239th yahrtzeit 21 Adar
BURIED Lizhensk, Poland
The Rebbe Reb Elimelech was the third-generation successor of the heiligeh Baal Shem Tov, leading the Chassidic movement in Poland and Galicia after the passing of the Maggid of Mezritch. He authored the famous Noam Elimelech. His kever in Poland is visited every year on his yahrtzeit by tens of thousands of people!
When Rebbe Elimelech was younger, he went around anonymously from town to town, dressed up as a pauper [this was called a self-imposed ‘galus’].
On one of these trips, he passed by a Jewish inn and hurried inside to wash his hands, then hurried back out. Meanwhile, totally unrelated to this, one of the non-Jewish servants stole fresh bread from the oven in the inn.
When the innkeeper noticed that a loaf was missing, he asked around if anyone saw somebody come in. One of his servants said, “Yes. I saw a Yid with a beard and some ripped clothing hurry out of here.” “Quick,” said the innkeeper to his servant, “run after him and give him a proper beating!”
The servant ran after Rebbe Elimelech and gave him a good beating, but as that was happening, seemingly out of nowhere, a fire burst out in the inn! The innkeeper realized that this must be a message from Hashem that it was not the right thing to send his servant to beat someone up.
He ran down the road to tell his servant not to beat up that person, but when he got there, it was too late, and he came across the great Reb Elimelech of Lizhensk, beaten and bruised.
Instead of being upset, Reb Elimelech was crying out to Hashem, “Please Hashem, don’t burn this Yid’s inn. I bear no grudge against him!”
The innkeeper fell to his feet begging for forgiveness, and Reb Elimelech told him he fully forgives him. Sure enough, miraculously, almost nothing in the inn was damaged by the fire, which quickly went out.
Before Rebbe Elimelech was niftar, he gathered his four biggest talmidim and gave each of them a different trait of his. To the Chozeh of Lublin he gave his eyes, who had the power to ‘see’ things that no one else could. To the Apter Rov he gave his mouth — he was an amazingly eloquent speaker. To the Koshnitzer Maggid, he gave his heart; he would do his avodas Hashem with all his heart. And his mind he gave to Reb Mendele of Riminov, whose way to come close to Hashem was with lofty thoughts.
This article was found in Nekuda Tova Issue 73.