Parshas Bamidbar

Once at a far­bren­gen it was quite hot and cramped, and some rav there, want­ing to get up from the ta­ble, was un­suc­cess­ful. “They won’t let me out, ” he said.

Over­hear­ing him, the Rebbe — the Tzemach Tzedek — said, “Who would dare not let a Yid out? Who would dare not let a Yid out?”

On an­other oc­ca­sion, R. Yis­roel told the Rebbe that they had guests vis­it­ing for Sim­chas Torah who were not that fa­mil­iar with the chas­sidic life­style. His wife, fear­ing the im­pres­sion they would get of R. Yis­roel, had ad­vised him to re­strain him­self. Hear­ing his ex­pla­na­tion, the Rebbe re­sponded, “Du zolst nis­pael veren fun zei?! Zei zol nis­pael veren fun dir! — You be im­pacted by them?! Let them be im­pacted by you!”

R. Meir Sim­cha of Nevel told me that he asked the Rebbe why he never writes to him. “When I write a let­ter to a young man, ” the Rebbe an­swered, “it af­fects him, it af­fects his fam­ily and it af­fects the en­tire town. ”

On a Yud-Tes Kislev in Leningrad the Rebbe said, “To­day there are no chas­sidim and mis­nagdim. There was a time when, af­ter re­ceiv­ing an in­jec­tion, it be­came in­flamed but qui­eted down af­ter­wards. Nowa­days there are those who love G-d and ob­serve Torah and mitzvos, and those who do not, G-d for­bid…. ”