Ep. 61: Living In The Rebbe & Rebbetzin's Apartment Building with Rabbi Chaim Levi Goldstein

00:00 Speaker 1 And the rebbe asked me, "Do you learn Chitas every day?" So I looked for the closest hole to jump in. A fourteen-year-old little-- I wasn't a big learner, and I, I, I had to be honest. So the rebbe said, "A fourteen-year-old, already fourteen, should be learning Chitas every day." I know my older brother, Yitzchak, told me when he heard that, it gave him a big push, and he was extra careful.

00:35 Speaker 2 There's an often overlooked element and way to connect to the Rebbe, and this is something that's supposed to be done on a routine basis. I'm referring to the giving of Ma'amad. Ma'amad is one of the pillars of Askashas, and you can stay tuned later on in the episode to hear more about it and how you can be a part of it. I'm Yossi Kamin. Welcome to Among Chasidim by Der Her, an ongoing farbrengen about life as a Chasid, our vibrant connection with the Rebbe, and inspired living shaped by the way he teaches us each and every day. Shalom Aleichem, Rabbi Goldstein. How are you?

01:20 Speaker 1 Baruch Hashem.

01:22 Speaker 2 Okay. Thank you for being here. You're, you're a big part of my life, besides, besides being a part of everyone's life through, um, the, the Living Sedra and Ben Chamesh L'Mikra and various other endeavors. The, the Lubavitch Hamos tapes, or Yeshivath Yeteivz tapes, right? Besides that, you're-- I was also your Talmud in first grade in Aleistere. So it's, uh, it's-- I think that it's been a while since we had a long conversation, uh, a few years. Shaka'ech. So first of all, let's just start off. I know your name used to be Levi, and now your name is Chaim. So what, what's that about?

01:59 Speaker 1 Chaim Levi.

02:00 Speaker 2 Chaim Levi.

02:00 Speaker 1 Yeah.

02:01 Speaker 2 Maybe you could tell me about that.

02:03 Speaker 1 Well, I wasn't conscious when I got the name Chaim. This was six years-- si-- over six years ago during COVID. I was, uh-- I merited to be the first Cronites patient to be brought to the emergency room during COVID, right after Purim, the Sunday after. And I woke up, it was already Chol Hamoed Pesach. And I said, "When's Pesach?" And they said, "It happened already."

02:35 Speaker 2 Wow.

02:37 Speaker 1 And they didn't want to tell me right away that they changed my name. But they found someone in Australia who still had his shul open, and by Krias HaTorah Monday morning, they were able to change from Levi to Chaim Levi. And when they later broke the news to me, they said, "Do you, do you mind?" I said, "As long as it's not like Tadres or something like that, Chaim is a good name. I like it."

03:09 Speaker 2 Right.

03:09 Speaker 1 So since then, I became Chaim Levi.

03:12 Speaker 2 Okay. A derech hisyamim. Shalom Teves.

03:14 Speaker 1 Amen.

03:15 Speaker 2 So let's start from the beginning when you were named Levi, when you were born. So, uh, you were-- you're-- Who, who are you named after?

03:27 Speaker 1 Well, my father was a Shliach in New Haven at the time, nineteen fifty-two, and he was working for Rabbi Moshe Yitzchak Hecht. And one of the coworkers was Rabbi Velvel Schildkraut, alav ha-shalom. So my first brother is Aaron Yaakov, named after family. Next one is Shalom Dov Ber, the rebbe Rashab. Next one was-- My father wanted to give from the Friediker Rebbe. He was born right after the Hishtalkus, but my father's name is Yosef, so he gave the third one the name Yitzchak. Comes to me, number four, what do we name him? And Velvel Schildkraut gave the idea, "How about calling him after the father's-- the rebbe's father's name?" So he couldn't call me Levi Yitzchak because my older brother was already Yitzchak, so I got the name Le-Levi.

04:29 Speaker 2 Levi. Okay, good. So you mentioned your father. So why don't we step back a little bit, and I wanna hear a little bit about your father. Everyone knows Uncle Yossi, um, both from the... I don't know, it was originally the radio show, all, all those stories.

04:46 Speaker 1 And also the records.

04:46 Speaker 2 And the records, yeah.

04:47 Speaker 1 Tapes.

04:48 Speaker 2 Everyone know Uncle Yossi tapes. I grew up on it. And, uh, HaKatanek March, all of that.

04:55 Speaker 1 Yeah.

04:56 Speaker 2 Um, but there's a lot. We actually had in the Her once, uh, extensive article based on the Zecharia that, that he, he wrote and he said, and there's a lot there. So maybe you could tell me a little bit, uh, kavim, the musa about your father and how he ended up in seven-seventy and... We're not gonna get everything because we could do a whole podcast just on him, but, uh-

05:16 Speaker 1 Yeah

05:16 Speaker 2 ... tell me a little bit about him.

05:18 Speaker 1 My father was born in Providence, Rhode Island. He was born nineteen twenty-seven, a short time before the Friediker Rebbe was arrested. He was born Cheshvan Adar, and Friediker was arrested Teshri Sivan. My grandparents didn't know anything about Chabad at that time, although they were fully religious. In fact, they were the only Shomer Shabbos in town, and a lot of rebbes would pass through Providence. They would, they would pass and come into his house, my zeidy's house. They knew this is a kosher place. And they, they used to call him Moshe the Shemesh Shabbos.

06:05 Speaker 2 He's from Europe?

06:07 Speaker 1 He's from, uh, Romania.

06:09 Speaker 2 Romania, okay.

06:11 Speaker 1 And his wife came from Annopolle, from Ukraine. She wasn't born there. She was born in America.

06:19 Speaker 2 Really?

06:20 Speaker 1 Yeah, her pa- her parents came from Ukraine.

06:22 Speaker 2 Ah, okay.

06:23 Speaker 1 Uh, actually, she wa- she was descendant of the Oipne Moshe, the Moshe Peshavarsk. The, the one who the Alter Rebbe came-- used to come to his house. He was very close with him. And a short time after Alter Rebbe made the new ksav, the new writing for Parshas and Sefer Torah, called the Alter Rebbe's Ksav. A short time after that, he came to Annopolle, and Alter Rebbe saw him writing this new ksav. He said, "Where did you get it from?" He says, "Reb Zusha Annopolle told me that there's a new ksav accepted in heaven, a new writing, and he wants to have these new Parshas, and I, I have to have it ready for him for Rosh Chodesh Shvat."

07:15 Speaker 2 Hmm.

07:16 Speaker 1 He says, "That's why I wasn't able to give you much attention when you came." This, what I'm telling you, is printed in Sefer Hasichas Taf Shin Vav till Taf Shin Yud at the very end. A letter to Rabbi Greenglass, and in the footnotes it has this story, which originates from Yag Del Torah publication, one of those, uh, publications. Anyhow, getting back to our generation. It was 1929, the big crash, the depression. My Zayde sent the kids to public school like everyone did. There was no yeshivas then. The rabbi's son also went to public school, but they used to go with their yamulka. One day, my Zayde saw that his oldest son, Israel, was not wearing his yamulka. He says, "What's this about?" So he says, "Well, the rabbi's son took it off, so I'm doing the same." It was then and there that my Zayde, my grandfather, decided this is not a place to raise kids, and he heard that in New York, in Borough Park, there are yeshivas. We're packing up. He had a printing business. In those days, go sell a business during the depression. He selled it-- He sold it for pennies, just enough money to have car fare to bring the family. Brought them to, uh, Cro-- uh, to Borough Park, enrolled them in Torah Temimah.

08:57 Speaker 2 Torah Temimah.

08:58 Speaker 1 Torah Temimah in Borough Park. Who was running the show in Borough Park? Rabbi Jacobson. Uh, there were a few Lubavitch Hasidim there.

09:06 Speaker 2 Rabbi Simpson.

09:07 Speaker 1 Rabbi S-- Uh, I don't know if he wa-- He was in Borough Park, but in Torah Temimah, I think it was Rabbi Jacobson was the principal. And I said, "Then who was your teacher?" He says, "Rabbi Zalmanov, Shmuel Zalmanov, alav ha-shalom. Rabbi Ushpol." And one day, Rabbi Zalmanov pa- uh, picked himself up. He's not teaching anymore. What happened? The Friediker Rebbe came to Brooklyn, to, to America, and he wanted to be in Crown Heights, whatever. But he had, uh-

09:44 Speaker 2 Friediker Rebbe-

09:45 Speaker 1 Got inspired.

09:45 Speaker 2 Friediker Rebbe opened up a yeshiva.

09:47 Speaker 1 Yeah.

09:47 Speaker 2 Okay, whatever.

09:48 Speaker 1 My fa- was-- My father didn't go there yet.

09:50 Speaker 2 Right. Okay.

09:51 Speaker 1 About two years later, it's 1942, he finally made it. He came to Seven Seventy. How did he find out? Because of these Lubavitchers who were teaching and running the school, Torah Temimah. And that's where Rabbi Simpson's boys were learning. That's, that's where everyone went. There was no Temimah then. When he came, gets onto the train, the New Lots train. No one knows what that is today. Number three. And he's looking for Seven Seventy. He knows it's Eastern Parkway. He gets off by Eastern Parkways. He sees a big sign in the train station. Gets out, he sees a big, massive building. "This is Lubavitch?" He didn't know. That was actually the museum.

10:43 Speaker 2 It's, it, it's interesting. It's a common mistake. I've heard this from other people, that the first time they came to the Rebbe, they got off at Eastern Parkway. To Eastern Parkway. Yeah, it's the wrong stop.

10:55 Speaker 1 And he came to Seven Seventy, and he told me when he walked in to Seven Seventy, he saw the Friediker Rebbe for the very first time. There was some kind of mesiba gathering connection with Mishnayis, because the Friediker Rebbe made a whole thing about studying Mishnayis. Everyone should take part in it. And it was like a mesiba, a siyum or a haluka. Something was going on, finishing, uh, all Mishnayis. And then he, he became the Seven Seventy boy. That means Rabbi Berel Haskind, one of the helpers of the Friediker Rebbe, said to him, "You're American boy. You can speak English. You'll be in charge of Seven Seventy. People come, they, they ask questions, like a policeman comes or a mailman." There was-- It's not like there were a thousand people there. There were barely a half a minyan there. I mean, there was no one there. So he said, "We'll give you a room to sleep in Seven Seventy." And he slept for a while in a room that's called David Raskin's room. Uh, another period he slept downstairs where later they made it into the ba- toilet. That means the one on the ground floor near the elevator. And he was, uh, a big helper for the Friediker Rebbe's things. They-- The waiter who would serve the Friediker Rebbe, my father would, was there, and Friediker Rebbe didn't eat much. So, and they would give it to my father to, he made to bring to the kitchen, whatever, and my father would take it

12:42 Speaker 1 downstairs and share it out with the bachur, a piece of bread, the p- uh, soup, whatever. When my father-- Or in 1946, they needed someone in Rochester to help out the schliach over there who's running a school, and they needed a, an, someone to help to teach. So the Friediker Rebbe called my father in Yechidus. I found out about this Yechidus later in the recent years, 'cause Weingarten, Avraham Weingarten, alav ha-shalom, he wrote a book called Nitzotzei, or something like that.

13:26 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

13:27 Speaker 1 And he's preparing the next book. In the next book, it says, "Here is Yechidus from Yosel Goldstein in this and this time with the Friediker Rebbe, and wh- and what the Friediker Rebbe said to him." He sent him off. He said, "We need for a few weeks," like two weeks or three, I don't remember how long, "to be there." He went to Rochester. I think it was Haishel Shusterman, I think was r- was the schliach there from Chicago. After a few weeks, my father said-- My father used to tell me that they used to have to chop wood 'cause it was freezing in the place, and they had to go schlep and this. It, it was very-

14:11 Speaker 2 To heat the place

14:12 Speaker 1 ... very difficult circumstances.

14:14 Speaker 2 Yeah.

14:14 Speaker 1 But he was there for a few weeks, and he was happy that he did his shlichus. And he took, takes his bags and goes back home. Short time after that, he gets a very sharp letter from the Friediker Rebbe: "Ma du aan osatam e Rochester? Why did you leave? You're supposed to always obey command, and you don't do things on your own. You have to be devoted," and very sharp letter. "And from now on, do only what you're told." Like very strict. Like in the army, you don't play around.

14:53 Speaker 2 He knew-- Someone told him it's for two weeks or in the beginning?

14:56 Speaker 1 They told him, yeah.

14:57 Speaker 2 Ah, that's what it is.

14:57 Speaker 1 My father told me it was just a temporary thing.

15:00 Speaker 2 Right.

15:00 Speaker 1 And he finished his term-

15:02 Speaker 2 Right

15:02 Speaker 1 ... and went back. He didn't-- He did it innocently.

15:05 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm. So, and, uh, uh, there's a few, there's a bunch of interesting things from your father in the, the heb-

15:15 Speaker 1 Right

15:15 Speaker 2 ... we read the article. There's interesting, interesting things that he observed at the Friediker Rebbe. For example, it's not so famous, which I like telling people, is that the whole idea that we say Vamatzeach, capital chuf, on a day that there's no tachnun, we say it as part of tehilim.

15:30 Speaker 1 Right.

15:30 Speaker 2 So we have a whole tir from your father. He-

15:33 Speaker 1 Yeah

15:33 Speaker 2 ... how he, he was by the Friediker Rebbe, I think upstairs in the room.

15:36 Speaker 1 Yes.

15:36 Speaker 2 There's a minyan, and he said, "Matmir megala given mo mailo." It was revealed to the Friediker Rebbe mo mailo that on a day that they don't say tachnun-

15:43 Speaker 1 You say Vamatzeach.

15:44 Speaker 2 Yeah, these amazing, amazing things-

15:46 Speaker 1 Yeah

15:46 Speaker 2 ... that he observed at the Friediker Rebbe. Um, so after Rochester, so he stayed there for a while, and then w- so maybe-

15:54 Speaker 1 Then he came back.

15:55 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

15:56 Speaker 1 And he got married nineteen forty-six.

15:59 Speaker 2 He got married on-

16:01 Speaker 1 Nineteen forty

16:01 Speaker 2 ... my birthday in Chey Elul.

16:03 Speaker 1 Chey Elul, that's right.

16:04 Speaker 2 I remember as a kid, I used to look at the Mekadesh Yisrael. The Rebbe would say the kedushin, so I, I saw that date.

16:10 Speaker 1 Right.

16:11 Speaker 2 'Cause it was my birthday.

16:12 Speaker 1 Nice.

16:14 Speaker 2 So he got married in there, and then he went to New Haven.

16:17 Speaker 1 Not right away. He, he was in a few places. He was a schliach in Providence. He was a schliach in Pr- Springfield. And then, and then n- when I was born in nineteen fifty-two, he was a schliach in New Haven. And then, like, I think it was nineteen fifty-four that he came back to New York. For one year, we lived in Par- Borough Park on Fourteenth Avenue, and then we moved into the house on New York and President Street, three forty-six New York Avenue, where the Rebbe was living on the fourth floor, and we lived on the second floor.

17:01 Speaker 2 So tell me about that.

17:02 Speaker 1 That was an experience, even though I was a little kid then. But I remember we used to run over to the window to watch the Rebbe come, to watch the Rebbe go. "The Rebbe's coming. The Rebbe's going." It was like an excitement. I'm number four of the kids, and my sister was born, my f- only s- sister after me was four years after me, almost four years, so I was the fourth boy for a long time. And, uh, we used to play Fabregin. One used to imitate his Chadikoff standing on the side, and he used to have his hand on the side like Reb Chadikoff standing. Another one was Reb Mendelick. And-

17:46 Speaker 2 These are the games that the kids, that you guys would play.

17:48 Speaker 1 Yes, yes. My older brothers-

17:51 Speaker 2 By the way, the, the Rebbe Rashab and the Aza"l used to play that-

17:54 Speaker 1 Yes, yes

17:54 Speaker 2 ... play Reb Ahasu.

17:55 Speaker 1 Right.

17:56 Speaker 2 This is a, this is a tradition by, by Chabad Lubavitch Hasidim.

17:58 Speaker 1 Exactly. Yeah. My older brothers, older brothers, they were like four, five, six. They used to play in front of the house with their bicycles. When the Rebbe would come, the Rebbe would give them attention, either make with his hand that they should sing- Um, my father told me that he noticed that when the Rebbe would leave to 770, if you were outside, you could see the Rebbetzin standing by the window and watching him cross the street. And after the Rebbe crossed New York Avenue, the Rebbetzin-- the Rebbe would look up to her, turn around, about face, and wave to her.

18:47 Speaker 2 Wow.

18:47 Speaker 1 Every time.

18:49 Speaker 2 Wow.

18:49 Speaker 1 Yeah.

18:50 Speaker 2 The Rebbe would walk down New York to Eastern Parkway?

18:52 Speaker 1 He would walk down President.

18:53 Speaker 2 Down President.

18:54 Speaker 1 President.

18:55 Speaker 2 Yeah. Wow. Um, were there other interactions that, uh, your parents or had with the, with the Rebbe and the, and the Rebbetzin when they were living there?

19:06 Speaker 1 Oh, yes. Yes, yes. My m- my mother told me there was once a farbrengen, and Rebbetzin wanted to go home. She was there.

19:16 Speaker 2 She was where?

19:17 Speaker 1 She was in 770, probably by her sister, while the Rebbe's farbrengen. And my mother was by that farbrengen, where farbrengen was probably upstairs-

19:25 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm

19:26 Speaker 1 ... in a small shul, in the zal. And she says to my mother, "It's late. Maybe we can walk together." And they walked, uh, home. I said, "What did you talk about?" She said, "I was too scared."

19:42 Speaker 2 Wow.

19:42 Speaker 1 But my parents used to share with the Rebbetzin if someone was born or things going on. There were interactions. My mother, if I remember correctly, the details, came down. The, the Rebbe came down from his apartment through the elevator. The Rebbe walks out, he sees my mother standing with a package. It looked like she's carrying groceries, whatever. So the Rebbe held the elevator open. It was actually a bag of garbage she was taking out. But to be a gentleman, the Rebbe waited for her. So she went quickly into the elevator.

20:29 Speaker 2 Yeah.

20:29 Speaker 1 My father told me the Rebbe used to go into the apartment. He used to jump up the stairs like a deer.

20:36 Speaker 2 Like two at a time?

20:38 Speaker 1 I don't know the details. He said he used to mamash run, run up the stairs.

20:43 Speaker 2 So the Rebbe didn't take the elevator himself?

20:46 Speaker 1 I don't know.

20:46 Speaker 2 Yeah. Um, and then-- So you were born תשח you said.

20:55 Speaker 1 Yeah.

20:55 Speaker 2 You said. And when did the-- So the, the Rebbe and the Rebbetzin-

21:02 Speaker 1 That was when I was in the Haven.

21:04 Speaker 2 Right. And the-- But the Rebbe and the, and the Rebbetzin only lived there-

21:07 Speaker 1 They lived only a few years

21:08 Speaker 2 ... I think, yeah, from like till תשח.

21:09 Speaker 1 No, I mean, not a few. I don't remember which year they moved. Maybe they moved in the '40s.

21:14 Speaker 2 No, no, I'm saying to, to the Presid- to, to their house on President Street.

21:17 Speaker 1 They moved to their new house, like, after a year that we were there.

21:20 Speaker 2 Right. I think like יד. I think, I think they moved to that house.

21:23 Speaker 1 My father tells me one time he came home, it was a stormy wintry night, and my father's walking to the apartment building and with his collar covered over, like picked it up, and suddenly he hears someone calling by the Rebbe's name. He takes a look, the Rebbetzin is call-- is using the Rebbe's second name, and he sh- picked up his, "Oh, it's not her."

21:55 Speaker 2 Wow.

21:55 Speaker 1 It looked like it was Rebbe, you know, sometimes the Rebbe used to walk. He used to-

21:58 Speaker 2 He's like, yeah, like that. There's a video but, uh, by the aisle with the-

22:00 Speaker 1 Yeah

22:01 Speaker 2 ... Rebbe's collar up.

22:01 Speaker 1 With the collar.

22:02 Speaker 2 Yeah.

22:02 Speaker 1 Yeah.

22:03 Speaker 2 Wow. Your father also did like, um, this is-- I don't know if this is chronologically the right order. Your father started the photography thing.

22:13 Speaker 1 My grandfather. My grandfather's very much into-

22:16 Speaker 2 Your grandfather?

22:17 Speaker 1 My grandfather. His, his father-

22:19 Speaker 2 Yeah

22:19 Speaker 1 ... very much into recording things, keeping things for it should stay.

22:25 Speaker 2 Okay.

22:26 Speaker 1 In Hebrew, it's called . That should stay on. Pictures, uh, uh, like-

22:32 Speaker 2 But, but your, your father took videos of the Rebbe, no?

22:35 Speaker 1 Yeah, took from the Rebbe, took from the family. Like, was very much into-

22:39 Speaker 2 Video

22:39 Speaker 1 ... yeah, into memor-- making things memorables.

22:43 Speaker 2 Right.

22:43 Speaker 1 He was-

22:44 Speaker 2 So I think like some of the famous scripts, I think your שבת תשל"ד-

22:47 Speaker 1 Yeah

22:47 Speaker 2 ... the Kabbalah, the Kabbalah-

22:50 Speaker 1 Farbrengens

22:50 Speaker 2 ... farbrengens.

22:51 Speaker 1 My father provided the loudspeaker for the farbrengen in the halls. I don't know, maybe also when it was in 770. Um, I, I remember the tape recorder exactly, and the, the microphone that I used to hold.

23:08 Speaker 2 Right. And then, uh, so I guess that stayed in the family, like your brother-

23:13 Speaker 1 Yeah

23:13 Speaker 2 ... Shimon Pere took, uh, the-

23:14 Speaker 1 Yes, yes

23:14 Speaker 2 ... took all the videos.

23:15 Speaker 1 Yes, yes.

23:16 Speaker 2 Um, so when the Rebbe moved to, um-

23:20 Speaker 1 President

23:20 Speaker 2 ... his house on President Street, you have memories-- You, you guys were still living there, so do you have memories from the Rebbe from then or, or the Rebbetzin?

23:26 Speaker 1 Absolutely. I-- There's something I will never, ever forget. Right next door to the Rebbe's house was the Bostoner Rebbe, and they had a kindergarten in the basement. When I turned probably four years old, my mother enrolled me in that kindergarten. There was no Lubavitch Yeshiva kindergarten those days. Lubavitch Yeshiva, first grade, if you're five years old, you can go into Lubavitch Yeshiva, Bedford and Dean.

23:57 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

23:58 Speaker 1 But there was no kindergarten. Oholei Torah didn't even exist then. So my mother enrolled me in that kindergarten, and she w-- she used to walk me from 346 New York Avenue, right near the Rebbe's house. When we were lucky and the Rebbe was coming out of the house, I was zecher to get the Rebbe waving to me and smiling.

24:25 Speaker 2 And something that you remember?

24:27 Speaker 1 Yeah.

24:27 Speaker 2 Wow.

24:27 Speaker 1 Can't forget that.

24:28 Speaker 2 Wow. Wow. Okay. And, um, so you had your opshernish, and you're growing up right next to the Rebbe kindergarten. Um, in general, what was the-- So what was the atmosphere amongst the kids in, in 770? Saying you, you'd go to farbrengens, like what, what was going on then?

24:53 Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah. Farbrengen was, uh, for us a nice, uh-

24:56 Speaker 2 How many kids were there?

24:58 Speaker 1 Not many. Not many. It was the Goldstein family, Bolisovsky family, Lipsker family. Uh, a few, a few more families. It was like-

25:07 Speaker 2 So not much, a few.

25:08 Speaker 1 Yeah. We used to go into the farbrengen, run out, play, come back in. And, uh, someone just reminded me a few days ago, I forgot who. Oh, yeah. There's a guy, uh, who used to live in Crown Heights. His brother has a shul in Woodburn. He's called the, the Nicholsburg, uh, those. So his brother, I met him over there, and he says, "Ah, I remember the fabrangans." And he said, "The Rebbe used to-- His peys singing was louder than the whole Very strict, very much. And, uh, then I see a letter, like maybe a f- half a year later or something, "I'm happy to hear that you're, you're coming on time." And my, and my zeide had a miracle because he was listening. He listened to the Friediker Rebbe, and he left the place early. He had a big miracle. That place had a hurricane or a tornado, and hundreds of people got killed or harmed, uh, injured, and he was... That's the place he would usually be at that time.

31:41 Speaker 2 The Friday afternoon.

31:42 Speaker 1 Yeah, at that, at that time, but he- the Rebbe says, "Have to come back early."

31:47 Speaker 2 Wow.

31:48 Speaker 1 Mamish it saved his life.

31:51 Speaker 2 See, I remember, so I don't remember the prattin, but there was-- Rebbe told Rabbi Groner to call somebody. It was Erev Shabbos, and the Rebbe said, "It's Erev Shabbos, a few hours before Shabbos. A, a yid, you can find him in his house Erev Shabbos, right before Shabbos." So you call, call him in his home. It's, uh, such a story.

32:11 Speaker 1 Yeah.

32:12 Speaker 2 Beautiful. Okay, so the Rebbe, the Rebbe is saying, "This is Winters."

32:17 Speaker 1 Yeah.

32:17 Speaker 2 "This is Winters, uh, Inneklach."

32:19 Speaker 1 There's a letter-

32:19 Speaker 2 So what happened?

32:21 Speaker 1 What do you mean?

32:22 Speaker 2 When they said that this is Winters Inneklach.

32:24 Speaker 1 They just come to identify us. They said, they saw us by the door.

32:27 Speaker 2 Wasn't there an addition? This is Goldstein?

32:32 Speaker 1 Maybe it was another time. Yeah, I also remember something like that. Vague, you know, you're talking about, uh-

32:37 Speaker 2 The Rebbe identified you. Okay

32:38 Speaker 1 ... a hundred years ago, like There's a letter in the Igros to Reb Shloime Zalman Hecht in Chicago, and the Friediker Rebbe writes to him, "You don't know what to do with the youth? Let me tell you. There are two Winters sisters in Pittsburgh who make Mesibos Shabbos. There's a girl, Yehudis Shklar, in New York, in Crown Heights, makes a Shabbos party. There are young kids," Vayageb says, "One is 11, one is 13," or something like that, "and you don't know what to do?"

33:15 Speaker 2 Hmm. So that's Mesibos Shabbos, which we'll-- I think we'll get to that soon 'cause you have something to do with that too.

33:21 Speaker 1 So my mother would, all her years, she would make Mesibos Shabbos. She would, she would do it at home, call neighbors in.

33:30 Speaker 2 Yeah. That was the whole thing about Friediker Rebbe, Mesibos Shabbos, and that was-

33:34 Speaker 1 Mesibos Shabbos

33:34 Speaker 2 ... that was one of the first, uh, pius-

33:36 Speaker 1 Yeah

33:36 Speaker 2 ... in America.

33:38 Speaker 1 Yeah.

33:38 Speaker 2 Okay, so let's get back to you a little bit. So, um, so you started going to Bedford and Dean, I'm assuming, at a certain point.

33:45 Speaker 1 When I was five.

33:47 Speaker 2 Five years old.

33:47 Speaker 1 I turned five in Elul, and I was enrolled in first grade. I had Rabbi Bernstein. In the second grade, I had Rabbi Marlowe.

33:58 Speaker 2 I remember when I was in your class. I think it's, um... So you, you hung up a picture of, uh, of, uh, Rabbi Marlowe teaching. You had a, a photograph of-

34:08 Speaker 1 Oh, yeah

34:09 Speaker 2 ... of him teaching.

34:09 Speaker 1 Yeah. We have-

34:10 Speaker 2 I think you might have been in the picture, yeah.

34:11 Speaker 1 We have a class photograph with him.

34:13 Speaker 2 No, there was like a-- He was against, he was like teaching, I think in the middle of teaching or something.

34:16 Speaker 1 Absolutely.

34:17 Speaker 2 I don't remember. Some, some, some picture was hanging in your classroom.

34:20 Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

34:21 Speaker 2 Okay. But he taught what?

34:23 Speaker 1 He taught the f- second grade.

34:25 Speaker 2 He taught Kaddish or Cheil?

34:26 Speaker 1 Kaddish, Kaddish. In the afternoon, he taught Cheil, Kita Alef.

34:31 Speaker 2 Okay.

34:31 Speaker 1 Grade one.

34:33 Speaker 2 So you went to, um, the Cheil also?

34:34 Speaker 1 I went the first grade f- Kita Alef, I went to Rabbi Bernstein, and that's it, and we used to go home in the afternoon. Kita Beis, instead of going home, I used to sit in Rabbi Marlowe's class for the afternoon, and where he taught us how to count fi- five, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, like basic stuff. That was the English that we learned. But then my parents pulled me out of English. The whole-- None of us learned-

35:09 Speaker 2 They asked the Rebbe about it?

35:10 Speaker 1 Yeah.

35:11 Speaker 2 Tell me.

35:12 Speaker 1 My mother told me in Yechidus, she asked the Rebbe, and the Rebbe, "No one should go to English." Except for one of my brothers, one of my siblings, who had a zitzfleish, uh, difficulty to sit, you know. He needed, uh, variety. For whatever reason, the Rebbe say he can go. Didn't get much out of it, but-

35:35 Speaker 2 So but you had, uh, but you-

35:37 Speaker 1 But I was one of those that the Rebbe discouraged. And so we used to have an afternoon class. It was someone, a Sh- Shmuel Hecht, alav ha-shalom, was a sheychet. He took care of a class. Rabbi Taneum had a afternoon class.

35:55 Speaker 2 Ah. Okay. Um, what are some other things that you remember, like from your early years? Like, uh, you remember the, the Rebbe teaching the nigunim in Simchas Torah?

36:07 Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah. I re- I, I remember that well. I remember my mother bringing me to the farbrengen Simchas Torah, Matzoh Simchas Torah, where the Re- where the Rebbe-- W- where did we go? In the back of it, the whole shul was very small then, the downstairs shul. So the Rebbe is all the way up front, and we were by where the, they have steps going up now. You know which steps I mean, the little steps that go up and go to the, where Rabbi Groner's office is.

36:46 Speaker 2 Right. That was in the out-- That was outdoors?

36:49 Speaker 1 It was, it was-- No, no. We came in. The ladies were in. We were in the back. There wa- it was such a small crowd that the ladies used to be able to be there. When the farbrengens were in the li- little zal, the ladies used to be by the windows from outside and watch And I, if I'm not mistaking, maybe in this, in the cheder sheini, in the second small room, maybe. In any case, so I remember standing there, and they would sing the Shamile's Nigun, re-practicing 'cause the Rebbe taught it

37:28 Speaker 2 So this is already the next day?

37:29 Speaker 1 Yeah.

37:30 Speaker 2 So when not, not the Rebbe wasn't there?

37:32 Speaker 1 No. By the Fabregyn-

37:34 Speaker 2 By the Fabregyn, by the Simchas Torah by day

37:35 Speaker 1 ... I guess the Rebbe told them to, to sing it again.

37:37 Speaker 2 I think that was the say it, I think by this, the, the Rebbe taught it in the morning, and by the Simchas Torah Fabregyn, and they would sing it, they would sing it again. I think that's the way it worked.

37:45 Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah.

37:46 Speaker 2 So you remember that Shamile?

37:47 Speaker 1 I remember that scene. You know, you see all, see them in the back of the Rebbe and-

37:52 Speaker 2 Wow. Um, and then, and you remember the other Nigun also?

37:58 Speaker 1 Yeah, I remember Atah Chartanu. I remember, uh, what-

38:03 Speaker 2 Was it-- You remember the Rebbe teaching Atah Chartanu?

38:06 Speaker 1 Yeah.

38:06 Speaker 2 So this is-

38:07 Speaker 1 Rebbe was holding a siddur

38:08 Speaker 2 This is already downstairs in the, in the shul.

38:10 Speaker 1 Downstairs in the shul, in front of the Ar-- I think it was by the Aron Kodesh. I don't remember.

38:16 Speaker 2 So Rebbe was holding a siddur se- teachings.

38:17 Speaker 1 Yeah, looking in.

38:19 Speaker 2 Okay. So you're in Beth Ferrandine, and, uh, but so you mainly saw the Rebbe on Shabbos, I imagine.

38:30 Speaker 1 And if we're lucky, in the school bus going on Brooklyn Avenue, Brooklyn Avenue was going in the other direction, going instead of from Eastern Parkway to Empire Boulevard, it was going to Empire Bu- the other direction, the traffic going north. So we used to pay a nickel to the bus driver, it was a Yiddish bus driver. His name was Pearlstein. We used to ask him to coordinate that we should be when the Rebbe's going some- somehow. And we used to look out of the window, we used to sing, And the Rebbe would hear us, and the Rebbe would make with his hand that we should sing.

39:16 Speaker 2 While walking?

39:17 Speaker 1 Yeah. It's-

39:19 Speaker 2 Wow. So this was, uh-

39:21 Speaker 1 This is exclusive Rebbe for you.

39:23 Speaker 2 Yeah, it's amazing.

39:24 Speaker 1 I also had exclusive Rebbe for a Mesibah Shabbos time.

39:29 Speaker 2 So that, that was in your la... That was later when you were a bocher.

39:31 Speaker 1 That was, yeah, that was already-

39:32 Speaker 2 So I, I wanna get to that. Let's go, I'm just going chronologically.

39:34 Speaker 1 Okay.

39:34 Speaker 2 So let's, I guess let's move on to your Bar Mitzvah. So now we had a Yechidas by your Bar, by your Bar Mitzvah.

39:39 Speaker 1 Yeah.

39:41 Speaker 2 And, um, and then you had subsequent Yechidas in-

39:46 Speaker 1 Yeah

39:46 Speaker 2 ... when you were a bocher.

39:47 Speaker 1 Yeah.

39:48 Speaker 2 Was there anything from-

39:48 Speaker 1 A few times. We had only a few Yechidas as a bocher to go in alone.

39:54 Speaker 2 Right. By your birthday?

39:55 Speaker 1 Yeah.

39:56 Speaker 2 So is there anything you wanna share from those, uh, Yechidas?

39:59 Speaker 1 Well, I took my father's tapes that he has, and I transferred it into digital. He has a lot of, lot of stuff, family stuff, a lot of stuff, and interviewing us. "Levi, what happened in Yechidas for your Bar Mitzvah?" And I would say what the Rebbe said to me, the Brachos and everything.

40:21 Speaker 2 Really?

40:22 Speaker 1 I don't remember it, but I heard it while I was just recently transferring, and, uh, I would say what the Rebbe said. Don't ask me now, I forgot already.

40:31 Speaker 2 That's a amazing Chinuch.

40:33 Speaker 1 Yeah.

40:33 Speaker 2 They say about the Mendel Futerfas, the whole story that-

40:36 Speaker 1 I never forgot the Rebbe Rashab, you think

40:38 Speaker 2 ... he went-- Because his grandmother would ask him, "What did the Rebbe gezagt? And what did the Rebbe grand, what's the, what's the grandphet?"

40:44 Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

40:45 Speaker 2 He re- Because she reminded him-

40:47 Speaker 1 Yeah

40:47 Speaker 2 ... he remembered the, the Rebbe Rashab. He was mamash a little kid, I think. Yeah.

40:51 Speaker 1 Yeah. So when I was turned 14, that was the first time that I went alone. Bar Mitzvah, you go with the parents.

40:59 Speaker 2 Right.

41:00 Speaker 1 And the Rebbe asked me, "Do you learn Chitas every day?" So I looked for the closest hole to jump in . A 14-year-old little, I wasn't a big learner, and I, I, I have to be honest. So the Rebbe said, "Du bist shoin fertshn yor alt." Already 14? Should be learning Chitas every day.

41:28 Speaker 2 Wow.

41:30 Speaker 1 Like, did I carry it out 100%? But I know my older brother, Yitzchak, told me when he heard that, it gave him a big push, and he was extra careful.

41:42 Speaker 2 Uh, it's, it's interesting, you know, that I don't know about what's going on today, but I f- when I was 14, I think most people, at least in my circle, did, did learn Chitas. Yeah, but you have to remember that we're c- we're coming on, uh, many, uh, years of, of, uh, Chinuch from the Rebbe. I'm saying you were, you were getting it fresh, you know, that, that a 14-year-old is expected to learn Chitas. There's, there's Pasht. Very interesting. Okay, so you learned, you're learning in Beth Ferrandine until when?

42:12 Speaker 1 Till Taf Shin Lamed. Till-

42:16 Speaker 2 Till Taf Shin Lamed? Till, okay

42:17 Speaker 1 ... The Taf Shin Lamed was my last year. Rabbi Shve was in Mesivta. And then Temchit, Temchit Mima moved to Flatbush, Taf Shin Lamed Alef.

42:31 Speaker 2 Okay.

42:31 Speaker 1 But I, I already went off to Brin Wa.

42:35 Speaker 2 Didn't you go to Montreal?

42:38 Speaker 1 Taf Shin Chaf Zayin , I went for a tryout. I didn't like it, and I was pushed to go. And it came Rosh Hashanah, and my mother says, "No, you're staying. You have to stay. The HaShem doesn't give you the shust to come in. You have to stay. I'm not gonna miss Takias from the Rebbe. No way." So I, I didn't obey. I took my things, I borrowed money, and got onto a bus and came to Crown Heights.

43:14 Speaker 2 For Yom Tov?

43:15 Speaker 1 For, for Rosh Hashanah, yeah. And that was just when they were the I remember there was, was some construction going on in seven seventy, and we had-- because of that, we were able to have a perfect spot right near the Arnon Kadesh, and the Rebbe-- Everything was so much closer because we didn't have the whole shetaχ, the whole area. We just had the small. So... And I had to break the news to my mother that I'm here, but

43:44 Speaker 2 Right. So how'd you do that?

43:47 Speaker 1 My brother, Yitzchak, came up with an i-idea. He brought me to a place called Chach's Bakery. Only the old-timers know where that is.

43:56 Speaker 2 That's Albany Bakery.

43:57 Speaker 1 The Albany Bakery was across the street where now is Apple Bank.

44:00 Speaker 2 Right.

44:01 Speaker 1 Used to be a bakery, and it was two partners, Fuchs and Chach.

44:07 Speaker 2 I'm not so old that I remember that bakery.

44:09 Speaker 1 You remember it? Good.

44:10 Speaker 2 I used to go buy challahs there on Shabbos.

44:11 Speaker 1 Yeah.

44:13 Speaker 2 Okay.

44:13 Speaker 1 I have a story with challahs, too, from, from the-

44:16 Speaker 2 From the Rebbe.

44:16 Speaker 1 Yeah.

44:16 Speaker 2 Okay. We'll get to that in a second.

44:19 Speaker 1 And he says, "Let's buy something for Mommy." And we got these little honey nuts that they make for Rosh Hashanah, put it into a box, and, like, with, with an apology or something . And I said, "You're here, you're here." She's not gonna throw me out .

44:36 Speaker 2 That was the appeasement.

44:38 Speaker 1 Yeah.

44:39 Speaker 2 Chach. We used to call it Albany Bakery, okay? Chach's Bakery.

44:42 Speaker 1 Yeah.

44:42 Speaker 2 Um, so that's-- You, you didn't go back, you didn't go back to Montreal after that?

44:48 Speaker 1 I did.

44:49 Speaker 2 Oh, you did?

44:49 Speaker 1 I think after, afterwards, I went back. After I took a deep breath. Who's gonna go to the, to the king's palace? And she saw I was hesitating. She says, "What's the problem? When I was your age, I, I would do favors." She didn't realize what-- why I'm taking a deep breath. She says, "You know what?" I said, "I, like, I'm a little uncomfortable." So she says, "You know what? Just put it in the back porch, and I'll tell my sister to find it there." I take the bag down with me and says, "I can't go to the back porch." S-s-- What, what-- You know, and I think now, what was so scary about it? But-

48:09 Speaker 2 But-

48:10 Speaker 1 So I saw-

48:11 Speaker 2 Explain. So, uh, the-

48:12 Speaker 1 It, it's, it's not something you can explain. It's just an awe, like taking you into Kodesh HaKadashim. Who wants to step in there? I was thinking many times, if one day the librarian, Barry Levin, says, "Chaim Levi, I'm giving you a treat today. I'm bringing you into the insides of the library. You can see the Alter Rebbe's books and where his handwritings are," I probably would, w-would refuse. Ninety-nine percent sure I would refuse. Would I regret it later? Probably, too. It's, it's like a certain awe. Anyhow, I'm standing in front of seven seventy with this bag. I know I have an errand to do. And I see a friend of mine, a chaver, Barry Lubkovsky. He's now a Rosh Yeshiva in Eretz Yisrael. So I said, "Do you mind coming with me? I need some support." And we walked over, and we put it down in the back, and we ran like from fire .

49:18 Speaker 2 Uh-huh. Okay.

49:24 Speaker 1 So-

49:27 Speaker 2 You end-- You said that you, you said you ended up going to Brunois. So how did, uh, how did that happen?

49:34 Speaker 1 How did that happen? I wasn't that interested in learning at that point. I was seven-- just turned seventeen, and my parents wanted me to find a more decent place. My mother said a friend of hers has a kid in Brunois, and it's so nice over there.

49:52 Speaker 2 That was a common thing that American-

49:54 Speaker 1 Very not common. Very uncommon. But there were a few individuals that sent the kids out. How about going to France? Okay. W-- I wasn't forced into it. I accepted it. "Okay, we'll go." Made a passport and came to Brunois. I was there for four years.

50:17 Speaker 2 Ah.

50:19 Speaker 1 Under, uh, Reb Nissan, Reb Yisroel Nayach, Reb Yosef Goldberg, Aharon Yosef, uh, Glanitzky, Reb Philip Hevsner, and all the other guys in the-- Nachman, Nachman Rutkovsky. I had the whole real crew, the real... I came there, it was like all the things I ever pictured is the city of Lubavitch and the way they daven, and the way-- Mit gerejt nor Yiddish. It was only Yiddish there. There's no-- Not French, not English. Later, the English boys came and the French boys and the other languages. So, so I spent four years there. And, um, Reb Nissan made a big change in me, did a very big favor. He saw I was not learning well. I wasn't, uh, utilizing the opportunity. And I wonder where he got the idea from, whether it's his own idea or he consulted with the Rebbe, I don't know. But one day he comes to me and he says, "You're gonna teach a younger group of kids." Who was it? Shalom Ber Baumgarten, the one from JCM, Aharon Yosef Vogel, the one who works for Seven Seventy, Yerucham Raskin from England, and Mendel Levin. I think he lives on Carroll Street, Crown Street somewhere. A shochet. "You're gonna teach them." "What?" "Gemara." Unfortunately, I w-- I, I, I wasn't yet capable of even myself understanding Gemara, even though I was seventeen. As a matter of fact, when I came into the Bais Medrash the first time, I see the Kalmanson brothers, the twins, who later became my brothers-in-law. I see them sitting with

52:26 Speaker 1 a Ketuvos, already learning Ketuvos, and they were just about thirteen, fourteen years old. I'm barely breaking my teeth on, on the Mishnah and the Gemara. Anyhow, so Reb Nissan gave me a job to do, and I love teaching. That's something as a kid, I loved sharing, teaching, telling stories. It was part, such a part of me. But how I'm gonna do it? I broke my head, and I worked, and I worked, and I was able to give over the Mishnah. Then I gave over the Gemara, and I, I took Seforim with that Mefarshim explained, and for quite a while I was teaching them. I think I got paid. I think so. I don't remember for sure. Probably I did. And it was a big, big game changer for me.

53:16 Speaker 2 It's amazing story.

53:17 Speaker 1 Yeah.

53:17 Speaker 2 Meaning you're a bachur in the zal. You're not supposed to be teaching kids.

53:20 Speaker 1 Right.

53:21 Speaker 2 That they saw you having a schwerer keis, either the Nissan or we don't know where he got the idea from.

53:26 Speaker 1 Right.

53:27 Speaker 2 M-make you, give you responsibility, and that's what-- And also using out your talents.

53:33 Speaker 1 Yeah.

53:34 Speaker 2 I guess it was recognized that you have that talent. Use out that talent in order to get you motivated to be-

53:38 Speaker 1 Right

53:38 Speaker 2 ... trained. Right. Very gut shmach. Very nice. Okay. So, um, so that's what you did. You were in Mirwa. So what, what was the-- Four years in Mirwa, what, what was the, the relationship, uh, to New York and with the Rebbe saying, "Well, why are you in Mirwa?"

53:58 Speaker 1 No, I sent Ma'amad every, every month a dollar forty-four. Why? Because every week, thirty-six cents.

54:07 Speaker 2 Okay.

54:08 Speaker 1 And I would get letters back from the Rebbe, receipts like, like, uh, uh, saying the Skabel, the, the this. I received a letter with the... I don't remember exact So that's something that you wouldn't get if you're in, uh, New York?

54:29 Speaker 2 No. Yeah.

54:31 Speaker 1 Yeah.

54:32 Speaker 2 So you're there for four y- four years, and you, you ended up coming back to Seven Seventy to learn in the yeshiva?

54:36 Speaker 1 I came-- When I came back, I went to-- We learned first in Chei V'Taidah.

54:41 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm.

54:42 Speaker 1 Rabbi Zalman Rubkovsky was mashgiach there. Rabbi Shlomo Zarcho was there. And the shiurim we got, Rabbi Mandler, Rabbi, uh, whoever, Rabbi Pekarsky.

54:56 Speaker 2 When it comes to be connected and to be mekusar to the Rebbe, there are various ways we do this. Limudei Chassidut, learning the Rebbe's Torah, kium halachos, fulfilling the Rebbe's instructions, and much more. There's one aspect is kashrus, which is sometimes overlooked, which is called Ma'amad. Throughout the last few months, we've been highlighting various kronis, various funds that the Rebbe established, that it is a good idea to participate in them, and the Rebbe encouraged the participation of every one of us on special occasions and at certain times of the years. But there are two elements and two ways of giving money to the Rebbe that's supposed to be done on a regular basis. One is Demei Pan, the money that is given to the Rebbe when a Pan is written, and the other one is Ma'amad. Ma'amad is an ancient tradition dating back to the times of the Alter Rebbe, where Chassidim would give routine m-money to the Rebbe, sometimes once a week, sometimes every month, different schedules. And the idea of the Ma'amad is, is that it is money to be used at the Rebbe's discretion For what the Rebbe sees fit. And it is explained by various Rabbeim, m- most predominantly by the Friediker Rebbe, also by the Rebbe as well, that the idea of the Ma'amad is something that we give in order to be part of the Rebbe's work, because all of the Rebbe's work is something that every single Yid should be doing. But if we are not, you can

56:33 Speaker 2 participate in the expense of those things. There's a lot more to discuss regarding the importance of Ma'amad and how much of a central role it plays in Chabad Chassidus. Um, this is something that the Rebbe specifically stipulated very interestingly, that after Gimmel Tammuz, Ma'amad should continue. Before Gimmel Tammuz, the Rebbe would take the money for the Ma'amad and give it to the central meister of Machneh Israel, the Merkaz LeHoinu, the Lishkas Hashochan. And the Rebbe said that the same should be done after Gimmel Tammuz. This is something that every single Chossid can participate in. The amount is not so important or not as important. It is the effect of routinely giving Ma'amad, which can be done at magbis.org, M-A-G-B-I-S.org, through clicking the tab for Ma'amad. This is an important and integral part of our Hashkafas, and it's something that if one has not been doing so till now, can start now, or if they have done so in the past and have neglected it, it's something that they can routinely do, and through this can remain and strengthen the connection of every Chossid to the Rebbe. So you mentioned before the Mesibes Shabbos. So is this when you started doing Mesibes Shabbos? In the, in the early- When you were a bachur? When I was a bachur, yeah. So tell, tell me about it. What's the-- what's going on? My brother used to run it, Yitzchak, my older brother. So this is something going on from the Friediker Rebbe's times, Mesibes Shabbos or like- I

58:18 Speaker 2 don't know. I don't know. But I know my, my older brother used to make Mesibes Shabbos, and I think it was Beis he went to England. And he said, "Levi, take over." What was he-- Okay. And I said, "What am I supposed to do?" He says, "You just print papers, put it up, like Mesibes Shabbos, this time, there." And whenever there was no farbrengen, we had a Mesibes Shabbos. And I said, "What do I do for Nash?" He says, "Go to Rabbi Klein, Binyamin Klein, and he'll sponsor it." So this is like a, this is like a Rab- a Rab- uh, inyan thing. Yes, I know. Rabbi Klein's paying for it, paying for it. He would take out of his pocket six dollars, and that was-- today it's barely for one bag of potato chips. Right. But then we were able to buy a nice amount of Nash. And where did we have the Mesibes Shabbos? On Seven Eleven Eastern Parkway. That's right near Brooklyn Avenue, across the street, across Eastern Parkway. That's the Kara-- That was the Kara Stier- There used to be a, um, it's the second house from the corner. U-- It was called Kara Stier Shul and Mikvah. And that was the mikvah everyone went to. And I heard the Rebbe went, uh, to that mikvah. I don't know how much, how many times, but he went. And the bonus was that the Rebbe would go home around two thirty from Seven Seventy. And we were smack in the middle of

59:56 Speaker 2 our Shabbos party, our Mesibes Shabbos. So we got the idea, I don't know, maybe it was my brother's idea, whatever. As soon as we see the Rebbe coming from the distance, we opened up the window, and the window was not a small window, it was a very large window. And everyone can be standing by the window, and we would sing on the top of our voices. The kids would scream whatever is Neida Bi Huda, whatever the capital of that year, I think that's what we sing. And the Rebbe would look- From across the street. From across the street. Eastern Parkway. Right. And smile to us and make with his hands, encourage the singing. How do we know the Rebbe's coming? We appointed a watchman, a kid. Right. He would s-- He would stay there and watch. And, uh, one time he missed. He didn't chap the Rebbe went, and later, Mordechai Nagel came to me, says, "The Rebbe kept on looking." And the Rebbe kept on looking. Nagel, he was walking down the road. Nagel would accompany the Rebbe. Okay. He said, "The Rebbe was looking and looking, waiting for it. What happened?" Huh. Missed it. So that was exclusive for us. We had the Rebbe. No one in the world had a little group of kids with a bachur. We had the Rebbe. Didn't you, um, didn't you do Mesibes Shabbos like later, all the years? Later- When you were- Later when, um, in the mems, Kat-- Rabbi Katzin got involved, and he started

1:01:39 Speaker 2 to make it more often, even by farbrengens, he would take them upstairs in the zal and make Mesibes Shabbos there. But you also did it to him? No. I, uh, he-- I gave it over to him, whatever. Okay. It wasn't anymore the way it was. Maybe it was after Lamid Ches that Rebbe wouldn't go anymore. I don't remember, but somewhere around there. I do remember that I wanted very much to bring the Mesibes Shabbos from that shul to Seven Seventy. Let's do it in Seven Seventy in the, in the small zal.

1:02:19 Speaker 1 The why can't we do it in the small zal? The bachur are not learning then Shabbos afternoon. But I knew we need to get permission. You have to speak to Reb Dovid Roskin. By f- bachur, I'm gonna speak to Anhalah. Who am I? So I went to Rabbi Chodakov. I said, "Rabbi Chodakov, I wanna make the Mesibah Shabbos here in, in the small zal. Can you please speak on my behalf to, uh, to get it, to get it here?" Rabbi Chodakov says to me, "Why don't you speak?" Says, "I'm just a bachur." He says, "You're not the one speaking. Mesibah Shabbos is speaking."

1:03:05 Speaker 2 Huh. It's a good, it's a good, uh, life lesson.

1:03:11 Speaker 1 Yeah.

1:03:13 Speaker 2 The Mesibah, Mesibah Shabbos is that.

1:03:14 Speaker 1 The Mesibah Shabbos that. Heh. Such a smart idea.

1:03:21 Speaker 2 Wow. So you're metzliach, I'm assuming.

1:03:26 Speaker 1 I, because I saw later when we went over, I don't remember it was right away.

1:03:31 Speaker 2 You did. Um, was there any, um, his yachas from the Rebbe to your, this Mesibah Shabbos?

1:03:40 Speaker 1 Yeah, once in Yechidas, I don't remember which one, the Rebbe was giving me berachos, and he says, "And for the Mesibah Shabbos." And I don't think I wrote anything to-

1:03:53 Speaker 2 You never wrote to the Rebbe about it?

1:03:54 Speaker 1 I didn't. Maybe I wrote something in the past, but yeah.

1:04:02 Speaker 2 The Rebbe give a beracha for the Mesibah Shabbos.

1:04:03 Speaker 1 Beracha Mesibah Shabbos.

1:04:04 Speaker 2 Amazing.

1:04:04 Speaker 1 Yeah.

1:04:06 Speaker 2 Okay. So this is, uh, while you're a bachur. When did you get married?

1:04:09 Speaker 1 Five hundred and eighty, Tammuz.

1:04:13 Speaker 2 So your wife is from, is back from Bnei Brak?

1:04:16 Speaker 1 My wife is from Bnei Brak, yeah.

1:04:21 Speaker 2 Okay. So you got married there?

1:04:23 Speaker 1 No, I got married here.

1:04:27 Speaker 2 Okay. Um, so maybe talk to me a little bit about the, the tzkofer your chasuna.

1:04:36 Speaker 1 Yes. So after I got smicha, it was Yud Gimmel Tishrei, I think I got smicha. I had to go up to the, to the Rashag, to Rabbi Gurari, and get a smicha paper, and someone had to fill in, the sofer had to fill in the name, and then you bring it and get a signature from Rabbi Piekarski and Rabbi Mantle. I can't remember who else. I think two signatures. Used to be three. I don't remember who's the third one. Anyhow, and I was-- I turn, I just turned twenty-four. My parents asked me if I'm interested to go to France to meet someone. So I asked the Rebbe, and I said, wrote... My parents wrote, and the Rebbe answered, "B'dishush Anhalah." So I went to Reb Dovid Roskin, and he said, "You should see to accomplish there also mitzvim." Like, do the, do things. When I came there to meet Kalmanson, this girl, it's very interesting. Reb Nissan, I came there a few-- I was there for a few days. Reb Nissan comes over to me, he says, "I wanna talk to you privately." He says, "I have an idea for a shidduch for you. You know Rabbi Kalmanson has a daughter." So I, I, I, I let him in the secret.

1:06:11 Speaker 2 Tzug iz a he-- tzug iz a rafin.

1:06:13 Speaker 1 I said, "That's where I came from."

1:06:14 Speaker 2 Uh-huh.

1:06:16 Speaker 1 Also, Mrs. Lotkovsky, that's Yisroel Lotkovsky's mother, she says, "I hope for the shidduch. I can show you a picture." I said, "Don't do me any favors. I, I, I make believe I don't know anything." Later she comes, "Oh, doesn't it make? That's the one I was..."

1:06:36 Speaker 2 Okay. So a lot of people, uh, apparently it was a good shidduch in far a kish.

1:06:40 Speaker 1 Far a kishin.

1:06:42 Speaker 2 But you end, but you end up coming back to New York. So you got e- you got engaged over there.

1:06:47 Speaker 1 Yeah. Made l'chaim there. Reb Nissan fabrenged. I have a recording of the whole fabrengen, and we even have a video. How could a Goldstein have a simcha without a video?

1:07:05 Speaker 2 Of the, of the l'chaim?

1:07:06 Speaker 1 Yeah. I see all the, the-

1:07:08 Speaker 2 If you put this video out, it's probably interesting.

1:07:12 Speaker 1 I, I... Now it's on my Google Drive.

1:07:14 Speaker 2 You have to release it.

1:07:15 Speaker 1 By the way, if you go to chinuchtime.com-

1:07:19 Speaker 2 Mm-hmm

1:07:19 Speaker 1 ... you'll see one folder is called Reb Nissan. And over there you have, you have his fabrengens.

1:07:28 Speaker 2 That's your website?

1:07:29 Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah. You have over there, uh, Shiurei Tanya from Reb Nissan, fabrengens that he-- plus the Yut as Kislev fabrengens and a lot of stuff from Reb Nissan-

1:07:42 Speaker 2 Okay. Stuff you have

1:07:43 Speaker 1 ... that I plus you recorded.

1:07:45 Speaker 2 Yeah. So tell me about, uh, the, the... So you got, you got married in New York. Chasuna's in New York.

1:07:49 Speaker 1 Yeah. And we got married Zayin Tammuz, and if-- that was not an official date for the, that the Rebbe would go to the Ohel.

1:07:58 Speaker 2 Right.

1:07:59 Speaker 1 And I was supposed to come at a certain time to pick up the siddur from the Rebbe, to get from the Rebbe the siddur, and the Rebbe would say, "Iz bet naleh gut azakh," and, you know, you should-

1:08:12 Speaker 2 The Rebbe give a beracha.

1:08:13 Speaker 1 Give a beracha and whatever. Suddenly I, I find out that the Rebbe's going to the Ohel We came to seven seventy. Rabbi Groner says, "Here's the siddur. The Rebbe asked me to give it to you as a shliach." And, uh, so I used the Rebbe siddur for davening. I, I was disappointed that I missed out, but whatever the Rebbe does is always for your benefit.

1:08:41 Speaker 2 Okay.

1:08:42 Speaker 1 Later, when after w- I got ready for the chuppah, in the back room in seven seventy by... It's called the Yichud Room, and we opened the door, my father and my schwager were holding the candles. As we're coming out, the Rebbe is coming mamash towards us, 'cause the little sink over there, after oil, the Rebbe would always wash his hands over there. And the Rebbe sees us. I don't think he said mazel tov. I don't think he said anything, probably before he washed his hands, whatever. And so I felt, I got the Rebbe personally face to face.

1:09:29 Speaker 2 On the way to the chuppah.

1:09:30 Speaker 1 Yeah. What could be better?

1:09:32 Speaker 2 Crazy.

1:09:35 Speaker 1 And, uh, the Rebbe's by everyone's chuppah. I heard from Shalom Sperlin, so zayen gezunt, a yungerman, he-- I forgot where he lives. He t- I think, uh, upstate. He told me that his parents got married in Williamsburg in the fifties, and by then the Rebbe would not travel out of Crown Heights to be mesader kiddushin. "But you would just be mediah the Rebbe. When is your chuppah?" That night of the chuppah, the Rebbe said to Rabbi Groner, l-let's say it was seven o'clock, "Seven o'clock to eight o'clock, no one should disturb me. I'm at the chuppah."

1:10:23 Speaker 2 Wow.

1:10:24 Speaker 1 It's powerful.

1:10:26 Speaker 2 Yeah.

1:10:27 Speaker 1 Yehi benochon chuppah.

1:10:28 Speaker 2 Yeah. So you ended up settling in Crown Heights. You were a teacher right away?

1:10:35 Speaker 1 Yeah.

1:10:35 Speaker 2 Like, uh, how, what happened?

1:10:36 Speaker 1 I, I went one year to kollel.

1:10:38 Speaker 2 Lamed Ches.

1:10:39 Speaker 1 Lamed Ches.

1:10:41 Speaker 2 So you were there 7:30.

1:10:42 Speaker 1 Lam, lam-- It started Lamed Tes.

1:10:45 Speaker 2 What did?

1:10:45 Speaker 1 Because I got married Tammuz.

1:10:48 Speaker 2 I thought you got married Lamed Zayin.

1:10:50 Speaker 1 Lamed Zayin.

1:10:51 Speaker 2 Okay.

1:10:52 Speaker 1 And towards the end of the year.

1:10:54 Speaker 2 Right.

1:10:54 Speaker 1 It was already summertime. There was no yeshiva. And kollel I started maybe right after the summer or, or-

1:11:01 Speaker 2 Lamed Ches.

1:11:02 Speaker 1 Yeah, Lamed Ches or maybe beginning of Lamed Tes, I don't remember. And-

1:11:07 Speaker 2 You got married in Lamed Zayin, Tammuz.

1:11:08 Speaker 1 Oh, I meant to say Lamed Ches.

1:11:10 Speaker 2 Right, yeah.

1:11:10 Speaker 1 Sorry.

1:11:11 Speaker 2 Yeah.

1:11:11 Speaker 1 If you can, uh-

1:11:12 Speaker 2 So you, so you were there, you were there 7:30.

1:11:15 Speaker 1 Yeah.

1:11:16 Speaker 2 The 7:30.

1:11:17 Speaker 1 Never missed any-

1:11:18 Speaker 2 So what, what happened the... When the Rebbe had the heart attack, what, do we-

1:11:23 Speaker 1 The what?

1:11:24 Speaker 2 When the Rebbe had a-

1:11:25 Speaker 1 Oh, Lamed Ches. That was a year later. No.

1:11:28 Speaker 2 That was that year.

1:11:29 Speaker 1 That was that year. Yeah.

1:11:30 Speaker 2 That was that year.

1:11:30 Speaker 1 I remember it. Yeah.

1:11:32 Speaker 2 So everyone has their angle. What, what, what, what-

1:11:33 Speaker 1 We were a fresh couple

1:11:34 Speaker 2 ... everyone that I speak to has their their angle. So you know, what, what are you, uh, what do you have to share from there?

1:11:42 Speaker 1 I guess I was just in too much shock to, to, to process what's happening. They just said, "Everyone leave the shul." So we left.

1:11:51 Speaker 2 Didn't you see something before?

1:11:53 Speaker 1 We were surprised. The Rebbe asked for his chair.

1:11:56 Speaker 2 No, before, before, uh-

1:11:57 Speaker 1 Oh

1:11:58 Speaker 2 ... 7:30.

1:11:58 Speaker 1 There's something that I saw in 7:30. I don't know if anyone, anyone noticed it. The Rebbe davened Mincha in the small zal. And during Mincha, I saw the Rebbe taking his holy hand and wiping over his whole face. And I was scared. I saw Rabbi Elkann standing next to me. I was gonna say something, but-

1:12:29 Speaker 2 'Cause the Rebbe doesn't do things like that.

1:12:30 Speaker 1 No. Totally not him. And I thought, "If I'm gonna say something, he'll laugh at me or..." Afraid to speak up.

1:12:43 Speaker 2 But you noticed that?

1:12:44 Speaker 1 Yeah.

1:12:45 Speaker 2 And then when the Rebbe had the heart attack that night, it was, it was the-

1:12:47 Speaker 1 We saw the Rebbe leaning on the shtender, then asking for the chair, and then we all ran out of shul.

1:12:56 Speaker 2 Wow.

1:12:57 Speaker 1 And then there was dancing going outside.

1:13:01 Speaker 2 Right.

1:13:01 Speaker 1 Still dancing, you know.

1:13:03 Speaker 2 So you ended up being in kollel for a year, and then you ended up teaching. Yeah, you asked the Rebbe about teaching.

1:13:09 Speaker 1 At the end of the year, Rabbi Bogomilsky came to me, asked me if I'm looking for a job or I'm interested in teaching in Ocean Parkway, Kita Alef. There was Rabbi Raitis, Yosef Ben Zion Raitis was teaching, and he needed a second first grade, 'cause it was like a lot of kids. So I had 12 kids the first year. And then, uh, then year after year, I was teaching until Taf Shin Mem. I went on shlichus for a year.

1:13:52 Speaker 2 But wait, so you-

1:13:54 Speaker 1 I wanted to go on shlichus.

1:13:56 Speaker 2 Before, before you were a teacher, you wanted to go on shlichus?

1:13:58 Speaker 1 No. No.

1:13:59 Speaker 2 You started teaching-

1:14:00 Speaker 1 It was truly Lamed Zayin, either Lamed Zayin or Lamed Ches. When did the Rebbe send to Tzfat?

1:14:06 Speaker 2 It was, uh, there's a few-- There was three years. One of them was Lamed Ches, but, uh, yeah.

1:14:10 Speaker 1 Lamed Ches. I wrote to the Rebbe that me and my wife are ready to. The Rebbe says, "Submit-"

1:14:14 Speaker 2 You're ready, you're ready teaching, you were in kollel?

1:14:17 Speaker 1 Yeah. "Submit your names."

1:14:19 Speaker 2 Okay.

1:14:20 Speaker 1 So I, me and my wife decided we wanna go on shlichus, and the Rebbe wants very much. Could be I was teaching already, could be Lamed Tes. Anyhow, the Rebbe writes, "Hemshihu kan v'Hashem yatzlachem."

1:14:37 Speaker 2 'Cause you're already teaching.

1:14:39 Speaker 1 Yeah. "Continue what you're doing here, and Hashem..." But, but I had this desire to go on shlichus. At Taf Shin Mem, I had an offer to go to Ann Arbor, Michigan, to work with my brother, Arolo, who's still there on shlichus. And I w-- Well, the plan was the first year I'm gonna be supported by Rabbi Shatov completely. Chabad is gonna... But the following year, I'm gonna have to do fundraising and, and shlichus. So I wrote it all to the Rebbe, and the Rebbe wrote back, ""If I think that I'm cut out for it." And I guess my desire to go on shlichus very much, "Yeah, yeah, I'll, I'll do it. I'll do it." And after the year is coming to a close, and we had a m- a minyan of baal teshuva that year. Mm-hmm. Mamash minyan. As it was coming to an end, I have to start testing the waters. So I was given some names of rich people, go visit them and try to get some money. You're gonna do fundraising. So I take... I drive to this gvir, come to their house, speak with them, yeah, and came back without a penny. Okay. And I tried, I think, a second, third time. It's not, it's not working out. I wrote to the Rebbe, "What should I do?" The Rebbe writes back, "Didn't I tell you that only if you assume that you're cut out for it?" What was the answer to you? " I said, "You're an artist. Choose the nicest,

1:21:06 Speaker 1 cutest, sweetest picture." And he said, "This one." Itzy Kamen. So he ended up being

1:21:14 Speaker 3 It's my oldest brother Itzy is the, the on, on the, on the cover of the Chamash Mikra.

1:21:18 Speaker 1 Thousands and thousands of books. Chamash Mikra was a very big thing.

1:21:24 Speaker 3 We all, we all used it, uh-

1:21:26 Speaker 1 Right

1:21:26 Speaker 3 ... in yeshiva.

1:21:26 Speaker 1 And now, now that there's computers, everyone does their own stuff.

1:21:30 Speaker 3 Right. But every-everyone used the Chamash Mikra. That was the-

1:21:32 Speaker 1 I, I stopped printing them.

1:21:34 Speaker 3 Amazing. Okay. Yeah. That's, uh, that was his claim to fame always. Uh, he's on the front cover of Chamash Mikra.

1:21:41 Speaker 1 Chamash Mikra.

1:21:41 Speaker 3 I actually remember when I was in your class, one of the kids in the class brought-- You said you did a-auditions, right? So I think you gave out the, the, the, the pictures to all the kids. So one of my friends brought his older brother's, uh-

1:21:55 Speaker 1 Oh, yeah

1:21:55 Speaker 3 ... a-audition, you know, his, his picture as well. So, okay. So that's Chamash Mikra. And then also you did a- all these other projects, the, the Living Sedra and, uh-

1:22:06 Speaker 1 Yeah. I would-- What I would do, I would tell, tell the kids the Parsha of the week. And Rabbi Schwartz, somehow I found out that he uses a book called The Medrash Says. I got a hold of it, and I loved it. It's so smooth going and everything. So I would read it, but I thought, "It's such a pity. Read it once, record it." So as I tell the story, I turn on my recorder, and then later I can play it over, they can hear it again. And because the Aibishter gave me a special, uh, flavor how to tell stories, people liked it. So I thought, "You know, I'm gonna, I'm gonna sell it." Not because I, I think about the money so much, but just to make it public. So I used to go to Tzivus Hashem's store when it was on Kingston Avenue between President and Carroll, and used to put the tapes there, and, uh, I would go. At a certain point, at a certain point, I was putting out in the stores. I came to Eichler's, I put it out. Then I came to a store on Coney Island, and the guy said, "There's a guy, Rabbi Weissman, it's his publication. Do you have permission from him to do it?" I said, "What makes you say so?" He says, "Because he came into the store and he mentioned that these recordings are from my book." So I right away, I thought, "Yeah, he's right." So first thing I asked the Rav,

1:24:00 Speaker 1 that this guy is presenting the Medrash so beautifully, and I'm saying, "I'm not using s-

1:24:05 Speaker 3 You're reading it verbatim, though?

1:24:06 Speaker 1 No, no. I use my own words. I put in more stuff in.

1:24:09 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm.

1:24:12 Speaker 1 So the Rav says, "There's no copyright on the Medrash."

1:24:16 Speaker 3 Right.

1:24:16 Speaker 1 "Don't worry about it." But still, I, I wrote out a check, I think eighteen hundred dollars.

1:24:24 Speaker 3 A lot of money.

1:24:25 Speaker 1 And I sent it to him. He sends it back, "Not necessary."

1:24:30 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm.

1:24:31 Speaker 1 But I still did not feel good. So one day I decided I'm gonna speak to him. I call him up, and I recorded the conversation. And I, I said to him, "Rabbi Weissman, you know, uh, I-- Whether legally it's considered copyright or not, but I'm, I'm basing it off your book. I use a lot of other stuff too." He says, "Don't worry about it. It's all fine. It's all good." I tell him it goes through shluchim around the world who have to do homeschooling, and he hel- he holds a very much from the shluchim.

1:25:13 Speaker 3 Yeah. Um, your-- Yeah, you have, uh... But your father also, like this is ra- you al- you already have experience with your father that his, his song, "Hashem is here, Hashem is there"-

1:25:23 Speaker 1 It's from his first record

1:25:24 Speaker 3 ... and it became famous through maybe someone else.

1:25:26 Speaker 1 Yeah.

1:25:27 Speaker 3 Uncle Moishy's.

1:25:28 Speaker 1 Right. He asked permission.

1:25:30 Speaker 3 Oh, he did ask permission?

1:25:31 Speaker 1 Yeah, for sure.

1:25:34 Speaker 3 I, I heard a whole story, maybe it's a baal mesira that, uh, that he was, he was thinking of saying something, he sto- or someone told him you stole my song, and he's like, "It's okay. Now more people know about it, so it's great." Uh, you know?

1:25:48 Speaker 1 M- I'll tell you, maybe it's, it's, it's a product of another story that I heard from my father.

1:25:53 Speaker 3 Yeah.

1:25:54 Speaker 1 He was traveling, I think in Michigan. He came to a store, and the store is selling his tapes. A different wrapper, a different thing, and not from my father. So I said to my father, "What did you do?" He says, "I went and gave him yasher koach for reaching those places that I don't reach."

1:26:18 Speaker 3 Right. Okay. All right. That's good. Um, is there anyth-- Is, is-- It sounds like-- I'm just, uh, uh, stay on the Chinuch track for a second. It sounds like stories is a big method of, uh, of, of your, of your teaching.

1:26:35 Speaker 1 Yeah. I, I wrote a whole article on it. It's on my website. I brought together from Sichas and places what kind of stories to tell and why we tell stories. Stories is not just for entertainment. Yeah, when you tell a story, you have to do it in a way that entertains, they're interested. Stories are to teach lessons and to show that people live that way The benefit of telling a story about Maishala in Eretz Israel who went through a nisayon, went through a test, and how he, he got through it. What happens to the boy in front of you? The boy in front of you doesn't feel an-- He's not talking about me. He's not giving me mussar. He's not criticizing me. He's talking about someone else. And I-- what I learned from my father, if you listen to his stories, every few lines he puts in another message. Like you have commercials in the middle of a program, every, and he washed Negel Wasser.

1:27:46 Speaker 3 Right.

1:27:46 Speaker 1 And he was careful to make the bracha. That, that's what's most important. So storytelling is the same thing. Storytelling is extremely powerful tool. In fact, the Rebbe said it by, by... in a, in a sicha to madrichas, madrichim, madrichas. The Rebbe said, "When a teacher comes into class and starts a lesson, half of the kids are turned on and half are scared, I'm not gonna get it." The Rebbe said, "What if you give your lesson in a story form?" Rebbe says, "The fear goes away, and they can all listen, and they will want to hear more." So do, do the stories have to be true? That's a good question. I asked that question to Rabbi Chadakov.

1:28:37 Speaker 3 Okay.

1:28:38 Speaker 1 And later I found it in the Rebbe Sicha. Rabbi Chadakov said to me, "If the message you're giving is true, then it's okay." I said, "For example, I see kids fighting or a kid stealing. Could I make up a story of Yossi and Benny?" He says, "If the message is emis, you could tell it." 'Cause a lot of stories that, that Kahas published. There's a book called Unzer Buch.

1:29:07 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm.

1:29:08 Speaker 1 Or Sefrinu from Kahas.

1:29:11 Speaker 3 Yeah.

1:29:11 Speaker 1 And they don't have it today anymore. And they have a lot of made-up stories with good lessons, and because they are good lessons... And I remember seeing in a Sicha, I think it's Tetzaveh, was a Motzei Shabbos for bringin'. The Rebbe said, "This is a, the heter that people take because it's mesiv nueh shmayim that they can... Stories nisht gestorin, nisht geflogen never happened. But if it's gonna add to your shmayim-

1:29:45 Speaker 3 So it doesn't mean making up stories about tzadikim or, or the names.

1:29:48 Speaker 1 I can't say the Baal Shem Tov went somewhere.

1:29:51 Speaker 3 Right.

1:29:51 Speaker 1 I can't use individual names.

1:29:53 Speaker 3 Right.

1:29:54 Speaker 1 I could say Yossi and Benny.

1:29:55 Speaker 3 Right.

1:29:56 Speaker 1 Or Mr. Berger, make up-

1:29:58 Speaker 3 You brought it back-- You actually brought back a flashback . We had a birthday party, and there was a-- one of the items in the birthday bag was you didn't like the hechsher. And I remember you said a whole story that two kids saw certain potato chips that had a... There was the wrong hechsher, and they were saying, "Should we eat it?" But I'm not allowed to eat it. And we don't eat it in my house. And sure, and there was this gadol and the tzaddik, and they didn't eat the hechsher. The whole time you said the hechsher, the, the name of the hechsher, that was a whole part of the story. And now we'll have the birthday party. Okay, let's see what's in the bag. And oh, this is the... So I remember the birthday, the birthday boy was like, "Oh, it's the wrong hechsher. Oy vey, we're not gonna eat it." I guess, I guess you inspected the bag before.

1:30:44 Speaker 1 Exactly.

1:30:44 Speaker 3 And you didn't wanna serve it, but you didn't wanna make... I think you made the kid feel like fen zechalel, like-

1:30:48 Speaker 1 Yeah.

1:30:49 Speaker 3 It's the wrong, uh, it's the wrong hechsher.

1:30:50 Speaker 1 You tell a story, and then he-

1:30:51 Speaker 3 But I was smart enough to realize what you were doing . I don't know if everyone else did.

1:30:55 Speaker 1 I once was speaking about, uh... Oh, it was a kid in the class. Someone told me they're going ice skating in a Goyish place, ice skating. You wanna go ice skating is one thing, but in a Goyish place? So I told a story about a kid in Russia, and he had a chance to go ice skating in Goyish place, and he didn't want. And he turned out to be a, a hero because he controlled himself. A few days later, I got, uh, regards, like the parents weren't like very excited. Even though it was Lubavitcher parents, the-

1:31:41 Speaker 3 They weren't happy with you.

1:31:42 Speaker 1 They weren't happy.

1:31:44 Speaker 3 Okay. So it doesn't always work.

1:31:45 Speaker 1 I ha-- Once I had a complaint. A Chassidish family went out for a weekend and came back and said, "We were in a hotel, and the TV was on, and we were watching. And then our son, the one in your class, saw it for a few seconds, and he started to cry hysterically. I just did a terrible thing."

1:32:14 Speaker 3 Uh, to say-

1:32:17 Speaker 1 Is it a benefit? Is it... Is it-

1:32:20 Speaker 3 I think that's the job.

1:32:21 Speaker 1 Maybe I shouldn't teach these things.

1:32:23 Speaker 3 Maybe the teacher's job.

1:32:23 Speaker 1 Give him Yiddishkeit.

1:32:26 Speaker 3 Okay. Okay, very good. So, um, I just wanna mention one thing that was very good that you did in your class. That is the pesukim you're supposed to say by Shemoneh Esreh of your name-

1:32:38 Speaker 1 Yeah

1:32:38 Speaker 3 ... and the Rebbe's name. And I remember you laminated it and printed everyone's name individually and taped it to their desk until they knew it by heart. Once they knew it by heart, then you took it off the desk, and it's thanks to you that I, uh-

1:32:52 Speaker 1 Yeah

1:32:52 Speaker 3 ... then I, I learned the pesukim to say. Um, so let's move a little bit back. We'll co- we'll continue, um... You had a few zechusim. Fir- first of all, like you, you were bringing your kids to the Rebbe at the seven seventy. Like, uh, maybe tell me a little bit about that.

1:33:12 Speaker 1 I used to-- when I came back from yeshiva, the first year I taught maybe. No, second year maybe so. I used to take my, my kid with me, my Zalmen, my brother-

1:33:25 Speaker 3 He's your oldest.

1:33:26 Speaker 1 Yeah. I would take him to Mincha, and sometimes he would stand so close to the Rebbe's table upstairs, the Rebbe would look at him, and by Amen, the Rebbe would shake his head like, "Amen." To him, to encourage him, yeah.

1:33:44 Speaker 3 Wow.

1:33:47 Speaker 1 Also, in Chai, I took my kids all the time to the Rebbe, all the time. They're so thankful today. They have loads and loads of dollars.

1:33:56 Speaker 3 Right.

1:33:57 Speaker 1 And kontrasim and everything.

1:33:59 Speaker 3 There's something with a pushka with Zalmen, no?

1:34:02 Speaker 1 With what?

1:34:03 Speaker 3 With the pushka that the Rebbe gave tzedakah to Zalmen.

1:34:07 Speaker 1 When he was a baby, mamish.

1:34:09 Speaker 3 So what was that?

1:34:10 Speaker 1 Like maybe he was six months old. I don't remember. We used to stand by where the Rebbe was gonna go into the shul upstairs for Mincha. There's a big tzedakah box. So I was standing there with him, and the Rebbe gave him a coin, and I made him put it into the pushka. He started to scream.

1:34:30 Speaker 3 When he was six months? He must have been older.

1:34:32 Speaker 1 Maybe, maybe, maybe a year.

1:34:34 Speaker 3 Okay.

1:34:34 Speaker 1 He started to s-- Such a loud screech, the Rebbe took out another coin and gave it to him-

1:34:41 Speaker 3 Uh-huh

1:34:41 Speaker 1 ... to calm him down.

1:34:45 Speaker 3 So there's a few things with Zalmen, though. Also, um, Hakafas.

1:34:48 Speaker 1 Yeah.

1:34:49 Speaker 3 What was that?

1:34:50 Speaker 1 Zalmen took one of these Ata Haresa papers, was much smaller than what we have today, and he folded it up, and he held it. When the Rebbe went ar-- He was standing by the chess, you know, in the circle-

1:35:05 Speaker 3 Where the Rebbe did Hakafa

1:35:06 Speaker 1 ... where the Rebbe did the Hakafa. And he stuck it out, but he couldn't reach the Sefer Torah.

1:35:13 Speaker 3 He stuck it out. He wanted to-

1:35:15 Speaker 1 Wanted to touch it

1:35:15 Speaker 3 ... touch the Torah.

1:35:16 Speaker 1 Yeah. The Rebbe took it, touched the Torah, and gave it back to him.

1:35:19 Speaker 3 Oh. Did he keep it?

1:35:22 Speaker 1 He has it. Sure.

1:35:23 Speaker 3 Very good. Um, you all said your own, uh, little zechusen with the different shamash type of things that you did, no?

1:35:32 Speaker 1 Yeah. I once saw that the Rebbe is speaking for a long time, and the Rebbe , they need a, uh-- After-- Between Mincha and Ma'ariv, the Rebbe gives a sicha. After the sicha, the Rebbe wants to wash for Ma'ariv, wash his hands. So two times I was able to bring water for the Rebbe. The first time, I sent you a picture of it, and I only prepared-

1:36:05 Speaker 3 Az a Maskirus didn't do this? Was there-- Before they figured out how to do this, okay.

1:36:10 Speaker 1 Pasha for Maysa.

1:36:11 Speaker 3 Okay.

1:36:13 Speaker 1 I brought the kart. The Rebbe looks, "Where am I gonna pour it?" He didn't say it, but he looked. Right away, we found there was a, a cardboard box on the side. We bro-- put it there, and the Rebbe gave me a big smile.

1:36:27 Speaker 3 So the Rebbe washed into the cardboard box.

1:36:29 Speaker 1 Yeah, into the cardboard box.

1:36:31 Speaker 3 That's the thing.

1:36:31 Speaker 1 And the bachurim didn't run to lick up the water.

1:36:35 Speaker 3 There's a story with that. Chanukah light, taf shin beis. The Rebbe was having Mincha, then there's a whole Chanukah lights. The Rebbe said it for Ma'ariv. They brought-- By that already, Maskirus knew how to do it. You know, they had a sil-- I don't know, a silver-

1:36:49 Speaker 1 Yeah

1:36:49 Speaker 3 ... kaveert, and the Rebbe washed it into, into a shissel.

1:36:52 Speaker 1 Right.

1:36:52 Speaker 3 So, so you could see in the video that, um, Chanina Sperlin is pouring. You can't see it in the video, but you see the Rebbe sitting and smiling. As the Rebbe was wiping his hands on the towel, the Rebbe was mamish smiling. So I asked, I think his son, "What happened?" He says that, um, Chanina was pouring the, the water from the kaveert, he poured it into a bottle.

1:37:15 Speaker 1 You mean from the shissel?

1:37:16 Speaker 3 From the shissel, yeah, i-into a bottle. And the Rebbe's seeing this, and the Rebbe's smiling like, "He's saving my water." And then the Rebbe said, "Mach zich, dass keyner nutzes nish." Make sure no one uses it. You know, you can't use this water. Yeah. So, uh, that's, that's the whole thing of the Rebbe smiling.

1:37:31 Speaker 1 Yeah. Um, also once a, by farbrengen one time, they didn't have the tablecloth for the Rebbe, so they used a-

1:37:45 Speaker 3 Like in Yom Tov or something?

1:37:47 Speaker 1 No, maybe a Shabbos or something.

1:37:48 Speaker 3 Whatever, they didn't have a tablecloth.

1:37:50 Speaker 1 They didn't have a tablecloth, so they used a disposable.

1:37:55 Speaker 3 Like a plastic.

1:37:56 Speaker 1 The plastic.

1:37:57 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm.

1:37:57 Speaker 1 After farbrengen, they-- Where are they gonna keep it? So I grabbed it, I took it, and I have it till today. I thought to myself, "If it happens again, I wanna have a real tablecloth." So I kept in my locker a beautiful, nice, big tablecloth. And one Shabbos, they needed one, and I provided it, and I have that tablecloth till today. I, I gave it to a tailor, made a kittel out of it for a ch-chossen to wear under the chuppah. And from there, all the little pieces, I, I made other stuff, a yarmulke for a kid by a bris or a veil for a kallah. And then for segulas, some people for refuah or something. I saw letters from the Rebbe. The Rebbe sent a piece of the handkerchief of the Friediker Rebbe to Yaakov Katz in Chicago, if you know who he was, for his brother who needed a refuah. It was another person.

1:39:11 Speaker 3 What did, what did he do with it?

1:39:14 Speaker 1 He said, "Put it near his pillow."

1:39:16 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm.

1:39:16 Speaker 1 He wasn't well, needed a refuah. And there was another one, Rabbi Hecht from Nouopen, Moisha Yitzhak, had to go on a shlichus to Brazil. The Rebbe gave him a piece of cloth, and you see in the letter, the Rebbe says, "Now that you finished the shlichus, bring it back, please." There, there is a certain heym for hatzlacha to have something from a Rebbe.

1:39:45 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm.

1:39:47 Speaker 1 Now I'm gonna have, uh, a lot of phone calls.

1:39:50 Speaker 3 So to use it, okay. Have to make a seyde out of it. Um, there was a few things you had, um, a few stories with, with your talmidim and yourself with Ha'aras. Maybe you could share that, uh-

1:40:05 Speaker 1 Nachum Rosenblatt

1:40:07 Speaker 3 Which I saw that on the Mirchamish Hamicra that I was looking at today-

1:40:12 Speaker 1 Yeah

1:40:12 Speaker 3 ... there's a hakdasha from Rosenblatt. Is that the same person?

1:40:14 Speaker 1 Yeah. the printer.

1:40:16 Speaker 3 Oh, okay.

1:40:17 Speaker 1 His father-

1:40:17 Speaker 3 Oh

1:40:17 Speaker 1 ... Eilech, so zai gezunt, was the printer of the Menchamis Hamikra all the years. Until the last printing, I did it somewhere else. He wasn't very happy, but... So he asked me a question.

1:40:36 Speaker 3 In class?

1:40:37 Speaker 1 Yeah, he asked in class, "What do you mean ""That a whole year you don't dip? Only tonight? What about, uh, Rosh Hashanah and, and the salt, the chal and the salt?" So that's a good question. So I wrote it in his name, in the Ha'aras. And by fabrengen the Rebbe answered. That's the difference from the-

1:41:03 Speaker 3 So you wrote, you wrote the Ha'ara with the kid's name and published it in, in the, in the ketzin?

1:41:08 Speaker 1 Yeah. I didn't write it as I'm writing it.

1:41:10 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm.

1:41:11 Speaker 1 I said, "This is his shaila."

1:41:14 Speaker 3 And the Rebbe answered.

1:41:16 Speaker 1 By the fabrengen. They said, "There's a difference. This is only a minic and this is, uh, more chiyuv.

1:41:29 Speaker 3 So what was the-- What were, what were other stories with Ha'aras that you had?

1:41:34 Speaker 1 The Rebbe-- There was a time the Rebbe said, "I'm gonna ask a question and you try to give the answer." Other times the Rebbe says, "You put in the questions and I'll choose one of them to answer." So I did from Parashat Lech Lecha. I wrote in a question about the war with the four kings and the five kings. I wrote a question and the Rebbe by the fabrengen says, "This is the question we're gonna deal with now." And the Rebbe spoke about it. If you're lucky, the Rebbe chose yours.

1:42:14 Speaker 3 Right. There's, there's also, um, there's also a story with a Likut.

1:42:25 Speaker 1 What do you mean?

1:42:27 Speaker 3 A Likut that you had something, you had something to do with. A Likut that was made.

1:42:31 Speaker 1 Oh, Likutei Sichos. Yeah. This is a question that I had.

1:42:36 Speaker 3 To what? What's that, sorry?

1:42:37 Speaker 1 We were learning Chumash in Parashat Noach, that it says Noach was six hundred years old by the Mabul, and after the Mabul, and after the Mabul, it says he lived another three hundred and fifty years. When he gives the total of his whole lifetime, it says he lived eight hundred and fifty years. I said, "Well, a minute. What about the year of the Mabul? You're not counting it in?" So I wrote it into the Rebbe, and the Rebbe gave me an answer that we're counting the beginning of the year, like, so some kind of answer that we can work it out. But then the Rebbe wrote, "Look in this, in this Sefer, which should be in the library." And the Rebbe gave a name with a question mark. So I went to the library and I showed it to Berel Levin, that the Rebbe says, "Look in the library." He says, "Okay. He'll, he'll look into it." And this was Sivan. A whole-- Every once in a while, I kept a new Berel, I'm waiting for an answer. He says, "Wait, be patient." When it came Parashat Noach, the following Parashat Noach, that's a few months later, he says, "Now you get your answer." I said, "What happened?" And he had a whole series of questions and answers that he, he was communicating with the Rebbe about this question. The Rebbe gave one answer, and he, and he asked the question on the answer, and the Rebbe gave another answer. It's all printed in his

1:44:22 Speaker 1 book called Avodat Hakodesh. You see the whole chilufei mechtavim, the whole communication back and forth. And then it was printed in Chelek Chaf of Likutei Sichos.

1:44:36 Speaker 3 Which is a very unique Likut. It's not from the fabrengen.

1:44:38 Speaker 1 Right. It says, "Mechtavei Sivan Taf Shin Mem Gimel," or whatever year that was.

1:44:44 Speaker 3 So he must have given it to the, to those that were doing the-

1:44:48 Speaker 1 Yeah, then they made a Likut out of it.

1:44:50 Speaker 3 Very interesting.

1:44:51 Speaker 1 Yeah.

1:44:51 Speaker 3 Right. Um, okay. So this is, uh, through being a Melamed and, uh, yeah, you had all these, uh, interesting things. So is there any, um... You know, you're a veteran Mechanech, so I wanna know if there's any either hadracha that you got from the Rebbe, from Rabbi Chadakov, or something in general that you think is im-important, like a message in Chinuch for people today.

1:45:24 Speaker 1 Well, in Likutei Sichos Chelek Tes Vav, Vayera Chaf Cheshvan, the Rebbe says that we're living in a generation where the children are ready to want Elokus. Tells the story the Rebbe Rashab turned four or five years old, and he's crying to his zeide, the Tzemach Tzedek, "Why can't I see Hashem like Hashem appeared to Avraham?" And then they answer with, "There's a lesson you learn from it." The Rebbe said, "Why did the Friediker Rebbe emphasize that it was only four or five years old? Could have just told the story without it." To show you that even a child of four or five years old can be educated in our days, that what is his m- biggest desire? Elokus, Godliness. Translating into practical maaseh be'palel, that means to educate a kid not for prizes, not for toys, not for trips. What for? He wants Elokus. And then a footnote, and, and the Rebbe says, "What's about the Rambam?" The Rambam says clearly, "Nakdum el hasefer hamishnayos", the way to get kids to learn is by bribing him with, with nuts, money, shoes, whatever, different things. The Rebbe says, "We find in Halakha the concept of nishtanu hateviyim, nature has changed." Now, says the Rebbe, the Fried-- the Rebbe Rashab opened up a new channel that we could be mechadech the kids that way. And if you're stuck and your kids are not doing it, it's because you don't speak from the heart. If you would speak devarim hayetz mim halev, will surely reach them. They are

1:47:30 Speaker 1 came in for it. They're ready for it. So what did I do? Unfortunately, many years I did not try out that sicha to see if I could... I went with tickets, prizes, uh, this, nash. But I was encouraged again and again from other people, other seminars that I attended. Uh, Rabbi Zvi Hamnik insisted, "Why don't we try the Rebbe's derech?" So one year I decided from day one of the, uh, school year, I'm gonna try it out and I'm even gonna keep a diary. What I'm doing, so if it works, I can follow it for the next year. And it took only a few weeks. I got all the kids on board to the extent that if after a session of learning I would give them nash, 'cause I would give them randomly, not because you learnt, just randomly give them treats. The Rebbe says, "Why do we throw candies for Malach Michail to a kid?" To give him a cheshek to learn. So it's not because he's learning, just to encourage. So I would give out... So it was one time after a session of Chumash, I say, "Kids, come to my desk, I have some..." They say, "Rebbe, better not now." I say, "Why not?" "'Cause then it will be considered like we learned for the candies. We're learning for Hashem."

1:49:01 Speaker 3 The kids told you this?

1:49:02 Speaker 1 Yeah.

1:49:02 Speaker 3 And you never told them what you're doing?

1:49:05 Speaker 1 What do you mean? We-- After I-

1:49:06 Speaker 3 No, but you told the kids that the redu-- that we're not going to be giving out prizes.

1:49:11 Speaker 1 That already, that alread-- I said it took a few weeks-

1:49:13 Speaker 3 Right

1:49:13 Speaker 1 ... and all the kids are on board-

1:49:14 Speaker 3 Got it

1:49:15 Speaker 1 ... to learn for Hashem, not for candies.

1:49:17 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm.

1:49:17 Speaker 1 And one time I, after the session, I gave them candies. They say, "Rebbe, maybe later," so it's not considered that we're doing it for the candies. And it was so impressive, I once called Rabbi Lussek, the principal, entered a class and I said, "Ask the kids to say some psukim and then offer them a treat." And they said the psukim so nicely and Rabbi Lussek says, "Okay kids, would you like to have pizza?" "No." "Ice cream?" "No." "But you learned so well. What would you like?" "To learn more psukim." It's doable. It's not a play. It's not a joke. And chanech la'na'or p'ru v'darko, at that age, six, seven-year-olds, you could.

1:50:06 Speaker 3 So I'm not a, I'm not a teacher, but I have children. So you're saying the same thing with stam as with discipline.

1:50:11 Speaker 1 Chinuch.

1:50:12 Speaker 3 I'm saying like-

1:50:13 Speaker 1 Yeah

1:50:13 Speaker 3 ... it's not like, "Do this, do this good thing and I'll give you a candy, give you a lollipop." It's-

1:50:17 Speaker 1 If you don't come to supper, you go-- you're, you're gonna... This. You listen to Tatty because it's a mitzvah. That works.

1:50:27 Speaker 3 Okay. I have to make Hafta.

1:50:29 Speaker 1 I-- So what did I do with my diary?

1:50:31 Speaker 3 Yeah.

1:50:33 Speaker 1 I, I had a nice big fat diary and I publicized it, and I got regards from Eretz Yisrael. Their teachers are using my method. It's a step-by-step method how to get there, and it's on my website, chinuchtime.com. A website, revolutionary approach to chinuch from the Rebbe, and it works. Now I'm... I, I did the whole thing over again. I rewrote it. I gave it to a professional editor to do it in Hebrew and in English, and it's middle of the making, and B'ezrat Hashem will be publicized.

1:51:17 Speaker 3 It's beautiful. That's interesting. I, I wasn't aware of the sicha and it's... I always, I always think about the Rambam. What do you mean? This is, this state of Rambam. That's... What's, what's the problem? And now you're saying that, uh-

1:51:29 Speaker 1 Nishtanu hateviyim

1:51:30 Speaker 3 ... nishtanu hateviyim. I got to look at the sicha. You're, you touched upon something which reminded me of a different story. You just said Ma- Malach Michoel.

1:51:37 Speaker 1 Yeah.

1:51:38 Speaker 3 Didn't you ask the Rebbe about, uh, at nine firnish? You had a question, a question about it?

1:51:42 Speaker 1 Yeah. When my twins were turning three, I wasn't sure. I knew that their birthday is in middle of Pesach, so we have to wait for Lag BaOmer.

1:51:55 Speaker 3 For the op shernish.

1:51:56 Speaker 1 For the op shernish. And the question was, at turning three, should I make a hachnasat l'cheder also? And I saw in the that the Friediker Rebbe mentions the idea of three years old. But when I asked Rabbi Dvoriker, Rabbi Zalman Schimin, he said, uh, in Russia they did it at four or five. So I write through all of this to the Rebbe, and I said the fact that it says in the something about th-at three years old, I said maybe it's for, only for Rebbes, Beis Rebbe. And then I wrote a concluding line that here, here in our shchuna, I'm not telling you the exact wording, but here they bring the kid at three to cheder, to a kindergarten, but mainly to play. That's what I write.

1:52:52 Speaker 3 So you're saying maybe can't really... You're not going to cheder yet.

1:52:55 Speaker 1 I said here they bring kids at three-

1:52:57 Speaker 3 They're not going at, at three to cheder.

1:52:59 Speaker 1 Yeah.

1:52:59 Speaker 3 Okay.

1:53:01 Speaker 1 So the Rebbe, first of all, when I wrote kindergarten, he made an arrow and he writes, "Heinu cheder." That is a cheder. When I wrote, "They go there mainly to play," he crossed it out twice the word to play and wrote, "." They go there to make brachos. Then he underlined the whole line that here at the age of three they bring in the card, uh, k- and he made an arrow to that line, that at three they bring kids there. And the Rebbe says, "Now what's your question?"

1:53:43 Speaker 3 So a few things I'm not understanding. Number one, does that mean that the Rebbe is saying that it should be done at three in, in, in kindergarten?

1:53:49 Speaker 1 This is a cheder and this is what people are doing, and he made an arrow-

1:53:53 Speaker 3 So, so, so the Rebbe is saying it should be done at three years old.

1:53:55 Speaker 1 That's r- it's obvious.

1:53:57 Speaker 3 So it has to be done by the Upshenish?

1:53:59 Speaker 1 I do it. It doesn't have to be the same day. Although I... Practical purposes, I did it on the same day. But could be a-

1:54:05 Speaker 3 So I asked other rabbonim, they told me that, that the Pelishaminig is to do it the day of the Upshenish, but by, by

1:54:15 Speaker 1 Tzedekes, Hachnasas L'cheder-

1:54:18 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm

1:54:18 Speaker 1 ... was not on his birthday. He was born on Erev Rosh Hashanah. And when did he have to... After Tzemach Dalim, I think it was, or-

1:54:27 Speaker 3 So you're saying it should be around B'simchahs and, uh-

1:54:28 Speaker 1 Around, yeah. B'simchahs.

1:54:31 Speaker 3 Okay. I think you're reminding me, made an Upshenish in years I have to, I have to do it. Uh, but then I have another question. You don't see anyone doing it in, in, in kindergarten, whatever, in the, in the gan.

1:54:43 Speaker 1 They do. The Babichi Yeshiva has it all the time.

1:54:49 Speaker 3 But I thought it's always done by-

1:54:50 Speaker 1 No one else

1:54:50 Speaker 3 ... by Rebbes in first grade.

1:54:52 Speaker 1 They don't do it in the ki-kindergarten.

1:54:55 Speaker 3 You do it at that age, but you don't do it in the kindergarten like the Rebbe is saying.

1:54:58 Speaker 1 No. What, the Moreh is gonna do it?

1:54:59 Speaker 3 Yeah, the Rebbe said it's a, it's a, it's a cheder.

1:55:02 Speaker 1 Right. So you do it. You tell the-

1:55:03 Speaker 3 Why can't the Rebbe-

1:55:04 Speaker 1 ... you ask the Rebbe to come.

1:55:05 Speaker 3 But the cheder, according to what the Rebbe is saying, it should be done in, in the ki- in, in the, in the playgroup.

1:55:09 Speaker 1 Which room? Which... Geographically, which room?

1:55:11 Speaker 3 No, but the way it's done is that the kid is brought to an older class which he's not in. He's brought to a pre-

1:55:18 Speaker 1 Ah

1:55:18 Speaker 3 ... pre-1A, whatever-

1:55:19 Speaker 1 Right

1:55:19 Speaker 3 ... or, or first grade. Cheder should be done based on what the Rebbe is saying in the class that he's learning.

1:55:24 Speaker 1 Possibly.

1:55:25 Speaker 3 In the, in the, in the gan, whatever-

1:55:28 Speaker 1 Yeah

1:55:28 Speaker 3 ... the kindergarten, whatever it's called.

1:55:29 Speaker 1 Possibly.

1:55:29 Speaker 3 That... Okay, so maybe we should make a new, uh-

1:55:32 Speaker 1 Possibly.

1:55:33 Speaker 3 Well, the Moreh could do it. Why not? If she could teach, she could-

1:55:35 Speaker 1 I don't know

1:55:36 Speaker 3 ... she could do it too.

1:55:36 Speaker 1 I don't know. No, they do it to Rebbe.

1:55:39 Speaker 3 Okay, we'll have to figure this out. Okay. So we started off this conversation, um, with your, uh, when you got a name, a new name. So maybe let's end it off as well with that. Um, I mean, you, you, you basically got a new lease on life, Riem Zalis.

1:55:59 Speaker 1 Yes.

1:55:59 Speaker 3 I mean, maybe you could tell me about it a, a little bit.

1:56:03 Speaker 1 When, when I woke up from the month-long coma, Baruch Hashem, I woke up with a start, with a simcha in myself. I even hear-heard, overheard nurses in my room saying, "This guy is smiling all the time. They're not used to it." And I had reason not to smile. I was there when I... After a month of not eating, I was laying in bed like a log. I was emaciated. I was thin. I looked at my foot, it reminded me pictures of the Holocaust. I lost like thirty, thirty-five pounds or so. Don't worry, I took revenge. And the... I couldn't move. I couldn't move my fingers, my hand. I was mamash zero strength. And slowly, I was getting back to myself. And, um, but I was every... The whole time it with a positive approach. I'm gonna make it. I'm gonna make it. It's gonna be good. I'm gonna be running around the streets. Bashka hakpratis, a year before COVID, someone... I was speaking to someone, a big professional in chinuch, and advised me learn Sha'ar HaBitachon. So I said, uh, "Okay." And I started to learn Sha'ar HaBitachon. I started to listen on the phone. There are a hotline Sha'ar HaBitachon-

1:57:44 Speaker 3 You never told many people to, to learn Sha'ar HaBitachon, yeah?

1:57:48 Speaker 1 Yeah. And that's when I heard the nigun from Rabbi Waksman. I believe in Hashem. I trust in Hashem. I loved the nigun so much. I taught it to my class. I taught it to kids. I taught it to my family. Wherever I went, I was teaching it. And I was asked to come for bring one's chuff of before COVID To bring in a, in a, in a shul. And over there was Chaim Israel Wilhelm. And he asked me, "Sing your Bitachan song." And he took a video. The next morning, my son-in-law tells me he got from Israel the video.

1:58:32 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm.

1:58:32 Speaker 1 I mean, it went all over. Later, when I woke up from the coma, and I sang it from my hospital bed with my strings attached and all the pipes, it went viral. Like, so I believe strongly that you learn Shaar Bitachan, it works even on your subconscious. 'Cause I wasn't even conscious when I was, when, when I was, uh, in a coma, Rachmanut San. I wasn't thinking Bitachan, Bitachan. I guess subconscious got, got convinced. It's so important, Shaar Bitachan. You know, recently, a big, big, a great Hasid passed away, Rav Tuvia Bly. He told, what I'm gonna tell you now, he told this to Kalman Weinfeld-

1:59:24 Speaker 3 Mm-hmm

1:59:24 Speaker 1 ... who shared it with me. Says Binyamin Klein, the, the Rebbe's secretary, Rabbi Binyamin Klein, told Tuvia Bly as follows. Rabbi Klein brought into the Rebbe's room a pack of letters, envelopes, that came mail. Puts it down on the Rebbe's desk, right near another pile that was waiting for the Rebbe's to answer. And the Rebbe takes his holy hands and shows the distance of the size of the, the whole pile right now, it's double the size, and the Rebbe says, "If people would only learn Shaar Bitachan, then the size of this pile of letters would be less than half. Why? Because by learning Shaar Bitachan itself, the problems get resolved."

2:00:23 Speaker 3 Nice.

2:00:23 Speaker 1 That Rebbe said. I heard about it, and I told, and I said, "Kalman, find out the source" and, and that's, that's what he told me.

2:00:33 Speaker 3 So the source is in Tuvia Bly?

2:00:35 Speaker 1 Tuvia Bly heard it from Rabbi Klein. The Rebbe said it to Rabbi Klein.

2:00:39 Speaker 3 Thank you, because I, I mentioned the story in one of the other podcasts, and I tried to find out from someone in the family if they ever heard of him from, uh, from Binyamin Klein. Now we have the source. So what's the trap? The trap is not only that, first of all, if you have Bitachan, you're not always sitting and complaining.

2:00:56 Speaker 1 Right.

2:00:56 Speaker 3 That's number one, because, uh, you have, you beli- you have Bitachan, so you're not, you don't, you don't always have to thrive for justice.

2:01:02 Speaker 1 But learning it itself resolves-

2:01:04 Speaker 3 So that's like a Amen. Thank you very much for inviting me and giving me an opportunity to reminisce and remember myself.

2:02:27 Speaker 1 Okay, and hopefully we'll all-

2:02:28 Speaker 3 All this

2:02:28 Speaker 1 ... with Mechaze Gadol.

2:02:29 Speaker 3 Yes.

2:02:30 Speaker 1 So

2:02:30 Speaker 3 Yeshekayach.