By Dovid Zaklikowski for COLlive and Hasidic Archives
Once, Rabbi Sholom Dovber Schneersohn, the fifth Chabad Rebbe “Rashab”, traveled to a faraway town. His aides, including his son, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok, and Rabbi Elchonon Marozow, known as “Reb Chonye,” accompanied him.
One day during the trip, Reb Chonye told his daughter Rochel Leah to go play with Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok’s youngest daughter, Shaina. When Rochel Leah arrived at the house where they were staying, however, she found that Shaina already had a playmate and had no interest in playing with her.
“Shaina was two years older than me,” she later recalled, “and she was upset with me for disturbing her game. So she planned a way to get rid of me.”
Shaina proposed that the three girls play Marco Polo: one person would be blindfolded, and would have to seek the other two by calling out to them. When she succeeded in tapping another player, that girl would put on the blindfold.
“They chose me to be the first one blindfolded,” Rochel Leah said. “I realized what they sought to do, yet I accepted to play along with them.”
The other two girls hid in the room, which of course was against the rules. Rochel Leah, unsure if they were still there, began to look for them, navigating the walls by touch. Suddenly, she heard the door of the room open and someone enter.
She tapped the individual and immediately realized that it was an adult. Removing the blindfold, she found herself face to face with Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak and asked his forgiveness.
The future Rebbe, however, thought differently. “No, you tapped me, and the rules of the game are that I have to cover my eyes.”
The other two girls now reentered the room, and Shaina said, “Father, this is not a game for elders. It’s for children.”
Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak, who realized what his daughter had done, replied, “She tapped me, and you have to play honestly.”
“Father, you were not part of the beginning of the game,” Shaina protested, “and whoever is not in the beginning cannot join in now.”
“You are angry,” Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok replied. “We can speak about that later. Now it is time to play.”
He continued, “Imagine that in the future, people will say that your father deceives others. How would you feel? Not good. When Rochel Leah will be older, she will say that I have a daughter that deceives others. How will I feel?”
Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok covered his eyes and began searching for them. They played, half laughing, half discouraged by his rebuke, as he tapped around the room to find them.
In the midst of this, Rabbi Marozow entered and, shocked, reproved the Rebbe’s son. “Your father is looking for you, and you are playing with the children?!”
Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak responded, “My father is looking for his children, and I am looking for my children. Sometimes, the children come before a father.”
Find Hasidic Archives latest books on Amazon Prime Footprints: Colorful Lives, Hugh Impact and Kosher Investigator
Rochel leah morozow records the story slightly differently in her memoir… Ldugma that she hugged the FR’s foot…
The game in Russian is called Жмурки or זשמורקעס in Yiddish. See the description of the story by Reb Chonye’s son Reb Mendel https://youtu.be/WbxxHIWzMk0
#10 I’m curious as to which part of my story keeps on changing as I only told about details that weren’t there in only my first post here🤣
Mendel (breb Moshe a”h) Morosow
He was not born when this story happened… born in 1917, Shaina was already a teenager. I.e. he heard this story from his sister.
To #2 & 6 seems like your story keeps on changing.
Again I am #2 & #6, my uncle couldn’t have been there as he wasn’t born yet. His sister was much older than him.
Growing up in NY I remember “Marco Polo” being a swimming pool game.
I think i heard it from him, i seem to remember him saying that he was there…it was his sisters playing with the Rebitzen Chaia Mushka and her sisiters, if im not mistaken
On that clip my uncle tells the story as i heard it from my aunt as i wrote in comment #2 without all the additional stuff which I have no idea where they come from and i see my uncle omits the conclusion wich he didin’t buy that the kids come before his father the Rebbe Rashab
thanks for the video link #4!
https://youtu.be/WbxxHIWzMk0
Reb Mendel marozov tells over the story with some of the details
great story
is this from your next book
keep up the fantastic work
My father’s sister Rochel Leah told me this story. Though she didin’t mention anything about them traveling or about Sheindel trying to get rid of her or hiding not according the rules of the game or that the game was called Marco Polo. Also I don’t know if to believe the conclusion that the FR said that his kids come before his father who was then Rebbe as my aunt who had because of the turmoils in Russia gone off the path and would often put her own twists into stories related to Yidishkait.
How come this story isn’t everywhere???!
Amazing and so powerfully insightful