65. What Made The Rebbe Accept The Nesius

00:16 Hello, kindele. I'd like to share with you a story that involves the Rebbe because Gimmel Tammuz is coming up. So this story took place in Eretz Yisrael. But before we get to the story, I have to give you a little introduction. When the Nazis, the Germans conquered all of Europe, the first thing they did is they took all the Jews, sent them to concentration camps, and killed most, most of them. All the Jews knew the big danger that they were in, so many Jews tried to run away to flee from Europe, from Poland, from Russia. Everybody tried to run away to places that were not under the Germans, so they could be safe. One of them was a famous tzadik. His name was Rebbe Aaron of Belz, the Belzer Rebbe, the old Belzer Rebbe. He was known to be a special person who had special abilities because he was a big baal ruach hakodesh. And, you know, people with ruach hakodesh like the Belzer Rebbe were able to see things that nobody else is able to see, able to, uh, hear things that nobody hears, is able to feel with his hands, with his touch, things that nobody's able to feel, able to smell things that nobody's able to smell because he wasn't seeing and hearing and smelling physical th-things. We smell with our nose physical smell, smell that comes from a food, uh, from anything else physical. They were able-- tzadikim were able to smell spiritual things, able to hear spiritual things, and see

02:04 spiritual things, and touch and feel that there was something spiritual about it. So he had that extra sense, and there are many stories where people could see that. They say that once he was walking in the street in Poland and suddenly, uh, they were walking with his Hasidim and he stopped. He says, "I can't put my foot on the next stone in the street." And they asked him why. He says, "There's something there that bothers me. I can't..." So they pu-pulled up-- picked up the stone, and they pulled it up, and they saw that the Polish government was putting under the stones pages of Chumash and Gemara, Seumas, which they found in the Seumas to, to s- to, to stick together the cement, so the stone would stick well to the ground. And of course, he couldn't step on it because there was a, there was holy pages there, kedusha, and he didn't wanna step on it, and he was able to feel it just by putting his foot there. This is the type of person he was. So obviously, he was in Poland when the Nazis and the Germans came in, and of course, he was in big danger because the Nazis wanted to kill the Rebbes, the tzadikim, the leaders first. And they were looking for him. They knew about him because he had, he had maybe a hundred thousand Hasidim in Poland. Everybody knew the Belzer Rebbe was a great leader, so they wanted to catch him. But the Hasidim constantly were

03:31 hiding him in different basements, in, in attics, in, in, in ghettos. He-- The Germans were looking, looking, but they couldn't find the house where he was hiding. Finally, the Hasidim decided there's no choice. We have to take a risk and cross the border into Hungary. Hungary was not yet occupied by the Germans, so the Jews in Hungary could still live free of danger, free of danger. So they decided to take a car with a Polish driver. They paid him a lot of money and put the Belzer Rebbe and his brother, the brother of the Belzer Rebbe was also with him, and they put him in the back of the car, and they put him in with shmatas around their face. They wouldn't see their beards and payos, and they would take them across the border into Hungary. But to go across the border was very dangerous because the police, the German police, they would check every car. And if they saw Jews, they would catch them and send them back to s- to the concentration camp, and then, chas v'shalom, they would kill the Jews. So the... How do you make sure that the Germans don't catch the Rebbe? So they decided to, as I said, they wrapped them in shmatas, in rags, so they couldn't see their faces, that they was... that this, this is the Belzer Rebbe. And they put him in the back of the car, and they told the driver, "You tell the police on the border that these are Hungarian

04:55 citizens." The Hasidim found, I think, passports of, of Hungary, and they made it false passports, and they gave it to the Rebbe, and they said, "These are Hungarian citizens. They need to go back to Hungary." But as they got to the border, the police were very strict. They wanna be sure that there was no Jews in the car. So they told the driver to get out and told the passengers also have to get out. They wanna check them, see who they are, and that was very dangerous because they would take off all the rags, and they would see this is the Belzer Rebbe. Of course, they wouldn't let him go through. They would send them back to, chas v'shalom, to the concentration camp and, oy, what would have happened, chas v'shalom, what would happen to them then? But as they were coming out of the car, suddenly two riders on horses dressed like generals, very important German officers, came to them, to the border, and they said, "Hey, these people you shouldn't question. They need to go through because they're very important people and, and you need to let them through right away. Don't, don't, don't, uh, check them because they're very important people." They have to go to Hungary, and the police saw these generals coming on, and he said, "Okay, okay, fine, fine, fine." He was afraid. So they let him into the car, and they, they drove off, and they went to Hungary. Later on, the Belzer Rebbe said in the car,

06:25 "You know who these two generals were? One was my father, Rebbe Yisroel Dov, the previous Belzer Rebbe, and the other one was my grandfather, Rebbe Shlomo, who was the second Belzer Rebbe. They came from Ohel Moshe dressed like generals." Then he finally came to Hungary and then left to Eretz Yisrael. He came to Eretz Yisrael still during the war, but he was in Eretz Yisrael. There was no war. And there he tried to find a house. The Hasidim who came with him wanted to find him a house. He wanted to live in Tel Aviv, in a city in Eretz Yisrael, in Tel Aviv, but they couldn't find a house. It wasn't easy to find a house because the Rebbe needed a big house because a lot of Hasidim wanted to come to see him. A lot of Jews wanted to come see, get his bracha and, and, and, and daven with him. So they couldn't find a house big enough. They were looking. In the meantime, the Rebbe has to live somewhere. Where is he gonna live? So they heard there was a Lubavitcher Hasid who lived in Yerushalayim. His name was Reb Schneur Zalman Ashkenazi, and he has a big house with four rooms. That was considered a big house because in Yerushalayim in those days, all the apartments only had two rooms, and two apartments were usually sharing the same bathroom. So two families, each one lived in a separate apartment, but there was one bathroom for both apartments, uh, because there was

07:51 a lot of poverty. People were very poor. But this Schneur Zalman Ashkenazi and his wife, Kayla, they had a big apartment because they had a son who was very rich, who lived in America, who bought them a big house with two apartments. They made the two apartments into one big apartment, so they had, uh, four rooms. That was very unusual in those days. The Hasidim of Belz heard that there's a Lubavitcher Hasid, uh, who has a big apartment with four rooms, so they approached him and they asked this Reb Schneur Zalman, "Is it okay if our Rebbe stays with you for a while until we find him a house in Tel Aviv?" So he asked them, "How many rooms does he need, the Rebbe?" They told him he needs three rooms, one room where he sleeps, one room where he receives people, and one room where he, um, where he davens. And so the Reb Schneur Zalman and his wife said, "No problem. He can stay in our... We'll give him three rooms. We'll live in one room only." And that's what happened. The Belzer Rebbe moved in, and for seven weeks he was in the house of this Lubavitcher Hasid, and thousands of people came to the door and came to see the Rebbe. He, Reb Schneur Zalman, and his wife lived in one room, and they didn't mix into the, the what the Belzer Hasidim and the Rebbe was doing. They had their own lives, but they t- gave them food. They cooked

09:11 for them and everything, but they, they didn't, uh, get involved with the Belzer Rebbe. After seven weeks, they found a house for the Rebbe, so the Rebbe called over the host, Reb Schneur Zalman Ashkenazi, said to him, "It's hard for me to leave this house because I smell the yiras ha- yiras shamayim, the yiras shamayim of this place." He was a great tzadik. He was smelling that this Reb Schneur Zalman was a Jew who was a big yiras shamayim, and everything in the house was done according to yiras shamayim. So he was able to smell the holiness of that place. He says, "It's very hard for me to leave such a place, but I have to go. I have to get my own house. I just wanna know if you need something, a bracha. I wanna give you a bracha for something that you need because you were so nice to us." And he said, "Uh, I have a son who also ran away from Europe, from Poland, from Russia, and went... He couldn't leave to Eretz Yisrael, so he went to Shanghai." Shanghai is in China. Many Jews found a way to go to Shanghai through a very special way. Hashem made a nes that there was a, an ambassador from Japan. That time, Japan controlled Shanghai, and this ambassador, um, was very famous. He was in Vilna in Europe, and he gave passports to Jews so they can run away to Shanghai. So Jews were able to run to Shanghai, so a big

10:44 community of Jews came to Shanghai, both Chabad Hasidim. There was a Chabad yeshiva. There was a Litvish yeshiva there. It was a big community. And he, the son of Reb Schneur Zalman Ashkenazi, his name was Reb Meir Ashkenazi, he became the rabbi of Shanghai. And now they're stuck in Shanghai. So the Reb Schneur Zalman Ashkenazi said to the Belzer Rebbe, "My son is in, is in Shanghai. I don't know if I'll ever see him again." Right? The war probably wasn't over yet, and who knows what's gonna happen. "And I'm very worried." So the Belzer Rebbe thought for a moment, and then he said to him, "When your son comes to Eretz Yisrael, I wanna see him." And that was the end. The Belzer Rebbe left. So Reb Schneur Zalman understood that the Rebbe promised that his son, Reb Meir, and his family will come to Eretz Yisrael 'cause he said, "When he comes to Eretz Yisrael, I wanna see him." So he clearly made it clear that he was, he was gonna come. And that's what happened. Reb Meir Ashkenazi and his family came to Eretz Yisrael eventually, and they met with their father, Reb Schneur Zalman, and they were very excited to meet. Then they told him that the Belzer Rebbe said he wants to see him. So Reb Meir was excited the Belzer Rebbe wants to see him, and he went with his son. His son's name was Moshe. They went to see the Belzer Rebbe in Tel Aviv. Now, this Rebbe Meir

12:15 in Shanghai, because of all the tzaros that he went through with the Nazis, he had to run away and travel so much, he got a stroke. And, uh, m- not, not a big stroke, a mild stroke, a stroke, but it affected his eye, and his eye became worse and worse and worse. He suffered a lot. Okay, he went to Tel Aviv, and they invited him into the Belzer Rebbe's room, and the Belzer Rebbe was very happy to see him. He says, "Tell me if you need a bracha for something." The Belzer Rebbe was very grateful to his parents that they let him stay for seven weeks, so he wanted to give the son, Rebbe Meir, a bracha. So he said to him, "Listen, I have, uh, a lot of problems with my eyes. I'm very sick because of the stroke that I suffered while I was in Shanghai, and, uh, I need a bracha for that." So the Rebbe thought for a moment, and he said, "You will get healed. You will have a refua shleima, but on three conditions. You cannot eat any dairy food. You're not supposed to listen to music, ever. And the third thing is you shouldn't go to the kever of tzadikim." It's very unusual, uh, conditions, but that's what the Rebbe said, and that's it. He gave him the bracha, and he left. Then came Taf Shin Yud. Taf Shin Yud, as we know, the histhalalus of the Friediker Rebbe. Rebbe Meir, who indeed recovered with his eyes, it

13:43 was a miracle, it was a nes. Uh, when he heard the Friediker passed away, of course, everybody was crying and very, very, very broken that the Friediker Rebbe passed away. But then Rebbe Meir said to the Chassidim in, in, in, in, in, in Eretz Yisrael, "We may have a Rebbe. There's a new Rebbe." And he decided to go to 770. He's going to tell the Rebbe that he's the new Rebbe. And he traveled to 770, and he went after-- He went into the Rebbe's room with a, with a pan. Like you go to a Rebbe, you give him a pan, and the Rebbe should read and give him a bracha. The Rebbe took the pan and said, "Well, I'm not a Rebbe. Why don't you go to the Ohel?" And the Rebbe used to say that to everybody because everybody came to him, said, "Rebbe, can you please read my pan and give me a bracha?" The Rebbe said, "No, go to the f- to the Ohel of the, of, of, of my schver, of my father-in-law, of the Friediker Rebbe." So the Rebbe Meir Ashkenazi, when the Rebbe told him to go to the Ohel, he said, "No, I can't do that." The Rebbe said, "Why not? It's right here." So he said, "Because the Belzer Rebbe told me that I may not go to the kever of tzadikim." So the Rebbe was a little surprised. "The Belzer Rebbe told you not to go to the kever of tzadikim? Well, uh, if he told

15:06 you that, then I'm sure y- you-- obviously you can't go. He's a tzadik. You can't go. But why-- But he's not your Rebbe. Why did you ask him? And even if he did tell you, why didn't you tell or ask him what the reason is? What is the source that going to kever of tzadikim, that you can't go to kever of tzadikim and then your eyes will get better? Where is that connected? Where's the source for that?" And then the Rebbe said with a sigh, the Rebbe said, "Ah." And he took the pan, and he read it to put on his jacket and his hat and his gartel like a Rebbe, and he answered the pan. And from that day on, the Rebbe slowly started accepting more people, Altz Rebbe. Now, this is an interesting story because why did the Belzer Rebbe tell this Rebbe Meir Ashkenazi, "I want, want nai. You're not allowed to, uh, to go in kever of tzadikim"? And by the way, the date that the Belzer Rebbe told him that was Yud Alef Nissan Taf Shin Yud. Was, was right after the histhalalus of the Friediker Rebbe. So it was very surprising. Why would he tell him to do that? But now it seems like in the Sichot from the Rebbe that the reason he wanted him to force the Rebbe to take on the leadership to become a Rebbe, because the Rebbe refused. He says, "I'm not a Rebbe. I can't be a Rebbe." He says, "Go to the

16:43 Friediker Rebbe's Ohel." And the Belzer Rebbe, in a way, told Rebbe Meir, "You can't go to the kever of tzadikim." And this caused him to tell the Rebbe that's why he can't go to the Ohel, and the Rebbe was supposed to take the-- become the Rebbe. And then it is, and it worked.