Rebbe Elimelech of Lizhensk was the youngest brother of Rebbe Zusha of Anipoli. He was born around 5477 (1717) to his father Eliezer Lippa and his mother Mirel and became one of the greatest disciples of the Maggid of Mezritch, to whom he drew close following his brother, Rebbe Zusha. His book of collected teachings, Noam Elimelech, was also known as "The Book of Tzaddikim" and he himself was called "the little Baal Shem Tov." He introduced Chasidut to Poland and in many ways, determined its development in that country’s Jewish communities, defining the figure and role of the tzaddik and the manner in which disciples connect to him. His students became the great Chasidic leaders of the next generation and they included the Maggid of Kozhnitz, the Seer of Lublin, the Ohev Yisrael of Apta, and the Rebbe Menachem Mendel of Riminov. He passed away on the 21st of Adar 5547 (1787) in Lizhensk, where he had served as the Rebbe and his son, Elazar succeeded him as rabbi (though not as rebbe).
I heard a story that happened with the holy Rebbe, Rabbi Elimelech of Lizhensk, of blessed memory. In his days, there was a man who served God, who sat in his room for 22 years, closed and secluded, devoted to Torah study and Divine service. He did not go outside for all those 22 years, until he imagined himself to be a complete person. He said: "I will go outside and see the inhabitants of the land and their ways, for I no longer fear the vanities of the world." He went out and heard a great commotion, for hundreds of people were traveling to the holy Rebbe Elimelech of Lizhensk. He was very surprised and asked himself: What do they see in the holy Rebbe of Lizhensk that they run to him? Why do they not come to me? After all, I have not seen the outside world for 22 years and have sat secluded in my room all that time, constantly devoted to Torah and Divine service.
He decided to travel to the holy Rebbe Elimelech of Lizhensk to see for himself what he was about. He travelled to Lizhensk for the last days of Sukkot. On the eve of Hoshana Rabbah, it was the custom of the holy Rabbi to recite the book of Deuteronomy, Mishneh Torah. This man also recited Mishneh Torah with the tzaddik and his chasidim.
When the holy rebbe reached the verse: “And now, Israel, what does your God ask of you but to fear,” the holy rebbe began to cry out to the chasidim in a loud voice: “Perhaps you think that fear (yirah) means ‘a broom?!’ Not so, fear means ‘awe!’ Understand this.” Immediately, a great fear fell upon the chasidim who were there, and they fell on their faces to the ground. The man also fell on his face to the ground from the greatness of the fear and awe that was there.
The chasidim immediately stood up, while this man remained lying on the ground from the greatness of the fear and awe that had fallen upon him. He had no strength to rise and stand on his feet. He remained lying on the ground as if in a faint, and when the chasidim saw this, they lifted him from the ground and laid him on a bed. He did not move a limb, and lay all night and all day of Hoshana Rabbah and also the night of Shemini Atzeret until the morning of Shemini Atzeret without change.
When the chasidim saw that much time had passed and he had not improved, they became very frightened. Rabbi Elazar, Rebbe Elimelech’s son, entered his holy father’s room and told him about the misfortune of this man. The holy rebbe said to his son: “Take my staff and place it on him.” The son of the holy rebbe took the staff, went to the man and placed it on him, saying, “My father and teacher has decreed that you should stand!” And he stood immediately.
After the man arose from his faint, he entered into the inner sanctum and wept bitterly before the holy rebbe, saying: “If you saw a single page from a book lying on the ground, you would surely lift it up. Why should I be worse than a page torn from a book? After all, I engaged in Torah study and Divine service for 22 years, lift me up.” The holy Rebbe Elimelech said to him: “Go in peace, may God be your help.”
From this we can learn that there is no purpose for a person other than to connect to true tzaddikim, and from this one can also understand what true fear is.
(from Zichronam Livracha)
The Book of Tzaddikim
The point around which the story revolves is the need for connection to a tzaddik. The man who visited Rebbe Elimelech’s court thought there was no greater virtue than his own, but when he was exposed to the depth of the tzaddik's Divine service, he fell weakly to the ground, and left as a changed man. Indeed, it is no coincidence that the man came specifically to Rebbe Elimelech.
Rebbe Elimelech is the quintessential figure of the tzaddik in Chasidut, and in his book Noam Elimelech, the figure of the tzaddik takes a central place, so much so that the book is affectionately called by chasidim, “the Book of Tzaddikim” (based on the Talmudic description, “Three books are opened on Rosh Hashanah, of tzaddikim, of intermediates, and of the wicked”). The Noam Elimelech can be seen as a veritable guidebook for tzaddikim; almost everywhere one opens the book, it speaks about the Divine service of the tzaddik, how he cleaves to the Creator, and how he influences goodness and blessing for the Jewish people in all respects.
What does the simple Jew do when he learns a bit of Noam Elimelech at the Shabbat table? And what did the Jew in our story gain when he realized the gap between his service and that of the tzaddikim?
Intention, Not Passivity
When studying Noam Elimelech, the general feeling is that Rabbi Elimelech isn't really speaking to us directly. Rather, the tzaddikim sit and enjoy the radiance of the Divine Presence, and we merit to observe them and are drawn after them. But if this was the extent of all connection to the tzaddik—that it is something of a spectator sport, as it were—why does Chasidut make such a commotion about the tzaddik and the connection to him?
Let's look at the words of one of Rebbe Elimelech’s disciples, Rabbi Yehuda Leib of Zhelikov:
When a person wants to serve the blessed Creator, he needs to go to a tzaddik who will show him the way… But when he does not go to the tzaddik, then he knows nothing. Even if he constantly studies and prays and performs all the commandments, he still does not know how to perform them with feelings of love and fear of God. As a result, his mitzvot do not ascend, because, as is known [his service does not rise above, because love and fear of the Almighty are the wings with carries the mitzvah and brings it before God].”
This is the meaning of the Elder Hillel’s saying, “If I am not for myself, who then will be for me?” In other words, if I myself do not perform good deeds and serve the blessed Creator, who is for me, who will do good deeds for me? Hillel continues, “And when I am for myself, what am I?” Meaning, when you act on your own and do not cleave to tzaddikim, then “what am I?” You do not know what to do and how to do good deeds.”
In other words, the tzaddik does not exempt one from work (as some mistakenly think), but rather guides it. Indeed, Rebbe Elimelech instilled tremendous fear of Heaven in those who came to him, but they themselves were required to act and to bring the lights they received from the tzaddik into their own vessels. On the other hand, without the tzaddik, all the Divine service may be performed without true feeling or proper direction.
What did Rebbe Elimelech mean when he said that fear of God is not like the fear of a broom? A broom is a fitting metaphor for a person who, like an inanimate object, cannot move out of his own space—neither physically nor spiritually. Perhaps this is the interpretation of the conversation that Rabbi Elimelech and the Jew had at the end of the story. The newly minted chasid, who now realized how great Rebbe Elimelech’s influence was, begs to be “lifted up.” He does not mean to be lifted off the bed where he was lying, for Rebbe Elimelech had already lifted him from there. He wants to elevate, to be elevated from his original state.
Just as he spent his years of self-elevation passively, sitting for long periods in his room, now too he wants to be lifted out of that self-inflicted confinement and helped to serve God. But Rebbe Elimelech gently refuses: “Go in peace,” he tells him. “God will help you, but you will have to make the journey yourself.”
Why did Rebbe Elimelech choose a broom and not any other inanimate object that would have done just as well? There is a particular secret associated with the broom. In the context of domestic life, we are familiar with the idea that someone, perhaps the husband, is being chased around the house, perhaps by the wife, with a broom, ostensibly to be “punished.” In the Bible too, the broom appears in the context of administering punishment, “I will sweep her [Babylon] with the broom of destruction”[1] (וְטֵאטֵאתִיהָ בְּמַטְאֲטֵא הַשְׁמֵד). It follows then that “fear of a broom” is a metaphor for “fear of punishment,” not fear of God who wields the broom, but fear of the broom itself. Like a person that fears the sword but does not fear the hand that wields the sword. But unlike the sword, the broom is the lowest instrument in the house. In fact, the value of “broom” (מַטְאֲטֵא) is the same as “vessel” (כְּלִי).
Still, for all its lowliness, unlike the sword, the broom is used for cleaning and can represent a cleansing of the soul, like the strong cleansing the Jew in our story underwent in Rabbi Elimelech's house. Indeed, the value of broom is also the same as the Biblical “basket” (טֶנֶא), whose letters are the initials of the three parts of the Torah text: cantillation marks, vowels, and letters (טְעָמִים נְקֻדּוֹת אוֹתִיּוֹת). The broom is thus also capable of cleansing the soul, just as the Torah’s letters, the vessels that contain the Divine light and meaning in the Torah, cleanse the soul of man.
[1]. Isaiah 14:23.
