Second Yechidus

The weeks soon passed and it was now time for our second yechidus.

We were to go into yechidus late Thursday night, Sivan 19 (June 5), at about 2:00 a.m. We ultimately did not go into the Rebbe’s room until 5:45 Friday morning! The time taken for a yechidus varies from one minute to three hours, so it is usually hard to ascertain the exact time one is due in.

Whilst we were waiting, we met Rabbi Yehuda Paldy, an Israeli journalist and activist on behalf of the “Who is a Jew?” campaign. He had broken his leg twenty years ago and, after three operations, it was decided that nothing further could be done for him. He could only walk leaning heavily on a big stick. He had been coming to see the Rebbe for three years now. On this past motzoei Shavuos, whilst he was receiving his wine during kos shel brocha, bent double over his stick, the Rebbe asked him why he still walks with a stick. He should now leave it behind. Rabbi Paldy smiled and the Rebbe said it was not a joke. “You don’t need a stick.”

So, he now walks fine without a stick. The men and boys who saw him previously walking laboriously with a stick still cannot believe it. This is Rabbi Paldy’s own story, and he is keeping the stick as “Exhibit A” for a constant reminder.

A yeshiva boy going in before us used to be a first class hippy and a drug addict. He has now been at the yeshiva in Kfar Chabad, Israel for twelve months!

Upon entering the Rebbe’s room, I said that since the last farbrengen I had received a windfall, bikurim! I explained that when I went to pay the agent for our landlord of the apartment, he refused to take my money. So I had brought the rent to the Rebbe as bikurim.

The Rebbe confirmed what we had surmised:

The sicha during the farbrengen on [the previous] Shabbos, which was your grandson’s birthday, was intended for Yosef Yitzchok, who bears my father-in-law’s name, since he was now a ben chomesh l’mikrah. He will be six next year and you must bring him with you next Shavuos. You can again stay at the apartment in Union Street.

The Rebbe said that he now wanted to ask me a question. “Why do I think, after all this time since Rashi’s commentary became widely accepted - some 800 years - has no one asked questions on Rashi until 1966/7/8?”

I answered the Rebbe, “The world has never had such a great scholar, a godol hador, like the Rebbe before, who could answer those questions on Rashi. Nor, have we have ever had someone who could ask such questions on Rashi.”

I reminded the Rebbe of his promise to have these Rashi sichas put into print for posterity. I then put in an aside about a farbrengen for the next Shabbos.

“Ah,” says the Rebbe, “you are smuggling in a farbrengen. If you will ask a question on a Rashi, then I will answer it on Shabbos.”

We discussed problems still left over from the previous yechidus, like Lubavitch in Manchester, shechita board, shul and so forth. There was also plenty of humor too.

We left the Rebbe’s room at 6:30 a.m.! We were not the last people to go into the Rebbe for yechidus that night - sorry, morning now!

I then took Roselyn home and returned to 770 to daven. At 9:40 a.m. the Rebbe left for home! Since 8:00 the previous evening, the Rebbe had not had any food, nor drink, no pause. And, incredibly, he was as fresh now as at 8:00 the night before. What a Rebbe!

After davening that morning, I started to work on finding a Rashi question. Now, instead of “is there a farbrengen tomorrow?” (I was told that 50 students had already arrived from the Newark yeshiva), everyone was asking, “What is your Rashi kashe (question)?” I was most annoyed with all of them. They fussed and congratulated; but, when I pointed out that everyone should try and send in a Rashi question, all became afraid again. They were good at giving me advice which I, of course, ignored.

I took a hint from Rabbi Zalmon Shimon Dvorkin’s shiur, which I had attended during the week.

In this week’s sedra, Behaaloscho, third posuk, it says that Aaron did what G-d commanded him to do. What does this mean? Would we expect him not to have done so? Why does Rashi have to say, “shelo shino,” that he did not change anything from what G-d commanded him to do?

Rabbi Zalmon Shimon explained that Aaron, who was the High Priest for thirty-nine years, lit the candles with the same warmth on the thirty-ninth year as he had on the first year. I did not like that explanation and I wrote to the Rebbe my question. (At the subsequent farbrengen, the Rebbe did not talk about this Rashi question, he did say, though, that he had spoken about this on a previous occasion for about two hours and I should ask the yeshiva boys about it.)

Rabbi Yitzchok Sufrin, who had addressed us so well on the way to New York on the plane, and helped with the bentching and tefilas haderech, suggested that I ask the Rebbe about his opinion on “mesan’echo,” (Bamidbar 11:35), which I did.

At the farbrengen, the Rebbe spoke for one-and-a-half hours on this, and connected it to the situation in Israel, too. G-d does not have to kuma (get up) and fight. He confounds their deliberations. They will ultimately destroy themselves. We must not return one inch of Eretz Yisroel to the Arabs.

There was a special sicha for us too, a tzeischem l’sholom (go in peace). It is no use coming to see the Rebbe once a year and that is all. We had plenty to do when we were away from the Rebbe. He gave me a wonderful smile and said, “Now it depends on you.”

After havdalah, I again held open the door of 770 for the Rebbe and said, “Gut voch. Everything is now perfect, except for one thing.”

The Rebbe was pleased and said it was a better reply than the previous week. “And what was that, ‘except for one thing?’”

I replied, “Because we are going home tomorrow and leaving the Rebbe.”

“Tomorrow is still in another day, and I will see you again. In any case, Moshiach may come and everything will be changed.”

The next day, Sunday, Sivan 22 (June 8), our buses left from 770. The Rebbe came outside to see us off. Someone asked me why the Rebbe gave me so much kovod. Did I give plenty of money? Work hard for Lubavitch? Or, what was the secret?

I replied, “Men darf machen dem Rebben freilich.” (We have to make the Rebbe happy). That’s all - in every possible way!

I suggested that they try it, too, just for once!