The Avner Institute

This Wednesday marks Yud (10) Shevat, and this year a milestone: the 70th anniversary of both the passing of the Previous Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, and the beginning of the reign of his son-in-law Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson.

The Avner Institute presents four insightful anecdotes on the special, intense bond between the current Rebbe and his saintly father-in-law – the latter’s continual, guiding influence over the new Rebbe, whose early signs of leadership included total reverence and humility toward his predecessor.

“Teeth problems”

As official reviewer (choizer), Rabbi Yoel Kahan faithfully attended every farbrengren to hear the current Rebbe’s discourses, which he would memorize and disseminate afterwards. He remembers those dramatic days of 5710 (1950), when the saintly presence of the Previous Rebbe lingered in everyone’s minds and hearts while the rising influence of his successor was being revealed.

During the initial period following the passing of the Previous Rebbe Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn – the “Rayatz” — many of us witnessed many miracles under the leadership of the new Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson. Yet as far as the “Ramash” was concerned, these miracles occurred solely in the merit of his father-in-law, so great was the new Rebbe’s humility and submission to the saintly Rayatz’s authority.

One miracle stood out which I have remembered vividly ever since – one that was obvious to all, yet one that the Ramash firmly attributed to his predecessor.

Tzvi Zahler, then a student at the Chabad yeshiva, was friendly with a young man who had once learned there but subsequently went a bit “off the derech,” as we say today, abandoning Torah observance. Now this man looked down upon those still in yeshiva, considering himself the enlightened one.

It was the summer of 5710 (1950), and the Korean War was in the horizon. This young man became concerned that he might be drafted, since he lacked means of military exemption. So he approached Tzvi and asked what to do.

Tzvi asked casually, “Why don’t you go to the new Rebbe and ask for a blessing?”

The man spat, “Are you joking? What can he do?” He quickly added, “I’m not just referring to him. I thought the same thing about his father-in-law.”

Nevertheless, Tzvi persisted, so the man finally gave in and went.

At this time, there wasn’t yet any formal arrangement for yechidus, a private audience. Whoever wanted to speak with the new Rebbe could simply knock on the door and walk in.

So the young man knocked and entered. Shortly later he emerged with the smirk of someone who’d been proven right.

“You see?” he told Tzvi, who was standing among the man’s friends. “I knew in advance he couldn’t help me.”

Tzvi, bothered at the man’s derisiveness, asked him, “Were you in the mikvah today?” Chassidic men traditionally immerse themselves every morning – especially before meeting their Rebbe – in a ritual pool.

The man shrugged. “No.”

Tzvi scolded him. “Is that the way to go in to see the Rebbe?”

The young man, taken aback, followed the ritualistic instructions Tzvi proceeded to give him, along with other preparations before undertaking such an audience.

After all the preparations, the young man again went to the Rebbe. This time he emerged in quite a different fashion. Outside his friends, including Tzvi, waited.

“Before anything else,” the man gasped, “the Rebbe told me, ‘It says (Avos 3:5): One who accepts upon himself the yoke of Torah is exempt from the yoke of government duties and the yoke of worldly cares. Therefore, you must take upon yourself to learn a page of Talmud each day.’”

The man continued his story. When asked by the Rebbe what he had in mind to say during the medical exam at the draft office, the man answered, “I told him I had heard once from my parents that I suffered from heart problems following my birth, so I’m thinking of complaining about heart pain.”

The Rebbe frowned. “That is not a good idea.”

The young man groped for another ailment. “Both my parents had eye problems. Maybe there is something hereditary?”

But the Rebbe nixed that idea also.

And so it went. No matter what the young man suggested, the Rebbe answered in the negative.

Finally, the Rebbe asked him, “Did you ever have problems with your teeth?”

“No,” the man answered.

“What about your parents? Grandparents? Did any of them ever have teeth problems?”

The man shook his head.

“In that case,” the Rebbe said, “you should complain about teeth problems.”

The man was dumbfounded. Nevertheless, at the draft office he complained about teeth pain – and received a full military exemption!

A few days later I heard from the secretary Rabbi Nissan Mindel what the Rebbe told him:

“We literally see how the Rebbe the shver [father-in-law] is with us in a manner that’s greater than during his lifetime. And we are witnessing open miracles on his part – much greater than what we witnessed before his passing.

“Here, for example, was a young man who requested an exemption from the military, and he complained there about tooth pain – something totally irrelevant to him. Nevertheless, he received a full exemption.”

“The heavens are waiting for you”

Over the years, Rabbi Kahan merited to see many more miracles and many more instances of the Rebbe’s Divine intervention. It was the continuing Chabad legacy of Chavas Yisroel, love of all Jews, of every stripe.

There is another story I remember well. It also took place a few months after the passing of the Rayatz – the summer of 1950 — but before the Ramash formally accepted the Chabad leadership.

There was an irreligious Jew, very distant from Torah observance, who lived in Williamsburg. He found himself in great trouble: his daughter, who fell critically ill, was rushed to the hospital. The Jew’s wife, who had distant Chassidic relatives, told him, “There’s such a thing as a tsaddik, a holy man, who can give blessings, and his blessings are fulfilled.”

She pressed her husband, “Maybe you can go to a tzaddik and ask for a blessing. Maybe that will help?

The man, with his limited understanding, equated a tsaddik with some kind of magician. Nevertheless, he traveled to a number of Chassidic Rebbes, many of them Holocaust survivors now living in New York, and offered them ten thousand dollars – a great sum at that time – if they clearly promised that his daughter would recover. These Rebbes, though impressed at the sum, hesitated to make such a promise.

In desperation, on a Motzei Shabbos, the man arrived at 770 Eastern Parkway, Chabad headquarters. Inside the congregation was completing the evening prayer to big farewell to the Sabbath Queen.

The man wanted to enter immediately, but someone clutched his sleeve. “You must speak first with the secretary,” the stranger said, pointing to Rabbi Chaim Mordechai Hodakov.

The man spoke to the secretary who, after hearing the urgent message, promised to approach the Rebbe after Havdalah and ask if it were possible to let the man speak to the Rebbe then and there.

Following Havdalah, Rabbi Hodakov approached the Rebbe, who had gone into his office. When the secretary re-emerged, he told the man, “You cannot go in now. You should come tomorrow morning.”

The man’s eyes welled with tears. “What do you mean, wait until the morning? My daughter is dangerously ill! By tomorrow morning it might all be over, G-d forbid!”

But Rabbi Hodakov replied, “Either way – if you believe in the Rebbe, you can rely on what he says. If you don’t believe . . . then what are you doing here altogether?”

In the morning the man phoned the hospital and asked to speak to the doctors.

One of them got on the phone. “Something unusual has taken place!”

“Normally this kind of illness doesn’t remain static. Either things worsen or they improve. But in the case of your daughter . . . it has already been over twelve hours and her condition has remained exactly the same.”

The father made a mental calculation. It was precisely since the time he had been at 770!

He hurried to 770. The Rebbe announced, “The heavens are waiting for you, sir. It all depends on you.

“If you wish for your daughter to recover, you must accept three things upon yourself: Shabbos, tefillin, and kashruth.”

The man stammered, “I don’t think it is possible. It’s an awful lot to accept.” Then he lowered his voice. “Can I give more money instead?”

The Rebbe firmly shook his head. “This isn’t a negotiation with me. I am simply telling you the reality.”

Finally, the man acquiesced. However, he said, “I don’t know how to put on tefillin.”

The Rebbe smiled. “The yeshiva students will show you.”

Sure enough, the man arrived every day at 770, where R’ Berel Junik lay tefillin on him until he learned to do it himself. Meanwhile, the Rebbe warned the Chabad administration not to take even one dollar from this man! He did not want the man to equate his daughter’s recovery with any money – rather as a result of the three things the father accepted upon himself.

In the autumn, during Shabbos Vayigash, the man hosted a Kiddush at 770 as a thanksgiving meal in honor of his daughter’s recovery. The Rebbe participated.

The man’s Jewish name was Yehuda Leib, so I remember that the Rebbe turned to him at the beginning of the farbrengen and recited the first verse of the Torah portion, “Vayigash eilav Yehuda – then Yehuda approached him.”

“Leader of the generation”

The renowned Chassid R’ Shlomo Aharon Kazarnovky would farbreng in the zal, the private office upstairs in 770, after the meal on Motzei Yom Kippur. Among the stories he regularly related during that farbrengen was the following:

On 26 Teves 5711 (1951) the American press announced that Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson was expected to formally assume the Chabad leadership at the upcoming date of 10 Shevat, the first yahrzeit of the Previous Rebbe.

The Rebbe responded by summoning Rabbi Hodakov and bidding him call the newspaper offices and relay a denial in his name.

Rabbi Hodakov, taken aback, called three of elders – Rabbis Shmuel Levitin, Yisroel Jacobson, and Shlomo Aharon Kazarnovsky – relating the Rebbe’s instructions, and adding, “I don’t know what to do.”

The three men immediately entered the Rebbe’s office, where Shlomo Aharon burst out heartrendingly: “What is the Rebbe doing to us?”

He continued to cry and plead before the Rebbe for a half hour. Rabbi Levitin also argued, “All that was written in the papers was that the Chassidim have accepted the Rebbe as their leader and submitted a document affirming their connection. Isn’t this fact undeniably true?”

But Shlomo Aharon continued pleading, “Even if the Rebbe refuses to accept the Chabad leadership, the Rebbe should at least refrain from placing a denial in the papers.”

Solemnly the Rebbe assented.

Several days before 10 Shevat, Shlomo Aharon had a dream. The Previous Rebbe appeared to him, along with his son-in-law. The Rayatz turned to the Ramash and intoned, “You should be the Rebbe.” But the Ramash refused.

The Rayatz sternly quoted Exodus 14:15: “G-d said to Moshe – G-d tells the leader of the generation, ‘Why do you cry out to Me?’ For you are the leader of the generation. ‘Speak to the children of Israel.’ Say a discourse of Chassidus, ‘and let them travel’ – and you will lead them until the arrival of Moshiach.”

The next morning, Shlomo Aharon arrived at 770 and submitted a note to the Rebbe in which he wrote down all the details of his dream. Shortly later, the Rebbe summoned him with the words “yasher koach!” (Thank you for it!)

The elders, standing nearby, nodded. “This is clearly an indication. The Rebbe has finally agreed to fulfill the request of Chabad Chassidim and accept the leadership role openly.”

Sure enough, on the eve of 10 Shevat, the Rebbe entered the farbrengen that ultimately because the event formally ratifying his leadership. Rabbis Shlomo Aharon Kazarnovsky and Ephraim Yolles walked behind him.

At the end of the farbrengen, Shlomo Aharon awaited the Rebbe near the entrance and wished him “Mazel tov!” The Rebbe answered with a smile.

“Kulanu mesubin — We all recline”

Rabbi Shalom Ber Eichhorn, who merited to serve as an attendant (shamash) to the Previous Rebbe, related:

During all the years that I helped out there, I don’t recall even one occasion during which the current Rebbe opened his mouth and spoke or asked something of his father-in-law, the Previous Rebbe.

During the seudos, the festive meals, the Ramash always sat in front of the Rayatz with tremendous humility, “like a servant before his master,” and he never opened his mouth. This total bond and submission to the Rayatz was also apparent whenever the Ramash needed to go see his father-in-law. Even though he went in every day, I was amazed anew each day to witness how the Ramash prepared himself — the way he would wait in the hallway and prepare to enter.

I remember something so typical of the Ramash’s humility. Usually, after the Rayatz concluded a farbrengen, his son-in-law would stand up first and accompany the Rayatz out the hall.

One time the Rayatz concluded the farbrengen and prepared to leave. Everyone rose – except the Ramash, who remained seated and wouldn’t budge from his place. I couldn’t understand what happened.

Only afterwards did I learn that one of the table legs had fallen off during the farbrengen due to the strain. The Rebbe, who didn’t want his father-in-law’s farbrengen to be disturbed, held up the table with his own leg throughout the entire farbrengen so that no one would notice the table was broken.

This was something that required supernatural strength. Only after everyone had left did the Ramash remove his leg and the entire table collapsed!

Jewish Law

During the first Seder, after the passing of the Rayatz (and in subsequent years), the Rebbe continued to sit in his regular place as during the lifetime of the Previous Rebbe, with the same humility. Throughout the Seder, before each of the ritual acts, the new Rebbe glanced toward the chair of his predecessor, as if seeking permission to go ahead.

Nevertheless, when it came to drinking the first of the four cups, the Rebbe drained his while leaning. That’s what he did throughout the rest of the Seder as well — even though he had never leaned during his father-in-law’s lifetime, because according to halacha, Jewish law, a student does not recline when in the presence of his teacher.

When one of those present asked the Rebbe the reason for now reclining, the Rebbe answered:

“Halacha is halacha. There are no chochmos (actions based on one’s wisdom). There is a rule in halacha that ‘Torah lo ba’shamayim hi’ – the Torah is not in the heavens).”

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