The Rebbe: Before the Nesius

00:01 As we find ourselves after and will relate a few stories about the Rebbe which took place before the before the Rebbe accepted the leadership, which was in the beginning of the '50s, and these stories took place in earlier years on various occasions. One story is told to a wedding, a that took place by a group of Hasidim, and the Rebbe participated. And when they went to the chuppah, they realized that their Rebbe, who was an older person, was still sitting at the table, and he needed assistance to get to the chuppah. And it seemed like everyone relied on someone else, and as far as they understood, he was still left at the table. When they came to pick him up, they realized that the Rebbe already was holding him by his arm and leading him to the chuppah. Uh, another story, to the year between and 1950 and 1951, which in 1951 the Rebbe formally accepted the Nasius. The faculty, the of the Yeshiva Tomchei Temimim in Montreal went into Yechidus, a private audience, the Rebbe, and they handed the Rebbe a duch, a report, and it was a Yechidus which they discussed various matters with the Rebbe. And the Rebbe asked that they should continue writing to him in the future. Rabbi Greenglass relates that he was thinking in his mind, how does he address the Rebbe? Since it is already coming to the which is potentially the day that the Rebbe will be accepting the Nasius, so how does he address, in what

02:23 titles does he write to the Rebbe? And the Rebbe immediately sensed his , his thought, his doubt, uh, which he was thinking about. So the Rebbe said, "how to open the letter, you can just write peace and blessing." A third story was told by Reb Berl Motzkin in Montreal, and he related the following story. He once saw that his father, Reb Peretz Motzkin, who was a very distinguished Hasid, a mashpia in Montreal, received from the Rebbe a response, and it said as follows: Thank you. What he wrote and what he saw. Reb Berl was eager to know what this answer was about, what letter was it referring to that his father wrote and that the Rebbe responded these words. And he found out that it was in the year clo- coming close to which is when the Rebbe assumed leadership. And it was at that time that he was farbrengen, Reb Peretz was farbrengen with Hasidim and speaking about his kasherus that Hasidim should commit themselves to the Rebbe, should accept the Rebbe as the Rebbe. And in middle, Reb Peretz drowsed off, either from l'chaim or exhausted, he, he drowsed off. And when he woke up, he realized that while he drowsed off, the Rebbe Rashab and the previous Rebbe came to him and said to him, "They gave him a thank you for urging Hasidim and encouraging Hasidim that they should be mekubbel connected to the Rebbe. And when he wrote it in to the Rebbe, the Rebbe responded, as mentioned

04:55 earlier, thank you for what you wrote and what you saw. And now we go on to another story which took place in the last twenty or thirty years. The story was related by the person himself as he gave it over to a schliach in Eretz Yisrael in Nadya. The individual grew up in an assimilated family in France, knowing nothing about Yiddishkeit. His father did not go to shul even on Yom Kippur. Several of his siblings intermarried, and when he was twenty-five, he met a Nokria, and they made up to get married in six months' time. In the meantime, they found an apartment in Paris where they would stay together. When he entered the apartment with her, he suddenly felt a depression and nervousness. He excused himself, left the apartment, and began running down the streets of Paris. He happened to run by a shul. The door was open, and he walked in. The rav of the shul walked over to him and asked him what does he need. He told the rav that he wants to pray. They were davening Mincha, and the rav gave him a siddur with French translation and showed him what to do. When they finished, he ran back to the apartment, and he told the woman to leave. He took her belongings, put them outside the apartment, and locked the door to the apartment. For the s- next month, he could not sleep at night. There was something about the apartment that made him feel very uneasy. He therefore paid

06:44 up for the six months, left, and went to Eretz Yisrael. He wound up in Tzfat and became a Breslover. Eventually, he married and built a Yiddishish mishpacha. Years later, he saw a, a flyer inviting the French-speaking crowd to an evening with the Rebbe. On the other side, he saw three addresses where the Rebbe lived in Paris. One of them was the address of the apartment that he rented. As we can say, the impact of the Rebbe staying in that apartment accomplished its goal.