The Litvishe Fish

Once, during the Nine Days before Tisha B'Av, the Belzer Rebbe was in Marienbad with Rav Sholom of Apt. As is the custom in many chassidic circles, they deliberately finished a masechta of Gemara and made a siyum seudah. The festive meal was full of fish, meat and wine. After bentching, the Rebbe rested and dictated a letter to his brother, Rav Aharon in Krenitz, which his son, Rav Sholom, wrote down.

A few sentences stood out. "We made a siyum on a masechta, and we ate meat and drank wine to display the honor and love of the Torah. A pity though that he was such a Litvak and such a cold misnaged (an opponent of Chassidus), for he made the false claim that all year long we chassidim do not study Torah, and only now, during the Nine Days, we suddenly finish a masechta and make a festive meal for a siyum, and he did not even wish to attend."

Rav Sholom was puzzled, for what he had written made no sense. Who was his father referring to? What misnaged? What Litvak? He turned to one of the chassidim who sat closer to his father and asked whether he had perhaps misheard or missed some point of the dictation. The chassid shrugged him off and said he had heard correctly.

"I will explain this to you," he said. "It was I whom the Rebbe sent to buy the fish for the seudah. When I got to the fish store, the owner went to catch a large, live fish from the tank for the meal. But this fish gave him no end of trouble. It kept leaping out of his hands and jumping back into the water, again and again. After this happened three times, we realized that this fish had the gilgul (reincarnated soul) of a misnaged in it, and that was why it resisted. It simply did not want to be rectified and be part of the seudah. That is who your father meant in the letter." It is told that this is the account of the fish.