The Rebbe: Stories prior to the Nesius

00:00 The yom hagadol vehakodesh, Yitshvat. We will relate some stories relating to the Rebbe of the years before , in particular in the tov shins, 1940s. The story I heard from Rabbi Moshe Goldman, on, um, this was Shvuos, the late '40s. Rabbi Herzog then came from Israel, and, uh, he stayed in, in-- near the Yeshiva Beth Rivkah Din, the yeshiva there. And, um, the, the Rebbe set up that they should have a minyan there, uh, in order that Rabbi Herzog should have a minyan for, uh, Yom Tov. And the Rebbe offered that those who will leave from seven seventy, although this was a sacrifice going away from the Friediker Rebbe's farbrengens, in order to accommodate Rabbi Herzog will be to receive from the Friediker Rebbe's table. So some went there. They helped with the minyan. Rabbi Herzog later went into the Friediker Rebbe and, um, the Friediker Rebbe told him that he should speak with the Rebbe in learning. So he went downstairs to the ground floor in seven seventy, first floor, and he spoke with the Rebbe in learning quite a while. And then he later came back up to the Friediker Rebbe, and he told the Friediker Rebbe, the to the Rebbe how impressed he was that he's a gaon ne'alam. So the Friediker Rebbe said, which means, "What's the wonder if his mind is a mind on the level of the Tzemach Tzedek?" Another time, another occasion when, um, the Friediker Rebbe was there and, uh, the Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka, and, um, the

02:16 Friediker Rebbe then said, when the Rebbe was walking through the room, "Here walks the Tzemach Tzedek." The Rebbe once mentioned in regards to a suit which the Rebbe wore throughout the week, not a kapote, but a suit, that this suit has spared him time because when people were looking for someone that is externally with a kapote, very formal, they would ask questions. But with the Rebbe, with the suit, some people felt that the Rebbe is not available enough for asking questions. So the Rebbe said that spared him time, that people didn't stop him with asking questions. The Rebbe was very , very private. Uh, there's a Yid, Rabbi Sender Reinen, who was a cousin of my father's. It was by marriage. His wife's name was Sylvia Zelikson, originally from Vilna, Zelikson's daughter, and was very close with Beis HaRav. He was close with the Rebbe, and his wife was close with the Rebbetzin in France. He's mentioned in many letters from the previous Rebbe and, uh, especially in the later volumes of Igros Kodesh, et cetera. The Rebbe was once walking with him in the street in France, Paris, and the Rebbe told him, "We're now approaching a shul, so let's separate a few blocks before, that people should not know that you know me, because they will then start asking you questions about me."