Chapter 169 - The Maggid's Students Reach the Alter Rebbe

00:01 We are now telling another story about a visit to the Alter Rebbe by students of the Maggid of Mezritch, and what happened afterward. When the tzaddik Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk, from Horodok, traveled to Eretz Yisroel with the chassidim who went there in 5537, the students of the Maggid of Mezritch chose the Alter Rebbe as their overall leader on the question of how to deal with the opponents of the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov and his student, the Maggid. Then, at a general gathering of the holy students, the tzaddikim of Volhynia, in 5542 or 5543, a decision was made concerning a harsh decree that the opponents had issued against the chassidim. The gathering of the Maggid’s students decided how to stop that decree. For some reason, the Alter Rebbe was not at the gathering, so it chose two emissaries from the group to travel to him and convey its proposal. The two representatives were the tzaddik Rabbi Shlomo of Karlin and the tzaddik Rabbi Wolf of Zhitomir. Both traveled to Liozna to ask the Alter Rebbe, on behalf of the gathering, to take part in that decision. The tzaddik Rabbi Zev of Zhitomir then stayed in Liozna for nearly three months. There are stories the Mitteler Rebbe told from the time Rabbi Zev of Zhitomir was in Liozna, but Rabbi Shlomo left immediately. When Rabbi Shlomo had to leave Liozna, the Alter Rebbe sent several young men from the students of Cheder Beis. We mentioned that the Alter Rebbe had established three chadarim: Cheder Alef, Cheder Beis and Cheder Gimmel. So, to accompany Rabbi Shlomo, the Alter Rebbe sent several young men from Cheder Beis. Among those accompanying him was a chossid named Binyamin Kletzker. As they traveled with Rabbi Shlomo, they assisted him in all his needs with the utmost respect. Rabbi Shlomo understood very well that, besides the esteem in which they held him as their Rebbe’s students,

03:00 this was primarily because the Alter Rebbe had sent them to help him. Along the way they spent their time discussing Torah—Nigleh, Kabbalah, philosophical inquiry and Chassidus. Rabbi Shlomo was deeply impressed by the breadth and depth of the Alter Rebbe’s students’ knowledge. Rabbi Shlomo was traveling to Beshenkovichi, while the young men had intended to accompany him only as far as Vitebsk. When they reached Vitebsk, Rabbi Shlomo told Binyamin Kletzker that he would be grateful if Binyamin accompanied him to Beshenkovichi. As is known, Binyamin the chossid had remarkable gifts and was a great deep thinker. He spent several days in Vitebsk and then decided to accompany Rabbi Shlomo to Beshenkovichi. On the road between Vitebsk and Beshenkovichi, Rabbi Shlomo instructed the wagon driver to stop among the fields because he wanted to daven Minchah. Rabbi Shlomo got down from the wagon, but there was no water there for washing his hands before davening, so he sat back down in the wagon. He entered a state of dveikus, and meanwhile the horses began galloping so fast that there was no way to stop them. They kept running until they reached a small river. Rabbi Shlomo smiled, got down from the wagon, washed his hands and davened Minchah. Binyamin Kletzker could not fully take in Rabbi Shlomo’s tremendous fervor and spiritual excitement, but it nevertheless gave him great pleasure. After Minchah, Rabbi Shlomo sat in the wagon again, and they did not know which way to go. The driver said he did not know the area, so Rabbi Shlomo instructed him to let the horses go wherever they wished. The horses continued running until they came onto the main road. When they reached an inn, Rabbi Shlomo went inside and davened Maariv, recited Tikkun Chatzos, davened Shacharis, and by Minchah time they reached Beshenkovichi. It was Thursday, so there was no possibility of returning to Liozna for Shabbos. Rabbi Binyamin the chossid therefore stayed with Rabbi

05:43 Shlomo in Beshenkovichi. When the Alter Rebbe’s chassidim in Beshenkovichi saw how highly he regarded Rabbi Shlomo—so highly that he had sent some of his most distinguished students to accompany him—they, too, began to cherish and honor Rabbi Shlomo. Rabbi Binyamin Kletzker was already known as one of the leading students. Back when Rabbi Menachem Mendel was in Horodok, Rabbi Shlomo of Karlin would visit various towns in the Vitebsk region, including Beshenkovichi, Chashniki and Lepel, staying for a while in each place. At the gathering of the Maggid’s students before Rabbi Menachem Mendel traveled to Eretz Yisroel, they had divided up the regions. Lithuania and White Russia—that is, the Mogilev and Vitebsk provinces—were placed under the Alter Rebbe’s leadership, or influence. But that gathering gave Rabbi Shlomo special permission to visit the three towns of Beshenkovichi, Chashniki and Lepel, as he had done before. In time, Rabbi Shlomo wanted to settle in Beshenkovichi, but he wished to obtain the Alter Rebbe’s consent, since these towns were under the Alter Rebbe’s influence by decision of the gathering. The Alter Rebbe agreed, but stipulated three conditions that Rabbi Shlomo would have to accept. The first was that Rabbi Shlomo must not disparage those who studied Nigleh with acumen—that is, Gemara and its commentaries. The second was that he must not disparage people with a natural fear of Heaven. The third, perhaps the most difficult, was that Rabbi Shlomo must establish among those attached to him an obligation to serve Hashem themselves. This differed from an earlier approach among many of the Maggid’s students: those attached to a tzaddik relied on the tzaddik’s service to draw them upward through his own service.

08:35 The Alter Rebbe said he would agree on condition that Rabbi Shlomo require those attached to him to exert themselves, physically or spiritually, through intellectual understanding and the service of the heart, rather than rely on the tzaddik to draw them upward. This is indeed the general difference between the Chassidus of Volhynia and Poland and Chabad Chassidus. The Alter Rebbe, who founded Chabad Chassidus, established a path of serving Hashem through the mind and heart: each person, according to his ability, must exert himself physically and spiritually to attain an understanding of G-dliness and become so united with the G-dly concept that he feels it deep within his heart. And there is something else: the heart’s inspiration must come specifically from the mind’s understanding, not simply from an uplifted feeling. Okay, those were the three conditions the Alter Rebbe set for Rabbi Shlomo to be able to live in one of those towns. But Rabbi Shlomo agreed only to the first two. He did not agree to the third condition, that each person must do his own work. His approach was that the tzaddik elevates those attached to him through the tzaddik’s own service. The person attached to him need only be strongly aroused to observe Torah and mitzvos and remain attached to the tzaddik. Rabbi Shlomo would always say, “Do not rely on your own understanding.” Do not engage in what you cannot grasp. Rather, through his faith and his dveikus with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, the tzaddik will give life to all those attached to him. That was Rabbi Shlomo’s approach. Now we return to Rabbi Binyamin Kletzker, who accompanied Rabbi Shlomo to Beshenkovichi and was now bewildered. For two days after Shabbos, Rabbi Binyamin still walked around in a daze from the great spiritual service he had seen, heard and felt while with Rabbi Shlomo. The idea of staying with the tzaddik Rabbi Shlomo for a while began to nag at him. Then Rabbi Binyamin Kletzker went in to Rabbi Shlomo to receive his blessing before parting, but Rabbi Shlomo kept him there for several

11:15 for hours and urged him to stay with him, revealing wondrous secrets and lofty spiritual revelations. Finally, Rabbi Shlomo told Reb Binyamin Kletzker, “You should know that by staying with me, you will come closer to the Alter Rebbe’s approach.” Then the tzaddik Rabbi Shlomo said, “I will gather a group of young married men who will be fitting vessels to receive this path of avodah.” Rabbi Shlomo also promised Reb Binyamin Kletzker great spiritual revelations. Well, the chossid Reb Binyamin Kletzker listened to everything Rabbi Shlomo said, and then replied: “The master is a master, but he is not mine; the servant is a servant, but he is not yours [?].” In other words, the meaning is this: the master is a master, but he is not my master. The servant—that is, me—is a servant, but not yours. And Reb Binyamin Kletzker traveled back to Liozna. This answer from the chossid Reb Binyamin Kletzker is a lesson for true chassidim. Everyone connected to a Rebbe knows that his friend’s Rebbe is also a great Rebbe, but he is not his Rebbe. This approach brought a general strengthening in avodah according to the ways of Chassidus. In fact, this visit by Rabbi Zev Wolf of Zhitomir and Rabbi Shlomo to the Alter Rebbe was the same meeting we spoke about—the lengthy meeting with the curse at the end and all that. Now Rabbi Zev and Rabbi Shlomo had gone on their way, and the righteous gaon Rabbi Yehuda Leib, the Alter Rebbe’s brother, called several young married men from his study group to him. He told them that the Alter Rebbe required each of them—that is, each of the students in his group—to undertake to go wherever he was sent for a few months, or for two months, to encourage the study of Chassidus and its ways of conduct, but that everything must be done discreetly. The chossid Reb Pinchas Reizes, whom we have spoken about several times, relates: “I was one of those young married men. We were all sent to various towns in Lithuania, and needless to say,

14:25 we all carried out our mission promptly and with care.” Over the course of that year, from the summer of 5545 to the summer of 5546, the fruits of this mission became visible: many young married Torah scholars from Lithuania came to the Alter Rebbe in Liozna. The success of the mission in 5545 and 5546 showed that sending capable young married men to different towns to work discreetly on matters of Chassidus brought great benefit. Therefore, Rabbi Yehuda Leib, the Alter Rebbe’s brother, who was in charge, arranged for young married men to travel again in the summer of 5546 to spread the teachings of Chassidus—not the same ones who had gone the previous time. For Shabbos Mevorchim Elul, many guests arrived from Vilna. They reported that a great awakening to the teachings of Chabad Chassidus had arisen in Vilna and the surrounding towns. At the beginning of Elul, a special messenger arrived from a meeting of the activists and shluchim. He said that, in their opinion, it seemed essential for the Alter Rebbe to come to the town of Sventzian immediately after Sukkos of 5547, and they needed to know his decision before Rosh Hashanah—of course, for the sake of spreading the teachings of Chassidus. Rabbi Yehuda Leib conveyed this to the Alter Rebbe, and the Alter Rebbe decided to travel to Sventzian immediately after Sukkos. On Tuesday, the day after Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan, the Alter Rebbe set out for Sventzian in a closed carriage, accompanied by two minyanim of his closest followers. Early on Friday of Parshas Noach, he arrived in Sventzian. The Alter Rebbe stayed in Sventzian for two weeks, spanning three Shabbosim—Parshas Noach, Lech Lecha, and Vayeira—and during that time he delivered Torah teachings on various subjects several times. Leading Torah scholars from throughout the surrounding area, including Vilna, asked the Alter Rebbe various profound questions, and all were satisfied with his answers. The Alter Rebbe’s stay in Sventzian, his Torah teachings, and the many distinguished Torah scholars who came as guests from throughout the region made a powerful impression. Dozens of young married Torah scholars and hundreds of Jews took upon themselves the customs of Chassidus. But on the Shabbos of Parshas Vayeira, the

17:42 third and final Shabbos the Alter Rebbe spent in Sventzian on that trip, something happened that shook the entire region.