The Baal Shem Tov's Journey to Eretz Yisrael and the Kedushas Levi's Matzah

[Ari Kotowitz]

This weekly email list has been a little bit harder to keep up then I
thought it would but I hope for next week I will have two more stories
about pesach.

At Seudas Habaal Shem Tov, Rav Mordechai Twerski told over the origins
of the minhag of the Baal Shem Tov to have an extra meal on the last
day of Pesach.

The Journey began when the Baal Shem Tov Hakadosh decided he had to go
to Israel where the light was coming from. His Chassidim tried very
hard to pursuade him not to go since they didn't know what they would
do without him. The Baal Shem Tov was not convinced to stay with his
chassidim so he left for this great journey with Reb Hirsh the sofer
and his daughter Udel. They traveled all the way through Russia and
after a very long time they made it to the shore of Turkey where they
planned to travel by ship to the Holy land. By the time they got there
it was the end of the season so the only ship left was a little
fishing boat. It was the end of the season so the weather would be
very rough especially in this small little fishing boat,

The Baal Shem Tov insisted on going to Eretz Yisrael so they bought
the fishing boat and started to travel across the sea. After they got
out to sea the boat was captured by pirates. They had so many troubles
with all the storms and the abuse from the pirates after a few months
they became extremely downtrodden. It came to a point were they could
not remember any part of davening or the hebrew language. They were in
such great hunger they did not know what they were going to do so they
wouldn't starve to death.

The Baal Shem Tov went over to Reb Hirsh and asked him if he
remembered how to daven. He responded that he couldn't remember any
part of davening and he was hoping the Bal Shem Tov would. They tried
so how to remember and finally they remembered aleph and they were so
happy. They kept trying to figure out what comes next and they
remembered Bais. Then they kept saying over aleph bais... aleph bais
and they go to gimmel and so on they remembered all the letters and
they figured out how to daven.

Right then they landed on the shore of a turkish Island and they found
a house with a mezuzah and they were invited in to eat. The next year
the Baal Shem Tov made a Seudas Hodaah in thanks to his life being
saved and he started a minhag that families would specifically eat
from other families cooking on the last day of pesach in the spirit of
Ahavas Yisroel. Before that the entire pesach many people would not
eat at other families houses so that they don't make a mistake with
all the different customs that different families keep.

Rabbi Twerski pointed out that his father Rabbi Shlomo Twerski from
Denver said that each point of this story has many things we can learn
from. Their being saved was directly caused by them remembering the
Aleph Bais.



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This story is from Rabbi Tal Zweker
One Pesach the Maggid of Mezritch sent via a shliach (an agent) 3 hand
baked Shmurah Matzos to his beloved student Rav Levi Yitzchok of
Berditchev.

"Beware!" he warned the shliach, "these matzos are only for Rav Levi
Yitzchak!"

The shliach thought to himself, wow if only I could merit to have a
matzo from the Maggid at my seder!

Then he thought, why dont I just take one matzo for myself. Rav Levi
Yitzchok will surely never realize. And so he did. He handed over two
matzos to the Berditchever and kept one for himself.

Now the Maggid's matzos were extra thin and well done charcoal black
so as to ensure that they were well baked and chametz free. This
unique looking matzo adorned the shliach's seder table and when the
time came for the mitzvah of eating the matzo, he pronounced the
blessings and ate a kezayis, an olive sized portion from the Maggid's
matzo.

No sooner did he attempt to swallow it when he began choking and
screaming. He fell to the floor writhing in apparent agony. His poor
distressd family tried to get him to cough up the matzo to no avail.
Whatever they did awoke him and then he promptly screamed and fainted
off straight away. Eventually after enlisting the help of neighbors
and friends they called for the Rav.

"Please explain exactly what happened," ordered Rav Levi Yitzchok. The
wife described how her husband had simply eaten a kezayis matzo and
how he choked and screamed and how he kept fainting. "Describe the
matzo please," when she described the black charcoaled thin matzo Rav
Levi Yitzchok's features turned grave, "Oy Vey if he ate from my
special matzos he is in grave danger indeed!" "Please Rebbe dave my
husband, the tearfull woman pleaded.
"here," he gave her a piece of marror, "give him a piece of my
marror," when she did, he promptly coughed up the kezayis matzo and
returned to himself. Once he had somewhat recovered, Rav Levi Yitzchok
asked the poor Jew what had transpired? "Oy Rebbe, I am so sorry! I
took your matzo, now I understand the Maggid's warnings!!! For no
sooner did I eat rom your matzo and the entire room filled with the
entire retinue of the heavenly beings, all manor of fiery angels and
seraphs descended and all the heavens opened up and I saw their
myriads hosts! I was seized by such fright that I fainted. Each time
my family revived me, I saw them and fainted again, until I coughed up
the matzo."

And now we know what Rav levi Yitzchok of Berditchev experienced when
he ate the Maggid's matzo!