Zalman Dovid Homliner (and the Chabad Lag Baomer Niggun)

00:08 If you enjoy this podcast, please consider clicking on support the show in the show notes and support us in a monthly way will give us a chizuk and the ability to continue. Reb Zalman David Homliner was from the Bavusteh Temimim in Lubavitch. He was famous to be a oved and a maskil. The Chasad Rebbetzal of Eleishansky related that Reb Zalman David, when he came to Lubavitch and when he learned a little bit of Chassidus, and he started to taste the taste of davening, of his bonanus. So one day he davened, and he was mitbonen, and the davening took longer than usual. When he finished davening, it was already time for Seder Negla. So he came to Zahl a few minutes late. Now, generally, the ovedim had permission to daven ba'aveirah, to, to daven ba'archus, but you had to get a special permission. Not anybody who wanted could just come late to Seder. You had to, uh, prove that you're a real oved to be able to get permission to come late to Seder Negla. So when he came late, the mashgiach hanigla, Rabbi Yankel Barak Harasi, called him over, and he gave him over the head. "How come you're late?" So Reb Zalman David answered, "I don't know. I, I davened, and I just didn't realize, and I just finished late." And he gave him over the head and... Okay, the next day, Zalman David came a few minutes even later, and the mashgiach called him over again and asked him, "Why are you late?"

01:35 And he said, "I davened, and it just, I was... I didn't realize, and I just finished late." This kept on going day after day, and every day he kept coming later and later until his avodas tefila took literally the whole entire day. So he finished davening at the end of Seder Negla, and he only managed to come to Seder Chassidus at night. So Rabbi Yankel Barak Harasi, the mashgiach hanigla, didn't call him over anymore because he didn't see him. One day, Rabbi Yankel Barak Harasi, the mashgiach, met Reb Zalman David on the street in Lubavitch, and he asked him, "Zalman David, are you still in yeshiva?" So he said, "Yeah." "So h-how come I didn't see you for the last few weeks in Seder?" He says, "I davened." So at that point, Rabbi Yankel Barak Harasi decided that it's time to take more drastic measures, and he told the Friediker Rebbe about it, which was the menahal of the yeshiva at that time. The Friediker Rebbe called Reb Zalman David over, and he asked him, "Mit vos davensstu? What are you davening with?" Meaning which maimar do you think? So Zalman David said, "I daven with the maimar that the Rebbe says every Shabbos." So the Friediker Rebbe asked Reb Zalman David, "In this last week's maimar, what's the chiddush in the second half of the maimar over the first half of the maimar?" Zalman David answered whatever he answered, and the Friediker Rebbe had no reaction on his face, and he didn't answer him

02:58 anything, and he just left. But from then on, nobody disturbed him from his davening, and he was allowed to continue davening. Rabbi Yoel Kahn once related he knew a certain person who learned in Tomchei Temimim in Lubavitch, and his behavior and his learning were not proper to an extent that he even had a nickname in yeshiva, the Shaygetz. So Rabbi Yoel said that he told him that the mashpia, Reb Sholom Koratin, once called him over, this bachur, and he asked him, "What are you learning?" So the bachur was afraid that Reb Sholom wants to test him, and when he's gonna discover that he doesn't know anything, he will give him over the head. So he answered a, a name of a certain maimar. So Reb Sholom mentioned a certain deep nekuda in this maimar about chochmas tim'a, but this bachur had no clue what he's talking about. So Reb Sholom explained him this inyan very well, and since this bachur was smart, he understood it and he liked it. The next day, Reb Sholom called over the bachur again. So this bachur thought that, "Now, today he's gonna give me over the head. How come I didn't know anything about the maimar?" But instead, the mashpia, Reb Sholom, just told him, "Do you know what we explained yesterday? That's not really the depth of the inyan." And then he went on to explain him the inyan of chochmas tim'a even deeper, and this went on for a few days. Day after day, he called him

04:19 over, and he explained the maimar deeper and deeper. At the same time, the hanhalah of the yeshiva told the bachur that he should move to a different room, to a different bedroom. The hanhalah had an excuse of, uh, space, et cetera, but he understood that the reason is probably because his new roommate was Reb Zalman David. Because the hanhalah wanted that he should have an effect from Reb Zalman David singing his Kirsh Al Hamita, his davening. Reb Zalman David, which became his roommate, spoke to this bachur a lot binyan avoda, and this bachur had a tremendous derech eretz for him. However, in one of their conversations, the bachur wanted to check out what would be the reaction of Zalman David if he tells him off about something. So he put up a serious face, and he asked him, "Zalman David, how do you talk to me about avoda? All of you guys are chitzoinim and liars." So Zalman David was wondering, "Why? Why are you saying that?" So he answered. So the bachur kept on going, "You, for an example, you sing during davening. What do you sing during davening? Do you have ahava v'yirah until the nigun comes out of your heart?" And this bachur kept taunting to Zalman David, which was the oved of Tomchei Temimim, that he's a chitza and a lawyer, and there's no reason why he's singing during davening a Kirsh Al Hamita. So Zalman David's reply was, he started to excuse himself, and he said, "You know something? You

05:41 are very much right about me. I'm a lawyer, a fool. But since after all I'm a Yid, and each Yid has a neshama, so when I learn and I think a little bit of Chassidus, my heart awakens and a nigun comes out. It's true, my nigunah is just gasus. However, I can't hold myself back." And the Yid finished relating to Rabbi Yoel and said- That that reply of Reb Zalman David affected him much more than the Haskolos of Reb Shillem, and even much more than the Krishmashu Alamito of Reb Zalman David himself. All the Rebbeim wrote the Ma'amarim down, except for the Alter Rebbe and our Rebbe. So the Rebbe Rashab would say a Ma'amar every Friday night, and usually he would write it down. However, not always. Sometimes the Rebbe Rashab would not write the Ma'amarim. But there were other Chassidim, the Chosim, who wrote down Hanachos of the Rebbe Rashab's Ma'amarim. Sometimes the Rebbe Rashab would ask the Gabbai to get for him a certain Ma'amar. So if the Rebbe Rashab had a copy of the Ma'amar, then the Gabbai would just get the copy that the Rebbe Rashab wrote. What if the Rebbe Rashab didn't have his own written Ma'amar? So then they would get a Hanacha that the Chosim wrote. The thing is that at certain times the Rebbe Rashab asked that nobody should write Hanachos on certain Ma'amarim. A specific Ma'amarim, the Rebbe Rashab asked that nobody should write Hanacha on it. So usually it wasn't a problem because the

07:07 Rebbe Rashab himself wrote his own Hanacha. But what if the Rebbe Rashab years later asked to see that Ma'amar and nobody was allowed to write the Ma'amar of that Shabbos? And it happens to be a Shabbos that the Rebbe Rashab himself also didn't write the Ma'amar. So what they would do in such a case is they would call over the Chosim and they would sit around the table and they would call it Kleiben Verter. They would collect words, meaning the Chosim would repeat from their memory the Ma'amar as they remember it and then they would put it down on paper and bring it to the Rebbe Rashab. So Reb Zalman David, even in the weeks that they were not allowed to write down the Ma'amarim, Reb Zalman David himself did write down the Ma'amarim secretly and he put it in a box behind his bed. So one time when the Rebbe Rashab asked to see a certain Ma'amar and there was no copy of it because it was a week that they were not allowed to write it down. So the Gabbai walked into the Zal and he collected the Chosim and he told them to meet at a certain time in his office to write the Ma'amar down. Zalman David, which was one of the Chosim, heard which Ma'amar it's going to be and he realized that he actually has this Ma'amar written in the box in his room. So he went to his room and he Chazered the Ma'amar very well from the

08:20 Kesav that he had. Then he came to the gathering where they were writing down the Ma'amar and since he had the Ma'amar fresh in his head, so he had the best Hanacha of the Ma'amar from his memory. So he kept saying more and more paragraphs as much as he can so the Rebbe Rashab gets the best version of the Ma'amar possible. When the Gabbai brought to the Rebbe Rashab the Ma'amar and the Rebbe Rashab read through the Ma'amar, he called over the Gabbai and he asked him, please find out which Choser said this and this paragraphs. And he pointed at all the paragraphs that Zalman David said. So the Gabbai went and he found out it was Zalman David. So when he told that to the Rebbe Rashab, the Rebbe Rashab told him, tell him that I want to see him. And Zalman David walked into the Rebbe Rashab's room. The Rebbe Rashab asked him, do you write down the Ma'amarim? And he said yes. So the Rebbe Rashab asked him, when do you write down the Ma'amarim? So Zalman David answered, the Rebbe says a Ma'amar Friday night. So on Sunday I Daven with the Ma'amar. On Monday I Daven with the Ma'amar. On Tuesday I Daven with the Ma'amar. On Wednesday I Daven with the Ma'amar. On Thursday I Daven with the Ma'amar. Thursday night after a whole week of Davening with the Ma'amar, I sit down to write the Ma'amar. The Rebbe Rashab had such a Nachas from this, the Rebbe Rashab

09:41 wanted to give him a present. So the Rebbe Rashab's present was that he gave him a list of Mare Mekomos to look up, to learn, that would give him a good understanding of the Sugya and Chassidus of Toyhu and Tikun. Zalman David had a lot of Iskafia so the Taivas don't disturb him from Avedas Hashem. In the year of Taf Resh Pei was a big hunger in Russia and all the fasting that he took upon himself together with the hunger that was on the streets made him very weak. He got a lung infection and he passed away a short while later in the year of Taf Resh Pei Alef and he was still a Bachar. When he was lying sick in bed, he once cried and he said, all this Avoda and the Sigufim, if because of all of that I have to return my Neshamah to the Eibishter, over there, up there, there's no Mitzvas Maisias. One Hanachas Tefillin in this world is worth more than Sigufim and Iskafia for many years. If I would have known that that would be the result of all of my Iskafia, I would give up on all of my Avoda so I could at least be Mekaya Mitzvas for one additional day. So the Medla Futifa said that when Reb David HaRadoker heard about it, he said, it's true, putting on Tefillin once is worth more than Iskafia of many years. But to get to that recognition, you actually have to have Iskafia for many years. We'll

11:03 finish off with a Nigan Simcha in honor of Lag BaOmer. At Lag BaOmer, Toshin Zayin or Toshin Ches, there was a Fabregen by the Fidik Rebbe upstairs in 770. In the middle of the Fabregen, the Fidik Rebbe turned to Reb Michoel Dvorkin and he told him to start a Nigan Simcha. So Reb Michoel Dvorkin started a Nigan Simcha that nobody recognized. And he sang it and he taught it to the crowd and everybody became very into it. After the Fabregen, our Rebbe came out of the Fabregen together with Reb Shmuel Levitan and Reb Michoel Dvorkin and they had their hands on each other's shoulders and they were singing the Nigan with great Simcha. And they came downstairs to the Zal and kept dancing to this Nigan for a while. And this is why Chassidim call that the Chabad Lag BaOmer Nigan. Since it's Firas HaOmer, we will not put the Nigan the way it's in the Chayach. We'll just sing it without music.