#11 R' Chaim Ber Vilansky (from the "Berelach")

00:05 L'zchus acheinu bnei u'bnos Yisrael in Eretz HaKodesh, dedicated by HaChofetz b'Ilum Shmo. Please help us grow this Gishmaka Show by subscribing using the link in the show notes. Thank you. In the city of Kremenchuk, there was a group of well-known Hasidim who all had the name Ber as part of their name. Amongst them, the famous Hasid Rebbe Elimelech, Rebbe Elimelech HaSaiv, and the figure of our episode, Reb Chaim Ber Wilansky. They were therefore called the Kremenchuger Berelach. Chaim Ber Wilansky was born in Kremenchuk, and despite the fact that his parents were not wealthy, they were not well-to-do, they spent much money on hiring the best melamedim for their son, and he did not disappoint. He had great kishrenus, was very much matzliach. When he was about 18 years old, he got married, and soon after his wedding, he traveled to Lubavitch to spend time as a yeshiv by the Rebbe Maharash. Unfortunately, a short while later, his wife passed away, and, uh, he came back during the shiva. He then remarried with, uh, another woman who was a widow, and he had a few children from her. It is told that once Reb Chaim Ber made a bris, and since he was megdalei Hasidim in, in Kremenchuk, and he was known to be a per mafik, margolyes, was a great speaker, so a big, uh, crowd of Hasidim came to the bris. The farbrengen went on for, for many hours, and when they ran out of mashke, they asked Reb Chaim Ber's brother-in-law, Reb Noach

01:45 Shenis, that he should go to the basement and get a few more bottles of wine. So Reb Noach said, "Okay, I'll go get a few bottles of wine on condition that all the Hasidim present at the farbrengen will promise me that I will have a ben zachar." Now, he did not have any children, and it's been already 18 years. So the Hasidim, who were all after a little bit of l'chaim, gave him the promise they will have a ben zachar. So he went to the basement and got the wine, and the farbrengen went on until the morning. A short while later, Reb Noach's wife became pregnant after not having children for 18 years. So Reb Noach traveled to the Rebbe Maharash, and he told him the great news. The Rebbe Maharash's face turned red, and he said, "Since it was done at a seudas mitzvah, I agree that it should be a zarah chayav ekayama." Eventually, she gave birth to a son, and they named him Binyamin, who was, uh, later known as the Tomim Binyamin Shenis. Anyways, back to Reb Chaim Ber. Unfortunately, eventually his second wife also passed away. And a few years later, around the year of 5600, he got married with his third wife, who was actually advised by the Rebbe Maharash to marry her. And the Rebbe Maharash himself was the mesader kiddushin at the wedding that took place in Lubavitch. Reb Chaim Ber was a pnimius dike Hasid that very much stayed away from showing any signs of his

03:16 paylos externally. During the week, his davening took about an hour, and on Shabbos and Yom Tov, his davening took about two hours. His davening was with great intensity, but without any external emotions. The Rebbe Rashab once said about Reb Chaim Ber's Yom Kippur davening that, "The taste of his davening is in my stomach till this day. He had a rich davening, raych ge davent." Hasidim say that on lil Shmini Atzeres and Simchas Torah, Reb Chaim Ber would be very much mayrich in his davening. And in general, those two nights of Shmini Atzeres and Simchas Torah, he would be completely out of his keilim, unlike the rest of the year. His dancing was with great intensity and to an extent that not always people were, were, were able to handle his paylos on those nights. One year, he closed himself up in a room and danced by himself. The Frierdiker Rebbe spoke about Chaim Ber once in a farbrengen, and he said, "The Chosid Reb Chaim Ber from Kremenchuk was a maskil nipha and had a great mind. He had a great haflea and was a big amken." The Frierdiker Rebbe continues, "My, my father-in-law", which was Reb Avraham Schneerson from Kishinev, "So my father-in-law once told me," says the Frierdiker Rebbe, "that Reb Chaim Ber once came to Kishinev to buy wine. He went to the soycher's home, but the soycher wasn't home at that time. So, uh, Reb Chaim Ber was misameik in a inyan chassidus until the soycher will come home. Eventually, the

04:45 soycher came home, and when he saw Chaim Ber, he asked him, 'Chaim Ber, how are you?' But Reb Chaim Ber didn't answer because he was deep in the inyan chassidus that he was thinking. The soycher, which didn't really have a chush in ha'amaka, didn't really understand why Chaim Ber wasn't answering him. So a while later, he asked him again, 'Chaim Ber, how are you?' This time, Chaim Ber woke up from his, uh, thinking, and he answered him. Then Chaim Ber asked him, 'Could you please show me the sink? I need some water.' So when the soycher showed him the sink in his house, Chaim Ber wondered, 'Why did the sink move locations?' What happened? Because of his ha'amaka and chassidus with his, uh, many hours of his brenenes, he completely forgot that he even traveled to Kishinev, and he thought that he's in his own home. And in his own home, the sink was at a different location, so he was wondering why the sink changed locations. Uh, Chaim Ber and a few other Bavusitch Hasidim from Kremenchuk were talmidim of the Chosid Reb Baruch Tomer's, who was the spiritual, uh, leader of the Hasidim in the town. After Reb Baruch Tomer's passed away, his talmidim decided that the leadership of the Hasidim should be divided between his, uh, three great talmidim, Chaim Ber, Chaim Ber Wilansky Berel Marsayav and Berel Dovruskin. And they made up that these three chasidim will take turns saying chasidus. Each Shabbos, a different one will say chasidus. The Rebbe

06:11 Rashab once said that, "I asked Chaim Ber if he writes any chidushei Torah, and he answered that he doesn't. And when I asked him why he doesn't, he answered, 'Because I don't want to.'" And the Rebbe Rashab then said that by Chaim Ber not wanting to, that was a strong answer. The Rebbe Rashab's brother, the Razah, once related that, "Once I wanted to get to know the maskilim who were in Lubavitch. I therefore asked each one of them when they will come to visit Lubavitch to chazar a maimar chasidus in front of me. First in front of me, and then they will chazar the maimar to my father, the Rebbe Maharash. When it was Chaim Ber's turn, when Chaim Ber came to visit Lubavitch and I asked him to chazar a maimar, he refused. He refused until my father himself told him to. Only then he agreed, but on condition that he wouldn't have to also chazar the maimar in front of the Rebbe Maharash, only in front of me. However, my father, the Rebbe Maharash, very much wanted to hear his chazara, so they arranged that the room where Reb Chaim Ber will chazar the maimar should be the room that's right next to the garden, and they positioned Chaim Ber's chair right next to the window, and they set up a chair for my father, the Rebbe, to sit right outside and listen. But as soon as Chaim Ber noticed that, he went and shut the window." Despite the fact that Chaim Ber

07:35 was a reserved person and didn't really show off on the outside his, uh, emotions, um, but one exception to that was his passion and love for nigina, for nigunim. He himself was a baal menagen, and, uh, anybody, i- in order to become one of his, uh, circle of friends, you needed to have a koch in nigina. There was once a poor man who came to collect money in Kremenchug, and when Chaim Ber overheard him davening and noticed that this man has a koch in nigina, he took him under his, uh, care and provided him with all of his needs so he doesn't have to go around collecting anymore. The Frierdiker Rebbe once related in a farbrengen that the chasid, Reb Zalman Zlotopolsky, once heard a maimar from the Rebbe Maharash in yechidus. And in the middle of that maimar, the Rebbe Maharash explained that which, uh, Rebbe Eliezer would give a pruta to a poor person before davening, and only then he will daven. And the Rebbe Maharash said by the maimar, "Davening has to be with a chayus. And when we give tzedakah to a poor man before davening and we give him chayus b'gashmiyus, it adds a lot of chayus in the davening." And the Rebbe Maharash made a tnuah with his hands showing a hamshacha melima'ale l'mata. So when Reb Zalman Zlotopolsky came back home, they made a chasidishe ruchni ba'alium farbrengen in his honor. And at that farbrengen, Reb Zalman chazared what the Rebbe Maharash said in yechidus, that when we

09:01 give a Yid chayus b'gashmiyus, we give him something to eat, then the schar is b'gashmiyus ub'ruchniyus. So when Chaim Ber heard that, he took that saying of the Rebbe Maharash b'pnimius, and from, from then on, he made for himself a seder that every morning before davening, he would serve farbreisen to the people in shul before davening so they have what to eat right after davening. And the Frierdiker Rebbe concluded this by saying that, "My father, the Rebbe Rashab, said that the pnimius dike mesira u'matina of Chaim Ber to the Rebbe Maharash, that is what gave him his hatslacha ba'avodas hamoch v'halev." At another opportunity, the Frierdiker Rebbe related that once Chaim Ber told the Rebbe Rashab 21 mashalim on the inyan of ohr nsuf. And then the Rebbe Rashab said that, "For 16 of those mashalim, I found a makor in chasidus. And for the rest of the mashalim, first I thought that Chaim Ber took them from the ma'amarim of Reb Itzik Humiler. But then after a few days, I realized that these mashalim were actually a result of Chaim Ber's own hisbaddutus." At a different opportunity, the Frierdiker Rebbe related that once when I was a little boy in cheder, so once on my way home on a hot summer day to eat lunch in the middle of the day, I was running through the chatzar and I bumped into Reb Chaim Ber. Chaim Ber asked me to show him the way to the garden which was behind my parents' home. So I

10:35 showed him the way, and I followed him to see what he would do. So at the entrance of the garden, there were a few benches. So Reb Chaim Ber sat down on one of the benches, took off his hat, and that's it. So I went home. 7:00 in the evening, I came back to the garden with a few of my friends to hang out, to spend some time there. So when we came, we found Chaim Ber sitting exactly at the same position that I left him there five hours ago. And my childish mind couldn't understand, how could a man sit a whole day and just think? I've seen people sitting a whole day and learning, but to see a man sitting a whole day and thinking, that's something that wondered me. We'll play now the nigun, Rabosnte nigun from this group of chasidim from Kremenchug called the Kremenchuger Berelach, sung by Reb Zalman Bronstein from Chabad the way it is on the Nichayach record.