Sending to the Rebbe on Shabbos

The Strettiner was known as a healer and miracle worker. It is told that he was so famous in this regard that a chassid from Brody once sent a shaliach on Shabbos itself, all the way to the Rebbe, to ask him to daven for a sick Jew in Brody whose life was in danger. Rav Shlomo Kluger heard of this breach of the Shabbos and was very upset.

When the Strettiner next visited Brody, Rav Kluger took the opportunity to question the practice and to protest against the perceived chillul Shabbos. "How can you allow your chassidim to desecrate the Shabbos by sending shluchim outside the techum?"

The Strettiner defended himself. "The Gemara allows such a thing," he declared emphatically.

"Where does the Gemara allow this? I don't remember any such ruling," challenged Rav Shlomo.

"The Gemara says that whoever has a sick person at home must go to a chacham, who shall ask for mercy and daven on his behalf to heal him. Now the halacha in the Shulchan Aruch is that if a person must seek the aid of an expert doctor, he may desecrate Shabbos if the person is so sick that his life is in danger and there is no other way to get the expert doctor's help. How do we know this expert doctor can heal the sick person? Regarding a doctor's power to heal, we see the pasuk says, 'verapo yerapeh,' he has permission to heal. Now this is permission, not an obligation, yet the Shulchan Aruch allows Shabbos to be desecrated in the attempt to save a life. Regarding the chacham, however, the Gemara says that someone who has a sick person at home must seek out a chacham to daven and beseech Hashem for mercy so that he may be healed. The term used, 'must,' implies an obligation. We can therefore argue logically that all the more so should someone be permitted to desecrate Shabbos when doing so is needed to save a life, by seeking out the prayers of his Rebbe."

Rav Shlomo Kluger was greatly pleased by this logic.