Ep. 46: Why The Rebbe Referred To Me As A Mesudar with Rabbi Menachem Gerlitzky

00:00 Speaker 1 So I'm saying you're talking about often the Ruach HaKodesh, someone that was here in those years. Every l'chaim, every, like, you could communicate with the Rebbe by a farbrengen just by thinking what you want, what broche. And then this was often the Ruach HaKodesh, someone that was here in those years.

00:26 Speaker 2 I'm Yossi Kamen. Welcome to Among Chassidim by Der Her, an ongoing farbrengen 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 Galitsky. How are you?

00:44 Speaker 1 Baruch Hashem.

00:45 Speaker 2 Okay, thank you very much for, uh, making the time to be here. And, um, the way I usually have recently began these conversations, there's always, uh, where, where, where you come from. So I know your father was a famous Chassid, Moshe Galitsky. Right, that's his name?

01:06 Speaker 1 Yeah.

01:06 Speaker 2 And maybe you could tell me a little bit about him, where he came from, how he became-- how he came into Lubavitch, the chulu.

01:14 Speaker 1 My father was born in Lodz, Poland. He lived in a little city called Kinsk by the Chelkus Yoyov, Igiven. And he had a cousin, a relative, uh, Moshe Pinchas HaKohen Katz. And when he saw my father, he spoke to his father, to my Zayde. He says, "Azab bochur, muz gein lern temchot mimin."

01:43 Speaker 2 They-- 'Cause your Moshe Pinchas was already-

01:45 Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah. He was already in Temchot Mimin. And so he sent him to Temchot Mimin, which was a yeshiva, Lubavitch yeshiva in Lodz. This was Tof Reis Tzadik Alef. And Tof Reis Tzadik Alef, for Yud Beis Tammuz, the Friediker Rebbe came to Warsaw.

02:06 Speaker 2 From where? From, from, from Riga? Or he was already in Poland already?

02:10 Speaker 1 He was in America.

02:12 Speaker 2 Oh, okay.

02:13 Speaker 1 In Israel, Petach, and then America, the whole Tzadik, uh, Kimat. And then it was-- I'm not sure exactly which places, but, uh, Yud Beis Tammuz, Tof Reis Tzadik Alef, he came to, to Warsaw. So in the yeshiva, they said, in yeshiva in Lodz, that those bochurim will chazar a certain amount of brocha matanya ba'al peh. And, uh, I think it was 30 blad Gemara. So, uh, they'll be able to go to Warsaw for Yud Beis Tammuz. And they got a bus, and he went. And he used to describe that farbrengen moire dik. It was, uh, Friday, 4:30 in the afternoon, Erev Yud Beis Tammuz. Beis Tammuz was on Shabbos. And they, uh, went into yeshiva. Yeshiva or-- And, uh, they sang the maimer before-- They sang before the maimer. Which song? It was a song . Then the Friediker Rebbe started the maimer. Uh Al kein yom ra moishlim bo yochezrim. And every Shabbos after Saddam Hussein, they always sang this song.

05:45 Speaker 2 Hmm.

05:45 Speaker 1 This was like his first bagagenish with the Friediker Rebbe. This was, uh... So he was there, and they had yechidus.

05:56 Speaker 2 The whole group.

05:57 Speaker 1 Yechidus after Shabbos, everybody separate.

06:00 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

06:02 Speaker 1 The next year, he learned already in Warsaw with the Friediker Rebbe. This was the main yeshiva then.

06:08 Speaker 2 The Friediker Rebbe was already there?

06:10 Speaker 1 Yeah. So Tzaddik Beis, he learned already in Warsaw. Years later, the Friediker Rebbe moved to Otwock, and, uh, he learned all the years, Tzaddik, Tzaddik Alef in Lodz, Tzaddik Beis, Tzaddik Gimel, Tzaddik Daled in Warsaw, and then Otwock. I once asked him the famous farbrengen the Friediker Rebbe told the Rebbe to farbreng. Uh, chol Hamoed Sukkos to fleish Tzaddik Beis was in Otwock. So the Friediker Rebbe moved in Otwock in middle of the Tzaddiks. I was at Tzaddik Beis. So he told me that even though the Friediker Rebbe was in Warsaw, but every Tishrei, they would rent a big hotel in Otwock, which was a outskirt of Warsaw. And over there, all the Hasidim came, and that's where the Friediker Rebbe was Tishrei.

07:06 Speaker 2 So you're saying even when the yeshiva was in Warsaw-

07:08 Speaker 1 Yes

07:08 Speaker 2 ... they would go to Otwock for Yom Tov?

07:10 Speaker 1 For Tishrei, they would rent a place in Otwock.

07:12 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

07:12 Speaker 1 And over there was, uh, the Friediker Rebbe, and the Rebbe, the Rebbe would always come. And that year, the Friediker Rebbe told the Rebbe that he should farbreng. So as he sat down 8:00, and he started, "Yehudah ben Te'nah Omar, VeYaazkan ama bekal kanesa, Rotz ka'tzvi v'gibur k'ari." And the Rebbe went on and on, al pi pshat, al pi remez, al pi drush, al pi sod. And, uh, this farbrengen went till the morning, 6:00, 7:00 in the morning in the sukkah. So when they found the reshima, so they were looking for people that were there, and the only one they found was my father. He said, "Sure, remembers the farbrengen." And he described to them the sukkah, how people came in. It was like, uh, for 40, 50 people. And, uh, says the Rebbe farbrenged the whole night straight, straight till the morning. And when they looked in the reshima, it was, it was more or less what he really remembered.

08:22 Speaker 2 Uh-huh. So afterwards, he's there in Otwock till, till the outbreak of World War II?

08:30 Speaker 1 So he was in Warsaw all the years, and then when they went to Otwock, he was in Otwock. And, uh, the last two years before the war, the Friediker Rebbe sent him to be a magid shiur in the Lubavitch yeshiva in Lodz. And when the war broke out, they hid in the basement of the yeshiva, him and another few bochurim. And, uh, every day they had to give the Polish custodian, a goy, something he shouldn't squeal on them. And poshet at night, one of them would go out and find potato peels, uh, somewhere, and this is what they lived on for two and a half months, almost three months. Vayehi hayom, there was the day they had nothing else to give him. He went, and he told the Nazis there's bochurim in the basement, and they barged in. He said he saw a window. He jumped out of the window. He ran up the stairs. He hid on the roof, and he covered in tashtikel holtz, mezamush then. And he even heard them discussing if they should go up to the roof or not, and the Pol, Baruch Hashem, didn't go up. And things quieted down. He went downtown, and it happened to be Yud Kislev. So the Reish Vav, so tzorguzung in the middle is Rebbe's nigun. And over there he met other friends, bochurim, and they didn't know what to do. The Pol, one of them said, "Am ymuzu leifim." And what they did was by day they hid. At night they ran

10:26 Speaker 1 till they came to Warsaw. Came to Warsaw, so the Friediker Rebbe was hidden in the basement by Hershel Gerari. So they didn't tell anyone like his, uh, where he was, but they were bochurim, and they told him, and he was zecher to have a yechidus with the Friediker Rebbe. The Friediker Rebbe told him, uh, "Geitz ken rusland un zeitz matzliach." Go to Russia, and you should be successful. That was right before the Friediker Rebbe left Poland through Germany to America, and that's what they did. They ran, and finally they came to Vilna. So in Vilna there was all the bochurim, the Polish, uh, went to Vilna, and they had a yeshiva over there for a good year. But then when they saw that, uh, the Nazis, the Germans are coming to Vilna, so they went to look for different places where they could run, and nobody wanted to give them visas. One, uh, consul- consulate, the Japan, Japan, Japanese consulate.

11:56 Speaker 2 Sugihara.

11:57 Speaker 1 Sugihara, he was a oyev Yisroel, and he saw the situation, and he did give everybody a visa. So he gave, uh, all the Yiden that came to him, he gave them a visa. The ganzen, uh, the whole story. And once they had the visa, had to travel from Vilna-

12:22 Speaker 3 To Shanghai

12:22 Speaker 1 ... to sh- to Japan, Kobe.

12:27 Speaker 3 Not to Shanghai. To Ja-

12:28 Speaker 1 Shanghai is China. First they went to Japan.

12:31 Speaker 3 Kobe. Okay.

12:31 Speaker 1 Their visas was to Japan. So, uh, the Friediker Rebbe, you could see in the Yagrus, had a Pidyon Shvuyim fund, and there was a deal they made with the Russian government. They anyway have a train going from west all the way to the east, to Vladivostok. A train that takes 12 days. So they said, "Anyway we have a train. We'll pay you 600 American dollars for each, uh, Yid that they let onto the train." And they did, and the Friediker Rebbe sent from America money, and each one gave the money, and they had, uh, a train going the whole, through the whole Siberia till the ocean. Vladivostok was the city. Today there's a shliach there, I think. And, uh, I asked him what did they have for food. He said, "They're eating a m-..." They took along bread. I asked him, "How long does bread last?" He said, "If it's not in the plastic, it could last, uh-" That's what they ate for, for the whole trip. And in every station they had hot water. So they had hot water and bread, and they stopped in Moscow, and whatever they had, sichas may morim in the shul, they couldn't give it to the Chassidim. He remembers Ben Tzion Shemtov was there, other Chassidim that were in Moscow. So they took a-

14:08 Speaker 3 They got off and they walked around.

14:10 Speaker 1 Yeah, they gave them a stop in-

14:12 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm

14:12 Speaker 1 ... Moscow.

14:13 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm.

14:14 Speaker 1 And they, uh, they would put it in the siddur, in the sefer, and they knew already to take it out. But they couldn't talk with them 'cause, uh, no communications. And then they got to Japan. But later, Japan with the Germans made a psia dachas. They made, uh, they became part of them, and they kicked out all the Yidden after about eight months. So the only place that they could go was to Shanghai in China.

14:47 Speaker 3 China.

14:48 Speaker 1 So they went to Shanghai, China, and there was a Lubavitcher Rav there, Rav Ashkenazi. And all, all the pleitim, I'm not just talking about the Lubavitcher. All the pleitim.

15:03 Speaker 3 Yeah, the Mir was there and this and that. Yeah.

15:06 Speaker 1 And, uh, finally they worked out that Canada sent about 90 visas for Yidden to come to Canada. So they divided it according to each yeshiva. The Lubavitch yeshiva got nine visas. And every other yeshiva, the Lublini yeshiva, the Mir yeshiva, Chassidisha yeshivas and Misnagdishe yeshivas, they all got a certain amount. And they prepared the trip, and the ship was supposed to-

15:43 Speaker 3 So how did they know which bochurim got the visas?

15:50 Speaker 1 I think that, like, the more older ones got the visas. In other words, out of the 40, 50 bochurim, so they gave the older ones out.

16:02 Speaker 3 So this is the whole group. This is, uh, Greenglass and Kramer and, uh, Hendel.

16:06 Speaker 1 Rabbi Greenglass, Rabbi Kramer, Rabbi Hendel, Rabbi Rotel, Rabbi Stein, my father, Rabbi Weinberg, Rabbi Kotlarsky, and Rabbi Tenenbaum. Those were the nine that got the visas. And the boat that they were supposed to go was leaving Erev Yom Kippur. Now, when a boat leaves from China to America on Erev Yom Kippur, Sim Kippur is gonna be on the kav ha-taylech.

16:40 Speaker 3 The date line.

16:41 Speaker 1 The date line. So za shailah, which day do you fast? First day or the second day? Are you closer to east or to the west? So all the Misnagdim paskened that you're not allowed to go on the... Paskened. They, they said not to go on the boat, not to go on ta nishtailah. The Lubavitcher got a telegram from the Friediker Rebbe, four words: "Linsoya behektim hachi avshari." To travel on the first possible, uh, opportunity. So the Lubavitcher went. Once the Lubavitcher went, 'cause the Friediker Rebbe told him, so all the other Chassidisher also went. Uh, giving you an example, Rabbi Hirshbrun was in Lublini yeshiva. Rabbi Hirshberg, the Rav Oroshik from Mexico told me there was a, a daughter of the Chofetz Chaim was on the boat. They went. But the Litvisher stayed in, uh, Shanghai. They'll go with the next boat. So they went, and, uh, they traveled, and as soon as the boat left, a telegram came from America to the boat that they need them to travel west to Hong Kong to pick up 300 American citizens. So there was no more shiloh.

18:14 Speaker 2 No shiloh.

18:14 Speaker 1 The whole shiloh was if they go to the date line. But if they're going back over there, there was no shiloh and they fasted one day and-

18:22 Speaker 2 Mm

18:22 Speaker 1 ... then the boat went. They stopped in Honolulu. From there in s- in Francisco.

18:28 Speaker 2 San Francisco. Francisco?

18:31 Speaker 1 Francisco.

18:32 Speaker 2 It's a country?

18:33 Speaker 1 The city in California.

18:35 Speaker 2 Oh, San Fran... Okay. Yeah.

18:38 Speaker 1 And-

18:38 Speaker 2 On, on the way to Canada.

18:40 Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah, they had the American police watching they shouldn't run out, yeah. And they took a train. They stopped in Chicago. In Chicago they had a whole big meal. States of the Lubavitcher didn't eat 'cause they weren't sure, and later tack in his battle, give on him that, uh, that it was good that they didn't eat. And they continued. They got to Montreal. And that's how we got to-

19:13 Speaker 2 Montreal

19:13 Speaker 1 ... in short, yeah, to Montreal.

19:15 Speaker 2 And then some of them ended up in N- in N- New York later, but most of them ended up staying there.

19:19 Speaker 1 No, all nine were first to Montreal, but three of them later moved to New York. Rabbi Weinberg, Rabbi Tenenbaum, and Rabbi Katlarski.

19:27 Speaker 2 But the rest of them-

19:28 Speaker 1 The other six stayed in Montreal.

19:30 Speaker 2 And they ended up building up the-

19:32 Speaker 1 Right away

19:33 Speaker 2 ... everything

19:33 Speaker 1 They, they came on a Friday. They announced that they're opening a yeshiva, and they came Gimmel Ches van Tov Shin Beis. The English date, it's still 1941. They opened up the yeshiva. Sunday morning, they had already a class. They were already frum yidden in Montreal.

19:51 Speaker 2 The Friediker Rebbe told them to do this?

19:54 Speaker 1 First, they, uh, that's what they were sent for.

19:58 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

19:59 Speaker 1 And who's gonna give the shir? So they made a raffle. My father was always proud to say that he won the raffle, and he gave the shir the first, uh, class in, uh, Tov Shin Beis.

20:14 Speaker 2 So the whole Lubavitcher kehila Montreal with all the Russians, that only was later?

20:18 Speaker 1 Later. Many years later. At least 10 years later.

20:22 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

20:22 Speaker 1 But these nine came originally, and they opened up the yeshiva and rein gebracht, a ganz chayas and the ganze shtot, yeah.

20:32 Speaker 2 Okay, and your mother's also from Poland?

20:36 Speaker 1 My mother's father came in the 1920s. My mother's father-

20:43 Speaker 2 Somewhere

20:44 Speaker 1 ... came from a city in Poland, the 1920s. They saw the situation. They decided they gotta leave Europe, and they were four brothers. Nute Rosenblum, Moshe Rosenblum, Yankel Rosenblum, and-

21:01 Speaker 2 To Montreal? They came to Montreal?

21:04 Speaker 1 And Sholom Rosenblum.

21:06 Speaker 2 To Montreal?

21:06 Speaker 1 Yeah, they came to Montreal. So they were frum, and in Montreal there was a group, a group of frumer families. They opened up a shul called Seredas Veadas, and they kept together very strong, these frumer Yidden. And till today the shul is there. I was yesterday, I was in Montreal, and, uh, I came to yeshiva and they said they're rebuilding the mikvah. I said, "Where do you go to the mikvah?" They said, "Seredas Veadas two blocks away has a mikvah." They used to be downtown, but now they moved uptown. But this shul is still there till today. And there was like a frumer kehilla, so obviously when all the bochurim came and they were, and they davka has nam. So my mother, who was, uh, from a frumer family, uh, so get her shidduch. And, uh, the way the story goes, they went to see simchas torah, "Who is this bocher?" Simchas torah Tov Shin Gimel. "Who is this bocher?" So my zeide, Rabbi Nute Rosenblum, took along his father-in-law, who was a Gader Hasid with a long white beard, Rabbi Yosef Levi Shana. Had 11 kids. He also came to Montreal. He came much earlier. He came in 1899.

22:36 Speaker 2 Hmm.

22:38 Speaker 1 A Gader Hasid, a Gader Rebbe told him, "You could go." And he, uh, he came simchas torah to shul, and my zeide showed my alter zeide from my father. So they had an eye on him, and I heard from my mother's cousin, he was there, and he said, uh, my alter zeide told my zeide, "Sell your last shirt and grab him for a choson." Now, zeide found the shidduch. He wrote, uh, every, many letters to the Friediker Rebbe. And, uh, they met. They became choson kallah, obviously with a beracha from the Friediker Rebbe. And he couldn't come to yechidas. He was still, uh-

23:35 Speaker 2 'Cause he didn't have the papers

23:37 Speaker 1 They didn't have papers. But my mother was a Canadian born, and she could travel, so she came in-

23:44 Speaker 2 Yechia, yechidas Friediker Rebbe.

23:46 Speaker 1 Yeah. She was then, she was born Taf Res Pey Hey. So Tov Shin Gimel, she was 18. She traveled, and she came into yechidas to the Friediker Rebbe. And after the yechidas, the Friediker Rebbe wrote a letter to my father, uh, "Bas Gilcho, Chana Tichie Rosenblum, was here by, uh, me, and I gave her the berachahs, and I told her you should be strong in yiras Shamayim." The exact lotion, it's a printed letter. Could rather have the original. And she always said over that yechidas, that when the Friediker Rebbe told her, "Zosen stark in yiras Shamayim," she said he was banging with his hand on the table. Says, "His, uh, dukhe ging ale beine," went through her whole, uh, body. And she was take a mamesh, uh, super yiras Shamayim all the years. Just to tell you, uh, no one wore a sheitel those years. No one mamesh. And she, uh, she was the first one to, to break the ice. She put on the sheitel, and, uh, because of her, her aunt right away started putting on a sheitel, and she used to go, uh, in the morning to watch Cholov Yisroel, how they milk the cows. They should have some milk. And, uh, this was then, there was no Cholov Yisroel, but here, uh, Baruch Hashem, she, she brought up a generation, uh, al Torah, al mitzvos, al chassidus, and-

25:52 Speaker 4 And that was the first connection to Lubavitch was becoming a chassan to your father.

25:57 Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

25:58 Speaker 4 Very interesting.

25:58 Speaker 1 Once he ma- Once the Rosenblum family took my father, everyone else-

26:04 Speaker 4 Came chassidim

26:05 Speaker 1 ... followed and married Lubavitch, uh.

26:08 Speaker 4 Mm-hmm. Very interesting. Okay.

26:10 Speaker 1 Temim. Yeah, yeah.

26:12 Speaker 4 So le- let's go over to you. So you were born in Montreal, in what year?

26:19 Speaker 1 Taf Shin Tes Zayin.

26:21 Speaker 4 Taf Shin Tes Zayin. So maybe you could describe for me a little bit what it was like growing up in Montreal, the chassidim there. Wha- what was going on in Montreal then?

26:31 Speaker 1 Montreal was a very chassidisher shtot. When I grew up, there was already a big Lubavitcher keel. All the Russians were there, the chassidim that came from Russia. There was the Polisher. There was, uh And, uh, the building was still downtown on Park Avenue, and that was the merkaz chassidus of the whole Canada. That was, uh, they had the yeshiva over there, and the bes medrash, the shul, the mikvah. And, uh, my memories, uh, every Shabbos, the fabrengenishen Rebbe Perez would sit and fabrengen Rebbe Perez Motkin. I remember in the sukkah they had, and, uh, that was a real, uh, lebedige, freileche, chassidishe yeshiva.

27:23 Speaker 4 Hmm.

27:24 Speaker 1 There wasn't too many yeshivas then, so if someone from New York or anyone else had to send someone to yeshiva out of town-

27:31 Speaker 4 Montreal

27:31 Speaker 1 ... Montreal. There was Newark. There was, uh, there weren't too many, but it was, uh, emes chassidishi yeshiva. Taf Shin Chaf Gimel, they moved already uptown to the yeshiva where it's now.

27:45 Speaker 4 Mm-hmm.

27:46 Speaker 1 It's still today, yeah.

27:47 Speaker 4 And you learned in the cheder over there and the yeshiva and everything?

27:51 Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah. All the years.

27:53 Speaker 4 So wha- when was the first time you saw the Rebbe?

27:56 Speaker 1 First time was for Yut Zvat, Taf Shin Chaf Gimel.

28:01 Speaker 4 So what's the math? Tes Zayin, Chaf Gimel?

28:04 Speaker 1 How old I was?

28:05 Speaker 4 Yeah.

28:09 Speaker 1 Six.

28:10 Speaker 4 You remember it?

28:13 Speaker 1 What can I remember what I remember? We used to go in every year on Yechidut Yut Zvat with the family, obviously, and there was al- also a special yechidut for all the temimim that came in for Yut Zvat. So the seder was that the younger classes came into yechidut in the front. Kiteh Gimel, Kiteh Dalet, whoever came. Obviously, the higher classes had more t- that came, and if there was place, the high school, then the bochur from yeshiva till it filled up. So I remember one year, I don't remember which one, it stopped Chaf Tes. So it was only from Chaf Gimel to Chaf Tes that I remember. These yechidutim was already in the yut. So one year, uh, it was filling up and filling up, and they were coming in more and more, and got full. And the Rebbe was sitting and watching basically everyone coming in. It was, the principal would tell us how to, uh, come in with the seder, and it filled up. And the Rebbe said, "Ken ap ruken di kestlech, vet zein mehr ort." If you push away the boxes, there'll be more place. So the people in the back didn't even hear. I understood Yiddish, and I was in the front line. The Rebbe said to push away the boxes. I remember going, pushed all the boxes in the corner, and zein mehr ort.

29:54 Speaker 4 Hmm.

29:56 Speaker 1 A special yechidut every year for the yeshiva in Montreal. Many are mugen printed and look at the sichas. Some are not mugen. I remember also Rabbi Yoel would go in with two bochurim, two or three bochurim. They should be able to chazer the sicha. And, uh, yeah.

30:18 Speaker 4 And you also came for Tisha sometimes or not?

30:23 Speaker 1 From then Simchas Torah every year.

30:25 Speaker 4 From, from Chaf Gimel. Your father would come-

30:27 Speaker 1 Chaf Dalet I was here Simchas Torah, yeah

30:28 Speaker 4 ... So your father would come every year for Simchas Torah.

30:32 Speaker 1 Except one year it didn't work out, but from Chaf Dalet I came every year.

30:35 Speaker 4 So that means you remember the Rebbe teaching the nigunim, Chaf Dalet.

30:39 Speaker 1 Taf Shin Chaf Dalet.

30:40 Speaker 4 The last year.

30:41 Speaker 1 Although I was only seven years old, and this was 5:00 in the morning, but I was here. My, I was here with my father, and the Rebbe gave teaching on nigun. So I was here. So I remember the Rebbe teaching Hu L' gainu and then Ki Yehi Noam.

30:59 Speaker 4 Hmm.

31:01 Speaker 1 The Chazan Telishevsky, uh, would repeat and sing and until everybody caught on, but it was in the small shul in the back. The long table, the Rebbe was-

31:11 Speaker 4 Oh.

31:11 Speaker 1 Same place, but long table through the middle of the shul, and everybody was around, and, uh, the Rebbe taught-

31:19 Speaker 4 So in the ba- in the back, like by the door to the

31:23 Speaker 1 Downstairs.

31:24 Speaker 4 Oh, downstairs.

31:24 Speaker 1 Downstairs, the middle side. Before they built, it was just between 770 and 784.

31:31 Speaker 4 The shalash.

31:33 Speaker 1 They had already a roof, so it was called the shul. Shalash was before they built the roof.

31:39 Speaker 4 So the Rebbe stood on a table, and the Rebbe s- s-

31:42 Speaker 1 "Pratim" gedenk ikh nisht, aber gedenk being there and the Rebbe teaching. This I do remember, that, uh, they said the Rebbe said this year he's gonna teach two nigunim, and next year no more.

31:59 Speaker 4 Hmm.

32:00 Speaker 1 I remember as a kid, that's what they said. In Kachava, the Rebbe taught two nigunim, and next year there wasn't, uh...

32:09 Speaker 4 Okay. So that's Toshech Havdalah.

32:12 Speaker 1 Some people say, 'cause the Rebbe's mother was the one that taught the Rebbe which nigun to, to sing.

32:19 Speaker 4 There's different, uh, theories about it.

32:22 Speaker 1 That I don't know.

32:22 Speaker 4 Yeah.

32:23 Speaker 1 Saying theories? Yeah.

32:24 Speaker 4 Yeah.

32:24 Speaker 1 Everybody could say a theory.

32:26 Speaker 4 Yeah. Um, so when did you come to, to New York to stay, to learn?

32:37 Speaker 1 Uh, summer lamed beis I came to learn in Morristown. There was a, like a summer program. That was the year they bought the new building. And I wanted to stay, but the Rebbe answered, "Kat sas, hanolos haYeshiva," and they wanted back in Montreal. The next year-

32:58 Speaker 4 Lamed gimel.

32:59 Speaker 1 Tosh-- lamed gimel I was in Montreal. The next year, tof shin lamed daled, I came already to Chovevei Torah. Me and a few friends, we all came to Chovevei Torah. And that Elul, lamed daled, the Rebbe spoke, "Am zal gehn farshidfn" they should go in different yeshivas. So a group went to Torah Zemes, a group went to Kvachabad, a group went to Montreal. And, uh, we went then to Bremua for a year.

33:35 Speaker 4 So you came for one year?

33:37 Speaker 1 I was here, and then the Rebbe spoke-

33:39 Speaker 4 And then-

33:39 Speaker 1 "Am zal far," and we should go to different yeshivas.

33:42 Speaker 4 So where, then Holod would, would split it, split this up, who should go where?

33:46 Speaker 1 I don't know if it was on Holod, but exactly how it worked, but there was, uh-

33:51 Speaker 4 So you were in, you were sent to Bremua?

33:53 Speaker 1 We went to Bremua for a year. Lamed vav we came back already at 770. Lamed zayin and lamed ches when the yeshiva opened in Ohel Chone Chabad. So the Rabbi Klein called us in, ca- each one separate, and he said since they're opening up a yeshiva, usually they take from holy Torah in Morristown, but now since it's already Chodesh Teves, so they don't wanna break up classes, whatever, so they're taking a kvutze from 770. And we were 10 bochurim that went-

34:35 Speaker 4 So you were older?

34:37 Speaker 1 Yeah. I was, uh, 20.

34:40 Speaker 4 That's okay.

34:43 Speaker 1 What am I saying? Uh, more. 21.

34:47 Speaker 4 Mm-hmm.

34:51 Speaker 1 And we were 10 bochurim, and we were told right away, "Usually the shlichus is two years, but just this year it's gonna be one year until they send the new shluchim from the regular classes." So Tov Teves we were zoche, the Rebbe, uh... We had a yechidas.

35:14 Speaker 4 Just the bochurim?

35:15 Speaker 1 The bochurim and the Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi Schochat.

35:19 Speaker 4 So he came in special for the yechidas?

35:21 Speaker 1 We traveled that day to Los Angeles.

35:23 Speaker 4 He came to New York special for the yechidas?

35:26 Speaker 1 I'm saying yeah, yeah. From the yechidas he went to make the plane.

35:28 Speaker 4 Was he living in California already? Where was he coming from?

35:32 Speaker 1 He lived in Toronto. Came from Toronto with his family, and that's when we all went to, uh, on that day we went to Los Angeles.

35:39 Speaker 4 So you, he, he went together with you?

35:40 Speaker 1 Yes.

35:40 Speaker 4 To start the yeshiva?

35:41 Speaker 1 Yes.

35:43 Speaker 4 Uh-huh. And what happened by the yechidas?

35:45 Speaker 1 By the yechidas, the Rebbe gave him a ganze broche as, uh, "Zol zen az di gantse shtot zol kregen a naye oysn. Nor machen a migdal oyl hayeh." And, uh, beautiful broches. The Rebbe said, "Baal di daft challah zay mashpiim." So the Rebbe's gonna give everyone a Kuntres Ahavas Yisroel signed with his name, and $2 for tzedakah. The Rebbe gave everyone-

36:21 Speaker 4 Signed?

36:22 Speaker 1 A signed Kuntres Ahavas Yisroel. The Rebbe said, "Az zay mashpiim," and, uh, yeah.

36:30 Speaker 4 Hmm. So you were there for a year?

36:35 Speaker 1 Yeah. Baruch Hashem, it was, uh, three yeshivas, L'shem, U'sefer, U'lsilah.

36:40 Speaker 4 Yeah. So you were, you were sent in, you were on shlichus twice. That's a unique, uh-

36:45 Speaker 1 Yeah. So the Los Angeles shlichus was handpicked, like they say.

36:52 Speaker 4 Mm-hmm.

36:52 Speaker 1 Over the years, kvutzes of bochurim went to this yeshiva, that yeshiva, but, uh, here was mamesh moskil is called in, and, uh, the whole Seder just like Australia or Miami.

37:05 Speaker 4 Right. So this is lamed?

37:07 Speaker 1 Ches.

37:07 Speaker 4 Ches. So you come to-

37:10 Speaker 1 What happened was the Rebbe spoke then that every city should open up three moises. A moise, Torah, Tefillah, and Tzedakah. Gemilus Chasidim. So when we came that night, Rabbi Kunin farbrengen with Rabbi Reichik, I remember the vort he said. He said, "The Rebbe is speaking about farbrengen. There are so many people . If everybody thinks that the Rebbe is speaking to everyone else, nothing will be done. Everybody has to think that the Rebbe is speaking to him." So when the Rebbe said to open up a moise, Torah, Tefillah, Tzedakah, the Rebbe is speaking to him. So he opened up the yeshiva, he opened up then a shul in Beverly Hills, and he opened up a mikvah, ultimately a new mikvah.

37:57 Speaker 4 So I'm gonna go back and forth a little bit. So what was happening in the, um... So what year is-- So I'm tr-tryna remember the year. So in seven seventy, you're there Lamed Dalet.

38:11 Speaker 1 Lamed Dalet in Chayyei Torah.

38:14 Speaker 4 And then-

38:15 Speaker 1 Lamed Heh, Gimel, Lamed Vav-

38:17 Speaker 4 Vav, Lamed Zayin

38:17 Speaker 1 ... Lamed Zayin again here in-

38:19 Speaker 4 Lamed Ches in Los Angeles, and then you come back Lamed Tes.

38:22 Speaker 1 Lamed Tes, and then-

38:23 Speaker 4 So what was happening-- I mean, those are the years of Mivtzoim. Now, what was happening in seven seventy, those, those years?

38:30 Speaker 1 Lamed Dalet was the tanks after Shavuos. There were tanks.

38:36 Speaker 4 So what happened? The Rebbe spoke about-- H-how did it start, the tanks?

38:40 Speaker 1 The Rebbe spoke about the first five Mivtzoim. Torah, Tefillah, Mezuzah, Tzedakah, Bais, and Moshavim. So it was a Mivtzoim regular, I remember. Put up a table and-

38:52 Speaker 4 And Mivtzoim already exists before.

38:54 Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah. And, uh, then they started getting these, uh, step vans.

39:05 Speaker 4 What's a step van?

39:06 Speaker 1 Uh, the tanks. It wasn't like today, the-

39:08 Speaker 4 The Penske trucks

39:09 Speaker 1 ... uh, yeah. And there was four tanks. They put big signs, "Tanks Against Assimilation," and they had a picture of a tank with, uh, very nice. And the Rebbe, I remember once came in the morning, there were three tanks parked in front of the seven seventy. The Rebbe turned around and said, "Vu der ferter tank?" 'Cause there were already four tru-- four-

39:33 Speaker 4 Every day they were going then?

39:35 Speaker 1 Every day.

39:35 Speaker 4 From-- So the Rebbe spoke, what? The Rebbe spoke-

39:37 Speaker 1 This was, uh, when the summer started, the end of Sivan.

39:40 Speaker 4 The Rebbe, what did the Rebbe speak on Shavuos about?

39:46 Speaker 1 Actually, it was after Shavuos. It was after Shavuos, Veyihyahu. And, and, uh, the tanks started, and, uh, ad kedaikach that there was a Seder, bochurim went on Merkos L'Ichud. Whoever went on Merkos L'Ichud three weeks got a five dollar bill from the Rebbe. And that year, those that went on tanks equivalent to the same time, I think it came out to 40 hours a week for three weeks. So total also got five dollars from the Rebbe for this was like a Merkos L'Ichud. And then we went with the tanks in Manhattan, all over. It was taka a big kibbush, a big, uh, thing.

40:41 Speaker 4 So the way it worked was that, like, there was different bochurim that would go every day in the beginning?

40:45 Speaker 1 Yeah, everybody knew which is his tank, and we would go every day, yeah.

40:50 Speaker 4 So when did it become only-

40:51 Speaker 1 And they would bring sandwiches and drinks in the middle of the-

40:54 Speaker 4 So when did that-

40:55 Speaker 1 Leave ten in the morning till shkiah

40:57 Speaker 4 When did that stop that it's every day?

41:03 Speaker 1 Some tanks continued throughout the summer. Throughout the summer. I remember even there was a tank unit to go every day to the airport to allow. When did it stop? It, uh, it's continuing till today.

41:24 Speaker 4 Till today, yeah, yeah. No, I'm saying I guess in the beginning it was aleph aleph-

41:27 Speaker 1 Yeah, aleph aleph

41:28 Speaker 4 ... and then it became-

41:29 Speaker 1 It was the biggest sayurim.

41:30 Speaker 4 Uh-huh.

41:31 Speaker 1 Then camp started. Some counselors had to go to camp, et cetera.

41:36 Speaker 4 Okay, um-

41:37 Speaker 1 Yeah, till camp. I remember taka. I was that summer in camp.

41:43 Speaker 4 So before you went to Shlichus in California, so you were here Tisha Lamed Ches.

41:50 Speaker 1 Yes.

41:52 Speaker 4 So what, what, what is the, what, what-- I mean, everyone knows what happened, but what, what's anything notable that you wanna mention from, uh, from Simchas Torah Lamed Ches?

42:02 Speaker 1 There was a big, big hisorerus by the bochurim. Pamish, a big hisorerus by the bochurim. I remember bochurim would learn more and then poshed, gedavened, and gelemmed, and gezogt Tehillim, and, uh, a big hisorerus those few weeks. It was a seder. Who could go on to Kriyah, who could go on to different times. But I remember mamish a big hisorerus. The Rebbe all of a sudden. And when the idea came that the Rebbe said, um, the, the more you dance, the more you'll be besimcha, the more you add in his health. You can't imagine the, the dancing that there was in Simchas Torah.

42:49 Speaker 4 On Yom Tov?

42:50 Speaker 1 On Yom Tov, yeah. Simchas Torah at night. "The Rebbe is gezunt. The Rebbe is gezunt. Moshiach is also should come." And ay yay, ay yay, yay. Mamish. With the ganze kochas, the Rebbe would get danced that night.

43:08 Speaker 4 Mm-hmm.

43:10 Speaker 5 I remember most people, they said the Rebbe

43:12 Speaker 1 luft. Everybody ran out. I was with him. Very little people stayed.

43:17 Speaker 5 You, you left?

43:17 Speaker 1 The Rebbe luft. Ninety-five percent just ran out. No one's gonna... And then we heard other people. The Rebbe made, uh, kaf daled hei, and he walked to kaf eh, kaf vav. And zayin, the Rebbe danced, and the Rebbe went up, and

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45:13 Speaker 1 Yo.

45:14 Speaker 5 What are some, um, notable things from when you were a bocher, like fabrengens, maybe some chassidra, may-may-maybe, maybe something that you wanna share from those years?

45:25 Speaker 1 Today, everything is in the omanim and printed.

45:32 Speaker 5 You were telling me on the way up here about something in the dormitory .

45:41 Speaker 1 When I used to come here, I stayed in my brother's dormitory. Where was the dormitory? Seven eighty-eight.

45:49 Speaker 5 So this is before your learning here?

45:50 Speaker 1 Yeah, when I came from Montreal. So you can imagine some chassidut at night. Uh, our kaffees used to finish, uh... First it was fabregen, there was a hefsik, and our kaffees, we went to sleep very late, and then there was our kaffees, the bochurim would dance. And the room where I slept in was mamash like, what, ten feet opposite the windows of the mizuch wall of the shul from Tuv Shin. Lamed Gimel probably.

46:24 Speaker 5 So this is-- You're talking about after the second-

46:26 Speaker 1 Between seven eighty-eight and seven eighty-four.

46:28 Speaker 5 Right. 'Cause th-this is after the second expansion.

46:30 Speaker 1 Yeah.

46:30 Speaker 5 So seven seventy, the shul-

46:31 Speaker 1 Before the final expansion.

46:32 Speaker 5 Right. So the shul only went through seven eighty-four, not the seven eighty-eight.

46:35 Speaker 1 And it had windows, a mizuch wall, and the Rebbe was on the bimah not far from the window. And my window was right opposite in the dormitory. And I wake up, it must have been eleven in the morning, and I hear the Rebbe's-- The Rebbe was screaming loud the psukim. "Ein komochei, v'lo kimacheichem, v'lo yehi kimatseichem." And here I'm waking up and hear the Rebbe. I wasn't sure. Should I listen to all the psukim in the room or go down? So I went down and was to... Yeah. Today, that room would probably be packed with bochurim to hear, uh

47:19 Speaker 5 Ken hearn about them.

47:21 Speaker 1 Ken hearn all the psukim, yeah.

47:22 Speaker 5 Yeah. You were involved also with the, the children from Iran?

47:29 Speaker 1 Tuv Shin Lamed Tes, when they came out, so all the, all the bochurim in seven seventy became, uh, teachers. We taught a whole year. We used to-

47:39 Speaker 5 So what was-- So basically, the Rebbe had a campaign after, after the Shah was overthrown, the Rebbe had a campaign to bring all the children, whatever, as many children as possible from Iran.

47:49 Speaker 1 Yeah.

47:49 Speaker 5 They all came here to Crown Heights.

47:51 Speaker 1 All to Crown Heights.

47:53 Speaker 5 So you taught for them?

47:55 Speaker 1 So every bocher became a melamed. We used to teach them a whole title bam shul. We had a class, and we would teach them, uh... They came in the middle of the year, I think it's Tevet, Shvat, Adar. So every bocher, you are a melamed. So I was also teaching them, uh, till they went to camp in the summer. He rented a camp in Monticello called Machne Mordechai. Over there, there was a few hundred of the Iranians. And, uh, I was learning director, and we, uh, we were there for almost four months.

48:36 Speaker 5 And-

48:36 Speaker 1 Not like here, Tammuz, uh, of or of, uh... We stayed till Hoshana Rabbah. Erev Shemini Atzeres, they came to the Rebbe.

48:47 Speaker 5 Hmm.

48:47 Speaker 1 We would come in the middle. I remember it was here, uh, Yom Kippur for the brocha. We came in for fabregens. But basically, we were in the camp till, uh

48:59 Speaker 5 Were you by their seder when the Rebbe came to visit?

49:03 Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah, to the bochurim's seder.

49:05 Speaker 5 But not, not with the Iranian kids?

49:07 Speaker 1 No, no.

49:08 Speaker 5 But you were by the bochurim's seder when the Rebbe came-

49:10 Speaker 1 Yeah

49:10 Speaker 5 ... a f- a few times.

49:12 Speaker 1 Yeah, twice.

49:16 Speaker 5 Mm-hmm. You were also involved with, uh-

49:18 Speaker 1 The Rebbe would walk through, look in everybody's, uh, kayde and

49:24 Speaker 5 So you also did stuff at Lag BaOmer parade also, right?

49:28 Speaker 1 Lag BaOmer, Tuv Shin Mem, I was involved, yeah.

49:31 Speaker 5 You're already asking from, from-- I guess you're already in asking from Lamed Tes from the, the children.

49:36 Speaker 1 I was here already, like I said, from Lamed Daled, came to Tuv Shin Mem. So after Pesach, it was supposed to be a Lag BaOmer parade. So me, a few friends, yeah, we were the bochurim that worked on it.

49:48 Speaker 5 Mm-hmm. So when did you get married?

49:52 Speaker 1 Teves Tuv Shin Mem Alef.

49:56 Speaker 5 And you got married here?

49:58 Speaker 1 In that Israel.

50:00 Speaker 5 Your wife's from Israel? Your wife's from Israel?

50:02 Speaker 1 Yeah.

50:04 Speaker 5 So you had a yechidus. You had a yechidus?

50:06 Speaker 1 We had mamash from the last yechidus in private, yeah. What happened was Mem Alef, there was still regular yechidus, but there was such a big oilam that, uh, the ones that had to travel to Israel saw that if each one goes in yechidas, they don't know who won't make it 'cause they had a flight. So they decided, "Let's start groups together. At least they'll have some yechidas."

50:31 Speaker 5 Oh, so you're saying chassidim started this thing?

50:32 Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah.

50:33 Speaker 5 That's interesting. Okay.

50:35 Speaker 1 Like, uh, they have to leave latest, uh, by 11 o'clock, and it's, uh, quarter to 11, and there's 10, uh, couples that have to go, and someone might not make it. So at least they'll go in together, and that's when it started, and, uh... But we went in, uh, yechidas regular.

50:57 Speaker 5 With your parents?

50:58 Speaker 1 No.

50:59 Speaker 5 Just chosun kaluh?

51:00 Speaker 1 Chosun kaluh. The Rebbe asked, "When is the vort?" So it's right when we became chosun kaluh, maybe a day after. I said, "We don't know yet."

51:14 Speaker 5 It wasn't like today, they, they do it that night.

51:16 Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah. It was a week, two weeks later, yeah.

51:21 Speaker 5 The Rebbe used that language, a vort? You know-

51:24 Speaker 1 People ask me. I'm not sure, but then it wasn't called l'chaim. Then it was called a vort.

51:27 Speaker 5 Do you know why it changed? I heard it was from the Rebbe, but I, I, I don't know for a fact, documentation.

51:34 Speaker 1 I remember then they would call the vort.

51:36 Speaker 5 Okay.

51:37 Speaker 1 And so I'm not sure if the Rebbe exactly said the word vort, but pashtes. And, uh, the Rebbe took two dollars, and he said, "Whenever it'll be, we should give the dollar by the vort to tzedakah." So that's, uh, a remind chasanim that, uh, it's a inyan that a chosun and kaluh should give tzedakah by the vort. The Rebbe told us, so it surely, uh, good for everyone.

52:07 Speaker 5 Yeah.

52:09 Speaker 1 He gave a lot of berachos. My wife's from Israel. I remember the Rebbe used-- He said, uh, "Noam Yonom in Torah Umitzvot." Usually, the Rebbe would say Torah Umitzvot.

52:28 Speaker 5 The Rebbe spoke Yiddish or?

52:30 Speaker 1 In Yiddish, but when he used the word-

52:32 Speaker 5 Torah Umitzvot

52:33 Speaker 1 ... Torah Umitzvot, he used the, uh, Israeli havurah.

52:39 Speaker 5 Hmm, interesting.

52:40 Speaker 1 Torah Umitzvot. Pashtes, uh, yep.

52:49 Speaker 5 So you got married in Eretz Yisrael, and then you came back for, for kollel?

52:54 Speaker 1 Came back for the shvat. I got married 10 Teves, and y"d Shevat, we came to the Farbrengen.

53:00 Speaker 5 And you went to kollel?

53:02 Speaker 1 Went to kollel, yeah. I was in kollel till, uh, till Tishrei mem gimel.

53:11 Speaker 5 So what hap-- So, so how'd you... So when you're in kollel, you wrote to the Rebbe about shlishus? Like, how, how do you know your next step?

53:18 Speaker 1 After kollel, when it came mem gimel, so I wrote, uh, I wrote different offers.

53:27 Speaker 5 Mm-hmm.

53:28 Speaker 1 People came. They were looking for offer here, offer there. Finally, I wrote in a whole bunch of offers, but I didn't bring the loshon exactly. It's very interesting what the Rebbe answered me, four answers.

53:46 Speaker 5 So you, you can remember... You have, you have them?

53:49 Speaker 1 Uh, I have them, but I don't have it on me. It's very interesting. Basically, bau pe what I remember is, uh, before a person writes in to the Rebbe for which job, he should think it over.

54:17 Speaker 5 So-

54:17 Speaker 1 L'ma mesuga l'ma maiyi. To what he is-

54:23 Speaker 5 To what you're capable of, whatever.

54:26 Speaker 1 Capable, what's practical.

54:27 Speaker 5 And what's practical.

54:28 Speaker 1 "Ve'eych zeh efshur she'ish echad yihiye mesugal l'chol ha'anaav?" How is it possible that one person should be capable for everything? I wrote every offer, which was from the biggest to the smallest. Um-

54:47 Speaker 5 So the Rebbe wanted, the Rebbe's saying, like, "Why are you just sending me offers?"

54:50 Speaker 1 "Shoynem min hakotze lakotze." Different from one. In other words, think what you're capable of and what-

54:56 Speaker 5 Then write hatzotze.

54:56 Speaker 1 And then write.

54:58 Speaker 5 So you're being a chassid. You wanted to-

54:59 Speaker 1 Yes.

55:00 Speaker 5 What's that? That, that you're trying to be a chassid, so you just write everything?

55:02 Speaker 1 Yeah.

55:05 Speaker 5 The Rebbe didn't like it.

55:05 Speaker 1 Again, "Yisborin habachara l'ma mesuga l'ma maiyi." Uh, the Rebbe said, "Ube'eid efshariyus," other things also.

55:15 Speaker 5 What do you mean other things? Besides-

55:16 Speaker 1 Doesn't have to be just in these offers that I had.

55:20 Speaker 5 Uh-huh.

55:20 Speaker 1 Could be something else. That's what it ended up being at the end, something that I didn't write. Kollel Dfel Eskei in Mivitzchok wasn't on the list.

55:28 Speaker 5 Okay. You, you... Okay.

55:31 Speaker 1 "Be'eid efshariyus ve'azei mokom l'shailah." Then, uh, you can ask.

55:39 Speaker 5 So the Rebbe was giving you horos on how to-

55:43 Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah

55:43 Speaker 5 ... write to the Rebbe.

55:44 Speaker 1 One thing I had an offer in the country that I didn't know the language, and I mentioned that I don't know the language. "Ein, kein, ein yin bi shvili. Ein ze bi shvili." Another thing I wrote- So the Rebbe answered on this specific thing, "Ma ze bepoel?" Similar, sh- uh, question mark.

56:08 Speaker 5 What is it?

56:08 Speaker 1 "Ma ze bepoel?"

56:11 Speaker 5 What does that mean?

56:13 Speaker 1 You're writing in that you wanna do so-and-so. What is it bepoel mamash? I sat down, I wrote almost a three-page letter. Three-page letter, and they're waiting for a answer. Every day I will ask, uh, Rabbi Klein. So he told me, "Zos vissen, you should know that it's on the Rebbe's desk right on top." He sees it on the Rebbe's desk every day. And for weeks I was waiting and waiting. There was no answer, so I didn't do... It meant I was still looking, and finally, weeks later, the Rebbe, from a three-page letter, the Rebbe tore off just one line out of the whole three pages, and from im, if it's the right thing, the Rebbe wrote, "Ein." "Im ein ma'asim vetovim," l'mashal. "Ein."

57:28 Speaker 5 No.

57:29 Speaker 1 And he-- But he didn't give back the whole three pages, just a, a thin strip.

57:36 Speaker 5 And-

57:36 Speaker 1 "Im ho'inin to ein."

57:38 Speaker 5 Ein. It's not for you.

57:39 Speaker 1 Yeah. And he, uh... But this took weeks.

57:45 Speaker 5 Mm.

57:46 Speaker 1 Finally, there was then the Rebbe spoke so strong, tov shemem. I was still a bocher, about Tferes Zkenim.

57:52 Speaker 5 Before, uh, uh, 'cause it's years before.

57:54 Speaker 1 Yeah. And punkt then, in mem gimel, they were looking for someone to take it over. So they offered me, and two says I-

58:03 Speaker 5 Who's they?

58:05 Speaker 1 There was a vaad. A vaad of Vinnver light, that they felt, like, responsible, and they offered, and, uh, I wrote in to the Rebbe. And this I got right away a answer, haskamah u'brochah. This was before Lag BaOmer, tov shemem gimel.

58:29 Speaker 5 Hmm.

58:30 Speaker 1 On the Tferes Zkenim Levi Yitzchok. So the other ones, you see, back and forth, uh, uh, took months.

58:39 Speaker 5 So for months you're, you're writing haskamah.

58:42 Speaker 1 Yeah, I'm doing different things, yeah, but, uh-

58:45 Speaker 5 You're And then not, whatever. Uh, nothing. And then Kol Tferes Zkenim Levi Yitzchok.

58:52 Speaker 1 Mamash right away.

58:54 Speaker 5 To this mem gimel. So that's, and that's where you, that's your thing, ad hayom hazeh.

58:57 Speaker 1 The Rebbe answered, yeah.

58:59 Speaker 5 So what is Kol Tferes Zkenim Levi Yitzchok?

59:02 Speaker 1 Kol Tferes Zkenim Levi Yitzchok is asoy. Uh, the Rebbe wanted a real kol. People come, and instead of, uh, them reaching their retiring age and doing nothing, they should register in a kol, and come and learn every day. And a little bit after I went in, we were, we wrote the Rebbe, "We have a place, and we have a rosh hakol."

59:25 Speaker 5 So, so your kol is in, is the New York Kol, or it's, like, the central kol? What, what's the function of it?

59:32 Speaker 1 There's a kol that's going to be-

59:33 Speaker 5 No, but I'm asking it-

59:34 Speaker 1 Over 40 years that they're learning here in 770.

59:36 Speaker 5 So, but every city is supposed to have their own kol.

59:39 Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah.

59:40 Speaker 5 Mm-hmm. So you're in New York, and whatever.

59:42 Speaker 1 Here we mayased then a kol, and, uh, everybody that retired, alte Hasidim, alte Yidden, came and they learned, and, uh, beautiful kol. All the years, different. First, uh, Reb Shaya Pincus used to give shiyurim, and then, uh, now the rosh hakol, Solangeon's, uh, Rabbi Holzberg. And, uh, yeah.

1:00:10 Speaker 5 And it works like a kol, like they get a stipend?

1:00:12 Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, they get a stipend. The rosh hakol gets paid. And, uh, so today we have three kollelim in Crown Heights. The one here, Shmuel Malamed sponsors. Alte hazake for years and years. But we opened up two more. One is in Frankel Shul. Uh, Rabbi Psachi Yaakov gives, uh, the shiyurim, and Rabbi Geisinsky. And one is in, uh, the Swardsha Shul. So used to be... So they each get about a minyan. And, and as we're speaking now, there are three kollelim in Crown Heights where, uh, the other two are in English. They're more baal teshuva type. And the one here is in Yiddish. They learn everything, Gemara and Rambam, and Shulchan Aruch, and Seder. So this is the kollelim. But in tov shemem daled, the Rebbe was magiya a sicha about Kol Tferes Zkenim Levi Yitzchok. It's printed on Kuntessichas, chelek chof tes. Everything how the kol should run. And one of the things over there, the Rebbe writes that since there are so many Yidden and Moishfe Zkenims in the different senior centers, and they're looking how to, uh, fill up the time with the older people. So we should reach out to them and make sure they to it, et cetera. So this became the most of the work at Tferes Zkenim Levi Yitzchok.

1:01:52 Speaker 5 Is to do, uh-

1:01:53 Speaker 1 To go out-

1:01:53 Speaker 5 Hafatsa in, in-

1:01:54 Speaker 1 Hafats in these-

1:01:55 Speaker 5 Meshi Achim

1:01:56 Speaker 1 ... senior centers, nursing homes, adult homes, adult daycare centers. There are different types And be Iker, the busiest time are Yom Tovim. Comes, uh, Rosh Hashanah. Rosh Hashanah, we go to, to so many Bochurim and Galait of Anagom Mefitsim. Send out-

1:02:16 Speaker 5 So that's why you do the Mitzvim in Rosh Hashanah, is for the, for the Meshiach Kenim?

1:02:19 Speaker 1 It started Meshiach Kenim, but, uh, people call, uh, he's homebound. So the, the calls end up in Telus Kenim, and we make the list, we put it together, and we send out. So in Shingivan, we all send to different, uh, apartment buildings, and hospitals, and, uh, states of the nursing homes, and, uh-

1:02:41 Speaker 5 Mm-hmm.

1:02:42 Speaker 1 This Pesach, we had every night 35 Starim.

1:02:48 Speaker 5 Wow.

1:02:48 Speaker 1 They call in advance. No re-- uh, I'm saying people wanna make their own Seder, but, uh, if they call Averbitch, there's Bochum that they're here anyway Pesach, and they wanna do a Seder for public Seders, so we send them out to all the different, uh, Meshiach Kenims.

1:03:10 Speaker 5 So, and that's after that you started those Pulhas, that's when the Rebbe started be Mishtatef in the Kinus that you do in 770. What's the story about that? How'd that happen?

1:03:19 Speaker 1 We had, uh, rayon, a thought to bring all the Kenim to the Rebbe. So the first-

1:03:27 Speaker 5 So you, so you started doing Pulhas with them, and then you had this idea to bring, to bring them to the Rebbe?

1:03:32 Speaker 1 Yeah. So the first time was, uh, Besmichas Techof Ov, Tov Shiin Dalud Mem. And made a rally. We invited them, and they came from all over, and we knew nothing. Is the Rebbe gonna speak for them or not? We brought them.

1:03:58 Speaker 5 You brought a group to 770?

1:04:00 Speaker 1 A group. There were hundreds of Kenim.

1:04:04 Speaker 5 It's a big operation. You have to bus them in, and they answer Ma'asei Ha'vel.

1:04:07 Speaker 1 Yeah, but that was easier. Today, they have so much laws, bureaucracy. They can't leave only for a certain amount, and each building has that. Then it was more, uh-

1:04:18 Speaker 5 Heimish.

1:04:18 Speaker 1 Heimish, yeah. So, uh, nursing homes came, and everybody came with a wheelchair. There were four Bochurim on top of the steps, picked up the wheelchair, brought them down. They didn't need a ramp. There are pictures, a whole group of wheelchairs and, and, uh, on that settle, I wrote the program. So like one-third, it was starting, and, uh, someone's gonna speak, and then a children's choir, and then, uh, refreshments, the whole program. At 3:15, Mincha dash Kveter Sad Rashlita.

1:04:58 Speaker 5 You decided to write that?

1:05:00 Speaker 1 In the program. Then the Mincha with, with the Rebbe-

1:05:03 Speaker 5 Oh, because you-

1:05:03 Speaker 1 On Mincha and-

1:05:05 Speaker 5 Those years, the Rebbe Davened upstairs bechlal.

1:05:11 Speaker 1 Can't say.

1:05:11 Speaker 5 So you were being a little bold writing that.

1:05:13 Speaker 1 By the way, be f-- 3:15, 3:10 probably, uh, one of the Bochurim that worked for the Mashbakim came down, and he's asking me in the name of the Rebbe if the program is on time, if the Rebbe could come down 3:15 to Mincha. You can imagine, uh, I said, "Yeah, for sure," but, uh, right, the Rebbe would rechnazakh with each detail. Like, maybe he's running late, man.

1:05:52 Speaker 5 S- so you didn't know till that moment if the Rebbe's gonna come down or not?

1:05:55 Speaker 1 Not that the Rebbe's coming for Mincha, was the Rebbe came to every Mincha, but we didn't know if the Rebbe was gonna speak. So I wrote 3:15-

1:06:02 Speaker 5 What, what year, what year is this?

1:06:04 Speaker 1 Mem Dalet.

1:06:05 Speaker 5 Okay, the Rebbe didn't Daven downstairs. So whatever, okay.

1:06:08 Speaker 1 So that maybe was obvious that if there's a group, the Rebbe came downstairs.

1:06:12 Speaker 5 Right, 'cause the Rebbe did do sometimes downstairs if it, if it's a Elul, yeah. Okay.

1:06:15 Speaker 1 So I asked Rabbi Hecht, how does he know before if the Rebbe is gonna speak? He says he doesn't know till today. He makes a Kinus. The Rebbe wants, the Rebbe speaks.

1:06:22 Speaker 5 For the kids.

1:06:23 Speaker 1 This is same thing. Wrote Mincha dash Kveter Sad Rashlita, which could mean Mincha with the Rebbe or Mincha. And after Mincha, the Rebbe spoke a beautiful Sicha, and we started doing them twice a year. One time Besmichas Techof Ov, and one time Chanukah. So every year, Chanukah, the Rebbe spoke for them. In the summer, couple of times, but not always. One time, uh, I would give him the letter that we sent out for a Brocha, and the Rebbe would usually answer, ask Halatzim, Yei Ba'atzlacha, the regular Brochas. And it was Tov Shiin Mem Zayin, so we made it that year on the Tuesday test, Zayin Menachem Ov. Tried to pick a day that the Rebbe doesn't go to the oil. I'm sitting in the office, 10 o'clock, and also someone comes from Rabbi Groner's office, and he says, "Rabbi Groner is calling you." I go down, and he says, "The Rebbe wills us to yetzal hangi." Yechidas. So I asked Rabbi Groner, "You give me a few minutes?" He says, "Okay." So that was before Mikveh. I ran. The Mikveh was mamash here in Union-

1:07:53 Speaker 5 Union. Union Mikveh.

1:07:54 Speaker 1 The hot day. The Efshar the Rebbe farher. I just mamash in two minutes. It was a hot Mikveh, and I didn't dry myself 'cause I was in a rush, and, uh- You're running, and then I figure he'll come in and he'll tell me, "Okay, wait." The second I came in, he says, "Come with me." He knocks on the door, goes out. The Rebbe comes out.

1:08:16 Speaker 5 In the Tachten.

1:08:17 Speaker 1 Ganeyim HaTachten. I was in Ganeyim HaTachten. The Rebbe was in his room by the door. He said since he was-- It's also, the Rebbe was magiya the whole thing, 'cause I didn't know exactly. Rebbe said-

1:08:31 Speaker 5 You wrote it down afterwards. You wrote it down afterwards.

1:08:34 Speaker 1 Yeah, as much as I remembered.

1:08:36 Speaker 5 Mm-hmm.

1:08:36 Speaker 1 But, but, uh, Rabbi Groner, who was in his room, opened his door to listen in. So I would say more he wrote down. "Since I decided to go to the oil today, so I want you to give over to the Skane a bracha for them, their children, their grandchildren." Uh, I was giving brachos, and then the Rebbe went back in, and he said he wants to give them all shlichas, uh, stoker. Give me 600, six packs of hundred single dollars. And then after he went in, he came out again, and he said, "Zicher ibegeb mabalicht from dem kinus." He'll surely give over a report of how the kinus went. So right away, Rabbi Groner wrote, and I brought it up to Nochas at Mimin. They typed it up, and I gave it in. The Rebbe was magiya, edited bracha.

1:09:36 Speaker 5 You have the, you have it?

1:09:37 Speaker 1 I have the original. And that's what I read for them, the Rebbe gives a bracha, but from my memories.

1:09:42 Speaker 5 Ah.

1:09:42 Speaker 1 I wanted to give over exactly the Rebbe's bracha.

1:09:45 Speaker 5 So that was magiya, then that's what you read.

1:09:47 Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah.

1:09:47 Speaker 5 'Cause this is all in a few minutes.

1:09:51 Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah.

1:09:54 Speaker 5 That's very special. I'm thinking it means that it shows you how much the Rebbe is mechabev this whole concept.

1:09:59 Speaker 1 Yeah.

1:10:00 Speaker 5 That's calling you in. I don't know how many people your age had such a thing.

1:10:04 Speaker 1 Yeah. In those years, there was no yechidas.

1:10:06 Speaker 5 Yeah.

1:10:08 Speaker 1 But I was lucky that he kept the door a drop open so he could write it up.

1:10:12 Speaker 5 Very good. Uh, there were other answers that you got from the Rebbe about, uh-

1:10:18 Speaker 1 Many answers

1:10:18 Speaker 5 ... the kinusim.

1:10:19 Speaker 1 Huh?

1:10:20 Speaker 5 About the, about these kinusim.

1:10:22 Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah.

1:10:24 Speaker 5 You remember any of them?

1:10:25 Speaker 1 "Veyaz min noyamim masibim." The kinus that the Rebbe didn't come, you should, uh, invite proper speakers. "Veyinamu mitarosei shel," they should speak a torah from, the Rebbe circled on the stationary, "Lev Yitzchak." The-

1:10:46 Speaker 5 S- this is the one for Chaf Av.

1:10:48 Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah.

1:10:48 Speaker 5 So you're saying this is a time that the Rebbe didn't come.

1:10:50 Speaker 1 Yeah.

1:10:51 Speaker 5 And the Rebbe said they should speak-

1:10:52 Speaker 1 They should speak

1:10:53 Speaker 5 ... by "mitarosei shel Lev Yitzchak" of the Rebbe's father.

1:10:56 Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah.

1:10:57 Speaker 5 The famous thing about speaking "mitarosei shel Lev Yitzchak" is the answer to, to, to you.

1:11:01 Speaker 1 Yeah. "Hamuvin al hansaf meshiachiu," hamuvin underlined twice, something that they could understand. Uh, yeah, there were-

1:11:12 Speaker 5 I remember I once, uh, uh, I once emceed a, uh, a bris in Chaf Av, and so they asked me to, to say the over a torah from, from Rebbe's father. So I made sure that it's gonna be something hamuvin al hansafim, that something that the people can understand, you know, based on the halacha that you got. Uh-huh. It's actually interesting that I noticed that, um, by the, um, the contrast you see of the Rebbe, you know, let's say Tav Shin Alef, the Rebbe is, uh, coming down. You can imagine a bunch of BeGashmiyes that these people that the Rebbe is speaking to, they're probably, uh, the Rebbe's in, in Yorin, they're the Rebbe's age. And then just the con-

1:12:05 Speaker 1 Older?

1:12:05 Speaker 5 Older, yeah, or whatever. But the contrast, they all look old. The Rebbe comes in, and like the Rebbe's smiling at them. The Rebbe, the Rebbe's young, you know? Like, like it's like a-- And the Rebbe, the Rebbe's giving them chayas. You can, you can, you can see it in the videos.

1:12:19 Speaker 1 Oh, for sure.

1:12:19 Speaker 5 You can... Uh-huh. What was the story, um, there was a shooting, you had an answer from the Rebbe. Wasn't there some story like that?

1:12:33 Speaker 1 Tav Shin Mem Gimon told you right before Lag BaOmer, Friday, Tes Aini, I got a answer. And-

1:12:43 Speaker 5 Yeah, what answer?

1:12:43 Speaker 1 Less bracha v'hatzlacha-

1:12:45 Speaker 5 For, for Tzedekes King.

1:12:47 Speaker 1 On Tzedekes King. Askama Bracha. Askama Bracha. And it was less than a year later that the Rebbe came out with, uh, Mivtzerambam. Chof Zayin Nisan Tav Shin Mem Daled. So here I was learning in yeshiva, and then in kollel, and mitama Omar Arvit, there's no, uh, shiur, so I decided we'll start a shiur Chof Zayin Nisan.

1:13:16 Speaker 5 One second, one second. We're talking about Rambam now?

1:13:18 Speaker 1 Rambam.

1:13:19 Speaker 5 This is, this has to do with the shooting? 'Cause I wanna talk, I wanna introduce you before I talk about Rambam. Okay. S-say it, I'll go back.

1:13:28 Speaker 1 So Chof Zayin Nisan Tav Shin Mem Daled, we started a shiur Rambam. The first shiur-

1:13:34 Speaker 5 Okay, so I'm gonna say now that, uh, the big thing that we didn't cover yet is, it's time for the thing that you're the, you're the most famous for, is the Siyum HaRambam. And the Siyum that-

1:13:46 Speaker 1 In order to make a Siyum, you have to learn.

1:13:48 Speaker 5 Okay.

1:13:48 Speaker 1 So saying we started a shiur-

1:13:48 Speaker 5 So the Siyum, the Siyum that happens every halachas, we're gonna get into all of that. So y- this, you're saying this is the beginning of it.

1:13:54 Speaker 1 So we started the shiur Chof Zayin Nisan Tav Shin Mem Daled.

1:13:58 Speaker 5 So achron shel Pesach, the Rebbe speaks about Rambam, and you decide that there has to be a shiur in Rambam.

1:14:04 Speaker 1 And I publicized it all over. It was called the shiur-

1:14:06 Speaker 5 You took it on your own. This is-

1:14:09 Speaker 1 On my own.

1:14:09 Speaker 5 Stam.

1:14:10 Speaker 1 Hayois that, that, uh, it's a geleng height to start a shiur. So I remember pu- put up signs all over that we're starting a shiur. About 45 people came to that shiur.

1:14:23 Speaker 5 Who gave the shiur?

1:14:23 Speaker 1 Rabbi Shapiro gave the shiur, the first shiur. And Baruch Hashem, mamash nishtakein v'hatodankin habebishen that it's already, uh, over 42 years. Every day we learn three perakim Rambam.

1:14:40 Speaker 5 Shiur?

1:14:40 Speaker 1 Yeah. A short while later, we went over to Kollel Tferes Shchine building on Kingston. And every day there's a sh-

1:14:47 Speaker 5 Every single day for the last 42 years is a shiur.

1:14:50 Speaker 1 Every single. Yeah.

1:14:51 Speaker 5 What time is the shiur?

1:14:52 Speaker 1 8:30. Friday and Shabbos, it changes. Winter, summer, usually before Mahidiv. And every day, three perakim. You can imagine how many people went through these 42 years. Uh, it used to be mamash packed. You couldn't get a seat. And, uh, today, okay, it's online. So half of the people come, half of the people listen in. And we have the shir, Baruch Hashem, every day three perakim.

1:15:31 Speaker 6 8.30 a.m. or p.m.?

1:15:32 Speaker 1 p.m.

1:15:33 Speaker 6 p.m., okay.

1:15:35 Speaker 1 And we learn already, most of the time we learn for tomorrow. Just in case a guy misses the shir, he has another day to catch up.

1:15:44 Speaker 6 So you learn the next day's shir.

1:15:46 Speaker 1 Next day's shir.

1:15:46 Speaker 6 Is there a heydah from the Rebbe?

1:15:47 Speaker 1 I learned already Dalud Hevov last night.

1:15:49 Speaker 6 Is there a heydah from the Rebbe about that that you're aware of?

1:15:52 Speaker 1 But when the Rebbe spoke by a fabrengin, he always spoke about the next day. At least most of the time. So it's always the next day's shir.

1:16:02 Speaker 6 Okay.

1:16:04 Speaker 1 That I remember for sure. Not only we used to learn for the day before, but then they changed it because they said if there's a fabrengin, we want to know what the Rebbe is going to talk about. So we caught up and we started learning for the next day. So this went on from Chavzayan Nisan. Now, it was, listen to the dates careful. Chavvov Sivm. Two months later, we had a tea party to raise money for Tferes Keinim L'vi Yitzchak. It was in the house of Rebbe Yosef Deitsch, alu v'shalom. And I wrote into the Rebbe for a brocha. And it was interesting. There were no answers until I wrote in this.

1:17:07 Speaker 6 You didn't get answers for your

1:17:09 Speaker 1 I got answers. People that went on shirim got answers. On the stationary of Tferes Keinim, there was no answer.

1:17:17 Speaker 6 Nekinosim only started

1:17:20 Speaker 1 Nekinosim started summer Memdaled.

1:17:22 Speaker 6 After this.

1:17:23 Speaker 1 This is Sivm Memdaled.

1:17:30 Speaker 6 Okay. So it's a short tukah you're talking about.

1:17:32 Speaker 1 Yeah.

1:17:32 Speaker 6 Yeah.

1:17:35 Speaker 1 So I wrote in for a brocha for Tuesday Chavvov Sivm. Thursday Chavches Sivm, the Rebbe went to oil. No one knew why because Chavches Sivm wasn't publicized in Tovshim Memdaled Chavches Sivm. The Igris Kodesh and the Friedrich Rebbe came out that year in Kodesh Elul. So over there, there's the letter that today Chavches Sivm, the Rebbe and the Rebbetsin came safely to America. So Chavches Sivm before the Rebbe went to oil, I got an answer on this Pakoshes Brocha. The Rebbe wrote four letters. Hey, Beis, Peh, Mem. Abbreviation. Question mark. Habbe Poil Mamish. You think, yeah, but the Simcha, the Rebbe answered. There were different reasons why, but the Poil, the Rebbe answered. Habbe Poil Mamish.

1:18:33 Speaker 6 There were different reasons why there was no answers?

1:18:38 Speaker 1 And the Poil, the Rebbe answered. And so, yeah, a great Simcha. And I sat down. I wrote a detailed duch. 17 people came. And we raised our Kopaneman pledges. Then over $5,000.

1:18:55 Speaker 6 One second. So you were writing before the event, and you got the answer after the event.

1:18:59 Speaker 1 Two days after.

1:19:00 Speaker 6 So Habbe Poil Mamish, and now you're giving the duch. Okay.

1:19:02 Speaker 1 By the time the Rebbe came back from the oil, the Rebbe had a complete duch. Sunday, Alef Tammuz, Beis Deresh Chodesh, I got an answer on the duch. I saw the Ksav Yad. Niskabel Vetach, Peh, Nun, Nun, like steps. Peh, Nun, Nun, without picking up the pen. Asker Alatzin.

1:19:31 Speaker 6 Pan Niskabel.

1:19:32 Speaker 1 Pidi Nefesh Niskabel.

1:19:33 Speaker 6 Pidi Nefesh Niskabel.

1:19:35 Speaker 1 Ooh, two answers in three days. Taka a great Simcha. So I remember I typed it up. I sent everybody a copy, and everybody had the same question. Niskabel Vetach, okay, Asker Alatzin. But why a Pidi Nefesh Niskabel on the tea party? That Tuesday, Gimel Tammuz, Tovshim Emdaled, was the first time we learned in the Rambam the last two perakim. The first time we learned in the Rambam, I think it was the last two perakim of Kiddush HaChodesh and the first peilik of Hilchistaynes. And in the first peilik of Hilchistaynes, the Rambam writes there's no such thing as mikra nikris, happened by chance. And if someone says mikra nikris, halei zu derech achzorius. I remember it was the first time we learned in Rambam to see such a loshen was a big chidush. After the shir, so I had a car, and I gave four people a lift. Then it wasn't walking at night, it wasn't so safe. So I gave four people a lift, and one was Yisroel Shemtov, so zayng gezunt. One was Rabbi Eli Matisov, Reboshe Bronstein, Solange and Aleman, and to Kuti Rap, Rabbi Rap. So before I dropped off anyone, I was-- the first one I was gonna drop off was Yisroel Shemtov on Carol between Troy and Schenectady.

1:21:28 Speaker 6 He's your schwager.

1:21:29 Speaker 1 Yeah. So as we're on the block, we see two robbers in front of a Jewish house, and it was obvious-

1:21:39 Speaker 6 They're up to no good

1:21:40 Speaker 1 ... that, uh, middle of a geneive or they're breaking in. So we were five, they were two young guys, so we stopped, and, uh, we'll see what we could do. He was already in Shmirah. He had a walkie-talkie.

1:21:53 Speaker 6 Is he, uh-

1:21:54 Speaker 1 Yisroel Shemtov

1:21:55 Speaker 6 ... Saul Shemtov.

1:21:57 Speaker 1 So we stopped. As soon as we stopped the car, they started running. One ran backwards, and one ran with the traffic to Schenectady. So I was the driver. It was the summer, the window was open, and I gave gas, and I mamash pulled up right next to him. We stop, he stops, and within a second, he takes out a gun, and he shoots. I heard this big boom, and I see a ball of fire. He shot. And on the split second, I just floored the gas and ran away, uh, shees medagon. Baruch Hashem, even though they opened the doors, everybody was still in the car, and we took off. We called police, reported, and, uh, they took the details. Seems like they're still looking for him till today. In the morning, seven o'clock, they say they have to inspect the car. So okay, the car is outside. They come back two minutes later. They want me to come out. I come out, and they show me a bullet hole, mamash on the top where, where the side window is, where the side mirror is. Mamash, a bullet hole, which, which by him, it's, uh, he-- Nisi niesim that he didn't pick up his hand a millimeter higher. Mamash, nisi niesim. I have a picture of the bullet hole in the car. Obviously, I was a little, uh, shaken up. Where's the heaven when she's to... I wrote the Rebbe the whole, uh, story. It was in the car, and then I thanked the Rebbe for

1:23:48 Speaker 1 writing pen nun nun, 'cause the Gemara says in Berachas, I think daf tes, :"Haroyeh hunah bachaloim nisim la'asaloi. Haroyeh chaninah hamnunah nisi niesim la'asaloi." It was mamash. He was, uh, what? Four or five feet away, a car, five people, a full car shooting, both stopped. And Baruch Hashem, nisi niesim. And I had a answer on that. The Rebbe answered, "Ha'hayu bo sifrei kuf tish treichel, Sifrei Kodesh, otzda ke pushke," some question mark, "Az ke ravatzin." So actually-

1:24:34 Speaker 6 The Rebbe, the Rebbe wanted if you had Sifrei Kodesh and otzda ke pushke in the car.

1:24:40 Speaker 1 So then wasn't so much publicized to have a chitas in the car. This was taf shin mem daled. People did have answers, but the communication wasn't like today. You send a WhatsApp and a thousand people see it.

1:24:51 Speaker 6 Not everyone knew everything.

1:24:52 Speaker 1 Not everybody knew everything. There happened to be, we had a Sefer Hamitzvos of the Rambam, of the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch, and a siddur randomly in the car.

1:25:02 Speaker 6 Mm-hmm.

1:25:02 Speaker 1 And there was a pushke. We knew to have it, so but still we had it under the-

1:25:07 Speaker 6 Mm

1:25:08 Speaker 1 ... under the seat. So there was sefarim and a pushke. So this, uh, very important everyone should know that you have to have today sefarim, which now we know is a chitas, Chumash, Tehillim, Tanya. They come anyway, but a Yom Yom and a siddur, and a pushke to have in the car.

1:25:26 Speaker 6 And by the way, there's herois to s- to some have a mezuzah also.

1:25:31 Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, uh, so I'm saying, punkt, we learned that there's no mikreh and nekras. Punkt, the Rebbe didn't answer for so long, and then he answered. I should have to write again. And what did the Rebbe answer? Peh nun nun. I saw pushke de nun nun. And, uh, mamash nisi niesim.

1:25:54 Speaker 6 Wow.

1:25:54 Speaker 1 Nisi niesim.

1:25:55 Speaker 6 Among Chassidim is brought to you by Chassidishe Der Her. We live in a chaotic world, a world where for us Chassidim, as a sei nu lei rai nu, we do not have the ability to hear and see the Rebbe on a daily basis. Yet we know that the Rebbe is very much with us, and Chassidus Chabad is alive and thriving more than ever before. One needs to only tap into it. Chassidishe Der Her provides you and your family with the tools necessary to tap into all of this, whether it's the monthly magazine, the way it all began, whether it's Der Her books, Der Her online content, and so much more. Men, women, and children throughout the world benefit and use these tools on a daily basis, whether it's children enjoying the children's magazine that comes along with the regular Der Her or enjoying the children's podcast, whether it's bachurim in yeshivas receiving the Der Her, whether it's girls in high schools enjoying Der Her Club in their local high school. People all over the world and from all walks of life- Enjoy and utilize these tools and take advantage of it. If you're not already subscribed to The Her Monthly Magazine, do so today at theirher.org. That's T-H-E-I-R.org. The Her is a dynamic organization which is committed to continue providing these tools, grow on a constant basis, and do all that we can to help this effort. Baruch Hashem, it takes a lot of resources and finances to make this all happen. You can be

1:27:48 Speaker 6 part of The Her through your financial support as well through visiting our website, theirher.org, or through contacting us to setting up a meeting. Thank you very much. Enjoy the rest of the podcast.

1:27:59 Speaker 1 There's other stories, Nis and Nisim, the famous story with Rabbi Tzeiklin.

1:28:05 Speaker 6 He's your brother-in-law, no?

1:28:06 Speaker 1 Yeah.

1:28:06 Speaker 6 He also had a shooting.

1:28:08 Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah. This was before he was my brother-in-law, Tov Shemeim.

1:28:12 Speaker 6 He was a Bachar then.

1:28:13 Speaker 1 He was in Gemara, and I was a Bachar.

1:28:15 Speaker 6 And you're a Bachar.

1:28:16 Speaker 1 I remember the story.

1:28:18 Speaker 6 I think I heard, I heard it from him. The gun didn't go off, no?

1:28:21 Speaker 1 In short, he, he, he came to make a Melava Malka for the Moedez of Tzvas. And Thursday night before the Melava Malka, he happened to go through Siman 70. He was debating to go in or not because he was in a rush. He went in. Punkt Rabbi Klein met him and said, "The Rebbe just sent out 50 single dollars and a bottle of Mashke." The Rebbe wrote, "Ntsura bazek kan kan yash," which is a Gemara word for a bottle. "Venun, vav nun, vav nun, shtolis." Not five zero, not one nun, but again, two nuns. So he had already twice nun nun. And he put the... It was in the winter, Teives. He put the bottle of Mashke in his right coat pocket and the $50 in the left, and he's going to, uh, Zachsania, where he stayed by Naftali Greenwald, and he meets him on the corner.

1:29:19 Speaker 6 Mm-hmm.

1:29:20 Speaker 1 Naftali was with a car in Crown in Kingston. And he tells him, "Yeah, Tashi Klogon from Rebbe." As he's speaking to Naftali, a big tall guy comes over to him with a gun, a dunkeler, and he says, "Give me your money." So he was thinking the Rebbe just gave him $50, he's gonna give it to the goy? That's when she can't pay on bazech. Within a second, the guy gives a shot and he runs away. Mamish, he says right in front of me, gives a shot and he runs away. So Naftali was in the car backed up to the police station, tells him there's a shooting. So right away they came.

1:30:01 Speaker 6 The gun went off? The gun went off?

1:30:04 Speaker 1 Gun went off, of course. There was a woman watched the whole thing.

1:30:06 Speaker 6 He missed.

1:30:09 Speaker 1 And the police came and he ran over there. No, uh, can be a fin in those days. There was no cameras. There was no cell phones.

1:30:15 Speaker 6 You said they're still looking for him.

1:30:17 Speaker 1 Yeah. Over there also. And they start asking details, what did he look for? As things calm down, Naftali feels that his jacket is wet. How is his jacket wet? Where did he drink? Where did he get water? Like the things settle down, he takes a look. When the guy shot, he missed Am Lezer, went into Naftali's elbow.

1:30:44 Speaker 6 He didn't realize.

1:30:46 Speaker 1 Got a shot, didn't feel. He went to call police-

1:30:49 Speaker 6 Mm

1:30:49 Speaker 1 ... there's a shooting. And then five minutes later, it was full pushet bleeding from the gunshot.

1:30:57 Speaker 6 Wow.

1:30:57 Speaker 1 So he asking if the bullet went off. There's a name on the door. He went into his hand. And, uh, mamish again, Nis and Nisim. Nis poshet, the Rebbe answers out of the blue again, "Kan kan, why not bakbuk?" Use the... And vav nun, vav nun. And here, mamish.

1:31:19 Speaker 6 So two schwagers had a, a meise with a shooting-

1:31:22 Speaker 1 Always the same story, yeah

1:31:22 Speaker 6 ... and, and, and nun nun. Yeah. Uh-huh. Okay. This is, uh, the stories that are, uh, dreng zich around the Rebbe. Okay. So-

1:31:38 Speaker 1 So once we had the shir.

1:31:40 Speaker 6 Oh, so now you're getting into the, your career in Ambem. Is that, is that what we're gonna talk about?

1:31:44 Speaker 1 The Dvar Shlich in, in Binghamton, Rabbi Slonim. So we learned the shir, Mandik HaSefer, davka machana asu the mitzvah. So it was a nice thing. We had the shir-

1:31:56 Speaker 6 His idea.

1:31:57 Speaker 1 Yeah. He was the one, first one that came up with it. And there was a lot of Rabbonim here for Shavuot. Beautiful pictures. It was Rabbi Ashkenazi and Rabbi Bistritzki. Remember Rabbi Marlow came. Yada sheyn asiym.

1:32:11 Speaker 6 Through the Sefer.

1:32:12 Speaker 1 Yeah. And all the people that learned felt it was their simcha. And, uh, actually, it was an ave. We had a beautiful siyim. And always I have a typer settle and be media, and this day there's gonna be a Sudus Mitzva and a Fabrengen, we call it the Siyum Sefer. So how much times comes out at, uh, 14 times, uh, Machze? And, uh, every time, every time, I wouldn't say every time, but we gave in a copy to the Rebbe for a brocha. And many answers. Sai on the Midor and Sai on the Duch. Sai on the re- the invitation, and also many times on the report. Beautiful answers. I have copies, different. There was Magia sometimes, uh, the date. I wrote Hayom with the wrong date. I have a circle with a question Circled the day, circled the yom, pulled, uh, with the pen and a big question mark. How is it?

1:33:21 Speaker 6 So it was kind of looking-

1:33:22 Speaker 1 I copied from the one before. Uh, if I wrote, uh, this guy gave the Siyum with Nishmas, the Rebbe asked, "Ben, with Nishmas, oh, what's his father's name?"

1:33:36 Speaker 6 His mother's name.

1:33:37 Speaker 1 Father's name. With Nishmas.

1:33:39 Speaker 6 Oh, ah, Nishmas, okay.

1:33:41 Speaker 1 And, uh, I wrote this guy gave for a birthday. Two weeks after the birthday, the Rebbe gives out the Midah minchagi im ledes. I should tell him to do that. No, many answers during-

1:33:55 Speaker 6 So the Rebbe was really mechabed this, uh, this Siyum, huh?

1:33:57 Speaker 1 Yeah. Then there was-

1:33:59 Speaker 6 That happened in 770?

1:34:00 Speaker 1 Hmm?

1:34:01 Speaker 6 They were in 770?

1:34:03 Speaker 1 For Eks Gut, most of them were in the kollel.

1:34:10 Speaker 6 The kollel is in the, is in the back of 770, right?

1:34:13 Speaker 1 Yeah, in, in the, where the shiur is, or in the vibishul next door.

1:34:18 Speaker 6 Mm-hmm.

1:34:18 Speaker 1 That was where most of them were. If it was a Yom HaDepag or something bigger, we'll make it in 770. Actually, there was one time that, uh, Rabbi Rapp was a whole day in 770. He knew who was coming, which rabbonim and which. There was one time a mayor from a city in, in Israel. Let's say he might come, he wasn't sure. So if a mayor comes, and, uh, think it was a few mayors together, so then we would have to do it in a bigger place, in 770, in the shul. But if they're not coming, so you do it in, uh, there's this noshim over there. So I, uh, made the Midah, and, uh, instead of writing exactly where it'll be, like specify in 770 in the shul or in the noshim, I left it empty. And the Rebbe gave mashgiach. The Rebbe gave mashgiach, so it was a yirah from the Rebbe. You had to announce what you're taking for him, where it's gonna be, and which day, and what time, and everybody's invited.

1:35:25 Speaker 6 At the fabrengen?

1:35:26 Speaker 1 Nesi Delei Nu B'rishei Nu, now leads in the angel land.

1:35:29 Speaker 6 The Rebbe said to say that?

1:35:30 Speaker 1 The Rebbe said.

1:35:31 Speaker 6 To say Nesi Delei Nu B'rishei Nu?

1:35:32 Speaker 1 In the beginning, the Rebbe said to announce what he's taking for. A few weeks later, the Rebbe said to add Nesi Delei Nu B'rishei Nu, now leads in the angel land.

1:35:41 Speaker 6 So everyone would do that?

1:35:42 Speaker 1 Everyone.

1:35:43 Speaker 6 Mm-hmm.

1:35:43 Speaker 1 It was a yirah from the Rebbe. The Rebbe, he's this, uh, mentefrideke Rebbe, but, uh, I said, "Say that." So everybody would say Nesi Delei Nu B'rishei Nu, now leads in the angel land. So this time I gave him the Midah. The Rebbe was before... In other words, till summer Mem Tes, all the mashgiach was only from the Rebbe. We never gave in. People make a big dinner, a big chreizos, they give a mashgiach, but here we didn't feel. So all the times the Rebbe gave was this rustal eila. All of a sudden, the Rebbe by fabrengen said there's a Siyum HaRambam. He wants to give mashgiach, and, uh-

1:36:30 Speaker 6 The Rebbe say in the sikha?

1:36:31 Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

1:36:33 Speaker 6 So why didn't you give on your own if you saw that the Rebbe wants it? You thought it was certain times.

1:36:38 Speaker 1 Uh, a bocher makes today a birthday party. He's gonna give him a bottle. Like we didn't-- People gave in for real, uh, simcha fetada, a big dinner for the-

1:36:47 Speaker 6 For Malkie

1:36:48 Speaker 1 ... yeshiva. It wasn't-- So the Rebbe, so the Rebbe gave mashgiach, and actually the first time the Rebbe said that when he gives mashgiach he wants to, uh, to announce what it's for, he gave a Siyum HaRambam also.

1:37:15 Speaker 6 When the Rebbe instituted this thing.

1:37:17 Speaker 1 To say, to announce what you're taking for. I remember almost my brother called me from Tel Aviv like, "You had to announce it in front of the Rebbe." How did you feel? It was a new thing. But this time, back to the story, we weren't sure where we're gonna make it. So I came up, and, uh, I announced that, "Be'ezras Hashem, mechayei se dinstig banacht, tztvor kumen a siyum, a filf es dest, m'tas choles zuch es dost," the whole thing without mentioning where. And Nesi Delei Nu B'rishei Nu, now leads in the angel land. As I'm walking back to my place, the Rebbe says, "Vu tes vorkumen." I have to realize my, my, uh... So I announced right away, "Doyn 770."

1:38:10 Speaker 6 You decided on the spot.

1:38:11 Speaker 1 Here in 770, uh, and from then all the Siyumim are in 770.

1:38:17 Speaker 6 Mm-hmm.

1:38:18 Speaker 1 From then.

1:38:19 Speaker 6 And, and-

1:38:20 Speaker 1 You could mean there's like, there's 15 people announcing and everyone is saying something. Here I just kept like where it's gonna be, and the Rebbe, "Vu tes vorkumen."

1:38:30 Speaker 6 So that's when it started everything in 770.

1:38:32 Speaker 1 770.

1:38:33 Speaker 6 And also you started giving mashgiach every time.

1:38:35 Speaker 1 Oh, so the mashgiach every time was like this. Uh, this went on from Taf Shin Mem Daled for five years till Taf Shin Mem Tes. Taf Shin Mem Tes, it was Shabbos same week as like this year, Shabbos after Pesach. So at the end of the sikha, the Rebbe said, "Mf taf machna a siyum af ha'halacha," which was a chidush. Although one halo-- one sefer I missed in Mem Ches, and the first fabrengen that I came after the, I missed the sefer, the Rebbe said, "Heint at mgendik tamoidike halacha in Lambam. The halacha vas alendik tzach mitli'ire avaya lochoish vishmoi. Kena tzach nshi chabtam daf machna a shtulim. Vemei vatagev mashgiach muzal machna a shtulim from-"

1:39:29 Speaker 6 On halachas.

1:39:31 Speaker 1 On this halacha. So I realized right away that I missed, uh, uh, sefer, and I announced both. Announced the Siyum of Sefer Kabbalas, has whole Sefer Torah, and the Siyum of the Halacha with the Rambam for endikt, "Mitli'ire avaya lochoish vishmoi, yitvor kumen hein banacht mit hamalav haMalchut." And, uh, seems like the Rebbe was satisfied. And so that was one time on Halacha 'cause I missed the Sefer. But this was a year later, uh, he's this Mem Tes, and the Rebbe said to make a Siyum Halacha.

1:40:11 Speaker 6 The Rebbe gave a hidra in the sikha to make a Siyum on Halacha.

1:40:14 Speaker 1 Halacha. So it was a big chiddush, but I remember before chazarah, Rebbe Yoel Kane said, "You have to make a siyum halachah." But it was fregged by Rebbe Groner.

1:40:27 Speaker 6 Asked what?

1:40:29 Speaker 1 If, if practical take it to make a siyum halachah, it was a big chiddush.

1:40:34 Speaker 6 So what's the question, if you should do it from then on?

1:40:38 Speaker 1 No, if we should make then a, a siyum.

1:40:41 Speaker 6 But the Rebbe said to do it.

1:40:43 Speaker 1 The Rebbe said to do it. So I, uh-

1:40:46 Speaker 6 You're saying ask Rebbe Groner if this is the kavana?

1:40:48 Speaker 1 Yeah.

1:40:49 Speaker 6 To find out-

1:40:49 Speaker 1 Practically.

1:40:50 Speaker 6 Mm-hmm.

1:40:51 Speaker 1 So he had his office in the Rebbe's house in the back. I went over, he says, "Say the Rebbe tuch shon gefragte vim makh dem siyum."

1:40:57 Speaker 6 The Rebbe asked about it.

1:40:58 Speaker 1 Yeah, after actually making it. I remember I ran, then the bakery was open twenty-four hours, and told him give challas after chazarah, beautiful molaveh malkah siyum Rebbe Yoel farbracht. And, uh, I think Pesach Sheni and Lag BaOmer, again and again, the Rebbe said to make a siyum halachah. So mayrag elon aduch, and, uh, Shavuos taf shin mem tes. You wanna hear a little bit more ?

1:41:40 Speaker 6 Zog out.

1:41:44 Speaker 1 Okay. Shavuos taf shin mem tes. It was after davening, second day Shavuos, Yom Tov, and the gabbai, Meshieh Pinson, made all the achrozahs, the regular achrozahs, and the Kinos Torah, tevka uman, uh, Yitzchak Shavuos, all the regular announcements, and the Rebbe still staying. When the Rebbe doesn't take the sidder, it means he's waiting for another announcement. So people said that he didn't announce the farbrengen.

1:42:21 Speaker 6 Shavuos farbrengen.

1:42:22 Speaker 1 Shavuos taf shin mem tes. He should have announced-

1:42:25 Speaker 6 Like the Mincha

1:42:26 Speaker 1 ... this vades kodesh from Rebbe Shlita tain tvorkumen noch Mincha.

1:42:30 Speaker 6 Mm-hmm.

1:42:31 Speaker 1 LeKavod, uh, Shavuos, something like that. So the Rebbe is waiting, and he finished, and he didn't announce at all farbrengen, farbrengen. So 'cause it was hergel ha'aloshim of every week, he was so used to it, so he announced this vades kodesh from Rebbe Shlita tain tvorkum BeEzrat Hashem half noch eins. Now this is Yom Tov, five after one.

1:42:54 Speaker 6 Was it Shabbos?

1:42:55 Speaker 1 It was also a Shabbos.

1:42:56 Speaker 6 It was Shabbos and Yom-

1:42:57 Speaker 1 But it was Yom Tov, five after one, and-

1:42:59 Speaker 6 There's usually no farbrengen

1:43:00 Speaker 1 ... everybody reminded him he should announce the farbrengen of, uh, after Mincha, and he announced-

1:43:08 Speaker 6 Announced one thirty

1:43:08 Speaker 1 ... one thirty. The whole place started laughing. The Rebbe took his sidder, walked out. Two minutes later, Rabbi Groner comes out from the Rebbe's office, and he says, "Farbrengen one thirty."

1:43:19 Speaker 6 Hmm.

1:43:19 Speaker 1 So you'll see the, there's two farbrengens that-

1:43:23 Speaker 6 Whatever, because it was announced, there's, there's a farbrengen.

1:43:27 Speaker 1 And after the first sicha, the Rebbe called over Rabbi Groner, told him something, and he left. Farbrengen.

1:43:37 Speaker 6 L- Rabbi Groner left?

1:43:38 Speaker 1 Yeah. He came back mamash two minutes later, a bottle of Smirnoff, like a liter bottle. He put it on the table. I remember as soon as he put it down, the Rebbe started the second sicha. What was the second sicha? Yois, a sidder, a siyum of yed de-sefer in Rambam, since there's a siyum being made on the completion of every sefer. So from today, he wants that there should be a sefer in every halachah. Which means instead of 14 times on the masah, there should be 83 times. Since there's someone that he makes the siyumim, so you should come up, and you should start even today between the two farbrengens, and continue Motzei Shabbos, and the main one tomorrow night.

1:44:32 Speaker 6 Didn't the Rebbe say, is that when the Rebbe said the mesuder?

1:44:34 Speaker 1 "Vi tes kenin bavaisin, vi baal ders a mesuder, tes kenin bavaisin."

1:44:39 Speaker 6 The Rebbe called you a mesuder.

1:44:42 Speaker 1 And, uh-

1:44:43 Speaker 6 The Rebbe's talking about you, the, the someone that does it.

1:44:46 Speaker 1 Yeah.

1:44:47 Speaker 6 And he's a mesuder, so he'll be able to-

1:44:50 Speaker 1 "Vi azoy der shtimt-"

1:44:51 Speaker 6 You're a mesuder in this inyan, hakvannah.

1:44:53 Speaker 1 Huh?

1:44:53 Speaker 6 In this inyan, hakvannah.

1:44:56 Speaker 1 And, uh, and the Rebbe gave the mashke. So farshates the Rebbe did geben, uh-

1:45:03 Speaker 6 So the whole thing of halachas, a siyum of halachas, mamash a srus ha'leila from the Rebbe.

1:45:07 Speaker 1 Srus ha'leila. Shavuos taf shin mem tes for every halachah. But that's why I said the Rebbe also started Shabbos after Pesach, Pesach Sheni, Lag BaOmer.

1:45:18 Speaker 6 Slowly.

1:45:19 Speaker 1 Yeah. And we made, and then the next Shabbos after Shavuos, I'm standing in my place. Rabbi Groner would come in like a half a minute before the Rebbe, said, "Heyntah, the Rebbe geben mashke." So staruvgin the Rebbe geben mashke for the siyum halachah. So again, the srus ha'leila that the Rebbe is giving mashke, we never gave in. And since then, the Rebbe gave every week except one week.

1:45:48 Speaker 6 So you'd, you'd given in already, Baal, before?

1:45:50 Speaker 1 Later, we started giving in already. And, and Rabbi Groner would ask, "Ver tzt ves di mashke?" I said, "Whoever sponsors is also a bottle of mashke." So, uh-

1:46:12 Speaker 6 You're saying there's a Siyum every week besides one week?

1:46:14 Speaker 1 Oh, besides one week, 'cause we started learning Hilchos Shabbos on the Friday. So a whole week there was no Siyum. Next one was Eshet Hayyim-

1:46:26 Speaker 6 So from then test till Numbays there was only one-

1:46:28 Speaker 1 Every week except one week the Rebbe gave a lecture.

1:46:29 Speaker 6 What if there's two Siyumim in one week?

1:46:32 Speaker 1 So one bottle, and we announced-

1:46:34 Speaker 6 Two

1:46:34 Speaker 1 ... there could be four also. There could be four Siyumim in one week.

1:46:38 Speaker 6 Right.

1:46:39 Speaker 1 With small halachas. So we had to announce. And, uh-

1:46:48 Speaker 6 And also they always took place in 770 from-

1:46:50 Speaker 1 Yeah

1:46:50 Speaker 6 ... from that time.

1:46:51 Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

1:46:52 Speaker 6 From that time in the where it's, where it is.

1:46:54 Speaker 1 Yeah. From then, all of them in 770, 'cause the Rebbe asked, and the Rebbe wanted to know Uh, so this way if it was once a month I had time to sit down, who spoke on the, when it started, when it finished, how many people came, what were this, uh, at least, uh, two, three lines on each speaker. But here we made Sunday, and then Tuesday was another one, and then Thursday there were a whole bunch of Siyum, one after another. So I remember five Siyum in past I hadn't given a doch. So I sat down and I wrote a doch on five Siyumim. And, uh, right away I got an answer, and was received, and warm thanks. including the, the happiness and the that you caused, et cetera. And then the whole long . So the Rebbe would answer, but this and since then we made on, uh, every Siyum. Interesting, there was, uh, the nine days the Rebbe said to make Siyumim. But by the Farbrengen the Rebbe said that he wants not only in the nine days, but, uh, the Siyum should be continued till

1:48:35 Speaker 6 The Siyum on, on

1:48:39 Speaker 1 So the Siyum became, uh-

1:48:41 Speaker 6 Became one or- organization.

1:48:44 Speaker 1 Now, I always knew, remember even when the Rebbe started the first Siyum in that to make a Siyum on Tisha B'Av, Tisha B'Av, on Tisha B'Av, someone has to learn the first two of and the third since it talks about, uh, you could learn it on Tisha B'Av and make a Siyum. Now, this Shabbos the Rebbe said it was Shabbos Tisha B'Av, on Tisha B'Av, and Sunday was the fast day. So the Rebbe said that they should make Siyumim continue till Shabbos, Motzaei Shabbos, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, So I didn't expect it, so I didn't have anyone prepared to make a Siyum on Shabbos. On Sunday, I just for old times I didn't ask someone to learn before. So when I made the announcement, I, uh, made it very I said, "Hashem ." And, uh, whatever. The Rebbe turns around, like every day So I went right back and I said exactly the words that the Rebbe said. Rebbe said, "Shabbos Motzaei Shabbos ." Like I said exactly what the Rebbe said, the After the Farbrengen is, was revealed, we didn't know before, there's a whole called that says in that you could learn the whole on Tisha B'Av. there was a learned right away the whole and made a Siyum. There was on Motzaei Shabbos and on Tisha B'Av. But when I went up, I didn't know that it's, uh, practical.

1:51:12 Speaker 6 Right.

1:51:12 Speaker 1 There was Shabbos, Motzaei Shabbos, And since then, uh, so 15 days straight there's a Siyum every day. So if you make a 83 halachas in- ... 11 and a half months, plus 15 days over there, so it comes out to over 100 times a year, 50 weeks. It's average at twice a week, uh, Siyum.

1:51:52 Speaker 6 What happened with, um, there's a time that they made a Siyum in and the Rebbe gave ba- the Mashki to you. Is, was the story over there?

1:52:00 Speaker 1 First year the Rebbe spoke, to make Siyum was a big shturem. The Rebbe spoke again, and again, and again. So everyone wanted Siyumim and, uh- Big ones and small ones. The Farbrengen Yud Aleph Nisan was Monday. We made Sunday night in Seven 70, Erev Yud Aleph Nisan. And by the Farbrengen, the Rebbe said that, uh, "Today we're gonna give Mashke only for those that are making S- a Siyum before Yud Aleph Nisan." Rebbe told us, "Get a farbrengen for Yud Aleph Nisan." And we didn't give him Mashke, 'cause again-

1:52:47 Speaker 6 So the main Siyum was after

1:52:48 Speaker 1 ... there was the big one after Pesach-

1:52:51 Speaker 6 One in Manhattan

1:52:52 Speaker 1 ... in Manhattan.

1:52:53 Speaker 6 That was afterwards.

1:52:53 Speaker 1 There was in Alavi Torah, and there was a... The Pol, the Rebbe said, "Metze geben Mashke vas mad gebracht from the Rambam's shtot Fez." There were Bochurim that learned in Morocco. They brought in from a Siyum a Rambam. They did in the Rambam Siyum. And, uh, so we didn't give in, and for whatever reason, other people did go up, and, uh, they took the Mashke, and I'm standing there. We were the ones that the Rebbe said should take. So after the Rebbe, they said, uh... The Rebbe picked up the bottle. They said, "That's the bottle they gave in." The Rebbe said, "You're making before Yud Aleph Nisan or after?" 'Cause he spoke in the Sicha. They said they're making on Yud Aleph Nisan. So the Rebbe gave the bottle, and the Rebbe turned to me and he said, "Bring a fleshel." I should bring a bottle. So you're standing by the Rebbe, and, uh, no one has nothing, so they figured the Rebbe w- That's what I thought. The Rebbe wants to pour a Mashke from Fez, so they quickly emptied out a bottle, and I brought a bottle, a fleshel. Rebbe said, "A leideke, a fuller." A full bottle. So I didn't have, so Rabbi Groner had in his, the small bottles that he used to give for Koshel Brocha Smirnoff.

1:54:19 Speaker 6 He had a backup in case.

1:54:20 Speaker 1 Yeah, so he took out that bottle, and the Rebbe gave... And in this bottle, the Rebbe did put in from the Fez Mashke, from the Mashke from the Rambam city. And Seven 70 was packed, packed Sunday night. Beautiful Siyum. You have to see the pictures.

1:54:37 Speaker 6 The first Siyum.

1:54:38 Speaker 1 All the... We had, uh, six, seven Magid Shiur. They all came. There was two head tables, the Rabbonim and the speakers, and it was beautiful. Rabbi, uh, Shalom Gutnick from Australia, Rabbi Gershon Mendel Garelik from, uh, from, uh-

1:55:00 Speaker 6 Milan

1:55:01 Speaker 1 ... Milan. There was, uh, Rabbi Gorali used to give a Shiur, Motola Gorali, Rabbi, uh, Tzlagion, Rabbi Bogomilsky, Rabbi Haber, Rabbi Shapiro, Rabbi Wolberg. Uh, who did I miss?

1:55:17 Speaker 6 So these are all Magid, Magid Shiurim for, for-

1:55:19 Speaker 1 Rabbi Mishlovin.

1:55:20 Speaker 6 It was like a rotate, it was like a rotating-

1:55:21 Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah, every day someone had to prepare-

1:55:23 Speaker 6 ... slot

1:55:24 Speaker 1 ... and give the Shiur, especially the first time you learn the Rambam, everything was new. Yeah, yeah. They took it serious. The place was packed. Today is a Re'eh Chazora. You learned already Rambam, uh, 40 something times. It's much, much easier. You know exactly what, uh-

1:55:40 Speaker 6 Uh.

1:55:41 Speaker 1 Yeah, it was a beautiful Siyum, a beautiful Siyum. Big signs and this.

1:55:46 Speaker 6 And you're always Meshtatef in the Shiur yourself?

1:55:50 Speaker 1 Baruch Hashem.

1:55:52 Speaker 6 So I have a question-

1:55:53 Speaker 1 That's my best hour of the day. I'm serious. Like, you're running here, you're running there. You take one hour, 8:30, I'm alive.

1:56:03 Speaker 6 And-

1:56:03 Speaker 1 Mamish, I suggest everybody that hears this should... And another thing, if there's any day that I don't go to the Shiur for whatever reason, a Simcha or something, you come at night, you take the Rambam, and you start questions, or you start looking in the bottom, then you can fall asleep. It could take you instead of, uh, 45 minutes, a Shiur Rambam could take you double or triple as long. So you come to the Shiur, like you said, close your phone, and I'm alive. Any question, there are so many people listening, everybody has a answer on the spot. So it's mamish, for su- by far the best hour of the day, 8:30. And every, uh, Rabbi Chaim, not Mosadiker, every time we finish the three Prakim, we learn a Chelek of the Sicha. He used to print every week the Darom Alchus. Now his son took over. Uh, Yossi Chaim, he prints every week for our Shiur the Sicha of the week, printed in Darom Alchus, and we learn Chelek of the Sicha, whatever, let's say, uh, three chapters. What does it take? Five to 10 minutes. So usually it comes out to about, uh, less than an hour, the whole Shiur.

1:57:22 Speaker 6 So I have a question that when it came to the other, when it came to Tzedakah of Levi Yitzchok, so the Rebbe asked, "Have a Pum?" The Rebbe wanted to have a Pum, you know, uh, have a Peh Mamlish, the Rebbe wanted to know. I mean, it's not, that's not like a, that's not negative, but the Rebbe's questioning. The Rebbe is Flerknoch.

1:57:41 Speaker 1 He wanted to do.

1:57:41 Speaker 6 My question is, uh, the Siyumi HaRambam, were there answers like that, or they're all, uh, you know, answers that were-

1:57:51 Speaker 1 On the Medos were a lot of times Ha'aras, like I told you. Nogei, Meledet, Ben, the date, uh, Broches. And on the Siyumim, so I don't know if you know, but in the end of mems, nuns, nun, nun alef, and beis, there were Klal Dike answers. Reish, alef, reish, Chodesh, Kislev, Tov, Shin, Tam. So we used to get all those answers I'm saying the Kolos Lika answers many, many times. Uh, Sukas Memches, I gave him the Midar. We're having a Siyam in the Suka. The Rebbe Tsitushin, ubehakil, one word.

1:58:33 Speaker 6 Ubehakil.

1:58:34 Speaker 1 Ubehakil. Uh, out of my memory, then, uh, Erev Shabbos Kodesh Parshas Eimek. Rebbe writes, "Lahazir gedolim al hakatanim," underlined lahazir, chulu. Uh, "Siyam Sefer Zmanim. Vlases sholom boielam," underlined vlases, to make peace in the world. Uh, there was a lot of like... I'll tell you something else. I remember I used to give him it's like a Chabad Besedah, not such a big Besedah, but Friday before Shabbos, like after Lichtin, sometimes the Midar would come to the Rebbe's box. I always tried before Shabbos. So I remember Yomim would take the Midar, fold it, and write here, "Siyam Marambam," and put it on top of everything. Came out like he wanted the Rebbe should open up with a good Besedahs. So that I remember always, Siyam Marambam, and put it on top of all the-

1:59:44 Speaker 6 Of everything else

1:59:45 Speaker 1 ... on top of all the papers.

1:59:49 Speaker 6 So everyone knew-

1:59:50 Speaker 1 Three times a day the-

1:59:50 Speaker 6 Yeah

1:59:51 Speaker 1 ... the pages of this Chabad.

1:59:53 Speaker 6 So everyone knew that the Rebbe has tremendous Nachas Ruach from the, this whole thing.

1:59:57 Speaker 1 That's what the Rebbe write. "Kolu al hasimcha venachas ruach shagor hamchulu." We're too small to understand what this is, but the Rebbe really liked it, the farbrengens, the fact. Today you come in Simchat 70, there are 10 birthday parties every night, and farbrengens, and Matanim Utzrim Kofar. Then people, Bochurim from Kutz come down, they say, "Oi, we remember that, that, uh, twice a week we could come in and then really have like a meal." And, uh, man, the Begashmis, and the Ruchnis, and the, the Sheva Sachim Gam Yochad, and the, the environment, and the farbrengen. The Rebbe saw much more than what we saw, and he really liked it.

2:00:43 Speaker 6 Mm-hmm.

2:00:43 Speaker 1 There was a, uh, a senior center called Queens Y Senior Center in Kayesina. The Jewish woman, she liked very much to push Yiddishkeit, and she, uh, invited we should come for a, for a program. So I came, and I spoke, uh, spoke about the Rebbe, Moshiach, Geulah. I told them about, uh, the Six Day War, when it was such a scary time, and the Rebbe came out as a Tzadok Metzuchem. So, "Mei sefzeiim miftatzilim." And, uh, there was the big, uh, Six Day War victory. On and on. The Russian, the Rebbe said, uh, the Roshim, no, Aruz Gimel Sof Bo, and they should build houses. And all of a sudden, the Iron Curtain, everybody came out.

2:01:43 Speaker 6 Fell.

2:01:43 Speaker 1 And instead of having all these houses the Rebbe spoke, they did build then 42 houses, I think. They lived in tents, and caravans, and parks, and, uh, and, uh, the Gulf War, Rebbe said Israel is the safest place. 39 missiles fell, and, uh, not a single Yid was killed from the missiles. And the Rebbe said Israel is the safest place. And then I continued that not only that, but hundreds and hundreds of people come every Sunday to the Rebbe for a brachah. And everything the Rebbe says is words from Hashem. Shechinah Medaberet, and the Garin Shel Moshe, Ruach Hakodesh mamash. Someone asks for a child, the Rebbe says, "And the boy will be born." There was a boy. There's a girl, a girl. If the Rebbe gave two, it's twins, three, triplets. I'm telling all about, uh... One of the sen-seniors get up, and he says, "Rabbi, how dare you say another word?" Then he starts screaming mamash nonstop. What was he screaming? He says that from his whole family, he's the only one saved from the Holocaust. He came to America.

2:03:12 Speaker 6 Oh.

2:03:13 Speaker 1 Got married, and he only has one daughter. Vayhi hayom, she comes home, and she says she wants to marry a goy. Says from his whole family, he's the only one left, and he has only one daughter, and she's gonna marry a goy. He was completely broken. He did. He said he tried everything to convince her. Nothing helped. Finally, friends told him that whoever has a problem goes to the Rebbe in Simchat 70, and the Rebbe solves every problem. Says he went Simchat 70. He was screaming. He stood four hours in the line. Came to the Rebbe. He told the Rebbe his problem. Says the Rebbe tell, told him, "Don't worry. Everything will work out as it's supposed to, and you'll see it." She married a goy. She has children from the goy, and you're getting up here and say that the Rebbe never made a mistake. On that, he was screaming and screaming. Finally, he said, "And not only the Rebbe, all Orthodox rabbis," the get keğim. I don't know why, but here I interrupted him. I said, "What do you have against all Orthodox rabbis?" So he said that when he went to divorce his wife, the mother of this daughter, no rabbi wanted to do the get. So I said, "Why not?" Uh, "Hon shibos favore, why not?" Said, "Ah, they said that she was converted by a conservative rabbi, so they can't give her a get. They give her a get, that means she's Jewish, and she's not." I heard this. I

2:05:05 Speaker 1 told him, uh, "Here's your answer. What did the Rebbe say? Don't worry. Everything will work out as it's supposed to, and you'll see it." A Jew is only someone born to a Jewish mother or-

2:05:20 Speaker 6 Ki Halacha

2:05:21 Speaker 1 ... Ki Halacha gets a special neshamah. And here she wasn't Jewish, the daughter wasn't Jewish. What did the Rebbe tell him? "Don't worry, everything will work out as supposed, and you'll see it." So I was the one that, uh, explained to him. The end was after the whole class, is everybody heard and this, and he comes over to me, he says, "You know, Rabbi, you're right. She wasn't Jewish." And his wife, the mother of the daughter, "When she would get drunk, she would scream at me, 'Dirty Jew.' She wasn't Jewish," at Moideh even.

2:05:59 Speaker 6 Hmm.

2:05:59 Speaker 1 But here you see, mamash, the Ruach HaKodesh and Rebbe by every person, even though everything looked opposite. Like, when he started telling the story, it was like-

2:06:10 Speaker 6 What are you gonna do?

2:06:12 Speaker 1 And here's this the-

2:06:14 Speaker 6 Uh-huh.

2:06:19 Speaker 1 Ven ikh bin mit der Loch haKleine maisis poshtei ru, people travel. Last night by the Siyum I said this story. Two bochurim came. There's a kvutze samach vav came, so they asked me, "What if..." So I told them that I once went to Montreal. This was summer 5711. You have to realize, summer 5711, every hour the pile of tzetlach would go . I was going to Montreal with the whole family with a old car, and I was debating should I ask a brocha or not. From one hand, the whole family, old car, a trip. From the other hand, the Rebbe gets so many tzetlach, what I'm gonna bother him? It was between camp and school. Po, I decided just to give him the names, brocha on the Siyum HaMontreal. So it was Sunday afternoon, uh, Cheshuv. I'm sure it was Cheshuv.

2:07:22 Speaker 6 It's three days after I was born.

2:07:24 Speaker 1 Uh, and I wrote, I wrote the names. It was Sunday afternoon, about 7:00 after davens. I put it under Groner's drawer, door. I go to Montreal, and, uh, I came home from Shul. Rabbi Groner wants you to call him. I call him back. Says, "Got an answer." I said, "For sure, answer from the Rebbe in Elul 5711." It's a big duchan Siyum HaRambam, or the far as Kenim, the shiurim. He says, "No, it's geschriben necht na tzetl vos to Montreal." And the Rebbe answer, and this, what did the Rebbe answer? "Kamo vekamo manashe yichyu ein noyagim betfilas haderech siman kria. Ve'ula yaachzir atah letoikev shelo beshtey hamedinos azkar hatzin." Many of anash sheyichyu don't have the custom or don't drive, noyagim, in, uh, quotation marks, the word noyagim. Betfilas haderech, in saying the traveler's prayer, exclamation mark, and maybe you'll return its crown to its full strength and in both countries. I was going from the United States to Canada. Okay, I got the answer, and then right away I was thinking, "Where did I say tefilas haderech?" 'Cause tefilas haderech, I was brought up, and my father was a whole big stop in, uh, mmm, eating a piece of cake and making a lamichin, standing with a gartel. It was a whole... I always said tefilas haderech, but here I was thinking, "Where did I say tefilas haderech?" I'm thinking, I think, "I didn't say a whole trip." I gave him a tzetl. The Rebbe answered-

2:09:18 Speaker 6 That's right

2:09:18 Speaker 1 ... "Kamo vekamo manash ein noyagim betfilas haderech, ve'ula yaachzir atah letoikev shelo beshtey hamedinos azkar hatzin."

2:09:26 Speaker 6 I think it's open, uh, open Ruach HaKodesh.

2:09:28 Speaker 1 Open Ruach HaKodesh. So I used to publicize. I went onto the bus, uh, that goes, uh, every night to Montreal, and, uh, later I meet up with the driver. Should say it with everyone. They used to call me the, uh, tefilas haderech. And, uh, Rabbi Raskin, the schliach in Cold St. Luke, brought in a bus with, uh, 50 children for Yut 24, 5711. So because of this, he wrote the Rebbe a duch. He brought in 50 children, and we said with them tefilas haderech on the way. So the Rebbe answers him, "When you bring in a bus of children, at night you have to say with them Kirshman-"

2:10:12 Speaker 6 Shalomita.

2:10:13 Speaker 1 Kirshma Shalomita. That was what he didn't do.

2:10:17 Speaker 6 Yeah.

2:10:17 Speaker 1 So I'm saying you're talking about open Ruach HaKodesh. Someone that was here in those years, every l'chaim, every, like, you could communicate with the Rebbe by a farbrengen just by thinking what you want, what brocha. And then this was open Ruach HaKodesh, someone that was here in those years. I remember sometime people would hold a cup out by a farbrengen like this, "L'chaim, l'chaim," as if the Rebbe doesn't see him. Other people, like between the sichas, I remember, people, the Rebbe would mamash be looking into the Chumash with the Rashi between sichas. A certain person, I remember he would say l'cha- If he just picked up a cup, the Rebbe would pick up and answer him right away. I'm saying he picked up once, uh, for a Siben. I, the other guy, is having his cup right in front of the Rebbe and, and holding it up high. The Rebbe is a Rebbe. You just... So here also, like everything w- You saw how everything was mamash open Ruach HaKodesh and, and alef to tov. The Rebbe said, "Now Moshiach is coming. Get ready. It's any moment."

2:11:40 Speaker 6 Amen.

2:11:40 Speaker 1 Azoycher zein teykev im yad mamash now.

2:11:43 Speaker 6 Sh'keach.

2:11:43 Speaker 1 L'chaim, l'chaim, levarcha, sh'ko yodi.

2:11:45 Speaker 6 L'chaim, levarcha.