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The Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau Shlita (may he live for good long days), tells of the first time he arrived at Gur together with several other young men from the "Kol Torah" Yeshiva. (This was at the "Sha'arei Chesed" neighborhood).
"We arrived at the old Beis Midrash on David Yellin Street, the overcrowding was terrible. The pushing was awful. Above everyone, on a platform elevated by three steps, stood a very impressive figure who magnetized my eyes. His face was wrapped in a beard that went down to his collar according to his measurements [style]; he was dressed in a spodik—a high fur hat that Gur Hasidim wear on Sabbaths and holidays. The man stood and read names. I was sure that this was the Rebbe in all his glory, despite the fact that the reading of the names of those present seemed a bit strange in my eyes.
Later it became clear that this was the Gabbai, R’ Shayne Noach Binke, a uniquely majestic figure, who was entrusted with the list of Jews who were invited to sit at the Rebbe’s table. Suddenly silence fell, absolute silence in the hall, despite the fact that hundreds of people were crowded into it. Not a sound cut the air, only waves of people moving right and left. Within the terrible crowding, I swallowed the possibilities of that moment; I thought to myself that my feet were not standing on the ground. I was pushed from all directions like a leaf in the wind, and from the intensity of the pushing and the crowds, I hung in the air and became disconnected from the group of Kol Torah [students]. Suddenly I understood the meaning of the human wave that began in the hall, the Rebbe entered, his hands folded behind his back. As he entered, the masses made room for him. It was a kind of parting of the Red Sea inside the huge, crowded hall and the multitude that had gathered inside. The Rebbe passed between the people and with one of his sharp glances he passed over my face and stared at me. It was a special look unique to his kind, which is unlike any other look. It is impossible to forget him and impossible to ignore him. All the days of my life I have merited such looks, one as stated from the Rebbe of Gur, and the second, 24 years later from the Lubavitcher Rebbe. In all those 24 years that passed, I did not know a person with a look as penetrating and piercing as that of the Rebbe of Gur. And I was a small boy in short trousers and a beret on my head, among the Hasidim dressed in Kapotes (long coats) of black silk, with sashes and spodiks, every year. The Rebbe passed between the hundreds who surrounded him, his eyes scanned them and picked them up exactly like swipe cards.
In the seconds that the instruction passed, that joined me to the list. With complete surprise, I heard my name explicitly: “Srul Meir, the son of the Rabbi of Piotrków”. I did not connect to this name, for no one then called me Meir. For five years full of suffering and orphanhood, I was always Yisrael Lau. Here and there they called me Lulek, but Srul Meir was completely foreign to my ears. I did not react, I did not think I was the one being spoken of, but the words ‘The son of the Rabbi of Piotrków’ echoed in my ears and I said to myself that there is another one. After all, I fell in the Holocaust and barely survived and ended up in Tel Aviv. And anyway, I did not dare to put myself twice at the Rebbe’s table.
After a few minutes, my friend Yehoshua Kleinlehrer approached me, a Torah scholar who had walked with me to the Tisch (table), and informed me in a trembling voice because they called my name, lest I did not hear. I shared my wonder with him: Why did they suddenly call me? I had no answer, but he insisted that indeed they called me by name and informed me that I must approach. I was perplexed and confused and asked him what I should do. Yehoshua explained to me calmly and in detail: 'Do you see the steps where the Gabbai Shayne Noach is standing? Go up those three steps, look toward the place where the Rebbe is sitting, he will give you a cup of wine in your hand and with the second hand he will tap on a slice of apple. You must bless Li-chaim when your head is facing the Rebbe, and the Rebbe will answer you Lechaim. This is a very great honor. Out of the hundreds of Rabbis in this room, you were chosen. I listened to his words with great attention and drank in his words thirstily. Of all the people crowded in the hall holding onto this railing, I thought to myself, I know only three. And how is it that specifically I was chosen and precisely to my share fell this great honor described by Kleinlehrer? I understood that I must answer the call. I went up the three steps as instructed, they gave me a cup of wine and filled it to the brim, in my second hand indeed was the slice of apple. The Rebbe, in the fullness of his height, with the high spodik on his head, and he is surrounded on his right and left by elder Hasidim intending their gaze toward the Rebbe and towards his head, he is swaying up and down: “Li-chaim”. In the hall they sang new melodies of “Lecha Dodi” and stirring tunes for the Days of Awe which Rabbi Yaakov Talmud taught the choir, but I did not hear any of it because I was so excited.
I tried to digest what had happened to me. And then Yehoshua came to me again and added to the surprise: He informed me that the Rebbe gave an instruction that tomorrow evening after Havdalah, I should come to his house on Shmuel HaNavi [Street]. “The Rebbe wants to speak with you”. My breath stopped. I returned to Kol Torah [Yeshiva], shaken and not understanding what happened. I approached the Mashgiach R’ Gedalya, I told him the chain of events and asked his permission to be absent on Shabbos afternoon from the Seder at the Yeshiva since I was invited to the Rebbe of Gur. R’ Gadl’e smiled skeptically. And simply asked me: “Yes? If so, my heart forbids refusing. Even I am not allowed to refuse him. Go in peace”.
I do not know if he believed me or not, but he put no stumbling block in my path. Simcha Eidelman, my friend from the Yeshiva, explained to me that the Rebbes of Gur do not wear their long silk coats and belts on weekdays. I arrived trembling to the door of his house and there I met Chanina Schiff, whom I had not seen in the last five years. “Lulek, how are you?” he asked. I answered the question and was interested in what he was doing here. Chanina Schiff told me that he is one of the students of the Yeshiva of Sefas Emes and that he is in the Rebbe of Gur’s presence. By the way, he is the Mashbak (personal assistant in holiness) of all the Admorim of Gur to this day. His sentences to me, I thought, solved the mystery. I continued to interrogate him and asked him if it was he who told the Rebbe about my presence here. Chanina Schiff emphasized that he knew nothing of my presence as he did not see me since we separated upon our ascent to the Land [of Israel] and strictly speaking, he could not tell anything to the Rebbe. But seeing you stand at the door of the Rebbe and say Li-chaim. I wondered how the arrival was known and how one of the masses crowding the hall knew, I shared my feelings with him. If so, I concluded, I really do not understand who called me to the Rebbe. Chanina Schiff did not have time to say another word, and the door opened and someone ushered me into the room. I saw the Rebbe marching from right to left in the room, closed his gaze lowered to the floor. In his left hand was a pinch of tobacco, which he brought close to his nose and smelled, and in his right hand he raised the corner of the high velvet yarmulke and waved it in order to cool a bit of the heat of Elul. Me, standing near the door, did not receive even a glance. Between me and myself I thought that perhaps they brought me in by mistake and not to him did I intend. While immersed in these thoughts, the Rebbe stopped, fixed his gaze and his clothes upon me, his penetrating eyes, and in Yiddish asked: “Who is looking after you these days?” I answered: “Simcha Eidelman”. He smiled a warm smile, very warm, and added: “You have grown very tall, I am not used to seeing you close more than confirms you, what is your uncle Rabbi Fogelman doing?” With one question the Rebbe included my whole world, Naftali and Rav Fogelman. A man who had never spoken to me, carried on his shoulders tens of thousands of Hasidim, knew exactly who the central people in my life were.
I answered briefly, sharp and cut answers as is customary in the court of Gur. The Rebbe continued: “You were surely surprised when they called you at the Tisch, I saw you here five years ago when you came with Naftali to your father the Imrei Emes zt”l (may the memory of the righteous be a blessing). I passed between the rows of the crowd in the hall and suddenly I saw you. It is impossible that I would not see you. You are very similar to Naftali your brother. I remembered the name your father gave you at the Bris (circumcision) in Piotrków in the house of the Rebbe. He said he would call you Yisrael for the name of the Rebbe of Vioshovitse Rabbi Yisrael Friedman, and on the name of our ancestor Rabbi Yisrael the Maggid of Kozhnitz, and also said he would call your name Meir for the name of his uncle Rabbi Meir Shapiro of Lublin who did not leave behind sons and daughters. And Yisrael Meir for the name of the Chofetz Chaim Rabbi Yisrael Meir from Radin. All four were the connection of family and deep soul. The Rabbi of Vioshovitse, the Rabbi of Lublin and the Chofetz Chaim passed away one after another within three months, despite that one was 46 and the other 94. Your father held you in his hands and said that he prays for the Master of the Universe that he grants - I remember well the words in Yiddish "A Pink" (a spark) - from each one of these souls that will enter the soul of the child. With this expression, it is impossible to forget. When I saw you among the crowds on Friday night, I understood that you are Naftali's brother (that is what he called him) I remembered your name that I saw you then all the years from the day of your Bris. He gave me again the look of his and an apple from his table and said: 'I hope to see you by me closer often'."
The reflections in my head convinced me that a sentence like this from his mouth obligates me very much.
