The Life & Times of Rav Shmuel Heller of Tzfas on His Yahrzeit - כ"ב טבת

Okay, good morning everyone. Today is KFB. Today's breakfast is sponsored by Rabo Badner in honor of the birth of Miriam to Rabdani Sen and his wife Maz to the Son family and Levenson family and by everyone in the to the >> Okay. So today's heler for 50 yearsheler was the abbezin and the rv invas he wrote many many chubis he was the r of the ashkanaz he was a tal of rab of a bas that was the rv of theheler was the r of the ashkanaz but theheler was considered a the rv of the Ashkanazic Kahil invas just a little bit about him since today was sponsored by so was to grow up to grow up by the of Lublin and the Heler once said that he was to get a bra from the of Lublin more than 80 times more than 80 times that's a lot of times okay when he was very young. He was a chauv. You know what a chauvet is? He was a menace. You know, he was a a troublemaker. Anyway, and he was running running running running. And the his mother came to the and she said, "My son whom shove, you know, he's uh he's making a lot of trouble. He's he's jumping on all the wooden planks. He's jumping." So said, in other words, let him jump. He's going to jump much higher ultimately. He's going to jump very high. Which, by the way, I I like the uh pedagogical part of this, you know. Um I'm going to tell you my I'm not going to tell you in whose house this happened, but it happened just this past Shabas. So, there were two little boys fighting. I'm not going to say where address. Two little boys fighting and their sisters got very nervous. How could you're just letting them fight? You're just letting them fight. And one of the brothers said, "They're doing what little boys are supposed to do." You know, they're they're they're fooling around. And I concurred with that. So, in other words, you know, sometimes you have to let it be. Let it be is the best uh let it be is the is the best procedure. Anyway, uh the Heler said over that when he was a young boy, the of Lublin once told him a story of 24 words. He once gave him a 24word story and the didn't understand it, but he remembered it. And as the days passed and the years passed, he understood that in those 24 words predicted his entire life. So you know the the words of the are very precise. The made the chief and when he was young the came up with a in to argue on the the held that a certain imperfection the animal was of blemish and based on his knowledge of medicine that we're going to come to held it was not a traa and ultimately agreed with him but the other were very jealous so the senteller to Israel. Now, if you ever see how Rabanim sign who have their act together, they have good stamps. You know, when they write a letter, they stamp it and it says they're the of you know the of and you wonder where is this bez exactly? When where does this bezdon convene? But still, you know, it's part of the stamp. It's all in the stamp. And they write there the RV of X, Y, and Z. Heler. When when he would sign his name, he would just write Hakatan Heler. He didn't say he's a RV. He didn't say he's an Abbezdin. It was very tiny. It only took up a circumference of 16 mm. Okay, they have the exact measurements. and he wrote it in Hebrew and he wrote it in Arabic from and the reason he didn't write he was a RV is he held that after the bio no one could say they're the RV of that the B was the last R ofas and he couldn't claim that title now what did Heler do in the Bakis say that's maybe too much you know what did he do so he learned medicine he read secular medicine books medical books and he was an expert doctor and there were different plagues and and Rushhel was able to heal many many Jews. However, after a certain amount of timehel came to the basian and he said that rebi I have to stop uh practicing medicine. So Basian says well the Jewish community is dependent on you. So he said, "No, no, I can't because having read these secular medical books, it's affecting my cavana by dabing. It's disturbing my meditation by dabing. So I'm going to have to stop practicing medicine." So the Basian said, "No." He said, "Come here." The Basian put his hands on the head of Heler and he said, "Okay, you're good now. You're good." The kava, he no longer had any disturbing thoughts during the Yeah, you're good with that story. [laughter] Okay. >> Now, there was a big dispute and until this day there's a big dispute. Can a go to the of could go to sadikim regular sadikim to go to for sure. Nobody says the kahanim go but could they go to the karim of tanoim you know there's an idea that on when rebi died there was no kohuna there's an idea that sadikim so that was a very big that broke out and there was a period of time that the shin stayed in the home of mhelar for 13 months and you know everybody knew not to bring up certain topics Like I once met with uh Rabbi Barlow Wine couple years ago. He was staying in Cedarhurst and I was asking him about a certain issue and I was asking him about a certain gal that he used to spend time with in Miami Beach that he about a very important issue. Rabbi Wine did not see eye to eye with him. He you know he couldn't he he didn't get it. So I was trying to understand how did you get along with this golif he said you know you just you don't bring up the topic you don't bring up the topic so here the shin was staying in the home of and they knew don't bring up the topic of whether kahhanim could go to the kev of the rajbi but then the topic came up and the argument broke out and they they were at it for 48 hours straight in the end uh the heler said, "Look, if you want to be Makm and not allow Khanim to go, you could do whatever you want, but the I can't accept what you're saying." Cuz that was the custom in the days of the and the that would go to the of the and I happen to know a who is a and he goes to these I don't think you're allowed to though. you know don't try it at home but there are even till today there are those with a tradition that even for they could go to uh certain sadikim um Heler had a sistern of water in his house and every day in the morning he would stand in the water until his chest and he would finish the whole tahillum and then he would go davin I can't add anything to that story Okay. I don't know why he did that. I don't know what benefit there is of standing up to your just I'm just reporting to you. Okay. There's another there's another uh account. It's well known that in the in the earthquake of 1837. Now, by the way, there is an idea [snorts] that there are four types of matter. There's earth, there's wind, there's water and there's fire. There also a tradition that there are four holy cities in there's there is and there's there's also an idea that the four elements correspond to these four cities. to remember how uh let's say we're going to say that is water because it's by the yaminas. We're gonna say that is earth because it's the makum kavushim is probably fire and you know that's where the was andas is air it has the best air in the world according to even though theam doesn't agree now whether is the fourth holy city is debatable in the they have on the ceiling I was just told um pictures of all all the holy cities in Israel and they there's novas there because that's the old contention you know where's where where does the toyra go or soam famously said that the earthquake of 1837 was you went like a jealous co-wife was upset that everyone's uh headed to and no one's paying attention to her so during that earthquake there's a miracle that happened to the basin that by the of he and those around him were saved. But what happened to Raval Heler during the earthquake of 1837? So in the shul of Heler in 1837, the earthquake struck very terribly and the Gulam said very interesting they bring a letter over here that from the day the Bikdash was destroyed there was never a like the earthquake of 1837. Rashm Heler was very much affected by it. He lost his wife. He lost three of his children. They were killed when their house collapsed on them and they were buried alive. He was found in the B medish of the Arizal at the time where he davened every day and he his plan was he was going to dive in there and he was going to leave after Mina. As he's exiting the arch over the exit, the earthquake hit the B med shook. Everyone inside was buried alive. Only those in that immediate dome under the exit were not killed on the spot, but they were buried literally up to their head in rubble. And really thought that he was going to die of expiation. He was mabalan himself that if he is he'll learn tora and a miracle happened and the stones that were covering his head they they sort of rolled off and ultimately they found him there and he was saved. So that's uh Heler Besai Alenu. He was nif in the year he was born in 1800. He was nif in 1884. >> Yeah. He was he was of >> when he met the basay inas he he was very enamored with him and he >> but he had his own also. >> Yeah. He was the RV of the Ashkanazm and the Basian was the RV of the and he was the RV in [clears throat] for over 50 years. He also held he wrote in the safer dares that the birds from Kafen are um user and he also held that the Rabanam and Israel were smarter than the Rabanam elsewhere. their tire was in a higher level and he held that the Jews of should submit all of their questions to the okay I'll tell you one more thing actually do you remember we just had a series on the Mora and so sure enough one of the main personalities we discussed was his name was Suf Dash David Ben Shim so I just we just found his kem but in in in that whole saga there was a big question about the kashus of the corfu. Okay, heler had a very good idea because the Jews invas needed panasa. He was going to expand the orchard nearvas and he was going to have the residents of go into the esrog business. You know nowadays if you ask people what they do for a living I don't I don't know I don't know but I do I I make on the side and I sell a you know like every Jew could make and sell aim. Some could even simultaneously make a shock and sell an at the same time. In any event um so Heler expanded the business. His goal was to be able to sell the esrogim of the north of Israel to the Jews in Poland. And in year one, it was an abysmal failure because they continued to buy the Corfu esrog because even though the esrogimas were definitely kosher, the Srogam and Corfu were much nicer and shockingly there were many Jews who preferred a nice esrog to a kosher esrog. It's shocking. So they got together and they had a hundred rabanum sign that so long as you could buy aim from the orchards near you can't make a of kfu. So that that helped out the business and that was Rebel Heler's economic plan for the residents of what's interesting is after the earthquake there was a terrible um massacre in the two two times there were Drews massacres. the Drews, you know, they say this the story of the Drews. Um, not to be confused with the story of the Jews. Um, but there was a Drews massacre invas in the aftermath of the earthquake, two different years. Okay, that's the life of Rashm Heler. standard. Oh.