When the Chossid Refused to Make Kiddush on Pesach

Welcome to our weekly program, Historic Treasures, from the Mindel archives. In those archives I found many stories related to the Rebbeim, so I thought I would share with you this story, because this story has to do with Pesach. I don't know whether the Frierdiker Rebbe ever made notations on this - they have the original, this is a copy, I don't know - but it's a story that I found in the archives.

The Bitchever Masmid [?] was a big Chossid. Some people say that he was a Chossid of [unclear]. He was very much like a baal Tanya - steeped in Tanya. [Someone] came to America in the '30s. I know that he was in Cleveland - he later moved to Cleveland - and he opened up a new shul there. He was known to be a great masmid, a Chossid.

I remember [unclear] - all of our children, I remember, [unclear] - all of us remember [unclear] - all of us remember, and I remember the way they used to daven. They used to daven, [unclear], by the wall, not only on Shabbos, standing. And I remember [unclear]. And when they farbrenged, [unclear]. They were not just farbrenging to tell stories or to make speeches - their farbrengen was because they meant it. Whatever they said, if they said [unclear], they lived it. So the people who heard the proper [inyan] took it upon themselves; they felt that they could sense what a person attached [to Torah feels].

My zeide also, as I mentioned a few times, [unclear]. The Mashgiach told him: "You should search for the truth - you found the truth, and you lived with the truth." And they lived that way. [unclear]. This is the type of people that the Bitchever Masmid was.

So here's the story of the Bitchever Masmid. He was killed, I believe, in 1942. He was in a shul together with [unclear - names] and [unclear - names], and they saw from the window that the Nazis were surrounding the shul, so they took out the Sifrei Torah and he started to dance, and the Nazis burned the shul with him inside.

Now I will read here the story about the nickname "Masmid" that he received in his early years of learning. Even though one did not see him constantly with a sefer in hand, his thoughts were deeply focused on Torah and on Yiras Shamayim - fear of Heaven. Scholars would say that the Bitchever was an intellectual, deep in thought, an entire night, or hours on end, engrossed in thought and in prayer. This was the Bitchever's usual way. And I remember my father told me once that he slept with the Bitchever in one room, and at night the Bitchever would put a pail of cold water and put his feet in the water, so that he would wake up and be able to continue learning.

By the way, this letter is in English because it was written in Yiddish, but we translated it into English. For many years the Bitchever was the town's scholar in residence, and during Yom Tov and other occasions many of the townspeople would gather in his home to hear his Torah teaching and insight. A friend of his from his youth would customarily send him, every year before Pesach, a gift - a small bottle of plum brandy, which had the smell and taste of liquor. The Bitchever's friend, also a Rav in a neighboring town, would personally prepare the plums by drying them and then making the slivovitz. Later on - he had been a friend of his when they were younger - he too became a Rav, in a neighboring town, and the two remained friends with each other.

One time, during the first day of Yom Tov Pesach, people noticed that the Bitchever was worried and uncomfortable - something seemed to agitate him. His davening was not with the usual heartfelt and unbounded joy, and after the prayers he spent an unusually long time saying Tehillim, with hot tears. By the time the Bitchever arrived home it was quite late, and the house was full of townspeople who had come to farbreng a bit and to hear some words of Torah from him. This time he started right away with saying words of Torah - he did not make Kiddush on the slivovitz that was prepared on the table. Usually he came home and made Kiddush right away; this time he kept speaking words of Torah instead.

His Rebbetzin pointed out to him that he needed to make Kiddush, yet he did not respond. Seeing that the Rav did not begin, the guests, out of respect, also didn't touch - didn't touch the slivovitz. They were all listening to their revered teacher, the Bitchever, with great pleasure, yet they were very eager to take some l'chaim and add to the joy. They then reminded their teacher: "Rebbe, it's getting late, almost sunset - perhaps you will make Kiddush." The Bitchever did not answer; he only continued speaking, with even greater passion and warmth.

All of a sudden the door burst open, and in ran a non-Jew, dirty and panicked, breathing heavily as if he had run a great distance. He asked to speak to the Rav, and proceeded to report that he had been sent with an urgent message from the Rav, the Bitchever's friend from the neighboring town, that regarding the slivovitz he had sent him - a terrible mistake had been made: instead of the bottle prepared for Pesach, the chometzdike one had been sent.

The Bitchever promptly fainted upon hearing these words. As soon as they revived him, he started to sing a lively tune and to dance, thanking Hashem for helping him and protecting him from having consumed chometz on Pesach that year. That Pesach the Bitchever was especially happy, and every day of the eight days he spent many hours farbrenging with joy and heartfelt gratitude that he had not come to transgress by eating chometz on Pesach.

The assembled townspeople now understood the source of their teacher's tension, his discomfort during the davening on the first day of Yom Tov. He had felt there was something not right with the Pesach [items] in his home, without knowing what it was - and it was this discomfort, this feeling, together with the fact that the Rav was so careful and meticulous about every detail of keeping away from chometz, that did not let him make Kiddush on the chometz, and that prevented him from coming to sin. Now the people understood what had happened, and from then on, every year, the parents used to tell this story to the children.

So now we know that the Bitchever was very careful not to eat [ordinary] matzah on Pesach. He only ate the matzah that he had baked and watched over himself; he would not buy ready-made matzah - it didn't matter to him - because matzah is the greatest concern when it comes to chometz.

This reminds me - I think there was a similar story with the Modzitzer [?]. He was a Chossid of [unclear], and [a group of] people came together for a meal, and the waiter brought in a whole pot of chicken and meat to put in the middle of the table - usually they would just set it down. This time [the Rebbe] said, "Now I want to hold it myself." So he took the whole pot of chicken and meat and was dancing with it for a long time, until the chicken and meat fell to the floor - and then they found out that the meat had been a mistake, and this spared him from transgressing.

[unclear] - since the Alter Rebbe said that we should also become like the Rebbeim, which means we should open our eyes - and if we really do, we spoke about this a few programs before, there was that story about a Chossid - if we really open our eyes we can see more than we ordinarily see, and we can see Hashem the way the Torah tells us, "open our eyes."

So now I want to wish you that we should all have a Rebbe and a friend like the Bitchever, because, no matter who you are, you need a Rebbe - you need a navi. You don't see your own faults; you need someone, a Rebbe, who will be careful on your behalf, when your own senses aren't enough to help you. And that's why we don't see ourselves clearly - because a person has to continue the whole year making his effort, in the place that we are, and we should be bound to [our Rebbe], who is the head, our guide, all year.