אות - רמט

A man by the name of … came to the Rebbe in a village. He was a great scholar and Kabbalist, but was always angry with his workers and servants. He beat them and degraded them in every possible manner.

The Rebbe said to him, “Why is it written, ‘Er, Judah’s firstborn, was bad ( ra ) in God’s sight’ (Genesis 38:7) ? Why is the word ra (bad) used rather than the word rasha (wicked)?” [The Zohar (I, 57a) poses a similar question.] “The reason is because one who commits the sin of Er is always bad-tempered and unpleasant. He is disagreeable and always angry.”

The Rebbe said no more.

As soon as the other man heard these words, he fell backward and was stricken with great trembling and agitation. His terror and panic were beyond measure. His posture became humbled and he could no longer even lift his head to stand before the Rebbe’s holy splendor.

Then the man fled from the house. He stood outside and began to cry, tears flowing freely down his cheeks. One of this man’s employees, a tutor, was also one of the Rebbe’s followers. The man begged this tutor to help him attach himself to the Rebbe.

Later, the Rebbe visited the man and saw a book resting on a shelf right next to him. The Rebbe asked him what kind of book it was. When informed that it was a Kabbalistic text, the Rebbe told him, “You are not fit to study the Kabbalah” (cf. Tzaddik #526) .

The man then followed the Rebbe in his travels.

When the man returned home, he repented with all his might. He designated an isolated room and devoted himself arduously to Torah and prayer for many weeks. It helped for a while, but his ugly temper eventually returned. Still, he constantly followed the Rebbe.

The Rebbe told the tutor, “Stay with your employer a while longer. It is good for you to be with him, for you can cause him to be a righteous person for at least an hour a day.”

After the man regained his evil temper, he had a disagreement with one of his servants and refused to pay him. The servant walked all the way from the village to the city where the Rebbe lived and complained bitterly. The Rebbe was very upset with the employer for doing this.

But then the Rebbe began to seek out the employer’s good points. He told the servant, “What can be done? He is very poor. Perhaps he doesn’t have enough [money] to pay you ….”

And there is yet another story that can be told ….

But there are many stories we could tell about the Rebbe with his followers, even the very least of them; this would consume many volumes. As it is written, “The ear would not be satisfied with hearing” (Ecclesiastes 1:8) .

The Rebbe himself said that many things would happen to his followers and that many tales would be told about each one.

If you were accustomed to being in the Rebbe’s holy presence, you would see extraordinary miracles every minute. But the Rebbe’s greatest miracles involved drawing people near to God. If a man truly wanted to come close to God, he would go in and see the Rebbe and immediately be transformed into a new person. Everyone who was worthy of standing in the Rebbe’s presence was infused with tremendous awe and inspiration, true repentance, and a great spiritual arousal. Words cannot express it. If all the seas were ink … ( Shabbat 11a) .

The world has never seen a miracle like this, where one man should be able to arouse so many, great and small, to such great feeling and emotion toward God.