104: Reb Shlomo Karliner Saves A Chossid Of The Alter Rebbe

00:16 Hello. Shalom Aleichem, kinderlach. Just going to share with you a story that I heard from a great Hasid. His name is Reb Zeiv, Reb Wolf Gringlas. He was the mashpia in the Yeshiva Montreal. This is the story. It's a story with a Hasid of the Alter Rebbe who suffered from something. He suffered from a problem. When he used to daven and say Shema, he used to suddenly in middle of Shema get strange thoughts that would bother him and not let him have kavana, think about the Shema. When you say Shema, you're supposed to think that Hashem Echad, Hashem is one. He's the master, the king in charge of the entire universe. This world, the spiritual world, the malachim, the seraphim, he controls everything. That's what you're supposed to think when you say Shema Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad. But this Hasid, every time he tried to focus on the Shema Yisrael and the meaning of the words and what it says you should have in mind when you say these words, how Hashem is the melech, the king over the entire creation and everything, he controls all the time. He couldn't think about it. He had other strange thoughts coming into his head, and he couldn't help himself. And he came to the Alter Rebbe and cried. He says, "Rebbe, help me. I don't know how to get rid of these machshavot, these bad thoughts that come into my head exactly just when I try to say Shema, they come into my head." The Alter

02:03 Rebbe said to him, "Listen, I cannot help you, and I'll tell you why. I had a rebbe. His name was Reb Yisroel Ber from Lubavitch." Reb Yisroel Ber of Lubavitch was the rebbe of the Alter Rebbe when the Alter Rebbe was before bar mitzvah. The Alter Rebbe learned in Lubavitch. His father sent him to Lubavitch to learn with Reb Yisroel Ber, who was a talmid of the Baal Shem Tov, and that he should teach him Torah. And apparently, this Hasid once said something not nice about Reb Yisroel Ber of Lubavitch. And because of that, this Hasid has been punished min haseomayim that when he tries to say Shema and tries to think about how Hashem is everywhere and controls everything, is the master of everything, he can't think about it. It's like a thought comes into his head and bothers him and doesn't let him focus and concentrate on the thought. And Alter Rebbe said to him, "Because you insulted my rebbe, I cannot help you, because if I helped you, I'd be helping you and not defending the honor of my rebbe. Since you offended the honor of my rebbe, and I am his student, I'm supposed to help my rebbe. I'm supposed to defend him. So I cannot come now and take care of your problem. But I s- have a suggestion for you. Not far from here is now the great tzadik, Reb Shloime of Karlin. Reb Shloime Karliner can help you. Just go and see him." He's, I think it says

03:58 in the city of Yasinkovitch. He was traveling, Reb Shloime, and it was just at that town. Go travel there and see him and ask him to help you. This Hasid s- decided to find out where Reb Shloime was living now. Shloime, as I said, traveled from city to city. He would not only-- Most of the time he wouldn't stay in one place. And the way it happened, uh, by Reb Shloime Karliner, a Jew, a Hasid came and needed help with something. Uh, he wanted to see Reb Shloime to tell him about his problem and get a bracha and advice. So what would happen, you-- The way it used to be by Reb Shloime, you had to sit in the room. Reb Shloime had his own private room where he davened and learned. And there's a waiting room in front, and that's where people would wait. If they had to see him, they would come into that room and wait. And what would happen, Reb Shloime sometimes would let you wait for a while. He didn't say... It could be days he wouldn't call you in. But then when it was time to, to speak to you, he wouldn't call you in. He would go out of the room, and he would tell you, "Listen, this is your problem, but this is the answer to your problem. Yeah, I know you're going through this and this problem, and this is what you should be doing, and everything will be fine." Reb Shloime would say what the

05:26 problem is before the person could even tell him because he had Ruach Hakodesh. So this Hasid decided to find out where Reb Shloime, which city he's in now, and he's gonna wait in the room, and maybe Reb Shloime will come out and help him. And so he went to the waiting room, waited and waited one day, another day. Reb Shloime is not calling him in. Finally, it was a Shabbos, and Reb Shloime meanwhile was traveling to the next city for a Shabbos here and a Shabbos there. And this Hasid traveled with him because he was waiting for Reb Shloime to- You know, address and answer his problem. So it was one Shabbos, Reb Shlomo was in the city, and this chassid followed him there. It was by the davening. Reb Shlomo Carlebach used to daven Shacharis before the Amud. And this chassid was sitting in the shul where Reb Shlomo was davening, and he came to "Hodu la'Shem ki tov, ki le'olam chasdo. Hodu la'Adonenu ha'Elohim ki le'olam chasdo." You say twenty-six ki le'olam chasdo. Remember that? Before Borchu she'amar, we say twenty-six before Haderes va'amunah lcha Elohim. Right before that, there is Hodu la'Shem ki tov, ki le'olam chasdo. Yeah, Hodu la'Adonenu ha'Elohim ki le'olam chasdo, right? Then there is one of those, there's twenty-six of them, right? By the way, twenty-six is the Gematria of Yud-He-Vav-He. And if you look in the siddur, you'll see after ten lines of ki le'olam chasdo, there's a Yud in the middle. The Alter Rebbe put a

07:12 Yud in the middle, so we should think that the first ten is like the Yud, the ten. Yud is ten. And then five down, there's a He. And then there is a Se above, and there's a He. The Yud-He-Vav-He. So it came to one of the lines, it says, "Vayifrekeinu mitzareinu ki le'olam chasdo." Hashem redeemed us from our enemies who tried to hurt us and kill us, and Hashem saved us from them because ki le'olam chasdo, His kindness is here forever. He's always been kind to us. When Reb Shlomo came to Vayifrekeinu mitzareinu by Shacharis Shabbos, he said it loud, but i-instead of standing by the Amud, he suddenly turned around. Right before he started saying Vayifrekeinu mitzareinu, he turned around, ran over to that chassid of the Alter Rebbe, and grabbed his ear and began to turn his ear. It must have been hurting probably. Be like he kept squeezing and hurting it and turning it and says, "Vayifrekeinu mitzareinu ki le'olam chasdo," with a nigun. Hashem saved us from our enemies 'cause He's always kind. And as soon as Reb Shlomo said these words to the chassid while turning his ear, his bad mashavos went away. And then from that point on, he was able to daven and say Shema and have kavana the way it should be, no problem. But the chassid realized Reb Shlomo had performed a miracle. Now came the end of Shabbos, so chassid said, "Okay, there's no reason for me to stick around and to stay by Reb

09:05 Shlomo and travel with him the whole time. I can go home now, go back to the Alter Rebbe. But it's only nice for me to go and say goodbye and thank, first of all thank Reb Shlomo for helping me and to say goodbye, say hello." So he went to the room of Reb Shlomo Motzei Shabbos, and he said, "I came to just thank you and to... You should give me a bracha, to wish me well because I'm leaving. I'm going back to the Alter Rebbe." Now Reb Shlomo sensed that this chassid of the Alter Rebbe that was standing in front of him was not just a simple chassid. He was really a great person. A really great person. And he wanted him, this chassid, to stay by Reb Shlomo. Reb Shlomo wanted to have him as his chassid. And Reb Shlomo started telling him, "Listen, I think you should stay here for a while. If you stay with me for a while, I will help you reach Ruach Hakodesh. I will make sure that you get giluy Eliyahu Navi. You will see Eliyahu Navi." And Reb Shlomo started giving him very, very holy levels that he will g- help him ge-- uh, achieve and reach. Like he promised this chassid that he'll elevate him, he'll lift him up to a level of very, of a great, great level, a holy level, level of like great tzaddik he'll achieve. Because Reb, Reb, Reb Shlomo really wanted to have him as his chassid because he really liked

10:49 him. He saw he was really a special person. But this chassid said, "No, I have a Rebbe. I go back to my Rebbe. I thank you what you did for me, and I think you're a great man, you're a holy man and everything, but I have my Rebbe." And the Alter Rebbe's way was different than the ways of the Reb Shlomo. Reb Shlomo was, you know, he was elevating people, making them into tzaddikim. Alter Rebbe wanted us to work ourselves and not to just... The Rebbe would just magically make you into a tzaddik. The Rebbe wanted us to work hard to change ourselves. So he wanted to go back to Alter Rebbe because this was his way of serving Hashem. And Reb Shlomo kept trying again and again and saying, "No, no, no. Stay with me, I'm telling you." When the chassid said, "No, I don't want to. I wanna go back to the Alter Rebbe," Reb Shlomo got a little bit agitated. And he told him, "I'm telling you, you're gonna regret it. You're gonna regret that you didn't listen to me." And the chassid says, "Okay, well, what can I say? I have to leave now. Be well. Thank you so much." And he left. Now this was in the middle of the winter. It was very icy outside. So as this chassid left the building of the shul of Reb Shlomo, Reb Shlomo also had his room in that building. He left the building and went outside. There was a sheet of

12:20 ice, and he slipped on the ice, fell on the ground, and hurt himself really badly. It sounded like he broke some bones. He started screaming because he was in a terrible, terrible pain. People came from all over. They heard in the night a man crying, screaming. People came over quickly and said, "What's the matter?" He said, "I sli- slipped, and I fell down very badly, and it-- I think my bone broke, and I can't walk. I'm in a lot of pain." They said, "Okay, how can we help you? Should we take you to a doctor?" He says, "No, no, no. Do me a favor. Bring a bench, put me on that bench, and carry the bench." He asked a few people to pick up the bench, "And carry me into the room of Reb Shloime. I wanna talk to him." And so they picked up the bench, and they carried it into the room where Reb Shloime was still sitting in his room. And he told the people to leave, and people left. He's-- lied down on the bench because he couldn't walk. He couldn't get up. And he said to Reb Shloime, "Rebbe," he said, "with breaking people's bones, you're not gonna make them into Hasidim. By breaking the- people's bones, they're not gonna become your Hasidim. You don't make Hasidim by breaking bones of people." 'Cause he understood, the Hasid, that the reason he fell and broke his bones, 'cause Reb Shloime was upset at him for not staying by him a little

13:49 longer, so he can make him into a Hasid and make him into a big tzadik with Ruach Hakodesh and Eliyahu Hanavi and all the great promises he promised him. When Reb Shloime heard that, he said to the Hasid, "Leave my room right now. Get up and leave." Like he's, like, angry. He's kicking him out of the room. The Hasid heard this. He got up from the bench, and he started walking. He realized he could walk like, like as if nothing happened. His bone wasn't broken. Reb Shloime performed here a miracle, but he said it in an angry way. "Get, get, get out of my room." And the Hasid started getting out. The Rebbe says, "You go." So he left the room, and his bones were perfectly fine, and he went back to the Alter Rebbe. Well, here we learn that Hasidim were Hasidim of a Rebbe not because of miracles, not because the great madrigas and levels the Rebbe promises somebody, "I'm gonna elevate you." In, in Chabad, you go to the Rebbe because you wanna learn how you can serve Hashem. And yes, the Rebbe wants you to do the work. He'll show you how to do it, but ultimately, he wants you to do the work.