Yechi Anachnu (This time it's for real)

Rabbi Zushe Posner came to farbreng with us tonight here at the Rabbinical College of America. I take no responsibility for the content, and I suppose he also doesn't. But one thing I'll tell you. It was interesting... a bit frustrating too. It's difficult to write someone else's train of mind. Sometimes there's nothing to write. Other times you think it'll be good, and then a little segue here, a little segue there. Happens.

I actually went in to Crown Heights with a friend to pick him up-most of the good parts here were from the ride back to Morristown. You see, the ride it was personal. The farbrengen was just a show. Anyway, he asked me where I was from, I said, "Minnesota." He said, "Feller? Koufax?"
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Back in the day we used to be able to walk around anywhere no problem. I used to walk around with shlomo carlebach, who was in yeshiva then, at 2:00 AM up and down the streets around Bedford and Dean. We used to walk to Williamsburg to get food when the kitchen in yeshiva was closed. Sometimes we bought ready made food, sometimes we made food, sometimes we recycled food.

I went back from New York to Israel, they made a tzeischem l'shalom for me, the Rebbe came in for five minutes, stayed for an hour. For no one else did this ever happen. There were 15 people there max-300 claim they were there, I don't remember who was, so I can't tell them they're wrong-if looks could kill I'd be dead. People were very jealous. I would be too.
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There's a problem now. Everything is politics. Tefillin, moshiach, rebbe, these are all political problems.

A few months ago I was farbrenging and a guy said, "It's a good thing you were fired (after fifty years), who knows how many Israeli neshamos you were metamtem."

I heard about the meisei talmidei akivah-they really died? No. They were thinking about the rebbe all the time, they didn't agree, they killed each other!

I started davening in a yungeleit shul, an the first week was shabbos mevorchim. I told them that if they didn't have tehillim before davening they weren't lubavitch. The next morning they had tehillim, and after davening a few yungeleit came over and said, "that's the first time we ever said tehillim on shabbos mevorchim."

There's a sicha where the Rebbe said "28 Omer" instead of "28 Iyar", about five times. You'll never hear this, because the tape is edited.

From moshe rabbeinu until our rebbe it's one rebbe, one moshiach, one Aibeshter. What happened 13 shevat 5710? The Rebbe told a story, it's been edited already, you'll never find it, the Rebbe said, "Atzmus Ein Sof came down in a body, who speaks Yiddish, english, Russian, in order to be mekarev yidden to yiddishkeit."

26 Teves 1990 a woman passed away in Pittsburgh. She wanted to be buried in Israel. She was taken from there to new York, to 770, and l the rebbe went out to the sidewalk, turned right towards kingston, and crossed the street and was standing there. A hearse used to go past there and make a right on Albany so that the rebbe shouldn't have to wait. This time the rebbe was standing there for 25 minutes.

People who cared about the Rebbe went over and (the Rebbe had problems with his hearing) said something, the Rebbe didn't hear, after 25 minutes he did them a favor and walked back to his office.

Three or four years ago someone told me, "The story is not true! I was there!" Whats not true? It wasn't 25 minutes? The Rebbe never stood there? The funeral never happened? She wasn't my mother?
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Yoel is almost the same rachmanus as Melech. If they were only misnagdim, they would have been such idols, they would have been put on such pedestals... It would be a problem, Melech hasn't gotten any smaller lately.
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I have a bris tomorrow morning, they want me to be sandek, they want me to be there. I'll come home and my wife will say, "You've come home drunk again."

My wife and I were in yechidus together, I left, they talked, and forty years later I still don't know what they said. I don't care.
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The Rebbe is not a holy man. Rebbe is Rebbe. He's not a gutte yid, he's a Rebbe.
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The casket was put on the plane, two caskets, actually. An 85 year old woman, normal, and a 35 year old woman, not normal. This young woman was sick, and she had brochos from the Rebbe that she'd be well, that she'd have kids, such amazing brochos, her parents bought her future kid a bedroom set...and she was in the casket on the plane.

We sat shivah, (if I had a mother,) my father was speaking, Moshe Landau was there, my father said, "Other chassidim have many rebbeim. Here in lubavitch we only have Rebbe."

I have a brother, very intellectual, Think Jewish, don't try reading it, you won't understand it, maybe he's too intellectual, anyway, he asked my father, what about by the Tzemach Tzedek?

The Mitteler Rebbe had a wife, his father in law was a melamed, he had five daughters, he was the Alter Rebbe's chossid, he came to the Rebbe, the Rebbe asked him, "Why don't you do shidduchim? You have five daughters, get rid of them!" The melamed said, "I have no money, what should I do? I need someone to be meshtatef with." The Rebbe said, "I'll be meshtatef with you, and people will want to marry your daughters."
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There are two types of reshimos as far as I'm concerned. There are reshimos which are inherited, the Rebbe died, people inherited, they took them. I don't like these reshimos. Then there are stolen reshimos. These are ok. These are kosher.

What do I mean? There's already a machlokes in what I said. Everyone should take it like they want.

When can you have a v'zarach hashemesh? When you have a v'kam hashemesh. Otherwise, you can't have a v'zarach hashemes.

I came to 770 on Yud Shevat 1950 at 8:17. I'm not sure why, I didn't always come. I came into the zal, no one is there.

We ate and slept at Bedford and Dean. We never saw the Rebbe, he was upstairs.

I was walking around, there's no one there, someone tells me to go upstairs, there's one person there saying tehilim, the Rebbe is laying on the floor, the Rebbitzen Nechama Dina is sitting by the window.

I said tehillim there for a few minutes, then came down. Someone told me to go to Brownsville and call the yungeleit from there. In the hall, I went to get my coat, I met my brother there, Leibel.

The Rebbe came to America in 1941. He was an electrical engineer. He worked for the American government. What did he do? He kept quite.
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When I was teaching, before I was fired, they would ask me, "How does the rav know?" I answered them, "Because I said so."

Zalmen Lieberov (my aidim) knows sichos. How do I know? Because Hershel Notik told me. He gave him smicha. He doesn't give smicha stam, he was worse than the Rogatchover. Hershel is not a liar. A meshugane, yeah, but not a liar.

There was a yid, Aizek Homler. He was a tzugakumener. He wasn't gezhe. This is what the Rebbe once called him.

Tzalike Azaratze was a good friend with reb hillel paritcher.

I haven't been to uman yet, maybe I'll go there. To pay money I won't, but if someone gives me a ticket? Sure I'll go. Reb Nachman wasn't an ordinary tzaddik, he was a great tzaddik.

I have a friend. I had a friend. There was someone who was very sick, they went to the Baba Sali. She was spitz---the Baba Sali told her what he told her. We should all feel like she feels.

Then there was another guy, a tzugekemener, who was also sick. He was a Sephardi, he was also told to go to the Baba Sali, he said, "Li Yesh Rebbe." Now he's in har menuchos.
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My brother asked, "What's with the Tzemach Tzedek?"

You know, dassan and aviram weren't bad. Dassan's wife was shlomis bas divri. A mitzri had relation with her. She had a kid, the kid was a mamzer, everyone made fun of him, Dassan was a big guy, he said, "What's it to you? By you, he's my kid." This guy's a rasha?

The mitzrim took the straw from the Jews. What happened? The Jewish guards got beaten. Dassan was a guard. He was beaten. He's a rasha?

So they left mitzrayim, and at the end, what happened with dassan and aviram?

They fought moshe. A tallis which is all techeilis, it's needs a blue string? They didn't get it. They were all intellectual. They were all chabad. If something is all blue, if it's all holy, why do you have to add something holy? What's the point?

Korach said, all the Jews are holy. Why are you only holier? They didn't get it. Moshe wasn't holier. He was a rebbe. They didn't get what a rebbe is. A rebbe is not a holy man. Sure, he's holy, but that's not him. Not at all. He's a rebbe! Chabad always has to be intellectual. They don't get it, you have to be lubavitch, you have to have kabbalos ol.
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IY"H you'll all get married. No, you'll have kiddushin, chupah. A tomim doesn't get married. Why? Kol hayotze l'milchemes beis dovid
koseiv get krisus l'ishto. Who was he married to? I don't know. But it's mashmah that way.

Ostensibly I'm married to my wife. I only realized this when my first grandchild was born. According to my wife, I still haven't realized it.
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I don't give a damn about gezheh.
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I was bribed by the Rebbitzen Nechama Dina. How? My mother and I would go to yechidus by the Rebbe, and afterwards we'd go to the Rebbitzen Nechama Dina. So people say I was bribed by her. The rebbe had problems with her? Yeah. I can tell you problems you don't know. But they were problems between her and the Rebbe, not you.
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Two sisters get married, one stays at home, one goes out to the world. With who will the mother stay close? With the one who stays close.

Chana Gourarie, there's a Sefer, the Friediker Rebbe had three aidim, two daughters. The Rashag was married to who?

In 1978 this menuveles, the Rebbe went into his room, he ostensibly had a heart attack, the Rebbe locked his door, everyone knocked, the
Rebbe didn't answer, she knocked, the Rebbe answered. The Rebbe answered her.

In 1986, she got a klap from someone, the Rebbe said, "Who had the chutzpah to deal with my sister in law?"

After she passed away she was buried somewhere, the Chevra Kadisha came to her son.
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There were three yechidisin I was by the Friediker Rebbe. I definitely remember the third, it was the day of my brother's wedding, a week later was my sisters wedding.
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When the Friediker Rebbe spoke it was hard to understand him. I didn't need a translation, other people the mazkiros would help people understand.
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The Rebbe said, "The world says, leave the world and learn. I say, enter the world and learn." Tomchei Tmimim is a military school. You do what you're told to do. You don't want to? Kushen tuchus.
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I saw the Rebbitzen Nechama Dina. She was a queen. On her table was a seven layer cake. First was cake, then icing, then cake, then icing, then cake, then icing, then cake. I ate a piece of the cake, and she asked me if I want some more, my mother said, "No he doesn't want," I said, "Yeah," she gave me another piece. A bochur told me I was bribed.
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You know what's a chassdishe yid? Almost not like zalmen moshe.
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There was a yid Reb Shoel (chaim shaul brook). I was by him three, four months. He told me a few things.
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We have videos of the way the Rebbe davened, you watch them, you want to be there, sure, everyone does, but this is a giloi of the Rebbe. It's not Rebbe.
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They wanted to draft girls to the army. The kanoim live for these things. Neturei Karta live for these things. It was like Lubavitch today.

They wanted to make a demonstration against the zionists.
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My problem is that I don't know how to make up stories, so I run out of them.
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You have to live with me. You can't live with R. Mendel. He was R. Mendel. I'm just Zushe. At the end of his days he wouldn't go to shul on Friday nights. I would go in to listen to his stories.
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I have a kid in Israel who didn't want to talk about chassidus. One day he called me, "What's a beinoni?"
I answered, "Someone who does what he should even though he doesn't want."
"What's a tzaddik?"
"Someone who does the right thing, because he wants."
"What's a rasha?"
"Someone who does what he wants."
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Let's put it this way. There's a G-d in the world. There's a Rebbe in the world. There's a Moshiach in the world. Everything else is kushen tuchus.
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The Rebbe loves us, that's why we're here.
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Yoel is Yoel. He's not a chozer. He's Yoel. He came here rosh chodesh Adar 1950. Until now, he's here. If there was a maamar shavuos and Yoel wasn't there? The Rebbe said to wait for him to come.
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