Hasidic Tales
“The word ‘hasid’ comes from a Hebrew word which means pious, pure. It is derived from the noun ‘hased’ which means grace. This word ‘hasid’ is very beautiful. The whole standpoint of Hasidism is based on grace. It is not that YOU do something — life is already happening, youjust be silent, passive, alert, receiving. God comes through his grace, not throughyour effort. So Hasidism has no austerities prescribed for you. Hasidism believes in life, in joy, Hasidism is one of the religions in the world which is life-affirmative. It has no renunciation in it; you are not to renounce anything. Rather, you have to celebrate. The founder of Hasidism, Baal-Shem, is reported to have said, ‘I have come to teach you a new way. It is not fasting and penance, and it is not indulgence, but joy in God.’ The Hasid loves life, tries to experience life. That very experience starts giving you a balance. And in that state of balance, some day, when you are really balanced, neither leaning on this side nor leaning on that side, when you are exactly in the middle, you transcend. The middle is the beyond, the middle is the door from where one goes beyond.”
- Osho
A young rabbi complained to the rabbi of Rizhyn: ‘During the hours when I devote myself to my studies, I feel life and light, but the moment I stop studying, it is all gone. What shall I do?’ The rabbi if Rizhyn replied: ‘That is just as when a man walks through the woods on a dark night, and for a time another man accompanies him who has a lamp, but at the crossroads they part and the first must grop his way on alone. But if a man carries his own light with him, he need not be afraid of any darkness.’
In Roptchitz, the town where rabbi Naftali lived, it was the custom for rich people whose houses stood isolated, or at the far end of town, to hire men to watch over their property by night. Late one evening, when rabbi Naftali was skirting the woods which circled the city, he met such a watchman walking up and down. ‘For whom are you working?’ he asked. The man told him, and then inquired in his turn: ‘And for whom are you working, rabbi?’ The words struck the zaddik like a shaft. ‘I am not working for anybody just yet,’ he barely managed to say. Then he walked up and down beside the man for a long time. ‘Will you be my servant?’ he finally asked. ‘I should like to,’ the man replied, ‘but what would be my duties?’ ‘To remind me,’ said rabbi Naftali.
When the son of the rabbi of Lenshno was a boy he saw rabbi Vitzhak of Vorki, praying. Full of amazement, he came running to his father and asked how it was possible for such a zaddick to pray quietly and simply, without giving any sign of ecstasy. His father answered: ‘A poor swimmer has to thrash around in order to stay up in the water. The perfect swimmer rests on the tide and it carries him.’
On a certain passover before the sedar celebration, rabbi Yisakhar Baer called his guest, the rabbi of Mogielnica, a grandson of the maggid of Koznitz, to the window — and pointed to something outside. ‘Do you see, Rav of Mogielnica?’ he said. ‘Do you see?’ After the feast was over, the rabbi of Mogielnica danced around the table and sang in a low voice: — ‘The holy old man, our brother, has shown me a light. Great is the light he has shown me. But who knows? — who knows how many years must pass, how long we still must sleep before it comes to us, before it comes to us?’
One day the rabbi of Zans was standing at the window and looking out into the street. Seeing a passer-by, he knocked on the window pane and signed to the man to come into the house. When the stranger entered the room, rabbi hayyim asked him: ‘Tell me, if you found a purse of ducats, would you return it to its owner?’ ‘Rabbi,’ said the man, ‘if I knew the owner I should return the purse withough a moment’s delay.’ ‘You are a fool,’ said the rabbi of Zans. Then he resumed his position at the window, called another passer-by, and put the same question to him. ‘I am not such a fool as to give up a purse full of money that has come my way,’ said the man. ‘You’re a bad lot,’ said the rabbi of Zans, and called in a third man. He replied: ‘Rabbi, how can I know — on what rung I shall be when I find the purse, or whether I shall succeed in fending off the evil urge? Perhaps it will get the better of me, and I shall appropriate what belongs to another. But perhaps God, blessed be he, will help me to fight it, and in that case, I shall return what I have found to its rightful owner.’ ‘Those are good words,’ cried the zaddick. ‘You are a true sage.’
When rabbi Birnham lay dying, his wife burst into tears. He said, ‘What are you crying for? My whole life was only that I might learn how to die.’
Once, when the Hasidim were seated together In all brotherliness, Pipe in hand, rabbi Israel joined them. Because he was so friendly they asked him, ‘Tell us, dear rabbi, how should we serve God?’ He was surprised at the question, And replied, ‘How should I know?’ But then he went on to tell them this story… There were two friends of the king, And both were proved guilty of a crime. Since he loved them the king wanted to show them mercy, But he could not acquit them because even a king’s word Cannot prevail over the law. So he gave this verdict: A rope was to be stretched over a deep chasm, And, one after another, the two were to walk across it. Whoever reached to the other side was to be granted his life. It was done as the king ordered, And the first of the friends got safely across. The other, still standing on the same spot, cried to him, ‘Tell me, friend, how did you manage to cross?’ The first called back, ‘I don’t know anything but this: Whenever I felt myself toppling over to one side, I leaned to the other.’
Rabbi Visakhar Baer met an old peasant From the village of Oleshnya Who had know him when he was young. Not being aware of his rise in the world The peasant called to him, ‘Baer, what’s new with you?’ ‘And what’s new with you?’ asked the rabbi. ‘Well,’ answered the other, ‘I shall tell you. What you don’t get by your own work, you don’t have.’ From that time on, whenever rabbi Baer Spoke of the proper way to conduct one’s life, He added, ‘And the old man of Oleshnya said: “What you don’t get by your own work, you don’t have.”’
Rabbi Bunam used to tell young men who came to him for the first time the story of rabbi Eisik son of rabbi Yekel in Cracow… ‘After many years of great poverty which had never shaken his faith in God he dreamed that someone bade him look for treasure under the bridge which leads to the King’s Palace in Prague. When the dream recurred the third time he set out for Prague. But the bridge was guarded day and night and he did not dare start digging. Nevertheless he went to the bridge every morning and kept walking around it until evening. Finally the captain of the guards who had been watching him asked in a kindly way whether he was looking for something or waiting for someone. Rabbi Eisik told him of the dream which had brought him from a far away country. The captain laughed ‘And so to please your dream you wore out your shoes to come here you poor fellow. And as far as having faith in dreams if I had had it I should have had to go to Cracow and dig for treasure under the stove in the room of a Jew-Eisik son of Yekel! That’s what the dream told me. And imagine what it would have been like; one half of the Jews over there are called Eisik and the other half Yekel!’ And he laughed again. Rabbi Eisik bowed traveled home dug up the treasure from under his stove, and built the house of prayer which is called Reb Eisik’s Shul. Rabbi Bunam used to add ‘Take this story to heart and make what it says your own. There is something you cannot find anywhere in the world not even at the Zaddik’s and there is nevertheless a place where you can find it.’
One day, after he had gone blind, Rabbi Bunam visited rabbi Fishel. Rabbi Fishel was famous throughout the land For his miracle cures. ‘Entrust yourself to my care,’ said his host, ‘I shall restore your light.’ ‘That is not necessary,’ answered Bunam ‘I see what I need to see.’
From Tales of the Hasidism - Martin Buber
A rabbi named Zusya died and went to stand before the judgment seat of God. As he waited for God to appear, he grew nervous thinking about his life and how little he had done. He began to imagine that God was going to ask him, “Why weren’t you Moses or why weren’t you Solomon or why weren’t you David?” But when God appeared, the rabbi was surprised. God simply asked, “Why weren’t you Zusya?”
o
When the founder of Hasidic Judaism, the great Rabbi Israel Shem Tov, saw misfortune threatening the Jews, it was his custom to go into a certain part of the forest to meditate. There he would light a fire, say a special prayer, and the miracle would be accomplished and the misfortune averted. Later, when his disciple, the celebrated Maggid of Mezritch, had occasion for the same reason to intercede with heaven, he would go to the same place in the forest and say, “Master of the Universe, listen! I do not know how to light the fire, but I am still able to say the prayer.” Again the miracle would be accomplished. Still later, Rabbi Moshe-leib of Sasov, in order to save his people once more, would go into the forest and say, “I do not know how to light the fire. I do not know the prayer, but I know the place and this must be sufficient.” It was sufficient, and the miracle was accomplished. Then it fell to Rabbi Israel of Rizhin to overcome misfortune. Sitting in his armchair, his head in his hands, he spoke to God, “I am unable to light the fire and I do not know the prayer and I cannot even find the place in the forest. All I can do is to tell the story, and this must be sufficient.” And it was sufficient. For God made man because he loves stories.
o
A man who lived in the same town as Rabbi Zusya saw that he was very poor. So each day he put twenty coins into the little bag in which Zusya kept his phylacteries, so that he and his family might buy the necessities of life. From that time on, the man grew richer and richer. The more he had, the more he gave Zusya, and the more he gave Zusya, the more he had. But once he recalled that Zusya was the disciple of a great maggid, and it occurred to him that if what he gave the disciple was so lavishly rewarded, he might become even more prosperous if he made presents to the master himself so he traveled to Mezritch and induced Rabbi Baer to accept a substantial gift from him. From this time on, his means shrank until he had lost all the profits he had made during the more fortunate period. He took his trouble to Rabbi Zusya, told him the whole story, and asked him what his present predicament was due to. For had not the rabbi himself told him that his master was immeasurably greater than he? Zusya replied: “Look! As long as you gave and did not bother to whom, whether to Zusya or another, God gave to you and did not bother to whom. But when you began to seek out especially noble and distinguished recipients, God did exactly the same.”
o
Rabbi Moshe of Kobryn related: “My teacher, Rabbi Mordecai of Lekovitz, taught me how to pray. He instructed me as follows: ‘He who utters the word “Lord” and in doing so prepares to say “of the world,” is not speaking as he should. At the moment he is saying “Lord,” he must only think of offering himself up to the Lord, so that even if his soul should leave him with the “Lord,” and he were not able to add the word “world,” it would be enough for him that he had been able to say “Lord”’ “This is the essence of prayer.”
o
Rabbi Bunam said to his disciples: Everyone must have two pockets, so that he can reach into the one or the other, according to his needs. In his right pocket are to be the words: ‘For my sake was the world created,’ and in his left: ‘I am earth and ashes.’
o
Once, when Rabbi Mordecai was in the great town of Minsk expounding the Torah to a number of men hostile to his way, they laughed at him. “What you say does not explain the verse in the least,” they cried. “Do you really think,” he replied, “that I was trying to explain the verse in the book? That doesn’t need an explanation! I want to explain the verse that is within me.”
o
Once some disciples of Rabbi Pinchas ceased talking in embarrassment when he entered the House of Study. When he asked them what they were talking about, they said: “Rabbi, we were saying how afraid we are that the Evil Urge will pursue us.” “Don’t worry,” he replied. “You have not gotten high enough for it to pursue you. For the time being, you are still pursuing it.”
o
Three youths hid themselves on a Sabbath in a barn in order to smoke. Hasidim discovered them and wished to flog the offenders. One youth exclaimed: “I deserve no punishment, for I forgot that today is the Sabbath.” The second youth said: “And I forgot that smoking on the Sabbath is forbidden.” The third youth raised his voice and cried out: “I, too, forgot.” “What did you forget?” he was asked. The lad replied: “I forgot to lock the door of the barn.”