HOW TO TELL A CHASSIDIC STORY

Although it’s the digital age in which children are used to listening to and watching stories on video, Rabbi Levi Goldstein thinks that someone who lives the story can provide an appealing alternative for children and even beat out the new media. * About the deeper content that needs to be woven into every story, about the enormous influence stories have on children, and about the Rebbe’s revolutionary idea of transmitting educational material in story form. * During this fascinating interview, Rabbi Goldstein presented to us the notes of a yechidus in which the Rebbe gave his father, the famous “Uncle Yossi,” instructions.

Photos by Mendy KurantRabbi Levi Goldstein of Crown Heights is a veteran teacher who has been teaching yiras Shamayim and hiskashrus to the Rebbe to young boys for decades. Along with his work as a mechanech, Rabbi Goldstein has produced parsha and Chassidic Yom Tov tapes. In this, he follows his father, Rabbi Yosef Goldstein a”h, known as “Uncle Yossi,” who was a pioneer in recording stories for children.

TELLING A STORY IS A CHALLENGE!

Before we start talking about the power of a Chassidic story and its impact on children, I would like to hear your opinion about the claim that storytellers have lost their appeal. In an era in which children spend hours watching story videos, is it even possible to compete?

Absolutely! Someone who “lives” the story can compete with videos and even win. But in order to be successful, a lot has to be put into it. If you want to hold a child’s attention, you first have to read the story very well, know it by heart with all the details (as the Rebbe Rayatz once said – Seifer HaSichos 5704, p. 143 – that to tell a story needs more preparation than the deepest maamer), and only then can you tell it, from your heart.

If you read it out of a book, it will often bore children, and then you would be right in assuming that videos are more riveting. But when someone “lives” the story, this has a far greater advantage than videos in that the storyteller makes eye contact with the children and can adjust the presentation to the attention level of the listeners, at any given moment.

When you “live” all the details, the story is expressed in the eyes and facial expressions of the storyteller, as well as in the tone which needs to be dramatic in the right places, happy in the happy parts, and sad or excited in the emotional parts of the story. The Rebbe Rayatz’s melamed, R’ Yekusiel, was such a storyteller. No wonder that one of the worst punishments in his class was to have to stand behind him during story time (as the Rebbe Rayatz related, ibid, p. 161). The one who stood behind the teacher lost out on the experiential part of the story, as expressed in the teacher’s face and motions.

In his memoirs, the Rebbe Rayatz describes how all the boys in his class, including those who weren’t considered good students, loved R’ Yekusiel because of the wonderful stories he would tell. When his parents were planning a trip for a few days, little Yosef Yitzchok cried and didn’t want to go until his father reassured him that one of the Chassidim who was going with them, R’ Shneur, would also tell him stories as they traveled (Seifer HaMaamarim 5711 p. 299).

THE PURPOSE OF A STORY: GOOD MIDDOS

These days, when there are so many books available, with hundreds of stories, how do you choose a good story that will leave an impression on the child?

From a Jewish-Chassidic perspective, the measure of a good story is not how dramatic it is, but what lesson the listeners will derive from it. In one of his sichos (Sichos Kodesh 5740, vol. 3, p. 920), the Rebbe emphasizes that the purpose of a story is not just the history or the pleasure derived from reading a good story. A Chassidic story is intended to lead to positive actions. The story is alive and is meant to help us live in a way that changes our practical behaviors.

If this is so for adults, all the more so for children, soldiers in the Army of Hashem, who feel the impact of a story ten times more.

My father, R’ Yosef Goldstein, known as “Uncle Yossi,” tried hard to choose stories that encouraged good middos, and he would emphasize the good middos again and again throughout the story. So even if a child did not remember the story, he could not forget the good midda that he learned from the story.

When my father submitted his first record in a yechidus with the Rebbe (see sidebar to read the entire exchange), in one of the pictures on the record cover was a depiction of Avrohom Avinu as a child looking at the sun and the moon, and the moon is in a crescent shape facing the sun. The Rebbe pointed out (quoting Chazal and using the niggun for a maamer!), “The sun never saw the blemish of the moon.” And the Rebbe continued, “As is known the explanation of this, so that the moon would not be ashamed when the sun would see its shame as it diminishes. And as we can see clearly, the dark side of the moon is never seen facing the sun.” My father tried suggesting that the moon should be drawn as a full moon, and the Rebbe said, “On the contrary, this way (by using a crescent shape but having it face away from the sun), they can learn good middos, not to embarrass their friend.”

That means that the goal of conveying good middos needs to be not only in the story, but even in the pictures that are printed on the record cover.

When I began recording stories from the memoirs of the Rebbe Rayatz, I suddenly noticed to what extent the Rebbe Rayatz labored to convey good middos through the stories and memoirs, to the point that sometimes the positive traits are expanded upon more than the story itself! In the memoirs of the Rebbe Rayatz, there is a huge amount of Chassidic hashkafa (proper outlook): how to regard a Jew, what love for Torah is, what love for a Jew is. It literally drips from every line!

AS MUCH DETAIL AS POSSIBLE WITHOUT MAKING IT UP

In the memoirs of Chassidim from the previous generation, there are sometimes fascinating stories, but the writer was not gifted with ability to describe things, and it comes out sounding dry. To what degree can you embellish a story to get the children interested?

It’s a challenging question, since generally speaking there is a great advantage in recounting a story in great detail. As the Rebbe once explained why the Rebbe Rayatz wrote at length, in great detail, because this draws the listener into the story so that he “lives” it, as though he is there, in the place and time that the story took place.

On the other hand, since most stories of tzaddikim occurred many years ago, in times and places that are so distant from our modern lives, it is very hard to be accurate when adding descriptions that are not written in the original story. Another problem is that sometimes the contextual details are so exaggerated that the message of the story is lost.

I think that when it’s a story that we heard from our Rebbeim, every word is holy and we need to be very stringent and not add anything except where it is absolutely necessary. Personally, when I put out the “Ashreinu” series, with the stories of the Rebbe Rayatz that were published in HaTamim, I didn’t dare change a word from his descriptions. I read it word for word without adding or leaving anything out. This was in accordance with what the Rebbe Rayatz himself said (Seifer HaSichos 5710, p. 165), that one of the guiding points that he got from his father was that just like Chassidim throughout the generations were particular to preserve the wording of the Rebbe in a maamer Chassidus, so too, care must be taken to preserve the wording of the Rebbe in a story, in that it needs to be exact in every detail and nuance.

But when the source of the story is memoirs of Chassidim of our times, I think that if it is necessary to add or embellish certain details in order to arouse the interest of the listeners or readers, it can be done, while preserving the Chassidic flavor and being careful not to go overboard with such descriptions.

What about making up stories that convey good middos and yiras Shamayim?

In my work as both a teacher and a storyteller, I consulted a lot with the Rebbe’s secretary, the well-known educator, Rabbi Chaim Mordechai Isaac Chadakov. He was very devoted to chinuch matters, and despite his many involvements and demanding schedule, he never told me he had no time when I came with my chinuch questions.

I once told him that as a teacher, I sometimes make up stories about things that supposedly happened with the children, with lessons of middos tovos. I didn’t feel comfortable about this after seeing a sicha from the Rebbe (Sichos Kodesh 5741, vol. 1, p. 246) about not telling children “bubbe maisos;” rather, stories taken from the Torah or true stories about tzaddikim should be told.

R’ Chadakov said “bubbe maisos” are stories with no real content, so that the story is made up and the message is false. But when the story contains a good midda, then the good midda and the message are true.

This can also be understood from the Rebbe’s instruction to teach using stories, and when approaching the study of Gemara or any analytic content, if you want to turn it into a story, practically speaking, you make up a story. Obviously, as long as the content is authentic, it can be dressed up in story form, even if it never happened.

The proof is in the actions of the Rebbe himself. Quite a few books published by Kehos, including those published in the early years when most of the printed materials were reviewed by the Rebbe, at least in a general way, such as in Talks and Tales and Sefareinu, contain stories that seem to be made up.

At the same time, and this should be obvious, we don’t invent stories at the expense of any tzaddikim! I’m talking only about making up stories with the names of imaginary children, Chaim and Berel, so that even the children realize that it’s a made up story and you’re only saying it in order to convey a genuine message.

THE GREATNESS OF STORIES OF CHASSIDIM

To what extent does the Chassidic story play a role in the ways of Chassidus?

Our Rebbeim greatly extolled the quality and importance of the Chassidic story. In one of his letters (vol. 18, p. 2), the Rebbe says that the founder of Chassidus, the holy Baal Shem Tov, would travel around and gather simple Jews, men, women, and children, and tell them stories to inspire them to fear of Heaven.

It is said that when the Alter Rebbe was going to send his oldest son, the Mitteler Rebbe, to cheider, he chose as a teacher one of the students of the Mezritcher Maggid, and instructed him in how to teach him: “First of all, establish in his heart fear of Hashem and love for Him through stories of the holy Torah, with holiness and fiery brands of passion, which will implant the stories in his heart out of a belief in the One Creator, Master of the worlds, who is blessed and elevated higher and ever higher over any grasp in intellect and comprehension.”

The Rebbe Rayatz greatly emphasized stories and even wrote the Memoirs, which arouses the heart of every reader to increase good middos, and instills the simple faith of Jews of yesteryear. In many places, the Rebbe Rayatz describes how, as a boy, he loved to mingle among the elder Chassidim and listen to their stories. The Rebbe emphasizes even the smallest details of the story, and the importance of describing the environment in which the incident happened, in an ordered and methodical fashion.

The Rebbe Rayatz relates (Seifer HaMaamarim 5711, p. 173), “When I learned in cheider, there was a system in place for all the teachers to tell stories to the children now and then.” He describes how they all loved the teacher, R’ Nissan, because of his storytelling prowess.

In a letter (vol. 21, p. 111), the Rebbe explains that one of the reasons that the book of B’Reishis precedes Shmos is because B’Reishis is full of stories of tzaddikim. In another sicha (5748, vol. 3, p. 307) he stresses that this is the order in the chinuch of children. Until the child becomes a ben chamesh l’mikra (either 4 or 5 years old), his main learning is through stories and Midrashim, with which one can accomplish “an entire world and everything in it” in their chinuch. In another letter (vol. 6, p. 151), the Rebbe writes that when you want to accustom children to the ways of Chassidus and its practices, stories from the lives of the holy Rebbeim, told during a farbrengen, make it pleasant for them to adopt the new practices.

TO TEACH IN STORY MODE

As someone in the field of teaching for many years, as well as being a storyteller, do you see a commonality between them?

First of all, the job of a teacher is not just to cover material, but mainly to teach children love for Torah and good middos with a Chassidishe chayus. This is acquired through stories, much more than through educational material.

It is also known that stories of Chassidim at the beginning of a lesson are a segula to arouse the students’ desire to learn. As the Rebbe Rayatz recounted, when Rashbatz arrived in Lubavitch in order to teach him, the first guidance he received from the Rebbe Rashab was about the importance of stories before learning:

“I remember what my grandfather [the Tzemach Tzedek] told my father, when my father [the Rebbe Maharash] had to bring us to R’ Sholom the melamed: ‘The food that gives strength is bread, and that is the main part of the meal. In order to entice them to eat, they take something before the meal as an appetizer. The same is true with the bread of Torah, that an appetizer is needed and this [is through] certain stories.”

What many don’t know is that according to the Rebbe, even educational subjects should be conveyed story-style. The Rebbe proves this from the Torah, where all of the Torah’s instructions are said in story-form (Hisvaaduyos 5745, vol. 4, p. 2302)!

This approach solves two main problems that teachers today have: 1) how do you arouse the children’s interest so that they want to learn? And 2) what do you do with children who lack self-confidence, who don’t believe in their ability to understand difficult subjects?

Says the Rebbe, when you use a story, it does away with the child’s fear that he won’t be successful in learning, because it’s just a story … At the same time, you engender great interest in the children who are curious to hear the continuation of the story.

The Rebbe added that when speaking to a child about things that don’t seem like learning, you can instill more than what he gets in school where the official goal is to learn. Along these lines, the Rebbe suggested that when there is learning during vacation, most of the material being learned should be conveyed with a story, but the content should be Chassidishe content. (This is done in many camps, where the learning booklets look like stories in serial form, but they contain deeper messages.)

Aside from turning the subject matter being learned into a story, the Rebbe regarded stories like actual learning and said to test young children on the story to check whether they know it and more so, whether they can tell it, and explain the moral lesson to them in the event that they did not understand it.

Aside from the motivation for learning, a story has a far greater emotional impact on a child, and this can be used in order to influence the child even about things that he cares about deeply. For example, the Rebbe teaches us that when a child has many complaints, he should be told a story about events that occurred to the Jewish people (or another Jew) in earlier generations in which they saw that even things that seemed negative at first, turned out for the best and they even thanked Hashem for them.

The impact of a story is not only on the listener but on the storyteller. When a mother had a child who did not behave nicely and she was looking for ways to get him to improve his conduct, the Rebbe suggested in a letter (vol. 12, p. 335) to try and get the child involved with children younger than he, to whom he could teach limudei kodesh and tell stories.

***

I will end with a story that shows the power of a story with messages of yiras Shamayim:

A Jewish family that lived in a city without a Jewish community was once invited to a religious neighborhood in another city, and they saw my father’s records in a store. The husband showed the record to his wife and said he thought their daughter would like it and they should buy it. They did not imagine how much their daughter would like it.

A few days later, the wife called my father and said that her daughter kept listening to the records. She wanted to know who it was that had so enthralled her daughter.

My father spoke with her and realized they were not religious. He stayed in touch with them and slowly managed to be mekarev them. The parents began observing Shabbos, kashrus, etc. The whole house changed. That daughter, so fascinated by the records, was even more fascinated to hear about various mitzvos from my father when they spoke on the phone. He arranged for shluchim to visit them and to teach them, and she progressed with giant steps until, at the age of 18, she came to New York and registered in a Chassidic seminary. That was all thanks to one record!

Recordings of Uncle Yossi and Rabbi Levi Goldstein can be ordered at chinuchtime.com

UNCLE YOSSI’S YECHIDUS

R’ Yosef Goldstein once took four drawings of the artist R’ Zalman Kleinman out of an envelope and put them on the Rebbe’s desk. He said: I want the Rebbe to see the drawings I prepared for the records I’m about to produce.

The Rebbe gazed at the pictures for a long time, looking here and there at all the details and then he asked: This is for the album cover?

R’ Yosef answered in the affirmative.

The Rebbe asked: Will all the pictures be on the cover?

On the edge of the picture it said to minimize it by 50% and the Rebbe said: They will minimize it.

Then he added: I suggest that 1) since they will minimize the pictures, it would be very proper to add other, similar pictures, big and nice, for students and teachers. 2) It would be appropriate to add the content of the story in brief. 3) Add sources for the stories so the teacher can look into it further.

Then R’ Yosef pointed at the picture of “Little Avraham,” and said that the story is what Chazal say that he recognized the Creator when he was three years old. The Rebbe looked at the picture for a long time and noticed that the three year old Avraham had a gartel. He asked, “He was wearing a gartel when he was three years old?” And he laughed and blessed him with success and good news.

R’ Yosef took the pictures off the desk in the order in which they had been placed there, with the picture of “Little Avraham” on top, and he began to walk out backwards. The entire family left the room and R’ Yosef was nearly outside when the Rebbe suddenly quoted a statement of the Sages in connection with the picture and said it while using the maamer niggun:

“The sun never saw the blemish of the moon.” And the Rebbe continued, “As is known the explanation of this, so that the moon would not be ashamed when the sun would see its shame as it diminishes. And as we can see clearly, the dark side of the moon is never seen facing the sun.” [The Rebbe then stopped using the maamer niggun]. The Rebbe pointed at the picture and then took a pencil and made a small mark on the sun in the picture.

R’ Yosef saw that the Rebbe was looking for a piece of paper to write on and held out one of the pictures, but before he could hand over the picture, the Rebbe took a piece of paper from his desk and drew a moon with horns. The Rebbe said that in the picture, the horns faced the sun and this is incorrect. The horns need to be turned around, not facing the sun, because astronomically the other way was incorrect, especially in light of the Sages’ statement. Then the Rebbe took the paper again and once again drew the moon the way it is supposed to be.

My father tried suggesting that the moon should be drawn as a full moon, and the Rebbe said, “On the contrary, this way (by using a crescent shape but having it face away from the sun), they can learn good middos, not to embarrass their friend.”

R’ Yosef asked: But when Avraham saw the moon, the sun wasn’t shining. To this, the Rebbe said: 1) in the picture, there are the sun and the moon, and 2) in any case, the horns cannot be facing the sun!

Then the Rebbe said to provide sources for all the pictures and the Rebbe pointed at the picture and said: This is a Midrash Yalkut and they should look for the rest of the sources, to make it easier for the person studying it.

Then the Rebbe looked at the other picture, about the story with two voices, the yetzer tov and yetzer ha’ra, and asked: What is this?

R’ Yosef answered in brief: It’s Shabbos and there is a coin and she wants to pick it up. The yetzer ha’ra says yes. The yetzer tov says not to.

The Rebbe said: Look for the source for this.

Then R’ Yosef put out his hand to take the picture (on which the Rebbe drew the moon) and the Rebbe apparently realized it was precious to him and was about to give it to him, but when he saw that on the other side there was a list of who had yechidus that night, he laughed and set the paper aside.

SUPERNATURAL STORIES FOR CHILDREN

The Rebbe Rayatz related that when his daughters were little girls, they had a teacher who did not want to get into stories that were not rational, so he avoided teaching them about miracle stories.

When his father, the Rebbe Rashab, heard about this, he called for the teacher and said to him: You need to begin specifically with emuna and kabbalas ol, and not rationality. Even those things that are rationally understood need to be done with kabbalas ol. The same is true for chinuch. You need to tell the children about miracles which are beyond rationality, as this strengthens their emuna. The claim that this is not orderly, and why do you need to start with things that shock the mind and the like, comes from the old and wise king (a.k.a., the yetzer ha’ra) (Likkutei Sichos, vol. 19, p. 91).

In our sources, this claim appears in another story, namely the recorded story of Shimon the Heretic (a known Maskil who went to the Alter Rebbe’s court for the purpose of challenging and debating the Chabad Chassidim) in which it describes how he went to the Alter Rebbe and related how he did not explain to children the verse, “and Yitzchok was tremendously frightened” according to Rashi’s commentary, who says he saw Gehinom open beneath him, because the weak minds of children should not be wearied with stories from the Agada, especially not frightening Agados that a child cannot really understand. The concern for the weak mind of a child signaled the weak emuna of the Maskil.