Don't Mix!
(This story is known to us from a chasid
and relative of the Tzemech Tzedek (Rabbi Menachem Mendel Sheersohn of Lubavitch)
named Asher, who happened to be in Primishlan for the holiday season in the year
the following episode took place.)
One year around the time
of the High Holidays, the daughter of the well-known tzadik, Rabbi Meir
of Primishlan, fell severely ill. As Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur passed, her
condition worsened, and she seemed closer to death than life.
On Simchat
Torah, Rabbi Meir was fulfilling the commandment to dance and rejoice with the
Torah Scrolls, doing so with great enthusiasm, as every year. Great happiness
prevailed among all the dancers.
But then, a small delegation of Chasidim
burst through the doors of the synagogue in haste, and approached him to disclose
that his daughter appeared to be in her final moments, G-d forbid, and he must
do something.
The Rebbe hastened home and entered his daughter's room. When
he perceived how critical the situation was, he immediately stepped out and stood
by himself. Then the Primishlanner (who always referred to himself in the third
person by his diminutive nickname, "Meirel") proclaimed:
"Ribono
Shel Olam - Master of the Universe! You commanded us to blow the shofar
on Rosh Hashana, so Meirel blew. You commanded us to fast on Yom Kippur, so Meirel
fasted. You commanded us to live in a sukkah on the festival of Sukkos,
so Meirel lived in a sukkah. You commanded us to be joyous on Simchas Torah,
so Meirel is joyous.
But now Ribono Shel Olam Master
of the Universe: you have made my daughter to be critically sick, and Meirel is
obligated to accept this tragedy with joy, as it is written (Brachot ch. 9), A
person is required to bless on something bad that happens to him in the same way
as he is required to bless on something good, and the Talmud explains that
this cannot refer to the wording of the blessings since their texts are
different, so it must be that is our attitude that has to be the same -
that is, to be joyful towards the bad event just as towards the good. So Meirel
accepts his daughters illness with joy, as You have commanded.
"However,
Ribono Shel Olam - Master of the Universe, there is also an explicit law
that we are not supposed to mingle one joy with another
" **
At
that moment, they cried out from the sick room that the sick young woman had broken
into a heavy sweat. Before their eyes her condition began visibly to improve.
After a reasonable time she recovered completely.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Translated
and freely adapted by Yrachmiel Tilles from Sipurei Chasidim by Rabbi S. Y.
Zevin.
Copyrighted © by Ascent-of-Safed, 2004
**Editor's
note: Moed Katan 8b. Thus, for example, there cannot be weddings during festivals
Biographical note:
Rabbi
Meir of Primishlan [?-29 Iyar 1850], lived in abject but patient poverty,
yet exerted himself tirelessly for the needy and the suffering. His ruach hakodesh
(prophetic spirit) and his ready wit have become legendary. He wrote no works,
but some of his teachings were collected and published by his chasidim after his
death.
Yrachmiel Tilles is co-founder and associate
director of Ascent-of-Safed, and editor of Ascent Quarterly and the AscentOfSafed.com
and KabbalaOnline.org websites. He has hundreds of published stories to his credit.