Parshas Mikeitz

R. Bet­za­lel Azaritzer, a shadar for the Tzemach Tzedek, was once a guest of Reb Aizel and chal­lenged him over his lack of con­cern re­gard­ing a sir­chah.²

“I’m the rov of the city, ” Reb Aizel an­swered, “and when I make a ha­lachic rul­ing that some­thing is kosher, I don’t view my­self as higher than the one who asked me, and above eat­ing it my­self. ”

And when R. Bet­za­lel would not re­lent, Reb Aizel said, “ Tza­leh, lis­ten to me. I’m al­ready an al­ter Yid, over the hill — you won’t suc­ceed in mak­ing me any frumer!”

When an ac­count of this reached the Tzemach Tzedek, the Rebbe asked R. Bet­za­lel, “Why are you start­ing up with the zeide’s sol­dier?!”

2. A blemish in a lung of questionable kashrus. ↩

The chas­sidim once lamented to the Al­ter Rebbe about the poverty that Jews were strug­gling with. “You’d rather not have this prob­lem?” he asked. “It is well-known that present -day ne­shamos are rein­car­na­tions from the time of the first Beis Hamik­dash , and a ma­jor cause of the Tem­ple’s de­struc­tion was idol­a­try — for which the pun­ish­ment is death, G-d for­bid. And ev­ery oc­ca­sion when one’s ma­te­rial needs are un­met is a com­pen­sa­tion for that. ”

The Al­ter Rebbe blessed him, “Aizik, you should be wealthy!” And from the funds that peo­ple de­posited with him, the Rebbe’s bless­ing was ful­filled.