Weekly Chasidic Story #637 (s5770-22 / 25 Shevat 5770)

Preparing for a Message from Beyond

Rabbi Yaakov Landau, subsequently the chief rabbi of Benei Brak for half a century(!), was a chasid of the fifth Lubavitcher Rebbe, the Rebbe ReShab

Connection: 24th Yahrzeit

 

Preparing for a Message from Beyond


Rabbi Yaakov Landa
was a chasid of the fifth Lubavicher Rebbe, the Rebbe Reshab, but not the usual type of chasid. The Rebbe took an unusual liking to him and even made him the 'House Rabbi.' Any questions that arouse in the household of the Rebbe; if a chicken was kosher, if something was permissible on Shabbat etc., would be directed to Rabbi Landa. And, needless to say, the devotion of Rabbi Landa to the Rebbe was boundless.

In addition to being a great Scholar, Rabbi Landa was a very knowledgeable man in mundane things as well and was an expert at home remedies. **

When the very contagious and deadly disease of typhus broke out in Russia near the turn of the century Rav Landa had ample opportunity to use his skills. The regular doctors, besides having virtually no treatment for typhus, were also understandably very reluctant to come in contact with the sick, while Rav Landa both did have remedies and did not fear for himself when it came to saving others.

He succeeded in healing hundreds but it was almost inevitable that he eventually contracted the disease himself. In a matter of days he lost consciousness and his life was hanging in the balance for several weeks until the crisis finally passed and he came to.

The only problem was that when he was sick and unconscious, the Rebbe Reshab passed away, unbeknownst to him.

Every day Rav Landa was taken from his room outside into the sun to get stronger, until after several more weeks he was back to his old self. Of course all the time he was recovering he asked everyone that passed by about the Rebbe's health, but the chasidim agreed among themselves not mention a word to him about the Rebbe's passing. The answer was always the same: "the Rebbe is fine."

But Rabbi Landa sensed that something was wrong and kept asking until somehow he got the one person that didn't know about this agreement, and he heard the bitter truth.

A normal person can understand what a terrible blow this must have been to him. A Rebbe is more than just a leader or even a father, the Rebbe virtually reveals the soul and true essence of the Chassid. But the relation between Rav Landa and the Rebbe Reshab was even deeper and more personal than that; Rav Landa had been near the Rebbe day and night and his life was virtually tied up with his.

That night Rabbi Landa wrote a short letter to the Rebbe. He folded the letter up, put it in an envelope, and the next morning when he was taken outside, he waited for the same man to pass, to whom he handed the letter and requested that he put it on the Rebbe's grave and tell no one about it.

In the letter he wrote that he wanted the Rebbe to take him away from this world. He wanted to be with the Rebbe because he felt that life was worth nothing without him.

Two days later the Rebbe's son, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak (who became the Rebbe in his father's stead) came to visit Rabbi Landa. He pulled up a chair, sat next to his bed where he was laying in the sunlight, and said, "I just was by my father's grave and he gave me a message to give over to you."

Rav Landa ushered up all his strength, propped himself up on the bed and prepared himself for the Rebbe's message from 'beyond.' When the Rebbe's son saw Rav Landa was ready, he continued.

"My father said: 'Stop making stupid requests!'"

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** Once, at a wedding, the groom suddenly began suffering from an uncontrollable nosebleed. One of Rabbi Landa's sons (Rabbi Moshe, who is now chief Rabbi of Bnei Brak) rushed to him, saying he had a trick he learned from his father. He found a piece of string, tied it very tightly around the base of the fellow's little finger and after a few seconds amazingly the bleeding completely stopped!

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[Adapted by Yerachmiel Tilles from the rendition of his friend and colleague Rabbi Tuvia Bolton, the popular teacher, musician, recording artist and storyteller, in his weekly email for the yeshiva which he heads, Ohr Tmimim (ohrtmimim.org/torah )].

Connection: Yahrzeit

Biographical notes:
Rabbi Yaakov Ben Moshe Landa [1893 - 26 Shvat 1986], became the Rabbi of Kurenets after his father passed away in 1913. During the First world war he traveled deep into Russia, to Rostov, where the Lubavitcher Rebbe lived during those years. In 1935 he emigrated to live in the Holy Land, and from 1936 he served as the chief rabbi of Bnei Brak for 50, where he was instrumental in the development of Bnei Brak into an important religious city. His kashrut certification became perhaps the most widely accepted in Israel. He was succeeded as head of the Rabbinical Court of Bnei Brak by his son, Rabbi Moshe-Leib Landau.

Rabbi Sholom-Dovber Schneersohn (Cheshvan 20, 1860 - 2 Nissan, 1920), known as the Rebbe Reshab, was the fifth Rebbe of the Lubavitcher dynasty. He is the author of hundreds of major tracts in the exposition of Chasidic thought.

Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn (12 Tammuz 1880-10 Shvat 1950), known as the Rebbe Rayatz, was the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, from 1920 to 1950. He established a network of Jewish educational institutions and Chassidim that was the single most significant factor for the preservation of Judaism during the dread reign of the communist Soviets. In 1940 he moved to the USA, established Chabad world-wide headquarters in Brooklyn and launched the global campaign to renew and spread Judaism in all languages and in every corner of the world, the campaign continued and expanded so remarkably successfully by his son-in-law and successor, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson.


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Yerachmiel Tilles is co-founder and associate director of Ascent-of-Safed, and chief editor of this website (and of KabbalaOnline.org). He has hundreds of published stories to his credit, and many have been translated into other languages. He tells them live at Ascent nearly every Saturday night.

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