The Jests Before Kiddush

The Stropkover once told Rav Chaim Meir of Vizhnitz that on Friday night, before reciting the Shabbos Kiddush, Rav Boruch would pause and relate some jest or barb of rebuke as a joke against one of the tzaddikim of the generation. Even his nephew, Rav Shlomo of Bobov, was no exception, and he too was the target of his uncle's comic comments.

During Rav Shlomo's last years, Rav Boruch's sister, Rebbetzin Nechama Rubin, begged and pleaded with him to stop, and he finally listened to her. Not long after, Rav Shlomo passed away while in Badenheim for his health. His body was brought back from the resort town to be laid to rest, and that Shabbos many chassidim who had traveled from far and wide spent Shabbos in Gorlitz.

No one wished to tell Rav Boruch what had happened, until he questioned his son, Rav Sinai of Zemigrod, about the reason for the unusually large number of Shabbos guests. At first Rav Sinai tried to avoid the matter, but when his father commanded him to fulfill the mitzvah of kibbud av (honoring one's father), he had no choice but to tell him the truth.

When Rav Boruch heard the sad news he cried out in pain and distress, “I told her to leave me be and not stop me. I kept him alive all these years, and now, oy vavoy.”