A Soulful Journey

“A talking human, said the Maggid of Mezridtch, occasions no surprise, a talking bird evokes astonishment and admiration.  So too a virtuous angel is no novelty in the realm of the spirit but God and all His angels rejoice at the virtuous man who lives the good life despite his propensity for evil.”   -Louis Jacobs

One night a disciple of the great Maggid of Mezritch   was returning after a long trip with his master. On the way, he decided to visit the city of Karlin to meet its renowned Rabbi Aharon. He arrived after midnight and headed straight to the Rabbi's house. He saw a light in the window so he knocked on the door. The Hasidim are accustomed to use given names in addressing one another.   The disciple called out, “Aharon, please open the door.”   He heard the knock and the voice and asked, “Who is at the door?”  The disciple answered, “It is I” (Dos bin ich). It was a long pause until the Rabbi words cut through the silence, “Who is it the dares to speak of himself as ‘I’? Only the Lord can say ‘I’!"   - Rabbi S.Y. Zevin

As a young man he would stay up late into the night studying.   His father suspected him of wasting time playing and wandering through the streets.   He would punish him for being idle.   Israel suffered the blows in silence. Later, when he was famous, he was asked why he did not protest his innocence to his father, “It is not given to everyone to suffer for the sake of Torah,” he explained.   – Maggid of Mezritch This story of the Baal Shem Tov points t a powerful moral: How dedicated are we to Torah?  If we suffered for it would we remain true?

When the great Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov saw a misfortune threatening Jews it was his custom to go to a certain place Forest to meditate. There he would light a fire, say a special prayer, and miracle would be accomplished in misfortune averted.   Later, when his disciple, the celebrated Maggid of Mezritch  had occasion, for the same reason, to intercede with heaven, he  would go to the same place in forest and say, “Master of universe, listen! I do not know how to light the fire but I am still able to say the prayer.”  And again the miracle would be accomplished. Still later, Rabbi Moshe Leib of Sasov, in order to save his people once more, would go into the forest and say, "I do not know how to light the fire. I do not know the prayer but I know the place and this must be sufficient.” It was sufficient and the miracle was accomplished. Then it fell to Rabbi Israel of Rizhin to overcome misfortune.   Sitting in his armchair, his head in his hands, he ...