Weekly Story: The Mitteler Rebbe’s Wish

by Rabbi Sholom DovBer Avtzon

This past Wednesday and Thursday were the 9th and 10th of Kislev. The Mitteler Rebbe’s birthday and histalkus fifty-four years later were on the 9th of Kislev, while he was redeemed from jail or better said from being questioned on the 10th of Kislev, a year (minus a day) before his histalkus.

I am posting part of what I said at a farbrengen on Wednesday night.

There is a known story: A widow came to the Baal Shem Tov’s beis hamidrash one motzei shabbos, while the Baal Shem Tov and his students were still davening maariv. She waited until the minyan concluded to daven and then cried to the Baal Shem Tov, that she is a widow who has no money, and now she needs a large sum of money for her daughters’ wedding.

The Baal Shem Tov instructed his students to put their hands in the pocket and to give her all the money they have. The students immediately obeyed and to everyone’s amazement it added up exactly to the amount she desperately needed.

When the Alter Rebbe repeated this story, he asked his students to explain, what was the amazing point in this story?

One student replied that they found money which obviously was not in their pockets a few moments earlier. Another student said that they found collectively the exact amount she mentioned, not a ruble more or less.

The Alter Rebbe said, obviously those are nice points, but compared to other miracles of the Baal Shem Tov, they are not outstanding points, that you would call miraculous.

The miracle is that the students knew that their pockets were empty; after all it was just Shabbos. Yet they believed the Baal Shem Tov and put their hands in their pockets knowing that they will find some money.

With this introduction we can understand the Mitteler Rebbe’s wish: “When two chassidim meet they should converse in the deep chassidic concept of yichud illaah and yichud tattaah.

Obviously he wished for that but that was not his primary wish, his wish was that chassidim should focus on these and other chassidic concepts. Once you are concentrating on those concepts, automatically that will be your conversation. As the Mishna says numerous times in Pirkei Avos, “Mah Hu Omer,” which is explained to mean, if you want to know the essence of the individual, listen to what he says.

This is the reason why our ages inform us the idle talk of Torah scholars need to be analyzed and learned from. Because even when he has to be speaking about idle things, it is noticeable that he is a scholar.

For the past few weeks, people were discussing the current events, if the President has a chance of proving his claim of voter fraud or not. Why was that the conversation of many, because at that moment, that was important to them.

The Mitteler Rebbe desired that his chassidim focus on understanding G-dliness and that nothing else has equal importance to them. Yes, you must earn a living, but that is only a means to live, and what is your life all about, about understanding and serving Hashem.

When that is a chossid’s mindset, so too that would be his everyday conversation.

If this is so, why did the Mitteler Rebbe express the outcome of his desire and not his primary desire itself, that we should kuch in Chassidus?

If a person is asked or instructed by his guide/instructor to do something, and then a while later asked if he is doing it, the obvious answer and response would be, “Definitely! What is the question?” So why isn’t it noticeable, for that there can be hundreds of reasons and excuses.

Therefore, [as the saying goes, the proof is in the pudding,] the Mitteler Rebbe said he wants to see it actualize, and the way to accomplish that or to test yourself if that is your real interest is to see, if it comes up randomly in a conversation of yours, as the Rebbe says so often tapura tiplachu, let us see it in action.

This week’s post is l’zechus a complete and immediate recovery for my sister Chaya Rivkah bas Cheyena and all those who are in need of a brocha.

Rabbi Avtzon is a veteran mechaneh and the author of numerous books on the Rebbeim and their chassidim. He can be reached at avtzonbooks@gmail.com