The Chasam Sofer: Part 3

00:00 Behemshech, in continuation to the early installments in regards to the Chasam Sofer, we continue now with installment number three, discussing the part three of this series, Stories of the Rebbe relating to the Chasam Sofer's Sefarim. To the Chasam Sofer's grandson, Rabbi Avrom Sofer, editor of the works of the earlier authorities, uh, especially the writings of the Meiri relating to Sefarim of the Rishonim, the Rebbe once said, "If I had time, I would compose a commentary on the poems of the Chasam Sofer to show that every word has its source in Kabbalah." On another occasion in the Kfar Chabad, issue two hundred and eighty-three, which was published in 1987, it recited what the Rebbe said to one of the Chasam Sofer's descendants, that despite his many burdens and busy days-- daily schedule, he is careful to study the works of the Chasam Sofer. A story which happened in Taf Shin Zay, in 1947, when the Rebbe was in Paris. He once went to inspect a certain restaurant to determine whether it was reliable in matters of kashrus. The Rebbe asked the owner of the butcher shop all the details, and when the owner told him that he and his wife personally took care of everything, from then on, the Rebbe became a regular customer there. The Rebbe was in France, as we know, in 1947 to meet his mother as she came out from Russia, from Alma-Ata, and he then came with her to the United States, and the Rebbe spent in France from Purim till

01:58 the end of Sivan. The owner once asked the Rebbe for his name, and the Rebbe replied simply his second name without mentioning family name. Before the Rebbe returned to the United States, he entered the restaurant again to thank the owner for everything, and the owner said to him, "But you paid each time. Why should you thank me again?" The Rebbe answered, "This is giving honor to the host." During the conversation, the owner mentioned an idea in the name of the Chasam Sofer, and the Rebbe said that he did not recall such a statement from the Chasam Sofer. At the conclusion, the Rebbe said, "We will yet see each other again." In Taf Shin Chet Tes, 1969, that same owner became seriously ill here in the United States. His sons went to request blessings from several Rebbes and also from the Rebbe. They all responded that he, he would have a complete recovery. The Rebbe likewise said, "It will be all right, and we will yet see each other again." When the owner recovered from his illness, he decided to visit the Lubavitcher Rebbe without realizing that this was the same second name whom he had met in Paris. When he had entered for Yechidus, the Rebbe immediately began speaking with him about the teaching of the Chasam Sofer that the man had mentioned back in Paris, and said, "At that time in Paris, I said there was no such Chasam Sofer, but later I found an edition of the Chasam Sofer in print here where

03:48 in a footnote, this very version and passage were indeed brought." One of the Chasam Sofer's, uh, descendants who merited special closeness from the Rebbe, as mentioned, was Rabbi Avrom Sofer, an editor of the Kisvei Rishonim, as mentioned earlier. Already after his first meeting with the Rebbe, he said, "From the moment the Rebbe began to speak, I saw that he is truly fluent in the writings of the Chasam Sofer, quoting freely from various places." Rabbi Avrom Sofer would arrive at unusual hours and enter the Rebbe's room, as he put it, to discuss Torah learning with him. It is said that there was even an instruction to the secretaries to allow Rabbi Sofer to enter whenever he came. In one of the diaries, it is recorded that on Monday, the sixth of Adar, Taf Shin Chet Tes, 1969, he arrived around two PM, was immediately admitted to the Rebbe's room, and remained there for three hours. The Mincha usually taking place at three fifteen, which the Rebbe would come out to the Minyan on a daily basis, was delayed until five thirty because of this, and similar things occurred many times. Once he had a discussion with the Rebbe about a passage in his grandfather's sefer, the Chasam Sofer. He posed a question, and the Rebbe answered that the wording of the Chasam Sofer there is slightly different, and with a precise reading, the question is resolved. Upon leaving the Yechidus, Rabbi Avrom told the yeshiva students that he had debated the Rebbe regarding the Chasam Sofer's

05:37 wording until the Rebbe stood up, took the Chasam Sofer off the shelf, and proved that he was correct. When Rabbi Avrom saw this, he ex-exclaimed, "From where does the Lubavitcher Rebbe SHLIT"a have time to know all the Chasam Sofer's by heart?" The Rebbe replied, of course, this was in modesty, "That is through the strength of what Chassidim give me." The great-grandson of the Chasam Sofer, hmm, Rabbi Yehuda Moshe Karpfen, the faithful attendant of Rabbi Akiva Sofer of blessed memory, the author of Das Sefer of Pressburg, related, "Once in a Yechidus, the Rebbe said to me, 'Tell me in detail about the Rav of Pressburg.' And the Rebbe listened to one story after another, and in the end he said to me in these words, 'Know that it cannot be that a descendant of the Chasam Sofer should not retain the kedusha, some sanctity of the Chasam Sofer. And I regret that I did not merit to see him personally, although I have heard and inquired about him constantly.'" We will Im Yirtze Hashem continue in the next installment.