A Chassidic Rebbe

A Chassidic Rebbe

Many years ago a well known Talmid Chacham and author came to speak to us in Kollel. I am sure that you have heard of him, but not everyone appreciates having his name mentioned on the internet. In his talk he told us a story:

One day one of the Chassidic Rebbes in Europe was sitting in his Bais Medrash with some of the chassidim, when a man carrying a bundle walks in, looks around, catches the face of the Rebbe, and says, “Ah!”, approaches the Rebbe, and pulls out of the bundle a golden tray (if I remember this detail correctly), puts it down in front of the Rebbe, and says, “Thank you.” Then he turned around and walked out. A few of the chassidim ran after him to hear the story. The Rabbi who told us this story said that he heard the story personally from one of the chassidim who ran after the man.

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Talmud with the Rambam

The man explained — “I have the privilege to be able to sit and learn, and my interest, and my expertise, my heart’s desire is to learn the Talmud with the Rambam. I focus on how the Rambam learned the gemara, and I put my strength and my energy to come out clear in all of the Rambam’s commentary, so to speak, on the gemara.

There was one sugya which was particularly difficult, and I had serious and deep questions on what the Rambam wrote, and I spent days and nights trying to work it out without a lot of success. Until one morning I fell asleep on the shtender, and I found myself in a corridor, and a man approached me and said, “Follow me.” He took me down the corridor, and told me to go into a room and wait. I saw in the room that there were a few men there already seated, so I took a seat amongst them.

There was a shtender at the head of the room, so apparently we were going to hear a shiur, a lesson. Soon after, the Magid Shiur (lecturer) entered, approached the shtender, opened the gemara, and started speaking. He learned the very gemara that I was learning, he brought the Rambam that I was having difficulty with, he asked all the questions that I had on the Rambam, and then he answered them all, resolving everything beautifully.

When the shuir ended the man who showed me in to the room came back and told me to follow him. He took me back down the corridor. I asked him, “where are we?” He answered, “Gan Eden HaTachton.” Then I asked him, “the people in that room, were they before 120 or after 120?”, and he answered, “they were all after 120 except for the one that gave the shuir, he is still in the world.”

Then I woke up.

“So I have been going around Europe from town to town, from Bais Medrash to Bais Medrash, until I found the one who answered my questions in order to show my appreciation. Turns out it is your Rebbe.”

Wait, the story is not over yet.

Back to the Bais Medrash

The Chassidim then went back to the Bais Medrash and sat themselves down. After a while they asked the Rebbe, “Who was that man who came in and gave you the golden tray?” The Rebbe answered, “Oh, someone who once came to one of my shiurim …”

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Boruch Rappaport

https://boruchrappaport.net/about/

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