The Rebbe's Ahavas Yisroel

Rav Moshe Duvid'l once took the place of the usual shamash, Rav Avrohom Yitzchok, who had been called to Warsaw on an important matter, and he attended to the Avnei Nezer's needs. One morning, very early, the Avnei Nezer came to him and said, "Quickly, bring me water to wash, and hurry. Now the air is pure, free of all sins and crimes and worldly desires. It is a precious time to learn Torah. See that no one disturbs me. Even if a man comes with a golden crown, do not bring him to me."

The Tzaddik sat down to learn, aflame with the fire of Torah. Soon a man in modern dress, clean-shaven and wearing a short jacket, arrived and asked to see the Rebbe. Moshe Duvid'l laughed at him. "You want to see the Rebbe now?" The Rebbe had expressly forbidden him to let anyone in. The visitor offered Moshe Duvid'l fifteen gold rubles for his trouble, a vast sum. Reb Moshe Duvid'l was struck with awe. He took the gold fifteen-ruble coin, went into the Rebbe's study, told the Tzaddik what had happened, and showed him the coin he stood to earn.

The Rebbe wondered aloud, "What, you can earn such a sum through me? Bring him in. But remember, three minutes and no more." Reb Moshe Duvid'l pocketed the coin and brought the visitor in. After about ten minutes he could no longer hold back and came in to take the man out. What he heard was the Rebbe telling the man, "Remember to fulfill these three things that I said, and she will have a yeshuah." The man left, and that was that.

One day Moshe Duvid'l was in Kalisch when a bearded Jew in a long coat, a stranger, approached him. "Do you come from Sochatchov?" he asked. "Yes." "And do you sometimes attend to the Rebbe?" "Yes," answered the bewildered Moshe Duvid'l, whose wonder grew when the man warmly grasped him and said, "Then you must come to my house to celebrate with us and enjoy a fine meal."

The man led him home, and when they entered he told his wife to quickly prepare a lavish feast. "Prepare a seudah for the man who saved your life. Here he is." The bearded man in the long coat was the same man who had once come beardless in a short jacket and paid Moshe Duvid'l handsomely to see the Rebbe. He explained that his wife had been very sick, almost at death's door, and he had traveled to Sochatchov to seek the Rebbe's blessing and advice. Among the three things the Tzaddik told them to do to save her life was to move all their children out of the modern schools and into the traditional cheder. At first his wife resisted, but eventually she agreed, and as soon as she did she got better and better. "And now she is perfectly healthy." They gave Moshe Duvid'l a generous gift and sent him off to Kalisch in style.

The author of Abir HaRo'im concludes that this shows how great the Rebbe's ahavas Yisroel was. So that Moshe Duvid'l could earn a handsome sum, the Tzaddik gave up a few precious minutes of his holy morning learning.