Unknown Stories That Happened at the Ohel in Haditch

Transcript

Welcome to our weekly Shabbos program. Now it's Hei Teves Shabbos, and the truth of the matter is - it should be called, it is called now, so to say - you know there are four holidays. The first is Purim: they wanted to kill the bodies, so we got rid of it, and that's why - they saw that they can't get rid of the bodies. Then came Chanukah: they wanted to kill the soul, so they saw that they can't get rid of the body, but they can get rid of the Goof, the body, and the soul. So let's go and get rid of the essence - that is the neshama - if, G-d forbid, they would get rid of that, G-d forbid, then we wouldn't - we wouldn't be. They saw they can't get rid of the body or the soul, so let's get rid of the essence itself - and that's [Hei Teves] - they wanted to kill the [sefarim, the Torah itself], which I don't want to go into now, the whole story.

So Hei Teves was called - I would say maybe we should call it that - because Hei Teves is the personal victory of the Rebbe, the personal victory. They wanted to get rid of [the sefarim], and it seems - it seems, I'll tell you why soon - that the Rebbe didn't seem to want to make a whole deal, a whole thing, of Hei Teves. I mean, first of all, this has to do with family, and here I want to tell you something.

When they were dancing outside on the first day of Hei Teves, there was - you know, they say "whoever didn't see this didn't see simcha" - then there was an unbelievable simcha, never was there such a simcha. On the first day it was dancing outside, people came from all over the world. The Rebbe heard the dancing in the room - it's all written. Rabbi Groner knew this. The Rebbe and Rabbi Groner were on the telephone, and apparently the Rebbetzin was also on the phone, and they were discussing - and they were saying, I don't know who said it, but this was said: "when the enemy falls, don't be happy." This wasn't a plain [celebration] - this was a family matter, a family [dispute], and that's why, when the Rebbe came down, we thought there would be such a [celebration] - but the Rebbe came down very, very serious. And when they came to say Tehillim, the Rebbe started to say it, or he wanted to say it, and made like this with his hand - "why don't we say it anyway?" - it was said there was a reason [not to say it], otherwise he would say it, because it wasn't - it wasn't so great. But later on he made a big thing of it - the Rebbe felt this was significant, and this was brought out from the sichos, that it should become a big, a big [day]. And from then on - maybe before also - the Rebbe started to go to the Ohel, almost every day, I think very, very often, go to the Ohel.

So I thought today we're talking about [why] the Rebbe started to go to the Ohel. I found here a story: a Yid I knew wrote to Rabbi Groner to give to the Rebbe. He wanted that this should go into Talks and Tales. I don't think this went in, and the Rebbe saw this story that he wrote. This happened in 1948. Reb [?] Ginsburg - he was a chazzan in Italy - and he wrote this to Rabbi Groner to show to the Rebbe. And he wrote like this - he wrote something before, but: "I will jot down a few lines which I heard from my older brother [Gever?]. He heard it from his brother Y. It was this Y. who served at the Ohel of the Alter Rebbe in Haditch. He took care of the Ohel until the end of World War II, was in - in the late '40s - he would go once a day, or once every couple of days, to add oil to the Ner Tamid, the lamp which burns constantly, and also to keep up maintenance at the Ohel, to take care of it. In general he was the spiritual leader in [Haditch] in his later years. When [the authorities] closed down the mikvah of the city, he built a secret mikvah in his house. His brother - when they closed down the shuls - arranged for a minyan for davening in our father's house in [Haditch?], Y.'s father's house. This, in addition to the other communal activities - that's what he used to do."

What else did he do? So he writes: "such as distributing matzah for Pesach to the community, at a time when everyone was afraid to bake matzah in their house. He also provided esrog and lulav, and sukkahs, and kosher meals all year. Often, when I was in the house of my brother, he would invite me to accompany him to the Ohel of the Alter Rebbe, to add oil, as it was quite a long walk" - he writes it was about three versts or more, I don't know how much a verst is - "so this Y. went with him. When we reached the entrance of the Ohel of [the Alter Rebbe], I saw that he knocked on the door" - his brother knocked - "and I asked him, why do you knock, what's the purpose of this - the door clearly was closed, but why knock? He answered me that years ago there was a shamash of the shul who lived near the cemetery, and he would go every day to check on the Ner Tamid, to add oil when necessary, to keep it burning. One time, as he entered the resting place of the Alter Rebbe, he heard a variety of very strange and blood-curdling voices, terrible voices. This caused him to become deaf, and he fell ill - he became deaf from that as a result. A rule was then instituted to knock three times on the door of the Ohel before entering. That's why you knock - I don't know why we knock now, maybe that is the reason, I don't know, but then that was the reason."

That's one thing he heard from his brother. Another thing he heard from his brother, very interesting: "Many years ago a dog came and laid down on the grave right near the Ohel, and proceeded to bark bitterly for many weeks. When they tried to chase the dog away, they could in no way do it. When I asked why this was so, he said that this is perhaps a [soul] that came to ask for a tikkun, a rectification." For another reason he suggested - even animals, when they are in a bad situation, go to the resting place of tzadikim and ask for compassion, and we know that many souls, when they pass away, I mean I guess go into a body - the gilgul - I mean into an animal - and sometimes they ask for [rectification]. So I guess that's about it - so maybe this dog had to have a tikkun, and he barked and barked for weeks and weeks and weeks. That's what he told him - that's the second thing he told him.

"And another thing I heard from my brother, and this is very interesting: one year, on one of the bitter winter days, on the 24th of Teves, the yard outside of the Alter Rebbe's [Ohel] - there was so much snow that it was difficult to get to the Ohel to daven with a minyan on this auspicious day, as was the custom - every year they used to have a minyan. That year there were only nine people, and they were waiting until late in the day for a tenth person, but no one came - only nine people - because there was a terrible amount of snow, freezing. One of the nine people was - I'm sure all of you heard of him - he was a big [chossid], he was a shochet. He opened the door to the Ohel, to the resting place, and he declared, using these words: 'Tzadikim, when they pass away, they're [still] alive' - so 'we take [the Alter Rebbe] to be a tenth person - tzadikim are greater after their passing than during their lifetime - so we are counting him.' He left the door open to the room where they were davening, and the group davened a regular davening as [with] a minyan."

Some additional things my brother told me about this chossid: daily, it is said that he was there the whole day, until late at night, at which time he finished Maariv. He then ate a piece of herring, black bread, and a hot drink. Anyway, he goes into all other things - so this is the story. It's an amazing story, that even he was a big chossid, he was mesiras nefesh for [Yiddishkeit].

Now, remember, my grandfather told me that also a big chossid - he was also a shochet - would pass by a certain house; this was in Russia. [The man of that house] suffered from stones very badly, so when he came to the house, he asked him, "Give me a [blessing] that I should get rid of the stones." So he gave him his hand, and he said, "The stones should come out." Anyway, he left; a few minutes later the stones came out.

So, you know, we're talking about people who searched for the truth, they found the truth, and they lived the truth. This is - so I thought I have the story, I found the story, I would share the story with you. Next week we'll continue our weekly program. Thank you.