A Segulah the Rebbe Offered to the Ill

A Segulah the Rebbe Offered to the Ill

Welcome to our weekly program, The Inside Story of Chabad in America, through the Mindel Archives. Today I want to share with you a fascinating story of the Rebbe. This story happened within a few months after the Rebbe took his nesius in 1951. And since this story is about motzei Shabbos, we should really tell it on motzei Shabbos, as we know there is a minhag to say [words] of the Baal Shem Tov on motzei Shabbos Kodesh. As a matter of fact, we've already had our Thursday night program running for over a year now — we actually started on motzei Shabbos, but for some reason we changed it to Thursday night, so maybe we can post this story again on motzei Shabbos.

They used to say that there are three segulahs: not only — that Shabbos, I'm sorry, is the story of the Baal Shem Tov, and you see from the story that it's a segulah for parnassah — so there are three segulahs: not only from the Baal Shem Tov but from the Alter Rebbe as well; not only on motzei Shabbos but every night; and not only a segulah for parnassah, but a segulah for all good things.

So this is what I want to share with you — and I did share this with somebody, and I'll tell you soon when we get there. But before we do, I should mention that this story is also about a mezuzah — we'll come to it soon. But before I share the story, I want to read you a handwritten answer from the Rebbe, also from Tof-Shin-Yud-Aleph (5711/1951), to somebody who had asked him about a problem — he couldn't sleep.

He couldn't sleep, and he wanted to know what he should do. He had doctors, and the doctors just couldn't help him, so he wanted to know what to do. So I want to read you a very short letter from the Rebbe. The letter is written in Hebrew, and I will translate it into English:

"Greeting and blessing. I am glad to know that his condition is improving. G-d willing, certainly a speedy recovery. In answer to his notification yesterday, through his wife, the Rebbetzin, that his sleep is not as it should be — he should not dwell on the matter and should take his mind off it immediately. It is advisable that there should be, near his bed, a kosher mezuzah, not necessarily only at the doorpost of the room, and it is self-understood that if necessary it should be covered, within a cover and the like — because it's in a bedroom, sometimes you need a cover — but this is a mezuzah on the table.

"It is known how much you cherish the words of the Rebbe — he means the Rebbe, the Frierdiker Rebbe. I will mention to you what I heard from my father-in-law, the Rebbe: that it was a practice among the Nesiim — I am almost sure (in parentheses: that specifically it was about the Maharash, end of parentheses) — that they had lying on their table a note with the words 'Shivisi Hashem L'negdi Tamid' — I have set Hashem before me always. Certainly you have noticed a mezuzah lying on the table of my father-in-law the Rebbe, on the table where he wrote and learned."

And then the Rebbe brings down: look in Mishnah Keilim and see what it says there about a mezuzah in a walking stick, and look there at the Tosafot Yom Tov. The Rebbe specifically wrote, "Listen to me," and then he says, "I am hoping to hear only good things from you," and he signed it.

Then he added a postscript: if he has roommates in his room — apparently he was in a hospital or a place where he had a roommate — it would probably be a good idea for him to find out what their situation is regarding Torah, mitzvos, and Chassidus. He should find out about his neighbor. This is what the Rebbe wrote in the letter.

Now, people — the recipients of this kind of letter, as I learned after knowing about this episode — questioned the Rebbe: why? We know the Torah says the mezuzah has to be at the doorpost. We never saw people put a mezuzah on a table, or put a mezuzah — as the Rebbe also many times mentions — in a car. It's not a must, but it was mentioned to a few people. We never saw this before — that was question number one.

Number two: some people said it might even look like kishuf, sorcery — I mean, it's supposed to be on the door, and the Rambam mentions that sometimes certain people make magic, putting a holy object in their hand and talking to it, thinking they'll become better — things like that. So people questioned the Rebbe about this, and that's why the Rebbe wrote in this letter — knowing, I suppose, that people would question it — to look in Mishnah Keilim and see what the Tosafot Yom Tov says.

What does the Mishnah say? Years ago, people made a hole in a stick — on top of a stick — and put diamonds and gems inside it, and they put a mezuzah on top. The reason mentioned for the gems and the mezuzah together is that when they passed customs, they wouldn't have to pay tax — that was the practical reason. But that's not what the Rebbe is citing. The Tosafot Yom Tov says they put a mezuzah in a stick, and then they put diamonds in another stick, and the purpose for the mezuzah, we know, is probably for shemirah — protection — a mezuzah protects. So we see from here, and the Rebbe wanted to prove, that even in the time of the Mishnah they put a mezuzah not only on the doorpost. That's why the Rebbe mentioned to look in Keilim — and this is the answer. So it's not kishuf — this is how they used to do it.

Now, speaking about a mezuzah: it says that the Roman emperor gave a present to Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi — he gave him avanim tovos u'marg'liyos, precious stones and pearls, as a gift. Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi gave the emperor a gift back — what did he give him? He gave him a small mezuzah. The emperor opens the box and says, "I gave him precious stones and pearls, and he gives me a small mezuzah?" So he went to Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, who said, "You gave me something I need to guard; I gave you a gift that will guard you — a mezuzah guards." So we see from here that not only on the doorpost — and he was showing the Roman emperor — mezuzos guard; this is what it is.

Now, since we just read that the Rebbe told this person he should have an influence on his neighbor, here I want to share with you a personal story, and then we'll get to the main story I want to tell you.

When we had our twins, my wife was, lo aleinu, very sick — she was hemorrhaging, and they couldn't stop the blood; she was almost in a coma. The blood — they couldn't stop it — until the nurse, the doctor — her name was Mrs. Zilka [?] — sat on her to stop the bleeding. That's how it was, and she was, rachmana litzlan, almost in the other world. My wife said that while she was in and out of the coma, she overheard the doctors saying she was not going to make it.

My father-in-law, that night, was with the Rebbe taking dictation, and afterward he went to visit her in the hospital. He came in and saw the situation — the doctor sitting on her, trying to stop the bleeding, and they couldn't stop it — and she was white as a sheet. He had never seen her like that. So he ran back, took the car, went back to the Rebbe. He went into the room, knocked on the door, and told the Rebbe the situation.

So the Rebbe opened his drawer, put his hand — I remember him describing it like this — into a bunch of nickels, and my father-in-law opened his hand, and the Rebbe gave him the nickels and said, "Give her the nickels for tzedakah," or whatever it was — I think that's what he said. And since she was one of the first connected with the Chabad cookbook — my wife was the first, along with Mrs. Blau — before she made the cookbook, [the Rebbe told] Mrs. Blau that she should see — they should see — that there's a kosher kitchen in the hospital, meaning every single thing, every opportunity that can be used should be used. This was because the Rebbe had told this person in the postscript we just read that he should see that his neighbor increase in Torah and mitzvos.

Now I want to get to the main story I want to tell you — the motzei Shabbos story of the Rebbe.

This story happened to Rabbi [unclear name, heard as "Eunuch"] [?], and he told it to his sons, who have since passed away; he discussed it once with [someone] who also knew the story. This was in the early days — this was '51 — in the years when there were a lot of plagues: scarlet fever, typhoid fever, yellow fever, polio, measles, and some people went to sleep and didn't wake up. There was a lot of sleeping sickness; people went to sleep and didn't wake up. I don't know exactly what it was, but that's how it was then — it was a terrible time.

So Rabbi [unclear] — and by the way, Rabbi [unclear] is the one who took over from Rabbi Mentlik [?], who used to pour the wine for Kos Shel Brocha when people came to a farbrengen; he poured the wine for the Rebbe after Rabbi Mentlik passed away. He was a shochet, and he was a shochet in the Bronx.

So he went after shechita, he went home — he went into the subway, and while going home he sees a Yid with a beard, not Chabad, crying and crying and crying. He went over to him and said, "Reb Yid, can I help you?" The man didn't want to talk, but finally he says — "What's the problem?" He says he's coming now from Mount Sinai Hospital — he took the train, which is also in the Bronx — he's going home now; his wife is in the hospital in critical condition, sleeping, not waking up, and the doctors said it's the sickness, and they don't know what's going to happen.

So he says to him, "You know what, we're on the train — it stops at Kingston Avenue — come with me to the Rebbe." This was, I think, three or four months after [the Rebbe took the nesius]. "Let's go to the Rebbe." He says, "No — I sent a telegram to the Klausenburger Rebbe, to the [Belzer?] Rebbe — I don't want to go to the Rebbe." He convinced him anyway to get off at Kingston Avenue. He got off, and they went to 770 to see the Rebbe.

He went in — you know, you can't just walk into the Rebbe's room, there were secretaries. I don't know who was there exactly — probably Rabbi Groner wasn't even there yet, or the other secretaries, but Rabbi Mindel and Rabbi Hodakov were there. So he asked Rabbi Mindel, told him the story, and said, "I need to see the Rebbe." Rabbi Mindel said, "Okay, the Rebbe is coming out — stand by the door and tell him yourself what you want to tell him" — because the secretary doesn't relay it, he has to tell the Rebbe himself.

So he did. The Rebbe came out — I think it was 3:15, 3:30 — stood by the door. He told the Rebbe the situation of his wife; I believe the Yid himself spoke. First the Rebbe asked his name, his mother's name, his wife's name, and his wife's mother's name. Then the Rebbe said, "Take a car, go buy — or take — a kosher mezuzah, go to the hospital, put it under her pillow, and say in her ear — scream in her ear — her name and her mother's name. And when you hear besuros tovos, good news, come and tell me." And then he went back into his room.

So Rabbi [unclear] said to this person, "Let's go." He said, "No, I don't want to go now, I'm too tired, I'm going home." He didn't want to go. So — maybe tomorrow. The next day, they got a kosher mezuzah and went to the hospital, to Mount Sinai. They came to the room — she was supposed to be on the fourth floor — she wasn't there! Can you imagine what went through his mind? Anyway, the nurse — the doctor — said she'd been moved to another floor, I guess a floor that's not the best floor. They went to the other floor. He took the mezuzah, put it under her pillow, and screamed in her ear her name and her mother's name — that's it. There was no movement. They stood there another hour on the floor, and then they both went home.

The husband visited his wife every day. The next day two doctors told him, "There's a miracle — she hasn't gotten up yet, she's still in great sakana (danger), but we saw movement. Before she was like a vegetable; now we saw a little movement." This was something very important to them — it took a long time, maybe a month or two, but she recovered and became well.

So Rabbi [unclear] told him, "Listen, you didn't finish — the Rebbe told you that when you hear besuros tovos, you should come and tell him." So they went to 770 to tell the Rebbe. Going up the steps to 770, the Rebbe was coming out, and the Rebbe said, "You're coming to tell me good news?" They said, "Yes" — this is the miracle that happened. This finishes that story.

Speaking about a vegetable — there is a letter from the Rebbe. Somebody wrote to the Rebbe that his mother was "a vegetable." The Rebbe says that everything in this world is for a purpose — what is her purpose in this world? And it so happened that the children and grandchildren were with the mother 24 hours a day, never leaving her alone. So the Rebbe answers him: first of all, doctors can make mistakes — "a vegetable," I mean, they're not perfect, miracles can happen. Number two: the purpose of living — when people see the kibud av v'eim, the honor, that the children and grandchildren show your mother, this is the purpose of real living.

So I want to finish off — since we're speaking about a mezuzah, and mezuzah has [three parts: mem, zu, and zeh] [unclear] — a Jewish home should always have a mezuzah, a kosher mezuzah, not only on the doorpost, but there should be a home of Torah, a home of tefillah, and then you'll have [zera kodesh v'chayu] [unclear] — then you'll have the increase/blessing of a partner in that family — and the Rebbe's [blessings] are there to help us merit the geulah. Thank you.