Weekly Chasidic Story 659 (s5770-44 / 2 Menachem-Av 5770)

Will Power to Live

Rabbi Benzion Halberstam of Bobov was regularly provided by his followers with Havana cigars to smoke.

Connections (2): Weekly reading -- verse 4:15; Seasonal - 69th yahrzeit

Will Power to Live

Once, while feeling ill, Rabbi Benzion Halberstam, a previous Bobover Rebbe, consulted a doctor in Vienna. As he sat in the waiting room he smoked a Havana cigar. His followers regularly provided them for him, knowing that the Rebbe enjoyed them. When the doctor entered the room and saw the Rebbe smoking, he told him, "Herr Rabbiner, smoking is not healthy for you!"

The Rebbe put his cigar into a nearby ashtray and followed the professor inside. When the examination was finished, he put on his coat and was about to leave. The doctor hurried after him, calling, " Herr Rabbiner! Your cigar!"
The Rebbe turned to him and asked, "What do you mean?"

"Your cigar -- you have forgotten to take it."

"Not really," the Rebbe replied. "I don't smoke."

The professor was dumbfounded. The Rebbe explained that the moment the doctor told him that smoking was unhealthy -- a fact which he had not known -- he put the cigar down and would never touch one again. He was surprised at the doctor's incredulity.

"How is it possible to smoke after hearing it is not healthy?" he asked.

For his part, the doctor was amazed that a person who had smoked for so long could quit so abruptly, without any difficulty. The Rebbe did not understand the doctor's surprise.

"The Torah," he explained, "commands us, 'Venishmartem meod lenafshotechem' ['You shall take care exceedingly of your lives' -- Deut. 4:15). I must obey this command to guard my health, just as I must obey any other command in the Torah."

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[Adapted by Yerachmiel Tilles from "Gut Woch " (Mesorah) by Avrohom Barash]

Connections (2): Weekly reading -- verse 4:15; Seasonal - 69th yahrzeit
Biographic note:
Rabbi Ben Zion Halberstam of Bobov (1874- 4 Menachem Av 1941), was born in Bikofsk in 1874 to his father Rabbi Shlomo Halberstam (1847-1905), the first Rebbe of the dynasty. At age thirty-one he succeeded his father as Rebbe of Bobov. He wrote a commentary on the Torah called Kedushas Tzion. Rabbi Ben Zion was murdered by the Nazis in 1941. He was succeeded by his son Rabbi Shlomo Halberstam (1907-2000), who rebuilt Bobov in the United States.

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