0083 - R' Berzan - Who Needs You There

00:01 In the chof and in the early lamed, there was a Rav in New York. His name was Rav Berzan. He was a member of Histadrut HaRabonim, and at one point he was even the president of Histadrut HaRabonim. He had a big shul, and as a bocher, I even once spoke in his shul, and that's how I got to know him, so I got a little bit friendly with him. Years later in the mems, I met him in Miami, and this is what he told me. He said that at one point he decided that he wants to give up the rabbonus and he wants to move to Eretz Yisrael. So I think he already sold his house and he was ready to go to Eretz Yisrael. He was a talmid of Rav Soloveitchik, but he was also close to the Rebbe. So he told me before he was going to Eretz Yisrael, he wanted to say goodbye, so to speak, to the Rebbe, get a bracha from the Rebbe. So he says he came to Lekach. And by Lekach, he told the Rebbe, he spoke to the Rebbe in Yiddish, and he said, Rebbe, I'm moving to Eretz Yisrael and I'm asking for a bracha. So the Rebbe looked at him, he said, and the Rebbe said in Yiddish, which means, who needs you there? Here we need you, but who needs you over there? So he told the Rebbe, yeah, but I already decided and I'm already all ready to go. Well, so the Rebbe

01:23 said, okay. So the Rebbe gave him a bracha. But then when he came there, he stayed there for a while and it didn't work out and he had to move back. So when I saw him, he already had moved back. Obviously, he didn't have his shtel of the rabbonus anymore and he couldn't be involved more in the rabbonus. But he saw that when the Rebbe told him that he really shouldn't move, how it really was true. And I just want to add, which is not really in the geia to the story of the Rebbe, he told me that before he left, since he was a talmid of Rav Soloveitchik, he wanted to say goodbye to Rav Soloveitchik also. So he said he went to Rav Soloveitchik and he told me with him, he spoke already in English. And he came over to Rav Soloveitchik and he said, Rebbe, I want to let you know I'm moving to Eretz Yisrael. So Rav Soloveitchik looked at him and he said, who needs you there? Here we need you, but who needs you over there? So he says he was so surprised that Rav Soloveitchik said the exact same words as the Rebbe. And he actually asked Rav Soloveitchik, did you by any chance speak to the Lubavitcher Rebbe lately? And he said no. But it's interesting that Rav Soloveitchik also tzuged rofen to what the Rebbe told him.