Ep. 51: Why Rabbi Hodakov Woke Me Up In Middle Of The Night with Rabbi Zalman Lipsker

00:00 Speaker 1 We were listening to that then all of a sudden the Rebbe said, "Friend, is there not another one who knows a piece of a Chabad song? And I think I know a little Russian and Ukrainian." And nobody know what it meant. "Friend, after Zalmen from Lipsker from the

00:23 Speaker 2 I will not forget. I flew up like an airplane. I don't know how I did it, and I stood right there, and I loved that song.

00:42 Speaker 1 This episode is sponsored by Chabad of Napa Valley.

01:00 Speaker 2 If you've been enjoying this podcast, please like and subscribe so that others can enjoy it as well. In addition, if you've benefited in any way from Among Chassidun podcast and would like to give something back, you can do so today at derher.org/donate. I'm Yossi Kamen. Welcome to Among Chassidun by Der Her, an ongoing fablingen 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 Lipsker. How are you?

01:44 Speaker 1 Thank God.

01:45 Speaker 2 Okay. Baruch Hashem. Thank you so much. What I would like to ask you is, I know the Lipskers are very, it's a shame, Clal in Lubavitch. So maybe you could tell me a little bit about your parents, where they're from, and then where you were born, Vachulu.

02:03 Speaker 1 Yes. Uh, my parents were born in Poltava. Poltava in those days was Soviet Union. Uh, in the year from Shnas, Tov, Rish, Tzadik, uh, the end of, uh, Cheh, Peches, Petes, the Rov was my Zayde, Rav Reb Chaim Tzvi. He was the Zayde. He was the Rov there, Poltava Rov is what he was called.

02:37 Speaker 2 He's the famous Poltava Rov?

02:39 Speaker 1 No. In his time, when the, like the famous Poltava Rov was, uh, under... I forgot his name. It was a Vacante Rov who was also a, a Chaver with the Reb Rashab, that he was also a Chaver with the Rebbe Rashab. But in his time, from Peches till Tzadik Gimel, he was the Poltava Rov. As a matter of fact, that I visited Poltava, and my great nephew, HaRav Segal, is a Shliach in Poltava, and he showed me the place where the shul, the main synagogue, was, uh, was my Zayde the Rov.

03:25 Speaker 2 So he was a Lubavitcher?

03:27 Speaker 1 Who?

03:27 Speaker 2 Your Zayde.

03:27 Speaker 1 My Zayde was officially not a Lubavitcher, but, uh, he learned Likutei Torah every Shabbos. That's what he, uh, does. But not, he didn't learn in Lubavitch, he was older than that. But he was, uh, close to Lubavitch. As a matter of fact, when his children started to grow up, it was in Poltava, the Mir Yeshiva, and a lot of people were learning there. But the Zayde said that if I really want that the Kinder, which was Michol, Yankel, and my father, alav hashalom, who was the oldest of the brothers-

04:14 Speaker 2 What was his name?

04:16 Speaker 1 My father's name was Aryeh Zev Label.

04:19 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

04:20 Speaker 1 And, uh, I would like to tell-- send him to Lubavitcher Yeshivas. But in those days, that was a real problem because the, the Yeshivas were running from one place to another because of the KGB, the GePeU, and the guns and the missiles. So he sent my father away and Michol away. Yankel was not sent there. I really don't know why Yankel, it was because of my father, alav hashalom, and Michol, they went there.

04:53 Speaker 2 So where did they go?

04:55 Speaker 1 In Kharkov, then later on in Vitebsk. And it's a very interesting story that I reminded I never saw it while I'm talking to you. As he was learning in Kharkov, and he was a havrusa with Reb Mendel Futerfas, alav hashalom. He reached the age of 18 and a half, 19. My father was called in by Hasha Fagin, who was the maskir there, and said to him, "Leiber, I want you to go Lahashgacha in Eina Funditis-- Funditis, which are somebody had to run away from there because they were after him, and I would like you should go there."

05:44 Speaker 2 In the Yeshiva?

05:45 Speaker 1 In a, in a Yeshiva.

05:46 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

05:47 Speaker 1 And he, and he said, "This is Vitebsk." So my father said to him, "Ich vashteinisht." I don't understand. I just came maybe a year and a half I am here, and I was wandering from one place to other, from one room to another room, because this was when they caught somebody, they had to go to another room So he said to him, "This is what is going to be. You have to." And he told him that, "If you will agree to it, I will make sure that you'll go on Yechidas to the Rebbe in Leningrad." He will arrange it, uh, he, he will send me there.

06:29 Speaker 3 These Bochurim weren't, uh, didn't-

06:31 Speaker 1 Not everybody was going to go there. As he heard this, his mind turned around right away. He said, "Okay." But in mind he had it that he'll ask the Rebbe and tell the Rebbe the same tines why he should not accept the, uh, job, so to speak, the hatsuah, of being a, a mashgiach. He came, as he came in... As he came in to the Rebbe, and my father describes the Rebbe was with a re- the Rebbe was with a red beard, and he looked at him, he says, "Does this Jew labeled Poltava was forced on shlichus? Athat this, you are labeled Poltava that you're going on shlichus?" So he said, "Yes."

07:34 Speaker 3 Mm.

07:35 Speaker 1 And my brother, uh, lo zayen gezunt, told me that it was a farbringen in our house, which I was here already. This, this must have been in Tov Shin Yod Tes or Tov Shin Chof. I took a lot of mashgiach. So he said that, "If chas v'Shalom I would not answer your gevois what it will be with me."

08:02 Speaker 3 Wow.

08:03 Speaker 1 See, and I reminded myself this story.

08:06 Speaker 3 Wow. Okay. So, um, it's an import- it's an import-

08:10 Speaker 1 And then from Poltava, as he got married to my mother, which is the sister of Rebbe Alexander "Sender" Mankin, which he was the, so to speak, the gabbe in that shul, Rebbe Eliyahu. He was the m- the father of my mother, ohelei Yisroel, which is also the father of Sender Mankin. He married her. W- And interesting that, uh, Sender Mankin married prior to that my father's sister-

08:59 Speaker 3 Uh-huh

08:59 Speaker 1 ... which is Eida, the Poltava Rov's daughter.

09:04 Speaker 3 So they were brother, they were-

09:05 Speaker 1 So we were from both sides.

09:07 Speaker 3 Yeah.

09:07 Speaker 1 My uncle and my aunt.

09:09 Speaker 3 Wow.

09:11 Speaker 1 And this is how we started, but later on, when it started the problems and the, and the inyonim of Russian behavior became very, very uncomfortable for even befrat. So somehow he was told through... I don't know how he got the answer from the Rebbe, the Frierdiker Rebbe, it was in the peys, that he should go to Kutaisi.

09:41 Speaker 3 To Kutaisi. So he went bef... And, uh, as many Lubavitcher stayed in, in, in Moscow and-

09:45 Speaker 1 Uh, originally not yet, not completely. It, it was almol, Reb Shmuel Levitin, uh, were there. But after a while, everybody left. Like Reb Shmuel left in the Shins, not invited. We're talking about... And Reb Shmuel left in the Tsadik's actually. Tsadik, when did he? Earlier. But when we came, nobody was there yet. Then it started a whole group.

10:12 Speaker 3 When, when, when the World War II broke out, a lot of people started running away, basing by, by Yechiel-

10:16 Speaker 1 Yeah, but some people came there-

10:17 Speaker 3 ... before

10:18 Speaker 1 ... uh, it was my family. It was, um, Reb Mordechai Perlov. Have you heard of Reb Mordechai Perlov?

10:26 Speaker 3 Yes.

10:27 Speaker 1 Uh, it was, uh, uh, Avrum Levik, Slavin, Reb Shmuel Noach. You know Rabbi Noach? A sakh, a sakh Hasidim.

10:37 Speaker 3 So your father and his brothers also were there?

10:39 Speaker 1 Yes.

10:40 Speaker 3 Yeah.

10:40 Speaker 1 All three of us.

10:41 Speaker 3 Okay. So that's where you were born?

10:44 Speaker 1 Uh, yes. I, uh, I was born in Kutaisi. I was born in Kutaisi.

10:49 Speaker 3 Kutaisi.

10:49 Speaker 1 So that, now after I was born.

10:51 Speaker 3 No, you were born there?

10:52 Speaker 1 I was born there.

10:53 Speaker 3 So what was it like... So how, what was it like... I mean, you remember it, right? You were a kid.

10:57 Speaker 1 Oh, I remember as a kid, the Yeshivat Bochurim. I could remember Reb Sholom Marozov, Reb Meshulam Marozov. Uh, I remember Ben Zion Wengerov, Hetzel Teitel, and Chatzkel Broad.

11:10 Speaker 3 So they were-

11:10 Speaker 1 I was a little child, I remember them

11:12 Speaker 3 ... they were, it was a cheder midrasha?

11:13 Speaker 1 They... No, they became the, the Yeshivah. Upstairs in our, uh, uh, attic was the Yeshivah there.

11:20 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm. And you went to cheder?

11:23 Speaker 1 Oh, here's another s- interesting thing. Uh, without toch lernen, and to learn there and found out, and f-find, if people would find that we, in our place, we are teaching the children, our Jewish children, what do you want? Well, the Rebbe Shalit"a, officially my parents did not have children. It's interesting.

11:48 Speaker 3 You weren't registered that you existed?

11:49 Speaker 1 Were not registered.

11:50 Speaker 3 So that way you don't have to go to public school?

11:53 Speaker 1 Otherwise we would have to go to public school, and this remind me a very interesting story. I remember like today, I was a child of five and a half years old. We lived on a second floor. From outside, there was one way that, uh, that we came upstairs, and from the other side we had another stairs that went to a little river, a nahar. A river it's called, right?

12:20 Speaker 3 A river, yeah.

12:21 Speaker 1 And every once in a while, I remember the KGB. My mother asked, "Who is it?" So they answered, "The KGB." So she said, "Okay, I'm coming." And there is a curtain here. It was in... Behind the curtain, it was a door that put us down to the river.

12:48 Speaker 3 Like a secret exit?

12:49 Speaker 1 Huh? With stairs.

12:50 Speaker 3 A secret, uh, exit.

12:51 Speaker 1 A secret place. She covered it, and she put us all down, and they said, "Where are the children?" She said, "We don't have any children." They didn't know that was another cover. Because I remember it like today.

13:04 Speaker 3 Hmm.

13:04 Speaker 1 Then I remember that-

13:06 Speaker 3 Mamish, uh-

13:06 Speaker 1 ... Hirsche, Berke, Manke, I was the fourth one.

13:09 Speaker 3 So this is mamish like the storybooks.

13:11 Speaker 1 So gevaltike maise. Place where it was made?

13:15 Speaker 3 Yeah.

13:15 Speaker 1 My father officially was in the army, but thank God it was in Kutaisi Station. So all of a sudden he became, with a few dollars, he became a nurse.

13:27 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm.

13:30 Speaker 1 And in those days, you give him mot me zachen, as it better that was, a few dollars did the trick.

13:35 Speaker 3 So who... And who taught you in the cheder?

13:37 Speaker 1 Huh?

13:37 Speaker 3 Who, who taught-

13:38 Speaker 1 Oh, it was a... His name was Reb Shmuel Tzurer. And I'm gonna hu, hu, Hashevet. He used to have my elder two brothers, who had started already Ivrit, and then Chumash, and then, then it was, um, Menachem, zal zayn gezunt. He's in America. Or till Menachem, everybody's gone. And then me, and we learned the Aleph-Bet in Ivrit, and, uh, that's about all.

14:17 Speaker 3 So you mamish learned, uh, in a, in a underground cheder?

14:21 Speaker 1 That's correct.

14:22 Speaker 3 In krute. Wow. Okay. So this is till what age? What happened then?

14:28 Speaker 1 When I was-

14:31 Speaker 3 What year w-

14:31 Speaker 1 I was born in Chof Ches lev-

14:32 Speaker 3 Chof... What year?

14:35 Speaker 1 I was born in Chof Ches lev tofreish tsadik tes. And we left in '46.

14:43 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm.

14:44 Speaker 1 Which I was about six years old, a little over six. And how did we go out? Because it was heard in 1946 that the Zeide, referring to the Friar, the Rebbe was called the Zeide. That it said that since it's after the Milchonah, and Russia permitted that all the Polish immigrants could go back to Poland. Vemeile, it would be the right thing to go back to Poland. But we knew what it meant. And there it started the famous Bricha. I'm sure you heard about it.

15:33 Speaker 3 The Shalonen and everything.

15:34 Speaker 1 Yeah, Shalonen, and unfortunately at the end, Yeini, uh, Paltavor was killed. Mendel Futterfas was later put in, uh, jail, and then in Siberia, so on and so forth. And then we, somehow we were wandering two years in a row, a little over two years, from place to place, from Czechoslovakia, Vienna, Austria, um, all kinds of places, till we finally came to Germany. In Germany, my father, Oliver Shalom, when we came to Germany, it was already Baruch Hashem poter gevorrn. But till we came to Germany, it was a very, very, very heavy, heartbreaking and scary moment, physically and mentally. It was times that we had to go at night, a whole night, and quiet. Nobody should heard the voices. But we did what the Rebbe said.

16:41 Speaker 3 And you remember this whole thing well?

16:43 Speaker 1 I remember like today.

16:44 Speaker 3 Going on a train and everything.

16:46 Speaker 1 The train was at the end already. This everybody could remember-

16:48 Speaker 3 And how'd you get from Russia-

16:49 Speaker 1 ... because this was two years later. Huh?

16:50 Speaker 3 How'd you get from Russia over the border then?

16:53 Speaker 1 At night.

16:54 Speaker 3 Not on a train?

16:55 Speaker 1 No. They, they ran. When we came towards Poland from, what, what is it called?

17:04 Speaker 3 Lviv.

17:04 Speaker 1 We first went to Lviv.

17:05 Speaker 3 Lviv.

17:06 Speaker 1 Which is called in that day, um, Galicia, Galizianer, which was the Lviv.

17:15 Speaker 3 Uh-

17:15 Speaker 1 And then when we came to Germany, right away, I remember the people who were there was, uh, Rav Mordechai Perlov, Yitzchak Lemes, Yitzchak Minkovich, Yishkel Lemes, Zalman Duchman, my, uh, yo- youngest uncle, uh, Eli Lipsker from Toronto, the, the father of, uh, Mendel and, uh, Shalom, Oliver Shalom. Uh, and a big krin, Zalman Lachov, Eli Eber's, uh, Schwer I think he, uh, who is he?

18:00 Speaker 3 I don't know. Okay.

18:01 Speaker 1 Eli Eber's, uh, Schwer.

18:02 Speaker 3 Schwer.

18:03 Speaker 1 Zalman Light's father. His family came. Avrom Ayor.

18:08 Speaker 3 So-

18:08 Speaker 1 A whole group of people

18:09 Speaker 3 ... so where, this was in Paceng or this a different place?

18:12 Speaker 1 No, it was two big places. The biggest place was Paceng, and we were in Swebish Hall.

18:18 Speaker 3 So there's all these Hasidim that you're mentioning were, were with you?

18:21 Speaker 1 But those older children was with us in Schwäbisch Hall.

18:24 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm.

18:25 Speaker 1 But Reb Nisen, um, under it, then he went in Pocking.

18:29 Speaker 3 Right.

18:30 Speaker 1 In Mo-- in Pocking was the yeshiva gedola at that time. And my father, since my oldest brother, Oliver Shalom, was already bar mitzvah, he sent him away there in Pocking. But in there, he made a, uh, uh, Talmud Torah, and you can see here, there is a picture of the Talmud Torah that my father made in Schwäbisch Hall.

18:57 Speaker 3 Oh, so this is, this is the book that, uh, has a lot of the things we're gonna discuss. Shlichus Le'avos HaChochma, it's called. With the-

19:08 Speaker 1 Well, but you, you asked me about my coming out from Rosh. We didn't get to Eretz Israel yet.

19:12 Speaker 3 Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I'm just, uh, letting all the people that are watching the video and listening to know about the sefer, that most of the things we'll discuss here are in here. So here's a picture of the yeshiva that your father made. It's... Oh, this picture is also, I believe the, it's in the Der Her.

19:29 Speaker 1 Uh, did I ever give you that picture?

19:31 Speaker 3 Yeah, I think so.

19:31 Speaker 1 I don't think so.

19:32 Speaker 3 Yeah, it's in, in the magazine that we did a article with you.

19:34 Speaker 1 Yeah.

19:34 Speaker 3 Interview. If I'm not mistaken.

19:35 Speaker 1 This is my father, uh, has the yeshiva, the, the... Let me see that picture. Let me see whether this is the one. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah.

19:51 Speaker 3 Yeah. Okay, so how long were you in the yeshiva there?

19:56 Speaker 1 We were in-

19:56 Speaker 3 How, how long were you guys-

19:57 Speaker 1 In Germany-

19:57 Speaker 3 Yeah

19:58 Speaker 1 ... was two years.

19:59 Speaker 3 Two years. And what was life like over there?

20:03 Speaker 1 Well, it was... I don't, I don't understand even how they existed there. I remember two things, that it was the yeshiva, and my father, Oliver Shalom, made the Talmud Torah, and, um, also for girls, a stickle, uh, Beth, uh, I don't remember wha-what it was called. But it was, uh, for teaching middah. And I remember that they had to make a mikvah. I was already about, uh, at that time eight and a half years, nine years. And I remember it was a big, big frost, and they cut pieces of ice, and they dug a, a place, like a bore, a pit. And I remember this like today, that Reb Mordechai Perlov, who was a great, uh, rav, he went down, and he started to make like this with his hands.

21:04 Speaker 3 So what does that mean?

21:05 Speaker 1 To s-

21:05 Speaker 3 Oh, to measure

21:06 Speaker 1 ... to measure.

21:07 Speaker 3 Ah. Ah, okay.

21:08 Speaker 1 It, it, it stuck to me until these days like I see it now.

21:13 Speaker 3 Wow.

21:14 Speaker 1 It's interesting. And obviously, all this is why. The Rebbe guide us from A to Z. Rebbe told us to go, my father from Poltava to, to whatchama call it, to Kutaisi. Then later on, my zeide sent my father and his other brothers to, to Lubavitcher yeshivas, and with the reason that if he wants him to remain in this time Eden, darfen gehen to Lubavitcher yeshivas. Because this was, we had the, the me'ir fun Rebbe, the me'ir, the shine, and the strength of the Rebbe, that this was like, without it we can't be around. As a matter of fact, I remember that before we used to go to sleep, my mother, Oliver Shalom, said, uh, said with us Shema Yisrael, and said, uh, "Gute nacht, kinderlach, un der Rebbe zal zayn gezunt." This was the good night.

22:09 Speaker 3 Wow.

22:10 Speaker 1 It's unbelievable. And then...

22:15 Speaker 3 Wow. Okay.

22:16 Speaker 1 And if you read that book, you have a lot of interesting th-things. I could just tell you one thing con-concerning this journey. When we came to Germany, the Rebbe, we wrote to the Rebbe where we should go. And the Rebbe-

22:35 Speaker 3 The Frierdiker Rebbe you're talking about?

22:37 Speaker 1 It was in Teves.

22:39 Speaker 3 Making sure everyone understands, okay?

22:41 Speaker 1 Huh?

22:41 Speaker 3 You have to make sure everyone understands what you're saying.

22:43 Speaker 1 Of course. Of course. You're right. Uh, we asked the Rebbe where to go. Some people were sent to Australia, like Rav, uh, what's his name? Mordechai Perlov was sent in Australia. My father, my uncle, my father's brother, Michol, was sent to Morocco. And my father got, interesting, a letter from the Rebbe where it says that he should go to America. Unbelievable. Let me just see where the letter is. This is what the Rebbe wrote, "Go, you should go to America." But interesting enough, if the Rebbe said to go to America, whatever chafetzim we had, we sent it.

23:39 Speaker 3 You sent it to America?

23:40 Speaker 1 To America. And a month or so later, the Rebbe, Oliver Shalom, wrote another letter that he should go to Eretz Israel.

23:50 Speaker 3 So all of your stuff was sent to America already?

23:52 Speaker 1 And we went to Eretz Israel.

23:54 Speaker 3 And then-

23:54 Speaker 1 And here is the two letters. Here, Yud. Mamish unbelievable. Oh, this is one letter. It ends here, the four.

24:07 Speaker 3 Okay, so the Frierdiker Rebbe writes that, um, first that your mother was pregnant.

24:13 Speaker 1 Hmm?

24:14 Speaker 3 Your mother was pregnant.

24:15 Speaker 1 Yeah.

24:15 Speaker 3 The Rebbe's giving a bracha.

24:17 Speaker 1 Yeah.

24:17 Speaker 3 "The "...

24:29 Speaker 1 In America.

24:30 Speaker 3 Yeah, to have a safe trip.

24:31 Speaker 1 Look, a, a couple letters later.

24:33 Speaker 3 So this was Yud Ches Sivan.

24:36 Speaker 1 Yeah.

24:36 Speaker 3 So then, Adar, Vav Adar, there's another letter.

24:40 Speaker 1 I don't know whether it is. A whole bunch of letters, but in one of the letters he write we should go to Eretz Israel.

24:45 Speaker 3 Yeah. Um, it's not in this one.

24:50 Speaker 1 If you'll give me, I'll show you the letter.

24:53 Speaker 3 Okay, well...

24:55 Speaker 1 No, this is interesting.

24:57 Speaker 3 Yeah, so it's a few letters later. Gimmel Tishrei.

25:00 Speaker 1 Okay.

25:00 Speaker 3 Teves. And-

25:02 Speaker 1 A month a year later.

25:03 Speaker 3 Yeah. So, "...

25:08 Speaker 1 "..."

25:10 Speaker 3 "You should go to Eretz HaKodesh."

25:13 Speaker 1 Wasn't even a thought to tell the Rebbe, "" right away. Right. Okay. Interesting. Yeah This is actually new . Yeah Unbelievable So a Hasid followed, so, uh- A Hasid not was followed. A Hasid is apart from Rebbe "." Mm-hmm. If he tells you this is what it's all about. How did we go out? If he heard it was the middle of the night. My father had actually a, a, a possibility to go out because the Rebbe said we should go. As Polish immigrants, how would you, how could you go? As I mentioned, he was working as a ach, um, as a nurse. A nurse. Remember I mentioned it? Yeah, yeah He gave a guy a shana poor ruble after 12:00 AM, and he asked him that he should take that ambulance and bring him to the Greenwich, to some trade there. And this is how we went out To the border? To the border Wow. Okay. So, so you went to Eretz Yisrael? Yeah With the "allen." And where did you settle? Uh, in Tehanat Rakevet Lud. And as we came to Eretz Yisrael, it was right after the end of the Melcheme. It was Hakamat Hamedina, so to speak, Eretz Yisrael. Since we were a big Mishpacha, so first of all, a Ole Hadash was brought to Bet Olim. Bet Olim means, uh, observant, uh, center that they expect people- Absorption center Huh? Absorption center Absorption center. And what did they give us? Materials, tent. Uh, how do you say a

27:12 Speaker 1 "temp"? A tent A tent from, uh, cloth. We were there- From canvas ... for a couple weeks. Weather, uh, uh, it wasn't the greatest, but at least we were out of, uh, the "." Later on, they brought us to Tehanat Rakevet Lud, which was a area where it was just kept and captured from the Arabs by the Eretz Yisrael doch ours. But it was right after the Melcheme, and it happened that at that Tehanat Rakevet, the previous Rebbe came to when he ca- went back from Mitzrayim. You know the, the Rebbe? On the way to Eretz Yisrael Yeah, on the way to Eretz Yisrael To the same place? Yeah. And since my father, I remember it like that, was, uh, was, uh, an "with many children," called in Hebrew "allen." So he said, "You can choose whatever you want." So my father looked around and says, "yeshiva, shul, huis." This is how it happened So this is Chabad? No, this is Lud- Lud ... this is Lud Tehanat Rakevet Lud. We're going about what? In, uh, 1949 Mm-hmm There was no Chabad yet Right. So that's where you, that's where you stayed? This is where we stayed, this is where we are living. And, uh, and then there came Rabbi Meir Kaplan there, then came Rabbi Lazar Itches. Uh, Lazar Itches means, uh, Itcher the Masmid so- son and his brother Shmuel. Uh, they made a "allen" and so forth Mm-hmm. So you was i- that's where you grew

29:12 Speaker 1 up and, uh, spent the time. So- You went to yeshiva there? Uh, in my, uh, beginning. First of all, we went to Tel Aviv. Not, not nish- uh, what? No yeshiva. It was... I stood by my Rabbi Meir Yerushalansky at night, and we learned in the morning by 12, by Rabbi Shaya Brook. And then we found the yeshiva, and then la- ca- later on it developed and became the Yeshiva Gedola. Then from 12 Shin Yud Aleph became the big pardes, the big zal in that, in Tehanat Rakevet Lud, which the, the, the Yeshiva Gedola from Lubavitch till a couple years later was in Kfar Cha- was in Tehanat Rakevet Lud. Und the elder, um, learned in pardes. They learned in the pardes. I, uh, I hope you heard about it Yes. So the- over there was, uh, Reb Sholom Cheym And then Reb Sholom Cheym was the "Balabos." And there it was also in 12 Shin Yud Beit, Yud Gimel, it was the Rosh Yeshiva was the Baruch Shimon Schneersohn. He was the Rosh Yeshiva at that time. Rabbi Meir was the Ro- the, uh, Shi- the, uh, shir giber from the yingere. Then, uh, Rabbi Avrohom Mayer was, uh, for the, uh, um, the mashpia under Reb Sholom Cheym. He also taught the Temanim who came a big group at that particular time. And, uh, this how it was developed Wow And then unfortunately at 12 Shin Tet Zayin something very bad happened. This is after Yud Gimel, Yud Daled, when it was,

31:00 Speaker 1 uh, uh- Development in Kfar Chabad and the yeshiva was there, not the yeshiva gedola in Lud. That was still in Lud, but, uh, I'm talking about the talmud Torah that Nochem the Rebe- the Rebbe made a beit m- um, a beit melacha. Beis Sefer HaMelacha. Beis Sefer HaMelacha. Happened the story of the five who Bogod killed, and we all know the story that the Rebbe said that "I myself actually has to go to comfort them and give them a little chizuk, but for certain reasons I cannot. I will send shluchim, and they will be just as I am there." This is the expression of the Rebbe. We were junge inglech at that time. We were 14, 15, 16-year-old boys, and then a year later they came, 57 , and, uh, their coming aroused a big, big, big sturm about coming to the Rebbe. So may- maybe explain, explain. Explain it to me. What do you want to explain? Tell me why, what. As good as we knew about the Rebbe, but everybody privately knew, like I said, my mother knew, my father knew, but as a whole, as a whole, yeshivas, Talmud Torahs, Chassidim in general should know that we have a g- such a great Rebbe, and how important, how great the Rebbe is. Because the Rebbe, he, they, the shluchim, gave through their farbrengenen, through their fact that they gave each and every Talmud Torah a kind of Tanya, a Chassidut, e- every, uh... It was three and a half, four weeks. I

33:05 Speaker 1 don't remember how mu- how long they were, but I remember they were in Tel Aviv, they were in, in Kfar Chabad, they were in, in Tahinatra Kevet Lud. They were everywhere. In everywhere they've, every shliach in his way explained and spoke, and the nekuda was to arouse and make sure bochurim, young elite, men, women, how and what the Rebbe is accomplishing and what he's accomplishing. Do you remember some of the things that they said? What, what had they said? Do you remember what, what they said? I remember what they said that, uh... I remember, for example, Dovid Shochat said, uh, "The Rebbe tracht vegen yeder enen fun undse." He cares and thinks about each and every one of us. Or there, uh, w- was somebody else. I feel like Berel Shemtov would say they're more on the Rebbe, kenem in his leben. I mean, these kind of, uh, expressions. And who else was very int- Oh, you'll know that it was expected that when the shluchim come because of milmaale was the, the, so to speak, the commandment or the bakasha that as the Rebbe himself came. So the world, as this royaldike world made that day the outstanding day, not only by the Chassidei Chabad. It was like a, a moment that they said that something special happened in Israel. And I remember Rablei, uh, Rab Sheikh Ber Zislin was the elderly man. He came. Chassidim, of course they came to, to greet. And I remember like today that somehow when we saw the,

35:09 Speaker 1 the, the shluchim come down, I'm getting the chills when I remind myself how everybody got a shliach and picked him on his shoulders. Uh, it was a, a Rebbe. And then started when they came and they settled, each day it was a day, a planned day. This is unbelievable. In Nigle, in Chassidut, farbrengen mit yeder kita, to give presents from the Rebbe, memories from the Rebbe. And this was something that by me it's eingekript like today. And I wasn't an old man. Uh, uh, wie en iz zogt, uh, elderly man. I, I was perhaps some 15 year old that year. But that's the... I remember we were also a group in Haifa a half a year before, so they also came two shluchim. They didn't miss any Talmud Torah, any part of yeshiva, any area where Chassidim was not to be there and to bring the word. Be'kitzur, with this, they had me'eiver klal Yisrael befrat Chabad un iprot iprot di talmidei yeshiva the importance of zain bam Rebbe. So because of that you wanted to be by the Rebbe? Yeah. So how did you make it happen? Oh, I wanted to be there, and I wasn't a mashgigele akshen. I'm a little akshen, I was told by my family . It was Simchat Torah 57 . That somehow it was a year, almost a year, I don't know, four, four or five months after the shluchim came in. I thought the shluchim. yeah. I decided I wanna go I remember mir hot verbracht by,

37:18 Speaker 1 um, who was the verbringen by? The erste nach Shemini Atzeret bei nacht. I think it was by Sholom Slavin. You heard the name Reb Sholom Slavin? He was the son of Avrom Leibik Slavin, a great You mentioned him before. Yeah. And everybody made kiddush and maske. I younger, but I give no more kiddush of maske. And when the reel was geredt, like the shluchim, no, I said to him, "Taten, Taten, ich will vorn zum rebbe." "Pisha du, vorn zum rebbe? Da flen achsides mere and damne mere and-" I mean, make that a- Can't just go. I did. You have to be roi. Yeah. So ich tat, "Bring ischkin kop." And I give no more the sach maske. And ich hab ja the chutzpeh, hab geredt. And that was when I gave him the djudkin kop that I will go. And this is what happened. And then at the end of the year, I came chof zein elul tov shin yud zein to the Rebbe. So you, so you went straight from Eretz Yisrael to the Rebbe? No. What happened? This is another parshah. What happened? First of all, I had to be potur mitzvah. Mm-hmm. My, so to speak, um, date was already to be lehityat zut to- You're ready ... to be drafted. Drafted, yeah. And then go there, and then as a yeshiva bucher, I wouldn't have to- You get a ptur. Not a ptur. While I'm in yeshiva, I could learn. Okay. But you can't go out. Mm. What did I do?

39:12 Speaker 1 I'm in a vilder mensch. I somehow ivir gedreht my passport that it should be instead one month, another month, three months earlier. You mean you changed your passport? Yeah, the da- the, uh, to that leida. Your birthday. I changed from, uh, I don't remember how it was, and I had somebody to teach me how to do it. So what is now- Even a digring ... state? So un- until then, I'm permitted to go out. Oh, okay. But they only wrote three month, and I had to come back. Uh, a shengik ron. I have to, uh, my friend, where m- I, uh, me ayin kesef. You need money. Where we get money? To travel. Huh? To travel. Yeah. To travel, to have a bas to ven. Uh, again, uh, schleck, if you were children, we didn't have, uh, kam bas to essen. It wasn't later on in the year that shengik ron is kosha. It was in the early yud. There was nothing. Yeah, it was hard. Baruch Hashem, it's not Ruslan, but it's still not, uh, like it is now. So what happened? It was a guy, Sholom Slavin. He said to me, "Damit, bring, bring the emet. Ich und geben sechs hundert lires. Dos vorn bis, uh, Paris." So I didn't give an Eretz Yisrael because sheng is kosha. So you got six hundred lires to leave? Yeah. That's what it mean. Uh, you wrote to the Rebbe about this? No. No. Okay. But wait a second. As I came to those- To, to

41:05 Speaker 1 Paris? To Paris, I've been geschrim. To the Rebbe. "Tzadt ich will sein Rebbe, and ich will have for David." It was terrible. I got a answer. "Lern by N- Reb Nison Nebenof," does the Rebbe geschrieben. Through Rashak, through the yeshiva, because the yeshiva had to give us, um, a visa. A visa. Oh, by the way, my brother, Oliver Sholom, my father was maskim. That a before finally is nem and I'm Bruder Eleneich. Eli Lipsker. Yeah. Why? Because Eli Lipsker was almost ready to go to the army last year, because I'm sheng is schmeckt. He wanted to go to the army. Yeah. Yeah. You know, the, the day before this, to foreign return him. So if you go, English let Eli Lipsker. Yeah. So this is what happened. You and Eli are in Paris. Yeah. And you get a letter through Rashak, whatever that's, yeah. We asked a visa that, uh, with Herrn Guter- You got a letter from the Rebbe? You got a letter from the- A letter from the yeshiva. Yeshiva, yeah. But Rabbi Mendlik wrote in it, "Zehu divrei kosher" from the Rebbe. Uh-huh. "And with Herrn Guter night when we will hear good news from Reb Nison v'chulu from the yeshiva with Mentálmon batrach the minyan." So your father wasn't so off. Huh? Your father told you you have to learn and, uh, before you go, he... My father, as you can see, achsirei shonin. Yeah. Okay. And that is nicht gesagt sama der. That's when we noch a gute bisle maskim

42:35 Speaker 1 Shemini Atzeret. Mm-hmm. Anyway- So you learned by Reb Nison? Huh? So you learned by Reb Nison? Yeah, and he took the opportunity. Oh, he took... I was a little upset about him, but I'm, I'm very happy that I was there. Okay. So this is how it happened. And then finally I came. So you're there, so you're there tov shin... Tov shin- It was a tov, tov shin yud zain. Tov shin yud zain, you're in, in, in France. Yeah, from, it was from the beginning of Shevat till- This was in Brunoy? In Brunoy. Yeah. No, I stood. Officially, I came to my uncle, Sander Mankin in Eder- Ada Lipsker, actually. But and Sander and Ada, my uncles. You remember I mentioned them? Yeah, yeah. And I stood by them, but right away when he came, I had to go to the yeshiva. This is where we were. Mm-hmm. Just one little note that I... It's important that young, uh, that your young kids and young Hasidim should know how elder Hasidim cared and were mekushar tzum Rebbe. It was a greater Eid, a big Hasid. His name was Rabbi Slomnyech Hagodol. I don't know whether you heard his name. Nyech Bunitsky. Huh? Samech Bunitsky. Blinitzky, right. He was in Brin- not in Brinoa, in Modern Hotel, where my uncle Sander and, and Ada were there. And everybody looked up on him with awe. Just to look on his face, you saw a emesder Hasid, not divreitor. Did you ever see him? You were never here. I

44:22 Speaker 1 never saw him, but I read about him. You heard of him. He was a very, very gishmakik person to look at. A 십시오 tave. To make the story short, we were there coming sometimes for Shabbosim, so we were known to him. So we told him when it became close that we are going- To the Rebbe ... to the Rebbe. Uh, the night before, me and my brother went up, and he was like, "Iz egnen. Dokt a neinen, means like, "Iz egnen and a shpeter." So we slept over by my uncle and aunt. In the early morning, we took, uh, I don't remember, a, a taxi or whatever to go to the port in Marseille. There we had to pick up the ship- Boat ... the boat. We di- we didn't go by, uh- Airplane ... by air. We were airplane, by an airplane. This is some, um, a sh- a, a pashe for zich how we went there. As we went downstairs and Rabbi Slomnyech, his varts. When I remind myself, I felt like crying. "Ich ken ish vorn tzum reb. Loch ola pochatz. Over bagliten." Let me escort and go down to see how young boys go to the Rebbe. This is something that stirred with me and still sticks with me ad hoyum. Very interesting. You're saying that he's a- Huh? He's a elder- A elder Hasid ... he's a elder Hasid. He's- Elder Eid ... yotzir fanzich. Can't move. Kamot os shlepsach. Mamish is to, for him to go down from the

46:12 Speaker 1 steps. You're talking to me about steps. Hotel Modern in Paris, in Rue Bichat. He's a whole bunch of steps till you go down. He's like going down and step to step. He's downstairs. "Rabbi Slomnyech, im ikume gezegen un zach mitaykh." I came to part with you. "Un git ibar a gerist dem Rebbe." Mm. So my brother gave over regards. Uh, I, I had other things to give over from them. You had what? I had other shlichas from my father before I left to give over to the Rebbe. Give over. So we decided what, uh- Ah, you split up. Okay. Yeah. Okay. This was it. And we came to America. So you said the date before. It was, uh- Hmm? You said the date before. Chov Zion- Chov Zion ... Elul tov shin yud zayin, which is three days before Rosh Hashanah. Then when we came in, the first... What? By the way, together with us came two people, three people. One of them was the, um, zocho begayrol. At that time, he was the first or the second, I don't remember. His name was Chatzke Springer, Yitzchak Springer's brother. Brother. And then, ayid from Paris, Chaim Tashkenter, alav hashalom. And then the third one was Meir Friedman, Yisroelik Friedman's older brother, which are gevaldik kiruvim fun Rebbe. Mm-hmm. This is what they were, and, uh, when we came in with the boat, I remember Gershon Mendel, Itzke Springer, uh, Yisroelik Friedman, who was here already, and somebody else came- To greet you ... to m-

48:20 Speaker 1 greet us. And somehow took a, I don't remember, a car or a Uber. Anyway, but we went there. So we went right away to the mikveh. And for my rev, uh, we saw the first time the Rebbe. And we saw the Rebbe. It was very, very, very, very moving. From then zeit, Baruch Hashem, we are here. It was the fear that we saw. It was like almost trembling. You're trembling? Yeah. No? That's the way, that's the way it was bachlal whenever you saw the Rebbe? Uh, many times. Mm-hmm. So you came right, so you did right before Rosh Hashanah? Yeah. Then, uh, interesting story happened at that particular year. We shouldn't say, but it was epidemic like. Epidemic? A lot of bochurim were sick. Have you ever heard it? I heard it, yeah. In tov shin yud chet? They were in the dormitory. In all the dormitories, six, seven, six. Then it was on Troy Avenue. A lot were very sick. It happened by me. I was also sick. What was the sickness? I don't remember what. I got big fever. Okay. And it was problems. The Rebbe asked about certain people, and he asked to Mendy, "Wo sim id achim Lipsker?" But then Ele went in a little later to say, "Nup, he feels no." You meant to Yechidas. Huh? He went to Yechidas. Yeah. He feels- How he feel. He feeling. Then it came Erev Yom Kippur, a lot of us went with heavy fever. I remember like today, I was trembling in,

50:34 Speaker 1 uh, from, from that. But Erev Yom Kippur, and he's gaining mikvah, Mentlick. By the way, the Mentlick, he not niche given as I id we're Mentlick. As I beat L'Kerida, such a, uh, devoted and mekushar and totally ain't only Mitsias Atzmi, just the Rebbe in the inyonim with the had to be. He asked the Rebbe what to do, and the Rebbe said, "Amol vet nit shatan." It's the Kabbalah from the Baal Shem Tov. Um, he added, "See, a Kabbalah from Baal Shem Tov." The Rebbe added? Uh, yeah. I said, "Amol nit shatan." I remember like today, I'm still around. With one tefillah. I've told you tons of... Not with you, I need to get tefillah. Yeah. That's all. I don't remember it was three times the Amol. No, one, one time. One time means... But yeah, usually we go Erev Yom Kippur three times. Oh, that's what it means? I don't know. It's crazy. I thought, I thought, uh, not like you think. I thought it was, uh- It means one time is enough to make it ... probably Amol, Amol. This is what I think. I went three times. That meant it was three tefillahs. I, I misunderstood the whole thing. I don't know. Huh? I thought it means one tefillah. I don't know. Maybe I missed what... I, this is what I think. Mm-hmm. Of Amol vet nit shatan. Amol vet shatan. Uh, yeah, I'm sure you heard this story? Yeah, but I, yeah, but I- All right. But I need, but did

52:02 Speaker 1 he have it over? Not, but did he in the ganzen qual, the ganze gruppe. Then later on, some, most of us became healthy. Then it was Sukkos time, where the Rebbe asked, uh, he was eating by the sukkah, where now here's the sukkah gleile. It was sta- sticking out, uh, a, a vilatman, a porch, and there it was the sukkah that they were eating. In the Friediker Rebbe's apartment. Yeah, yeah, upstairs. But in Friediker Rebbe, some people were still sick. Pini Altis was that year, and he said, "With the other broche for, uh, Megash Mendel Garelik." But the Rebbe, he gave him a kuke, so I think I, I hope I'm gesehen, and I thought, "Er sich farbehalten in this sukkah." Yes, so Gershon Mendel, even though he was sick, was, uh, uh... You heard about it? I did hear about that, yeah. Okay. I remember it. I was- I was gonna ask you. There's a story of Gershon Mendel with this, yeah. I told you Gershon Mendel. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Look, these things are by me like it happened today. Then it became that year, the Purim Tov Shin Chai. Ah. I must say that the Rebbe should really open. It was in a hall in Albany Avenue. And we saw him doors... Here is the Rebbe sitting. Here is the Rashak sitting. Look, you see what I'm talking about? And here is Rabbi Mentlick standing mid, uh, mid the cup, uh, Sara Mashkim. There it was Sholom Ber Butman, and somebody else, and

53:47 Speaker 1 me. Some clasp haruvi k'rach merten. And I saw mamesh every single thing. And I repeated to people. Later on, I found out just a week ago, we had a fabringen. So I'm, I s- I s- I mentioned something. So I said, "I hope it's gehört auf dem tape." The vertel was it was then. I don't know whether I should mention it publicly. It's all recorded. Huh? It's all recorded. It's recorded. It's, uh, okay. So you want it, so I should do? Yeah, whatever. My method nisht. Try and more important things. What I do wanna mention that finally when the Rebbe was agreed not to take the fourth cup of benedictin, so I turned to Rabbi Mentlick, and he said, "No, uh, the mi- mitzion yeshilzol zoktir l'chaim." He said, "Tsukugangen um genumen dem cup." And he took the cup and said, "L'chaim." The ganz glos. I thought bakal vai, mm. Mm-hmm. And we saw that man is gone. We saw mamesh the man is gone. This was already, uh, kimat early morning. Right. And they said they sang the dreite nuis. As they sang the dreite nuis, Rabbi Mentlick went like, "Ay, yi, yi, yi, yi." I wanted to give a clap on the tea. She was such fun to do in front of the Rebbe. "Ay, yi, yi, yi, ya." But again, it went to Mentlick's gun. He wanted to give a clap. He's iras. He was a different... But he saw the Rebbe, he right away held back. The minute they took up

55:37 Speaker 1 out the Rebbe- When the Rebbe left ... collapsed. When the Rebbe left? When the Rebbe left. They took the, the, the... They let the Rebbe go out. Mm-hmm. Moved. He collapsed. Middle man kam ufgeheben. I don't know whether you heard about it. You didn't? I did hear about it, but yeah. You did? I heard about it, yeah. It doesn't mean... I don't know if I heard it from someone who was there, 'cause I- Huh? I don't know if I heard it from someone who was there or I heard a cliché ni, so. I heard... I never heard, I saw it. Yeah.By me, that man is a id that is totally evil against Rebbe. I know when the resembling he formed the Rebbe said to them that he should go with them. You know about it? Yeah. He never took off the gantlet. Yeah. This I know for a fact. How? Because the people who were there were with him, came out the other side, and he would never move. Whether he went to sleep in the day, I don't know. But, uh, they saw it, they say. Now, if we have no shame, even almost in the Rebbe. What, what was the, um... You said that you had schlichas in to bring to the Rebbe. Hmm? So you had schlichas in to bring to the Rebbe when you were-- when you came. So this was in Yechidas? Like y-y- Huh? You said that p-people sent you with things that you s- you and Eli

56:56 Speaker 1 split up, that, uh- No, that from my father, uh, certain things. So this was in Yechidas? My, uh, per-personal things that the Rebbe, that he wanted to... We should give over to the Rebbe. What happened when you went into Yechidas? When, when you went- What happened? Uh, all the things, uh, uh, this is why it's Yechidas, not, uh- That's why we're sitting here, no? Huh? That's why we're sitting here, no? To tell Yechidas? Yeah. To tell about it, but not Yechidas. Not Yechidas? I don't think so. It's things what it could be, but Yechidas you could say. So is there anything from Yechidas that you could say? Yes. I could say that once when I was a bocher in yeshiva, the Rebbe mentioned it to me about, you know, a problem I did, uh, forgot one day, Rabbeinu Tam's tefillin. And I asked the Rebbe, "I, I for-- I was upset, you know?" So the Rebbe told me certain things, and he said, uh, "Thus learn all halachas and itzroches lippel. And I mean it, uh, wegen tiny is and the other halachas. I mean halachas and itzroches lippel." A ton. No, halachas and itzroches lippel. Halachas. Yeah. "And you can thus learn from the, in Sha- in Shara Kehillal, the Ruth of the Son, from my Seden. He thought I should learn this. And, uh, he told me, "Adoni, wie schwer it soll nicht sein." This is a lotion for Rebbe. "Mitza die zeit, what does gehen zum Seder in our yeshiva? Wie soll

58:40 Speaker 1 nicht sein? Ohn Rabbeinu Tam's tefillin, thus nisht a vegen. Und das hot eich a ort." Um, I will repeat it in English. "Das hot eich a ort um mitza tzmichas habrocha. Und kannst du zogen zu deine chaverim bischmi or sholei bischmi?" This is auch was ich kann dir zogen. "And with that, v'legen Rabbeinu Tam's tefillin, wie schwer it soll nicht sein." From Yechidas alone. You were gonna say it in English if y- Okay. The Rebbe answered me that regardless of the time, even though it's almost close to the Seder, you have to eat and then come to the Seder. You should not live without putting Rabbeinu Tam's tefillin. It has also a makor, a reason because of halacha. And what is it? Mitza tzmichas habrocha. Tzmichas habrocha that Rabbeinu Tam's tefillin comes after Rashi. In Rashi, this is my explanation. He made a brocha. Right after this, tzmiecha zeh, you should put on Rabbeinu Tam's tefillin. And in the time you don't do, there's no brocha in Rabbeinu Tam's. There is no brocha. Yeah. This is what the answer is. So the halacha is that you should always put on Rabbeinu Tam right after davening. And thank God, they, they, this I fulf-fulfilled, and a lot of them are-- I helped them with that too. And I know that later on, he mentioned that to somebody else. Mm-hmm. That it has a place in Tzmichas habrocha. This episode is sponsored by Chabad of Napa Valley. Beschus Harav Automim, Rabba Chana Meisha, Besugasim Ares Chana Zlata,

1:00:30 Speaker 1 and Mishpachtim Sheyichu Tenenbaum. For Hatzlacha, Rabba, and Mufloga in their shlichas in Napa Valley, California. So my shaila is, when you were a bocher in seven 70, what was the, I don't know what the word to use, but the, the yachas and the relationship to the Rebbe in those years? Very good. First of all, I had a personal thing. Once as, as a bocher, you know, we had from seven 70, on the same side of seven 70, past Brooklyn on the same side of Eastern Parkway, were our, was our dormitory, and at that time it was our kitchen, our, uh, place where we ate. And, uh, at times, it was like right after Shacharis, about 10, 10:15, we used to meet the Rebbe on the way because he, when we came to Brooklyn, he turned in from Brooklyn- Eastern Parkway ... to Eastern Parkway. Once I was walking with Abe Paltiel, we're walking together from seven 70 to eat. It was a week and a half or two weeks past Pesach. As we saw the Rebbe turning in, we stopped right away. As he passed us, he says, as he was passing us, he says, "On a mantle, sheambadir zumer?" Like somebody said, "Without a coat?" Imagine. That was already after Pesach. Without a coat. Ah, She'em ba'gir zumer. It was ba'gir zumer already. He asked me a personal thing. This is what I can tell you. And then it was, uh, I was learning in Mirrer Yeshiva Tanya. That must've been תשח already later.

1:02:43 Speaker 1 Then it was in תשח, we had a problem. They found out that I had it over a half a year. Rabbi Kalmenovic found out about it, and he warned the bochurim that if they will again come to the shiurim, he will throw him out of the yeshiva. I didn't know what to do. So it was a while till I came into yechidas. So I figured out instead of writing to the Rebbe, I'll hold it off. I couldn't do anything. And when I went into yechidas, I told the Rebbe the whole story in writing. I wouldn't talk. I wouldn't be able... I could hardly answer, but that's about all. Then he said to me, "Welcher Kalmenovic? Der alter tzu der junger?" The old one or the young one? "He didn't learn yet?" Apparently I had a maise with the Friediker Rebbe. "Nu, az vi balt zi arufgegangen azoy, daf men nisht lernn dortn. Gleich lernn di yeshiva far an dortna Yong Yisroel. Libe un der lozn lerne dortn." And I started learning there. Young Israel. It's interesting story. Yeah. Did I ever tell you that story, no? Uh, I think so. Yeah, I did? Okay. But I know it doesn't make a difference. The question is what everyone else knows. All right. And, um, you were also- From the Shivu Kanim? Yeah, you were from the Kanim. So what, describe- That's right. So it was, describe what, what, what is the Kanim and what does it mean? It was very interesting. It's a great zechus from

1:04:36 Speaker 1 one hand, but apparently with every zechus comes a great responsibility. We got put pretty beat up once. It was Rosh Hashanah תשח, yeah, תשח. It was Rosh Hashanah תשח. So what, what, what is the Kanim first? First explain- The Kanim was the Rebbe wanted bochurim, s- seven should devote themself on limud haChasidus extra, and seven who should devote themself on limud haNigla extra. And he was the one, the, the, uh, uh, hanhala was suggesting a lot of bochurim, and then he, this is what they say, they, he chose which one, which yes, which not, which Nigla, which Chasidus. And this is what he did. And then he wanted that the Kanim should learn more and, um, and, uh, get more involved with hakoch. And he also wanted we should say pilpulim every Friday in Nigla, and then Shabbos nachas in, uh, uh, Shabbos nachas in Nigla on Friday Chasidus because a short day Nigla it's longer in the winter times and all the way through. But apparently at the end, it's all because of Ufaratzta. But lepeal, uh, uh, he, he wasn't happy with, uh, with the Rebbe, me. Who can... Like the Rebbe once expressed himself, "I gave more," Rebbe said, "It's good that you gave more, but I expected more." He said, "When the Rebbe, with the, and we get, uh, epes, it's, uh, it's nisht genug. We have to learn more and more." Especially we weren't as, uh... Apparently the Rebbe wasn't happy, and then on Rosh Hashanah he called us in.

1:06:34 Speaker 1 And that was also called in at that time, uh, Kopel Mashpim, Rabbi David Raskin, and that was, uh, Avraham Channer Glitzenstein, who also came at that time. Apparently he said the same inyan from the Ufaratzta, "Ich dort in Eretz Yisroel." And he, he cried, and, uh, this was with the Kanim. The Rebbe cried that, uh- When he spoke. What did the Rebbe say? That, uh, I ha- I had in mind to do more in the inyan of Ufaratzta. Ufaratzta. Yeah, "Leha'aper es tfiloneinu." Mm-hmm. "Through tefillah in order to bring in Moshiach." That, uh, truly what the Rebbe meant, he knew more than we did. But at least what we meant, what we meant, understood what he meant is that we should behave a little more better. More devotion, more, uh, koch in them and all the way through, all the way through. To Nigla, to Chasidus, and all the way through. Mm-hmm. So it continued afterwards? Hm? It continued afterwards? Continue afterwards. The Kanim. The Kanim continued afterwards. Huh? The Kanim continued- And then we con- They continued. Yeah. You had- Is it still here? No, I don't know. Uh, I think they still... I'm not sure. Yeah? Uh, I don't know. But we were the first one. So- And we were zecher that he, the Rebbe, they send in a lot of bochurim, and we were chosen. Right. The Rebbe chose the names? The Rebbe under, uh, to the... Again, this is what I was told, even if you went in Rebbe's room, I

1:08:13 Speaker 1 just want know that, uh, that Rebbe ChabadWhat happened with your brother, um, your brother Eli? I know that the Rebbe was mekarev him. He had a whole story. Yeah, it was a very... My brother ... But the Rebbe, the Rebbe paid for it himself? No. Huh? The Rebbe didn't pay it himself? No, no, no. Yeah. Chas ve'shalom. Yeah. He wouldn't take it. Yeah. So the Rebbe- In Yiddish, when a Yeah. So the Rebbe called the melamed. Listen, uh- My melamed ... my melamed. I mean- I did confirm it, you know, with whom? With Leibel Groner. Yeah. I asked him, and he said that the Rebbe once referred to him and he said, "My melamed." Well, he did, uh, Necheiah, and he did all the choir. Yeah, my melamed. Saying because of this. Yeah. Necheiah and all the things. You know, he's invited to play at all the rallies and the, the choir. That's right, that's right, that's right. Originally, nobody was around besides Tolshefsky. Right. And the Rebbe, he played for every Motzei Shabbat time for the rallies, which became later in, in Chof Alef, Chof Bet. Apparently, they are different. The Rebbe has megale to us that every Inyan in Gashmius has to be in a tzedek weg penetrating it ruchnius. And take from that Gashmius and machen it ruchnius. The neginah, I met a man as of today that he said that he can't get over how Eli Lipsker taught me music. I still sing, and I'm still enjoying it. It was

1:11:55 Speaker 1 in a, in a day school, singing Queen's number. Actually, everybody gave Masach Inyonim. I was in his choir. Oh, you too? Okay. It was an interesting story. Yeah. Well, again, this macht what's Rebbe is. The Rebbe feels every eiver in his, which we are all, what's his Rebbe? Reish Bnei Yisroel. A head feels even on a, a toenail. And if a toenail hurts, the head feels it. What's this? Elo, we have to be connected. If chas veshalom we are a little bit separated, this is the Inyan. How do we, uh, connect? To try to listen. It's important to learn Chitas. It's important to, to learn Rambam. Lovdavki if a person can't trip rokim with ein perek. Otherwise, you can just ein perek, l'chol hapochas, uh, Sefer HaMitzvos. But learn and then dine mikoshet to them. That's the only way. Um, are there certain things, uh, times of the year when you were in 770, when you were a bachur, Simchas Torah, I ma- I mean, that, that, that stick out in your mind? I ima- I imagine you were there when the Rebbe taught, taught the Nigunim. Yes, all of them. From Yud Ches, Yud Tes, Chof, Chof Alef, Chof Bet, Chof Gimel. When I gave in Mishat the Nigunim, I think Chof Daled. Chof Daled I think is when Hu Elokeinu. It was Hu Elokeinu and Ki Anu. Huh? Hu Elokeinu and Ki Anu. There's two. Yeah, the second Ki Anu. Yeah. The, uh, the other Ki Anu was e- even before I came.

1:13:56 Speaker 1 So what could you tell me about the, when the Rebbe taught the Nigunim? I remember the fact that the Rebbe came down with a small bottle of mashke. This was early morning Simchas Torah, I would say. Yeah, early morning Simchas Torah. And he used to back a, on a cart, a, a castle from milk, a box of milk, and he stood on it. You remember that? Sure. The first three Nigunim, I remember on that. On the ca- on the cart. Even, even the Shamir Nigun I remember on this. Shamir Nigun was on Chof. I remember. Anybody have the, the- Maybe we could check it out quickly, but I don't remember. Yeah, could we check it out? Please check it out. Anybody have the- You need to know now? Yeah, why not? Because it's important for me. I could, um- We could find out. It's very simple. Please. And if I make a mistake, uh, we can correct it. Very simple. Nisht a kinder problem. The Rebbe taught Shamir Nigun in Yud Tes. Yud... All right, the first Nigun, what was yud tes. I thought it was chaf. I don't know why. Achamana was a tavshin... No, no, that was tav sha-chaf. I'm not sure you, you- Huh? I'm not sure. No. Maybe tzomo? I have the whole list right here. Hmm? Um, which year you want? Which year did you ask? Which year did you ask? Yud tes. Yud tes. Uh, first of all, the Rebbe-- First of all, the Rebbe taught Tzomo Lecha Nafshi.

1:15:58 Speaker 1 Tzomo? Uh- Yeah. I, I said Tzomo Lecha. Yeah, yeah, Tzomo Lecha. Does gedenke zikh vi heynt. Ei, tzomo, tzomo, tzomo, tzomo lecha. Nafshi. Koma, koma, koma, koma, koma lecha ve'sori. Echti durn Marko. Sto ti yediesh na yarmarku. Ne kuplyesha, ne prodaysh. Tolko Robi zvanku. Then weiter and weiter. Then noch he geben Shamils. Und then noch is given... Oh, but what ich will, uh, uh, zogn, what I wanna tell you is that he used to come down with a bottle mashke, a small bottle, and stood on a card of milk, which it wasn't too high, and it was a shalash at that time. It wasn't the seven-seventy that you could see now. It was, uh, a little cover from, uh, still the sukkah that was there. And, um, he said, "Anyone who will undertake to learn Chesed, he could g- he will get l'chaim." There were a lot of things that, uh, that were... He said to some people, "The Sichmendos, Sichmilots, take a learn and nisht zamaze." And this was for the almost every year like this. Now, in the later, like chof, chof, beis and chof gimel, she geven often on top of the, uh, bimah. I remember something outstanding besides Shamiling, which we-- everybody was wondering how the Rebbe was able to go so high. Ooh. Ay, nay, nay, nay. Ay, nay, nay. Ay, ay, ay. Ooh. Di, dee, da, ooh. Ooh, ooh, ooh. How he was going so high, but... I don't know why, but something stuck to me about take, about

1:18:33 Speaker 1 Stavia Petu. I had a little shofar in it. This way I remember very... Eli, by the way, my brother, was always close for the last couple nigunim. He was called upstairs. Tzví zun den ying menagem. Heske Gansburg. Nisht azoy. Uh, Moshe Tolishevski, Eli. And he, the Rebbe then tzilte mayser fun Stavia Petu, and he started to singing it. We, we rochim stood all around, and I heard him or... But apparently it was, uh, some... They couldn't repeat it so good, not the right- It's a hard nigun. Huh? How, how did it work? The Rebbe sang the whole nigun and then asked Eli to do it? Then, then he said it again. Then he asked for the menagem to happen this. Mm-hmm. And by the way, on every nigun that he taught that early morning, in middle the farbrengen of the night, which is the sha- the farbrengen fun before Simchat Torah ends. The next day. Yeah, it's, it's, it's that day. Mm-hmm. It is this early morning. Yeah, yeah. The Rebbe used to sing that nigun again. Anyway, we were listening to that. Then all of a sudden the Rebbe said, "Fragen is doch noch heiner, was ken a shtikel chush in nigune? Uh, ich, ich tracht, az ikh ken a bisl Rushe tzeich un Ukrainisch." And nobody know what it meant. "Fragen in a, uf der zalman fun, uh, Lipsker fun Eretz Yisroel." And everyone said, "At a chush a nigune." I will not forget. I flew up like a airplane. I don't know

1:20:33 Speaker 1 how I did it, and I stood right there. And I love that song. Stavia Petu. Ooh. Pyatnitsu. Oh, Pyatnitsu. Propovya ya. Propu. Mayu tlitzu. Treba, treba znaty ya gulyat. Treba, treba znaty ak brehaty. Oj, cheshbon tzedek od avaty. Pre Panu chazayenu otvechaty. Ami piye, da, piye. Da, ami golayim. Umi tzrinken yayin, azoy vimayim. Umi zogn ale tzusamen l’chayim. Ve’ato hosishma, ah, mi nashomayim. Stav ya’atze pu v’bitu ov subotu. Ov subotu. Propu ya, ya, propu mayu rabotu. Treba, treba znaty ak golaty. Treba, treba znaty ak brechaty. Oj, cheshbon tzedek od avaty. Pre Panu chazayenu otvechaty. Ami piye, da, piye. Da, ami golayim. Umi tzrinken yayin, azoy vimayim. Umi zogn ale tzusamen l’chayim. Ve’ato hosishma, ah, mi nashomayim. Interesting enough, this is something that again stuck to me like today. I've mentioned before that the nigun that he taught early morning, he was-- he start-- by the farbrengen he sing again. And at that nigun, he started to sing again. At the end it, uh, the second mo, it came like this. Oj, cheshbon tzedek od avaty. He picked up his hands and he said, "I give alt!" Cheshbon tzedek od avaty. Dos meint men mir un dir un dir un dir. And second, the same thing again. But gez then, what it meant? Veys nit. There were a lot of, uh, speculations that it means him, he means them. But mir chassidim, we have to know that means us. Cheshbon tzedek od avaty. And this is what the Rebbe wants from us. Nog dem tzurigangen ayel

1:25:27 Speaker 1 Elul, uh, Rosh Hashanah. Achte nog el dem funel, die shlichut Rosh Hashanah. Tseris umeitshuva im Kipper. Un tmi halshonot otot. Dafen mir visn cheshbon tzedek od avaty. Especially mir chassidim. Mir dafen al gedenken die gishmakayt vos mir hobn zein bam Rebbe. Un der Rebbe is vid us. And the more, the more, the more, the more we think about it and we live with it, we see it in more practicality. You had, um, a famous story that happened with you that we-- that a lot of us grew up on. But I didn't know till a few years ago that it was with you, with the tzviln. Who is know-- Everybody know that it was with me. I didn't know. I was with Yankel Neich. It was in Tov Shin Chof Beis. I was with Yankel Neich, Oliver Shalom Kranz, who became later on my mechuten. Yossi, my son, is a eidem by Yankel. We came from a big, big, big trip of, um, Merkas Shlichus. You spoke English then? A little bit. 'Cause I think the way it worked was that one person spoke English- Either, either- And one didn't ... Yeah, but that was good. I-- khom da khut ge lernt a por verter in English bam oft. But I, I, I did my job. Anyway, I tried to do my job. That's a true thing that they would, they would make one bache that spoke English and one that didn't? Lav davka. Oy sie kumen azoy mit a tzvil daf, uh- Of them and,

1:27:12 Speaker 1 uh, I think

1:27:13 Speaker 4 It'd be Yale with someone else.

1:27:14 Speaker 1 Yeah, something.

1:27:15 Speaker 4 I think he got mixed up with-

1:27:16 Speaker 1 Each get spring in between

1:27:17 Speaker 4 ... I think that Yale, he would always get mixed up

1:27:21 Speaker 1 ...

1:27:21 Speaker 4 They say that Yale got mixed up between the word money and morning. Instead of saying good morning, he'd say good money. But Rabbi Abrams, Yassel Abrams told me he went with, uh-

1:27:30 Speaker 1 Yassel Abrams went good in English.

1:27:32 Speaker 4 Yeah, so he went with Yisroel Friedman, he told me.

1:27:35 Speaker 1 Uh, that's true.

1:27:36 Speaker 4 Yeah.

1:27:37 Speaker 1 Anyway, uh, we came from Merkas Chusliches and we came, it was Yotzes Menachem Ov, uh, Shabbas And I said that the Lubavitch Rebbe send me to put on tefillin. "Oh, come in." Again, I'm gonna stop right there. It's punkt six o'clock. I went in. I remember like today, it was a young maiden, uh, running around there. She must have been five or six years. I put on tefillin. He didn't know mamish from nothing. Mamish gurnisht. And as I put on tefillin with him, so he said... And I said to him that, "The Rebbe said that you should keep it and try to put on tefillin." "Can I pay you something?" So I said, "What?" "Can I, uh, give you something?" He had a big bar. He had a bottle of wine. I didn't wanna take it, because goyish wine, nech. Said, "No." Then he had all kinds of vodkas. "Can I give you some?" I said, "Yeah." And I said, I, I, I motioned on the Smirnoff, and he gave me one. And then he asked me, "Where are you going?" So I said, "I'm going to Crown Heights." Said, "Where are you going?" I asked him back. So I said, "Yeah, I'm going to Manhattan, but we could... To Manhattan, we could be together, and then I'll tell you what train to take back to Crown Heights." As we went on the train, he said, "Ah-"

1:35:02 Speaker 4 I have a question. The bottle of Mashke was for you or to give it to the Rebbe?

1:35:05 Speaker 1 He, he, he asked me... I didn't say anything.

1:35:09 Speaker 4 Okay.

1:35:10 Speaker 1 You could verstehen was ist chaviaten mine.

1:35:12 Speaker 4 Mm-hmm.

1:35:15 Speaker 1 I, I wouldn't take it for myself. Um, I'm beweis nisht ken harbe arbet, Reb Yosef. I said, "I'll take a bottle of Mashke." He offers me something, that I'll take. "Your Lubavitch Rebbe," he said, vergemoz meysner. "I was last night, uh, coincident with him on private. Rabbi Nisen Mindel, who was my, who is my neighbor, who also lives in Long Beach, talked me in somehow to go to him. And he, I was there close to an hour or more. And in the middle, he's asking me, 'Are you put-- Would you p- uh, are you putting on tefillin?'" So he said he didn't even know. "Do you have tefillin?" I said, "No." "Would you put it on?" I said, "I don't know how." And he didn't ask me those questions directly.

1:36:13 Speaker 4 Consecutively. Like, rather, uh-

1:36:15 Speaker 1 One after the other. But we were talking about something else. Then he asked me what time I'm coming to home, what time I'm leaving the home, uh, what's my type of a job. Then he said again, "If you would have tefillin, would you put it on?" Again, he said. "But I don't know how." And he continued with something else. Then again, he said, "If you have somebody who would put it on with you, would, would you come? Would you put it on?" I said, "Yeah, sure." And here you are.

1:36:56 Speaker 4 Hmm.

1:36:58 Speaker 1 He did not pressure me, but somehow he found out what time I'm leaving. But, uh, he, he what is it? He made sure that I would put on tefillin. And I just came upo- a few hours ago. This was the story. As I came back, this already my, um... And I gave over the bottle Mashke to Rabbi Chodakov, to the Rebbe, which is ikumen from Louis Schelder. And I gave him the whole report. As I came about 11:00, 11:30, Rabbi Chodakov called me and I said... But I, I got scared. Chaver, Rabbi Chodakov called me. So I said... So the Rebbe asked whether I was by the Seuder Chabad. By the way, the Rebbe at that time made sure that Friday should be a Seuder Chabad. It was a time that Friday didn't have an Chabad, but the Rebbe said a half hour later, but eight o'clock should be. So I answered, "Nishag, neshan ikumen tzein azeger." Endikt. This was the story so far. Shabbos, uh, so the, the Rebbe somehow called with Zalman Lipsky and he called me up to give me l'chaim from that bottle of Mashke.

1:38:36 Speaker 4 From that bottle?

1:38:37 Speaker 1 Uh, from that bottle, yeah. So now you have the answer that I didn't take it for myself.

1:38:44 Speaker 4 So what do you learn from the story?

1:38:45 Speaker 1 Huh?

1:38:46 Speaker 4 Was lernt men?

1:38:47 Speaker 1 Was lernt men from dem? Az a id batzon fartona gute zach, tut mir nisht. To bringen a id a teva, the Rebbe zol em der monem ba farbringen, dos tut mir yo.

1:39:00 Speaker 4 But what do you, what do you learn from the whole story?

1:39:04 Speaker 1 From the whole story? Oof. From every area you could learn this story. When you speak to somebody, don't pressure him. Talk to him, but don't pressure him. And be smart. When you, uh, when people for good things, you don't ask payment. You can ask payment for good things, but not what you did directly for... In a la-- In a v-- In a way that you accomplish somebody should do a mitzvah because of it, you should take money. You understand? And die kvetche zach vos mir zed, az dem Rebbe miz negeie a id vos keyn mol nisht gelegt keyn tefillin. Vosi zen negeie? Adol on ton tefillin. Reish bnei Yisroel un er filt yeder einem in zayn kop. This is what I think. What do you learn from this story, young man?

1:40:05 Speaker 4 I think you said it best.

1:40:07 Speaker 1 Huh?

1:40:07 Speaker 4 I think you said it best.

1:40:09 Speaker 1 Well, I don't know what, uh, what else is there to say.

1:40:12 Speaker 4 It's good.

1:40:14 Speaker 1 Interesting enough, about 20-some years ago, when I was in Philadelphia, I get a phone call. I don't know whether I told you about it once. I don't know whether I mentioned it to anybody. I get a phone call. "I'm looking for a Lipskier. I called in Eretz Israel, and I called in New York, and, uh, they denied me. My name, my maiden name was Schelder, and I remember that a Lipskier came early morning to put on film with my father." "Who? Are you the one?" So I said, "Yes." "You remember the little Madeline?" She said, "Yes." And she told me that the hoyze Baruch Hashem ienia klach. And since then, my father became a... We changed our home, and, uh, our home became a Yiddishe or a Chassidishe home Gromefiere. Chassidishe home, she said. "And I'm now in Jerusalem, and my kinderlern learn now divaiter."

1:41:26 Speaker 4 Wow.

1:41:27 Speaker 1 And I don't mind to say it, but her man did not know how it came about because in Yiddish, Chassidishe Yid.

1:41:35 Speaker 4 Mm-hmm.

1:41:36 Speaker 1 And she always lied to te- to tell it him. She's afraid.

1:41:41 Speaker 4 Wow. Okay.

1:41:45 Speaker 1 Later on, the lady told this story, and it was printed in Mishpacha. Oh, by the way, he told me that, "I'm asking you," well, he called me Rabbi. "When I co- when you come, when I-- when you get married, you should invite me." Middle of half a year, three quarter later, I got married, and I, and I came to the wedding.

1:42:15 Speaker 4 He came.

1:42:15 Speaker 1 With Nathan Mindel and his wife.

1:42:17 Speaker 4 Beautiful. Where did you get married? In New York?

1:42:20 Speaker 1 In New York, yeah. About my marriage, my mother came. My father got, uh, sick. He was sick. And she asked the Rebbe, he should be mesader kiddushin. It's already two years that the Rebbe is not mesader kiddushin. So the Rebbe said, "Yeah. Oh, yeah. "Da, you can look the..." And so my mama and the Rebbe. And apparently, the Rebbe thought that my mother thinks she will... He, that he will really be mesader kiddushin. So he stopped her and he said, "Ich men nisht ingash mit zikh, ich men niruch nis." Und zikh zi, "The mama was gefregt, 'Farvoz?'" Zogt di, "Yo, er iz vert mir olam mesader kiddushin zayn." He worthy, is what he said to my mother.

1:43:12 Speaker 4 You're worthy.

1:43:13 Speaker 1 He wor-- He's worthy. By the way, this story told me my brother, Eli. He was-- He went in with her.

1:43:20 Speaker 4 Oh, you weren't there?

1:43:21 Speaker 1 I wasn't there. He's worthy. "Oh, aber," he said, "Ba'chasene, everyone wants that the wishes should be from the entire heart to the choson kallah. If they will see his chavers, his chaverim and friends, then him, I mesader kiddushin, the other one need. Ver zein a jealousy, ich veis nisht die broches vell zein mit a emes. I don't know whether the broches will be in a true way." This was the answer. "But ich will zein, ich will zein bei die chasan and dor." That's what he said.

1:44:01 Speaker 4 So you got married in C- in, in New York, in Crown Heights?

1:44:04 Speaker 1 In New York. No, not in Crown Heights. We went from there to V- uh, to Williamsburg where all the chasanas went.

1:44:11 Speaker 4 So the chuppah was in Willins- was in Williamsburg?

1:44:12 Speaker 1 Yeah. But, I mean, the ma-- The Rebbe Tzemach Nahor geshecht, uh, the Rebbe Tzemach Nahor geshecht, uh, I don't know, the Rebbe, Rebbe Tzemach Nahor geshecht a telegram.

1:44:23 Speaker 4 Telegram. You, you, um, you had a connection with the Rebbe Tzemach Nahor when you were a bachur?

1:44:29 Speaker 1 Uh, my mother ran into hi- her when she came.

1:44:35 Speaker 4 She knew her from before?

1:44:37 Speaker 1 This I don't know. I don't think so.

1:44:39 Speaker 4 Mm-hmm. Okay. So you got married. What-- And after your marriage...

1:44:45 Speaker 1 I'll give you... I was one of the three, four that the kollel started.

1:44:50 Speaker 4 The first year of the kollel?

1:44:52 Speaker 1 Yeah, it was Yosel Deitsch, myself, and Arol the Kitrick.

1:45:02 Speaker 4 So that was the, that was the whole kollel?

1:45:04 Speaker 1 Yeah. And then in the afternoon, a halbm tag is Motl Cheiny kumen, not a complete forum, and Arol the Serebransky. Then it started the kollel little by little.

1:45:16 Speaker 4 So where was the kollel?

1:45:17 Speaker 1 Hmm?

1:45:17 Speaker 4 Where was the kollel?

1:45:18 Speaker 1 Upstairs where the di- where the weiber shul is now.

1:45:24 Speaker 4 And the Rebbe also gave you, the chamri ha-kollel, a job, right?

1:45:28 Speaker 1 Yes. And this is to make, uh, orders of the Likutei Torah, Mareh Mekomos of the Torah. And I had the job to bring, to bring the, uh, Mareh Mekomos for all the pesukim. For, you know, the Torah, Nevi'im, Ketuvim. I had to bring it to me, the, the Mareh Mekomos. And that was that every week- One of the cable he has collected from everyone, the maramik heymis, and Saturday night we brought it in to the Rebbe. In other words, one brought in all the-

1:46:18 Speaker 4 Every week another one of you-

1:46:19 Speaker 1 Another one

1:46:19 Speaker 4 ... would bring it to the Rebbe.

1:46:20 Speaker 1 I happened to be the three, four times. I remember in one of the times, you know, the chassen, I asked a personal thing. And a minute I gave the Rebbe and then I stood up, cover, I, "Ich kemn frogn dem Rebbe," I said, "Rebbe, I, uh..." So the Rebbe said, "Somehow." So he gave him a turn. You can see a yechidis. And I asked him, and he answered me, "Baruch Hashem."

1:46:48 Speaker 4 Personal matter?

1:46:49 Speaker 1 Yeah.

1:46:53 Speaker 4 So how did the shlichus in Philadelphia happen?

1:46:55 Speaker 1 Oh, as the year ended, I had a couple hatsuos. In those days...

1:47:07 Speaker 4 One second. You knew you were gonna go on shlichus for sure?

1:47:09 Speaker 1 Huh?

1:47:09 Speaker 4 You knew for sure that you were gonna go on shlichus?

1:47:12 Speaker 1 That I will go on shlichus? I wanted to.

1:47:14 Speaker 4 That's what I'm asking.

1:47:16 Speaker 1 Oh, whether I wanted to?

1:47:17 Speaker 4 You knew. You knew for sure you wanted to go on shlichus.

1:47:19 Speaker 1 What do you mean? I don't know whether I will become a shliach or not, but I wanted to be on shlichus.

1:47:23 Speaker 4 You wanted. Yeah.

1:47:24 Speaker 1 Rebbe Zacharon gave the ganze... And I was suggested four things. In those days already it was suggested, and we used to bring it to the Rebbe.

1:47:39 Speaker 4 What year did you get married? What, what year is this?

1:47:42 Speaker 1 Chof Gimel.

1:47:42 Speaker 4 So it's Chof Daled.

1:47:43 Speaker 1 Chof Daled.

1:47:44 Speaker 4 Mm-hmm.

1:47:46 Speaker 1 I came in the chavel, the end of Chof Daled. I ca- uh, when, when did I come? In, uh, before Kislev Chof Daled. Gleich nach Tishrei, Cheshvan, the end of Cheshvan. A year. I was suggested Queens for, uh, Tomer Taylor. I was suggested Sweden, Sweden. I was suggested... What was the third one? The fourth one was Philadelphia. So the Rebbe arum geiringelt Philadelphia. That was it. Officially, I came there as a toi, as a melamed. And obviously in the afternoon when I came, I did all kinds of mivtzoim and I zevaiter. Um, later on, I did... When I came, it's interesting, the first yechidis that I came with my wife from Philadelphia, and at that time the Rebbe turned around to me as I went in, I gave a title, "Nu, vos hetz ich in Philadelphia?" I didn't know what he meant. I'm standing like, uh... "Mi, in ich mein mit the shnei ksorim, shnei melochim hamishtamshim b'keser echad." So again, I thought maybe means me and Avrahamu. I didn't know what.

1:49:42 Speaker 4 Rav Shechter.

1:49:43 Speaker 1 It is what I thought, Rav Shechter. I, I don't know what it means. So I said, "No, Chamol. Mit the shnei melochim hamishtamshim b'keser echad, what does the Rav Yoles on a Rav Novoselic?" And Rav Yoles was the chief rabbi, and he wrote in the yellow book, Rav Novoselic, the chief judge, or the pasken the shailas.

1:50:09 Speaker 4 Dayan.

1:50:09 Speaker 1 Dayan. How do you say in English? It phases me.

1:50:12 Speaker 4 Uh, uh, okay.

1:50:13 Speaker 1 And I didn't answer him. I said, "But I was there in time with Beit and Gut."

1:50:16 Speaker 4 See, tho- those two were Rebbe-

1:50:19 Speaker 1 Yeah, everybody had their own opinion by Adam

1:50:22 Speaker 4 ... Rebbe's time.

1:50:23 Speaker 1 And the Rebbe told me, I didn't... "Du darfst then zein mit Beit and Gut."

1:50:29 Speaker 4 Hmm.

1:50:30 Speaker 1 It's a very... And I took this as a hero for my life that when ze kum tzu in yoni fun grizleber labatushkeit nisht veisyn, I'm thinking his side or his side. I have, I am, you know, above both of them. It's not my, uh... And Baruch Hashem, mit dem ich mach tzniya geben mein shlichas.

1:50:54 Speaker 4 Hmm.

1:50:56 Speaker 1 It's like that's a very gevaldig hero.

1:50:59 Speaker 4 Yeah.

1:51:01 Speaker 1 Then after I had the shlichas in meshich Philadelphia, Rebbe suggested me that I should make sure that in... At that time when I came, it was Megilach on Ingalach till the fifth grade zusammen in Beit Yankiv. You hear?

1:51:25 Speaker 4 Yeah.

1:51:26 Speaker 1 They were teaching in the same grade, Ingalach on Megilach, and they separated in the fifth grade. So the Rebbe turned to him, "Du darfst then machen fun ershtern grade on, ershtern kitte on."

1:51:44 Speaker 4 They should be separate.

1:51:45 Speaker 1 Separate. And Baruch Hashem, I worked on it and it went through. I must say that Rabbi Popok, alav hashalom, helped me a lot in that.

1:51:51 Speaker 4 He was the principal?

1:51:52 Speaker 1 He wa- he wasn't the principal. He was the, the g- the director of Shabde Gilt a- and yet, uh-

1:52:00 Speaker 4 Mm-hmm.

1:52:02 Speaker 1 This was the first thing that I break through, uh, and it was, uh, very hard, but we did it

1:52:10 Speaker 4 And then later you started, uh, doing things for Israelis, right?

1:52:13 Speaker 1 Uh, While I was teaching, I was also doing in the afternoon all kinds of, uh, pool lesson. Rabbi Shemtov was there, and I was b'karov in the afternoon eating and going to... I was on- only teaching till three o'clock, and I used to come till very late. Later on, I also took a little job, and the kinder start to come, uh, but for parnoseh. So I also taught in a, uh, a, a high school. It's called the high school in the synagogues, a conservative synagogue. But I couldn't get in a conservative synagogue. I think I fregged the Rebbe, "Boss, mis al ton?" So he, uh, he's yaitz him, um, um, um, HaRav Mordechai Asper. And I fregged to Rabbi, "What Rabbi, uh, Zalmen Shimon Dworken?" So he looked, "Was eib. The school is separate from the, um-

1:53:20 Speaker 4 The sh- From the synagogue

1:53:22 Speaker 1 ... from the shul in a different..." Wie an er zogt, uh, "Do is lo nir a shul, nor a frund, the school is next to."

1:53:29 Speaker 4 Mm-hmm.

1:53:29 Speaker 1 And also then after a yom, taught in b'karov in a sach, and give Rachel to Rebbe, to Rebbe, my sach mentioned. And so given an interessant mezach that I broke f- brought from those, uh, high school boys to the Rebbe ones. And the Rebbe knew about it. And right after this, I got a phone call from Nova Kaduga that the Rebbe will recently take choice. Some of them became frumer chassidishe Yidden. Two of... One of them I think is also, I think, but frumer Yidden. Mamash, iberyker zeiler mishpochas. Yeah, one of them is a schliach.

1:54:19 Speaker 4 Hmm. Wow.

1:54:21 Speaker 1 A geiter schliach in Eretz Yisroel, I'll talk. Does he have any-

1:54:27 Speaker 4 All from that?

1:54:28 Speaker 1 Huh?

1:54:29 Speaker 4 All from that?

1:54:30 Speaker 1 Yeah. Well, they came, uh-

1:54:32 Speaker 4 This is a tech choice.

1:54:33 Speaker 1 Tech choice. I have no choice. But a frumer Yidden.

1:54:36 Speaker 4 Yeah.

1:54:37 Speaker 1 So then there are Doctor in Eretz Yisroel, Dr. Yaffa, with the other from the greatest dokterim, zijn ganse familie. Medwin, uh, wie is it zweiter? Cohen. A ganze gruppe chevra. Goldblatt.

1:54:58 Speaker 4 Mm-hmm.

1:54:59 Speaker 1 It's a ganze-

1:55:00 Speaker 4 But klal, you brought people a lot, uh, to the Rebbe?

1:55:04 Speaker 1 Yeah. Oh, yeah.

1:55:04 Speaker 4 And to dollars later?

1:55:05 Speaker 1 A lot. To the dollars, kimat every, every other day.

1:55:09 Speaker 4 Every other Sunday?

1:55:10 Speaker 1 Every other Sunday. You got gevaldige nisim.

1:55:14 Speaker 4 So what, could you, could you tell me, uh, some things from the dollars?

1:55:18 Speaker 1 The dollars is, uh, so given, Ayd, was is ikumen tzumir mit zayn vaib. That he came with his wife, and he's already eight years after the wedding, they have no children. I took him several times, him separate, he went between the men, and the, his wife went between the ladies, and they asked the Rebbe for kids. As they asked the Rebbe for kids, to each and every one of them, he asked, "Amen. Broche ve hatzloche. Amen. Broche ve hatzloche." And they went through already so many times, and sie gor nisht. So once I decided to talk to them. I said to them, "Mommy and Mazal," they're going this way. "You know what? Come to the Rebbe and say, 'Rebbe, I will become... I wanna invest something.' Tell him that you will observe taharat hamishpacha. I'm sure then the bre- the blessing will have more place where it should, uh, so to speak, fall on. Like, if you wanna sow and plant, you have to have, uh, earth, and then you have to fertilize it, and then you have to have rain. But first you have to sow something. Say that you're gon-- Say that you are going to observe taharat hamishpacha." We're seeding and seeding. And, and basically they, both of them are from not, uh, very frum mishpochas. Basically, they are, they, they know what it is, but they didn't. So they decided between the, after a couple weeks, their discussion, they decided they will do it. I made sure I asked Taibeh Binyomin,

1:57:34 Speaker 1 the label, that he should let me go with both of them together. And I went through with them together. And I said to him, "The chum untergunumen af ophir taharat hamishpacha. They will haben zarechei v'yoma. Broche ve hatzloche und und haben zarechei v'kayoma." Said Rebbe gentfert. Okay. This was in the beginning of Tu Bishvat. Then it came in Nun Daled. It came, it came Gimmel Tammuz My wife called me while I was, uh, in center city. I was driving. She said to me, "I hope you're calling a call from Mazal." I received a call from Mazal, and she said, apparently nothing happened. It's more than two years since the blessing, and why should I mooch on myself? She said, "All right." So I wouldn't observe something. I got so upset. I said, "Call her back and say that God forbid you should do it. You have a taina? I am ready to go with you. Let's go to the oil." It wasn't to the oil yet. It was managed to ask. So she said, "No, we'll go ourselves and say to the Rebbe, better we should give that you want children and you promise that you will do ." She went. A year later, she had a child. Now she has two children. One of them got married already.

1:59:26 Speaker 4 Beautiful.

1:59:28 Speaker 1 The Rebbe is no. Yeah, I, I, I myself, like somebody said to me, "Lamah, we-- it happened by somebody else, but not me."

1:59:40 Speaker 4 Under it, under it, it doesn't happen.

1:59:43 Speaker 1 So I said, "But under it happens also. God knows what could have been without it."

1:59:47 Speaker 4 Oh, exactly.

1:59:49 Speaker 1 The extra talk slickers from top Shin mem wow. Prior to that, the Rebbe started giving dollars. The end of top Shin mem wow.

1:59:59 Speaker 4 Yeah, and he doesn't listen.

2:00:01 Speaker 1 Yeah, but this was the extra talk slickers. Label Groner doctor, the reb Zalmani, they come in with a group of mentioned from Philadelphia. I, I don't know why he had to say it. It's America cook on doctor. Say the Mazel what Philadelphia is.

2:00:26 Speaker 4 The rabbi told you that you should explain to them what Philadelphia is.

2:00:30 Speaker 1 On the tongue give Mazel sein as Philadelphia meant Ahavas Chochmah. On the greatest Chochmah is Chochmas Hashem, but this is Terra. Then when I'm learning Terra. I stay via Galum. I know that Philadelphia means city of brotherly love, like Lubavitch. Dr. Menachem Al know and says the same word over. Say the Mazel what Philadelphia is. Philadelphia mean Ahavas Chochmah, and the greatest Chochmah is Chochmas Hashem. That's when I learn Terra. No. But he's okay the better for them. I turned around and said, "The Rebbe says that Philadelphia means Ahavas Chochmah, the love of wisdom, and the greatest wisdom is Chochmas Hashem, the Terra that should learn Terra." Then we give Mashmechu, and he gave me an extra dollar. By the way, whenever I went by, he always gave me an extra dollar. Sometimes he used to say for Philadelphia, sometimes for guns Philadelphia. The last Chovov order is the last dollar that I have from Philade-- The last time the Rebbe gave dollars Some Rebbe, uh, uh, have you brought some Rebbe a German was a war nachas and that mate, and he gave him also a dollar. The Rebbe please he cooked a Z blegh. And then he looked at me and I said, "And that is for guns Philadelphia." He has in my, uh, in my, uh... That's in my... That's the letter. This is the dollar.

2:02:39 Speaker 4 How about the tough one is?

2:02:44 Speaker 1 This is for guns Philadelphia.

2:02:46 Speaker 4 For guns Philadelphia. The same side?

2:02:50 Speaker 1 Huh? for guns Philadelphia. That's me geschrieben.

2:02:57 Speaker 4 Then, and that is-

2:02:58 Speaker 1 That is also with that Here, I'm quick does it. Or the tough should have been.

2:03:08 Speaker 4 Wow.

2:03:09 Speaker 1 That bag like me and my guns left. It's interesting.

2:03:16 Speaker 4 So you say, so Ahavas Chochmah, you were finishing a story. Did I ever give you another dollar?

2:03:21 Speaker 1 Well, so I repeated to them, and I went away.

2:03:23 Speaker 4 Yeah.

2:03:24 Speaker 1 That's it. He gave me another dollar.

2:03:25 Speaker 4 That's the end of the story.

2:03:27 Speaker 1 Yeah, that's the end of the story.

2:03:27 Speaker 4 And for, and for you, you, you-

2:03:29 Speaker 1 Two months later, again, Zach moved in. The doctor said, "In Garrett Nochamol was Philadelphia meant as the Ahavas Chochmah, no?"

2:03:39 Speaker 4 Again, this happened.

2:03:40 Speaker 1 The Rebbe said to me, "But you're not more Garrett was, uh, was Philadelphia meant."

2:03:44 Speaker 4 But you didn't know this.

2:03:45 Speaker 1 But there is a little addition to this story.

2:03:47 Speaker 4 Mm-hmm.

2:03:48 Speaker 1 And at eleven o'clock, I get a phone call from Label Groner. And Rebbe Label Groner zogt as the Rebbe them gezogt as a lob room Rav Lipsker. "Well, I have gesehen it nicht verstanden was ich mein."

2:04:03 Speaker 4 Def.

2:04:05 Speaker 1 And zogem as Philadelphia, phia comes from philosophia. Phia comes from philosophia.

2:04:13 Speaker 4 And, and-

2:04:14 Speaker 1 Phi, Adel, phia. That phila and phia is from philosophia.

2:04:18 Speaker 4 In Latin.

2:04:19 Speaker 1 In Latin. In other words, in philosophia, this is an aggressive philosophia is Chochmas Hashem.

2:04:28 Speaker 4 Chochmas Hashem.

2:04:30 Speaker 1 When you have gezoget the story to Zussman until gezogtes a good zach was me the phone group in Philadelphia.

2:04:37 Speaker 4 Mm-hmm.

2:04:38 Speaker 1 The safer what's reveal Machan.

2:04:40 Speaker 4 Oh, so that's the name of the safer.

2:04:42 Speaker 1 Ahavas Chochmah.

2:04:42 Speaker 4 As the Shazal wrote it, "Shlichas laAhavas HaChochma." It's a shlichas, uh-

2:04:47 Speaker 1 To that city

2:04:48 Speaker 4 To, to the love of Chochma.

2:04:49 Speaker 1 Yep. It wasn't so poshet, but Baruch Hashem, I tried my best. I'm sure it could have been better. But it's better than nothing. I'm still now Baruch Hashem, having shiurim as of today. Somebody called me while I was in-

2:05:06 Speaker 4 Yeah, yeah, I'm aid that I'm sitting here and you got a phone call from a mekarev. So, so let me ask you to, to finish off our conversation. What, uh-

2:05:14 Speaker 1 We're finishing off

2:05:15 Speaker 4 I don't know, do you have, you have-

2:05:16 Speaker 1 Okay

2:05:16 Speaker 4 ... you have more to add?

2:05:17 Speaker 1 No, no, what, what, what do you wanna know?

2:05:19 Speaker 4 I wanna ask you, uh, just the tale of from Kutaissi, from, uh-

2:05:26 Speaker 1 No

2:05:26 Speaker 4 ... from Germany, from Israel-

2:05:28 Speaker 1 No

2:05:28 Speaker 4 ... coming to the Rebbe from the Yuds.

2:05:29 Speaker 1 No

2:05:31 Speaker 4 What's the message for, for all Hasidim today?

2:05:34 Speaker 1 The all Hasidim is ein zach was alle mol. A yeder Yinger man, yeder lubavitcher Chossid must have within his tefillin und mezuzahs. Um, gein, where geht, where steht a dorach vi a doctor. Hor sein, wie ruft man das? Um-

2:05:54 Speaker 4 Uh, scope. Scope, scope.

2:05:56 Speaker 1 The heart, the gesund fun a tzedek.

2:05:58 Speaker 4 Mm-hmm

2:05:58 Speaker 1 Dafer hoben in zich dem, The first zah zulem zein. Um, machen gesund in kop und in hand und in heart durch legende film. Und alndum, noch ich mit tzadak vas yisroel. Zol hoben a schmira in shtub l'mina fun a mezuzah. Und in die velt dos dolle dos heften, it was zu heilen, it will hasten the coming of Moshiach, pshaneh gashmiyutes. And the other thing, as, as the Rebbe says, that ain af a chod she yochal lehishtameit mizeh. You cannot just say that doesn't mean that it belongs to me. You have to do it too.

2:06:45 Speaker 4 This makes them dir, this makes them dir.

2:06:47 Speaker 1 Dir, and dir, and dir, yeah. That was under something else. Oygivald, I get chills saying that in my life. So the Rebbe should help us Amen.

2:07:04 Speaker 4 Much, much better.

2:07:05 Speaker 1 Exactly.

2:07:13 Speaker 4 Good.

2:07:14 Speaker 1 The Rebbe should help them as yechid roten im refi.

2:07:18 Speaker 4 All right.

2:07:19 Speaker 1 And I hope that it will help them.

2:07:24 Speaker 4 100%, okay. Okay.

2:07:38 Speaker 1 The Rebbe one time said that a shliach is always a shliach.

2:07:41 Speaker 4 Exactly. Yeah, Rebbe.

2:07:43 Speaker 1 Amen.