By Dovid Zaklikowski for COLlive and Hasidic Archives
Zalman of Kurnitz lived in Vilna as both a businessman and a Torah scholar. He was also a follower of the Alter Rebbe – Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, the founder of the Chabad movement. His devotion to Chabad was such that he was a leading student of three Chabad rebbes. Indeed, his children later married into the Rebbe’s family.
Once, Reb Zalman came to seek the Alter Rebbe’s guidance about a crisis in his family: His son-in-law had an acquaintance who had lately become very rough, unrefined and aggressive.
In an effort to help him, the son-in-law had confronted him and asked why he was not acting like himself. The tactic had failed. The man tried to attack Reb Zalman’s son-in-law, and when he fled, pursued him. The family was frightened that the episode would end badly, he told the Rebbe.
The Alter Rebbe was not sympathetic.
“Do you think that the result is unmerited?” he asked Reb Zalman. “Is it incumbent on a person to express everything that he sees? I also see many things, and I keep quiet.”
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