Rabbi Shlomo HaLevi of Karlin

Rabbi Shlomo HaLevi ben Nachum of Karlin (1738-1792) - a Chassidic leader. Yahrzeit - 22 Tammuz Burial place - Ludmir, Poland The holy Rebbe Shlomo of Karlin was born to Rabbi Nachum. He was an outstanding disciple of the Maggid of Mezritch and of Rebbe Aharon of Karlin. The great sages of his generation admired him, and he had a special relationship with the Alter Rebbe. Rabbi Aharon of Karlin died young. Reb Shlomo, who was his closest disciple and who was destined to become his successor, did not want the position of Rebbe. This was because Rabbi Shlomo and Rabbi Aharon had once been chavruta, sitting together as equals in the house of their teacher, the Maggid of Mezritch. So now it did not seem right to Shlomo that he should take the place of his elder friend as Rebbe of Karlin. Moreover, Rabbi Shlomo saw how people flocked to the Rebbe day and night, so that he had neither privacy nor rest. "I do not want such fame and such responsibility," said Shlomo. "I simply want to lead the private life of an ordinary Jew." So the Karliner Chassidim remained without a Rebbe. That is, until the night when Rabbi Aharon himself appeared to Rabbi Shlomo in a dream and said: "Shlomo, my friend and dearest disciple, if you take upon yourself the yoke of leadership, you will be granted the power to see all the wanderings of souls through their various incarnations." Reb Shlomo could not resist such a temptation from this offer. To be able to read the past lives of all souls! Still in the dream, he gave Rabbi Aharon his word that he would accept the succession and become the next Karliner Rebbe. As it was promised in the dream, so it came to pass in reality. The next morning, when Rabbi Shlomo awoke, he was able to see the destinies of all people on earth. He knew their past lives, their present achievements, and everything they needed to do for their rectification. It was truly an astonishing spiritual gift!   Gilgulim That very same day a messenger brought Reb Shlomo a kvitel (a written prayer request) along with a large sum of money as a donation. The sender was a wealthy merchant - Mr. Geltman. He was lying on his deathbed and wanted the Rebbe to perform a miracle and save his life. As soon as Reb Shlomo read Mr. Geltman's kvitel, a second messenger arrived with another prayer request, this time from a woman who ran a shelter for the homeless on the outskirts of the city. She had come on behalf of a pregnant woman living in the shelter. Mrs. Bettler had been in labor for several days but could not deliver the baby. The midwife could not help her at all. Could the Rebbe help? With his newly acquired mystical insight, Reb Shlomo immediately saw that the soul of the dying Mr. Geltman was destined to be reincarnated in the body of Mrs. Bettler's future child. Alas, the poor child could not be born until the rich man died! "So be it," sighed the new Rebbe. "May G-d's will be done." A few moments later, news came, one after another, of the death of the rich man and the birth of the beggar's child. The next day Reb Shlomo also heard by word of mouth that the shelter for the homeless had run out of firewood, and that the young mother and her newborn son were in danger of freezing to death. So Reb Shlomo took part of the donation that Mr. Geltman had sent and used it to buy more firewood. "After all, this is really the boy's own money," he said to himself. "So he deserves to benefit from it." Soon after, he gave the rest of the money to Mrs. Bettler so she could use it to care for the boy. When the boy and his mother were strong enough to travel, they set out from town to town together with other beggars. Six years later, the Bettlers again passed through Karlin. At the homeless shelter, they learned that one of the sons of the late Mr. Geltman was celebrating his son's bar mitzvah. As was customary, all the poor were invited to the feast. So Mrs. Bettler and her son went along with the rest. As soon as they arrived at the Geltman house, the behavior of the six-year-old boy began to change completely. He took on an important air and refused to sit at the dinner table with the other paupers. In a loud, haughty voice, he demanded to sit at the head of the guest table, in the seat of honor. The child caused such a great commotion that Reb Shlomo intervened and said, "Let's just humor the boy so that we can continue the celebration in peace." But the rabbi knew there was more to it, because he recognized in the boy the reincarnation of Mr. Geltman's soul. "He really is the master of the house, and these are his sons," Reb Shlomo thought to himself. "All he is doing is asking for what is owed to him." When the food was served, the same thing happened; the Bettler boy refused to take the plain food offered to the poor and insisted on receiving the best cuts of meat and the choicest morsels from the main table. Again Reb Shlomo said, "Let him have his way, so that he does not disrupt the feast." But the other guests grew upset with the boy. How dare he, a mere beggar's son, insult the Geltman brothers this way? So they asked his mother, "Does your son always behave like this?" "No," answered Mrs. Bettler, as puzzled as the others. "He has always been such a good boy, very quiet and well-mannered. He has never done anything like this before — I simply don't know what has gotten into him!" By the end of the feast, when Reb Shlomo had already gone home, the Geltman brothers, as was customary, distributed money to the poor. When it was the Bettler boy's turn, he looked scornfully at the small coins and shouted, "How dare you offer me copper coins!? Bring me gold from the treasure chest!" By this time the Geltman brothers had had enough of his insolence, and Reb Shlomo was not there to intervene. So the Geltmans ordered their servants to throw him out of the house. And they did so. When Rabbi Shlomo later learned how the Geltman brothers had unknowingly mistreated their reincarnated father, he was deeply grieved. He could not bear the thought of spending his life witnessing such tragic scenes, so he begged Heaven to take away his miraculous powers. Rabbi Shlomo used to say: "To help a fellow Jew stuck in the mud, a person must be willing to sink into the mire up to his neck in order to pull him out." Moral The greatest trap that Jews face is forgetting that they are children of the King [G-d]. The strongest defense against immorality is self-worth. If I valued myself, I would surely not engage in behavior that demeans me. And what could be more affirming than the awareness that I am a soul, a tiny extension of G-d, divine and eternal? Until people accept themselves as G-d's beloved children, they will not behave in a way that expresses His Supreme Morality. Remnants of Chanukah The Shulchan Aruch writes that it is best to use olive oil for lighting the Chanukah candles because of the pure, clean flame it produces. Rabbi Shlomo of Karlin used the recommended oil, but expressed regret that he did not use candles instead. "With candles," he used to say, "the dripping wax leaves a trace of Chanukah all year long. Oil, on the other hand, burns so cleanly that the day after Chanukah, nothing festive remains stuck to the house!" Once an accident occurred, and the flame of the Karliner Rebbe's menorah caused a small fire, which left burn marks on one of the walls of his house. Rabbi Shlomo was overjoyed: "Now a remnant of Chanukah will remain until its lights are lit again next year!" The Death of Reb Shlomo of Karlin In the month of Tammuz 1792, war broke out between Russia and Poland. Rabbi Shlomo, who was then living in Ludmir (Poland), feared for the safety of the Jews of Poland and expressed his willingness to become an atonement for all the Jewish people. The Russians suppressed the Polish uprising in the area where Rabbi Shlomo lived. The Russian commander who entered the town allowed his men to plunder for two hours. It was Shabbat (parashat Balak), 17 Tammuz, and the Jews had gathered in the House of Prayer. Rabbi Shlomo was praying with such fervor that he heard and saw nothing of what was happening around him. He was in the middle of Musaf (Kedushat Keter) when a Cossack approached the window, looked inside, and shot Rabbi Shlomo in the side. Despite the injury and the pain, he continued his usual Shabbat service. When they brought him home, he ordered them to open the Zohar to a certain page and place it before him while they bandaged his wound. It remained there, open before his eyes, until the following Wednesday, when he passed away. The tzadik Rabbi Yisrael of Ruzhin, who lived at that time, said of Rabbi Shlomo that he was Mashiach ben Yosef, and that is why he died. Rabbi Shlomo was well known for the extraordinary fervor with which he prayed and studied. The most famous disciples of Rabbi Shlomo were: Rav Uri of Strelisk, who was called the Saraph (the burning angel), Rabbi Asher of Stolin, and Rabbi Mordechai of Lechovitch. May the merit of the tzadik protect Am Yisrael! (https://dailyzohar.com/tzadikim/50-Rabbi-Shlomo-of-Karlin)   Sipurei Tzadikim https://silatehilim.com/%D0%B2-%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BD%D1%8C-%D0%B8%D0%BB%D1%83%D0%BB%D0%B0-%D0%B9%D0%BE%D1%80%D1%86%D0%B0%D0%B9%D1%82-%D1%86%D0%B0%D0%B4%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%B0-%D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%B0%D1%85%D0%B0-%D0%B8%D0%B4/