226. How The Chozeh Of Lublin Turned A Misnaged Into A Chossid

00:16 Shalom aleichem, kinders. Here I'm gonna share with you an amazing story. The story is about a famous tzadik and a big goon. His name is Rabbi Moshe Teitelbaum, who wrote a very famous sefer, Yismach Moshe. Yismach Moshe. He was a Talmud of the Chozeh of Lublin. Now, he was first a Misnagid. First when he was, he was already a Rav in a city, and, um... but he was a Misnagid. He didn't, um, approve of Hasidim. He believed that learning Torah and Gemara all day, that's the way to serve Hashem. But then his daughter got married to a young man who later became famous as a very great Hasidish Rebbe. Uh, his name was Rabbi Aryeh Leib Lipshitz. He wrote a very famous sefer, Aryeh Dvei Elo. He's known by his sefer. Who be- w- who was a Hasid. He was a Talmud of the Chozeh of Lublin. Now, the father-in-law, he got a Hasid of a son-in-law, and he saw how the son-in-law behaves. He didn't like it because, you know, Hasidim sometimes do things that the Misnagdim feel is not right according to Halakha. For example, his son-in-law, the Aryeh Dvei Elo, used to daven a bit late. You know, Hasidim daven a little late because they like to learn Hasidas before davening and, and then they wanna think about the greatness of Hashem so they can get all excited, f- full of awe of Hashem, and get excited that they can daven, stand before Hashem, and then they daven every word slowly so

01:58 they can hear the meaning of every word, and there's excitement in the davening. So it takes a while to prepare. When you wanna daven like this, you gotta prepare for a while, so that's why Hasidim used to daven late. Sometimes it was late that according to Shulchan Aruch, it says that you should daven within four hours of the beginning of the day, and the davening of Hasidim sometimes took place a little after that, which means they went a little bit against Shulchan Aruch. The Yismach Moshe did not like that, that his son-in-law is davening so late. It's against Shulchan Aruch. So he started arguing with him, "How come you're doing this?" And he said, "Well, listen, we need to prepare for davening. Sometimes if you wanna daven right, with the right kavanah, with the right excitement and joy, and, and... then you need to prepare in advance, so it takes time to prepare." So the Yismach Moshe said to him, "But yo, you're gonna go to Gehenna." And he said, "Well, we're doing it together with all the other Hasidim in this town who daven like you, late. You're all gonna be in Gehenna because you go against Shulchan Aruch." So he said, "You know what? I'd rather be in Gehenna with Hasidim than go to Gan Eden with a few, uh, simple people who don't know the meaning of davening and what it means to daven really right. I'd rather be in Gehenna, but with Hasidim who know how to daven." That was like

03:24 a joke. But at the end, the son-in-law, the Aryeh Dvei Elo, managed to convince his father-in-law to try to go to the Chozeh and see for himself. If he doesn't like it, he doesn't have to become a Hasid, but let him see it. Now, the father-in-law already tried a few years before. Before his daughter got married, he tried to go to the Rebbe of the Chozeh. Who was the Rebbe of the Chozeh? Rebbe Elimelech of Lizhensk. So many, many years before, he also thought, had this idea, "I should go to Rebbe Elimelech of Lizhensk. I heard so much about him. I know I'm a Misnagid, but let me see for myself." He was already on a wagon going to Lizhensk to see Rebbe Elimelech and an uncle of his, an uncle of the Yismach Moshe, was also a Rav, a big Talmud scholar, a big Misnagid, came over to him, his-- to him and said, "Where are you going?" He said, "I'm going to Rebbe Elimelech." He says, "Why are you going to Rebbe Elimelech?" He said, "Ach, Hasid. You're gonna waste time from learning. Torah is so important." And he said, "Ah, you're wasting your time." So he didn't go. He changed his mind. But this time now his daughter got married to a Hasid, and the son-in-law kept telling him, "Listen, you should, you should go. You should go see the Chozeh. You'll see him, then you decide." So he decided to go. Now, somebody in the town said to him, the Rebbe,

04:57 the, the, the... He was the Rav of the town. The town was Visnitza. He said he was the Rav of the town of Visnitza. He said the pur- member of the community said to the Rav, the Yismach Moshe, "I hear you're going to the Chozeh of Lublin. I'd like you to bring me... bring for me, um, for, for, for my, for my sake, I want you to take something to the Rebbe as a, as a, as a gift. I have a gift for the Rebbe, the Chozeh. Can you just please do me a favor and, and give it to the Rebbe on my name?" It was like tabac. You know people sniffing tabac? Tobacco. Sniffing tobacco. Yeah. And Rabbi, many, the Polisher Hasidim, they used to sniff a lot of tobacco. And so this is-- was a special thing. "I wanna give this to the Rebbe." So Yismach Moshe said, "Okay, sure. No problem. I'll take it with me." Another person asked him to take with him to, um, to Lublin, where the Chozeh was. He has a very, very important and expensive, uh, bag that he needs to give to a, a Jew that lives in Lublin. "Can the Rebbe do me a favor? Can the Rav do me a favor and take this bag also to Lublin?" So now he had two things he had to deliver. He had to deliver the, the sniffing tobacco- To the Chozeh of Lublin, and somebody also gave him a package to give to someone in Lublin.

06:16 And with that, he traveled to Lublin. On the way, he's thinking to himself, "You know, it says in the Gemara that if you bring a present to a Talmid Chacham, it's like you brought Bikkurim in the Beis Hamikdash." You know what Bikkurim is, right? The Torah tells us that a, a farmer in the time of the Beis Hamikdash had beautiful farm with a lot of beautiful fruits. So when he goes out to the field and sees the first fruit that gets ripe, because not all fruit gets ripe at the same time. So these are the early ones, the ones that get very early f- ripe and finished and fully grown. You take them off the tree and bring them to the Beis Hamikdash to show Hashem thanks that you appreciate that Hashem gave you such a beautiful fruit, so many beautiful fruits. And that's a special thing. They used to dance and play music when they did the mitzvah. Ye- Jews, farmers came from all over Eretz Yisrael together and used to travel with their fruits, and they had music, and it was a, a, a huge, huge celebration. So if you bring a present, says the Gemara, today when there's no Beis Hamikdash, you bring a present to, to a Talmid Chacham, it's as if you brought Bikkurim to Beis Hamikdash. It's as great, it's as important as if you brought Bikkurim in the Beis Hamikdash. So the Yismach Moshe thinks to himself, the Gemara says not if you give a present to a

07:42 Talmid Chacham, it says, "If you brought Bikkurim." It says, "If you bring it." Bring it means that you don't have to be the one who's giving it. Somebody else might give it. You're just the one who's bringing it. You're just the messenger. So he thought, "Wow, I'm bringing now this sniffing tobacco, which is somebody else is giving to the Rebbe, but I'm the one who's bringing it." "HaMeiv Dagan", somebody who brings a present to a Talmid Chacham is like he brings Bikkurim, so this is exciting. I'm now about to bring Bikkurim in the Beis Hamikdash because I'm gonna bring a present, even though it's not my present, but if you bring the present, I'm the one who's bringing it, so it's like I brought Bikkurim, so he got very excited. Then he had another thought, and he said, "You know what? There's another Gemara." The Gemara says that anybody who wants to be close to Hashem, you wanna become really pure and holy and close to Hashem, "Mesayim oto," they help him. That means Hashem helps you. Because Hashem sees that a Jew wants to get closer to Him, Hashem says, "You know what? I'm gonna help you get closer to Me." Because Hashem loves it when a person says to Hashem, "I wanna get close to you, but I don't know how." So Hashem helps you. But the Gemara says the, the word Mesayim, they help you. Hashem is only one. There's only one Hashem. Why does it say plural, and they will help

08:59 you? If you wanna come close to Hashem, they will help you. Who is they? So he thought, "Ah, you know what it is, a tzadik." You know, in this world, Hashem helps you, but sometimes Hashem wants you to go to a tzadik, and he can also help you. He also helps you together with Hashem. The tzadik teaches you and inspires you and then gives you a bracha, and that helps together with Hashem's help. That's why it says plural, Mesayim. That was went through his mind of the Yismach Moshe. While he was traveling on the wagon and the horses were moving, moving and moving, finally it was Erev Shabbos, he arrives in Lublin, and the first thing he did, he asked, "Can I go see the Rebbe, the Chozeh? I have a present that somebody in my town, in my community wants me to deliver to the Rebbe." The gap says, "Okay, sure." And, uh, says, "I'm the Rov of Vishnitz." He said, "Okay, yeah, you're the Rov of Vishnitz. You're an important man. Go into the Chozeh's hub." He goes into the Chozeh's room, he says, "Here, this is a gift from Yankel in my town to give it to you." No. As soon as he walked into the room, the Chozeh says, "I smell Bikkurim. I smell the Kedushah of Bikkurim." So right away, the Yismach Moshe realized that the Chozeh has Ruach Hakodesh, and he understood and he knew what he was thinking on the way to him about the whole thing with

10:21 Bikkurim, that if you bring a pre- a present to a, to a Talmid Chacham, then it's like bringing Bikkurim. And the Chozeh right away said, "I smell Bikkurim." And then he turns to the Yismach Moshe and says to him, "Normally, we don't reveal Ruach Hakodesh to everybody. Even if I know things, I don't usually tell people what I know. But here in this case, because it says in the Gemara that somebody wants to be close to Hashem, he wants to serve Hashem properly, they help him, which means Hashem helps him, and sometimes a Rebbe also has to help him. So that's why I'm revealing the Ruach Hakodesh, so to help you understand that Hasidus is an important thing, though. You'll see that there's Ruach Hakodesh here, so you'll become impressed, and then you'll start learning Hasidus." So now the, the Yismach Moshe realized that the Chozeh also knew about the second thought he had on the way, right? That somebody who wants to become pure, haba letaher, Mesayim oto, they help him. Who is they? Hashem and the tzadik. And the Chozeh said exactly that to him. So it means he knew everything he was thinking on the way going to the Chozeh. Then a third thing happened. It was Shabbos, and the Chozeh used to daven for the Amud Shabbos morning, Shacharis. And the Yismach Moshe also davened in the Minyan of the Chozeh. And the Yismach Moshe was a great man even then, even though he wasn't a Hasid yet, but he was

11:52 a great person, big gaon and a big, great man, and he davened with a lot of kavannah. So he davened on Shacharis by Shabbos. He davened all the way till Nishmas. Remember Nishmas Kol Chai? It's a part of the Shacharis. Came to Nishmas, suddenly a thought came into his head and said, "Oi." There's this, uh, schmerel in my city sent a package for me to deliver to someone here in Lublin, and I haven't done it yet, and it's in my suitcase where I'm staying in a little motel, and the suitcase is not locked. Oy, some guest in the hotel can go into my room and steal it. And he got very, very, very worried. Oy, what did I do? I left this package in my room in the suitcase unlocked, and now it's gonna get stolen, and I'm gonna be responsible for it. 'Cause I took responsibility. I said I'm gonna deliver it. And it bothered him, it bothered him, it bothered him until he finally decided, uh, he kept saying Nishmas, but his thoughts were not on the Nishmas, was not on the Seder. His thoughts were somewhere else, preoccupied with this question, with this problem. Finally, he said, "You know what? Hashem will help. I should forget about it. I shouldn't think about it. Nothing I can do about it. Hashem will help, and everything will be fine." And he started davening. By the time he was continued to have Kavana, it was by Birchas Yotzer Bo, or as Hashem Haverach, right? So

13:18 the whole Nishmas and Yishtabach, his mind was somewhere else. After davening, the Chozeh of Lublin goes over to the Yismach Moshe and says to him, "Where were you between Nishmas and Bohu? I didn't see you there." So the Yismach Moshe realized that he, the Chozeh, felt every person in the shul, and he felt him that he had Kavana. And suddenly he disappeared because his thoughts, when your thoughts go away from the Seder and you don't think about what you're saying, as you're standing before Hashem, it's as if you're not there. Yes, your body is there and your lips are moving, but you're not there. So the Chozeh said to him, "Where did you disappear between Nishmas and Bohu?" The last thing, then the Yismach Moshe went to say goodbye after Shabbos to the Chozeh, and, and he said to the Chozeh, "I have one question against Hasidim. Maybe you can answer it." He says, "How come Hasidim are always happy? Always say L'Chaim. They always dance. They always sing. Doesn't it say in the Gemara that after the Beis Hamikdash was destroyed, a Jew should always be inside, sad about the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash? How come Hasidim are always happy? Don't they think about how important is the Beis Hamikdash that we don't have the Beis Hamikdash?" So the Chozeh answered him, "It says that a, um, a true Hasid on outside is, is always happy, but inside he feels the pain, and he's sad, he's broken inside because the Beis Hamikdash is

15:00 not here. But on the outside, he's always showing happiness, and that's what Hasidim are." And after that story, the Yismach Moshe became a Hasid, and after that he became even a Hasidish Rebbe.