0437 - Precision in a Story of R' Zushe Anipoli

00:00 There is a letter from the Rebbe to a Rav Zevin printed in Likutey Sichos, Chelek Chaf Dalet, page five sixty-one, and also in Igras Kodesh, Chelek Yud Dalet, page reish samach tes. There the Rebbe writes ha'ores on his sefer Sipurich Tzaddim. Rav Zevin was a big gaon. He was a chassid of the Rebbe, and he wrote many sefarim, but he also gave out two sefarim called Sipurich Tzaddim. One is on Torah, one is on Meiadei HaYom HaTovim. And the one on Torah goes according to some pesukim, brings certain stories of tzaddikim, of chassidim that fit to different pesukim. So the Rebbe writes to him first, generally speaking, that you have to be very careful in these stories. You have to know where the stories come from. They should have mekades, et cetera, et cetera. But then he writes to him behemshich to that, that there are certain stories of chassidim which make people wonder. And because of the wonder, they seem strange, some people who read the stories or hear the stories say probably the one that's in the story, the person that the story is about, probably did against the din, or certainly not lifnim meshurat hadin. And b'meile that makes people look at chassidus and the rabbeim of chassidus that it's not, uh, not correct. At the same time, had you made one little small change in even an expression, then the whole kasha goes off. And the Rebbe writes that since most of these stories went through many stages, one person heard

01:15 it and then he told another, another, another. So probably the betuyim, the expressions are not exact. And b'meile, especially if you change the, the language, and therefore certain things come out. And the Rebbe gave him two examples. I'm gonna mention one example. The second example he brings is there's a story, uh, he says, Sipur Shin Yud Gimel, concerning Reb Zusha of Anipoli. There was a person that after his father passed away, he came to him in his cholom a few times that he should shmazach, rachmanu l'tslan. And he couldn't understand why is this happening. So he went to Reb Zusha, and Reb Zusha told him, the way it says in the story, he should dig the kever up and look what's there. And they dug it up, and they found something which is like a selem inside. And they took it out, and then it stopped. So it sounded like a big mefes of Reb Zusha. This mefes, the story got to the Vilner Gaon, and the Vilner Gaon said, "By him it's not a mefes. It's a clear Yerushalmi. It says this in Yerushalmi." His pele is, how did Reb Zusha know the Yerushalmi when he says chassidim know not a letter? When this got to Reb Zusha, the vort of the Vilner Gaon back, back to Reb Zusha, Reb Zusha said, "It's true, I didn't know the Yerushalmi, but I took it from where the Yerushalmi took it." So the Rebbe writes to him, to Rav Zevin, that this story seemed not to

02:29 fit to Halacha because you're not allowed to dig up a kever. But with one little change, the Rebbe writes, if it's not exactly the way it said that you should dig the kever, but he maybe he said dig around the kever or in dalad amos around the kever, then the whole kasha goes off. And for sure that the hishtalshelus, when the story came from one person to another, they weren't so madayek and came out that it's the kever itself, and that's how a person will read it. And then the Rebbe writes to him that, "Achaga, by the way, you bring in the story that's a clear Yerushalmi. Do you by any chance know where it says in Yerushalmi?" In other words, the Rebbe knew all the Yerushalmi, and he knew it's not there, but he didn't want to write, I assume, that it's not in Yerushalmi, as if saying, "I know Yerushalmi." So he wrote to him, and there's a question. And he wrote it separately, not in the letter, because in the letter it would mean that this is a raaya, this tru-- this story is not true, and it's only based if the Rebbe admits that he knows all of Yerushalmi. So he didn't bother, but in the gate, the story itself, he just wrote that point. And then he says to him also, "Do you by any chance know where Yerushalmi is?" But I wanna mention that Reb Ben Shekor, who's a mashgiach in yeshiva here in Miami, showed me something very

03:36 interesting, that there's a sefer called Shivchei Tzaddikim, which was printed in taf reish mem gimel. And there you have this story. This story was also printed in a sefer in years later, which is called Beitzin HaKadisha. And there the story is actually the way it's written by Rav Zevin. By stories, it seems like Rav Zevin took it from there. But in the Sefer Shivchei Tzaddikim, which was written many years before that, there the same story is told, and then there the lashon in the story is like this, that Reb Zusha answered him, "Sheyachtaru veyachparu heitav saviv kivrei shel aviv haniftar." They should dig very good around the kever of the father who died, ad hadeifim shel ei saviv, till the wall that's around the kever, and to see if there's nothing there which is a symbol of, of a desire or something like that. So here we see that the original one actually said to dig saviv a kever. So the Rebbe, when the Rebbe said that this probably was a mistake, we see here clearly that in the original source of the story, it actually said the way the Rebbe says it should be, that it was around the kever.