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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. 140-141, no. 12
In the summer of 5674 (1914) the narrator's brother fell ill with tuberculosis of the bone and was taken from Homil to Kiev for surgery, then a second and a third operation, after which he was very weak. The narrator wrote a pidyon and sent it to the Rebbe's summer dacha in Zalsha; an opening formed at the site, the phlegm drained, and the doctor, Kostritzky, said he had never seen such a thing. The narrator brought his brother to Lubavitch for Rosh Hashanah 5675, but with the war having begun on Tisha B'Av and the crowds immense they could not obtain yechidus, and lacking money to stay through Sukkos they had to leave on motzaei Yom Kippur; the Rebbetzin let him wait in the small room outside the yechidus room, and when the Rebbe finally emerged very late and the narrator said "This is my brother," the Rebbe asked, "This is the one whose leg hurt?"
4 min to tellexcellent to tell
534 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000151
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. 119-120, no. 4
In the summer of 5675 (1915), lodging in Pinsk with R. Yisroel Yitzchak Lubinsky, the narrator heard this from him. The Rebbe Maharash would always say that a matter should be heard as it seems and answered as it seems — in a general manner. When the authorities in Semyanovka, Chernigov province, discovered untaxed alcohol being taken from the factory, a major trial was set for thirteen defendants with R. Yisroel Yitzchak as a witness, and the well-known investigator Stalietov was coming from Petersburg; R. Yisroel Yitzchak went to the Rebbe Maharash in Lubavitch and, because many Yidden faced prison, asked the Rebbe to hear out his prepared answers, ending with one question he did not know how to answer. The Rebbe told him that he is a Yid with a good head who is not sunk in physical desires, while Stalietov is a goy without such a mind and caught up in desires, so it would never occur to him to ask such questions — and so it was: the trial ended favorably.
4 min to tellexcellent to tell
488 wordsRebbe Maharash
story_000122
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. 268-269, no. 110
On Yud-Beis Tammuz, after being unofficially informed of his freedom, the Rebbe related that on Yud-Beis Tammuz 5654 (1894), his fourteenth birthday, they were on vacation and his father the Rebbe Rashab poured LeChaims. The Rashbatz asked where he had seen such a practice — by his father or his grandfather — and the Rashab answered, "Trust me"; the Rebbe concluded, "And I am grateful to him." Years later, in a yechidus about birthdays, the narrator told the story and the Rebbe Shlita corrected his understanding: the gratitude was directed to the Rashbatz, whose question drew from the Rebbe Rashab the words "Trust me" — and that, said the Rebbe, was the miracle of Yud-Beis Tammuz.
3 min to tellexcellent to tell
362 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000341
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. 216-217, no. 30
The Rebbe (Rayatz) told Chaim Amstislovsky that he became who he was from a tzaddik's glance. Reb Chaim would relate how, as a tall, handsome and wealthy young man walking in Petrograd, R. Yitzchak Yoel Rafaelovitch — the Kremenchug rov's son — told him the Lubavitcher Rebbe (the Rebbe Rashab) was in town, and after great effort he was admitted to yechidus. He was so shaken he did not know whether it was day or night, remembering only the Rebbe Rashab's words, "May you be successful wherever you turn." He noted that only the day before he had stood before Comrade Soldier Minister Bilyovsky and spoken without a trace of fear, yet before the Rebbe he was utterly nullified.
3 min to tellexcellent to tell
349 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000261
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. 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
story_000271
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, p. 225, no. 41
At a farbrengen in his mother's house the Rebbe told of a chossid who dreamt that his previous Rebbe said one of his children would pass away that year. His Rebbe told him "Tracht gut vet zein gut," but he remained badly shaken; on Simchas Torah he stood aside weeping until the thought struck him that it was nonetheless Simchas Torah, and he joined the dancing. In yechidus after Sukkos the Rebbe asked what he had done on Simchas Torah, and told him that with that he had nullified the decree. The Rebbe did not say the names of the Rebbeim involved.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
314 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000272
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. 279-280, no. 125
The narrator heard the Rebbe speak twice in Leningrad about the nigun known in Lubavitch as 'The Beinoni' (Sefer HaNigunim #46). Once, apparently on Yud-Tes Kislev 5687, the Rebbe said that he himself was not a singer but his father was, and that when Aharon Charitonov, the shochet of Nikolayev, composed the nigun, had he only pictured himself standing in yechidus before his father — something is missing. On motzaei Yom Kippur 5688, after the nigun was sung, the Rebbe said, "This is a nigun of a beinoni. What is a beinoni? You know. Then why aren't you...?" The narrator later wrote the story to the Rebbe in Brooklyn, concluding that each person can find the meaning within himself, and the Rebbe concurred.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
315 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000356
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, 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
story_000517
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
story_000152
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. 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
story_000603
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
story_000230
score 1.26 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.53
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, 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
story_000665
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. 168-169, no. 52
The narrator's brother Baruch told him in Homil, over a few lechaims, that while he was a student in Tomchei Temimim in Lubavitch the Rebbe Rashab instructed him in yechidus to stay up and learn ("zitzen") for seven nights — from Thursday morning through the following night and the whole next day until evening, without lying down. Each time he feared he might have dozed off, so he repeated the practice. In the end he stayed awake in this fashion for fifteen nights.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
221 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000191
score 1.21 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.43
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 251, no. 88
The narrator recalls receiving the bitter news of the Rebbe's passing on Yud Shevat 5710 (1950), falling to the ground with only his lips moving: "We are lost, we are lost." He recalls hearing from the senior chassidim that chassidim who said "he" in every generation were mistaken, and admits that after the Rebbe Rashab's passing he himself had asked, "If my father is not here, can I take another father?" — until he grasped that it is the same father, with even greater strength. He adds that when he came for Rosh Hashanah 5683 (1922), the Rebbe told him at his first yechidus, "We provide parnassah for our children."
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
222 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000319
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. 343, no. 42
The zeide told of a young man who came out of yechidus with the Tzemach Tzedek bursting with joy and turning somersaults in the courtyard, because the Rebbe had said Chassidus to him in the meeting. Asked how it happened, the young man related that he had requested, 'Rebbe, say Chassidus for me,' and when the Rebbe asked what he needed Chassidus for, he answered, 'I need something to daven with.' The Rebbe told him to meditate on how Hashem fills all worlds, encompasses all worlds, and how everything is utterly nothing before Him. The young man was Bera, the Patzitzer Rav.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
224 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000459
score 1.21 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.43
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 475-476, no. 20
In 5723 (1962), when R. Yisroel Duchman was earning very little, he served as a chazan in a nearby shul for Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, earning around $300, which he set aside to buy the family a washing machine. That year an uncle came from Eretz Yisroel for a bracha to marry off his three older daughters; in yechidus the Rebbe told him that if he grew a beard he would find good shidduchim for them, but the uncle, clean shaven and ten years older than his wife, was certain she would not agree. Knowing that their aunt badly wanted a leather coat the couple could not afford, the Duchmans gave away all the money saved for their much-needed washing machine so the uncle could buy it for her. He began to grow his beard, and within a few months all three daughters found good shidduchim.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
216 wordsR. Yisroel Duchman
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, 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
story_000164
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. 183, no. 74
One erev Yom Kippur in Lubavitch, after Mincha, the narrator saw the venerable chossid R. Pesach Kuper of Taganrog emerge from the Rebbe's room in tallis and kittel, having been crying. R. Pesach had gone in to receive the Rebbe's erev Yom Kippur blessing and asked that the Rebbe place his hands on his head, as the Rebbe's grandfather and father had each done when blessing him. The Rebbe laid his hands on his head and burst into tears, and, as R. Pesach put it, both of them wept.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
214 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000213
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, p. 82, no. 9
In his later years the Tzemach Tzedek held yechidus with chassidim standing back-to-back, each audience beginning the moment the one before it ended. Reb Itzele Rover of Homil, a venerable chossid of the Alter Rebbe, came for yechidus and asked the Rebbe to bless him that he not die without doing teshuvah. The narrator's zeide, standing directly behind him, heard the Tzemach Tzedek cry out, "Reb Itzele, what do you want from me? — All your days are in teshuvah."
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
166 wordsTzemach Tzedek
story_000065
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. 170-171, no. 55
In 5685 (1925) the tomim R. Yisroel Zuravitzer — R. Yisroel Jacobson, who lived in Homil — was in Leningrad, and the Frierdiker Rebbe sent him to Rostov for Beis Nissan. Coming out of yechidus he reported that the Rebbe had told him to speak at the ohel as one speaks in yechidus — "Rebbe, I am a shliach of my mother, you know her name, and of myself" — and to go to the ohel early, since for him it would be after davening while for the Rebbe it would be before davening, "maybe as a result I will daven better." The narrator testifies that on that Beis Nissan, after Shemoneh Esrei and before chazaras hashatz, the Rebbe signaled him to bring a chair and sat down, so exhausted was he from his davening.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
322 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000194
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=0.80 length_suitability=0.62
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 349-352, no. 52
As a young man who came to Lubavitch in 5610 (1850) in the days of the Tzemach Tzedek, the narrator's zeide decided that a Rebbe is similar to Hashem and that he wanted to enter without any intermediary. Reb Chaim Ber, the Rebbe's meshares, called him mad and cut off his food allowance, so that for three weeks he lived on two small kichlech a day given him by his study partner, Rebbe Shalom DovBer, son of the Maharil. One night, after Reb Chaim Ber announced that no one was permitted to enter for yechidus, the zeide slipped into the Rebbe's house; as he touched the chamber door the Rebbe came out, he answered with two points, and the Rebbe took his hand and brought him inside for a yechidus 'like none before or after.' When the Rebbe learned that his food allowance had been cut off, he cried 'Oy vey iz mir,' told him he did not need Reb Chaim Ber, and gave him six silver griveniks himself every Thursday morning — through his son the Rebbe Maharash when the zeide came late.
7 min to tellexcellent to tell
926 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000469
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=0.23
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 385-386, no. 10
Reb Moshe Zhebiner, the mashpia and chozer, recalled that in the first years after the passing of the Rebbe Maharash he handed a tzetel in yechidus to the Rebbe Rashab about a certain matter. The Rebbe answered him, "For this one needs to have a Rebbe. If there were one somewhere, I would travel there myself." The narrator adds: how can such humility not move you?
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
121 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000509
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. 247-248, no. 81
Alter Dvinsker, a Tomchei Temimim student, was to be hired as a shochet in a shtetl, but the community first wanted the Rebbe's approval. He came to Moscow for yechidus at the end of 5682 (1922), and the Rebbe told him not to be a shochet, explaining with the posuk "For man sees what is visible to the eyes" that the second half — "While G-d sees into the heart" — has been given to us, and advised him to learn photography for the time being. He did so and earned a good living, but when photography became unprofitable around 5695 (1935) he became a shochet in Horodok, and when the persecution of Yiddishkeit intensified he was arrested in 5698 (1938).
2 min to tellvery good to tell
314 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000312
score 1.10 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.60
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, 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, p. 385, no. 9
A story told in Lubavitch: a yungerman came in to the Rebbe Maharash and poured out the troubles of his heart. The Rebbe said to him, "Yungerman, tell me the thing you don't want to tell." Chassidim would add the words, "From me you will not hide."
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
92 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000508
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. 399-400, no. 28
R. Shneur Zalman Chasdan, a shochet and the narrator's cousin, related that while he stood in yechidus with the Rebbe Rashab in Lubavitch the door suddenly opened — not the door guests used, but the door of the small room between the dining room and the zal where yechidus was held — and the Rebbe's son walked in. The Rebbe Rashab said to him, "You found a way to come in," and the cousin left at once. The narrator adds that when he told the Rebbe Shlita what he had himself heard from the Rebbe Rayatz in Leningrad — that the Rayatz wanted to go together with everyone on erev Rosh Hashanah to give his father the pidyon — the Rebbe replied, "Even more: at times he even wanted to go with everyone for yechidus."
2 min to tellvery good to tell
301 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000527
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. 187-188, no. 79
The venerable R. Nochum of Radomishl came to Lubavitch in the summer of 5667 or 5668 (1907 or 1908) and spent three hours in yechidus with the Rebbe. He related that the Alter Rebbe's son R. Moshe had lived in Radomishl in seclusion on the mountain by the study hall, fasting and afflicting himself — R. Nochum once saw in the bath-house the long groove a rope had etched into his back — and that no one knew who he was; in Lubavitch they said R. Nochum gave R. Moshe's writings to the Rebbe. He remembered R. Moshe telling him, "Listen, my child: every mitzvah from which the body takes pleasure, you should run from." He also told how his father-in-law in Mosier once pointed out Avigdor, an old Jew with a rope tied around him running after gentile women, as a sight worth seeing, and how that father-in-law fainted when the picture of the Alter Rebbe was brought to him.
4 min to tellgood to tell
500 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000218
score 1.07 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.60 length_suitability=0.95
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 382, no. 4
R. Yisroel Neveler related that someone once came to the Tzemach Tzedek and said that he does not believe. The Tzemach Tzedek exclaimed, "Rabbi Yishmael believes; Rabbi Akiva believes — and you don't believe?! Ay, that's not possible!"
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
80 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000503
score 1.07 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=1.00 length_suitability=0.15
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 456-457, no. 60
R. Zalman's directness and warmth gave him a unique relationship with the Rebbe, so chassidim would ask him to present their requests. In his diary he records a yechidus in Elul 5728 (1968) where the conversation turned to eating before davening: he repeated to the Rebbe what he had heard from R. Binyomin Althoiz, that when a doctor told Meir Shlomo the rov (the Rebbe's grandfather) to eat before davening he took a 25-kopek coin and traveled to Lubavitch, and the Rebbe Rashab told him that one recites Krias Shema in tefillin and should recite Shmoneh Esrei as well; and that Yehoshua Beshenkovitzer, a rov in Vitebsk, was similarly told by the Rebbe Rashab that since the doctor said to eat early, he should finish davening early and then eat. After hearing him out, the Rebbe said, "Those were early chassidim. Today, one must eat, but not like those in Kfar Chabad who eat bread and herring."
2 min to tellvery good to tell
279 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000616
score 1.06 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.53
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 258, no. 96
Hershel, the Rebbe's meshares, related that at 12:30 a.m. on Tuesday night someone knocked at the door while the Rebbe was in the dining room after yechidus. His daughter Chana went to ask who was there and was told it was the house superintendent, but the Rebbe said, 'It's not the superintendent — it's the G.P.U.' After searching a while and finding nothing, the Rebbe asked to be left under house arrest, but the agents telephoned and said their instructions were to arrest him. The Rebbe told them, 'You should consider carefully whether it's to your advantage to do this.'
2 min to tellvery good to tell
262 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000327
score 1.05 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.50
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 395-396, no. 23
R. Yochanan the shochet related that when the Rebbe stopped in Vilna on his way from Russia to Warsaw, a tomim named Yaakov Hochman (Dokshitzer) asked him for a "ruchnius'dike yechidus" — a tikkun. The Rebbe said he could not answer; R. Yaakov said the Rebbe's father used to answer, and when the Rebbe replied that he had presumably already asked him, R. Yaakov said these were newer matters. The Rebbe then gave him a tikkun: to learn one chapter of Tanya in depth for a full week, the same chapter, and thereby become clear in Tanya. R. Yaakov did so and became expert in Tanya; an outstanding oveid, he had intended to travel to America but remained in Riga, HY"D.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
261 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000522
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. 148-149, no. 20
R. Shmuel Leib told the narrator a second story in Kremenchug in 5684 (1924): while a student in Tomchei Temimim in Lubavitch he had a deeply spiritual yechidus, whose content he would not reveal. Being young and wanting to reach the highest levels, he asked the Rebbe, “And Thursday?” — meaning whether he should stay awake all Thursday night to learn — and the Rebbe answered, “Nu.” He stayed up that first Thursday night and his eyes became bloodshot and painful; since another yechidus was hard to obtain, he asked the elder mashpia R. Michoel dem alten to inquire for him, and the Rebbe smiled: “Nu, I didn't instruct him to stay up.”
2 min to tellvery good to tell
253 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000159
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. 208-209, no. 16
A young man related over mashkeh that he was deeply affected by that Simchas Torah, especially by the story told about R. Hillel, and that he went into yechidus on the seventh of Cheshvan. The Rebbe told him that the main point of teshuvah is resolve for the future, asked about his health, and then gave him a practical regimen: fast Shovavim on Mondays and Thursdays, and in the meantime fast until 1 p.m. on Mondays and Thursdays, rise at 6 a.m. and learn as he was accustomed, and in addition learn three mishnayos of Seder Kodashim daily — but really in depth.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
248 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000247
score 1.04 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.47
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 150-151, no. 23
Yechidus was hard for the tomimim of Tomchei Temimim to obtain, so when one had a small question he would watch for an opportune moment to catch the Rebbe, since the Rebbe had said that yechidus must be attended at its scheduled time, because beforehand he gives tzedakah and asks the Eibershter that his advice succeed. When the narrator's brother Baruch had to travel from Lubavitch to Shedrin, where there was a branch of Tomchei Temimim, he found such a moment and told the Rebbe he was traveling there. The Rebbe answered, “You should study there, and daven and serve the Eibershter” — which the narrator notes marks serving Hashem as a third, further stage.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
237 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000162
score 1.02 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.45
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 470-471, no. 6
R. Yisroel first took a job in a butcher store and later opened his own poultry business; in yechidus, when the Rebbe asked him for good news, he reported opening his own butcher shop and asked the Rebbe to be his partner, and the Rebbe gave him a $50 bill. In his characteristic way he told the Rebbe, "If you're giving the money to be a partner, $50 is nothing, and if you're giving it as a segulah, then one dollar is also enough." He rose at four a.m. daily for his delivery route, but used his warmth and humor with his Williamsburg customers to move them to give to charitable causes and to change their view of the Rebbe and Lubavitch; his wife Rochel worked in a factory so that he could give his time to the Rebbe and to helping others, and their children nonetheless felt their parents were devoted to them.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
237 wordsR. Yisroel Duchman
story_000640
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. 323-324, no. 9
Reb Pesach Malastovker described to the narrator's zeide his yechidus with the Tzemach Tzedek. Asked what he does before davening, Reb Pesach answered that it is already written — in Likkutei Torah: mikveh, tzedakah and Zohar. The Tzemach Tzedek replied that tzedakah is a mitzvah extending through the entire day, that one is not required to have mesirus nefesh for mikveh, and that his zeide's (the Alter Rebbe's) intention in saying Zohar was Chassidus.
2 min to tellvery good to tell
218 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000426
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. 492-494, no. 15
An unfamiliar Jew came into the shul where R. Eliyahu was; he said he was a university student who had come to see the shul, and when he said he had no place to stay R. Eliyahu invited him home, where they spoke at length about Yiddishkeit, and he ultimately became a full baal teshuva. He is A. Teitelbaum, who became a professor of mathematics in Montreal. When R. Eliyahu once brought him to the Rebbe for yechidus, the Rebbe discussed mathematics, his field, rather than the Yiddishkeit he had expected; in time he realized how important those words were, since the Rebbe had shown him that mathematics can be used to express the unity of the Creator, and he said sorrowfully that he could not recall every detail of the yechidus.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
175 wordsR. Eliyahu Akiva Lipskar
story_000674
score 0.96 ·
person_role=0.00 topic_theme_strength=0.00 occasion_strength=0.00 keyword_fts=0.00 semantic=0.00 farbrengen_value=0.80 length_suitability=0.32
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 107-108, no. 51
R. DovBer Menachem Mendel told his son that at the end of summer 5639 (1879), after his bar mitzvah and while the family lived in Mena, his zeide traveled to the Rebbe Maharin in Nezhin. The Rebbe greeted the zeide as "brother Mordechai Yoel" and spoke with him at length; when the boy was called in, the Rebbe asked why he was dressed so poorly (though a new jacket and boots had been made for the trip) and then asked what they planned to do about his military conscription — eight years before he was eligible. The zeide assumed a waiver would come; in the end nothing helped, and the father was drafted after his wedding and served nearly four years.
3 min to tellgood to tell
350 wordsTzemach Tzedek
story_000107
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=0.60 length_suitability=0.68
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 280-281, no. 127
The narrator received a letter from his brother Yisroel Noach HaLevi describing his yechidus with the Rebbe during the Rebbe's visit to the Holy Land at the end of 5689 (1929). The Rebbe asked him, "Where is your mother?" and said of his brothers: "I know quite well what is happening with them. Send them my regards; write to them that I do not forget them."
1 min to tellvery good to tell
143 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000358
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. 158, no. 36
Bereh Bobrov, a melamed among the chassidim of Homil, traveled to Lubavitch every Rosh Hashanah. On one such visit he heard that the Rebbe's health was weak and that he would be going to a health spa that winter. At the end of his yechidus he said, "May the Eibershter send you a complete recovery!" The Rebbe's countenance changed and he answered loudly, "Amen!"
1 min to tellvery good to tell
124 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000175
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, pp. 473-474, no. 15
R. Yisroel Duchman once told the Rebbe that he was there because his father, grandfather and great-grandfather had been with the Rebbe's father and grandfather through the cold and the heat and all the difficult times. On another occasion the Rebbe held a farbrengen while suffering a severe cold and coughed repeatedly through the sichos. Afterwards R. Yisroel remarked that it was a shame no one like his father was around, recalling that when his father had once been in yechidus and the Rebbe began to cough, his father offered to bring him tea, saying that when a Jew coughs he should drink tea, it helps.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
126 wordsR. Yisroel Duchman
story_000649
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. 155, no. 30
On erev Yom Kippur the Frierdiker Rebbe would come out from the door through which people entered for yechidus in order to give his bracha. On one occasion the wording of the bracha was that the Eibershter should grant that one be aroused with thoughts of true teshuvah, together with a powerful resolve for Torah and mitzvos, 'nit andersh' — without compromise — followed by a few additional words about gashmius.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
120 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000169
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. 463-464, no. 73
Before each of his trips R. Zalman Duchman would go in to the Rebbe for yechidus to receive brachos and encouragement for the mission, and on returning he would be admitted again to report how the trip had gone. The Rebbe took great interest in the details of the work and would follow up when R. Zalman had been quiet too long. In a letter of 5 Kislev 5714 (1953) the Rebbe wrote to him, "It is very surprising that you haven't written about the 'spiritual sowing,'" citing what the Frierdiker Rebbe would tell those going on such trips: "You have to sow spirituality and reap physicality."
1 min to tellvery good to tell
115 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000629
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. 156-157, no. 33
The same young man came to the Rebbe for yechidus one summer day in the large zal in Rostov, and the Rebbe's face was radiant. He asked whether, being accustomed to sing while davening, it would be better to hold himself back. The Rebbe answered, 'No, no — these are the G-dly soul's powers revealing themselves.'
1 min to tellvery good to tell
108 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000172
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, p. 129, no. 19
After the passing of the Tzemach Tzedek, R. Eliezer Shimon Tomarkin became a chossid of the Rebbe Maharash. He once asked the Rebbe why, though they were the same age, the Rebbe looked so worn. The Rebbe Maharash answered that it was from the "heartwarming" yechidusen.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
91 wordsRebbe Maharash
story_000137
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. 129, no. 20
R. Yisroel Neveler heard from R. Monye Monissohn that the Rebbe Maharash once told him that when saying the posuk in Ashrei "Zecher rav tuvcha yabi'u," one should remember and relive all of his yechidusen. The teaching was transmitted through this chain of chassidim.
1 min to tellvery good to tell
91 wordsRebbe Maharash
story_000138
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
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