0085 - Shmini Atzeres 5738

00:01 Concerning the heart attack that the Rebbe had Shemini Atzeres, middle of Hakafos, Tov Shin Lamed Ches, forty years ago. Everyone is talking about it now because it's forty years, and everyone is describing it, writing and, uh, having WhatsApps about it. So I'm not gonna go into the details because it's all known, and it's being spoken about very much now. I just wanna add a few small things. Number one, my place those years by Hakafos was right by the Rebbe's Bimeh. The Rebbe's Stender was on the Mizrach wall, and right at the end of the Bimeh, the opposite side, which is the maid of side of the Bimeh, I used to stood there by Hakafos right next to Reb Yael. So I remember we were waiting, standing there together, waiting for the Rebbe to come into Hakafos that night. Reb Shmuel Heifer walks over to us both, and he says, "I want you to know," being that he was-- It seemed like he meant to say since he's a nephew of Rashag, but mainly he knows what's going on in the inside. So he says, "I want you to know that tonight we have to be very, very careful. Chas veshalom, no one should touch the Rebbe, shouldn't move because it's so crowded, because tonight it's Sakonas Nefashos." These are the words that he used. This was before Hakafos. And we looked at him, and we said, "What are you talking about?" He said, "I'm telling you tonight is Sakonas Nefashos." That's one thing I wanna

01:16 mention. Another thing, at the Hakafa that the Rebbe was turned around, and the Hakafa where it seems like that's when he had the heart attack. So I was standing there mamash a few feet away from the Rebbe, and the Rebbe was clapping very slowly. And then I saw the Rebbe's face get white, mamash pale, like, like a white sheet. And the Rebbe turned around to the Stender, and Rabbi Groner was standing facing the crowd still. And I remember I pulled Rabbi Groner by his Kapote, on the bottom of his Kapote, and he looked down at me as if, "What do you want?" And I said to him these words, "Git dem Rebbe dem benkel", 'cause it looked like you see on the face of the Rebbe that... And I remember when I said that, I don't know if the Rebbe heard it or not, which was Rebbe wasn't so far. But pum, then the Rebbe turned around and motioned to Rabbi Groner that he should give him the chair. I don't remember him saying anything like a whole sentence or anything. I don't know if he said benkel or he just showed with his hands to, to the chair, but that's all I remember. Maybe he said something which I don't remember, but he wanted a chair. But it was after I pulled Rabbi Groner by his Kapote saying, "Git dem Rebbe dem benkel." Now, I don't know if that's the reason the Rebbe turned around or not, but lapel right after that, the Rebbe

02:32 turned around and asked for the chair. And another thing, when this whole thing started, the whole commotion, someone passed all the way from the sink, the kvart with water, and the Rebbe didn't wanna take it. So they say that the Rebbe said he doesn't wanna take it, so some say because he said it's before Kiddush. Some say he said because it's not in the Sukkah or whatever. Lapel mamash, I was standing there when they gave the Rebbe the kvart. He didn't say anything. He just said no. He didn't wanna take it. Now, I'm sure that these reasons are all true, but there's probably another reason also because the kvart was not clean, and it was poshet not healthy to take a drink from that kvart. It was not clean. It was used by probably five thousand people or who knows, and it wasn't clean, so the Rebbe didn't take it. Now, I don't know if that's the reason either, but lapel mamash, the Rebbe just didn't wanna take it, but he didn't say anything. And that's when people started going out, et cetera, et cetera.