By Dovid Zaklikowski for COLlive and Hasidic Archives
The two grandsons of the third Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel, visited his house often and observed the hours he spent giving spiritual guidance to his followers. At home, the two boys developed a favorite game: Aaron, the elder, played the Rebbe, sitting in a chair with a rabbinic hat on his head; while Shalom Dovber, wrapping the Chassid’s ritual sash about his waist, would enter the room with awe and excitement for a “private audience.”
“For what spiritual mistake have you come to request a remedy?” asked Aaron.
I have cracked nuts and eaten them on the Shabbat, prior to my knowledge that our grandfather wrote that “It is preferable not to eat nuts on the Shabbat.”
“Do not pray from memory,” said the “Rebbe.” “From now on, always pray from the prayer book.”
The young disciple exited the room and the game was over.
Several days later, the boys’ mother, who had overheard the conversation, noticed that Sholom Dovber was praying from memory rather than using his prayer book. “Why have you not listened to the ‘Rebbe?’” she asked him playfully.
Shalom Dovber answered seriously. “Before a Rebbe replies to his disciple on an issue that requires rectification, the Rebbe pauses a moment and sighs.” That sigh means that the Rebbe feels the disciple’s pain over his mistake, he told his mother.
Aaron might be right that he should not pray from memory. But since he did not sigh, his advice could not be considered a remedy for the mistake of cracking the nuts. “The advice is not advice.”
Find Hasidic Archives latest books on HasidicArchives.com Judaism in a Nutshell and The Edifice: Dating, Marriage and an Everlasting Home, also available on Amazon Prime.
