Weekly Chasidic Story #737 (s5772-16 / 14 Tevet 5772)

Tailor to the Rescue

Two brawny policemen barged into the home of Rabbi Hillel Paritcher to cut off his peyot.

Connection: Weekly Reading - One of the four ways we Jews merited the redemption from Egypt was adhering to Jewish appearance.

 

Tailor to the Rescue

 

Rabbi Hillel of Paritsh was renowned for his punctilious observance of the mitzvot, being prepared to risk his life even for the merest detail ordained by the Sages. The Czarist regime of his day decreed that all Jews were to shave off their peyos, and some unscrupulous informer told the local authorities that Reb Hillel's earlocks were still intact. They decided to shear them off by force, but Reb Hillel covered them tightly with his hands to protect them. The soldiers withdrew their swords and forcefully began hitting his hands and head, causing him to scream. His neighbor, a Jewish tailor who had a good relationship with the officers in charge, heard him and came running, and after promising them gifts, he convinced them to leave. Grateful for his help, Reb Hilled blessed the man, and promised him that "after a hundred and twenty years" he would be rewarded by being buried next to him.

[Reb Hillel once explained that his dedication to maintaining his peyos and beard came from having seen a hand-written essay of the tzadik Rabbi Pinchas of Koretz, in which he wrote that adapting non-Jewish clothing styles and appearance was the 50th Gate of Impurity, which if the Jews had fallen one more level into it they would not have been able to be redeemed from Egypt.

Similarly, in the times preceding the revelation of King Mashiach there will be an endeavor to make the Jews change their clothing and appearance, and unfortunately it will succeed. Only in the merit of those individuals that will refuse to change their appearance even at the risk of their lives will all the Jews be blessed with redemption. Reb Hillel concluded, "Anyone that would have this manuscript would of course be willing to give up his life for the sake of traditional Jewish dress and appearance."]

Many years passed. Reb Hillel in the meantime became rabbi of Bobruisk, and every year would travel around the provinces and to the cities of Kherson and Yekatrinoslav, teaching Torah as well to the farmers of the Jewish agricultural colonies, by whom he was greatly admired. In the summer of 1864, at age 69, he suddenly fell ill while staying in Kherson - which is very far from Bobruisk and Paritsh in White Russia - and passed away there.

On the following day, amidst widespread mourning, he was brought to burial, and his disciples and admirers flocked there for many years thereafter to pray at the graveside of this tzadik.

Sometime later, on a bitterly cold and stormy day, an unknown elderly traveler died in the town's communal hostelry. The Chevra Kadisha [Jewish Burial Society] prepared his body and took him to be buried, intending to place him in the section for unknown people. However, due to the fierce winter snow, they unknowingly buried him near Reb Hillel. A day or two later it was noticed that the new grave had been dug right next to the resting place of the illustrious Reb Hillel. When the facts came to light a great hubbub arose in town: was it proper that an unknown traveler whom no respectable citizen even knew, a nobody who had died in the communal poorhouse - that such a one should be buried next to the tzadik?

It was too late, though, to change things: the Torah would never allow it. At least let them find out just who this individual was. His identification papers disclosed his name and that of his father, and the fact that he came from Paritsh. The communal worthies of Kherson therefore wrote to their counterparts in Paritsh, asking to be told at least whatever they knew about this man.

The answer from Paritsh identified him clearly: he was a retired tailor, who had been traveling in order to live with one of his children. They added that this same tailor had many long years earlier been promised by Reb Hillel that "after a hundred and twenty years" he would be brought to rest next to his own resting place.

And so, the decades-old promise of Rabbi Hillel of Paritsh came to fruition.


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[Source: Adapted by Yerachmiel Tilles from Lma'an Yishme'u #78, and from Sipurei Chasidim, as translated by Uri Kaploun in A Treasury of Chassidic Tales (Artscroll).]

Connection: Weekly Torah - One of the four ways we Jews merited the redemption from Egypt was adhering to Jewish appearance. See also the 2nd and 3rd paragraphs above [in brackets].

Biographical note:
Rabbi Hillel of Paritsh (1795-13 Av/Shabbat Nachamu 1864) was a chassid of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneersohn, the Tsemach Tsedek, and as the chassidim used to say, "half a rebbe" in his own right. He served as the Rabbi of Bobruisk for many years, and authored Pelach HaRimon, a work of deep chassidic thought.

Rabbi Pinchas (ben R. Avraham Abba Shapiro) of Koretz (1726 - 10 Elul 1791) was considered to be one of the two most pre-eminent followers of Chassidism's founder, the Baal Shem Tov (along with his successor, the Maggid of Mezritch). His teachings appear in various collections (such as Midrash Pinchas), and are cited in the classic Bnei Yissaschar.


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