When a French Jew struggled to understand what the Rebbe had told him at dollars, he never imagined that more than three decades later the video of that encounter would resurface – at the very moment when the meaning of the Rebbe’s words would finally become clear and answer his question.

By Anash.org reporter

When a French Jew struggled to understand what the Rebbe had told him at dollars, he never imagined that more than three decades later the video of that encounter would resurface – at the very moment when the meaning of the Rebbe’s words would finally become clear and answer his question.

Yitzchak was a ba’al teshuva living in France, who, after becoming frum, had the privilege of traveling to New York to be by the Rebbe. One Sunday, on 11 Tammuz 5751 (1991), he passed by the Rebbe for dollars. For whatever reason, he couldn’t make out what the Rebbe told him. For years, it bothered him that he didn’t know what had been said at that special time.

About three years ago, his son Aryeh traveled to the Rebbe for Yud Shevat. Reb Yitzchak asked him for a favor: When in New York, see if he could track down the video of that Sunday dollars encounter. He gave him the exact date and details, and sure enough, Aryeh was able to obtain a copy, and he sent the video to his father.

When Reb Yitzchak watched, he saw himself telling the Rebbe in French, “Aujourd’hui, c’est mon anniversaire” (“Today is my birthday”). The Rebbe responded, “Ah?” So he repeated, “Aujourd’hui, c’est mon anniversaire.” The Rebbe gave him a dollar and said something in Hebrew, but Reb Yitzchak only spoke French and couldn’t make it out. He listened several times but still couldn’t understand.

Finally, Rabbi Notah Levertov, the Rebbe’s shliach in Aubervilliers, France, listened carefully and managed to make out the words. The Rebbe had said in Hebrew: “All the questions you should ask by a rav,” and then, “bracha v’hatzlacha.”

At first, Rabbi Levertov himself couldn’t see the connection between Reb Yitzchak saying it was his birthday and the Rebbe answering about asking questions to a rav. But Reb Yitzchak was stunned.

Just a short while earlier, he had been struggling with the question of when exactly his Jewish birthday is. His father was Jewish, but his mother was not, and many years before, he had undergone a proper geirus, becoming a full-fledged Yid and eventually a devoted chossid. Later, his mother also converted, and she passed away only a few months ago. But recently, he had wondered: Is his birthday the day he was physically born, or the day he immersed in the mikvah and became a Yid?

And now, just as this question was on his mind, the video of his encounter with the Rebbe resurfaced. More than three decades earlier, the Rebbe had given him the answer. In regards to his birthday, the Rebbe was telling him: “All the questions you should ask by a rav.”

“At the time, he couldn’t understand what the Rebbe meant,” says Rabbi Meir Simcha Kalmenson, shliach to Aubervilliers, France, and director of the Shneor Institutions, told Anash.org. “The Rebbe spoke in Hebrew, and it didn’t seem connected to what Reb Yitzchak had said. But years later, when the question finally arose, the video reappeared – and the Rebbe’s words reached him at exactly the right moment.”

It should be noted that the Rebbe often instructed gerim who converted to Yiddishkeit to mark their birthday on the day of their geirus, rather than the day of their physical birth.

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Rabbi Meir Simcha Kalmenson shares the story: