Presented for 9 Kislev, both the birthday and the day the Mitteler Rebbe passed away.
By Nechama Bar
The Mitteler Rebbe’s greatness was apparent even when he was very young. He was a great scholar and had a quick grasp of material and he spent most of his time learning Torah. When he was fifteen, the Chassidim said about him that his spiritual level was greater than that of the beinoni in Tanya (which is a very high level).
When he was eighteen, everyone was afraid of his hekpeidos (the negative results of his annoyances) because some stories had been told already about how the Mitteler Rebbe’s hekpeida had negatively affected them. One of these extraordinary stories goes as follows.
The great rav, R’ Nachman of Usha, was a close friend of the Mitteler Rebbe. When the Rebbe to-be was sixteen, the two of them learned together for an entire year. It was a great delight for R’ Nachman to learn with the young man who was so diligent and brilliant.
At the end of the year, R’ Nachman returned home and began doing business. He slowly got involved in the world of business and boruch Hashem, he prospered. He was well to do and along with his business activities he had set times to learn Torah. Becoming a successful businessman did not change his devotion to Torah and mitzvos. But of course, it wasn’t like the year he had spent learning with Duber.
Three years went by and R’ Nachman felt a strong need to see the Alter Rebbe and to spend some time with him, renewing his storehouses of k’dusha.
When he arrived at the Rebbe, of course he also went to visit the Rebbe’s son, later to be the Mitteler Rebbe. R’ Nachman entered the boy’s room and found him learning Gemara. He glanced at the page and saw that he was up to page 4.
The Mitteler Rebbe looked up and when he saw R’ Nachman he welcomed him joyously. The two of them spoke about Torah and avodas Hashem and R’ Nachman nostalgically remembered that beautiful time when they had learned together.
R’ Nachman spent a spiritually uplifting day in the Alter Rebbe’s court. The following day, he went to visit the Mitteler Rebbe again. What was the Mitteler Rebbe learning? Gemara again. R’ Nachman looked at the page number and to his great surprise it was page 40! R’ Nachman laughed loudly and said, “Yesterday you learned page 4 and today page 40; could you really learn so fast? When we learned together you did not learn so quickly …”
The Mitteler Rebbe just looked at him and did not respond.
A few days passed, filled with purity and holiness in the Rebbe’s court, and then R’ Nachman had to return home, to his family and business. He left the Rebbe’s beis midrash sadly.
Not much time passed and a calamity occurred. A fire broke out in his house and burned it down with everything it contained. It was a miracle that nobody was hurt but the monetary loss was very great.
R’ Nachman was very troubled by this and he wondered, why did this terrible thing happen to me? Do I need to do t’shuva for something?
This thought gave him no rest and he decided to go back to Liadi and have yechidus with the Alter Rebbe to get guidance and bracha in his unfortunate situation.
R’ Nachman walked into the Rebbe’s room and related what had occurred in recent days when he had just returned from seeing the Rebbe. He asked the Alter Rebbe to arouse mercy for him and said he wondered why this tragedy had happened.
The Rebbe thought for a while and then said, “I see that what happened to you is not because of you, for some sin that you did, but because some tzaddik got annoyed with you. Perhaps it was me?”
The Chassid thought a bit and said, “No, I don’t remember anything about the Rebbe being annoyed with me. On the contrary, the Rebbe drew me close.”
The Rebbe asked, “Maybe my son, Duber, got annoyed with you?”
“Duber?! We are good friends who love one another! Why should he be annoyed with me?”
The yechidus ended and the Chassid left the Rebbe’s room in confusion. He sat down in a corner of the beis midrash and his thoughts raced.
Suddenly, he remembered! The last time I was here, I laughed about how fast he learned. Maybe that is the source of the problem?
He rushed to his friend’s room and told the Mitteler Rebbe about the tragedy and what the Alter Rebbe had said. “The Rebbe said that maybe you were annoyed with me and that is why the fire happened. Do you forgive me?”
The young Rebbe to-be looked serious and said, “Indeed, I was very annoyed by your mocking words. You know that I don’t learn hastily but with seriousness and great depth. There was no need to wonder about my learning faster than I did with you, since during the time you were involved with business for three years, I continued learning diligently and made much progress, boruch Hashem.”
R’ Nachman apologized about his attitude toward him and asked his forgiveness.
The Mitteler Rebbe smiled and said, “I feel very bad that because of me you lost so much money and I forgive you with a whole heart for your offending me. May Hashem have mercy on you and give you double what you lost.”
The Chassid returned home feeling that from then on his business would do well. Indeed, the words of the boy who would become Rebbe were fulfilled. Within a short time, his business flourished and he earned a lot of money. By the end of the year, when R’ Nachman examined his accounts, he saw that he had earned twice the amount he had lost in the fire.