In 1953, a student left his Orthodox home in Chicago to study in the Telshe Yeshivah in Cleveland. Although New York is not on the route from Chicago to Cleveland, he stopped over to visit relatives and receive the blessings of several Torah giants living there. His family were by no means Lubavitchers, but had established a connection with the Previous Rebbe during the latter’s visit to Chicago in 1942. And so the prospective student also went to receive a blessing from the Rebbe before undertaking this new phase of life.

At yechidus, the Rebbe gave him warm blessings and told him: “In Cleveland lives Rabbi Zalmen Katzenellenbogen (Kazen). He can help you with regard to the study of both Torah law and Pnimiyus HaTorah, the Torah’s spirit and soul. You would profit from studying with him.”

The student promised to look up Rabbi Katzenellenbogen in Cleveland, and the yechidus ended.

As soon as he arrived in Cleveland, the student went to the post office to send a telegram to his parents, notifying them of his safe arrival. While he was waiting in line, a distinguished looking Jew with a beard and broad smile entered the post office. The young man had never met Rabbi Katzenellenbogen, nor seen a picture of him, but without thinking twice, he walked up and greeted him: “Shalom Aleichem, Reb Zalmen! The Rebbe advised me to study with you.”

The Rabbi and his family had just settled in Cleveland, and he was somewhat startled at being greeted by an unknown youth. Nonetheless, he listened closely to the student’s description of his yechidus, and the two established a relationship that continued throughout the student’s stay in Cleveland.