2 of Shvat - Yahrtzeit of Reb Meshulam Zusia of Anipoli in 5560 12/4/1899

00:00 Speaker 1 To learn. Today is Beis Shevat. We're gonna do the Yemei Chabad for the second day of Shevat in the year Taf Kuf Samach. Is the yahrtzeit of the, uh, holy rabbi known as Reb Meshulam Zusya of Hanapoli, December the fourth, eighteen ninety-nine. Now, he was a very special tzadik, this, uh, Reb Zusya of Hanapoli. If you look in the Tanya, uh, he is one of the two rabbis which the Alter Rebbe asked for their haskomah, for their approval, uh, for the writing of the Tanya.

00:37 Speaker 2 So he has a great name.

00:39 Speaker 1 Uh, yeah. Well, Meshulam Zusya, that's right. Okay. Shares a name with a great, a great rabbi.

00:45 Speaker 2 Yeah.

00:45 Speaker 1 Now, he was one of the great students of the Maggid of Mezritch, and he was very, very close and a very dear friend of the Alter Rebbe, and he would shiver, tremble when you'd mention the Alter Rebbe's name. That's the kind of a, a, a, a respect he gave the Alter Rebbe. And it's related that one time when the Alter Rebbe was going out to greet each other... And it's amazing how these great giants, how respectful they were to one another. I'm saying we should learn in our times a little bit of, how to... But these great giants, and these were really giants, you know, not unlike, you know, some of our local giants. I mean, the-

01:26 Speaker 2 We-

01:27 Speaker 1 ... corn giants, I should say.

01:28 Speaker 2 Rock stars.

01:28 Speaker 1 Uh, yeah, yeah. But they would-- When the Reb Zusya would see, um, uh, see the Alter Rebbe, uh, he-- One time the Alter Rebbe went to greet him. He said, "I am very fearful because here a soul of Atsilus," which is, uh, a very high level in the spiritual souls where they come from. He says, "Behold, there's a whole of Atsilus coming to me." And, um, when he was once sick, the Alter Rebbe actually would stand by him and serve him and took care of him. And as mentioned, the Alter Rebbe took his approval for the writing of the Tanya. Now, here is related by the Rebbe Rashab. He says that the Alter Rebbe said, with regards to Reb Zusya of Hanapoli, that he is a true lamdan. A lamdan means a scholar. A really-- He really knows what it is. Now, what would make him a real, you know... What, are all the other people are not real? Are they fake or something? What would make him a real scholar, a real lamdan? So this is based on a story that once took place while they were young in the city of Mezritch by their teacher and master, the Rabbi Maggid, the Maggid of Mezritch. So it once happened that the Alter Rebbe and Reb Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev, who's another, uh, colleague and, uh, mechutan eventually of the, of the Rebbe, of the Alter Rebbe, and they were debating a very deep subject in the Rambam. They were discussing. And each one was

03:16 Speaker 1 very deeply saying their own ideas and to try to justify what the Rambam says to make it fit. So... And everybody was searching for the truth. Now, while they were sitting and debating, that was the Alter Rebbe, Reb Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev, Reb Zusya came over and he started asking them what is the topic that they're discussing. He wanted to get involved into the discussion. Now, they smiled because Reb Zusya wasn't known to be preoccupied in depth the study of the Rambam or in Nigla. This, this wasn't something of his. That wasn't his forte. That wasn't. So he was asking them what they were discussing, so they sort of shrugged him off with a smile, but he insisted. He said, "Tell me, tell me. I really wanna know what you're discussing." So they told him what the Rambam says and how they're having problems. Maimonides said something, and they're at a loss. They don't know how to rec-reconcile, to fix something. That something here doesn't fit. So Reb Zusya's way, what he would do, that whenever he would not understand a subject, he would start to cry, and he would say, "Zusya doesn't understand the meaning of this and this, either." You know, whatever subject he didn't understand, he'd start to cry, and he would say, "I don't understand this subject." He would cry to the extent that he would fall asleep. And when he would fall asleep, the master, the one who said that law, would come to him or Eliyahu Hanavi would come

04:58 Speaker 1 to him in, in the dream or in his sleep, and they would tell him the interpretation of the halakha, and immediately he would wake up. So the same thing happened in this case when they heard the questions about the Rambam, and he started to cry, and he says, "Zusya doesn't understand the meaning of the Rambam." And when he fell asleep, the Rambam came to him, and they told him the, the meaning. And when he woke up, Reb Zusya goes to the Alter Rebbe and Reb Levi Yitzchok, and he tells them what the Rambam explained. So one understand that that interpretation was really beautiful. It was wonderful, wonderful. So that is why the Alter Rebbe said on Reb Zusya that he's a true scholar. Why? Because any other ex-explanation you might give, who knows if you are really-- you got the real truth, you know, what he really meant.

05:56 Speaker 2 Right.

05:57 Speaker 1 But if the Rambam himself explains the Rambam, so that for sure must be the truth. So that's why Reb Zusya, he said, is a true lamdan. He knows the meaning, the true meaning because he get it directly from the Rambam himself and, uh-- or whoever the author is. He is interred, uh, resting place is in the city of Hanapoli, which is, um, right next to the, uh, place where the, uh, resting place of the Maggid of Mezritch, of Mezritch is. Um, this is from the Sichof the Rebbe in Toras Sholom on page eighty-four is this, um, this Sicha. Uh-