Weekly Chasidic Story #

951 (s5776-23 / 6 Adar A 5776)

Beware of Praising the Sick

Amazed at the explanation of his young son, Rabbi Avraham Borenstein, the Sochatchover Rebbe-to-be, the father repeated it to his Rebbe when he was next in Kotsk.

Connection: Seasonal-106th yahrzeit of the Avnei Nezer rebbe.

Beware of Praising the Sick

When Rabbi Avraham of Sochatchov was a little boy he once fell dangerously ill, and his father, Rabbi Ze'ev Nachum of Biala, set out at once to ask his rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotsk, to intercede in heaven on his behalf. When he arrived there, he began to tell the tzadik of the intense desire and assiduity with which his brilliant son studied Torah.

"You call that studying?" the tzadik said, half to himself.

The father was alarmed. Why should the rebbe seek to utter such a negative appraisal of his son in the hearing of the Heavenly Court? And why especially now, when the child stood in mortal danger?

By the time he arrived home he found his son on his cheerful way to recovery. But when he asked his father exactly what the tzadik had said when he had asked for his blessing, the father was at a loss for an answer. Then when the boy begged him repeatedly, he could only say: "Believe me, my son, I too do not understand what he said."

Finally, he persuaded his father to repeat exactly what the tzadik said. The response of the prodigy was: "What is difficult to understand in that? His words are exactly parallel to what we find in the Talmud Yerushalmi. We learn there that when Rabbi Tarfon was ill, his mother said to the Sages who came to visit him: 'Pray for my son Tarfon, who honors me even more than one is obliged to do.' And when they asked her: 'Why, what does he do?' she told them that one Shabbat, when she was about to return to her house after strolling in the courtyard, he had gone out and put the palms of his hands under her feet, moving them step by step so that she could walk on them, until she reached her bed. The Sages then retorted: 'Even if he does that a thousand times a thousand, he still will not have reached one half of the respect which the Torah commands children to show their parents.'

"Now father," concluded the young boy, "surely we should ask the same question here. Could it possibly be that the Sages wanted to play down Rabbi Tarfon's merits in the eyes of heaven at the very moment that he stood in need of mercy? Is it not likelier that they were apprehensive lest his task on earth had thus reached its fulfillment? If so, he would now have nothing to do in This World. And just as they wanted to remind the Heavenly Court that there were even higher levels at which that mitzvah could be fulfilled, in order that he should live on, so too with the rebbe of Kotsk. When you told him how well I study, he was fearful lest I had already completed my life's work. So he too wanted to make it clear that there were many challenges still waiting for me in This World, in the field of Torah study."

Amazed at this son's perception, the father repeated his explanation to Reb Menachem Mendel when he was next in Kotsk.

"Now, now!" said the tzadik. "Do you mean to say that he already guesses at what I have in mind?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Editor's note:
The Kotzker must indeed have been impressed. When the Sochatchover was a mere 13 years of age, the Rebbe took him as a husband for his oldest daughter, Sarah-Tzina.

Source: Supplemented by Yerachmiel Tilles from the rendition in A Treasury of Chassidic Tales (Artscroll), as translated by R. Uri Kaploun from Sipurei Chasidim by Rabbi S. Y. Zevin.

Biographical note:
Rabbi Avraham Bornstein of Sochatchov [of blessed memory: 5600 - 11 Adar 5670 (October 14, 1839 - February 1910 C.E.)] was a descendant of the Ramah and the Shach. Years before his bar mitzvah he was recognized as a Torah genius. At age 13, he married a daughter of the Kotzker Rebbe, with whom he learned almost daily for nearly 7 years, until the latter's death, whereupon he became a follower first of his uncle, R. Yitzchak-Meir of Ger, and then of R. Chanoch-Henech of Alexander. Already a leading authority in Jewish law, in 1883 he became the rebbe of thousands of chasidim and the founder of the Sochatchover dynasty. His writings include the classic Avnei Nezer (seven volumes of posthumously-published responsa,) and Eglei Tal (on the laws of Shabbat). He was succeeded by his only son, R. Shmuel (1856-1926), author of Shem MiShmuel.

Connection: Seasonal-106th yahrzeit of the Avnei Nezer rebbe.

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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