0597 - The Shpoler Zeide and the Sefer Shel Tzaddikim

00:01 Shabbos Chanukah, Shabbos Parshas Mekits, Tov Shin Chof Beis 1961, the Rebbe told a story of the Shpole Zeide and the Alter Rebbe. And I'm gonna repeat the story the way I remember that the Rebbe said it then, even though in the Anoche it's a little bit different. This is what he said in the name of the Friediker Rebbe, that the Alter Rebbe we know wrote, besides the Sefer Shel Beinim, which is Tanya, he wrote a Sefer Shel Tzadikim. Once the Shpole Zeide came to the city of the Alter Rebbe, and he told the Alter Rebbe that the Sefer Shel Tzadikim, the world is not ready for it, and therefore you should burn it. And he told the Alter Rebbe that, "Ich mal aruf geim be'esei lav hashamayimah." I'm gonna go up in this flame to Shamayim. The peal, there was a fire later by the Alter Rebbe, whether it was Ladi or Lozne, and these manuscripts of the Sefer Shel Tzadikim got burned. And that day, the Rebbe said, the Shpole Zeide passed away. And while the Rebbe was saying this, the Rebbe was choking up. The Rebbe was crying when he was talking about the Sefer Shel Tzadikim and that the Alter Rebbe burned it. I don't know exactly which prat exactly and which words it was, but he was choking up. He was crying. Then the Rebbe said, "The connection between the two, between the Shpole Zeide and this burning of the Sefer Shel Tzadikim, I don't know," he said. But this is

01:22 the way I heard that that time, that day, he was gone, he passed away. Now, the peal, when they found the reshimas of the Rebbe at the Gimel Tammuz, so he also has amongst the reshimas, the Marom Mikemis and Hagos and HaOres Ksoros to Sefer Shel Beinim to Tanya. So there in one of the papers, the Rebbe wrote this story, and this is the way the Rebbe wrote it as it's printed in the Kutrasim of Marom Mikemis, Hagos, HaOres Ksoros to Sefer Shel Beinim that they gave out. There they printed the lotion of the Rebbe's letter, and he writes like this, "I heard from my father-in-law, shlita," I'm reading it in English, "that the Alter Rebbe started writing also a Sefer Shel Tzadikim, and it got burned together with, uh, many simanim of the Alter Rebbe Sholom Noach. I think the Rebbe says that the way he told it to me was like this. The Shpole Zeide came to the Alter Rebbe, to his city, and I don't remember if it was to Ladi or to Lozne." I think the Rebbe was saying on himself he doesn't remember whether it was, or maybe the Friediker Rebbe said that. I don't know. And he told the Alter Rebbe, "You started writing Sefer Shel Tzadikim, and the world can't take it, and there's a kitrug lemaila for, on you. So they paskened that you have to burn it. And I'm gonna go up in that lav and that to Mashama- uh, to Shamayim." And that's how it

02:37 was. In the time of the Sreife, the Shpole Zeide was Nistalik. That's the way the Rebbe writes the lotion that he kedumu, he thinks he heard from the Friediker Rebbe. The Rebbe wrote this story also in a letter that he wrote to, uh, Paris, to Rabbi Yisroel Meyach Belinov, which is printed in the Yigras Kodesh of the Rebbe Chelik Tes, page reish lamed beis. It's also printed in Likutei Sichos. And there the Rebbe tells the story be'erev the same way, the way I'm telling it and the way the Rebbe wrote it there. And in the Sichos Habrengen of Shabbos Chanukah, Tov Shin Chof Beis, the Rebbe answered based on this, answered a kasha. The kasha was in Tanya, the Alter Rebbe asked the kasha that it says that if even if the whole world tells you that you're a tzadik, "Hayei b'einecha k'rosha," should be in your eyes like a rosha. And in Tanya he explains what does that mean, k'rosha. It doesn't mean like a rosha mamash. It means like a beini, which is, that never does any aveit, et cetera, et cetera. But then we have the Alter Rebbe, the Tzemach Tzedek writes that the Gemara says that Reb Yehuda HaMazaki said, "Ei yedei abesi derech malicha neisi." I don't know which way I'm going. Am I going to Gan Eden or going to Gehenom? And he asked the kasha. Reb Yehuda HaMazaki didn't know which way he's going. He didn't know he's going to Gan Eden. So the Tzemach Tzedek answered that

03:58 sometimes you could even be a tzadik, but deep down in your etzem there might be some ra that you don't even know about. So you are a tzadik, and you behave like a tzadik with all the trimmings of a tzadik, but the peal could be the etzem like that. And therefore, Reb Yehuda HaMazaki said he doesn't know which way he's going because he doesn't know what's going on by this etzem. So the Rebbe asked, "How come in Tanya the Alter Rebbe doesn't say this pshat, that even by a tzadik gomor, you could be like a rosha because of your etzem?" And the Rebbe said, based on this story we understand, because was it the Sefer Shel Tzadikim of the Alter Rebbe? The chure in Tanya, Sefer Shel Beinim, the Alter Rebbe describes what a tzadik is. The answer is, in Sefer Shel Beinim he describes a tzadik be'erev in relationship to a beini. So the Sefer is about beinim. Compared to the beini, the tzadik is the way the Alter Rebbe explains in Tanya. But the real level of a tzadik, that's higher than that, and that's what was written in Sefer Shel Tzadikim. So since this is a Sefer Shel Beinim, the Rebbe said, so the Alter Rebbe only explained the pshat, "Hayei b'einecha k'rosha," be like a rosha according to the level of Sefer Shel Beinim. But the other level of being even a tzadik still could be considered k'rosha because of his etzem, that's something a chayav to Sefer Shel Tzadikim, and

05:11 that's not chayav to us. But then the Rebbe said, but still the peal since we were told this story, so siman that we do have a shaychus to it, that it's possible for a person eventually to reach even that, that high madrega. And the Rebbe told a story that the Alter Rebbe once told somebody, "Aveme falosach afmir," and who are you lying? And you're lying on me. You won't even know the road to my Gan Eden. And the Tzemach Tzedek said that this is a higher madrega even than the madrega of Reb Yehuda HaMazaki, who said, "I don't know which way I'm going." And the Alter Rebbe said, "I do know." And he told the person, "You won't know the way to my Gan Eden." So it seems that because of chasidus, you're able to reach the madrega that you could even change your etzem. You know your etzem is good, and change your etzem to be good. And that's something that is connected to the Sefer Shel Tzadikim by the chasidus, the peal mamash for every person in a certain level if you learn chasidus.