Lunes, 16 de abril, 2012 3:46 P.M.
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Too Good to Be Good
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Nissan 24, 5772 · April 16, 2012
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At a chassidic get-together (farbrengen) held in the early
years of Chabad Chassidism, Reb Shmuel Munkes was doing the honors. The
merry chassid danced about the participants, pouring the vodka and
serving the farbeisen—the food to follow the l’chayims.
Among the dishes which had arrived from the kitchen of Reb Nosson the shochet
was a bowl of roasted lung, a most tasty delicacy. But for some reason,
Reb Shmuel was reluctant to part with this particular dish. Throughout
the evening he pranced about, pouring the l’chayims and serving
the food, with the bowl of roasted lung snug and elusive under his arm,
deftly sidestepping all attempts to free it from his grasp.
Soon the chassidim grew weary of Reb Shmuel’s game, and demanded
outright that he hand over the bowl and its mouth-watering contents. But
the waiting chassid ignored their angry demands and kept up his dodging
dance. Finally, a few of the younger chassidim decided that Reb
Shmuel’s prank had gone on long enough. They rose from the table, and
soon the bowl and its bearer were cornered. But with a final leap and
twist, Reb Shmuel dumped the roasted lung into the spittoon, and broke
out in a merry kazatzka dance.
The younger chassidim sat down to consider the gravity of Reb
Shmuel’s crime, and decreed that a few well-placed stripes were in
order. Without batting an eye, Reb Shmuel stretched himself out on the
table and received his due. He then set out in search of more farbeisen to keep the farbrengen
going. But the hour was late, and the best he could come up with was a
plate of pickled cabbage donated by one of the residents of Liozna.
Upon seeing the replacement dish, the expressions on the faces of
those who had already imagined the taste of roasted lung grew as sour as
the kraut set before them. But soon a commotion was heard in the
hallway. The town’s butcher ran in, a most stricken look on his face.
“Jews! Don’t eat the lung!” he cried. “There has been a terrible
mistake.” It seems that the butcher was out of town, and the butcher’s
wife mistakenly gave the shochet’s wife a non-kosher lung to roast for the farbrengen.
Now it was the elder chassidim who sat in judgment upon Reb Shmuel.
The audacity of a chassid to play the wonder-rabbi! By what rights had
Reb Shmuel taken it upon himself to work miracles? Up onto the table
with you, Reb Shmuel, decreed the court.
After receiving his due for the second time that evening, Reb Shmuel
explained: “G‑d forbid, I had no ‘inside information’ regarding the
roasted lung. But when I entered into yechidut (private
audoience) with the Rebbe for the first time, I resolved that no
material desire would ever dictate to me. So I trained myself not to
allow anything physical to overly attract me.
“When the bowl of roasted lung arrived, I found that my appetite was
most powerfully roused. I also noticed that the same was true of many
around the table. To be so strongly drawn by a mere piece of meat? I
understood that something was not right.”
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