R' Yankel Boruch Karasik (and a Niggun from R' Yudel Lopitzer)

00:06 HaRav HaChossid Reb Yankel Baruch Karasik was a Tomim in Lubavitch. Afterwards, he became the Mashgiach in England Lubavitch. Later on, when Tomim moved to Kremenchuk, Shtedin, Kharkov, he was from the staff members. Reb Yankel Baruch's younger brother, Reb Laser Karasik, which was also from the Tomim in Lubavitch and eventually from, uh, the Chashuve Chassidim in Eretz Israel, once described his older brother, Reb Yankel Baruch, his memories that he had from him when he was a little kid. And he writes like this: "I remember from my childhood when Yankel Baruch came back home to our shtetl, Lopitch, from Lubavitch. My brother then was twenty-one years old. This was the age of being drafted to the army, so each person needed to come and be checked out by a doctor whether they could serve in the army. The time of davening on Shabbos in the shtiebel was eight thirty in the morning, and it would finish two hours later, b'arech. So they finished davening, and my brother, Yankel Baruch, still didn't finish. So since I didn't see him for a while, I wanted to wait for him so I could walk home with him after davening. But my father hinted to me that I shouldn't wait for him. I couldn't understand why. So we went home, and we sat down for sh-- for, uh, Seudas Shabbos. We finished the Seudah, and Yankel Baruch was still not with us. So I went out to play with the boys, boys my age, and suddenly I heard a noise. Many

01:43 kids and even adults are running to the shul to see this wonder. And people were wondering, what is this, Yom Kippur today? Why is he davening so long? He wasn't holding a machzor of Yom Kippur in his hand. Then they saw that he's getting really passionate and really into it to an extent that he couldn't tell that there's a bunch of people standing and watching him. A few people whispered to each other that maybe, Rachmanu Litzlan, he went mentally ill, he went crazy. And they're all talking about my older brother, Yankel Baruch. I remember that I ran home, and I told my parents about all of this talking and noise, and I started to cry. So my Tatty and Mommy calmed me down, and they said, 'Don't worry. The Am Haaretz don't understand anything. Yankel Baruch is a great man, and when you will grow up, you'll get to know him.' That whole entire day, I couldn't leave the house because I was too embarrassed for my friends. Before the evening, Yankel, Yankel Baruch came home escorted by tens of kids. Those kids were escorting him as if they were escorting somebody who went mentally ill, Chas ve'Shalom. But Yankel Baruch didn't pay attention to all of that, and, uh, he kept davening every day barechos. Until a short while later, people started to recognize and understand his heilike way of life, and everybody started to respect him a lot. And he became a, a famous figure in our city, and people started to praise

03:08 my mother for giving birth to such a child. I also remember that from now on, on the night of Simchas Torah, after Hakafos, which took not longer than an hour, everybody came home and sat down to eat Seudas Yom Tov. And my brother, Yankel Baruch, made kiddush by himself on mashke. Then he started to sing and dance, and all of his friends who needed to go to the army that year gathered, and he honored them with mashke, and he started to explain to them what's Torah, what's the Simcha, what's the Simcha, Simchas Torah. The whole entire night, they danced and cried until the whole entire shtetl said, until Yankel V-- until Yankel Baruch came, they didn't know what Simchas Torah is and what Yom Tov is. To describe in details," says Laser Karasik, "the mahus of my older brother, Yankel Baruch, it's very hard to describe it in detail. But I can say that he was a emes haTomim and pnimy be tachlis, a complete pnimy. And it is not for no reason that it's said about him that he was written in a special notebook, notepad of the Rebbe Rashab." The Rebbe Rashab had a special notepad that he wrote down over there the names of the best bachurim in yeshiva. And the biggest praise for a bachur in Tomim was if it was written down in the Rebbe Rashab's notepad. Ad kan is from the description of Reb Laser Karasik. The Mashpia, Reb Shaul Ber Zislin, once related, "For Chag HaShavuot, tov, vays,

04:38 samech, beis, I traveled to Lubavitch with my friends, Yankel Baruch Karasik and Avrohom Levin. On our way, we came to a certain village, and we noticed a shepherd that took out his flock to the field. Yankel Baruch, when he saw that, he told us that this last Motzei Rosh Hashanah, Rebbe Rashab finished the Ma'amer Chassidus, and he left the zal, he left the hall. And the Anash, the Chassidim, burst into a dance, a passionate dance, and a few of the Tomim joined them, and they were dancing. A certain Balabos from Lubavitch screamed at one of the bachurim, 'Why are you going crazy? You're not acting in a derech eretz dike way like a human is supposed to act. Look how the older people are dancing with their acheres like humans. You're dancing too, too wildly.' So there was a Tomim there named Yerachmiel, which was from the Chashuve Tomim, answered to that Balabos. He says, 'Did you ever notice when the, the animals come back from the field? So the cows walk slowly, step after step, they move s-slowly with their acheres, but the, the young calves are dancing away. What do you think? It's because the cows are smarter? No, it's simply because the calves have lighter feet.'" The Chassid Reb Chaim Shaul Beruk once related that he once told Reb Yankel Baruch that he finished Maseches Bava Metzia, and he asked him, "Which Masechta should I learn next?" Instead of telling me which Masechta I should learn next, he rebuked me and he

06:18 said, "I'm afraid that you finished Bava Metzia like the other person finished the Shas." Meaning, just like that other person finished the Shas, it was too fast and it wasn't really thorough, he basically was saying that I went through Bava Metzia way too fast and it wasn't well enough. And Yankel Baruch said that they say once a bachur finished the Shas seven times. So they asked him, "Well, you finished the Shas seven times. Can you tell us a pesach hidush, a pesach avart?" He said, "No." He humbly said, "I don't have anything to say, no." But they begged him and begged him until the bachur said, "Okay, I'll tell you something." The Gemara says, "Chayav Adam letaher atzmo baregel." A person has to make himself tahor by the shalas regalim. So he asked, "Why does a person have to make himself tahor baregel?" Now, he understood the regel means foot, not the shalas regalim. Why on- why does only the foot have to become tahor? Why not the head? Now, Yankel Baruch was trying to say, you know, "You finished Bava Metzia, how well did you understand it? Is it like that bachur who thought baregel means the foot?" The talmidim of Yankel Baruch once noticed that he demanded from one of the talmidim in Derech Hatmimim that he should finish davening on time and come to Seder Nigleh on time, and he shouldn't daven for longer. And the same period of time, he told another bachur that he does have permission to daven long.

07:38 So the bachur asked him, "Why, why this bachur got permission to daven long and come late to Seder, and this bachur didn't?" So Yankel Baruch explained, says, "The first, the first bachur made for himself a goal." What was the goal? To be misbonen, to think over a whole entire ma'amar by davening. So therefore I could tell him, "You don't have to think a whole ma'amar, just think a part of the ma'amar so you could be on time for Nigleh." But the second bachur, the second bachur was misbonen and he contemplated only on one word, and he was contemplating on that one word from the ma'amar until we'll fully understand it. So can I possibly tell him to cut that in half? I can't. Rav Tzadok Hacohen once related that there was a talmid that would come late to Seder Nigleh because he davened bareichus, he davened long. Eventually, when he came to the Seder, he learned but without a lot of chayas. And Yankel Baruch rebuked him that he should change his 'hanhaga, but that didn't help. So Ya- Yankel Baruch asked him, "Since during davening you're misbonen in elei kos, so that should have brought that later by Seder Nigleh you should learn with a lot of passion, because it's Hashem's Torah." So the bachur answered jokingly to Yankel Baruch, "The lunch that I eat between davening and Seder Nigleh makes an interruption and kind of takes away the inspiration from davening." So in the next Purim, by the farbrengen, Reb Yankel Baruch told

08:58 the tmimim that the angelo goes to the Rebbe Rashab to give a report on how the bachurim are doing. And when I quoted to the Rebbe Rashab what this bachur told me, that the lunch interrupts between the davening and the learning, so the Rebbe Rashab laughed loud, and he said in a sarcastic way, "Yeah, yeah, the meal interrupts." Reb Leizer Karasik, his brother, related that Reb Yankel Baruch will fast a lot. However, he would finish the fast before shkiya, so he would not actually complete the fast. And once the Rebbe Rashab asked him, "Why do you not complete the fast?" So Yankel Baruch answered the Rebbe Rashab that's because he doesn't wanna feel like a big shot, doesn't wanna feel gaaveh from the fact that he fasted. We'll finish off with a nigun from another talmid called Yudol Lopitcher, since he's from the same city as the Karasik family, Lopitch. It's Nigun Samache in Sefer HaNigunim. Ay na nay nay, ay na nay nay, ay nay, ay na ray na ray nam. Ay na nay nay, ya nay nay nay, ay na nay nam, a nay nay nay, ay na nay nay nay nam. Ay na nay, ay ya nay nay na nay ay. Ay na na nay, ay ya nay nay na na nay nam. Ay nay nay, ay nay nay nam. Ay ya na nam nay, ya na na nay, ya na na nay, ay nay ay nay nam. Ya na na nam, a na na nam, a na na nam, ay nay

12:04 ay nay nay nam. Ya na na nam, ya na na nam, ya na na nam, ay nay ay nay nay nam. Ya na na nam, ya na na nam, ya na na nam, ay nay ay nay nay nam. Ay na nay, ay nay ya na nay ta nam ay. Ay na na nay, ay nay ya na nay la ra ray nam. Ay na nay, ay na nay nam.