בס״ד
Farbreng.ing
Stories for
Lech Lecha
"Through Tanya One Can Become a Chossid Like Avraham Avinu"
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 33-34, no. 8
דער זיידע רמ"י פלעגט דערציילן בשם הרה"צ ר' אייזל נ"ע האָמליער, אַז אַמאָל איז געגאַנגען אדמו"ר הזקן זיע"א צו פרידקען אין שטוב זאָגן חסידות. עס איז געווען אַ שבת. זי איז געווען אַ שוואַכע, איז ביי איר אַרום שטוב געווען ביימלעך (ביי אונז רופט מען דאָס אַ פּאָלסאַדניק). האָבן זיך חסידים געדראַפּעט. ר' אייזל זאָגט: איך האָב אויך זוכה געווען צו זיין ביי איר אין שטוב. רופט זיך אָפּ דער אַלטער רבי צו דעם מיטעלן רבי'ן: גאַזעטן (פּייפּערס) ווילן זיי, גאַזעטן? און האָט אָנגעכאַפּט דעם מיטעלן רבי'ן פאַרן לאַץ און זאָגט: פאַרוואָס לערנט מען ניט קיין תניא, פאַרוואָס לערנט מען ניט קיין תניא, איך זאָג דיר, איך זאָג דיר אַז פון תניא קען מען זיין אַז אַ חסיד ווי אברהם אבינו.
My zeide recounted in the name of Reb Aizel:
The Alter Rebbe once went to his daughter Freidka’s home on Shabbos to recite Chassidus. 7 Her constitution was weak. Trees surrounded the house and the chassidim were milling around. Reb Aizel said, “I was also privileged to be there in her home. The Alter Rebbe spoke to his son, the Mitteler Rebbe, ‘ Newspapers? They want newspapers?!’8 And he took hold of the Mitteler Rebbe’s lapel and said, ‘Why aren’t they learning Tanya? Why aren’t they learning Tanya?! I tell you…I tell you — through Tanya one can become a chossid like Avraham Avinu.”
Parsha: lech_lecha (2/5): The Alter Rebbe's measure of a chossid is Avraham Avinu, the subject of Lech Lecha — usable when speaking of Avraham as the model of a Jew's service.
Also this week
Harder Than a Burst Vein: Yechidus with the Rebbe Maharash
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?"
thematic
Mesiras NefeshLeadershipSanctity of a tzaddik
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"Is This the One Whose Leg Hurt?"
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?"
thematic
Sanctity of a tzaddikBitachonHashgacha Pratis
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"History Will Record This Disgrace"
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 263-265, no. 103
The Rashag, the Rebbe's son-in-law, came from Kostrama for Shabbos and after Minchah, near the balcony in the large zal, told a few people in the Rebbe's name what he had undergone and the questions the interrogators had asked. The interrogation room had thin plywood walls, an investigator with a stubby nose and a stutter, and senior officials seated further back. When Lulav and Nachmanson came in, the Rebbe said that history would record the disgrace of who was appointed to interrogate the Lubavitcher Rebbe; when they accused him of espionage he demanded they retract it at once and asked whether they wanted another Beilis Affair; and when they raised his spreading of Torah he said, "I am not a teacher; I salute learning Torah." He refused to answer any questions until his tefillin were returned, and when he put on his hat to say Shehakol over a glass of water and was told he could be made shorter by a head, he answered, "The whole earth is filled with His glory."
thematic
Mesiras NefeshBittulEmes
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