After midnight on the night before Rosh Hashana, Reb Leibel Bistritzky was saying Tehillim upstairs in 770, when the Rebbe walked in. After inquiring whether he would be blowing shofar, the Rebbe gave him a maamar and a special bracha.

Addressing a group of bochurim and mashpiim on Erev Rosh Hashana, the Rebbe spoke, with his eyes closed, about the lost potential for ‘uforatzto’ throughout the previous year. As he ended, tears streamed down his face.

After a joyous song, during a farbrengen about teshuva with joy, a chossid shouted “Nasha biriyot!” – “We won!” The Rebbe accepted and added that soldiers going out to war march with a victorious song, giving them strength of heart.

Some time after being told by the Rebbe to learn avodadike maamorim, Reb Bentzion Stein‘s mashpia felt that it might be time to upgrade. In his next yechidus, the Rebbe advised him to continue learning what affected him most, but learn haskala maamorim on Shabbos.

As a bochur, Reb Shlomo Zarchi asked the Rebbe for guidance in cheshbon hanefesh. The Rebbe drew a distinction between avoda at Krias Shema She’al Hamita, which is done at specific times, and a basic calculation at the end of a day.

When a bochur complained to the Rebbe that his contemplation of Chassidus was crude, the Rebbe reassured him that with time it would become refined. But then the Rebbe told him something even more relevant.

Reb Aharon Yaakov Diskin was exiled to Kasil-Arda, a village not far from Alma Ata, and he made acquaintance with Reb Levik. When he shared some stories during a farbrengen, the Rebbe became very emotional.

When a couple came to the Rebbe for a bracha for one of their children who got engaged, the Rebbe asked why they didn’t mention the other children, highlighting how they might feel neglected.

In an early yechidus, bochur Berl Yunik complained of his highs and lows in his avodas Hashem. The Rebbe reassured him that fluctuation is normal and then went on to outline the problem of many bochurim which can be easily resolved.

When a 16-year-old girl from Melbourne begged the Rebbe to help her convert, the Rebbe guided R’ Chaim Gutnick to reveal that she was already Jewish. When asked later how he knew, the Rebbe said that it was obvious…

When the Bergstein family entered yechidus, the Rebbe asked young Chaim Moshe how many strings he had in his tzitzis. When the boy didn’t know, the Rebbe taught him a lifelong lesson from money.

After eighty years of spreading chassidishe warmth in Russia and in England, Reb Avrohom Sender Nemtzov on vacation in New Haven, CT, when he received a letter from the Rebbe inspiring him with a sense of mission.

A recurring theme in the Rebbe’s correspondence is the potential and power of chassidishe farbrengen. Advising a chossid who was bringing someone closer to Yiddishkeit, the Rebbe recommended a chassidishe farbrengen as the way to make him more receptive.

Reb Eliyahu Kitov, an activist and author, had a brilliant idea: he would gather all leading rabbonim in one room to find solutions for Klal Yisroel’s issues. The Rebbe agreed that this would bring the solution, but for a different reason.

Every summer, bochurim would set out in pairs to do Merkos Shlichus work. One year, the Rebbe reminded them that although they were teaching the basics, their goal should always be “to establish a Yeshiva like in Lubavitch.”

When a bochur returned from Merkos Shlichus disheartened having reached relatively few people, he shared his disillusionment with the Rebbe, who responded with three points.

The Rebbe saw a direct correlation between gashmiyus and ruchniyus. When R’ Simcha Werner looked surprised that learning more Chassidus would help his mother’s health, the Rebbe made the connection clear.

“You can remove your tie, and you don’t need to look so meticulous…” the Rebbe told someone at the Shavuos 5711 farbrengen, proceeding to relate a story of Reb Michoel der Alter and polishing shoes in Lubavitch.

In the Rebbe’s interactions, a distinction was always drawn between sharing challenges, and complaining. When an early shliach regretted having asked to be relieved of his shlichus, the Rebbe stipulated that there would be no complaining.

Unsure whether to send their daughter to a professionally-run frum preschool or a disorganized chassidishe kindergarten, a parent wrote to the Rebbe. The Rebbe’s response didn’t leave any room for doubt.