For Strangers Passing Through

The community leaders infomed R. Shmelke that they had a special custom: every new rabbi was expected to add a new rule or custom to the chronicles of the community

When it is winter and it's freezing cold, there are two things one can do: One can build a fire, or one can wrap oneself in a warm coat

Chassidic master Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Rymanov did not have money and he didn't care for money either. He was actually so poor that he often could not feed his children...

"Is that such a terrible curse?" Rabbi Bunem pondered. "It means that the snake is never hungry. Dust is everywhere; his table is always full, no matter where he goes..."

Isn't that what happens every time we get angry -- at a stranger, at a friend, at a loved one? We're not truly angry at them, but at the person we think they are...

One time, Israel used the kabbalistic knowledge he had learned to cross the river Dniester

It was a cold and miserable night; snow and sleet blew through the deserted streets. The miser asked the rabbi in, as usual. But the rabbi refused. “No,” he said, “I won’t be long . . .”

“My wife,” complained the man, “every week she makes for Shabbat a delicious kugel. I love that kugel! All week I work and shlep, just for that kugel! When I just think of that kugel, my mouth starts watering . . .”

"Traveling to the Rebbe gives me special powers," the chassid claimed. "I can read people's thoughts."

"If that man would think about the money he would earn with his act, instead of concentrating on his rope, he would surely make a mistake and crash to his death..."

Proudly the rich man described to the Chassidic master his one daily meal, in which and ate and drank nothing more than bread with salt and a jug of water

The king loved the old harp player's melodies, but it was annoying when the old man interrupted his songs frequently to tune his rickety instrument...

A chassid came to see the Karliner Rebbe because he was depressed. “I’m not a good Jew,” he said. “I don’t study enough, I don’t know enough; all I do is work, work, work.”

"Why should we wait a whole year? Moshiach can come immediately, and we'll bake matzah in Jerusalem with this very water!"

Don't go backwards. Don't take two steps at one time. And when you reach the top, you have the power to go anywhere...

"When an officer falls in battle," their rebbe said, "will the ranks of the soldiers disperse and flee...?!"

The prayer quorum the rebbe had assembled included ruffians, burglars and other types of people of ill repute...

"I stand here and wonder," mused the Chasssidic master, "how such a small rock could puff itself up till it became such a big mountain!"

The chassidic sage Rabbi Dov Ber of Radoschitz once asked his teacher and master, the famed "Seer of Lublin" about the right path to the service of G-d...

The visitor lost no time in explaining to the Baal Shem Tov that he had no special needs or problems which required any intervention or blessing. “Perhaps you’d like to hear a story, then?” asked the chassidic master.

As soon as the holy day was over, the man rode into Mezhibuzh, despondent and heartbroken. But the Baal Shem greeted him full of joy

The Baal Shem Tov saw Rabbi Yaakov Koppel dancing in ecstasy before his Shabbat table, which was laden with good food . . .

There was a rabbi, a very good and pious man, who wanted to see justice in the world . . .

After the prayers were finished, the chassid went over to one of the guests and said very quickly in a soft, murmuring voice: “Werurygoigtdy?”

The Baal Shem Tov's disciples were puzzled. Why was the old water carrier so much happier all of a sudden, with his same pair of tattered boots and his same old pails of water?

In a small town somewhere in Eastern Europe lived a nice man with a nasty problem: he talked too much about other people . . .