R' Shmuel Boruch from Warsaw (and Niggun "Veharikoisi lochem berocho")

00:07 This episode is sponsored in honor of Rabbi Hershey Gurari and his family from State College, Pennsylvania. May you have much chasidishe nachas from all of his children, and be matzliach in his holy work. The Friediker Rebbe related, "The Chosid, Reb Shmuel Baruch from Warsaw, was in Lubavitch for four or five years straight without a stop. He was a big maskil, and he knew th- and he knew fluently all printed chasidus. He would always wear, winter and summer, warm clothing. And my father, the Rebbe Rashab, used to call him Imrei Binadik because he was fluent in the Sefer of the Mitteler Rebbe, Imrei Bina. The Chosid, Reb Shmuel Baruch, used to, in the middle of davening many times, take off his tallis and tefillin 'cause he was afraid that since his mind would be so occupied with thinking chasidus that his tallis and tefillin might just fall off without him realizing. So he would take off his tallis and tefillin in the middle of davening. He would smoke a pipe and walk around the chutzter for a while and think chasidus because it was hard for him to do both things together, wearing tallis and tefillin and thinking chasidus." The Friediker Rebbe continues by describing three chasidim, amongst them Reb Shmuel Baruch. And the Friediker Rebbe says, "Reb Chanoch Hendel was an example of darchei chasidim. He devoted himself to educate and guide the yungerleit. And just his seder avoda, his davening, et cetera, affected the other chasidim tremendously. The Chosid, Reb Aba Tchechniker, he was

01:40 darchei chasidus," meaning Reb Chanoch Hendel was darchei chasidim and R- and Reb Aba Tchechniker was darchei chasidus. "Everything, everything that he did was just for himself. And even though people were very nispal from his davening, it affected them in a way of makif ve'karev." I will not explain what that means right now, but it had an effect on them but not in a pnimiusdike way. "And the Chosid, Reb Shmuel Baruch, he is chasidus himself," says the Friediker Rebbe, "like the makif haroch." In another sicha, the Friediker Rebbe related that his father, the Rebbe Rashab, once wrote a letter to his cousin, Reb Mordechai Dov Slonim, that lived in Eretz Yisrael. "And in the letter, my father, the Rebbe Rashab, wrote at length the ma'ala of thinking chasidus before davening while wearing tallis and tefillin. When the Chosid, Reb Mordechai Ber Slonim, brought the letter with him to Lubavitch when he came for Shavuos 5691, he became friendly then with three of the ziknei chasidim, Reb Chanoch Hendel, Reb Shmuel Baruch from Warsaw, and Reb Meir Mordechai from Borisov, and he showed them a copy of the letter." And here the Friediker Rebbe goes on to describe a little bit about these three older chasidim, and the Friediker Rebbe starts off by describing Reb Shmuel Baruch. And he says, "The Reb-- The Chosid, Reb Shmuel Baruch, was from the gadolei ha-maskilim. He had tremendous chushim, senses, and he was a big amkan, meaning he wa- he learnt very deeply. He was very old. I'm not sure

03:16 how old he was then, and it seems like he himself didn't even know his exact age. When they would ask him how old he is, he would answer, 'I had enough time to forget already.' Reb Shmuel Baruch came to Lubavitch when my zeide, the Rebbe Maharash, was born in the year of 5634. And he stayed then in Lubavitch u- until the year of 5600. Then he traveled home, and four years later, 5607, he returned to Lubavitch, and he stayed there straight until 5620. That's when the Tzemach Tzedek was nistalek. And then at 5622, that, that was during the days of the Rebbe Maharash, he returned to Lubavitch and he stayed in Lubavitch for the rest of his life. Reb Shmuel Baruch was baki, meaning he was fluent in all the printed chasidus, like Toras Ohr, Likkutei Torah, the Siddur, the Mitteler Rebbe's farhim, almost be'al peh. And generally, he would speak very little. However, when he would ever open up his mouth to explain something, es iz geven vos tzu horen, meaning there was what to hear." And after the Friediker Rebbe goes on to describe the other two elder chasidim. So the Friediker Rebbe finishes off, "When these three elder chasidim, Reb Shmuel Baruch, Reb Meir Mordechai, and Reb Chanoch Hendel, got a copy of the letter where my father explains the ma'ala of thinking chasidus before davening while wearing tallis and tefillin, they started to learn the letter. In the beginning, each one of them learned the letter by himself, and afterwards they

04:36 sat together to learn it together. And for the next few weeks, they kept learning this letter and discussing and speaking about the meaning of it. And that's how the letter spread in Lubavitch without my father's knowledge." The Friediker Rebbe once wrote in a letter that for Rosh Hashana 5690, that's when the Friediker Rebbe was eight years old, two zkenim came, came to Lubavitch to settle in Lubavitch, to stay in Lubavitch. The Chosid, Reb Aba Tchechniker, and the Chosid, Reb Shmuel Baruch from Warsaw. The Chosid, Reb Shmuel Baruch, already, um, lived in Lubavitch before. However, since he had a sickness in his eyes, so he traveled to Vitebsk to see the doctors there, and he was there for over a year. And Elul 5690, right before 5691, that's when he returned to Lubavitch. "My uncle, the Razas," says the Friediker Rebbe, "honored very much the elder chasidim, and he had a tremendous desire to hear from them conversations, stories. So now when Reb Aba Tchechniker and Reb Shmuel Baruch moved to Lubavitch, he always sat them at the head of the table and kept listening to everything they have to say, stories and he'aros. My rebbe, Reb Nissen Skobla, told me that every two days, once in two days, I should go and visit these elder chasidim, Reb Aba Tchechniker and Reb Shmuel Baruch from Warsaw, and hear stories from them. They used to sit in the cheder sheini-" Of the small tzal. I will hear stories from them, and I will go back to my

06:06 rebbe, Reb Nisan, and repeat the stories to him. And my rebbe, Reb Nisan, would explain to me the whole story. In another sicha, the Frierdiker Rebbe related, amongst the ziknei chassidim of Chabad who would come to Lubavitch to my father, the Rebbe Rashab, were also very old chassidim who were zecher to see the mitteler Rebbe when they were little kids. And they would repeat different hora'os and stories that they heard from the ziknei chassidim of the Alter Rebbe. So the chassid, the old chassid, Reb Shmuel Baruch from Warsaw, he once told me that he was a talmid of, of his great uncle, the chassid, Reb Rachmiel Zvi. And that the ziknei chassidim, the talmidim of the Alter Rebbe, once repeated one of the first toras that they heard from the Alter Rebbe, which my great uncle repeated to me. In that ma'amar, in that short ma'amar, the Alter Rebbe said that Torah in general, and Torah chassidus in specific, you should hear only from somebody who has a oved, somebody who toils to fix his middos. And they should stay away, they should be careful from a chassidish liar, somebody who says chassidus but he doesn't do in avoda. And the Frierdiker Rebbe ended off, chassidus we need to hear only from somebody who is a baal avoda, somebody who davens long, somebody who is, um, into criticizing and examining his thoughts, speech, and actions if they are the way chassidus wants it to be. To such an oved, we need to listen and hear

07:36 and to hug and hold precious to any word that he says. In another sicha, the Frierdiker Rebbe related, when I was a little kid, once there was a simchas beis hasoevah farbrengen in the sukkah, and I was there, too. When it became very late at night, I fell asleep. When I woke up, I found the chassid, Reb Mendel, and the chassid, Reb Shmuel Baruch from Warsaw, that they are still sitting and farbrengen in the sukkah. When I fell asleep then in the sukkah on a bench, my mother, the rebbetzin, uh, went in in order to bring me into the house so, so I should sleep in my bed. But my father, the Rebbe Rashab, didn't let. And he said, "Zol er zikh val geren tzusvischen chassidim. Un der Oybershter zol helfen az er zol zikh oys val geren." Meaning that he- let him roll, let him hang out among chass- amongst chassidim, and Hashem should help that he should roll himself out, meaning that it should have a good effect. And then my father benched me with arichus yamim. And the Frierdiker Rebbe then finishes off and he says, "Each person needs to know that ari- arichus yamim means that the day should be long, that whatever needs to be done throughout the day should be done." When we give a bracha of arichus yamim, we take, uh, mean the simple meaning, b'gashmius, that a person should live long. But in arichus yamim itself, the days need to be long, that the day should not

08:57 go on in a lazy way without doing what we need to do. We need to know when the day becomes a day, and we need to recognize each hour of the day and to do everything that's needed to be done throughout the day. And that's the true meaning of arichus yamim. We'll finish off with a story that the Rav, Reb Zalman Shimon Dworkin, related, the Rav of Crown Heights. Now, in the story that he relates, he actually relates about a chassid named Reb Yitzchak Baruch. Uh, however, since the details of the story match very much with, um, the chassid Reb Shmuel Baruch, and since he relates the story as saying that this was a famous chassid, and the famous chassid that we know from those time was Reb Shmuel Baruch, and it- Reb Yitzchak Baruch seems not to be somebody who was very famous. So it's possible that really the name was Reb Shmuel Baruch. So we're not sure if this story is about Reb Shmuel Baruch or some other chassid, Reb Yitzchak Baruch, but it seems like it might, might have been a mistake and it was really Reb Shmuel Baruch. And it sounds like this. I heard from the Frierdiker Rebbe in Rostov that when he s- when he spoke about the famous chassid, Reb Yitzchak Baruch or Reb Shmuel Baruch, which came from Warsaw, and he had a wife and kids, and he was baki b'Shas and Rishonim and in all the chassidus far him. That in the year of taf reish,

10:09 when he heard about the Tzemach Tzedek, he came to Lubavitch and he went into yechidus. And the Tzemach Tzedek answered him all his questions. But there was one question that Tzemach Tzedek didn't answer him. But he told him, "I will call you over after I will look into it and then I will answer you." So when he came out of yechidus, he sent a letter to his wife in Warsaw, and he wrote to her that, "I decided not to come back home, and if you want, I could send you a get. We could get a divorce because I'm staying here." And only twenty-six years later, taf reish chaf vav, the Tzemach Tzedek sends somebody to call him, and he answered him that question from twenty-six years ago. And R- Reb Shmuel Baruch said, "For s- twenty-six years, which is the number of the Gematria of Shem Havaya, I stayed in Lubavitch to get an answer for the shailah that I asked in yechidus. And for-- I need to stay for an additional twenty-six years to think about the meaning of the answer." And before he passed away, he called over the Chevra Kadisha and he told them that, "It's time for me to pass away." So they asked him, "Reb Shmuel Baruch, how do you know?" So he said, "I saw the Tzemach Tzedek." And right after he said that, he passed away. We'll finish off with a nigun from Nikolaev and the words, "V'harichosi lachem bracha." It is not clear who composed the nigun.

11:22 It's possible that one of the Kharitonov brothers, but it's not confirmed. And Chag HaShavuos, taf shin chaf, Reb Pinny Altoo is sang this nigun in front of the Rebbe. And that year, by the farbrengen of Yud Beis Tammuz, the Rebbe asked his son, Reb Pinny Altoo's son, Reb Binyamin Altoo, is that he should sing it. Uh, that the Altoo's family was from Nikolaev and this nigun's from Nikolaev. Uh, two years later, Yud Beis Tammuz, taf shin chaf gimel... Sorry, three years later. The farbrengen then, Yud Beis Tammuz, was a short while after Reb Pinny Altoo is passed away. So the Rebbe mentioned Reb Pinny by the farbrengen and he said, "Since we have his nigun, 'V'harichosi lachem bracha', which is a nigun that he would sing a lot, so mistama there are people here who know this nigun. So we should sing the nigun, 'V'harichosi lachem bracha'." And the Rebbe added that Mishtama probably he would also join us in the singing. We'll first play the way it's sung by Rabbi Pinny Altus' brother, Rabbi Shmuel Betzalel Altus from Australia, and then a recording of the Rebbe singing it by a farbrengen.