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Rabbi Shlomo Lorincz recalls: During my tenure as chairman of the Knesset Finance Committee, the Klausenberger Rebbe asked me whether I could help his hospital by allocating it a grant. I invited all the members of the Finance Committee to at- tend a meeting in Kiryat Sanz with the Rebbe participating. I was convinced that the Rebbe’s personality would impress them, as would the fact that an admor of chassidim had built a hospital. With Hashem’s help, this is indeed what happened. Each and every member, including the irreligious ones, were very impressed by the Rebbe’s fiery address. A One of the things the Rebbe mentioned was the promise he made during the war. This is the story he told. While marching with thousands of other prisoners on a death march from Auschwitz to Dachau, the Germans fired in his direction. A bullet hit his arm and the wound began bleeding. This posed a double danger. Apart from the wound itself, if the S.S. soldiers noticed his injury they would finish him off, as they did to every wounded prisoner. Right this critical point he was miraculously able to find moist leaves that dropped from a tree, which he used to bind his wound. The bleeding stopped and he was saved from danger. In those moments, the Rebbe related, he resolved that if he survived he would try to build a hospital in Eretz Yisrael. He would cure others just as Hashem had miraculously cured him. “My purpose in establishing the hospital,” the Rebbe said, “is not only that Shabbos and kashrus should be observed and not just that top-notch doctors should be on the staff, but also —in fact mainly that everyone working there should have a warm Jewish heart! That they should love the patients!” Each and every one of the committee members was extremely impressed and promised to allocate a budget to this very special hospital. The deep impression made by the Rebbe’s talk was mentioned committee meetings for a long time afterward. Later, during a hospitalization ln the United States the Rebbe needed a blood test. The doctor who came to take the blood sample using a hypodermic syringe, gave instructions to use the finest, thinnest needle, which would cause the least amount of pain. Hearing that the patients’ suffering could be eased in this way, the Rebbe began inquiring about the needles, not on his own account but for the patients in Laniado Hospital. While he himself lay in the hospital sick and suffering, his thoughts were centered on easing the suffering of Yidden in Eretz Yisrael, thousands of miles away. Even though the better needles cost several times as much as the regular ones and they were needed in large quantities, the Rebbe, gave immediate instructions that they were henceforth to be used in his hospital. Where a fellow Jew’s suffering can be eased, even if only for a few moments, there’s a duty to do so at any cost. (hit, care needs of sick) (In Their Shadow Volume Three)
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“The Kalusenberger Rebbe embodied middas baracbamim. The architect of a major Chasidus also conceived and built a major hospital in Netanya.” In fact, in a speech to the doctors of his hospital, the Klausenberger Rebbe set down the rules for proper treatment. “A doctor has to enter the room with full awareness that any unnecessary pain that he causes a Jew will have to be answered for.” (Warmed By Their Fire) (pain)
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Reb Leizer Geltzhaler once disciplined a bachur who had the bad habit of insulting and mocking other talmidim. “I need to send you home,” the Rosh Yeshivah said, and explained. “A bachur who hits another boy and causes him pain has harmed another, but the victim goes home from yeshivah and lies down and feels better. But a bachur who teases another? Then the victim goes home and lies down and tosses and turns, unable to sleep because the words keep playing in his mind, hurting him again and again. Such a bachur is dangerous, and he has to leave the Yeshivah.” (Reb Laizer) (hit, onas devarim)
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A friend who called at Rav Abramsky’s home one day found him sitting and weeping profusely. He asked what had happened to elicit such a reaction. Rav Abramsky related that while riding on the bus from town back to Bayit Vegan he passed by the post office in Machaneh Yehudah, and from the window he had seen two quarreling and beating each other. This sight affected him so that even several hours later he hadn’t calmed down and could stop crying. (not to hit) (In Their Shadow Volume Three)
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Rav Leibish Mintz, a brilliant talmid chacham and a musmach of the Chasam Sofer, was appointed as rav in a city in Poland. His erudition in Torah was astounding. He learned day and night with diligence, but also found time to address the needs of his community. However, one day a rumor spread in the town that Rav Leibish, who had a great wealth of general knowledge, had at one time studied in non-Jewish schools. There were some people who were uncomfortable with this information, and they began to distance themselves from their rav. In fact, this powerful group of individuals began asking their sheilos of the two other dayanim in town. They left to the rav the job of dealing with the government ofiicials when necessary. He knew how to “speak their language” and would be useful in that regard. Thus, on most days, Rav Leibish sat at home and did what he was happiest doing: learning Torah. But eventually, the tension in the town escalated. An epidemic had broken out, and the local authorities forbade any large gatherings, to avoid the spread of the disease. Still, a Jewish wedding was planned in the city. Rav Leibish felt that it was dangerous to have the wedding. But the powerful members of the kehillah who had shunned the rav arranged for the wedding to take place anyway. They decided to have it in the cemetery, in order to circumvent the authorities. But the rav backed the authorities and announced that anyone who would show up at the wedding would be arrested. The members of the community thought that they knew better and were upset with the mv, but had no choice but to listen. That Rosh Hashanah, as the congregation prepared themselves for tekias shofar, the rav stepped up to the bimah to be the makri (one who calls out the sounds of the shofar). However, one of the members of the community stood in his way and would not move. “For our tekios we need a makri who doesn’t speak Latin like you!” The mv was utterly stunned. The impudent man continued, “When we need someone to call out the tekios for a goyishe god, we will call you, but for the Ribbono Shel Olam, we need an ehrliche Yid!” The rav scolded the mechutzaf (one who speaks with chutzpah) for his insolent behavior. But the wicked man was not done. He raised his hand and, to everyone‘s shock, slapped the rav across the face! A riot ensued. The police were called in, and the disgraced rav was escorted out with police protection. A few days later, a few years before World War 2 he left the town in utter shame and embarrassment. The name of the town was Oswiecim, Poland. Or, as we know it: Auschwitz. (hit, mevazeh talmid chacham) (Touched By Their Tears)
