Chassidic Warmth

Once there was a poor Chassid who used to stand in the marketplace all day long selling salted fish from a barrel. Naturally, during the long, bitterly cold Russian winters, he needed a warm overcoat. But all he owned was an old fur peltz so tattered and worn that it was virtually useless. Life was already hard enough - without a winter coat he wouldn't be able to earn anything at all. Therefore, he approached one of the elder Chassidim for advice.

"Go to the village of Terhovitza," the old man said, "and look for a Breslover Chassid named Reb Sender. He will be able to help you."

The man found a ride to the nearby village and soon met Reb Sender. A cloth merchant in his youth, Reb Sender had been introduced to Breslover Chassidus through several of Reb Noson's followers while visiting Uman on business many years earlier. Now he was the leader of the Breslover shul in Terhovitza. After warmly receiving his guest, Reb Sender asked the poor man what had prompted his visit. With great emotion, the unhappy fellow poured forth his plight.

"Don't worry," Reb Sender said encouragingly. "Everything will be taken care of tonight."

In the early evening, the Breslover Beis Medrash filled with those who regularly studied together before reciting the maariv prayer. To judge by appearances, they were men of all ages and from all walks of life. However, the visitor immediately sensed the comradeship that existed between both seasoned scholars and simple tradesmen, as they sat down to their Gemaras and Mishnayos.

The weekday maariv in the Terhovitza shul was prayed with an intensity that an outsider might have expected only on Yom Kippur. And the dance that followed lifted up its participants far beyond all earthly concerns, as their voices joined together in song.

However, Reb Sender and his fellow Chassidim had a most unusual custom. Before the rikkud they would put their wallets on the table in the middle of the shul. Reb Sender, being in charge of the congregation's charity-fund, was expected to take whatever was needed for any holy cause that might have been brought to his attention.

This time, Reb Sender took enough money to buy their impoverished guest a new winter coat plus a pair of shoes and enough cash to allow him to invest in a more profitable line of merchandise.

After the man had returned home, Reb Sender remarked, "A fur coat has thousands of hairs. But if only one hair from this fellow's peltz accompanies me when I stand before the Heavenly Court, my entire life on earth will have been worthwhile!"

How much humility was expressed in Reb Sender's words! Here was a Chassid who could recite Likkutei Tefillos for six hours as a stretch with a broken heart, and who denied himself all worldly comforts. Yet only for an act of kindness to a fellow Jew did he consider himself meritorious.

© 1990 Mesorah Publications

"Collected Prayers" written by Reb Noson Sternhartz, the foremost disciple of Rebbe Nachman, based on the Torah lessons in Likkutei Moharan.