tzemach tzedek – Melava Malka Stories

Heartfelt tears of a mother saves her family

In the annals of Chabad, who has not heard of Reb Peretz Chein z”l, the prodigious Chasid of the Alter Rebbe, first Chabad Rebbe. His progeny today are leaders and shakers and movers around the world numbering in the thousands. Reb Peretz merited to live during the lifetime of six Chabad Rebbes, beginning with the Alter Rebbe till the Previous Lubavitcher Rebbe.
Yet his family from the Shaltiel clan, a well respected and knowledgeable Jewish family who were leaders among the Jewish people for many centuries, were not previously Chassidim. How did he come to become a Chasid?

A Journey to Lubavitch: A Six-Year-Old’s Encounter with Blessings and Joy

“I shall never forget my first journey to Lubavitch. The weeks following Passover of 5592 (1832) were filled with excitement and joyous anticipation. I was six-years-old at the time, and I had just been told that father planned to take me along on his annual Shavuot trip to Lubavitch. I was scheduled to soon begin my studies at the cheder and father wanted me to receive the Rebbe’s (the Tzemach Tzedek, third Lubavitcher Rebbe) blessing for success in my studies.
I was scheduled to soon begin my studies at the cheder and father wanted me to receive the Rebbe’s (the Tzemach Tzedek, third Lubavitcher Rebbe) blessing for success in my studies.

Reb Chayim Yehoshua and the “Snatchers” (Part 2)

The Chassid Reb Chayim Yehoshua spent four months in the vicinity of Kazan. At home, his business affairs often took him to the small villages, and so he was quite familiar with the ways of village folk.
He would travel from one small village to another, ransoming the children. Some of them fled on their own after they were released. As for the others, he had to care for them and find them a place of refuge.

Reb Chayim Yehoshua and the “Snatchers” (Part 1)

The Famous Chassid Reb Dov Zev of Yekaterinoslav (Deneiper today) related the following story: While he was an emissary of the Rebbe Maharash (4^th Lubavitcher Rebbe), Reb Dov Zev regularly visited the city of Gluchov, where one of the elders of the Chassidim, Reb Chayim Yehoshua, lived. Whenever Reb Dov Zev visited Gluchov, he delighted in listening to Reb Chayim Yehoshua tell stories of the Chassidim of the old days.

Biography of Rebbetzin Chana Schneerson

The Chassidim of Nikolayev would fondly recall Chana’s scholarship as a teenager. When a maamar (Chassidic discourse) would arrive from Lubavitch—either repeated by a Chassid who was present at the Rebbe’s discourse, or as notes sent to her father’s home—she would meticulously and faithfully transcribe it, making it available for the eager Chassidim.
Bright and talented, Chana had an excellent ear for music—a quality she shared with her father.