I’ll tell you a maaseh. One of the great Tzadikim was Reb Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev. He was a student of the Maggid of Mezritch, but he also connected with other older students of the Maggid. One of them was the great Tzadik and Torah teacher, Reb Shmelke of Nikolsburg, who led a yeshiva there. He was a big talmid chacham, a big tzadik, and a great marbitz Torah.
This story takes place when Reb Levi Yitzchak was still very young, just entering the world of Chassidus. He went to visit Reb Shmelke in his yeshiva. Nobody knew who he was; he was just a young man named Levi Yitzchak. He arrived in yeshiva on a Friday.
That morning after davening, everyone removed their tallis and tefillin, but Reb Levi Yitzchak kept his on. He went into the kitchen, where he saw Reb Shmelke’s rebbetzin preparing for Shabbos. With his tallis and tefillin still on, he started asking her what was on the menu for Shabbos, what kind of food was being served. He wasn’t offering to help or anything like that, he was just asking about the food. The yeshiva students saw this and were shocked. Who is this guy? Who is this young stranger who they never saw, talking to the rebbetzin about the Shabbos menu, while still wearing his tallis and tefillin?
But that was only strike one.
Later, during seder in the Beis Medrash, everyone was learning seriously, but Levi Yitzchak was casually walking around, shmoozing with people, distracting them from learning. The yeshiva of the Rebbe Reb Shmelke was a serious place, and the talmidim couldn’t believe what they were seeing! By now, they figured this newcomer was simply not very serious about his Yiddishkeit.
Shabbos arrived, and now it was time for the Friday night tish. During the tish, Reb Shmelke was looking around the room, until he stopped, fixated, on this new young man, Levi Yitzchok. While everyone else had already judged him, and decided ‘who he was,’ Reb Shmelke’s eyes lit up. He called Reb Levi Yitzchak over, stood up for him, and gave him a place of honor right next to him. The talmidim were stunned. Of all people, why was Reb Shmelke honoring this newcomer, the one who spent his time shmoozing with the rebbetzin about the Shabbos food and disrupting the morning seder?
They had to get to the bottom of this, and they found a time over Shabbos to ask Reb Shmelke what was going on.
Reb Shmelke answered with a Gemara in Berachos about Rav, one of the greatest Amoraim. The Gemara says that Rav never spoke sicha beteilah, idle talk. But, said Reb Shmelke, I don’t understand. Surely none of the other Amoraim wasted their words either! So what was unique about Rav? And why is this the compliment the Gemara gives him, that he didn’t say things he didn’t need to—why not compliment his astounding spiritual achievements, like his Torah learning or davening?
Reb Shmelke answered that certainly the other Amoraim did not speak idly either. But what was unique about Rav was that even if it looked like he was speaking ordinary words, having plain conversations with people, that too was not sicha beteilah. Even contained within those conversations was davening, and learning, and efforts to try to bring brachos to Yidden. Even if it seemed to be idle and meaningless talk, it was exactly the opposite. That was the Gemarah’s ‘compliment’ about Rav.
Reb Shmelke concluded: “That’s what I see in this young man, Levi Yitzchok.”
This is who Reb Levi Yitzchok, the Bardichever Rebbe, was. The Bardichever was a Tzadik who would often converse with other people. He seemed to be on the same plane as everyone else. It looked like he would shmooze with people, and talk to the rebbetzin about the Shabbos menu in his tallis and tefillin, and even talk to people while they were learning. But at the same time, at that moment, contained in those words, all that he was trying to do was to bring brachos to Yidden, to sweeten judgments, and to bring good things to the Jewish people. Reb Shmelke was able to see that Reb Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev truly never spoke idle words in his life.
May Hashem also take the letters that come out of a Jew’s mouth, even when they seem to be idle, and find significance to them, and find meaning and depth in them, and bring brachah to the world through them. May Hashem bless us with a week full of meaning, depth, and penimius on every level, b’vias goel tzedek, bimheira biyameinu, amen.
This article was found in Nekuda Tova Issue 52.