245. Reb Shlomo Karliner Dips In A Well Of The Evil Galach

00:15 Shalom Aleichem, kinders. Here is another story for you from Reb Shlomo Carliner, the great tzadik. Reb Shlomo Carliner was a, a friend, a colleague of the Alter Rebbe. They were both talmidim of the Maggid. When the Maggid was Nistalik, the talmidim of the Maggid got together and decided each talmid of the Maggid which place, which region, which, which, which area in Russia and Poland they should be the official Rebbe and teacher to the, to the people, to the Hasidim. And the Alter Rebbe was given a part of White Russia. And Shlomo Carliner also was given White Russia, but in a different part of White Russia. So when Shlomo Carliner, after the Maggid was Nistalik, was looking for a place where he could settle so he could be a Rebbe and have Hasidim. So Reb Shlomo Carliner was traveling from city to city and tried to see, uh, if he can settle in a city which is not belonging to the Alter Rebbe, because the Alter Rebbe was in charge of a certain part of Russia that was under his, his leadership. He, he was gonna be the Rebbe, the leader in that place. So each Rebbe, each talmid had to have his place. He can't be in the same place as the other talmid because that's his... And each Rebbe and each talmid of, of, of the Maggid had his own way of teaching. They didn't have the same way. They had a very different way of teaching Hasidim how to serve Hashem. The Alter

01:47 Rebbe was through Tanya, through learning, through understanding. Reb Shlomo Carliner was more like if you are connected to a tzadik and you watch that tzadik daven with great excitement, it gets you excited too. But it's not through understanding, it's more through excitement. It's a different style. The Alter Rebbe wanted Hasidim to understand on their own the greatness of Hashem, and the greatness of Torah, and Mitzvahs, and the greatness of a neshamah, and that would lead the person to love Hashem through their own understanding. And the Alter Rebbe thought that this is a much better way to make the love of Hashem more real. So they had different ways of teaching, so they each had to have their place and no one could, you know, go and, uh, and be a Rebbe leader in the place of the other place. So they had to have his own place. So he went and traveled to find his own place where the Alter Rebbe was not officially in charge. So he ended up in a city called Yanovitch. In Yanovitch there were two Hasidim of the Alter Rebbe. They're both called Shamai. Shamai and Shamai, two Hasidim of the Alter Rebbe. The Hasidim went to the Reb Shlomo Carliner and said, "Shalom Aleichem." And, um, and they said to Reb Shlomo Carliner, the great tzadik, "We heard that you wanna settle in our city. I want you to know that this city belongs to the Alter Rebbe, so this is not for you. You should find another city."

03:17 So these two Hasidim were not just ordinary Hasidim. These were very great Hasidim from the Alter Rebbe. So much so that when, when Reb Shlomo Carliner left, he accepted what they said. So he said, "I'm gonna go to another, to another, to another city." And he went to another city and, um, and he... And, and, and, and, and, and, and they walked, and this Shamai, the two Shamais, they, uh, out of respect, out of respect, they, they knew that he was a great man. Reb Shlomo Carliner was a great tzadik, so they accompanied him, right? You, you walk a great tzadik out of the city. So they walked with him. So when they went back to their homes, because Reb Shlomo was leaving the town, he told his, a few of his, uh, Hasidim, "I've never met people that are so battle, with such anavah, such humility like these two people." In other words, he saw that these were great Tz- Hasidim. From there, he went to another city called Sharay. Sharay was also a, um, a city in, in White Russia, and he thought that this would be appropriate place for him 'cause it's outside the area of the Alter Rebbe. It was right after Sukkot, and Hasidim there in Sharay told him something that happened on the Simchat Torah right before. He came right after Simchat Torah to Sharay, and Hasidim came over and told him something that happened, a terrible thing that happened on Simchat Torah in the city of Sharay. What

04:43 happened was Sharay was mostly Misnagdim, and really, really Misnagdim. Misnagdim that really didn't like Hasidim. They thought Hasidim were terrible, and you need to get rid of them. Well, there was a Hasid went to daven for the Amud. He was the Hazzan on, on Simchat Torah. And you know that the Hasidim, we say by Mussaf, when we daven Mussaf, we say, "Keser." Right? Where we repeat the Shemoneh Esrei, "Keser Yitbarach." But the Misnagdim and the Ashkenazim, they have a different nusach. They say, "Magdisha" on the Kadesh. So this Hasid went up to the Amud and davened like a Hasid, and said, "Keser." When it came to the, to Keser, when he repeated Shemoneh Esrei, he said loud, "Keser." And the Misnagdim got so angry at him, and they made a big, a big machloket. They're doing big dispute and a fight in the Beis Midrash. And three Misnagdim literally beat this Hasid almost till he died. They literally beat him up really badly. He was, like, in very bad shape. So, so badly did they hate the Hasidim in those days. So when Reb Shlomo heard this, he says, "I want you to write down on a piece of paper the names of the three Misnagdim that did this terrible thing." And he said it like this. So when they wrote it down on three different papers, one paper, he erased the name from the paper. And that misnagid died in less than a year from then. Less than a year from then he died.

06:14 The second one, he said, "Ah." He motioned with his hand down like... And he lost all his money. The second misnagid became a poor man. He had to go begging from door to door. And the third one, he said, "Ah, he'll hiccup forever. He's gonna get the hiccups." And it so happened that he started hiccuping all the time. He couldn't stop it for the rest of his life. And even his children, and grandchildren, great-grandchildren all inherited this from him, that they all hiccuped all the time. The one who told this story actually, about Reb Shlomo Carlina, was Reb Shmuel Greenum Esterman, the Mashpia of Lubavitch. And Reb Yehuda Gitlik heard this from him. And his wife, Reb, Reb Greenum, Reb Shmuel Greenum the Mashpia, his wife was a descendant of this misnagid. Of course, she was a Hasid now, but she, she, her ancestor- She also hiccuped because she inherited that curse from Reb Shlomo Carlina. So then he left Ch- Chaari. He said, "Chaari is not a good place for me." And he went to another city. Um, he went to one city, another city. Um, and then he, he, he, he, um, went to one city where he came, it's, it's called Chashnik. Chashnik is a famous city where there was, um, famous Hasidim of the Alter Rebbe. So he went to that city to try to... So tried to settle there, so he stayed with a, in a, in the house of a certain person. And that person, because he knew Reb

07:43 Shlomo Carlina was a great tzadik, Reb Shlomo Carlina, a holy man. He had such a guest in his house, so he decided to tell the, a carpenter to build a special bed for Reb Shlomo Carlina. And, uh, so the, the carpenter built a bed, and he brought it into the house. Reb Shlomo Carlina, when Reb Shlomo Carlina went to sleep, he said, "I, I, I can't, I can't. Ow, ow, it hurts." Like somebody was poking him in the bed. So he, he, he... So he said to the, to the host, he says, "You know, who built this bed? Which, which, which carpenter? Um, so can you call him?" So he called the carpenter. He says, "Did you build this bed?" He said, "Yes." "Did anybody sleep on it, or did nobody sleep on it? From the time you made the bed, no one all slept on it till I went to lie down." Reb Shlomo asked. And the carpenter says, "Oh, well, one goy, you know, uh, that was sitting in my house overnight. So a goy slept there." So Reb Shlomo Carlina, "Ah, that's why." He felt the, the, the, the, the, the tumah of the goy on this bed and in his body. The Reb Shlomo was such a tzadik that even his body was so sensitive to anything which is tumah, which is not clean and is not holy. So he, he was... He wouldn't be able to sleep. So from Chashnik, he went to another city, um, near Minsk. It's called

09:02 Pustov. He be- he was a guest in the house of Reb Yehuda Pustover, which later on became a Hasid of the Alter Rebbe. At that time, he wasn't a Hasid yet, and Reb Shlomo Carlina stayed in his house. Reb Yehuda Pustover. He was from Pustov, that's why they called him Pustover. Reb Yehuda Pustover was a Hasid later of the Alter Rebbe, but at that time he was not a Hasid. And Reb Shlomo Carlina stayed in his house. In the morning, Reb Shlomo Carlina went to sleep. He got up in the morning. Before davening, Reb Sh- Reb Shlomo Carlina asked the, the host, "Tell me, uh, is there a mikveh in town? I wanna go to mikveh before davening like a Hasid. So maybe there's a river somewhere I can go into the river before davening." He said, "No, there's no river." So he asked him, "Is there a, like a well? Uh, like a well? You know, some people have wells in their backyard, you know, where they draw water for drinking. Maybe there's a well somewhere I can go dip in, in a well." So they told him, "Ah, there's only one well. It's in the courtyard of the, of the galach." The galach of the city. The galach was a big antisemite. He hated Jews. So only in his courtyard can you find, in his yard you can find a well. So Reb Shlomo Carlina said, "Okay. No, we'll take a few sheets. We'll make a little wall, so I can go into

10:14 the courtyard of the galach, and I'll dip over there." The people were like, "Wow, this is very dangerous because the galach sees a, a, a Yid coming into his courtyard, and especially tavelling in his well. Uh, he's gonna kill him." But Reb Shlomo wasn't afraid. So the entire city wanted to see the wonder, the, the, the miracle that this Reb Shlomo Carlina was gonna dip in the, in the well of Reb Shl- uh, of this galach who's hates Jews. So he went there. They all gathered outside the courtyard of the, of the, of the, of the, of the galach. Hundreds of people gathered from the city to see the miracle, how Reb Shlomo Carlina is going to go into the courtyard and dip in the, in the well and come out with nothing. No, no problem, no, no harm. The galach at that time was sitting with his wife on the porch and looking, and he sees so many people outside his courtyard surrounding the courtyard. Reb Shlomo Carlina went, he dipped in the well, came out, and left. Then the galach asked the people, "Why are you standing around my courtyard? What happened?" They said, "What? You didn't see? The Reb Shlomo Carlina... There was a tzadik, a Rebbe. He, he went into your courtyard and, and dipped right in front of you." He said, "No, I didn't see a thing." But then he got angry. "What? This rabbi really did this, and I didn't even see it?" And he sent messenger, like soldiers,

11:38 arms, to go and, and grab, uh, Reb Shlomo Carlina and bring him so he can, uh, you know, he can, uh, punish him severely. So they came at the time when Shlomo was in the middle of davening. They came to the shul, and they saw him davening, and they were pa- they were, like, gripped with fear. They couldn't move when they saw him davening. They were afraid to go over to him, so they went back to the galach. So the galach says, "Oh, if he's such a great man, I wanna see him." So he told the host where Reb Shlomo was staying. Reb Yehuda Pustover said to him, "Why don't you ask the Rebbe if I can come and see him? I'd like to pay respect to him if he's such a great man." So the host, Reb, Reb Yehuda Pustover asked Reb Shlomo Carlina, "Can the galach come and see you?" He said, "What? This tamei goy wants to see my face? No. Never." So the, the Hasid, uh, Reb Yehuda Pustover said to Reb Shlomo, "Why is it that this goy realizes that you're such a big, a holy man and such a tzadik, and he wants to see you, and I don't see it?" So Reb, Reb Shlomo said to him, "Because you're not shayach to me. You have no connection to me. You need to go to Lyozno to the Alter Rebbe. That is your Rebbe." And that's how Reb Yehuda went to Lyozno to the Alter Rebbe, became a Hasid

12:59 of the Alter Rebbe.