Shemini Atzeres

My zeide told me that the Rebbe Ma­ha­rash knew how he spoke (af­ter a few LeChaims) of the Chas­sidus of Reb Aizel of Homil. For al­though he re­ferred to Reb Aizel as Der Hieger 30 or Der Homiler, and re­served the term “Rebbe” for the Tzemach Tzedek, nev­er­the­less — as Reb Aizel’s out­stand­ing dis­ci­ple — he had high re­gard for his Chas­sidus.

Early one sum­mer morn­ing as he walked through the Rebbe’s court­yard af­ter a late-night far­bren­gen and a gen­er­ous mea­sure of mashkeh, he looked up to see the Rebbe Ma­ha­rash stand­ing by the win­dow.

“Mordechai Yoel, come here, ” the Rebbe said, and be­gan talk­ing with him.

When the con­ver­sa­tion reached the topic of Reb Aizel’s Chas­sidus, my zeide said (with a ni­gun), “The Rebbe doesn’t need it, nor do the Rebbe’s chil­dren need it. But the Rebbe’s grand­chil­dren and reg­u­lar chas­sidim 30 "The lo­cal one. "

should learn Reb Aizel’s Chas­sidus. ” Con­clud­ing his words he glanced up­ward and there, in the sec­ond win­dow, saw the Tzemach Tzedek. “I was sober in an in­stant, ” my zeide re­counted, “and fled. ”

Far­bren­gens among chas­sidim be­gin with an in­tro­duc­tion. Once, at a Kid­dush com­mem­o­rat­ing R. Leivik’s hilu­lah (pass­ing), I said that my zeide heard first -hand from the Tzemach Tzedek that the Al­ter Rebbe had said, “On whom are you re­ly­ing? My door in Gan Eden will be con­cealed from you. ” And the Rebbe Rashab said, “I’m go­ing to Heaven; I leave you the writ­ings. ”

(When I came to Ros­tov I heard a dif­fer­ent ver­sion: “The writ­ings and my son I leave with you. ”)

And Yosef Nemotin⁴ (grand­son of the ven­er­a­ble R. Yehoshua Nemotin⁵) told me that R. Leivik said be­fore pass­ing away, “It will take a lit­tle time; it’s nec­es­sary to jour­ney to an­other world, a higher world. ”

4. He served Reb Leivik in his final years. ↩
5. A respected Chabad rov during the days of the Rebbes Maharash, Rashab and Rayatz. ↩