Weekly Chasidic Story#1456 (5786-07) 12 Cheshvan 5786 (Nov.3, 2025)

"A Helpful Encounter at the Master of Suffering"

The Rebbe’s responses weren’t arbitrary. As someone who witnessed both exchanges, I could sense the difference between the blessings.

WHY THIS WEEK? This Thursday, the 15th of the Jewish month of Mar-cheshvan, many hundreds will come to our holy city of Tsfat on pilgrimage to the burial spot of Rabbi Leib, Master of Suffering.

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A Helpful Encounter at the Master of Suffering

During the years I lived in Haifa, it once occurred to me to travel to the burial site of the righteous Rabbi Leib, known as the Baal HaYisurim ("Master of Suffering"), who is buried in Safed, on the day of his yahrzeit (anniversary of passing), Cheshvan 15.[1] I set out in the morning from Haifa, accompanied by several young married Torah scholars from the kollel (yeshiva with stipends for married men) where I studied. Two of them were in need of a blessing for children.

Upon arriving in Safed, I asked the group if we could make a brief stop at the Nadvorna synagogue. I was hoping to encounter the then Nadvorna Rebbe [Rabbi Aharon-Yechiel Leiter] to ask his advice on a personal matter. When my companions heard this, they asked if they could receive a blessing from the Rebbe as well. Not willing to burden the Rebbe with a sudden group visit, I told them I would go in alone, but also I would convey their requests for them.

As it turned out, the Rebbe had just finished the morning prayers at his shul and was about to leave to go to the cemetery. When he saw me, he greeted me warmly. I told him that we had come to visit the grave of Rabbi Leib, the Baal HaYissurim. He replied that he himself was planning to visit the same gravesite and that is why he was headed for the cemetery.

Before he walked out, I took the opportunity to ask him a personal question that had been weighing on me. After, I added that two of the men with me needed blessings. I asked, "Would it be possible for them to enter and speak to the Rebbe directly?"

"There's no need," the Rebbe replied. "Tell them I give them my blessing-they don't need to come in personally."

We drove down the winding Ari Road and parked near the entrance to the Military Cemetery. [Walking through it is the shortest way to get to the resting place of Rabbi Leib.] Shortly after, the car that the Rebbe was driven in arrived. I turned to my two companions seeking blessings and exclaimed, "This is your chance! If you wish, you can approach the Rebbe yourselves."

One of them did. He stepped forward and said, with simple sincerity, "Rebbe, I've been married for three years and we still have no children."

At that moment, the Rebbe's expression changed. The young man's plain words pierced his heart. His face reflected deep empathy and pain. From the depths of his soul, the Rebbe uttered just three words: "Soon, soon, soon…"

The second man didn't manage to approach the Rebbe at that moment; he did so only after the Rebbe completed his visit to the grave. I didn't hear exactly what he said, but I heard the Rebbe's response. He blessed him,"G-D will help," although not with the same fervent tone as he had spoken to the first man.

As I was standing nearby, I witnessed both blessings firsthand. and was able to easily sense the difference between the two. The Rebbe's words of blessings were never spoken lightly. It was clear to me how deeply moved he had been by the first man's anguish, and how that emotion would activate a blessing that bore fruit on the spot. Indeed, nine months later, that man was holding his newborn. For the second man it was not manifested until another two or three years.

By the way, that first young man needed further guidance and a blessing later in the pregnancy. He came to me and said he wanted to speak to the Rebbe again-after all, it was through the Rebbe that the miracle had happened. I gave him a piece of advice: "If you want the Rebbe to answer your question, don't tell him it was his miracle. He won't like that."

He followed the advice. He went to the Rebbe, posed his question without referencing the previous miracle, and the Rebbe-without recognizing him-sat with him at length, took interest in every detail, and presented him clear, insightful and remarkable answers to all his questions.

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Source: Heavily revised and then freely adapted by Yerachmiel Tilles from Ohel Moed, a periodical of the Lelov Chasidim, issue #616 (Rosh Chodesh Adar Alef 5784 [Feb. 2024]).

Why This Week?: This Thursday, Cheshvan 15, is the yahrzeit of Rabbi Leib, Baal HaYisurim.

Biographical notes:
Rabbi Leib, the Baal HaYisurim ["The Master of Suffering" or "The Afflicted One"] was an outstanding scholar and G-d-fearing man, a major disciple of Rabbi Shneur Zalman, the first Rebbe of Chabad. He was the first Chabad chasid to emigrate to the holy city of Hebron. It is not known how he acquired his title. At the end of his life he settled in Tsfat (a.k.a. Safed), where he passed away in venerable old age [the Baal Shem Tov once visited him in his home!] on the 15th of Mar-Cheshvan 1836. Knowing his end to be near, he let it be known that anyone who found himself beset by insoluble problems (G-d forbid) should visit his grave for salvation. This amounted to a commitment to come to that person's aid, and to this very day there are many who visit his grave in Tsfat, hoping to benefit from his assistance to their prayers, and thousands do so on his yahrzeit. [From ascentofsafed.com]

Rabbi Aharon Yechiel Leifer, the Nadvorna-Bania Rebbe of Tsfat [1910 - 1 Sivan, 2000], was born in Bania, Rumania, a descendent of the famous Galitzean dynasty of Nodvorna rebbes. He moved to Israel shortly after the war of Liberation in 1948. Previously he had lost an entire family in the Holocaust, but had married his deceased wife's sister and started a whole new family. Legendary in Tsfat for his hospitality and kindness to those in need, his home and shul were a center for Jews of all brands for fifty-two years. Beloved equally by Chassidim, Sephardim and Ashkenazim, by Europeans, Israelis and Americans, his death a little before (or after!) the age of ninety marked the end of an era in Tsfat. [In 1983, he was the sandek at my first-born son's brit mila (circumcision) ceremony.] [From my "Saturday Night, Full Moon"]

Footnote: [1] The "Master of Suffering" promised before he passed on that anyone in a difficult, painful situation who prays sincerely at his resting place will be helped. Indeed, while people come to pray there throughout the year, on his yahrzeit - night and day on the 15th of the Jewish month of Mar-Cheshvan, -- literally thousands of Jews make the journey and the trek to his burial site, and even more do so when the date falls on Erev Shabbat (Friday) .

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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