Weekly Chasidic Story #886 (s5775-09 / 24 Cheshvan 5775) The Lubavitcher Rebbe and His Women Emissaries The Rebbe responded that he prefers that I write myself rather than have my husband include me in his report. Connection: This weekend, thousands of emissaries of the Lubavitcher Rebbe from all over the globe will gather in Brooklyn for their annual convention. (Males-the convention for the women takes place three months after.)
The Lubavitcher Rebbe and His Women Emissaries
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To this I had no answer, so the Rebbe just smiled and continued on. Four weeks later-it was also a Shabbos-was the next time the Rebbe held a farbrengen. At that time, the farbrengens would take place in the courtyard beside 770. I was standing at the back, behind the men, when suddenly a man handed me a cup and said, "The Rebbe gave this for you; he said you should say l'chaim." That was the Rebbe's way: he remembered a conversation he had with a little girl in the hallway a month earlier and, between his addresses on the loftiest topics, he remembered to give her a l'chaim. On another occasion, it was at the end of one of the major Jewish holidays. After havdalah, the ceremony concluding the festival, each man would pass by the Rebbe, and the Rebbe would pour out a bit of wine from his cup, with a short blessing to each person. It was called kos shel berachah. The farbrengen was held in the small synagogue on the first floor at 770, and I was in the back room, where there was a little window high up above a bookcase. I could perch there and see into the shul. At the end of the farbrengen, my father went up to receive kos shel
berachah from the Rebbe. And the Rebbe asked my father if I was there. My
father said I was. "Where?" the Rebbe wanted to know. My father pointed
up at the window where I was sitting. And the Rebbe said, "Let her come
down and get kos shel berachah." So I climbed down from the bookcase,
came inside the men's section, and the Rebbe gave me kos shel berachah
from his hand. When I was engaged, I went with my mother to see Rebbetzin Chana, the Rebbe's mother, to bring her an invitation to our wedding. While we were there, my mother mentioned to Rebbetzin Chana that after we got married we would be moving to Montreal. Rebbetzin Chana replied, "I know; my son told me." I realized that the Rebbe had been discussing me. In other words, I meant so
much to him that he would even talk about me with his mother! I felt that his
caring was just amazing. Before I gave birth to my third child, the doctor wanted to induce delivery, because I was overdue. So my husband called the Rebbe's office to ask for a blessing, and he gave the details of what was going on. But then, the morning after I gave birth, my husband had a health issue, and needed to be hospitalized himself, so he never called New York to let the Rebbe know that I gave birth and that everything was okay. A little later that day, we got a call that the Rebbe wanted to know what was
happening, because he hadn't heard from us. So, of course, we responded right
away with the good news that our son Mendy was born. But then the Rebbe heard
of my husband's condition, and he realized that he was in no shape to help out
with the baby, so the he issued instructions that somebody should be found to
be there when I came home. Biographical
note:Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe:
[11 Nissan 5662 - 3 Tammuz 5754 (April 1902 - June 1994 C.E.)], became the seventh
Rebbe of the Chabad dynasty after his father-in-law's passing on 10 Shvat 5710
(1950 C.E.). He is widely acknowledged as the greatest Jewish leader of the
second half of the 20th century. Although a dominant scholar in both the revealed
and hidden aspects of Torah and fluent in many languages and scientific subjects,
the Rebbe is best known for his extraordinary love and concern for every Jew
on the planet. His emissaries around the globe dedicated to strengthening Judaism
number in the thousands. Hundreds of volumes of his teachings have been printed,
as well as dozens of English renditions.
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