26 of Iyar - Yahrtzeit Rabbi Yitzchak Eisik of Homil - כו אייר תרי"ז נפטר יצחק אייזיק הלוי מהאמיל

00:00 Speaker 1 We're talking today about the twenty-sixth day of Iyar. Um, this was in the year taf reish yud zayin, six hundred and seventeen. Okay? Um, it's like a hundred-

00:12 Speaker 2 Almost two hundred years ago.

00:14 Speaker 1 Um, fifty-- I think hundred and fifty years ago, yeah.

00:19 Speaker 2 Amazing.

00:19 Speaker 1 Hundred, about hundred and fifty years ago.

00:21 Speaker 2 Yeah.

00:21 Speaker 1 Um, so, uh, that was the, um, the passing, uh, of, uh, the great tzadik and Hasid of, uh, Reb Yitzchak Isaac Halevi Epstein from the city of Homel. Now, um, there were, uh, several real outstanding Hasidim, you know, by the, uh, Alter Rebbe who almost got like the status of a, like they were close to being like a Rebbe themselves because they were like very distinguished. I mean, Reb Itzlik of Homel, he was one of those, uh, one of those great, uh, Hasidim. And, um, uh, he was born in the year taf kuf lamed. Um, and, um, at a very young age, he became very tied to the Alter Rebbe. He was one of the younger students of the Alter Rebbe. And when he entered for the very first time for a special meeting with the Alter Rebbe, so he wrote in his note to the Rebbe, which is called the pidyon haNefesh. It's called, it's called the pan pidyon haNefesh, redemption of the soul. That's the note you write to the Rebbe. Um, so he wrote that the tired, the soul, the tired soul who was looking for ways to become close to Hashem, and, uh, when he gave the note to the Rebbe, he fainted. Um, and, you know, as you see, these were real people. I mean, they weren't pretend. I mean, they were really into what they wrote and into their desire of becoming close to Hashem. And he was one of the most, uh, well-known Hasidim in the, uh, Chabad

02:20 Speaker 1 movement, like I said before, from the time-- He was one of the Reb Itzlik Homeler, that's what they used to call him in short. Uh, he was one of the very well-known Hasidim, and, uh, he served as rabbi in the city of Homel. That's why fifty-eight years he was rabbi in the city of Homel, and that's why he's known as Reb Itzlik Homeler. Uh, he was, uh, a genius in both, in he knew the revealed part of Torah, he, and the esoteric, the Hasidism. He, um, authored, uh, many books in Hasidism. Um, they're called the Schnei HaMe'iros or HaNo'ril and others. Uh, after the passing of the Alter Rebbe, he became a follower of the Mitler Rebbe, the Alter Rebbe's son, who, who, uh, took over for the Alter Rebbe, and then eventually to the Tzemach Tzedek once the Mitler Rebbe passed away. He became a Chossid of the Tzemach Tzedek, the third Lubavitcher Rebbe. The, uh, Hasidim relate that at the last, very last time that Reb Itzlik was in the city of Lubavitch by the Mitler-- by the Tzemach Tzedek, and when he was about to return home, the Tzemach Tzedek went to escort him. And, um, in the beginning, he, uh, they said goodbye with blessings of having genaches, uh, from the children, from the grandchildren, as it was the custom as people do. But later on, the Tzemach Tzedek put his head on the shoulder of Reb Itzlik, and Reb Itzlik put his head on the shoulder of the Tzemach Tzedek,

04:05 Speaker 1 and they stood like that for half an hour. And then Reb Itzlik said, "Be healthy, because it seems that we're not going to see each other again unless Mashiach comes," he says. And the Tzemach Tzedek went and escorted him, followed the carriage, that was the, the wagon, and he raised his holy hands above and he said, "Travel into peace, travel into peace." And shortly thereafter, he passed away, uh, Reb Itzlik passed away. Uh, in last hours before his passing, around his bed there were many of the Hasidim, and all of a sudden, one of the people that lived in Homel, he did not know the situation and that he was on his deathbed, and he wanted to ask a question about a... He had a, a chicken, he wanted to know if it's kosher or not. He came to the rabbi to ask a question. So one of the rabbis that was in the hoyf, the allelujah, took the man to the side and wanted to inspect and see, not to disturb the... But Reb Itzlik noticed this, and he asked what's going on over there. So they told him about the question. So Reb Itzlik said, "Well, this is a, um... This question is dealt with by, by Maharal in kedusha, in his, uh, in his book of kedu-kedusha." And, um, when he said the word kedusha, he turned his face to the wall, and by expressing the word kedusha, holiness, is when he expired, when his soul, uh, was, uh, expired. They, they

05:51 Speaker 1 put up a, um, um, an ohel, a little tent over his, uh, resting place, and many, uh, people, um, come to daven over there on his-

06:05 Speaker 2 In Homel.

06:05 Speaker 1 In Homel, yeah. It was in Homel. Um, now...