While thousands of people encountered the Rebbe in so many different ways, almost no one was privy to the Rebbe’s home and to the Rebbetzin. Consistently shying away from the public eye, there are only a handful of people who merited to bask in the presence of the person who carried the weight of the nesius together with the Rebbe for almost forty years.
With the upcoming yom hilulah of the Rebbetzin on Chof-Beis Shevat, the staff of A Chassidisher Derher sat down with three individuals who, each in their own way, merited to spend precious time in the presence of the Rebbetzin and glimpse at her holy persona.
The Rebbe’s mazkir, Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky recalls:
My first interaction with the Rebbetzin was in the 5700s (1940s).
In those years, when Chassidisher Yomim Tovim would come around, like Yud Tes Kislev or Yud Beis Tammuz, the Frierdiker Rebbe would hold a farbrengen in the dining room on the second floor of 770.
Due to the Frierdiker Rebbe’s ailing health, only a select few individuals were allowed into the dining room.
It was my first farbrengen in New York. The time came, all of the guests and the older people went inside, and I stood outside alone. Being a young teenager, I didn’t have any reason to believe that I would get in; but being an aspiring Chassidisher Bochur, there was nothing else to do. I stood by the door and waited, and hoped that maybe, ulay yerachem, I would be let inside.
Suddenly, the door opened. It was the Rebbetzin; she saw me, and she said “gei arein, go inside.”
I went inside.
The scene was indescribable. The Frierdiker Rebbe was seated in his chair, his shtreimel on his holy head; the Rebbe was sitting to his left, Rashag to his right. Seeing the Frierdiker Rebbe felt like being in Gan Eden; it was total spirituality.
I am genuinely grateful to the Rebbetzin for granting me the opportunity of being at my first farbrengen with the Frierdiker Rebbe. I can’t describe the appreciation I have for that gift.
Rabbi Menachem Junik recalls:
I was once talking to the Rebbetzin in the car on a Motzoei Shabbos, and I was describing the farbrengen that the Rebbe had held that day. This was in the summer of 5742 in midst of the first Lebanon war. During the farbrengen, the Rebbe had spoken about the progress of the war. He was very distressed and spoke sharply about the fact that the Israeli Army did not use the full extent of their capabilities to temporarily conquer Beirut and to totally finish the job that they needed to accomplish.
The Rebbetzin joined in sharing with me the same sentiments; she spoke very strongly about the issue, just as the Rebbe had spoken during the farbrengen.
Summarizing the Rebbetzin’s life of self-sacrifice for the Jewish people, Rabbi Shmuel Lew relates:
The Rebbetzin literally gave her life away for the Chassidim, and it is possible to say, that everything we have in dor hashvi’i, is really in her merit.
The Rebbe would take yechidus a few times a week, until the wee hours of the morning. Sometimes these yechidus’n could end as late as 6 or 7 AM.
One time, Reb Zalman Gurarie suggested to the Rebbetzin, that perhaps the Rebbe should set some sort of limit to yechidus, so that he wouldn’t come home so late at night.
The Rebbetzin didn’t want to think about the idea. She said:
“I wouldn’t want to take him away from people who need him.”
Continue reading the full article here.
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אשרינו מה טוב חלקינו
that we have our rebbitzen!