The Beis Aron of Karlin envied the composure of his Chosid at the Seder
The heilige Tzaddik Reb Aharon Perlow of Karlin, author of Sefer Beis Aron, was the son of Harav Asher of Stolin, the son of Harav Aharon Hagadol of Karlin. The Beis Aron used to say Torah at the Seder. One of his famous sayings is: Why is the night called a Seder? Because this night is your blueprint for a whole year, The way one acts by the Seder night so will he act a whole year.
The Beis Aron would relate to the Chassidim interesting and inspirational stories of how people conducted their Seder. The following is the story told of a Karliner chossid, Reb Ber, nicknamed Bertsche, a simple and sincere servant of Hashem, whose conduct at his Pesach Seder had a lesson to teach all of us. His wife was not the most skilled. In truth, she was downright clumsy and shunned her burden. It was so extreme that Bertsche had to shoulder the burden of most household duties. Bertsche accepted the will of Hashem, and did his share, never complaining to his wife. On the contrary, he always consoled her and treated her like a queen.
The epitome of his noble level happened this year at the Seder, continued the Rebbe. Bertsche was put to the task of all Pesach preparations for his household, unassisted. For Bertsche, this was the will of Hashem and he served Hashem and this left him little time for himself to prepare properly spiritually for Pesach. He was busy up to the last minute, and before going out to Shul, he organized the Seder table with the matzos, wine, candles, and the Seder tray, so that he could begin the Seder by making Kiddush as soon as he returned home. While he was in Shul, the unthinkable happened, a genuine catastrophe. At home, his wife was passing by the Seder table when a corner of the tablecloth caught on to a hook on her dress. Unmindful of what happened, she kept on walking and dragged the tablecloth along with entire beautiful Yomtov set-up on to the floor. The wine, matzohs, dishes, silverware, glasses, everything went crashing on the floor, and the room, which Bertsche had worked so hard to clean and be spotless, ended up in shambles. But this peculiar woman, instead of feeling even a but of remorse, she shrugged off all responsibility, let everything stay in a mess on the floor and went straight to bed! Bertsche returned home from a Karliner Davening with Hallel being recited after Maariv, being uplift and ready to serve Hashem with an elevated Seder. He envisioned the set up table and the room is bright with the lit candles. But as soon as he opened the door he noticed it was dark in the room. Bertsche lit a candle and he noticed the catastrpohe, and went looking for his wife. When she saw Bertsche she started to blame and berate her innocent husband for the mishap. After evaluating the situation, which was clearly attributable to his wife's carelessness, Bertsche maintained his composure to the ultimate degree. The self-mastery which he displayed was beyond the bounds of ordinary people. His wife's tirade continued, while Bertche calmly and deliberately picked up everything from the floor, reassembled the Seder Tisch, relit the candles and, in a short time, restored the Seder table to its prior gleaming state. Not a harsh word of anger passed his lips. He spoke only gentle and reassuring words to the woman. This epic feat of Bertsche worked wonders and gradually soothed her mishap and she quickly apologized for her mistake, and their beautiful Seder got under way. Bertsche was transformed into a man of nobility throughout the Holy Seder, which he conducted with a elevated simchas Yom tov. The following morning, the Heilige Beis Aron announced to his Chasidim, "I might have thought that I conducted a proper Seder last night. But it did not even come close to the spiritual level that our Bertsche showed at his Seder. By guarding himself from even the smallest kernel of anger, he defined a Pesach Seder to the highest level and was precious in heaven. I truly envy him.”
This story has remained a cornerstone among Stoliner Chassidim to this day, how a simple Yid was able to have composure to such an extent. This level was attained by the greatest Tzaddikim, but not to a regular Yid!
The famous story is told of the Chofetz Chaim who remarried and before Succos, he tirelessly himself built the Succah in corner of the courtyard, as he had done all his life. His new wife came to inspect the Succah and stated that she is of the opinion that the Succah would be nicer if it was placed in a different corner of the Yard. The Chofetz Chaim took to the task of dismantling the Succah and rebuilding it where his wife had suggested. However, after the arduous work, his wife admitted that the original place was more suited and the Chofetz Chaim calmly dismantled and rebuilt the Succah in the original place, all this at an old age and with the vigor of a young man with great composure. A powerful lesson!
