TWO CANDLES
Rav Dovid Lelover drew Rav Yeshaya and the Yid HaKadosh into the inner circle of the Chozeh of Lublin. The seforim describe the event as follows:
Rav Dovid Lelover approached Rav Yaakov Yitzchok, the Chozeh (“Seer”) of Lublin, to take his leave. “When you go,” the Chozeh told him, “make sure to travel through Pshedburzh. There are two candles burning there. Do your best to bring them here to me.”
When he arrived in Pshedburzh, Rav Dovid Lelover went straight to the beis midrash. He immediately discovered the two “candles” he was searching for: the Rav and Av Beis Din of Pshedburz, Rav Yeshaya, studying with his chavrusa, Rav Yaakov Yitzchok of Peshischa, later known as the Yid HaKadosh.
When the Yid HaKadosh approached the bookcase to look something up in a sefer, Rav Dovid told him, ‘You know, if you’ve never met the Chozeh of Lublin, you cannot even understand one page of Gemara properly.” When Rav Yeshaya came past, he told him the same thing.
At the time, Rav Yeshaya and the Yid HaKadosh disregarded the stranger’s curious pronouncement. Yet somehow, in the midst of their studies, his words kept coming back to them. They decided to look for him, but he was gone. They went out searching through the town – but in vain, for he had disappeared. Only the next day did the mysterious traveler reappear in the beis midrash as they sat and studied. When they approached him, they told him that they had decided to travel to Lublin to meet the Chozeh. They were surprised when Rav Dovid answered them, “First you must learn the secret of the tzaddik’s soul before you merit to travel to meet him and bask in his presence.”
After sitting in deep thought and contemplation, they realized that the Chozeh’s soul originated from the holy Tanna Rav Yosi HaKohen, one of the five disciples of Rav Yochanan Ben Zakkai, who is defined in Pirkei Avos as a “chassid.”
When they arrived in Lublin, the two geniuses met one of the Chozeh’s disciples, Rav Peretz, who had just returned from a visit to Eretz Yisroel. To their astonishment, they heard the Chozeh ask Rav Peretz:
“Did you daven at the gravesite of the Tanna Rabbi Yosi HaKohen in Tiveria? The soul that resides within my body shares the soul of that Tanna.”
They thus saw with their own eyes that the power of ruach hakodesh rested on the Chozeh’s beis midrash.
Rav Dovid Lelover used to say that one of the main reasons why he himself had to come to Lublin was to draw close those two lions to the pack of the holy chevraya. (Dibros Chaim)
THE TRAVELING TRUNK OF BOOKS
The Chozeh of Lublin once travelled with his son Rav Tzvi to the town of Tshechiyov, not far from Lublin. Rav Tzvi requested that they take a trunk of seforim along with them on their travels. “No,” answered the Chozeh, “that will not be necessary.” He pointed to Rav Yeshaya of Pshedburzh, who was accompanying them, and remarked, “Here is our trunk of seforim. The light of his Torah shines from one end of the world to the other!” (Tiferes haYehudi 7b)
IF THE YID IS GONE, THE WORLD WILL END
When the Yid HaKadosh passed away on Chol HaMoed Sukkos, Rav Yeshaya said he saw a great darkness descend on the world. He realized it must be as a result of his rebbe’s passing. However, Rav Yeshaya was convinced that the world would be destroyed upon the death of the Yid HaKadosh! When he went outside and saw that the world continued going on as before, he thought he must have been mistaken and that the Yid HaKadosh was still alive. Only when he saw that the Yid HaKadosh was in the upper worlds did he accept the fact of his passing.
(Ohr Zarua LaTzaddik, introduction to Aron Eidus)
In his own words: “When I went outside on the day the Yid HaKadosh passed away and I saw the sun still shining and the world still existing as it had before, I thought that he must still be alive. I believed that, if the Yid HaKadosh had passed away, surely the sun would stop shining and the world would revert back to the chaos of tohu va-vohu before Creation.”
(Yaakov Yitzchok of Peshischa, p. 126)
