Fearless yet stands in trepidation before G-d.
On one of the rare occasions where the Rebbe spoke of his own life, he mentioned how he was summoned to the KGB headquarters and was not intimidated by them. The Rebbe was certainly not intimidated by any opposition and threats he received from others.
The Rebbe’s mother recounted how he davened on a train surrounded by anti-Semites who could have injured him. He was fearless even as a nine-year-old child when he jumped into the Black Sea to save a drowning boy!
Yet, the Rebbe stood in awe and trepidation before G-d. As the Rebbetzin once commented that the only thing the Rebbe feared was Rosh Hashanah, the Day of Judgment, where we stand before G-d.
When the Rebbe would visit the gravesite of his father-in-law, you could see the reverence and trepidation on his face.
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Fills every second with action, yet never rushed.
It goes without saying that the Rebbe never wasted a second. The second he entered his office in the winter, his coat was removed, and he was sitting at his desk and working.
The Previous Rebbe once commented about the Rebbe that a minute for him was like a year.
Yet, when people spoke to the Rebbe, the Rebbe never seemed rushed. His entire being was directed at his interlocutor. He was totally into what he was doing at the moment and never seemed rushed to get to the next thing.
The Rebbe once commented about his father-in-law’s concept of “success in time.” (See the sicha of Parshas Pinchas 5751 and the sicha of 20th of Shvat 5730 (referenced in footnote 42)). The Rebbe was the very embodiment of that concept. Always busy but never rushed.
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His faith was unshakable; yet acted as if everything depended on him.
The Rebbe’s faith in G-d and in the Torah is totally absolute.
The story is told of a professor who emerged from the Rebbe’s room. He was amazed at the Rebbe’s brilliance and familiarity with and deep mastery of secular subjects. But, he concluded, “The Rebbe believes like a grandmother.”
Yet, the Rebbe acted as if everything depended on him.
It is stated in the Talmud that for everything non-kosher there is a kosher counterpart.
One rabbi was asked what is the kosher counterpart to atheism?
His answer was the needs of others. While we might say “G-d will provide” when dealing with our own needs, when it comes to someone else’s needs we must act as if there was no one who can help.
The Rebbe was/is the very embodiment of this ideal.
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Stoic for his own pain yet cannot tolerate pain of others.
The Rebbe had an incredible tolerance for pain. When he had to have two teeth pulled before Simchas Torah, he told the dentist that he had no time for the second extraction.
The Rebbe endured an unbearable toothache through the intense schedule of Simchas Torah with hours of dancing and hours of speaking.
Yet, while he could tolerate his own pain, he could not tolerate the pain of others. He devoted himself to alleviate people’s physical; emotional and spiritual pain.
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Most loving, forgiving and least judgmental, but yet also most demanding of standards.
The Rebbe saw each and every Jew as a treasured diamond.
There is a famous story of a young woman who waited on line to get a dollar from the Rebbe. When she saw how the Rebbe (around 90 years old) was standing there for hours and was more spry and alert than she was, she remarked to the Rebbe, “How do you do it, how could you not get tired standing here for so many hours; I am much younger and I am so weary from standing?”
The Rebbe’s’ famous response was, “When you count diamonds you don’t get tired.”
A person once told the Rebbe that he heard that the Rebbe said something negative about him. The Rebbe’s response to that charge was: “In all my life I never had even harbored a negative thought of another Jew. I pray that I continue like this (in Yiddish: halavai vaiter ).”
The Rebbe sees the inner holiness of every Jew and cherishes each and every Mitzvah a Jew performs.
Yet, the Rebbe was demanding on standards of himself and of others. The Rebbe was extreme in demanding total adherence to every Mitzvah and even customs were holy to him.
In the Rebbe’s philosophy, we don’t compromise standards because we want to make life easier for others.
On the contrary, the Rebbe believed in us and believed that we are up to the challenge to live our lives in accordance with all the dictates of the Torah. ■