0086 - Noticeable That a Chassid is in Town

00:01 There's a certain person who told me something that the Rebbe told him. He lived in a city out of town, and he would come to the Rebbe from time to time, and he would even go into Yechidus. And once he was there for Simchas Torah, it must have been in tes zov, tes zayin, those years, I don't know exactly. He came for Simchas Torah. Now, Simchas Torah, the saying about the Rebbe was that he would give by the farbrengen of Simchas Torah, he would give people from out of town, shluchim. There were not so many shluchim, but people from out of town, he would give them mashke. It wasn't like years later when he would give the mashke at the time of Koshel Brocha, but this was he would give in the middle of the farbrengen, he would give the mashke. And people who felt that they are in that category to get the mashke would walk over to the Rebbe at that time when the Rebbe would be giving out the mashke. So he says he felt that he also would deserve a bottle of mashke because he lived in a city and he did certain things and certain puas there. So he also went over to the Rebbe to get a bottle of mashke. The Rebbe looked at him and like asked basically, who are you? From which city are you? And he was very surprised because the Rebbe actually knew him and he went to Yechidus many times. But nevertheless, he answered

01:09 the Rebbe and the Rebbe gave him a bottle of mashke. But it bothered him. The Rebbe asked where he's from. The Rebbe knew who he is. The Rebbe knew where he lives. So he asked Shmuel Evitan, what does he think that means? Shmuel Evitan from the Alter Rebbe. He asked him for an interpretation. So he said he doesn't know either. But he suggested when you're going into Yechidus, ask the Rebbe. So when he went into Yechidus after Simchas Torah, he asked the Rebbe, why did the Rebbe ask who he is and where he's from when the Rebbe knows him? So this is what the Rebbe said to him. This is what he told me the Rebbe said to him. I don't remember the exact words, but the teichen was this. He said, as a Chosid lebt in a shtot, dav zain kentik adertn lebt a Chosid. When a Chosid lives in a city, it has to be obvious that the Chosid lives there. That means that his influence has to be felt in the city. And then you could tell on him that he is part of that city because he influenced the city. But if it's not so, then you cannot tell on him that he is from that city. And the Rebbe was maramis him basically that he should do more in influencing the city than he did till now. And from then on, obviously, he started doing more. But here we see that the Rebbe would tell on a person to see

02:23 how much influence he had and how much puas he did. And that's a lesson for us that we have to know that the Rebbe knows exactly without even seeing, looking at the person, he sees how much you worked in influencing the city.