The "Tzoro" of Moshiach

A Rov was once travelling, and stayed overnight in an inn. The innkeeper was a simple fellow, but he recognized that his guest was a distinguished Rabbi, and tried to accord him every consideration.

In the middle of the night (as was the custom), the Rov awakened to recite Tikkun Chatzos. He sat on the floor, and read chapters from tehillim, expressing his mourning over the churban. In the next room, the innkeeper was somehow awakened, and was distressed to hear sounds of weeping from the room of his illustrious guest. Worriedly, the innkeeper hastened to the room of the Rov to ask about the cause of his sorrow.

“What is troubling you, Rabbi”, he asked, “is your bed not comfortable, is your room too hot or cold, did you perhaps find fault with the meals we served you?”

The Rov set his mind at ease that the service was, in fact, beyond reproach, and was not the cause of his crying. Rather, what the innkeeper overheard was his davening and beseeching Hashem to bring us Moshiach.

“Moshiach”, asked the simple innkeeper, “who is that?”

“Did you never hear about Moshiach?”, asked the Rov. He explained his simple host how all Yidden were eagerly awaiting the coming of Moshiach, who would take us all to Eretz Yisroel. The innkeeper digested this novel idea, and ran to share it with his wife. “What!” exclaimed the good woman, “to go to Eretz Yisroel? Please tell the Rabbi that this is impossible at this time. Why, we have our inn here, and our house and our barn with all of our animals, how can we just pick up and go to EY?!”

The innkeeper ran back to his guest and conveyed his wife’s reservations. The Rov tried to speak to the simpleton in his own language. “True”, he conceded to him, “you are settled here with all of your possessions. But you have no peace here. Every few years, the goyim make a pogrom, and steal and destroy everything, and you need to begin anew. Once we all go to Eretz Yisroel, we’ll be free of the goyim!”

The idea made sense to the innkeeper, but, not one to make decisions on his own, he asked leave of the Rov to consult with his wife. Moments later he returned. “Rebbe”, he asked humbly, “my wife asks to kindly make a request of Moshiach; - let us stay here where we’re settled, and let Moshiach take the goyim to Eretz Yisroel!”

In the early years of the Rebbe’s nesius there was a prominent member of Agudas Chabad of Eretz Yisroel who was in yechidus. This person struggled with many of the Rebbe’s directives (especially in the area of hafotza), that seemed to him to be so different from the style that he was accustomed to with the Frierdige Rebbe etc.

During the course of the yechidus, the Rebbe said to him: “Ir farshteit nisht? Ich farshtei oich nisht, ober azoi azoi iz der inyan!” (You don’t understand? I don’t either understand, but this is the way it has to be!)

A yid and teva

The mayor of Bnei Brak, a Gerer chosid, was once by the Rebbe for dollars. During the course of the conversation, he remarked to the Rebbe “men pruft ton vifil es iz meglech” [‘we try to do as much as we’re able’]. The Rebbe looked at him in amazement, and exclaimed (approx.): “meglech?! dos iz al pi teva,vos far a shaychus hot a Yid mit teva?!” [‘as much is possible, naturally, what kind of a connection does a Jew have with nature?!’]

Eizik Homiler

The Alter Rebbe once remarked to R’ Eizik that he shouldn’t become a Rebbe. Years later, the Chassidim once chose R’ Eizik to become their Rebbe. They sent the wagon to bring him, and R’ Eizik acquiesced, and began climbing into the wagon. As he stood, with one foot on the step, he recalled the Alter Rebbe’s words to him, and he immediately turned back. This was an act of tremendous self-sacrifice on his behalf, because, the moment that he lifted his foot onto the step of the wagon, he experienced all the wellsprings of knowledge opening before him and filling his mind, and when he turned back they ceased, yet he unconditionally obeyed the directives of his Rebbe.