What Rabbi Gifter Asked to Tell the Rebbe

Welcome to our weekly Motzaei Shabbos program.

This program is a hemshech (continuation) of last week. I was in the middle of telling you stories of what I heard from my father, and this is l'ilui nishmas my two parents — my father's yahrzeit is this month, Lipman ben Nochum, and my mother's yahrzeit is also this month, Chana bas Yisrael. So now I'm going to continue from last week; this is a continuation.

Last week, at the end, we mentioned Rabbi Reitzes, that he was in our house, and about the bochurim coming from Telshe Yeshiva. You can click back and listen to it.

So, mentioning Rabbi Reitzes, I just want to mention something that I remember. Rabbi Reitzes and Rabbi Chazanovsky once went together as shadarim to raise money — I don't know where, in America. They both went together. Before they went, they went to the Rebbe for brachos, and the Rebbe gave them a brocha. The Rebbe noted that Rabbi Chazanovsky looked different than Rabbi Reitzes — Rabbi Reitzes was mamish skinny, very, very skinny, and Rabbi Chazanovsky was a bit of a ba'al basar. So the Rebbe turned to Rabbi Chazanovsky and told him, "You should take care of him, of Rabbi Reitzes" — ober noch deiner hasogas, nit noch zeiner hasogas — "according to your standards, not according to his standards." I wanted to mention that.

Now, we mentioned last week about Telshe Yeshiva and my father, so here I want to continue. There was a rosh yeshiva there, his name was Rabbi Gifter. He was very close to my father. My father had a lot of good learning, and people who knew how to learn he admired, so he was very close to my father. He came to all our simchas — he and Rabbi Sorotzkin and all the other roshei yeshiva came to our simchas.

Anyway, one day Rabbi Gifter comes over to my father and says to him, "I want to tell you something — please say it over to the Lubavitcher Rebbe, I'm asking you." And he tells him what: there was a bochur in Tels, and he was a metzuyan, a very good bochur. "And I found out," he says — he spoke in Yiddish, he had a Litvishe Yiddish — "that he spoke about the Lubavitcher Rebbe, not the way he should. And when I found out about it, I called him over and I asked him — 'Did you speak about your Rebbe shelo bishvach, not with derech eretz?' He said, 'Yeah.'"

"I told him: ich veys nisht oib der Lubavitcher Rebbe iz der Gadol Hador — I don't know if the Lubavitcher Rebbe is the Gadol Hador, but for sure he's one of the Gedolei Hador." That's what Rabbi Gifter told my father: "You should tell the Rebbe."

He said to the bochur, "Take your valise" — he explained, tzum vallis means take your suitcase — "pack your suitcase, take a Greyhound bus, go to the Lubavitcher Rebbe, take off your shoes, and ask him mechila, forgiveness. And when I find out that you asked the mechila, then I will take you back to yeshiva. Please take your suitcase and leave."

He tells my father, "Please say it to the Lubavitcher Rebbe." So my father, when he went to yechidus, said it to the Rebbe exactly as Rabbi Gifter told him.

So the Rebbe leaned back. Now, the Rebbe, usually by yechidus — whoever was by yechidus knows the Rebbe never leaned back, just like by farbrengen the Rebbe never leaned back. I remember a few times when the Rebbe told a story involving Reb Mendel Gotter [?] and Reb Shimon Goldman, on Parshas Mishpatim, before the subject of malkus, but the Rebbe never leaned back. In yechidus, though, the Rebbe leaned back with a big smile and said: az m'hot a kinyan in Chassidus, geyt avek der hester fun Chassidus — once one has an acquisition in Chassidus, the concealment of Chassidus goes away.

So the Rebbe was very happy to hear that Rabbi Gifter said such a thing. That I remember.

I mentioned last week also about a beard that my father had, even in his later years. So I want to mention that in 1970 I went to pick up my uncle and my aunt — they came from Russia. I went to Kennedy Airport. I remember that day my oldest daughter was born, and my wife was in the hospital. I went to pick them up.

In those days, people coming from Russia didn't know anything — my uncle didn't have a beard, he wasn't allowed to have a beard. So I came with the car. My uncle says, "I want to see the Rebbe, the first thing I want is to see the Rebbe." So I took him to 770. He and my aunt and my daughters were there, and I stopped the car and went to the front, waiting there before the Rebbe came out. The Rebbe used to go for Maariv; he used to come out to the small zal, the small shul.

I'm waiting for the Rebbe to come out for Maariv — he wanted to see the Rebbe. Before the Rebbe came out, my uncle Yisrael took his hand and started shaking like this. I said, "Feter, what happened, why do you look like this?" So he says, "The Rebbe is coming out, and I don't have a beard — how can I show my face to the Rebbe without a beard?" He felt, how could he look at the Rebbe without having a beard.

Another thing my father told me — [clears throat] — my father once told me: in Russia, you know, in those days there was a big sakana [danger], people were poor, [unclear]. So, a chossid told his wife, "You know, Yud Tes Kislev is going to be in six weeks. We have no money. So start every day to collect something — a kopek, a penny, a nickel — you know, every Russian person had to save up for the meal of Yud Tes Kislev." It says that people have a seudah, so you have to start saving now to buy a meal to farbreng on Yud Tes Kislev.

So the wife, every day, collected — everything was underground in those days, in that sakana. Yud Tes Kislev came. He was in shul — I don't know if there was a shul there — but he told a few people to come: "Still, come at eight to farbreng." Anyway, he comes in. The wife beforehand went shopping — the table was full, with challah and chicken and everything, kasha — you know, on Yud Tes Kislev you eat kasha, shvartze kasha it's called; my father said "shvartze kasha."

And the balabos came, and the table was, you know, mamash Yom Tov-dig. He went to wash and sat down, and said, "L'chaim, l'chaim, l'chaim, l'chaim, l'chaim, l'chaim." Is there — there's nobody there. So, "L'chaim." Then he started to say a maiseh about the Alter Rebbe, zichrono livracha, talking a maiseh like this. Nobody there. His wife says to him, "You understand — nobody's here." She says, "Sit down, you have to do it, I'm talking to you." "But you say l'chaim, and you're singing a niggun, lebedig, like a hundred people are here." So he says, "I don't understand this. You have to farbreng. If nobody is here, what can I do? I can't help it — but it's Yud Tes Kislev, so we have to farbreng, so I'm farbrenging."

Later on, people did come. But I just want to say — the practice of the chassidim at Yud Tes Kislev was definitely to farbreng.

Another thing I want to mention — that's what my father really started to do in Cleveland as a shliach. What happened: after Simchas Torah, the Rebbe used to give mashke to orchim — people who came from out of town, from other cities. Every time, he used to give to everybody, and he gave to my father also.

That Simchas Torah, the Rebbe gave — then my father, the Rebbe said a brocha. He said, "I'm from Cleveland" — [so the Rebbe] should give a good one. So the Rebbe said, "Cleveland?" Then Rabbi Groner said to the Rebbe, "Cleveland." The Rebbe said, "It was Cleveland?" My father was surprised — the Rebbe knows my father very well, and he said, several times, "Cleveland?" And at the end he gave him the whiskey.

My father was very worried — what if the Rebbe doesn't know that I'm from Cleveland? Chalilah the Rebbe should forget such things — it's not right, he felt. So he told this to Rabbi Shmuel Levin. Rabbi Shmuel Levin said, "If I were you — you're going to yechidus — ask the Rebbe. The next day you go, tell the Rebbe what bothers you, because it's going to bother you all the time. Ask the Rebbe."

So he went to yechidus and told the Rebbe about Cleveland — I don't know exactly how he told it. So the Rebbe said: s'ken zayn a chossid vos iz geblibn in a shtot, un di shtot zol nisht visn az der chossid lebt dort — it could be a chossid who lives in a city and the city doesn't know that the chossid lives there.

And that's why — in other words, my father felt he should do more. That's why my father started — with all of Israel, my father did a lot — he gave shiurim, he spoke in shuls, he spoke about Chassidus a lot in the shuls. This reminds me that the Rebbe was concerned that he should do more, and he did more. My father did a lot out in Cleveland.

As a matter of fact, the Rebbe once told my father — this was when he took him to shul — "When you speak, Shabbos, in shul, and there are people there, baalei batim, whoever, that are not [on that level] — don't mention my name." Just [teach] Chassidus, because maybe if they hear the name they'll say, "These are not chassidim" — don't mention my name. And this is another thing we can learn: sometimes people speak for half an hour and say the word "Rebbe" twenty times — it's not necessary. Say what the Rebbe said. It's not necessary to say "Rebbe, Rebbe, Rebbe." The Rebbe didn't care about that, as long as you say Chassidus. This is what reminds me of what the Rebbe said then.

Now, there's much more to say. I just want to say one more thing, and then — I don't know, maybe we'll leave the rest for another time.

By my bar mitzvah, I went in to the Rebbe with my father. Two things happened. One — the Rebbe said I should have an aliyah on Monday, in the shul, in the zal upstairs. So my father asked the Rebbe, "How is that possible? The Rebbe has shlishi" — this was Parshas Beshalach — "the Rebbe has shlishi, there's a kohen and there's a levi, so how can [I get an aliyah]?" So the Rebbe said, "You can tell the gabbai, at the beginning of the gabbaim, he should send out a coin." I think this is probably the first time the Rebbe ever said such a thing — I'm not sure, but we never heard of it before. So we sent out the coin, and I had it the whole year.

Then, when I walked into the yechidus with my father, the Rebbe stood up like that, and first looked at my jacket. He looked at my jacket, and the first thing he said was: men darf fashlisn fun rechts tzu links — "you have to button from right to left" — because my jacket was buttoned left to right. And he told me, in English, that when I come home I should tell my mother — he showed me how — she should take a needle and thread and move the button; she doesn't have to waste a button, she can put it on the other side — take it from here, put it on the other side, and then you can button it this way — "you'll tell your mother how to do it." And the Rebbe explained to me how I should button, right to left.

This I remember. Anyway, I have a lot more to say, but there's no time. So [unclear — closing blessing], and we should be [unclear] with the young men next week. We'll continue our weekly program. Thank you.