0330 - Benching on the Rebbe's Esrog in the Rebbe's Presence

00:00 I'd like to repeat a little bit the feeling that was there when you benched on the Rebbe's Esrog in the Rebbe's sukkah while the Rebbe was standing there. They started, they say, five hundred and seventy-one and went on till the last year, five hundred and forty-four. Then later, the next years, the Rebbe would give the Esrog to the Meir Halik, and there was a special little sukkah built in the big sukkah, but a little section where everyone would come in, and this Rebbe's Esrog was there, and Meir Halik was standing there. Except five hundred and thirty-two, when the Rebbe actually went into that little sukkah and watched everybody bench Esrog for over six hours. That was a yaitzim and a klal. That was the last sukkahs before the Rebbe had the stroke. But otherwise, people would bench in that little sukkah without the Rebbe being there. It was only a shliach, Meir Halik. But till five hundred and forty-four, the Rebbe would stand there. Now the truth is, in the year five hundred and forty-four, the Rebbe already didn't stand there the whole time. Till then, the Rebbe would stand there, and people would go in, and the Rebbe would stand there the whole time till the last person benched. And therefore, many times, yontif davening would not start on time, not start ten o'clock. It would start ten thirty, start eleven, maybe even later, because the lines weren't that long, but still, it took quite a while that till, till it was finished. And

01:13 then the Rebbe left and went into the shul, was much later. But the truth is that the year five hundred and forty-four, already the Rebbe didn't stand there the whole time. The Rebbe stood there only a little bit in the beginning and then walked out, and then they did it without the Rebbe standing there. I don't remember if that was every day of sukkahs or maybe just the first day of sukkah that the Rebbe stood a little bit, and that's it. And it was known that the Rebbe had said why no one thought of it to tell him that he doesn't have to stand there when everyone is benching Esrog, and it takes away his time. So I don't know if someone wrote to the Rebbe, "Hey, why, why is he standing there?" And the Rebbe accepted it and then complained why no one said it till then, or the Rebbe on his own said it. But whatever it is, it's five hundred and forty-four already the Rebbe stopped in the middle and went out. And five hundred and forty-five already the Rebbe didn't come completely. So the reason five hundred and forty-five the Rebbe didn't stand there, people thought maybe it's because the avelus after his mother passed away, but I don't think-- we didn't think it had any shafus to it, because the way five hundred and forty-four it was already stopped basically, not completely, but we saw that the Rebbe is gonna stop that year already, so that year is only a

02:20 little bit. I actually had the zechus to be from the first that were in the sukkah, the Rebbe's sukkah, when the Rebbe was still even five hundred and forty-four. And the say there bechalal was that you would walk in, the Esrog and lulav were laying on the table in the sukkah because the person before you had put it down after he benched. You would walk in, you would pick up the lulav, make the bracha, take the Esrog. The Rebbe would stand on the other side. The door was on the right side. The Rebbe would stand by the wall on the other side, but not mamash by the wall. He would stand in the corner, and he stood there. He didn't sit. He was standing there with a sefer. The times that I remember, it was a Rebbe Maharash sefer of the Rebbe Maharash, because you could see it was in the Ksavi Yad, the Rebbe Shmuel sefer, which that's how they printed Rebbe Maharash's Mayim Rabim then. You could see the Rebbe's looking into that sefer. Anybody who walked in, the first thing, the Rebbe would give a look at him. The look was because whenever you went by the Rebbe, he looked at you, whether it was lekach or kosel bracha, and later on by dollars, the Rebbe would look at you. Push it. There's the connection, the communication the Rebbe would have. But in this case, people were saying maybe it's even more. That the look was like saying it's alam avtano amnas

03:28 la'azeh, because the Rebbe writes in the Sefer HaMenugim that it's kedai, it's the right thing, and it says, uh, you should say every time that you give it, you should say that it's alam avtano amnas la'azeh. But here he didn't, but looks like the look was like acknowledging, yes, that you could take it, and it's alam avtano amnas la'azeh. But we're not sure what went through the Rebbe's mind, but some people were saying that. And the Rebbe gave you, like, a look, and the feeling that you had was mamash k'mat like yechidus. It wasn't yechidus, obviously. It wasn't in the Rebbe's room. And it was also the Rebbe was standing, not sitting. But still, you felt-- you walked in, you were there all by yourself with the Rebbe, just like by yechidus. One of the feelings you got was that ani ha'malach b'chedai, me and the Rebbe myself, which gave a very, very close feeling, a feeling of closeness to the Rebbe. So walking in the sukkah was similar to that. You walked into the sukkah. The door obviously stayed open, and the Rebbe gave a look at you. The look penetrated into the person, and the Rebbe then continued looking into the Mayim Rabim. And you would pick up the lulav, make the bracha, and take the Esrog and then put it right down and walk out to make it as fast as possible, so it shouldn't take too much time. No one made nanuyim. Only a few people had the right to make

04:37 nanuyim. The one I remember offhand is Reb Zalman Duchman would go in, bench with the Rebbe's Esrog, and also make nanuyim. Probably there were a few more of the older Hasidim, but like this, nobody did it, which is similar to what happened by the Rebbe Rashab, five hundred and thirty-one. No one had an Esrog. The Rebbe Rashab was the only one that got through Reb Shmuel Garari and the Kalabrerer Yanover Esrog. And everyone came to bench with that Esrog. And he also said nobody should make nanuyim. And, uh, he stood there for a f- hours, s-sat there a few hours. He was inside the sukkah also when the people benched on his Esrog. And it was a few hours, and he didn't allow anybody to make the nanuyim. Now by us, when we benched Esrog with the Rebbe's Esrog, we went out and found somebody else who had on his own Esrog and lulav because we didn't have our own. I was a bochur. Bochurim didn't have their own. So you would go out and find somebody who had an Esrog and lulav, and you would borrow it to finish nanuyim. We tried to do it right away, so it shouldn't be a hefsek between the bracha you made and the nanuyim. Also, we try usually to get an Esrog and a lulav from somebody who got it from the Rebbe, because we know before Sukkos, Erev Sukkos, there were certain people that the Rebbe would give the dalet minim, like Rabbi Reich, you can

05:45 think of people like that. So we would try to find one of those people and make the nanuyim on also Esrog that came from the Rebbe. But if you didn't find one, we would make on anybody because we didn't want it should be a hefsek between the bracha and the nanuyim. And this was a special feeling that you had when you went into the Rebbe's sukkah. And then five hundred and forty-four, the Rebbe only stood there a little bit and then left, and it continued in the Rebbe's sukkah without the Rebbe being there. I think then already the Meir Halik was there, if I'm not mistaking. And the n- next year already it stopped completely because it just took up from the Rebbe much, much time, and except five hundred and thirty-two when the Rebbe stood there over six hours watching everybody who benched on his Esrog.