Stories About the Sixth Rebbe

When the mayor of Chicago was shot, his family reached out across the Atlantic for prayer and blessings.

Zaidy's mother kept this journal, documenting all sorts of things about his birth

The rabbi rose to leave, at which point his host asked to whom he should make his check payable.

At the conclusion of the voyage, the doctor asked the rebbe to forgive him for having been the cause of his illness. “You, the cause of my illness?” asked the rebbe in amazement.

Once, while we were walking along the seashore, amidst that glorious scenic setting, my father showed me a bench nestled in the brambles, between the sea and the forest.

"Rebbe" said the businessman, "it's a different world here, in America. The neighborhood I live in... our friends... it just won't be right..."

As I touched the holy casket, I whispered "Rebbe, parnasah (livelihood)." I even managed to carry the coffin a few steps, all the time whispering "Rebbe, parnasah..."

The guard was stupefied: few were the cabinet-level ministers granted such a privilege, and here stood a young chassid with a beard, sidelocks, chassidic garb and a Yiddish accent, at a time when to even reside in Petersburg was forbidden to Jews . . .

Everyone has a right to an opinion. It is inevitable, however, that certain opinions will carry more weight than others.

The infants were barely feeding and his wife was sickly. The frantic father was willing to brave any threat.

It was Passover eve of 1910. In the town of Lubavitch, every Jewish home was freshly scrubbed. The tables were bedecked with threadbare but meticulously cleaned white linen, surrounded by families about to begin their Seder celebrations...

I remember attending a farbrengen presided over by the Rebbe, and him laying down his head on his arm and crying. When the Rebbe would mention the Previous Rebbe’s name, he would just break down.

Life on the farm was hard. The community remained painfully small, and there were few if any other young chassidic families for miles around.

"As soon as I entered the Rebbe’s room and looked at him, the question slipped my mind; it simply disappeared."