R' Michoel Dvorkin

00:05 Bizchus hareitzu bilushmoi, should have all the berachos, everything needed and wanted. Zarach aveikayoma, hemese shalom bayis and all the good gezachin. Reb Michoel Dworkin was born on 20 Teves 5699. His father's name was Reb Chaim Yitzchak. His parents were Kapuster Hasidim, and he himself in the beginning was a Hasid of the Moganover from Kapust. When the Moganover from Kapust passed away and his son did not take over, so the family gathered to discuss who should he go to now. So Reb Chaim Yitzchak told his son, Reb Michoel, and told him, "Reb Michoel, I know you, and I know that you're not going to be able to live without a Rebbe. You need to have a Rebbe." So he traveled to Lubavitch, and that's how Reb Michoel came to Lubavitch. The Frierdiker Rebbe once related, once on Simchas Bais HaShoeiva, there was a farbrengen in my sukkah, meaning in the Frierdiker Rebbe's sukkah. There were a few frumer Nash over there, amongst them, the Hasid Reb Michoel Dworkin, which used to work in a forest, and his father was also in that business. Reb Michoel was in a very bereite feeling. After a while, I left the sukkah to my room, and then my father, the Rebbe Rashab, entered my room. At that moment, Reb Michoel came out of the sukkah and he screamed out loud, "Yet, yet, nekava, tol gavo gad navo." There's nothing besides for the Aibishter. And his eyes were tearing. My father, the Rebbe Rashab, heard that and he said, "These are

01:38 birurim of a forest." And he added, "Even a simple thing, if you do it with a emes, then it's a good thing. And on the other hand, even something that's hascala, if it's without any feeling, it's like it's dead. Rachmanah litzlan." When the Frierdiker Rebbe was sent to galus in the city of Kostroma, so Reb Michoel Dworkin was sent there in order to prepare a living space for the Rebbe. He also prepared a mikveh over there, and he gathered a few kids and created a cheder. And when the Rebbe related that, he said that v'es Yehuda shalach lefanev geishno. And the Rebbe related like this, that the news about the release of the Frierdiker Rebbe on Yud Gimmel Tammuz 5709 came to Reb Michoel seemingly as a surprise, suddenly, without any anticipation in advance. In general, says the Rebbe, Reb Michoel Dworkin was not always in a kav of midida ve'akbala, and his style was to always be in a lot of hispalus. So Reb Michoel took a small bottle of mashke. He held the bottle in his hand, and he danced for a long while around the house of the Frierdiker Rebbe. As he was dancing, he sang a nigun with words in Russian. He worked for a few years in a forest, and he had business with Goyim, and that's why he had many expressions and words that he would say and sing in Russian. This was a Chassidishe nigun on the Inyan of Ein Od Milvado. Yet, yet, nekava, koromi, and here

03:10 you say the Aibishter's name, and then ad navo. So Michoel sang it with mentioning Hashem's name. But since the halacha offers to say Hashem's name even in a language that is not Lashon Hakodesh, so later the Hasidim exchanged it with a different word. Koromi nivo ad navo, meaning there is nothing besides for Him. Once Reb Michoel said, "One time before Pesach, I managed to get a very expensive couch that was padded with a red padding, similar to the couches who you would find in the very wealthy homes in Russia, and I brought it as a present to the Rebbe Rashab. I came with the couch to the house of the Rebbe at a very early hour on Erev Pesach. The schlepper brought the couch to the house of the Rebbe, and when the door opened, I saw the Rebbe and the Rebbetzin sitting by the table in the kitchen eating white bread with butter. So I tell the, the guy to put the couch in the corner. When the Rebbe passed and he saw the couch, he said to me, 'This is a couch of a, of a graf.'" Meaning like a, a duke, a very wealthy man. And the Rebbe explained, "'Graf' is rosh teves gezunt, reich, frum. May you also be a graf." "And in truth," said Reb Michoel, "all of these berachos were miskayem in me. Gezunt, Baruch Hashem, I'm gezunt. Reich, I'm reich, I'm not missing anything." Actually, when Reb Michoel related that story, he was very poor, and he didn't

04:42 even have enough food for even a meal. However, that didn't influence his attitude and the way he viewed his life, and he felt himself like he had everything he needed. And frum, for frumkeit, there is no, there's no limit. The Frierdiker Rebbe once related, one time before Pesach, the Rebbe Rashab went into the room where they were kashering the keilim for Pesach. The say there was that even keilim that they only used for Pesach, when they took them out next year's Pesach, they will kasher them again, even though they were not used the whole year around. And during the kashering, the Rebbe Rashab would supervise. So when they kasher the samovar, the kettle, the Rebbe Rashab threw into the water a few whitened stones, few burning hot stones, and he turned on the faucet of the water. Boiling hot water spilled on the hand of the Rebbe. So Reb Michoel, who was standing there, screamed, "Ay, Rebbe, you're burning yourself." So the Rebbe Rashab answered him with a shiny, happy face, "The fingers are not Hasidim. A Hasid, whether it's cold for him or hot for him, it doesn't have to hold him back from doing that which needs to be done." Frierdiker Rebbe related, Chag HaPesach 5699, the Hasid Reb Michoel Dworkin sang the famous nigun that the tzadik Reb Michl Zlotshover sang before the Ba'al Shem Tov. My father, the Rebbe Rashab, was in a very uplifted matzav ruach, very uplifted mood. And his heilike face shined behadras kodesh. You're able to tell

06:10 clearly that he's going through memories in his head that are, that have to do with this nigun. When Reb Michoel finished singing, my father said that this nigun they sang in the second night of Pesach, Taf Resh Lamed Ches, by the Rebbe Ma'arash in two nuschos. And my father, the Rebbe Ma'arash, said that the nusach that Reb Michoel sang, that is the more correct nusach. And the Rebbe Rashab continued, "This nigun brings to psichas halev, to achsidishe yiras kovod, to a desire and hope, which this is the chut hameshulash of avoda that the Rebbeim implant in Yechsidim in Achsidishe Farbrengen. When you go out in achsidishe nigun of ahavas Achim." Once at a different farbrengen by the Felik Rebbe, Reb Michoel sang this nigun of Reb Michoel Zaltshover, and the Rebbe said, "I owe a favor to Reb Michoel Dvorkin, that in zechus of his nigun, I once was zecher to hear from my father a biur for a few hours on the inyun of oyes de toyu and kelim de tekun." And this was the story, says the Felik Rebbe. My father would come visit me often. Once my father came to visit, and when he passed through the rooms, he needed to pass through the hallway. Suddenly, Michoel Dvorkin ran in. He ran in from the courtyard to the hallway, and he started to dance around the room with a nigun in Russian. When Reb Michoel danced, he was completely red, and he danced with his whole being. My father stayed standing behind

07:42 the door because he didn't want to disturb him, till Michoel Dvorkin left the hallway. And then my father told me, "This nigun of Michoel came from a forest. It's a nigun of a forest. This does not come to him from the Zohar or from Etz Chaim. It comes from the forest." And he explained me then be'arichus the inyun of oyes de toyu in kelim de tekun. Later in the farbrengen, the Felik Rebbe asked Reb Michoel if he remembers the nigun. So Reb Michoel answered, "It's not a nigun. It's a hisbonenus." At a different opportunity, after Reb Michoel sang the nigun of Michoel Zaltshover by the Felik Rebbe's farbrengen, the Felik Rebbe related, "Once Reb Michoel sang this nigun before my father in Rostov, and my father very much enjoyed the nigun and he expressed himself, 'In dem nigun hert zikh baal Shem.' In this nigun, you could feel the Baal Shem Tov." Afterwards, the Felik Rebbe turned to Reb Michoel and he told him, "I owe you a favor very much because when we remember such a vort," meaning the vort that my father said, "and we repeat it with a hergesh pnimi the way it was in the time when we heard it, it brings to a certain ruach tahara and to a bright light that shines for generations." Reb Michoel eventually moved to Eretz Yisrael, and years later, he moved to New York to live by the Felik Rebbe. Here is the letter that Reb Michoel Dvorkin wrote to the Felik Rebbe asking

09:00 permission to come to New York. And he writes like this: Thank you to the Ribono Shel Olam for the brocha that you benched me with arichus yomim ve shanim, and I'm sure that the brocha will be fulfilled as it is written, meaning that the Rebbe will be benched also. I remember the scene in Simchas Torah in the big zal in Lubavitch when they were singing The continuation of the tune, the part without the words, they didn't sing, but the words they sang with tremendous nislaivos for a while. The Rebbe, meaning he's referring to the Rebbe Rashab, said, "This nigun I meyaches to the Chassidim of the Mitteler Rebbe. They would sing this when they would travel to the Rebbe. They were kapつonim betuler", meaning they were very poor, "and they didn't have gashmius. And when they came to the Rebbe, they were not missing any ruchnius." Afterwards, the Rebbe Rashab said, "That which it said that , that I'm standing between Hashem and between you, this is the Mitteler Rebbe. He was mamshech ein sof in the neshamas of the Yidden without any memutza'im." Then the Rebbe was silent for a few moments. This is all Reb Michoel describing in a letter that he writes to the Felik Rebbe. And then the Rebbe said that, "I am a Chassid of my father." Reb Michoel continues to write, "Dr. Krieger told me that I have permission to travel on a boat to America, and I have enough money to be able to pay for

10:23 it. Therefore, I'm asking the Rebbe for permission to come and see the Rebbe be'simcha uvetuv levav and to hear chassidus. Hop Kazak, your servant, Michoel ben Leo Machle." Michoel Taker came to 770, and he stayed there until his last day. And when Felik Rebbe heard that Reb Michoel came, he ca- he called the Rebbe Rachatskin and he told him, "Michoel came and he needs, uh, money to be able to live. He doesn't have a source of parnasah. So I'm asking you, that you should, uh, make sure that they rent for him a place and should give him money monthly. I will give you the money, but Reb Michoel is not allowed to know that the money is from me." The whole entire day, Reb Michoel would sit in 770 and listen to the learning of the, of the talmidim, and he would make as if he's not listening. He will sit on a bench, put one foot on the other, and it would look like as if he's just staring in the air. But when he noticed that one of the talmidim explained the Gemara wrong, he would turn to him and he would say, "You're hacking in China." On Erev Chag HaShavuos Taf Shin Tes, Reb Michoel went to the mikveh. When he came home, he felt bad. All of a sudden, he felt sick. A doctor that came found him that he passed away, so they right away told the Rebbe, our Rebbe, and the Rebbe took care of all the details for

11:39 his levaya. He gathered the money needed for the kevurah, and he made sure that he got a doctor to sign that he could be buried. The thing is that the law in the United States says that in order to bury somebody, you need a document signed by a doctor that explains the cause for the death. And there was some sort of a complication with getting Reb Michoel's document signed since it was Erev Shavuot. So they knew that if they're not gonna do the levaya that day, the levaya will only be in three days from now. So the Rebbe asked that people should get it done. So they spoke with a certain doctor, and they asked that he should sign it. First, he refused, and he said that, "I cannot properly establish the cause for the death because they didn't take a X-ray of the body." Eventually, he agreed on a condition. If the Rebbe promises him that he's giving him as a present his Olam Haba. So when the Rebbe heard about it, he said he agrees, but the doctor wasn't satisfied, and he asked there are two aidim for that. So they brought two aidim, and the Rebbe said that he's gonna give him his Olam Haba, and only then he agreed to sign it, and that's how they were able to do Reb Michoel's levaya on that day. Reb Michoel Zotchever's nigun deserves a episode for itself, so we'll do it as a separate episode. We'll finish off with a nigun that was

12:52 chaviv by Reb Michoel Dworkin.