Rav Raphael of Bershad zt"l
הרב רפאל בן יעקב יוקל מבערשד זצ"ל
Teves 15 , 5587
Rav Raphael of Bershad zt"l
Rav Raphael was born in the year תקי"א. Well-known as a holy tzadik even before he drew near to chassidus. He eventually made his way to become a disciple of Rav Pinchos of Koretz and became his most avid talmid muvhak. Rav Pinchos also treasured him above all his other talmidim and said about Rav Raphael, “The Baal Shem Tov once remarked that Hashem would thank him ‘for setting up such a Yossel’, referring to the Toldos Yaakov Yosef of Polnoy; and I say that Hashem will one day thank me for having set up such a Raphael!” He also said, “No one understands just how deep my Rahphel’s mind is!” They say that Rav Binyamin Zev of Balta, another disciple of Rav Pinchos Koretzer, said that when Rav Pinchos said, “No one understands,” he meant: no one at all, not even seraphs, ophanim (angels) understand how deep Rav Raphael is!
In Koretz, Rav Raphael assimilated Rav Pinchos’ ways, purifying his heart from all arrogance, anger, and falsehood. Rav Raphael often used to censure all those he knew about distancing themselves from any falsehood and urged them to be careful to speak only truth. He was exceedingly humble and subjugated himself before all others.
After Rav Pinchos’ passing, many of his chassidim began to follow Rav Raphael. The Bershader Chassidim became known for their practice of minimal speech as they deemed silence a good protection from inadvertently uttering some falsehood.
Their manner of prayer was more visibly composed. Though enraptured in dveykus, they tended not to exhibit excitement but would rather maintain a calm exterior.
Before his passing, Rav Raphael was asked to take a false oath in the gentile courts in order to save the life of a Jew who was wrongly accused of tax evasion. Rav Raphael davened to Hashem that since his entire life was spent sacrificing himself for truth and fleeing from falsehood, he now too wished to give up himself for the sake of truth. His prayers were answered and his pure soul left on 15th of Teves תקפ"ז 1827. He was interred in Tarashe.
Stories of Rav Raphael of Bershad zt"l
Once, Rav Refoel visited Berditchev, where he was received with great honor and much fanfare. Afterward, he vanished. A search party looked for him and found him in the marketplace, encircled by a throng of lowly simpletons and merchants who were all laughing at the “batlan”, the good-for-nothing weirdo dressed oddly with a handkerchief over his head.
When they questioned his disappearance and odd behavior, Rav Refoel explained that he was distressed by the outpouring of honor; they had simply inflated his ego with too much kovod, and so he had tied his handkerchief over his head and entered a fabric store, asking to buy some snuff. The owner saw a simpleton and a stranger who was certainly acting oddly, and he poked fun at him, taking him from store to store in search of the fictitious snuff, while they all had a hearty laugh. “In this way, they belittled and mocked me,” explained Rav Refoel, “and I was spared all the honor!”
(Imrei Pinchas II p199)
Whenever an opportunity presented itself, the Imrei Chaim of Vizhnitz would retell this story about Rav Raphael of Bershad's amazing control over his middos. Once after his tisch (the chassidic Shabbos banquet over which the rebbe presides), he shared song, stories, and words of Torah with his devoted chassidim for a remarkable seven hours. The Imrei Chaim, exhausted and weak after the long tisch, walked home in the cold and rain. He arrived at home only to discover that his attendant who had the keys, was nowhere to be found! While waiting a wearisome stretch of time for his gabbai to show up, the Imrei Chaim related this story:
For many years, Rav Raphael of Bershad had a burning desire to acquire pure white wool from the Holy Land to fashion a resplendent, mehadrin tallis katan and tzitzis that would be, befitting such a precious mitzvah.
After great effort, he finally obtained the exclusive wool from Eretz Yisroel! Elated, he passed the wool on to one of his chassidim urging him to take extra special care of the wool and to make with it a tallis katan and tzitzis. The chassid, who realized the great lengths the Rebbe had gone to procure the wool and the importance of his mission, approached the task with great care. All his good intentions and caution notwithstanding, he accidentally folded the tallis katan over twice, so that when he cut the hole in the middle to create the opening for the head, he ended up with two holes instead of one! When he unfolded the garment and held open the tallis katan, instead of one opening for the head, there were now two!
With trepidation he brought the ruined garment before his Rebbe. Rav Raphael had been waiting with great anticipation to see the culmination of his efforts and to fulfill this mitzvah b’hiddur. When the chassid entered the room, the rebbe noticed how crestfallen he looked.
“What is it? What is wrong?” the rebbe asked, beckoning the chassid to come near.
The chassid held out ruined garment ashamedly. He couldn’t lift his eyes to meet the rebbe’s as he waited for the rebbe's anger and disappointment to cascade over him.
What he heard instead was Rav Raphael's delighted voice:
“Why off course this garment needed two holes! Yes, yes, exactly - one hole just as any tallis katan has for the head; and another hole to teach Raphael to suppress and contain his emotions and not be angry.”
When he concluded the tale, the Imrei Chaim said with great emotion, “Kodesh kadashim! Holy of Holies! From where can we learn such lofty behavior?! This story shakes me up and excites me much, much more than any miraculous tales you could tell me about the tzadik!”
When the grandsons of Rav Pinchos Koretzer, who ran the Slovita Press, were libeled and falsely accussed, many tried to prove their innocence, that all the accussations against them were false, to no avail.
Finally the authorities agreed that if three prominent Jewish leaders and rabbis would testify as to the innocence of the Shapira brothers of Slovita then they would be exonerated and cleared.
One of the selected leaders was none other than Rav Pinchos Koretzer's prominent disciple, Rav Raphael of Bershad, who inherited his rebbe's penchant for truth and emes at all costs. So much so that they nicknamed Reb Raphael der Emesser! They used to say that he was so truthful and so careful not to utter even a doubtful truth or a possible falsehood that if for example it was raining outside, and you asked him once he came in doors if it's raining out there? He would reply: "When I was outside it was raining." Since perhaps in the interim when he came in doors it had maybe ceased to rain, therefore he could not answer in the present tense to something he could not directly see right now! This was the very same elder chassid who had been bentshed by none other than the holy Baal Shem Tov's blessing for arichas yomim - a long life. (Kovetz HaTamim VIII Letter 284). When he was asked to come testify on behalf of Rav Pinchos Shapira he did not know what to do. On the one hand it was a matter of life and death and therefore fell under the heter for pikuach nefesh. On the other hand, although he was sure that Rav Pinchos was innocent and that the libel was a fabricated falsehood, he could not bring himself to say with certainty an out right lie, that he had personally witnessed this innocence when the truth was that he was sure of it but had never seen so himself. Initially he agreed to testify, yet as the date approached he began to daven to Hashem:
Master of the World! I have never let a false word cross my lips, and I have never uttered a lie my entire life! I have never testified to a certainty that I cannot verify, nor have I ever resolved a doubt that I myself did not know its veracity! Ribono Shel Olam! I ask of You please, with every expression of pleasing I plead, please take away the blessing for long life so that I not be forced to say something that I myself did not witness!" His prayers were answered, the very next day he passed away, and when they needed his testimony he was no longer among the living. . .and since Rav Raphael's testimony was one of the three, the entire matter was null and void and the judgment of the Shapira brothers of Slovita was a sentence of torture and exile. (Shmuos VeSippurim Volume I pg 243)
Segulos of Rav Raphael of Bershad zt"l
In the name of Rav Raphael of Bershad (“Raphael HaMalach”), the main disciple of Rav Pinchos of Koretz, author of Pe’er LeYasharim:
All the troubles that befall a person are due to chillul Shabbos; therefore, one who safeguards Shabbos will be saved from troubles. We know that each mitzvah is associated with its own particular segulos and rewards: for example, Chazal teach that tithing maaser is a segula for wealth (Taanis 8) and that lighting Shabbos and Chanuka candles is a segula for having descendants who are Torah scholars (Shabbos 23). Based on this principle, it follows that every transgression must also have its own specific punishment. How, then, can Shabbos desecration be the source of all troubles? Since one who keeps Shabbos has all of his misdeeds forgiven (machul lo), logically the converse must also be true – one who desecrates Shabbos must have all his other misdeeds counted and remembered! Therefore, keeping Shabbos is truly a segula to be rid of all troubles! (Ohalei Tzaddikim)