89. The Chossid Who Read The Letter He Wasn’t Supposed To Read

00:16 Shalom Aleichem, kindlach. I wanna tell you a story of a great, great Hasid. His name was Reb Shmuel Betzalel. Shmuel Betzalel was a Hasid of the Tzemach Tzedek, the Reb Imam Rash and the Reb Rashab, and he was the melamed, the teacher of the Friediker Rebbe when he was a young man, when he was a child. Friediker Rebbe learned a lot from him, and he wrote down some of the stories, the RashBatz. Reb Shmuel Betzalel, they call him RashBatz, uh, he used to tell the Friediker Rebbe. One of the stories is about himself, about the RashBatz himself, who came from Misnagdim, really, really bitter Misnagdim. Misnagdim that were against Hasidism, very strongly against Hasidism, and how he became a Hasid, and the first time he came to Lubavitch to meet the Tzemach Tzedek. It's an incredible story. Here goes the story. I'm saying it in short. The Friediker Rebbe writes it in great detail, but I'm gonna give you the m- the main part of the story. Shmuel Betzalel was a young boy. He was very, very smart, very bright, and he learned really well. He learned many, many hours every day and became famous. Famous as a, as a very smart and bright and brilliant, uh, student, student in the yeshiva. He lived in a city called Swintsyen, which was a Misnagdishe city. There was a small community of Hasidim that were, uh, harassed and, and constantly, uh, you know, hurt by the Has- by the Misnagdim. Misnagdim didn't like them. And they have--

02:04 They had their own little shul, and they learned Hasidism, and they davened. But the most of the city was Misnagdim, and there was a big yeshiva in Swintsyen. The Rosh Yeshiva was Reb Hershele, who was a goon. He knew the whole Shas Bavli, Yerushalmi, but he was a big Misnaged. Shmuel Betzalel learned Torah in that yeshiva. His father had died when he was very young, and his mother remarried a Misnaged. And that's how he lived in the yeshiva. He learned and davened, but he felt that he needed more. He felt that there was the, the connection to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, to Hashem, was not so strong. Everything is about learning and learning and learning, and everything is about me being a big talmid hakhham. And so he s- slowly got to know some of the Hasidim in Swintsyen, and he started learning Hasidism, and he became very, very impressed. He saw the difference between Misnagdim and Hasidim. The Misnagdim learned a lot of Gemara, and they became very full of themselves, like feeling very arrogant, right? His Rosh Yeshiva, Reb Hershele, would say, "I am the greatest when it comes to learning Gemara. I know Bavli, Yerushalmi." He would speak about himself like he's the greatest talmid hakhham in, in, in, in the world. And the Hasidim, on the other hand, were very humble. They cared about Hashem the whole time. For them, it wasn't about me, it wasn't about themselves, it was about Hashem. He saw the huge difference, and he was very impressed

03:43 with that. So he started going secretly to the Hasidim and learned Tanya with them. Until one day, he-- one of the Hasidim told him that, that you should take a Tanya with you to the yeshiva. Of course, don't show it to the Misnagdim, 'cause they're not gonna like it. But you'll secretly review the, the part of Tanya that you learned with us, and this way you'll understand Hasidism better and better all the time. At that time, the RashBatz already loved learning Hasidism and so he took the Tanya secretly with him. And one night, he was sitting very late at night learning Tanya, and one of his, the yeshiva bachur that came to the yeshiva walked into the room where the RashBatz was learning Tanya, and the RashBatz saw that somebody saw him learning Tanya. He, like, shook. He was, like, shaken, like he was scared. Like, you could see on his face that he got scared. Now, this bachur thought this is strange. Why is he scared? He's learning a Sefer. What's wrong with that? Must be something wrong that he's so scared. So he went over to him. He says, "Tell me what you're learning, and maybe I wanna learn too." Like he thought he'd be tricking him to showing him the book, to the Sefer that he's learning. But RashBatz didn't wanna show him, so the bachur was stronger than him. He grabbed the Sefer out of his hands, looked at it. He couldn't understand what it says, but all he saw is

05:10 it talking about a tzadik and a rosha and a beis din, which is the first paragraph in Tanya. And he realized right away, this bachur, that this is a Sefer from the Hasidim, and he right away became very upset. And he went and told the Rosh Yeshiva that RashBatz Shmuel Betzalel is studying the Seforim of the terrible Hasidim, who are so terrible. They're against Torah. They're against everything. The Misnagdim didn't know really what Hasidim were like. They were making up stories about them. When the Rosh Yeshiva heard this, he told Shmuel Betzalel's stepfather, who used to daven in the shul there in the yeshiva, and he told him, "Listen, your stepson, Shmuel Betzalel, has been trapped by the Hasidim and he's becoming an Apikores." Apikores means somebody who's against Torah. And it's a terrible thing. I don't know what to do, but you need to think what to do about him. So the next morning, Shmuel Betzalel went home to eat breakfast in his mother's house, and as he walks in, he feels a huge stick of wood landing on his head. It's his own stepfather beating him with a stick on his head, and he fainted. Because not only did he give him a zetz on the head with a stick, he also punched him. And his mother started screaming, "What are you doing to this boy?" And the, the father says, "What do you mean? He's a panapi kairus. He's learning Sfarim from the Hasidim. It's better that he dies." So terrible was

06:52 in those days people thought the Hasidim are so terrible. And, and so is-- she-- he, he recovered. It took him about a week to wake up and to get back to his health. And he left the house and never came back to the house. He sat in shul, he slept on the bench, and his mother would secretly bring him food so he wouldn't starve. Till one day he came into the shul, into the yeshiva to learn. He was sitting there learning and he-- the Rebbe, the Rosh Yeshiva, Reb Herschel, came and talked to him and tried to tell him how terrible it is that he's learning Hasidus and learning Tanya. And Shmuel Betzalel was trying to explain to him that you never saw Hasidim. You don't even know what they're like. Why are you saying these ridiculous things about Hasidim? And as he's talking to him, suddenly he feels somebody gives him a huge zetz in the face. And he has just barely a minute time to... His hat fell down on the floor. He didn't even have time to pick up his hat. He gets another zetz from the other side. This was a s- a few of the bachem in yeshiva decided to punch him so hard that he end up bleeding from his face until he fainted and he can't remember anything that happened. The next thing he remembers is that he woke up three weeks later in the shul of the Hasidim. Later on, they told him that these, uh, guys,

08:35 these Misnagdim, punched him so hard. Some of them even thought maybe we should kill him because he's a danger to, to the Yiddishkeit, a danger to the Torah. They really believed it. They didn't understand. But others, Reb Herschel, had rachmanus on him. He and a few of the Misnagdim decided to save him, and they called the Hasidim to take him away. And the, and the Hasidim came from their shul and took him out of the Misnagdi yeshiva and put him into one of the Hasidim's house. We called doctors. The doctor says he has an infection in the brain and had to give him very strong antibiotics. Finally, after three weeks, he woke up. And he-- because he was fainted for three weeks, he was unconscious, he couldn't remember what happened to him. The Hasidim had to tell him what exactly happened to him. He realized that he can't go back to the yeshiva because he's in danger. He stayed with the Hasidim and learned day and night. One of the Hasidim, Reb Moshe, let him stay in his house and he learned day and night, and the Hasid fed him and took care of him, gave him a place to sleep, until it was decided that it's not safe for him to stay in Swintsyany. It's time for him to go to Lubavitch, to the Tzemach Tzedek. He was so excited because it's the dream. He wanted to go to Tzemach Tzedek in Lubavitch. But the Hasidim said to go to a Rebbe you need

09:57 achana. You don't just go to a Rebbe. It's gonna travel. You need to be prepared. You need to learn Hasidus more. You need to daven more. You need to, you know, work with yourself, learning the ways of Hasidus. So they decided that there's a Hasid that was walking from Swintsyany to Lubavitch. In those days, Hasidim walked on their own feet. Took them weeks and weeks to get to Lubavitch. They go from town to town. On the way to Lubavitch, there's a city called Apotsk. In the city of Apotsk, there was a Hasid, Reb Michel. Reb Michel was a holy man. He was a Baal Ruach Hakodesh. He was a Hasid of the Alter Rebbe, and he had Ruach Hakodesh. He was a very, very great person. He was a Hasid Alter Rebbe, and they thought he should go to Reb Michel first. They didn't tell Reb Michel. They just said, "We're gonna send him there, and you will tell Reb Michel that, uh, you know, he should learn with him for a year or so, and that will prepare him that the Rashbtz, Rashab Betzalel can go then to Lubavitch." And so this Hasid took him. On the way, Shmuel Betzalel begged the Hasid, "Maybe you take me to Lubavitch directly. I really am dreaming of seeing the Tzemach Tzedek." He'd learned enough Hasidus to want to be by the Tzemach Tzedek. So the Hasid said, "No, no, no. We can't do this. With Hasidim everything has to be organized. First you gotta learn and

11:19 be ready to go to the Rebbe. First you gotta learn with this, with this Hasid, and then when he tells you you're ready, you can go to Lubavitch." And so he came to Apotsk and the Hasid introduced him to Reb Michel. He brought-- they came into the house of Reb Michel. Before they said anything, Reb Michel gave him Shalom Aleichem and said, "Is this the boy, the neshamah from Swintsyany that, uh, you brought to me?" He knew it by Ruach Hakodesh that this boy, Sh-Shmuel Betzalel, as he came here specifically so that he could prepare him for learning with him and... Now, this Reb Michel was a very unusual person. As I said, he learned with Alter Rebbe. He learned four years with Alter Rebbe. But since the hishtalshelus of Alter Rebbe, he never went, not to the Mitteler Rebbe, not to Tzemach Tzedek. He never went to Lubavitch after that. He said it's too much for him. He said very unusual things. He would say that when the, when the Mitler Rebbe and the Tzemach Tzedek, the light of, of Hashem is so strong that I-- it's too much for me. That the Rebbe knew how to limit it, make it more, you know, make it more limited for m- for me, but, but there's too-- I can't go there. But he said he would sit in Apotsk day and night, learn Torah and daven for hours. His davening was with great, great excitement, like unusual excitement, and he only learned and davened on

12:45 a rooftop. Why? He would say that he can't be in a house because people walk into the house, and it's the smell of the averas of people, what people do, disturbs him. In middle of davening, he can't daven. He was a very holy person, so, you know, it's just like when somebody comes into a room. Imagine somebody comes to a room a- and, and he has very smelly clothes. It stinks. It smells. I mean, it's like so awful that you can't stay in the room. You have to walk out of the room because it's so bad, right? For great people, tzadikim, when somebody does an avera, i- it's like a similar thing. For them, it's like so awful. They can't stand being in the house. He says that people come in the house and they have averas, i- it makes me very, very uncomfortable. So he, he had to go on a rooftop. He couldn't be the same. See, and he wouldn't allow anybody to be on the roof with him, except now that the Rashbaz came to him, he says, "You can be with me." So the Rashbaz spent about a year and a half with Reb Michel on a rooftop. I mean, they would go in sometimes in the house, but to eat or something, but most of the time Reb Michel was on the rooftop doing-- learning, studying Torah day and night and davening with great, great excitement. And he taught Reb Michel how to learn, how to understand Chassidus. And Reb

14:01 Michel and, uh, Reb-- Rashbaz, he taught Reb Rashbaz. Reb Michel taught the Rashbaz how to learn Chassidus and how to understand Chassidus. And Reb Rashbaz said that the learning he did with Reb Michel was so powerful, so amazing that he was able to understand the, the, the depth of Chassidus in such a special way that he never-- He was-- he felt so fortunate to be there. Anyways, after a year and a half, the Rash-- Reb Michel says to the Rashbaz, "It's time for you to go Lubavitch. That's it. You're ready. You don't-- There's no point in you staying here." And he tells him like this. Rashbaz asked him, "What should I ask in Yechidus of the Rebbe? What, what should a Chassid ask of a Rebbe when he goes to Yechidus?" And Reb Michel told him, but the Rashbaz never revealed what Reb Michel said. The Rebbe says that the Rashbaz never shared with him what Reb Michel said, but Reb Michel asked him one favor. "I'm gonna give you a note in an envelope. I'd like you to deliver this to the Tzemach Tzedek when you go into Yechidus. I have a letter for him. But I'm warning you," he said, "don't open that letter and don't read it. Absolutely not. You're not allowed to open that letter." Rashbaz said, "Sure, sure, no problem." And he started walking from Apotsk to, to Lubavitch. It took him a few months. A few months to walk from one city to another until he come to Lubavitch.

15:33 And Sunday, Parshas Mishpatim, Chodesh Adar. He traveled from Chodesh Cheshvan, Kislev, Teves, Shevat. It took him three-- over three months to tr-- to, to walk all the way to Lubavitch. And when he came to Lubavitch, he came early, early, early in the morning. That means it was still dark outside. He saw some people sitting in the Beis Midrash of the Tzemach Tzedek learning. They gave him Shalom Aleichem. He didn't tell them who he was, where he came from. And he, um, was so tired, so exhausted, so he laid down next to the stove, which provided heat for the shul, for the Beis Midrash, and he fell asleep. He was exhausted from walking three months. You know, your whole body's broken, and he, like, went to lie down, and he fell into a deep sleep. He woke up in the morning when it was already light outside because somebody was screaming. He heard the word Reb Michel Apotsker, Reb Michel Apotsker. So he woke up, and he hears an old man screaming in the whole shul. The shul was then packed with people davening, coming to daven and learn. And, and he's screaming, "Who came here from Apotsk and has a letter for the Rebbe from Reb Michel Apotsk?" The Tzemach Tzedek sitting in his room knew, Baruch HaKodesh, that Reb Michel Apotsker sent him a letter. Now, I forgot to tell you, on the way when Rashbaz was walking from Apotsk to Lubavitch, at one point he had this yetzer hara to read the letter.

17:10 He was very, very curious what a tzadik, a man like this, like Reb Michel Apotsker writes to the Tzemach Tzedek. So he couldn't, couldn't resist, and he opened up the letter and read. But he didn't read anything, because when he opened the letter, he took out the piece of paper, he was shocked. It was empty. There was nothing written on it, just a blank page. That was very shocked, very surprising. What-- I thought he sent him a letter. Well, he put it back into the envelope and s- and tried to seal it off, you know, as if he didn't touch it. And that's how he came to Lubavitch. So when he woke up now, he hears this old man screaming, and this old man was actually the gabbai of the Tzemach Tzedek. He says, "Who is here from Apotsk? Is anybody here that can..." Nobody knew. Nobody knew. And when he heard, he woke up, he said-- He was like, "S- I, I, I, I, I came from Apotsk." And the gabbai starts screaming at him. "I've, I've been calling you three times. The Rebbe is waiting in his room because there's a letter that's supposed to come to him from Reb Michel Apotsk." The Rashbash heard this, he was like shaking. He was only 19 years old then. He was a boy of 19 years old. He was like shaking. He has to go right away to the Rebbe. He needs to wash his hands quickly. He wanted to go to the mikvah and

18:32 they told him, "No, no, no. No, no, no. The Rebbe is waiting for you. You have to come right now." He like couldn't speak. He was like so shaken. He's gotta go to Tzemach Tzedek inside his room, be'yichidus, and, and bring the l- a- and he-- the letter was in his pocket, in the Rashbash's pocket. He walks in, but he's like, he can't speak. He's like in such a shock that he can't speak, and the first thing Tzemach says to him, "How come you read that letter?" Tzemach Tzedek knew that he had read the letter. Says, "Weren't you told not to read it?" And he's like very up- like upset with him. How come he did this? He says, "A young man must listen to what he's being t- to what he's told to do. Where is the letter?" He asked the Rashbash. The Rashbash was in a state of shock, he couldn't move. So he just didn't say anything. He just stood there like, like a monument, like a stone, like he was so shocked. So the Tzemach Tzedek got up from his seat, went to the Rashbash, put his hand in his pocket, and pulled out the letter. The Rashbash is watching the Tzemach Tzedek going, sitting down, opening up the envelope, and takes out the piece of paper and reads as if he's reading a letter. The Rashbash was like totally shocked. When he opened the letter, there was nothing there. It was an empty blank space, but Tzemach Tzedek is reading

20:00 it. He realized that this is things that he doesn't understand. These are higher, higher things which is shayech to tzadikim. Then Tzemach Tzedek said, "You can go." But he, he couldn't move. He was in such... He was like paralyzed. He was like a, like a monument. He couldn't move from such shock that he suddenly is seeing the Tzemach Tzedek himself, and Tzemach Tzedek is telling him, "Why did you read the letter?" He like couldn't move. So that the gabbi had to come in and pick him up and take him outside. It took him like hours to come to himself, to wake up from this state of st- being stunned and shocked. And he felt terrible that the Tzemach Tzedek knew that he read the letter and that he read the letter. He would always tell that story and cry. Whenever he told that story later on in life, he would always cry. He says, "Yeah, a Misnaged. I was born a Misnaged. It's, it's, uh, hard to get rid of that." He later became one of the greatest chassidim of the Tzemach Tzedek. The Tzemach Tzedek told him to sit in yeshiva, in his yeshiva, and learn, and that's where he learned. He learned in, in, in the Tzemach Tzedek's yeshiva, and he became one of the greatest chassidim in Lubavitch, and then he became the teacher of the previous Rebbe when he was young. That's the story.