Parshas Vayikra

Reb Aizel re­lated that when he ar­rived in Li­ozna — af­ter al­ready study­ing the Tal­mud in its en­tirety, with all the com­men­taries, for the sev­enth time — they nick­named him “The Ziebele.”⁷ And he was deeply em­bar­rassed.

7. In Yiddish: “the little seven.” ↩

One Yom Kip­pur, the Al­ter Rebbe called the Mit­teler Rebbe to his room and told him, “There are pos­i­tive Heav­enly forces re­gard­ing your judg­ment for the com­ing year, but there are also many neg­a­tive forces. ”

The Mit­teler Rebbe left the room and went straight to the chas­sidim. “This is an aus­pi­cious time, ” he told them. “Go to my fa­ther and ask him to say Chas­sidus. ”

The Rebbe ex­plained the po­suk, “Yakar b’einei Hashem hamavsa lachasi­dav – Pre­cious in the eyes of G-d is the death of His faith­ful ”:¹⁹ the bit­tul of the chas­sidim is cher­ished.

19. Tehillim 116:15. Bittul, self-nullification: a metaphorical “death” of self. ↩

I am a ‘chan­nel’ for my fa­ther, ” the Rebbe once said.