ר' שילם קוראטין

00:08 Reb Meshulam Yedidiah Gottlieb Koratin, uh, otherwise known as Reb Shillem or Reb Shillem Disner 'cause he came from the city of Disna. He was the head chozer by the Rebbe Rashab, and he was a mashpia in Tomchei Temimim in Lubavitch. We'll first go through his, uh, history in short, and then a few gishmake stories. Reb Shillem was raised in a very simple home. His parents were not extremely, uh, makpid on mitzvahs. They were not an, they were not an extremely Haredische family. And, uh, before he became bar mitzvah, his father passed away, and him and his mother moved into one of his brother's homes, which was very wealthy. And in his brother's home, they sent him into a secular school. Uh, since he was a very talented boy, very smart boy, he excelled in his learning. Um, after a while, his sister invited him to her home, and when he was in his sister's home, she convinced him together with her husband, Reb Yisroel, which was a Lubavitcher Hasid, that he should travel to Lubavitch to learn in Tomchei Temimim. When he came to Lubavitch, to Tomchei Temimim was in the summer of 5650. He was still dressed like a student in a secular school. He still had his, uh, shiny hat with the logo of the school on it, and he wanted to get accepted to yeshiva. In the beginning, the mashpia, Reb Shmuel Grenim, didn't wanna accept him. And, uh, Reb Shillem cried and begged, and eventually they accepted him. First, he learned

01:41 in the branch of the yeshiva in Hardich, which was ran by Reb Sholom Zalman Havlin. He had a very good head, and he was a big masmid, and after a few years, he became the chozer by the Rebbe Rashab. He very much wanted to uproot the secular studies that he learned in his youth, and, uh, he did many things to try to uproot that. For an example, whenever he wanted to write a letter, even though he knew how to write by himself in Russian, but he would ask someone else to write the address in Russian for him. After Shavuot 5650, he got married to his wife, Guta Baila, the daughter of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Hillievits, the Rav of Zhembin. After his marriage, he stayed in Lubavitch and served as a mashpia in Tomchei Temimim. In the winter of 5651, he became the mashgiach and the head mashpia. In 5650, during the First World War, Reb Shillem also went on a whole trip as a shadar for the yeshiva to collect money for Tomchei Temimim. In 5650, the yeshiva, and together with the yeshiva, Reb Shillem and his family moved to Kremenchuk. Reb Shillem was a big oved. He would learn a lot of Chassidus and daven ba'aveida. On Shabbos, he would daven l- the whole entire day, and on Motzei Shabbos, he would, uh, learn nigla the whole night. Reb Shillem passed away at a young age from a, uh, sickness in his lungs. It was on Shabbos Parshas Sheftim, 1 Elul 5650, and he

03:04 was only 34 years at the time. Reb Yehuda Chaitrik, which was a tomim in Lubavitch, he relates like this, that for 20 Tishrei 5650, the Tliker Rebbe wanted that the Temimim, if they were still in Lubavitch, should, uh, spend Tishrei in Rostov, which where the Rebbe Rashab was at the time. So he sent 1,000 ruble to Reb Shillem, which was with, which was in Lubavitch with the Tomim, to sponsor the trip for the Tomim. At that time, in Lubavitch, there were 100 Tomim, so Reb Shillem gave 10 ruble to each bocher to sponsor his, uh, train ride to Rostov. There's one tomid that instead of using the money to buy a train ticket, he bought for himself shoes and boots, and he stayed home for Tishrei. After Tishrei, when everybody returned to yeshiva, there was a farbrengen, and in the farbrengen, Reb Shillem told that bocher, "I'm not upset about the fact that you used the money for shoes and boots. I'm sure you needed them. But what I am upset about is the fact that y- you probably spent a lot of time deb- debating in your head whether you should travel to the Rebbe or travel home, and you probably spent a lot of time thinking about whether you should travel with new shoes or with old shoes, which shoes you should buy. What upsets me, what, what pains me is that a tomim like you, what his head should be busy with is about such things." On 9 Kislev 5650, Reb Shillem

04:35 celebrated in Lubavitch the bris for his second son. So Reb Shol Bruch related that in the 9 Kislev farbrengen that happened that evening, somebody in the yeshiva wished Reb Shillem mazel tov on the bris that he had that morning. Reb Shillem told him back, "Why are you mixing personal inyanim, personal matters in the middle of a 9 Kislev farbrengen?" So actually for that bris, they wanted to call their son Schneur Zalman, but then suddenly Reb Shillem started to doubt that, and he said that, uh, "I'm, I'm afraid to give my son the Alter Rebbe's name, the Alter Rebbe's heylike name." So he didn't cancel the decision. They just decided they would call him Schneur Zalman officially after his wife's alter zeyde, Reb Zalman Kornetzer. But then they found out that Reb Zalman Kornetzer was actually named not Schneur Zalman, but Meshulam Zalman. And, uh, Reb Shillem himself, his name is Meshulam. He can't call his son the same name as, as him, so therefore they were forced to just call him Schneur Zalman after the Alter Rebbe. Once, Reb Shillem's mother-in-law stayed in his home for Rosh Hashanah in Lubavitch, and she noticed that, uh, during the day on Rosh Hashanah, Reb Shillem took a nap. So he laid down to nap, so she wondered, "Shillem, on Rosh Hashanah, if you go to sleep, it says that your mazel will sleep." So he answered her, "Your mazel can't get any sleepier than not having koyach for the Rebbe's maymer." In other words, the reason why

06:03 he took a nap is because he was, was a chozer and didn't wanna miss any word from the Rebbe's maymer, so he, so he took a nap for that Reb Yochanan Gordon relates that when he learned in Lubavitch, the famous Oved, Reb Shimshon Vitebsker, passed away, and it was because, uh, he wasn't very careful with his health. He did a lot of his coffee and he'd oven all day. So in that, uh, period of time, right after Shimshon Vitebsker, uh, passed away, so Reb Shilelm and one of the fabrangins demanded from o- one of his talmidim that he should devote himself more to Avoda. So the student, the talmid, uh, answered Reb Shilelm, "What do you want? That I should forget about myself and pass away like Shimshon?" So Reb Shilelm answered him, "It's better to die like a Yid than to live like a Goy." Reb Shlome Chaim Kessler relates that there was a talmid in the Yeshiva in Lubavitch named Reb Gershon Simpson, Reb Eli Simpson's brother. And this Reb Gershon was told by his doctor that he needs to take a walk in the fresh air every day outside. So this Reb Gershon was a big masmid, and he had a hard time giving up on any learning time to take a walk outside. So at the end, he decided that during the Shir Tanya, he will take a walk. Why? Because he knew the Tanya already, ba'al peh. He already knew it very well. So he figured that, you know, that's,

07:26 that's the thing that I know ba'al peh already. I might as well skip that one to take a walk. But he didn't wanna make the decision on his own, so he asked Reb Shilelm, the mashpia, and Reb Shilelm told him, "No, take a walk any other time, but don't miss the Tanya Shir." So Reb Gershon didn't understand why. I mean, he knows Tanya already. So he decided to ask his brother, Reb Eli Simpson, that when he goes in to the Rebbe Rashab for a chazara because, because he was one of the chozim, that he should ask the Rebbe Rashab about it. So when Reb Eli Simpson asked the Rebbe Rashab about it, and he told the Rebbe Rashab what Reb Shilelm said, not to miss the Tanya Shir. So the Rebbe Rashab said, "Shilelm is gerecht. Shilelm is gerecht. Shilelm is right." And the Rebbe Rashab explained because learning Tanya is not just for the sake of knowledge. It's for the sake of the actual learning of Tanya. So even if you know it already, it's important to go to the Shir Tanya. Another story that the Shoal Brook related. He said, "Once when I was in Lubavitch, I learned with my havrusa the hemshch of samach to samach, taf, reish, nun, zayin. And Reb Shilelm approached me and my havrusa, and he asked us, 'Why does the Rebbe bring a certain topic in the maimar?' So, uh, we answered that, uh, this topic takeh is not negiah to the main point of the maimar,

08:44 but since the Rebbe mentioned a certain detail in the maimar and this topic explains it, so it's, uh, more like to explain that detail. So Reb Shilelm, uh, was very taken aback by our answer, and he told us, 'What? You wanna say that the Rebbe's maimar is, chas v'shalom, like a Purim kiddush?'" A Purim kiddush means that when people, uh, on Purim wanna make a joke and they, they make like a funny kiddush, they connect different pesukim. For example, they say, uh, "Yom hashishi v'chol ashamayim mesaperim k'voydo imol haolam," et cetera, et cetera. So it was like he was telling them, "What? What do you think? The Rebbe's maimar is, uh, he starts off with one topic and he wanders off to other topics? No. Every single detail that is brought in the maimar is here only to explain the main nekuda of the maimar." On the winter of taf reish sameches, a fire broke out in Lubavitch, and all the talmidim ran to go and draw water to extinguish the fire. The Rebbe Rashab and Frierdiker Rebbe came to the yeshiva, and they watched what's happening, and they noticed that the talmidim were breaking the ceiling of the yeshiva and the walls where the fire caught on. And then they noticed that Reb Shilelm was in his corner in his middle of maariv and it was in middle of krias shma of maariv, and he didn't notice at all all the noise and all the fire. So the Rebbe Rashab told the Frierdiker Rebbe,

09:59 "For such tmimim, I founded the Tomchei Tmimim." Rebbe Yochanan relates that Reb Shilelm once was mitbonen during Shema Yisrael about achdus Hashem, and his mitbonenos was so deep until naturally he cried out the words of Baruch Shem k'vod malchuso l'olam va'ed out loud. Even though he's supposed to say them quietly, he just... Naturally, he just called it out loud. And that went on for four times in a row for half an hour. For half an hour was mitbonen, and four times he called out Baruch Shem k'vod malchuso l'olam va'ed. Uh, one of the tmimim in Tomchei Tmimim, his name was Reb Moshe Konopov, and he relates that in taf reish ayin daled when, uh, him and his friends finished a year of learning in Yeshivat Sderot, which was the branch for the younger boys in Tomchei Tmimim. So me and my friends asked the hanhalah in Tomchei Tmimim in Lubavitch if we could, uh, finally move to Lubavitch. So the hanhalah in Lubavitch sent a mashgiach in nigleh and a mashgiach in chassidus to come and test us to see if we were ready to move on to the next level in Lubavitch. So Reb Shilelm was sent to test us in chassidus. So he surprised us with the following question, and he asked us, "Imagine a Yid is traveling on a wagon and suddenly a bad thought comes to his mind, a machshava zarah. But at the same time, a wagon with Goyim is approaching and they're screaming at him, and he's stuck. On

11:32 one hand, he has to get rid of the machshava zarah. On the other hand, he has to think about how to get rid of these Goyim that are approaching him. What should he do?" So this, uh, Reb Moshe says that, "One of my chaverim started to give a whole long speech about this Yid has to be me'eiler his, uh, natural yirah, which will awaken his avodah, and that will awaken his yirah et Hashem, and on and on until, uh, Reb Shilelm stopped him and said, 'This whole megillah you could say over here, but that Yid only has some seconds. How, how is he gonna quickly gonna get rid of this machshava zarah?' So my other friend started to give his explanations, and Reb Shilelm wasn't happy. Then he turned to me," says Reb Moshe, "and to my mazal, Hashem put in my head the following thought. I remembered learning in the Maimar that there's something called the reshimu." Meaning the, the leftover impression from davening throughout the day. That when a person has inspiration by davening, then throughout the day he could have moments of inspiration when he remembers the inspiration of the davening. So I told Reb Shillem that what this guy should do is, he should just tune into the memory of inspiration that he has from davening, and that should save him from the Mashava Zara. And Reb Shillem liked that, and we were accepted to come to Lubavitch. Once by a certain farbrengen, Reb Shillem rebuked a few bochrim harshly about

12:49 something. Afterwards, the Rebbe Rashab called him and he told him, "Any talmid that you don't cry about him by Kirsh Moshe Al Hamito, don't rebuke him by farbrengens." Reb Chald Dvorkin related, "Once Reb Shillem by a certain farbrengen where, where Reb Michoel was there, he once said by that farbrengen that everyone are able to understand Achdus Hashem." So I really wondered about that, and I, I thought it was an extreme thing to say that everybody's able to understand Achdus Hashem. So I, I, uh, entered him in a sharp way, and a whole tumult broke out. And exactly that moment, the Rebbe Rashab came to the farbrengen, and the Rebbe Rashab asked what's the tumult all about. So I said that Reb Shillem said that everyone is able to understand Achdus Hashem. So the Rebbe Rashab said that Shillem is right. So I asked the Rebbe, says Reb Michoel Dvorkin, "I'm a businessman and I live in Peterburg, which is a Goyishe city. How can a person like me understand Achdus Hashem?" So the Rebbe Rashab answered through his boyernus about Hashgacha Protis. Once at a different opportunity, the Rebbe Rashab said, "Everyone are able to understand Achdus Hashem. It just by some people it's more in a grobe way, and by some people it's more in a refined way, in a edele way." And he said, "Shillem has a edele hasaga. Shillem understands it in a edele, in a refined way." So everybody looked towards Shillem. So the Rebbe Rashab made a unhappy face and

14:16 he said, "Don't turn him into a getchke." Reb Avraham Aya related that, uh, during Reb Shillem's levaya, the bochrim noticed that the old, old mashpia, Reb Shmuel Grenim, was walking behind the bed and he was mumbling to himself, he was saying something quietly. So they came close to listen in to what Reb Shmuel Grenim was saying to himself, and they heard him saying, "Sixteen years he served the Eibishter." They were very impressed because Reb Shmuel Grenim was known to be somebody who was very careful with their words. They didn't just, uh, spare words for free. After the levaya, they asked Reb Grenim what does he think about Reb Shillem? And his answer was, "Shillem served the Eibishter like a lion." We'll finish off with a gishmake nigun iz veydus.