By Rabbi Yerachmiel Tilles
Whenever he played the notes of this tune, he would close his eyes and allow the lyrics and the music to carry him off to a world of distant pleasurable visions.
Little Isaac was momentarily startled in the midst of his song, by the regal appearance of the bearded Jew who appeared suddenly from behind him. "What are you doing here, little boy?" the man asked gently. "Helping my mother by tending to our geese," Isaac answered. "But what about learning Torah in school like the other boys?" the man continued.
Isaac looked away. "Not so long ago, I was still a student. And I was doing pretty well too. But ever since my father died, I've had to help my poor mother support our family, so I had to drop out of school."
The Tzaddik, Leib Sarah's, immediately went to visit the poor widow, Reizel. After introducing himself, he asked her for permission to take her Isaac away with him. "Know that your son has a very lofty soul," he explained, "and he can become very great. But for that he must be brought up in the right way, and that means he has to study Torah intensively." He promised her a monthly stipend to more than make up for any loss of income that the boy's departure would entail.
It took a lot of entreating, but finally his mother agreed. Leib Sarah's took little Isaac to Nicholsberg, to the Yeshiva of the great Rabbinical Authority and Chassidic Rebbe, Reb Shmelke, a friend of Leib Sarah's and one of the inner circle of disciples of the Magid of Mezritch. He said to him: "I have brought you a special soul from the Chamber of Melody. I hope you will help it to realize its full potential in this world."
The boy remained in the yeshiva for many years, and thrived and grew great in Torah and Chassidut.
Years later, when throngs of Chassidim would crowd into the shul of the Holy Rebbe, Rabbi Yitzchak Isaac of Kaliv, he would sometimes relate to them the long path of his development from a goose-tending childhood to the present. He would also tell them about his favorite tune when he played the shepherd's flute: the Ballad of the Forest and the Rose.
On these occasions, he always mentioned his great debt to the Tzaddik Leib Sarah's, who went to such trouble to "discover" him and to redeem the holy melody which had been "held captive" for centuries.
"Now, however," he would always conclude, "the words are different." The chassidim would listen intently, for the Rebbe's musical talents were well-known.
Exile, exile, how long you are.
Divine Presence, how far you are.
If only the exile were shorter,
Then Your Presence could be closer.
If You would take us out of exile,
Then we could be, the two of us, together.
This song is still sung by Kaliver chassidim, in Hungarian, till this very day.
Reprinted from an email of KabbalaOnline.org.
