R. Michoel Beliner was known as R. Michoel der Alter, since he was old enough to remember the Tzemach Tzedek when his beard was still blond. He was trained in the ways of Chassidus by R. Peretz Chein. For many years, he was the mashpia of the town of Nevel, but in his later years the Rebbe Rashab appointed him as a mashpia of Tomchei Temimim in Lubavitch. He was a great oved and his ahavas Yisroel was extraordinary. He passed away on the 28th of Cheshvan, תרע"ב (1911).
R. Michoel would annually teach the maamar “Ani Ledodi” in Likutei Torah, where it discusses how a Yid should be bothered by the distance of his neshama and its source in Hashem as a result of wrongdoing. The maamar says that if it doesn’t bother a person, it is a sign that he is, G-d forbid, totally disconnected, like a detached limb that cannot feel. When R. Michoel would reach this passage he would burst into tears. His students were deeply affected and would continue to recount it for years to come.
(זכרונותי (ששונקין) ע' 63)
R. Michoel would say, “If there was only one esrog in the world, and only one Jew could use it, and it was given to me, I would give it away to another Jew.” He explained that Hashem’s will would be fulfilled no less through a different Jew doing the mitzva. He would not be that selfish to be the only one to fulfill the mitzva, in order to accumulate olam haba for himself.
Once, as R. Michoel was in the midst of saying Kerias Shema, a youngster with torn shoes passed by him and R. Michoel hinted to someone to take care of the child. When asked why he couldn’t have waited until after Kerias Shema, he replied that the whole point of Kerias Shema is to nullify oneself to Hashem and by extension to every Jew and be ready to sacrifice even one’s spirituality for this aim.
(המשפיע ע' קל"ד)
When R. Michoel was sick, the doctors recommended that he drink plenty of hot water. R. Michoel would not bother himself with the nuisance of getting the water and heating it up. Only when his students came to visit would he go through the trouble as a gesture of hachnasas orchim, and as a secondary result he would drink some himself.
