Yud Shevat, the tenth of the month of Shevat, is the yartzeit (anniversary of the passing) of Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe.
The following story was related by Rabbi Zalman Notik of Yeshivat Torat Emet in Jerusalem:
A group of yeshiva students were on their regular Friday afternoon schedule of helping Jewish boys and men put on tefilin. The students met a group of recent immigrants from the Soviet Union.
The students were teaching the men how to put on tefilin when all of a sudden an old Russian-born Jew approached them excitedly: "You're from Lubavitch?" he asked them. "Do I have a story to tell you!
"When I was a youth back in Russia," he began, "I used to attend the secret Torah gatherings (farbrengens) of the Lubavitchers. I also used to pray with them and went to their classes. "At one farbrengen I will always remember, the main discussion was the desire to be reunited with the Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak (the Previous Lubavitcher Rebbe). We sang 'G-d should give us good health and life, and we will be reunited with our Rebbe.' Our intense yearning to be with the Rebbe was almost palpable, and was growing from minute to minute.
"In the middle of the farbrengen, a few of the Chasidim suddenly stood up and decided to 'take action.' Grabbing some chairs, they turned them upside-down and arranged them in a row to make a 'train.' Just picture it - grown men behaving like kindergarten children, sitting on overturned chairs and making believe they were going to the Rebbe!
"Most of the others, myself included, stood around watching. We laughed at them and told them they were crazy. What ridiculous, childish nonsense! "But, do you know," concluded the man in amazement, "within a short time, all of the Chasidim who rode the 'train' received permission to leave Russia, and actually did go to the Rebbe. Whereas the rest of us, the 'normal' ones, were left behind. As you can see, most of us did not have the strength to keep up our observance of Torah and mitzvot (commandments), and are only now beginning to catch up..."
From Beis Moshiach Magazine
