Most of the years, the Lubavitcher Rebbitzin herself arranged the seudah hamafseket (the customary meal eaten late afternoon before the fast) for her husband. In the last years, when she was not strong enough to continue this, the responsibility fell to Rabbi Chesed Halberstam, a chasid who already for many years had been the main one to help them at home.
One year, to start the meal, he set out two small challahs. When the Rebbe came to sit down for the meal, he looked at the two loaves, and asked, "There aren’t any bagels?"
Halberstam looked at the Rebbe, not comprehending.
The Rebbe looked back at him: "In Sanz no one eats bagels on erev Tisha B’Av?" [Chesed Halberstam is from the family of the Sanzer dynasty.]
"I didn’t see," he answered.
He said that at the final meal before the Tisha B’Av fast, one should eat bagels in place of the customary bread. Halberstam turned back at once to the kitchen, rapidly calculating if there were still enough time to call the bakery and order bagels. But, before he could finish dialing, he saw the Rebbe standing with a knife, cutting a hole in the middle of a roll.
"Nu," he said, "I’ve already got a bagel."
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