Weekly Chasidic Story #1446 (5785-48) 1 Elul 5785 (Aug.25, 2025)

“In the Month of Elul, The Mouth Should Never be Empty!”

“When I was young, I studied in the yeshiva of the tzadik, the Damesek Eliezer of Vizhnitz. There was not much to eat in the yeshiva and I was hungry.”

Why This Week? 1) The story emphasizes the specialness of the month of Elul, which started on the first day of this week. 2) Monday night – Tuesday, 2 Elul, is the yahrzeit of the Damesek Eliezer (which I did not know until I did research for the paragraphs below!)

Story in PDF format for more convenient printing

In the Month of Elul,

The Mouth Should Never be Empty!

Someone once visited Reb Yosef-Shmuel Fogel (1911-1986) in an old-age home in Jerusalem. Reb Yosef Shmuel was saying Tehillim (Psalms) aloud then, and he didn't interrupt when his visitor arrived.

As soon as Yosef Shmuel finished reciting Tehillim, he said, "I will tell you why I didn't interrupt my Tehillim when you arrived. As a bachur (yeshiva student), I studied in the yeshiva of the tzadik, the Damesek Eliezer of Vizhnitz. There wasn't much to eat in the yeshiva.

Once, I was outside, exhausted from hunger, when I saw a man riding in a wagon filled with apples. The wagon was shaking slightly, so I was thinking that an apple might very well fall off the wagon. And that is what happened! The wagon bumped into a stone, whereupon an apple fell off. I waited for the wagon to pass and to be out of sight, and then [1] I picked up the apple, said the blessing borei pri ha'etz, and took a bite.

"All of a sudden, I hear someone answering 'Amen!' to my blessing! I looked around and saw that it was the Damesek Eliezer himself who had answered amen. It was very embarrassing for me (because it wasn't considered proper for a chasidic bachur to eat outdoors).

The Damesek Eliezer put his hand on the nape of my neck and walked with me. He said, 'Yosef Shmuel, you acted like a true chasidisheh bachur. Itis now the month of Elul, and in Elul the mouth should never be empty, not even for a minute. You don't know mishna by heart, so you filled your mouth with the apple.'"

Reb Yosef Shmuel concluded by telling his guest, "From then until today, I cannot waste time in Elul."

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Source: Adapted and supplemented by Yerachmiel Tilles from "Torah Wellsprings" - Rav Elimelech Biderman (Shoftim 5783 - as translated by R. Baruch Twersky)

Why This Week? 1) The story emphasizes the specialness of the month of Elul, which started on the first day of this week. 2) Monday night - Tuesday, 2 Elul, is the yahrzeit of the Damesek Eliezer (which I did not know until I did research for the paragraphs below!)

Biographic note:
Rabbi Eliezer Hager [1891- 2 Elul 1946], the Vizhnitzer Rebbe known as the "Damesek Eliezer," was the third son and successor to his father, the holy "Ahavat Yisrael" ("Lover of Israel") of Vizhnitz.
In 1923, he re-established the great yeshiva in Vizhnitz, which thousands of students attended. If not for Rabbi Eliezer and his yeshiva, there would hardly have been a single religious young man left in the whole area [as his brothers, the holy rebbes, Chaim Meir of Vizhnitz and Baruch of Seret-Vizhnitz, wrote in their preface to Rabbi Eliezer's book, "Dameshek Eliezer"]. Subsequently, he founded a Bais Yaakov school for girls, through which he also saved countless souls of Jewish girls from assimilation.
The Damesek Eliezer was crowned as Rebbe after his father's passing in 1936. During the Holocaust, he put his life on the line by operating an amazing system of rescue which, according to testimonies, saved thousands of Transylvanian men, women, and children. He encouraged many of his followers and students to immigrate to the Land of Israel.
In1944, the Rebbe finally agreed to leave Europe for the Holy Land. In Israel, he accomplished re-establishing Vizhnitz chasidism and its institutions and communities. After a serious illness, he passed away at age 55, having become respected as one of the country's foremost Chassidic leaders. (Excerpted from very long article on ganzach.org) Photo from nertzaddik.com.

Footnote [1] Once the wagon driver never paused and was soon out of sight of the apple, we may assume that either he didn't know the apple fell or he knew but felt it not worth his time to retrace his steps and look for it. In both cases, Jewish Law rules that such an object is considered abandoned and therefore ownerless, and anyone may take possession of it by picking it up. [Even more so for the student who had no conceivable way to find the owner and return it to him (even if it was something of great value!)]

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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