0063 - R' Meir Dubrovsky Growing a Beard Part 2

00:01 I had an uncle whose name was Rabbi Meir Dubravsky. He's also known as Rabbi Meir Vilenkin. He was a son of one of the Choshuvste Rabbonim Lubavitch. His father was Rabbi Mendel Dubravsky, the famous Rabbi Mendel Dubravsky. And he didn't get a chance, Rabbi Meir, my uncle, didn't get a chance to learn Yeshiva so much because he was drafted into the Russian army. And he didn't have a beard. And the reason he didn't have a beard is not because Chas VeShalom that he wants to be modern, things like that. He Poshut believed that he is not Royut to have a beard. He was a real Yirashamayim. He was a real Emesa person. Everything by him was with an Emes. And he with an Emes really felt that he is not Royut to wear a beard. When his daughter, my cousin, became a Kallah to Rabbi Tzchach Springer, so the Rebbe at that time already would put conditions in order to be Mesader Kidushin. So the Rebbe put a condition that he's going to be Mesader Kidushin, this chaseneh, if the father of the Kallah will grow a beard. When he heard that the Rebbe said that he should grow a beard, so obviously he started growing a beard, even though he himself felt that he's not deserving, he's not Royi, but the Rebbe said, so he grew a beard. Now the Seder was that before the chaseneh, the Chassan Kallah would go into Yechidus and the Mechatonim would go into Yechidus. So he also went

01:27 into Yechidus before the chaseneh. By that time already, it was a while since he started growing his beard, so he had already a pretty big beard already. So when he went into Yechidus, he told me, the Rebbe in Yechidus said to him, "Ich hoff, az ir hot nisht kin far ibel, vos ich kh'khayb gebet niz od far lozn a bord." I hope that you're not upset that I asked you to grow a beard. So he says to me that he told the Rebbe, "Az der Rebbe heyst folg ich." The Rebbe said to do it, I listen. So the Rebbe said to him, "Ich heyst, der Shokhnorok heyst." I'm telling you to do it, the Shokhnorok is telling you to do it. And I believe when he used the word Shokhnorok, I don't know he meant the Sefer Shokhnorok, but that was an expression by the Rebbe whenever he meant it as Al Pi Halakh, Al Pi Torah, he would use the Shokhnorok. So when he said that, he meant to say, I'm telling you to do it. Al Pi Torah, you have to do it. The Halakha tells you to do it. So when he-- In other words, the Rebbe wanted to tell him that it's not something that the Rebbe is demanding something extra, but this is something that has to be done Al Pi Halakh.