0527 - Story of Der Klutz Not Stopping the Shiur

00:01 One of the things that the Rebbe spoke about quite a few times was that everything that a Yid does has a ripple effect. He can't tell you that it's only the gay to me, that's my business. Because whatever you do affects other Yidden and by other people it can get worse and worse and worse. Therefore, we have to be very careful. So I want to repeat a story that the Rebbe told, and this is Shabbos Parsha Shemini Tov Shechov Ches. And he told it in the name of the Friedrich Rebbe, but he told the story bikitzer. So I'm going to tell the story the way the Rebbe said it then. And also then I'll tell the story the way the Friedrich Rebbe told it, Yudat Skislev, Tov Reish Peidaled. And the Rebbe said that there was a person who was called Yoshe der Klotz. Yoshe was his name, Yoshe der Klotz. He was a Yid that learned 18 hours a misles, and because he was so poor, he didn't have a chair, so he would sit on a piece of wood. And since he shokel tzav bachas, he was learning. So after a while, there became in the Klotz, Klotz means a piece of wood, became a place like a seat. Therefore, he was called Yoshe der Klotz. So they asked him, you're learning at 30, 40 years, you're learning 18 hours a day. Why can't you stop learning a little bit, a half hour less, learn only 17, 17 and a half hours? And

01:07 he said, if I'm going to make my, I'm going to learn less, another Yid, and I think the Loshen Rebbe said that I'm taking Zun, can bite in the merendal. The pharmacist's son in the city could change his merendal, which the Rebbe says in Russian, this was an expression that they used to use, someone who schmatzach, someone who converts chas v'shalom. So they asked him, what do you mean? So he said, when he learns 18 hours, the one that's in a lower level than him learns a little bit less, and the other one learns a little bit less, because everyone looks to the one higher, and if the one higher is starting to be less, so he also could be less. Till the last lowest level of a Yid, the lowest dargah, if he becomes less, there is nothing else that he has. The only thing he has is that he didn't schmatzach, that's his only Yiddishkeit, and if he goes less, that means he will schmatzach. And the Rebbe said the same thing is in the good side, ad rabbe, good side is even more that whatever you do, then it has an effect on others. This is the way the Rebbe told the story, Shabbos Parsha Shemini Tov Shechov Ches. The Friedrich Rebbe told the story more ba'ariches, and he said it was the Asifis HaRabbonim Eshnas Etar Tov Reish Ayin. There were a lot of Rabbonim in the hotel, they were all together, and the Friedrich Rebbe was meshamash them, so he

02:17 was also meshamash of Chaim Brisker. So Rab Chaim Brisker told him that his father, Rab Yoshe Ber, would say twice a week a pilpul, a big pilpul for the two lomdim in Brisker, Berel der Horb, gives a different name here, and Kalman der Klotz. They used to call them like that because they learned a lot, so Berel learned so much that he got a horb, a horb means a hunchback, so he was called Berel the Hunchback, and Kalman learned so much on a piece of wood that he made a hole in the wood from sitting on it so much, and they were great gayanim, and he said a pilpul for them. Once there was a story in Brisker that one Yid was taken to jail, and he was going to have a trial, etc., etc., so Rab Yoshe Ber and a Jewish lawyer were involved in trying to save him. They made up a certain day that they're going to go wherever they have to go to try to save him. When the day came, this lawyer came to the place where he was sitting, and he saw him sitting, came to the house, they told the house of Rab Yoshe Ber, they told him that he's in Bismedresh, they went to Bismedresh, he saw that Rab Yoshe Ber is giving a shir and gevurah and being a bilpul with Berel der Horb and Kalman der Klotz in the yonim of Tumavetara. He didn't want to disturb him, so he waited on the side. After

03:19 a while, Rab Yoshe Ber saw him, told the stamidim, he got a stop because I have to go for something at the Kluch Nefesh, and they both went. On the way, the lawyer asked Rab Yoshe Ber, please could explain to me, why are you involved in him? First of all, what's the gay of Tumavetara now? And also, whom are you giving the shir for? For Berel der Horb and Kalman der Klotz? They're themselves lomdim. So he said to him like this, you have to understand like this. I say a pilpul for them. If I say a pilpul for them, so then in another shul, they say a blood gemara, they learn a blood gemara. In another shul, they just learn a simple gemara. Another shul, further, another shir, they learn mishnayis, etc., etc. Another one doesn't learn, but he goes three times a day to daven in shul. And there are some people that go to shul only in the morning. Then lower than that is someone that goes to shul only Shabbos and only someone that goes only Yontif. Till the uptaker's zoon, the pharmacist's son, only goes Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. But if I'm not going to say the pilpul, so in the other place, they're not going to learn the blood gemara. In the other place, they're not going to learn the gemara. Till, etc., etc., till the uptaker's zoon, the pharmacist's zoon, the lowest madregeh, won't even come to shul on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. So that's the same

04:27 story, but here the Rebbe said he will schmatzach, and he called him a different name, Yoshe der Horb, Yoshe der Klotz, I mean. So, but it's the same story with the Friedrich told more bariches. The Rebbe told it kitser like this, the way I mentioned before. But all this is to bring out that you have to remember whatever you do has a ripple effect.