Monday, August 16, 2010

Respect

A story I heard today.

The Berditchever Rebbe would get very excited whenever he heard Chassidus. He could hardly sit through even a portion of a shiur of the Maggid before he started screaming and jumping up and down. The Maggid had a problem with legs (or spinal cord), so he had to walk on crutches. One time he was walking down the steps, and the Berditchever heard the sound of his crutches. In anticipation of the Chassidus his Rebbe was going to say, he started jumping up and down and screaming and had to be carried out.

(As a side note, only two people could hear the whole shiur of the Maggid in its completion: Alter Rebbe and a man named Wolfer. Alter Rebbe used to say that for seventy two hours after hearing Chassidus of the Maggid, his stomach was inside-out.)

At the famous Zhlobiner Chassaneh, Mitteler Rebbe was supposed to say Chassidus. He promised to the Berditchever he would speak only if the latter behaved. The Mitteler Rebbe started saying Chassidus, and the Berditchever was sitting and listening. But, as was the style of Mitteler Rebbe, he continued speaking for a long time, and eventually, the Berditchever could not take it anymore; he ran to the Mitteler Rebbe, wrapped his tallis around him and said: “The srofim and malachim should not be jealous.”

Since then, the Berditchever looked up at the Mitteler Rebbe as his Rebbe. The Mitteler Rebbe looked up at Alter Rebbe as his Rebbe. And the Alter Rebbe looked up at the Berditchever, because he was an older talmid (by five years) of the Maggid. There was a doorway into the hall that was wide enough for two people. The Berditchever, however, would not walk in front of the Mitteler Rebbe. The Mitteler Rebbe would not walk in front of the Alter Rebbe. And Alter Rebbe would not walk in front of the Berditchever. So, chassidim had to break the doorway down so that the three rebbeim could walk through.

10 comments:

Chezky said...

How do you walk with 'crouchers'?

Just curious.

e said...

As a son-in-law in a respectable American family, you got to get your definite articles in shape.

e said...

subscribing

CA said...

Maybe I will influence them, not they me.

CA said...

Chezky: one crouch at a time.

e said...

That I doubt. They do happen to have the weight of nearly all English speakers behind them.

CA said...

But I have nearly endless charisma.

e said...

right. Instead of copying Borat, your little siblings-in-law will be copying you.

Anarchist Chossid said...

Well, I am certainly a better choice than Borat.

Chezky said...

You still may want to consider this -http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/crutch- as opposed to this -http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/crotch-

Sorry to bring it up, but there's a big difference.