"And the Rivers Shall Not Overwhelm You"

"And the rivers shall not overwhelm you" (Isaiah 43:2)

(From the Knishta Chada newsletter, issue number 42)

On the information line, there are many stories and interviews from people who merited flying to Holland and reaching the Tzaddik. In an interview with R' Shlomo Elmaliah, a veteran student of the Rav, he related that he had not seen the Rav for nearly three years. He had great yearning but many obstacles preventing him from traveling to the Tzaddik. As Rebbe Nachman said in Torah 66: "When one wants to travel to the true Tzaddik and draw close to him—for everything depends on this—then a person has very many great obstacles. For the greater the desired object, the greater the obstacle." See there. And on the day he decided and said, "Come what may, I am traveling to the Rav," and bought a ticket, from that night on, he dreamed of the Rav for three consecutive nights. He said on the line, "The veteran students of the Rav know what a dream in which the Rav appears means; it is not just a dream, it is a tangible dream. You wake up and feel, 'Wow! Was I just with the Rav? Was I just in Holland?' It is not a dream!" When he reached the Rav, all three dreams came true in every detail. In one of the dreams, he saw an amazing thing: He arrived in Holland and waited until the Rav left the house. They walked together and reached a river. The Rav was wearing Tallis and Tefillin, and suddenly the Rav leaves them and jumps into the river, with the Tallis and Tefillin. He says, 'The Rav! It's Tefillin! They could become invalid!' So the Rav smiles and says, 'You have nothing to worry about.' R' Shlomo arrived in Holland on Tuesday, and immediately upon arriving, he saw the first dream come true exactly as he had seen it. On Shabbat, there were about 400 people there. During the prayer, before they took out the Torah scroll, a torrential rain began to fall. R' Shlomo has been a Sofer Stam (scribe) for many years and also teaches safrut (scribal arts), and he knows that if a drop of saliva falls on a letter, it immediately blurs the letter and invalidates the whole thing. R' Shlomo related that he received the third aliyah (being called up to the Torah). "My whole face and peyos (sidelocks) were wet with water. I stood next to the Rav and was amazed—the Rav's peyos were completely dry. And even the Torah scroll itself—despite the rain falling—I didn't see drops falling inside the Torah scroll. I read together with the Rav. After the aliyah, I spoke with the Rav and said, 'Honored Rav, it is raining. Let us spread a Tallis over you and over the podium where the Torah scroll stands.' The Rav said, 'No—under no circumstances; I am not interested.' I said, 'There is a synagogue here, let's go into the synagogue for the Torah reading.' The Rav did not want to. He remained in the rain and also called everyone up to the Torah. I stood at the side and watched, and I tell you, I am not a delusional person. Simply put, the Rav's peyos were dry, the Rav's glasses were dry. As for me, my glasses and my whole body were soaked with water, [but] the Rav had no wetness on him! Also, regarding the Torah scroll, not a single drop of rain fell on it! It is just like I saw in the dream where the Rav jumps into the river with the Tefillin and Tallis and comes out, and everything is fine—there is no water! There was so much rain that the Rav said there, 'Whoever has not immersed [in a mikveh], fulfills the obligation of immersion through the rains.' But the Rav did not get wet; it is unbelievable! A wonder of wonders!" We, the editors of the newsletter, were there with about another 400 people, and we are all witnesses to this great miracle that the Rav did not get wet in the torrential rain, but R' Shlomo had already seen this in a dream before arriving in Holland. And this is what Rebbe Nachman says (Likutey Moharan Part II, Sign 56): "When a person has a heart, space does not apply to him at all, for on the contrary, he is the place of the world, etc." The Tzaddik is above space, and nothing can disturb him in his service of Hashem Yitbarach—not raindrops, not the police, and not the judges. And this is what the Rav said when he arrived in Holland a year ago: that the Tzaddik exists in a completely different sphere and not in the sphere of the rest of the world; therefore, as much as they try, they cannot succeed in touching him. We already published in newsletter number 32 the story of the Baal HaTanya (the Alter Rebbe) 200 years ago. The police were searching for him, and he escaped from them and hid in a secret place until he said, "I have fulfilled what is written, 'And Jacob fled,' and now I must fulfill, 'And he was bound in chains,'" and he handed himself over to be arrested. For if the Tzaddik does not decide that he is handing himself over into their hands, they cannot do anything to him.