Weekly Chasidic Story #696(s5771-30 / 22 Adar B 5771) Overnight Transport Just before his passing, the Apter Rebbe made an intense promise. Connection: Seasonal -- 33rd yarhzeit of Rabbi S. Y. Zevin (and 182nd of the Apter Rebbe)
Overnight TransportThe fifth of Nissan is a week from Shabbat, so you can save this story for then too. However, the reason I chose it because Sunday this week was the yahrzeit of Rabbi Zevin, one of the most important rabbinical figures of the 20th century, and this story, from his collection, includes a deeply personal note. - Y.T. It was in Mezhibuzh, on the night of the 5th of Nissan, ten days before Passover, 1829, that Rabbi Avraham Yehoshua Heschel, the Ohev Yisrael of Apta, departed this world. On the very same night, in the holy city of Tiberias on the shore of the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee, Israel), people heard a knocking on the windows of Kollel Vohlin, one of the organizations responsible for the fair distribution of funds in support of the struggling religious Jews from Europe in the Land of Israel. Inside was the caretaker, alone, the one who held the keys to the gates of the cemetery. The voice from outside said: "Go outside and follow the bier of the Rabbi of Apta!" He ventured outside and was chilled by terror, for the bier was being followed by a grim retinue of a myriad human forms from the Other World. One of these followers intimated to him that this was the funeral procession of the tzadik (righteous one) of Apta; he had died in Mezhibuzh, and angels from Above had borne his coffin here for entombment in the soil of the Holy Land. The beadle repeated his story in the morning. People refused to believe him, until on the suggestion of an elderly sage they went together to the cemetery, and there they found a newly-covered grave. Letters from Apta later confirmed that the tzadik had indeed passed away on that very day. Before his passing he had cried out to heaven in bitter protest over the length of the exile. Why was the Mashiach tarrying so long? And in his heartache he had wept and said: "Before Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev left This World he promised that he would not rest, nor allow the tzadikim in the World of Truth to rest, until their insistent pleas would bring about the Messianic Redemption. But when he arrived there, the saintly souls in the Garden of Eden found spiritual delight in his company, and ascended with him to the palaces of supernal bliss - until he forgot his own promise. But I will not forget!"*** * * * ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Connection: This week (21 Adar) fell the 33rd yahrzeit of Rabbi Shlomo Yosef Zevin, founder and first editor of the ongoing Encyclopedia Talmudit project, and author of many significant and popular works on Jewish Law, who somehow also managed to find the time and care to pen a multi-volume set of traditional Chasidic stories, upon which the above version is based. Original note from Rav Zevin attached to this story: Biographic note:
To receive the Story by e-mail every Wednesday--sign up here! A 48 page soft-covered booklet containing eleven of his most popular stories may be ordered on our store site.
|
|