#14 R' Binyomin Kletzker (and the Niggun "Der zeiger macher")

00:02 This episode is sponsored by Harotzah BeIlum Shema. This chosah that she should find a Pasike Shidduch Chagun quickly and easily. A Chossid Reb Binyamin Kloetzker was Makdeli Achsidim of the Alter Rebbe. The Fidei Rebbe tells in a fabregen when the Rebbe Tsadik, Reb Shloime Carliner, visited once by the Alter Rebbe. And when he was about to, to leave Liozno, the Alter Rebbe sent a few of the Yungalit from Cheder Bays to accompany him. Amongst the Melavim was also Reb Binyamin Kloetzker. On the way, they spoke with the Verta, Onigla, Kabbalah, Hakira, Chassidus, and Reb Shloime Carliner was in tremendous inspilus from their knowledge. Reb Shloime Carliner's destination was Vishenkovich. The, the Yungalit that the Alter Rebbe sent were thinking to travel with him only until Vitebsk. They came to Vitebsk, so the Rebbe Tsadik, Reb Shloime Carliner, said to Reb Binyamin Kloetzker, "I'll be grateful to you if you will accompany me until Vishenkovich." "As it is known," says the Fidei Rebbe, "Reb Binyamin was a Baal Chushim Nifloim and a great Amken." So he stayed a few days in Vitebsk, and he decided to agree to accompany Reb Shloime Carliner until Vishenkovich. On the way between Vitebsk and Vishenkovich, Reb Shloime Carliner asked the wagon driver to stop between the fields 'cause he wanted to daven Mincha. Reb Shloime Carliner went down from the wagon, but he didn't have water to wash his hands before davening. So Reb Shloime Carliner sat back at the wagon, and he entered a Dveikus. And a short while

01:58 after that, the horses started to run really quickly on a side road off the main road, and the wagon driver couldn't control them. They kept running and running until they stopped at a small river. Reb Shloime Carliner smiled, came down from the wagon, washed his hands, and davened Mincha. Reb Binyamin Kloetzker continues the Fidei Rebbe, even though he wasn't able to tolerate the hislavus and the inspilus, the great ispa- hislavus and inspilus of Rebbe Tsadik, Reb Shloime, with his davening, nonetheless, he did cause him a tremendous koiras ruach. He very much enjoyed it. After Mincha, the Tsadik, Reb Shloime Carliner, sat back at the wagon and they didn't know where to travel to. They were lost. The wagon driver said that he doesn't recognize this area, so Reb Shloime Carliner said, "Let the horses go freely." And the horses continued to run until they eventually got back to the regular Derech HaMelech. Eventually, when they came to a inn, Reb Shloime walked into the inn, davened Ma'ariv, did Tikkun Chatzos. Then in the morning, davened Shacharis, and they kept traveling, and about Mincha time, they arrived at the destination in Vishenkovich. This was Thursday, and therefore, there wasn't a possibility for Reb Binyamin to travel back to Liozno to the Alter Rebbe for Shabbos, so he had to stay there for Shabbos. For two days after Shabbos, says the Fidei Rebbe, Reb Binyamin Kloetzker was still walking around confused and overwhelmed from the great avoda that he saw, heard, and felt when he was by

03:42 Rebbe Tsadik, Reb Shloime. And this idea started to come into his head that maybe he should stay for a while by Reb Shloime. Eventually, he decided to go back, and when he entered Reb Shloime Carliner's room to say goodbye, so the Tsadik, Reb Shloime, held him there for a few hours and begged him that he should stay by him, that he should become his Talmud. And he revealed to him, uh, Sodus Nifloim and great Geluim. At the end, he told him that, "If you stay by me, I'll be Mekarev you even more to the shitah of your Rebbe, the Alter Rebbe, and we will make a whole group of Yungalit that will be Keilim to receive this Derech HaAvoda." And he promised him other great promises of great Geluim. Reb Binyamin listened to everything that Tsadik, Reb Shloime, told him, and then he answered him famously. In English, the translation goes is that, "The master is a master, but not mine. And the servant is a servant, but not yours." Meaning that, "You're takia Rebbe, but not mine, and I'm takia Chassid, but not yours." The Fidei Rebbe ends that this answer of Reb Binyamin was a Harira for the Emes Echsidim. Each one that was Mekusher to his Rebbe knew that the Rebbe of his friend is takia sar, takia minister, but not his. And this Derech brought a general Chizuk in the Avoda Bedarkei Echsidus. In another place, it's told that once the Tsadik, Reb Shloime Carliner, visited the Alter Rebbe with one

05:23 of his great Talmidim. This Talmud of Reb Shloime Carliner used to put on two pairs of tefillin on his head at the same time. And Reb Shloime was priding himself in front of the Alter Rebbe with this, uh, yungerman of his, and he said that this yungerman was zecher to gila eliahu. So the Alter Rebbe looked towards Reb Binyamin Kloetzker, which was present in the room at that time, and he was in the middle of Shemoneh Esreh, and he was holding by Sim Shalom. And the Alter Rebbe told Reb Shloime Carliner, "This yungerman who is holding now by Sim Shalom in Shemoneh Esreh, by him shines the Yechidus Shebe Nefesh right now." Another story told by the Friediker Rebbe. That, uh, HaRav HaKodesh, Rebbe Nachum Nachum, the son of the Mitteler Rebbe, once showed his father, the Mitteler Rebbe, the way the Hasid Rebbe Binyamin Klitzker davened in the big beis midrash, and he was very much shakua in his avodas hatfila. So the Mitteler Rebbe said, "The malachim in shamayim would like to exchange their avoda in this avoda of Rebbe Binyamin." And another farbrengen the Friediker Rebbe related, the Hasidim of the Alter Rebbe, the Hasid Reb Pinchas Reisiz and the Hasid Reb Binyamin Klitzker used to travel to the yrid in Leipzig. They were from the talmidim of Cheder Alef. When they would come to Leipzig, they used to arrange their own minyan. Generally, they were not mischashev with the misnagedus, and they were not mispallel from it, despite the fact that

07:00 they had derech eretz to lamdanim, and the misnagedim had derech eretz to them for their great yiras shamayim. So the German Jews, Leipzig is in Germany, so the German Jews did not know differences between different types of Yidden, Hasidim, Misnagedim. So once a German Jew walked into their Hasidisha minyan, and he very much liked the davening. But then he saw that by the amud there isn't a sign like it is in many other shuls that it says, "Da lifnei mi ata omed." So he was wondering. And so when Reb Binyamin Klitzker saw that this Yid, this German Jew, was wondering why isn't there a sign da lifnei mi ata omed, so he asked him, "Do you know the taitch of the, of this line?" So he said, "Yeah, da lifnei mi ata omed. You should know before whom you're standing." So Reb Binyamin told him, "No. The parasha is like this. Mi, the word mi, means understanding," 'cause, uh, mi has to do with sefirah zabina, but he didn't explain to him that it has to do with sefirah zabina because he wasn't shayach with this Yid. So he just told him mi means understanding, and this is the taitch. Da, you should know, lifnei mi ata omed. You are still standing before any understanding. Before starting to daven, a person needs to know that he doesn't yet understand anything. Now, a person needs to know that. But to make a sign out of it and to show off to everybody, you should know that

08:23 I don't know anything, that's an embarrassment. The Rebbe Rashab once related that it is known about the story of Reb Binyamin Klitzker that once he was standing next to, uh, clogs of wood, which was part of his business. That's why he was called Klitzker, in the city of Riga. And the story goes that he was mis-- He was... While standing there next to all the merchandise, he was misbonen in inyan Hasidus for five hours straight, and the people around were in tremendous haspalus from it. Then he told them, "Why are you guys wondering about that? But in my eyes it is a pele, it's a wonder, how could somebody say Echad in Krias Shema? While saying Echad in Krias Shema, he's thinking about his clogs of wood in Riga." And the Alter Rebbe said about Reb Binyamin Klitzker that he is mekayem et tzivvi b'chol derechicha deiu, because really the business does not hide, it does not cover on elokus. And this is the difference, says the Rebbe Rashab, between the earlier Sifrei Mussar to Sifrei Hasidus. The Sifrei Mussar show the person that he should be muvshat me-iskay ha-olam. However, Hasidus is mechadesh. You have to be davka melubash in the asakim, 'cause the asakim are not a contradiction to serving the Aibishter. At another place it is told, Reb Binyamin, his business had to do with forests, chopping wood, selling it. So once he was standing in a forest and all of his workers were standing next to him and waiting to get

10:05 instructions what to do, but he was deep in thought in some maimar. So the workers went over to him, and they shook him a little. And they shook him gently and they said, "Reb Binyamin, what should we do now?" So Reb Binyamin told them, "Wait. Wait a little bit." And he kept thinking. After a long time passed, and they're all standing around, they shook him again and said, "Reb Binyamin-" Everything has its time. The time to be misbonen in a maimar Hasidus is during davening, not now. So Reb Binyamin told them, "Azoy. So when somebody has a machshava about wood and during davening, that's not the end of the world. But if somebody thinks about davening in the middle of the forest, you make a whole tumult out of it." Another story is told. Once, HaRav HaTzadik, Reb Aaron of Strashune, came to a yrid that was in his city, Arsha. And Reb Aaron Strashuner saw how everybody get up early in the morning and rush to the yrid, and he was wondering about that. It was shocking in his eyes that people should wake up early in the morning just to go and do business. In the meantime, he also heard that the Hasid Reb Binyamin Klitzker also came to the yrid, so he asked somebody to call him. And when Reb Binyamin Klitzker came to him, he fell on his neck and he called out passionately. He says, "Look, Reb Binyamin, look what's going on over here." In other words, "Look how these,

11:29 these people are running to do business." So Reb Binyamin Klitzker answered him, "Don't look and don't be mispallel." And the Hasidim who related this story explained that, that this is the difference between just daas elyon and the difference between that and daas elyon which shines also in daas tachton. In other words, that Reb Aaron Strashuner was just daas elyon, but he wasn't mislavash in the world. But Binyamin Klitzker, for him, the world wasn't a stira to elokus. The Friediker Rebbe once related that Reb Binyamin Klitzker was a amkan, and once while he was walking home from shul with his tallis and tefillin- He was in Samet in Chassidus and it was the market day. So he placed his tallis and tefillin on a wagon that belonged to a goy that was standing in the middle of the market. He picked up one foot and he put it on the wheel of the wagon, and he went deep in thought into Chassidus. In the meantime, the goy who owned the wagon finished his business. He went on the wagon and traveled away. And Reb Binyamin Kletzker stayed standing in the market while the foot that was on the wheel is still lifted up in the air, just not being supported by the wheel anymore because the wagon traveled away. Eventually, you know, he put down his foot, but he still didn't notice anything. He didn't notice that the wagon traveled away, the, with his tallis and tefillin. Only when it came time for Mincha, he woke

12:59 up from his thoughts. Now, this goyish wagon driver, when he came to another street, he had the different, uh, foods on the wagon that he was offering for sale. So he offered them for sale for some year. That year, it happened to see the tallis and tefillin on the wagon, and that's how, uh, Reb Binyamin Kletzker got his tallis and tefillin back. The Fidig Rebbe continues, "Look how far is the Koach HaAvir Hashem. Even though he was so deep in thought until he didn't even notice, he didn't even feel that the wagon traveled away, but when it came time for Mincha, that did wake him up from his thoughts to go and daven Mincha." Fidig Rebbe once wrote in a letter a story about Reb Binyamin, that Reb Binyamin also had a business with, uh, buying and selling expensive hides of different animals, and often he will travel to Leipzig, and he was a famous soycher. Once, when he was in Leipzig, he went to one of the stores because of his business. All of a sudden, he stopped next to a window of a certain store, and he stayed standing there for seven hours straight, deep in thought about Chassidus, and he didn't hear or see anything around him. He did not move away from there until his brother-in-law, Reb Pinchas Reizes, came, put his hands on his shoulder, and he asked him, "Binyamin, what are you thinking about?" Only then Binyamin woke up from his thoughts, and he looked at Reb Pinchas Reizes

14:31 with wondering eyes and says, "Pinchas, where are you? The Rebbe just said the Bier on the Maamar Sh'choir Ani." This story says the, says the Fidig Rebbe in the letter, this happened in the summer of Taf kuf peh veis. The Bier on the Maamar Sh'choir Ani, the Alter Rebbe said in the year of Taf kuf samech or Taf kuf samech alef, meaning twenty years before that. But this is, this was the hismasrus, the Ibrege Gebunkait of Reb Binyamin Chassidus, and that when he was going down the street for his business, he remembered one of the Maamarim that the Alter Rebbe said twenty years before and forgot about the whole world around him until it seemed to him that that was the moment that he was standing in front of the Alter Rebbe hearing this Bier. And when his brother-in-law, Reb Pinchas, woke him up from his thoughts, he looked, he looked at him wondering and out of a good friendship asked him, asked him, "Where were you? The Alter Rebbe just said the Bier." At another place, a story is told that Reb Binyamin was famous to be a baal tzedakah mufla. It is told that once during a Chassidishe farbrengen, Reb Binyamin told his brother-in-law, Reb Pinchas Reizes, about the way he gives tzedakah. He says, "In my house, I have different bags filled with coins of copper and then some bags with big coins, bags with small coins, and when a poor person goes into my house, I look, I take a look

15:59 at the person. I evaluate him in my head for which bag I should take out of, and then I take out of the bag as much as can fit into my hands, and I give it to him without counting it." So his brother-in-law, Reb Pinchas, said, "I do exactly the same way. All the details that you said, that's exactly how I give tzedakah, except for one thing. Before I give everything that comes into my hand, into the-- on his hand, I do actually count the coins. To this level, to give it without even counting, that I didn't yet reach." In another place, it's told that once the Chassid Reb Binyamin came to a certain city and he started to scream, "Gevald, gevald! Where is the Rebbe's Torah? Where is the Rebbe's Torah?" And then he went to another shtetl, and when he came to that other shtetl, he said, "Oh, the Rebbe's Torah was found." What's the pshat? So in the first city, there were many Chassidim, and Reb Binyamin had, uh, more expectations from them, and he didn't see that the expectations that they had from them was fulfilled. So that's why he was screaming, "Gevald, where's the Rebbe's Torah?" But when he came to the, when he came to the other shtetl, which that second shtetl did not have any Chassidim, that's when he realized that the Chassidim in the first shtetl were actually much better off than your average regular Jew, and that's when he said, "Ah, the Rebbe's Torah was found."

17:26 Once, Reb Binyamin became very, very sick. At that time, there was a chasuna in the family of the Alter Rebbe, and Reb Binyamin got a personal invitation b'chsav from the Alter Rebbe. When the time for the wedding was coming close, Reb Binyamin asked his family that they should bring him to the wedding. But then he was very, very sick and, uh, was mamash impossible. But he screamed loud that he doesn't wanna hear any excuses, and he demands that they should take him to the wedding. Since the Rebbe sent him a personal invitation, he must come. So l'maaseh, they brought him to the chasuna sitting in a wagon, and they told the Alter Rebbe about it, that that's how he's coming. So when the Alter Rebbe heard- The Alter Rebbe said that they should bring him to the wedding hall, but that was not possible physically. So the Alter Rebbe said they should bring him to, to the area in the wagon. After they brought him to the place, they sat him down on a bench across from the Rebbe. The Alter Rebbe gave him a cup of beer, and he told him to drink it. Rebbe Naaman drank the whole entire cup. Then the Alter Rebbe poured him a second cup and a third cup, and Rebbe Naaman drank them too. Then the Rebbe told him, "Go dance with the Hasidim." Right away, Rebbe Naaman got up from his chair completely healthy and burst into a dance with the Hasidim. And the last story, once

18:52 the Hasid Rebbe Naaman Klezker came to the Tzemach Tzedek and he sat next to him on a bed. The Tzemach Tzedek started to say a ma'amar, and Rebbe Naaman kept sitting next to the Tzemach Tzedek listening to the ma'amar. Then sometime in the middle of the ma'amar, all of a sudden, Rebbe Naaman got up from the bed trembling, and he stood like a servant stands before the master. And when they asked him what happened, he said, "In the middle of the ma'amar, I heard the Alter Rebbe speaking out of the Tzemach Tzedek's mouth." We'll finish off with a nigun which is called the Zeger Macher. It's a nigun that's meyuchas to the Hasidim of the Alter Rebbe. And Reb Shmuel Zalmanov in Sefer HaNigunim writes about this nigun, that this nigun the Hasidim of the Alter Rebbe used to sing in the times of Yosherus, and this nigun brings out the seriousness of his amkus hamachshava and expression of the merirus halev metoich of the Yosherus of the inner l'chatchiva, a inner teshuva.