(Kislev 9)
PARSHAS HA’TOCHECHA
One Shabbos Parshas Ki Savo, Rav Dov Ber’s father, Rav Shneur Zalman, the Ba’al HaTanya and Alter Rebbe of Chabad, was away. It was the custom that the Ba’al HaTanya himself was the Ba’al Koreh and he would lien the weekly parsha each Shabbos. Since this Shabbos he was away, however, a different Chassid read from the Torah. When they reached the portion in this week’s parsha called the tochecha (the rebuke), which contains harsh words, descriptions of tragedies and curses, Rav Dov Ber burst into tears and cried uncharacteristically. After the leining some puzzled Chassidim approached him and asked in bewilderment, “Why is it that you cried so much this year over the tochecha? You have never done so before.”
Rav Dov Ber answered them, “Every year my holy father [the Ba’al HaTanya] leins Parshas Ha’Tochecha and all I hear are berachos – so why should I cry? This year, for the first time, all I heard was the tochecha itself; how could I not cry?”
