CHASSIDIM TELL STORIES

A compilation of stories about Rabbi Levi Yitzchok Schneersohn zt”l, presented for Chaf Av.

Compiled by Avrohom Rainitz

THE RAV’S HONOR AND HASHEM’S HONOR

R’ Mendel Futerfas related:

R’ Levi Yitzchok was very particular about the arrangement of divorce. He would say: It is not a small thing to permit a married woman to the world! 

He would fast on the day a get was arranged in his Beis Din and was entirely shrouded in dread that every single detail be absolutely perfect.

R’ Mendel once served as a witness in a divorce, and without thinking put his hand on the table. R’ Levi Yitzchok yelled at him: “Take your hand off the table!” The witnesses must stand when testifying, and when he leaned on the table it could be considered like sitting, “leaning is like sitting.”

Once, one of the big rabbanim sent him the wording of a get in order to get his opinion and consent. R’ Levi Yitzchok disqualified the wording of the get and he wrote his reasons to the rav.

The rav sent him a corrected version in order to get his approval. But this time too, R’ Levi Yitzchok found problems with it and disqualified it. 

When this happened a third time and the rav sent another version to him, he added a request in his letter that R’ Levi Yitzchok act for the sake of his honor, and after all the corrections to finally approve the wording of the get.

R’ Levi Yitzchok sent him a response which said that although he cared about the rav’s honor, he could not compromise in this situation because he needed to care far more for Hashem’s honor!

WHY RUSH?

R’ Chaim Leib Itkin related:

My parents lived in Krivoy Rog, a five hour train ride from Yekaterinoslav (now Dnepropetrovsk). I once visited my uncle on Motzaei Shabbos and talked to him for a long time about various topics. When it was already nine o’clock, I got up to go. But R’ Levi Yitzchok stopped me. “You have a ticket, so why rush?”

I stayed for another half an hour and got up to go. But he held me back again. Having no choice, I sat back down. When it was almost 10:30, I could not wait any longer and I did not listen to him but left the house. He asked me to wait because the train would be late anyway, but I kept going.

When I got to the train station I had only three minutes to board the train. I rushed into a compartment but the train did not move. Half an hour went by, then an hour, and another hour, and the train stood still. The hours kept passing and we did not leave. In the end, the train left several hours late.

That is when I understood why he kept asking me to stay and talk to him about important matters, so I would not waste time, which is what happened in the end.

CHASSIDUS AROUND THE CLOCK

R’ Peretz Mochkin related:

One of the chozrim by the Rebbe Rashab, R’ Yosef, a shochet in Kremenchug, said that he once went to Charson in the same train compartment as R’ Levi Yitzchok. When the night began, R’ Levi Yitzchok began saying Chassidus. He only ended when the train stopped at a station at dawn. All night long, Chassidus and Kabbala flowed from his lips without stop.

THE GENTILES ALSO SHOW RESPECT

R’ Sholom Vilenkin related:

In Russia there were special stores in which you could purchase checks in rubles in exchange for foreign currency that citizens received from abroad. With these checks you could buy food that was not obtainable for regular currency.

I once stood on line together with hundreds of other people in order to receive these checks. R’ Levi Yitzchok suddenly appeared. I was astonished by how the masses moved aside, most of them non-Jews, out of respect for the rabbi and allowed him to go straight to the front without having to wait on line.

AT THE CAVE OF THE MAHARAM OF ROTENBERG

R’ Shneur Zalman Butman related:

I heard this story from R’ Levi Yitzchok who traveled abroad with the Rebbe Rashab on a number of occasions. One time, the two of them went to the city where the Maharam of Rotenberg was arrested and died. There was a cave there where he is buried and the opening to the cave was in the form of a low window close to the ground. You had to lie down on the ground and put your head to the window in order to look inside. This did not stop the Rebbe Rashab who made the effort and looked into the cave.

R’ Levi Yitzchok told me that it was hard to watch the Rebbe stretched out on the ground and he even tried preventing the Rebbe from doing this, saying it was difficult and the Rebbe should not exert himself. The Rebbe said: I want the z’chus of seeing the place where the Maharam of Rotenberg is buried.

R’ Levi Yitzchok said that they visited the Altneuschul, the shul of the Maharal of Prague. In the attic of that shul is the golem that was made by the Maharal. The Rebbe Rashab asked for a ladder to go up to the attic, even though he was told that nobody dares to go up there because they are so afraid. The Rebbe went up the ladder and when only his head reached the opening of the attic he came right back down, his face white. He said that he too maintained that nobody had permission to go there.

THE EITZ CHAIM AND THE UNITY OF

G-D

R’ Avrohom Drizin related:

When R’ Levi Yitzchok once farbrenged in public and spoke of kabbalistic ideas, R’ Itche Masmid said: Speak a bit about matters of avoda, the concept of the unity of G-d!

R’ Levi Yitzchok replied: There is not a word in Eitz Chaim that does not relate to the unity of G-d.

WHAT A DROP OF WATER CAN DO

R’ Avrohom Drizin related:

R’ Levi Yitzchok’s great care in the baking of matzos began with the harvesting of the wheat, as related in the following story. 

They once sent a large shipment of flour by train. On the way, the train passed under a bridge and a few drops of water dripped into one of the compartments. When R’ Levi Yitzchok heard about this, he wanted to disqualify all the flour in that compartment. However the owners, who feared a huge loss, did not agree to this.

It was only after R’ Levi Yitzchok threatened them that if they did not do as he paskened, he would invalidate all the flour in all the compartments that they caved into his demand and R’ Levi Yitzchok’s request was carried out.

TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE

R’ Dovid Okunov related:

In 5690 he attended a Yud-Tes Kislev farbrengen in the home of R’ Levi Yitzchok. They sang the niggun of R’ Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev: “Mizrach Du, Maariv Du, Tzafon Du, Darom Du, etc.” 

After singing it, R’ Levi Yitzchok said: You think that “du” (you) refers to Atzmus alone. “Du” means two as it says, “tav l’maisav tan du” [Aramaic, it is better to live together as two], i.e. the Sh’china and K’nesses Yisroel.

BEGINNING THE MEETING

R’ Nachum Zevin related:

The gaon R’ Chaim Ozer once called for a meeting of rabbanim in his home to discuss timely matters. My grandfather, R’ Shlomo Yosef Zevin, was there. 

When they urged him to begin the meeting, R’ Chaim Ozer said: The meeting will not begin until the rav of Yekaterinoslav comes, R’ Levi Yitzchok!

LEARNING FROM MOSHE RABBEINU

R’ Shmuel Halperin related:

Once, an important rabbi in his city passed away. As the rav in the city, he was given the honor to eulogize the deceased. He noticed many rabbis (refugees) in attendance at the funeral and was afraid that once the eulogies began, they wouldn’t end that day and the deceased would be buried after a long delay.

He therefore decided that only one person would eulogize the deceased and he explained this lightly by saying: At the burial of Moshe it says, “And nobody knew his burial place till this very day.” Why wasn’t Moshe properly eulogized, and why don’t we know where he is buried so we can visit the grave and pray?

The answer is: if 600,000 Jews began eulogizing he would not have been buried till this very day and so they took him and buried him in a way that nobody knows where he is buried.

AT WAR WITH THE MASKILIM

R’ Nachum Goldschmidt related:

One Yom Tov, R’ Levi Yitzchok went to the shul of the maskilim, quickly went up to the bima and protested the very existence of the shul. It was a move that entailed great danger in those days.

The gabbai of the shul reacted impudently. Not that long afterward, the gabbai died and a short time after that his wife died. It was considered wondrous.

MORE STORIES ABOUT RABBI LEVI YITZCHOK

HEALTHY BUT TREIF

In the heretical situation which prevailed in Russia, there were rabbanim who tried to explain halachos in Shulchan Aruch in logical ways. Not so R’ Levi Yitzchok, who emphasized that this is the word of G-d without explanations.

It is told that one time a woman went to ask R’ Levi Yitzchok about a chicken. When he saw, after examining it, that it was treif, he said to her: You should know that the chicken is healthy, but according to Halacha it is forbidden to be eaten because it is treif. 

CLEVER RAV

Most of the Zionist activists in Yekaterinoslav were opposed to the election of R’ Levi Yitzchok as rav of the city. The Zionist leader Menachem Osishkin had a different position, and he was involved in R’ Levi Yitzchok’s appointment. His friends wondered why he supported the Chassidic rabbi, and he explained:

It is known that Chassidim are clever and all the more so a Chassidic rav. I prefer a clever rav, no matter his views, than another sort of rav.

CONSTANT THINKING

When R’ Levi Yitzchok once lay down to rest on the couch after the Shabbos meal, he told those nearby that the Rebbe Rashab told him that one should always think, even when lying down to rest.

THAT’S THE ANSWER!

One year, when all the matza bakeries were closed, he managed to obtain a permit to use one bakery in his city. The way it worked was that each person brought his own flour out of which matzos were made. One day, a person came to the rav and complained: Yesterday, on his day off, he stood all day and waited his turn, and in the end he wasn’t able to bake his matzos. If he was unable to bake his matzos that day too, he and his family would starve on Pesach.

R’ Levi Yitzchok said: And what if you don’t have matzos for Pesach? 

The man was upset by this response and said something disparaging. 

If so, said the rav, you will immediately get a turn to bake matzos. That’s the answer I was waiting for.

Afterward, R’ Levi Yitzchok said that he never had as much pleasure as he did from the disparaging remark from that Jew.