Rav Yoel Sirkis Bach (Adar 20)
The Secret Hidden Tzadik of Cracow
There is a well-known story that in Cracow, where the Bach was the chief Rav, there was a great, wealthy man who used to feed the poor in secret. Every week the poor of Cracow would come to the local butcher and baker and would be able to get free meat, bread and challos. No one in Cracow knew that the rich man was secretly funding this charity. In fact, to the outside world, the rich man appeared stingy and tight-fisted. When the charity collectors came around he ignored them (having given all his charity money to fund the poor people’s food). He continued in this way for many years; no one knew his secret. The townsfolk assumed he was just a wicked, stingy old man. The wealthy man liked it better this way, since he knew that any honor he would have received in this world detracted from his heavenly reward for charity.
One day, the old wealthy man passed away. The chevra kaddisha, knowing his openly wicked ways as a miser, dug his grave outside the cemetery gates, a spot reserved for the wicked. Even the shammas of the gravediggers gave the corpse’s backside a good slap and chuckled, saying, “Well, in your lifetime, you never gave any charity, so let’s see you be charitable in the grave!” The townsfolk disparaged the dead man with jeering, booing and hissing, and he was buried amidst insults and dishonor. Meanwhile, in Heaven, his judgment was to go straight to Gan Eden, bypassing the Soton’s accusations, for charity done in secret covers over all sins and iniquities, and further, he had shunned honor and suffered dishonor in death.
Meanwhile, the poor came in droves begging for food and sustenance from the butcher and baker. The butcher and baker turned them away empty-handed, explaining that they had been giving them charity from a secret donor who was no longer around. Then they realized who their true benefactor had been – all too late!
However, the Soton was given free reign to punish the townsfolk in Cracow for their dishonor of the truly righteous rich man. A great plague attacked the city and the death toll mounted daily. The city elders dispatched a representative to Rav Yoel Sirkis, mechaber of the Bach on the Tur.
“Please, holy, saintly Tzaddik! Save us and all of Cracow before we have no choice but to demote you from the position of chief Rav and choose someone who can save us!” he cried.
The Bach asked for three days. He prayed and asked Heaven to reveal the reason for the decree. When the Soton revealed to him the entire story, how the rich man had charitably sustained the poor in secret and how he had been buried in shame and disgrace, he quickly summoned the elders and the city council and explained the situation to them. Then he and the elders immediately went to the bais hachaim (cemetery). When they arrived at the cemetery to disinter and remove the rich man’s body and rebury him in honor, the shammas who had disparaged and ridiculed the corpse died on the spot. They buried him instead in the spot reserved for the wicked outside the cemetery gates. They then reburied the rich man in his proper place with honor befitting a Tzaddik.
Rav Moshe Yehoshua Hager of Vizhnitz, the Yeshuos Moshe (Adar 20)
Shabbos in Lizensk with the Baal Shem Tov's Chazzan
The Yeshuos Moshe of Vizhnitz related how the Zaslover Chazzan who served as the chazzan for the holy Baal Shem Tov, arrived one erev Shabbos in Lizensk to spend Shabbos with the author of the Noam Elimelech.
Reb Melech’s talmidim were unsure of what to do: Should they honor the chazzan with the amud, allowing him to daven kabbalas Shabbos, or would this upset the holy rebbe’s kavannos and disrupt his devotions? Their hesitation was soon to become irrelevant when the rebbe, Reb Melech himself, honored the chazzan to lead the tefillos and begin kabbalos Shabbos.
“Please for the sake of the Baal Shem’s honor, would you be our chazzan?” asked the Rebbe Elimelech.
Rav Mordechai agreed.
The chazzan stepped up to the amud flanked by a choir that would accompany his melodious tefillos. As soon as the tefillah commenced, however, Rebbe Elimelech could not hold back. With great reluctance, the rebbe interrupted the chazzan and choir, “Please, I am sorry—it’s just too much!” complained Rebbe Elimelech. “I cannot contain the dveykus this brings on!”
The Yeshuos Moshe of Vizhnitz paused in telling of the tale to explain that the rebbe, Reb Melech couldn’t withstand it because “it opened up for him new vistas in the supernal realms, so much so, that the great light that came from it was too strong to absorb!”
“After kabbalos Shabbos,” continued the Yeshuos Moshe, “Rebbe Elimelech drew the Zaslover chazzan close but asked him to please not daven for the amud in Lizensk anymore.
“On Motzaei Shabbos as the Zaslover chazzan took his leave, the rebbe, Reb Melech asked him to relate some story about the holy Baal Shem Tov. The chazzan spoke of the Baal Shem’s love and awe in serving Hashem and specifically how his soul would experience an aliyas neshama – a state in which he would wander around supernal realms just we move around here below!”
“The Zaslover continued, ‘Another aspect of the Baal Shem Tov’s purity in avodas Hashem is his recitation of Hallel. We know that ordinarily, when we recite the Hallel HaGadol, each verse is recited by a specific angel. When the Holy Baal Shem Tov recited Hallel HaGadol, he waited first to hear how each malach recited each pasuk; only then would he himself repeat each pasuk after the angels had said them! ‘”
He Was Not Born as the Berzhoner Rav
The Maharsham’s father, Rav Moshe, was a talmid of Rav Meir of Premishlan, and he himself received semicha from the mechaber of Shoel UMeishiv and from Rav Shlomo Kluger of Brod. The Maharsham also traveled to see many Tzaddikim, including Belz, Stretin, Zidichov, and Tchortkov.
The Yeshuos Moshe of Vizhnitz related how his grandfather, the Ahavas Yisrael, sent his father, Rav Chaim Meir, to be tested for semicha by the Maharsham, the Gaon of Berzhon. He was not born as the Berzhoner Rav – he had to work at it, continued the Yeshuos Moshe. For example, every Shabbos he studied and completed the entire Maseches Shabbos. Do you have any idea what chazora on the entire Maseches Shabbos means?
However, this is a case in point – the very fact that he reviewed it weekly caused him to know it so well by heart, like you and I recite Ashrei! That is how one must accustom oneself from the younger years to study and review. What was his greatness? He knew how to use his time wisely and how to use each opportunity to serve Hashem, his Creator. He would review his learning countless times – this is the way Gedolim reach greatness.
The Yeshuos Moshe of Vizhnitz related how when the Berzhoner Rav grew old and lay on his sickbed, many great Talmidei Chachomim came to visit him. As they stood outside his room they began to discuss whether or not in today’s times there was a mitzvah to give gifts of Matnos Kehuna. Hearing the heated discussion, the Berzhoner Rav turned to Rav Meir Shapira and asked what was being discussed. When he was told the topic, he replied, “This is answered explicitly by the Darchei Moshe in Hilchos Mezuza!”
Upon hearing his words, they thought that in his old age his wisdom had dimmed and senility had crept up on him, for why would such a topic be discussed in the laws of Mezuza?
When the Berzhoner Rav heard them continuing to discuss the matter, he asked if they had looked up the Darchei Moshe. When they did, they were astounded to see that he was correct! He then asked someone to bring a copy of his Shulchon Aruch and when it was brought they all saw written in his volume how he had reviewed the entire Shulchan Aruch four hundred times, when he began the cycle and when each review concluded!
(Sarfei Kodesh Vizhnitz, p. 231–234)
The Holy Siddur Ha'Shelah
On Shabbos and Yom Tov the Yeshuos Moshe of Vizhnitz davened from the Shela HaKodosh siddur that he inherited from the Tzemach Tzaddik. He used to say about this siddur, “I remember holding this siddur in front of my Zeide during Nishmas! Holy Jews held this siddur in their hands!” Once, when someone tried to hand him a different siddur, the Rebbe pointed toward the Siddur Shela, indicating his preference for davening from that siddur. He turned to the approbations and pointed out that which the Tzaddik Rov Yoel Sirkis, mechaber of Bayis Chodosh – the Bach on the Tur – wrote in his haskoma: “I promise that whoever davens from this siddur, his prayers shall not return empty – and not remain unanswered!” (Sarfei Kodesh p. 350)
(Translator’s note: I remember as a bochur, when I asked the Sulitzer Rebbe, zt”l, of Far Rockaway why he davened from the Siddur Shela, he showed me the same haskoma of the Bach and pointed out these holy words to me as well.)
Rav Eliyohu Shevet Mussar (Adar 21)
Girded with a Serpent Belt
Rav Chaim Palagi told how once the mechaber of Shevet Mussar woke early one morning and rose to study Torah. When he put on his belt, he did not notice that he had in fact accidentally lifted a live, long serpent from the floor and tied it around his own waist! It was dark and he could not see, and so he simply tied the snake like a belt. In this manner, the Tzaddik sat himself down and studied Torah. As he sat shuckling back and forth in motion to the singsong words of learning, the knot became slowly undone and the snake unwound itself and slithered off, miraculously, not biting the Tzaddik. To commemorate this miracle, Rav Eliyohu authored the sefer Ezor Eliyohu – “The belt of Eliyohu”. From his holy works of Torah we can see that this story is not farfetched for someone of such stature, may his merit shield us! (Tenufa Chaim, by Rav Chaim Palagi, Shoftim 15)
