לזכות ידידי אהובי ר' אפרים אבא בן מרים שושנה וכל בני ביתו
Continuing this theme:
One time Rebbe Aharon was being examined by his doctor, Doctor Rabinowitz, in Tel Aviv. The doctor saw that ther Rebbe was deeply in thought.
He asked "Voos tracht yetzt der Rebbe?" [What is the Rebbe thinking?]
The Rebbe answered "Goots oifen yidden". [Good things about Jews]
[Bikdushaso Shel Aharon 1/213]
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When he would talk about Jews who don't wear tefillin he would say "Jews who don't wear tefillin d'rabbeinu Tam".
He wouldn't call irreligious people "sinners" or the like but "weak".
When he was told about the people on kibbutzim who don't wear tefillin, he said "They are concerned that they won't be able to maintain a clean body [from passing gas and the like]. The Pri Megadim says that such people are not considered פושעי ישראל - sinners" [as those who don't put on tefillin for no reason].
He said that just like you do everything you can to answer a difficult Rambam, so you have to do everything you can to answer a difficult Jew.
He understood the pasuk ועמך כולם צדיקים - the entire nation of Israel are tzadikim, in the most literal sense. One time when his father, R' Yisachar, was in Munkatch, he saw a Jew smoking on Shabbos. He said "He is also one of the tzadikim of R' Aharon...."
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Someone once described a shul which is packed on the yomim noraim. He started saying that the rest of the year the shul is empty [because nobody davens] and the Rebbe jumped in and exclaimed "And the rest of the year they daven be-yechidus" [privately].
[Bikdushaso Shel Aharon - Sanegoran Shel Yisrael]
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I was chatting with a Belzer chossid today as I was getting dressed after mikva and he told me that after Rebbe Aharon was niftar [on the 21st of Av] they immersed him in the mikva [called "tahara"].
The chasidim felt that the water was holy and didn't change it until Chanukah [with many thousands of immersions in between].....
We should be zoche to take some of his spirit of ahavas yisrael!!:-)
ZCHUS HATZADIKIM YAAZOR VI-YAGEIN VI-YOSHIA!!
