Couple Visited the Rebbes of Chabad, Bobov and Satmar

Welcome to our weekly program, The Inside Story of Chabad in America, through the Mindel archives.

Last week I mentioned the importance of carrying the Rebbe's dollar in your wallet, or the Rebbe's picture, or whenever you travel, in your car — always have one. This is what the Rebbe said to many people, to have it with you, in your car as well. Now, we know many stories of Yidden — not only from Lubavitcher Chassidim — people from other groups who were given what is called a kamea, meaning an item of a mystical nature, something to hold. A kamea. I don't know exactly what that is, but something that a Rebbe gave.

So today, since we're talking about carrying something with you wherever you go, I want to tell you a story. This has nothing to do with Yud Tevet — we are now around the time of Yud Tevet — but it happened to be that I was somewhere around Yud Tevet, so I thought I would share this story with you. It's an interesting story.

I happened to be at a bris in Long Beach, Long Island. I went with my wife — I was invited to the bris. There was a rabbi, Rabbi Aban [?], who was a big rav there, and there was a bris in the shul. I was sitting after the bris, eating, and across the table was sitting a man — middle-aged, older man. He must have wanted to get into a conversation, because he said to me, "Are you Chabad? No — not Chabad — are you Lubavitch? Are you a Lubavitcher?" So I said, "Yes, I'm a Lubavitcher."

He said, "I want to tell you something." He said he was not religious at all — he said even now he doesn't think of himself as religious. Years ago, even at his Bar Mitzvah, he went to a Reform Temple, but that was it — he was never religious at all, never put on tefillin, not even at the Reform Temple. Nobody — he never put on tefillin.

He said, "We were married many, many years — I think eleven or twelve years — and we didn't have children." His wife was going to doctors — they went to Chicago, to Denver — I don't know why he told me that — and to doctors, and the doctors said there's nothing they could do.

He said, "I met somebody who was not a Lubavitcher, and I told him about this. He said to me, 'Why don't you go to a rabbi, to a great rabbi, and talk to him about this problem?' I was laughing — I told him I don't believe in all this." But a week later his friend called him again and kept after him. He said, "There are three great rabbis in New York. There is the old Satmar Rebbe, there is the old Bobover Rebbe, and there is [the Lubavitcher Rebbe]. First of all, you can choose whichever one you want to go to — but why don't you go to all of them? I'll tell you, I know it's hard to get an appointment, but make the appointment — what do you have to lose? Sundays you're off anyway — why don't you go? You're not going to lose anything." This man was a well-to-do man. It took his friend a long time to convince him, but finally he said, "Okay."

So first — because he was older — he went to the Satmar Rebbe. He told the Satmar Rebbe that he needed a bracha for children, that he had gone to doctors. So the Rebbe gave him a kamea — it looked like a napkin, a piece of cloth sewn around, a thick cloth, and in the middle was something hard — and he said to him, "Don't ever open this, and always carry it in your pocket, except on Shabbos. That's all." So he took it.

A week or two later he went to the Bobover Rebbe, who told him, "Why don't you put on a yarmulke? A yarmulke will remind you that there is a God in the world."

Finally, he got an appointment with the [Lubavitcher] Rebbe — I'm telling it out of order. He said he spent more time there than with the Satmar Rebbe or the Bobover Rebbe, because the Rebbe took an interest in his life. He sat there maybe ten minutes, with the Rebbe asking him where he comes from, what he does. He said, "With the other Rebbes, they just gave me something and I left. He was very interested — where I come from, what I do — very interesting." Then the Rebbe took out a pair of tefillin, gave them to him, told him to put them on every day, and gave him a bracha.

So what happened? About nineteen months later, he had a girl.

He said to me, "You want to see the girl?" I said, "Of course." So he took me — my wife was sitting there too — and we went, and the wife was there with the child, at the bris.

I told the wife what her husband had told me — the whole story of how the child was born, a miracle. So I asked the wife, "Tell me — who did the miracle? Did the Satmar do the miracle, did the Bobover do the miracle, or did [the Lubavitcher Rebbe]?" She said to me, "Rabbi, I really don't know who did the miracle." The thing that the Satmar Rabbi gave him, he's still carrying. I asked, "Do you have it with you?" "Yes." He took it out of his pocket — he never leaves it, years later he still always carries it. I saw it — it looked like a piece of cloth. She said, "I don't know what it is, but he always has it, never leaves it, except on Shabbos. On Yom Kippur, when he eats, he puts it on; when he goes to work, he doesn't." But, she said, "One thing I'll tell you — he puts on tefillin every single day, he goes to shul every single day, because of this. And you know, we changed a lot of things in the house only because of that tefillin. But I don't know who did the miracle."

It's a very, very interesting story, and I wanted to share it with you.

Now, one more thing I want to say, because tomorrow is Asara B'Tevet, and Asara B'Tevet is a very important fast day — that's why, even though it falls on a Friday this year, you still have to fast on Asara B'Tevet.

I once mentioned to you that my father-in-law, Rabbi Mindel, had to eat every three hours — doctor's instructions. So once he went to the Frierdiker Rebbe and asked him what to do about Tisha B'Av. The Rebbe told him — and then, before he left the room, the Rebbe called him back and said, "Don't forget to also ask a Rav, a smart Rav — a Rav has to be consulted as well." So he went and told the Rav, and the Rav said he could eat on Tisha B'Av, half the day. The Frierdiker Rebbe very much wanted him to eat, not to fast at all.

So here I found a letter — just a few lines — about this fast. [The Frierdiker Rebbe wrote:] "I am begging you — tomorrow, don't fast at all, not even one hour. Don't fast. If what I am asking of you does not help, I am demanding of you, with a strong demand, that I do not want you to fast — even though it is a great fast day. But if [my father-in-law] wanted to fast anyway, he should not fast at all." And then he writes that instead he should give to tzedakah [unclear], and he signed his name.

So I thought I would mention this to you — we all have to fast, of course, but if somebody is not well, he shouldn't overdo it; he should give [tzedakah] instead. That's what the Rebbe told him.

This is what I wanted to share with you. Next week we'll continue our weekly program. Thank you.