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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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Farbreng.ing

Stories for

Noach

"Things Are in a State of Tohu" — Waiting for Parshas Noach

As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 203, no. 9

א"ז החסיד ר' מרדכי יואל נ"ע פלעגט זאָגן, אַז אַ רבי איז אַ דוגמא שלמעלה. איז געווען אין לענינגראַד גלייך נאָך סוכות, כמדומה תרפ"ו, האָט מיר דערציילט התמים חאַציע לוקאָווער (הרב יחזקאל פייגין הי"ד), ער איז געווען דעמאָלט דער משפּיע און משגיח פון תו"ת אין נעוול. איז ער אַריין צו אדמו"ר זי"ע ריידן וועגן תו"ת. זאָגט דער רבי: איך קען מיט דיר ניט ריידן וועגן תו"ת, עס איז תהו, נאָך שבת בראשית הויבט זיך אָן פרשת נח, נולד אברהם, תיקון, וועלן מיר דאַן וועגן דעם ריידן.

My zeide often said that a Rebbe is a likeness of Heaven. In Leningrad right after Sukkos — I think it was 5686 (1925) — Chatzya Lukovir (R. Yechezkel Feigin, may G-d avenge his blood, who was then the mashpia and mentor of Tomchei Temimim in Nevel) told me that when he went to speak with the Rebbe about Tomchei Temimim , the Rebbe told him, “I cannot talk to you about Tomchei Temimim ; things are in a state of Tohu now. After Shabbos Bereishis, with the start of Parshas Noach and the birth of Avraham — Tikkun — then we can discuss matters. ”57 57 Tohu and Tikkun: “chaos” and “rectification. ” Kabbalah explains that at the beginning of creation — described in Parshas Bereishis — the world was in a spiritual state of Tohu, a lofty realm of existence which, lacking balance and order, “collapsed” in an event called "sheviras hakeilim" (the "breaking of the vessels"), when their light departed from them. This “break” — orchestrated by G-d — enabled the existence of the orderly world of Tikkun, possessing lesser light, but with abundant vessels.

Parsha: noach (4/5): The Rebbe names Parshas Noach and the birth of Avraham in it as the turn from Tohu to Tikkun — the point at which the yeshivah's affairs could be discussed.

Also this week

"I Think About Him More Than He Thinks About Me"

As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 476-478, no. 9

R. Yisroel Duchman worked to train his children in hiskashrus, and several of his most significant exchanges with the Rebbe concerned them. When his young son Yossi swallowed an open safety pin lodged dangerously in his esophagus, the Rebbe opposed the planned surgery and instead instructed the head of the emergency room by phone to remove it with a magnet lowered down the boy's throat; the surgeon who had refused to speak with the Rebbe afterward told the Duchmans it was possible only because of "your holy Rebbe." The Rebbe later sent Yossi a blessing with the message, "I think about him more than he thinks about me," and gave shmurah matzah for his son Boruch in Miami. In 5736 the Rebbe declined a matzah request for his son Sholom, a shliach in Eretz Yisroel — "He's my shliach... I don't need an intermediary" — yet in 5737 asked R. Yisroel why he had not requested one, and gave it.

thematic HiskashrusEmunahSanctity of a tzaddik

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Purim 5687: "I Accept Upon Myself the Four Executions"

As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 256-257, no. 95

At a terrifying Purim farbrengen in 5687 (1927), the Rebbe screamed against the Yevsektzia — 'a rabbi's son, a butcher's son, a villager's son' — declaring he was not frightened of them, and unbuttoned his kapota until his tallis katan showed, calling out that he accepted upon himself the four forms of execution and that when they saw his body aflame they should have no compassion. When the chossid R. Meir Simcha shouted that the Rebbe was needed here, the Rebbe kept repeating that one must be ready to give one's life but must not send the children to their schools. Because informers were known to be present, those there called his mother the Rebbetzin to restrain him; he rose when she came but sent her back to her room to say Tehillim with tears where no one would see, saying that would help, and told her he was not acting on his own initiative but had asked his father. She kept standing and speaking until he fainted and barely revived; everyone was in dread, and the arrest came after Shavuos.

thematic LeadershipMesiras NefeshBittul

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