0687 - Not Wearing Glasses - R' Shmuel Levitin

00:01 Another thing that Reb Shmuel David told us, for a long, long time he didn't put on glasses, even though it wasn't so easy for him to see, but he didn't put on glasses. But later years he put on glasses and he told us what happened. When he was supposed to shtayn tsum prizim, which means in Russia they called it to go to register for the army. And it was a big sakona to go to the army. And obviously they tried everything to make sure that they don't go. So the bochrim did all kinds of things to themselves to make them sick, to do all kinds of themselves sick, all kinds of things they shouldn't have to go to the army. And one of the things that people did, they put on glasses. In those days, I don't know how it's now in Russia, in the army, if you had to wear glasses, you weren't taken to the army. So he was thinking to put on glasses. So he asked the Rebbe Rashab if he should put on glasses in order to avoid the prizim, in order to avoid being drafted to the army. And the Rebbe Rashab told him not to put on glasses. Exactly what the Rebbe Rashab told him to do. And it worked. I don't remember, but he told him not to put on glasses. So he said, "So the Rebbe told me not to put on glasses. How could I put on glasses?" But when it got to a point that

01:09 it was very hard for him to see, so he asked the Rebbe, can he put on glasses? He said, because if the Rebbe said not to, now in order to put it on, you have to ask the Rebbe again. So he asked the Rebbe. And the Rebbe told him, "Yeah, you can put on glasses." So that's when he put on glasses. But we see it again, the Kuk of Achid Ha-Sharid, that if the Rebbe said not to put on glasses, even though it was concerning the army, but if he said don't put on glasses, he didn't put on glasses till he asked the Rebbe. This time he asked our Rebbe. And the Rebbe said he could. So that was okay. That means that he got a heter from the Rebbe to put on glasses.