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Stories for the week

Parshas Toldos

Asader LeSeudasa at the Leningrad Kiddush

As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 360-361, no. 5

In Leningrad R. Leivik was a guest of DovBer Shilums (that’s how he was called in Lubav­itch), who was the son-in-law of Rebbe Baruch Shalom (the Tzemach Tzedek’s el­dest son).

At the Shab­bos Kid­dush — I think it was Par­shas Tol­dos, for he talked about Yitzchak and Rivkah, and how chil­dren’s be­hav­ior deeply af­fects their par­ents — he be­gan to sing Asader LeSeu­dasa. And when the “sh­pitz (‘elite’) chas­sidim” raised their eye­brows,1 he ex­plained, “It ap­pears in Eitz Chaim.”

  1. Since it wasn't the common custom amongst chassidim to sing zemiros. ↩
Power of a niggunEmes

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Chapter Eleven of Iggeres HaKodesh, Every Day

As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 124-125, no. 10

R. Yehoshua Nemoytin of Besh­enkovitch9 re­lated that there was a Yid in Besh­enkovitch who spent time in Lubav­itch with the Rebbe Ma­ha­rash. The Rebbe told him, “You should study Chap­ter 11 — Lehaskil’chah Bi­nah — of Ig­geres HaKodesh ev­ery day. ” [This chap­ter em­pha­sizes the need for be­lief in con­stant cre­ation yesh me’ayin, and that No evil de­scends from Above.10] Years later, may G-d pro­tect us, all of his chil­dren passed away.

  1. A outstanding gaon and a chossid of the Rebbe Maharash, the Rebbe Rashab and the Frierdiker Rebbe. For a while he served as the rov of Beshenkovitch. ↩
  2. Bereishis Rabbah 51:3. ↩
EmunahSanctity of a tzaddikBitachon

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"In That Case He Is Very Healthy"

As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 445-446, no. 46

Continued from the biography of R. Zalman Duchman:

On Yud She­vat, 5710 (1950), the Frierdiker Rebbe passed away. Soon af­ter, R. Zal­man wrote our Rebbe a long let­ter ac­cept­ing the Rebbe as his suc­ces­sor, though the Rebbe would not ac­cept the man­tle of lead­er­ship un­til a year later.

Sev­eral months af­ter the Frierdiker Rebbe’s pass­ing, R. Zal­man writes to the Rebbe, “ Nu… we need to up­date the hon­orific ti­tles… ” mean­ing to re­place the wishes for health with a men­tion of his right­eous mem­ory. Then R. Zal­man added, “Al­though my grand­fa­ther R. Mordechai Yoel of Homil, when he would talk about the Tzemach Tzedek – even years af­ter his pass­ing – would say ‘the Rebbe, may he be well, ’ and then he would catch his mis­take and add ‘in Gan Eden. ’”

In his re­sponse, the Rebbe ad­dresses this point, “You write that you are afraid to say ‘may he be healthy’ [about the Frierdiker Rebbe af­ter his pass­ing] since it is not cus­tom­ary to do so. What’s the fear? It is ex­plained in [Tanya] Epis­tle Twenty-Eight, that the life of a tzad­dik is faith, love, and fear. In that case [in a spir­i­tual sense] he is very healthy. ”

HiskashrusSanctity of a tzaddikEmunah

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