PART I
It seemed as if every hardship in the world had befallen the tzaddik Reb Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk, ever since he had arrived in the Holy Land with a few hundred of his Chassidim from Eastern Europe. It appeared that his settling in Eretz Yisroel related to such lofty intentions and thus resulted in drawing down upon him great prosecutions and tests from on high, as per the saying, “That which is holier is more desolate.”
His life and that of his followers who lived in Teveria was extremely difficult, a steady stream of hardships and travails, with almost not one day of tranquility. The path of their settlement in the Holy Land was hardly strewn with roses.
Perhaps all of this was because as terrible as their material conditions were, Reb Menachem Mendel and his disciples experienced tremendous spiritual elevation through the power of the holiness of the Land. This can be seen from the statement of Reb Zushe of Anipoli to one of his relatives who wanted to move to Eretz Yisroel. “How can you compare me to Reb Menachem Mendel who is in Eretz Yisroel, which is higher than the rest of the world, and he from his lofty place is able to see down to the lowest places…”
The members of Reb Menachem Mendel’s fellowship were men of great spiritual strength, and as such they accepted their suffering with love, “And only the great delight of living in Eretz Yisroel improved their lives for them.”
Reb Menachem Mendel himself sought to explain the never-ending painful events in a letter that he wrote to his Chassidim: “The Holy Sh’china is in exile, and all matters of the Sh’china are in a way of poverty and lowliness. Therefore, the Jewish People, which draws its sustenance from the Sh’china, is lowlier than all the nations. And in Eretz Yisroel, its lowly state can be seen even more so, which is why the Jews in Eretz Yisroel are in a lowlier state than the Jews of the Diaspora.”
The heart trembles to read how Reb Menachem Mendel equates his suffering to the suffering of the Sh’china.
PART II
One of the travails, among many that he had, was due to the officer in charge of the city of Teveria, who persecuted him and his Chassidim and made their lives miserable. There were a number of reasons for this, and this is one of them:
Every night, Reb Menachem Mendel would hurry to rise from his bed and sit down to perform Tikkun Chatzos. The heart of the tzaddik was embittered over the exile of the Jewish people and the Sh’china that wallows in the dirt, and he would cry and lament each night. The sound of his wailing cries would carry in the night and reach the ears of the officer who would be sleeping in his bed.
In the beginning, the officer simply tried to turn to the other side and plug his ears to avoid hearing the caterwauling of the tzaddik, but his mind and heart could not stand up to the tide of holiness that flowed from the voice of the holy man. Finally, he couldn’t take it anymore, and he sent a message informing Reb Menachem Mendel that it was disturbing his sleep, and if he did not cease and desist, he would be publicly flogged. When Reb Menachem Mendel heard the message delivered by the messenger, he told the man to inform his sender that he should prepare his burial shrouds because his time was up.
In fact, that is what happened. The very next day, the officer died a sudden death in the prime of his life. From that point onward, the fear of the righteous fell upon the wicked, and it was a salvation for the Chassidim.
The Chassid, R’ Eliezer Zusman, who recorded the story in all its details, notes that these miracles occurred in the merit of the fact that the only wish and desire of Reb Menachem Mendel and his Chassidim was to devote themselves to the service of Hashem in peace and tranquility, and how even in the most difficult of times, when they were being persecuted, the Chassidim exerted themselves to not drop one iota of their regular schedule of Torah and the service of Hashem.
PART III
It was not happenstance that Reb Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk would cry nightly over the destruction of the Beis HaMikdash and the exile of the Sh’china, since his soul came from a very lofty source in holiness, as testified to by his disciple-colleague Reb Shneur Zalman, the Alter Rebbe: “There were many lofty and sublime aspects that were present in Maran HaRav HaKadosh [Reb Menachem Mendel], and one of them was that he was on the level of ‘one who can judge with his sense of smell’ [one of the characteristics of Moshiach].”
There was a story once, which took place when he was in the Holy City of Yerushalayim. Suddenly there was a loud shofar blast from the direction of the Mount of Olives, and the people of Yerushalayim were all shook up. “It must be the shofar of Moshiach! The time of Redemption has arrived!” Everybody began rushing and bustling about to prepare themselves properly to greet Moshiach.
When the word reached the ears of Reb Menachem Mendel, he opened the window of his room and took a sniff of the outside air. He immediately closed the window, and turning to those present in the room, he said in pained tones, “There is nothing new in the world,” meaning that this was not the shofar of Moshiach.
When the Tzaddik, Reb Avrohom Yitzchok of Sadigura, heard the story, he noted, “Why did this tzaddik have to open the window in order to sniff? Couldn’t he simply determine whether the scent of Moshiach had entered his room? It must be that in his immediate environment, he always felt the scent of Moshiach, and that is why he had to open the window and check if that could be felt outside as well, which would be sign for him that the Redemption was actually happening…”
PART IV
There were occasional moments of relief for the Tzaddik and his Chassidim, who had first settled in Tzfas and later in Teveria. These were hours and days of sparks of light within the darkness of the exile that they had voluntarily subjected themselves to, within Eretz Yisroel itself.
One of those joyous days was when they finally received a permit to expand their beis midrash, which was too small to hold all of the Chassidim along with the local Jews who came to delight and bask in the glow of Reb Menachem Mendel.
With the special joy and enthusiasm of a mitzva, the Chassidim built for the tzaddik a new home suited to his needs and the needs of his family, alongside a large expansive beis midrash. The Chassid, R’ Eliezer Zusman, describes how wonderful it was in the minyan that was renewed in the court of Reb Menachem Mendel, and with “the greatness of the freedom, Torah, prayer, joy of mitzva, and great service, there was nothing to hold the people back with only one spokesman of the generation, Admur sh’yichyeh.”
Reb Menachem Mendel himself described the feelings of joy that beat within him in the face of the expansion and establishment of himself and his Chassidim. In a letter that he wrote in Kislev 5546, he informs his people in Russia and Poland “of the great good that Hashem has done with me, with the building of my home and a ‘small Sanctuary’ within it, ground floor, second floor, and third floor…”
Since the Chassidim now had a beautiful building to daven in, they began to feel more expansive and their happiness increased. Their prayers and studies also grew, and the sweet and pleasant sounds of Torah could be heard through the windows, in the sweltering Teveria air.
During that period, a group of Chassidim arrived in the court of Reb Menachem Mendel whose members were known as tremendous singers, in order to spend a Shabbos with him and to share their music at his table.
This group of itinerant singers had a special tune, which was pleasing to the ear and tugged at the heart. On Friday night, after kiddush, Reb Menachem Mendel signaled them to sing something. The group wanted to sing their special song, but the tzaddik immediately silenced them and indicated that they should stop and sing something else. The same scene repeated itself at each of the Shabbos meals, and it was a mystery to the Chassidim.
On the next day, a Rosh Chodesh that fell on Sunday, Reb Menachem Mendel sat down with his students for a Rosh Chodesh meal, as was the custom of Chassidim. Suddenly, the tzaddik instructed the group to sing the song that he had shushed the entire Shabbos.
The singers began to sing their song, which was filled with pleadings of mercy and longing, and which expresses an intense desire to come close to Hashem. Hearts became inflamed and eyes flooded with tears of longing. At the height of the song, Reb Menachem Mendel burst into bitter crying and streams of tears flowed from his eyes.
When they finished singing, the tzaddik revealed to them that this tune was one of the songs of the Levites that they would sing in the Beis HaMikdash, and that is the reason that he did not allow them to sing it on Shabbos, in order not to be pained on the Shabbos day over the destruction of the Temple and the exile of the Sh’china.