R’ Menachem Mendel Kaplan was a chosid of the Rebbe Rashab. When he heard about the histalkus, the demise, of the Rebbe Rashab, he was, understandably, heartbroken. As soon as he recovered from the initial shock, he declared: ‘We must accept the son of the Rebbe (the Frierdige Rebbe) as Rebbe and successor of his father’. He determined to immediately travel to Rostov, to do his part to bring this about.
At that time travel in Russia was fraught with danger. It was a time of great upheaval, and lawlessness was rampant. Hooligans roamed the country, and no person was safe. Of course, as always, the Jewish people were victimized the most.
Unfortunately, the train on which R’ Menachem Mendel Kaplan was travelling was not spared, and was the scene of a violent attack. Bloodthirsty terrorists took control of the train and attacked all of the Jewish passengers, beating and murdering them, and flinging the survivors from the moving train to their certain death.
Menachem Mendel, too, was thrown from the train. Miraculously he survived the fall, but his broken and shattered body remained lying near the tracks. He was discovered by one of the railway guards, and was taken to a nearby town, where there was a hospital that serviced the railway employees.
R’ Menachem Mendel lay there, in serious condition, with one concern uppermost in his mind: ‘What if I die here in this forsaken village?! Why, I wouldn’t even merit a Jewish burial ch”v!; He therefore gathered his strength, and sent a “pan” – a pidyon nefesh – to the Rebbe in Rostov, begging the Rebbe to daven on his behalf that he should not be deprived the opportunity of a Jewish burial.
A few days later, he managed to leave his hospital bed, still very injured, and he was placed on another train to complete his journey to Rostov. He arrived at his destination on Erev Sukkos. He spent that Yom Tov with the Rebbe, still in frail health. During the farbrengen of Simchas Torah (this was 5681, the first Simchas Torah of the nesius of the Frierdige Rebbe), the Rebbe turned him and addressed the “pan” he had sent, saying: “A chosid who is asking for a brocho should be asking for life not for a Jewish burial”. The Rebbe repeated this line a few times over the course of that farbrengen.
Two weeks after Simchas Torah, on the 7th day of marcheshvon, R’ Menachem Mendel succumbed to his injuries, and was buried in Rostov (his request for kevuras Yisroel being fulfilled), 'ה יקום דמו.
[On that note–of needing to always ask for more–in our requests for brochos–rather than less, here is another story:
When R’ Avrohom Rapoport a”h, of Toronto was a youth, he was a fatherless, newly arrived, immigrant to the United States. At that time, he was in yechidus, together with his mother, with the Rebbe.
During the yechidus, his mother began to cry, and asked the Rebbe that she should see ‘Yiddishe nachas’ from him. The Rebbe looked at her and said: “Ir kent zich farginnen chassidishen nachas oichet” [you could indulge yourself in (asking for) chassishen nachas as well].
We know that the words of tsaddikim are eternal and everlasting, and undoubtedly this applies to the words of the Frierdige Rebbe in the above story. Not only is the underlying message–that we need not be “protective” towards the Eibishter or the Rebbe in our requests for brochos, and should not be cheap or stingy regarding what we are asking for–as pertinent as ever, but perhaps the specific directive is also applicable to each of us. Perhaps the Rebbe is telling each of us that we need to be aiming not just for kevuras Yisroel but for life, because that is a message that each of us needs to hear,
