Rabbi Hirschprung & The Lubavitcher Rebbe

Many people assumed that because Rabbi Hirschprung was a Talmudic giant and expert in all areas of Jewish law, his connection to the Rebbe was purely intellectual. After all, the Rebbe had described Rabbi Hirschprung as "a living Torah scroll." Perhaps Rabbi Hirschprung was only impressed by the Rebbe's scholarship?

Nothing could be further from the truth, as the following stories illustrate.

Rabbi Hirschprung always attended all of the Rebbe's major farbrengens (gatherings at which the Rebbe would teach for hours with breaks for soulful singing of Chasidic melodies). After the Rebbe's heart attack on Simchat Torah, 1977, Rabbi Hirschprung feared that the Rebbe would not be well enough to speak at the annual gathering on 19 Kislev, the "New Year of Chasidut." His joy, according to Rabbi Meir Plotkin, who accompanied him from Montreal to New York for the farbrengens, was indescribable when he found out that the Rebbe would farbreng after all.

On the way back to Montreal, Rabbi Hirschprung spoke continuously about the great privilege everyone has of attending one of the Rebbe's farbrengens. "Only a fool could go to sleep after such a farbrengen," Rabbi Hirschprung said. "One should go out into the street and dance from joy, that we merited to have a farbrengen with the Rebbe so soon after what happened."

"What have you seen in the Rebbe that you didn't see in anyone else?" Rabbi Plotkin once asked Rabbi Hirschprung.

"There are two things which set the Rebbe apart," Rabbi Hirschprung cited. "The Rebbe's Torah knowledge and that he is the true leader of the generation. Pinchas Hirschprung is not impressed by the title 'gaon' [Torah giant]. He knows who deserves the title. And I am telling you that there is nobody like the Rebbe, not only in our generation but even in earlier generations. I was with the gaon Rabbi Meir Shapiro in Lublin, with the gaon Rabbi Menachem Zemba, and all the gaonim of the previous generation. I found no one comparable to the Rebbe's greatness in all areas of Torah."

A few years ago, Rabbi Hirschprung's wife became ill. Upon being examined, the doctors told her that a malignant growth had been found and that she would have to undergo an operation to remove it. The doctors said the situation was critical and it was doubtful whether the operation would help.

Rabbi Hirschprung was broken by the news. People were shocked by the change in him. Gone was the active, energetic man. In his place was a debilitated, lifeless person. He stopped coming to decide points of Jewish law at the Rabbinical Court and did not speak to anyone at the yeshiva. The only thing he did not neglect was the general class that he gave, but even this was given without his usual enthusiasm.

A short while later, Rabbi Hirschprung was back to his old self. Months later, Rabbi Hirschprung's daughter related to one of his students the cause for this turnaround:

"My father is a great chasid of the Lubavitcher Rebbe. Not only is he a chasid, but he is connected heart and soul with the Rebbe. I don't know if you can find a greater chasid than my father! Even though my father does not follow the customs of Chabad, nor does he use the Chabad prayerbook, I am sure that there is no chasid or mekushar (one who is connected) like my father.

When my mother's health was precarious, my father's state of mind was terrible. One day I was with my parents when a letter from the Rebbe came in the mail. My father was sitting and learning. When I told my father that a letter had arrived from the Rebbe, he got up and went to the kitchen to wash his hands. he put on his hat and jacket and then stood and read the Rebbe's letter.

"My father hurried to my mother's room and told my mother, 'I just got a letter from the Rebbe. At the end the Rebbe added a few handwritten lines which say: "Regarding what you wrote about your wife - it is only the counsel of the yetzer hara [evil inclination] who wants to weaken you. Therefore, don't pay attention to this, for it isn't true at all but the claim of the yetzer. He and his wife will merit length of days and good years." '

"Father stood near mother, and said, 'Thank G-d there is a Rebbe and the Rebbe says you are well. So, you are well, and there's nothing to worry about.'

"I couldn't believe my eyes. In an instant, my father had changed from one extreme to the other. He immediately got back to himself and became the enthusiastic, active, lively person he had been before.

"In the weeks that followed until my mother's full recovery, things were upside-down. We were the worried ones, while you couldn't tell from my father that his wife wasn't exactly well.

"Even on the day of the operation, when they wheeled my mother into the operating room and we were all so concerned, my father didn't have a care in the world. He simply didn't understand why we were worried. 'The Rebbe said that she is healthy,' he kept repeating.

"And when the doctors said that they didn't find any growth and we jumped for joy, my father didn't understand what the commotion was about. He had already known she was well."