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The Yahrzeit of Reb Mordechai of Neshchiz (1742-1800) is commemorated on the 8th of Nissan. The following meise / hasidic tale appeared in Sefer HaHasidut, Meah Tzadikim, Raphael, Yitzchak, 1961, Tel Aviv. (Freely translated by Gabbai Seth Fishman.)

A Horse For An Etrog

Rabbi Mordechai of Neshchiz was poor and destitute and, his life was one of struggle.

For an entire year he would gather his pennies so that he might be able to afford to buy himself an Etrog for Sukkot.

One year, on the eve of Sukkot, when he was going to buy the Etrog and held a decent sum of savings in his hand, he arrived at the store and saw a Jew who sat and was crying. Approaching the man, he asked:

“My brother, my friend, why are you crying?”

The poor man groaned:

“Woe is me!  A great misfortune has come upon me!

“I am a water drawer. I transport water to the town and I am paid with trouble.

“And even now, a disaster has come my way: My horse fell and died this eve of Sukkot.

“Now there’s no choice but to make my living through hand-outs.”

Rabbi Mordechai took out the bundle of cash from his pocket, gave it to the water drawer and said to him:

“Go and buy a horse for yourself.”

Rabbi Mordechai returned to his town and to his home. Upon entering his house he said in joy:

“Blessed is God’s presence in the World, blessed is He. He called upon me to perform a nice Mitzvah for this Sukkot.

“All the Jews will be making a blessing over an Etrog and I will make a blessing over a horse…”

(Praise of our teacher the Reb Mordechai)

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The Yahrzeit of Reb Avraham Yehoshua Heshel of Apt (or Apta, the Apter Rav, 1748-1825) is commemorated on the 5th of Nissan. The following meise / hasidic tale appeared in Sefer HaHasidut, Meah Tzadikim, Raphael, Yitzchak, 1961, Tel Aviv. (Freely translated by Gabbai Seth Fishman.)

Leader of the Volhynia Kolel

It was Yom Kippur and when he recited the Avodah section and reached the words,

“And such is what he would say”

they heard him say instead:

“And such is what I would say”.

And he explained:

“I now still remember the time when I served as High Priest in the Holy Temple. For once I dwelt in the Holy Land.”

And he was surprised when there was astonishment on their part.

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The Yahrzeit of Rabbi Chanokh Heynekh HaKohen of Aleksander (1798-1870) is commemorated on the 18th of Adar (II). The following meise / hasidic tale appeared in Sefer HaHasidut, Meah Tzadikim, Raphael, Yitzchak, 1961, Tel Aviv. (Freely translated by Gabbai Seth Fishman.)

Priestly Blessing

On the final Rosh Hashanah in the life of our master, our teacher, the Rav Chanoch Henoch HaKohen of Aleksander, (may his merits shield us), I heard that the Hasidim just couldn’t say goodbye; they would not depart his holy presence.

Finally, he requested that all the Hasidim go outside and stand in the courtyard. And the holy Henoch, (may his merits shield us), opened his window and blessed them all with the Priestly Blessing.

Later, while they were traveling from this gathering, one Hasid with a young son decided to circle back, for his son had fallen ill on the road and, the Hasid wanted the holy Rav’s mentioning of his son’s name in a request for Refuah Shlema.

The holy Rabbi asked him:

“Why didn’t your son take your leave of me before you went on the road?”

The Hasid asked:

“Wasn’t it the case that we all refused to take our leave from you?”

The holy Henoch, (may his merits shield us), replied:

“That’s true, but then, they were all in the courtyard at the time of the Priestly Blessing. But the youngster was not there at the time of the blessing.”

And then he understood the power in the blessings’ holiness.

(Words of the Holy Serafim, section 3, 228)

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The Yahrzeit of Rabbi Zev of Zhitomir (d. 1800) is commemorated on the 14th of Adar (II) (Purim). The following meise / hasidic tale appeared in Sefer HaHasidut, Meah Tzadikim, Raphael, Yitzchak, 1961, Tel Aviv. (Freely translated by Gabbai Seth Fishman.)

Rabbi Zev Follows Suit with the Objective of His Master, the Maggid

One night, in their sleeping quarters, the students of the Maggid (Rabbi Dov Ber of Mezritch) were discussing a particular teaching of their master.

The Maggid sent a message to them, telling them to leave off discussing the words of his teaching, for he was not able to sleep – and so, they stopped; all was quiet.

Later, the Maggid sent to them again, saying that they were not letting him sleep.

They said:

“Look! We have already become quiet!”

He asked them to check on the holy Rav, Rabbi Zev Wolf of Zhitomir, to see what he was doing.

They found him sitting, absorbed in his thoughts on the teaching.

The Maggid ordered him not to think about it – and afterwards, the Maggid was able to sleep.

(Shlomo’s House)

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The Yahrzeit of Rabbi Yitzchak Isaac Taub of Kaliv (1751-1821) is commemorated on the 7th of Adar (II). The following meise / hasidic tale appeared in Sefer HaHasidut, Meah Tzadikim, Raphael, Yitzchak, 1961, Tel Aviv. (Freely translated by Gabbai Seth Fishman.)

He is Revealed To the World by Rabbi Leib Sarah’s

Once it happened that Rabbi Leib son of Sarah stopped for Shabbat in a remote province of Russia.

With his spiritual “antennae” raised, he found himself tuning into a small distant town, the town of Serentch, Hungary, where, (he was able to perceive), there lived a greatly elevated soul. He could sense it would be worthwhile to tend and care for this person, to cultivate his refinement and expand his loftiness. There was a treasure here for the world and he recognized that he should help this soul to attain its potential.

At Motzei Shabbos immediately after the Havdalah, he instructed his wagon driver to harness the horses for a distant journey. The servant already knew that if the Rabbi says “distant journey” they will certainly be traveling in kefitzat haderech, (a shrinking of the distance for super-fast transit). And so it was.

When they sat down in the wagon, the coachman drove the horses until the outskirts of the town. When they had left the town, Rabbi Leib took the reins in his hands and, the coachman sat with his back to the horses and facing Rabbi Leib. He soon fell asleep and the journeying seemed to him as though a vision in a dream, various images, small towns and villages, rivers and lakes, fields and forests, flying before his eyes. Thus it was for the sleeping coachman until the horses arrived near the desired destination. Next, Rabbi Leib woke up the coachman and returned the reins into his hands and, they journeyed as though nothing extraordinary had happened.

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The Yahrzeit of Rabbi Leib Sarah’s (R. Aryeh Leib of Yaltushkov, son of Sarah) (1730-1791) is commemorated on the 4th of Adar (II). The following meise / hasidic tale appeared in Sefer HaHasidut, Meah Tzadikim, Raphael, Yitzchak, 1961, Tel Aviv. (Freely translated by Gabbai Seth Fishman.)

His Passing

During our Rabbi’s old age, it happened that the government began enforcement of new decrees pertaining to Jews, the intent of which was an eventual elimination of the observance of Jewish law, (Hush! Don’t say it!), and to erase the presence of the holy Torah from the minds of young Hebrew School students.

In response, our holy Rabbi mustered up his strength and prepared to battle to reverse the damage done by the decrees and, he frequently traveled in kefitzat haderech, (a shrinking of the distance for super-fast transit), to the capital city of Vienna where he went head-to-head with the powerful ones of the realm, (and even with the Kaiser himself), to rescue as much as he possibly could.

But our Rabbi sensed that these were of the trials and tribulations that are on the level of Ikveta d’meshicha / birth pangs of a Messianic age and, he saw that he, by himself, could not prevail in taking on things of this scale.

So he also met with the great ones of the Tzaddikim of his day and, he said to them that some of them must make it a priority for themselves to take on the trials as he had done, so that, together, they can help mitigate these tribulations.

The holy Rabbi Reb Moshe Leib of Sassov (ztz’l) was one of those who consented to this and, for many years before Reb Moshe’s death he suffered greatly and would not back down from it and, it seemed his staying alive was through a miracle, but despite this, he approached them with joy and, he took them on out of love.

Another who consented to endure sufferings for the good of the cause was the holy Rebbe, the Rav, Reb Zusha of Hanipoli z’tz’l and he was also, for some years before his passing, oppressed with afflictions which he received with love as an expiation for the Jews.

When the orders of the Kaiser Joseph II were made known, i.e., the orders to open shkoles (Batei Sefer / schools) and force Jewish youth to interrupt their Torah studies and only attend the shkoles, to, in effect, be raised there with no trace of Torah without entrainment to a Jewish practice (fear of heaven), our Rabbi came, time and time again, to Vienna and, when he saw no one was in sight, he entered the Kaiser’s courtyard.

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The Yahrzeit of Rabbi Shlomo of Radomsk (1801-1866) is commemorated on the 29th of Adar. The following meise / hasidic tale appeared in Sefer HaHasidut, Meah Tzadikim, Raphael, Yitzchak, 1961, Tel Aviv. (Freely translated by Gabbai Seth Fishman.)

Reb Dovid, the Teacher of Children

Although Rebbe Elimelech of Lizhensk had died before Rabbi Shlomo HaKohen was born, his legacy was still a big influence on the latter’s life. With regularity, Reb Shlomo used to journey to Rebbe Elimelech’s grave.

Once it happened that Rabbi Shlomo was traveling, passing through the small town of Zolynia in Galicia. While on this trip, when he reached the cemetery in Zolynia, he asked the Hasidim to locate the grave of the Hasid, Reb Dovid.

The Hasidim supposed it would be an easily found monument, (as one would expect for an honored sage), however they could not find one with this name.

Eventually, though, they found the grave: There was a small tombstone upon which was written:

“Here lies Reb Dovid, Teacher of Children” – and nothing more.

Rabbi Shlomo went to the grave and there he recited Psalms.

Rabbi Shlomo told them about him:

“For Rebbe Elimelech, z’tz’l, who had loved him greatly, this Reb Dovid, z’l, was extremely important.

“Once, the Rav Rebbe Elimelech z’tz’l made a point to go to him and there, he was to eat a meal for Melaveh Malkah (Farewell Shabbos). But since Reb Dovid was very poor, he didn’t have something fitting to give the Rav Rebbe Elimelech to eat.

“His wife took a kneading vessel and, for the Melaveh Malkah, from the dough that had come together through the kneading she made ‘Kleiskloch‘ (perhaps similar to Polish gnocchi).

“She prayed to Hashem yitbarach that the food she was preparing for the Rav Rebbe Elimelech would be good, like meat, and her prayer was received. The Rav Rebbe Elimelech greatly praised her cooking.”

And here’s why it says, ‘Teacher of Children’:

“After Reb Dovid died, it’s widely known that when there was a big wedding in Ostila, the Tzaddikim would announce:

“‘Anyone who has not repaired the sin of youth should not dance at the wedding! But if Reb Dovid, z’l, had been here, he would have been dancing at the wedding!‘”

(Shlomo’s Tent)

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The Yahrzeit of Rabbi Avraham of Sochatchov (1838-1910) is commemorated on the 25th of Adar. The following meise / hasidic tale appeared in Sefer HaHasidut, Meah Tzadikim, Raphael, Yitzchak, 1961, Tel Aviv. (Freely translated by Gabbai Seth Fishman.)

His Story About the Drunk from Krakow

On Purim, the holy Rav, the Rav, Rabbi Avraham of Sochatchov z’tz’l would usually tell a tale he had heard from the “Krakover Pijak“, (the drunkard of Krakow), who drank liquor and would get himself drunk for two weeks before Purim and for two weeks after Purim.

For the Pijak would say:

“Truly, there is a question about Haman the wicked, for Haman had wanted to kill and destroy all the Jews, (God forbid)! And given that he wanted to kill them all, how could we fix the time for Purim to just one day?

“Just think about it! Perhaps, many of the Jews would have hidden themselves inside cisterns, shrubs and caverns! And Haman would not have been able to kill them all on one day, it would have taken much longer. At a minimum, it would have taken the entire month of Adar, just as the lot came up for Haman on the month of Adar.”

And the holy Rav, the Reb Avraham of Sochatchov z’l was impressed at this line of thinking. And he answered, (in the name of the aforementioned Pijak:

“In this, too, was Haman doing evil, for he thought:

‘Perhaps I won’t be able to kill them,’ (which is what in fact happened). ‘So then, Israel will make that [single] day a Yom Tov.

‘In this scenario, it would be better that they have a Yom Tov on only one day than their having an opportunity for rejoicing the whole month!'”

And the Pijak said:

“I know that the intention of Haman the wicked was to reduce our rejoicing, but truly the joy is the entire month!

“Therefore, behold!

“Here I am, Hineni, drinking two weeks before Purim and two weeks after Purim“.

(From the Lips of  Tzaddikim)

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The Yahrzeit of Rabbi Abraham Gershon of Kitov (1701?-1760) is commemorated on the 24th of Adar. The following meise / hasidic tale appeared in Sefer HaHasidut, Meah Tzadikim, Raphael, Yitzchak, 1961, Tel Aviv. (Freely translated by Gabbai Seth Fishman.)

He and His Brother-in-Law, the Besht

As a first step toward realizing his God-given purpose, the Baal Shem Tov (the Besh”t), became a Hebrew School teacher for small children in a community in the vicinity of Brody. Everyone saw him as a man blessed with a divine grace for, he was an extremely noteworthy scholar and a great sage. It seemed as though every community concern turned out, in the end, as aligning with his assessment from the start.

As it happened, our teacher, the Rav Ephraim, (the father of Rabbi Abraham Gershon of Kitov), had a dispute with one of the people of the community where the Besh”t was.

Reb Ephraim came there and spoke with his opponent saying that he should travel with him to the holy community of Brody to find a resolution between them according to Jewish law. And the man said:

“Listen! There is one teacher with us here who is notable in knowledge of Torah and, he is a fair judge such that every time a case comes before him, both of the sides are satisfied with him because he rules well in his decisions. Please, let’s come before him and let’s present our claims and if I am not happy with his assessment then I will return with you to the holy community of Brody.”

And Reb Ephraim accepted his suggestion.

And they came before the Besh”t, and immediately, when the Rav our teacher the Rav Ephraim came before him, the father saw through divine inspiration that his daughter was a match for the Baal Shem Tov.

Reb Ephraim’s soul was drawn to the idea of tying his soul with the soul of the Baal Shem Tov through somehow marrying his daughter to him.

And after this, the opponents presented their claims before him, and there were many differences and conflicts between them, but, as it came to light, their resolution was very much a judgment of truth.

It was a wonder in Reb Ephraim’s eyes and he felt great love for the Baal Shem Tov. And while all this was taking place, he learned that the Besh”t was single and was in need of marrying a woman.

The Rav, our teacher the Rav Ephraim, had a divorced daughter. So he came to the Besh”t and told him:

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The Yahrzeit of Rabbi Yitzchak Meir Alter of Ger (“Chidushei HaRYM”) (1799-1866) is commemorated on the 23rd of Adar. The following meise / hasidic tale appeared in Sefer HaHasidut, Meah Tzadikim, Raphael, Yitzchak, 1961, Tel Aviv. (Freely translated by Gabbai Seth Fishman.)

Close Ties with Rabbi Simcha Bunim of Peshischa

In the year 5575 (1814), the sun and stars darkened for, on the day before Sukkot, when the holy Maggid ztz’l of Kozhnitz (Kozienice) passed on to his eternal home, a light of Israel was extinguished.

And there was a sense of loss and mourning that was widespread among the Jews for, great was the fame of the holy Maggid throughout the camp of Israel. And there was a strong confirmation in their sense of his legacy of holiness and righteousness even from those opposed to the Hasidim, even from those of the generation’s most eminent non-Hasidic scholars.

All those Hasidim who had followed and had been inspired under the direction of the late Maggid, (and among these was our Rabbi ztz’l, Reb Yitzchak Meir Alter of Ger), all of them now thought to follow, (lit. bend their heads beneath), the Rabbi (Chozeh) of Lublin ztz’l and to journey to him so they could find refuge in his shadow and, this was despite the fact that the holy Maggid left a son behind, (namely, the holy Rabbi, the Rav Moshe Elyakim Beriah) but, it didn’t occur to the Hasidim that his son would be filling the place of the Maggid ztz’l after his departure, for, since the son was a man of seclusion to the extreme, they didn’t think of him at all as a conduit for the Torah for them.

However, the Rabbi of Lublin ztz’l gave his order that the aforementioned holy Rav Moshe should fill the place of his father and so, he was successor to his father. And the followers of the Maggid z’tz’l bowed their heads beneath the Maggid’s son. And they all accepted his authority as Rabbi and leader.

Along with those accepting the new leader was our Rabbi, z’tzl (Reb Yitzchak Meir) and his close contacts in Warsaw, they were all joined by the Rabbi of Lublin to their new Rav, the aforementioned Reb Moshe. And they journeyed to him to Kozhnitz to hear torah from his mouth and to better themselves from the light of his teachings and his uprightness and his holiness which had now come into view to everyone.

The holy Rabbi, the Reb Moshe of Kozhnitz ztz’l, showed particular affection and strong love for his student, our Rabbi ztz’l, and he was very special to him as the apple of his eye. Because of this special connection with our Rabbi, all the Kozhnitz Hasidim who lived in Warsaw were also counted as Reb Moshe’s followers adding greatly to his honor and they proudly proclaimed their allegiance.

Now, it so happened that in that same year, immediately after the death of a second important leader of the region, the holy Yehudi ztz’l, (Reb Yaakov Yitzchak Rabinowicz of Peshischa (Przysucha)), some of the students of Reb Moshe of Kozhnitz felt themselves drawn to follow his successor, the holy Rav, the Rabbi Rav Bunim ztz’l of Peshischa, for he was as God’s right hand and a faithful one of His house. Thus, these Tzaddikim, who had felt their allegiances divided from the time when the Yehudi ztz’l had created a split with the Rabbi of Lublin ztz’l, now joined with the ranks of Rabbi Rav Bunim and his adherents after the Yehudi’s death. Sadly, the feelings of spurned loyalities and animosities were expanding greatly among Hasidim at this time.

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