254. The Mitteler Rebbe Saves His Chossid From a Curse Of A Tzaddik

00:15 Shalom Aleichem, kinderlach. I'm gonna tell you a story about a Hasid of the Alter Rebbe. He was a Rov in a city called Iasi. Iasi is in Romania, far from Russia. It's far away from Russia. He was a Hasid first of the Alter Rebbe, and then of the Mitteler Rebbe, and later on when he was older, he was even a Hasid of the Tzemach Tzedek. His name was Reb Itzchak Moshe Rabinovich. He was the Rov of Iasi. He was one of the greatest Hasidim of the Alter Rebbe and the Mitteler Rebbe. Now, Reb Itzchak Moshe was sent by the Mitteler Rebbe to move to Iasi, which was far away from Lubavitch, and become a Rov there. Now, Reb Itzchak Moshe didn't wanna go because he wanted to be close to the Mitteler Rebbe, and hear his Ma'amorim Chassidus. So the Mitteler Rebbe promised him that he will send him from his own writing. The Mitteler was gonna write Ma'amorim and send it to Iasi to him, wherever he is in Iasi. That's when he left to Iasi and became the Rov. In Iasi, there were different Hasidim. Not only everybody was Chabad, Lubavitch. There were some Lubavitcher Hasidim, but there were also other shuls. One of the shuls that were there was shuls from Apt Hasidim. Apt Hasidim, they were Hasidim of the great tzadik, Reb Avrohom Yehoshua Heshel, who was the Rov of Apt. Now, for a while, the Apt Rov lived in Iasi. And of course, he had a shul there for his

02:02 Hasidim. Apt Rov is, is considered in Poland and Hungary, in those, in those communities as the greatest Rebbe of his time. Everybody looked up to him and, and was very, very, very in awe of him. But he didn't like what Ch-- the Chabad Rebbeim were doing in spreading Hasidus. The Alter Rebbe, the Mitteler Rebbe, Tzemach Tzedek, and all the Chabad Rebbeim, they would teach Hasidus and, and explain it so that everyone can understand. And Hasidus has in it a lot of, has in it a lot of very deep things, um, that the Apt Rov felt should not be taught to everybody, right? He thought that people should just be inspired and learn how to be good Jews and Ch-Chassidim by looking at the Rebbe how he davens, how the Rebbe does mitzvahs, and you get inspired from the Rebbe, from the tzadik. But the Alter Rebbe said, "No, I want you to become a, a someone who serves Hashem. So I'm gonna teach you all the concepts of Hasidus in depth." But the Apt Rov did not like it. He was against it. He was opposed to the Alter Rebbe's, uh, way of doing things. Once Reb Moshe Yehuda, who was the Rov of Iasi, went into the shul, the Apt shul in Iasi, and he was the Rov of the city, so he said a Ma'amar Chassidus, a Ma'amar Chassidus from the Mitteler Rebbe. The Apt Rov was not in the shul, but later on he found out that in his shul, the Rov,

03:54 Reb Moshe-- Reb Itzchak Moshe of Iasi said a Ma'amar Chassidus from the Mitteler Rebbe. He was very upset. What does it mean? He comes into my shul and says my Ma'amar Chassidus which I am against. I'm against teaching Chassidus to everyone. Um, so he got very upset and he said, "Reb Itzchak Moshe, because he went against the rules of my shul, um, he's going to be punished by Hashem." He cursed him and basically said that he's gonna die in less than a year, within a year. Reb Itzchak Moshe was not young then. He was a bit older, but he was-- got very scared because he knew that the Apt Rov was a big tzadik, and when he says something, it's gonna happen. You know, a great tzadik says and Hashem listens. Hashem does what the tzadik wants, so that means that he's in danger now 'cause the Apt Rov said that he will not live more than a year. He will die within a year. So Reb Moshe Yis- Reb Itzchak Moshe of Iasi immediately traveled to Lubavitch to tell the Mitteler Rebbe what happened. Took a long time to travel because it takes maybe weeks because, you know, Romania is far away from, from Russia. But he made it finally to Lubavitch and went into yechidas the Mitteler Rebbe and told him what happened. Mitteler Rebbe listened, and then he asked him, "Did you on purpose go into his shul?" He says, "No, I didn't know that the Apt Rov was against teaching Hasidus."

05:31 So the Mitteler Rebbe leaned his head forward on his hand and started thinking. And thought and thought and thought for a while, then he opened up his holy eyes and said to the Reb Itzchak Moshe of Iasi, "You will live m-much longer. You won't die this year." So then, then he leaned forward again and thought again, and then he opened his eyes and said, "You know what? Not only are you gonna live longer than this year, you're going to live longer than the Apt Rov himself." That means you're gonna live longer than him. Then the Mitteler Rebbe leaned forward again on his head and thought, then he raised his eyes, his, his head and his eyes and he said, "Not only will you live longer than the Apt Rov, you will survive and live longer than the Apt Rov's children." Then the Mitteler Rebbe again put his head on the for- on a forehead on his hand, and then he thought, and then he raised his head again and he says, "And you will survive and live longer than his grandchildren." And the Apt-- And the Reb Itzchak Moshe of Iasi actually lived to one hundred and two. I met a great-grandson of Reb Itzchak Moshe of Iasi who lived in Montreal. I met him in a hospital when I went to on Chanukah to light Menorah candles with different patients in the hospital. I met him there, and he says that he had many volumes of Ma'amarim written by the Mitteler Rebbe which came

07:16 from his great-grandfather, which he got for the Mitteler Rebbe f-- did what he promised. He said that if he'd travel so far away to be a shliach of his and to be a Rov in that city, in Iasi, he promised to send him Ma'amarim which the Mitteler Rebbe himself was gonna write for him. So the family had books and books of all these Ma'amarim the Mitteler Rebbe meant. So I asked him, "Where is it now?" He says, "They gave it to the Rebbe." So now it must be in the Rebbe's library.