LIVING IN 770 - BEIS CHAYEINU

The Lipsker brothers, R’ Chaim Sholom Dovber (Berel) and R’ Shneur Zalman, are an integral part of the 770 scene. They have spent thousands of hours in Beis Chayeinu, from their early childhoods until today. * At a special farbrengen with Beis Moshiach, the two told of the special relationship their father had with the Rebbe, even before the nesius, about childhood games in the courtyard of Beis Chayeinu and near Rebbetzin Chana’s house, about a family yechidus with the Rebbe with special kiruvim, and about the role of gabbai that added a whole new dimension to the special family connection with 770.

Photos by Chaim TouitoR’ Berel is one of the regulars at farbrengens in Beis Chayeinu and R’ Zalman is a gabbai in Beis Chayeinu for many years. Most of the special furnishings in Beis Chayeinu are thanks to their father. They were one of the first Lubavitcher families who lived near 770 and they spent all their childhood years around Beis Chayeinu.
In a Chassidishe farbrengen we had together, the two of them shared fascinating stories about their childhood, their father’s special relationship with the Rebbe before the nesius, and more.
RELATIONSHIP WITH THE REBBE BEFORE THE NESIUS
Your father, R’ Yaakov Lipsker, merited to serve the (future) Rebbe when he arrived in Paris in 1947 to meet his mother, Rebbetzin Chana a”h. What do you know about that time?
R’ Zalman: When the Rebbe arrived in Paris, he asked our father whether our mother could cook for him every day. My father, of course, said yes, and the Rebbe asked that the meal include fish. He said that s’farim say that if the souls of the righteous are reincarnated, they are in fish. And what if there wasn’t any fresh fish? In that case, said the Rebbe, to make a schmaltz herring. One time, there were no fish to be had, so my mother prepared schmaltz herring. It had a very strong smell but it’s what the Rebbe wanted.
Every morning she cooked the food and at exactly eleven o’clock the Rebbe would open his door at the hotel he was staying at to take the food. My father learned about the Rebbe’s precision because when he came earlier, the door was locked and it was opened at exactly eleven. If he was late, even by one minute, he had to wait a while until the Rebbe opened the door.
R’ Berel: My father used the time in which he gave the Rebbe food to ask various questions. One of the times, the Rebbe was involved in a phone conversation with an amazing man, Chacham Shushani (see article about him in issue #1001). My father wanted to wait until the Rebbe finished talking, but the Rebbe told him that when Chacham Shushani was talking, he could hear my father at the same time, and while Chacham Shushani was doing the talking, he should say what he wanted to say. And the Rebbe listened to both simultaneously (even though Chacham Shushani discussed deep Torah matters with the Rebbe).
Before the Rebbe returned to New York, he wanted to pay my parents 5000 francs for their efforts. My father refused to accept the money and when the Rebbe told him, “If I would have known that you would not want to accept payment, I would not have troubled you so much,” my father replied, “If I would have known that you intended on paying me, I would not have agreed to serve.”
When the Rebbe did not give in, my father suggested that the Rebbe give the money to the Rebbe Rayatz for maamud. The Rebbe agreed, on condition that my mother accept the money and then they could give the money for maamud. The Rebbe also gave my mother a volume of Likkutei Dibburim.
THE AMAZING DREAM AND THE REBBE’S REACTION
You said that your father used his daily encounters with the Rebbe to ask questions. Did he tell you any details?
R’ Berel: My father told us only two things. The first has to do with a dream that he had the night I was born. It was in Adar 5702 when we lived in Kutais and my father had never seen the Rebbe Rayatz. He dreamed that he was going to a farbrengen in the apartment of the Rebbe Rayatz in 770 and suddenly, a tall bachur wheeled in a wheelchair on which sat an older, handsome man. My father had not seen the Rebbe before, but it was clear to him that this was the Rebbe. The Rebbe said to him, “Yaakov, repeat the maamer, ‘V’Harikosi LaChem Bracha.’”
My father went to the elder Chassidim in Kutais and asked them whether they knew this maamer. They all said no. One of them said it wasn’t possible that such a maamer existed, since the Rebbe Rayatz’s maamarim were based on the maamarim of the Rebbeim and since there was no such maamer in their writings, it wasn’t likely that the Rebbe would say a maamer that began with that verse.
My father kept his counsel and in one of his encounters with the Rebbe in Paris, he asked him whether he knew of such a maamer. The Rebbe asked why he was asking and my father told him about his dream. The Rebbe asked him to repeat the details of the dream.
When he finished, the Rebbe took out a booklet called, “HaKria V’HaK’dusha” out of his suitcase. It was from Teves 5703 and the maamer was printed in it! The Rebbe said, “It is a wonder to me! The maamer had just been said and you already knew about it.”
The second thing my father told us was that the Rebbe told him to move to the United States and live near the Rebbe Rayatz. My father expressed his surprise - shouldn’t he first ask the Rebbe Rayatz for permission? The Rebbe said, “There is no need to ask.” The Rebbe said he should write a letter to the Rebbe Rayatz in which he announced he was moving and ask for a bracha.
Although my father greatly respected the Rebbe’s son-in-law, on a matter of such importance he preferred asking. He received a positive answer and we traveled to America after Pesach 1948.
It is interesting that after accepting the nesius, in the early 1950’s, there were Lubavitchers in Paris who heard the story about my father and asked the Rebbe for a bracha to move. The Rebbe said no. To their question why the Rebbe said yes then and no now, the Rebbe said, “Now we see it differently.”
THE REBBE’S GUIDANCE
A short while after you arrived at Beis Chayeinu, you moved to a farm in New Jersey and only six years later did you return to Crown Heights. Why did your father do that?
R’ Berel: Our places of residence were determined by the Rebbeim. At first the Rebbe Rayatz and then the Rebbe. When my father arrived in the US, we lived for a short while on the Lower East Side. My father raised funds for Tomchei T’mimim. After being successful in this, Rashag, the menahel of the yeshiva, asked him to continue. My father had yechidus and told the Rebbe Rayatz about Rashag’s offer and how he was successful. The Rebbe listened but said he had a different mission for him - to buy a farm from which he would make a living.
Of course my father accepted this but he had three questions about how to go about it. 1) Where would he find a farm? 2) How would he raise the large sum of money he needed to buy a farm? 3) What would he do about his children’s chinuch?
To his first question, the Rebbe suggested that he buy a newspaper and look for ads offering a farm for sale. As for the second question, the Rebbe said that as soon as he found a farm he should submit a letter to the secretaries with the cost, and he would be given a loan of $1000 (a large amount in those days) from the Rebbe’s personal fund. As for the third question, the Rebbe said the girls should learn where they learned until now, and to look for a good family where they could board during the week. Erev Shabbos, they should go home to the farm. As for me and my brother Avremel, the Rebbe said we were learning in a yeshiva in Crown Heights and so we could be registered for the dormitory. We should join our sisters and go to our family for Shabbos.
As soon as he left the Rebbe’s room, my father bought a newspaper where he found three ads with farms for sale. With three options, he had yechidus again and the Rebbe told him which farm to buy.
In 5709 we packed our belongings and moved to the farm in New Jersey. My father raised chickens for a living.
R’ Zalman: There were many other Jewish farm owners around us and within walking distance from us was a small town with some Jewish families who opened a shul. My father, with his Chassidic garb, greatly strengthened the character of the minyan and even had an influence on those Jews who were not regulars at the shul. A Chassid creates an environment and this is what happened.
On 12 Tammuz, shortly after we moved to the farm, my father went to attend the Rebbe Rayatz’s farbrengen. During the farbrengen the Rebbe called my father over and asked him: What were you able to accomplish so far?
My father said they bought an Ein Yaakov and a shiur would start the following week. After the farbrengen, the Rebbe MH”M called my father over and asked: Why didn’t you tell the Rebbe you are already learning? My astonished father said: I should say something which isn’t true?! The Rebbe would tell me I’m lying!
The Rebbe MH”M said: In order to give nachas, you could have said you are already learning.
R’ Berel: We heard this story from our father and it was many years later that I understood the Rebbe’s reaction. In many sichos the Rebbe says that when you make a commitment to do something good, it is like you are already doing it.
Half a year later there was a chicken epidemic and it was no longer profitable to maintain chicken coops. Since there were major losses, my father had yechidus again and asked what he should do. Should he stay where he was despite losing his source of livelihood or had his shlichus there ended and could they all return to Crown Heights?
The Rebbe seemed not to understand the question and said the main reason he had sent him to a farm was not to make money, but to strengthen religious matters in the area and this shlichus had not yet ended. He had started hearing reports that things were starting to change for the good so it wasn’t a good idea to leave at this time.
My father left the Rebbe’s room with the understanding that he had to remain where he was as long as the Rebbe gave him no other instructions. Even after Yud Shevat 5710, when there were difficulties running the farm and my father asked the Rebbe MH”M, the Rebbe said no to his leaving and said, since the Rebbe sent you there, you cannot leave.
It was first in 5714 that our father was told to leave. It was during a yechidus when the Rebbe was suddenly lost in thought and then he said: Nu, enough. Not necessarily a farm. Return to the city.
My surprised father immediately asked where to move and the Rebbe said, here.
There were two interesting stories having to do with the move, one with selling the farm in New Jersey and the other with buying a home in Crown Heights. Since, at this time, the farming market was terrible, it was hard to find a buyer. My father told the Rebbe about the problem and said, “It seems that from up above, they are not allowing it to be sold.”
The Rebbe raised his hand and made a dismissive motion and said, “What is going on up above, we know. Go in peace and sell the farm.”
My father went home to the farm and found someone waiting there who asked to buy the farm.
THE FIRE AND THE MIRACULOUS RESCUE
R’ Zalman: When we got to Crown Heights, my father looked for a large apartment, big enough for eleven people. When he finally found one, on the corner of Nostrand and Park Place, the Rebbe told him to rent it while looking for something else to buy. However, who would agree to rent an apartment to such a large family without at least a two-year lease?
The apartment was on the third floor. The one who made the connection between my father and the Jewish owner was Yehoshua Pinson. The landlord, R’ Yehoshua and my father had a meeting. The rent was $87.50. Yes, those were the rents once upon a time… At the meeting, my father begged the landlord to reduce the rent to $85, saying he had just bought a grocery store and he had many children to support. $2.50 was a significant amount of money.
The landlord leaned his head on his hands and thought. He finally looked upwards and said, “What do they want from me?” Then he said to my father, “You don’t want a lease? Bring me $87.50 every month.”
This was a complete surprise to my father because he hadn’t said anything about wanting to rent short-term without a lease. Of course, he immediately agreed to the arrangement.
R’ Berel: We lived there for half a year. On 9 Adar 1955, our uncle, R’ Michoel Lipsker, came to our home. He was sent by the Rebbe to Morocco in 1950 and he was coming to 770 for the first time. As soon as he landed in New York, he had yechidus with the Rebbe. The yechidus took two and a half hours and at the end, around one in the morning, the Rebbe told him it was time to rest.
We - my father, brother, and I, were in the grocery until eleven, and then we went to 770 to wait for Michoel. When he came out of the Rebbe’s room, we took his suitcases and walked with him to our house. My parents and Michoel sat in the kitchen and talked and I went to bed. Suddenly, my father smelled smoke. My mother opened the door and saw the house filled with smoke.
She instinctively closed the door and ran to wake up the children. Michoel ran to his suitcases in the hall but because it was dark, he collided with the big mirror that was hanging there. My mother yelled to him to leave the suitcases and take the children. They took us in our pajamas and rushed to the fire escape that was in the kitchen. Our screams woke the neighbors and they also escaped the burning building.
R’ Zalman: When we passed the building afterward on the way to yeshiva, we saw that it was entirely destroyed. After the fire, we were left with the clothes on our backs and the coats we managed to take with us as we ran because it was freezing outside. My coat’s collar was completely singed.
R’ Berel: In the yechidus before the fire, the Rebbe told my uncle Michoel that he should make a farbrengen or a kiddush the upcoming Shabbos, I don’t remember exactly, and after the fire, we understood why the Rebbe said that. We made a big kiddush with great joy and thanks to Hashem for the miracles.
After the fire we lived in an apartment on Carroll at the corner of Troy. Before Pesach 1957 we moved to President, right near where Rebbetzin Chana lived. She lived in the building where the dormitory is today, 1414-1418.
DAILY ENCOUNTER WITH THE REBBE AND REBBETZIN CHANA
This is when a special period in your life began, when you lived near Beis Chayeinu, the Rebbe’s house, and Rebbetzin Chana’s house.
R’ Berel: Yes. Although we learned in Tomchei T’mimim in Crown Heights for a number of years, the yeshiva was on Bedford, far from 770, and we went home for Shabbos, as the Rebbe Rayatz said to do. It was only for Yom Kippur that we went with my father to 770. I was with the Rebbe Rayatz on Yom Kippur and then with the Rebbe. We also went with my father to farbrengens on special occasions but most of the year we were not in 770.
A significant change began in Tishrei 5713. A week and a half earlier, on 18 Elul 5712, the Rebbe spoke sharply against the practice of sending talmidim home for the Yomim Nora’im and said the talmidim should stay in yeshiva. But the main change occurred after we moved to Crown Heights, when we began attending the Rebbe’s farbrengens (usually on Shabbos Mevarchim or special days), and even more so when we moved to President Street, very close to 770.
In those days, Crown Heights was bustling with Jews, but only a few of them were Lubavitchers. Most Chabad Chassidim lived in Brownsville which was half an hour away from 770, so living a four or five-minute walk from 770 was considered very close.
You mentioned that you lived close to Rebbetzin Chana. Do you have any stories about her? Did you see the Rebbe go visit her?
R’ Zalman: Of course we saw. We would see the Rebbetzin walking every day on the street near her house. And we saw the Rebbe’s daily visits to her.
As young children we would play ball on the corner of Kingston and President. The Rebbe would walk from 770 to Kingston and then turn into President. The Rebbetzin’s address was 1418, the second house from the corner, where the dormitory is today.
Whenever we saw the Rebbe approaching we would run and open the door of the building for him. There were many times that we did not notice the Rebbe approaching and nearly bumped into him as we played. One time, the ball rolled toward the street just as the Rebbe passed by. The Rebbe picked up the ball and threw it back to us.
CHILDHOOD GAMES: THE REBBE AND THE FARBRENGEN
As children, did you receive any special attention from the Rebbe?
R’ Zalman: First, you need to know that the number of Lubavitcher children in 770 at that time was fewer than the fingers on my hands. So the attention we received from the Rebbe was very pronounced.
On Motzaei Shabbasos, a week after Rosh Chodesh, we would stand in Gan Eden HaTachton near the Rebbe’s door and the Rebbe would often come out and ask us to go and see whether the moon was visible so we could do kiddush levana. The Rebbe left the door to his room partially ajar so we could open it and report to him. Then, at kiddush levana, the Rebbe would say “shalom aleichem” to us.
Every time the Rebbe finished a t’filla or farbrengen we would stand in Gan Eden HaTachton. When the Rebbe entered his room we would sing and the Rebbe would encourage the singing with his hands. Since we were only a few children, it had a very personal feel.
At the davening, we would take turns moving the table when the Rebbe wanted to stand for Shmoneh Esrei and would put it back after the Rebbe returned to his place.
R’ Berel: We were not present throughout entire farbrengens. After all, we were children and we played outside. But often, the Rebbe said the children should say l’chaim, and then they would bring us inside. We would stand on the table near the farbrengen table and say l’chaim to the Rebbe.
R’ Zalman: I remember one farbrengen in which the Rebbe also gave the hanhala of the yeshiva lekach to give out to the children, but that was a rare event. I think it happened once a year and I don’t remember exactly when it occurred.
R’ Berel: We children would follow the Rebbe at every opportunity and the Rebbe also gave us special personal attention. For example, going to Tashlich to the Botanic Gardens. At the head of the procession were the Rebbe, R’ Chadakov, and some elder Chassidim, and we children walked near the Rebbe. Behind us walked everyone else.
R’ Zalman: Although we were young children, the Rebbe was the center of our lives, even in our childhood experiences. For example, in our free time we would play a game called “The Rebbe and the farbrengen.” One child was in charge of clearing a path, one set up the place and another copied the Rebbe’s motions, which we knew well from actual farbrengens. All the other kids were the Chassidim.
The Rebbe was an integral part of our lives when we were children. On Shabbos we would check when the Rebbe was coming and would try to find out why this time it was later or earlier. This was our entire world.
One time, at the beginning of the 60’s, the Rebbe arrived for Shacharis on Rosh HaShana at 10:30. They said, citing the Rebbetzin, that she saw the Rebbe on Rosh HaShana night, before she went to sleep, as he sat at the table in the dining room with his head leaning on his hands and his face red. In the morning, at 10:10, she saw him in exactly the same position. It was only when she told him that it was already time to go to 770 that he roused himself from his lofty thoughts.
After my bar mitzva, on Sukkos 5723/1962, I had the privilege of taking the Dalet minim from the Rebbe. Whatever everyone experienced and remembers from Tishrei 5752, we remember from those years. I remember the Rebbe standing in the sukka that was in the empty lot next to 770. There was an open seifer in front of him (apparently the maamarim of the Rebbe Maharash) and the congregation that was not very large in those days, passed by one after the other. The Rebbe looked up from his book for a moment as each once passed and said the bracha. We saw this every year as children and in 5723 I had my turn. It was the last year in which the Rebbe gave the minim himself. The following year, the Rebbe gave them to R’ Meir Harlig to give to the Chassidim.
THE REBBE ASKED ABOUT MY HAND
Do you remember personal encounters that were specific to you?
R’ Berel: After the passing of the Rebbe Rayatz, we knew that the Rebbe is the Rebbe, even though he only officially accepted the leadership on Yud Shevat 5711. One day in 5710 or the beginning of 5711, I was standing between the small zal and Gan Eden HaTachton and the Rebbe came out from davening in the zal. He came over to me, leaned slightly on my shoulders and placed his hands on my head. I cannot describe in words how this felt. I was eight years old.
The Rebbe asked me a question. It was so long ago and I was so overcome that I don’t remember exactly what the question was, but it was something like what’s your name, or what are you learning. I did not respond. Although I was a little boy, I knew what a Rebbe is. That experience is etched deeply into my memory.
R’ Zalman: I contracted polio when I was nine years old and it was a severe form of the disease. I was in a coma and the doctors were very pessimistic. They told my parents that it did not look as though I would survive and if I did, I would be completely paralyzed. My parents asked the Rebbe for a bracha and against all odds I woke up with only one hand paralyzed.
Since my bar mitzva, when I started going for yechidus to the Rebbe on my birthday, for a number of years the Rebbe would ask about my hand. He told me to find out whether any treatments had been developed that could help me regain function in my hand. Every year I told him the doctors’ recommendations but the Rebbe dismissed them.
One year, the Rebbe told me to speak to a certain doctor and ask his advice. That doctor recommended a series of operations and the Rebbe agreed to this. That summer I went through the operations that were meant to restore partial function in my paralyzed hand.
When I went for the first operation, they asked me to change into hospital clothes and to remove my yarmulke. I resolutely refused. When they said I would not be able to be operated on if I wore a yarmulke, I said, never mind the operation. They didn’t know what to do until the head nurse, who was Jewish, came over and asked me whether I could compromise. I explained that a Jew must always keep his head covered as a sign of fear of heaven. She took out a special hospital cap and asked: If I promise you that this cap will be on your head throughout the operation, will you agree to wear it? I said yes, and then she took a big piece of white tape, the kind they use in a hospital, and wrote on it, “Please do not remove this cap from the patient for religious reasons.” She put the tape on the cap that she put on my head and that is how I went into surgery.
When I came out to the recovery room, my mother and brother Berel were waiting for me. Berel was so excited by the note on my cap that he took it, put it into an envelope, and submitted it to the Rebbe. Apparently the Rebbe took great pleasure from it for he wrote in response: Many thanks, many thanks, and to return the enclosed.
A week later, I got a phone call from the Rebbetzin who said the Rebbe wants to see me and my father. The Rebbetzin instructed us not to tell anyone and not to coordinate with the secretaries, but to simply wait near the Rebbe’s room before Mincha and after R’ Binyamin Gorodetzky would leave the room, we should enter.
As soon as we entered, the Rebbe asked me: Do you have the yarmulke? At first, I did not know what the Rebbe was referring to and it took me a few moments to realize that the Rebbe meant the cap with the note on it. I said: Yes, I think so. Then the Rebbe blessed me: Show it to your children and your grandchildren and your great-grandchildren!
Then the Rebbe examined my hand and asked me to show him what I could do with it.
THE REBBE ASKED ABOUT EVERY DETAIL
Speaking of yechidus, did anything interesting happen at your bar mitzva yechidus?
R’ Zalman: For my bar mitzva, I went in with my parents for yechidus. At that time, Berel had gone to Eretz Yisroel with a group of bachurim to learn in Tomchei T’mimim in Lud on the Rebbe’s shlichus. In yechidus, the Rebbe surprised us when he said: I got regards from your son.
The Rebbe said they welcomed the group with great honor and Berel sat at the head of the table and reviewed the maamer “from so-and so” (meaning the Rebbe’s own maamer). The Rebbe said that if we wanted, after the yechidus, we could go to his mother and see the pictures that they sent the Rebbe. I saw how the Rebbe shared all his nachas and every simcha with his mother, Rebbetzin Chana.
R’ Berel: My parents told me after the yechidus that the Rebbe even asked whether I had already written to them from Eretz Yisroel.
When our brother, Yosef Yitzchok a”h, had yechidus when he became bar mitzva, the Rebbe asked him what pilpul he had prepared. He said it was on the topic of how someone without a hand could put on t’fillin. The Rebbe asked, and what about someone without a head? My brother remained calm and replied that such a person cannot live.
When we returned home, my mother was very annoyed. She could not understand why a teacher would pick such a bizarre topic that would cause the Rebbe to ask a question like that…
R’ Zalman: I had yechidus before I got married. I was used to short audiences, two minutes or less, but to my surprise, the Rebbe began asking detailed questions. The secretary, R’ Leibel Groner, opened the door about ten times during the yechidus in order to find out what the delay was about.
I got married in Eretz Yisroel on 27 Adar I and the Rebbe asked when I thought I would return to New York. I said, right after sheva brachos, but the Rebbe asked what was so urgent. Then he asked, where do you think you will celebrate Pesach. When I said with my parents, the Rebbe said, “A shvigger, even a good shvigger, is still a shvigger,” being sensitive to the feelings of my new wife.
When I asked the Rebbe what I should do for two months in Eretz Yisroel until after Pesach, he said I should go to Tzach and offer to help with English language activities and I should also help the Vaad 71 Mosdos that existed then.
This yechidus took twenty minutes and I saw how the Rebbe took an interest in every detail as a father would for a son.
STORIES FROM THE LIPSKER GROCERY STORE
Your father’s grocery store supplied items for the Rebbe’s household. Do you have any special stories about that?
R’ Zalman: The Rebbetzin would make an order and we would deliver it to her house. Sometimes she would ask that on the way to her home we stop at other stores and buy other products for her. Of course, we were happy to do so.
My father would also send mishloach manos to the Rebbe every Purim. As children, we would love to deliver things to the Rebbetzin, both for the privilege and for the tip that the Rebbetzin would give.
When we brought deliveries, sometimes the Rebbe was at home and he would give us a tip. The Rebbetzin would say, “Buy something good for yourselves,” and the Rebbe would say, “You’ll probably give some tz’daka from this.”
R’ Berel: The connection with the Rebbetzin continued even in later years. I remember a special story that happened on Purim, I think it was 5747. I went to the Rebbe’s house to deliver mishloach manos, as I did every year. I started the tradition while my father was still alive. One of my daughters and a niece went along with me. We always planned on arriving when the Rebbe was not at home.
We rang the bell. The way it usually went was the Rebbetzin would open the door and bring us into the living room. This time, the Rebbetzin remained in the entrance. She had received information that the Rebbe would be arriving soon and she wanted to remain close to the door.
Before we had a chance to leave, the door opened and the Rebbe walked in. We didn’t know where to bury ourselves. The whole event was shocking and stunned us into silence. The Rebbe wished us a freilichin Purim and crossed the foyer to the inner room. We left immediately.
INSTRUCTIONS FROM THE REBBE FOR BUILDING THE ARON KODESH
We can’t talk about your lives around 770 without mentioning gabbaus. Your father was the gabbai and R’ Zalman is too. How did that come to be?
R’ Zalman: My father was involved with 770 long before he was elected as gabbai. When I was a boy I would help him build the furniture for 770. When I was fourteen, I built many benches with R’ Amram Malka and also the special bima for Rosh HaShana. But that bima would come apart every year after the t’kios. It was only at the end of the 60’s that my father built a strong enough bima that lasted until 5750; then it was replaced with the current bima.
My father also built the farbrengen table. Until then, they would put a table on the floor of 770 that was the height of the farbrengen bima, and then put another table on it. Of course this wasn’t stable. My father built a huge table made out of one board that was the height of two tables. The table served the Rebbe for many years until the present table was built.
The amudim, aronos kodesh and many furnishings were also made by my father. When he wanted to build the aron kodesh in the small zal, the Rebbe told him not to replace the old aron kodesh which was in use during the Rebbe Rayatz’s lifetime. So my father built a cover for the old aron and he also covered the chazan’s lectern.
My father also built the aron kodesh in the large zal. At first he thought of building it recessed in the wall as is done in many shuls, but the Rebbe told him it should stick out the way it did in the small zal in the days of the Rebbe Rayatz.
The veteran gabbai, R’ Yochanan Gordon, died at the end of 5729. Elections were held in 5730, and due to his great devotion to the shul, my father was picked to be one of the gabbaim. A year later, when they wanted to call other elections, someone suggested that the five gabbaim continue serving and the idea was unanimously accepted.
In 5745, when my father passed away, they asked me and Berel to take his place. Berel did not want to and I also strongly refused. I said I did not want to force people to accept me over them. It was only when they held elections the following year and I was duly elected that I became a gabbai.