Parshas Ki Sisa

Reb Aizel re­lated the fol­low­ing:

The Al­ter Rebbe once said to the Mit­teler Rebbe, “I’m go­ing to lie down; stand by the door and wake me up for Min­cha. ” He stood at the door, but then he no­ticed the bed start­ing to move about. Sud­denly, the Al­ter Rebbe came out and said, “Run quickly, tell Reuven the sofer² to bring a leather strap. ” When he came the Al­ter Rebbe showed him how to tie the knot of the tefillin worn on the head.

(My zeide com­mented that this was equiv­a­lent to Hashem showed him the knot of the tefillin.³)

2. R. Reuven of Yanovitch was the Alter Rebbe's chossid and personal sofer. ↩
3. Berachos 7a. See Shemos 33:18- 23, where Moshe asks Hashem, Show me Your glory, and Hashem answers, You will see My back. ↩

The chas­sidim re­late that in the time of the Tzemach Tzedek a ques­tion arose re­gard­ing a woman ac­cused of adul­tery, and in the process of de­ci­sion-mak­ing the Tzemach Tzedek in­clined to­ward for­bid­ding her to her hus­band. The woman trav­eled to see the tzad­dik, R. Mordechai of Cher­nobyl, who said that he saw no sign upon her of wrong­do­ing.

The Tzemach Tzedek wrote: “Con­cern­ing the fact that the tzad­dik, R. Mordechai of Cher­nobyl, did not see this trans­gres­sion on her face — per­haps the many tears she shed cleansed the sin from her face. ”

(The Rebbe wrote to me on the 13 th of Elul, 5709 (1949): Re­gard­ing the story you cite about the Tzemach Tzedek, in which he said that she washed it away with tears — I heard that the schol­arly de­lib­er­a­tion over the mat­ter was with his brother-in-law, R. Yaakov Yis­roel of Cherkass [son of R. Mordechai of Cher­nobyl].)