Three generations of ‘Tracht Gut’
The grandfather, the uncle and the granddaughter, years apart, were able to recover and return to their strength, thanks to the observance of the Rebbe’s instruction – “Tracht Gut”!
Tells Miri Friedlander from Tel Aviv
Although our family originates from Gur followers, from the Gur Rebbe tribe, my dear parents were deeply connected to the Rebbe. The connection with the Rebbe was the main motif in their lives and we grew up in this atmosphere. Lubavitch also received a congratulatory letter from the Rebbe for her wedding.
The late father – Avraham Rotenberg, and the late mother – Feiga Rotenberg, were a young couple about two years after their marriage when they were offered an educational mission in Brazil. In the summer of 1967, my parents went to Brazil but did not get along and a year later Dad felt he wanted to return to Israel. An expectation that came true. Dad has received many letters from the Rebbe over the years,
And from the Rebbe’s answer he understood that he could end his role in Brazil and return to Israel. My parents made their way back to Israel through the United States to visit Grandma Sarah Grosser, who lived in New York.
As soon as he arrived in New York in 1958, Dad asked to enter the ‘units’ with the Rebbe – to whom he felt connected in a spiritual connection, even without seeing him. The ‘units’ were set for the next evening. That my parents stayed in New York for another two years, and my father taught Torah at the Ohel Moshe yeshiva.
Our apartment was on the opposite side of Eastern Parkway, opposite 770.
Dad was in constant contact with the Rebbe at all times. On Saturday night, the 7th of Kislev 5718, my mother gave birth to a son of Mazal Tov.
Father wanted to honor the Rebbe with godparents but understood from the Rebbe’s words that this was not possible. The following Shabbat, 14 Kislev, a Simchat ‘Brit Milah’ and a meal of mitzvah were held in our house (abroad it is not possible to shake the baby on Shabbat). That Shabbat, after the end of the morning prayer and the Mussaf prayer, the late Chassid R. Pinia Althaus requested that the Rebbe be documented on the occasion of the “wedding day” – 14 Kislev. The Rebbe replied, “There is a covenant today.” The chassidim who heard the Rebbe’s words hurried to cross the road separating 770 from our house and came to participate in the Simchat HaBrit.
The Rebbe’s secretary, the late Rabbi Khodkov, was honored with godparents. And the beginning of the communion with the Rebbe.
Of course, at the end of the covenant and the meal, Dad came to 770 to attend the gathering. The Rebbe asked for the baby’s name and Father answered: Isaiah. The Rebbe said: “In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will surely dwell.”
‘Just when the Rebbe said’
In the summer of 1958, one Thursday, Father received a telegram (according to the media of the time) from his brother Mordechai who lived in Israel, in which it is written that their father, Rabbi David Rotenberg, suffered a severe heart attack on Sunday and was in a critical condition. Immediately to the Rebbe for the message he received, he described his father’s serious condition and added in his bitterness of soul: ‘I do not know what to think…’
Dad won and received a quick reply from the Rebbe: The Rebbe drew a line under these words and added in his handwriting: “And wonder !!!
Dad accepted the Rebbe’s words and his breath returned to him. He understood with certainty, following the Rebbe’s answer, that his father in the land was alive and breathing and recovering from his illness.
On Sunday, Dad called his parents’ home in the country to demand his father’s safety. His mother – my dear grandmother Yinta Rotenberg – answered the phone and happily told him that there was a benefit and his father was out of danger. Dad asked: When did the benefit occur in the situation? And his mother answered: Thursday night.
Dad happily went to 770 for the opening prayer to tell the Rebbe the good news.
The Rebbe noticed the father standing on the side and asked, “Do you have any good news for me?”
Dad replied, “Yes. My father was out of danger.”
The Rebbe went on to ask, “When?”
Dad answered: Thursday night.
The Rebbe asked, “When did you start ‘thinking well’?”
Father replied: When the Rebbe told me, on Thursday evening.
The Rebbe replied to the father: “Let there be no more such cases and that you always make sure to think well.”
Father understood that the Rebbe was actually telling him that the improvement in his father’s medical condition had occurred when he – the son – began to think well.
The Rebbe’s clear instruction, “Tracht Gut,” is a milestone in our family for generations.
The patient answered the phone himself…
About ten years ago, my father’s brother, Rabbi Mordechai Rotenberg, fell asleep. He was hospitalized, his eyes closed, and he was very sick and weak. His daughter – my dear cousin Yael Rotenberg from Beit Shemesh – came to visit him and was very sorry to see him in such a weak condition. She remembered the act that was with her grandfather – my grandfather – David Rotenberg, and the clear instruction of the Rebbe “Tracht Gut”.
Yael pleaded with her father: “Father, think well, the good thought will help you recover,” said the Rebbe during Grandpa’s illness. Yael left her father’s home worried and sad.
On her way home, the insight suddenly dawned on her mind. She shook off the thoughts of sadness and said to herself: After all, the teaching of the Rebbe “Tracht Gut” was then said to David Avraham, the son of the sick grandfather. If so the instruction should now be to me – the patient’s daughter, and to my brothers – the patient’s sons!
Yael was upset. All that day she prayed and gave charity and directed herself to be precise in the Rebbe’s teaching and to think well of her father’s health condition. The next morning she called the ward to ask how he was, and here was Father Mordechai himself answering the phone! He got stronger, recovered and recovered. He regained consciousness and thought well all day, many more days.
Words that created a feeling
About two years ago, my beloved cousin Yael Rotenberg fell ill. She underwent several surgeries and her condition was difficult. The doctors could not tell her if she could eat on her own or dress on her own during the restoration. She was hospitalized in a nursing home, (God forbid).
One day his son Shneur visited Yael. Yael, linked to the Rebbe, asked him: Please, for medical purposes, I ask you to start thinking well for me, and to observe the Rebbe’s old teaching to our family: ‘Tracht Gut’. Yael’s son heard her words and accepted them.
Just as son Shneur was about to set off, his brother called him and asked on the phone: How are you, mother? Schneur, who was already thinking of ‘Tracht Gut’, immediately replied to his brother: “Mother’s condition is improving. Mother is feeling much better.”
Yael in the cot bed was very excited to hear the ‘Tracht Gut’ – the good thoughts said from her son’s mouth, and she was already encouraged, and her feeling did improve. She opened ‘Epistles’ and read in the letter that she has a mission where she is currently. She asked to be brought to her, and placed by her bed a charity box and a plate of coins, in order to win the mitzvah of charity every Jew who entered. Her children continued to strive and cling to good thoughts.
And here the miracle happened. Yael recovered. By the grace of God she returned to a full life despite the predictions
The gloom of the doctors! The accuracy of the Rebbe’s words, the commitment, the trust in God – bring with them salvation. Think good!
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