In
the summer of 5677 there was a gathering of Rabbonim in Moscow with regards to
deciding on a response to the political situation in Russia at the time. The
Rebbe Rashab was there, and met with other Gedolei Yisroel. R’ Refoel Nachman
(“Folyeh”) Kahan (the father of R’ Yoel Kahan), together with another bochur,
were in charge of seeing to the Rebbe’s needs. He recalled numerous incidents
from that experience, following is an excerpt from his memoirs:
“On the first day of their arrival, a few
people came to the house where the Rebbe Rashab was staying to greet him, and
they were conversing together. I went into the room to see if the Rebbe needs
anything, and he requested that I prepare a glass of tea. I heated up the
samovar, and brought the Rebbe a glass of tea, but, to my surprise, the Rebbe
continued his conversation with his guests, and the tea remained untouched.
When some time passed, I approached the
Rebbe and said: “Perhaps I should prepare a new cup, because this one has
cooled off”. The Rebbe, however, didn’t respond to my query, so, on my own, I
poured out the first glass and prepared a second one and brought it to the
Rebbe. Yet, inexplicably, the Rebbe again left the tea untouched.
The Rebbe’s son (the Frierdige Rebbe) was
in a different room in the same house, and, presently, I encountered him, and
he inquired whether his father (the Rashab) had eaten yet. I related the whole
story, how the Rebbe had requested tea, but when I made it for him he twice
didn’t drink from it.
“What did you use to prepare it?” the
Frierdige Rebbe questioned me.
“The samovar”, I informed him.
“Please, be so kind”, the Frierdige Rebbe
said to me, “and take from our suitcase the electric kettle, and use it to make
the tea, and then certainly my father will partake of it.”
I took the electric kettle according to his
instructions [I must admit that I was unfamiliar with it – it was uncommon at
that time – and the Frierdige Rebbe had to show me how to use it. I prepared the
(third) glass of tea, and as soon as I presented it the Rebbe Rashab, he
immediately drank it. Amazingly, neither with the first 2 cups nor with the
third one did the Rebbe Rashab inquire of me what I had used to prepare it, and
yet the first two cups he ignored, and only the third one (which, in fact, I
had used the electric kettle to prepare) did he drink from!
Subsequently, when I repeated the incident
to the Frierdige Rebbe, he said to me as follows:
“You surely heard my father (the Rebbe
Rashab) saying during simchas Torah:
‘It says in the possuk Bayom Hashmini
Atzeres Tiyeh Lochem. Atzeres means hold back, or withhold yourself.
Many ask, after all of the inspiration etc.
on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, when we take a look at ourselves during the rest
of the year, we tend to find that we have remained the same. How can this be
so? How can it be that the avoda of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur didn’t change
us? The answer is “atzeres Tiyeh Lochem”, - one must withhold oneself, and
(thus) one can cause the holiness of these days to penetrate and alter himself.
Specifically, this means that after every
Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur one must accept upon himself an additional good
practice, both in positive acts and in abstaining from bad (and then these days
will indeed change him)’.
“My father”, concluded the Frierdige Rebbe,
(does the same himself, and this is an example). In the past he would yes drink
tea, even coming from a samovar, but now, of late, he has begun to refrain from
it”.
[R’ Refoel Kahan then quotes the ensuing
discussion of the present Chassidim, who attempted to then determine what
actual halachik problem or chshash (even very minor) the Rebbe had found with a
samovar].
No comments:
Post a Comment