Rav Pinchas HaLevi Horowitz

Even Rova Agreed

Rav Yisrael of Rizhin once told what he had heard from Rav Yitzchok of Radvil. The two holy brothers, Rav Shmelke of Nikolsburg and Rav Pinchas of Frankfurt, were once guests together in the home of Rav Michele Zlotshuver, who was away at the time. He had left instructions that they be made to feel at home and honored as important guests.

They were given adjoining rooms with a door between them that was closed, but not all the way. A young man dressed in the modern German style, with a short coat, arrived and was shown to Rav Pinchas's room. He had learned with Rav Pinchas in Frankfurt, and they rejoiced at the reunion and began to learn together. In the next room Rav Shmelke sat wrapped in his tallis and crowned with his tefillin, as he did all day, speaking only words of Torah and never idle chatter, and mostly in Loshon Kodesh.

Rav Pinchas and his talmid were discussing aloud a topic for the young man's derashah, since he was a chosson and would be asked to speak at his chasunah, as was the custom in those days. Rav Pinchas began to recite a statement of the Gemara, "Amar Rova," Rova said, and raised no fewer than twenty-two questions on it. Then he answered all twenty-two with a single answer.

Because the door was slightly ajar, Rav Shmelke heard the entire exchange. He rose, entered the room and said, "My holy brother, that is the whole truth. Your explanation is exactly what Rova meant. I know, because Rova just visited me in my room and told me himself that you got it right." Rav Yitzchok of Radvil told the Rizhiner that he had witnessed this himself, in his father's home, between these two holy brothers.

The Brothers Meet the Maggid

It is told that Rav Shmelke and Rav Pinchas first came to the Maggid of Mezritch on Erev Shabbos. They expected a long conversation, but the Maggid sent them off after only a few words. They had hoped to hear impressive Torah at his table, and they were deeply disappointed to feel nothing in his words, which, unknown to them, held deep secrets of Torah. Like the Maggid himself at his first meeting with the Baal Shem Tov, they decided to go home.

Rav Zusha, a talmid of the Maggid, sensed their intention and cautioned them. "We have learned, 'If the Rebbe is like an angel of Hashem, seek Torah from his mouth' (Chagigah 15b). Has any of us ever seen an angel? Yet if one came to you, you would not question him, test him or ask him for a sign. So it is with a true tzaddik. From him you should seek Torah."

The brothers returned and asked the Maggid to teach them the revealed part of Torah. The Maggid raised a very difficult question on a Gemara and gave an answer so simple and straightforward that they were amazed they had not thought of it themselves. A strong refutation followed, and then another solution. After nine such rounds the Maggid closed the Gemara and asked, "Why did you travel here? Do great men like yourselves need the likes of me?"

Through ruach hakodesh he knew of their ascetic way of life, and he told them, "A person who davens and ascends to the upper worlds, but at the end of the day remarks, 'You know, today I was not so bad,' finds his avodah cast out of Heaven." When they heard this, Rav Pinchas and Rav Shmelke said, "You ask why we came. We would have walked a thousand miles to hear such words."

Freeing the Holy Sparks

Rav Pinchas explains that the purpose of all the exiles of Klal Yisroel to the four corners of the earth is to free the holy sparks imprisoned in those places. According to Kabbalah, at the time of Creation sparks of Divine light fell during sheviras HaKeilim (the breaking of the vessels) and scattered, mixed into the dross of earthly existence. It is the task of Klal Yisroel to repair this flaw by freeing the trapped sparks through proper observance of the Torah, and when all of them are freed, Mashiach will come. When Bnei Yisroel left Egypt, the redemption was complete, for not one holy spark was left behind, as the Torah says that they emptied Egypt. The final redemption from the long exile will come only with Mashiach, when all the sparks scattered throughout the world have been freed, just as in Egypt.

Panim Yafos, Yisro