11. The Neschizer rebbe said that “after the holy R. Yaakov Shimshon of Shepitovka traveled the land of Israel, he went to see my father, the holy Moharam. When he came to Neschiz, he said, ‘I heard in the name of the Moharam that there is a strip of land that extends from the land of Israel to here, and it is true, for here I sense the atmosphere of the land of Israel.’ When people reported this to the Moharam, he said, ‘[That is the case] wherever the tzaddik of Israel [?] stays. If so, that land is called the land of Israel.’”[unclear]
Whenever the Neschizer rebbe wanted to miraculously acquire some good fish for the Sabbath or a holiday when it was otherwise unavailable, he would say, “We learn in the name of the holy author of the Ohr Hachaim that 52 years before the messiah comes, fish will leave the entire world and go to the land of Israel. And since Neschiz constitutes a strip of the land of Israel, the fish have to come here.”
And so it was.
12. The Neschizer rebbe always kept the volumes of the Kedushas Levi and Degel Machaneh Efraim on his table, and he was well-acquainted with them.
One time he was brought the holy Derech Pikudechah [by R. Tzvi Elimelech of Dinov]. He leafed through its pages quickly and said, “It contains nothing new [to me].”
We who were standing there did not understand whether this meant that he knew the holy rabbi of Dinov on the physical plane or on the spiritual plane.
Similarly, the Neschizer rebbe once said of the holy R. Elazar of Koznitz, “I love him a great deal for his simplicity.” He concluded: “even though I do not know him so well--but in regard to his simplicity, I love him. From his words “so well,” it appeared that he knew him on the spiritual plane but not “so well”—[i.e., not in the physical world].
This is similar to what the Neschizer rebbe once said about two tzaddikim who are [now] deceased: that they did not know each other in the physical dimension, but it is possible that they knew each other in the spiritual dimension.
And he said of the holy R. Moshe of Korishtshuv, “Si gefelt mir zein hisnahagus--I appreciate his way of acting--since he acts like a [simple] layman.”
We told the Neschizer rebbe at his meal that we heard that the holy R. Moshe of Korishtshuv said before he passed away, “What other neighborhood can boast, as can the neighborhood of the rabbi of Neschiz, that he protects it from the plague that was in the world, God have mercy, for he transformed the decree into inflation?”
And from the expression on the face of the Neschizer rebbe, it appeared that these words were true.
At the time of the plague, God have mercy, in the world in the year 5626 and onward, many times we heard and saw from him how he was involved on behalf of the good of the community. When he was told that the sickness had come to a certain town in the area, God have mercy, he denied it and said that it was not true. He made a motion with his fingers indicating that the sickness would circle around but it would not come to these neighborhoods. And so it was. May his merit protect us.
And when it happened that a person in our town fell ill, God have mercy, the Neschizer rebbe would refer to the illness in a joking fashion and said that it was not the [fatal] illness but rather an illness called hatzka in Yiddish, and that the man would soon get well.
And see this wonder. There was a person in the town of Brisk who was weakened by that illness, God have mercy, and people sent news dispatches by telegraph. Finally there came a dispatch reporting that he was very weak and his body was cold and his pulse was still and he was entering his death throes, God have mercy, and they paid for a reply.
The Neschizer rebbe directed to reply in the gentile language, “Be well.” And this was a wondrous thing, for he had never been heard to say anything in the gentile language. And it was even more wondrous that he would reply to a dying person dying with a confident “be well,” since he would usually reply only in the way of a prayer and blessing.
The people did not change what he directed and replied in that way. And immediately the illness was healed right before the eyes of people who had said that he had no hope unless he took much medicine. Those who stood there relied on the answer of the Neschizer rebbe and did not give him medicine.
And soon afterwards this sick person came to the Neschizer rebbe, having been healed, and he thanked God for His kindness.
13. The Neschizer rebbe told that he saw the Berditchever holding a candle and he caused himself a burn scar.
At times the Neschizer rebbe called the Berditchever “the Zelichover,” because he had initially been the rabbi of Zelichov. And at times he would call the Lubliner “the Lantziter” because he was also rabbi in Lantzit.
The Neschizer was married to the grand daughter [nechdo] of the Berditchever, and the Berditchever supported them for four years. Before the marriage, the Berditchever had stated that he could not promise to support the couple for more than four years, by any means. And this was very unusual. In the end the Berditchever supported him until the [last] day [of the four years] and then he passed away. May his merit protect us and all Israel .
The Neschizer rebbe told that the Berditchever asked him if he knows the Kotzinitzer, and he said “No.” And he asked him again, and he replied “No.” And he told him, “I would very, very much want that you should meet him.”
The Neschizer rebbe decided to travel to him, but then he heard that the Kozinitzer had passed away— may his merit protect us and all of the congregation of Israel.
And the Neschizer rebbe concluded telling this story to the holy rabbi of Sasnivitz, “From the words of the Berditchever I understood that I have a connection in the root of the soul with the Kozinitzer.”
(Author’s note: Israel are “the children of prophets,” for I heard people praise the Neschizer rebbe by saying that “he is like the Kozinitzer in his generation.”)
14. The Neschizer rebbe told that the Berditchever used to go to sleep and then get up at midnight. But the Neschizer had the custom of staying awake until after midnight.
(Author’s note: indeed, that was how I saw him act.)
The Berditchever tried to persuade the Neschizer rebbe also to first go to sleep and then get up at midnight.
One time, the Neschizer rebbe saw the Berditchever get up at midnight, awaken his servant, take liquor and go to the bathhouse, where all the travelers who had no lodging were asleep. He went to a Jew and woke him, saying, “Drink some schnapps.” The Jew agreed, but when he remembered that he had no water to wash his hands and no place to make a blessing, he refused and did not want to drink. The Berditchever then went over to a gentile and woke him, and the gentile drank the schnapps where he was without reciting a blessing to the Creator, blessed be He. And the Berditchever returned with great joy to the house and fervently proclaimed, “Master of the world, see the difference between these and those!”
15. The Neschizer was not accustomed to tell people to fast. Even in regard to rectifying a flaw in the sexual covenant, when a person asked him [for advice], he would only tell him fast some rosh chodesh eves. And he said that a person who wants to fast on the eve of the new month should not be strict in regard to the molad, [the precise astronomical time].
One time the Neschizer rebbe said to two members of his household who did not want to eat in the evening, “Why fast? That is not the main thing.”
And he told that the Berditchever did not think highly of fasting to afflict oneself.
He said that [the desire to fast] comes from the urging of the evil inclination to weaken the mind so as to prevent it from serving God.
And he said in [the Berditchever’s] name that this may be compared to two people who were fighting. One was clever and said, “If I hit the other person in one of his limbs I will only destroy one of his limbs. It is better to strike him in his head, because in that way I will gain victory over his whole body.” Similarly, at times the evil inclination advises a person to fast in order to weaken his brain, and automatically [the evil inclination] attacks him.
17. (there is no #16) The Neschizer rebbe told that in the year before he passed away, the Berditchever rebbe summoned him to teach him the mystical intentions of the lulav and esrog.
And the Berditchever’s children envied him. Why did he teach him and not them?
The Berditchever replied to them, “When the Moharam will ask me in the world of truth, ‘What did you teach my children?’ I will have to reply to him. Therefore, I am teaching him these intentions of the lulav and etrog.”
And they closed the door and he taught him these intentions.
(Author’s note: the Neschizer rebbe used to shake lulav and etrog in his succah by himself.)
18. The Neschizer rebbe told in the name of a certain earlier holy tzaddik that now divine inspiration is not common among us, except for the rabbi of Berditchever at the time that his soul is expiring at the time of the [Musaf] keter kedushah prayer. Then he attains it a bit.
19. I heard from the men of his household that the Berditchever told the Neschizer rebbe not to smoke Turkish tutin [?].
(Author’s note: In his youth, the Neschizer rebbe smoked tutin. At the end of his days, he only did so on very rare occasions. And he quickly drew in and blew out the smoke with great rapidity. For about ten years before he passed away he ceased entirely smoking. One time he was in the town of Stabekhve in the year 5617 at the marriage of his relative with [the family of] the holy R. Yaakov of Apta. The Neschizer rebbe did not have his pipe and he asked for a clean pipe. But before they brought it to him he changed his mind and did not want to smoke.)
Zichron Tov
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