ר' יקותיאל ליעפליער

00:04 If you enjoy this show and you would like to give us a chizuk and an encouragement to continue, please click under the show in the show notes Support the Show. Thank you and Yehi Racheh Koyach. The Fidele Rebbe writes in his Igros Kodesh, Reb Yeruchom Leveller, the first time that he heard a Maamer, a Torah from the Alter Rebbe, and he heard about this inyan of Rebbe and Chassidus who was very nispal, and he right away went to Liozno. When he came to Liozno, he was ready to go into Yechidus right away. But the Zkena Chassidim explained to him that in order to be able to go into Yechidus by the Rebbe, you need a hachana. But Reb Yeruchom, since his heart was aflame fire, he wasn't ready to listen at all to what they were saying, and he insisted that they should let him enter to the Rebbe to Yechidus. But they didn't let him. So since they didn't let him, he climbed on the wall, and he jumped in through the window into the attic of the house. That's where the Alter Rebbe was. And he cried and cried out from the depth of his heart, "Rebbe, hakar ov my linke zayt. Cut off my left side," meaning where the yetzer hara is. And then the Alter Rebbe answered, "Ribono shel olam. It says v'ata mechayes kulam." And Reb Yeruchom left the Alter Rebbe's room with a great simcha, and he said that the Rebbe was mamshich chayus into him. And this is

01:29 the truth, writes the Fidele Rebbe. The Alter Rebbe was mamshich into Reb Yeruchom chayus. But the Zeide gave it to him as a reaction for the cry out from the depth of his heart, which was a makif dike feeling. B'midah she'ada moded, bo moded in lo. With the measurement that a person measures, that's how they give him from Shamayim. Reb Moshe Vilener was misyagea for three years in a hachana to Yechidus, and that's why his Yechidus was completely different, and the answer was different. However, when Reb Yeruchom climbs on the walls, on smooth walls, and jumps through the window, then his Yechidus is a makif dike Yechidus, and the answer is a makif dike, and the whole entire avoda is bederech makif. Makif and pnimis is as it says, "L'reih hashmonecha tovim shemen tur ukshmecha." It says that Chazal say that all the mitzvahs that the avos did were like reichos, were smells. However, us, the mitzvahs that we do, shemen tur ukshmecha, is like the actual oil. Like something that could be poured from one kli to another kli. Smell and oil is makif and pnimiyus. The avoda of Reb Yeruchom, even though it penetrated his pnimiyus, and the Sefer Im Rebbeinu, the Mitel Rebbe wrote for Reb Yeruchom Leveller, nevertheless, his avoda was considered to be bederech makif. But Reb Yeruchom, he had a saying where he used to say, "The Chassid ran away," or, "The Chassid came back." When he was in a matzav of the Chassid ran away, he was very

03:03 sad, and he would daven very quickly from the siddur, and he would point with his finger word by word from the siddur. Then when he was in a matzav of the Chassid came, then he would shine, and he would burst out in a dance and daven with his davos. There were times by Reb Yeruchom Leveller, he was in a state of when the Chassid is here, the Chassid came, and he would daven all three davening, Shacharis, Mincha, Maariv, one after the other. There wasn't any time between them. For whole entire days, he didn't taste anything. And he said that, "The Rebbe benched me with arichus yamim, and therefore I need to be able to know how to live and be healthy without eating." This is the seder of a makif dike Chassid. At a certain farbrengen, the Fidele Rebbe related, "In the olden times, we saw how Chassidim ba'alei avoda had more atzlocha than Chassidim which are called ba'alei hascala." When the Chassid Reb Yeruchom Leveller came to Liozno for the first time in the summer of taf kuf nun vav, he climbed at the window of the room of the Alter Rebbe, and he called out, "Rebbe, cut off my left side. This is where my yetzer hara is. I can't make it with him." So the Rebbe hinted with his hands that he should come down from the window, and the Rebbe then was sitting wearing the tefillin of Rabbeinu Tam. The Alter Rebbe leaned on his hands and he said, "Ribono shel

04:22 olam, it says v'ata mechayes kulam. Give him chayus." This answer of the Alter Rebbe was in a way of haka'a, of hitting, like a makif hits the pnimiyus. At another farbrengen, the Fidele Rebbe related that since the time that Reb Yeruchom got the brocha from the Alter Rebbe, v'ata mechayes kulam, and he gave him chayus, Reb Yeruchom started to live, to have a lot of chayus. And from that chayus, he reached being able to understand the deepest inyanim Chassidus. However, that, understanding the deepest inyanim Chassidus, he didn't reach right away. That actually took a few years. This happened in the days of the Mitel Rebbe. But the chayus he got right away. That chayus was in a way of a giliuy ohr. He would have a shine, a giliuy ohr elokim mamesh. When he had that revelation, that giliuy ohr, Reb Yeruchom would become a different person, and he would say with a nigun, "We need to go on a tantsl. We have to start dancing." And anybody who he met at that moment that he had that revelation had to dance with him, and if not, Reb Yeruchom might have hit him with a stick. Once when he was in the city of Borisov, says the Fidele Rebbe, Reb Yeruchom's walking down the street, and then suddenly he got this big hasados, this, this shine, and he said, "We need to go in a mochel and a tants." And he... The person who passed by was the postman, the guy who's delivering the mail.

05:45 So he grabbed him and he danced with him. In inyanei ha'olam, Reb Yeruchom had a very simple havanah. But his havanah in inyan Chassidus kept growing bigger and bigger. Havana of Reb Yeruchom in inyan Chassidus came only after a few years, and even then it was a result of a giliuy milim eila. The Tzemach Tzedek wanted to be Malbish, Reb Yeruchom in Levushim, so he told him to learn the Sefer Kav HaYashar and Chumash with Rashi, and that did not come easy to him. And the story of how Rabbi Yeruchom started to understand Chassidus, the Frierdiker Rebbe related in a letter in Igris Kodesh, and he writes like this: In the days of the Mitteler Rebbe, the ideas of Chassidus was very much promoted by the youngelite. And after a few years, it became a large amount of maskilim in Chassidus, and many of them became mashpiim and melamdim in different shtetlach in the whole country. And in the city of Liapley lived one of the Hasidim of the Alter Rebbe. He was a storekeeper who sold salt, and his name was Rabbi Yeruchom. And he was one of the famous ovdim. However, his hasagah in Torah in general and in Chassidus befrat was very limited. Once, one of the youngelite, which was a mashpia, passed through Liapley, and he spent over there a week. And every day of that week that he spent in Liapley, he chazered a maamar from the Mitteler Rebbe be'al peh. In this maamarim, the Mitteler Rebbe explained very deep

07:14 inyanim. Some of those inyanim were explaining what it says, "The pnimius aba is pnimius atik." This Yungerman was very talented in haskala and hasagah, and he was a very good speaker. And the maamarim that he said were very gishmak and clear, and he made a big impression on everybody. However, the Chossid Rabbi Yeruchom, which did not have very great mind, did not understand the maamarim. That touched him very much, and he became depressed because of it. As a result from that, he looked very down on himself, and he started to call himself names and put himself down. Years afterwards, when Rabbi Yeruchom related all of that to the Chossid Rabbi Shmuel Ber Berisover, he told him, "Think about it. I was then 40 years old, and I already went to the Alter Rebbe for 15 years. Throughout that whole time, I learned Chassidus based on my level. And here comes this new, this new phenomenon. There comes a Yungerman, Mama Shalom Elchanan, and he's chazering the maamarim of the Rebbe with chayus, and I'm listening, and I don't understand. And I felt that these things are very deep, wonderful iniyanim, but I don't understand anything. Every day, I was hearing this chazara from the Yungerman, and I didn't understand. Each maamar that he said made me even more depressed. I felt like I was being crushed in a crusher, and I called myself all different types of names to put myself down. And this tremendous fire of desire was lit up within me to know

08:39 this maamarim and to understand them. So I asked this Yungerman that he should chazer this maamarim to me again and again, and he tried to explain them to me. However, my head was like a clog of wood, and my mind was blocked from being able to understand his explanations. And I held this Yungerman in my town for three weeks. During those times, I left my store, I let my family run it, and day and night I sat down with this Yungerman to try to understand this maamarim. But to my misfortune, I couldn't. So eventually, the Yungerman went away, and I stayed back home like a ship in the middle of the sea. I fasted, I cried a lot saying Tehillim, but nothing helped till I decided that I'm going to go to Lubavitch. When I came to Lubavitch, I saw that during the nine month that passed since last time I was in Lubavitch became a whole new world over there. About 50, 60 youngelite sitting every day for many, many hours learning Chassidus, chazering the maamarim, explaining Chassidus to each other was something that I didn't see before. I came to Lubavitch on Wednesday, and before Kabbalat Shabbos, two days later, the Rebbe said a maamar. On Shabbos before Mincha, the Rebbe said a Bier on the maamar. The maamar I understood, and I even knew some of it be'al peh, but the Bier I didn't understand. And then to my surprise, I saw that the youngelite understood also the Bier. I was very

10:02 sad because of that, that I didn't understand the Bier. And that whole entire night, Motzei Shabbos, I cried from the depth of my heart, and I fasted the whole entire next day. On Monday, I went into Yechidus to the Rebbe, and I told the Rebbe everything that happened to me in my home and here. The Rebbe told me there's nothing that could stand and stop a strong will. "Ein dvor omed bifnei haratzon." And the Rebbe explained, even though ratzon, will, is also a koach of the nefesh, and it's not the etzem hanefesh. However, the ratzon has a koach to turn the nefesh that to reveal within yourself atzmi uziki geluyon, and to open up essential kochos and chushim, talents and senses. And especially the ratzon could have an effect on the powers which are lower than ratzon, like sechel and middos. And when somebody really wants, also his chushim, his senses brighten. When I heard from the Rebbe that it's only depended on my will, so I decided to stay in Lubavitch until I will start understanding Chassidus. I sent a message to my family through people who were traveling to Liapley that I'm going to stay in Lubavitch for a while, and they should run the store on their own. And for the next four month, I was misyageah beygi'ah atzuma to get myself used to think one inyan for a few hours, and to chazer each inyan tens of times. The Yungerman, Ephraim from Smilyan, did me a big favor that he would

11:32 chazer with me the maamarim a few times, one after the other, until I managed to be mesamuch in their understanding. Most of the time, I would close myself in a basement that was under the big shul, or on top of the ceiling that was under the roof of the shul. And on the following Tishrei, I felt like a new creation. And thank God, I washed out the pot, and I became a kli l'kabbalah, and that's when I traveled home. In another farbrengen, the Frierdiker Rebbe related, "I heard from my father, the Rebbe Rashab, that the Chossid Rabbi Shmuel Ber Berisover told him That a Hasid of Reb Kusiel used to come to him wearing a fur coat and a stick in his hand. He would put the stick on the table, and he would tell him, "Shmuel Ber, tell me what is not clear to me." Meaning tell me which Inyanim Chassidus I'm struggling to understand. And to just give him a, some sort of a line to get rid of him, that was not an option. Reb Kusiel really seriously expected that Reb Shmuel Ber, that he should guess which Inyanim Chassidus he's unclear with. So Reb Shmuel Ber used to, uh, try a few different Inyanim until he will guess the right one, and he would tell him his pilots, "Yes, yes, that's the right one. No, so could you explain that to me?" And Reb Shmuel Ber added that the questions of Reb Kusiel were very sharp, and they were the deepest

12:52 Inyanim Chassidus. Another thing the Frierdiker Rebbe related, that I heard from my father, the Rebbe Rashab, that he heard from Reb Shmuel Ber, is over that a Hasid of Reb Kusiel Lepler stayed away and didn't like Divrei Tzachus, jokes. And whenever he spoke to him, you had to be very careful in what you say. 'Cause once somebody told him a certain Gleichvertel, a certain joke, and Reb Kusiel reacted with not happy face. He's joking? I heard myself from the Rebbe, the Alter Rebbe, that somebody who jokes around, he's dealing with Sheidim. He has a basic with Sheidim. Let the Sheidim take him. And that person actually went mentally ill, and nothing that the doctors tried helped. At another Farbrengen, the Frierdiker Rebbe related that my father said the Hasid Reb Kusiel Lepler was one of the Chassidim that Lo Noga Bahem Hatzimtzum Min Hanhaga, meaning they stayed in the same style from before the arrest of the Alter Rebbe in Peterburg. And Reb Kusiel had a Mesirus Nefesh Bepoyel for Darkei Chassidus. Despite that, says the Frierdiker Rebbe, Reb Kusiel wasn't very much Chashuv in the eyes of the Chassidim. That is because he reached his Madrega because of a Bracha from the Rebbe and not as a result of his own Avoda. Also, in his Avoda, Reb Kusiel was Noig not in an organized way. For an example, he will not eat for a few days, and then he will eat... After a few days of not eating, he will eat a lot of

14:15 bread with pepper, et cetera. Things were not organized. At another place, the Frierdiker Rebbe said that the Alter Rebbe was Mechadesh, that the most simple one, the Poshet SheBaPeshutim, could become the Godol SheBaGodolim. And the ray for that is the Hasid Reb Kusiel Lepler. The Rebbe Mahash related that the Mitel Rebbe divided his Chassidim, the Maskilim and the Ovdim, to a few subgroups, and each one of those groups, he wrote special Maamarim for them. And for the highest type of Maskilim, he wrote the Sefer Im Rebbeinu. Once the Rebbe Rashab asked the Rebbe Mahars a certain Shailah in Im Rebbeinu, and the Rebbe Mahars answered him. And then he told him, "The Sefer Im Rebbeinu, my Zeide, the Mitel Rebbe, wrote for the Hasid Reb Kusiel Lepler. He had a heart full of Regesh, and he would daven with a good Yesodotos. After my Zeide, the Mitel Rebbe, came back from Russia and he settled in Lubavitch, he started to be Misasek with the Yungleit in learning of Chassidus, and Reb Kusiel was jealous of the Yungleit, and he also wanted to understand. And then he was Misagea with a Yagea Atzuma until he came to understanding of the deepest Inyanim." And the Rebbe Mahars continued, "Once I struggled understanding a certain Inyan in Im Rebbeinu. I was Misagea on that. I even went into Yechidus by my father, the Tzemach Tzedek, to ask him my questions. So my father told me, 'Now in Lubavitch, we have Reb Kusiel Lepler,' and he told me a

15:41 lot about him. And amongst the things that he told me about him, he said that the Mitel Rebbe wrote Im Rebbeinu for him. And my father, the Tzemach Tzedek, ended, 'Ask him and come and tell me what he told you about Im Rebbeinu, about your questions. And after he explains it to you, then I will answer you also.'" Kusiel davened Ba'richus. He davened very long. So I asked the Meshares, "Yes, if Mordechai that when Reb Kusiel finishes his davening, you should let me know." So eventually, Reb Yosef Mordechai came to let me know that Reb Kusiel finished davening. So I went to the shul, and I met Reb Kusiel, and I asked him my questions in Im Rebbeinu. So Reb Kusiel went deep in thought for a long while. Then he told me, "I am a storekeeper. The way it works with a storekeeper is that when they ask him for Scharah, when they ask him for merchandise, and he has merchandise to give, first he takes the payment, and then he gives them merchandise. The merchandise I have. First pay me, and then I'll give it to you." So I asked him, "What's the price?" So he told me, "The price is chazar to me the Maamar that was said on Shabbos and explain me the parts in the Maamar that I don't understand. And whatever you will not understand, you ask your father, the Rebbe Tzemach Tzedek. That's the price." So I agreed, and then Reb Kusiel answered me my Shailas in Im

16:59 Rebbeinu in a very organized and Nagushmakie way, to an extent that I couldn't believe what my ears were hearing. A person which was considered to be average in terms of brains when it came to Nigleh the Torah, but in the deepest Inyanim of Kabbalah and Chassidus, he spoke with such depth and Harchevah. When I came back to my father and I repeated Reb Kusiel's explanations to my father, my father told me, "The Hasid Reb Kusiel Lepler, he's a living example to what Chazal say, 'Yagatah Umatsah.' He was very much Misagea, and he also found a lot." In the evening, Reb Kusiel came back to me that I should pay him for the merchandise as we made up, and I should chazar the Maamar to him. I chazar the Maamar to him, and he listened very intensely and was a scene to see how an old Hasid is hearing Chazara and all of the limbs of his body were involved in the listening. And then he asked me that I should have Rachmanus on him, and tomorrow early morning, I should chazar the Maamar to him again. So I promised, and I did that again tomorrow morning. And only then, after I chazar the Maamar twice to him, he started to ask me all the Shailas that he has in the Maamar Most of the shailas, I actually had to ask my father for the answer, and this was a week of pleasure for me in shailas and teshuvas from Reb Yeruchal to my father and

18:18 back. From then on, whenever Reb Yeruchal would come to Lubavitch, I used to have much pleasure spending time with him. The Frierdiker Rebbe related that after the Tzemach Tzedek was nistalek, they didn't tell about it to Reb Yeruchal for a half a year. But then a half a year later, when he found out about it, he started to scream, "Fools!" He spoke in a very simple way, says the Frierdiker Rebbe. "Fools! Why did you let the Rebbe be nistalek? Bury the Sifrei Torah. Bury yourselves." He broke all the window shields, and he went by foot to Lubavitch. When he came to Lubavitch, he said, "I'm not going to do anything, not davening, anything. First, I wanna hear what the Rebbe will tell me." So he right away went to the Ohel, and he was mishtateach by the Ohel for the whole entire day. In the end, they took him out of there when he was in a faint, and when he woke up from his faint, he said, "We need to dance." Afterwards, Reb Yeruchal called over the sons of the Tzemach Tzedek, and he told them, "Come and hear a ma'amer chassidus that your father said." When he was then in Lubavitch, Reb Yeruchal was also busy choosing for himself a new Rebbe. At the end, he told the Rebbe Maharash, "Until today, to me you were du, you were you. I referred to you in, in such a way, not, not as a Rebbe. From now, you're gonna be my Rebbe. Put on

19:33 your hat and say chassidus." At another time, the Frierdiker Rebbe related Reb Yeruchal did business with honesty. Once a goy came to his store, and he bought salt from him. After the goy left the store, Reb Yeruchal realized that the goy made a mistake in the cheshbon, and he gave him a few pennies more than the price. So right away, Reb Yeruchal started to research, to investigate where do, where does this goy live until he found out that he lives at a certain village. So Reb Yeruchal went for many kilometers all the way to that village to give him back those few pennies. When the Alter Rebbe heard about it, he said, "For such kiddush Hashem, you're zocheh to have grandchildren that will be great gvirim." That's how it was. The famous banker, Mr. Slavoy, was the grandchild of Reb Yeruchal. At another time, the Frierdiker Rebbe related that the Alter Rebbe benched Reb Yeruchal with three things: arichus yomim, children, and wealth. And Reb Yeruchal would say that he exchanged the wealth of money with wealth in da'as. At another opportunity, the Frierdiker Rebbe related that the Alter Rebbe wanted to bench Reb Yeruchal Leplear with wealth, but he refused, so the Rebbe benched his son and his grandson with hasirus, with wealth, and that's how it was. They became very wealthy. And he gave a broche to Reb Yeruchal to have arichus yomim. So Reb Yeruchal answered, "But not puyut ishi yom. I don't wanna have years of a goy, empty years that

20:59 those years are einayim lo hem velo yiru, oznayim lo hem velo yishmeu. I want godliness." Frierdiker Rebbe writes in a letter that the Chossid Reb Yeruchal remembered everything that he saw from the first day that he came to Liozno, and he would say, "Every week, I go into yechidus to whichever Rebbe I want in my thought, bemachshava." 'Cause he remembered all the times that he was in yechidus by the Alter Rebbe, the Mitteler Rebbe, and by the Tzemach Tzedek. Reb Yeruchal got a brocha from the Alter Rebbe for arichus yomim, and he lived close to 100 years.