Chai Elul
Chassidic date · 18 Elul
Birthdays of the Baal Shem Tov (1698) and the Alter Rebbe (1745)
Assembled live from the corpus. Nothing on this page is stored or written
ahead of time, so it grows as more stories are analyzed.
Stories of The Baal Shem Tov, The Alter Rebbe
whose day it is
Chai Elul is their day, so their stories belong on it even where the analysis did not tie them to the date.
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 343-344, no. 43
The zeide used to recount at length the story of the Baal Shem Tov's sukkah. His students once gathered in the sukkah and, looking it over, noticed many features that raised halachic questions. Sensing their thoughts, the Baal Shem Tov asked for a piece of parchment, leaned on it and fell into deep contemplation; when he drew it out from beneath the tablecloth it was inscribed: 'The sukkah of the Baal Shem Tov is kosher — signed Matat.'
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
186 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000460
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 48-49, no. 26
Chaim Meir, the caretaker of the Alter Rebbe's ohel, told the narrator's zeide that two young men once asked to enter the ohel and wept there at length. They explained that they had been tailors working in the villages of the Kursk region who abandoned Yiddishkeit, eating treif and worse; on their way home they stopped at a non-Jew's house near Piena and asked for sausage, whereupon he locked them in and announced he would take their money and kill them, allowing them only time to pray and recite Vidduy. After a full day of weeping he returned their money, explaining that a great tzaddik who had stayed with him and passed away there had instructed him to bring to teshuvah two Jews who would come asking to eat treif.
4 min to tellexcellent to tell
560 wordsAlter Rebbe
story_000026
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 366-368, no. 2
The scholarly author of Meir Nesivim came to the Baal Shem Tov and challenged him to say what he was thinking; the Baal Shem Tov answered that he was meditating on the Divine Name, and added that he was doing so with its vowel markings. Asked how he knew — "Did the candle on your table tell you?" — the Baal Shem Tov replied that yes, the candle told him, and that a fellow candle had also reported something the scholar had done in front of candles that should not be done before them. Deeply shaken, the man admitted it was true, explaining that the candle had appeared to burn out and then flared up again.
3 min to tellvery good to tell
392 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000486
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 79-80, no. 6
The Alter Rebbe asked the Tzemach Tzedek where his dowry money was; told it had been given to a wealthy man in Vitebsk to invest, he asked whether the Tzemach Tzedek would take it back and place it in the chest of contributions for the Rabbi Meir Baal HaNess fund. The Tzemach Tzedek remained silent, and shortly afterward the wealthy man went bankrupt and the money was lost. When the Tzemach Tzedek's wife came in tears to her grandfather, the Alter Rebbe said, "Should my own children not listen to me?" — and told how the Maggid had once sent him and a companion on a mission, where a Jew living fifty verst from the nearest town, hearing them wonder aloud how a Jew could never hear Borchu or Kedushah, had his wagons loaded to move to town before they had even finished davenen, once he learned they were the Rebbe's students.
3 min to tellexcellent to tell
403 wordsTzemach Tzedek
story_000062
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 371, no. 7
Reb Groinem, the mashpia in Lubavitch, related words of the Baal Shem Tov: "I could ascend in a Heavenly whirlwind like Eliyahu the prophet, but I want to carry out the Torah in full — and there it states: For dust you are, and to dust you will return." The Baal Shem Tov thus chose to remain within the natural order and die a natural death rather than depart as Eliyahu did.
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
99 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000491
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 38-39, no. 14
While the narrator's zeide, R' Mordechai Yoel, was a yoshev in the Tzemach Tzedek's study hall, the conscription agents were hunting for the young men, so the Rebbe sent them out of Lubavitch — some to Kalisk, some to Liozna — and the zeide spent Yud-Tes Kislev in Liozna. There they brought large bottles of mashkeh and sacks of liver, and Reb Yossele, an elder who had been alive when the Alter Rebbe was arrested, sat at the head of the table and told the whole account from beginning to end, weeping when he reached the soldiers striking the Alter Rebbe's wife and knocking out two of her teeth. He then described the second Yud-Tes Kislev, the first celebrated in Liozna, when a huge crowd gathered, the weather was warm, tents were set up in the courtyard, and the Alter Rebbe himself went around urging everyone to eat, drink and rejoice, saying his Yom-Tov was especially great because the arrest concerned both spiritual and physical matters and Hashem had helped.
3 min to tellexcellent to tell
396 wordsAlter Rebbe
story_000014
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 273-274, no. 116
In the middle of the seudah the Rebbe said that Chassidus should really be spoken but it was not an appropriate time — and then, saying so anyway, began. He related that the first Chassidus the Alter Rebbe said upon leaving the Tainy Soviet was on the verse "Sh'u yedeichem kodesh," because the Alter Rebbe and the Mitteler Rebbe held seemingly different perspectives: the Alter Rebbe considered lev (heart) most important, the Mitteler Rebbe mochin (mind). When the Alter Rebbe came from Petersburg he told the Mitteler Rebbe, "You are correct, only that we must ensure that mochin illuminate the midos" — explaining the verse as mochin being kodesh and midos being "your hands," which must be lifted so that mochin illuminate them. The narrator adds that this is what he remembers, that a few words may be missing, but that he has not added a single letter.
3 min to tellexcellent to tell
391 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000347
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 211-212, no. 21
The Rebbe told how the Alter Rebbe, when it was time to enroll the Mitteler Rebbe in cheder, summoned the melamed and proposed in his customary nigun to trade one mitzvah for another: the Alter Rebbe's mitzvah of V'shinantam l'vanecha for the melamed's mitzvah of sustaining his young children. He handed his son over to learn alef-beis, explaining that an alef is a dot above, a dot below, and a line between them. The Rebbe then told R. Pinchas ben Eliyahu Chaim Althoiz that enrolling one's child in Torah study accomplishes the same as the Kohen Gadol in the Holy of Holies — drawing G-dliness down into the world.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
292 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000252
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 362-363, no. 8
The narrator notes that chassidic farbrengens open with an introduction, and recounts that at a Kiddush commemorating R. Leivik's hilulah he related that his zeide heard first-hand from the Tzemach Tzedek that the Alter Rebbe had said, "On whom are you relying? My door in Gan Eden will be concealed from you," and that the Rebbe Rashab said, "I'm going to Heaven; I leave you the writings." In Rostov the narrator heard a different version: "The writings and my son I leave with you." He adds that Yosef Nemotin, grandson of R. Yehoshua Nemotin, told him that R. Leivik said before his passing, "It will take a little time; it's necessary to journey to another world, a higher world."
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
283 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000482
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 37-38, no. 13
The Alter Rebbe once said that true teshuvah is like what the goy in Vitebsk felt. A river divides Vitebsk and, before there was a bridge, people crossed in a small boat. On a very windy day the bystanders warned a man not to set out because it was dangerous; he ignored them, went anyway, and drowned. The Alter Rebbe concluded that the anguish he felt in the moment he saw he was drowning — over not having listened and having gone — is what true teshuvah is.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
266 wordsAlter Rebbe
story_000013
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 322, no. 7
The narrator's zeide recalled that when Reb Hillel Paritcher stayed at an inn in Lubavitch he offered a piece of kugel to a young man from Homil, who said he never eats kugel. Reb Hillel cited the Alter Rebbe that eating kugel on Shabbos sweetens Divine judgment as the shofar does on Rosh Hashanah, and answered the obvious objection by noting that when Rosh Hashanah falls on Shabbos we do eat kugel and do not blow shofar. He conceded it was only a vertel — but the Alter Rebbe's vertel — and concluded that one should eat kugel.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
263 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000424
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 40, no. 16
The Alter Rebbe came out to the chassidim and distributed mashkeh, and his brother Fetter Leibele asked what the celebration was for. The Alter Rebbe answered that he had that day fulfilled what he had written in Tanya — that one must humble oneself even before the lowliest of men, to which he had added the word 'mamash' — because when a man who had transgressed the entire Torah came to him, he put his head down and found seven areas in which he was inferior to that man. When Reb Aizel would retell the story he would pound the table and say that only the Rebbe could do such a thing.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
235 wordsAlter Rebbe
story_000016
Also falling on Chai Elul
the date itself
Tied to the date, but about someone other than The Baal Shem Tov, The Alter Rebbe.
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 456-457, no. 61
In a diary entry R. Zalman records an exchange in the hallways of 770 on Chof Daled Teves 5712 (1952), after mincha had been davened outside the Rebbe's room when the Rebbe returned from the Ohel. The Rebbe asked him, "You're probably named [after the Alter Rebbe]?" R. Zalman answered that he was, and that his bris had been on Chai Elul, though at that time it was not yet known that Chai Elul was the Alter Rebbe's birthday. The Rebbe replied, "But in Heaven they knew."
1 min to tellexcellent to tell
85 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000617
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 420, no. 1
Schneur Zalman HaLevi Duchman was born on 11 Elul 5651 (1891) to Dovber Menachem Mendel and Chaya Feiga Risha in the town of Chometz near Homil; he had three brothers — Boruch, Yisroel Noach and Chaim Avraham — and two sisters, Shaina and Mira. His bris fell on Chai Elul, the birthday of the Baal Shem Tov and the Alter Rebbe, with his grandfather R. Mordechai Yoel Duchman coming from Homil as sandak, and he was named after the Alter Rebbe. The family soon moved to Homil, where Zalman grew up near his grandfather, a third-generation chossid who had studied in the Tzemach Tzedek's court and of whom the Rebbe Rashab said he was in the realm of Atzilus. The account describes Homil itself: a large industrial city with a heavily Jewish, largely Chabad population, whose rov for many years was R. Aizel Homiler and whose Lubavitcher shul had a Chabad'nitze and a minyan that davened nearly two hours per the Alter Rebbe's instructions in Iggeres HaKodesh.
2 min to telltells with work
272 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000557
Strong thematic connections
thematic
Stories carrying the themes this occasion is about, though not tagged to it directly.
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 119-120, no. 4
In the summer of 5675 (1915), lodging in Pinsk with R. Yisroel Yitzchak Lubinsky, the narrator heard this from him. The Rebbe Maharash would always say that a matter should be heard as it seems and answered as it seems — in a general manner. When the authorities in Semyanovka, Chernigov province, discovered untaxed alcohol being taken from the factory, a major trial was set for thirteen defendants with R. Yisroel Yitzchak as a witness, and the well-known investigator Stalietov was coming from Petersburg; R. Yisroel Yitzchak went to the Rebbe Maharash in Lubavitch and, because many Yidden faced prison, asked the Rebbe to hear out his prepared answers, ending with one question he did not know how to answer. The Rebbe told him that he is a Yid with a good head who is not sunk in physical desires, while Stalietov is a goy without such a mind and caught up in desires, so it would never occur to him to ask such questions — and so it was: the trial ended favorably.
4 min to tellexcellent to tell
488 wordsRebbe Maharash
story_000122
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 492-494, no. 14
A member of Anash phoned R. Eliyahu's house asking Mrs. Lipskar to host a family arriving in Toronto with nowhere to stay; things were difficult for her then and she did not answer at once, but when the husband himself called the next day from the road, travelling with his wife and small baby, she gave him her address and prepared her home. After they had rested she asked about their origins, and the guest, whose family name meant nothing to her, said his grandfather was Yisroel Konson of Leningrad and Tashkent — the R. Yisroel Konson who had risked his health to help her and her husband when they hovered between life and death. She was left speechless, and all who heard of the meeting were astounded by the Divine providence; the Lipskars then attended to the family's every need and offered them loans to buy a home in Toronto, so she was finally able to repay a debt that had weighed on her for years.
3 min to tellexcellent to tell
427 wordsR. Eliyahu Akiva Lipskar
story_000673
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 307-308, no. 42
The zeide related that when Reb Aizel passed away, one man who was not among his students wept uncontrollably. Asked why, he explained that in his youth he had set out to commit a transgression, and Reb Aizel, walking behind him after davening in the Lubavitcher shul, shouted twice, 'Where are you going!? Go to shul and recite some Tehillim!' He said Reb Aizel had saved his life, and asked how he could not cry over such a tzaddik. Reb Aizel used to tell him, 'You have mazel,' and the zeide revealed the man's identity only after he passed away.
3 min to tellexcellent to tell
337 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000401
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 225, no. 41
At a farbrengen in his mother's house the Rebbe told of a chossid who dreamt that his previous Rebbe said one of his children would pass away that year. His Rebbe told him "Tracht gut vet zein gut," but he remained badly shaken; on Simchas Torah he stood aside weeping until the thought struck him that it was nonetheless Simchas Torah, and he joined the dancing. In yechidus after Sukkos the Rebbe asked what he had done on Simchas Torah, and told him that with that he had nullified the decree. The Rebbe did not say the names of the Rebbeim involved.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
314 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000272
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 255-256, no. 94
A note written by the Rebbe was found on the high table in his room after his arrest on Wednesday, 15 Sivan 5687 (1927) in Leningrad, and was later printed in Kuntres Yud-Beis Tammuz 5708. R. Pinchas, son of R. Eliyahu Chaim [Althoiz], kept the note hidden in Leningrad and would take it out, together with two letters the Rebbe wrote on Yud-Beis Tammuz, at the farbrengen held in his home every Yud-Beis Tammuz, and they would be read aloud. In the note the Rebbe instructs that in every chassidishe shul the daily portion of Tehillim be said with a minyan after Shacharis, including Shabbos, followed by Kaddish, and that shopkeepers and businessmen come to daven and to the Ein Yaakov class, promising Hashem's help with abundant livelihood. He tells chassidim to say that he instructs them, and other Yidden that out of Ahavas Yisroel and their well-being he begs them, closing with a blessing for a good year in ruchnius and gashmius and the complete Redemption through Moshiach.
4 min to tellvery good to tell
502 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000325
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 368-369, no. 4
R. Yitzchak Masmid related that in a small town lived an eminent chossid, R. Itchele. A wealthy man whose daughter had fallen ill gave him money for a pidyon nefesh — and instead the chossid gathered his chassidim for a festive seudah and farbrengen. Challenged by the gvir, he explained that Itchele fasting and weeping is nothing new before G-d, but when Itchele gathers his chassidim and farbrengs, Heaven asks what the occasion is and discovers that the gvir's daughter is ill — which he applied to the verse "And He looked upon their distress when He heard their rejoicing."
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
287 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000488
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 429-430, no. 21
R. Zalman's poverty was dreadful -- when Chaya Grunya pointed out that their chairs were so battered it was an embarrassment to have them around, he could only suggest moving them to a room where they would not be seen -- yet he never hesitated to bring guests home, and his tiny apartment had a partition set up to make a sleeping area for them. Every Shabbos after davening he brought home the most unfortunate individuals; when his wife wondered whether there were any normal guests needing a meal, he explained that by the time he finished davening the shul was empty and only these people remained. One day a Yid came needing a place to stay, and R. Zalman gave him his own "private quarters" while the family crowded into the other cordoned area; in the middle of the night loud moaning was heard from behind the curtain and R. Zalman watched over him the whole night. The family later realized the man suffered from epilepsy and that R. Zalman had placed him apart so as to spare embarrassment, and his children took on the same extraordinary kindness -- sharing their food with guests and giving away their own beds while they slept on the floor in a corner.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
280 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000577
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 195-196, no. 91
R. Yisroel Neveler related in the name of the gvir R. Nosson Gurary that R. Nosson traveled with the Rebbe Rashab to the Alter Rebbe's ohel in Haditch, where both gvirim and melamdim were to enter yechidus. The Rebbe instructed that the melamdim be admitted first and the gvirim afterwards, but R. Nosson reversed the order and told the gvirim to leave their contributions on the table. At the train station the Rebbe asked R. Nosson whether he had money for the tickets; when R. Nosson, who knew the gvirim had left money, was astonished, the Rebbe explained that since the melamdim came in afterwards there was money on hand, and he gave them whatever was in his pocket.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
277 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000230
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 344-345, no. 44
At Reb Hillel Paritcher's farbrengens the custom was to list every participant with a note beside each name — 'giver' for one who contributed toward the mashkeh, 'drinker' for one who did not. Once, after the list was compiled, someone at the end of the table objected that so much money for mashkeh would be better given to tzedakah. Reb Hillel agreed that he was right and that the money should go to tzedakah, then added that now that the mitzvah of tzedakah had been fulfilled, he wanted everyone to contribute for simcha shel mitzvah — and everyone gave even more than before.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
268 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000461
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 486-488, no. 8
Some time later the rov's two-year-old daughter was badly burned by scalding water, and though the Rebbe gave a bracha for a complete recovery, her father was disappointed not to be told to make a kiddush as R. Eliyahu had been. Days afterward Rabbi Hadakov conveyed in the Rebbe's name that he should arrange a kiddush in the girl's merit, which he did for that Shabbos. On Motzaei Shabbos her condition collapsed and the doctors gave her hours to live; the Rebbe told them to go to the hospital and make a shturem about the incorrect medicine, and since the rov was reserved by nature, R. Eliyahu went in his place. The doctors discovered that medicine prescribed to be sprinkled on her burns was instead being given to her to drink; once administered correctly, she recovered completely.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
271 wordsR. Eliyahu Akiva Lipskar
story_000667
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 33, no. 7
On Yud-Tes Kislev in the Lubavitcher shul in Homil, Reb Aizel demanded excitedly to know why everyone had gathered, omitted tachnun and was drinking mashkeh. He answered that the joy cannot be for the Rebbe's sake — to the Rebbe it was all the same whether he sat in the Taini Soviet prison or lay at home in bed — but rather "LaHashem hayeshuah": without the liberation we would not have known there is a G-d in the world. "Now go dance!" Der zeide added that in his youth he said Chassidus on this idea, and that he could say Chassidus on any subject and would single out each Yom-Tov or chassidic festival as higher than all the rest.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
264 wordsAlter Rebbe
story_000007
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 158-159, no. 37
R. Moshe Aizel Rabkin, a gvir from Homil, reported hearing the Rebbe speak at a farbrengen — the narrator thinks it was Purim in Menton — about the special qualities of Tomchei Temimim. The Rebbe recounted that a young man had come to Lubavitch seeking acceptance into the yeshivah, was rejected by the administration, and when sent in to the Rebbe was found to be filled with false ideas — yet the Rebbe instructed that he be accepted. Much later, after a levayah in Lubavitch, the Rebbe entered the small zal to recite Yoshev Be'seiser seven times and found that same young man standing there deeply engrossed in davening, oblivious to the commotion.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
262 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000176
Short enough to tell in passing
thematic
Related by subject and under 3 minutes to tell.
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 352-353, no. 53
The narrator's zeide, Mordechai Yoel, related that the Rebbe Maharash held Reb Aizel of Homil's Chassidus in high regard — though he called him "der Hieger" or "der Homiler" and reserved the title "Rebbe" for the Tzemach Tzedek — since he had been Reb Aizel's outstanding disciple. Early one summer morning, walking through the Rebbe's courtyard after a late farbrengen and a generous measure of mashkeh, the zeide was called over by the Rebbe Maharash at the window. When the conversation turned to Reb Aizel's Chassidus, the zeide said with a nigun that the Rebbe and his children do not need it, but the Rebbe's grandchildren and ordinary chassidim should learn it. Glancing up as he finished, he saw the Tzemach Tzedek in the second window — and, as he recounted, he sobered instantly and fled.
3 min to tellexcellent to tell
376 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000470
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 75-76, no. 2
The narrator's grandfather had such retention that he had no need for the chozer's repetition of a maamar. When chassidim returned from Lubavitch reporting that the Rebbe Rashab recited maamarim lasting several hours, he said he could not have absorbed them, and when they later reported that the maamarim were growing shorter, he said that as the Rebbe rises higher the maamarim will be shorter still. At fourteen he set out on foot to Lubavitch with a group of older chassidim; at an inn along the way a distinguished Jew berated him for a child going off to Lubavitch, and he answered that after they ate he would reply. When they finished he said, "Show me where there is a difference between a boy who is bar mitzvah and an eighty-year-old Jew," and the man — a chossid of the Alter Rebbe — embraced and kissed him.
3 min to tellexcellent to tell
347 wordsTzemach Tzedek
story_000058
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 261-262, no. 100
The Rebbe had asked that a large crowd be at the station when he boarded the train to Kostrama for three years of exile, but word was hard to spread and most who came arrived early. On Sunday at dusk, the third of Tammuz, the chassidim formed two lines as the Rebbe approached the train, and R. Binyamin Althoiz said at the door that after his imprisonment in Petersburg the Alter Rebbe had begun leading with a high hand (yad ramah). The Rebbe replied that the Shavuos maamarim discuss three "hands" — yad hagdolah, yad hachazakah and yad ramah — and that ramah signifies Kesser and has the letters of koress: all the enemies should be cut off. By the time the narrator reached the station the Rebbe was already standing at the window of the yellow second-class car.
3 min to tellexcellent to tell
346 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000331
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 176, no. 63
R. Pinchas, son of R. Eliyahu Chaim Althoiz, related what he heard from the Rebbe Rayatz: late one erev Shabbos in Lubavitch his father had the large blue teakettle brought in and placed it himself between two cushions. R. Asher, the shochet of Nikolayev, was there that Shabbos, and after Chassidus his father called him to the table and told him to make Kiddush over liquor, wash, eat a kazayis of challah, and drink all the tea in the kettle. Afterwards his father explained that R. Asher had wanted to fast a hafsakah from Shabbos to Shabbos and had come to Lubavitch to ask; since he had already fasted through Wednesday, the Rebbe told him to complete the fast.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
325 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000202
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 279-280, no. 125
The narrator heard the Rebbe speak twice in Leningrad about the nigun known in Lubavitch as 'The Beinoni' (Sefer HaNigunim #46). Once, apparently on Yud-Tes Kislev 5687, the Rebbe said that he himself was not a singer but his father was, and that when Aharon Charitonov, the shochet of Nikolayev, composed the nigun, had he only pictured himself standing in yechidus before his father — something is missing. On motzaei Yom Kippur 5688, after the nigun was sung, the Rebbe said, "This is a nigun of a beinoni. What is a beinoni? You know. Then why aren't you...?" The narrator later wrote the story to the Rebbe in Brooklyn, concluding that each person can find the meaning within himself, and the Rebbe concurred.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
315 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000356
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 337-338, no. 36
R. Yosef Lubavitcher, known as Der Fetter Yosele and an uncle of the Tzemach Tzedek, spent Yom Kippur in Chernigov, where R. Nochum Chernigover — a student of Reb Aizel and a chossid of the Mitteler Rebbe — served as rov. Before Kol Nidrei he took his place along a wall and stood there until the following evening. When the customary joyous singing broke out after Neilah, he ran to R. Nochum and protested, "What an unprincipled city you have! After Kol Nidrei they're already singing?!" The narrator's zeide told the story to describe the depth of the chassidim of earlier generations.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
304 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000453
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 430-432, no. 22
R. Zalman first met the Rebbe -- then known as the Frierdiker Rebbe's future son-in-law -- in Tishrei 5683 (1922) in Rostov, and afterward met him often in Leningrad, where the Rebbe would visit the Frierdiker Rebbe alone or with his brother R. Yisroel Aryeh Leib. On the 15th of Sivan 5687 (1927) the N.K.V.D. came to arrest the Frierdiker Rebbe and searched the house for incriminating evidence; the Rebbe, who was not home, went at once with R. Elyeh Chaim Althoiz to hide whatever documents could be used against him, and that evening deposited a trunk of manuscripts with R. Zalman for safekeeping. A later exchange of letters is quoted: the Rebbe recalled entrusting him with the sacred documents, and R. Zalman replied that he had returned the large box of manuscripts on the 12th of Tammuz while the Rebbe sat on the west side of the study hall, and that the Rebbe then told him that in return for his efforts he would give him good news -- that the Rebbe would return from exile in time for Shabbos. Once at a Yud-Beis Tammuz farbrengen in 770, R. Zalman rose and said that if the chassidim knew of the Rebbe's part in the Frierdiker Rebbe's release their celebration would be far greater; the Rebbe turned to him and said "Sha!", and R. Zalman never disclosed anything further.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
302 wordsR. Zalman Duchman
story_000578
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 31, no. 4
As a small boy the zeide stood in Reb Aizel's sukkah while the s'chach was being piled on very thickly, and asked why, given the halachah that the stars should be visible through the s'chach. Reb Aizel answered that he had been with the Rebbe in Liozna when the s'chach was laid, and the Rebbe stood and motioned with his holy hands: thicker, and thicker still — and then cried out, "And I can't do it any other way!" The narrator adds that his zeide, named for his two grandfathers Reb Mordechai (a chossid of the Alter Rebbe) and Yoel (a businessman), was always puzzled that both the Tzemach Tzedek and Reb Aizel nonetheless called him Yoel'ke.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
278 wordsAlter Rebbe
story_000004
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 260-261, no. 99
When the narrator and his brother-in-law Yitzchak Minkovitch came into the children's room, the Rebbe asked whether they had learned Chassidus during the period of his imprisonment; they answered that they had recited Tehillim. The Rebbe said that he himself had written maamarim until his pencil was taken away. A few hours later he gave them the Shavuos maamarim, inscribed "Written in prison, 19 Sivan 5687" and "Written in prison, 20 Sivan 5687"; the last word of the text was "light." When the narrator later asked in Malachovka for the end of the maamar, the Rebbe answered, "Nothing more came."
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
276 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000330
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 375-376, no. 13
An elder Chernobyler chossid passing through Leningrad told of a chossid who used to fast from one Shabbos to the next and was told by his teacher that this was unnecessary. The chossid objected that the Baal Shem Tov fasted from Shabbos to Shabbos during his solitary meditations. His teacher answered that the Baal Shem Tov took a sack full of food with him when he walked the mountains from Kitov to Kosov, and only on Friday discovered the sack was still full — his 'I have forgotten to eat my bread' came from deveikus to G-dliness, not from undertaking a fast.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
272 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000497
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 85-86, no. 16
Introducing a story he had written, the Rebbe said at a farbrengen in New York that whoever repeats a statement in the name of its author brings redemption to the world, and that everyone is obligated in this. The Tzemach Tzedek had said, "I'm like someone who sews hats. Later on, when someone buys the hat, it's a sign that I had sewn it for him." The narrator also heard in Lubavitch from R. Groinem the mashpia that the Tzemach Tzedek said, "I have no one specifically in mind when I discuss a spiritual predicament. But if someone thinks I am talking about him — then indeed I mean him."
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
262 wordsTzemach Tzedek
story_000072
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 312, no. 51
Reb Aizel explained, with a nigun, that when the Alter Rebbe would say Chassidus the nefesh ha'bahamis would flee, whereas nowadays one can listen to and study Chassidus while the animal soul remains at full strength and untroubled — it resists only davening at length and traveling to the Rebbe. The narrator adds that his zeide (רמ"י) reported hearing from the baalei batim of Sosnitza, where the zeide was a son-in-law, that whenever they needed to travel to the Tzemach Tzedek the greatest obstacles would arise; yet once they overcame them and set out, on the way back from Lubavitch they saw that the obstacles had been utterly nothing.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
246 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000410
Related by subject
thematic
Stories about the subjects this occasion concerns.
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 204-206, no. 12
At Simchas Torah 5685 (1924) in Leningrad, the Rebbe Rayatz spoke passionately against the chossid who sleeps until nine, has davened and eaten by ten, and then strolls Nevsky Street looking where he should not, imagining that a kapotah and gartel or three rubles given to the Rebbe make him a chossid. He cited R. Hillel Paritcher's remark that he does not care for one who strayed and did teshuvah — who knows what sort of teshuvah it was — and explained the teaching that baalei teshuvah stand where perfect tzaddikim cannot: the baal teshuvah is not the same person, he is someone else. He then turned to a young man from Kherson living in Moscow, told him "It's not you," and instructed him to accept divrei chavrus and give a Kiddush on Shabbos Bereishis, adding that everyone must accept upon himself not to sleep past seven in the morning.
4 min to tellexcellent to tell
518 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000243
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 302-303, no. 35
The zeide related Reb Aizel's own account of how he became a chossid of the Alter Rebbe: whenever the Alter Rebbe heard of a promising young scholar he would send a shliach to draw him close to Chassidus, and such a shliach came to Homil after Sukkos and brought Reb Aizel to Liozna. Returning home for Pesach, Reb Aizel established a minyan davening nusach Chabad, but his father R. Mordechai — who spent much time in Leipzig and kept his distance from chassidim — returned shortly before Pesach and forbade him, on the grounds of honoring one's father, from davening there. At the seder, hearing his son's brilliant expositions on the Haggadah, R. Mordechai understood that Chassidus had not harmed him, permitted him to return to the minyan the next morning, joined the minyan himself for the rest of Pesach, and by Shavuos traveled with Reb Aizel to Liozna.
3 min to tellexcellent to tell
423 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000394
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 396-398, no. 25
While the Rebbe was imprisoned in Shpalerka, chassidim received reports from contacts inside the G.P.U., so already on Friday they knew he was to be released, and Shabbos morning davening was delayed in anticipation. On Sunday, the third of Tammuz, the narrator and his brother-in-law R. Yitzchak Minkovitch had stepped out when Pinya (Pinchas ben R. Binyomin Althoiz) came running to tell them the Rebbe was already home; they ran back and found him sitting in the children's room. Asked whether they had learned Chassidus during that time, the brother-in-law answered that they had said Tehillim, and the Rebbe replied that he had written the maamarim of Shavuos until they saw him and took away the pencil; hours later he brought out the maamarim, one inscribed "written in prison, 19 Sivan 5687" (Anochi) and the second (Vaydaber) "20 Sivan 5687," the last word written being Or. Later, at the dacha in Malachovka, the narrator asked for the conclusion of the maamar and the Rebbe answered, "It does not write itself." At the departure the chassidim formed two rows; R. Binyomin Althoiz began to speak and the Rebbe stopped, answering a remark about the Alter Rebbe leading b'yad ramah after Petersburg with the vort said on Shavuos on yad hagedolah, yad hachazakah and yad ramah — ramah being keser, the letters of kares, may it be 'v'chol oyvecha yikoreisun.' At the station the Rebbe stood at the open window of a yellow second-class car; Rebbetzin Shterna Sarah approached and he said to her, "Mama, it says yehi Hashem Elokeinu imanu ka'asher hayah im avoseinu — surely there will also be al ya'azvenu v'al yitesheinu," and to those seeing him off, "An altogether unnecessary journey," adding, "You will presumably say Yevarechecha."
6 min to tellexcellent to tell
725 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000524
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 141-142, no. 13
The narrator's brother Baruch studied in the Shedrin branch of Tomchei Temimim and, though he answered all his examination questions in nigleh and Chassidus when he came to Lubavitch for Rosh Hashanah 5673, he was told to remain another year in Shedrin; the Rebbe told him to follow the mashpi'im's instructions. When the narrator's father came to Lubavitch for Yud-Tes Kislev of that year and mentioned at the end of yechidus that his heart was weak, the Rebbe answered that his children were frail as well, and that he had sent the younger one back to Shedrin because it was better there in gashmius. Returning home, the father came straight from the train station burning with hispa'alus and described the Rebbe's motzaei Shabbos farbrengen that ran from 11 p.m. until seven in the morning, at which the Rebbe said lechaim on 57% mashkeh, said that Above and Below must be made equal, and drank whole glasses; the giluyim, he testified, were extraordinary.
4 min to tellvery good to tell
508 wordsRebbe Rashab
story_000152
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 478-479, no. 24
After a weekday farbrengen of the Rebbe, bochurim gathered with R. Yoel Kahan, the Rebbe's chozer, whose office was then in R. Yisroel's basement, to review the farbrengen, and afterward began an informal farbrengen of their own. R. Yisroel brought down mashkeh along with frankfurters and cold cuts from his butcher store, and the hungry bochurim ate heartily while R. Yoel explained how the Rebbe was giving them a foretaste of Toraso shel Moshiach. R. Yisroel looked at them and remarked, "M'est frankfurters un m'redt zich veggen Moshiach" — "You're eating frankfurters and you're speaking about Moshiach." The story explains the double meaning: a critique from a generation that held spirituality and material desire could not be mixed, and at the same time an awareness that a new light was dawning in which the material and the spiritual would no longer contradict, their fusion complete with Moshiach's coming.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
252 wordsR. Yisroel Duchman
story_000658
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 485-486, no. 6
The Lipskars arrived in Canada in 5712 (1952), and that year the Rebbe sent R. Eliyahu a ticket so he could travel to him for Purim. When he told the Rebbe's secretary Rabbi Hadakov that he lacked the documents to reenter Canada, the Rebbe answered with a smile that his mother had told him how well R. Eliyahu handled the Russian border guards — and now he couldn't sort something out? At the Purim farbrengens of those years the Rebbe would tell him to say l'chaim, and on one occasion sent him back for a second cup, then a third, then indicated the cup should be full and told him to drink yet another, until after four large cups he was rolling under the table. Before he returned home the Rebbe told him in yechidus to repeat in Toronto what he had heard in New York; R. Eliyahu answered that he could repeat what was said before chatzos but had not heard the teachings from chatzos onward, and the Rebbe replied that after chatzos they were much better than before.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
246 wordsR. Eliyahu Akiva Lipskar
story_000665
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 233, no. 51
On the first night of Yud-Tes Kislev, 5685 or 5686, the Rebbe sat in the zal looking very serious and then related an earlier Yud-Tes Kislev: people had gathered but his father did not come out, and when he went in to ask him to come out and farbreng, his father's expression was frightening. His father told him, "Things must be taken literally — this is Rosh Hashanah, the time for teshuvah." When the son said that people were waiting, his father came out, but only briefly. Having finished the story, the Rebbe returned to his room.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
237 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000282
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 284-285, no. 2
Reb Aizel had an only son, R. Yaakov Yosef, who in turn had an only son, R. Nochum Epstein. The narrator recalls that as a boy of 11 or 12, on a chassidic festive occasion, he sat near his zeide, who told how Reb Aizel once took his grandson Nochum's hand and said, "You are my right hand — although you know Chassidus like my right hand… Be an ehrlicher Yid!" As he told it, the zeide took the boy's own hand, and his eyes flowed with tears.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
232 wordsRebbe Rayatz
story_000361
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 30, no. 3
The zeide described how awesome it was to hear Reb Aizel become impassioned about the Alter Rebbe, whom he called loftier than all men — higher even than Adam HaRishon before the sin. Reb Aizel would say that if Moshe Rabbeinu and the Rebbe came together and the Rebbe said to do one thing while Moshe Rabbeinu said another, he would answer: do as you wish, but I cannot do anything other than what my Rebbe says. The Rebbe wrote to the author regarding this story that it parallels the account in Seder HaDoros of Rabbeinu Tam and Moshe Rabbeinu.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
221 wordsAlter Rebbe
story_000003
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, p. 41, no. 17
Chassidim traveling to the Alter Rebbe in Liozna hired a wagon and driver as usual. A few days after arriving, the driver vanished and his horse stood unfed; they searched and found him wandering in the woods, shouting over and over, "If you were to ask a goy, 'Do you love G-d?' — he, too, would answer, 'I love Him!'" He had heard Chassidus from the Alter Rebbe and those were the only words he could grasp, yet their impact made him forget all of his work and responsibilities.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
217 wordsAlter Rebbe
story_000017
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 54-55, no. 34
Reb Groinem, the mashpia in Lubavitch, told how one Simchas Torah the Alter Rebbe was called to recite the pesukim of Atah Horeisah with the title 'Adoneinu Moreinu VeRabbeinu.' Seeing his face glow, they repeated the phrase again later. The next day he was overheard pacing his room, bitterly repeating the words with a nigun and saying that had he had a pit he would have buried himself alive; when asked how this fit with the glow they had all seen, he answered that when afflictions are sent one must accept them with love.
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
218 wordsAlter Rebbe
story_000034
As I Heard Them, Vol. 1, pp. 98-99, no. 35
R. Michoel Dvorkin related that during the Sebastopol (Crimean) War, chassidim were sitting with the Rebbe's son R. Chaim Shneur Zalman, the Rebbe of Liadi, when the Tzemach Tzedek walked in. They were saying that the decree of a third army conscription in a single year surely meant it was the time of Moshiach. The Tzemach Tzedek responded: "We do not know darkness. We know only light. And as to the light that will be revealed when Moshiach comes — who knows what sort of darkness will have to precede such a light?"
2 min to tellexcellent to tell
217 wordsTzemach Tzedek
story_000091
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