The Neschizer Rebbe: "Do Not Curse Anyone"

from Zichron Zot (Mei-Avdut Hatzaddikim 38), 1892

         I have decided for a reason known to me to add here the following story of the Neschizer rebbe when he was in the town of Ratna.

            Mr. Yosef of Ravne came to him before going on to travel to the Holy Land. He told him a story, and after he left, the Neschizer told it [from his own perspective] as follows.

            In the year 5618 (told the rebbe), I was in a certain town where a new synagogue was about to be built. I was asked to attend a ceremony to mark the placing of the cornerstone.

            My carriage was harnessed to go from my lodgings to the synagogue site. Usually I would walk in front and the carriage would follow afterwards. But this time Hashem sent me the idea that I should send my carriage ahead of me, while I and the other people followed behind.

            (Author’s note: I recall all of this as though it were happening today, because I was there.)

            There was a person there who was enticed to do evil. There was a bridge along the way, and he secretly sawed through its pillars so that when I traveled over the bridge the sawn posts would break and the bridge would be destroyed.

            (As is known, many people would ordinarily hold onto his carriage, and so it would be very heavy.)

            But with Hashem’s kindness, since I had given word that the carriage should travel in front, when it went over the bridge and the pillars began to move to the side so that the bridge began to break, tipping over the carriage, the people accompanying me were told to go to the other side of the bridge.

            After that, the Holy One, blessed be He, made it known that the person who had done the sawing had gone insane. [This happened because] he confessed his sin in public. As a result, he was taken to the paupers’ hospital.

            R. Yosef went there and saw him when his mind was clear. The sick man told him that all of this occurred to him in punishment for something that he had done.

            When the Neschizer rebbe told this story, a member of his household, [his aide,] said, “So should all of Your enemies be destroyed, Hashem, and all those who intend evil to the master.”

            The Neschizer replied, “Why do you curse?”

            The aide answered, “Am I not speaking properly? Certainly this should happen to whoever contemplates doing evil to the master even if he does so just once a year.”

            The Neschizer answered him angrily, “Hashem does not listen to curses from the mouth of a person who likes to drink a little whisky and then lie down to sleep.”

            The aide responded, “If so, then let Hashem be zealous on behalf of the honor of a person who does not drink whiskey and who does not love to sleep”—with which he alluded to the honorable Neschizer.

            The Neschizer replied, “Such a person does not curse and is not pleased with your words.”

The Neschizer Rebbe: The Walls of His House

      The Neschizer rebbe treated the walls of his house, which had been home to his father and brother with especial holiness and great love.

      In the year 5618 [1867-68], when he was in the town of Kalk, he gave orders that the house in Neschiz should be repaired, because it was getting very old.

      When he returned from his trip and saw that the walls had been raised as part of the repair process, he was upset and said that it was not right to move the house.

      And regarding the wooden window frames (reimen), he also gave orders not to remove the old ones and make new ones. Rather, where the old ones rotted, he commanded to cut away the rotted part and put a new piece there, and paint them so that the repair would not be noticeable.

Zichron Zot (Mei-avdut Hatzaddikim, 37) , 1892

Poem: The Moon Rose

The moon rose in the swinging sky

And glittered at the fox

Who turned his pointy nose and sniffed.

A cat turned on the rocks.

The ocean turned upon the shore,

The boy turned on the gutter,

And musty men in dusty rags

Turned up to rage and mutter.

Oh in the apple of your eye,

Oh in the woods medieval

The woodman struck, the cages shook,

The king decried upheaval.

The Neschizer Rebbe: The Mysterious Purim Visitor

(Story translated from an authentic Hasidic text, first published in 1892)

            Also on Purim 5627 [1867], the Neschizer Rebbe quoted the book [unclear] that a person should write the word Amalek or Haman and then erase it, in order to perform the positive commandment of wiping out the memory of Amalek.

            Regarding the custom mentioned in the Shulchan Aruch (690) that “a person should bang when the megillah reader says ‘Haman,’ etc., and we should not eliminate or mock any custom, for they were not established without reason,” the Neschizer rebbe told that one time a law was passed forbidding Jews from making noise when Haman is mentioned during the megillah reading.

            But during the megillah reading, very loud striking noises were miraculously heard in the synagogue.

            I believe that the Neschizer rebbe told that an old man who was doing the striking appeared. The other Jews begged him not to make noise so that they would not be endangered, but he told them not to worry.

            The gentiles searched for the man making noise, but they did not find him.

            And so the other Jews themselves went back to making a great deal of noise when the word “Haman” was read, and the decree was rescinded.

Mei-avdut Hatzaddikim 36, Zichron Tov

The Neschizer Rebbe: The Story of a Torn Ear

            The Neschizer rebbe was told that a certain person was learning forbidden literature.

            The Neschizer rebbe said to that man, “Tell me the truth about what I have heard about you.”

            The man answered, “Heaven forbid, I am only learning books on grammar--dikduk.”

            The Neschizer answered him, “That is connected to the idea of the ‘sufferings of poverty’--dikdukei aniyut.”

            The man also said, “I sometimes study the Kuzari.”

            The Neschizer said, “It is fitting to learn Talmud with the comments of the Rosh. Also learn the Duties of the Heart, but skip the Gate of Unity.”

            And the Neschizer said, “It is clear to me that when I learned a page of Gemera my eyes would be illumined by that.” And he directed the man to recite Zohar on Sabbath morning before prayers.

            Also when the completion of a tractate was made in his presence on the Three Weeks, to make it possible to eat meat, he would at times ask the man who had completed the tractate, “Do you learn Talmud with the Rosh?” People were not sure if he meant the work Ashri by the authority called the Rosh, or if he meant, “Did you learn using your head (‘rosh’)?”

            The Neschizer also very much recommended learning the Shnei Luchos Habris.

            He told a story that the author of the Shnei Luchos Habris had a student in his yeshiva who had difficulty paying attention.

            One time the Shlah struck him and tore his ear. The student ran away and joined a band of thieves and became their leader, and he lived in the forest.

            Hashem brought it about that the Shlah was so immersed in his thoughts of Torah learning that he lost his way in the forest and he came to that very forest, to that very house.

            The student recognized him, but the Shlah did not recognize the student. And he stayed there on the holy Sabbath. After the holy Sabbath was over, the student told him, “Know that I am your student, So and So.” And in proof he showed him his torn ear. And he said, “If you can show me a way to repent, fine. But if not, I will kill you.”

            The Shlah gave him a regimen of repentance: to place a small snake in a bottle and hang it around his neck and feed it every day for seven years from everything that he himself eats and drinks. Afterwards, the snake will arise and kill him, and that will be his atonement.

            And with this regimen of repentance, the student became a perfect tzaddik.

Zichron Tov

Rav Kook On: Bringing Light to the World

The greatest spiritual illumination that can possibly rest in a person’s heart for the good is that he will always find himself desiring to act from his good side on behalf of all of existence.

The more that his awareness embraces reality, universally and in its details, in its spirituality and in its physicality, and the more that its order and structure are comprehensible and clear to him, the more well-founded will be his supernal love and the tendency of his will, so that he may, as best he can, do good for all.

The stronger that this thought grows, the more Divine it is. Then the supernal, Divine light is present. Kindness is revealed in the light of wisdom and illumines the face of [this] person and causes his soul to grow.

When this supernal thought grows stronger, with all of its conditions, when it proceeds in its order, it paves pathways in a person’s heart of how to tend in actuality to the universal good.

And when no knowledge and intellect suffice for this, immediately a holy spirit and a Divine, supernal light rest upon him. And when this grows very strong, it gives power to bring about miracles and wonders in heaven and on earth.

*

When universality is established very well in a person, he rises to the heights of spirituality.

He then hears and heeds the great being of spiritual matters, the strength of their existence and the multitude of life and activity within them, and he becomes entirely supernal and spiritual.

Since he is in the spiritual world, distances are nullified for him. They no longer form a barrier before him.

And all of existence appears before him in one glance and flight.

And the desire to do good with the entire world of action is a single matter.

The universal thought lifts everything, and in the light of thought that envelopes everything, he in truth shines upon everything.

All of being is filled with light as a result of his light. Everything is elevated by means of his elevations.

*

When the person descends from his heights and the world of action, which is defined and limited, forms a barrier before him, he then arranges his positive qualities in stages.

He knows that he requires, in the greatness of his spirit, a self-elevation, so that he will be uplifted, whole and elevated, so that he will have the ability to perform all good with the ultimate, broadest outreach.

He goes with the line: his person, his family, his tribe, his nation, his type, his classification—all that is found in his world, which is to say, in his physical reality.

Afterwards he goes and envisions, yearns as he grows elevated that all of these will participate in the improvement of the all, of all that is higher than space and more elevated than time.

And this thought itself strengthens him, causes him to grow and raises him beyond all deeds.

He goes forth to his people and speaks and acts, impresses his action upon his generation, and leaves an eternal remembrance for all generations.

He lives with eternity.

That which he will do while he is still in the corporeal sphere is a slight beginning in doing good to the all. But it is well-arranged and placed in regard to the state of the living world and existence within the boundaries of time and space.

These things themselves, in their essence and uplifted states, will be taken along with his eternal being, his essence that lives with the all.

His Divine longing will be revealed in every generation, from the supernal heights to the lowest depth.

His people will draw forth his spirit, the good spirit, to the all—with feeling if not entirely with clear understanding. They too will yearn for Divinity, for good, and beyond these heavens there will flash onto them constant brilliant flashes.

If they are not fit to rise to those heights, they will descend many descents. They will stumble as they walk. But although seven times will they fall, they will arise.

The supernal spirit, in the heights of eternity and might, places upon them the spirit of the living God, until the graves will be opened and dry, scattered bones will rise and be revived, and a very great army will stand upon its feet.

            Kibbutzim Mi’ktav Yad Kodsho II, p. p. 70

Poem: A Stray Bird Flew

a stray bird flew

above the scrubby hill

the air twisted like an olive press

The howler monkeys seemed on the verge of speech

Rav Kook On: A Person Who Has an Ethical, Poetic Spirit

A person who has an ethical, poetic spirit constantly yearns to engage in general principles, because they contain all of the wealth that is divided afterwards to all of the individual details.

And out of the abundance that gathers in his soul due to the brightness of the general principles, a person can make use of the details clearly when they are called upon.

Contrarily, a person whose spirit is dry and this-worldly cannot bear the vast light in the general principles. He tends always to choose details for himself. And from the details, he comes to the general principles.

A person through whose soul the supernal light penetrates is aware of the entire process of the general principles: of how they proceed within the smallest details. Therefore, with all of his love for the principles his love for the details is not diminished, “and he lovingly derives from every crown upon a letter mounds upon mounds of laws.”

Kibbutzim Mi’ktav Yad Kodsho II, p.69

Rav Kook On: Depression and Divine Light

The depth of the depression that embitters the soul to the very essence of life has been formed in the nature of [a person’s] supernal spirit so that it may have a receptacle that will be filled with Divine light.

The only thing that will support and revive the soul when it is faint, when it is completely discouraged, when it is filled with anger at itself, when it sees itself in its emptiness and imperfection, is Divine light.

That Divine light is not an awareness that [the spirit] acquires only through measured and step-by-step logic, which is as nothing. It is true that the soul cannot be empty of that intermediate trait of awareness. However, it is not with this that [a person] will penetrate to the Divine light that he needs for his life, but [with] the light that radiates from the supernal light in the depth of [his] soul, as the soul inherently realizes that only it itself recognizes its own happiness and light via [that light], just as [the soul] alone recognizes the times that it sees its own dark situation, its suffering and sadness.

“The heart knows its own bitterness, and no stranger can mix into its joy” (Proverbs 14:10).

Kevatzim Mikhtav Yad Kadsho II, p. 69

More Tales of the Neschizer Rebbe

30. Sunday night, 22 Adar 5628.

Rabbi A. told me that he heard the Neschizer rebbe tell a story about his father, the Moharam, which I will repeat in brief.

Once a whiskey merchant from near the town of Tshihan came to the area of Neschiz to do business, and heard that the great [Moharam] lived there.

He came and spent the Sabbath there. When the Sabbath came to an end, he hurried to go on his way.

The great Moharam stopped him, but after the man begged him to give him leave to go, the Moharam did so.

On the way, the “external forces” misled him, God have mercy. They showed him the illusory image of a courtyard, and there he bought whiskey. Afterwards, he found himself standing in a pool of water and saw that everything had been an illusion.

He returned to the Moharam, who reminded him that he had tried to prevent him from going. Nevertheless, the Moharam had pity on the merchant and sent him to a certain ruin in a certain town. He went there and recognized the “external forces.” They told him that in respect to the Moharam they had to obey, and they returned his money to him, plus an additional amount.

31. The Neschizer rebbe told another story in which the husk of sexuality clung to a man in the shape [of a woman], God have mercy, and enticed him to sin, God have mercy.

And so the man went to the Moharam to plead for his soul.

The Moharam was aware that this man was coming, and he sent a warning to the whole town to close its doors at night and not open them for anyone.

That night, the afflicted man came to the town and pleaded that the innkeepers let him in, but they refused.

He went and lay down on a dry thatch of grass in order to go to sleep when the image came to him, God have mercy, and asked him, “Come down to me.”

He asked it, “Why is it that you always come to me but this time you are asking me to come to you?”

It replied to him, “Because of some of the grass that you are lying on, I cannot approach you.”

He asked it, “Tell me which it is, and I will throw it away from here.”

It told him which it was, and he took it, so that it protected him.

The Moharam had foreseen and brought this all about, because this was the way in which that man’s salvation had to come about.

32. The Neschizer used to inquire about the well-being of R. Shalom of Belz.

Once it was heard that he was having a problem with his eyes and that he wanted to undergo medical treatment.

The Neschizer directed him by [sending a message with] a traveler to make no effort to heal his eyes.

And it is known that in his old age he was blind.

Later on, the Neschizer told that one of the tzaddikim sitting in the heavenly Sanhedrin was elevated to a very high level (author’s note: “Israel are the children of prophets,” and the people who heard the story think that he meant his brother, the holy rebbe of Kavle, who passed away on 27 Elul 5597 [1837]) and someone else had to take his place. In heaven they wanted the Belzer to pass away and take his place in the heavenly Sanhedrin.

“And since I knew that the world needs him, with my prayer I caused his eyesight to be removed, so that it would be as though had passed away, in order that he may remain in this world.”

(Author’s note: I heard in the name of a tzaddik of our generation, may he live to a length of good days, that these two tzaddikim had a soul connection. I also heard that the Belzer too passed away on 27 Elul.)

33. In the year 5618 (1857-58) the Neschizer rebbe was in the town of Alik.

One time he was wearing his tallis in preparation for prayer.

One of his aides entered and told of a person whose actions were improper.

The Neschizer rebuked [the aide]. He took hold of the doorknob and told the aide, “You have been in my home for several years. You must know that when a person takes hold of my doorknob I immediately know and feel what he has done since the day he was born. But what can I do? It is written that the Holy One, blessed be He, ‘has not gazed upon sin in Jacob.’ If the Holy One, blessed be He, has not gazed at the evil part, how shall I gaze at the evil part? It is my way to look only at the good in a person, because if I were to look at the evil, I would never let anyone come into my house.”

(Author’s note: I heard that when the Neschizer decided to leave Berditchev and become a leader in Neschiz, Hashem, be He blessed, accepted his prayer that he never see the evil in anyone but only the good.)

34. Once, when the Neschizer was sitting at a meal, a member of his household came in and grew self-important as he spoke with the Neschizer rebbe.

The Neschizer replied, “Do you know before whom you are talking? I come from the seed of the kingdom of the house of David, and heaven only acts with my permission in an area around me to a distance of four hundred square miles.”

from "Zichron Tov"