Purim: Part I

00:00 In reference to the earlier installments about Purim by the Rebbe, we continue now, mitzvah Hashem, with short Purim stories which took place by the Rebbe on various Purim occasions. Firstly, to add a few details to what was mentioned earlier about Purim Tav Shin Mem Alef, nineteen eighty-one, forty years ago, when Purim was on a Friday. We mentioned that it was after Mincha that the Rebbe delivered a maimer, and the Rebbe said l'chaim, and the Rebbe asked that Elam, everyone should say l'chaim. To add the following details that were not mentioned earlier, the Rebbe then davened Mincha at three:fifteen PM. After the maimer, when they offered the Rebbe to bring his becher, his silver cup, with which to say l'chaim, the Rebbe said that he will use a plastic cup. Rabbi Harlik told me that the Rebbe said he doesn't want to be different than everyone else. I'll begin to the Purims over the years. In general, during all the years, the shlach manes that the Rebbe would receive from people, after Purim, the Rebbe would send it out to be distributed. This was sent to Hasidim who were present in shul, to Chabad yeshivas, and girls' schools. We will now share a story which took place approximately ninety years ago in nineteen thirty or nineteen thirty-one in Berlin. The actual story was told by Rabbi Chaim Cement, alav ha-shalom from Boston, who was a shliach there for many years, and he heard this story firsthand from Rabbi J.B. Soloveitchik. Rabbi Cement was interviewed by Gem,

02:23 and he related the following story. Rabbi Soloveitchik told him a particularly fascinating incident which occurred on Purim. After partaking in the seudat Purim, the holiday feast, the Rebbe walked out to see that a lot of students were milling about, so he got up in the chair and started to speak about the meaning of Purim. Undoubtedly, he was trying to reach the Jewish students of whom there were many by explaining the story of Purim and the mitzvahs of the day and the lesson of the Megillah. But Berlin was not the place to do this. Berlin was a place that had many laws, one of which forbade preaching in public without a permit. As the Rebbe was standing on a chair and talking, the police arrived, and they asked if anybody has a permit, and everybody pointed to the Rebbe. The Rebbe himself did not have a permit, and they arrested the Rebbe. Since Rabbi Soloveitchik was known as the Rebbe's colleague, he was summoned to the police station to vouch for him. He obliged, explaining to the police that the Rebbe was just celebrating the Jewish holiday of Purim and meant no harm. The police accepted his explanation and let the Rebbe go. As they left the police station, Rabbi Soloveitchik told the Rebbe, who was then the son-in-law of the previous Rebbe and not yet the Rebbe himself, "You know, one day you are going to be a Rebbe. Your ancestor, the Alter Rebbe and founder of Chabad movement, was in prison, and your father-in-law

04:31 was in prison, and now you were in prison. It is a sign." The Rebbe walked together with Rabbi Soloveitchik to his house. It was the middle of the night, and as a hakoras hatov, as an appreciation, the Rebbe stayed in his house till the morning, and through the night, they were conversing in matters of learning. The follow-up of the story that took place many years later, I heard from Rabbi Lippa Brennan, who heard it firsthand from Rabbi Pinter, who personally witnessed the event and was also part of the follow-up, which was about twenty-five years later. Rabbi Pinter once participated in a Purim farbrengen in seven seventy by the Rebbe in the early years of the Rebbe's nesius, the early nineteen fifties. He had no idea that the Rebbe is the person who he saw on that evening, Purim evening in Berlin. He comes into the farbrengen. He recognizes the Rebbe from nineteen thirty-one from Berlin. He approached the Rebbe and told the Rebbe that he remembers Purim nineteen thirty, nineteen thirty-one. The Rebbe immediately told him It should re-it should remain between us, otherwise they may make another Yom Tov in Lubavitch, implying that Hasidim will add an additional Yom Tov to celebrate. The to the earlier installment, the 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 Tafshin Yud Ches, 1958, at the Farbrengen of Purim, the Rebbe gave many broches to people that were

07:04 waiting for children. A bocher once at a Purim Farbrengen related the following. When the Rebbe asked that bochurim 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, et cetera, there were families who brought shalach manos to the Rebbe. One of them was Rab Leibel Bistritzky, alav ha-shalom, and his family. Zo zein 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 shalach manos bags to the Rebbe's room. Once, my daughter, who was dressed as Esther HaMalka, 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, "Esther HaMalka." 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 Rabbeinu. The Rebbe commented that he should take it off because it is not a good thing. And as Rab Leibel Bistritzky points out, that over the course of that day, something fell into 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 Taf 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. C-coming

09:44 into the Farbrengen was delayed a few moments after the time when the Farbrengen should have begun. Everything is bas gauchah protis, by divine providence. In between in those few moments, a yediah, news came from Eretz Yisrael, to those that traveled to give mashliach manos to Yidden that are found in various places in Eretz Yisrael and who are protecting the Jewish nation in Eretz HaKodesh. And in addition, they also put on tefillin with many people. And 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 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, they just came back now, since there's a difference in the time between here and Eretz Yisrael, 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 year Taf Shin Lamed Ches, 1978. In Eretz Yisrael lived a Yid who studied a lot of Hasidus and he davened according to the teachings of Hasidus Chabad. But as the years moved on, for strange reasons, he distanced himself from the Rebbe and from Hasidus. Late 1977, early Taf Shin Lamed Ches on Shemini Atzeres, the

12:07 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 em-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 farbrengen, 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 shlichus of a certain mission, they should go up on the bimah to receive mashke that brings simcha in order to be able to bring it back to 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

14:03 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, "It seems to me," the Rebbe says, "that a lot of time has already passed since we saw each other." Understandably, that this revelation m- had a very positive impact on him, and he returned to Lubavitch with a greater fervor, with a greater chais. In Tofshin Mem Tes, 1989, when Purim came, there was a yid, a sefer, Rabbi Eliezer Zerkin, alav hashalom, who would customarily send to the Rebbe every year, uh, uh, s- uh, Seudas Purim. He would send to the Rebbe the seudah for Purim. Tofshin Mem Tes, since the Rebbe was already in 770, it was a year after the petirah of the Rebbetzin. 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 seudah. The Rebbe answered him that, "If you're gonna send mezeinas, I will come home, and I will take it." Behemshich to the earlier installments, benegeah to Yemei HaPurim by the Rebbe. We continue now, and mesham will conclude the series of the Yemei HaPurim of this year with two stories that took place with two distinguished mashpiyim. The first story took place Purim Tof Shin Chaf Vav, 1966. Rav a Hasid, Rabbi Elimelech Zwippel, who was a distinguished mashpia in the Yeshivas Tomchei Temimim Lubavitch in Newark, New

16:31 Jersey, and then in Morristown for about fifty years, related to his talmidim an experience that he had during the farbrengen of Purim Tof Shin Chaf Vav. It was then, towards the conclusion of the farbrengen, the Rebbe announced, quoting the Halakha in Shulchan Aruch relating to Purim, that one, anyone who extends their hand for charity, collecting charity, need to be given charity. And me'ale the Rebbe announced that everyone who wants to receive mashke from him, it will be given to, to them. Of course, Hasidim understood this is an auspicious time, receiving mashke, receiving broches, and there was a big confusion that took place then, a lot of pushing, and it was very, uh, difficult to push through the crowd and to get to the Rebbe and receive the mashke. Rav Melech, as he was known fondly with this reference, related that he also tried, exerted himself, pushed himself, but to no avail. He did not manage to receive mashke from the Rebbe at that point. After the farbrengen, when the Rebbe went out of 770, going home, the Rebbe went out from the main entrance, and while the Rebbe was on the steps Going to the street, someone handed the Rebbe a bottle of mashke, and the Rebbe continued to distribute the mashke. Whoever was not able to receive mashke earlier tried again to push and receive mashke. But also there, there was a big crowd, and there was a lot of pushing. But Rabbi Melech relates that I really held on strong, and I was

18:53 already standing face to face right near the Rebbe. I extended my hand with a little cup in the hand to receive mashke. But since there was so much pushing, my hand couldn't remain in a steady position, and it was swaying back and forth. And I was afraid that I'm gonna lose the mashke that I will be receiving from the Rebbe. Then I realized that, that also the Rebbe's hand was swaying back and forth because of the pushing. And the Rebbe wanted that I should receive everything he is gonna pour in. Therefore, the Rebbe was waiting. Rabbi Melech concludes the story that I was by many fabrengans. I was in yechidas, private audiences with the Rebbe, but till then, I did not feel such a closeness. When my hand was swaying and the Rebbe's hand was swaying, I felt as the Rebbe is mit mir zusammen. The Rebbe is with me together. The second story is when I get to the mashpia, Rabbi Nissen Nemanov, who was a distinguished mashpia in Brunois, in Temchi Temimim in France. And already during the wartime, he was already considered a distinguished mashpia and Hasid. And he once participated in a fabrengen by the Rebbe on Purim. And at times between the sichas, some Hasidim during the nigunim would stand up and just sing and dance in their place. Melech, they were singing a very joyous nigun, and Rabbi Nissen began to dance. The Rebbe was not able to see his face. He only saw a hat moving up and

21:01 down, but did not see who was the one dancing. And it was obvious from those who observed it that it was for quite a while, the Rebbe is lowering his head to see who is dancing right there near the Rebbe's table on the floor, which was a level lower than the Rebbe's platform. Till finally, the Rebbe bent his head down more, and he saw it was Rabbi Nissen Nemanov, and a broad smile appeared on the Rebbe's face.