Chapter 171 - The Story of the Miraculous Mission of Healing

00:01 The story of Rabbi Isaac and Rabbi Naftali continues. Rabbi Isaac and Rabbi Naftali were strong opponents of the Baal Shem Tov’s path, particularly the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov and the Maggid of Mezritch. But they held the Alter Rebbe in very high esteem. In 5549, when the Slutsk Council of the Lands published a proclamation banning the Alter Rebbe and the teachings of Chassidus, Rabbi Isaac and Rabbi Naftali wrote a protest, testifying that the Alter Rebbe was a Torah genius and a tzaddik. On the other hand, they did not want to believe in miracles, and so matters continued. Now, a nephew of Rabbi Isaac’s was one of the Alter Rebbe’s chassidim. For Simchas Torah of that year, 5547, Rabbi Isaac’s nephew, named Moshe Opsuger [?], came to Liozna with his two sons and his son-in-law, and they stayed with Rabbi Isaac. But Reb Moshe Opsuger [?] was very weak. The journey and the cold had affected him badly. He lay with a high fever, and his sons and son-in-law also became very ill. Avraham the doctor said that, with Hashem’s help, he hoped the young men would recover fully. But Reb Moshe was an old and very weak man, with stabbing pains in both sides and a high fever. For that reason, Avraham the doctor had serious doubts that he would have the strength to survive the illness. Rabbi Isaac was deeply distressed. He said that going to see one’s Rebbe in this condition was a mitzvah brought about through a transgression. Then, on Shemini Atzeres after Maariv, Rabbi Pinchas relates, I went with Ephraim Michoel of Shklov, Chaim Eliyahu of Dubrovna, and several other young men to the lodgings, to call everyone who needed to come to the shul for hakafos and help bring them there. As the Alter Rebbe had said, they were to warm themselves and be healed by the Torah’s fiery law. When we reached the lodgings, I repeated what the Alter Rebbe had said. In fact, his words were already known: after leaving the Alter Rebbe’s room that afternoon, I had gone into the shul and told people what the Alter Rebbe had said

02:27 about the sick. Within an hour, the news had spread throughout the town. But when I arrived at the lodgings, everyone wanted me to repeat the Alter Rebbe’s words word for word. It was a genuine pleasure to see the great joy his words brought to every lodging house. Even the members of the households and the children rejoiced. Everyone was certain that, with Hashem’s help, the sick would recover. It was a dreary evening, with wet snow, rain, and wind that chilled you to the bone. There was also deep mud outside. None of this kept the sick from going to shul. Many walked on their own, though they needed a little help. Others could not walk and had to be carried. When we reached Rabbi Isaac’s house, we found him arguing with Moshe’s sons and son-in-law. The sons and son-in-law insisted that they should send word for the young men to come help them get to the Alter Rebbe’s shul for hakafos, and that they should take their father, Reb Moshe, too. Rabbi Isaac, on the other hand, insisted that they must not go outside, and that taking their father was out of the question. “He’s lying there with an extremely high fever,” Rabbi Isaac said, “unaware of what’s going on around him. Avraham the doctor says his condition is life-threatening, and they want to take him outside! Even the slightest breeze could, G-d forbid, be the end of him.” When Chaim Eliyahu of Dubrovna, two other young men, and I entered Rabbi Isaac’s house, Reb Moshe’s sons were overjoyed and began shouting, “Boruch Hashem, our father and we have been saved!” Rabbi Isaac shouted, “Murderers! Killers! This is against the holy Torah!” When I, Rabbi Pinchas relates, approached Reb Moshe and saw him lying there like a log, blue-black, his eyes closed and his fever high, I was so shaken that I felt utterly lost. “What do you say?” Rabbi Isaac asked me. “They want to take a critically ill man

04:53 to shul for hakafos? Even when the Beis Hamikdash stood, and even within Jerusalem itself, the Gemara says that the obligation to make the pilgrimage for the festivals excludes a lame or sick person—and hakafos are only a rabbinic mitzvah! If they take Moshe outside, it will be actual bloodshed.” On the other hand, I heard Moshe’s sons arguing that if the Rebbe said this was a cure, they believed with complete faith that taking their father to the minyan for hakafos would heal him. I must say, relates the chossid Rabbi Pinchas Reizes, that at that moment I did not know what to say. I was confused. On one hand, I heard Rabbi Isaac’s arguments and saw with my own eyes that Reb Moshe lay there burning with fever. On the other, I heard the simple, wholehearted faith in the words of Moshe’s sons, ordinary young men in whom faith in tzaddikim shone so brightly that they were ready to sacrifice themselves, without any preparation or contemplation. My human intellect told me that Rabbi Isaac was surely right: a sick man in that condition must not be moved, and the slightest breeze would endanger him. In weather like this, they might not even get him to shul alive. The G-dly intellect of my G-dly soul said that Chaim and Baruch, Moshe’s sons, were right. If the Alter Rebbe said that the Torah’s fiery law was a cure, then it was a cure, and one must be ready to sacrifice oneself for it. With every passing moment, Rabbi Pinchas relates, I was more deeply moved by the wholehearted sincerity of Moshe’s sons. They were ordinary young men. To this day, I remember my inner shame. It affected me so deeply that I resolved to enter yechidus with the Alter Rebbe. I thought to myself then, “Pinye, you are the son of Rabbi Chanoch, Chanoch of Shklov. I studied under the Torah geniuses of Shklov—Gemara, halachic authorities, and philosophy. I came to recognize

07:35 the Alter Rebbe’s greatness through intellectual understanding, and I have been with the Alter Rebbe for eight years now. Yet despite all that, my physical nature overpowers the spiritual; my natural intellect overpowers my G-dly intellect. But these ordinary young men came to the Alter Rebbe solely out of yiras Shamayim and kabbolas ol. They do not understand the Alter Rebbe’s teachings at all, yet in them the spiritual overpowers the physical. It is precisely in them that the G-dly intellect shines through a feeling of simple faith. I told myself, ‘Shame on you, Pinye, son of Rabbi Chanoch. You should be ashamed before the village tailor and the village merchant.’” I was so absorbed in my thoughts, Pinchas relates, that I was completely unaware of what was happening around me. Chaim Eliyahu of Dubrovna nudged me and said that Avraham the doctor thought these were Reb Moshe’s final hours, G-d forbid [?]. Before I had time to think, I heard Baruch cry out to his father, “Father, the Rebbe sent shluchim for you to go to hakafos. Father, wake up! We have to go to the Rebbe’s hakafos!” There was a great commotion in Moshe’s room. I went in and saw him lying there with his eyes open and a happy expression on his face, waiting for someone to help him go to the Alter Rebbe’s hakafos. Chaim Eliyahu went to call a few more young men. They dressed Moshe warmly; he did not have the strength to move a limb himself. When the young men arrived, they picked him up and carried him to the Rebbe’s minyan for hakafos. When I entered the shul, the heat struck my face. The room was full. Some of those present were sick. Some sat propped up on their arms; others did not even have the strength to sit. Some were lying there. Some could find no relief from their coughing, and others gave sighs that broke your heart. The sickest of all was Yaakov Yeshaya Chatinsker [?]. He was a sixty-year-old Jew, a great scholar and a man devoted to prayer

10:21 A great man. At times he taught, and he also had an inn. Yaakov Yeshaya was charitable and hospitable. Several times he walked to Mezritch, and also to Horodok to visit Rabbi Menachem Mendel. When Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Horodok traveled to the Holy Land, Yaakov Yeshaya began going to the Alter Rebbe. He was one of the elder chassidim, a man of sound judgment and deep understanding, broad-shouldered and very strong. His friends called him Yaakov Yeshaya the Kohen Gadol. “Only because he is such a mighty, strong man,” said Avraham the doctor, “has this illness struck him so severely. But, without the evil eye, he is a mighty man and will be able to overcome even the Angel of Death.” For now, though, he lay like a log, and it was frightening to look at him—a great wreck of a man. The custom for Shemini Atzeres with the Alter Rebbe was that Minchah on Hoshana Rabbah, the eve of Shemini Atzeres, was prayed at an early hour in the Rebbe’s small minyan, known as Gan Eden Hatachton. Immediately after Minchah, one could already sense an air of joy; the heart was already glad. Often they could hear the Alter Rebbe studying in his room. In the evening, the Alter Rebbe would deliver Torah teachings before the students of the cheders and select guests. Then, a few hours later, they would pray Maariv in the Alter Rebbe’s small minyan, and the Rebbe would conduct hakafos in the presence of select students of the cheders and guests. The Alter Rebbe himself would recite all the verses of “Atah Hareisa,” lead all seven hakafos, and personally recite the refrains and verses for the hakafos. On every hakafah around the reading table, the Alter Rebbe would set out from his place in the southeastern corner and walk to the southwestern corner. There he would stop, transfer the Torah scroll to his left hand, place his right hand on the back of one of the close chassidim present, and begin to dance. As the Alter Rebbe danced, one could actually see light. Everyone felt that he was

13:06 in the place of the Beis Hamikdash, and that every moment was precious beyond measure. At any moment, one could reach the highest levels in Torah, in avodah, and in teshuvah. Everyone felt it, and from there they drew ruach hakodesh. Whoever merited to be with the Alter Rebbe during those hakafos saw his most holy face, heard the melody of joy, and watched the dance of delight. In it all was reflected an outpouring of loving delight in Hakadosh Boruch Hu. It was as though they lost all sense of themselves before the holy majesty that could be felt throughout the small minyan. The chassidim called these hakafos “the Rebbe’s private hakafos.” The chassidim were certain that this manner of conduct of the Alter Rebbe mirrored the conduct Above: when it is an auspicious time Above and the King’s face shines, it is an auspicious time with the Rebbe too, and his face shines. The Alter Rebbe’s private hakafos brought a chossid into an entirely different state. “I remember,” relates the chossid Rabbi Pinchas, “the first time I merited to be present at those hakafos. They truly transformed me. I became a different person. For the first time, I then had a true picture of how a Jew felt in the Beis Hamikdash when he went up for the festival and saw the revelation of the Shechinah there. Every limb of the body has its own particular pleasure, according to its nature. The head takes pleasure in intellect; the eyes in sight; the ears in hearing; the heart in emotions; the hand in action; and the foot in walking. So it is with every limb, according to its nature. But there is a kind of pleasure that gives delight to all the limbs together, to the point that all the senses and faculties are absorbed in that delight. That is the kind of delight a chossid felt during the Alter Rebbe’s private hakafos. And just as the laws of the Beis Hamikdash and its vessels specify details of time and place, with everything arranged in order and precisely as the law requires, so too with the Alter Rebbe,

15:52 everything was arranged by time and place through rules that all the chassidim knew and observed carefully and precisely. They all knew that they were devoted to the Alter Rebbe with all their might and all their souls. Everyone also knew that only those called by name by the person in charge could be present at the Alter Rebbe’s private hakafos. Every chossid longed and prayed to merit that privilege. But if he was not called, he did not go on his own. Anyone who had attended those hakafos once was not permitted to attend again, apart from the very closest chassidim, and there were also exceptions. After the private hakafos, the Alter Rebbe would make Kiddush in the sukkah and immediately afterward go to the large beis midrash for the public hakafos. Now, in the year we are discussing, when the Alter Rebbe entered the sukkah to make Kiddush, Reb Pinchas continues, he instructed that Rabbi Michael Aharon of Vitebsk, Rabbi Shabsai Meir of Bishenkovitz, and Rabbi Yaakov of Smilian be called. When the three entered the sukkah, the Alter Rebbe said to Michael Aharon, “You are a kohen”; to Rabbi Shabsai Meir, “You are a Levi”; and to Rabbi Yaakov, “You are a Yisroel.” “I need,” the Alter Rebbe said, “a beis din of three. This beis din will include a kohen, a Levi, and a Yisroel, and I have chosen you to serve as that beis din. You will hear Kiddush from me, answer amen after every blessing, and have in mind the same intentions that I have in mind.” Before making Kiddush, the Alter Rebbe instructed that a large quantity of wine be brought. The Alter Rebbe made Kiddush. Afterward, he took what remained in his Kiddush cup and poured it into one of the bottles of wine. He told the beis din of three that he had appointed them to a special mission, called the mission of healing. He instructed them to take the wine into which he had poured the remainder of his Kiddush cup, mix it with the rest of the wine, and distribute that wine to the sick, and it would bring them a complete recovery. The Alter Rebbe also told them to announce

18:35 in the women’s section that any woman who had not been blessed with children, or whose children, G-d forbid, had died, should be given some of the wine. Word immediately spread that anyone who tasted the wine mixed with what remained in the Alter Rebbe’s cup would be completely healed of any illness, and that women who had lost children or had not yet been blessed with children would be helped through this wine. The beis din of three—Michael Aharon the kohen, Shabsai Meir the Levi, and Yaakov the Yisroel—enlisted several young men to help carry and distribute the wine. Among them were Ephraim Michael, Shmaryahu Berl’s, Zalman Matias, Eliyahu Abrams, and Yeshayahu Nates, all from Shklov; Chaim Eliyahu, Shimon Boruch, Avraham Zalman, and Leib Yitzchak from Dubrovna; Avraham Abba from Rudnya; Yehoshua from Horodok; Zelig from Kochanov; Gedalia from Kalisk; Berl Meir, Yosef Avraham, Tuvya Melech, and Moshe Hirsch from Vitebsk; and Aharon Yosef, Shmuel Moshe, and Yisroel from Liozna. All these young men were known for their strength and might, even more than for their wisdom. When the beis din entered the large shul with the entire supply of wine, a hush fell. Everyone knew that they were the beis din the Alter Rebbe had chosen and appointed as his emissaries of healing and salvation, and everyone looked at them with respect. The beis din of three, accompanied by the young men helping them, went up onto the bimah. Yaakov of Smilian, who was now called “the Yisroel,” repeated aloud, word for word, what the Alter Rebbe had said. When Yaakov of Smilian had finished repeating the Alter Rebbe’s words, he added: “What I have just told you are the very words we heard from the Alter Rebbe. Now I want to add a few words about this matter. It has been passed down from elder to elder that for a blessing to be fulfilled—that is, for the person receiving it to merit that it take effect—two conditions are necessary. First, the recipient must believe wholeheartedly in the blessing of the one giving it, with simple faith and no other thoughts. Second, the

21:21 The person receiving the blessing should be devoted to fulfilling the wishes of the one giving it, in matters of serving Hashem through Torah, avodah, and good conduct. Everyone had heard what Yaakov of Smilian said, but to be sure, it was decided that Michoel Aharon HaKohen, who had a strong, loud voice, would repeat everything Yaakov had said. After Michoel Aharon finished speaking, the young married men began distributing the wine for the blessing in an orderly fashion. When the Alter Rebbe arrived for hakafos, a hush fell. The Rebbe recited the verse “You have been shown to know” and the final verse, “For Torah shall go forth from Zion.” The Rebbe walked in the first and seventh hakafos. The next day, everyone was talking about the great miracle that had occurred. Avraham the doctor said that for the elderly patients, it had truly been like the resurrection of the dead. According to medical science, there had been no hope for them, and their recovery was a miracle beyond nature. The miracle of Reb Moishe’s recovery led Reb Isaac to become a chossid. “The pure faith in the sages that I saw in my brother’s grandsons, Chaim and Baruch,” Reb Isaac said, “astonished me. Had I not seen it with my own eyes, I would never have believed it.” Reb Isaac, who was by nature a diligent student and a profound thinker, then began studying Chassidus diligently. He would review every teaching delivered in public several times and ask questions about each point until he understood it thoroughly.