Yiddish Stories Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Hecht Told on Radio

Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Hecht was the firstborn boy of his parents, R’ Yehoshua and Sarah Hecht. He was the eldest of 6 Hecht brothers who would later become fierce Chassidim and instrumental in the growth of Lubavitch, and indeed Yiddishkeit, in America.

As a young boy, his father sent him to learn in Israel, as he had a couple of decades earlier. Upon returning from his studies abroad he was enrolled in the Yeshiva Torah V’Daas, where Rabbi Yisroel Jacobson was one of the teachers.

Rabbi Jacobson held a Tanya shiur in his home, and Shlomo Zalman became one of students and was drawn to the study of Chassidus, which set the tone for his brothers to follow as well. So impressed was Rabbi Jacobson with the young man that he took him as a son-in-law for his daughter Chaya Sara.

As a young couple, they made the decision to move to Poland to be near the Frierdiker Rebbe, and were there for a short time until the war broke out and they were forced to return to America. Even when escaping the war, the young Rabbi Hecht refused to break Shabbos.

In 1942, the Frierdiker Rebbe sent them to Chicago to be the Rov for the community there, a position he remained in until his untimely passing in 1979 at just 61 years old. Amongst his many projects was a radio program, from whence the stories in this series are taken.

He was known as a passionate and clear orator with a distinct style, one who had command of both the Yiddish and English languages and could inspire and move both a religious audience as well as a secular one.

He passed away on Friday, 24 Menachem Av 5739, and the Rebbe instructed he be buried the same day. He had the distinction of the Rebbe joining the funeral at the cemetery and watching the proceedings from the sidewalk, returning to Crown Heights very close to Shabbos.

May his memory be a blessing to the family of Chassidim.

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In honor of his yartzeit, Jewish and Chassidic stories that Rabbi Hecht told over the years in Yiddish on the radio will be posted on YouTube.com. This week’s story: “The Baal Shem Tov and the Power of Tehillim.”

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