Active in promoting Yiddishkeit on college campuses, Dr. Rivkah Blau, the daughter of Rabbi Pinchas Teitz, entered yechidus with a fellow activist in 1961. When, at the end of the yechidus, the Rebbe asked if they had any questions, the young man spoke up: How it was that the Rebbe, who was neither a doctor nor a lawyer, could advise people about surgeries and legal cases?

The Rebbe smiled and gave the example of a contractor: If he knows how to read the blueprint for a house, he can instruct the plumber and electrician on what to do. Similarly, the Rebbe explained, the Torah is the blueprint for the world.

“I don’t know law better than the lawyers or medicine better than the doctors,” the Rebbe said, “but based on what I have learned in Torah, I can give people advice.”

“Why then can only chassidishe rebbes perform mofsim and misnagdishe gedolim cannot?” the young man asked. The Rebbe affirmed that they can, and mentioned names of gedolim who did wondrous things.

The Rebbe then explained that chassidishe rebbes perform miracles because, for them, the world is of no significance; all that exists is Hashem and His Torah. 

“Such a person among the misnagdim,” the Rebbe concluded, “can perform miracles as well.”

(Here’s My Story, Issue 538; Newman Teshura, 25 Sivan 5784, p. 24)