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Menachem Ziegelbaum, Beis Moshiach

WHY FOUR DOLLARS?

26 Adar I 5752. Early Sunday morning the annual conference of Israel Bonds in New York ended and those who had come from around the world packed their bags for their return home. Rabbi Shmuel Butman, director of Tzach, was in close contact with the leaders of Israel Bonds and he suggested that they come to see the Rebbe and receive his blessing.

A yellow bus brought a group of about fifty men and women to Crown Heights. Time was short and the line was long. It was afternoon and R’ Butman arranged for them to see the Rebbe right away.

Among those present was Mrs. Yardena Henig-Stockhammer, an old-time activist for Israel Bonds. A few months earlier she had married Ari Stockhammer, whom she met through her work.

Yardena waited to see the Rebbe and when she passed by she asked for a bracha for a happy life together with her new husband. The Rebbe smiled and gave her a dollar, gave another dollar to her husband, and then gave Yardena another four dollars! Why did she receive these extra dollars? Nobody knew.

Yardena, who is a famous lawyer in Toronto now, didn’t think about it too much. She thanked the Rebbe, put the dollars away, and went to Kennedy Airport for her flight back to Toronto.

Years went by and the Henig- Stockhammers bought a house in Thornhill, where there is a big Chabad house run by Rabbi Mendel Kaplan. Even though Yardena was not religious, she began going to the Chabad shul on Shabbos and holidays.

The Henig-Stockhammer family grew with the births of their three children. Everything was fine as the children grew up and Ari ran a successful accounting firm and Yardena ran a legal practice. They were busy and successful.

Yardena was expecting another child, but the doctors and friends of the family didn’t think this was a good idea considering her age. At one of the routine prenatal visits, her doctor recommended amniocentesis to see whether the fetus was healthy. He told her that this was a common test and if the results were unfavorable, she could abort the baby, r”l.

Yardena didn’t like this idea so she visited other doctors hoping to hear that the test wasn’t necessary. She wanted to give birth in the most natural way, without unnecessary tests and medical intervention.

The doctor wanted to know her decision and Yardena promised to give him an answer right after Shabbos. After discussing it with her husband, she decided to consult with R’ Kaplan.

Shabbos morning she arrived at shul earlier than usual, but to her disappointment, she found out that the rabbi wasn’t there that Shabbos. His replacement was his father-in-law, Rabbi Zalman Aharon Grossbaum. Yardena was beside herself. She had said she would give an answer right after Shabbos, but the rabbi wasn’t there.

The gabbai asked R’ Grossbaum to give the usual speech between the reading of the Torah and Musaf. R’ Grossbaum said a sicha of the Rebbe on that week’s Torah portion. He kept repeating the words, “the Rebbe,” and Yardena, who was listening carefully, felt goose bumps. She said to herself: the Rebbe already gave us his answer!

Yardena motioned to her husband from the women’s section to meet her in the hall. Yardena, who was in a highly emotional state, said to Ari, “When we visited the Lubavitcher Rebbe about ten years ago, he gave me an extra four dollars. These dollars are for our three children and one on the way. The Rebbe gave us his blessing for the fourth child. I am positive that we don’t need to do the test!”

Yardena likes to tell this story. On one occasion when she publicly told the story she said, “The Rebbe knew about the fourth baby, about the difficulties we would encounter, and he gave us four dollars. The Rebbe was with me that Shabbos. We owe our fourth child, who brings us such joy, to the Rebbe.”

THE FRENCH DELEGATION

Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Pevsner, shliach in Paris, relates:

The Rebbe called 5749 the “Shnas HaBinyan” (Year of Construction). On 17 Elul 5748, the Rebbe attended a cornerstone laying ceremony for 770. On 19 Elul the Rebbe designated 5749 as Shnas HaBinyan and asked that more private homes be built, and that of course, Chabad Houses and other communal buildings should be built.

Chassidim got caught up in the excitement, especially shluchim and directors of mosdos. This was a golden opportunity that many hoped for, an opportunity that contained blessings for outstanding success!

We in France decided to have a building built for all the Sinai Lubavitch schools. We prepared a blueprint and took a delegation of donors to the Rebbe to submit the plans.

The building was ready by Tishrei 5752. Throughout the time it took to construct the building, the Rebbe had taken an active part with instructions and actual help. A large group of donors and those involved in the building went for Shabbos, Parshas Vayakhel 5752, led by my father, Rabbi Hillel Pevsner. The purpose of our trip was to present the Rebbe with the keys to the new building.

Giving the keys is not merely symbolic but a serious act that transfers ownership of the building to the Rebbe so that he is the balabus. In order to demonstrate how we accepted the Rebbe as the owner, we brought him the actual keys to the building, not just a decorative, ceremonial key. The idea was that the Rebbe could actually come to the building, put the key in the keyhole and enter. The truth is though, that the Rebbe doesn’t need a key, since the building is never closed!

Sunday, 26 Adar I, 5752. None of us in the French delegation imagined how we would long for days like those. Our presence was felt in 770, as the presence of French guests is always apparent, especially when they are there for such a joyous occasion.

We had a dinner and we participated in the Rebbe’s tefillos and farbrengen on Shabbos, and it was all with the chayus typical of French Chassidim. But the highlight of our trip was still ahead of us – Sunday, when the Rebbe gave out dollars for tzedaka. That is when we planned on presenting the keys, at which time the Rebbe would be transformed from an advisor and supporter, to the owner of the magnificent building.

Our group, which numbered about one hundred people, stood in two separate groups. The reason was simple. Some of them had to return to France that day, so they went first with my father. In the first group was a dear man by the name of Rabbi Yehuda Asaf, whose specialties are mosdos chinuch and the study of Rambam.

When he passed by the Rebbe, the Rebbe told him that the Rambam would sign his letters in several ways (depending on the contents of the letter). This was a direct reference to R’ Asaf’s involvement with the study of Rambam, without his ever having spoken to the Rebbe before!

When my father heard the Rebbe’s comment he said that R’ Asaf was a big donor. He said this in Yiddish and the Rebbe did not react. My father repeated it in Hebrew and once again, the Rebbe did not react. My father repeated it a third time. This time, the Rebbe said: You are repeating it so many times that he will think that he gave enough already. He needs to give more!

The first group went by the Rebbe and all received dollars and blessings and went back to France. The second group passed by the Rebbe towards the end of the dollar distribution. It was no longer possible to introduce people personally. The time had come to present the key. “I give the Rebbe ownership of the building and all that pertains to it and is within it.”

The Rebbe took the key and with a smile he said: Immediately start building a new building!

We did not understand why the Rebbe did not allow us to rest a bit and enjoy the results of our work. And what did we need another building for anyway? We still had the old caravans that we had recently vacated and they were still usable. When we felt the need to expand, we could build. Why should we build right away? We understood the Rebbe later on, however, when the caravans were destroyed by fire. Baruch Hashem, they were empty, thanks to the Rebbe’s instruction.

On Monday, Chof-Zayin Adar, some of the group had already left. Those who remained continued to enjoy 770 for davening and learning. There were some things that happened that day that were connected to us directly and moved us tremendously, especially when you consider the upheavals that we (and the entire world) experienced later that day. We heard that the Rebbe took particular interest in the model of the school that we had brought previously, and that he had taken all the notes from the French group to the Ohel when he went.

The memories and what happened later, we took home with us to France, and we hurried to fulfill the Rebbe’s instruction from the day before. We celebrated the laying of the cornerstone for Heichal Menachem in 5754 and the Chanukas HaBayis of the new building was held in Tishrei 5756.

“THIS IS FOR THE LOVE”

Rabbi Yosef Y. Jacobson relates:

I was a bachur back on Sunday, 26 Adar, and I was supposed to fly to Eretz Yisrael. Before the flight, I went for dollars to get a bracha from the Rebbe. I stood in line for an hour. In front of me was a girl about six-seven years old who was clearly not a Lubavitcher, but when she received a dollar from the Rebbe she said, “I love you,” to the Rebbe.

The secretaries were taken aback and I was curious to see how the Rebbe would react. The Rebbe smiled in a way that I had never seen before, whether at farbrengens or other occasions. His face just lit up. The girl had moved on but the Rebbe called her back, gave her another dollar, and said, “This is for the love.”

Those were the last words that I heard from the Rebbe. They echo in my ears until this very day as words that personified for me the tremendous Ahavas Yisrael of the Rebbe.

THE REBBE NOTICED A MISTAKE

Many artists have built models of the Beis HaMikdash. One of them, Rabbi Dov Levanoni of Yerushalayim, built a model of the Beis HaMikdash according to the Rambam. He was busy with this even back in Czechoslovakia as a child, and he loved to look at pictures of the Beis HaMikdash that appeared in books.

One day he decided to realize his dream and build his own model. It entailed four years of work that he did in consultation with rabbanim. Unlike most models, Rabbi Levanoni’s model follows the Rambam. The reason (even though it is especially hard to build it this way) is because of the Rebbe’s special regard for the Rambam.

Rabbi Levanoni describes the day he presented the model to the Rebbe at dollars on 26 Adar I 5752:

I presented the model to the Rebbe. He looked at it for a few seconds and then asked where the ramp for the altar was. I showed the Rebbe the ramp and after the Rebbe leaned over a bit to examine it, he asked: Does it need to be bigger?

I immediately realized that there was a problem. Afterwards, I checked it out and realized that the Rebbe had noticed a problem with the ramp that was all of a few millimeters in size! I myself, who had worked on the model so intensely, hadn’t noticed my mistake, but it took the Rebbe just seconds to discern it. Of course, I immediately fixed it.

I began to explain to the Rebbe about the size of the ramps of the two altars and the Rebbe said: You probably measured. It should be in a good way and with great success, to quickly succeed in seeing it in the third Beis HaMikdash.

Then the Rebbe blessed me three times that I should see the third Beis HaMikdash.

PERSONAL INVITATION

Rabbi Mordechai Nachimovsky, a rav in Cholon, relates:

In Adar I 5752 I saw the Rebbe several times in a vision, standing facing me. Since this vision repeated itself, I thought into it and felt that the Rebbe was saying I should go to see him. I bought a ticket and arrived in New York on Friday, 24 Adar I 5752. I circumcised my nephew in Flatbush and went to 770 for Shabbos.

At the farbrengen Shabbos afternoon I sat behind the Rebbe and on Sunday I went for dollars. Rabbi Kuti Rapp introduced me to the Rebbe as the one in charge of the mikvaos department of the rabbanut of Cholon, and someone who is very active in family purity and very involved with new immigrants.

The Rebbe gave me a dollar and said, “blessing and success,” gave me another dollar and said, “special success with the new immigrants, good news,” and gave me a third dollar and said, “much success, good news.”

Shabbos and Sunday had passed and I didn’t understand why the Rebbe had wanted me to go to him. The next day, Monday afternoon, the Rebbe left 770 for the Ohel. I waited on the side with other people and saw the Rebbe give out coins to children for tzedaka and then wave goodbye. A few hours later, we heard the news that the Rebbe did not feel well, and only later did we find out what had really happened.

Then I understood that the Rebbe wanted me to go see him in order for him to give me the kochos to carry on. Why did I merit this? I don’t know.

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