Rock Solid Faith
On Erev Pesach, about half an hour before Mincha, after the matzos had been baked, Reb Shimon approached the Divrei Chaim of Sanz with the traditional wish, “LeShanah Haba’ah BiYerushalayim,” next year may we eat the matzos in Yerushalayim.
“Why next year?” the tzaddik called out in a voice like thunder. “I have not yet given up hope of eating the kezayis of matzah in Yerushalayim this very night.” Such was the unshakable emunah of the Divrei Chaim.
More stories of Rav Chaim Halberstam
All 17 ›A Fair TradeThe Divrei Chaim of Sanz was once conducting a siyum to celebrate finishing all of Shas when he found himself stuck on the meaning of a particular Tosfos. He traveled to the…Jewels of LongingThe beis medrash was packed. Every seat was taken by someone deeply absorbed in learning, reciting Tehillim with feeling, or lost in fervent prayer. It was Elul, and the air…The Divrei Chaim Defines a Chilul HashemOne of the admirers of Rav Yisroel of Rizhin was the tzaddik Rav Chaim of Sanz. The Rizhiner had been imprisoned for twenty-two months, sixteen of them in the dungeons of Kiev and…The Bitter Taste of SinRav Chuna Halberstam of Kolshitz once related that on Hoshana Rabbah the Sanzer Rav used to tell the following parable, which he had received from his Rebbe, the holy Ropshitzer…The Divrei Chaim Casts His Bread Upon the WatersThe Divrei Chaim was approaching a busy train station in Vienna, surrounded by his chassidim, when he suddenly stopped. He said he could hear someone crying and asked his…The Whitewash Before PesachA young man with severe tuberculosis was staying with a poor householder in Sanz. Before Pesach the householder wanted to whitewash his house, as he did every year. But the doctor…