Rav Pinchos of Ostila told how his father Rav Yosef of Ostila once learned that the Chozeh of Lublin would be passing through Ostila.

Rav Yosef greatly wished that the Chozeh would choose his home to visit during this rest stop and so he began advance preparations in order to host this important guest. He knew that the Chozeh’s custom was that as soon as he arrived, he would lie down to recover from his journey. So, Rav Yosef hired a G-d fearing carpenter to build a new bed expressly for this purpose. He explained his intentions to the carpenter: “When the holy Chozeh lies down on another’s bed, his holy senses are attuned to the spiritual vibrations of the bed. If he finds fault with the impression left by the bed’s previous occupants, he will complain that the bed is painfully pricking him as if with spikes. Therefore, I ask you, please immerse yourself daily in the mikvah before you begin your work and as you work think clean pure thoughts.” At first, the carpenter was afraid to undertake such a delicate task and concerned that he was not up to par. Eventually, Rav Yosef convinced him to carry through with the job and the carpenter began work on the Chozeh of Lublin’s new bed.

Still feeling unworthy, the carpenter nevertheless carried out the task. But as he worked, he was constantly disturbed by thinking, “What a holy tzaddik will be resting on this bed!”

Finally, the new bed was completed and the carpenter brought it before Rav Yosef. Rav Yosef was ecstatic. He made up the bed with brand new linens, pillows, and blankets and locked the room so that no one should enter to touch the bed or lie upon it even by accident.

After a few days, the long-awaited moment of the Chozeh of Lublin’s visit arrived. The tzaddik was invited to rest in Rav Yosef of Ostila’s home. “Please rebbe, come; I have prepared a room and bed for you to rest up from the long tiresome trip.” To the delight of his host, the Rebbe of Lublin accepted and Rav Yosef led the Chozeh to the room where the new bed was.

However, no sooner did the holy tzaddik lie himself down when he jumped up and cried out, “Gevald! Es shtecht mich! – Oy the bed is stabbing me.”

Rav Yosef was greatly astonished. How could this be? Still, attempting to find a solution, he said, “Please rebbe, rest in my own bed.” The Chozeh of Lublin laid down on Rav Yosef Ostila’s bed with a sigh of satisfaction. “Ahhh! Now that’s better. This bed is massaging all of my tired limbs; I can feel the purity and sanctity seeping through me.”

The Chozeh was soon fast asleep resting peacefully in Rav Yosef’s own bed.

Rav Yosef was puzzled with all of this and so, when the Chozeh woke up, he posed the question to the tzaddik: “Rebbe I assure you that I have had this bed made brand new especially just for you and I have this room locked, and no one has entered and no one has ever used this bed before! In fact, I hired a Jewish carpenter, a G-d fearing man to build the bed with the best of intentions. What could have gone wrong?”

“No no. Heaven forbid,” answered the Chozeh, “It’s not that the bed is not kosher; it most assuredly is. However, every time I lied down, I could feel sadness overtake me, and it pained me as if I was being poked. This bed was made by a G-d fearing Jewish carpenter indeed, but he was working on it all during the nine days between Rosh Chodesh Av and Tisha B’Av and as he mourned the destruction, his dark thoughts made an impression on the bed. That is what I cannot stand; I sense pain and suffering on that bed!” explained the Chozeh.  (Niflaos Harebbi p. 7 #5)

After the rebbe arose from Rav Yosef Ostila’s bed, he davened mincha and sat down to learn and study before Ma’ariv. As the sun set, the house grew dark. The Chozeh sat studying by candlelight. Rav Yosef noticed that the wick was too long and the flame wasn’t giving off enough light. Rav Yosef handed his holy father’s shneitz sherel – the small scissors used to trim the candle wicks that Rav Mordechai Neshchizer himself used to use - to his young son, Rav Pinchos and asked him to quietly tiptoe into the Chozeh’s room and trim the wick to better illuminate the pages of the sefarim on the table.

“Wait until you see that the Chozeh pause from looking in his sefer. At the moment he is not totally immersed in his learning, you can hand him the scissors.” Rav Pinchos did as he was instructed to do, but the Chozeh pushed the scissors away and continued studying by the dim light. Having been terrified to begin with about interrupting the Chozeh, Rav Pinchos was reluctant to try again. And so, his father, Rav Yosef, approached to try and fix the wick himself.

Again, the Chozeh brushed the scissors away gesturing not to be disturbed.

Rav Yosef couldn’t understand what was wrong, surely the tzaddik needed better light to study by, and what could be wrong with the scissors? “Rebbe need not worry, “Rav Yosef reassured the Chozeh “these scissors belonged to my holy father; he himself trimmed wicks with these shneitz sherel!”

The Chozeh turned to Rav Yosef of Ostila and explained his bizarre behavior: “Your holy father Rav Mordechai of Neshchiz was able to trim the wick with these scissors. You know what it says in the holy sefarim, especially in the works of the Rambam: Every mitzvah which we were commanded to fulfill is only in order to facilitate the rapture of dveikus (cleaving) to Hashem. This is why the name that the Zohar uses for the 613 commandments is “good pieces of advice,” for they advise us how to attach to Hashem. Now, if I were to trim the wick of this candle, it would require me to pinpoint my thoughts on that very precise act. This tzimtzim of concentration would interrupt my dveikus and disconnect me! I could not allow my thoughts to continue wandering the supernal Heavenly strata above while my hands absent mindedly did their work with no supervision! If I had, the wick would be poorly trimmed and go out completely and I would be left in the dark. Therefore, I refrained from using the scissors to trim the wick. It is forbidden for me to interrupt my dveikus to Hashem. Unlike me however, your father was able to focus and concentrate his thoughts without disconnecting his dveikus and so he could use those scissors, but I don’t have the power to do so! (Niflaos Harebbi p. 7 #5, Beis Tzadik p. 16)

Rav Yaakov Yitzchok, the Chozeh of Lublin once asked Rav Menachem Mendel of Rymanow if he had any followers and Chassidim? “Yes, we do,” responded Rav Menachem Mendel.

“And in what way are they Chassidim?” inquired the Chozeh further.

“Our Chassidim, my followers,” answered Rav Menachem Mendel of Rymanow, “study in depth halocha and Tosfos.”

“If so,” replied the Chozeh, “then they are indeed true Chassidim!” (Bais Menachem 5:2)

Similarly, regarding the study of halocha and Tosfos, Rav Menachem Mendel of Rymanow said that he never understood the secret of the matter until recently, that those laws and halochos forgotten during the aveilus over Moshe (see Temura 16a) were returned to us by Osniel ben Kenaz during the days of Sefiras HaOmer. Therefore, it is a minhag Yisrael, which has the status of Torah, to study halocha and Tosfos during these holy days. (From the letter Igeres HaKodesh of Rav Yechezkel Paneth of Karlsberg, originally published in Shu”t Mareh Yechezkel Siman 104 {it is known that on the thirty-fourth day of the Omer, the yahrzeit of Rav Menachem Mendel of Rymanow, they found the Divrei Chaim of Sanz reviewing this teshuva and his eyes poured forth tears of longing. Derech Yivchar by Rav Chaim Betzalel Paneth of Tash and son of the Mareh Yechezkel}

The Heilige Ropshizter used to daven quite quickly while the Chozeh of Lublin, who was also one of the Ropshizter’s rebbes, davened quite slow. The Ropshizter once led the Chozeh’s minyan and as usual despite his best to keep a slower pace to match his rebbe’s he still finished quickly. Why do you daven so fast? Asked the Chozeh. As usual the Ropshitzer answered back with wit and jest, “If one likes the food he gobbles it up quickly – (alluding to his love for each and every word of davening),” “Ahh I see,” replied the Chozeh, “I too like the fare, however I prefer to savor each morsel and draw out the flavor in each mouthful!” The Ropshizter, though would not be outsmarted or outdone his retorted jest followed: “Rebbe your food is piping hot and so you need to eat it slow, whereas my own . . .” (Luach haHillula)

Rav Elimelech Biderman shared the following story: There was once a Jew who desperately needed a yeshuah, salvation for some personal matter and so as was customary he wrote down his name and his request on a slip of paper known as a kvitel and approached the reknowned tzaddik the holy Chozeh or Seer of Lublin. However, when he entered the rebbe’s inner sanctum and placed the kvitel before the tzaddik and petitioned him for salvation to answer his request, the tzaddik remained silent. The Jew understood that his salvation must be far and distant and difficult to achieve, therefore he tried his luck another way, he reminded the Chozeh that they were related, Rebbe please help one of your own flesh and blood! He pleaded. The truth was that they were related through being second and third cousins through their shared grandparents and so the Chozeh answered back “Nu it’s a distant relation.” And left the matter settled. The Jew turned away sadly and left. Just then the Chozeh’s disciple the holy Rav Naphtali of Ropshitz saw the Jew walk out so despondent and with his face so down, he approached him asking the matter. The Jew spilled out all his woes concluding with the story of his failed reminder of his and the rebbe’s family ties. Smiling Rav Naphtali said to the Jew, “Don’t worry I know just the thing, soon the rebbe will go an daven mincha, while he is in the midst of the afternoon prayers when he recites the first blessing of the silent amidah he will say the words “G-d of our forefathers, G-d of Avraham, G-d of Yitzchok and G-d of Yaakov,” listen in and seize the moment, as soon as the rebbe says that, whisper back at him his own words of retort, “Nu its just a distant relation!” Surely that will work!” said the Ropshitzer. The Jew did what he was told and as the tzaddik davened when he reached the place in the prayers where we remind Hashem of our zechus avos and we mention our forefather the patriarchs the Jew whispered to the rebbe “Nu its just a distant relation!” After the prayers the Chozeh approached the Jew and delighted him by saying, “you have succeeded and you have achieved the salvation, let me just ask you one thing, tell me, if this wasn’t one of Naphtali’s tricks?!”

By Rav Shlomo Yosef Zevin

Rav Yaakov Yitzchok was visiting Mezritch for the first time. He was still a very young man, not yet renowned as the Chozeh of Lublin, and his intention was to study at the feet of Rav Dov Ber, the Maggid of Mezritch.

As soon as he arrived, on a Friday afternoon, he went straight into the kitchen and told those who were busy cooking the Shabbos meals: “I am accustomed to personally taking some part in the preparation of the fish that I am to eat on Shabbos. With your permission, I would like to maintain that custom today too.”

He then took up a piece of fish, salted it, put it down, and went on his way. The talmidim of the Maggid who had watched this little incident were somewhat surprised, and asked each other: “What makes this young man think that precisely this piece of fish is going to be served to him? Obviously, it will be mixed up among all the other pieces. They are all being cooked together, and it will all be divided up and served by the waiters to the various people who will be sitting at the Rebbe’s table!”

And so they dismissed the newcomer’s action as bizarre, or worse: pretentious. Now, one of these talmidim was a young man known affectionately by his colleagues as Zalmanyu – the same who was later to become famous as Rav Schneur Zalman of Liadi, the mechaber of the Tanya. This young man tied a short piece of thread to that chunk of fish, in order to be able to trace it – as is done with certain other species of migratory fish – to its precise destination at the table. The newcomer, of course, having left the kitchen, knew nothing of this unobtrusive sign.

At the Shabbos table, Zalmanyu watched the waiters closely, and sure enough, the marked piece was being served to some stranger who was seated next to the newcomer. But no sooner did he take it up than he was overcome by a feverish trembling, and was unable to eat. He pushed his plate aside – right in front of the newcomer, who duly ate it.

And that is how Zalmanyu removed all doubts as to the stature of his new colleague.

Reproduced from A Treasury of Chassidic Tales by Rav S. Y. Zevin, with permission of the copyright holders, ArtScroll /Mesorah Publications, Ltd.

Rav Yaakov Yitzchok Horowitz, the Chozeh of Lublin, kept an open house. He himself served his guests, who were from all walks of life. One day a poor man came to the house and the Rebbe served him a meal. When the guest had finished his meal, the Rebbe cleared the table and brought the empty plate and utensils into the kitchen. The poor man was astounded and said, “Rabbeinu, I understand that the Rebbe occupies himself with hachnossas orchim in order to fulfill the mitzva. But why does the Rebbe clear the table himself? Doesn’t the Rebbe have gabboim in the house?

The Rebbe answered, “Taking out the shovel and the pan from the Kodesh Kodoshim on Yom Kippur was also honorable avoda for the Kohen Godol.”

On another occasion, a guest arrived in the middle of the night. The Chozeh tended to him himself, serving him a meal and preparing his bed. The guest was unrefined and his strong smell indicated that he had neglected to bathe in the recent past. The next morning, the servants in the house wanted to send him on his way due to his strong odor. The Rebbe said to them, “Don’t wake him; let him sleep until he wakes up on his own. Hashem provided me with the opportunity for hachnossas orchim, and you want to ruin it and snatch it away from me?” (Nifle’os Harebbi, Siman 90).

At that time when Rav Yaakov Yitzchok, the Chozeh of Lublin, was studying in the yeshivah of the Rebbe Reb Shemlka of Nilosberg, the yeshivah was located in Shinova. Many other great talmidim studied there as well such as the Berditchever Rav (Rav Levi Yitzchok, author of Kedushas Levi), Rav Yisroel the Kozhnitzer Maggid, Rav Shlomo of Keshanov, and others.

The custom in the yeshivah was that one talmid was chosen who would lead the recitation of Birchos HaShachar – the morning blessings to which the rosh yeshiva, the Rebbe Reb Shmelka would respond and answer Amen.

Once Rav Yaakov Yitzchok joined the student body, he was selected for this prestigious position. Some of his peers were openly jealous of this special attention he received. When Rav Shmelka observed this, he told them, “Do not be jealous. I have chosen him to answer Amen to his Birchos HaShachar because the entire heavenly hosts – the famalia shel ma’alah answer Amen to his Birchos HaShachar as well!” (Eser Oros 18)

The Chozeh received one other special appointment from his rebbe, Reb Shmelka of Nikolsberg. It was his job to remind the rebbe if he lost his dveikus. Every so often the learning got so intense that the rebbe, Reb Shmelka was worried that due to his concentration on the technical points of the sugya, he might lose his dveikus to Hashem. He therefore asked his prize pupil a favor: “If it seems to you that I am so deeply engrossed in the learning that I have lost my dveykus in the Creator, please wake me up and remind me immediately by pulling on my sleeve.”

And so it was that while the talmidim were engrossed together with Rav Shmelka in a particularly deep and intense sugya that it appeared to the Chozeh that Rav Shemlka had indeed lapsed in his dveikus. However no sooner than he had moved towards the Rosh Yeshiva with intent to pull on his sleeve the rebbe, Reb Shmelka recovered himself. He turned to the Chozeh and replied affectionately, “Don’t worry my son, I reminded myself!” (Shemen HaTov Vol 2:3, Zikaron Tov Dveykus 2)

From a young age he already began to accept upon himself various customs and practices to rise in levels of holiness and sanctity. By age twelve he had taken upon himself not to gaze further away than outside his immediate four cubits of space. Furthermore, he began wrapping his face and covering his eyes, shielding them with a handkerchief like a blindfold so as to safeguard his eyes from gazing around unintentionally. He walked around in this manner for many years. According to some, this was his conduct for seven long years until his eyesight dimmed. (Esser Oros 22 Niflaos HaRebbe 106)

During one of Reb Zisha of Anipoli’s wanderings during his self-imposed exile, he reached Yozepaf, the home of Rav Avraham Eliezer Horowitz, the father of Rav Yaakov Yitzchok, who would grow up to become the Chozeh of Lublin.

Rav Zisha, as was his custom, seated himself at the very back of the beis medrash near the stove, a place reserved for beggars and wanderers. No sooner did the young ten-year-old child, Yaakov Yitzchok walk by, when the holy Rebbe Reb Zisha, wrapped in his tallis, turned his eyes towards the young man. The tzaddik’s holy eyes locked their gaze intensively upon those of the Chozeh and stared deep into his soul.

No sooner did their locked gaze cease when the child’s eyes began to tear and weep uncontrollably for an hour or two until eventually, they began to trickle with tears of blood! When this occurred the Rebbe Reb Zisha healed him and declared: “I have given you the nefesh and ruach of your holy soul; now turn to my brother, the Rebbe Reb Melech, and he will give you the neshamah!” From that point onwards the Chozeh’s soul was bound up with Chassidus. (Esser Oros 21, Ohel Elimelech 219, Niflaos HaRebbe 105)

The Chozeh openly revealed things which demonstrated his ruach hakodesh. This practice did not sit so well with his rebbe, Rav Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev who once complained during a visit, “Did you ever see by us such open displays of ruach hakodesh?!”

“If the rebbe wishes me to cease and desist he should say so and I will at once stop revealing things using ruach hakodesh.” “No, you can continue in your way,” said the Berditchever Rav before he left.

The Chozeh’s son turned to his father in wonder and asked him: “If he really would have insisted that you stop, would you have stopped using ruach hakodesh to reveal things?!”

“This too did I see with my ruach hakodesh--that he would not insist and let me continue in my way,” replied the Chozeh! (Esser Oros 6, Niflaos HaRebbe 97)

The Tanna Dvei Eliyahu teaches that “Hashem tied Himself to us with a knot or a crown that extends from one end of the world to the other. He left behind the 496,000 of ministering angels and instead chose to attached Himself to us Bnei Yisroel forever.”

Rav Shmuel of Shinova in his commentary, Ramasayim Tzofim, tells us the following related story:

Rav Moshe Reb Zalman once observed the holy Chozeh of Lublin take a shmek tabak a pinch of snuff in the midst of davening as was his custom. Reb Moshe disapproved of this practice and told the rebbe, it isn’t proper to interrupt the davening to do so.

The Chozeh responded with the following parable:

There was once a great king who was passing by the marketplace when he observed a poor musician who sat playing his fiddle. The musician was an expert and his beautiful playing captured the king’s heart. His music found such favor in the king’s eyes that the king appointed him as the personal musician to the royal court.

Every day he would enter the king’s chambers and serenade the king with his beautiful music. It was also a daily ritual that at some point the fiddle’s strings required tuning and mending. Sometimes a string would snap or go out of tune in the midst of a song.

And so, the newly appointed royal fiddler would sit and tune or fix his fiddle sometimes for hours while the king waited to hear his melodious music.

One of the king’s courtiers asked the musician if he didn’t think it was disrespectful and even treasonous of him to have to make the king wait day after day while he adjusted his fiddle strings?

‘Listen,’ answered the royal fiddler, ‘the king has many groups of musicians at his disposal--whole orchestras and bands. Wouldn’t it more make sense that the king would enjoy their music more so than mine? However, he delights in me and my fiddle more than all of them. Having chosen me over them, he can suffer waiting for me to tune my instrument for him too. If not, he would surely have chosen them over me, don’t you agree?’

“So too with us,” said the Chozeh. “Hashem lacks no thousands of angels to serenade and praise Him on High, yet still he chose us, Bnei Yisroel, with all our imperfections and faults. Surely He can suffer our interruptions to tune and prepare ourselves for Him!”

(Ramasayim Tzofim on Tanna Dvei Eliyahu Rabbah Chapter 6:13)

The first time Rav Yaakov Yitzchok arrived in Rovna to see Rav Dov Ber, later known as the Mezritcher Maggid and successor of the Baal Shem Tov as the leader of the Chassidic movement, the Maggid was bed ridden with a life-threatening illness.

Rav Yaakov Yitzchok wasted no time and headed straight for the mikvah whereupon he immersed himself in the freezing cold waters as an act of self-sacrifice to add merit and heal the sick tzaddik.

The waters were so icy that he fainted. No sooner had he passed out when the Maggid, Rav Dov Ber opened his eyes. His fever broken, he called those gathered around his bedside and urged, “Quick! Rush to the mikvah and save a Jewish life! He certainly deserves it!” And so, the Chozeh saved the Maggid’s life. (Kisvei Rav Yoshe Shuv of Brisk 28)

Rav Yaakov Yitzchok, the Chozeh had the custom to salt the fish himself in honor of Shabbos. He did so while still wrapped in his tallis, crowned with his tefillin and meditating on special yichudim – lofty unifications of the Divine attributes after Shacharis. We ourselves witnessed this as well as heard from others’ holy mouths as well.

He once invited Rav Hirschel of Zidatshuv to come and taught him the secret of salting fish in honor of Shabbos Kodesh (Rav Yitzchok Isaac of Komarno’s testimony in Shulchan HaTahor 250:3 and Neziv Mitzvosecha Emunah 6:5)

When Rav Yaakov Yitzchok arrived in Mezritch for Shabbos to the Maggid’s table, Rav Shneur Zalman of Liadi, the author of the Tanya and Shulchan Aruch was there. The Baal HaTanya saw him enter the kitchen and say to the cooks, “I always have the custom to salt my own piece of fish that I will eat in honor of Shabbos.”

Rav Shneur Zalman was observing this strange behavior wondering what would happen on Shabbos since this piece would get mixed up and cooked with all the others. So, he took a piece of string and tied it around the fish to mark the fish that the Chozeh had salted.

On Shabbos as the talmidim sat around the table and the fish was distributed, Rav Shneur Zalman watched and waited. Sure enough, the fish with the string tied around it ended up in the plate of the Chozeh’s neighbor and not on his own plate. However, the man lifted his fork to eat it, but mysteriously lost his appetite.

“Here,” the neighbor said to the Chozeh, “you eat this fish because I cannot eat it.”  He then handed the Chozeh his own salted shtickel fish! “That is when I knew I was in the presence of someone great indeed!” declared the Baal HaTanya. (Niflaos HaRebbe 186)

Rav Alexander Zisha of Platzk and Rav Feivel of Gritza were colleagues, they studied together in the yeshivah of Rav Yaakov of Lisa, author of Chavas Daas. They became disciples of the Chozeh of Lublin. One day they brought the Chiddushei HaRim’s kvitel to the Chozeh who remarked upon reading the name on the note, “He is just like his name, Meir: he shines all of the worlds with light!” From then on, the Chiddushei HaRim, the founder of the Gerrer dynasty, held himself a disciple and talmid of the Chozeh. (Meir Einei haGola pp. 54-55, 144)

The Chozeh wished to honor his important guest, Rav Sholom Rokeach, and so he asked them to pour him a glass of wine. Rav Sholom had already begun his ascent and so among his ascetic practices he had self imposed upon himself was to refrain from drinking any intoxicating beverages. And so he lifted the cup up as the Chozeh had commanded but was in a quandary since he would not drink the wine. This resolved itself as soon as the wine glass shattered in his hands off its own accord. Seeing this, the Chozeh asked them to pour him a new cup of wine. When the performance repeated itself the Chozeh thundered in mock anger: “What are you trying to do? Do you mean to shatter all my glasses?” When Rav Sholom explained his geder and that he did not drink wine, the Chozeh let the matter alone.

The next day he honored Rav Sholom by calling him up to the Torah for the sixth aliyah, an honor accorded and reserved for VIPs and lofty leveled rabbonim. The assembled wondered aloud about such an honor and disctinction bestowed upon such a young guest. The Chozeh responded to the clamor and commotion with the retort: “Why are you all so surprised?, this yungerman will one day be a leader of thousands!” Off course his prediction came true.

The Chozeh once requested Rav Sholom to be the one to read the Megillah on Purim for all the assembled. Afterwards the Chozeh remarked upon the completion “I have heard the story of Purim many times before, but not the way this yungerman just told it! I have never heard the story told this way ever before!”

On another occasion Rav Sholom was squashed beneath the Chozeh’s tisch, the Chozeh whispered to him “One day they will all be squashing under your tisch!”

Another time the Chozeh remarked: “People travel to Rymanov (to the Rebbe Reb Menachem Mendel) seeking parnassah and livelihood, to Kozhnitz (to the Maggid Rav Yisroel Haupstein) they go seeking refuos and healing, to me they come for Chassidus, to you they shall come and by you they shall received all of these!”