DovBer's Observation

Many people have asked me questions about the Rebbe, and what a Rebbe is, and I don't always have great answers.  Recently I read a story to my children from a book Sippurim Noraim, that I think explains it better than anything I've ever come across.

It actually has to do with the namesake's namesake of our new son, Shalom Dovber. 

It takes us back a couple hundred years to the city of Carlsbad (Germany), where the famous scholar, the Pnei Yehoshua lived.  He had a yeshiva, and was the prominent Rov of the city.  Every once in a while, he would be visited by a younger Rabbi, Rabbi Dovber, who would visit Carlsbad to soak his feet in the hot springs to help his foot problems.  Rabbi Dovber was a rising star in his Torah knowledge, and was well versed in the Talmud as well as Kabbalah.  That being said, he was strongly against the Baal Shem Tov and his ways (the Baal Shem Tov was the founder of the Chassidic movement, which is the precursor to Chabad). 

One day, a mystery wagon pulled up to the Pnei Yehoshua's yeshiva.  The driver entered the Yeshiva and asked the Rov to come out and speak with the man inside the wagon.  The Pnei Yehoshua declined, as he was preparing to give a class, and this would waste his student's time from learning. 

A few minutes later, the wagon driver reappeared, pushing the Rabbi to come out.  "The man in the wagon has a message that is so important that it overrides whatever time might be considered wasted from your students learning." 

The Pnei Yehoshua came out to the wagon.  The mystery man told him that the shochet (ritual slaughterer and butcher) of the city has been cheating the community and selling them nonkosher meat for many years.  "After you finish your class, confront the butcher about what I say, and he will immediately confess."  And so it was.  The butcher immediately confessed, and the community started to rebuild their trust in the community leaders again (back in Europe, the butcher was as important as the Rabbi.  Both positions required integrity, and a shochet who was a cheat was a big blow).

A few months later, the mystery wagon returned to the Yeshiva, and the driver asked the Pnei Yehoshua to come out.  This time, he came immediately, already with a hunch that this mystery man might just be the Baal Shem Tov.  The man told the Pnei Yehoshua, "Next time Rabbi Dovber comes to visit you, tell him that his feet won't completely heal until he goes to the Baal Shem Tov."  And that's exactly what he did. 

The next time that the Pnei Yehoshua saw Rabbi Dovber, Dovber was already a devout chossid of the Baal Shem Tov. 

Obviously the Pnei Yehoshua, who had sent him to the Baal Shem Tov, wasn't surprised at Dovber's fate, but was still curious.  "What happened to all of your questions on the Baal Shem Tov?  You used to be so critical of him.  Why the change of heart?" 

Dovber responded, "Before I saw the Baal Shem Tov myself, I viewed him as a regular human, which is why I had these questions.  After seeing him in real life, I realized that he is a man of G-dly qualities, and the questions fell away." 

There are few people in this world who manage to perfect themselves in human qualities, and that is amazing.  A Rebbe, on the other hand, is a person who not only has perfected their human qualities, but has perfected their G-dly qualities, and that is a whole different ball park. 

Our son Shalom Dovber is named after the fifth Lubavitcher Rebbe, who was named in part after the second Lubavitcher Rebbe, Dovber, who was named after the Maggid of Mezritch, Rabbi Dovber from this story.