The Rebbe: His Focus on the individual - Part I

00:01 The Hemsek to G'mo Tammuz marking twenty-eight years since the hisdalkus of the Rebbe, we now begin, im yirtze Hashem, a series of sipurim and stories about the Rebbe. There is a famous expression of our sages in the tractate of Megillah, "B'mokim g'dulosei ata metze anvas anusei." Where you find his greatness, you also find a reference to his humility or modesty. Likewise, our sages tell us, as it's mentioned in Medrash Rus Rabba and Bereshit Rabba, "Tzadikim deimim l'beidom." Tzadikim resemble their Creator. The Medrash in Tehillim elaborates and reflects it regarding leaders of Am Yisrael, as Moshe Rabbeinu and Dovid HaMelech, that already prior to their leadership, they proved to be the appropriate leaders for the entire nation, to each and every one individually, according to their standards and needs. In this series, we will relay stories how the Rebbe, while conversing with individuals, it would be with an exceptional, undivided attention, exclusively to each yochid, individual person, as a complete world for himself. The Rebbe had either advised or enlightened or uplifted the person for the future. For many, it signified a new beginning in life. We'll mention several stories that exemplify this point. The stories that we will mention are from a compilation of stories which were told by Rabbi Binyomin Klein, the Rebbe's maskir, who was niftar seven years ago on the eighteenth of Sivan. These are stories with whom Rabbi Klein was involved as the secretary of the Rebbe. There was a stor-- a person that came to the Rebbe and told the

02:16 Rebbe that he's gonna be studying in the following three months, uh, to become an accountant. The Rebbe told him that he heard that now there's a new invention in the world, a computer, and that could help this person very much in his work. And the Rebbe advised him how he can learn to use it. But the person felt there's no need for it, and he did not really follow the Rebbe's advice. He finished his studies after two and a half months, and then he decided to go and visit the computer world to see what's happening there. When he went in there, he realized a whole new world opened up in front of him, and he then said, "If I would have listened to what the Rebbe told me earlier, I would have spared myself much time that I gave for studying accounting, which was in vain." A second story in the newspaper, the Togmorgen Journal, which was, uh, which is a weekly Yiddish newspaper, there was a letter that was written to the editorial board from a Yiddish family which needed to make a wedding, and they didn't have money. And they turned to the readers if people can contribute donations for this cause. The Rebbe read this article, and the Rebbe told Rabbi Klein that he should contact Mr. Mekler, who was the one that translated the Friediker Rebbe's memoirs in the 1940s, and he also worked in the editorial board, and to request from him the name and the address of the family.

04:11 And after that, the Rebbe sent money to them, and this went through Rab Solomon Berg Gordon, who was the Rav in New Jersey, and the Rebbe advised him many different details in regards to the family. There was a Yid who went into Yechidus, and he told the Rebbe beneger to his brother, who was living in a far distant city. He had a business which went down, and at this point, he needs twenty thousand dollars in order to be able to begin from anew. And he asked the Rebbe for assistance. The Rebbe, on the spot, did not respond. After Yechidus, the private audience was over , Rabbi Chadikoff called up Rabbi Klein and asked him that he should contact a certain person that he needs to talk with. And this was at the end of all the Yechidusim, which was well after midnight. The Rebbe remained in seven seventy to make sure that it is processed, the call is processed. After the conversation, Rabbi Chadikoff told Rabbi Klein, tomorrow, eight o'clock in the morning, they should call here to give over if everything was taken care of. And Rabbi Klein continues, "In the morning, I received a call of one of Anash, one of Babitcher Chassidim, who I knew very well. He called for a meeting amongst many business people, and the matter was taken care of." This is basically something that the Rebbe worked behind the scene to make sure that that person could have his money. It was days after the Rebbe went through

06:04 the heart attack in Toshlamatres, nineteen seventy-seven. The Rebbe asked Rabbi Klein to find out about a condition of a lady who was in the process of being divorced, getting a divorce from her husband. She suffered a lot from that, and the Rebbe was already involved in this earlier. And now, Rabbi Klein points out, days after the Rebbe went through a massive heart attack, nevertheless, the Rebbe was concerned about this individual person . Rabbi Klein relates that the Seder was before Mincha. The Rebbe would give over to me the responses which he managed to answer up till Mincha. Once after Mincha, Rabbi Klein was asked by the Rebbe to bring in the responses again, because the Rebbe felt he wants to add or change something from one of the answers, one of the responses that he wrote to one of the people. Rabbi Klein explains that this means in middle of Mincha, the Rebbe was also thinking about the needs of a Yid who wrote to him about a certain situation. Another story of Rabbi Klein, there was a lady that once came from Manhattan. She wanted to have a yechidus with the Rebbe, and Rabbi Chadikoff set it up for her. B'derech klal, everybody wants to go in as early as they could, but she waited till the end of the line, which was about two, three AM. When she went in, she began speaking, and she did not know how to finish. The Rebbe saw what was happening. The Rebbe did not say anything.

07:56 It was three in the morning and the Rebbe's to return the next morning. So the Rebbe got up, put on his coat, and she continued speaking. The Rebbe went out of the room, and she was continuing speaking. The Rebbe gave her a bracha, and he went home. A few minutes later, the phone rings in the mosquitos. Rabbi Klein relates that he picked up the phone, and he heard the Rebbe's voice on the line. The Rebbe advised him that he should give money to two bacharim, money from the America's office, and they should escort her home, that she should not have to go home on her own. And from here we see the Rebbe's patience, that by the Rebbe every minute was very precious. Nevertheless, the patience was without limitations. There was once a Rosh Yeshiva from a Lithuanian Yeshiva in Eretz Israel who came to do fundraising for his yeshiva. In a matter of three months being in the United States, he was not matzliach. He had a chashuve rav who was a Chassid Chabad who advised him to go into yechidus to the Rebbe before going back to Eretz Israel, and he agreed. In yechidus, the Rebbe asked him, "When are you going back?" He said, "Tomorrow." The Rebbe says, "Why don't you go back from New York to Eretz Israel through Toronto?" When he went out, he told his chaver what the Rebbe told him, but he said he felt he doesn't wanna bother himself to travel an unusual way, and also he

09:38 doesn't have money to pay for that. So the chaver told him, "Since the Rebbe advised you to do it, you're obligated to do it." And the chaver offered, "I will pay for this flight." While he's sitting in the plane, he's sitting near a young Yid, and he tells the Yid his whole dilemma. The young person says, "I cannot help you with money, but I, I'm working in a security company, and I can set up a meeting with a Yiddishe balabos." And he continued, "I cannot promise that this person will give money. I never heard that he should give money, but maybe he will give." When they landed in Toronto, he met this balabos, and he told him about the yeshiva situation. The balabos asked him, "How much do you need?" He said, "I need twenty-two thousand dollars." Immediately, the yunge man, this balabos, took out a check and wrote a sum of twenty-two thousand dollars . And the Yid explained why is he giving to the Rosh Yeshiva all this money. He says, "In the, the last three nights, I dreamed that my father told me to do a mitzvah for his neshamah. For the sake of his neshamah, I should give tzedakah. Originally, I thought it was only a dream. I didn't pay attention to it. But when you came today and you asked for tzedakah, and befrat in the number twenty-two, which today marks the twenty-second yartzeit of my father, I saw there is something salvaria. And therefore, I decided to give you

11:29 the whole total."