Concerning the Rebbe wanting to go to the mikveh ערב יום כיפור תשכ\"ה when sitting שבעה after his mother, and ערב יום Yom Kippur before Minchah he wanted to go. So the story is that the Rebbe asked some rabbanim, like even though it says in Shulchan Aruch that really you should go only סמוך לחשיכה towards the evening, but he would like to go before Minchah ערב יום Yom Kippur, wanted to go to the mikveh. So he asked different rabbanim, and it seems like he couldn't find a heter. It looks like, I'm just saying what I remember what took place then. I didn't see each of these details, but this is what was going on. That Rabbi Rivkin, Berel Rivkin, he said to the Rebbe that על פי דין you're allowed to go, and he said some heter. And the Rebbe was happy, but the Rebbe told him למימצא לך חבר, that I didn't find somebody else to agree with you, I want another person to agree. And actually when even the Satmar Rebbe came, the Rebbe asked him whether he's able to go and the Satmar Rebbe answers, שטייט דאך סמוך לחשיכה, that you could only get up before חשיכה, close to the evening. So in other words he didn't find a heter. Then

Rabbi Rivkin was standing outside of the house where the Rebbe was sitting שבעה, and any rav who came he would stop him before he went in, and he would say if the Rebbe will ask you whether he could go to the mikveh ערב יום Yom Kippur before Minchah, say that he could. I remember when the Munkatcher Rebbe came, and there's a whole story that there how what the Rebbe said, but בנוגע to this עניין is that the Rebbe told him that they should print all the teshuvot of the Minchat Elazar, and the לשון the Rebbe used was, I'm sure if you'd have printed all the teshuvot of Minchat Elazar, I would have already found a heter to go to the mikveh before Minchah on ערב יום Yom Kippur. But I remember also that I think it was Erev Yom Kippur in the morning already that when the Tzelemer Rav came, and I was standing outside and I saw that the Tzelemer Rav was coming, and he's going to go into the Rebbe to menachem avel, and Rabbi Ribkin stopped him and he said if the Rebbe will ask you about going to the mikveh before Mincha, so you should answer yes. He walked in and he was able to go over right away, because sometimes he had to wait for other people to finish, here he came and it was a very short right away he sat down. And what he did was, I was standing there, he did not even wait for the Rebbe to start and right away he says, I heard that there's a she'eilah here, there's a she'eilah here about going to the מקוה ערב יום כיפור before Mincha, so I think you could go. So the Rebbe asked him farvos? In other words you're saying you're allowed, give me the reason. And I remember since he was not ready for this question, he hadn't thought it through properly, so he started giving sevarot and the sevarot were shvache sevarot, and the Rebbe right away asked him different kashiyot on the sevarot and it didn't come out. But he tried to give the Rebbe a heter. He said clearly, איך האלט אז מ'מעג, that you're allowed to. But the sevarah he started giving was he wasn't דורכגעקלערט, he didn't prepare it, so it wasn't, and that wasn't really accepted by the Rebbe. And

others also, לפועל ממש what happened is not really so clear whether he went before Mincha or not. It seems like he did not go before Mincha. That's what it seems like. So that's בנוגע the Rebbe going then. Then there's another inyan which has nothing to do with this, and I think it was when the Rebbe was מנחם אבל ר' Shaag at a different time, so the Rebbe said that a vort, that if you're mekel in הלכות אבילות למטה, they're mekel with the נשמה למעלה. And Rav' Shaag asked the Rebbe where's the makor to this? And the Rebbe answered that דאס איז אזוי ביי מיר אפגעלייגט, this, or I don't know the exact expression, this is the way I understand it, the way I stand it. And that for us be'emet is a makor, we don't need any more makor, this is the makor itself. And that's why anybody who connects this Rebbe's asking to go to the mikvah before Minchah on ערב Yom Kippur has nothing to do with this vort the Rebbe said. There was a person who came to the shul and was talking to me and we were talking about going to the mikvah, so I mentioned to him that be'etzem the Rebbe felt that you're allowed to, that's itself a makor. And I told him the story that the Rebbe said that if you're mekel in אבילות למטה איז מען מקל מיט די נשמה למעלה, and the Rebbe said that דאס איז אזוי אפגעלייגט. And for us that's enough makor. And the truth is so, why is this not a makor? Imagine you would find some din that you say where's the makor and you'd say well it's the Aruch HaShulchan. Okay, the Aruch HaShulchan, but where did he get it from? Where is his makor? Or anybody else that you could say. אלא מאי, we're talking about גדולי ישראל, that's called a makor. So if the Rebbe says, that's the makor for the inyan itself. But we can't mix the stories. So it's the Tzelemmer Rav מפורש tried to give a heter, Satmar Rebbe did not give a heter, he tried to give but the Rebbe didn't accept it, lafo'al mamash I don't think that the Rebbe went, it's not clear, wasn't sure no one knew exactly, but it seems like that he didn't go to the mikvah ערב Yom Kippur before Minchah. And also the ווארט בנוגע אז the Rebbe is mekel in אבילות איז מען מקל מיט די נשמה למעלה, that's a separate issue. And the Rebbe said this to Rashag that that's what he that's what he thinks, אז ער האט מיר אפגעלייגט, and דער אמת איז, that's enough makor. You don't need anymore. Now I

want to just add that there is a teshuvah in Dibrei Nechemiah, where about the Alter Rebbe, the Alter Rebbe says something, and there's a long teshuvah trying to find a makor where did the Alter Rebbe is from. And there is, before he starts giving the makor, so Dibrei Nechemiah writes that we need a makor for other people. For us chasidim, he writes בפירוש, for us chasidim, this is we don't have to look for a makor. This is the Alter Rebbe says it, it's good enough. For those that are looking, so he goes through a whole teshuvah and says a makor. But באמת, מצד זה, it's we don't need a makor, because what the Rebbe said is a makor for itself. And I remember even once Rav Alberg, when he was in yeshivah once he spoke, and he said the same vort. Said something what the Rebbe said, said people ask, \"Where's the makor for this?\" So he says, \"So I answer, the Lubavitcher Rebbe alein is the makor.\" That's it, and you don't have to go any further. That's basically the story around this inyan.