The Holy Potato Peelers

When Rav Sholom of Kaminka had just married and was still known as the young genius of Rava, he became a devoted follower of the Ropshitzer Rav, and he and Rav Chaim of Sanz became the inseparable favorites of their rebbe.

It was the night of bedikas chametz, right before Pesach, when Rav Naftali of Ropshitz approached his two favorite talmidim. "I am assigning the two of you a holy task," he said. The two tzaddikim presented themselves proudly, and found that the holy task was kitchen duty: to peel potatoes for the approaching Yom Tov. When three such lofty people as the Ropshitzer, the Sanzer and the Kaminker are involved, even peeling potatoes takes on new meaning, and it was during this seemingly mundane task that their rebbe revealed secrets to them beyond anything they had imagined. These are a few of the stories handed down through the generations about what happened while they peeled potatoes before Pesach.

The Ropshitzer slowly stole into the kitchen and crept up to the silverware. The Sanzer and the Kaminker were busy peeling and did not notice as he quietly slipped one of the knives into his pocket. Afterward he sauntered in and asked innocently, "What have you two been doing this whole time? How can I be sure you are watching everything that goes on? Count the knives." Sure enough, one knife was missing. "You see," the Ropshitzer continued in his charade, "now you owe me a knife."

A heated halachic discussion followed. The Kaminker and the Sanzer defended themselves from Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim, siman 429, and the commentary of the Taz there. Thirty days before Pesach the Rav is obliged to teach his students the laws of Pesach, so the Rav and his time are considered as on loan to his students. If during these thirty days any of the students borrow the Rav's property, they are exempt from paying for it if it is lost or stolen under duress. This law is called sheelah bebaalim. They applied it to themselves: since the Ropshitzer was obliged during these thirty days to teach them the laws of Pesach, he and his time were in effect on loan to them, and if they borrowed a knife and it was lost or stolen under duress, they were exempt. They argued the fine points back and forth all night, while the potatoes sat unpeeled. This, of course, was the Ropshitzer's whole intention with his trick.

The Stutchiner Rebbe once related how the two tzaddikim tried to spend Pesach with the Ropshitzer. The Rav declined and tried to send them home. "My servant girl works very hard to prepare for Pesach," he said, "and it is not fair to her to add two more guests to her workload." Hearing this, the two tzaddikim readily agreed to help with whatever preparation was needed for Yom Tov. As the Sanzer and the Kaminker sat peeling potatoes, the Ropshitzer entered and began to say Torah. The topics he discussed were so lofty and holy that soon the kitchen dissolved away, the potatoes and the peelers vanished, and the pot of water boiled away, and the only vision left before them was the shining face of the holy Ropshitzer Rebbe.

Later, as the two colleagues sat side by side at their rebbe's seder table, the Ropshitzer delivered a Chassidic discourse. In the midst of it he added, "The primary purpose of the rebbe's Torah is to uplift his listeners to such a degree, to such heights, that they reach the upper realms and supernal worlds when he says Torah." They smiled and looked at one another, and realized that their rebbe was referring to their journey from the potato-peel-filled kitchen to the supernal realms on High.

On another occasion the Ropshitzer played a different prank on his two potato peelers. While the Sanzer and the Kaminker were engrossed in their peeling, he grabbed a slippery potato and tossed it, with a great splash, into one of the pots of water. At the sound, Rav Sholom instinctively jerked back from the spray, while the Divrei Chaim stood stock still and was drenched from head to toe by a cold wave of water.

Afterward the Sanzer remarked, "As the water rained down and soaked me, I felt as if the rebbe had dunked me into a cold pool, removed my soul, immersed her, washed her of all stain and filth, and returned her to me clean and pure." When Rav Sholom heard this, he was jealous, and all his life he regretted that he had pulled back, and had not been splashed and purified by the waters of the Ropshitzer.

Rav Sholom of Kaminka once visited the Sar Sholom of Belz. "Prepare yourself and make ready," commanded the Sar Sholom, "for I wish to impart to you a great and lofty secret." The Kaminker prepared himself in sanctity and purity, and the Sar Sholom revealed to him the secrets of the awesome yichud one should have in mind at the moment of death, when the soul leaves the body.

When Rav Sholom left the room, the Belzer Rebbetzin, herself a lofty and holy person, asked him, "And in Ropshitz, did you also hear and learn such lofty things as this? Did the Ropshitzer Rav also reveal such secrets and yichudim to you?"

"If you truly wish to know," Rav Sholom replied, "let me tell the Rebbetzin that once, as I sat with my good friend the holy Sanzer Rav and we peeled potatoes in preparation for Pesach, the heilige Ropshitzer himself came in. We did not notice him. He crept up behind us and placed his holy hands on our shoulders, and such dread and fear seized us that we stood stock still, petrified with awe. He then leaned in between us and whispered to us this very same yichud that I have just heard from the Sar Sholom."