249. The Tzemach Tzedek Saves Reb Kusiel Lepler’s Life

00:15 Shalom Aleichem, kinders. We're getting closer to Rosh Hashanah. It's, uh... Erev Rosh Hashanah is the birthday of the Tzemach Tzedek. So I'll tell you a story of the Tzemach Tzedek. The Tzemach Tzedek, whenever there was a, like a storm, rain, and thunder and lightning, he would tell the people in the house to close all the windows, and he'd also tell them to put cups of water on all the tables in the house. Now, the idea and, and generally the Tzemach Tzedek used to be like you could see that he was feeling like fear when there was thunder and lightning. It's not like he was afraid of the noise. Because it says in the Gemara, why does Hashem make thunder and lightning? So the people will be afraid of Hashem. When people hear this loud noise of a, of a thunder, then they see lightning. It, it, it usually creates fear in people. So Hashem wants people to think, not just be afraid of the lightning itself. They should think that this is Hashem. They'll be afraid of Hashem. So it says like this in the Gemara. So the Tzemach Tzedek, um, felt fear when he, when he heard lightning and thunder, and he would always close the windows. Once there was a very big storm in Lubavitch, and there was thunder and lightning, and the Tzemach Tzedek... First he closed all the windows. Then Tzemach Tzedek went surprisingly and opened up a window in the middle of the thunder and lightning, and he stood by

02:14 the window and looked outside, and he was staring into the distance outside. It was a mystery. Nobody understood this because normally he always told people to close windows. Now he opened the middle of the thunder and lightning, opened up a window and looked outside, and he was staring and nobody knew what he was staring at. Then he closed the window and he walked away. Walked away from the window. A short while later, who came to Lubavitch? Rabbi, Rabbi Kasriel Lapria. I'm sure we've heard of Rabbi Kasriel Lapria. He was, um, a famous Hasid of the Alter Rebbe and the Mitteler Rebbe and then from Tzemach Tzedek. As we know, Rabbi Kasriel Lapria was first a businessman. He had a store where he sold flour and salt, and he wasn't, uh, didn't understand Hasidus well. Whenever the students of the Mitteler Rebbe, Hasidim, young Hasidim, would pass by the city of Lapria. Lapria is where he lived. So they would Ɣchaz, they would repeat the Hasidus of the Mitteler Rebbe, and he wouldn't understand anything. And he was very upset because he wanted to understand Hasidus and hear these young bo- bochurim who were much younger than him, and they can repeat the words of the Mitteler Rebbe and they're, they're explaining it so well. But he, his head wasn't a good head. Now, he was a great Hasid even before, um, the Mitteler Rebbe, because in the time of the Alter Rebbe, as known in the story, Rabbi Kasriel Lapria had a very fiery heart.

04:11 He was always very excited and passionate about Hashem. But there was no sechel understanding because he didn't have a good head. He once climbed on the window of the Alter Rebbe, Alter Rebbe's room, and the window was open and he said, "Rebbe, cut off my left side." That was his Yetzer Hara. What did the Alter Rebbe do? The Alter Rebbe saw him and he closed his eyes and leaned his head on his, on his hand, and then he said, "Veya tromecha yeis kolam." You, Hashem, you give life to everything. And as soon as Rabbi Kasriel Lapria heard this, that Hashem gives chayas and life to every single being in the world that he created, suddenly he felt that the Yetzer Hara went away. And after that he was a very excited person, excited Jew, always was dancing B'simcha. He had like great excitement in Avodas Hashem, but he didn't have a sechel. So when after these talkos of the Alter Rebbe, during the time of the Mitteler Rebbe, and Mitteler Rebbe used to encourage all his young Hasidim that when they travel through different towns, they should have a farbrengen and, and they should repeat the Hasidus to the people of that town that they heard by the Mitteler Rebbe. And there were a lot of very, very smart young bochurim and young galait, young guys who would-- had very good heads, and they understood the Hasidus of the Mitteler Rebbe, and they were able to memorize it, and they would-- when they would travel,

05:46 they would go from town to town. So they came to Lapria, and one of those young boys, young bochurim, was reviewing a long ma'amar of the Mitteler Rebbe, and he explained it and explained it very well, and people enjoyed it. But Rabbi Kasriel didn't understand anything because his head wasn't a good head. So he came to the Mitteler Rebbe, and the Mitteler Rebbe told him that there's nothing can stop a person who wants, who wants to learn. If you just keep doing it, you'll see eventually you will become very, very smart. You'll understand, you'll know Torah, you'll know Hasidus. And that's what Reb Kasiel did. He told his family that they should take care of his store because he's going to Lubavitch, to the Mitteler Rebbe. He's gonna learn and learn and learn and learn until he becomes a, a learned person, a Hasid who understands Hasidus. That's what he did, and he worked very, very hard, and he became one of the greatest, most intelligent, and the most knowledgeable Hasidim of the, the Mitteler Rebbe. So much so that the Mitteler Rebbe wrote a special sefer which is so profound and so deep that most people cannot understand, but for-- he wrote it for Reb Kasiel 'cause he be- he-- from being completely un-understanding, not understanding anything, he became the deepest and smartest Hasid that there was. So this Reb Kasiel Lepria is a person that came, showed up after the Tzemach Tzedek closed the windows. I'm going back to the story. He... The

07:29 Tzemach Tzedek was afraid of thunder and lightning because it says in the Gemara that Hashem does it on purpose so that we would feel his fear. So the Tzemach Tzedek would close the windows, and he could see that he was afraid of Hashem, not of the thunder and the lightning. He was afraid of Hashem. But then one time he opened the window in the middle of the thunder and lightning and stared outside, and nobody knew why. Then he closed the window and went away, as I said before. And then an hour later, Reb Kasiel, this Reb Kasiel Lepria, who was a Hasid of the Mitteler Rebbe, the Alter Rebbe, and then f- then for the Tzemach Tzedek, showed up in Lubavitch, and he came straight to the shul and told the Tzemach Tzedek that a big miracle happened to him which mamash just now. What was the miracle? That he was traveling through a certain village. The name of the village was Achrimovka. Achrimovka. And, uh, in order to get into the village was like a gate made out of stone. You had to go through the gate. That's how you got in, in and out of the, of the village. I was traveling out of the village, and I had to go through this gate. But the second I went outside the gate, suddenly a thunder struck the gate and it collapsed, and all the stones fell down, and the pieces of wood that were attached to the gate caught fire. And if I

09:04 had been there a second earlier, if, if, if, if, if the thunder and lightning would have happened a second earlier, I would have been killed. It literally happened a second after I, I passed through the gate, and that saved my life. So then when Reb Kasiel said this, everybody understood why the Tzemach Tzedek suddenly opened up the window and looked outside. With his gaze, with his look, he was trying to accompany, follow Reb Kasiel Lepria to make sure that he's safe and won't get hurt.