Matters of Faith
6. One time, the holy rabbi of Sasnivitz came to the Neschizer rebbe, as I—the writer— was standing at the bottom of the house.
Someone from the town was seriously ill. His wife came, stood behind the window, and cried out to the rebbe to pray for him.
The rebbe then told the Sasnivitzer that one time two great tzaddikim were staying together. (Writer: because of woman’s outcries, I could not hear who these tzaddikim were.)
They received a request for help from a woman who was experiencing a difficult childbirth, and they urged each other to help her. Finally, the greater of the two took his kerchief, spread it out like a curtain, looked into it, and said, “Congratulations—she has given birth.” And so it was.
The other tzaddik asked him, “What did you see in the kerchief?”
He answered him, “I did this so that the onlookers would have simple faith, for if I would have spoken in some other way, everyone would have thought, ‘How does the tzaddik know?’ But now there is nothing here that can be understood. And that is the essence of faith: that the believer should know that he has no grasp of the matter and cannot study and investigate it.”
With that, the Neschizer rebbe sent me to visit the sick man—who, after a few days, returned to his health.
Writer: the rebbe demonstrated how the tzaddik had spread out the kerchief and looked at it.
Matters of Clinging to the Divine
1. Tuesday night, rosh chodesh Av 5624 (1864), the parshah of Devarim.
As the holy tzaddik, R. Yehoshua of Sasnivitz (of blessed memory), was sitting before the Neschizer rebbe, the rebbe told the following story about his great father, Moharam (of blessed memory). (And he told the same story on Sunday on the week of the parshah of Balak 5627 [1867].)
One time, Father was lying in bed in the morning before prayers, because he was weak.
Many visitors came to him with various requests to pray on their behalf, and he answered each person in accordance with his concerns and business.
A regular visitor to the house, R. Chaim Leib, who was an intelligent man, stood quiet but obviously wondering. After all of the visitors had left, Father asked him “Why are you standing there wondering?” But he remained silent. So he asked him a few times, “What are you thinking?”
He answered, “I am surprised that even though the rebbe is involved in the upper worlds, he can reply to each individual about his affairs.”
Father answered him, “Know that despite this I did not stop clinging to God. When you recite prayers such as ‘Hear our voice’ and “He Who hears prayer’ you say the words but your thoughts wander; so why should you be surprised if a person can think about the upper worlds and speak words of this world?”
Afterwards, in 5624 (1863-64) the rebbe showed the Sasnivitzer rebbe a passage in the book, Sefer Chareidim, which quotes the Ramban on the topic of constantly clinging to God (in positive commandment 81, section 10; this is cited in Toldot Yitzchak, Nasso.)
And in 5627 (1866-67), when the rebbe finished [writing] this [work] [?], he taught the teaching printed there in the Likutim section on Tanach (Isaiah 55:8) on the verse “My thoughts are not your thoughts,” etc.
2. Tuesday night, parshah of Pekudei, 5627.
The holy tzaddik, R. Y.L. of Parisov, came to sit before the Neschizer rebbe, of blessed memory.
Before the holy tzaddik went home, the [Neschizer] rebbe told him the teaching printed in [his] Likutei Shas (Eiruvin 64) regarding the statement of the sages that “a person should not take leave of his comrade….”
He also told him that when the holy Lubliner rebbe was a student of the holy tzaddik, the rebbe R. Shmelke, R. Shmelke requested that when he is engaged in deep study of halachah and Tosafot, and that leads him to allow his mind to drift away from clinging to God, the Lubliner should remind him by gently shaking R. Shmelke’s sleeves.
The Lubliner said that he never had to do this, for he saw that the holy R. Shmelke was never distracted from clinging to God, heaven forbid, including the time that he was learning.
One time the Lubliner saw that R. Shmelke was deeply immersed in his learning, and he was afraid that he had been distracted from his clinging to God. He wanted to shake his sleeves as the R. Shmelke had told him, but meanwhile R. Shmelke turned to him and told him, “My son, my son, I myself remembered.”
(The writer states in regard to the teaching, “one should take leave only in the midst of words of halachah,” that the rebbe said--in brief--that the letters of the word halachah can be rearranged to form the letters hakalah—the bride. And he mentioned the 24 adornments of the bride. But for my sins I did not merit to hear and recall this.)
On The Topics Of Eating, Sleep, Dreams And Healing
1. Monday night, the parshah of Devarim 5627.
The rebbe told about the holy tzaddik R. Chaim Krasner (a teaching of whose is printed in his name in this book, in the parshah of V’etchanan (3.27) on the verse, “Go up to the head of the peak”).
He was a student of the Baal Shem Tov and afterwards of the maggid of Mezritch. (After the Baal Shem Tov passed away, all of his students became students of the Maggid of Mezritch, because when the Maggid of Mezritch came to the Baal Shem Tov, he said, “A container filled with candles has come before me, and it is only necessary to light them.”)
R. Chaim Krasner lived in the days of the holy tzaddik, R. Nachum of Chernobyl.
The tzaddik, R. Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, at first did not eat any meat, not even chicken, and not even on the Sabbath. R. Chaim Krasner argued with him about this. He said, “For whom were these foods created? Is it only so that gentiles will eat them?” After that, the tzaddik of Berditchev would eat chicken even on weekdays.
2. At the Sabbath morning meal, on the parshah of Bechukotai 5627, the leaders of the generation were together with the rebbe. The rebbe told them in the name of the Karliner that in a person’s heart there can come into being the feeling that a bone is growing. And he is healed by eating onions at the holy Sabbath meal.
3. The Neschizer rebbe also said at that time that since the early authorities speak of the obligation to eat hot food on the Sabbath, and if one does not, then “one must fear lest…,” heaven forbid, the implication is that this obligation to eat hot food causes healing.
4. The Neschizer rebbe also spoke at that time regarding fish that are commonly eaten here (i.e., in his town of Neschiz) on the holy Sabbath.
He stated that the Baal Shem Tov had said that he had been given a choice from heaven as to whether to live in Nemirov, Mezibozh, or a third town. He chose Mezhibozh, since fish are common there and he could acquire them easily for the holy Sabbath.
5. On Wednesday night of the parshah of Teitzei 5627, the Neschizer gave a reason for sleep in the name of the Baal Shem Tov.
In the kabbalistic writings in the name of the Ari, we learn supernal reasons for sleep: that sleep is on the level of small consciousness, with the purpose of rising to expanded consciousness.
The Baal Shem Tov said that this may be compared to a king who had an only son who was very precious to him, whom he sent to war. He asked his son to send home all of the spoils that God awarded him little by little.
His son asked him, “Would it not show greater respect to bring everything at once?”
But his father answered him, “I am afraid that the enemy might overcome you and take it all from you, heaven forbid. Therefore, save it little by little.”
And the meaning is clear.
When a person’s soul engages every day in Torah and performs God’s commandments and good deeds, he must be concerned that his evil inclination will gain in strength and ruin everything, heaven forbid. (The rebbe repeated these words a number of times and praised them, saying that in truth a person must be concerned about this). Therefore, sleep was given, so that the soul rises up and hides these in a well-guarded storehouse.
The rebbe concluded that on the night before the giving of the Torah the Jews slept until God Himself came and woke them, as we learn in the Midrash. The reason that they went to sleep was that they were greatly inspired and prepared for the giving of the Torah, and they were afraid that this [inspiration] might be taken away from them, heaven forbid. And so they hid it in a heavenly storehouse by means of going to sleep.
from Sefer Zichron Tov
No comments:
Post a Comment