0532 - R' Levik Giving Hechsher on Kosher for Pesach Sugar - R' Zalman Vilenkin

00:01 We heard lately that when Rav Gotlib was preparing the Sefer Toldos Levi Yitzchok, the biography of the Rebbe's father, Rabbi Chadakov told him, and obviously it came from the Rebbe, that even little small things are important. In other words, you shouldn't skip anything. Even small things, small protim are important. Sometimes they can be very important. That we know that B'neguer, the Rebbe's father, all little things are important. So I want to mention a small thing that I heard from my Zayda B'neguer of Levi Yitzchok, and that is that he was once going to give a hechsher on sugar for Pesach. And the way the seder was there is that they had the sugar cooking in a certain vat, and then the hot sugar would go through a conveyor belt and pass through and come out on the other side, and there it would get packed or whatever it was. When the sugar went through the conveyor belt, it was open. There was hot sugar going through the belt, but it wasn't covered. You could see the sugar going through. And they had a special person standing by that conveyor belt to take care, to make sure everything goes fine. So when Rabbi Levi Yitzchok came to the company, wanted to see the whole mahalach of the way things go, the whole seder of how the cooking and the preparation of the sugar is. So he went in, he went to one place to another. Then he came to the place where the conveyor belt was

01:19 and the sugar was going through, the hot sugar was going through. And the man was standing there. As he walked in and he looked around, he saw this man. I think it was a goy. So he saw him take out from his pocket a shtik piece of bread. And as the sugar is going through, the hot sugar, he took the piece of bread, stuck it into the sugar, which gives it a taste, and he ate it. So Rabbi Levi Yitzchok said, how could I give a hechsher here when this could happen? That he could take out bread and put the bread into sugar, and then I'll give a hechsher for Pesach. So he didn't want to give the hechsher. Now what happened to end, whether the Maisei gave the hechsher because they made changes or he didn't give the hechsher, I don't know. I also don't know at what period it was. Was it the time that this was a Mesires Nefesh because he was expected to give a hechsher and the government would like pressure him to do it or not? I don't know. Maybe it was a time or not. So it's not maybe a big thing. But still, this is something that my Zayda told me that this happened, that he was so makpid on everything. When he saw this happen, obviously he did not give the hechsher for then. And what happened later, like I said, I don't know.