R’ Hersh asked the centenarian if he ever had the opportunity to be in the company of a tzaddik. The answer came quickly and unwaveringly: “Don’t know such folks and have no interest in them.”
The Rebbe persevered… Had the old man ever observed a tzaddik? The man suddenly recalled that as a wagon driver he once drove some chassidim to the Rebbe Reb Elimelech in Lizhensk. He had checked into a nearby guesthouse to wait for them. But following his solo Shabbos morning prayers, he visited the beis medrash out of simple curiosity.
The chassidim, he had noted, were all flushed; they must have had way too much to drink. The Rebbe himself had imbibed even more than the rest of them, declared the simpleton, for he was even redder than his chassidim. Little did he fathom that the glow of the chassidim was due to their exhilaration and enthusiasm at being in the presence of the saintly man, and that the great Rebbe’s flaming countenance was due to his radiating kedusha.
R’ Hersh of Rimanov thus discerned that the old man, having been exposed to the holiness of the great Reb Elimelech, needed to do teshuvah before he could depart this world. The Rebbe took it upon himself to patiently coach the man in divrei mussar until his shortcomings and transgressions steadily emerged. The tears came at last, with pangs of remorse apparent.
As a Kohen, R’ Hersh of Rimanov was shortly thereafter compelled to remove himself from the premises. As soon as he took his leave, the baal teshuvah passed away.
Before the Rebbe Reb Elimelech was niftar (on the 21st day of Adar in the year 1787), the members of the Chevra Kadisha who were on hand hinted to their Rebbe to say viddui.
“Where were you till now, when I was fit and strong and sitting by my bowl of soup eating?” answered the Rebbe. “When I was still in possession of my koach you said nothing to me about repenting my transgressions. Now that I am incapable of sinning, of what use is my teshuvah?”
The intense concentration and passion of the holy Reb Elimelech’s viddui impelled his onlookers to do earnest teshuvah while they were still in possession of their health and strength.
May the tzaddik, along with all other saintly souls, be effective advocates in interceding on behalf of Klal Yisrael,that Moshiach come already and bring the final Geulah and the end to the darkness and insanity prevailing in our world.