"Legends of the Hasidim"

An Introduction to Hasidic Culture and Oral Tradition in the New World.

by Jerome R. Mintz





(The current Stoliner Rebbe as a young, young man)

[Some choice stories]

"When the (Stoliner) Rebbe was sick the last year of his life, a man stayed with him. Once he came in to the Rebbe and the Rebbe was in a sweat. He said he had been in the Heavenly Court. They had wanted to make war against the Jews. It was the time of the Arab war, (in 1956) but he prevented it."

FF, Stolin, E

"A woman comes in for a Kvitl. She writes her name, her mother's name, and her problem. The (Unknown) Rebbe doesn't look at the woman. The Gabai - The Rebbe's secretary - lets her in. The woman says "My husband left me."
The Rebbe says "He will come back."
The Gabai lets her out and says, "Your husband won't come back."
"How can you say that? the Rebbe just said that he will."
"He didn't look at you."

UU, Satmar, E

"The Rebbe's father had a gabai - Moshe Gendarme, Moshe the policeman. The Rebbe used him for many strange things. One kiddish levuneh, the seventh day after the new moon, when it was cloudy, he would have Moshe whipped. Then the moon would come out. It's common to make the moon come out. "Makhen a levuneh" is to give someone a hit."

M, Stolin, E

(E = English, the story was told in English, Y= Yiddish, the letters FF, M, and UU are names he gives to the people relating the stories to him)