Lehisraanen Episode 18: Rabbi Yeshayahu Hertzel (Nof HaGalil)

00:01 Speaker 1 Sholom aleichem. Welcome to Lehitrannen, the podcast where chassidim share their experiences and their lives in the Rebbe’s presence at 770, our home. In doing so, they refresh and enliven our connection to the Rebbe and strengthen us in the path of connection to him and the way of life he taught us, forever. This time, we have a special episode suited to the bein hazmanim break. I sat down for a fascinating live conversation—a live podcast in the presence of hundreds of Temimim taking part in the Young Lubavitch summer yeshiva, held during Menachem Av on the campus of the yeshiva in Migdal HaEmek. So this episode can also be watched, as well as heard, in a slightly different format. It is a fascinating experience, because Rabbi Herzl, as you will hear, is one of our senior rabbis: the longtime rabbi of Nof HaGalil and a member of the Chabad Rabbinical Court. He merited special attention from the Rebbe. He first came in 5724—well, in Elul 5724, for the winter of 5725. He later returned for 15 Shvat and received special attention, both in his personal life and later in matters of semichah, the rabbinate, and shlichus. We will hear about all of this from him. We all bless him with many long years of life: “They shall still bear fruit in old age; they shall be vigorous and fresh.” May we always be able to live with special vitality in the Rebbe’s matters and strengthen the Jewish people’s connection to the Rebbe, and may we see the Rebbe again very soon. Enjoy listening. [unclear]

01:46 Speaker 2 Well, sholom and blessings. Another episode of Lehitrannen, where chassidim tell us their memories and about life with the Rebbe, and in that way enliven our connection to the Rebbe, refreshing the chassidim’s connection to the leader of the generation. As the Rebbe Rashab said to the Frierdiker Rebbe, from time to time a chossid has to stop and ask, “Vos gedenkstu?”—“What do you remember?” That was the phrase with which they opened the summer yeshiva for the younger boys: “Vos gedenkstu?” But Anash want more than memories of the past, G-d forbid. Above all, we want to enliven the feeling of connection and closeness to the Rebbe. So, as I mentioned, we have the privilege of hosting the distinguished rabbi and chossid, the longtime rabbi of Nof HaGalil and a member of the Chabad Rabbinical Court, who merited to be with the Rebbe as part of the 5725 group. That means, if you can count, it’s been more than sixty years since his group went. But like everyone else, I’ll begin with the usual question. Rabbi Yeshayahu Herzl, where are you from?

02:58 Speaker 3 Jerusalem.

02:59 Speaker 2 Welcome. But the Jerusalem above! Tell us a little about the chassidim in Jerusalem.

03:05 Speaker 3 First of all, I want to say sholom to you, Temimim. Sholom to our host, Rabbi Nachum Goldschmidt, a chossid known for his wholeheartedness. In one of my yechidusen, the Rebbe told me to be a living example of what a student should be. So I make use of that saying when speaking to students. That’s the first thing I say to students with whom I have a connection. I was born in Jerusalem, in the Meah Shearim area—everyone knows where that is—in an area of tall buildings. It was very unusual for anyone to travel abroad at all. I remember two or three people who would go abroad and come back every six months. One of them was the secretary of the Eidah Hachareidis, Rabbi Yosef Sheinberger, who was our neighbor. Each time, we would count how many times he had already come back. When it came time for me to travel, I was studying in Kfar Chabad, but people in Jerusalem started talking: “So, you’re really going to travel to the Rebbe in America? To America?” My family also said, “What are you doing going to America? You’re a young man.” Then something wonderful happened. My great-grandmother, the great-grandmother of Moishe Gever’s [?] mother, called me over and said, “I heard you want to travel to the Rebbe, and I’ll tell you a story. My father-in-law was a young married man, a Sanzer chossid.”

04:56 Speaker 4 Your great-grandmother’s father-in-law.

04:57 Speaker 3 My great-grandmother’s father-in-law was a Sanzer chossid. A short time after his wedding, he disappeared from home. Then word came to the family from the Rebbe, Rabbi Chaim of Sanz: “He is in good hands. He’s with me.” He stayed with him for quite some time. The family had been worried, though afterward only his wife knew, because they said he had sold some of her jewelry to get there. But when he came back, his face shone like the radiance of the heavens. Everyone came to see him. Everyone was delighted. My great-grandmother told me that story, and then she said, “So you can travel to the Rebbe.”

05:46 Speaker 4 That was the encouragement you needed.

05:47 Speaker 3 Something amazing.

05:49 Speaker 4 Your great-grandmother’s blessing for the journey.

05:50 Speaker 3 Because it was hard for my great-grandmother. She was worried. But she said those very words to me: “It’s perfectly all right. It’s perfectly all right. You can travel.”

05:57 Speaker 4 Yes, but Rabbi Herzl, I jumped ahead a little. I’d still like to hear a bit about Jerusalem and about your father. How did you hear about the Rebbe in the first place?

06:08 Speaker 3 Generally speaking, my family on my father’s side were students of the Chasam Sofer, the Ksav Sofer, and the Daas Sofer. For example, the Daas Sofer was at my bris; he was the sandek.

06:25 Speaker 4 The sandek.

06:25 Speaker 3 He was the sandek. He was also at my bar mitzvah. And my great-grandfather—the father of my great-grandfather—his name was [unclear]. He was a close student of the Ksav Sofer. That’s on my father’s side. On the other side, his mother’s side, the Haber family, we are descendants of the Yismach Moshe, the holy Rebbe. On my mother’s side, my grandfather, Nachum Chanon, was born in Lubavitch. He later moved to Kharkov and was an emissary of the rabbi of Kharkov, Rabbi Yosef Atlas, who had also been born in [unclear]. He was the father-in-law of Rabbi Shalom Ber Salant [?], of Chaim Moise [?]. My grandfather, Rabbi Nachum Chanon, served as Rabbi Yosef Atlas’s emissary to people in high places in Russia on serious matters that called for mesirus nefesh. My grandmother, my mother.

07:30 Speaker 4 Was he connected to the Rebbe—Rabbi Nachum Chanon?

07:33 Speaker 3 Rabbi who?

07:34 Speaker 4 Was Rabbi Nachum Chanon connected to the Rebbe?

07:36 Speaker 3 Rabbi Nachum Chanon.

07:37 Speaker 4 Rabbi Nachum.

07:37 Speaker 3 Yes, certainly. He was connected to the Frierdiker Rebbe. I met his brother when I was studying at [unclear] in New York. His brother lived in America and came to visit me. He saw the name of Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak, the Frierdiker Rebbe, written there, and said, “When we were children, I used to play with him.” That’s what he told me.

08:00 Speaker 4 Because he studied and grew up in Lubavitch.

08:02 Speaker 3 He grew up in Lubavitch. On my mother’s mother’s side, she was born and raised in Dvinsk, where the Rogatchover and the Ohr Sameach lived. She remembered her father telling her, “If you need to ask a question, go and ask the chassidic rabbi, the Rogatchover.” And she also very much enjoyed seeing the Rogatchover and the Ohr Sameach leave the shul together in the morning.

08:36 Speaker 4 So that’s the background. But what about in Jerusalem? When did you hear about the Rebbe? Were you always involved with Chabad?

08:41 Speaker 3 My father, when he was a young man—

08:43 Speaker 4 For those who don’t know, his father was Rabbi Pinchas Leib Shvartzky.

08:46 Speaker 3 Yes, he was a mashpia.

08:46 Speaker 4 A great mashpia.

08:48 Speaker 3 So when my father was young, he went to study at Tomchei Temimim, partly through the influence of his uncle, Reb Moshe Berger. There he became very connected to the Rebbe. So yes, that’s where it began.

09:02 Speaker 4 Meaning he studied with Rabbi [unclear]?

09:03 Speaker 3 Huh?

09:04 Speaker 4 Did he study with Rabbi [unclear]?

09:05 Speaker 3 They were really part of that group. His friends were [unclear], Tzvi Haber, and Meir Shvay.

09:14 Speaker 4 So that was the group that came to Tomchei Temimim, and then you studied in Jerusalem.

09:20 Speaker 3 I studied in Jerusalem.

09:21 Speaker 4 When did you move to Lod?

09:24 Speaker 3 I first studied at Tomchei Temimim from the first class—toward the end of the first class, up to the beginning of the second. From the second class, I moved to Kfar Chabad.

09:40 Speaker 4 And when you moved to Kfar Chabad, did you write to the Rebbe about it? Was there a connection at that point—

09:43 Speaker 3 I had a blessing—

09:44 Speaker 4 That’s what I’m trying to understand: whether there was a connection despite the distance, and—

09:50 Speaker 3 There were blessings for my father on our behalf when I entered Tomchei Temimim, and there were special blessings when I moved to Lod. I hadn’t—I wasn’t in Lod yet.

10:02 Speaker 4 Right, Kfar Chabad. The building was in the third class.

10:04 Speaker 3 The third class. I was one of the first. The bus that traveled from the yeshiva in Lod took us over to the new building at the yeshiva in Kfar Chabad.

10:13 Speaker 4 You moved to—

10:14 Speaker 3 We moved together with [unclear] and the books and our suitcases to the yeshiva in Kfar Chabad.

10:19 Speaker 4 What was your first meeting with Shlomo Chaim like?

10:21 Speaker 3 Where?

10:22 Speaker 4 Your meeting with Shlomo Chaim when you arrived as a student.

10:24 Speaker 3 Oh, Shlomo Chaim was a powerful mashpia. Shlomo Chaim—he would watch the students, walk around, and from time to time call students over to talk with them. Once he called me over and asked me about “Love your fellow as yourself.”

10:48 Speaker 4 “Love your fellow as yourself.”

10:49 Speaker 3 “A very easy mitzvah. Do you love?” And that’s how he explained the whole of chapter 32 to me—that’s the text of chapter 32. But I want to tell you something else about Shlomo Chaim, and it’s important, because I’ve told this story before. It appears in his books. There was a great chossid whose guidance we received, Aharon Halperin.

11:09 Speaker 4 Father, Aharon Halperin.

11:10 Speaker 3 The first was Aharon Halperin, who was in charge of deciding who would lead the prayers on Shabbos in the yeshiva. He approached him, and Shlomo Chaim told him, “He could be a good chazzan. I know his father, I know the family—a good chazzan.” But Shlomo Chaim arranged for him to lead only an ordinary Minchah. He didn’t want to risk any more. He said, “It’s a lost cause. If I let him be chazzan on Shabbos, that’ll be the end of it with him.” That was the beginning of the—

11:44 Speaker 4 He was indifferent, or he brushed aside what—

11:46 Speaker 3 That was the first bitush—the first humbling.

11:48 Speaker 4 Bitush. He also knew how to tell the difference, but he knew how to recognize who belonged.

11:54 Speaker 3 Yes.

11:54 Speaker 4 So when did you first write to the Rebbe? Was there a regular practice? Did people write?

12:03 Speaker 3 Usually on their birthday. On their birthday.

12:09 Speaker 4 And then, after you studied in Kfar Chabad, I understand you traveled. The first group began with the second class, but the fifth class was the first time that—

12:15 Speaker 3 Elul, the first month.

12:17 Speaker 4 You traveled—

12:18 Speaker 3 The first month.

12:19 Speaker 4 Did you know in advance? Were there preparations?

12:21 Speaker 3 Oh, certainly. Wow, wow.

12:23 Speaker 4 Well, tell us about it.

12:25 Speaker 3 Personally, it wasn’t easy to leave. Even then there were problems with the army. It’s not just today. But we got permission. In my group were, if you know him, Meni Wolf, Reb Moshe Levit from Lod—

12:43 Speaker 4 A mashpia here for many of the young men.

12:44 Speaker 3 Many of the young men. Yisroel Lipsker, a"h.

12:47 Speaker 4 From Ashdod, from Tzion.

12:49 Speaker 3 From Tzion. And the trip to the Rebbe—the trip to the Rebbe. I don’t know if I’ve told this story.

13:00 Speaker 4 Tell it, and certainly tell us everything.

13:04 Speaker 3 Today people are used to boarding a plane and going. In my day, we looked for the cheapest way possible. And what turned out to be cheaper? Traveling by ship, trains and planes. All the upheaval of the journey. Other people might see that as interesting; some even seek out that kind of fun. But for us it wasn’t simple. So we boarded a Greek ship on 11 Elul 5724, in Haifa. Back then there was none of the bureaucracy or security screening. The ship was docked almost right next to the nearest road. We walked there, and my parents and the Chabad people from Haifa came to—

14:07 Speaker 4 See you off.

14:07 Speaker 3 See us off. I was traveling by ship with another five friends—there were seven more friends traveling on that ship—so people from Chabad in Haifa also came to see these young men going to the Rebbe. Traveling to the Rebbe was rare. And we boarded the ship. We traveled on it from Wednesday until Monday. Over Shabbos, we also had two mashpi’im with us on the ship, two great men. One was Reb Nachum Trebnik[?], the rabbi of Kfar Chabad.

14:49 Speaker 4 He was then the rosh yeshiva in Kfar Chabad, and later became the rabbi of Kfar Chabad.

14:53 Speaker 3 And Rabbi Levi Zelig[?]. Both of them had won the lottery. Some went by ship and some by plane, and they were on my ship. Before Shabbos, Reb Nachum went to the captain, the person in charge of the ship, to rent the ship from him so that we could carry on Shabbos from our cabins to the room we had set aside as a shul. And we arranged it. Our shul was a recreation room that we had designated as a shul. On Friday, toward evening, there was an extremely fierce storm. Water came into the ship, and our cabin had an opening near the ship’s gangway. We felt it. We said, “[unclear] storm winds, [unclear] waves.” We felt every word we said; we felt it ourselves. Eventually it calmed down. We davened. We didn’t have a minyan. There were seven of us, nine together; we were one short. We counted Hakadosh Boruch Hu to complete the minyan, in that sense. How did we get through Shabbos? We didn’t eat the food on the ship; we couldn’t. The ship’s food wasn’t kosher. Just tea—tea and fruit. We knew to ask for tea and fruit, but we had brought food with us. We had cholent, canned food, sardines—our gefilte fish was sardines—challos, matzos. We had our Shabbos.

16:46 Speaker 5 And when did you reach the Rebbe?

16:48 Speaker 3 We got off the ship in Venice. Venice is a city where the streets are water. We went looking for the ticket office to complete our ticket arrangements, at Ista[?], and then we traveled by train from Venice, through Turin, Rome and Milan, until we reached Paris. When we got off in Paris, we had the privilege of being met by two great chassidim. For us it was a lifesaver, because until then we had seen only non-Jews. Rabbi Pollack[?], Wilshansky[?], and a Kalmanson[?]. They came to meet us at the train, and we traveled together to the yeshiva in Brunoy. We were there for a few days, and had the privilege of attending a hillula farbrengen with Reb Nissan Nemonov. It was a powerful farbrengen. Reb Nissan was a very great chossid. We were—he would walk around during the Chassidus class and answer questions. He would also keep an eye on the davening, and afterward he would go and daven himself. At two in the afternoon, we enjoyed watching him daven from his house. After that farbrengen, there was a great chossid in Paris. His name was Reb Shimon Noach, the great Shimon Noach.

18:49 Speaker 5 Shimon Noach Blinitzky.

18:51 Speaker 3 So Reb Nissan told us—Nissan. By the way, we had a class with, uh, Niller[?].

18:58 Speaker 5 Reb Yosef.

18:58 Speaker 3 Reb Yosef Goldberg, a chossid whose class we attended with the mashpia. And before we traveled to the Rebbe, they told us to go in to Reb Shimon Noach. Well, Reb Shimon Noach received us and told us, “It’s good that we’re full of holiness, full of holiness [unclear].” Stay—

19:19 Speaker 5 Translate, Rabbi.

19:20 Speaker 3 Working upward, ever upward, and filled with holiness.

19:24 Speaker 5 Reb Shimon Noach was among the earliest Temimim in Lubavitch. He may even have been with the Rebbe before they began studying in Lubavitch. He was truly among the very oldest, one of the most outstanding chassidim.

19:38 Speaker 3 Well?

19:39 Speaker 5 Incidentally, he himself didn’t travel to the Rebbe.

19:41 Speaker 3 Oh, I didn’t have the privilege of seeing him there.

19:47 Speaker 5 After that, when did you travel? You got to him, and then more upheaval—

19:50 Speaker 3 From there we took a bus to Luxembourg.

19:56 Speaker 5 Take note, friends: afterward there’ll be a test on how many countries they passed through.

20:00 Speaker 3 It took six or seven hours by bus. Then we boarded a plane and flew to New York. The plane was one of those old kinds of planes, a jalopy[?], as they called it. It went along like a tractor, just right for the last leg of our journey. It suited us, it suited us. And then, boruch Hashem, we had the privilege of arriving at the Rebbe’s on 8 Elul, Friday morning. We went to the mikveh, had some leftover mezonos, learned Chassidus and davened. The Rebbe hadn’t come out of his residence then for us to see him. We had the privilege of seeing him at Minchah on Shabbos—on Friday afternoon, for the first time. Of course, the excitement was tremendous, after waiting for years and then anticipating it for days and weeks until we arrived. Reb Shlomo Chaim also insisted that preparations were necessary. He would say, “If a person arrives here, and here too, you go with nothing? If you arrive without preparation, G-d forbid, that’s how you’ll leave.” So we did our best to prepare as much as we could, and I felt better for it. Then we arrived at the Rebbe’s, and there was a farbrengen right away that Shabbos, the Shabbos before Selichos. Because that year there were two Shabbosim connected with Selichos. Right, Nitzavim—Nitzavim was Erev Rosh Hashanah. Shabbos Ki Savo. And after that, after that was Shabbos Shuvah. That was when the Rebbetzin, a"h, passed away. But before we get to that, before her passing, just a little—Did the Rebbe acknowledge your arrival? Did you say Shehecheyanu? How did it work? Did you stand together as a group? How was it? No, no, no. We said we had come as a group. We said Shehecheyanu. But the Rebbe only acknowledged us at the farbrengen, when we said l’chaim. On Shabbos. So right away, the following Shabbos, you said l’chaim. How many young men were you? We were, uh, ten. Ten young men. And the Rebbe gave each of us l’chaim because the group had arrived. He gave us l’chaim. Ah, he gave us l’chaim. There wasn’t any particularly special acknowledgment. I understand. So—

22:48 Speaker 3 Selichos. Selichos. We heard Selichos. Reb Yosef Weinberg was the first, powerful chazzan for Selichos in those early days. We had the privilege of hearing him and seeing the Rebbe stand for Selichos and say Selichos together with everyone, day after day. Rosh Hashanah. Rosh Hashanah was very hard for me. Very, very hard. After the upheaval of the journey and the fasts on Erev Rosh Hashanah, there was nothing to eat before Rosh Hashanah. So on Rosh Hashanah, I have to admit, I was pushed and pushed and pushed, and I nearly fainted. I could feel myself fainting; I almost fell. So I moved back a little, and from where I stood I could hear, but I couldn’t get much closer. That was it. Everyone says the pushing was worse than at any other time of year. It was very intense. If you weren’t strong—and I wasn’t all that strong; I was probably weak and exhausted—you couldn’t push your way in. So I got as far as I could. On the Fast of Gedaliah, something very interesting happened. I had fasted—I hadn’t eaten anything on Rosh Hashanah before davening, and by the time davening with the Rebbe ended it was very late. I told you I had nearly fainted. Then, on the Fast of Gedaliah, I began fasting again. Around the time of davening, after davening, two chassidim came over, dragged me into a grocery store, and gave me a cup of coffee and cake. Who were the observant ones? Meshaya Zevich[?] and Shimon Manik[?]. Shimon. They both said that I... It wasn’t simple. Then came Shabbos, 6 Tishrei. Shabbos, 6 Tishrei—you knew that the Rebbetzin... Oh, wow, wow. In the middle of the farbrengen we saw Dr. Zeligson approach the Rebbe several times. Rabbi Daniel asked him, and he answered him. Did people know beforehand that the Rebbetzin wasn’t feeling well? Ah. You hadn’t heard before. We knew something was happening with the Rebbetzin.

25:37 Speaker 3 We knew something was happening, and the Rebbe spoke in a sicha about “I will surely hide My face,” and the Rebbe wept deeply during that sicha on 6 Tishrei. There was a maamar, but you didn’t sense it from the maamar. The maamar was very deep—a series of maamarim that the Rebbe explained: “There is no end above and no limit below,” and all the maamarim of Rosh Hashanah and Shavuos. The subject of Sukkos, too, drew on that same body of material, which the Rebbe went over at length. But with the Rebbe, a maamar is a maamar, and all the... After davening, after the farbrengen, people said the Rebbe had left quickly. We only received the news toward evening. That is, the whole crowd saw nothing unusual about the Rebbe, apart from Zeligson coming over. Apart from the Rebbe’s tears, Dr. Zeligson approached several times, and I think Bronik[?] did too. Then came the announcement of the passing, and the Rebbe came. They brought the Rebbetzin to where the yeshiva is today. Tzvener[?]. On President, President. No, they brought her to San Senti[?]. No, no, no, no. Where did they bring her? Her home. Her home was on President, President. President? President Street. Yes, on President near Kingston; that’s where she lived. There. President eighteen[?]. There, to be more precise. And in the morning we were with the Rebbe when the Rebbe said Kaddish. Then we were at the large funeral. Wait, was the Rebbe there at night or not? No, no.

28:20 Speaker 3 Feinstein. All the great Torah figures came. Who was it—Bord[?]? Soloveitchik. Soloveitchik. The great Torah figures who came are listed, and you can look it up. Much of what they discussed concerned the mikveh—whether one may immerse in a mikveh on Yom Kippur—and the Rebbe spoke with them about it. There was something on 2 Tishrei as well. That Shabbos was 8 Tishrei. By morning, it was already at the Rebbe’s building, at his mother’s home—someone came to the shul. Someone came to the shul and gave a name in memory of Rebbetzin Chana. Then came Erev Yom Kippur. The Rebbe arrived close to the fast and blessed us. On a chair... No, no, no, there was no special place then. That is, he was together with everyone. Together with Anash. Together with Anash. Where was it? In the zal? In the zal. Not near the room. Yes. In the downstairs zal? Downstairs, yes. The Rebbe spoke; we could see the Rebbe. The Rebbe mentioned something about teshuvah. In the blessing there was some reference to teshuvah. No, boruch Hashem. The Rebbe was a chossid of higher teshuvah. Lower teshuvah, higher teshuvah. With the Rebbe, you began to get a sense of higher teshuvah. Higher teshuvah, higher teshuvah. In 5752 the Rebbe said that everyone should merit higher teshuvah. That’s what the Rebbe said then, in 5752. Yes, higher teshuvah, higher teshuvah. What happened at [unclear]? Did the Rebbe get up on an ordinary chair? Do you remember? There was no platform. There wasn’t a platform yet. There wasn’t a platform yet, not even on Yom Kippur. There was no platform. I remember that... I don’t remember exactly. Sukkos? Was the celebration as usual? Sukkos was a regular Sukkos, and the Rebbe gave the—or on Hoshana Rabbah we received lekach. We had indeed received it already. We made a blessing over the Rebbe’s wine. And on Hoshana Rabbah the Rebbe distributed lekach to us. I don’t know if it was that year or the year after. One year I was standing next to a great chossid named...

31:08 Speaker 3 Reb Zalman Teibel. Reb Zalman Teibel. Reb Zalman Teibel. The Rebbe gave him lekach, and another piece. “And for all the Jewish people.” “For all the Jewish people.” “For all the Jewish people.” Reb Zalman went off. I remember him smiling happily and moving aside to take in what the Rebbe had said to him. That was on Hoshana Rabbah. Now, the hakafos. They were as usual. On Simchas Torah there were hakafos with the usual niggunim. But the Rebbe no longer taught a niggun. Huh? He no longer taught a niggun. Oh. We waited. The Rebbe had said in 5724— One moment, before that: you didn’t go upstairs for the meals? No, no. On Simchas Torah 5724 the Rebbe taught a niggun, and the Rebbe said that the following year there wouldn’t be one. We Temimim, innocently, still hoped. We thought perhaps the Rebbe would have mercy on us after all and teach us a song. We waited and waited. In the end, just before the Rebbe came out—then the Rebbe came out singing, “You have chosen us from among all the nations; You have loved us.” In other words, he came out after the meal upstairs. Instead of the—after the chaf, sorry. After the chaf. In place of a new song. That was the song... That was the song. Instead of teaching us a song, he started this one, and we danced to it for an hour, two hours. That was what—well, as they say, that’s what we got. You remind me: my father-in-law’s father’s grandfather, Reb Avraham, said he was there in 5724. That was the year the Rebbe taught “Atah Vechartanu.” Yes. Reb Avraham said he wasn’t a singer, not like you. He wasn’t a singer, but my father-in-law always told me that during the first weeks after Reb Avraham returned from the Rebbe, he, as a young boy, was embarrassed to walk down the street with him. Every Jerusalemite Reb Avraham met, he would start singing “Atah Vechartanu” to him. He...

33:20 Speaker 3 lived that niggun so intensely. He—that was the Rebbe’s message: “You have chosen us.” That’s right. You’re saying that in 5724 the Rebbe said he had given you the strength, and that was the niggun. That was the niggun; that is the niggun. Now, after the ninth, you became regulars at San Senti[?]. When did you go into yechidus? Right away? My first yechidus was close to my birthday. Which was the ninth of... the twelfth of... And I saw that there were people who kept records of yechidus. One of the good [unclear], Shmuel Susiner[?], kept diaries, so he also recorded my yechidus. There’s no need now to know what... In any case, there’s something interesting about my first yechidus. He writes that it lasted twelve minutes. The Rebbe took time to take the... read the... Yes. Before you tell us what he wrote, just describe for a moment what a day of yechidus looked like. How did a young man— Oh, wow, wow, wow. I mean— In those days, on the day of yechidus—my first yechidus—we fasted. First we went to immerse, especially for it. There was a special atmosphere surrounding yechidus. We put on Shabbos clothes and [unclear]. That came later. And we waited for the... The door opened, and we began trembling until we were told to go in. It’s hard to describe, beyond description, but that’s how it was. And the remarkable thing is that in my first yechidus, the Rebbe began with something I hadn’t written about at all. This is how he began. Say it in Yiddish? In Yiddish, and then translate it. “You know that among us, we don’t say Tehillim from nightfall until midnight, except during the Ten Days of Teshuvah, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. [unclear].” Translate it for me. Translate? Yes. The Rebbe said, “So you know,

35:51 Speaker 3 Our custom is not to say Tehillim from nightfall until midnight, except during the Ten Days of Teshuvah, Rosh Hashanah, and Yom Kippur. He said that on the first night of Rosh Hashanah, even on Rosh Hashanah itself, it is only after midnight. Except on Shabbos, when you can say it after nightfall as well. “I’m telling you this on my own, without your having written about it.” I hadn’t written anything about it, and I had struggled with it a lot. Why did the Rebbe say that? I came to the conclusion that on Rosh Hashanah I need to work harder. On Rosh Hashanah, I need to make a greater effort to say all of Tehillim with more concentration. For Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, too, to say Tehillim better, but not to say Tehillim at night. So that’s very interesting. Sometimes it says before sunset, or from sunset, right? So the Rebbe told me “from nightfall,” and afterward they included what I had said in the instructions, in almost the same words. What else happened at that yechidus? Ah, about being happy—studying the chapters of Chumash and Tanya, Chumash. Tell us, tell us. We don’t know anything. Chumash and Tanya. A maamar of the Rebbe, the Alter Rebbe. How do you become happy? By studying those chapters. Was that something you had written about? You had asked about happiness? Yes, yes. To study those chapters, and about taking stock of myself. The Rebbe told me no, there should be no taking stock of myself during the day; it only confuses you. Only at night, when the day is over. And to keep in touch, keep in touch, keep in touch with the mashpia, to consult with the mashpia. After that, he gave me blessings, and blessings for the family members I had mentioned. That’s what I remember right now. What time of night was it? Later in the night, roughly? The middle of the night? It was the first or second hour of yechidus. Who was the mashpia you asked afterward about the yechidus? I had a mashpia, Rabbi Shimon Chai[?]. But he wasn’t there. Reb Mendel Futerfas. Reb—

38:29 Speaker 3 Mendel? No, he wasn’t there. He wasn’t there. Yisroel Jacobson, perhaps. Jacobson. Incidentally, Yisroel Jacobson was my mashpia. I studied Chassidus every day. There were Rabbi Yoel’s classes, but I went to Yisroel Jacobson. Yankele Goldberg and Kastel[?] were with me. There was a group that studied with him, with Yisroel Jacobson. During that year, did the Rebbe give any attention to the bochurim who had come as a group? Ah—before Pesach. Our group was supposed to stay until the end of Adar II, and the Rebbe worked on it. He asked the administration to arrange for us to stay until after Pesach. You could say he worked on it, but it didn’t succeed, and the Rebbe was sorry about that. So we had to leave when we had originally planned. But the Rebbe addressed us at the Purim farbrengen. In the middle of it, the Rebbe said that since there were bochurim who had to travel to the Holy Land, they should know that we were not parting; we are always together. He asked one of us to start a niggun, and Srul Yitzker was the one who started it. Do you know which niggun it was? Yes, certainly. “Yai, yai, yai, yai, yai, yai”—we sang it together with the Rebbe. Wow. And we said l’chaim. The Rebbe spoke then about a parable of sleep. They slept. A little story. At night he—at night. It was nighttime. At night he dreamed. King Shlomo dreamed. The Rebbe said, “Where are the bochurim? Is everyone here?” One had gone to sleep; another, I remember, had already gone to sleep. I think one of them was important. Anyway. Did he sing it before the story? No, before he spoke to us. Ah, he sang when he said l’chaim. It was after the story. Then he remarked that one of them had gone to sleep. In any case, we came away from that farbrengen with powerful blessings from the Rebbe. It was a major, official farbrengen with the Rebbe. Afterward, before we left, the Rebbe gave Rabbi Hodakov—

41:34 Speaker 3 a list of what to tell us, with an introduction: “Because of my particular circumstances this year, I cannot receive you personally, so I am sending this through Rabbi Hodakov.” Meaning that he couldn’t receive us at a farbrengen or in yechidus. He told us what to do when we traveled. He gave us missions to hold farbrengens: when we went to Eretz Yisroel, we were to farbreng in the yeshiva and also in a school of the Reshet, and convey what we had heard here. But before that, those of us traveling through Paris, through France—that was us—were to farbreng at the yeshiva in Brunoy and also with the chassidim in [unclear]. He gave us dollars for each place, dollars for the farbrengens. He also gave us dollars for the farbrengens at the yeshiva in Eretz Yisroel. And because, on the return trip, we were traveling on an Israeli ship—on the way there, we had traveled on Shabbos. The bochurim here know about this; they study the relevant discussions. Yes, the whole issue of Israeli ships. He forbade traveling on Israeli ships on Shabbos. So on the way there we took a Greek ship called Arens[?]. On the way back we took an Israeli ship, via Marseille. We boarded in Marseille. So the Rebbe told us, “Since you’re arriving in Marseille, there’s a transit camp for Jews there. I want”—the Rebbe wanted us to go into that camp and hold a farbrengen with the people there. Who was in the transit camp? Jews from Morocco, people on their way to Eretz Yisroel. The Rebbe made sure they would receive encouragement beforehand. Perhaps that hadn’t been planned in advance. It was something powerful. The Rebbe told us, “To get into the camp, I’ll give you the name of someone from the Joint.” He gave us the name of someone at the Joint. “Go to him, and he’ll give you the key to get into the camp.” The Rebbe gave instructions down to the smallest detail. Yes,

44:32 Speaker 3 we went into the camp. I was with Yechezkel Cohen, Chana[?], Yosef Eisenberg, and Shuler[?] at the time. I think we were a group of four fellows traveling together. We announced over the loudspeaker that we had just arrived from the Rebbe and that everyone should gather in the assembly room, the large hall. After about fifteen or twenty minutes, everyone came to the large hall—the men, their wives, and their children. There was separate seating. We sold the Rebbe’s dollar for a great deal of money, and with mashke we said l’chaim with them. We gave them encouragement from the Rebbe’s words about the importance of every Jew and the importance of Eretz Yisroel. It was amazing, truly amazing. That meeting at the transit camp is hard to forget. That was one of the missions. I think it was among the first missions I received personally from the Rebbe. We didn’t know, before we arrived at the transit camp, that everywhere we went we were to convey the words of the Arizal: anyone who is careful to avoid even the slightest trace of chametz on Pesach is assured that he will not sin all year. That was the message we were to pass on. Yes. You arrived around the beginning of Nissan, then. Yes. And the Rebbe said to end on a positive note, because of the word “sin”—end on a positive note. So we came and conveyed that message in Brunoy. We said it at the yeshiva, we said it in [unclear], and also when we came to Eretz Yisroel. It’s important to me to point out that when we came to the yeshiva in Brunoy, Rabbi Nissan—the same Rabbi Nissan we had stayed with before the trip—things were completely different, completely different. On the way there, Rabbi Nissan had spoken, and he knew how to speak. He spoke at length, and we sat there like [unclear], listening to every word. Incidentally, I didn’t tell you this, but it’s important to me to say it with full force: when we came through on the way there, Rabbi Nissan explained to us the statement, “There is nothing besides Him, even in the empty space of the world.” And there is a question about the empty space of the world: is it before the tzimtzum or after the tzimtzum? And I think he said, “There is nothing besides Him, even in the empty space of the world, even in the empty space of”

47:06 Speaker 3 [unclear]. A Jew with a beard walks through Paris thinking, “There is none besides Him.” That is what it means. “There is none besides Him”—even in the emptiness of the night. However connected he was to the higher realms, he knew how to bring it down into the emptiness of the night, because that was simply how it was. And on the way back, Rabbi Nissan did not open his mouth. “Because you are shluchim of the Rebbe.” We sat there—I sat right next to him. We repeated a sicha of the Rebbe and asked him to speak. “No, no, no, no, no. Only what the Rebbe said, what the Rebbe said, what the Rebbe said.” He listened the whole time without opening his mouth, completely setting himself aside before the Rebbe’s words. So then you arrived in Eretz Yisroel, and did you go straight back to yeshiva as usual? We went to a farbrengen. So you still managed to farbreng before Pesach? No, we didn’t manage to; we went after Pesach. But we shared that same message after Pesach too. And the Ari z”l as well. Yes, yes, the Ari z”l too. Rabbi Yanovsky didn’t limit us, didn’t limit us. Let that be for next year. No, it can be relevant to getting back into a routine too, because taking in the entire tradition of Pesach isn’t simple either. No, it’s always relevant. Even now, sitting here with a Torah scholar, you’re farbrenging in accordance with the Rebbe’s instruction to tell the bochurim what it was like by the Rebbe. Right, right. We began learning, and we learned and farbrenged. Rabbi Sholom Chai listened to us at the farbrengens too, and then we continued farbrenging at Rabbi Sholom Chai’s. So you personally returned to the Rebbe and got married in America, right? Yes, yes. I personally returned to the Rebbe in Teves [unclear]—15 Shvat. I returned to the Rebbe— At the time, going back less than a year after you had traveled there was extremely rare. Extremely rare then. Nobody asked or thought about it; they didn’t think about it. I returned to the Rebbe, and I was there on Yud Shvat. I was at the big farbrengen. Yud Shvat—

49:24 Speaker 3 5726 [unclear]. I merited to be—on Yud Shvat, 15 Shvat 5726 [unclear]. I merited to be at the great Purim of 5726 [unclear]. Wow. Yes, but before that—did you go into yechidus again when you arrived at the beginning of 5726 [unclear]? I also went into yechidus. When? Did you arrive on your birthday, or afterward? I arrived after my birthday. So when did you go into yechidus? The yechidus—oh, no, no. My yechidus was only before, before my wedding. So let’s go back to Purim 5726 [unclear]. As is well known, Purim 5726 [unclear] was one of the most extraordinary Purims in Lubavitch. Yes, Purim 5726 [unclear], Purim 5726 [unclear]. I merited to be there on Purim 5726 [unclear]. On Purim 5726 [unclear], the Rebbe farbrenged, drank quite a lot of l’chaim, and said to give out l’chaim. Suddenly, he began and proclaimed, “Empty vessels—do not stint.” Well, “Empty vessels—do not stint”? So they could bring plenty of mashke, to have empty vessels. Later, after l’chaim had been given out and the crowd was already rather merry, the Rebbe proclaimed, “Whoever stretches out his hand, we give to him.” “Whoever stretches out his hand, we give to him.” The chassidim began gathering by the Rebbe’s chair to ask the Rebbe, and the Rebbe gave out l’chaim. I personally stood—I’ll tell you—I stood to the Rebbe’s left, behind, very close behind Yossel Bender. Yossel Bender had complaints about me. You were leaning on him. I was leaning on him. But he said, “You’re like [unclear]—you’re nothing but bones. If you at least had some flesh when you leaned on me, fine. But you’re all bones! Why are you leaning on me? What’s with you?” In any event, I didn’t manage to ask the Rebbe, because the Rebbe’s chair almost broke. Then the Rebbe stopped giving it out and said [unclear] all day. And the crowd—after all, they had drunk a lot and were intoxicated—danced, each person in his place. As it happened, they were almost dancing in groups of three. For instance, I ended up—

52:02 Speaker 3 dancing with Reb Yisroel, Reb Chaim Mentlik—Reb Chaim Roiblat. Reb Chaim Roiblat. And we danced, danced very vigorously. Suddenly I heard that the Rebbe was giving it out by the car—the car was outside, and the Rebbe was continuing to give it out. I went to try my luck. I went outside, and there was already a huge crowd, and the Rebbe was giving it out. So I climbed onto the Rebbe’s car. I was among those who broke the car. We stretched out our hands from the car toward the Rebbe, and I don’t know whether I received anything or not. I don’t remember. But I do remember finding myself, shortly before sunset, in a shul in [unclear], and remembering that I had to start davening Shacharis. That was the continuation—the next day. The Rebbe also said, “I give away my golden scepter to those who go on shlichus.” Huh? “My golden scepter I give to those who go on shlichus.” That’s how the Rebbe put it that Purim. In any event, the Rebbe continued giving it out by his house too. And... that’s the song from Purim Chabad. From Purim Chabad. And my friend, Nossel [unclear], went with mashke to the Rebbe’s room and waited for the Rebbe to return for Shacharis. There was a birthday, there was a birthday around that time. It was the Rebbe’s birthday, so the Rebbe entered the room, and they brought him a cup of blessing. The next day, the Rebbe brought out all the mishloach manos he had received. Once I recovered, I came to 770. It was hard for me to drink l’chaim after all that drinking. He gave all the mishloach manos to the Temimim and began to farbreng—he continued farbrenging the next day too. That winter there weren’t really any students from the group, because the Chabad group started at Pesach, didn’t it? So that means— Right, right. So it was a group without bochurim—just some older bochurim who had stayed on for a while. Who had stayed on for a while. Amazing. After that came 13 Nissan 5726. But yes, before that I had—I had... Mm.

54:38 Speaker 3 I had a yechidus in 5726, on the eve of the second [unclear]. And that night I became a chosson. The Rebbe blessed me. And on the Shabbos afterward, before 2 Nissan, I approached the Rebbe with mashke. The Rebbe gave me—I don’t remember, I— I approached him with my left hand. The Rebbe didn’t give me any. They told me to switch hands, and the Rebbe gave me mashke and blessed me. He said to me, “Prepare yourself, prepare yourself for the wedding.” This was on 2 Nissan. “In nigleh too, not only in sod—in nigleh too.” And when I had already stepped back a little, the Rebbe called me back and said, “Prepare yourself, and if someone gets in your way, complete the whole matter properly. Tell them that this is what I instructed.” That, that was essentially it. So I had work to do from Shabbos until Thursday, 2 Nissan: to prepare in nigleh too, not only in sod. And... I succeeded. Apparently it worked, because there were also Litvish rabbis at my wedding. It was in Boro Park. In Boro Park, and they told Rabbi Mentlik—both Rabbi Mentlik and Rabbi Jacobson were at my wedding—that they were amazed the chosson had delivered a pilpul in fine English and included the words of Rabbi Tzvi. Those rabbis later went to the Rebbe and told him what he had said. So the Rebbe said, “What’s wrong? Why Rabbi Tzvi? Rabbi Tzvi was a student of the Hungarian. What surprises them about Rabbi Tzvi? Rabbi Tzvi was one of ours.” He was one of ours. So, yes, that really happened. After that came the famous maamar of 13 Nissan 5726 about unity, the unity of chassidim—13 Nissan, one hundred years since the Tzemach Tzedek. One hundred years. I was in the group; we were in a place that wasn’t so—today you have luxuries. You new students have wonderful, pleasant bedrooms. I have to point out that it wasn’t

57:35 Speaker 3 In my day, it wasn’t so simple. By the way, when I was in Lod, my bedroom was next to a chicken coop. They were room next to room, and sometimes, if I was drunk, instead of going into my room I’d go into the chicken-coop room. In my room, the bed had half a mattress that was high and half that was low. Then one night it rained, and I felt the dampness in my room. That was the room. And when I came to the Rebbe with the group, on the top floor, things were a little more normal. On the top floor I had a room where, when I opened the closet door, a cockroach came out. In any case, it wasn’t luxury. Today you’re in luxurious rooms, but we... Why am I telling you this? Because on the night of 13 Nissan, we planned to get the room a little ready for Pesach. We hadn’t had time before that, because at [unclear] there’s no vacation. You study all the time. So I thought we’d get the room ready on the night of 13 Nissan. Suddenly word came from the Rebbe: there was a farbrengen. We went up to the farbrengen, and it was a powerful farbrengen. That was our preparation for Pesach. On Erev Pesach, before the burning of the chametz, we barely managed to clean the room and get it ready. My brother, you got married two weeks later, right? When was it? There was something within two weeks, right? With the Torah gathering. First, there was the time the Rebbe came to our Seder. Oh, you were in the yeshivah. In the yeshivah. The Rebbe came to the Seder. They brought us in. What was her name—Mussy [?]. Mussy. Mussy. Mussy. [Unclear], the ever-present cook. Before Pesach she put us to work getting everything ready, so we wouldn’t arrive at the Seder on Pesach night with the work unfinished. Peel potatoes, clean the windows. On Seder night they told us the Rebbe was going to come, so we sat down for the Seder. There weren’t many fellows, about sixty, I’d say. I’m at two four nine. Six seven six. Six—

1:00:15 Speaker 3 770. 770 Eastern Parkway, across from [unclear]. There we prepared for the Seder. One of the older bochurim, one of the senior fellows, was named Shafran—Michel Shafran. He announced the stringencies and customs observed in Chabad, so we wouldn’t forget: you don’t put matzah into the dishes; you don’t put apple or orange peels into the dishes. And you have to remember that the matzah is for the cup. The Rebbe came in. He went over to Moishel in the kitchen, looked around, and made a certain comment there. He also commented on one of the mezuzos. Then the Rebbe came over to us and gave us a blessing for Pesach. The Rebbe began to sing: “Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay,” to the Kozak niggun [?]. Yes, Kozak. He began singing the Kozak niggun. We danced together through the whole song. That was when the Rebbe was with us. We did the Seder express. Wow. The cups. The size of a kezayis. I didn’t have... [unclear]. [Unclear]. And we merited to get there. I reached the Rebbe’s Seder before he washed his hands for the matzah, and I stood there—I had the privilege of standing opposite the Rebbe, behind [unclear]. We merited to see how the Rebbe washed his hands, how he made the blessings over the matzah and the maror, and everything else. The Rebbe would look in the Haggadah, in the siddur, first, and then do it. For the maror, the Rebbe took a piece of—some lettuce. First he took horseradish, rolled it into a ball, took it together with some lettuce, and dipped it in charoses. The maror was so bitter that we cried; tears came to our eyes. We watched the Rebbe eat the maror, and all we saw was that he was serious about it. We didn’t see it actually bring him to tears. The Rebbe took the maror as though he were taking something sweet. First he looked in the book, then took the maror and began to chew. Afterward he went back and did the same thing again: maror, a large piece of maror—

1:03:34 Speaker 3 More horseradish. He dipped it. Yes, he did that. And afterward—that’s where I started before—Shulchan Orech. Then it was time for the Rebbe to have the fish. Speaking as a flesh-and-blood person, I expected that after an Erev Pesach when the Rebbe had fasted and distributed matzos, and after eating so much maror, he’d eat the fish. Come on, eat the fish! So the Rebbe took the fish patty, cut it into pieces, and salted it with the salt shaker. It was covered in salt. That’s how he ate the fish. Well, that’s what we saw. As usual, the Rebbe didn’t begin eating until the attendant, Shlomo Reinits, who was serving then, began to eat. When the Rebbe saw the attendant start eating, he began eating, and everyone else had waited for the Rebbe to start. And with the compote, the Rebbe did something lovely: he made as though he was about to eat, so everyone started eating, but he didn’t. He tasted just a drop. Yes.

1:05:16 Speaker 6 Then came...

1:05:17 Speaker 3 Afterward there was...

1:05:18 Speaker 6 “Pour out Your wrath.”

1:05:19 Speaker 3 At “Pour out Your wrath,” he waited, and the main thing there was Eliyahu’s cup. Eliyahu’s cup. The Rebbe poured from the bottle into the cup, from the cup into the bottle, and then everyone sang together. They sang “For His kindness endures forever” very loudly, many times. The Rebbe poured from the bottle into the cup and from the cup into the bottle until he finished that holy task. Then the Rebbe took what remained in the cup of blessing, and with the cup in his hand, perhaps with the siddur too, he went down. He started descending. Most of the people had gone down first, to watch the Rebbe descend and to dance together. I personally stayed and saw the curtain open. Three Rebbetzins were standing there: the Rebbetzin, Rebbetzin [unclear], Chana, and the Rebbe’s Rebbetzin. All three were standing there.

1:06:40 Speaker 6 Two Rebbetzins, two Rebbetzins.

1:06:42 Speaker 3 And the Rebbe’s Rebbetzin. All three were standing there. It was very special to see. The Rebbe went over to them: “Gut Yom Tov, gut Yom Tov, gut Yom Tov.” Then the Rebbe went downstairs. They kept dancing [unclear] for some time, and afterward, when the Rebbe went down to—

1:07:06 Speaker 6 The Rebbe went into his room.

1:07:07 Speaker 3 His room. Yes. Then, on the first day—the first night, the second night.

1:07:11 Speaker 6 There was a farbrengen on the second night. On the first night the Rebbe would go home.

1:07:15 Speaker 3 Yes, there was a farbrengen on the second night. And just as on Purim, the “Purim Torah” was something special, so too the “Pesach Torah” was something special. You know how extensive it was. Questions, another question, another question, another question—about “Ha Lachma Anya,” about “Chad Gadya,” about the Four Sons. Questions, questions, questions. Afterward the Rebbe gave one explanation that addressed all the questions.

1:07:46 Speaker 6 Later the Rebbe presented it as a likut.

1:07:48 Speaker 3 Huh?

1:07:49 Speaker 6 How the Rebbe presented it as a likut from Likkutei Moharan.

1:07:52 Speaker 3 I remember the chassidim’s excitement over the great things the Rebbe said then, and over repeating them. He went over it again, and we all stood there absorbed in it. It was something special.

1:08:08 Speaker 6 So...

1:08:09 Speaker 3 The Pesach song was a song of blessing. The song everyone sang on Pesach, and continued to sing afterward too, was: “The Pesach Seder has been completed according to its laws, with all its ordinances and statutes. As we have merited to arrange it, so may we merit to perform it.” That was the song they sang.

1:08:34 Speaker 7 The Pesach refrain.

1:08:35 Speaker 3 And they sang it, they sang it even in Tishrei, when I was [unclear].

1:08:41 Speaker 7 Yes.

1:08:42 Speaker 3 They sang “Chasal” there too. But that’s something in the middle.

1:08:46 Speaker 7 Yes, so there was a Torah gathering, and I was standing with my father-in-law, who was...

1:08:53 Speaker 3 There was a Torah gathering.

1:08:56 Speaker 7 On Pesach or on Shavuos?

1:08:57 Speaker 3 Shavuos, Shavuos. There was a Torah gathering, and my father-in-law, Yankel Friedman, a great tzaddik, was going to present Torah there.

1:09:08 Speaker 7 Yes.

1:09:09 Speaker 3 He didn’t want to distract me from the Torah talks. At the Torah gathering he said to me, “Come outside with me for two minutes.” Because in America, the custom is to send wedding invitations—and now in Eretz Yisroel they do this too—and ask the person who receives an invitation to reply.

1:09:28 Speaker 7 To confirm.

1:09:29 Speaker 3 To confirm. So they send the invitations two or three months before the wedding. In my case, it was a month before the wedding and the invitations still weren’t ready. So it was a matter of life and death, as they say. He started talking to me. We were hiding right up against the wall, where the water was [unclear]. Suddenly the Rebbe came out of his room.

1:09:57 Speaker 7 Yitzchak Shvois [?].

1:09:58 Speaker 3 Yitzchak Shvois [?]. The Rebbe was walking along the sidewalk. He stopped by where the sukkah is and suddenly looked at us, no less, and then he did this.

1:10:13 Speaker 7 Both hands like this.

1:10:15 Speaker 3 Both hands.

1:10:15 Speaker 7 In astonishment.

1:10:16 Speaker 3 Utter astonishment. We ran over together. The Rebbe was down on the sidewalk and we were up where the sukkah is, and the Rebbe asked, “What are you doing here in the middle of the Torah gathering?”

1:10:31 Speaker 7 In the middle of the Torah gathering?

1:10:32 Speaker 3 In the middle of the Torah gathering. So my father-in-law began to answer that there were urgent matters concerning the wedding. The Rebbe said, “You shouldn’t take time away from something holy for this. You should take it from your sleep, from the time you would be sleeping, to talk—but not in the middle of a Torah gathering. He should go in, and you should go in too.” That was the Torah gathering. Those words of the Rebbe became a sicha, and at every Torah gathering, Rabbi [unclear], a”h, would ask me to repeat the story, and asked for as many details as possible.

1:11:17 Speaker 7 Yes.

1:11:21 Speaker 3 Blessed are You, Hashem our G-d, King of the universe.

1:11:24 Speaker 7 Amen. And before the wedding, you went into yechidus. Have a drink.

1:11:47 Speaker 3 I have to refute something, clear something up.

1:11:50 Speaker 7 Refute it.

1:11:52 Speaker 3 A rumor went around about me, and someone printed it.

1:11:57 Speaker 7 You can print anything on paper.

1:11:59 Speaker 3 Yes, someone printed something in my name, saying that I was at the bride’s house on Purim and wanted to be at the bride’s house on Pesach too. But first, I’m sorry, I have to say—

1:12:17 Speaker 7 I can testify.

1:12:19 Speaker 3 It never happened. I wasn’t a chassan on Purim.

1:12:22 Speaker 7 On Purim you weren’t a chassan.

1:12:23 Speaker 3 And I’d only met her once; we hadn’t even met about the wedding. I want to refute it because it’s in print. Someone brought me a printed copy. The Rebbe said to me in the yechidus before the vort—

1:12:43 Speaker 7 Before the vort, you went in for another yechidus?

1:12:46 Speaker 3 No, in the earlier yechidus I told you about, when the Rebbe told me to prepare divrei Torah.

1:12:53 Speaker 7 That was in the yechidus.

1:12:56 Speaker 3 The yechidus when—

1:12:58 Speaker 7 When you became a chassan in [unclear].

1:13:00 Speaker 3 So the Rebbe told me that since it didn’t look as though the wedding could be before Pesach, that wasn’t something to do. From that you can see the Rebbe wanted—

1:13:13 Speaker 7 What you’re saying here is that it wasn’t something to do.

1:13:15 Speaker 3 It wasn’t something to do. So it would be after Shavuos. In the meantime, I should prepare and learn some additional Gemara [unclear]. That’s important. And before the wedding, the Rebbe said it looked as though the wedding would be before Shavuos.

1:13:40 Speaker 7 The chuppah, the actual chuppah, right before Shavuos. In the summer that isn’t always easy.

1:13:45 Speaker 3 But there was something else, something remarkable. I don’t know if I have time.

1:13:47 Speaker 7 You do, we still have time.

1:13:49 Speaker 3 Yes?

1:13:49 Speaker 7 Yes, yes, we have time. They can—

1:13:53 Speaker 3 A week. I’m telling you interesting things. If you’re just listening, you’ll have something to tell at home too.

1:14:03 Speaker 7 I can see they’re listening, writing things down...

1:14:05 Speaker 3 Friends, listen to me. All right. The Shabbos after Shavuos, Parshas Naso, in the middle of the farbrengen, the Rebbe said, “There are five chassanim here, corresponding to the five voices.”

1:14:31 Speaker 7 Which was [unclear]. He was happy.

1:14:33 Speaker 3 And as the Frierdiker Rebbe said about Parshas Naso, “Naso has the gematria of five times Kohen.” “You don’t need to check it for me,” the Rebbe said with a smile. “I checked the gematria; it works.” [unclear] He gave them a long blessing. I didn’t think I was one of those five chassanim, because my wedding was in Tammuz, so I didn’t think I belonged. But it turned out I was one of the five. Today there can be twenty chassanim on a single Shabbos.

1:15:20 Speaker 7 Oh, well.

1:15:21 Speaker 3 Back then there might have been one chassan every two weeks. There were chassanim getting married around that week, that Shabbos. There were four chassanim.

1:15:36 Speaker 7 [unclear].

1:15:37 Speaker 3 One of them was a Raskin, the brother of [unclear]. He still has a fish business today. Michoel [unclear] Raskin.

1:15:47 Speaker 7 In Albany.

1:15:48 Speaker 3 Simcha, Simcha Bunim Brenner from Monsey was one of those chassanim. But it turned out a fifth was missing, so the Rebbe invited me—

1:16:01 Speaker 7 To say l’chaim.

1:16:05 Speaker 3 L’chaim. After I said l’chaim together with the five chassanim, the Rebbe said they should start a song. One of the chassanim started singing. There were five chassanim, so there had to be five voices.

1:16:19 Speaker 7 Shabbos [unclear].

1:16:20 Speaker 3 Chovev. Incidentally, they were looking for [unclear], and he—where was he? He would say Tehillim, because he used to travel around saying Tehillim every Shabbos, in all the shuls. So that was preparation for the wedding. It was something special.

1:16:39 Speaker 7 A month, a month and a half, a month before.

1:16:41 Speaker 3 A week before the wedding. That Shabbos, the Shabbos before the wedding, was a continuation of Yud-Beis Tammuz 5728 [unclear]. That Yud-Beis Tammuz was also extraordinary.

1:16:54 Speaker 7 Excuse me, but...

1:16:56 Speaker 3 Sorry, I... “The younger man,” yes, and he said, “older man and wiser.” He went in for yechidus with the Rebbe and said yes. And on Shabbos the Rebbe held another farbrengen.

1:17:09 Speaker 7 The Rebbe spoke about all those who had helped rescue the Frierdiker Rebbe and had come to no harm.

1:17:13 Speaker 3 Yes, it was an extraordinary farbrengen. My father was especially happy that he’d made it there—

1:17:20 Speaker 7 That’s what I wanted to ask. Your father—did he make it there? I wanted to hear about that.

1:17:22 Speaker 3 My father arrived in the middle of the Yud-Beis Tammuz farbrengen. [Unclear] called me and said, “Go out. We’ve heard he’s almost at the airport; you have to leave.” I said, “I’m in the middle of the farbrengen.” “Yes, yes, it’s your father.” So I went with [unclear] to the airport, and we told—

1:17:46 Speaker 7 The driver.

1:17:47 Speaker 3 No, at the airport we asked them to announce that a rabbi had arrived, so they would bring him out through the system. So they announced in Russian that a rabbi had arrived.

1:19:05 Speaker 7 A group of bochurim.

1:19:29 Speaker 3 A group of bochurim traveled to Montreal. Did you hear about that?

1:19:32 Speaker 7 Yes. The Rebbe wanted the bochurim there so it would be joyous [unclear].

1:19:36 Speaker 3 So they would be at the wedding. Later, at my wedding too, it was very joyous.

1:19:43 Speaker 7 Well, afterward you returned to Eretz Yisroel. Ah, you had the merit of being among the founders of Nachlas Har Chabad.

1:19:55 Speaker 3 That’s another very important detail.

1:19:59 Speaker 7 Yes.

1:19:59 Speaker 3 Before I went to Eretz Yisroel, I knew I was supposed to go. My father-in-law asked my father for a blessing and advice about how we could stay. My father went in for yechidus, and the Rebbe began telling him about a possibility of staying. My father traveled, and I wrote to the Rebbe because I didn’t know what to do. I consulted someone, Rabbi [unclear] from Sydney. My rabbi suggested that I write to the Rebbe. Of course. We wrote that, according to the plan, we knew we were supposed to go to Eretz Yisroel, but suddenly we heard from my father that the Rebbe was suggesting he leave, and we didn’t know what to do about going to Eretz Yisroel. The Rebbe indicated that we should return to Eretz Yisroel. “As is known, the answer depends on how the question is asked and who is asking it. That is why I answered you this way. Tell your father, who is abroad, what I’m saying.”

1:21:08 Speaker 8 Meaning that for your father—

1:21:10 Speaker 3 My father had asked for advice. But you have to... So the first instruction was—

1:21:17 Speaker 8 To go to Eretz Yisroel.

1:21:18 Speaker 3 He sent us to Eretz Yisroel. We had written that whatever the Rebbe told us, we would do. It wasn’t simple, because we were in New York and my mother very much wanted us to stay. But the Rebbe said, “Go to Eretz Yisroel.”

1:21:32 Speaker 8 So you went.

1:21:33 Speaker 3 To Eretz Yisroel.

1:21:33 Speaker 8 To Lod; you lived in Lod.

1:21:35 Speaker 3 We arrived in Jerusalem, and when we had an apartment in Lod, we moved there. We were in Lod in 5727. During the Six-Day War I was learning in Rabbi Ashkenazi’s kollel. Have you heard of Rabbi Ashkenazi?

1:21:51 Speaker 8 A little.

1:21:53 Speaker 3 Rabbi Shlomo Gafni was there too. The war began, and everyone went into the shelter. We continued learning there. We began—

1:22:04 Speaker 8 The kollel was in Lod.

1:22:06 Speaker 3 The kollel was in Lod, across from the houses. And the Rebbe sent word that Hakadosh Boruch Hu was going to save the Jewish people, and that we should engage in the tefillin campaign. We went from shelter to shelter with the tefillin campaign. We were in Lod from Iyar 5727 until Erev Pesach 5728, when my wife, the children and I traveled to the Rebbe again. Then something very interesting happened. I approached the Rebbe on Erev Pesach to receive matzos.

1:22:54 Speaker 8 The Rebbe would generally distribute matzos on Erev Pesach. He distributed matzos to the married men until [unclear].

1:23:02 Speaker 3 So I approached the Rebbe. The Rebbe said, “Welcome,” and asked how the trip had been.

1:23:10 Speaker 8 In the middle of the distribution.

1:23:11 Speaker 3 Yes, yes. “How was the trip with the family?” The Rebbe also asked, “How long have you come for?” I said, “I think about two weeks.” I thought perhaps longer than that. The Rebbe just went like this—

1:23:26 Speaker 8 Just—

1:23:27 Speaker 3 Like this, like this. Nothing. Incidentally, the Rebbe gave me one matzah for myself and one for the family. I was at the Rebbe’s Seder again that Seder night. After Pesach I wrote to the Rebbe that I understood from his reaction that two weeks weren’t enough, and that I thought we would stay until after Tisha B’Av. The Rebbe marked “until after Tisha B’Av.” I hadn’t proposed staying longer than that. Then I went in for yechidus. The Rebbe asked me, “Didn’t you make some kind of trip in the army? Call your father and ask him to speak with Rabbi Ze’evi so they can make an assessment.” Rabbi Ze’evi spoke with the head of the yeshivah, Katz, from Haifa.

1:24:28 Speaker 8 Who, Yaakov Katz? He was a fellow student of mine in yeshivah.

1:24:32 Speaker 3 So I was there until Tishrei 5729, until Cheshvan 5729.

1:24:38 Speaker 8 [unclear].

1:24:39 Speaker 3 I don’t remember where.

1:24:40 Speaker 8 With the whole family.

1:24:41 Speaker 3 Yes.

1:24:42 Speaker 8 Did you go into yechidus with the children?

1:24:43 Speaker 3 The Rebbe told me—I was teaching in [unclear]. Teaching in [unclear]. And the Rebbe told me to teach at the country camp, so Moishe [unclear] arranged for me to teach there. And it’s important for me to mention—we’re now on the eve of Tu B’Av.

1:25:03 Speaker 8 The fifteenth of Av.

1:25:04 Speaker 3 On Tu B’Av we were there in America, at the country camp. Among my students were Rabbi Yitzchok Gutman and [unclear] Gutman.

1:25:11 Speaker 8 Your mashgiach.

1:25:12 Speaker 3 And [unclear].

1:25:14 Speaker 8 Your mashgiach.

1:25:15 Speaker 3 They were my students at the country camp. The Rebbe called me, and Rabbi Chadakov called and spoke with my wife about holding a gathering for the women and girls at the country camp on Tu B’Av—a farbrengen. Ever since then, to this very day, all my daughters hold a farbrengen.

1:25:41 Speaker 8 On the fifteenth of Av.

1:25:43 Speaker 3 Since it’s the fifteenth of Av now.

1:25:45 Speaker 8 That’s it.

1:25:45 Speaker 3 There’s still time.

1:25:46 Speaker 8 [unclear].

1:25:47 Speaker 3 Yes.

1:25:48 Speaker 8 Yes. And then you were there for Tishrei ’28—Tishrei ’28—

1:25:52 Speaker 3 Tishrei ’27.

1:25:54 Speaker 8 Tishrei ’29. Tishrei ’29.

1:25:57 Speaker 3 Tishrei ’29.

1:25:59 Speaker 8 Wait, did you go into yechidus with the children? There was special attention.

1:26:02 Speaker 3 Yes, with my daughter.

1:26:04 Speaker 8 With your daughter.

1:26:04 Speaker 3 The older daughter. She’s married to Alterman.

1:26:07 Speaker 8 Yes, yes, of course. The rabbi of Ramot.

1:26:10 Speaker 3 Right. So, uh, I was with my daughter. The Rebbe gave her blessings. Among the blessings was, “May you find favor in the eyes of G-d and man.”

1:26:21 Speaker 8 May you find favor in the eyes of G-d and man. And then you returned to Eretz Yisroel after Tishrei 5729.

1:26:28 Speaker 3 After Tishrei 5729, around Shvat, we received word that the Rebbe was going to establish a new community called Nachlas Har Chabad. Are there students from Nachlas Har Chabad here?

1:26:42 Speaker 8 There are, there are.

1:26:44 Speaker 3 Who wants to be a shliach?

1:26:46 Speaker 8 Is that how they asked you at [unclear]?

1:26:47 Speaker 3 That’s how they asked. There was a boys’ yeshiva. First they asked who wanted to be a shliach. A few of us bochurim volunteered, including me, Rabbi Yaroslavsky, Rabbi Sholom Ber [unclear], and Rabbi Mordechai [unclear].

1:27:06 Speaker 8 Tzachi Lipsker.

1:27:07 Speaker 3 Tzachi Lipsker. On the first night, 9 Adar II 5729, we were the first ones in Nachlas Har Chabad. Afterward, Chaim came for Shabbos, for the farbrengen, and the Rebbe told him to come daven with us. There was a farbrengen. That’s how Nachlas Har Chabad got started, and the Rebbe showed particular interest in it. I was involved. It was Shevi’i Shel Pesach, Shevi’i Shel Pesach. I stayed, along with one other person. After Shevi’i Shel Pesach, [unclear] called me. The Rebbe wanted to know who had stayed for Shevi’i Shel Pesach and how the gathering for Shevi’i Shel Pesach, the Moshiach’s Seudah, had gone. So I answered that I and one other person had stayed, and the Rebbe said that we had merited [unclear].

1:27:57 Speaker 8 For having stayed.

1:27:58 Speaker 3 Yes. By the way, the Rebbe’s telegram for Erev Pesach arrived at my home in Nachlas Har Chabad.

1:28:08 Speaker 8 Well, before we run out of time, we want to hear about the Rebbe’s instruction that prompted you to pursue the rabbinate.

1:28:15 Speaker 3 When I was in Nachlas Har Chabad, I received an instruction from the Rebbe to look into it. I asked a lot of questions about educational supervision and other matters. The instruction was to work in the rabbinate in Eretz Hakodesh. By the way, in the Rebbe’s letters to me while I was in Nachlas Har Chabad, he wrote the word “Rabbi” before my name, [unclear] Gold.

1:28:38 Speaker 8 Rabbi.

1:28:38 Speaker 3 Rabbi.

1:28:39 Speaker 8 Semichah.

1:28:40 Speaker 3 Yes. So he wrote “Rabbi.” I started looking into rabbinic positions in many places, in Arad and Karmiel. I traveled to different places, until the matter of the kollel in Upper Nazareth came up. The Rebbe wanted me to come to the kollel there, to be there.

1:28:57 Speaker 8 There’s an organization called, uh—

1:29:00 Speaker 3 [unclear].

1:29:00 Speaker 8 [unclear], [unclear], the one that—

1:29:01 Speaker 3 [unclear], [unclear].

1:29:01 Speaker 8 [unclear].

1:29:02 Speaker 3 To change the schedule around. And when I was with the Rebbe in 5763, in yechidus, the Rebbe told me, among other things—the first thing the Rebbe said was, “I don’t know why they aren’t publishing a collection of Torah insights.” At that point they weren’t publishing one yet. He said to start doing it at least twice a year.

1:29:22 Speaker 8 Collections in the kollels and yeshivos.

1:29:24 Speaker 3 Yes. Afterward he told me to come to Eretz Yisroel and farbreng with [unclear], and to tell them to live in places like yours, where you also have half a day of study and half a day of outreach, [unclear]. Later, I received an instruction to move to Kfar Tavor.

1:29:41 Speaker 8 There was some instruction concerning Kfar Tavor.

1:29:42 Speaker 3 A rabbinic position—I had been offered a rabbinic position in Kfar Tavor.

1:29:45 Speaker 8 So there was some instruction about the Shulchan Aruch, wasn’t there?

1:29:47 Speaker 3 The Rebbe asked me how I had turned down the offer. As for moving there, it was on condition that they conduct themselves according to the Shulchan Aruch.

1:29:54 Speaker 8 If they conduct themselves according to the Shulchan Aruch. So you moved there for many years. You were a shliach there.

1:30:01 Speaker 3 We were there for eighteen years. On our first 19 Kislev, in 5768, we were already with the Rebbe. Rabbi Grossman was with me, and so was—

1:30:11 Speaker 8 [unclear].

1:30:12 Speaker 3 [unclear]. With me was, uh, the head of the local council.

1:30:18 Speaker 8 Of, uh—

1:30:18 Speaker 3 Kfar Tavor.

1:30:19 Speaker 8 Kfar Tavor. On 19 Kislev 5768.

1:30:21 Speaker 3 Yes, yes.

1:30:24 Speaker 8 And then you were [unclear], without the evil eye. May Hashem protect you and help you, Rabbi Hertzel. After that you became the rabbi in Nof HaGalil, right? You also received [unclear]. There had already been [unclear].

1:30:32 Speaker 3 I received it in 5769. I was with the Rebbe in 5752, the year the Rebbe was ill. I had a yechidus with the Rebbe at a time when the Rebbe wasn’t receiving people for yechidus. I merited an actual yechidus.

1:30:50 Speaker 8 Inside—at [unclear]?

1:30:52 Speaker 3 [unclear].

1:30:53 Speaker 8 What happened?

1:30:54 Speaker 3 It was me and my son Zalman. A real yechidus. The Rebbe answered everything I asked about education and arranging kiddushin. The Rebbe gave me the kuntres Ahavas Yisroel and told me to be a mashpia, and in addition [unclear] in the kuntres Ahavas Yisroel [unclear].

1:31:11 Speaker 8 I may not be quoting it exactly: “Since you are mashpi’im in addition to being rabbis…”

1:31:15 Speaker 3 “I am giving you the kuntres Ahavas Yisroel with my signature, together with all the blessings written there.” At the end of the kuntres there are blessings, and beside them is the Rebbe’s signature.

1:31:24 Speaker 8 So that’s how it was expressed: he gave it to you with all the blessings.

1:31:26 Speaker 3 Yes. In 5776 I moved to Upper Nazareth. The Rebbe had also answered me about it in 5773. Groner asked the Rebbe whether I should come or not, and the Rebbe answered—

1:31:42 Speaker 8 After Rabbi Pinchas Miller passed away, that’s when you started looking into it.

1:31:46 Speaker 3 Yes. The Rebbe nodded yes. Groner asked him again, and he said yes.

1:31:52 Speaker 8 Yasher koach, Rabbi Hertzel. This is what it means to renew our hiskashrus. I’m sure it will do that for the bochurim and for everyone who hears this. Above all, may Hakadosh Boruch Hu give you much strength and long life in your role as rabbi, as a member of the beis din, and as a Jew and mashpia blessed by the Rebbe with all those blessings. As we said, this is really a way of fulfilling the Rebbe’s instruction to farbreng and tell people what happened with the Rebbe. And now, on the eve of 5 Menachem Av, with Hashem’s help, very soon we will again see the Rebbe with our physical eyes, immediately, in good health. He will daven for you. Yasher koach. Yasher koach, Rabbi Hertzel, for an episode so full of stories. Clearly, there is much more to hear, and we look forward to another opportunity. Even this small amount contains so much: the special vitality that comes from the Rebbe’s instructions in the Rebbe’s shlichus. And as we said at the beginning, we wish you many long, good years, so that we can always continue to hear Chassidishe words from you that awaken and strengthen our hiskashrus. Above all, may we see the Rebbe again immediately. Special thanks to the administration of the yeshiva [unclear] and Tzeirei Lubavitch for the opportunity to make this podcast in this way, as a farbrengen and a gathering of friends in the presence of hundreds of students. Surely everyone is strengthening their hiskashrus with the Rebbe, and very soon we will see him again. May we all have a good month. May you be inscribed and sealed for a good and sweet year.