Rabbi Tzvi Hirsh HaKohen ben Yehuda Leib of Rimanov
Yahrzeit - 29 Cheshvan
Place of burial - Rimanov, Poland
Rebbe Tzvi Hirsh of Rimanov was the successor of the great tzadik Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Rimanov, and the author of the book "Be'erot HaMayim."
This tzadik was so holy that we cannot even grasp his greatness. He was a simple man from an ordinary family, yet within just a few years he became a great tzadik.
Rabbi Tzvi Hirsh buried 17 sons. Only one son survived, along with a daughter who later married the son of Rabbi Yisrael of Ruzhin.
When people asked him why he, who performed miracles for thousands of Jews and helped so many people, did not pray for himself, he would give the example of Avraham Avinu. Avraham could have avoided the Akeidah, but chose not to, because he knew that his sacrifice would benefit Israel, and therefore he accepted it with love for Ha-Shem and made a Kiddush Ha-Shem.
Rabbi Tzvi Hirsh believed that if he could help Israel, he would be willing to accept Ha-Shem's decree with love.
The hillula of such a holy man, who gave up what was most precious to him in life, is a day of tremendous Eit Ratzon (Heavenly favor).
When Rabbi Yisrael of Ruzhin was about to marry off his grandson to the daughter of Rabbi Tzvi Hirsh of Rimanov, before drawing up the marriage contract he said: "In our family there is a custom of reciting the family lineage at the engagement. That is exactly what I intend to do now. My grandfather's father was Rabbi Dov Ber, my grandfather was Rabbi Avraham the Angel, and my father was Rabbi Shalom Shachna."
He mentioned only the names of the Great Maggid, his son, and his grandson, without giving their honorific titles. Then he turned to Rabbi Hirsh: "Now it's your turn. Tell us who your ancestors were."
Rabbi Hirsh answered: "My father and mother left this world when I was ten years old, so I cannot tell you much about them - I only know that they were worthy and honest people. After their death, my relatives apprenticed me to a tailor. I stayed with him for five years, and despite my young age, I worked well. I tried not to spoil new garments and carefully mended old ones."
"The match is acceptable to both sides," exclaimed the Rebbe of Ruzhin.
How to Make a Bed
Making the bed of Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Rimanov was one of the duties of his attendant, and he never entrusted it to anyone else. When the young Tzvi Hirsh left the tailor and was taken into the tzadik's house as a stoker, he repeatedly asked the attendant to let him make Rabbi Mendel's bed, but each time the attendant refused, saying that the Rebbe would immediately sense a stranger's hand. However, one evening the attendant had to step out, and so he was forced to hand over his duties to the young stoker, giving him detailed instructions on how it should be done. Hirsh assured him he would do exactly as he was told. When Rabbi Mendel woke up the next morning, he called the attendant and asked who had made his bed the day before. The attendant explained what had happened and, frightened, asked forgiveness. "I could never have imagined," said the tzadik, "that one could sleep so sweetly. From now on, let the stoker always make my bed."
The Gift of Purity
Rabbi Natan Yehuda, son of Rabbi Mendel of Rimanov, told the following story.
"The morning after the wedding of Rabbi Hirsh the 'attendant,' I entered the study hall and saw the newlywed cleaning there with his usual diligence. I did not like this, so I went to my father and asked him: "Father, is it right that your attendant, forgetting about his own wedding, is doing such menial work during his seven days of celebration?"
My father answered: "You have brought me good news. I had already begun to worry: how will I be able to pray today if Tzvi Hirsh the "attendant" does not put the study hall in order? For when he cleans the room, he drives out all the demons, and the very air becomes purer. And then it is especially pleasant to pray there."
And that same day my father took Tzvi Hirsh as his disciple."
The Most Sublime Prayer
Once Rabbi Hirsh complained to his teacher that whenever he prayed, he saw fiery letters and words flashing before his eyes.
"This," said Rabbi Mendel, "is a sign of the mystical concentration spoken of by our holy teacher Rabbi Yitzchak Luria. So why are you complaining?"
"But I would like to concentrate during prayer only on the meaning of the words," Rabbi Hirsh replied.
"What you are asking for," said Rabbi Mendel, "is a sign of a very high level, attainable by only one person in an entire generation: to grasp all the secrets of wisdom and, at the same time, to be able to pray like a small child."
There are many stories about how Rabbi Hirsh succeeded his teacher. It is told, for example, that Rabbi Mendel saw in a dream how the angel Metatron, "the prince of the inner chambers," led Hirsh the "attendant" to the tzadik's chair. Then the tzadik noticed that Hirsh saw the souls of the departed seeking redemption just as clearly as the tzadik himself did. This eased his feeling of awkwardness and embarrassment, but from then on he no longer allowed Hirsh to live in his house and perform the duties of an attendant. The only thing Rabbi Mendel continued to accept from Hirsh was help with putting on tefillin, since Hirsh managed to convince the tzadik that this was, for him, a great honor.
According to another story, two sons of Rabbi Mendel came, after their father's death, to Rabbi Naftali of Ropshitz, so that he could decide which of them should succeed their father. Rabbi Hirsh traveled with them as an attendant, and they had already agreed that whichever of them took their father's place would take Hirsh into his household. Along the way, a local resident, one of Rabbi Mendel's chassidim, approached them. Learning of the teacher's death, he wished to hand them the symbols of leadership of the community, since they were Rabbi Mendel's sons. The sons, however, refused to take on this responsibility, since they had not yet received rabbinic ordination, and the younger son suggested handing them to Rabbi Hirsh instead, to which the chassid agreed without any second thought. The brothers were surprised, and somewhat embarrassed, to see that Rabbi Hirsh took the symbols as though it were the most natural thing in the world. And when they arrived at Rabbi Naftali's, he addressed Hirsh as "Rabbi" and seated him in the place of honor.
It is also told that there were chassidim who wished to choose Rabbi Mendel's elder son, Rabbi Natan Yehuda, as successor, but he not only declined the offer, he went away to a distant land for a considerable time.
Rabbi Hirsh once said to his chassidim: "When a person wakes up in the morning and realizes that G-d has returned his soul to him and that he is entirely renewed, that person cannot help but sing a song of praise to Ha-Shem. My holy teacher Rabbi Menachem Mendel knew a chassid who, upon reaching the words of the morning prayer 'My G-d, the soul You have given me is pure,' would begin to dance and sing a song of thanksgiving."
Once a weeping woman came to Rabbi Hirsh and complained that she had been treated unjustly in the rabbinical court. The tzadik summoned the judges and said: "Show me the text on which you based your ruling, because it seems to me that there is an error here." Together they examined the section "Choshen Mishpat" of the "Shulchan Aruch" on which the judges had based their decision, and concluded that there had indeed been a misinterpretation.
One of the judges asked the Rebbe how he had known in advance that a mistake had been made. He answered: "Because it is written: 'The law of G-d is perfect, restoring the soul.' The woman would not have wept if the court's ruling had been based on the true law."