And after the stroke?
Look, once he was sick, we don’t exactly know what he was thinking because he couldn’t speak. If we are going to draw implications, they have to be drawn prior to the stroke because we don’t really know enough about what was going on. There’s a difference of view. The neurologists, by and large, felt the Rebbe retained his mental faculties fully after the stroke. But Dr. Ira Weiss, who treated the Rebbe very closely and had a close relationship with the Rebbe, told me that the Rebbe’s mental [faculties] were compromised.
To end on a positive note: You write in the preface that you are a better person as a result of having written this book. That’s a rather unusual statement for a biographer to make.
But it’s true. I became a more patient person, I became less judgmental, and I was particularly influenced by the Rebbe’s usage of positive language. For example, the Rebbe never liked to use the term “beit cholim” because it means “house of the sick.” He tried to get Israeli hospitals to call themselves “beit refuah.”
My wife would often comment that when I came back from working at 770, I always seemed more upbeat and optimistic. The Rebbe really created an infectious, very positive spirit.