# 5 R' Moshe Vilenker

00:07 The Chasid Reb Moshe Wilenker was born to a chashuve mishpacha in the city of Vilna. Had a big talmid chacham, had kashrus mitzuyanim. In the year of taf kuf mem alef, the Alter Rebbe visited Vilna. This was the second or the third visit of the Alter Rebbe in Vilna. Reb Moshe went over to the Alter Rebbe, and he asked him his, uh, sfekas, his questions in learning. The Alter Rebbe answered him all his questions, and since then, Reb Moshe became a passionate Chassid of the Alter Rebbe. Two month after the Alter Rebbe left Vilna, Reb Moshe escaped his home secretly and walked by feet until he came to Liozno to the Alter Rebbe. When Moshe went over to the Alter Rebbe in Liozno, the Alter Rebbe arranged for him to learn in Cheder Alef based on his kashrus mitzuyanim. However, when the Alter Rebbe found out that Reb Moshe escaped his home secretly without his wife's permission, he did not want to allow him to learn in Liozno until he goes back home and ask his wife for permission. Reb Moshe begged the Alter Rebbe that he should allow him to stay in Liozno for a half a year. The Alter Rebbe agreed. And Two, three years passed, and when the Alter Rebbe went out of jail by 10 Kislev, so the Kehillah Chasidim of Vilna became stronger and more influential. And from time to time, Reb Ze'ev Wolf would visit them in their farbrengens, in their learning. And then eventually when the Alter Rebbe

02:41 moved to Liadi, Reb Ze'ev Wolf came to Liadi for the first time, and he stayed there for nine month. That's where he met his brother, Reb Moshe, for the first time in so many years after not seeing him for 20 years. The Frierdiker Rebbe once related that the Chassid Reb Moshe Wilenker was older than his brother, Reb Velvel, either in 12 or 15 years. Reb Moshe was from the talmidim of Cheder Alef of the Alter Rebbe, and Reb Velvel was from the talmidim of Cheder Gimel. One time, the Alter Rebbe walked around at night with a candle to see how the yungerleit are sleeping. So the Alter Rebbe woke up Reb Moshe Wilenker. Reb Moshe Wilenker was mevulbal, and he asked the Alter Rebbe, "What's a neshamah? What's a lekus?" Another version is he asked the Alter Rebbe, "What's the difference between a neshamah and a lekus?" The Alter Rebbe told him he should go back to sleep. And there's actually a ma'amar Chassidus from the Alter Rebbe on this inyan, neshamah and a lekus. Reb Moshe Wilenker was very chaviv and yakar in the eyes of the Tzemach Tzedek because Reb Moshe Wilenker repeated to the Tzemach Tzedek ma'amarim that he heard from the Alter Rebbe from when he came to Liozno, ma'amarim which the Tzemach Tzedek himself did not hear. And as an exchange for that, as a payment for that, the Tzemach Tzedek fulfilled Reb Moshe Wilenker's request to learn twice a week with his younger brother, Reb Velvel, and also to

04:10 repeat to him and to explain him the ma'amarim of the Alter Rebbe of Shabbos. At those days, the Tzemach Tzedek was either 16 or 17 years old, and Reb Velvel, Reb Moshe's younger brother, was then 30. In one of his letters, the Frierdiker Rebbe writes about the difference between the two famous Chassidim, Reb Moshe Wilenker and Reb Yeruchol Laplear. We will quote over here the parts that speak specifically about Reb Moshe. In Simchas Chag HaGeulah 5654, the Rebbe Maharash explained and spoke about the Chassidim of the Alter Rebbe, and he said, "There are two types of Chassidim, the Chassidim Makifim and Chassidim Pnimiyum. Both of them are Chassidei Chabad, and Chabad is Pnimius. Also by the Chassid which is Makif, his Pnimius is penetrated with the Ohr of Chassidus. And by the Chs- by, and by the Chassid who is a Pnimi, the Makifim shine begilui. However, one of them is called a Chassid Makifi, and the other one is called a Chassid Pnimi. Reb Moshe Wilenker and Reb Yeruchol Laplear were both from the Chassidim of the Zeide," meaning the Alter Rebbe. "Both of them reached the highest level in their Avoda, Lisam Le'gal Hashem, meaning the highest level of ahava v'ta'anugim. Nonetheless, Reb Moshe Wilenker was a Chassid Pnimi, and Reb Yeruchol Laplear was a Chassid Makifi, a Makif de'Chassid. The setup of the sechel of a middas of a Chassid is according to his first Yechidus by his Rebbe. And the first Yechidus of a Chassid by his Rebbe is according to

05:44 the erech of his atzmus de'kamahus. And based on that, the Rebbe gives him in Yechidus the pasuk ha'seider Avoda. Reb Moshe Wilenker and Reb Yeruchol Laplear are two types of mahus. Reb Moshe was a ba'al mochin, and the Alter Rebbe said about him, to the Zeide," meaning to the Mitteler Rebbe, "'Moshe hot mochin de'gadlus.'" And during the 10 years that he worked hard, that he toiled, he got mechin rechovim. Reb Moshe was a baal middos. By Reb Moshe Velinker, the hachana that he prepared himself to go into yechidus by the Alter Rebbe took three years, and afterwards he stayed in Liadner for seven additional years in order to bring the yechidus to avoda bepayah. My father, meaning the Tzemach Tzedek, told me that the Harav HaTzadik, Reb Aaron Shtefaneller, told him that on the first night after the first yechidus of Reb Moshe Velinker by the Alter Rebbe, meaning by the Alter Rebbe, he was in such hisamkus hamechin from what he heard from the Rebbe to an extent that he needed to ask two yungaleid, Reb Shalom from Yanovitch and Reb Chaim Zeruier, that they should watch over him, that he should chas v'shalom not miss any words by ma'ariv and krias shema she'amita. This went on for two weeks. For two weeks, he needed mashgiachim that he shouldn't miss any words by davening until Reb Moshe finally was able to be settled two weeks later. On Shabbos Parshas Pinchas, Taf kuf samech tes, the Alter Rebbe said, "The maimar, olah sto midha asuiyah

07:14 behar Sinai." Reb Moshe Velinker was on that Shabbos in Liadi. Sunday afternoon, my father, meaning the Tzemach Tzedek, and my grandfather, meaning the Mitteler Rebbe, went into the Beis Medrash, and he saw Reb Moshe standing and davening. So my zeide, meaning the Mitteler Rebbe, said to my father, the Tzemach Tzedek, "By Moshe, even his feet are meshubad to ha'sagan ha'selichos." In the time of the nesius of the Tzemach Tzedek, Reb Moshe Velinker was once at a wedding by one of his relatives. In that wedding, there were many chassidim, older chassidim, younger chassidim, so they honored Reb Moshe to chazar a maimar. Reb Moshe was famous to be a baal peh mafik margolias, and his way, his derech was to chazar first the maimar that he heard from the Alter Rebbe word for word, and even the nigun, the, the tune which the Alter Rebbe would say the nigun, he wouldn't change. After he would repeat the maimar like that, he would say, "Yes, v'lamer tzidindin egen et torah," and he will start to explain the maimar in his words, and says, "Geven vos zuharen." So in that wedding was a yungerman from the relatives of the chassan's family, which was from the chassidim of the Tzemach Tzedek. He was a baal kishon mufla, and after Reb Moshe finished chazaring the maimar, this yungerman started to chazar a maimar of the Tzemach Tzedek. The maimar was, um, a maimar dike maimar, and Reb Moshe was very mispallel from the maimar. So this yungerman, which noticed the

08:44 hispalus of Reb Moshe, turned to Reb Moshe after the maimar, and he, and he asked him, "Vos vertu nispel? Why are you being nispel? It's true, ir zeid given by Matan Torah. It's true that you were by Matan Torah. Aber noch Matan Torah, hot ir zikh gelegt shlofn. But after Matan Torah, you went to sleep. Aber noch Matan Torah, zen in given Neviim, Tanoyim, v'Amoroyim. So given a gantse Torah shebe'al peh. But after Matan Torah, there were Neviim, Tanoyim, and Amoroyim. There was a whole Torah shebe'al peh." Meaning that Reb Moshe got stuck at the Alter Rebbe, and this yungerman was trying to tell him how after the Alter Rebbe, there were more rebbeim, the Mitteler Rebbe, the Tzemach Tzedek. Later on, this yungerman related that when he was chazaring this maimar, he noticed the way Reb Moshe was listening, and he said, "Such listening ear like Reb Moshe Velinker's I've never seen before in my life." After his takas of the Alter Rebbe, Reb Moshe first did not become a chassid of the Mitteler Rebbe. However, the sef yomo of the Mitteler Rebbe, he asked the Mitteler Rebbe from Machila, and he asked him to accept him as a chassid. When the Mitteler Rebbe traveled to Haditch before his his takas, Reb Moshe accompanied him, and Reb Moshe was also present at the his takas of the Mitteler Rebbe in, in Nezin. Reb Moshe was zecher to arichus yomo muflaga. Before his his takas, he said that he's able to give a din v'chesbon

10:12 on all the machshava, dibur, ma'ase of his whole entire life. There is a bavuste nigun meyuchas to Reb Moshe Velinker. It's Nigun Lamed in Sefer HaNigunim. We'll play this nigun sung by the a cappella choir. Ay, ya, ya, ya, dum. Ay, ya, ya, ya, dum. Ay, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya, ya. Ay, ya, ya, ya, da, dum. Ay, ya, ya, ya, ya. Ay, da, da, ya, dum. Ay, da, da, ya, dum. Ay, da, da, ya, dum. Ay, da, da. Ay, oy, ay, da, da, dum. Ay, ya, ya, ya, ya. Tidi, oy, da, ya, da. Ay, ya, ya, ya, ma, ya, ma, ya, ma, yay, da, da, dum. Oy, da, yay, da, da, da, da.