Curing a Boy’s Speech Impediment

By Dovid Zaklikowski for Hasidic Archives

Growing up, Noochie Gross had a speech impediment. While his friends never mentioned it, it bothered him deeply. He wrote to the Rebbe, who responded that there was no need to do anything about it: “The issue would gradually diminish and eventually disappear.”

Hoping to reassure him, his father told him that he too had struggled with the same issue, and it had ultimately resolved on its own. Still, Noochie remained worried, and year after year he continued to write to the Rebbe. Each time, the Rebbe’s response was the same: wait it out.

At the age of sixteen, he had a private audience with the Rebbe for his birthday. In his note, he again raised the issue. This time, the Rebbe explained that the impediment came from a lack of self-confidence and that there was no need for medical treatment. To build self-confidence, the Rebbe advised him to contemplate several lines from chapter forty-one of Tanya.

Throughout the audience, Noochie was so nervous that he did not remember the exact lines the Rebbe had specified. He felt a deep sense of disappointment that he could not carry out the Rebbe’s guidance.

Then an idea came to him. His and his father’s birthdays were three weeks apart, and private audiences often took place a week before or after the birthday itself. That year, his father’s audience was scheduled a week after his own. Noochie asked his father to inquire on his behalf what the exact lines were.

The Rebbe told his father that he remembered seeing Noochie, but did not recall the exact wording he had used. However, he instructed him to tell Noochie to study the beginning of the chapter, which includes the lines: that every person must say, “For my sake the world was created,” that “Behold, G-d stands over him,” that “The entire world is full of G-d’s glory,” and that therefore “He must serve in His presence with awe and fear, like one standing before the king.”
The Rebbe repeated what he had told Noochie earlier: the crux of the issue was self-confidence. By contemplating on the above, his confidence would grow, and the impediment would resolve.

In time, Noochie realized the Rebbe was right. It had indeed been an issue of self-confidence that he struggled with. Ultimately, like his father—who went on to join the Chabad speaker circuit—Noochie’s impediment was resolved.

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