This Shabbos marks 25 years after the passing of the Rebbe, The Avner Institute presents fond recollections of the Rebbe’s greatness from Rabbi Shlomo Reinitz, who in his student days merited to serve in the home of the Rebbe’s father-in-law and was frequently in the Rebbe’s presence. He describes the Rebbe’s far-reaching involvement in politics, particularly during the tense days of war, and all matters personal, be it marriage or childbirth.
Rabbi Reinitz relates:
In All His Affairs
The Rebbe’s ability to bond with his followers went beyond mere friendship.
Whenever the Rebbe walked through the street, he greeted passersby with a beaming expression. He often had a number of followers. There were some non-Chassidim who walked along and chatted with him for several minutes. Others, young Lubavitcher kollel [married graduate] students, pulled their cars up alongside to offer the Rebbe a lift home.
“Thanks,” the Rebbe would answer, and continue walking. His lips moved constantly as he walked. His route extended along Eastern Parkway, down Brooklyn Avenue. (I believe he crossed to the other side of the street to avoid passing a church), and from there to President Street.
When the artist Baruch Nachshon made his first trip to the Rebbe, he was shown unusual marks of closeness. Entering for yechidus, private audience, and telling the Rebbe his circumstances, he was instructed by the Rebbe to study a particular style of painting (which he currently uses in his work). I remember how Reb Baruch would walk along the street and chat with the Rebbe on the way home from “770,” and how in those days the Rebbe guided him in all his affairs.
I recall that Reb Baruch’s wife, who was expecting to give birth on Shabbos, had gone to the Jewish hospital on S. Mark. After that day’s farbrengen, and the Reading of the Torah during minchah, afternoon service, Reb Baruch asked the gabbai, the synagogue caretaker, to recite a misheberach, the prayer for good health, in the Rebbe’s presence.
Since Reb Baruch’s Yiddish wasn’t very good, I went up to the bimah, the lectern, to help. Yochanan Gordon, the gabbai, could not understand Reb Baruch’s Modern Hebrew either, and the latter frantically tried to explain what he wanted.
Suddenly a voice in the distance – the Rebbe’s — called out, “A yoledes,” a woman who had given birth.
I turned to Reb Baruch. “Listen to me. At this moment she has given birth!”
It was around four o’clock. Immediately after davening, we walked to the hospital and discovered that at the exact time the Rebbe said the word yoledes, the baby was born.
Beyond the Grave
The Rebbe carried many hidden messages.
In the past, the Rebbe had never permitted anyone to photograph him. Once when someone positioned himself in the small zal, the ground-floor study hall, to take the Rebbe’s picture during prayer service, the Rebbe pointed toward him and asked, “You’ve already learned today’s Chitas?”, the daily portion of Torah, Tanya, and Psalms.
The Rebbe’s reticence lasted until an Israeli photographer came on the scene, and photographs were finally permitted. One event from those days is permanently engraved in my mind.
A radio commentator was permitted to be present during a conversation between Israeli Prime Minister Zalman Shazar and the Rebbe, which he recorded for the WEVD Hebrew broadcast Here is Israel.
I heard the recording. In the beginning Shazar was apologizing to the Rebbe. “I didn’t feel good, and that is why I couldn’t come to the Rebbe.” The Prime Minister was alluding to the fanfare in the secular media, indignant that the president of a sovereign state had to come to the Rebbe, and not vice versa.
The Rebbe answered, “I visited my father-in-law, and he told me that the trip would pass peacefully.”
Then I heard the voice of Shazar, who was unable to digest what he had just heard. “Where were you? Who told you? Your father-in-law?”
“Yes,” the Rebbe answered softly, “my father-in-law.” His saintly father-in-law, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, who had years ago passed away, and whose gravesite the Rebbe never ceased to visit.
Slight Scare
The Rebbe understood that the safest place in the world was Israel.
I myself had yechidus with the Rebbe shortly before the Six Day War.
The Rebbe told me, “At present your mother is in Eretz Yisrael. Write or telephone her: tell her not to return here. And to influence others, as well, not to leave Israel.”
Because of my mother’s advanced age, she was among the first to be notified to come to the American Consulate in Israel to arrange her return trip. Upon her arrival, she was placed first in line.
Seizing advantage, she spoke before the sizable crowd of American citizens and explained her decision not to travel: “The Lubavitcher Rebbe said not to worry.” That moment was a great Kiddush HaShem, sanctification.
I later heard from one of the Rebbe’s secretaries — three rabbis entered the Rebbe’s room and asked, “How can the Rebbe take upon himself the responsibility that American Jews presently in Israel needn’t leave?”
The Rebbe answered calmly, “I visited my father-in-law. He told me that the most they will have to undergo is a scare.”
Plus One Percent
The Rebbe knew what was good and what was needed.
I also received personal herachos, instructions, from the Rebbe. My shidduch, choice of future spouse, hadn’t yet been finalized, and my fiancée-to-be met with the Rebbe.
“So what do you think of the shidduch?” the Rebbe asked her.
“I don’t know,” she stammered. “It is still fifty-fifty.”
The Rebbe smiled. “I am adding another percent in his favor; now it is fifty-one percent.”
In the Rebbe’s merit the shidduch was concluded.
Once, after having had an automobile accident that same day, I entered the Rebbe’s study for yechidus. I told the Rebbe what happened.
He looked me over, and said, “Every day, in the car before driving, you must study some lines of Tanya.”
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Moshiach now! Shabbat Shalom!