Episode 256 - Chassidim of the Rebbe Rashab - Yankele der Poilisher.

00:00 We continue with stories about the chassidim of the Rebbe Rashab, through which we also learn about the Rebbe Rashab himself. In Lubavitch there was a young married man from Poland named Reb Yaakov, whom everyone called Yankele der Poylisher—Yankele the Pole. Yankele spent a long time in Lubavitch, and he taught us all the well-known marches and other niggunim, including the march sung every year at the close of Yom Kippur, before the shofar is sounded. When he taught us the march, he called it “Yankele’s March.” The first time we sang it at the close of Yom Kippur, in the presence of the Rebbe Rashab, the Rebbe repeated it. The following Yom Kippur, the Rebbe told us to sing it again. That is how the custom became established to sing Yankele’s March every year at the close of Yom Kippur, before the shofar is sounded. The following story was told in Lubavitch about that same Yankele der Poylisher. Yankele was a young married man who lived at his father-in-law’s expense and studied Torah. Both his father and his father-in-law were Gerrer chassidim. In addition to his regular studies, Yankele began looking into various books, including works of profound philosophical inquiry. Since he had not studied Chassidus, many questions and difficulties arose for him. How did he hear about Chassidus and Lubavitch? I do not know. But I can tell you this: Yaakov—Yankele—longed very, very much to travel to Lubavitch. He knew his family would not allow it, so he gathered a little money, slipped away from home and came to Lubavitch. Yankele arrived in Lubavitch and went into yechidus with the Rebbe Rashab, who set out a program of study for him. Yankele stayed at the lodging house of Reb Avraham Fradkin and would come to the yeshiva hall to study. He also devoted himself to avodas hatefillah, the work of prayer. He was a lebbediker yungerman, a lively young man. As I said, he taught the students many niggunim. But little by little his money ran out. He even sold his gold watch. That was the story passed from person to person in Lubavitch. Then suddenly, one fine day, his father-in-law or

02:46 his father arrived in Lubavitch, took Yankele with him, and they left. People said at the time that while Reb Yaakov was in Lubavitch, a gathering of rabbis was held in one of the cities. Both the Rebbe Rashab and the Gerrer Rebbe attended. At that gathering, the Rebbe Rashab proposed that Chassidus be studied in every yeshiva, because studying Chassidus has a beneficial effect, especially on students and young married men. As an example to support his point, he told them about a young married man from Poland who had been troubled by doubts and questions. Once he began studying Chassidus, it had a positive effect on him and he became a different person. The Gerrer Rebbe already knew about Reb Yaakov, because both his father and his father-in-law had complained to him several times that Yaakov had left his wife an agunah and disappeared. The Gerrer Rebbe began asking the Rebbe Rashab about the young man he had mentioned. When he learned who it was, he sent for Yankele’s father and father-in-law and revealed to them that their missing son was in Lubavitch. One of them then came and took him away. And another story. It is known that in Lubavitch, before the hakafos on Simchas Torah, the Rebbe Rashab would hold a farbrengen with the chassidim, but not everyone was allowed in. Reb Gershon Chen of Rogatchov was there, and he related the following: “I was a student at the time, studying in Tomchei Temimim. I, too, was not allowed into the farbrengen. But I was lodging in the outer room of the Rebbe Rashab’s quarters. So when I came to lie down and rest, I could not help hearing the joyful atmosphere in the room where the Rebbe was sitting with the chassidim. I put my ear to the wall to hear something, and that night I heard two things. The first was that the Rebbe Rashab said, in these words, ‘Our understanding of Tanya is like a goat looking at the moon.’ In other words, what we understand of Tanya is like a goat looking at the moon and thinking it understands what the moon is. The second thing the Rebbe Rashab said was, ‘The Mitteler Rebbe

05:33 was on the level of “I stand between you and your G-d.”’” In other words, the Mitteler Rebbe was on the level of “I stand between you and your G-d.” The narrator tells another story: I saw a manuscript in the Rebbe Rashab’s own handwriting, and this is what it said: “The gathering of rabbis in Petersburg, convened by the ministry... Experience has shown that the greater a person is, the more opponents he will have. The reason is envy, a trait from which no person can escape. It is human nature for people to follow one another’s example: when someone sees his fellow building a structure, he too tries to do the same. The sages of old even said that were it not for envy, a person would neither plant a vineyard nor build a house, and so on. This is what the wisest of men alluded to in Koheles, chapter 4: ‘I saw that all toil and all skill in work come from one person’s envy of another.’ Nevertheless, envy is a disgrace and a debasement of the soul. Its evil side is worse than that of all the other bad character traits, and even its good side is unseemly. As the wisest of men concluded, ‘This too is vanity and striving after wind.’ Envy takes three forms. One is good of its kind, while the other two are bad. The first is when a person envies another’s accomplishments—his acquisition of much wisdom—and strives to become wise like him. Of this it was said in Bava Basra, ‘The envy of scholars increases wisdom.’ This sort of envy is found in a person of stature who is capable of reaching a higher level, for a person does not covet something beyond his reach, which he can never attain. Still, the trait is unseemly because he did not desire the pursuit of wisdom for its own sake, but out of envy of his fellow. A person who is whole will strive for accomplishment and the acquisition of wisdom out of love for the good itself. That is called lishmah—for its own sake—and then there will be no measure or limit to the heights he can attain. But if a person pursues these things out of envy, he does not do so out of love for the good itself,

08:13 and it is therefore shelo lishmah—not for its own sake. He will be satisfied once he reaches his fellow’s level. Nevertheless, this kind of envy can be useful at the beginning of one’s acquisition of higher qualities. It is, however, the envy of scholars, not the envy of sages. There are two other forms of envy, both bad, with no good in them at all. The first stems from a person’s own shortcomings. Since he does not follow the good path and does not possess the fine qualities of a person of stature—perhaps because he lacks the ability, or simply because he does not want to—he does not want anyone in the world to follow the good path or possess those qualities, lest there be someone better than he is. That is one bad form. The second is someone who hates the good. When he sees a person following the good path, he envies him because he hates goodness itself. This is the worst form of envy. What both forms have in common is that the envious person tries to harass and burden the person of stature and goodness, to distress him, confuse him and drive him from the good path. The second person’s actions are worse, however, because he tries to turn the good into its opposite. The first type merely wants to prevent the other person from attaining his full stature, so that he will not be superior to him. But the second wants to eradicate the good, to destroy it. He does this specifically by turning it into its opposite: he tries to draw the other person into evil and make that evil seem to offer the same satisfaction and pleasure the person found in goodness. The first to display this kind of envy was the primordial serpent. Before the sin, Adam occupied himself with intellectual pursuits and the apprehension of G-dliness, with which the Creator had endowed him, setting him apart from all other living creatures. Of him it was said, ‘In the image of G-d He created him.’ Because Adam HaRishon was so deeply absorbed in contemplating G-dly concepts, he had no grasp at all of physical good and physical evil. He was bound to spiritual, G-dly concepts and was therefore completely removed from physical concerns. And the serpent, which is the Satan and the evil inclination

11:02 Evil, in its great jealousy of Adam’s extraordinary stature and its hatred of good itself, led him to concern himself, at least to some extent, with physical good. This was the point of contact: as our Sages say, the serpent pushed Chava and assured her that she would not die, that her soul would not suffer a spiritual death, and that she would not lose what she considered good. Evil, too, is a creation of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, but it was not created for its own sake. It was created to test the good. Something is not utterly nullified by what opposes it unless it is itself insubstantial. But something that truly exists, like truth, will not be nullified by evil. On the contrary, truth will grow stronger; and if it is defeated, that is only temporary. In the end, truth will prevail and grow stronger. Therefore, the good, being a part of G-d—an essential, enduring part—will not be nullified by what opposes it, namely jealousy. On the contrary, it will grow stronger and cast off the evil clinging to it. It is like water blocked by earth: the water builds up, and when enough has gathered, it bursts through the blockage with a roar and flows as it naturally does, with even greater force and strength. So it is with essential good. Even if evil succeeds in covering and blocking it, its good forces gather beneath the blockage. Eventually it shakes off the evil and emerges like a lightning bolt, shining brightly. This is the ultimate purpose for which evil was created: so that good would overcome it and thereby become very good. And the Midrash says that our Sages taught, “Hakadosh Boruch Hu tests only the righteous.” That is how Hakadosh Boruch Hu tests: He does not test the wicked, only the righteous. This is what we have said: the ultimate intent is to test and refine the good, thereby improving it. It is known that actually doing something is easier than putting intellectual understanding

13:40 into practice. Therefore, the ultimate way for good to overcome evil is to oppose it through good deeds in practice. Afterward, a person will also grow stronger in his understanding and through his efforts to study what is good. And another story: [unclear] in Zolsha [unclear], there was a minyan in the Rebbe Rashab’s apartment every Monday and Thursday, and the Rebbe would come out of his room for the Torah reading. An elderly man named Pesach Kuper lived there. He helped needy chassidim, collecting money for their travel expenses to the Rebbe, for meals, and the like. He had a collection box, and on Mondays and Thursdays, after the Torah reading, he would rattle it, and each of the worshippers would put in a donation. Afterward, Pesach would empty the box and approach the Rebbe Rashab with it. The Rebbe would put a few coins into it. Pesach would sell those coins to the chassidim for a high price. Some paid three times the coins’ value, or even more, for the Rebbe’s coins. That was Pesach’s regular practice. Once, when Pesach approached the Rebbe to ask for a donation, he said, “Please, Rebbe, have something in mind, because I sell the Rebbe’s money.” The Rebbe Rashab told him, “There is a simple intention: the more, the better.”