The Books He Could Not Read 

by Dovid Zaklikowski for Hasidic Archives

Life was not easy for Shlomo Beilin, or, as he was known Shlomo der Geller. His wife suffered a nervous breakdown, his children became communists, and he eventually became blind. Despite it all, he radiated joy and would break into dance even during the most difficult moments of his life.

Once, at a Chassidic gathering, he stood up and declared to those gathered: “Yetzer Hara, my beastly impulse, you are trying to depress me, but you will not be successful. I am thumbing my nose at you!” The blind man then danced for hours with the gathered.

At the time, there were few published Chassidic writings, and people would copy them by hand. In his home, the blind Chassid had many such manuscripts. Many people asked to borrow them, but he always refused, telling them that they could sit in his home and study them, “But the volumes should not leave my house.”

One time, a young man asked him, “Why do you need the books in your home when you can’t even study from them?”

He told him that he was mistaken. “Every morning I go to the bookcase, I place my hands on the volumes, and I feel the self-sacrifice each Rebbe had to recite the discourses. This gives me strength to continue through my challenges.”

Find Hasidic Archive’s, latest book Yards of Kindness here.