Childhood Experiences of My Son, The Rebbe

I would like to record several of the episodes that I remember. There are many other and greater episodes, yet according to my understanding it is the small incidents that reveal the greatness and the loftiness of his soul.

I recall that when my son [the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson] was two years old,1 he recited the Four Questions on Passover. He memorized them on the eve of the holiday and understood them like an adult.

In 1905,2 when there were pogroms in Russia, my children and I, together with other mothers and children, hid in a pharmacy. As is normal during chaotic times the children cried a lot. The pharmacist was fearful that the noise would expose him for sheltering Jews, placing his own life in danger.

My then three-year-old son would walk around the room and quiet all the children. This was a remarkable scene. We could not talk because voices could be heard outside, so he silently motioned to them and gestured with his hands to keep quiet, calming each child in a different manner.

The pharmacist kept returning to see how my son was performing, and how [my son] cleverly affected the small children.

I would like to record several of the episodes that I remember. There are many other and greater episodes, yet according to my understanding it is the small incidents that reveal the greatness and the loftiness of his soul. In 1911, my son accompanied me to a health clinic in Balaclava, [Crimea].3 There was a cave that led to the sea. The narrow stream of water flowed between the two walls [of the cave] and rolled into the sea. The place where the stream and the sea met was very dangerous, even experienced swimmers were cautious.

One time I was at the shore where we gathered to spend time. I heard that a boy was drowning and went to see what was happening. I heard from others and saw for myself that a small child had rowed out in a single-person boat with one oar [a “kayak”4]. As I said before that [the place where the stream and the sea met] was a very dangerous place. The boat began to sink with the child inside.

When my son noticed this, he swam out to the boat, climbed inside, and took the oar from the exhausted, barely conscious boy. Taking control, he steered it out of the danger zone and brought it to the shore, saving the passenger.

But after this difficult, extraordinary, I would say, rescue, my son was physically and emotionally strained. With no warning or forethought he had to create a strategy to determine in which direction he could safely steer to a less dangerous area. My son therefore became very weak, and he himself began to [struggle from] drown[ing] close to the bank. When I saw him, he was exhausted and pale, and his clothes were drenched.

Thank G‑d, we had brought him [to the shore that day].