0012 - R' Berke Chein - Simchas Torah 5722

00:01 I'd like to describe a little bit the farbrengen of Simchas Torah, Yom Simchas Torah, Tov Shin Chof Beis. But before I get to it, I wanna give a little background. Reb Berke Chein came out of Russia, uh, Tishrei time, Elul time or Tishrei time, Tov Shin Chof Alef. He came to Eretz Yisrael. A year later, for Tishrei Tov Shin Chof Beis, he came to America. He came to the Rebbe. And when he came, he was wearing his kasket. By the time it came to Simchas Torah already, he already had bought a hat, and he was wearing a hat by the farbrengen. And by the farbrengen, the Rebbe, I guess it's because of him, the Rebbe spoke of the Rusish Eden. The Rebbe, he came up to the farbrengen, came up to the Rebbe by the farbrengen with a bottle of mashke, sixty-nineiker from the Rusish Eden. I guess he brought it from Russia, and he kept it for the whole year, and he brought it to the Rebbe. And as the Seder was, when someone brought a bottle of mashke to the Rebbe, the Rebbe would pour a little bit into his kos, and then pour into the person's kos, and give the person the bottle, and tell him to distribute it among the people. Same thing here. The Rebbe took the bottle, poured into his cup, but this time he didn't pour in a little bit. He filled up the kos, and then he poured a little bit to Reb Berke Chein's kos, and

01:08 he gave it back to him. And he said, he said, "Distribute it." As he walked away, the Rebbe took the becher and drank up the whole kos of sixty-nineiker. And then the Rebbe motioned that he should come back. He came back, and the Rebbe gave his, stuck out his becher and asked him to fill it up. And he filled up the Rebbe's becher again with sixty-nineiker, a full becher, and the Rebbe drank up the whole becher again. And if-- I'm pretty sure that he did it a third time. And then he sat down. The Rebbe turned around and asked him, "Voo is ayeir kasket?" So he said it's... I guess he said, "In the house," I think. So the Rebbe said, "You have to wear it. You should wear your kasket." And he told him to take off his hat. And he said, "Where's the kasket?" So he told him to go to get it. And he sent, I think, his son, Mottel Chein, went to find to bring the kasket. He left, and the Rebbe told him to take off his hat, so he's sitting without his hat. So he was sitting down, you know, amongst the people, and I guess he felt very uncomfortable sitting in front of the Rebbe without a hat. And the Rebbe noticed it, so the Rebbe took the na- a napkin and threw it to him. And he said to him, this is the lotion, "Natach an Amerikaner makif." And he took the napkin, and he put the

02:28 napkin over his head. So he had shnei makifim. He had his yarmulke, and he had the napkin. And the Rebbe started talking about the Rusish Eden. It was behemshich, I guess, though, but the mashke that he brought. And the Rebbe started talking about the Rusish Eden. This was after the Rebbe few-- drank a few bechers of sixty-nineiker with great hisrachshus. And some of the Chafnafshi he's saying, and he spoke about the Rusish Eden. The Rebbe, the Alter Rebbe, Reb Shmuel, and Rabbi Rivkin stood next to the Rebbe, saw that the Rebbe took mashke. They wanted to stop the Rebbe from drinking for the Rebbe's benefit, for the Rebbe's health. And I remember the tziyor, that they were standing on both sides, and the Rebbe was... couldn't hear from far what the Rebbe was saying to them. But, uh, the Rebbe was, like, arguing with them. And the Rashag started climbing on the table to say something to the Rebbe or to say something to them. And when the Rebbe saw him, the Rebbe turned around to him and he said, "Voz der Rakshikerov zogt vey siekh nit. Voz Rabbi Rivkin zogt vey s'raleynit. Voz zogt tir. Voz vilt tir." So Rashag obviously moved back. He said later his mind, he mind he wanted to push them away, tell them to leave. I don't know, whatever. And the Rebbe told him to s-set to sing the nigunim. He told him to sing, I think, the Tehillat Lefnafshi, then HeSheer Samecha for a long time. The Rebbe

03:39 stood up and making with his hands like, like never before, singing the nigun of HeSheer Samecha. And when they finished singing, they said the Rebbe sitting down. The Rebbe started talking while he was standing by the farbrengen, which is a seldom thing that he should stand by the farbrengen and talk. And what he was saying was that he's saying that since there's a minyan here, and, uh, we're able to make a psak din, vezal machan a psak din as the Rusish Eden's on the Ruskin for Rusland. We should pasken that the Eibishter should make, and the Rebbe was saying it with such hisrachshus and crying. Then the Rebbe sat down, and the Rebbe said that whoever wants to bring over a bottle of mashke and ask for a broche could do it. So imagine people took advantage, and people started running, trying to get bottles of mashke. And people brought to the Rebbe bottles of mashke. And the Rebbe would, every time a person brought a bottle of mashke, the Rebbe opened, p-poured a little bit into his cup, gave, poured into the other person. But instead of giving it back to the person, the Rebbe put it down on the table. And by everybody like that. So when you looked around, the table got so full. The whole table of the Rebbe was full, full, full of bottles of mashke because the Rebbe didn't give it back. But besides that, the Rebbe would speak to every person that came over and ask him something.

04:50 There are some people who told me later that they regretted walking over because one personal moshel was standing next to me. He walked over to the Rebbe with a bottle of mashke, and I was able to hear. And he gave the Rebbe, and the Rebbe gave him the mashke, then the Rebbe says to him, "Du host a shiur in lenen?" You have a shiur in learning? And the person was quiet. And the Rebbe said, "Ha? Ha?" And this happened to many people. And it was very... No, the Rebbe was very, very, uh, uh, hisrachshus. And then when it finished, the Rebbe started talking, and he said a sicha, and he said b'negel learning. And this is part of what I remember, the lotion where he said, "Mstam it's in the Hanochos." So the Rebbe said s- and he spoke like a person who, after he drink mashke, says, "S'yemir arayn, s'yemir arayn a yingeman af yechidas. A yingeman went into me in yechidas. Voz yechidas is der taytch az ein yechidas shebanafes retzach durch mit another yechidas shebanafes." One yechidas shebanafes is discussing something with another yechidas shebanafes. And the Rebbe said, "I asked him, 'S'yichot a shiur in lenen?' Does he have a shiur in learning? And he said no." And the Rebbe went on and on to talk about that. How is it possible such a thing? You shouldn't have a shiur in learning. The Rebbe, the time went on because it's a long time, the singing and all this happened. And then

06:04 after all this, let's call it commotion, was over because it was such noise and such commotion. All- after all that, I saw with my own eyes, I witnessed this. The Rebbe, with his hand, made like a siman over his forehead, took his hand over his forehead, and started talking. And he spoke a inyan in nigleh, poshet a pilpul nigleh for the kinus Torah. And he spoke for a very long time. I don't remember it was forty-five minutes or an hour, a long inyan in nigleh with closed eyes the whole time. And I saw it poshet by making over his forehead with his hand that changed till then. He was like s-speaking like a person after mashke. It was different, like the story of the Samach Tzedek that, uh, he took a lot of mashke, but then when he did that, then it was like nothing. So they asked him how. So he said, "The Gemara says that yayin kosher pachad mifige. If you drink strong wine, then if you get scared, it sobers you up." So he said, "I was misbeina for a second in Godless Hashem, and I got yirah shamayim, yirah, so pachad mifige." So he got rid of it. By the Rebbe, I saw it kipshute. And the- after the sicha, like nothing happened. After this long sicha, the Rebbe, the, the, uh, benched, and then there was ma'ariv and kosel brocha. Uh, I mean, it's like, like reg- like nothing happened. But the farbrengen was so long. It started around six

07:18 or six thirty. When we finished with kosel brocha and we walked out, it was seven o'clock in the morning. It was full light after the farbrengen. This is the farbrengen that lasted close to thirteen hours. This was Simchas Torah Tov Shin Chof Beis.