Rav Meshulem Zusha Weissblum of Anipoli

Adam's Sin

Reb Zusha once asked his brother, "My beloved brother, the holy writings say that all souls were once contained in Adam, the first man. If so, we were also there at the moment he sinned and ate from the tree of knowledge. Why did we not stop him?"

Rav Elimelech answered, "Brother, we had to let him eat the fruit. If he had not, the lie of the serpent would still stand and would never have been proven false. The serpent told him, 'Your eyes will open and you will be as Hashem, knowing good and evil and able to create worlds.' Adam had to eat the fruit so that he could see that even after eating it he was still just a human being and no more."

The Wedding at the Inn

When Rav Elimelech and Reb Zusha were wandering in self-imposed exile, disguised as beggars, they spent a night at a kretchma (inn) where a wedding was being celebrated. Poor people had gathered, as was the custom then, to share some of the food. The wedding guests were a rough and crude crowd, merry with drink, and they began to make fun of the poor people. After each round of dancing they grabbed one of the poor men, threw him to the ground, and treated him to abuse, slaps and punches.

Reb Zusha was sitting nearest to the crowd, so he received the abuse, while Rav Elimelech sat in the corner and was left alone. In truth, Rav Elimelech envied his brother, for Reb Zusha was being given a chance to atone for his sins. He decided it was his turn. When the crowd was dancing again and Reb Zusha had sat down after another beating, he whispered, "My beloved brother, let us switch places. Sit in my seat, and I will sit in yours, and you can rest from the beatings."

They quickly switched places, and the rowdy group came back to take their victim. They were about to drag Rav Elimelech away when one of them called out, "It is not fair to keep beating only this guest. Let us take the one sitting in the corner and give him a few blows too, so he will remember this wedding." And so they seized Reb Zusha again from the corner, as if he had not yet been beaten.

When they had finished, Reb Zusha said to his brother, "You see, my beloved brother, whoever is destined to be struck will be struck wherever he sits. They seek him out and give him his due portion."

True Forgiveness

Once, Reb Zusha heard a wedding procession passing outside his window. He rushed outside at once and began to dance with wild joy before the new couple, to fulfill the mitzvah of rejoicing with a chasan and kallah. When his family later remarked that such a public display did not suit a Chassidic Rebbe, he answered with the following story.

"In my youth I was a talmid of Rav Yechiel Michel, the Zlotchover Maggid. Once he was angry with me and rebuked me. Later he sought to appease me, and I forgave him. 'Zusha, please forgive my angry rebuke, and forgive me for embarrassing you,' he said. 'Rebbe, I forgive you,' I answered. Before he went to rest for the night, he came again and asked once more, 'Zusha, please forgive me.' Again I answered, 'Rebbe, I forgive you.'

"As I lay down to sleep, I was still awake when the soul of my Rebbe's holy father, Rav Yitzchok of Drohovitch, came down to me from the world above. He said, 'I left only one son in this world, one precious son, and because he embarrassed you, you want to destroy him.' I protested, 'Rebbe, I have already forgiven him with all my heart and soul. What more should I do?'

"'You call that forgiveness?' he said. 'I will teach you the proper way to forgive. Follow me.' I got up and followed him to the mikveh. 'Now immerse yourself,' he said, 'and with each immersion say that you have forgiven my son.' I did as he asked. When I came out, I saw that his face was shining with a light so bright I could not look at it. I asked him why, and he said he had earned it because he was always careful with three sayings of Rav Nechunya ben Hakanah, who credited his long life to three things: 'I never took honor from my fellow's disgrace, I never went to bed having cursed my fellow that day, and I was generous with my money' (Megillah 28b). And he added, 'What I achieved with these three, you can achieve through joy and simchah.'

"So when I saw a chance to rejoice with a chasan and kallah in their simchah, right on my own street," concluded Reb Zusha, "I hurried to join them in the joy of a mitzvah."

Reb Zusha Declines the Place of Rav Elimelech

After Rav Elimelech passed away, his talmidim approached his brother Reb Zusha and asked him to be their new leader. He refused, and this is what he told them.

"The Torah is eternal and hints at everything that has happened and will happen in every generation. The pasuk says, 'And a river went forth from Eden to water the garden, and from there it split into four paths' (Bereishis 2:10). This hints at the paths of Chassidus and the great tzaddikim of our times. Eden is our holy master, the Baal Shem Tov. The river is his talmid, the holy Maggid of Mezritch. The garden is my brother, Rav Elimelech. The Torah flows like water from the Baal Shem Tov through the Maggid of Mezritch to Rav Elimelech, and from there it divides into four paths. These are the holy Rebbe, the Chozeh of Lublin, the holy Maggid of Kozhnitz, the holy Rav Mendel of Rimanov, and the holy Ohev Yisroel, the Apta Rav. You need no Rebbe other than them."

A Good Eye

A man once came to the Maggid of Mezritch for a blessing and for advice. Reb Zusha, who was visiting his Rebbe at the time, saw him come in. With his Ruach Hakodesh (divine inspiration) he saw that this man was deeply stained with sin. He could not hold himself back. Pointing his finger at the man, he cried out, "How could you? How could a man who did such and such," and he listed the sins one by one, "stand before the holy tzaddik of Mezritch without shame? How dare you."

When the man had left, Reb Zusha was heartbroken and full of remorse. Seeing this, the Maggid blessed him that from then on he would no longer see anything negative in another Jew, but would see only good and look upon every Jew with a good eye. And so it was. In another telling, the man answered Reb Zusha, "Hashem also sees all my sins and does not announce them to the world. Are you better than Hashem?" Reb Zusha took this to heart and resolved from then on to see only the good in every Jew.

It is well known that Reb Zusha passed this gift of sight on to the Chozeh of Lublin. While Reb Zusha wandered in exile, dressed as a vagabond and atoning for the sins of Klal Yisroel, he came upon a boy of about ten, Yaakov Yitzchok, who would later become the Rebbe of Lublin. Reb Zusha was standing, as was his custom, at the back of the shul near the oven, where beggars davened. As he swayed beneath his tallis, young Yaakov Yitzchok came by, and Reb Zusha's gaze met his eyes. He held it for a few moments and then turned back to the wall and continued davening.

That gaze did its work. The boy's eyes began to water, and tears poured from them for some time. Afterward his eyes began to drip blood. Then Reb Zusha looked at him again and said, "I have given you a nefesh and a ruach, a lower soul and a spirit. Now go to my brother, Rav Elimelech of Lizhensk, and he will take care of your neshamah, your higher soul." And so the young Yaakov Yitzchok was brought into the ways of Chassidus and was brought before the holy Maggid of Mezritch. From then on he had the far-seeing eyes of the Chozeh of Lublin.

The Day the Yetzer Hara Retired

When Rav Elimelech and Reb Zusha wandered in self-imposed exile to repair the world and bring Jewish children back to teshuvah, they once entered an inn and found a group of elderly Jews sitting idly, drinking and playing cards. Hoping to stir their hearts, Rav Elimelech turned to his brother and said, "Zusha, say something." Reb Zusha knocked on the table to get their attention and said, "Gentlemen, you should know that the yetzer hara has quit his job and retired."

"Why did he quit?" they asked. Reb Zusha explained, "Once the yetzer hara went to Gan Eden, and there he saw the souls of all kinds of sinners and wicked people. In life they had all been part of his gang, living crooked lives. He wondered how they got there. He was told that they had done teshuvah and mended their ways, so they no longer belonged to him. Now they belonged in Gan Eden.

"'Then all my hard work is for nothing,' he complained. 'I spend all my time tricking people into sin, and they just do teshuvah and become respectable citizens of Gan Eden. That is it. I quit.' And he retired. A different angel was given his job of testing people and tempting them to sin.

"Later the former yetzer hara met the new one and asked how the job was going. 'Very well,' said the new one smugly. 'Why are you so satisfied?' asked the old one. 'If you work so hard to make people sin, and they just do teshuvah and escape to Gan Eden, what is the point?' 'It is simple,' said the new yetzer hara. 'I am smarter than you and I learned from your failures. Your mistake was going after the young. They have their whole lives ahead of them, plenty of time to do teshuvah. I go after the elderly, who have no time left. Idle old men like these.'" And as he said this, Reb Zusha pointed at the card players. "They," he concluded, "have no time left to do teshuvah, and you will not find them in Gan Eden. They will die wicked."

It is told that they took the message to heart, did teshuvah, and escaped the yetzer hara's grip as well.

Which Path Should a Person Choose?

It was Shabbos Bereishis in the beis medrash of Rav Yisroel Friedman of Chortkov. Among the many guests was the Rav of Sanok, Rav Meir Shapiro, later the famous rosh yeshivah of Chachmei Lublin and founder of the Daf Yomi program. After Krias Hatorah, the door of the Rebbe's private room opened, which was unusual, and the Rebbe honored Rav Meir to bless the new month and to lead Mussaf. Rav Meir took the amud (prayer leader's stand). His powerful, sweet voice and his niggunim stirred the chassidim to a great outpouring of the soul, and many later said that the holiness in the room felt like Yom Kippur.

Afterward, as the chassidim passed before the Rebbe for his Shabbos blessing, the Rebbe said to Rav Meir, "I did not know that the Rav of Sanok knew so well how to lead the prayers." Rav Meir answered simply, "I did not know this either, until the Rebbe revealed it to me." The Rebbe invited him to the seudah, and afterward they were together in the Rebbe's room for a long time. When Rav Meir came out, his face shone.

During that conversation Rav Meir mentioned his gift for prayer and said, "If I have such a gift, perhaps I should become a chazzan. It would be fitting, since I am a descendant of Rav Pinchos of Koritz, before whom all the gates of prayer were open." The Chortkover grew serious and said, "Rav of Sanok, let me tell you about the holy Reb Zusha of Anipoli, brother of Rav Elimelech of Lizhensk.

"Once, Reb Zusha was wandering in exile and arrived in Galicia. He had heard of the legendary shiurim of Rav Yosef Yuzpa, the Rosh Yeshivah of Zolkava, and he traveled there. He entered the yeshivah as Rav Yosef Yuzpa was in the middle of a deep Gemara pilpul, and his students were so absorbed that no one noticed Reb Zusha. As always, he was dressed like a vagabond, in tattered rags, with his walking stick and bundle. He sat in a corner and listened without taking his eyes off the Rosh Yeshivah.

"When the shiur ended, Reb Zusha approached and said, 'Thank you very much. You deserve a yasher koach for your shiur. I heard from afar of your great learning and your wonderful shiurim, and I came to hear them for myself. It was well worth the long journey.' Rav Yosef Yuzpa answered, 'I am glad you enjoyed it, and I understand why I find favor in your eyes. But how do you find favor in mine? I do not know who you are.' Reb Zusha replied, 'How can a vagabond like me find favor in anyone's eyes? I do not even know how to learn. I know nothing at all.'

"'Impossible,' said Rav Yosef Yuzpa. 'I sense that you have some hidden treasure within you.' 'I only know how to pray,' said Reb Zusha. 'What Jew does not know how to pray?' asked Rav Yosef Yuzpa. 'But what is the proper way to pray before the Master of the World?' answered Reb Zusha. 'Then reveal it to me,' said Rav Yosef Yuzpa. 'Teach me the secrets of your prayer.'

"'Come, let us go somewhere private, and I will open the gates of prayer for you,' said Reb Zusha. They went into a room and shut the door. Reb Zusha taught the Rosh Yeshivah the secrets of prayer, and they pierced deep into his soul. Rav Yosef Yuzpa burned with excitement and said, 'I will leave my yeshivah and follow you, as Elisha followed Eliyahu. Perhaps I will learn to say at least one proper prayer in my life, to stand before the Master of the World with true purity. I will get up and leave my yeshivah right now.'

"'No, Rav Yosef Yuzpa,' said Reb Zusha. 'Let me explain. There are millions of people in this world, and each has a different face. Our Sages taught that just as their faces differ, so do their minds. Their inner essences, their souls and their purposes in life, differ as well, though each soul can reach its own beauty. Why did Hashem create so many people? Because each has a unique purpose. Each person must fulfill his own goals with the tools, talents and character that Hashem gave him. This is why our Sages said one should study from the place his heart desires, because his heart reaches for the goal Hashem expects of him. You, Rav Yosef Yuzpa, have the talent to inspire students and teach them Torah, and Heaven gave you the gift to deliver such lectures. Leave the gates of prayer for someone like me.'"

The Chortkover finished the story and looked at Rav Meir Shapiro, who understood the Rebbe's meaning. Years later, when he was rosh yeshivah of Chachmei Lublin, he told those close to him about that Shabbos in Chortkov. With that story, he said, the Rebbe put him in his proper place and set him on the path to his unique mission, to teach and spread Torah through the chinuch (education) of the next generation of Am Yisroel.

Repentance Through Light

The Chozeh of Lublin once learned from Rav Elimelech, who sent him to Reb Zusha. Reb Zusha asked him, "How would you make a person do teshuvah?" The Chozeh answered, "I would show him in the Shulchan Aruch where he did wrong." "I do not think that would work," said Reb Zusha. "Would that make the person feel good? On the contrary, it would make him feel bad, and if he feels bad, he will run away from you. People do wrong because they do not have the strength to do right."

The Chozeh asked, "How do you do it?" Reb Zusha answered, "I shine a light into them, into their hearts, a great light of Hashem's love."

The Man Who Saw Only Good

A few of the Maggid of Mezritch's followers once asked him how a person could possibly reach the level Chazal describe in Maseches Berachos, that one must bless Hashem for bad things just as one blesses Him for good. The Maggid told them they could find the answer by going to his talmid, the holy Reb Zusha of Anipoli.

They went to the beis medrash and found Reb Zusha. His clothes were torn and faded, but his face shone. They asked him their question. Reb Zusha was amazed that the Maggid had sent them to him. He told them that to understand this, they should find a person who truly suffered, because he himself had never experienced anything bad in his whole life, so how could he answer them?

Then the two men understood that their question had been answered. They had seen in Reb Zusha's reply that a person can see only good and be happy even in bad circumstances. Reb Zusha was oppressed by extreme poverty all his life, yet because of his strong attachment to Hashem, the source of joy, he did not feel the pain of his poverty and felt only joy.

The Twenty Rubles

Reb Zusha once visited his teacher, Rav Dov Ber, the Maggid of Mezritch. After a fulfilling stay, drinking in his teacher's wisdom, he prepared to leave. As he went into the Maggid's study for a parting word, he mentioned that he needed to marry off his daughter. Reb Zusha was as poor as could be, and marrying off a child took a considerable sum. The Maggid immediately took 300 rubles, pressed them into his talmid's hand, wished him mazel tov, and sent him happily on his way. Reb Zusha was greatly relieved. Taking money was not his habit or his wish, but this, he thought, was necessary.

On the way home he passed through a tiny Jewish village and was startled by bitter weeping from a small hut. The other villagers were going about their business, and he asked one of them who was crying. "A poor widow," he was told. "She was about to marry off her daughter, but on the way to the chuppah she lost her whole dowry. The groom's family refuses to go on without it, and how will she ever gather 300 rubles again?"

Reb Zusha's tender heart ached for her. Then he realized that 300 rubles was exactly what he was carrying. He knocked on her door and said, "My good woman, I think I may have found your money." Her eyes widened. "Can you tell me if the money had any distinguishing marks?" he asked. "Yes," she said. "It was in a packet of two fifties and ten twenties, tied with a red string." "That is exactly what I found," said Reb Zusha. "I will go to the inn and bring it right back."

He ran to the inn, changed his money into the notes the widow had described, tied them with a red string, and ran back to her hut. By the time he returned, the whole village was buzzing with the good news. The girl had changed into her bridal dress and the neighbors were busy preparing the wedding feast. As he handed the money to the widow, Reb Zusha said, "I am keeping one twenty-ruble note for my trouble."

She looked at him as if he were speaking a foreign language, and the others who heard stood open-mouthed. "What?" cried the widow. "How can you rob a poor widow of twenty rubles, after doing such a holy mitzvah?" The crowd gathered around him shouting, "Thief. Stealing a widow's money. Shame on you." Reb Zusha would not budge. He clung to the twenty rubles as if for dear life. "This money is mine, as a reward for my trouble," he said.

Relatives, friends and townspeople berated him until it seemed they would tear him limb from limb. At last someone said, "Let us go to the rabbi. He will settle this." Everyone agreed to follow the rabbi's ruling and went to his house. The rabbi heard both sides and ruled, "Reb Zusha must give the widow the twenty rubles." Still Reb Zusha refused. A young man put his hand in Reb Zusha's pocket and took out the bill, and Reb Zusha was escorted to the edge of the village and unceremoniously thrown out.

Many months later, the village rabbi happened to meet the Maggid and told him about the incident with his talmid. The Maggid said, "You must go to Reb Zusha and beg his forgiveness. That money did not belong to the widow. I myself gave it to Reb Zusha to marry off his own child. He demanded twenty rubles because he wanted to avoid honor at any cost. He wanted this great mitzvah to be completely pure."

The rabbi was shocked and ashamed. He went to Anipoli to beg Reb Zusha's forgiveness. Reb Zusha told him, "You do not need my forgiveness, because I was never angry. I do not hold my honor high. But I will forget the matter completely if you promise never to tell the widow the truth. I never want her to suspect that the money was not hers by right." The rabbi agreed, and the incident was never mentioned again.

Zusha Is Hungry

It was Reb Zusha's custom to daven Shacharis at great length. When he finished, he would go to his room next to the shul, open the window, lift his eyes to Heaven and call out, "Master of the World, Zusha (he always spoke of himself in the third person) is very hungry and wants something to eat." Every morning his attendant waited until he heard the call, and then brought in his meal of cake with a little schnapps.

One morning the attendant thought, "Why does Reb Zusha not ask me directly for his meal? And whom does he think he is fooling by calling out to Hashem like that? He knows full well that I bring him his food every day." He decided that the next morning, when Reb Zusha called out, he would not bring the meal. He would just wait and see where Reb Zusha would find it.

The next morning Reb Zusha rose well before dawn, as usual, and went to the town mikveh to immerse in preparation for the day's holy work. It had rained in Anipoli that night, and the streets had turned into rivers of mud. To cross from one side to the other, one had to walk on narrow planks laid over the flowing mud. As Reb Zusha crossed toward the mikveh, a stranger, a guest in town, came toward him from the other side. He saw Reb Zusha, thin and almost emaciated, dressed in rags, with no teeth in his mouth. The stranger shouted, "Beggar," burst into hearty laughter, and jumped up and down on the plank, so that Reb Zusha tumbled into the mud.

Reb Zusha did not say a word. He calmly picked himself up and went on to the mikveh, while the stranger strolled off, chuckling and replaying his great prank in his mind. Back at the inn where he was staying, he could not help bragging about it to the innkeeper. The innkeeper did not laugh. He asked the guest to describe the beggar he had sent into the mud, and then he clapped his hands to his head and cried out, "Oy vavoy. Do you know what you did? That was not just some beggar. That was the Rebbe, Reb Zusha." Now it was the guest's turn to cry out. Reb Zusha was known to everyone as a holy man and a tzaddik, and the guest trembled and asked what he could possibly do.

"Do not worry," said the innkeeper, collecting himself. "Listen to me. Reb Zusha spends many hours every morning in prayer, and when he finishes he goes into his private room next to the shul. He opens the window, and anyone can see him lift his eyes to Heaven and call, 'Master of the World, Zusha is very hungry and wants something to eat.' I will prepare some cake and schnapps for you to bring him. When you hear him call out, go in at once, offer him the gift, and beg his forgiveness. I am sure he will forgive you wholeheartedly."

That morning, after davening, Reb Zusha went into his room, opened the window and called out as always. The attendant, hearing him, held his ground and folded his arms even tighter, waiting to see what would happen. "Let Hashem bring him his cake this morning," he muttered. Suddenly the door of the shul opened, and a man came in carrying a large plate of cakes and a bottle of schnapps. He went straight to Reb Zusha's room, put the food on the table, and fell to the floor in grief, begging the tzaddik's forgiveness, which was certainly granted. And the attendant came to understand that it really was the Master of the World who brought Reb Zusha his breakfast every morning.

Begin With Yourself

Reb Zusha and his brother Rav Elimelech had a continuing difference over how a person should base his service of Hashem. Reb Zusha held that a person should first reflect on his own lowliness, which will lead him to appreciate Hashem's greatness. Rav Elimelech held that by contemplating Hashem's greatness, a person comes to realize his own smallness. Since neither could convince the other, they went to the Maggid of Mezritch for a ruling. The Maggid told them that both paths are valuable, but that the one who begins with himself is safer, because a person cannot fall from the ground.

Teaching of the Maggid of Mezritch to Reb Zusha and Rav Elimelech

Whatever Comes From Hashem Is Good

During his last years, Reb Zusha was ill for a long time, and he never complained. He would say, "Whatever comes from Hashem is good."

Said during his final illness