R' Bere Volf (the Rov of Yekatrinoslav)

00:07 The Chassid, Reb Dovid Ze'ev Kushchanikoff. The Alter Rebbe once related in the name of the Rebbe Rashab, in the year of 5627, when the Zeide, the Rebbe Ma'aras, said the famous ma'amar of Echada, came to Lubavitch to visit for Shavuos the Chassid Reb Dovid Ze'ev Kushchanikoff. One of the times that Reb Dovid Ze'ev came to farbreng, I asked him the question, "What's a Chassid? What is a Chassid?" And he answered me, "A Chassid is someone who seeks to do good for a fellow Yid with a devotion, bemesirus. Somebody who derish tovah zeloseh." The chinuch and the guidance of Ziknei Chassidim were to implant amongst the Chassidishe kinder, the young Chassidim, the feeling to seek always to do good to a fellow Yid with a devotion, bemesirus. And for this type of avoda, with devotion, you get the best reward. And Reb Dovid Ze'ev continued, "And it happened once with me. I was born and raised in a small village next to the city of Dubyanka, which is in the region of Chernigov. In this village where I was born, there were lamdashie Yidden and big Chassidim who knew a lot of nigleh and Chassidus. My teacher was Reb Yael Zaman, one of the biggest Chassidishe lamdanim, and he implanted within me the good midah to look to do good to other Yidden. So when I came to the age of 12, I already knew a lot of Torah, and I knew a lot of Agadas Chazal, a lot of midrashim. And in that village were

01:47 many simple Jewish families, Amaratzim, who didn't even know the simple meaning of the words of davening. I had a tremendous rachmanus on these poshetei Yidden, so I decided to set with them a shiur to learn siddur. And I taught them the meaning of the words of the siddur, of davening. And during the shiur, I would also tell them midrashim from Gemara stories. This went on for three years, even though speaking for me was very hard. I spoke in a very unclear way. And as the years went on, it became even worse. And when I lost my father, I became an orphan, my speech became even worse. Nevertheless, I didn't stop this shiur, and I would learn with the simple Yidden in the town. When I came to the age of 17," says Reb Dovid Ze'ev, "I traveled to Lubavitch, to the Tzemach Tzedek, and I went into yechidus. I told the Rebbe about the seder that I have with the poshetei Yidden, the shiur that I give. And I complained about the fact that I can't speak clearly. So the Rebbe went deep in thought, and then he said to me, 'Continue with what you're doing with the poshetei Yidden, and be a melamed.' And he benched me that I should have the powers of explaining an asfas chalakos, a smooth tongue. When I came out of the Rebbe's room, I couldn't recognize myself. I started to speak like a regular person, and I couldn't understand how did that happen. When I came back home

03:10 and I re- and I chazar the three ma'amar Chassidus that I heard in Lubavitch, everybody who were present, who were listening, were amazed how come I'm speaking so clearly and beautifully. So I told them, 'I am the Rebbe's golem.' The Maharal from Prague made a golem from dirt, and the Rebbe made a golem from flesh." The Rebbe Rashab finished by saying a Chassid is somebody who devotes himself to seek the good of another Yid. And from what happened to Reb Dovid Ze'ev Kushchanikoff, we could see what's the big reward of a Chassid who devotes himself to other Yidden. The Mashpia, Reb Shmuel Greinam, once related, "Once, Rebbe Reb Wolf," which that was his, the way Chassidim would refer to him, "came on Erev Shabbos Kodesh to the city of Borisov. And since he had to stay in the city for Shabbos, he went into the house of the famous Chassid, Reb Shmuel Ber Borisover, and he asked him if he could stay by him." When Re- when Reb Shmuel Ber Borisover in later years related this story, he said, "I looked at this person who was asking me if he could stay in my house for Shabbos. He's a complete stranger. I never saw him before. So I asked him, 'Uh, where are you from?' So he said, 'I'm from a certain shtetl.' So I asked him, 'Oh, if so, is your name Ber of Wolf?' So he said, 'Yes.' So I told him happily, 'Yeah, sure. If so, I agree. You'll be my guest

04:30 for Shabbos.'" This was Shabbos Chazon, and the next day, Sunday, was a, was a fast. It was Tisha B'Av. "So after Mincha of Shabbos, the balabatim of the city came to my house," to Reb Shmuel B- to Reb Shmuel Ber Borisover's house, "to hear a ma'amar, to hear Chassidus." He would chazar Chassidus every Shabbos after Mincha. But when Reb Shmuel Ber saw them, he told them, "What is this? Don't you know that we're soon going to shul to read Eicha? Today we're not chazaring Chassidus." So after the last balabos left the house, then Reb Shmuel Ber turned to Rebbe Reb Wolf and he told him, "Nu, now you should chazar a ma'amar. I heard that you chazar ma'amarim beautifully." And Rebbe Reb Wolf chazared a ma'amar. And when Reb Shmuel Ber described that years later to Reb Greinam, he expressed himself saying, "A zat zung hob ich nokh nit gehert. I've never heard such a tongue." But then Reb Shmuel Ber said, "I chazared to him a ma'amar, and he was also very amazed. And how do I know that he was nispel, that he was amazed by the way I chazared the ma'amar? Because you can't compare the letters that I got from him before I chazared this ma'amar to him to the letters that I got from him after I chazared this ma'amar to him." The Chassid, Reb Boruch Shifrin, once related that, "One of the times that I spoke with Reb Levi Yitzchok, the Rebbe's father, I asked him, 'Is it true,

05:55 the rumor that you participated personally in transporting the body of Rebbe Reb Wolf to another kever?'" The reason was because- In the year 5700, the government decided to destroy the Jewish cemetery, so they needed to transport Yidden's bones to other places. So the rumors were going around that when they opened up his cave, his body, uh, stayed complete as if he was just buried today, even though, even though it was buried many years before. So Reb Levi Yitzchok told me that he's confirming, yeah, that he participated then, and the fact that the body was complete. And he said that the levaya was done very secretly. That's because they were afraid that if this very rare thing that, you know, a body stayed complete after so many years, um, if that, that'll be-- if that will become famous, the government might wanna take the body and put it in a museum. That's why they had to do it secretly. And when we spoke about this story, this was a few days before the petachas of Reb Levi Yitzchok. So I asked Reb Levi Yitzchok, "How can a Hasid get to such a high level?" So Reb Levi Yitzchok explained to me that every Hasid is really in a very high level, and especially a Hasid of the type of Reb Arov. Then he said a whole series of praises on Reb Arov. Since Reb Arov was a talmid of Reb Hillel Pariquer, we'll finish off with another nigun from Reb Hillel Pariquer.