Rabbi Yoel Kahan A"H - Part XI

00:01 The continuation to the earlier installments regarding an overview of Rabbi Yael Kahn's life, we now continue with installment number eleven, where we will discuss additional stories about the Rebbe, which Rabbi Yael shared at his Shabbos table with the the students of his, or with Hasidim in general. The first story, Rabbi Yael relates that he heard from Rabbi Lebangatten, who was the main Shliach, the head Shliach in Argentina, Shliach of the Rebbe from the nineteen fifties, and he brought many Yidden closer to Torah mitzvahs. One time, he was Mekarev, a young student, a Yiddishkeit, and after a while, the student met a girl, he wanted to marry her, and after his background was checked out, it was verified that he is a Kohen, and he was not able to, according to Halacha, marry this woman. All the Rabbonim that were there were trying to explain to him the harshness of this prohibition, and they were not successful. Rabbe set up for him a Yechidus, a private audience by the Rebbe, and the Bachar agreed to travel to New York to come and hear what the Rebbe will tell him. When he entered into Yechidus, the Rebbe told him the following, "You surely heard what they say about me that I'm a great scholar, and there are people that are greater than me, but even the greatest of all, how much they will work on themselves and refine themselves all their life, if they were not born as a Kohen, they will never reach this standard of

02:14 sacredness of Kohuna. Kohuna, in English it's called priesthood, is a Kedusha that Hashem gives from above. And a person with his own energy, with his own exertion, will never be able to reach this quality." And then the Rebbe sums it up and says, "And to you, Hashem has given this wonderful gift, this unique Kedusha of Kohuna." At the conclusion of the Yechidus, after the Rebbe completed to describe... Concluded after describing and bringing out the uniqueness and the greatness of Kohuna, the Bachar said on his own, "Yes, I should not desecrate such a sanctuary. I will not marry this woman." And Rabbi Yael sums up the story and says, "The Rebbe did not explain to him the harshness of the prohibition or the punishment that a person may receive for desecrating and not fulfilling a prohibition of Torah. The Rebbe instead uplifted him, as the Rebbe usually does, and simultaneously all the negative things faded away." Now we go to another story that took place in the beginning of the year just a week after the Rebbe had a very severe heart attack. Rabbi Yael introduces the story that it's very difficult to understand the great commitment that the Rebbe has for another person. Rabbi Yael said that he saw the written letter that the Rebbe wrote on the date of and he turns to a child who writes to the Rebbe that he is soon becoming bar mitzvah. And the Rebbe sends him his best wishes, his blessings in the Nusach, in the, in the

04:53 traditional version, the way the Rebbe would write the letter to bar mitzvah Bachar. And then the Rebbe relates to another fact that the child writes in his letter that he is from a not religious. The Rebbe writes them as follows, is an external garment that conceals the priority of a Yid. Every Yid with his entire family is a son of Avraham, Yitzhak, and Yaakov, and a daughter of Sarah, Rivka, Rachel, and Leah. And therefore, every individual Yid follows after tens of generations of ancestors who were fulfilling Torah mitzvahs, and is only an external garment that conceals only his essence. In the written letter, we see additions, we see- The Rebbe erased, the Rebbe changed. The Rebbe worked on this letter, and this was a week after the heart attack that the Rebbe still needed rest for a few weeks. And the goal of the letter was to encourage a Jewish boy. No difference who he is. The main thing is he shouldn't feel any weakness or not to feel down in any way that he is a member of a Mishpacha Chileinit Kaviyachal, as to say. And all this was just days after this massive heart attack. A third story where the Rebbe focuses also on an individual. The story Rab Ye'el heard that it was a kvutza, a group of chasanim. This was in Tafshim Emches, 1988. They went online to receive a dollar from the Rebbe. And to one of these chasanim, the Rebbe asked, "Did you receive the letter? I already signed

07:24 it." The person that saw this wanted to know, he was very curious as why did the Rebbe stop this person, this chasan, from amongst 20 chasanim. To each one, the Rebbe gave a blessing, and they went further. Here, the Rebbe turned to the person and asked him, "Did you get the letter? I already signed it." It was verified that a few days earlier, there was a group of chasanim sitting together, and they were discussing the mazal tov letter, the blessing that the Rebbe sends to a chasana, which is read at the chuppah. The nusach, the version of all these letters are all identical. It's one nusach that the Rebbe would bless all the chasanim for their wedding. The maskir, the secretary, prepares for every chasan a letter that has his personal name, and the Rebbe signs his name at the end of the letter. The bachurim were discussing this topic, and some of them said that although it's the same nusach, but when the Rebbe signs it, he reviews each letter separately. He, he puts his whole in essence into it. But there was a group of many bachurim who argued that the Rebbe reviews the letters very quickly without relating to the letter with his fullest focus. In addition, there was a bachur that went even further and argued that it's hard for him to believe that while the Rebbe is dealing with s- so many matters throughout his schedule, that he would check the name of each individual chasan who appears on each

09:31 one of these letters. But he felt the Rebbe just signs his name, and the Rebbe continues to the next letter. It was to this bachur, to this chasan, that the Rebbe turned and said, "Did you receive the letter? I have already signed it." Rab Ye'el continues that this story he heard from a Yid who saw the story and checked out the authenticity of the story. After a certain time period, Rab Ye'el participated in a Chassidishe farbrengen, and he retold this story, and he added that the Yid who told him this story is known to him as a trustworthy person who does not exaggerate, and according to Rab Ye'el's evaluation, the story is correct and true. After the farbrengen, one of the participants approached Rab Ye'el and said, "You know that the story is true because you heard it from someone who is trustworthy by you. But I know for sure that the story is correct because I was that chasan." Rab Ye'el concludes that from this story we see the seriousness with which the Rebbe would relate to every Yid, and how the Rebbe invested his whole pnimius nafshe in giving a bracha which seemed to be the usual blessing, but to each one in particular with the fullest concentration.