In case you didn't yet hear the story

I assume everyone knows this one, as I've told it to everyone I know, but in case you are at the bottom of the grapevine in the mud, here is an amazing miracle story.

Every Shabbos, some old men and women meet in the Center to talk about the Parsha, eat some food, and read some Jewish newspapers. They do this at 2 PM for some unknown reason, though I am working on making it earlier so I can have a normal Shabbos meal.

Getting back on topic, one of these Jews is, to quote his words, "Yisroel Yitzchak ben Moshe" Farber. Married to a non-Jew, he knows that all his descendants aren't Jewish, yet is the most knowledgable of them all, reading the Parsha each week before Shabbos, and speaking a fluent Yiddish, I mean even fluenter than Rabbi Berkowitz!!!

Anyway, on Tu B'shvat there was a small celebration, and I sat down next to YY, whom I had become very friendly with. As we're talking, he told me that when he was a child he once received a Bracha from a Rebbe.

"Cool" I said in Yiddish (the Yiddish word for cool is 'Brekhtish'). "What was his name? perhaps I heard of him, maybe he was the Vizhnitzer Rebbe, or the Tosher Rebbe..."

He says, "no, his name was Yosef Yitzchak Schneerson."

I frieked out as one could expect, and then demanded to know the story.

"I was the first son born into my family (and the only one) after three girls," he said. "My father always wanted a boy, but he died when I was 9 months old. When I was 2, my mother heard that the Rebbe was coming to town. So she arranged a Yechidus. At the Yechidus she burst into tears, and asked the Rebbe, "my son has no father. Who will take care of him?" The Rebbe answered "Hashem will take care of your son.""

Yisroel Yitzchak then looks at me and continues, "and I survived throught World War 2, communism, and lived a life of luxury throughout. I know Hashem watches over me."