Simple Sincerity (Iii)

ב"ה למען ישמעו • פנחס תשע"ט • 524 EDITOR - RABBI SHIMON HELLINGER SIMPLE SINCERITY (III) ESSENTIAL CONNECTION GENUINE GIFT disdained their humble efforts: He had accepted their two loaves, and had eaten them while they …was the last day One day in the mid-16th century, one of the anusim were still warm (1892) תרנ"ב Thursday, Tes Zayin Elul of Sheva Brachos for the Rebbe Rashab's sister, Chaya (forced apostates) from Portugal moved to the holy “Therefore,” he exhorted her, “let us not be lazy. We Mushka. On that day, the Rebbe Rashab went to the city of Tzfas. He heard a talk by the rov of his local shul have no other way to honor Him, and we see that He Ohel of his father, the Rebbe Maharash. On Friday he about the lechem hapanim which was offered in the loves our bread. Every week we must try to give Him again visited the Ohel, and stayed there until very Beis HaMikdash every Shabbos. The rov bemoaned the this pleasure with the same care and devotion that late, returning with tear-stained eyes. fact that we no longer have this means of receiving we did this first time.” This continued for a while. the G-dly energy. On Shabbos, the Rebbe Rashab would customarily start One Friday, the rov was reviewing his sermon on the davening very early in the morning and finish around Hearing these words, the man went home, and bimah, when the man entered with the challos as he two in the afternoon. On that Shabbos he davened innocently asked his wife to prepare two special did each week. He approached the Aron and began much longer than usual and with exceptionally fiery challos on Friday. He instructed her to sift the flour reciting his prayers with such excitement that he did passion. thirteen times, to knead it while in a state of purity, not even notice the rov at all. and to bake it very well in their oven. He explained תרנ"ב It was not until the farbrengen of Shemini Atzeres that he wished to present those loaves as an offering When he realized what the man was doing, the rov (1892) that he related what had occurred that Shabbos: to HaShem; hopefully He would accept their sacrifice became upset and reprimanded him: “Fool! Do you "Whenever I prepare a maamar, I don’t deliver it and eat it. really think that HaShem eats and drinks?! It is a publicly until I receive a sign from Above that the terrible sin to ascribe any human or physical qualities maamar has become one with me, integrated within to HaShem. You actually believe it is HaShem who me. I toiled immensely in the maamar of that Shabbos, CONSIDER takes them? Surely it's the shamash who eats them!” and yet it was still not utterly internalized with me. Sure enough, the shamash soon entered the shul to I decided then to visit my father, the author of the How does the illiteracy of the pick up his home-baked challos, as usual. The rov teaching that had inspired the maamar. When that simpletons allow for a deeper called the shamash over. “Tell this man why you did not help, I traveled again on Friday, and thanks connection to ? came here now, and who has been taking the two to HaShem, the maamar became internalized. HaShem challos he has been bringing each week.” The shamash "Now, HaShem leaves no debt unpaid, so because of What did the rov do wrong in immediately admitted it. my dedication, my father repaid me. On that Shabbos, educating the simpleton? What The man who had brought the challos broke down Chai Elul, my father appeared to me and said, 'Let us crying. He apologized to the rabbi for having go and hear Torah from the Baal Shem Tov,' and he should he have done? misunderstood his lesson. Not only had he not done took me with him. Throughout that Shabbos I heard a mitzva as he had thought, but he had sinned. from the Baal Shem Tov seven different teachings, each one at a different time of the day." His pious wife loyally fulfilled his request, and on As they were speaking, a messenger from the AriZal Friday afternoon, before anyone else arrived in shul, entered and approached the rov. In the name of One of those teachings concerned the strength of he brought the loaves. He davened and pleaded that his master, he told the rov to go home and take the neshama, and the Baal Shem Tov concluded it by HaShem should look upon his offering with favor, leave of his family, since at the designated time for saying: "The simplicity of HaShem's Essence (Atzmus) and eat and enjoy the bread. He went on and on, like his sermon the next morning, he would leave This shines in unlearned Yidden more than in bnei Torah." a wayward son begging his father for forgiveness. World. In fact, an announcement to this effect had .Finally, he placed the loaves in the Aron Kodesh, and already been made in Heaven )סה"ש תרצ"ז ע' 189, 197( went home. The rov, shocked, rushed to the AriZal, who told him When President Zalman Shazar visited the Rebbe “I heard that this was decreed because you blocked in the winter of 5733 (1973), he spoke of the am The shamash of the shul arrived later that day to HaShem’s pleasure. From the time the Beis HaMikdash haaratzus, the sheer ignorance, of the Russian Yidden prepare the shul for Shabbos. When he opened the was destroyed, He has never had such enjoyment as who were moving to Eretz Yisroel. More than once, Aron, he was surprised to see two freshly-baked He did whenever this man innocently brought his the Rebbe corrected him and said that this should challos. He had no idea where they had come from, two loaves and offered them to HaShem, believing not be referred to as am haratzus but rather as their but he didn’t think too much about it; he simply took that He had taken them. That is why the decree was being poshut, meaning that they were ordinary and them home and ate them. sealed against you, and it cannot be changed.” unlettered. The Rebbe added that this simplicity in That evening, after Maariv, the other man ran to fact connects them with the simple and undefinable the Aron to check. Seeing that the loaves were not The rov went home, and at the time of the sermon Essence of HaShem. there, he was ecstatic. He ran home and shared with the next morning, he passed away. )משנת חכמים למהר"מ חגיז סי' רכ( his wife his great thanks to HaShem for not having )שיחו"ק תשל"ג ח"א ע' 453( In merit of this publication's founder ב"ה מתיבתא דקינגסטאן twentY tHree PRESS to hear It Wellspring ר' אהרן בן חנה from the rebbe hImself A small out-of-town mesivta Reb Yoel Kahan TWENTY THREE May the zechus of the thousands PREPARINGin Y Kingston,OUR BOOK PA FOR PRINT TeplaCh and KeplaCh: ChaSSiduS iS MeanT The BaTTle for The Soul Keeping a KoSher head To Be underSTood of The ruSSian Cheder Rabbi Uriel Tzimmer Rabbi Menachem Brod Rabbi Boruch Werdiger – Part Two FREE DOWNLOAD of readers bring him a total and Email [email protected] www.SELLMILESNOW.com Price: $6 / $5 NY CHASSIDICDIGEST.COM immediate recovery [email protected] call (570) 212-9408 732-987-7765 RABBI CHAIM HILLEL RASKIN ROV OF ANASH - PETACH TIKVA THE TORAS CHESSED MOVING MUKTZA The gaon Reb Shneur Zalman Fradkin, genius of the Toras Chesed: known as the “Gaon of Lublin” or by The great genius and author of the I realized I had money in my pocket on Shabbos. May I his sefer “Toras Chesed”, was a chossid Halachic encyclopedia Sdei Chemed of the Tzemach Tzeddek. He was walk to another room or must I shake it out right away? once visited the Toras Chesed. He for many years a rov in Lublin, and Items not categorized as utensils or food (e.g. stones, money, sand) commented that the Toras Chesed eventually moved to Eretz Yisroel. He are muktza in an absolute sense (machmas gufo). If such an item certainly does not read his seforim, had a rare genius mind that was able was consciously placed on another object before Shabbos with since it is a contemporary sefer. The the intent that it remain there, the non-muktza object becomes to completely retain what he read gaon told him, “I do look in to your th a base (basis) for the muktza object and becomes forbidden just just once. He passed away on the 5 seforim and I can prove it,” and he and is buried in the began reciting portions of the sefer תרס”ב ,like it.1 of Nissan Chabad section on Har Hazaisim. Sdei Chemed verbatim. A utensil whose primary use is Shabbos prohibited (melachto l’isur) may not be moved for its own protection, though it may The Toras Chesed was once traveling on be handled for a permissible use (e.g. a saw for cutting challa), The maternal grandfather of the Toras a train from Polotzk to another city. In his car, sat a learned young man, who or if one needs its place. Regarding such an object, once in his Chesed was a chossid of the Alter hands, he may bring it wherever he wishes to place it and he noticed that the lips of the gaon were Rebbe.

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