“Did You Ever Meet the Rebbe” Draws Touching Responses

By COLlive reporter

Earlier this week, the team of Chabad.org posted a question on their Facebook page. “Did you ever meet the Rebbe? What was your experience?” they asked and were answered by a wide range of Jews and even non-Jews.

Here is a selection of the answers (mostly left in their original language and spelling):

Zlata Okonov: I had a yechidus before my marriage and had a wonderful brocha. That sustained me my whole life.

Eyvette Sarafian: Yes, I met Rebbe. I went there to prey for my father who at that time was in Iran. He couldn’t leave Iran. The Rebbe gave me $1 and he looked at me for few seconds. After a month, my father left Iran miraculously. I will never forget the Rebbe. G-d bless his soul. May he always watch over us.

Linda d’Angelo: At 770, field trip with my Hebrew school class led by one of my most favorite teachers ever (Woody Pollock) and remembering how cool my mom, who also came, chatting in Yiddish with the Rebbe.

David Sperling: Only through the people that carry his insight and compassion to the following generations.

Levi Silman: Yes. As a child, I have received 7 dollar bills and 3 dimes from the Rebbe to give to charity. Of course, I kept the actual money the Rebbe gave me and gave different bills and coins to charity in exchange.

Eti Elbot: In August 1990 after my privilege of visiting Elie Wiesel in Boston, I was lucky to share Shabbat at (the house of ) the sister of my rabbi in Brooklyn. The next day, I enjoyed the thousands of Chabad members at the Crown Heights synagogue. On Sunday, I saw the Rebe, received one dollar to donate and asked the Rebe to pray for my daughters to marry Jews. One of my daughters married a Hassid and became Hassida. Baruch Hashem.

Alan Linderman: Yes, met him at 770 back in the 70s. I saw him at a farbrengen. I was up close. There seem to be thousands watching him. I never saw anything like it. He looked directly at me. I’m sure everybody got that feeling also. It is then I got what it feels to be a Jew. I was in my 20s. The Rebbie is so connected to G-d and so are all yidden. The one thing I miss was not meeting him alone and getting a blessing.

Suzanne Farley Tatkow: My husband did. He said it was amazing – his eyes were so piercing. My husband still has the dollar he gave him. G-d bless the Rebbe in Heaven.

Re Becca: Yes! It’s because of his vision, the grace of G-d and the kindness of his community that I am here today!

Richard Prater-Collins: Never met Rabbe, but wish I had. I’m a Noahide and very thankful for his encouragement.

Karmela Perry: Yes, I got a blessing and a dollar from him. What a presence he had, Z”L. I decided to go back for another blessing. It took me 45 minutes to get back to him. The second time, the minute he saw me, he said ‘you were here a while ago’. I was shocked. Mind you, this is after 200 people were in front of me.

Susan Risman: No but I’m actually on my way to the Ohel now.

Noel Aronson: Yes, as a kid I received a $1 a few times… My mother saved them. Wish I knew where they were.

Moses Datson-Datikashvili: Ye,s I was a student visiting New York in August 1990 on Eastern Parkway. It was a remarkable experience. I will remember it all my life.

Andy Abraham: Yes, I had the merit to meet the Rebbe twice. He gave my wife and me 6 dollars for our daughter before her birth. She needs those blessings now.

Shoshana Lev: I was too overcome to speak and I held a picture of my baby to be blessed.

Vega Painting: I didn’t meet the Rebe, but someone gave me a dollar from him now in 2022, Baruch Hashem.

Peter Stoney Stonehill: I’m Goy, but am thankful to the Rebbe. I was in Beth Israel Hospital two rooms away from him. I had been admitted with a heart problem. They were hundreds of followers there. One gave me a card with the Rebbe’s picture. I survived that ordeal and still carry that card for protection. I believe somehow even in the state he was in, he blessed me.

Margie Billian: As a teenager, my Reform congregation went up to learn about Chabad. I did not meet the Rebbe but I saw him from the woman’s section on Shabbos. I will never forget the experience.

Erica Statman: My father had yechidus with the Rebbe. Sadly, my father didn’t get the bracha he wanted (which was my mother’s complete healing from Alzheimer’s). So, he was left angry and sad. However, I was there awaiting him and saw the Rebbe from afar. Although I didn’t understand everything I saw, I felt it was very holy. Over the years, I became observant. 16 years later from that time, one of the Rebbe’s Shluchim introduced me to my husband. Still married. ❤️

Danny Yaffe: I know it’s not exactly meeting the Rebbe, but a powerful experience with the Rebbe nonetheless.
Around March or April 1994, Motzoei Shabbos or a Thursday night, I think. I was 8 and we were visiting Crown Heights and 770. I was with my parents and everyone was singing a nigun looking up at the balcony which had its curtains closed. This was the second time in a week that the Rebbe was meant to have appeared (the first time he hadn’t).
A man bent down to me and asked if I’ve ever seen the Rebbe which obviously I hadn’t (being the first time in the US). He picked me and in seconds I was crowd surfing across 770 with the call “he hasn’t seen the Rebbe.” Someone was holding me on their shoulders right beneath the balcony and the curtains opened with the Rebbe sitting there looking out over 770 using his left hand to encourage all attending to sing (I don’t remember the nigun but it was either Napoleon’s March or a similar one). After about 5 minutes, the curtains closed.
I was told later that this was the last time the Rebbe appeared in public. (Not sure if that’s true or not). While brief, the experience of sitting atop 1000’s of chassidim and a powerful nigun vibrating through 770 looking at the Rebbes face has stayed with me since.
I understand the story of when the Rebbe said to a Shliach that whoever saw the Freidiker Rebbe or had their hearts touched will always be ok.

David Kary: Yes, I was maybe 16. At that moment, I was not moved, but years later I am.

Bella Ganz: I have a picture in my living room of the Rebbe giving my mother Z”L a dollar. He looked into her eyes and she into his and he said, “I know.” Meaning that he knew that she was a Holocaust survivor who suffered a lot. Their encounter was mostly nonverbal. He gave my mother a dollar and she survived a very difficult surgery.

Blumie Samuels: Yes a very powerful experience. I could not look at his face there was so much holiness coming from it. I was very blessed and thankful that I lived in the generation of the Rebbe. We had a chance to see what a real Tzadick was.