Reverent Chassidim. Holocaust survivors. Soldiers, sick children, desperate parents – the Rebbe faced Jews of every stripe and every challenge. The Avner Institute presents insightful anecdotes from rabbis who merited close vantage points, observing the Rebbe’s spiritual interactions and his strength of character.
In loving memory of Hadassah Lebovic A”h
Fire & Water
Rabbi Yisroel Jacobson, obm, relates:
Motzoei Yud Shevat 5710/1951. The sad news of the passing of the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn (the Rayatz) swept from 770 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, to all corners of the globe.
The news reached a pitiful group of Jews in Manhattan – those who had found a new home in the U.S. after the ravages of the Holocaust. Scraping together coins for the subway fare, they traveled to Brooklyn to bid a final farewell.
They arrived to find themselves among a huge throng outside 770. Rather than mingle, they pushed their way until they reached the holy coffin.
“Stop!” shouted one of the elder Chassidim. “Have you immersed in a mikvah before coming here?” Countless others had already purified themselves in the ritual pool for the event.
In bewilderment, the men remained silent.
“Were you in water?” the elder asked.
One of them stepped forward. “We were not in water, rather in fire.”
Each raised his arm, showing the numbers tattooed there from the camps.
The Rebbe (the Ramash, as he was then known), who was leading the funeral procession, spun around.
“Allow them to approach,” he said.
Rabbi Yisroel Friedman, Rosh Yehiva of Ohelei Torah, Crown Heights, relates:
It was Simchas Torah, 5719/1958. I was standing there, among other Chassidim, at 770, while the Rebbe gave his customary farbrengen.
I watched as the Rebbe’s arm swung and motioned to the Chassid next to me – a signal to step forward.
“I want to give you a l’chaim.” The Rebbe held up his bottle of wine, ready to pour into the Chassid’s cup.
“But Rebbe,” stammered the Chassid, “I already have wine in my cup. There’s enough for me to make my own l’chaim. There is no need for me to come all the way up there.”
The Rebbe exclaimed, “I want to give you elokus [G-dliness]. And you want to remain with your own gashmius [physical space]?
A Time of War
From the diary of Rabbi Berel Junik:
Wednesday, 13 Menachem Av 5710/July 27, 1950
It was only a month after the outbreak of the conflict in Korea. But times were tense even in Brooklyn, the other side of the world, where a student awaited his private audience outside the new Rebbe’s office.
Standing nervously in the hall, the young man watched the retinue of secretaries, scholars, and other visitors hurried past him. At last he was ushered inside.
Immediately he asked, “Rebbe, what should I do?” Apparently his parents, who had just arrived in Crown Heights, demanded that he shave off his beard.
The Rebbe answered quietly, “Since we are now approaching the month of Elul, when we increase in the reciting of Psalms and currently we fear there will be a war, this is definitely not the time, G-d forbid, to remove one’s beard. All this would apply even if you came from a city where the local Jews don’t grow beards, and it most surely applies to a city where Jews do grow beards. And especially since there are Lubavitcher members here, you must continue to grow your beard. You should have brought your parents here, and I would have spoken with them directly about this matter.”
The Rebbe concluded with a blessing for a successful journey and his desire to hear good news.
“Eighteen” Means “Life”
From the diary of Rabbi Berel Junik:
Sunday, 16 Menachem Av 5710/July 30, 1950
It was crowded that day at 770, with the congregation in the midst of morning service. Suddenly a middle-aged Jew burst in, crying, “Help me! Please! My daughter is in trouble!” That very moment his daughter lay in the hospital, where she had been enduring labor pains for over twenty-four hours.
A yeshiva student Dovber Junik approached him, holding out a pair of tefillin, and asked, “May I?”
The bewildered man held out his arm. He let the student lay the tefillin, then guide him through the morning service. Afterwards, he was brought by the student to the Rebbe, before whom the anguished father poured out his heart.
The Rebbe answered, “You must immediately say Psalm 71, the chapter of my father-in-law. Then give $1.80 to charity — ten times eighteen, which means ‘life.’ Your daughter must agree to put coins in the charity box every Friday night before candle-lighting.”
The man listened intently, while the Rebbe commanded, “You must do this as quickly as possible, so that your daughter will merit an easy, healthy birth.”
As the man was escorted from the Rebbe’s office, the Rebbe concluded, “Please call me and let me know what happens!”
The Rebbe repeated his instructions to Dovber Junik, having him relay them to the man and again stressing the urgency. “If only he had told me already by afternoon,” the Rebbe sighed. “He should tell his daughter right away about the charity on Erev Shabbos. This is not a trivial matter—this is most relevant!”
Around eleven p.m. the Rebbe asked if the man had called. When told no, he gave instructions to phone him. Dovber dialed and finally got through.
“My daughter is fine,” the man answered. “And thank G-d, she gave birth to a healthy baby girl! My new granddaughter!”
When Dovber brought the happy news to the Rebbe, the latter commented, “The man must have been very confused, since he forgot to call me, as I had asked.”
Nevertheless, the Rebbe’s face beamed with satisfaction. “But I am delighted over the news. Mazel tov!”
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