Ep. 9: Living in the Shechuna with Rabbi Baruch Wilhelm

00:00 Speaker 1 Just because he came every morning to take a sifre. I told him, "But we're sending you on mail." He said, "No, this sifre, I want my children to see it comes m- at my home, it comes a sifre from the Rebbe. But I want it before, that's the reason I'm coming up to take a sifre."

00:15 Speaker 2 He needs a sifre, but he needs it in his mailbox.

00:17 Speaker 1 The kid should see that there comes a sifre from Rebbe in the mail. It's coming a sifre from the Rebbe to the mailbox.

00:26 Speaker 2 I'm Yossi Kamen. Welcome to Among Chassidim By Der Her, an ongoing fabrengen about life as a Chassid, our vibrant connection with the Rebbe, and inspired living shaped by the way he teaches us each and every day. Shalom Aleichem, Rabbi Wilhelm. Thank you very much for being here.

00:45 Speaker 1 Aleichem Shalom.

00:47 Speaker 2 Okay. And you're, uh, uh, I would say you're a, a veteran over here in Crown Heights.

00:53 Speaker 1 Yes.

00:53 Speaker 2 Probably-- You're probably around here for-

00:56 Speaker 1 End, the end of Tov Shein Chafai. I came in Yutiz, Elul Tov Shein Chafai, I came.

01:01 Speaker 2 Wow. And Tov Shein Chafai, and you came from Eretz Yisrael?

01:05 Speaker 1 From Eretz Yisrael, yeah. I was the first bocher from, uh, Lod, 'cause we are-- we were ready to go to, to the south, to Slime Haim in Kvachabad. Then my mother passed away, uh, passed away a year before, and then my father went back to America. I mean, it was back and forth all the time to America.

01:25 Speaker 2 Wait, your father's from America?

01:26 Speaker 1 No, he's from Eretz Yisrael, but he went, like, for probably fifty years back and forth and before the, before the Medina, everything.

01:34 Speaker 2 He would travel back and forth?

01:35 Speaker 1 Uh, yeah, I mean, business. Then suddenly he's going back and said, "Um, you're leaving myself," uh, because all my brothers got i- um, all married. And I said, "I'll go with together with you." We came over here. I asked the Rebbe where should I come to-- where should I go to learn. It was then that-

01:49 Speaker 2 Like, uh, your father was a, was a, was a man of Chassid?

01:52 Speaker 1 Yeah. My father learned in Tarasems. His grandfather from his mother's side was a Chabad Hasid.

02:00 Speaker 2 Uh-huh.

02:00 Speaker 1 I mean, it-- like, it came to Eretz Yisrael right after the

04:50 Speaker 2 The what?

04:56 Speaker 1 The Rebbe sent back a, like, invitation, you call it. Yeah, the Kasron Hadoshi name-

05:00 Speaker 2 Kasron Hadoshi

05:01 Speaker 1 ... Uh-huh.

05:01 Speaker 2 Yeah.

05:02 Speaker 1 And, um, that was Tov Shenut tes. I have them with my name. But then after, when I went to Lod in Yeshiva, we sent, we sent pidiones Yut Shvat and Rosh Hashana.

05:14 Speaker 2 The whole Yeshiva?

05:15 Speaker 1 The whole Yeshiva. Everybody sent by himself, yeah. What's interesting, so you talk like this, when it came back-

05:20 Speaker 2 There was a whole thing. Everyone would sit down and write pidiones?

05:23 Speaker 1 Sit down, yeah. Went to the mikveh and come in, write pidion-

05:25 Speaker 2 The sham would-

05:25 Speaker 1 Not of sham. He was-- We're still young boys in Mishpach Shamaheim. This was still in Lod, in Paldes.

05:30 Speaker 2 Okay.

05:32 Speaker 1 And, um, what's interesting is that on the-- when the package came back, I mean, all the pidiones back from the Rebbe was a typed. Just the name was written, but about the maskia. It was not typed, just written, the name And one of my friend, the Rebbe added on, like, a pidion efesh nis kabel. The Rebbe put a vav. And pidion, the Rebbe put pidiones. Uh, a yud vav tsad. The-

05:58 Speaker 2 All of the pidiones?

05:59 Speaker 1 Three-- No. One, two-- One, one of my friend.

06:02 Speaker 2 You're saying the, all-- more than one pidion that your friend sent?

06:04 Speaker 1 Like, it's like two, like two. And he said, "I didn't send two pidion. I sent only one pidion." "What? The Rebbe wrote one." But then he remind, he made, uh- A, a script before he wrote, he wrote a let-- he wrote a pidgin. He didn't like it, then he wrote a second one. By mistake, he sent both of them.

06:20 Speaker 2 Yeah.

06:21 Speaker 1 And you see, like, the, the Rebbe got everything, and the Rebbe when, when he signed the letters or whatever, yeah, the Rebbe know that this guy gave two. The Rebbe add that on this pidgin to, to-

06:32 Speaker 2 Yeah.

06:33 Speaker 1 But when I came over here, um, when the, then you-- the BM clan called me in, "I have an answer from the Rebbe." I looked, "Okay, give it to me." "No, no, no, we're not giving the

06:44 Speaker 2 You didn't know how the system worked?

06:45 Speaker 1 No, the judge was like... Then I know, I know it by heart till now the Rebbe wrote, two lines on the It's mean, in other words, not Bedford.

07:00 Speaker 2 It was transit. Uh, what?

07:01 Speaker 1 Huh?

07:02 Speaker 2 Transit.

07:02 Speaker 1 When, when, when they are noticed if the, from the yeshivas from coming from out of, out of sta- out of, uh, state, whatever, yeah, you have to speak to them about this story from the yeshiva, And where his, uh, heart wants to, to, uh, learn, then he should go. Then I spoke to people from Montreal. They told me Montreal coming and then you could go for, um, for Pesach. Then what? I'm coming to the Rebbe, I should go, come only one time. I'll go-

07:35 Speaker 2 And, and I'm understanding that you should wait till they come. So you're sitting in New York, and you should wait?

07:40 Speaker 1 No, no. They coming now for Tishrei.

07:42 Speaker 2 Ah,

07:42 Speaker 1 They coming to yeshivah. They come, they coming for Tishrei.

07:44 Speaker 2 Yeah.

07:44 Speaker 1 I should speak to them, should speak to them the seder for the yeshiva, how it goes there. Yeah? But then I found out the yeshiva in Montreal, they're coming for I mean, in other words, you, you're living right after the Simchat Torah, till you're not coming to the Rebbe. You're staying in yeshiva. You're coming back You're staying till, till Pesach. Pesach you could go home. Then I said, "First of all, I don't have a home." I mean, I came, uh... And then I said, "No, I'll go be-better to Newark," because Newark you could come every Shabbos and Chanukah, or when it's

08:18 Speaker 2 So, but one of the options was, was Bedford?

08:21 Speaker 1 No, the Rebbe crossed out. The Rebbe said, ""

08:23 Speaker 2 Oh, Okay.

08:24 Speaker 1 Yeah. Then I went to Newark. I learned yeah, I was in Newark.

08:28 Speaker 2 So who was then hall in Newark, uh-

08:30 Speaker 1 Then-

08:30 Speaker 2 Rabbi Shrel?

08:31 Speaker 1 Rabbi Shrel with, uh, with, uh, Meir Zwiebel.

08:34 Speaker 2 Meir Zwiebel.

08:35 Speaker 1 That's in England, Chassidis. But Nachman Sternberg was the mashgiach. And, uh, Rabbi Yossel was there, Menahl Plus. Could say mashpia for farbrengens.

08:47 Speaker 2 Mm.

08:47 Speaker 1 Farbrengen to Salashman was very nice, this farbrengens and the singing was nice, yeah.

08:52 Speaker 2 That's how he started as a mash- as a mashpia there before he-

08:54 Speaker 1 He started, but then he went here this. And then I wrote letters to my friends in the, the London in Chabad, uh, for, for the farbrengen, what's-- how it goes and what's everything. Then they said, "Listen, we have to come to Abba too." The young chavis, seventeen years old.

09:10 Speaker 2 So you're ri-- you're reporting to them what's happening by the Rebbe-

09:13 Speaker 1 Yeah

09:13 Speaker 2 ... so they-

09:14 Speaker 1 Yeah

09:14 Speaker 2 ... uh, they said that-

09:15 Speaker 1 Then I had like right away came like Yossi Gansburg, the shliach in, uh-

09:20 Speaker 2 Toronto

09:20 Speaker 1 ... Toronto. His cousin, uh, Yossi Paris. These two came.

09:25 Speaker 2 Montreal.

09:26 Speaker 1 Yeah. Then came, uh, Yossel Losh came there. Chaim Yisroel Zwazman, Monie Bulwowski. All these people came because of me.

09:32 Speaker 2 Ah.

09:33 Speaker 1 After I, after I went, I sent him, then Yossi Gansburg and Yo- and Yossi Paris came. Then Darman said, "Look, we wanna come also." Like this, uh, more people came.

09:42 Speaker 2 And then Hiller-

09:43 Speaker 1 Now, now, uh, n-without, uh, without Kvutze it's called.

09:49 Speaker 2 Without... So then, and then Hiller and Eretz Israel was, uh, okay with this?

09:54 Speaker 1 I don't know if-- I don't know if they asked them Hiller or not.

09:56 Speaker 2 Yeah. They asked the Rebbe probably.

09:59 Speaker 1 Huh?

09:59 Speaker 2 Each one probably has their own, uh, story.

10:01 Speaker 1 Yeah. Asked the Rebbe.

10:03 Speaker 2 Uh-huh. So

10:05 Speaker 1 This I was I was in Newark and till I came to seven seventy already.

10:18 Speaker 2 Uh-huh. So that's-- And seven seventy you see ready-

10:24 Speaker 1 I was at their bochur. But then seven seventy when I came, it was-- I was not, not in yeshiva yet because it was like two weeks vacation from, uh, uh, they gave in Newark, they gave two weeks vacation. Then I was outside this Ben Tze'em Tov saw me. "Bochur, come. Come over here." I got a machine. I want you to help me put it upstairs in this, yeah.

10:43 Speaker 2 You had any connection to Ben Tze'em before?

10:45 Speaker 1 No.

10:45 Speaker 2 No. He saw you.

10:46 Speaker 1 No. He had, he had an apartment. His apartment where he slept, even the Mulhezim when he got married, yeah, he slept also in this apartment till he went to Eretz Israel.

10:55 Speaker 2 Together with his schwer, Ben Tze'em.

10:57 Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah. They're different room they got. Then I helped him then to put it on. Okay. The, the is like the winter of Ches, Rav Zam Gooray went into Yehudis, and the Rebbe complained then that he's farbrengen so much in this, and he doesn't see the people are koching in it. They're, they're not ever koching him. "Except," he said, the Rebbe, "Karlitzky's son."

11:21 Speaker 2 Yeah.

11:22 Speaker 1 That it meant, uh-

11:24 Speaker 2 Avrum, uh-

11:24 Speaker 1 Avrum Karlitzky.

11:25 Speaker 2 Karlitzky.

11:25 Speaker 1 But even Avrum, he said Karlitzky's son, he said. Then Ben Tze'em Tov, uh-

11:29 Speaker 2 'Cause he w- he was involved in running the hanakos. Karlitzky's son.

11:33 Speaker 1 He, he was, he was writing for himself a noche practice, it's called. What is a noche? A noche practice. If you'll see like Tiftzul Tush Havov on Avseechas, if you seen the, uh, Sichas Kodesh, it's a noche practice that's for him.

11:45 Speaker 2 From Karlitzky.

11:46 Speaker 1 Karlitzky. Then, uh, Ben Tze'em Tov heard that, then he decided he'll take the, uh, the Sichas, the Noches Hatmimim every time having him, and Ben Mikhl and Meireth for Kabbalah Shabbos, Kabbalah Shabbos, he gives that to the people. "What is this tum to, to rest? Why he's talking? Learn, learn something. Learn something."

12:05 Speaker 2 The Sichas.

12:05 Speaker 1 The Sichas, yeah. But then Chabad Kof told them-

12:08 Speaker 2 So hang on. So he got the ty-- He wanted a typewriter to just to, to copy them?

12:13 Speaker 1 Oh, no. Oh, Ben Tze'em Tov?

12:15 Speaker 2 Yeah.

12:15 Speaker 1 No, no, no. This was already, uh, Noches Hatmimim Tov Sheb'chovot started the

12:21 Speaker 2 Okay

12:22 Speaker 1 They said it's a different story. Uh, then, uh, then Chabad told them that the Rebbe doesn't want the should go out so much. Should stop. Then if I don't, take from Likutei Sichos.

12:40 Speaker 2 So, Bentche was promoting the-- whatever the, whatever the word you wanna use, the, the, the that were going out.

12:49 Speaker 1 To the people. Yeah.

12:49 Speaker 2 So Chabad is telling Bentche, "If you're already making a whole-

12:52 Speaker 1 No, no. The, the Rebbe doesn't want

12:54 Speaker 2 Yeah, he's telling him, "If you're already making a whole of the , you should give out Likutei Sichos," 'cause that Rebbe-

12:58 Speaker 1 Yeah. And that should take-- yeah. Then was like a Tov Sheb'chovches. This was the first pamphlet of Likutei Sichos. It was so epic. The from the Rebbe.

13:09 Speaker 2 'Cause before then it was put out as, um, like a

13:14 Speaker 1 No, was before, but no, then Chovbes was already two, two volumes. Chovbes was the first-

13:21 Speaker 2 So what's the that was with the ?

13:23 Speaker 1 No, like a, a contrast. It could make a contrast with the from the Rebbe.

13:26 Speaker 2 So he invented that concept?

13:28 Speaker 1 Yeah.

13:28 Speaker 2 See, until then, when the Rebbe gave out a Sicha, it just went out.

13:32 Speaker 1 Yeah, it was, but not without the with the Rebbe, with the, with everything, with the logo.

13:35 Speaker 2 So Bentche made a whole contrast with the

13:36 Speaker 1 Yeah, he made it. Yeah, and gave it in to Rebbe's . And then that's what we printed, uh, the first, uh, Sicha. And the way he did it, like he took it downstairs to the Bochum, which was folded, it was eight and a half by eleven, to fold it, put it one together, then we'd staple it. It was all story. Then we started little by little to make it, uh, to send it out. We had like, uh, about five thousand members we send it out.

14:00 Speaker 2 Subscriptions?

14:01 Speaker 1 Subscri-- not subscription. We, we send out ourself.

14:03 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

14:04 Speaker 1 Not they want it. Okay, some people, like if we send it to Williamsburg, they didn't like it, uh, so they just send it back. But they, like, we had a problem from, uh, from Bronx, they said very-- they, they liked it, and, uh, they're using it for the, uh, ceremonies. And then we gave it in to the Rebbe, and Rebbe was very happy. And then, uh, we started, like, every week to go out, and it came for Pesach. Shalom Jackson decided that he'll, um, he'll take from wherever the Sichas from the Rebbe about Pesach. Yeah?

14:39 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

14:39 Speaker 1 He'll make a-- he'll make-- put it in a contrast of Likutei Sichos. Then Pesach, they made like, uh, pamphlet probably, probably forty or fifty pages. Yeah, Pesach. It took like from Yiddish aim was, uh, from the Rebbe se- about Agudas Pesach, all different things. And I remember even from Yiddish aim was long lines, and, uh, in, in, uh, Likutei Sichos it's two volumes.

15:06 Speaker 2 Two paragraphs.

15:06 Speaker 1 Two paragraphs.

15:07 Speaker 2 Two columns.

15:08 Speaker 1 Two columns, yeah. Then he, uh, he was just cutting them and pasting them. That time was no, like, uh, computer like today, that time. I s-

15:18 Speaker 2 To publish, so they could be able to-

15:20 Speaker 1 To make, yeah, make a contrast.

15:21 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

15:21 Speaker 1 And this is-- from this, like he l- laid out, make more. And from this came out the Agudas Pesach, the two volumes. Started from there, then Agudas Sichos came out with the, the volume. 'Cause the first four volumes from the Likutei Sichos is, is under , uh, Tziyyar HaGudas Chabad. They made it, not Agudas Sichos.

15:43 Speaker 2 Right. 'Cause, uh, Rabbi Raskin and David Raskin were involved in that.

15:46 Speaker 1 Yeah. They were called Toychanin Yonin. Even Lebke Raskin told me, excuse me, that, um, when they made the... Okay, he told me like the story before, like when the Rebbe told them to make it go house and shuls, they took different pieces from Likutei Torah, from Torah Oro, to give out to the people. Then they added on sometimes a little piece from the Rebbe, where the Rebbe spoke the fab-- the previous fabrengen. It was not a, not a booklet, not even Toychanin Yonin, was just, uh, like pages.

16:16 Speaker 2 And it wasn't-- the Rebbe wasn't Maggid this.

16:18 Speaker 1 No. No, the Rebbe took Maggid. Rebbe was Maggid. Then Chabadov told them, "Don't do it anymore because Rebbe has no time for this." But they decided to make it, yeah. They make it bigger and bigger. And from this, the Rebbe, the Rebbe makes it. They started to make, uh, a full Sicha just from the Rebbe. And then it started Toychanin Yonin.

16:38 Speaker 2 So where are these things printed? These-

16:39 Speaker 1 Printed in the first two volumes from, uh, Likutei Sichos.

16:42 Speaker 2 Yeah, but the little, the little-

16:43 Speaker 1 In the back, they have different pieces.

16:45 Speaker 2 Oh, s- oh, that's where the surface of Aleph and Beis-

16:48 Speaker 1 This, yeah, is, is-

16:48 Speaker 2 That's what, that's what it is

16:49 Speaker 1 ... that's where they started. And he told me once, Lebke Raskin, that the Rebbe told them they-- he wants they should make more Mekames.

16:57 Speaker 2 The Rebbe said?

16:58 Speaker 1 Yeah. Okay, they started that time. Today everybody knows like a computer. When in, you have to have your own Mekames. Then was contra this was, uh, all the psukim. Yeah, and then you have the Machlol, Mamore Chazal.

17:11 Speaker 2 They used the different Sefarim they had-

17:13 Speaker 1 Seferim to find out when the, uh, like to, uh... They told me they, they had something on Yerushalmi. The whole Yerushalmi, uh, Broches Tav Pegimro Medbeis. I give an, an example. Rebbe told them, "Yerushalmi do not write in Dafim, he write Mishne Vaaloche." Said, "Why should I, should I know? I never learned Yerushalmi."

17:35 Speaker 2 So the Rebbe was, uh, educating them.

17:38 Speaker 1 Yeah, the Re-- yeah. This, listen, the Rebbe teach everything, like even, even later on, when Yero, so the Rebbe would teach Yero little by little, how to do it, how to do Sichas, how to do on the Anochas. That's, uh, everything from the Rebbe taught him how to do it.

17:51 Speaker 2 Yeah. So you're t- you're talking in a later period.

17:55 Speaker 1 Yeah, I'm talking-- no, th- this was Toychanin Yonin. Yeah, Toychanin Yonin that's what it's called.

18:00 Speaker 2 That's what Likutei Sichos-

18:01 Speaker 1 Under, under Tziyyar HaGudas Chabad. Then they made the two first volumes, Tov Sheb'chov Beis.

18:07 Speaker 2 And then Chov-- one of them is Chov Dalet. Maybe first one was-

18:09 Speaker 1 And the other two, the other two, uh, Gimmel Dalet was Tov Sheb'chov Dalet

18:13 Speaker 2 Dalet

18:14 Speaker 1 And from this we took all the Sichas. Every week we took a Sicha and we printed it.

18:20 Speaker 2 You took the old Sichas?

18:21 Speaker 1 Yeah, the Sichas from the four volumes.

18:22 Speaker 2 Ah, so, so the- This is the

18:26 Speaker 1 Yeah

18:27 Speaker 2 It, it was official organ-- Like it was an organization?

18:29 Speaker 1 In Belgium, yeah.

18:30 Speaker 2 Belgium was, was, was-

18:32 Speaker 1 As what-- Was-- So it-- Vad was opened Tof shin yod alef. This yield, all the secrets that he, uh, made out, they sent it out to people.

18:40 Speaker 2 The anarchists that he was running then-

18:41 Speaker 1 Yeah

18:41 Speaker 2 ...was really called Vad Fatzixas.

18:42 Speaker 1 The Rebbe took it also. If you could see the, the ikutas from the Rebbe, it arrives that this

18:46 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm

18:46 Speaker 1 Mitzare Fatzuhe from, uh, what is Park Let's Fabringen. This was Vad Fatzixas. But, uh, that's it. Was, was not continued.

18:54 Speaker 2 Right. And, and even when he was doing it then, it was just to-- it was to Tafat, to spread-

18:59 Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah

18:59 Speaker 2 ...the decisions, so he took the old ones. Okay.

19:00 Speaker 1 Yeah. But then that, that's what he did. And it came, I think, um, Miketz Tof shin chaf tes. They did never sikha anymore in, uh, in the four volumes ikutas sikhas.

19:14 Speaker 2 There's no-

19:16 Speaker 1 There was no sikha to, to print.

19:18 Speaker 2 There's no Miketz sikha?

19:19 Speaker 1 No, they, they'd use it already last year.

19:22 Speaker 2 Oh, we already gave it out-

19:23 Speaker 1 Yes

19:23 Speaker 2 ...twice.

19:23 Speaker 1 We gave it out already twice.

19:24 Speaker 2 Right.

19:25 Speaker 1 What should we do? They asked the Rebbe. Benji asked the Rebbe. Rebbe said, "If to give him in a sikha, you make it out." This was the first sikha the Rebbe was magiya for Likute Sikhas. Was, uh, Miketz Tof shin chaf tes. It's, uh, maybe the Ra- Sarashu sikha on Avrach. Miketz Avrach.

19:44 Speaker 2 So Rebbe Yale-

19:45 Speaker 1 Rebbe Yale wrote-

19:46 Speaker 2 Wrote the-

19:47 Speaker 1 Yeah, and he gave it to the Rebbe. Rebbe was magiya, and they printed, made it, they made a sikha. And this was Tof shin chaf tes. Tof shin lamed, Tishrei Tof shin lamed, they started to, uh, every week a sikha. This was Cheder Che.

20:02 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

20:02 Speaker 1 Then you have that three or something, then Cheder Che. But then I started the, the, uh, Vad Fatzixas.

20:10 Speaker 2 So you were a bachag in '77, and-

20:12 Speaker 1 I was a bachag. Let's say more than this. Tof shin lamed, Tof shin lamed, they opened Ocean Parkway, the yeshiva. They needed then a kvutze of bachagim. They send my class there.

20:24 Speaker 2 From Zamzam?

20:25 Speaker 1 From Zamzam, they shluchim to Ocean Parkway. Me, they didn't send. I was out from the, from the group. I went over to Men-- Rabbi Menplik. I said, "What's been your schulik? What, what's-- Why I'm not in the group?" They tell, "Was with Zammit Vad Fatzixas are the first." What you mean with Likute Sikhas? So Rabbi Menplik, "I'm in yeshiva every day. Just nighttime, I'm working in Vad Fatzixas, but all day I'm in yeshiva." "But you could do the same thing from Ocean Parkway." I said, "Yes, the same thing I could do from Ocean Parkway. Could twice a week, I could come from Ocean Parkway and do it." He said, "Okay, let me see." Took two days, and after they told me, "Okay, you, you also go with the kvutze." And it was a very good year because we had like this, we had, uh, Pikarsky one week give a shiur, Lolee, and Mentlik-

21:13 Speaker 2 Pikarsky, the yeshiva

21:14 Speaker 1 ...the yeshiva. One week, Rabbi Mentlik gave a shiur. And Ya- Rebbe Yale was morning and evening every day. He came to us in the morning, he came to the evening, and, uh, yeah-

21:24 Speaker 2 How, how, how old are you now?

21:26 Speaker 1 Uh, I'm then eighteen.

21:29 Speaker 2 So, so then seven seventy-

21:31 Speaker 1 I'm already, I'm already twenty. Yeah.

21:33 Speaker 2 Twenty. So in about seven seventy, you were younger bachagim then. Today, seven seventy is only older bachagims, and but then seven seventy-

21:41 Speaker 1 No

21:41 Speaker 2 ...was young.

21:41 Speaker 1 After Newark, after Newark, they came to seven seventy.

21:44 Speaker 2 Right, but you, but you're young. Nineteen.

21:46 Speaker 1 I, I was nine-- eighteen, nineteen, yeah.

21:48 Speaker 2 Eighteen, nineteen.

21:48 Speaker 1 Nineteen, yes, went to seven seventy.

21:49 Speaker 2 But today, you're not eighteen, seven seventy.

21:50 Speaker 1 No, no. E-everything like, yeah. Today, everything changed.

21:53 Speaker 2 Changed, yeah.

21:54 Speaker 1 Even when I've been-- When I was in, uh, Lod, yeah, they kept us another year in yeshiva in Lod because we're too young to go to, to go to Zal. Then, but we had this dorm from, uh, from, from Kfar Chabad, but it was separate in, in Lod.

22:10 Speaker 2 In Lod.

22:11 Speaker 1 And we called it Chedrin.

22:12 Speaker 2 Chedrin.

22:13 Speaker 1 Why Chedrin?

22:14 Speaker 2 Right.

22:14 Speaker 1 Because in, uh, Chedrin was also a kvutze. Reb Greineman had a kvutze in Chedrin before they come to, to Lubavitch at Torchet Mimran.

22:21 Speaker 2 That's what they called it.

22:22 Speaker 1 They would call it Chedrin.

22:24 Speaker 2 Yeah.

22:24 Speaker 1 We had then Rabbi Abrahams and, uh, and, uh, what's his name? Uh, um, the rosh yeshiva was, uh, F-Feld, um, z-- uh, Feldman. What's his name? Uh, Zelig Feldman. Rav Zelig Feldman. Was-

22:42 Speaker 2 I also had Rabbi Abrams-

22:43 Speaker 1 Yeah

22:43 Speaker 2 ...in Miami.

22:44 Speaker 1 In Miami. But we had him in, we had him in Lod. We had him in Lod.

22:47 Speaker 2 Yeah.

22:48 Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah.

22:49 Speaker 2 I think he, Rabbi Abrams is still in Miami.

22:51 Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah, still in yeshiva. I mean, he was very good then. It was, uh, I don't know he's today, but, uh...

22:57 Speaker 2 So, so you're in Ocean Parkway and, but y- but you're basically in Sim Sim, you're there twice a week, and you're, uh-

23:03 Speaker 1 Yeah

23:04 Speaker 2 ...every Shabbos.

23:05 Speaker 1 Uh, no, every Shabbos you came to Sim Sim.

23:07 Speaker 2 But you didn't see the Rebbe on a day, like on a day-to-day basis.

23:09 Speaker 1 No. During, no. During that we didn't see the Rebbe.

23:11 Speaker 2 But all those years, did people see the Rebbe Mincha-Minhaarets, I guess.

23:15 Speaker 1 Mincha-Minhaarets, yeah. Mincha-Minhaarets we saw the Rebbe every time.

23:18 Speaker 2 So it wasn't like for you, you wanted to be in Ocean Parkway, you're gonna miss a bit-

23:22 Speaker 1 I could say. I mean, we went, uh, shluchim from the Rebbe. Why not? So it's a shlichus. Could be that's the reason when, uh, when he told me two days, probably they wrote it to the Rebbe. I don't know, that we're sending him also. I don't know. Could be.

23:36 Speaker 2 So what was your job in the sekhas? What were you doing?

23:39 Speaker 1 My job in the sekhas is I took care on the mailing because we had-- So it's not just this. Uh, in, uh, in, in Detroit, they had like, uh, what's his name? Kagan, Shemaiah Kagan gave out a thought for the week. This was a pamphlet, two pages, a sekha-

23:54 Speaker 2 A thought of the, a thought of the week.

23:56 Speaker 1 A thought of the week-

23:56 Speaker 2 Yeah

23:56 Speaker 1 ...it was called. And, um, Baruch Shemtov was sending out a lot of them, and he had like, um, um, from the post office, it's probably s-special price, a penny a, a, a letter. Then Mendy said, "Let's do it the same thing." We took it. We had twenty thousand, uh, people that we send it out every week.

24:18 Speaker 2 Hmm.

24:19 Speaker 1 What's the name? Meyer Blau. He was, he wa- he was typing books, telephone books, typing Jewish names and put it in-

24:27 Speaker 2 Sending

24:27 Speaker 1 ...and we send it out, yeah. And we have a lot of Cohen said, "I'm not Jewish. I don't need it."

24:32 Speaker 2 So no discrimination of who it is. If you have a Yiddish name-

24:35 Speaker 1 Yiddish name-

24:36 Speaker 2 You get it

24:36 Speaker 1 We send it out. We send it, send it, t-thought for the week. Thought for the week we send.

24:39 Speaker 2 Oh, the thought of... Ah.

24:40 Speaker 1 Thought for the week we send twenty thousand. The Yiddish sekhas we send just... Like I remember like, um, um, Mikkel Pikarsky. Not Mikkel, the tata. Um, what's his name? Uh, he works, he works in the library.

24:55 Speaker 2 Zissel.

24:55 Speaker 1 Zissel Pikarsky. Zissel Pikarsky came every morning to take a sikha. We told him, "But we're sending you on mail." He said, "No, this sikha, I want my children to see it comes my-- at my home, it comes a sikha from the Rebbe. But I want it before. That's the reason I'm coming up to take a sikha."

25:12 Speaker 2 He needs a sikha, but he needs it in his mailbox.

25:14 Speaker 1 Mendy,The kids should see the, a Yeah. I, I just spoke to Leibel Shapiro about it, that he said that, um, they felt that it should be-- Or he, he said he felt very strongly that it should be Lashon HaKodesh. He said later, when he wasn't already so involved, they asked the Rebbe, uh, whether it should be Yiddish or Lashon HaKodesh, and the Rebbe said, "There's none of them, any of them." Any of them. But, uh, yeah. So those- Yeah, but the, the first volumes of Lashon HaKodesh, it's not... So, like, the Yiddish is more, is better. Because even the Yiddish, it's not that Yael did it. I mean, that was, uh, Eshke Gansbourg and Es-Eske Dubrawski. They, they made the Lashon. So, um, how does that work? Did Yael- Uh, Yael typed this. They, they made a note. Then they typed it with, like, uh, big spaces between the lines, because if the Rebbe wants to add in. Yeah? Yeah. Then they took it, and they typed it with the Rebbe's, what the Rebbe wrote. Remember what the, what the Eshke Dubrawski- No. Before. Then, uh, then they gave it in to the Rebbe a second time. Rebbe's Maggia another time. They put them on the chemist. Then they give it to Eshke Dubrawski to make the Lashon better. To change the Yiddish. The Yiddish, yeah. To make it more, uh... I mean, there's a big difference in the Yiddish and the first Halakhim. Because the first Halakhim was made to Chaza and Shuls.

27:24 Speaker 1 Right. Then it's very... Then, but, but then Rebbe Yael decided to make it with some-- To put it to Rebbe more secret. Rebbe should m-m-must be more than Yoni. Right. 'Cause they, yeah, they're, they're very- Very They're, they're written in a more- Yeah ... uh, not simple language, but more, you know, for the, for the, you know, for, for, for the people, the people talk. Yeah, exactly. I remember I once heard a sicha in a shul, and it's, uh, like a Satmar shul once. I don't know, Satmar, whatever. Like-- And I said it in Yiddish, but I just, I said the word, all the words from the... I, I said it all the words from the Kotze Sichas. Yeah. I remember someone saying, "Oh, that good Yiddish." Yeah, I, I, I just was repeating like a parrot, you know, the- Yeah. The, the words that I read from Kotze Sichas. So, yeah, it's f- And, um, so they were, they were involved, Eshke Dubrawski, they were involved from the beginning with the, with the, with the- The La- the Lashon, yeah, to make the Lashon. Uh, so you-- So because of all of this, you developed a close, uh, relationship with, uh, Menashe Gemtvig? Yeah, I was very close with him. And the, the things like when I, when I came Thursday night, and I worked at the machine, he came to sit with me and told me stories and stories and stories. Such a short visit. I was working the machine. I didn't pay

28:37 Speaker 1 too much attention then. I didn't know that- What was he telling you? About like Lubavitch? Sto-stories, yeah, from, from Lubavitch and from... Like, yeah, I remember like two stories. I mean, lately I-- because I told it to people, because of Ches, uh, Siman, I told the people. Like he told me one time, the Rebbe told him in Paris, uh, "Come over to me after Mincha." When the Rebbe was in- In Paris ... Paris to, to- For the mother, for the mother ... to agree to his mother to move to Russia. He then come over. He said, "Okay." After my-- After Mincha, half an hour later, he came over. He come to the Rebbe's room, and he hears the Rebbe damns Mincha like Neil if Yom Kippur, with prayers and all that, and said, "The Rebbe just damns in shul together with us." Yeah. But this was, uh, all the time. We saw a lot of time by the Rebbe, if the Rebbe damns or not, like Shabbos, we could know sometimes it's-- wouldn't be a fabregen, because we saw the Rebbe didn't damn. Even the Rebbe made all the tnuot from davening, the Rebbe didn't damn. So the Rebbe was turning the pages as if the Rebbe's damning for the Minyan? Yeah. Or it's a shawl name. Uh, everything- But the Rebbe wasn't damning because the Rebbe damn later in his room. Yeah. You could s- And then you knew there's no fabregen. Yeah. That means the Rebbe's damning- Because if the Rebbe damn today,

29:50 Speaker 1 so we know that today it wouldn't be a fabregen. So I remember like, uh- It's very interesting because the, the other, the previous Rebbe, they would damn barichas in public. The Friedrichrebbe- Yeah ... the Shab- Yeah. I don't know if the Rebbe damn barichas, but the Rebbe damns in the, in the room. Not, not al- not always, but, uh. Yeah, and then Melach Tzibel told me once that, uh, they went into Gan Eden Ha'tachton, where today is a sink. In Gan Eden Ha'tachton, there was a sink there in the corner. Right. On the bottom, it's a, it's a steam, a radiator. And the radiator is for the Gan Eden Ha'tachton for the Rebbe's room. It's a double radiator? It's a-- No, it's not. It's one radiator- It goes through the wall ... but it goes through the wall, but for both. They, they went, uh, for Kabbalah Shabbos sometimes there to hear the Rebbe damns Kabbalah Shabbos. Even the Rebbe was in shul davening. After the Minyan. Yeah. Really? So you could hear the kol, the, the damn- They heard, yeah. That's what he told me. They heard a, a few times. They heard- You never heard anything like this? No, I never went there to see it. Wow. I mean, really. Yeah. No, this Melach told me probably it's the years earlier that's what they did, but, uh, later on they didn't do it. Just one time was a story with, uh, two, two bochum. They-- When they started to build seven seventy Um,

31:03 Speaker 1 when we-

31:03 Speaker 3 Yeah, expansion

31:04 Speaker 1 ... Chaf Ches, Chaf Ches.

31:05 Speaker 3 In the expansion in the-

31:06 Speaker 1 The first-

31:07 Speaker 3 The shalash

31:07 Speaker 1 ... the first, yeah. Then they took off all the walls from the Rebbe L'Chonah's room. Yeah, there was... This, this was the, the, the as

31:17 Speaker 3 That was the for when the Rebbe was davening-

31:19 Speaker 1 For the shalash

31:19 Speaker 3 ... in the shalash.

31:20 Speaker 1 Shalash, yeah.

31:21 Speaker 3 That was the

31:22 Speaker 1 And, and then was like two, three steps on top there. Yeah? And there was a, a little room there. And when they took off all the panels, the two windows from the Rebbe was off the-

31:34 Speaker 3 The windows in the Rebbe's room behind the Rebbe's desk.

31:36 Speaker 1 To- Yeah. Today it's a, two, today it's forum. They-

31:39 Speaker 3 Forum

31:39 Speaker 1 ... one is on K dish, one's, uh, this. There was windows.

31:42 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm.

31:42 Speaker 1 Yeah. And two bochurim they decided they wanna hear what, uh, what's going on in the Rebbe's room. They bought a machine, got this and so on. K, the, it was all story.

31:50 Speaker 3 And they put a device.

31:51 Speaker 1 Yeah, the Rebbe, Rebbe spoke with the farbrengen, the small, uh, um, from Paris where special, but, uh, for me that he... Well, let's see, a farbrengen.

32:03 Speaker 3 There's a of this.

32:05 Speaker 1 Uh, yeah. This was a story then, but this is, uh, people talk, yeah, they tell the story. The, the, the Rebbe did it to the, uh, to the .

32:13 Speaker 3 The Rebbe spoke about it.

32:13 Speaker 1 With the telephone, with the telephone. Yeah, then-

32:15 Speaker 3 And he put, that he, that they-

32:16 Speaker 1 They put a match to-

32:16 Speaker 3 They put a match in the-

32:17 Speaker 1 To all the-

32:18 Speaker 3 In the receiver

32:19 Speaker 1 ... it should, so-

32:19 Speaker 3 Whatever it's called, the-

32:20 Speaker 1 Yeah, it shouldn't, it shouldn't be-

32:21 Speaker 3 Shouldn't hang up

32:22 Speaker 1 ... hang up. It could hear what the, uh-

32:23 Speaker 3 So it doesn't get... So he could hear the, the Rebbe better.

32:25 Speaker 1 The Rebbe, yeah.

32:27 Speaker 3 There was the, the Rebbe did it.

32:29 Speaker 1 The Rebbe did it to the Rebbe Rashab.

32:31 Speaker 3 So he can hear the Rebbe Rashab.

32:32 Speaker 1 Yeah.

32:33 Speaker 3 It was an intercom.

32:34 Speaker 1 Yeah.

32:35 Speaker 3 They had the technology then. Yeah.

32:36 Speaker 1 You see? They had it. Intercom probably they had. Yeah, but that's the story with these things.

32:43 Speaker 3 So, so it's interesting that, uh, so Zev Ben Che, like, knew the Rebbe-

32:51 Speaker 1 He knew the Rebbe, yeah

32:51 Speaker 3 ... well from like, from-

32:53 Speaker 1 He told me once even that, uh, he told, the Rebbe told him, "3:00 you should come over to my room."

32:59 Speaker 3 This is in Paris?

32:59 Speaker 1 In Paris, yeah. Then he went, he went to the room, knocked on the door, no answer. He went downstairs in the street, he sees the Rebbe comes. Rebbe is coming. Then to there was probably at outside a big clock on the, in the street something. He said, "No, that's three minutes to 3:00." Two minutes to 3:00. I mean, I told you 3:00, it's, uh, two minutes to 3:00. That's, uh, two stories I remember that, uh-

33:29 Speaker 3 The Rebbe was very in time, no?

33:31 Speaker 1 Yeah.

33:31 Speaker 3 The Rebbe came out to Mincha, was it always the same time?

33:35 Speaker 1 Y- Um, when Min- Uh, uh, as bochurim upstairs, yeah. Quarter-

33:38 Speaker 3 So whenever he came out-

33:40 Speaker 1 Quarter after 3:00 was Mincha every time.

33:42 Speaker 3 Always.

33:42 Speaker 1 Yeah, always. They-- It, it depends because sometimes, uh, it was a guy, a sofer, sofer, that he made from Eri. Yeah, he was printing, like, for the, on the Chas.

33:57 Speaker 3 Okay, so he, so he was the publisher of that. Okay.

33:59 Speaker 1 Yeah, he made, he took the and he did, and he went into the Rebbe, and he was... And sometimes, like, it's, uh, it was there, like, he came in at 2:00 or the 2:30, he was staying even longer than, uh... Then, then the Rebbe didn't come out for Mincha.

34:11 Speaker 3 He had an open door.

34:13 Speaker 1 Yeah. Then Rebbe would come out. And some, yeah, even, yeah, that's, I think him. I don't know if, uh, also Elberg, but I don't remember if Elberg did it. But him I remember a lot of times. Like, but it was like this, Monday and Thursday, uh, the Rebbe came about 9:55 from the house. Yeah? And the Rebbe went out for Keress Tere.

34:35 Speaker 3 Rebbe came to the zal.

34:36 Speaker 1 Uh-huh. To the zal, yeah, upstairs. Came down Keress Tere, and he was standing there. And after he had, like, a Chumash, then he had a Tehillim, that's the bochurim-

34:45 Speaker 3 Would switch the Tehillims.

34:47 Speaker 1 Yeah. The beginning, uh, put one bochurim, but when it started more bochurim than everybody wanted then it-

34:52 Speaker 3 Everyone wants to have the Tehillim that the Rebbe used

34:54 Speaker 1 ... then, then, then was a gale, and we should put it down.

34:56 Speaker 3 Yeah.

34:57 Speaker 1 Yeah. This was for, uh, for the, for this, for, uh, Shacharis. Mincha, Maariv, the Rebbe came in, sit on, on the table right by the this. Chabad chassid was standing by the... Then he closed the door, Chabad chassid. The Rebbe was sitting. I mean, depends on Bashert. But the Rebbe came in with the Gartel in his hand.

35:16 Speaker 3 Yeah, it's interesting.

35:17 Speaker 1 And Rebbe put the Gartel, the Chumash Rebbe put the Gartel. I remember one time the Rebbe started to do the Gartel, do this, do this, this. Then he put it, he took two Gartels. Rebbe put on both of them.

35:28 Speaker 3 Yeah?

35:28 Speaker 1 Yeah. I thought he put one inside. No, he put both of them, he put on.

35:31 Speaker 3 It's very interesting because those years the Rebbe wasn't davening downstairs.

35:35 Speaker 1 No.

35:35 Speaker 3 But once in a while when he did, let's say it was a children's rally, the Rebbe w- walk down, whatever, come downstairs holding the Gartel, and only put it on when he came to this place.

35:46 Speaker 1 The place. That's nice.

35:46 Speaker 3 It's interesting 'cause later in when the Rebbe started davening every day-

35:49 Speaker 1 Yeah, he start, yeah, then Rebbe came with everything

35:51 Speaker 3 ... the Rebbe put it on. He came in already wearing the Gartel. So I don't know what the-

35:54 Speaker 1 Yeah, the came... No, but it's interesting. We bochurim, yeah, boch- the bochurim, like, half a zal was empty by time.

36:02 Speaker 3 There was no bochurim in the small zal?

36:03 Speaker 1 No, there were... No. Half a zal was empty. Pe-people didn't wanna stay in front of the Rebbe.

36:08 Speaker 3 You're saying when the Rebbe davened?

36:09 Speaker 1 When the Rebbe davened. I mean, when the Rebbe davened-

36:10 Speaker 3 Everyone was hiding from the Rebbe.

36:11 Speaker 1 Yeah. They, they all just stayed outside in, uh, in the hallway.

36:14 Speaker 3 So partially pe-people didn't wanna be next to the Rebbe.

36:17 Speaker 1 Next to the Rebbe.

36:18 Speaker 3 Why?

36:18 Speaker 1 Huh? It was, uh, I don't know why, but-

36:24 Speaker 3 You don't want the Rebbe to look at you.

36:26 Speaker 1 Yeah. I remember I have, I had one friend that he was standing by the bimah. See, in front, I mean, from the bimah nobody was, was the front. He was standing by the bimah-

36:34 Speaker 3 You're saying from, from the bimah in the middle all the way to the end of the zal is it's empty?

36:39 Speaker 1 Uh, no. Uh, from the bimah to the, to the, to melchas.

36:42 Speaker 3 Yeah.

36:42 Speaker 1 That piece. Yeah. Yeah.

36:43 Speaker 3 Yeah, for that, that whole-

36:44 Speaker 1 Yeah

36:44 Speaker 3 ... quarter, whatever, that quarter of the room-

36:46 Speaker 1 Yeah

36:46 Speaker 3 ... or whatever, half the room was-

36:47 Speaker 1 Was empty. Empty from people, yeah. Just, uh, what's name? Chabad chassid was standing there. Maybe sometimes people came, the balebatim, they stand there also, but bochurim. I had one friend that he was standing, "How we do it? Shemsach Nish?" That is not ashamed to say. I don't know what the is like that. But tell other Rebbe, "I'm standing there. I'm watching myself in everything. Not to do averas, not to do this because I know the Rebbe feel simply."

37:11 Speaker 3 Yeah.

37:13 Speaker 1 Yeah.

37:13 Speaker 3 And that whole style changed later.

37:15 Speaker 1 Mm-hmm. Yeah. That's it. They, when they started, Tzelnicker came. Yeah, they were standing kind of different. They said then-

37:21 Speaker 3 Tonight you, the later generation-

37:22 Speaker 1 Later it is probably the, the Lameds, the middle, so the Lameds.

37:25 Speaker 3 Isn't that the Tzelnicker guys, the ones that-

37:27 Speaker 1 No, T- uh, Tishrei, when it came Tishrei.

37:29 Speaker 3 Uh.

37:29 Speaker 1 I'm talking Tishrei.

37:31 Speaker 3 They didn't know that they don't .

37:32 Speaker 1 No, yeah. Tzelnicker said that ca- when the rabbi came from the house, when the rabbi came from the, from the oil, you didn't have Bracha, no one, no one was outside. And I remember someone asked, uh, "Fa vos, uh, why are you doing it like this?" I mean.

37:46 Speaker 3 Someone asked what?

37:47 Speaker 1 Someone asked the Bracha, "Why?" And he's like that. It's a passing. . It's a -

37:54 Speaker 3 Oh, this person's giving the, the explanation.

37:56 Speaker 1 Yeah. "Why? Why? Why are you standing there?"

37:57 Speaker 3 Yeah.

37:57 Speaker 1 The Bracha tell him. He said, "It's a passing ." You can't.

38:03 Speaker 3 Yeah.

38:03 Speaker 1 And it's interesting that, um, near David Raskin's room, David Raskin, Kasnovski room, in the middle is a toilet.

38:11 Speaker 3 Bathroom, yeah.

38:12 Speaker 1 A bathroom, yeah. Then when the rabbi got the Aliyah, Monday and Thursday, he made sure that the door is locked. It's closed.

38:21 Speaker 3 The door to the ZAL?

38:22 Speaker 1 Not the door. The-

38:23 Speaker 3 The bathroom

38:23 Speaker 1 ... near, near the Armet. No, near the Armet is a, is a door.

38:26 Speaker 3 There's a door, yeah.

38:26 Speaker 1 Yeah. That door should be closed.

38:28 Speaker 3 'Cause rabbi didn't wanna see the bathroom.

38:29 Speaker 1 Because of the toilet.

38:31 Speaker 3 Yeah. And that was open all, all the time.

38:33 Speaker 1 Uh-huh. The ba-

38:33 Speaker 3 That bathroom used to be, uh .

38:34 Speaker 1 No, the do- even the bathroom is, it's far away, and it's closed.

38:37 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm.

38:38 Speaker 1 But even... Now they have like a all opening. It was, it was a, it was a open piece completely.

38:42 Speaker 3 Oh, it was open then.

38:43 Speaker 1 Yeah, it was open actually. Yeah. And these were the snow like . Yeah.

38:49 Speaker 3 One of the integral components of being a Hasid are the Chassidishe Yamim Tovim and Yemei Depagra. Whether it's Hey Tevis, Yut Shvat, Yud Aleph Nissan, or Gimel Tammuz, these days give us an opportunity to connect with our Rabbeim, to connect with each other, and be better Hasidim. What is the story behind each of these days? How did the Rebbe commemorate and celebrate these days? And most importantly, what are the lessons, the takeaways, and the action items, needed for each of these days? All of this and much, much more are answered in the new set recently published by Der Her. Our Days is a journey through the Chabad calendar in story, meaning, and practice. With over 700 beautiful glossy pages with elevated content, beautiful, beautiful photographs, you, your family, and friends will enjoy and live with each Chassidishe Yamim Tov. This book is a must for every Lubavitcher home, for every shul, for every school. It is a perfect gift item. This will not collect dust. It will be used day after day, month after month, year after year. You can have this set. Go to derher.org/ourdays, order your set today, and start living the Chassidishe Yamim Tov.

40:24 Speaker 1 I had a story with . Um, Michael Ta- Michael Lipsker bought a Sefer Torah from, uh, Morocco.

40:37 Speaker 3 Yeah, we wrote about it once in Der Her.

40:39 Speaker 1 Huh?

40:39 Speaker 3 We, we wrote this story once in Der Her.

40:41 Speaker 1 Let me tell him about my story.

40:43 Speaker 3 Yeah, yeah. Say it.

40:44 Speaker 1 And-

40:44 Speaker 3 We wrote it many years ago, so I don't know-

40:45 Speaker 1 Oh, yeah

40:46 Speaker 3 ... in the be- this is one of the earliest Der Hers, so I don't know.

40:47 Speaker 1 And he, and he brought it, he brought it into the Rebbe's ho- uh, Rebbe's room. Then the Rebbe went out with it to the shul.

40:54 Speaker 3 Downstairs?

40:55 Speaker 1 No, upstairs. Not downstairs, upstairs. I'm talking not, not Tunis Sefer Torah. I'm talking Morocco Sefer Torah.

41:03 Speaker 3 Oh, okay. I'm con- I'm confused with the Tunis Sefer Torah.

41:04 Speaker 1 That's what I said.

41:05 Speaker 3 Yeah. The Tunis Sefer Torah, everyone downstairs.

41:06 Speaker 1 It's a different thing.

41:07 Speaker 3 Yeah.

41:07 Speaker 1 That's, that's, uh, Motzei, uh, Motzei Yut Shvat, now it's of Shin Lamed. I remember I was, I was in su- in, uh, shul already on my place, uh, for, for the Fabringen. All of a sudden, the Rebbe comes down, the Rebbe with Pinsker on, uh, Garadetski, Chadakov. The Rebbe got the Sefer Torah and goes to the front, puts it in the Aron Kodesh, went, went out.

41:27 Speaker 3 Yeah.

41:28 Speaker 1 So I remember that story. But, uh, this, uh, Michael Lipsker brought the Sefer Torah to the Rebbe's, uh, room. The Rebbe took it-

41:34 Speaker 3 Why did he br- why did he bring a Sefer Torah from Morocco?

41:37 Speaker 1 He brought... I don't know. He brought a Sefer Torah for the Rebbe.

41:40 Speaker 3 Okay. It was written there.

41:41 Speaker 1 I don't know if it was written there or if it's from a old Sefer Torah there. And he brought it in, he gave it to, to the Rebbe. The Rebbe took it out, put it into the Aron Kodesh. Then they said, "Rebbe, ." And then the Rebbe got Aliyah on it, . After they put it in, they sing, "This is Simchu- Simchas Sefer Torah." So Rebbe went back to his room. A few minutes later, Leibe Koni comes out with, I don't know, $10 bill. Give it to Michael Lipsker and told him, "Rebbe will. You should, uh, make a little Fabringen. Buy some Mezeinis in the Chaim and, uh, make a little Fabringen after the Davening." Okay. I took over my tefillin. It was after Musaf. I sat down by the table, by the window. Sit, sit... That, that's the Rebbe's room. The Rebbe, uh, going to the ZAL. You have the table in the back of the, of merkaz, then another table over here by the window. I was sitting by the window there. And Michael Lipsker was taking off his tallit. All of a sudden, Leibe Koni comes in with the Rebbe's chair, and he runs with that, and he comes with two ta- one table, two tables by the, by the windows, yeah? And he puts it down in front of the first table. Okay. Then we know the Rebbe comes in, and we're looking. The Rebbe comes in. He walks in, uh, with a table and a bench. Yeah? And this was

43:08 Speaker 1 that table right over here. I mean, you can't go through because it's a bench there. The Rebbe comes to the bench. He can't go in. It's, uh, so remember, uh, Wolpoe was standing there. He tried to, to pick up the bench. Rebbe told him, "No, no, no." Rebbe goes, "Rebbe." When at the, uh, when on the bench, went in, he sat down near me. I was standing there, I was sitting over here. I said, "How I wanna get... I can't do it. What, what, what am I doing here?" Then the Rebbe asked, "Who is Rabbi Michal?" They call Rabbi Michal, "Rabbi Michal, the Rebbe is calling you." Okay, Michal came, he came for me, and, and I pushed away this way, and he sat down here. The Rebbe is s- was sitting, and he was sitting over here near the Rebbe. Rebbe told him, "Zog l'chaim." They made l'chaim, and he put up for the Rebbe also a little keleshik for the Rebbe, l'chaim. But Rebbe didn't touch. After he said l'chaim, the Rebbe started the . Good look, and, uh, . And people came from all over with-- jumping on the table, it was awesome.

44:12 Speaker 3 These things didn't happen, uh, those years, the such a thing didn't ever happen.

44:15 Speaker 1 No. All of a sudden, they said-- I remember that wasn't a many involve run, run to bring a tape recorder. I think they have f- f- from Meyer, they have on the tape from it, if I'm not mistaken. This was, uh, so it was like, uh, a special thing like this.

44:29 Speaker 3 Yeah. It's a few time, uh, things like that happened, like before-

44:33 Speaker 1 Oh, it's the same year, the same year, uh, like Bima. I remember I was standing in, in the back by the table. The table was the, the win-- that this forum, the window, that's the table. I was standing by the window there. Right after Mincha, the Rebbe started to walk to the and people make, made a, made a line. The Rebbe went, went, went, he came into the table, sat down, and he started the Ma'amar in . And people they wonder. I remember that the door was clo-closed. Rabbi Shmuel Witten was knock on the door. "Open, open the ." Then people opened up the door and went in. But Rebbe said the Ma'amar. As soon as the Ma'amar, he went back to his room. This was Rosh Chodesh. This was like Bima of this.

45:20 Speaker 3 And also before your times, Top Chaf Dalet, Motzei Im Kipper.

45:23 Speaker 1 Yeah, Motzei.

45:24 Speaker 3 The Rebbe once said a Ma'amar.

45:25 Speaker 1 Was also one time with, uh, Saul Friedman told me this story. I don't remember which year was it. So it was, uh, Yut Shvat, I remember. He was standing by the sink, like the back of the hallway by the sink, and he's washing his hand, and someone knocks him on his back like this, and turns around the Rebbe. "Come on in ." He called nine people. The Rebbe closed the door, and he said the Ma'amar, the Rebbe.

45:50 Speaker 3 Was that Motzei Im Kipper?

45:51 Speaker 1 No, no, no. This was Shabbos morning.

45:53 Speaker 3 Oh.

45:54 Speaker 1 I think it was a Yut Shvat, if I'm not mistaken. And, uh, after this, Halakhov told me to make, make a note from the Ma'amar through Saul Friedman, and made a note.

46:04 Speaker 3 'Cause I, I read Motzei Im Kipper Chaf Daled, the Rebbe, it was a surprise Ma'amar.

46:10 Speaker 1 Yeah, the Rebbe was upset-

46:12 Speaker 3 And Rabbi Saul talked, uh-

46:13 Speaker 1 No, not Rabbi Saul. No, not Rabbi Saul. Was a guy, Brandell, without a beard or something. Ah, made like a cup. He was sitting by the table with Rabbi Dan Pinchamari. He was sitting there with the New York Times And he, he took-- made a cup. I think that's Yitzchak. Is-- He made the... Anafe made the note, but he helped out.

46:33 Speaker 3 He was a bocher?

46:35 Speaker 1 Maybe he was a bocher. Alter bocher, Soldi Kel. As, uh-- He was not-- Without a beard. They say his wife works in the community council even now. I don't know where he is now. I didn't, I didn't see him for a while.

46:48 Speaker 3 He wrote the note.

46:49 Speaker 1 I don't know if he wrote the note, but he helped him write the note. I think Schleime Zahavi was there also that time. I'm not sure, but I think he's, he was there.

46:56 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm.

46:58 Speaker 1 Was another time, Yutzes, Yutzes Tammuz Chof Tes, I think was it also. Middle of the day was also a farbrengen then because of, uh, Moshe Feller, um, with, uh-

47:13 Speaker 3 And, uh-

47:14 Speaker 1 Shloime Koonin, I think

47:15 Speaker 3 ... they went to camp.

47:17 Speaker 1 Yeah, Moshe Feller went to camp, and were there also were Gana from, uh, Australia. They were there. The Rebbe told them to stay. And all of a sudden, one o'clock, we're sitting and learning-

47:26 Speaker 3 They went to Bnei Brith camp.

47:27 Speaker 1 Yeah, he went to B-- Yeah. We were sitting in, in, uh, learning. All of a sudden, people went running. "Mentor, vu leif men? Where are you running?" And then, then people-- 'Cause when, when it was , the Rebbe went out, all the bochur went out also to the laviah.

47:43 Speaker 3 And usually people didn't go out for the laviah, the bochurim, but when the Rebbe went-

47:46 Speaker 1 No, when the Rebbe went out, people went out also.

47:48 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm.

47:48 Speaker 1 Yeah. And it's more than this. When the Rebbe came back, the, the, there was a, a kvur with water outside. The Rebbe washes then. The Rebbe then went into the zal and said seven times. Every time a different chair, a different place. See, the zal was empty then. Now, the Rebbe-- When the Rebbe went out, then people went in.

48:09 Speaker 3 You're saying so that time people thought there was a laviah.

48:11 Speaker 1 They didn't. They thought, "Why this? Then everybody went, went downstairs. I remember it. I remember the Rebbe went out, went down to the, to the shul.

48:21 Speaker 3 I heard from someone else that was in Montreal. When was it?

48:24 Speaker 1 Yutzes Tammuz.

48:25 Speaker 3 Yeah, it was right after Yutzes Tammuz.

48:26 Speaker 1 I think Chof-- Yutzes Tammuz, yeah.

48:27 Speaker 3 Someone from Montreal told me that-

48:29 Speaker 1 This was the end of Shiv-- The, um, Shiva Yumei, uh, Shiva Bochur from the bar mitzvah from the Rebbe. That's what Rebbe mentioned that.

48:35 Speaker 3 Yeah. And someone from Montreal told me that they were on a-- They were getting on a bus to go back to Yeshiva Montreal. They were there from, for Yutzes Tammuz. Then someone came and told them there's a farbrengen. They all ran off the bus, left the bus, and ran, ran, ran back to Seven seventy.

48:48 Speaker 1 And I remember two bochurim, don't mention the names there. Uh, one bocher lived across the street of Seven seventy, six seven six is on Parkway.

48:58 Speaker 3 Six... Which one?

49:00 Speaker 1 One bocher.

49:01 Speaker 3 In the building.

49:01 Speaker 1 Six seven six. There was a building across the street of Seven seventy. He lived there.

49:05 Speaker 3 Not six seven six.

49:06 Speaker 1 Seven six seven.

49:07 Speaker 3 Seven six-

49:08 Speaker 1 Seven six seven. Seven six seven. And, uh, he lived there. And the other bocher told him, "Okay, yeah, I'm coming over to you. We'll go together to Manette. I don't know where to go." And the Rebbe shul was downstairs, and they came across the street. They went down to the, to the subway, and they left . They did not say downstairs are farbrengen.

49:27 Speaker 3 Yeah. So these things, uh-

49:32 Speaker 1 It was also like a political farbrengen, kind of like small Olam.

49:37 Speaker 3 And in those years, you had, you had Yachidus every, every year for your birthday?

49:42 Speaker 1 Um, just the first two years, then they stopped it. I mean, Chof Ov and Chof Zain, I had Yachidus. Chof Ches was already no more, no more, uh, Yachidus for, uh, Chof Ches. No Chof Ches I went in. Chof Ches-

49:56 Speaker 3 No, there was Yachidus afterwards.

49:58 Speaker 1 But not, not Yumei. They didn't let Yumei let us anymore. They didn't let bochurim Yumei.

50:03 Speaker 3 I thought that it was much later in the Lamed that stopped.

50:07 Speaker 1 No, I remember that. Then I went in for, uh, before my Chosima, I went in, and then before I had, uh, Shalom, my first son, I went again to get Yechidas.

50:18 Speaker 3 People used to go into the Rebbe when their wife was pregnant? That was the seder?

50:21 Speaker 1 Yeah. Before, yeah.

50:22 Speaker 3 In the ninth month?

50:23 Speaker 1 Yeah.

50:24 Speaker 3 So there's a seder that when your wife's in the ninth month, you have Yechidas.

50:26 Speaker 1 Yechidas, yeah. That's the way that, that they let you in Yechidas. It's not a pishut.

50:33 Speaker 3 See, if you ask for Yechidas-

50:35 Speaker 1 Yeah. That's the time. Like this, I mean, "I wanna be in Yechidas." Why?

50:38 Speaker 3 It's not so famous. So what, what happened in the... Like what was the se-- What, what would happen in the Yechidas of ninth month?

50:43 Speaker 1 No, you just, you just go in, you turn to Rebbe, you said in ninth month, make some bracha, and all the emcheren. Rebbe give you a bracha, and, uh, that's it. And, uh, you went out.

50:52 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm. And Yechidas for your, uh, chasima?

50:55 Speaker 1 Okay. I went in with my father.

50:56 Speaker 3 What year did he get married?

50:58 Speaker 1 Yeah, I got married twelve shon lamad alef. Twelve shon lamad alef I got married. And it's, uh, interesting that she was talking about my marriage. Uh, the day of my, uh, my l'chaim was, uh, tes vav Cheshvan lamad alef.

51:16 Speaker 3 Your wife was in New York?

51:17 Speaker 1 Yeah, she came to New York before, yeah, a year before.

51:20 Speaker 3 She was living here?

51:21 Speaker 1 Yeah. She was by Katz, by my, uh, by her sister.

51:24 Speaker 3 She lived by her sister?

51:25 Speaker 1 Yeah. So, uh, then tes vav, tes vav Cheshvan, this was my, uh, l'chaim. The Rebbe came back from the ohel. The Rebbe told to, uh, Rebbe gave over, if they'll give him to, to Yale, if they'll give him back the, the Mayon shel Torah Chassidus, the-

51:45 Speaker 3 In Mayon shel Torah Chassidus.

51:46 Speaker 1 In Mayon shel Torah Chassidus.

51:47 Speaker 3 The contours.

51:47 Speaker 1 In Mayon shel Torah Chassidus, he'll maggiot. And Yale didn't have it. I mean, he gave it to the Rebbe two, two, three years before.

51:56 Speaker 3 Ah, so the, he... All right. I think I know what this was.

51:59 Speaker 1 He didn't have another copy.

52:00 Speaker 3 So he gave the Rebbe two years before-

52:01 Speaker 1 Then he was sitting-

52:02 Speaker 3 He made a whole contours.

52:03 Speaker 1 Yeah.

52:03 Speaker 3 He gave it to the Rebbe. The Rebbe didn't maggiot. The Rebbe said, "I'll do it now." But he didn't have it 'cause he already gave it in.

52:07 Speaker 1 So he... Yeah, yeah. Then he was sitting together with Leibu Shapiro, yeah, and they just wrote it back in, and they gave it in.

52:14 Speaker 3 They rewrote the whole thing.

52:15 Speaker 1 Then he came, then he came to my, to my l'chaim, and he was sitting all night in fabrangig. I, I think, I think I still have it on recording.

52:25 Speaker 3 In that fabrangig with you in the l'chaim?

52:28 Speaker 1 Yeah.

52:28 Speaker 3 Interesting.

52:28 Speaker 1 He told very nice. I mean, Yosi asked for me a lot, so I mean. No. Then, then l'chaim s- was something special because he was so upglipte, Rebbe Yale, because the Rebbe is maggiot the sikher, and then it was-

52:42 Speaker 3 Today, it's already translated into English.

52:44 Speaker 1 To English, yeah.

52:46 Speaker 3 Yeah. Um.

52:48 Speaker 1 But then, then, then, um, see, my, my shver was not alive anymore, and, uh, my mother also not alive. And my mother-in-law was here by the chasima, and, uh, she came in to me-- with me together Yechidas, and my father.

53:03 Speaker 3 So your shviger and your father-

53:05 Speaker 1 And my father

53:06 Speaker 3 Were in Yechidas. Interesting.

53:06 Speaker 1 Came Yechidas, yeah.

53:08 Speaker 3 So what happened at Yechidas?

53:09 Speaker 1 Well, the Rebbe gave brachos. That's it. This is, uh, we didn't ask too much things there. The, the Rebbe gave brachos. And, uh, then, uh, the day from, uh, the chasima by the siddur, also my father was there, and the Rebbe gave him a bracha, and then the Rebbe gave him the siddur. The Rebbe said, uh, "L'chaim," uh.

53:29 Speaker 3 Yeah. So it's interesting that, um, so you, you ended up, uh, a lot of people, their story ends when they're a bachur, but you were in seven seventy all the years.

53:43 Speaker 1 Yeah.

53:44 Speaker 3 So you-

53:46 Speaker 1 I was all the years there, seven seventy

53:48 Speaker 3 You always davened in seven seventy?

53:49 Speaker 1 Yeah.

53:50 Speaker 3 Shabbos?

53:51 Speaker 1 Yeah, always. I mean, as bachur?

53:53 Speaker 3 No, no, when you're married, when you-

53:55 Speaker 1 The married, no. Okay. When my children were older a little bit, yeah, seven seventy, you couldn't daven with them. Then like, uh, two Shabbosim, I went to a different shul to daven with them. They should see Dad and daven not normal. Yeah? And two Shabbosim is seven seventy.

54:11 Speaker 3 To seder.

54:12 Speaker 1 Yeah. They should see Rebbe's doch-

54:14 Speaker 3 Shabbos Nerachim probably.

54:15 Speaker 1 Shabbos for sure seven seventy. I mean, I've been even like this. They came for brangis and everything. Like even, like, uh, Kosher Bracha, we-- I took my children once a year, just Motzei Rosh Hashanah. Yeah. And even my daughter, she's, she was, she became twelve Yom Kippur. I took her still Rosh Hashanah to, to, uh, Kosher Bracha.

54:38 Speaker 3 She's not practicing.

54:38 Speaker 1 And her friend said, "Why my father didn't think about this, to take me to, to Kosher Bracha?"

54:44 Speaker 3 Well, she, um... Yeah, I guess people, they're embarrassed. They don't, they don't wanna go-

54:49 Speaker 1 Embarrassed? What is it? Well, it's like a leg night to, to go to the Rebbe. Why not?

54:53 Speaker 3 Yeah.

54:53 Speaker 1 It's doch a... Even I have like, uh, it's a, someone told me, "Oh, I saw a video of you with your daughter by Kosher Bracha. The Rebbe is smiling to her." I said, "Yeah, let me see." That, that was my, my other daughter, the sec-- the second daughter. Then I went over, and the Rebbe gave me, the Rebbe gave her, and the Rebbe smiled to her, and the Rebbe told her to drink. I said, "Mach a bracha." Then made a bracha. The Rebbe was-- The Rebbe stopped, yeah, and then she made the bracha. Amen. The Rebbe told her to drink L'Chaim. Save it on a, on a video even.

55:24 Speaker 3 Seem the Rebbe was a kind of-

55:26 Speaker 1 Yeah

55:26 Speaker 3 ... it's like, uh, the, the special attention to the fact that-

55:29 Speaker 1 The special attention.

55:30 Speaker 3 I guess it was unusual, yeah.

55:31 Speaker 1 Yeah, unusual, yes.

55:33 Speaker 3 So you had the, uh, not everyone had the sekhel to know that, uh, to-

55:38 Speaker 1 To take-

55:38 Speaker 3 To that level.

55:38 Speaker 1 Yeah. It's, uh, der eis dos. It's, it's... No, people didn't think about this thing with us to go to the Rebbe to do with the-

55:45 Speaker 3 So what were you thinking?

55:46 Speaker 1 Hmm? I don't know. For wasn't your kinder, this is enough.

55:48 Speaker 3 I'm saying, I guess, I guess what I'm trying to understand is, is a lot of people that were here, n- you know, obviously some people are not so, they're not so into it, whatever. Okay, that's... But are, are there right-- For some reason you had, um- Special insight to know that you have to be seven seventy, you have to be with the Rebbe-

56:13 Speaker 1 Yeah

56:13 Speaker 3 ... with the Rebbe Farbrengen. So when-

56:15 Speaker 1 Even, even my children, I took them all. Shabbos Farbrengen, they were all Farbrengen. Even the big, uh, the Vachti Farbrengen, the small children, I took them like, uh, till there was like after the Maimon was like people went over to the Rebbe, took like a three quarters of an hour, then I just took them home, and the, the small ones, the, and the, the big ones, I-

56:32 Speaker 3 You took the little kids to Farbrengen?

56:34 Speaker 1 Yeah. I took all my little kids.

56:37 Speaker 3 So I have little kids. I'm trying to understand how this works. Um-

56:40 Speaker 1 They were staying near me. Yeah.

56:42 Speaker 3 But they... And then they, and they were quiet? They were, they were, they're not playing on the floor?

56:45 Speaker 1 They were sit-- They were sitting again. Think-

56:46 Speaker 3 They weren't bothering you?

56:47 Speaker 1 Huh? No, they were sitting quietly. 'Cause they, they got a little older then, then the last years, the people, uh, were staying, sitting by the Rebbe.

56:56 Speaker 3 Yeah. The kids would sit-

56:56 Speaker 1 The children. Yeah, kids-

56:57 Speaker 3 The kids were sitting next to the Rebbe.

56:58 Speaker 1 Then they went just to sit down by the Rebbe. But like this, they were by me. Even like, uh, even the Yom Kippur for the, for the Ma- for the March, not for the March, for the Ile.

57:09 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm.

57:09 Speaker 1 I took my, uh, Shalom. Yeah, I took him. He was, uh, two, two years, two and a half years. I took him to come to the Ile to see.

57:17 Speaker 3 So you, so you, so you brought him to the whole Ile at two years old?

57:18 Speaker 1 Yeah, I brought him. Yeah. I brought him to see this of the, the March.

57:23 Speaker 3 It's amazing.

57:24 Speaker 1 Uh-huh.

57:25 Speaker 3 No, it's amazing. There's, there's, there's a lot of, there's a lot of people-

57:29 Speaker 1 Yeah, it's, yeah, depends. It, it's, it's, uh, it's, uh, it's, uh, it's ergesh to do it. I did it.

57:35 Speaker 3 I'm saying there's a lot of people that even if they lived in Crown Heights, let's say if they were born later, not necessarily were they around by the Rebbe a lot 'cause, like, their parents are not schlepping a little baby to, to Seven Seventy. So-

57:50 Speaker 1 Like, like look, when they sold seats in Seven Seventy for Rosh Hashanah Yom Kippur. Yeah, I was there watching them to do it. Then I told them, "Why don't you put benches at the Rebbe's bimah for Farbrengen? You could sell there also p- places."

58:05 Speaker 3 So you had an idea to sell seats for Farbrengen.

58:07 Speaker 1 I get, I get an idea that there was, there was a, a Pinson with the, with B- with Lipsker, with, uh, Yankel Lipsker.

58:14 Speaker 3 The Rebaim.

58:14 Speaker 1 Uh, they were the Rebaim, yeah. So, uh, as, as far okay, they, they put benches. Then I looked, okay, I want this, this bench I want by the, by the Rebbe's bimah. The first, the first one. I took like mamish by the, by the could see the bimah, the bimah from the Rebbe of Farbrengen for the, for Tekias through the first seat. And my children, they were sitting on the, by the table. Then they know, uh, till today, I mean, they show them Yossi, Levi. They all, they know my, my daughters. They know the Tekias because they were sitting on the table from the Farbrengen, and they saw it. No push, no pushing, no nothing. They saw.

58:51 Speaker 3 Are you talking up, up on the, on the platform of the Rebbe?

58:55 Speaker 1 On the platform for the Rebbe for the Farbrengen, and the, the, the Rebbe's b- the, the Rebbe's table for the Farbrengen. They were sitting on the table.

59:02 Speaker 3 Okay. So I didn't understand. You told-- Your idea was sell benches-

59:06 Speaker 1 Make benches also on the bimah

59:07 Speaker 3 ... make benches on the platforms.

59:08 Speaker 1 Yeah.

59:08 Speaker 3 That's another seating area-

59:09 Speaker 1 Yeah

59:09 Speaker 3 ... for the Farbrengen. And if you're there, you're probably right next to the Rebbe with Tekias.

59:13 Speaker 1 Yeah. Then I bought, then, uh, I bought a seat. I bought two seats I bought for me and my children. I, I should have another seat also for, uh, they should, uh, run around. I bought two seats.

59:24 Speaker 3 Hmm. So but, but you were als- you were also running a, a business the whole time when you were, when you were-

59:33 Speaker 1 Yeah

59:34 Speaker 3 ... in Crown Heights?

59:35 Speaker 1 No, it depends. Like, no, I was-- After I finished, uh, the, the Vadilefor Sikkes, like, uh, year after I was married, I had, uh, the baby Shalom. Then, uh, then, uh, Zalman Hanie told me, "Mir, mir haben nisht kein geld." He was still a bocher.

59:49 Speaker 3 Zalman was a bocher?

59:50 Speaker 1 Yeah. "Mir haben nisht kein geld to tzoln you a salary for them. Is, uh, zu such dir ander plat."

59:55 Speaker 3 To look for something else.

59:55 Speaker 1 I came there in and out, but, uh, then I went, I worked for, uh, Rabbi Saul Jacobson in a Daratere.

1:00:04 Speaker 3 Oh, you worked there?

1:00:05 Speaker 1 Uh, yeah, the office administration, the office. I worked for him, and he told stories for me. I'll tell you two stories for me what he told me about the Friediker Rebbe. When the Friediker Rebbe came here, Tov Reish Bet Tes, uh, in the port was no seder. It was mamish a big balagan.

1:00:26 Speaker 3 When he came to New York?

1:00:27 Speaker 1 When they came here, but the, the Kabbalas Ponim was not, not a mesuda Kabbalas Ponim. It was very... Okay, then the Rebbe went to Borough Park to Simpson's house.

1:00:39 Speaker 3 Th- there's a video of this.

1:00:40 Speaker 1 Huh?

1:00:41 Speaker 3 It's on video, this.

1:00:43 Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah. But he went to Sim-- He went to, uh, Borough Park to Simpson's house, and then Rabbi Saul Jacobson went up to the Friediker Rebbe. He came up there. The Friediker Rebbe said, "Farvos in nisht geven kein seder? Why was no seder by the Kabbalas Ponim?" Then he told himself, "Listen, I just came two, three years ago over here, but you have the older Hasidim, Shifrin, with Axelrod, with him." I mean, "Ich bin nisht kein teretz. Farvos kha trila kashe? I don't want an answer. Why do you have a question?"

1:01:16 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm.

1:01:17 Speaker 1 This is-

1:01:17 Speaker 3 Why is there a question?

1:01:18 Speaker 1 Why is there a question? I mean, trila-- Answer means this. You have a question, and you give an answer on it. No, uh, why trila? I don't-

1:01:26 Speaker 3 Yeah

1:01:26 Speaker 1 ... like, uh, he was always that person when something was wrong in the office or something. I told him this. They told me, told me this word. Then he told me another word they told me once. The Friediker Rebbe gave him money to, uh, I don't know, deposit. I don't know what. He took the money, and he went out. The Friediker Rebbe called him. "Du telsht shiva. You're not counting it?" He said, "I'm not trusting the Rebbe." You know, Jacobson was, uh, he was always talking like this with the... And he said, "No. Maybe I gave you more, and you have to give me back."

1:01:58 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm.

1:02:00 Speaker 1 He says, "So you have to count money. It's not to do with, uh, I gave you less. Maybe I gave you more. You have to give it back to me."

1:02:07 Speaker 3 There's a, there's a story that the Rebbetzin said Gelt hat liba cheshbon. Money-

1:02:15 Speaker 1 Yeah

1:02:15 Speaker 3 ... uh, money, I mean, translates of it. Money likes to be, have a cheshbon.

1:02:20 Speaker 1 Yeah.

1:02:21 Speaker 3 It's interesting. And, um, so you- And then later you started your, um, later you started the, the printing.

1:02:31 Speaker 1 Yeah, it was much later. Um, uh, much later. I worked at a different... Worked, uh, for Waldman. I worked a while. Later, later on I worked at printing, yeah.

1:02:40 Speaker 3 And were you, w- But these different things that you were doing, you wrote to the rebbe about this?

1:02:45 Speaker 1 Everything, yeah. Everything wrote. No, I just spoke to someone l- two days ago about when I bought my house. It's also a story with my house.

1:02:54 Speaker 3 The house that you live in now in Empire?

1:02:55 Speaker 1 Yeah. Before, before I bought th- this house, I looked for a different house with Chebre at houses. You know what Chebre is?

1:03:01 Speaker 3 I know, but, uh, explain please.

1:03:03 Speaker 1 Huh?

1:03:03 Speaker 3 Uh, explain what it is.

1:03:04 Speaker 1 It was, uh, the, the rebbe spoke about, uh, not mo- not going out from the . It was all for the Apardes rebbe was that the-

1:03:16 Speaker 3 The rebbe started the whole campaign not to leave Crown Heights.

1:03:18 Speaker 1 No. Yeah, but the rebbe wrote that spoke all why he can't go out from this. When, uh, Rabbi Elberg, Shmuel Elberg, wanted to print it in, uh, he had a, a yo- uh, a monthly, uh-

1:03:34 Speaker 3 Journal

1:03:35 Speaker 1 ... journal, but, uh,

1:03:37 Speaker 3 Apardes.

1:03:37 Speaker 1 Apardes, yeah. And he asked the rebbe if we could do it. Then rebbe was and they went in there. From there it went into another person. Then the, the people decided, the rebbes, the rebbe said he'll give $500. Yeah? And whoever gives $500 could get a dollar from it.

1:04:00 Speaker 3 Whoever gives $500. The rebbe, the rebbe wanted $500 what?

1:04:03 Speaker 1 To open, to open a, open a company to buy the houses that, uh-

1:04:07 Speaker 3 The rebbe wanted a, a corporation-

1:04:09 Speaker 1 Yeah

1:04:09 Speaker 3 ... that's gonna buy up all the houses in Crown Heights.

1:04:11 Speaker 1 All the houses so that people want to s-

1:04:13 Speaker 3 And sell them back to the-

1:04:14 Speaker 1 No, instead sell it to a to, to sell it to, uh, to the... Yeah. Then the rebbe gave $500, and everybody should, uh, who- whoever will give $500, he'll get $1 from the 500.

1:04:26 Speaker 3 From that.

1:04:27 Speaker 1 Yeah. Then they opened a company called the Chebre. Chebre, Chevre, Chevre, um, but what they call it, Chebre they called it. And it was, uh, people, they don't know real estate. Yeah. They bought, they bought houses, one family, two family houses. They bought it and they kept it. Yeah, but no people to buy it. And a little-

1:04:49 Speaker 3 The corporation bought it.

1:04:50 Speaker 1 Yeah, the corporation bought it. And then they rented the, the houses. People went in there. They didn't pay rent, and then they rented out. When I want to buy a house, yeah, I looked at one house of Chebre. It was on the there for $16,000 house.

1:05:07 Speaker 3 How much?

1:05:08 Speaker 1 16, one six.

1:05:09 Speaker 3 One six.

1:05:10 Speaker 1 Yeah.

1:05:10 Speaker 3 $16,000.

1:05:12 Speaker 1 Yeah. I'm talking, uh-

1:05:13 Speaker 3 How much is that today? I don't-

1:05:14 Speaker 1 I'm talking, uh, what? Th-third, 30, 30, 18, moment, 37 years ago?

1:05:21 Speaker 3 No, more than that. What year are you talking about?

1:05:24 Speaker 1 Yeah, I'm talking, uh, I'm talking, it depends because I bought it, uh, later on, but, uh, I bought it, uh, l'tetes I bought my house. But this is l'metches was it. L'met- l'met time-

1:05:34 Speaker 3 You're talking about '40s. '40s.

1:05:35 Speaker 1 The '40s, yeah.

1:05:36 Speaker 3 So you're able to buy a house-

1:05:38 Speaker 1 From Chebre-

1:05:39 Speaker 3 For $16,000

1:05:40 Speaker 1 ... for $16,000. Yeah. And this house was, my cheshbon was I'll buy-

1:05:44 Speaker 3 92 million, no?

1:05:45 Speaker 1 Yeah. I'll buy the house and I'll, uh, make it like one family because bought the house on Carol Street.

1:05:51 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm.

1:05:52 Speaker 1 Then I could buy n- a neighbor from him. I'll buy the house and, uh, I'll make also like one family and another house.

1:05:57 Speaker 3 You'll make it two family.

1:05:58 Speaker 1 No. From a two family, make it a one family.

1:06:01 Speaker 3 Why? Whatever. Yeah.

1:06:02 Speaker 1 Yeah, to make it. It's small houses, not big houses. I mean, it's-

1:06:05 Speaker 3 Okay.

1:06:06 Speaker 1 Okay. But there two, two couples lived there. They didn't pay rent. They didn't... Well, uh, they were only the poor people, I don't know, but they, they didn't pay rent. And then I, I told the rebbe about the house. The rebbe wrote me, If I want to buy the house, if my, if my wife wants to buy, is, uh, I'm asking for it. Then the two people-

1:06:34 Speaker 3 That's very in- I never heard such an answer.

1:06:35 Speaker 1 Listen, they, they, the two people, they didn't want to go out and this, to throw them out. Where will they go live? They, they, you know, for property. They're poor people. My wife said, "Listen, the rebbe put it on my head. I don't want it."

1:06:47 Speaker 3 Mm.

1:06:47 Speaker 1 Okay.

1:06:48 Speaker 3 Those were Yidden?

1:06:49 Speaker 1 Uh,

1:06:50 Speaker 3 No, yeah.

1:06:54 Speaker 1 they didn't have work. They didn't this.

1:06:55 Speaker 3 Right.

1:06:56 Speaker 1 Then I didn't buy the house. But then I looked at the other house. Then I found out the Shabbos that, uh, Rappaport is now over in Wisconsin. Where is this Rappaport?

1:07:05 Speaker 3 Wisconsin.

1:07:05 Speaker 1 The father, the father, yeah.

1:07:06 Speaker 3 Yeah, in Wisconsin.

1:07:06 Speaker 1 He was then going to Texas. Texas He want to sell his house.

1:07:12 Speaker 3 But he lived in Crown Heights?

1:07:13 Speaker 1 Yeah, he lived in Crown... Where I live in, in 609 Empire.

1:07:16 Speaker 3 Oh, okay.

1:07:17 Speaker 1 Then I, I called him up Motzei Shabbos. He said, "Yeah, tomorrow is the open house." Yeah. "First come, first serve. I'm not going up the price. The price is $59,000." I said, "Okay, what time come?" "Eight o'clock." Said, "Okay." I was there five to 8:00, I came. Say, "I want to buy the house." I came five to 8:00. I looked at the house. After me came already three other couples came to buy the house, but I was first. Okay. I looked at the house. I, "Okay, I'm ready for it." I said.

1:07:44 Speaker 3 But I, I, before you get to continue, trying to understand the business part of it. You, there was a house available for $16,000, but you want to buy a house for, for $59,000? That's like-

1:07:54 Speaker 1 This, this was a year later or two years later.

1:07:57 Speaker 3 By that time already the-

1:07:58 Speaker 1 No, but then, see, the different is the house there, you can't live like this. You have to put in a hun-

1:08:04 Speaker 3 It's got work

1:08:05 Speaker 1 ... $100,000 to it-

1:08:06 Speaker 3 Okay

1:08:06 Speaker 1 ... at least to make it good. But there-

1:08:09 Speaker 3 It's ready to go

1:08:09 Speaker 1 ... it's a house I could mo- just move in and, uh-

1:08:11 Speaker 3 Okay

1:08:11 Speaker 1 ... not even, not painting.

1:08:12 Speaker 3 Okay.

1:08:13 Speaker 1 Okay. He told me, "Okay, you're first, but..." Told me, "But." What's the but? My brother-in-law, Shloime Tachtel- Is looking an house also. He looks at this house and looks another house on Crown Street. He wrote in to the rabbi which house he should buy. If the rabbi tell them to buy this house, is first. If the rabbi told them to buy Crown Street, you are first in this house. He said, "Okay, I'll wait till we get answer from the rabbi." Went by two weeks. Shloime Tartel didn't get an answer, and he, he wants to move out and the two of them go to Texas. I mean, he called me up, said, "No, Bo, my partner will get-- he doesn't get an answer. You write into the rabbi."

1:08:57 Speaker 3 Okay.

1:08:58 Speaker 1 I wrote into the rabbi. I saw this house, like a big... I have only four children, but I could have guests in it, I got this. And told the rabbi it's, it's close to, uh, this, but you all, all details to the rabbi then. Where is it, uh, this one is Mizraha, the, the-- where this one comes in. You all-

1:09:14 Speaker 3 You report the whole-

1:09:16 Speaker 1 Detailed-

1:09:16 Speaker 3 The whole report of the house

1:09:17 Speaker 1 ... that time you told the rabbi, and that's the way to do.

1:09:20 Speaker 3 Did you hear someone-- this is a Kabbalah? Is that-

1:09:22 Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah. No, that, uh, the, the people tell me.

1:09:24 Speaker 3 By the way, I have a letter I had-- we're, we're recording in my parents' house. I have a letter from my mother to the Rebbe. Like you're saying, she wrote to the Rebbe about buying this house, all the details, exactly all her chashbonos, why she wants it.

1:09:39 Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah.

1:09:39 Speaker 3 Why she does, why she doesn't want this house.

1:09:41 Speaker 1 Well, I know, I know my friend told me. I-- they wrote into the Rebbe to buy a couch, to buy a blue or green.

1:09:46 Speaker 3 Yeah.

1:09:47 Speaker 1 That I mean, not a shailas they wrote the Rebbe. But, uh, but um, house, you know, I wanted to-

1:09:52 Speaker 3 The Rebbe would answer those things?

1:09:53 Speaker 1 Uh?

1:09:53 Speaker 3 The Rebbe would answer-

1:09:54 Speaker 1 No, didn't. The Rebbe answered, the Rebbe answered me on the house, yeah, I should buy it.

1:09:58 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm.

1:09:59 Speaker 1 And the same time, Tartel got an answer I should buy the other house, and the Rebbe wrote into him, «Ubev vaad shelo yihye basogas kvul.» To him.

1:10:08 Speaker 3 That it shouldn't be a sogas kvul.

1:10:09 Speaker 1 Yeah. The basogas kvul. And the house from six hundred nine, leave it for Wilhelm Don't, don't mix into it.

1:10:17 Speaker 3 Seeing the Rebbe, the Rebbe was telling him that buying your house shouldn't, because Rebbe-

1:10:22 Speaker 1 You buy this house, but leave the lo shiyhi basogas kvul.

1:10:25 Speaker 3 So let Wilhelm buy his house.

1:10:27 Speaker 1 Yes. Yeah. And Baruch Hashem since then, I lived there.

1:10:31 Speaker 3 That's very interesting.

1:10:31 Speaker 1 And I had a lot of guests in then. My, my house, without a guzmef, since I lived there, over ten thousand people went through my house, sleeping.

1:10:41 Speaker 3 Yeah.

1:10:42 Speaker 1 Baruch Hashem.

1:10:44 Speaker 3 And, uh, so you're saying what you, what you wrote to the Rebbe-

1:10:48 Speaker 1 Yeah, it's the big house because, uh, I could have orchim. It's more than this, like, um, so a friend of mine told me, "Listen, I'm getting older." And, uh, I also had guests, and my wife said, "Listen, «miztvah panoset» let's start, like make it nicer and rent it out, I mean, for, uh, for, for a day, for two days, for three days." Then I told my wife, "Maybe do the same thing." She said, "No, no, no. We told the Rebbe with the guests, we're not charging money for it."

1:11:17 Speaker 3 She's saying it's a, it's a shlichus.

1:11:19 Speaker 1 Yeah.

1:11:19 Speaker 3 It's a shlichus for them.

1:11:20 Speaker 1 Baruch Hashem. Yeah, Baruch Hashem, it's, uh, but-

1:11:22 Speaker 3 And by the way, that's in, in Yechidas. I don't know what the Rebbe told you in your Yechidas when you got married. I don't know if you remember, but you could tell, uh, tell me, but a lot of times the Rebbe would speak about the house, that it should be-

1:11:36 Speaker 1 Yeah. I, yeah

1:11:37 Speaker 3 ... like a, an-

1:11:38 Speaker 1 I have it written down. I don't remember. I still have it in, uh-

1:11:40 Speaker 3 The Rebbe told my parents, 'cause my father wrote down also. The Rebbe said that, um, it should be a house of spreading Yiddishkeit. Like, you're, you're building, you're building a house. It' tafs, it just, you know.

1:11:50 Speaker 1 Yeah.

1:11:52 Speaker 3 So that was-- well, I mean, in Crown Heights, that was a big part of living in Crown Heights, was the orchim that you would host.

1:12:01 Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah.

1:12:03 Speaker 3 Whether it's family, whether it's other people.

1:12:04 Speaker 1 No, I, I have orchim. They-- like, they, they were in Thailand, uh, my nephew, Nechemya Wilhelm. They came to me.

1:12:12 Speaker 3 Sure.

1:12:12 Speaker 1 Yeah. Before they didn't have no Yiddish culture. They came the first time. They stay in my house two to two weeks. They became formed c-completely. Like I have, I have a bochur that came that, uh, when it was my house, in what I had with the jacket and everything. Today, he's a shliach.

1:12:29 Speaker 3 Yeah.

1:12:29 Speaker 1 But started in my house. Like, it's a part of my shlichus is-

1:12:32 Speaker 3 Yeah, yeah. It's like an-- it's an interesting thing that people don't realize. I mean, it's a, a little different times. When I grew up, we always had guests, and there's also stories like that, people that I know that their first Shabbos was here. The, the people used to send from Hadara Taira and from Chana Chana, the people would send bochurim here to, to, or the pegisha, whatever. So it was just an interesting thing that there's a interest-- there's a not so much spoken about part that the people in Crown Heights-

1:12:58 Speaker 1 Yeah. The, the-

1:12:58 Speaker 3 ... took on-

1:12:59 Speaker 1 Took on

1:12:59 Speaker 3 ... took on as part of the-

1:13:00 Speaker 1 Orchim, yeah

1:13:01 Speaker 3 ... Rebbe's mission.

1:13:02 Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah. It was. Yeah, yeah. It was, it was like this.

1:13:06 Speaker 3 And al-- when it came to the, the, your businesses, you also wrote to the Rebbe, and there was also questions about what to do?

1:13:15 Speaker 1 Uh, it was not questions. I mean, no, just Rebbe, I have this and this offer. Should I take it? And then the Rebbe said yes. That's all.

1:13:22 Speaker 3 So you didn't do a business deal without asking the Rebbe?

1:13:25 Speaker 1 No. I didn't say-- I, I mostly I worked. You see, after I finished by, uh, by, uh, what's it? By, by Rabbi Jacobson, me and Zev Katz, we opened a store.

1:13:37 Speaker 3 That, that store on, on, on Kingston?

1:13:39 Speaker 1 No, it was a s-- it was a store in Queens.

1:13:41 Speaker 3 Queens.

1:13:42 Speaker 1 We had it for two years, but it didn't go work out. We stopped it. After this, I went, I worked for, uh, Rabbi Waldman.

1:13:51 Speaker 3 The one from the Rashi Sichas.

1:13:52 Speaker 1 Yeah. It's also a story for me, but a separate story with him with Rashi Sichas. And, uh-

1:14:01 Speaker 3 What was his business?

1:14:02 Speaker 1 Diamonds.

1:14:04 Speaker 3 In Manhattan?

1:14:05 Speaker 1 But n- yeah, yeah, he had like a specialty in diamonds not everybody has. Like when, when I went in to work him, I have to sign that I'm not telling the secret what we do there to nobody.

1:14:12 Speaker 3 The secret recipe.

1:14:14 Speaker 1 Uh, yeah. Let's say, yeah, it's a secret recipe. Let's say. That if it's the old diamond industry, was the only one they're doing it. Then everybody bought these stones to him to do it.

1:14:22 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm.

1:14:25 Speaker 1 No, but see, there's also a story with like, uh, the Tof Shin Chof Beis, the Rebbe said Sichas every Shabbos. Yeah. Shabbos Bereishit, Chof Ov, the Rebbe said no Sicha because he didn't do it then.

1:14:37 Speaker 3 What, what?

1:14:39 Speaker 1 Shabbos Bereishit-

1:14:39 Speaker 3 Chof Hei, Rebbe started-

1:14:41 Speaker 1 Chof Hei started Parshat Noach.

1:14:42 Speaker 3 Yeah, the Rebbe started-

1:14:43 Speaker 1 Parshat Noach started every Shabbos of-

1:14:44 Speaker 3 The Rashi Sicha

1:14:45 Speaker 1 ... Rashi Sicha.

1:14:45 Speaker 3 Yeah, tad, uh, uh, be the Reisa, be the Dat Sicha.

1:14:48 Speaker 1 Yeah. The, the first, the first, uh, Sicha, the first, uh, Parsha and the last Si- Parsha. In the middle was the, the, uh, the Kotitera. When the Kotitera started, they, that year was, it was printed, they printed the, the Kotitera, and the Rebbe said they should learn, um, everybody should learn the, uh, the, the Parsha, or never learn, but if a bring it was to say L'Chaim. This was Tof Shin Chof Beis the whole year. Yeah. Then the Tof Shin, uh, Chaf Vav, uh, Chanuk, uh, Shabbos Bereishit, the Rebbe said to the Rashi Sicha. Noach, the Rebbe didn't say that this Rashi Sicha. That, yeah, the two triparsha, the Rebbe didn't say. Then Rabbi Yosef Waldman wrote into the Rebbe, you should know that a lot of people coming just because of the Rashi.

1:15:33 Speaker 4 Yeah, I heard that, I heard that there were non-Lubavitchers-

1:15:36 Speaker 1 Non-Lubavitcher from the Shone

1:15:38 Speaker 4 ... that started coming to farbrengens-

1:15:39 Speaker 1 From the Shone because of the Rashi

1:15:40 Speaker 4 ... because they heard that the Rashi s-

1:15:41 Speaker 1 Yeah

1:15:41 Speaker 4 ... that he was explaining Rashi.

1:15:43 Speaker 1 Yeah.

1:15:43 Speaker 4 So the V-- So I think so Waldman-

1:15:45 Speaker 1 That he say, he told it to the Rebbe.

1:15:47 Speaker 4 Yeah.

1:15:47 Speaker 1 That they came be- because of this, then the Rebbe should continue. And then with the Rebbe continued the Sichas.

1:15:51 Speaker 4 So that's how he became the person-

1:15:54 Speaker 1 The Rashi

1:15:54 Speaker 4 ... from the Rashi Sichas.

1:15:54 Speaker 1 No. Uh, th-this, I don't think they became, but I don't know if people knew about this.

1:15:59 Speaker 4 Mm-hmm.

1:15:59 Speaker 1 They didn't, they didn't know about this. Then was a story with, uh, Tov Shen Lamed, Vayikra. You heard this story once?

1:16:09 Speaker 4 Yeah, but you could, you could-- So you should say it. Yeah.

1:16:11 Speaker 1 Yeah. Till then was, uh, the-- Because it, it told the Rebbe, uh, what's name, uh, Waldman, that it was a good idea to tell the people which Rashi is, is-

1:16:24 Speaker 4 Is gonna appear

1:16:25 Speaker 1 ... he going to talk, then we could prepare. Then, uh, so, uh, Chadakov, Shalom Yisroel, was standing by the office, by the, by the Merkaz with the Chumash. Yeah.

1:16:38 Speaker 4 After davening?

1:16:38 Speaker 1 No, before.

1:16:39 Speaker 4 Before davening.

1:16:40 Speaker 1 When the Rebbe came in, in from the, from the, from the house, said if the, if there was a farbrengen, the Rebbe turned around to him and told him, he said to come over. He came over, and the Rebbe told him, "Do you want this Rashi?" And he opened up, and he, he looked which Rashi. This was like, uh, a year or two, um, two years, something like this.

1:16:57 Speaker 4 The Rebbe would come in, tell him which Rashi it is.

1:17:00 Speaker 1 Yeah. And then they went downstairs, and, uh, uh, Duchman with the Yeah.

1:17:08 Speaker 4 Yeah, he would make a

1:17:09 Speaker 1 Yeah. He was standing on the table. the Rebbe read and do on the Rashi. Okay.

1:17:15 Speaker 4 So that's how everyone knew that there's gonna be a farbrengen-

1:17:17 Speaker 1 A farbrengen, yeah

1:17:17 Speaker 4 ... 'cause he announced that there's going-

1:17:18 Speaker 1 Yeah.

1:17:19 Speaker 4 Which, which Rashi it is.

1:17:20 Speaker 1 Yeah. A few Bochum, uh, Vayikra Tov Shen Lamed Alef. Tov Shen Lamed, was it? Lamed again. I don't remember which year was it already. Uh, Tov Shen Lamed was it. Um, but we're talking if today will be farbrengen, the Rebbe could talk on this and this Rashi. Then a bochur heard that and said, "Oh, doing this Rashi?" He went over right way to Duchman and told them, "Rashi." Okay? Nobody know nothing.

1:17:49 Speaker 4 So these Bochum were saying, just repeating the story-

1:17:50 Speaker 1 They talked between them

1:17:52 Speaker 4 ... that they said if there would be a farbrengen, the Rebbe probably would speak about this Rashi.

1:17:56 Speaker 1 That could-

1:17:56 Speaker 4 So this Boch, this other Bochur hears him saying it, and he runs to Zalman Duchman.

1:17:59 Speaker 1 He told him the Rebbe get ready-

1:18:00 Speaker 4 'Cause he wanted to, whatever

1:18:01 Speaker 1 ... to be the first one to tell Zalman Duchman.