Saba Yisroel -- To See The Blossoms of the Spring

Chapter 2 – His Childhood

Once, in the summer of 753 (1993), before the prayers he spoke about his childhood, and he fired us up so much that afterwards we prayed with shouting and great kavana (concentration and intention). He said that H”Y gave him many presents from the time he was little, that he did not desire this world at all. At that time the modern, who go in short clothing, began to proliferate, but he waited to become of age and wear a long garment. They suffered from poverty, he said that poverty is a great gift, because from a full stomach it is hard to serve Hashem; one sleeps a lot, and specifically from the poverty he saw the vanity of this world. At night he would go to sleep, but it is necessary to eat, and much time was left (without food) and he had only a piece of bread. When he saw someone saying Psalms with Kavana, he would say, “fortunate is this person, he is committed to the ultimate purpose!” He himself experienced great delight in every word of his prayer and of the Psalms that he said, and this was one of the presents.

When he prayed in the synagogue, he would pray with all this strength and kavana, as though he was alone, and one of the elders (who was very miserly) gave him a large coin every day, until he amassed a sum and he asked his mother to buy him a siddur 'kol-boa' – that has in it all types of supplications and prayers – from Jerusalem. He also told us that he would get up at night to serve Hashem, and the house was hot like a cave, and he would like a candle with benzine, in order to study, and in his house --- they were extremely poor – they were very grieved by this, for they saw that before Shabbos they were very deficient in benzine in order to cook etc.. Until they made electric lights outside, and he rejoiced greatly then, for now he would be able to pray and learn the night for free.

Chapter 3

Blossoms of the Spring

R' Yisroel told someone to reach out to his (this person's) family through letters, just as he (Saba) had done with Shazar, taking Rabbainu's books and quoting them in letters of outreach.

R' Yisroel once called one of the friends on Shabbos and said to him, “Behold I authored Blossoms of the Spring, this is not a simple matter.” This was like saying that this book was not a simple copying from the books of Rabbainu that anyone could have done, so the matter needs study.

Chapter 4

Love of Friends

Once, someone told R' Yisroel that he sees that it is very difficult to make peace between the friends. R' Yisroel replied, “I remained alon, all of them (all my friends) deserted me, very good” etc..

Once, R' Yisroel turned to two friends and asked them if they were friends, good friends. And he said that the main point of friendship is to find the truth.

On the last Rosh Hashana he said to someone: We should merit to have a true chevra (group of friends).

To someone whose friends conflicted with him and didn't speak with him, he said: We didn't come to this world for friends, just to serve Hashem – to fulfill the Torah and the mitzvos.

Once, at the end of his life, he said: I searched the whole world, I didn't find a friend. So someone asked him, “How does one merit to be your friend?” R' Yisroel answered: The main thing is to pray with a fiery heart to merit to draw close to Rabbainu in truth (and in this way it is possible to merit to be his friend, that was the implication).

To someone who lived alone, in a place without friends, R' Yisroel said: Your friend is the Likutay Tefilos.

He said to someone that is good to be friends with someone who donates a lot of money for the publication (of Rabbainu's teachings). Once, someone wanted to give charity to one of the friends because he heard of his plight, and someone (else) convinced him that it would be better to give it to R' Yisroel (-for the publication). So when he agreed and came to R' Yisroel with the donation, R' Yisroel responded with unwillingness and doubt, and in the end he (R' Yisroel) said to him: Fine, give to so-and -so and mentioned the name of the friend in plight (all of this without them having told him anything about the matter, because it was clearly visible to anyone who looked truthfully, that everything was revealed before him).

He asked someone to ascertain that he was friends with someone who desired to learn a lot, and learned a lot every day.

Once, someone took enjoyment, in his mind, that R' Yisroel chastised his friend, and after a few minutes R' Yisroel turned to him privately and said to him: you are not in order.

To See The Blossoms of the Spring

HH

To See The Blossoms of the Spring

--- This is a new book just published, written by Michael Barzel a devout haredi Nanach who merited to service and spend time with Saba Yisroel -- 

Chapter 1

R' Yisroel was born on the 20^th of Kislev 657 (November 25, 1896) and was brought into the covenant of our Forefather Abraham (i.e. he was circumcised) on the third candle (-day), the same day that the waters of the Flood desisted, and he departed aloft with good old age on the 18^th of Cheshvon 755 (Sun, October 23, 1994) the day adjacent to the first day of the Flood started.

He was named 'Yisroel Ber' after a butcher from his family who was a very great tzaddik, his grandfather was the Chief Judge of the Beit Din (Jewish Court) of Odessa for 40 years, and he was a close follower of the Rav the Tzaddik the Kalisker, and he went up and immigrated to the Land of Israel.

His ways were hidden and almost nothing is known about him (this is what can be discerned from his words), and even his family and acquaintances didn't know from him, as this was hinted to once when President Shazar addressed Saba Yisroel's children on the wedding day of his son Pinchas, and said to them, “You don't know who your father is!” The children were angered by this, and even still Shazar repeated and said, “You don't know who your father is!”

The way of R' Yisroel was to allude to lofty conceptions and important matters from his conversation, and everyone understood according to the depth they fathomed in their hearts.

Also I remember that R' Yisroel's oldest daughter, OB”M, told over about him, and fired up the listeners with her words and endearing stories about him, and when they told him this, he said, “What does she know?” From this you should understand that he was very hidden, a concealed tzaddik, and the world was very mistaken about him, especially in his old age, to think that he had alread aged... Heaven forbid, or there are those that say that they knew him for 40 years, and so forth, but the truth is, it is impossible to know from him, and he hid himself completely from the world.

On the contrary, from this you can understand a little from his greatness, that he was not concerned at all about what people thought of him. On the contrary, he would purposely disgrace himself, and in truth [not like the famous rabbis who would disgrace themselves in order that everyone would declare of them, “see how humble he is...” for such humility is the epitome of haughtiness (see Likutay Moharan 11)] – as is brought down a story of R' Zusha, that once on his way he came across an orphan bride who lost her entire dowry and the groom's side wanted to call off the wedding, and when R' Zusha heard of this he announced that he found the money, and he said the amount that the bride had lost (- and this was really his own money), but he requested a percentage as a finder's fee, so everyone denigrated him very much, and they threw him out of the city with great disgrace, and all this was in order to do the mitzva for it's own sake.

Also see Likutay Moharan 261 that the tzaddikim accept upon themselves disparagement and spilling of blood (-blushing) purposely, in order to save Jews from being killed and other tragedy that was destined G”F to befall them.

So also transpired with R' Yisroel once, at the end of his life, chasidim came to see him and to hear words and encouragement from his holy mouth, and he was asking for food and chastising the master of the house saying that he has dishes but does not give him to eat, and he was shouting, and everyone was astonished, and in the morning R' Yisroel asked one of the friends to ask forgiveness from the to master of the house (and this is what he said to him:) “He needs to rejoice that he merited to host in his house the followers of Rabbainu, I need not have been so particular with him about the food, and in truth there was food, but this is the calamity of being old, yes I am old... sometimes a evil spirit enters me... but tell the master of the house that this was of great benefit to him, this was very favorable for him, for the whole world and for me as well... I am careful not to pain any Jew, but great misfortune was destined to befall the house, and by the pain that I caused, the misfortune won't come...” [from here one sees how R' Yisroel would disgrace himself in everyone's eyes in order not to receive honor, and also to mitigate the hardships from Jews].