and could hardly wait for the day when he would become rich beyond his dreams. When the time finally arrived, he carefully prepared Itzik’s meal, making the poisoned soup so flavorful and aromatic that anyone would have been tempted to partake of it.
The plotter thought his heart would give out as Itzik sat at the dinner table and lifted the spoon to his mouth. But then, without warning, the utensil dropped with a clang. It had suddenly dawned on Itzik that it was Shavuos.
“On this night I eat only dairy!” he exclaimed.
Peter, certain that his plot had somehow unraveled, hastened toward the kitchen to accommodate his employer. Itzik stopped him in his tracks, however, and advised him that this was a special meal he preferred to put together on his own. Peter’s nervousness and furtive glances at the uneaten soup were glaringly apparent.
“What a shame to let such good fare go to waste! I have a great idea,” offered Itzik. “Why don’t you sit down and eat instead of me?”
“No! Not me!” The servant’s mortified cry was confirmation that something was definitely amiss.
“I insist!” ordered Itzik. Peter made a run for it, but his boss was quick. Peter soon found himself barricaded in a nearby room.
Itzik called on his dog and threw him some of the meat that had been stewed in the consommé. The hungry hound had barely finished devouring the meat before it let out an anguished howl and fell dead on the spot.
As he recovered from the trauma of his close call, Itzik remembered his father’s last words: Maybe this one mitzvah will protect him. It surely had, a grateful Itzik realized. He recalled also his mother’s oft repeated quote of the rebbe’s – “Let us hope that in the merit of his forefathers”
Itzik spent the rest of Shavuos in shul alongside other worshipers, familiarizing himself with the long forgotten holy words, immersing himself in the Tikkun Leil Shavuos.
* * *
When Moshe ascended on high to receive the Torah, the angels moved in to harass him, whereupon God altered Moshe’s face to resemble that of Avraham’s and admonished the celestial mischief-makers, “Are you not ashamed in the presence of the person in whose house you feasted? Avraham eagerly fulfilled the mitzvah of hachnassas orchim when he received you warmly and graciously, while you greet your earthly visitor with intimidation born of jealousy. It is clear you don’t possess the attributes that deem one worthy of receiving the Torah!”
Shavuos commemorates the yahrzeit of King David – who bequeathed to us the eternal words of Tehillim– as well as that of the founder of chassidism, the holy Baal Shem Tov.
The Baal Shem Tov would host Shabbos in his home for many and varied guests. As a matter of practice, one of the three traditional Shabbos meals would be reserved strictly for his chavraya kadisha, his holy disciples and visiting sages. The Baal Shem Tov was most convivial on a particular summer’s Friday night enlivened by the pres
ence of “simple” folk – innkeepers, shoemakers, tailors, land laborers, etc. He personally reached out to the individuals who graced his table in ways that would make them feel at home.
One would receive wine from the holy man’s Kiddush cup, another would be handed the goblet to use for his own Kiddush, while still others received portions of the rebbe’s own fish or meat rations, as well as generous chunks of challah he’d blessed. He would regale them with narratives and biblical anecdotes that could be easily grasped by the less scholarly among them.
At the Shabbos noontime seudah, reserved exclusively for the Baal Shem Tov’s sagacious talmidim and erudite visitors such as the Mezritcher Maggid, the mood was otherworldly.
Enthralled by the tzaddik’s depth of spiritual insight, his students puzzled over why he would squander his precious time on “ordinary” mortals (who at this very juncture of the day had retreated to the rebbe’s synagogue to recite psalms).
As his talmidim continued to ponder this curiosity, the Baal Shem Tov’s demeanor turned grave and he began to expound on a d’var Torah:
“In the Talmud we find ‘Shalom shalom la’rachok vela’karov‘ – peace, peace to the distant and to the near. Chazal explain ‘distant’ to be referring to the baal teshuvah and ‘near’ as alluding to the tzaddik who constantly stands close (near) to God. So why is ‘distant’ mentioned first?
To illustrate that a baal teshuvah comes closer to Hashem than the tzaddik, for ‘in the place where the ba’alei teshuvah stand, no perfect tzaddik can stand.’ The service of Hashem by the ordinary of our people is likened to that of the baal teshuvah, for theirs is performed with a broken heart, with feelings of regret.”
The Baal Shem Tov then led the gathering in uplifting z’miros. Afterward, the tzaddik’s eyes took on a shining brilliance and he enjoined each of the talmidim to raise his right hand and place it on the shoulder of his neighbor. Thus connected in an unbroken human chain, they broke into song as they swayed. When the singing concluded, they were asked to keep their eyes closed until advised otherwise.
The tzaddik placed his right hand on the shoulder of the person to his right, his left hand on the shoulder of the one to his left. The sweetest sound of melodic voices was suddenly heard cascading from every direction.
Songs of praise: “The words of Hashem are purelike purified silver“; earnest supplications: “Teach me your way, Hashem“; yearning for closeness to Him: “Even the bird finds its home“; and lyrical tribute: “He looks toward the earth and it trembles, He touches the mountains and they smoke” (Psalms 12:7, 27:11, 84:4, 104:32).
The eloquently conveyed verses of Tehillim and the sheer, raw emotion left the men quivering.
The Baal Shem Tov removed his hands from the talmidim to his left and right sides and the rapturous floating tones came to a halt. Their rebbe informed his elite audience that the extraordinary importuning they had perceived was that of the “common folk” – their heartfelt recitation of Tehillim on its way to the heavenly gates.
The Mezritcher Maggid later confided to the Baal HaTanya that never had he experienced such a stirring of the soul as on that Shabbos, nor had he ever felt such intense love of Hashem. The longing in his heart to do teshuvah was so acute at the time that his shoes had become wet with his tears and perspiration.
“ke’ish echad be’lev echad” – “We were as one person with one heart when we stood at Mount Sinai. If all Jews would unite and each extend to the other his hand, all hands would become as one – which would then extend all the way to the Kisei Hakavod” (The Kozhnitzer Maggid).
Dovid HaMelech extols the glory of God and His wondrous creations of heaven and earth and the Torah. “Hanechmadim mizahav… umesukim midvash…” reads the psalm we recite on Shavuos. “More desirable than gold… sweeter than honey dripping from the combs…” (Tehillim 19:12).
A surplus of gold will diminish the value of the precious metal, but expansion of the commodity of Torah knowledge enriches man ad infinitum. And while honey in excess can be sickening, there is no such concept as a surplus of Torah wisdom.
