Weekly Chasidic Story #600 (s5769-35 / 3 Sivan 5769)

Ungrammatically Correct

The Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka, wife of the Tzemech Tzedek of Lubavitch, was forever reciting Psalms, but with many mispronunciations.

(Connection: seasonal - King David, the author of Psalms, passed away on Shavuot.)

Ungrammatically Correct

In 1843, the Russian interior ministry called a 'rabbinical conference' in the czarist capitol of Petersburg. At the conference, the leaders of the 'Enlightenment' movement joined forces with the czarist government to use the forum for their program of forced assimilation of the Jews of Russia. In the course of the conference, Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Lubavitch (known as the Tzemach Tzedek) was arrested no less than twenty two (!) times for his defiant and unwavering stand in defense of traditional Jewish life. In the end, miraculously, his efforts met with complete success. The following sheds a little known background detail of that miracle.

The Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka, wife of Rabbi Menachem Mendel, was forever reciting Psalms, but with many mispronunciations.

Once she commented to her son, Rabbi Yehuda Leib, subsequently the Rebbe of Kopust: "Isn't it strange? One might think that by now, I should know the book of Psalms by heart. After all, I've been reciting the Psalms every day for many years now."

"True," said Rabbi Yehuda Leib, "but each time you recite them with new mistakes."

The Rebbetzin related this exchange to her husband, adding that perhaps she had better stop her custom rather than distort the holy words. "No," insisted Rabbi Menachem Mendel, "continue to recite as before."

Later, Rabbi Menachem Mendel admonished his son and instructed him to ask his mother for forgiveness. "What do you know?" he told him. "My success in Petersburg was in the merit of your mother's Psalms."

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[Adapted by Yerachmiel Tilles from "Once Upon a Chassid" (Kehot) by Yanki Tauber].

Connection: seasonal - King David, the author of Psalms, passed away on Shavuot.

Biographic notes:
Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneersohn [29 Elul 1789-13 Nissan 1866], the Third Rebbe of Chabad, was known as the Tzemach Tzedek, after his books of Halachic responsa and Talmudic commentary called by that name. He was renowned not only as a Rebbe, but also as a leading scholar in his generation in both the revealed and hidden aspects of Torah.

Rabbi Yehudah Leib of Kopust (1811- 3 Cheshvan 1866), an elder brother of Rabbi Shmuel of Lubavitch, established an independent branch of Chabad Chasidism in Kopust after the death of his father, R. Menachem Mendel of Lubavitch, the Tzemach Tzedek. Following his death in the same year, he was succeeded by his son, R. Shlomo Zalman of Kopust, although many of the chasidim returned to Lubavitch.

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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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