Chassidic Stories

"Quite a change, is it not?" said Abraham with a pleased smile on his face. "Yes, quite a change," the Rebbe sadly replied

I returned to my compartment in a state of confusion. The last thing I had expected from the Rebbe was a business tip

To my right sat my friend Berl, and to my left my friend Zalman. Yossel sat in front of me. The melamed was tall, with stern eyes, but with a warm and loving smile.

"Go in peace," said the Maggid to the destitute young scholar. "And remember: you must accept the very first marriage proposal that is suggested to you."

Their leader spotted a beautiful bird perched atop a tall tree. "Come," he said to his disciples, "I wish to capture this bird, so that we may delight in her song and gaze upon her wondrous hues"

"By the sanction of the Almighty," Rabbi Leib intoned, "and by the sanction of the congregation... we declare it permissible to pray with the sinners..."

The entire town would be paying attention to the new rabbi's first ruling. Everyone was sure to wonder: Why is the law of the Torah so opposite to common sense? "Why me and why now?" wondered Rabbi Levi Yitzchak

"We have many stories showing us the Baal Shem Tov's power to perform miracles," Rabbi DovBer pronounced. "For that, we don't need this story..."

Suddenly the front door rattled and thundered; someone was pounding and shouting outside. "Help! Help! Let me in!"

Reb Mendel couldn't imagine why a person would waste his time walking on a rope and risk falling on his head, when he could just walk on the ground like everyone else.

Zvi Elimelech's father pulled the boy aside and told him that he must promise never to tell anyone this story until the very last day of his life

"Please Rebbe," sobbed the man, "tell me how to repent. Give me a remedy. Save me from this unbearable affliction!"

The Rabbi found it hard to believe that Anschel Moses might be a thief. Perhaps Anschel Moses had merely borrowed the money when he went to Sniatyn to get married. Maybe he was already planning to return it...

"How can a human being possibly react to what he experiences as bad in exactly the same way he responds to what he experiences as good? How can a person be as grateful for his troubles as he is for his joys?"

Angels don’t say l’chaim on Simchat Torah, so they arose to sing G-d’s praises in the heavens at the usual time. They found heaven littered with strange objects: torn slippers, broken heels. "Yes," admitted the angel Michoel, "this is my merchandise"

Reb Shmuel reputedly said to the Rebbe: "If you are a true Rebbe, you have nothing to fear by being arrested. If you are not, you deserve whatever they will do to you"

But now he was about to do the unthinkable. He was going to ask his Rebbe to bless him that G-d should send him a comfortable livelihood...

When the two neighbors would pass each other in the yard, the scholar would throw the crass materialist a look of contempt and hurry on to his holy pursuits

Finally, the great moment arrived. It was the morning of Rosh Hashanah, and Rabbi Ze'ev stood on the reading platform in the center of the Baal Shem Tov's synagogue amidst the Torah scrolls, surrounded by a sea of tallit-draped bodies.

The scandalized crowd was about to eject the man from the synagogue, when the Rebbe turned from the wall and said: "Let him be. For us, Yom Kippur is just beginning, but for him, it's already Simchat Torah He's there already"

The room fell utterly silent. All were caught in the thrall of the melody, a melody of yearning and resolve, of ascent and retreat...

A room full of five-year-olds in a Russian cheder learn a new way to read the Alef Bet

It seems that this stingy man, despite his considerable wealth, was loath to share his blessings, no matter how worthy or urgent the cause. Rabbis and beggars alike avoided his home

Matter before spirit?

"It's Chanukah," cried Nachman, "the festival of miracles! We'll do the mitzvah the way it should be done. Not in some rusty can fished out from the garbage..."

What kind of question did Joseph ask his brothers? Doesn't everybody have a father?

"Tell him," said the Rebbe, "that not everything in the Middle Ages was dark"

"Do you know where all our rubles come from?" said Igor to Ivan. "The Czar himself has them minted in his palace! So why doesn't he just keep all the rubles he needs, and we'll keep ours?"

The Rebbe took the gold coin, wedged it in a crack in the wall next to his desk, and said no more

The young prodigy overheard the exchange between the rabbi and the wagon driver. He could scarcely believe his ears. A pound of candles to atone for violating the holy Shabbat?

I heard the voice of my three-year-old daughter Chanah calling to me, "Father, father, where are you? Father, father, answer me..."

When I was 11 years old, my father gave me the manuscript as a gift. "This is a chassidic kiss," he said, "in time I will explain"

The year was 1945, just after the war. The place: a refugee camp somewhere in Germany. Jews just out of concentration camps had gathered in a barracks-turned-Synagogue for the Yom Kippur prayers

"Why did your husband leave you?" asked Rabbi Israel.
"He says that I'm ugly," said the deserted wife.
"And what do you say to that?" asked the Chassidic master.

At the conclusion of the voyage, the doctor asked the Rebbe to forgive him for having been the cause of his illness. "You, the cause of my illness?" asked the Rebbe in amazement

"No, no," came the impatient reply from within. "Everything is in perfect condition. There's no need for any repairs"

A tall thin man, wrapped in a black cloak, suddenly appeared at the open door. He looked silently around the room, walked to a corner and just stood there, staring at the Baal Shem Tov

Instead of answering the chassid's question, Rabbi DovBer dispatched him to the town of Zhitomir. "Go visit my disciple, Rabbi Zev" he said. "Only he can provide you with the answer you seek"

"Perhaps I can help you," said the Baal Shem Tov. On small slips of paper he wrote, in simple Yiddish, "morning prayers," "addition for Mondays and Thursdays," "for Shabbat," and inserted them in the innkeeper's siddur

"I thought to myself," said the Rebbe of Karlin, "if we address the Almighty as 'King,' does this not invite the question, 'If I am indeed your king, why did you not come to me until now?'"

The few who survived were so emotionally and psychologically destroyed that they were never able to live normal lives. They lived together in little villages, apart from the rest of the world

"You lowly, despicable man!" thundered the Hungarian visitor. "What do you know! You obviously have no understanding of anything holy and spiritual!"

"When I was a young man of twenty," the Baal Shem Tov began his story, "shortly after being accepted in the society of hidden tzaddikim, several of us came to the city of Brody..."

All throught the night, whenever this clock sounded the hour, the guest leapt from his bed and danced for joy. "it's quite an ordinary clock," said the surprised innkeeper

"At home?" said Rabbi DovBer. "Oh yes... At home, it is a different matter altogether..."

Suddenly the knob of the Rebbe's door turned. The Chassidim ran for cover. 0nly crazy Beryl didn't run away

Absentmindedly, I tore a leaf off a passing tree. Holding it a while in my hands, I continued my thoughtful pacing, occasionally tearing small pieces of leaf and casting them to the winds

As the chassid stood at the pile of ashes and smoldering embers which was all that remained of everything he owned, he lifted his eyes heavenward and began to recite: "Blessed are you G-d...."

It's hard to feel at home in the largest and most luxuriously appointed mansion in town -- especially if it's yours

It didn't blow out, there was no smoke, it just was not there anymore. It was as if it just flew off...

Little Isaac was only ten years old, but was already the man of the house. His father, Yosseleh, had recently passed away, and his mother Reizel desperately needed him to help support the family. She took whatever meager work was available to her, while little Isaac took care of their tiny gaggle of geese

As they walked, they came across a group of children playing in the sand. The Baal Shem Tov went over to them and said to the nearest one, "What is your name?"

The holy beggar's face was transformed. His eyes began to glow with a divine light, and his coarse features assumed a sublime grace...

"I knew," the Rebbe said, "that somewhere, somehow, there was something in me that could relate to his situation..."

"I concluded my letter," Dr. Green recalls, "by saying that the Rebbe had best stick to his field of expertise, Torah, and leave science to scientists..."

With a final leap and twist, Reb Shmuel Munkes dumped the roasted lung into the spittoon, and broke out in a merry k'zatzkeh dance

One day, the neighborhood butcher came to the study of Rabbi Pinchas Horowitz (1730-1805), the famed rabbi of Frankfurt, with an halachic query...

"It seems," the horses surmised, "that we are not men after all, but angels, who do not partake of earthly food at all"

"Do you believe that the Torah is eternal?" asked the Rebbe. "Do you believe that its every word applies to every individual, under all conditions, at all times?"

Word resounded throughout the supernal worlds: "Because Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov has forced the hand of heaven to overturn the laws of nature, he has forfeited his portion in the World to Come"

The Rebbe looked around him. It was obvious that only he had heard the heavenly announcement. "Has anyone heard of a tzaddik called Shmerl the Tailor?" he asked. No one had

Late in the afternoon, the Rebbe emerged from his room and instructed that the circumcision commence. The only clue to his delay was the mysterious sentence that passed his lips, "Ay... the Polotzk burial society..."

At Belitza everyone gets off the wagon and proceeds on foot. But I, fearing that father would again forget me, remain on the wagon.

He didn't win anything in the first drawing, nor was his luck any better in the second or third. With each failure his frustration grew, and his faith in the Rebbe's blessing weakened

The Rabbi sighed. "You don't know what a difficult time I've been having with the stubborn people here. Ever since I got back, they've been under the delusion that Shabbat is a day later, and I can't seem to convince them"

"I shall go to the Wall and sound the shofar, so that all the supernal worlds will tremble. I am also bringing the kiddush cup which belonged to the Seer of Lublin. I will refuse to move from that spot until the Moshiach comes..."

That's the profit from the sale of a calf in the marketplace of the White Russian town of Lubavitch

The Rebbe sat in a state of d'veikut for a long while. Then lifted his head and said with great feeling: "You speak of all that you need. But you say nothing of what you are are needed for"

"Fundraising for bribes?" objected Rabbi Baruch. "Surely the matter can be dealt with in a more elevated way. Could you not teach our Jews the Echad of my holy grandfather?"

"How I do kaparot?" repeated Rabbi Elimelech. "I do what everyone else does. I hold the rooster in one hand, the prayer book in the other, and recite: This is my exchange, this is in my stead, this is my atonement..."

"The Rebbe must know something we do not," whispered disciples of Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev. "Perhaps he sees a terrible calamity decreed for the coming year, G-d forbid"

The Angel Michael harnessed the horse to the wagon of mitzvot, and the wagon driver cracked his whip. Suddenly the wagon gave a lurch forward, flattening the piles of sins that had been obstructing its way...

The Baal Shem Tov led the young talmudist to the window. A water carrier who was passing by, with a pole across his back and a pail of water tied at each end. "Come, let's go speak with him," said the chassidic master

A long caravan snaked along the dusty road, with the carriage of the Hornisteipeler Rebbe leading the way. As soon as they arrived in the village, the Rebbe asked for directions to the residence of the estate manager

"You are a spy for Russia!" thundered Napoleon, and placed his hand upon my chest to feel the pounding heart of a man exposed

"What have you been doing for the last year?" asked the incensed father-in-law. "What have you accomplished wasting your time by those wild men?" "I learned that G-d creates the world," answered the young man

At a wayside inn, a dozen chassidic merchants were warming themselves at the fire. The conversation soon turned to the greatness of their rebbes, as each extoled the virtues of his miracle-working master...

The Rebbe demonstrates his miracle-working technique to a group of high-school students

For two hours every day he would lock himself in his room and no one, not even the King himself, was allowed to enter or disturb him in any way. It was on this condition that he accepted the task of teaching the prince...

Reb Azriel David opened his eyes to the sight of the singing train. In a choked voice, he cried: "I will give half of my portion in the World to Come to whoever can take my song to the Modzitzer Rebbe!"

The guard was stupefied: few were the cabinet-level ministers granted such a privilege, and here stood a young chassid with a beard, sidelocks, chassidic garb and a Yiddish accent, at a time when to even reside in Petersburg was forbidden to Jews

"Do you own anything of value?" asked the rebbe. "Just my two horses," replied the wagon driver. "In that case," said the rebbe, "you'll have one for Purim, and the second for Passover"

Though Reb Zalman was short and elderly he strode sturdily, whereas I stumbled in the snow at almost every step until we finally reached the ohel. Even before I opened the door my little heart leaped up within me and released rivers of tears

"That is all fine and well," replied Rabbi DovBer's friend, "but there remains one slight problem: I need the merchandise..."

At the age of ten, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak was thrown into jail for helping a fellow Jew. This story is indicative of the pattern the rest of his life would follow.

As the procession approached the location for the chupah they were encountered by a solitary Jew in a wagon, a stranger that no one recognized....

"The flame is not yours," said the Rebbe, "you are just its carrier. The lamp is ready to be lit -- you need only touch it with the flame." "Should I grab him by the throat?" asked the Chassid. "By the throat, no," replied the Rebbe. "By the lapels, yes"

One day, a most unusual idea entered the mind of Moshe the textile merchant: Moshe become possessed by the desire to experience a revelation of Elijah the Prophet...

They would gather around the hot drink and warm their bones with pannes and Chassidic philosophy

Rabbi Pinchas raised his eyes. There stood the first of the Ushpizin--the honored guest for the first night of the festival--outside the door of his sukkah...

Father is standing with his face to the wall, praying. But I do not understand: Why is he entreating more than all other worshippers? Why does he need G‑d’s mercy more than other people?

“Remember, Reb Ze’ev,” were the Baal Shem Tov’s parting words to him, “one must know how to properly answer a question. Weigh your words carefully before you speak...”

Sickle in hand, the elderly Reb Zalman, with his broad, regal beard and face shining with joy, was swift and nimble as a lad...

"I know that you sent word that you could give only three matzahs, but nonetheless my father, the Seret-Vizhnitzer Rebbe, told me to tell you that he must have six matzahs."

The three emissaries from the court of death entered the room, dressed in their uniforms of red and black, rifles in hand, their belts filled with bullets and hung with a pair of revolvers and another pair of Cossack knives, with helmets of brass and their faces aflame

One Friday, the famed "Seer of Lublin" was traveling with some of his disciples when they arrived at a crossroads. The wagon driver asked which way to turn. Surprisingly, the Seer didn't seem to know what to answer. Shrugging, he said, "Loosen the reins. Let the horses go in whichever direction they will"

To each of his disciples Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov revealed his task in life, and to one, who is the hero of our story, he instructed to become a wandering storyteller. "You will know when your mission is achieved," the Besht added

In the end, the chassid he decided that he just could not meet the Karliner Rebbe’s demand. He respectfully took leave of the Rebbe and departed for home, but in his heart he felt resentful: how could a tzaddik request so much money for a blessing?

The Jews of Vitebsk, if you want to know the truth, were never known to be generous givers of money to charitable causes. But they could always be counted on to provide food for the hungry

"He has such a high opinion of himself," the Rebbe was told, "and has assumed all sorts of pious customs and practices. But it's all superficial -- on the inside, his character is as coarse and unrefined as ever"

One year, someone in Likova came up with a novel idea: what if they all refused to buy the Jew's vodka before Passover? In that case he would have to get rid of it... and they could have it all!

"Rebbe" said the businessman, "it's a different world here, in America. The neighborhood I live in... our friends... it just won't be right..."

One day, arrived in Taranow. This was before the Chassidic master had revealed himself to the world, and he appeared as a simple itinerant, but with a gift for telling stories...

Dressed in the clothes of a simple wayfarer, the Baal Shem Tov would travel from town to town and from hamlet to hamlet, asking questions

Late one night, there was a knock on his door. On his threshold stood an old man with a long white beard and a countenance as radiant as the heavens

Reb Yaakov tried not to remember but suddenly the scene was there in his memory, clear as day. He didn't want that bum to get too close. He looked disgusting. Besides, he was in the middle of a conversation with his friends...

"The one," said the Baal Shem Tov, "who knows the answer to the question, 'How can one overcome the pride in one's heart?' -- he is the man who can guide you in your service of the Almighty"

"What can I do?" replied the innkeeper. "This is my livelihood. There is nothing for me to do in the city."
"How many Jewish households are there in the city?" I asked

One Friday afternoon, a man knocked on the door of Rabbi Yizchak Eizik, rabbi of Vitebsk. "I have a din-torah (a matter of litigation)," he said. "I request that you hear my case..."

They opened a skylight in the study hall and dropped a snare; when someone walked into the study hall, they would yank on the rope so that the snare fastened itself around him, and pull him up to the roof...

The children had leaned a tall pole against a building and were competing with each other as to who could climb the highest...

"Have you ever noticed," remkarked the Rebbe, "how a horse paws angrily at the water with his hooves when it's led to a stream to drink? Why do you think he does this?"

"But Rebbe," objected the soldier, "battles are won to the tune of a joyous march, not with tears..."

"He's qualified to pass judgement," said the Chassidic master. "He has a personal interest in the matter. He is preaching only because he is in need of funds to marry off his daughter..."

"Reb Yosef is risking his very life for our sake," said the innkeeper's daughter. "But there is no other way. We have no time to lose..."

The Baal Shem Tov did not tell them where to go, nor did they ask; they allowed divine providence to direct their wagon where it may, confident that the purpose of their trip would be revealed in due time

The Baal Shem Tov loved light. So his disciples always made sure to have many candles burning whenever they expected their master...

"Always remember," said my teacher, "that it is better to be on the outside looking in, than on the inside looking out..."

After many long minutes, the Rebbe finally lifted his head from his arms and said solemnly: "You can go home. Your wife just gave birth to a baby boy..."

"Doesn't a living man need a sip of brandy once in a while?” said Reb Leib. But the Rushiner interrupted. “I'm sure you realize that he's just joking," said the chassidic master. "I'll tell you the secret of l'chayim..."

As might be expected, Hershel the Hilarious was the most popular guy in Mosayov among the idle, the crude, the silly and the drinkers...

Suddenly the Rebbe turned to the melamed: "If you wish, I will tell you three words of advice. But for each you must pay me in full. For the first, you must give me three hundred rubles..."

The Rebbe's youngest son, Shmuel, who was seven years old at the time, wandered around the room, talking to the men who sat tearfully reading Tehillim as they waited to be received by his father...

"Fools!" cried the coachman. "Do you think that I gave you to drink so that the hay you devour should be more tasty...?"

"Hundreds of mitzvot were about to be performed in Szchedrin! Never mind the eighteen rubles that will be raised---considering the sums of money that the Yetzer Harah deals with, this is a mere pittance. But the mitzvot..!"

"Every act of charity is a victory over our selfish nature," explained the chassid. "I just can't resist the opportunity to score two victories for the price of one..."

Disguised as simple beggars, the holy brothers journeyed from village to village, refining their souls with the travails of exile and inspiring their brethren with words of wisdom and encouragement...

Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev once saw a man running in the market place. "Why do you hurry so?" he asked him

A Rebbe's choice: three words or 50,000 followers

It was the first, and at that time the only, book that contained the teachings of the holy Baal Shem Tov, and now the opponents of Chassidism were plotting to destroy it...

Rabbi Michal the elder was about to recite one of the central parts of the morning prayers, the Shema when he noticed that one of the students had torn shoes. He interrupted his prayers and pointed out the torn shoes to the person who was charged with taking care of the students' material needs. Later, Rabbi Michal was asked: "Couldn't the torn shoes have waited until after you completed your prayers?"

"I suggest you approach your captain with an alternative route for the journey" said the Rabbi. "Explain that the route he has planned has many disadvantages..."

"It is true," announced R. Lieb, "that according to the law the plaintiff must take his suit to the defendant's locale; but since in this case, 'there is no place devoid of His presence,' we will try the case here in Shpoli..."

The Baal Shem Tov was once shown from heaven that a certain simple man called Moshe the Shepherd served G-d, blessed be He, better than he did...

Following the Baal Shem Tov's directions, Rabbi Chayim led Moshe Meshel and the coach driver to a clearing among the trees that seemed to be a ruin of some sort, with the remnants of a number of buildings...

A chassid went to the Baal Shem Tov in Medzibuz. "Rebbe, " he said, "I want to see Elijah the Prophet..."

In the days that followed, the chassidim hotly debated the significance of their rebbe's final words. Various theories were offered on the kabbalistic meanings of "wool," "summer" and "handsome profit"

I suddenly had an extremely rich and inspiring thought... I imagine that this is because a Jew once prayed minchah at that spot

When the man saw me he asked: "What is a small child doing all alone in the forest? Are you not afraid to be in the forest all by yourself?"

"Fire consumes fire,." said the Rebbe. "The 'fiery law' of Torah will consume the fever induced by the frost..."

Whenever a very difficult question arose, the "Holy Jew" would concentrate very deeply, often remaining steeped in his thoughts for half an hour or more, until the answer came to him...

There once lived a certain pious, young scholar, G-d-fearing and pure of heart, who invested all his time and energy in Torah learning...

The Baal Shem Tov passed his handkerchief over the boy's face and commanded, "Give us a words of Torah..."

"If you are truly a Rebbe," said the chassid, "then no harm will befall you. And if you are not--you deserve it!"

"So they'll say that Avrohom Yehoshua is not a real Rebbe, Avrohom Yehoshua is a liar. But at least for a week I succeeded in bringing some peace into a broken Jew's life..."

"I've been running away from greatness all my life," the man insisted, "yet greatness is not running after me!"

She scoured and polished the coins till they sparkled, and with a heartfelt prayer that their fortune should also begin to shine, she packed up the coins and gave them to Gavriel to bring to the Rebbe...

"Sixty-two years have now passed," related Reb Pesach, "since I was privileged to hear from the Rebbe, your grandfather, that Shema is Yisrael..."

"No matter how lofty your involvements," Rabbi Schneur Zalman admonished his son, "you must never fail to hear the cry of a child"

"In Vilna one was taught how to study," recalled the Rebbe. "In Mezeritch one could learn how to pray..."

"I am very impressed with your chassidim. However, I see your chassidim spending so much time learning chassidic texts. Doesn't this go against a Talmudic directive?..."

The two brothers, the famed Rabbi Elimelech of Lyzensk and Rabbi Zushe of Anipoli, often wandered about together posing as simple beggars...

As I touched the holy casket, I whispered "Rebbe, parnasah (livelihood)." I even managed to carry the coffin a few steps, all the time whispering "Rebbe, parnasah..."

"Tell us Rebbe! If you have the ability to stir such a Jew to repentance, why don't we, who spend so much time with you and try so hard to improve, find it easier to repent?"

Many of the Baal Shem Tov's ways seemed strange to an outsider, but his disciples knew that in the end -- even if it took years -- all would be understood

He schemed to denounce Reb Sender's supplier to the authorities. The tea would then be confiscated and Reb Sender would have to bear the loss...

"I know he is critically ill and the doctors have just about despaired of his life. For every Jewish family he helps, I promise him one month of life and health."

Reb Shabse arranged with the caretaker that when Yisrolik came to study at night, he should give him one small candle, which should burn not more than one hour

Someone lit a lamp. People squinted at each other in the sudden light, and then to their shock and surprise they noticed a new face among them...

"Rebbe, I can prove that the Torah is false... I have broken every available precept for decades now, and I have a wonderful life, blessed with financial success, good health and a happy family..."

The door swung open and Rabbi Shlomo walked out and began to pace in the waiting room. Suddenly, he loudly exclaimed: "Young man, young man, what will be if indeed there is a G‑d in this world?"

"I hereby give you as an absolute gift, for now until eternity, my complete portion in the world to come. If I have any reward waiting for me in paradise, it's yours."

"I accept that my business failure is punishment for deserting you," he cried to Reb Zushe, "but why? What was wrong with my logic?"

At one point during the trip, the horse suddenly changed course and took her own route, going back in the direction from where they had come.

It was necessary to get people that could be relied upon to keep a secret. Within half an hour, the room held nine men. Only one was missing, a tenth man for the minyan. What did the rabbi do?

"Today is the day before Rosh Hashanah," his Zeide explained. "Today we do not blow Shofar. Tomorrow morning, we will blow the shofar in shul." The child did not comprehend the reasons. He kicked and screamed, telling his Zeide, "One more blast! One more blast!"

Finally, in a dramatic denouement, Levi Yitzchak placed the tallit firmly back in its place, and announced; "If you're a chassid and a scholar, then you lead the prayers!" and stalked back to his seat near the side wall of the synagogue...

As she was washing, a known local robber and swindler swiped the ring and ran off... She shrieked that the robber just made off with her ring. "It is worth 100 coins!"

The chassid hurried through the streets of Karlin, heading to the home of Rabbi Aaron. Suddenly, a Russian policeman stood before him, blocking his path. Immediately, the chassid's hands were bound...

"A rabbi!" the landowner exclaimed. "I, too, am the grandson of a rabbi!" This astonishing statement, uttered loudly to the shock of all the passengers, had reached the ears of the rabbi himself...