201st yahrtzeit 5 Nissan
KNOWN AS The Apter Rov & the Oheiv Yisroel
BURIED Mezhibuzh in the ohel of the Besh”t
The Apter Rov was a talmid of the Rebbe Reb Elimelech of Lizhensk. Reb Elimilech blessed him with the power of speech, and he had a tremendous ability to bring the utmost joy and teshuvah to anyone who listened to him. He had a burning love for every Jew, and was also known as the Oheiv Yisroel, the name of his sefer.
The Apter Rov wasn’t born as a chassid. In those days, Chassidus was a new movement, and he hadn’t joined it yet. He was the Rov in a city called Kolbisov. One day, two nice-looking Yidden knocked on his door and asked to stay at his house. He was happy to do hachnosas orchim and took them in.
He heard them talking among themselves, and they seemed to be having a very simple conversation about worldly things. In the morning, they took leave of him. After they left, it suddenly started hitting him that there was lots of depth in what they were saying. The more he thought about it, the more depth he found. He so wanted to meet them again and become their talmid.
One day, he heard some talking outside his home, and when he went outside to see who was there, he realized these were the same two people! He ran right over and asked them, “Could you please come to my house?” They said, “No, we are in a rush.” He begged them to at least come have some food. They gave him some money and told him to buy them some pretzels. He ran to do that, and then came running after their wagon that had already started moving on.
The townspeople couldn’t figure out what was going on. Their esteemed rabbi was running after a wagon with pretzels in his hand, and without a hat, which he forgot while hastily running towards his guests!
When he finally reached them, he begged to become their talmid. They told him that he should go to Reb Elimelech, who would be his rebbe. The rest is history! These two tzadikim were the Berditchever Rebbe and Reb Moshe Leib of Sassov.
I WANNA BE LIKE …
The Apter Rov!
The Apter Rov had a burning love of every Yid, and looked for every opportunity to express this Ahavas Yisroel. He was said to have found a remez (hint) for the mitzvah of Ahavas Yisroel in every single parsha in the Torah!
We can try to be like the Apter Rov by looking for every opportunity we can find to say good things about Yidden. Think of something awesome about another Yid, and say it out loud!
This article was found in Nekuda Tova Issue 75.