How Selichot Can Ward Off an Evil Illness

Stories of Tzadikim

It is related in the book “BeOhalei Tzadikim” that when a cholera epidemic broke out in Poland, the Chassidim of Kotzk hurried to their Admor, Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotzk. They asked him to write a kame'a (a parchment bearing a special text) to protect the community from the epidemic. The Admor said that he did not write amulets, but after much persuasion and pleading, he gave them a note, which they folded and carefully kept throughout the ordeal. When the danger had passed, the Chassidim decided to see what was written in the note and discovered that the Admor had written just one word—“cholera”—in Hebrew, this illness is called חולירע—“choli ra,” literally, “evil illness.” The Chassidim were astonished and thought that perhaps the Admor had written the name of an angel responsible for bringing the disease, thereby protecting the community from it. They asked the Admor, but he said that he had not been thinking about any battle with an angel. The four root letters of the word “cholera” חלרע  are simply an acronym for the four words of his appeal to the One Above: “Chatanu lefanecha rachem aleinu”—(we have sinned before You; have mercy on us). This is a famous phrase from Selichot: חָטָאנוּ לְפָנֶיךָ רַחֵם עָלֵינוּ, which Sephardim recite daily for 40 days, from Rosh Chodesh Elul through Yom Kippur, while Ashkenazim begin reciting it on the Sunday before Rosh Hashanah. The rashei tevot of this phrase form the word חלרע. The first letter, “chet” ח, corresponds to the word “chatanu” (we have sinned)—חטאנו; - “lamed” ל corresponds to “lefanecha” (before You)—לפניך; - “reish” ר corresponds to “rachem” (have mercy)—רחם; - “ayin” ע corresponds to “aleinu” (upon us)—עלינו. And in this story, the Admor of Kotzk, Rabbi Menachem Mendel, was extremely concise: he wrote only one word, yet that word contained the entire framework of Selichot.   (Based on Rabbi Moshe Abramovich’s book “The Wisdom of Shlomo”)