been; the zeide said Korma, and that they had recited Chassidus. Reb Aizel retorted, "You think you're so special, to recite Chassidus on Tisha B'Av?!"
2 min to tellvery good to tell
217 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000465
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. 99-100, no. 38
The Tzemach Tzedek's sons related that when he spoke about why he did not travel to the Holy Land, he would answer with a joke. It is written that the wicked who pass away in the Holy Land are carried out of it by angels; and just as hiring a carriage for a private trip is expensive while the same carriage returning empty after dropping its passengers charges far less — an "abretna," a discount trip — so, he said, he wanted to travel with the "discount travelers."
2 min to tellvery good to tell
206 wordsTzemach Tzedek
story_000094
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. 139, no. 11
Before Shavuos 5667 (1907), while the Rebbe was abroad, a relative from Eretz Yisroel who had left Russia more than twenty years earlier arrived in Lubavitch, unannounced. When the Rebbe returned and drove into the courtyard the guest recited Shehecheyanu, and the Rebbe immediately called out, "Zalman!" People remarked at this, since a man's appearance changes drastically between his twenties and his forties — the narrator recalls that the guest's beard had turned white.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
213 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000150
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. 295, no. 25
When R. Avraham HaLevi of Borshtzovk, the father of the narrator's zeide, grew weak, the narrator's uncle Rav Shneur Zalman traveled from Korma, where he served as rov, and stayed several weeks before returning home. The narrator's father was present at the parting and heard the uncle say, "Nu, the first thing is: be healthy!" — adding, with a nigun, "and if not, do not be afraid of any angel or any seraph, only of Hashem Himself."
2 min to tellvery good to tell
204 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000384
score 1.00 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.40
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 298-299, no. 30
The narrator's zeide, RMY, came to the Tzemach Tzedek in Lubavitch in the summer of 5610 (1850). In the winter of 5611 (1851) Reb Aizel, who was fluent in spoken and written Russian, was carrying out a mission for the Tzemach Tzedek in Petersburg and was expected back for Shabbos; he did not arrive, and the Tzemach Tzedek said no Chassidus that Shabbos. When Reb Aizel finally came after Shabbos he recognized the boy as Avraham Borshtzovker's younger son, blessed him abundantly with children and grandchildren, and at Rebbe Chaim Shneur Zalman's request took him along to Homil.
3 min to tellgood to tell
418 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000389
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=0.60 length_suitability=0.80
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 45, no. 24
Until he reached the age of seventy, Reb Aizel traveled every year to the Alter Rebbe's ohel in Haditch and the Mitteler Rebbe's ohel in Nezhin; after seventy he said he had taken leave of them and told them he would not be coming again. The narrator's zeide related that when he asked Reb Aizel about traveling to the Alter Rebbe's ohel, Reb Aizel told him that traveling to a Rebbe one knew is not the same as traveling to a Rebbe one did not know — but even the latter makes one's avodah easier.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
196 wordsAlter Rebbe
story_000024
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. 175, no. 62
R. Meir Simcha came to the Rebbe in Lubavitch in the 1880s after his grandfather, the famed R. Peretz Chein of Tchernigov, sent him there with the words, "A door, an opening is there." R. Meir Simcha would enthuse that a Yid who had been with the Alter Rebbe and the Mitteler Rebbe and was among the Tzemach Tzedek's greatest chassidim had said, already in the days of Liadi and Kopust, that there is a door, an opening, in Lubavitch.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
190 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000201
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, p. 353, no. 54
When the Rebbe Maharash, already Rebbe, once passed through Homil, the narrator's zeide noted three things. The Rebbe drank strong tea, explaining that one cannot sleep while traveling and tea soothes the nerves; he ate preserves, saying "Don't learn from this — for me it is a matter of health"; and he asked to see Reb Aizel's writings, and when told the copies were flawed, answered, "For us, inaccuracies don't conceal anything."
2 min to tellvery good to tell
200 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000471
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
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