Weekly Chasidic Story #662 (s5770-47 / 23 Menachem-Av 5770)

The Enticing Platter

Reb Shmuel Munkes pranced about, pouring l'chaim and serving food, with the bowl of roasted lung snug and elusive under his arm, deftly side-stepping all attempts to free it from his grasp.

Connection: Weekly reading - eating kosher

 

The Enticing Platter

 

At a Chasidic get-together (farbrengen) held in the early years of Chabad Chasidism, Reb Shmuel Munkes was doing the honors. The merry chasid danced about the participants, pouring the vodka and serving the snacks, platters spread with bites of food to follow up the l'chaim.

Among the dishes which had arrived from the kitchen of Reb Nosson the butcher was a bowl of roasted lung, a most tasty delicacy. But for some reason, Reb Shmuel was reluctant to part with this particular dish. Throughout the evening he pranced about, pouring the l'chaim and serving food, with the bowl of roasted lung snug and elusive under his arm, deftly side-stepping all attempts to free it from his grasp.

Soon the chasidim grew weary of Reb Shmuel's game and demanded outright that he hand over the bowl and its mouthwatering contents. But the waiting chasid ignored their angry demands and kept up his dodging dance. Finally a few of the younger chasidim decided that Reb Shmuel's prank had gone far enough. They rose from the table, and soon the bowl and its bearer were cornered. But with a final leap and twist, Reb Shmuel dumped the roasted lung into the spittoon, and broke out in a merry Cossack dance.

The younger chasidim sat to consider the gravity of Reb Shmuel's crime and decreed that a few well placed stripes were in order. Without batting an eye, Reb Shmuel stretched himself out on the table and received his due. He then set out in search of more refreshments to keep the farbrengen going. But the hour was late, and the best he could come up with was a plate of pickled cabbage donated by one of the Liozna residents.

Upon seeing the replacement dish, the expressions on the faces of those who had already imagined the taste of roasted lung grew as sour as the kraut set before them. But soon a commotion was heard in the hallway. The town's butcher ran in, a most stricken look on his face: "Jews! Don't eat the lung!" he cried, "There has been a terrible mistake." It seems that the butcher was out of town and the shochet's wife mistakenly gave the butcher's wife a non-kosher lung to roast for the farbrengen.

Now it was the elder chasidim who sat in judgment upon Reb Shmuel. The audacity of a chasid to play the wonder-rabbi! By what right had Reb Shmuel taken upon himself to work miracles? Up unto the table with you Reb Shmuel, decreed the court.

After receiving his due for the second time that night, Reb Shmuel explained: "G-d forbid, I wasn't revealed 'inside information' regarding the roasted lung. But when I entered into private audience with the Rebbe (Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi) for the first time, I resolved that no material desire would ever dictate to me. So I trained myself not to allow anything physical to overly attract me.

"When the bowl of roasted lung arrived, I found that my appetite was most powerfully roused, I also noticed that the same was true of many around the table. To be so strongly drawn by a mere piece of meat? I understood that something was not right."

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When the Czar's soldiers came to arrest Rabbi Shneur Zalman in 5559 (1798), the Rebbe consulted with Rabbi Shmuel Munkes: should he go into hiding or allow himself to be taken to Petersburg? Reb Shmuel advised his Rebbe not to resist. "Why?" asked Rabbi Schneur Zalman. Answered Reb Shmuel: "One or the other: If you truly are a Rebbe, then no harm will befall you. And if you are not -- you deserve it! How dared you deprive thousands of Jews of their pleasure in the material world?" [see further: story #165 in this series -ed.]

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[Adapted by Yerachmiel Tilles with permission from "Once Upon a Chasid" (Kehot) by his colleague Yanki Tauber].

Connection: Weekly Reading - eating kosher.

Biographic notes:
Rabbi Shmuel Munkes (1834-1882)], an elder disciple of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Chabad, was known for his fervent and creative Chasidic service. Stories abound.

Rabbi Shneur Zalman [18 Elul 1745-24 Tevet 1812], one of the main disciples of the Maggid of Mezritch, is the founder of the Chabad-Chasidic movement. He is the author of Shulchan Aruch HaRav and Tanya as well as many other major works in both Jewish law and the mystical teachings.



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