The author of Darkei Chaim V’Sholom, Yechiel Michel Gold, relates the following story, which was told by the Munkaczer Rebbe, Rav Chaim Elozor Shapiro, author of Minchas Elozor, who heard it from his holy forebears:
Rav Moshe Leib Sassover went traveling with the Berditchever Rav. They took along another companion as a shamash (and this way he could also serve with them as a tribunal of three rabbincal judges on a Bais Din, a necessary arrangement for this particular journey). They also took along a circumcision knife, some wine and other items that are used for a bris.
Soon they entered a forest and came across a baby wrapped in sheets and blankets. It was obvious that the infant’s mother had abandoned him there. The two Tzaddikim decided to perform a circumcision on the child with the intention of converting him as a ger. They handed the infant over to an orphanage in nearby Brode and wrote up a ruling that he was ger tzedek — a righteous convert who should be immersed in the mikve when he came of age.
The child grew up and became a great Torah scholar. He found his zivug and the wedding was arranged. At the chuppa, Rav Moshe Leib revealed the young man’s past and they all rejoiced. (They were no longer afraid to reveal the truth since his gentile mother had long forgotten him.)
Surely these holy Tzaddikim knew what they were doing and saw in him a holy spark and a precious soul, so they placed themselves in danger to travel to that place and redeem him by converting him without asking his gentile parents’ permission. I, too (writes the author of the Darkei Chaim V’Sholom), heard this story at a melaveh malka meal on the yahrzeit of Rav Moshe Leib Sassover. They related further that great klezmer musicians were at the wedding of this righteous convert and Torah scholar, and their niggun pleased Rav Moshe Leib immensely. The Sassover announced that on the day of his passing, this song, this melody of such sweetness, should be sung and this niggun played.
Time passed and years went by. One day, on the 4th of Shevat, the klezmer musicians were traveling to a wedding at which they had been hired to play. A great downpour obscured the way, and their wagon took a wrong turn and began to drive in an unknown direction. They came to an inn and decided to stop for a drink. “How can you ask for a drink at a time like this?” exclaimed the innkeeper. “Don’t you know that today is a day of grief and mourning? A great minister of the Jewish people has fallen, the holy Rav Moshe Leib Sassover!”
They realized then that they had arrived somehow in Sassov and that Divine Providence had caused them to stray from their path and guided them here. And they remembered the Tzaddik’s request at that wedding long ago, that he wished the sweet melody from that long-ago wedding to be sung and played on the day of his passing.
And so it was that they escorted the funeral procession to honor the Tzaddik’s last wishes with music and song. Indeed, it was a day of rejoicing in Heaven, for the great Tzaddik Rav Moshe Leib Sassover was coming!
