After saying that, the Rebbe commented that if you look it up on the calendar, that year was a leap year. So, there were actually ten months between the two dates.
The thing is, continued the Rebbe, that tzaddikim require an additional month for the development.
Rabbi Paltiel comments: had the Rebbe not told us that the year was a leap year, nobody would have looked it up. He would totally get away with it.
This made me think. How many things the Rebbe said that we later look at in a greater detail and say: “Wait a second... What about...? But isn’t it...?” We have to remember that we don’t know all the details.
* * *
The famous story about the gem that needed to be ground up for the king’s son who got sick went on like this. Baal Shem Tov had an inner circle of students and an outer circle of followers. He was the Rebbe to a wide range of people but he taught Chassidus to a select few. The Maggid was the Rebbe only to his talmidim, but he was less selective about whom to take as a student than the Baal Shem Tov.
One of the tzaddikim, original talmidim of the Baal Shem Tov — let’s say it was Karliner Rebbe — was disappointed about the lower standards of selection process and criticized the Maggid about it. One day, he went from the shull to the outhouse. As he was walking back through the courtyard, he saw a piece of paper on the ground. He bent down to pick it up and saw that it had Baal Shem Tov’s Chassidus written on it.
What happened was that one of the talmidim of the Maggid wrote down on a piece of paper his vort and then copied it into his notebook. Then he got rid of the original piece of paper. He should have torn it up first, but he just threw it into the furnace. Because of the back draft, the piece of paper flew up the chimney and out of it, landing in front of the outhouse.
Karliner Rebbe got very upset about it. He walked in, furiously, back into the shull. The Maggid, sitting in the other room suddenly started feeling heaviness creeping in onto him and began sensing that it is Karliner Rebbe’s kipeida.
Meanwhile, in the shull, Alter Rebbe was sitting learning. He sees Karliner Rebbe walk in with a piece of paper in his hand and the expression on his face. Immediately catching on what happened, Alter Rebbe gets up and comes over.
Karliner Rebbe goes to do netilas yadayim, and as he is doing netilas yadayim and then saying Asher Yotzar, Alter Rebbe is saying the story about the king’s son who got sick, for which purpose they ground up the king’s most precious jewel, most of which ended up on the ground, but some of which got into the prince’s mouth, saving his life. (Rabbi Paltiel comments: he was saying the whole story while Karliner Rebbe was washing and saying Asher Yotzar. Either Alter Rebbe could speak very fast, or Karliner Rebbe had a lot of kavanah.)
As Alter Rebbe finishes the story, Karliner Rebbe smiles and finishes Asher Yotzar: “...rofei chol basar u’mafli la’asois” (“...who cures all the flesh and makes miracles”). The Maggid feels the heaviness of the kipeida lift off from him. Later he told Alter Rebbe: “From now on, every year that I live I owe to you.”
* * *
When the talmidei Maggid decided to create a counter-herem against misnagdim, they decided to put a kipeida on Vilna Gaon so that he would lose his mind. For this they needed a greater scholar than him. The two of them traveled to see Alter Rebbe and told him what they wanted to do. Alter Rebbe answered: “This will be chillul Hashem”. They asked again and again, and Alter Rebbe refused again and again.
Mitteler Rebbe was sitting outside the door and learning with Reb Aron Strasheler. The two talmidei maggid raised their voices in the argument, and one of them said: “If you refuse, chillul Hashem will come on your family through one of your children.” When Mitteler Rebbe heard this, he fainted. Hearing the commotion outside, Alter Rebbe walked out and saw Mitteler Rebbe on the floor, with chassidim surrounding him. He put a hand on his head and said: “It doesn’t mean you.”
Alter Rebbe’s youngest son, Moshe, ran to Alter Rebbe and grabbed his legs. Alter Rebbe put a hand on his head and was coming back to his office. One of the talmidei Maggid told him: “You have one more chance.” Alter Rebbe repeated: “It will be chillul Hashem” and got in response: “Chillul Hashem will come through one of your children”, with Moshe standing right there. The rest is history...
12 comments:
That is SO scary! Who said this?
What? Which part?
Chilul Hashem and Moshe.
what's the story with Moshe?
The story was told by Rabbi Paltiel last night. The actual saying this was, I believe, Reb Avraham Kalisker, but I can be totally wrong. I have recording of that part of farbrengen, so I can listen to it to make sure.
One of the people present asked: “How could he say that?” Rabbi Paltiel answered: “It is very difficult to understand. Although, perhaps, he would answer: ‘How could Alter Rebbe not agree to put herem on Vilna Gaon?’”
Yossi, I’ll update the post about the story with Moshe in a little while (gtg now).
they wanted to put the vilna gaon in cherem cuz he did that to chassidim? and since when is nekama the answer?
Is it not mentioned in Gemara that false witnesses receive the punishment that they wanted to put upon the accused?
They wanted to stop the war against Chassidus. They wanted to stop the hisnagdus. The war against the last push to bring Moshiach. The stubborn coldness of Lithuanian Judaism that did not allow thousands of Jewish souls to taste what real Yiddishkeit is like. And resulted in thousands of their descendants going off the derech and worse...
We have no idea what negative effects Alter Rebbe’s decision had b’gashmius and b’ruchnius. How many Yidden went off the derech as a result or lived their lives as lukewarm Jews. Remember, these were tzaddikim gomurim. Rabbi Paltiel said he would not be a fly on the wall in that shull. All of us together would not a fly on that outhouse. They had their reasons.
Of course, Alter Rebbe had his reasons too.
Still working on the Moshe story...
It’s not “mentioned”, it’s Halacha. So?
Fact corrections:
1) The story with the page of Chassidus happened with R' Pinchos Koritzer.
2) They wanted to put a Cherem on the VG. The Alter Rebbe said that could lead to a Chillul Hashem - the implication is that Cherem cuts a person off from Shoiresh Haneshama, and that causes him to lose his connection, which could cause a Chillul Hashem.
1. Yep, you're right. I'll change in a while.
2. I know they wanted to put a cherem, but I thought they also wanted to make it so that VG would lose his mind. Rabbi Paltiel mentioned something about fasting and burning black candles.
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