Purim Stories (part 2)

00:01 Behemshech to the earlier installment, the Negue to Sipurim of Purim by the Rebbe. We continue now with the second installment of Sipurim, relating various sipurim that took place by the Rebbe during Purim. In Tovshin Yud Ches, 1958, at the Farbrengen of Purim, the Rebbe gave many broches to people that were waiting for children. A bocher once at a Purim Farbrengen related the following. When the Rebbe asked that bocherim should say l'chaim on wine, the Rebbe turned also to this bocher, and the Rebbe told him, "You're also a bocher, and you should say l'chaim." In the Chafs and the Lameds, etc., there were families who brought shlach manes to the Rebbe. One of them was Rab Leibel Bistritsky, alav hashalom, and his family, zol zain gezunt. He related the following story. When my children were growing up, I began to bring them to the Rebbe every Purim. They would actually help with bringing in the shlach manes bags to the Rebbe's room. Once, my daughter, who was dressed as Esther Amalka, wanted to sit in the Rebbe's room. I told her that in the Rebbe's room, people don't sit. So the Rebbe commented and said, "Zi doch Esther Amalka." She's Esther the Queen, as implying she's entitled. My son was once, uh, wearing a patch over one of his eyes, like Moshe Dayan. The Rebbe commented that he should take it off because it is not a good thing. And as Rab Leibel Bistritsky points out, that over the course of that day, something fell into

02:32 his eye, and by a miracle, it wasn't damaged. And he understood that this is what the Rebbe commented earlier in the day. In the year Tov Shin Lamed Alef, 1971, the Rebbe began the Purim Farbrengen a very interesting way, in an unusual way. The Rebbe opened his words as follows. Coming into the Farbrengen was delayed a few moments after the time when the Farbrengen should have begun. Everything is basgucha protis by divine providence. In between in those few moments, a yediyah, news came from Eretz Yisroel, been agir to those that traveled to give mashliach manes to Yidden that are found in various places in Eretz Yisroel and who are protecting the Jewish nation in Eretz HaKodesh. And in addition, they also put on tefillin with many people. And bemeila, the Rebbe continues, that those that put on tefillin on their own also benefited with a special enhancement when many Yidden are gathered together. And this has been agir to every mitzvah, and surely when it comes to the mitzvah of tefillin, about which the Talmud tells us the verse, that it makes an impact on other nations, and this refers to tefillin. The Rebbe continues, bemeila, they just came back now, since there's a difference in the time between here and Eretz Yisroel, and they related that they were assisted in every way in order that they should be able to reach all the locations where they were to go and enhance the Purim for the soldiers. A Purim story that took place in the

05:06 year Tov Shin Lamed Ches, 1978. In Eretz Yisroel lived a Yid who studied a lot of Chassidis and he davened baal tedah according to the teachings of Chassidis Chabad. But as the years moved on, for strange reasons, he distanced himself from the Rebbe and from Chassidis. In late 1977, early Tov Shin Lamed Ches, on Shemini Atzeres, the Rebbe suffered a heart attack, and when this person found out about it, he was very shocked. And he's thinking to himself, "How is it that the Rebbe is not feeling well? What will happen to my neshamah?" And he decided right there and then that he has to travel to the Rebbe to see the Rebbe. Around Purim time, he traveled to 770, and since it was already many years that he was distant from the Rebbe, so he was embarrassed to approach the Rebbe. And he decided he's not gonna approach the Rebbe and not sit from a close location near the Rebbe, but from a distance he will say l'chaim to the Rebbe, and then he will leave 770 and return back to where he was staying in New York. But at the conclusion of the fabregen, to his surprise, and not as it usually takes place, the Rebbe announced that those that are going back to their country, although they are not traveling for a purpose of a shlichos of a certain mission, they should go up on the bima to receive mashke that brings simcha in order to be able to bring it back to

07:07 the people in their community. This person didn't know what to do. What is he gonna do now? And he said to himself, "I will go over to the Rebbe, and since there are many people that approach the Rebbe at that point, so the Rebbe won't really pay so much attention to me. He won't actually be involved with me. He will give me the bottle of mashke, and I will go further." But when he approached the Rebbe, the Rebbe turned to him and said, "Dacht zich mir, as ishen adur gegangen asacht zeit, vos mir haben zich nit gezen." It seems to me, the Rebbe says, that a lot of time has already passed since we saw each other. Understandably, that this revelation had a very positive impact on him, and he returned to Lubavitch with a greater fervor, with a greater chais. In Tovshin Memtes, 1989, when Purim came, there was a Yid, a Sefer, Rabbi Eliezer Zurkin, alav ha-shalom, who would customarily send to the Rebbe every year a sudah's Purim. He would send to the Rebbe the sudah for Purim. Tovshin Memtes, since the Rebbe was already in 770, it was a year after the petirah of the Rebbetsin, he felt he can't send it to 770 because he didn't want this to be known in the public eye, and he asked the Rebbe what should he do, since every year he sends the sudah. The Rebbe answered him that if you're gonna send me zeines, I will come home and I will take

09:18 it.