The 3rd of Cheshvan is the yahrtzeit (anniversary of the passing) of the famed Chassidic master Rabbi Israel of Ruzhin (1797-1850), known as "The Holy Ruzhiner."
Rabbi Israel was a great-grandson of Rabbi DovBer of Mezeritch; a close friendship existed between the Ruzhiner Rebbe and the 3rd Chabad Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Lubavitch.
Link: Three Stories
Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, a leader of Sephardic Jewry and chief rabbi of Israel, passed away on 3 Cheshvan, 5774 (2013), at the age of 93.
A widely published author on Jewish law, Rabbi Yosef was considered by scholars of all backgrounds to be a rabbinical authority with a rare grasp of nearly every area of Torah scholarship. He was known for his encyclopedic knowledge of a wide swath of halachic texts, ranging from the well-known to the most obscure. In his halachic rulings, he would often list dozens of previous rulings and then decide in accordance with what he perceived to be the majority opinion.
There are two channels on life’s TV. On one plays a fantasy; the other is real life.
The fantasy is a world that imagines itself to be its own truth, where nothing is of intrinsic value and everything functions by the rules of chance and necessity.
In this world, you are nothing more than another background or shadow, an extra in a plotless movie, a disposable prop for a five-second set. In this world, life may be prosperous. Or disastrous. Whatever the scene demands, so you shall be given. Until it is time for the next scene to begin.
The real life is a world in which you stand face to face before the Director of this grand drama. But your story is not this drama. It is this intimate relationship of yours with the Director.
All things may change—the props, the backgrounds, the actors, even the play itself—but this is forever. It is truth.