Once, on the day before Yom Kippur during the tish the Ruzhiner addressed the Hasidim sitting at the table: “Children! Calves! What are you doing at my table?!” The Hasidim were terrified, but no one moved from their place.
Then the Ruzhiner continued: “It is written ‘Shun evil and do good, seek peace and pursue it’ [Psalms 34:15] – if you wish to be guarded from evil then do good. Seek peace and pursue it – you should seek the saint (who is one the level of peace) and pursue it – you should pursue him – even if he hounds you and yells at you ‘Children! Calves!’”
After the tish the Hasidim related to each other what they were thinking when the Ruzhiner yelled at them. They all felt that at the time they all thought and said to themselves “Hear O Israel!”
Ruzhiner Hasidim say that all who were sitting then at the tish lived a long life.
I.F.
Matis Heller
A Boyaner Hasid
