rebbe stories – Melava Malka Stories

Tefillin Stand near the Julis base

I must tell you a wondrous story which happened with the Tefillin Stand we established for the soldiers stationed near Kiryat Malachi*, a seven minute drive from an army base. The base called Julis is part of the Emanuel army compound. At the beginning of the war we set up a permanent Tefillin Stand there so people and soldiers could put on Tefillin. At one point we fixed up the stand to look very nice with a table and frame around it to make it beautiful and appealing as befits a Tefillin Stand.

Baseball and Judaism

The first time I met the Rebbe we discussed baseball. It was a month before my bar-mitzvah, and my grandfather, a devout Jew and second-generation American, wanted me to meet the Rebbe and receive his blessing in preparation for my attainment of Jewish adulthood. My parents had all but abandoned religious practice of their faith, so it was Grandfather who assumed the primary role in my Jewish education, giving me lessons in the rudiments of Judaism several times a week and taking me to the synagogue on Shabbat.

A Policeman’s Miracle from the Rebbe

A woman from the Chabad-Lubavitch Community in Brooklyn was pulled over by a N.Y.C. traffic cop. Standing outside her open car window and watching her search for her license and registration papers, the police officer caught sight of a picture of the Lubavitcher Rebbe in her open purse. “Excuse me, Maam,” he asked, “are you one of the followers of this Rabbi?”

Chanukah’s Fifth Candle (part 2)

After getting married, my father served as a teacher and rabbi for the Adath Israel congregation in Washington Heights, New York. My sister and I were born there. When I was five years old, we moved to Toronto where Reb Koppel (great uncle of his wife and a prestigious Jew in Toronto) found a position for my father in a Satmar Yeshiva. My younger brother was born there. Although my father’s attitudes became close to those of Satmar (Hungarian Chassidic group zealous in their approach and very insular), and he sent us to study in schools and Yeshiva close to their approach, he still respected the Rebbe and always spoke of him to us with the highest regard.

Chanukah’s Fifth Candle (part 1)

My father, Rabbi Abraham-Tzvi Greenwald, was born in Lodz. Poland, in 1911. His father died when he was only eight years old, leaving his mother alone with seven young orphans. She sent my father to live with her cousin, Rabbi Menachem Zemba, a famous Talmudic scholar in pre-war Warsaw and a dedicated Gerer Chasid. Rabbi Zemba raised him devotedly, taking responsibility for his education, and even studied with him personally.

The Rebbe’s Miraculous Recovery

For five weeks in 1977, the Chabad-Lubavitch movement and people the world over anxiously prayed for the recovery of the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Shneerson, of righteous memory, after he suffered a sudden massive heart attack that left the doctors wondering whether he would pull through.

Dr. Ira Weiss, a Chicago-based cardiologist, flew to New York shortly after the Rebbe’s attack to serve as one of the lead physicians.

From Crown Heights to Miami

Our family arrived from Russia to France in 1947, and I was born the year after, the second of five children. When I was six, we emigrated to Crown Heights, in Brooklyn, to be with the Rebbe.

From Bali to Israel

A young man from Rabbi Raskin’s congregation was getting married in Israel and his journey from Indonesia to Israel is a story of Hashgacha Pratis – Divine Intervention!

It all began with the groom’s grandfather, a textile merchant who immigrated from Iraq to Israel before 1948. As his business dealings expanded and developed in international arenas, he decided to move his family to Bali, Indonesia. He arrived there with his wife and young daughter, Chana.

The Power of Prayer and Commitment

“My husband David was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer and was hospitalized. One day the team of doctors came in and I could tell by the looks on their faces that it was not good news.

The Children’s role in the Yom Kippur war

“Being privileged to grow up in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, as a child, I would see the Rebbe all the time. Typically, we saw him on Shabbat, as there was school during the week, but I remember how exciting it was when we would be able to go to 770 (the central Chabad synagogue where the Rebbe davened – prayed and farbrenged – led Chassidic gatherings) for the Minchah service on days there was no school. At 3:15 in the afternoon, the Rebbe would come into the synagogue, and he would hand us each a coin to place in a charity box.

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