Higher Power
Why did the Rebbe phone a Cincinnati Rav out of the blue? How did he save the life of a rabbi’s wife – or respond to concerns over his health, his many trips to the Ohel, and his need for a break? The Avner Institute presents a collection of insightful encounters, from the diary of noted author Rabbi Chananya Yosef Eisenbach, showing the Rebbe’s authority in all affairs and his lesson that, in a crazy world, there is always “Someone in charge.”
“Timely Intervention”
Rabbi Eisenbach relates:
Rabbi Ezriel Zelig Scharfstein of Cincinnati, Ohio, merited a close relationship with Rabbi Lazer Silver, whom he eventually succeeded as president of Agudas HaRabbanim. Rabbi Scharfstein remembered the special Friday night lectures given by Rabbi Silver for rabbis, kosher slaughterers, and other religious leaders.
Once, on his way to a lecture, Rabbi Scharfstein caught sight of the great rabbi waiting for him outside the synagogue. Rabbi Silver tugged Rabbi Scharfstein by the sleeve and steered him a few feet from the entrance.
“I have something interesting to tell you,” Rabbi Silver whispered. And he bent closer. “Today I received a phone call from the Lubavitcher Rebbe!”
The Rebbe had personally phoned him with a special request: go to Washington and push for the release of the Skulener Rebbe from jail in Romania.
“But Rebbe,” stammered Rabbi Silver, “I have already gone to Washington several times, with my colleagues. Rabbis, activists, everyone. Not one soul succeeded.”
But meeting the Rebbe’s gaze, he was silenced. He knew never to turn down a direct request from his leader.
Quietly he phoned the airport and made all the plans. In Washington, his connections brought him face to face with the Secretary of State and other officials.
Very shortly later, the Skulener Rebbe was released. Once again, the Rebbe phoned Rabbi Silver – this time to thank him.
“How did you manage to free him?” Rabbi Scharfstein asked, in amazement.
Rabbi Silver explained:
At the very time the Rebbe told him to leave at once for Washington, the Romanian government, looking to appoint a new ambassador to the United States, needed U.S. approval. Thanks to Rabbi Silver – and his leader – U.S. officials sent their approval – on condition that the Skulener Rebbe be released.
Romanian officials understood the connection, and the timely intervention. Therefore, in need of the ambassador’s appointment, they quickly sent the Skulener Rebbe on his way to freedom.
“We Need a Rebbe!”
It was Thursday evening, Parshas VaYikra 5727/1967. Crown Height’s elders and prominent individuals crowded the Rebbe’s office – among them Rabbis Shmuel Levitin, Berel Rivkin, Nissan Telushkin, Yisroel Jacobson, Eliyahu Simpson, and S.Z. Duchman. Watching the Rebbe’s selfless visits, day in, day out, to the Ohel, the gravesite of his father-in-law, filled them with anguish.
“We beg the Rebbe,” one of them said, “to please take care of his health. He might be destroying it by going to the Ohel too often.”
“So you don’t approve my visits?” the Rebbe asked, calmly.
“It is very cold there,” another answered. “We fear the Rebbe will catch cold – or worse, G-d forbid!”
The Rebbe relied: “So do you suggest that I not go there? And carry the burden myself? Without it, it’s impossible! I must go there!”
He leaned forward staring down his crowd. “Why, you yourselves say that we need a Rebbe. As for the Ohel being cold, why don’t you ask Rabbi Zalman Duchman, who goes there often? He will also tell you that it’s warm there.”
“Life and Death Matter”
In his article “Rabban shel Yisroel,” Rabbi Shlomo Yosef Zevin recorded a story told to him by Yechiel Michel Charlop, Rav of a distinguished community in New York:
It was sometime in the 1950s. My wife became sick – so sick that she was sent to a major hospital.
A few days later, the doctors approached me with the grim news: “We’re afraid your wife is going to need an operation.”
You can imagine my reaction. I immediately contacted the Rebbe, who said, “I am familiar with this illness. My opinion? She should not have the operation.”
When I relayed his words to the doctors, they all laughed, and one of them pointed down the hall. “In the room next to your wife’s is a man with the same illness. We just performed the same surgery, and in about a week he is expected to go home hale and hearty.”
Full of self-importance, he added, “And lest you think he’s just anybody, you should know that President Eisenhower asks about him every day.”
“Look,” I explained, “I cannot give you a medical reason for anything. Only the command of a ‘higher power.’ It is telling me not to operate. Please.”
Reluctantly the doctors withdrew, and left my wife alone to recuperate in her hospital room.
Hardly a week went by when I heard the news: the man Eisenhower asked about had died. And my wife? Thank G-d, she completely recovered.
Rabbi Zevin concludes his article with the following:
“Do you think that my intention is to write about a miracle of the Rebbe? That’s not my custom. In general, the elders of Chabad don’t tell miracle stories.
“I intend only to note one incident out of many in which we see the respect a person who is not a Lubavitcher has for the Rebbe, to the point where obedience is a matter of life and death.”
“Someone in Charge”
Revered scholar Rabbi Shmuel Wosner once paid a visit to the Rebbe. Together they discussed a number of topics for some time.
At the end of the meeting Rabbi Wosner asked, “Perhaps the Rebbe can tell me – what exactly is the job of a Rav and leader?”
Smiling, the Rebbe answered, “To implant the idea in people that there is Someone in charge of this world.”
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