When the Bardichever Rebbe passed away, Rebbe Nachman of Breslov sent out a letter instructing everyone to check their tefillin shel rosh to make sure they were kosher. Why? Because tefillin is called פאר, splendor; it is the splendor of a Yid, and the Bardichever was the pe’er of Klal Yisroel. So if we lost the pe’er of Klal Yisroel, we need to check to see if there are issues with the pe’er of tefillin. Sure enough, thousands of tefillin were found to be passul.
In Kedushas Levi, the Bardichever wrote the following idea about tefillin. The Gemara says that just like the Jewish people keep mitzvos, Hashem keeps mitzvos as well. The example the Gemara gives is that “Hashem also wears tefillin.” Our tefillin says Shema and talks about the greatness of Hashem. What does it say on Hashem’s tefillin? Mi ke’amcha Yisroel, goy echad ba’aretz. With our tefillin, we declare the greatness of Hashem, and with Hashem’s tefillin, He declares the greatness of the Jewish people.
The Jewish people are obsessed with talking about how great Hashem is, and Hashem is obsessed with talking about how great the Jewish people are.
The Kedushas Levi brings another example of this. In the Torah, the Yom Tov of Pesach is called Chag Hamatzos. That’s what “Hashem calls it,” so to speak. But Yidden refer to the Yom Tov as “Pesach.” Why do we call the Yom Tov by a different name than Hashem does?
The answer is that the Jewish people are obsessed with talking about how great Hashem is. So when we refer to the Yom Tov, we call it Pesach and highlight the greatness of Hashem, that He passed over the houses of the Yidden during makkas bechoros in Mitzrayim.
And Hashem is obsessed with talking about how great the Jewish people are. So He refers to it as Chag Hamatzos. This highlights the greatness of the Yidden — “look what My Yidden did, they didn’t have bread to eat when they followed Me off into the desert; all they had was matzah!”
The halacha in tefillin is that one cannot be meisiach daas from tefillin (we cannot take our minds off the tefillin). The Bardichever says that this is not just a halacha that pertains to what we think about while we are wearing tefillin. This is a yesod we need to hold on to throughout our entire life! The two things that a Yid should never take his mind off and should never stop talking about are either the greatness of Hashem (“our tefillin”) or the greatness of the Jewish people (“Hashem’s tefillin”).
There are countless stories about the Bardichever Rebbe, and they all fall into just one of two categories. They either show how madly in love he was with Hashem or how madly in love he was with the Jewish people.
The Bardichever did not keep that flaming love to himself. He did not even seem to be capable of controlling it, and often it was expressed in unique ways. For example, he would often jump around wildly while he was davening, unable to keep his body still due to the love for Hashem that was bursting out of him.
So unusual was his davening that some people who disliked the Bardichever would mimic his unusual davening to make fun of him and even make plays, where people would come watch the show of “The Bardichever Rebbe during davening.”
One such Yid once travelled to Bardichev and spent some time watching Reb Levi Yitzchak’s davening, training himself to put on the perfect show. He traveled back to his village, got himself a stage, and sold tickets to his show. The show started off well. He was jumping around in a perfect replication of the Bardichever’s davening, and the crowd was amused.
Then he started crying, and the crowd roared with laughter! This was a perfect imitation of the Bardichever’s davening; he always cried while he davened (and laughed, and jumped, and danced, and so on).
But the performer just kept crying and crying, and eventually it wasn’t funny anymore. The crowd stopped laughing and quickly became agitated, as this was not the comedy show they had paid for. The show was clearly over, and the performer was just crying now. When they asked him about it, he didn’t know what to say. “When I started, the tears were a show, but then they became real.” Eventually, he returned from his ways and ended up becoming a real chassid of the Bardichever.
This was the koach the Bardichever had to bring out the best even in Yidden who hated him, so strong was his burning love for every Yid.
Reb Baruch of Medzhybizh was a great tzadik who lived at the same time as the Bardichever, but his ways were dramatically different. He was very controlled and more serious and didn’t let his passion express itself like the Bardichever did.
Once, the Bardichever was travelling on Erev Shabbos and needed to stop at an inn for Shabbos. A short while later, Reb Baruch of Medzhybizh happened to stop at the same inn, asking for a room. There were no rooms left available, but the innkeeper said, “We happen to have another Rabbi here with us. Why don’t you share the room with him?”
Reb Baruch agreed and was escorted to the room, where he quickly learned who he’d be spending Shabbos with… He said shalom aleichem to the Bardichever and then asked him to please do him a favor and control himself this one Shabbos, not to be so excited and jump around. Reb Levi Yitzchak agreed.
Friday night davening came along, and sure enough, Reb Levi Yitzchak’s was calm, with none of the usual fireworks that were part of his davening. They sat down at the Shabbos seudah, and his Kiddush was calm. The Bardichever was keeping to the agreement.
Until it was time for soup. The waiter came around, served Reb Levi Yitzchak soup, and then asked him if he liked pepper. He looked at the waiter incredulously and said, “Do I like pepper? You want to know if I love pepper?” (And Reb Baruch was probably thinking… uh-oh… here we gooo.)
Reb Levi Yitzchak then jumped up onto the table, unable to control himself anymore, and screamed out, “I LOVE THE RIBBONOI SHEL OLAM!! I LOVE THE RIBBONOI SHEL OLAM!!”
And when he did that, he spilled his soup all over the bekeshe of Reb Baruch.
The end of that story is that Reb Baruch was so impressed with this expression of Reb Levi Yitzchak’s burning Ahavas Hashem that he refused to clean the soup spill off of his bekeshe. He left that soup as a reminder and used to wear that bekeshe that Reb Levi Yitzchak spilled soup on for special occasions.
Ahavas Hashem, and Ahavas Yisroel. That’s what the Bardichever Rebbe was.
Based on what Harav Yussie Zakutinsky shared with the chevra before entering the Bardichever Rebbe’s Kever a few years ago.
This article was found in Nekuda Tova Issue 101 – Bardichever Yahrtzeit Edition.
