R' Avrohom Dovid Posner (and a Niggun from Klimovitch)

00:06 This week's episode is L'Ilu Nishmas Rabbi Avrohom Yeshayahu Ben Rabbi Badya, Alav Hashalom, Shtrokz, in honor of his yahrtzeit Lammed Nissan, dedicated by his son, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Shayechya. A Rabbi Chossid, Rabbi Avrohom David Poisner from the city of Klimovitch, was from the first Temimim in Tomchei Tmimim. Eventually, he became the Mashpia in Tomchei Tmimim in Lubavitch until the year of Taf Resh Ayin Ches. The Frierdiker Rebbe related, "In Taf Res Samach, part of the Talmidim in Tomchei Tmimim were poiel a lot in regards to the ma'amarim that my father said. And the Talmid muvhak, a Chossid, Rabbi Avrohom David, wrote ha'anos on the ma'amarim. We could understand how chashuv his ha'anos were in the eyes of my father from the fact that my father would go over Rabbi Avrohom David's ha'anos and fix them up. This is also the reason for the fact that in the year of Taf Res Samach, my father barely wrote any ha'anos." At another farbrengen, the Frierdiker Rebbe related, describing simchas Torah Taf Res Samach Alef. And the Frierdiker Rebbe says, "At that kupah, learned in the yeshiva a Talmid. His name was Avrohom David from Klimovitch. He was from the young Talmidim. He had a strong grasp, and he was a bar Itsu that ain noi ma'abit tipa. Before he even had the basic knowledge and understanding of Chassidus, he would already chazer ba'al peh the ma'amarim that my father would say every Shabbos, and he would write ha'anos on the ma'amarim. That is thanks to his tremendous

01:43 kasharim." Reb Yehel Kahn's father, Reb Felda Kahn, related once after the chazarah that they chazar the ma'amar in front of the Rebbe Rashab Shabbos morning. Because they say there was that the Rebbe Rashab would say a ma'amar Friday night, and the whole night, the chozrim would chazer it. And Shabbos early morning, they would go into the room of the Rebbe Rashab to chazar the ma'amar in front of the Rebbe Rashab, and the Rebbe Rashab would give them comments and fix up mistakes. So once after the chazarah, Rabbi Avrohom David asked the Rebbe a shailah about the ma'amar, and the Rebbe answered. Then he repeated the question again, I guess because he didn't understand the answer, and the Rebbe answered him again. In the meantime, all the chozrim left the room already, but he still stood in his place, and he repeated the shailah again. So the Rebbe Rashab smiled, and he said, "You are like the small odcho in Hallel." When the Rebbe Rashab put out the Kuntras HaTefilah, in the first ois, the Rebbe Rashab describes very high levels, like avodah b'taanugim, b'mesicus, v'aarevus, klis hanefesh. So the Rashbas asked the Rebbe Rashab for whom did he write this ois. And the Rebbe Rashab answered him, "For Avrohom David." In a letter that the Rebbe Rashab once sent to the Frierdiker Rebbe when the Rebbe Rashab was out of the country, and he was asking the Frierdiker Rebbe what's going on in Tomchei Tmimim. So the Rebbe Rashab writes, "Ma na'asa bedvar habochrim?" What

03:11 is going on with the bochrim? "Im limdim nigleh vedaar?" Are they learning nigleh in Chassidus? "Veim limdim k'debai?" Are they learning properly? "Uma osa Avrohom David?" And what is Avrohom David doing? "Im mas bikli hazman l'tefilah ulatorah?" Does he have enough time for his davening and learning? Reb Shmuel Avigdor related that Avrohom David would daven standing for many, many hours. During davening, his eyes were open, but he didn't see at all anything that's happening around him. He was able to stand like this for a long, long time. And b'misbonen, while completely disconnected from worldly matters. Anybody who stood on the side wasn't able to tell that he's deep in hisbonenus. The only sign that showed that he's in the middle of hisbonenus was the fact that his hat was tilted sideways. Reb Shmuel Avigdor also related that Avrohom David would go into the Rebbe Rashab many times to yechidus and ask questions in deepinyanu in Chassidus. In one of those yechidusin, Rabbi Avrohom David asked the Rebbe Rashab, "Vos is atzilus?" What's atzilus? And Rabbi Avrohom David himself started to, by himself to give different explanation to what atzilus might be. And after each one of those explanations, Rabbi Avrohom David asked the Rebbe Rashab, "Dos is atzilus?" Is that atzilus? But then after asking about each one, is that atzilus, he himself would reply to himself and say, "Nein, dos is nisht atzilus." That's not atzilus. And then he would give another explanation. At a certain point, Rabbi Avrohom David described a certain dargah,

04:46 and he said that he himself doesn't even understand that dargah. And after he described that dargah and said that he doesn't understand that dargah, the Rebbe Rashab replied, "Dos is atzilus." Rabbi Yechanan Gordon related once the Rebbe Rashab sent Rabbi Avrohom David to a certain city that he should be the shochet in that city. But he didn't stay there for a long time. Then somebody from that city visited Lubavitch, and he went into the Rebbe Rashab for yechidus. And the Rebbe Rashab asked him, "How is Avrohom David doing?" So he answered, "Oh, he left our city already because he's afraid of the cow. He's afraid of the ox." When the Rebbe Rashab heard that, his face became very serious, and he, and he replied, "Whether he's afraid of the animal, that I don't know. But he's definitely afraid of the Ibister." Rabbi Yisroel Jacobson related, describing Rabbi Avrohom David's yiras shamayim, that whenever Rabbi Avrohom David saw that somebody got a brand-new pair of tefillin that were mehudar, he would secretly go over to the person and ask him to borrow his tefillin to say Shema with them. And that's how every day he would put on a bunch of pairs of tefillin. Also, when he came to netilas yadayim for the seudah, he was very machmir. He would first wash his hands with a kvart, and then with a cup, and then with another vessel. Put one vessel into another vessel, all because of the chashash, maybe the previous netilah wasn't proper. Reb Shlomo

06:13 Cheim Keselman related that in the later years when Reb Avraham David was sick and weak, and he wasn't able to physically daven for as many hours as he was able to before, he would still daven be'arikhot as much as he can. And one of the things that he would do then was that after davening, he would go over to the Oivdim after they finished davening, and he will ask them to borrow their tefillin to say Shema with their tefillin. So once, somebody reported that to the Rebbe Rashab, and the person reporting that to the Rebbe Rashab, this minhag to borrow the Oivdim's tefillin, was, uh, reporting it in a way of mocking, in a way of trying to say that it's strange. So the Rebbe Rashab replied, "Aber der veile ester dach nit." But in the meantime, he's not eating, meaning he's doing his kafya by that. Once, when Avraham David was farbrengen with the Temimim, he related a story that he read when he was a little boy in a kids' storybook, and he used it as a mashal for the difference between Chassidus and Musar. And the story goes like this. Once, the sun and the wind had an argument. Who is stronger? So they said, "Okay, let us try. There's a person walking down the street wearing a coat. Let's see which one of us is able to get the person to take off his coat." The wind went first, and it started to blow really strongly. But the stronger the wind

07:37 blew, the person held onto his clothing even stronger. And the harder it was getting, the stronger he was getting by holding his clothing together. Then it was the sun's turn. The sun started to shine, and it made it very, very hot till the person started to sweat, and it was getting too hot, and there was nothing left for him to do except for just taking off his coat. And the nimshal said Reb Avraham David, "The clothing is referring to the yetzer hara." Musar's way for a person to take off the yetzer hara, to take off his clothing, is by describing to him all the punishments that he will get in Gehenom. Why this midah is bad, that midah is bad, the consequences of his behavior. All of that is like a wind blowing. It could get him to take off his coat, but the person could also hold onto his coat even stronger. But Chassidus, the way Chassidus gets the yetzer hara off is by bringing in a light and varmekit into the person, which b'meheleh melts off the levushim, melts off the yetzer hara. Reb Menachem Fudofas related that Rav Avraham David Poizner was so connected to that which he was learning that when he would sometimes fall asleep in the middle of the learning, when he would wake up, unlike a regular person, or if a regular person falls asleep in the middle of learning and he wakes up, he finds the spot where he left off and he reads the last line

08:56 again, then he continues. Avraham David was so connected to his learning that when he fell asleep and he woke up, he continued exactly from the next word that he was up to. He didn't need to chazar the last line. It was fresh in his mind as if he just read it a second ago. Reb Yisroel Jacobson related, in the summer of 5687, a fire broke out in Lubavitch. It was an early morning hour. I was then in the mikveh with Avraham David Poizner. When we heard the bell ringing that there is a fire, we ran out of the mikveh and we saw that the smoke is becoming bigger and bigger. And based on the directions of where the smoke was coming from, it looked like it might be coming to the house of Reb Avraham David. I've never in my life seen Avraham David so emotional. He turned to me and he started to beg me from the depth of his heart, "Yisroel, come to my house and help me save my Shas." Because he had in his house a Shas from the print of, uh, Vilna. So I ran with him, and we saved the sefarim, and we put them outside in a dry place. And, um, only after that we realized that the fire was bechal going in a different direction. Reb Shlomo Cheim Keselman related that at a certain point, Reb Avraham David was very sick, and he had lice crawling all over his body, and he was in tremendous pain. Despite

10:09 all the pain, he never moved because of the pain, and he never sighed. And he once even said about it, "Anybody who says 'oy', anybody who sighs is a nifrod." We'll finish off with a nigun from the city of where Avraham David is from, from the city of Klimovitch. Oy mama, ma, ma, ma. Oy mama, ma. Oy mama, ma, ma, ma. Oy na, nai, da, da, ma. Ay, nai, dam. Ay, yay, yay, di, da, da. Ma, ma, ma, ma'am. Oy mama, ma, ma, ma. Ma, ma, ma, ma'am. Oy mama, ma, ma, ma'am. Ay mama, ma, ma, ma, ay, dam. Ay, yay, ya, ma'am. Ay, yay, a, ma, ma. Ay, yay, a, ma, ma. Ay, da, la, ma'am. Ay, yay, ay, na, na, ma. Ay, yay, a, ma, ma. Ay, yay, a, ma, ma. Ay, dam. Na'am, oy ma Here's another nusach in the second pfall. Meaning, instead of repeating the second part twice, that last part, instead of repeating it twice, only once.