Stories About the Rebbe’s Childhood Teacher

Episode 217: "Stories About the Rebbe's Childhood Teacher" (22 Iyar 5784)

Welcome to our weekly program, The Inside Story of Chabad in America, through the Mindel archives. Today's subject was the Rebbe's teacher, the melamed. I want to give you a little history of how he became the Rebbe's teacher. By the way, the Rebbe said, "He put me on my feet." He taught him, I think, from [unclear age] until he was eleven, for many years. [Applause]

The Rebbe's father lived in [unclear location], [and] moved then to Yekaterinoslav, because they needed a Rov there. So they asked him to come to Yekaterinoslav. [unclear — there may have been other candidates for the rabbanus] I'm sure, but he took the position as Rov in Yekaterinoslav.

When he came to Yekaterinoslav, he had little children — he had the Rebbe, he had Berel, he had Leibel — and he needed a teacher. So he sent a telegram, I think a telegram, to [my zeide — my grandfather, the melamed], and he said, "Please come, I need a melamed, I need a teacher for my children." So my zeide didn't want to go, because he knew how much he would get paid, and he had a good [position], and he was making more money, so he wasn't ready to go.

A few weeks, or a month [later], he gets another telegram: "Please come." If my zeide would have known that this child would be the Rebbe of Lubavitch, he would have gone the first time — but he didn't know. But since he was asked again, he went. He left his position and he went to become the teacher for the Rebbe's children.

That class had six children — there was the Rebbe, there was Berel, there was Leibel also — one of the talmidim lived there — there were two more.

My aunt tells me — she said a couple of weeks ago that [my zeide] was a genius, [and told how] once he opened up a Gemara, and he [the Rebbe] was just a young child, and he explained it, and something was amazing — I don't remember exactly what.

And people in Yekaterinoslav used to say that the Rebbe's father has nice "meibel" — meibel is furniture: Mem is Mendel, the Rebbe's name; Beis is Berel; Lamed is Leibel — good children. And he [my zeide] became the Rebbe's melamed.

I don't want to go into this — I have no time to speak about the whole teaching — but I want to say: when my zeide came to America, in 1952–53, he went in to the Rebbe. He walked in, the Rebbe stood up. He walked to the door — [my zeide] was closer to the desk — the Rebbe said to my zeide, "Sit down." My zeide said, "How can I sit in front of the Rebbe?" — he was the Rebbe's melamed — and the Rebbe said, "How can I sit in front of my melamed?" They were both standing, at least an hour and a half, talking about things from years ago that they remembered.

The second time my zeide went in, a year later, [the Rebbe] said, "Sit down." My zeide wasn't feeling well, so he sat down, so the Rebbe also sat down. This was a week before [unclear].

[I also want to say] when my zeide went to a farbrengen, he didn't go too much because he wasn't well — he had had a stroke years before — but he could walk, though it wasn't easy. So the Rebbe [noticed him] from far, in the middle of a farbrengen, the Rebbe stood up, and when the Rebbe stood up everybody stood up. Then [my zeide] stood next to the Rebbe; when he left, the Rebbe remained standing the whole time until [my zeide was no longer in sight]. This is [an example of] how he regarded his teacher from when he was a young child.

But I want to bring out a story that happened with me. I was coming from [unclear] on a Friday, 12:30 — I came into my zeide's home. My zeide is sitting on the sofa, and — whoever knew him knew that he knew the entire Tehillim by heart — he always used to say Tehillim all the time; whenever he couldn't see well, his thing was Tehillim.

Then I see that his speech is not 100%. I said, "Zeide, do you feel okay?" He started to try to say something; I saw something was wrong. I said, "Can I — let me put you on the bed." He said, "Yes." So I helped him, I put him down, and I ran to call my aunt, his daughter. Then I went to get Dr. Zelix [?] — in those days there was no Hatzolah. Dr. Zelix [?] came running. I don't know exactly what he did — he gave him a shot — and he said he had had a stroke.

This was Friday. Before — after Kabbalas Shabbos — he [my zeide] was by the Rebbe's door. The Rebbe wanted to know the whole time how he was; he spoke to [someone, unclear] a long time — I don't know what he spoke about. Motzei Shabbos, again, he spoke about my zeide. And then, I think on Shabbos, he also came to see him — my zeide was still in the house, not in the hospital, [even] with the stroke.

On Shabbos — probably half an hour or an hour after Shabbos was over — I was standing in 770, near the door of Merkos. All of a sudden the Rebbe opened his door to go home. The Rebbe saw me and motioned [for me to come], and the Rebbe turned around, back into his room, and I followed the Rebbe. I went into the room — the room was pretty dark, because apparently the Rebbe hadn't made Havdalah yet, and if he hadn't made Havdalah he didn't want to put on a light. So he had [left on] a [small] bulb the whole of Shabbos — he didn't have the regular light on, [just] a bulb — so it was still [on]; I think the Rebbe didn't want to use [electricity] before [Havdalah] anyway.

So I went into the room — it was pretty dark — and I stood near the Rebbe. The Rebbe opened up his drawer, and I heard — I heard papers, I didn't see them, [just heard them] moving. After a couple of minutes — there was matzah there — the Rebbe took out a piece of matzah, and he said, "Take this matzah to him; he should eat it — that's a food of healing. Give him a piece of matzah, and if he cannot take a piece, put it in his mouth; if it doesn't go in, you can put it in water and put it in his mouth." And again, [he should have a refuah]. And then the Rebbe walked out — I walked out after the Rebbe closed the door. The Rebbe went home; the Rebbe walked, he didn't take a car.

I went across the street to my zeide. I said to my zeide — he had had the stroke — when he heard the word [matzah], I saw him give a shake [of emotion]. So I said, "The Rebbe said you should eat a piece." I took a piece of matzah, I put it in his mouth — it didn't go in — so I took water and put it in; I managed to get in maybe a few pieces. This is what happened.

Anyway, that whole week was very busy — the Rebbe kept asking [how he was]. They took my zeide to the hospital on Sunday. Friday, my zeide passed away — Friday, exactly — and the Rebbe said [something] about someone who passes away on Friday — [unclear meaning] — you can always look this up. So this was the whole week — every single day — with my zeide. My mother was in Cleveland, and the Rebbe was finding out how my zeide was; it was very interesting.

My zeide passed away [on] Friday. The Rebbe went to the Ohel, but he didn't go in right away — Yaakov [?] was also in the car — and the Rebbe was standing by the gate outside, watching, the whole time. [Someone] asked him, "Why don't you go in?" He said, "Because if I go in, I have to go to the [kever], and I didn't have a [unclear] today." So he stood there the whole time. And then he said he wants to pay for the matzah — he paid for the matzah — and he said that they should write on [the receipt/record] that it was [in memory of my zeide], that he was a [unclear — possibly "talmid chacham"].

I want to tell you now — this date is my birthday. In those days, my zeide used to go in — Rabbi Groner had [arranged] one night, for an hour, [when] my zeide should go in for a bracha, for yechidus — and this was in [unclear month] — we all went in that night. I think that day my zeide's [second] wife, Zelda, passed away. This was my zeide's second wife — my mother is from the zeide's first wife. So we went to the yechidus that night — I went in, and since it was my birthday, the first thing [the Rebbe] asked me was, "Where is she buried — is she buried across [from him]?" Exactly — the Rebbe wanted to know — very important — across or not. I said, "I don't know." He said, "As soon as you go out from here, go to Merkos, find out — I need to know, let me know right away where she was buried." And the Rebbe was very concerned — I don't know why; a lot of people have husband and wife buried together, [and] here it was across — he didn't say it had to be across, but I saw that he wanted it to be across. I don't know exactly [why]; he was very concerned about that.

Anyway, since today is [the anniversary of this], I wanted to share this, and we'll continue next week, our weekly program. Thank you.