Rav Meshulem Feish Lowy zt"l
הרב משולם פייש בן מרדכי לאווי זצ"ל
Sivan 28 , 5633
Stories of Rav Meshulem Feish Lowy zt"l
The Tosher Rebbe told how his ancestor and namesake was so poor that he would go door-to-door and sell brandy from a bottle to earn his keep. When he appeared at a simcha such as a chasuna and people laughed at his feeble attempts to earn a living, he challenged their attitude by saying, “Let them laugh – the nights are all mine!” by which statement he hinted at the fact that although he was a brandy salesman by day, barely scraping it together and not getting by, the nights he devoted to secret and hidden Avodas Hashem, studying Torah and rising to unimaginable spiritual heights.
Eventually, he got a job as a melamed in Teglash and there he lived in dire poverty, barely surviving on the meager salary he made. He was so poor that he could not afford more than challa and beans for Shabbos. He owned nothing save one suit of clothes for the week and one bekeshe for Shabbos. In fact, one Shabbos, a stranger showed up in Teglash whom no one wished to invite and have as their Shabbos guest. This vagabond traveler had a mean, filthy, dangerous look and when Rav Meshulam Feish finished davening he saw that no one had invited the guest to his home for Shabbos. Apologizing profusely that he had no meat or fish to offer, he invited the vagabond to his home, fed him the only food he had and laid out a bed of straw for him in the corner of his shack-like, destitute home. In the morning the family was horrified to discover that the stranger had gone and had made off with all their worldly possessions! Even though it wasn’t much, it meant that Rav Meshulem could not go to shul, because all he had was pajamas and he could not leave the house with no clothes and no coat! When the other mispallelim saw that he had missed shul, they came to check and see if he was sick. As soon as they heard the terrible situation, they donated some clothes and household items so that he could go to shul.
This incident forced him to reconsider his position. Finally, some citizens from Tosh came and observed him studying Torah in the Bais Medrash. They eventually convinced him to come for a trial Shabbos to Tosh, where he could serve as Rav. However, seeking to remain hidden after Shabbos, he refused the position and returned to Teglash, where he discovered that a fire had burned his home to the ground and had finally left him utterly penniless and so destitute that he saw it as a sign from Shomayim to accept the Rabbonus in Tosh. There, he eventually founded the Rebbistava as he received this derech from his Rebbes (like Rav Dovid of Dynow, son of the Bnei Yissoschor). (Avodas Avoda Sichos Kodesh Vol. II p. 330–331)