farbreng.app

Stories from As I Heard Them (Lesheima Ozen) by Reb Zalman Duchman. © The Duchman Family; used with permission — share this sheet as produced, do not republish the stories in other formats.

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בס״ד

Farbreng.ing

Stories for

Erev Shabbos / candle-lighting

Tea or Mincha First?

As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 160-161, no. 39

אויך האָט מיר דערציילט ר' יקותיאל גאָלאָדעץ הנ"ל: עס האָט געספּאָרעט הרה"ג יצחק יואל ראפאלאָוויץ קרעמענטשוג מיט הגביר הנ"ל רש"ג, פרייטיק פאַרנאַכט: אַז מ'דאַרף טרינקען טיי, און דאַוונען מנחה, וואָס פריער? איז אויך דורכגעגאַנגען אדמו"ר זי"ע. זאָגן זיי וועגן וואָס זיי ריידן. ענטפערט זיי אדמו"ר: אויב מ'וויל טרינקען טיי רואיק, דאַרף מען דאַוונען מנחה פריער, אָבער אויב מ'וויל דאַוונען מנחה רואיק, מעג מען טרינקען טיי פריער.

R. Yekusiel Golodetz also told me:

R. Yitzchak Yoel Rofolovitz 9 from Kremenchug was arguing with the abovementioned R. Shmuel Gurary late one Friday afternoon. “We need to 6 He was a yoishev (learner) in Lubavitch and then, at the Rebbe Maharash's instruction, went into business and became wealthy. He greatly supported the activities of the Rebbeim Rashab and Rayatz.

7 R. Zalman Alexanderov was a brother of Rebbetzin Rivka (wife of the Rebbe Maharash) and the son of R. Aharon Alexanderov, the son-in-law of the Mitteler Rebbe.

8 See the section on the Rebbe Rayatz, story 28.

9 The rov of Kremenchug, a chossid of the Rebbeim Maharash, Rashab and Rayatz. At the end of his life he moved to Eretz Yisroel.

drink tea, ” he said, “and daven Mincha — which should we do first?” The Rebbe passed by then, and they told him what they were discussing.

“If you want to drink tea in a relaxed manner, ” the Rebbe told them, “you should daven Mincha first. But if you want to daven Mincha in a relaxed way, you can drink the tea first. ”

Holiday: erev_shabbos (4/5): The whole exchange takes place late on a Friday afternoon, when the pressure of the approaching Shabbos is exactly what makes the order of tea and Mincha a live question.

Also this occasion

The Blue Teakettle Between the Cushions

As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 176, no. 63

R. Pinchas, son of R. Eliyahu Chaim Althoiz, related what he heard from the Rebbe Rayatz: late one erev Shabbos in Lubavitch his father had the large blue teakettle brought in and placed it himself between two cushions. R. Asher, the shochet of Nikolayev, was there that Shabbos, and after Chassidus his father called him to the table and told him to make Kiddush over liquor, wash, eat a kazayis of challah, and drink all the tea in the kettle. Afterwards his father explained that R. Asher had wanted to fast a hafsakah from Shabbos to Shabbos and had come to Lubavitch to ask; since he had already fasted through Wednesday, the Rebbe told him to complete the fast.

Sanctity of a tzaddikKabbolas OlBittul

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Purim on Friday: Kiddush Before Maariv in Leningrad

As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 227-229, no. 45

Purim in Leningrad — the narrator thinks 5686 (1926) — fell on a Friday. When it grew late, chassidim asked the Rebbe Rayatz to make Kiddush before Maariv so the farbrengen could continue, and he refused, saying, "It is not appropriate for you to want this." He recounted that his father, the Rebbe Rashab, had made Kiddush before Maariv on a Simchas Torah that fell on Friday, reasoning that although Kabbalah requires at least one person in the world not to do so, "I am not alone — there are great rabbis, there are 'gute Yidden'"; and that after doing the same on Simchas Torah 5680 (1919) he told his son it pained him greatly. After Maariv the Rashag emerged from the Rebbe's room with his words: just as all the supernal lights of Yom Kippur depart after Ne'ilah, so all the lights of Purim departed once Maariv was davened and Shabbos entered. The leftover Purim food became the Melaveh Malkah after Shabbos, at which the Rebbe sat silent despite repeated requests to say Chassidus, and R. Meir Simcha of Nevel protested that it was a "Poilisher tisch."

EmesHumilityKabbolas Ol

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R. Zalman Duchman's Open Home in New York

As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 450-451, no. 21

The open home R. Zalman kept in Leningrad came with him to New York: every Shabbos he and his wife hosted guests for meals or lodging, sharing their meager provisions. Long before any organized hospitality existed, he saw to the visitors in 770 and supplied them with hot drinks, even early on Simchas Torah morning after the midnight farbrengen, and each month he deposited his government stipend with a local shopkeeper who had a large family and needed the cash, drawing back only what he himself needed. His daughter recounted that on the day after Simchas Torah, when he had finally lain down exhausted after two days on his feet with little sleep, a local rabbi came asking him to testify in court for a Jew facing expulsion for lack of papers; over his wife's protests he got dressed at once, travelled and waited hours in a Manhattan court, and they succeeded in sparing the man.

Ahavas YisraelChessed in secretCompassion

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