בס״ד
Farbreng.ing
Stories for
Rosh Hashanah
Holding the Rebbe's Siddur at the Locked Gate
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 471-472, no. 4
What R. Yisroel Duchman treasured most was being at the Rebbe's side. On Rosh Hashanah 5717 (1956) the Rebbe and the chassidim walked to tashlich at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens through a torrential downpour only to find the gate locked; the Rebbe decided to scale the enclosure, declined R. Yisroel's offered help, and handed him his siddur to hold while he climbed. Each erev Pesach R. Yisroel took matzah from the Rebbe not only for himself but for the Yiddish writer Chaim Grade, traveling hours to bring it, and the Rebbe would press him for details of their exchanges; the year he hesitated and did not come, the Rebbe told him he had wondered the previous day why he had not come, and thereafter R. Yisroel — and later his son R. Sholom — always received matzah. After Rebbetzin Chana's passing the Rebbe asked R. Zalman to watch over her apartment and told R. Yisroel, "Your father will watch over the apartment and you will watch over him." On another occasion R. Yisroel asked to speak "yisroel umalka bilchodoihi," and the Rebbe motioned his secretary to leave.
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Holiday: rosh_hashanah (5/5): The tashlich walk to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens in the downpour of Rosh Hashanah 5717 is the story's opening scene.
Also this occasion
Rejoice — In Awe
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 173-174, no. 59
In Lubavitch it was the custom at the conclusion of Rosh Hashanah, after the Rebbe's second maamar, to sing the nigun of R. Shlomo der Geller of Nevel and break into a lively dance. One year the dancing grew so intense that it spilled out of the large zal into the courtyard. The Rebbe sent his attendant R. Nachman to deliver a message in his name: "Vegilu bir'ada" — Rejoice, in awe — and the crowd was quieted by sheer fright.
SimchaBittulPower of a niggun
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Yodei Teruah, Not Tokei Teruah
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.
BittulHiskashrusHumility
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"The Seder Will Now Be As Follows"
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 452-453, no. 22
R. Zalman Duchman was the one who made the announcements in 770 after davening and at farbrengens, in a distinctive sing-song, and the Rebbe showed him special affection. When someone objected that R. Zalman's shouted "Sha, shtiller!" was disturbing, the Rebbe said that R. Zalman's "sha" does not disturb; at the Simchas Torah farbrengen of 5726 the Rebbe had him call out "Kol mevaser" three times and smiled. After R. Zalman's announcement following the farbrengen of motzaei Rosh Hashana 5725 about the order of maariv, havdala and kos shel bracha, the Rebbe closed his eyes and repeated the same formula in the same tune, announcing an order of entering the new year, learning much nigleh and Chassidus, fulfilling mitzvos with hidur, and receiving a kesiva vachasima tova in every respect.
SimchaTemimus (sincerity)Hiskashrus
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After All the Kavanos, Kabbolas Ol
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 386-387, no. 11
At tekias shofar on the second day of Rosh Hashanah, the narrator recalls seeing in Lubavitch how the Rebbe Rashab, after all the lengthy preparations and weeping during the Haftorah and the pesukim, simply arranged his tallis and said the brachos. He connects this to a conclusion reached at a chassidic farbrengen: after all the kavanos, the mitzvah must be done with kabbalas ol. Visualizing this in the same setting, he adds, brings to mind his zeide's teaching that the crowns descend one from another, i.e. that the Rebbeim are extensions of one another.
Kabbolas OlBittulHiskashrus
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