The Rebbe' s Fall

B"H

Sometimes it happens in life that you want to gain something but somehow never succeed. You can do whatever you want but you never get anywhere. It doesn' t matter how great your efforts are, you fail. This is exactly what happened to me and my friend last Erev Shabbat.

Before we had another disaster happening, we went to the Shabbat dinner in Rabbi Mordechai Machlise's house in the Maalot Dafna neighbourhood. The Rabbi was in his highest joyful mood, as his oldest son Moshe got engaged the night before. Lot's of dancing, plenty of food and all guests were happy as well.

Afterwards my friend and I went to Chassidut Dushinsky which is only a ten minutes walk from the Rabbi's. Someone from Dushinsky had told me that a Tish would take place but as we arrived it did not really look like it. Many Chassidim were standing in the street and as we got to the Ezrat Nashim, we found the door locked.

This is exactly what I meant when I spoke about not gaining anything. I cannot count the times anymore when we went to Dushinsky in vain. Either there was not Tish or the doors to the Ezrat Nashim was locked. The only time we succeeded getting in was the day one of the two Satmarer Rebbes held his Tish in Jerusalem (last August).

We were not too sad about another failure at Dushinsky but went straight to Toldot Avraham Yitzchak, the split - off of Toldot Aharon. We found all doors open and hundreds of Chassidim. The Ezrat Nashim was packed but after a few minutes we got two great seats and decided to stay until the end.

At the moment, the Avraham Yitzchak Tish starts at 10.30pm and Toldot Aharon start half an hour earlier, if anyone is interested.

Rebb Shmuel Yaakov Kahn was in his highest spiritual mood and started conducting his Chassidim. At first, they did not seem to participate too much but would later on. Wine was passed around to the Chassidim and the Rebbe greated every row with "Git Shabbes". Everything had a very personal touch last Erev Shabbat. The Rebbe also called two very young Bachurim over and gave them some of his food. In this case fruit slices.

The women upstairs started their regular talks about kids and who is getting married to whom. In other words, they also enjoyed themselves. The greatest thing at the Avraham Yitzchak Tish is the dance show right at the end. Usually the lights are being turned off for that but two days ago they didn't do it.

However, everybody got up, started singing and dancing. While the Toldot Aharon Chassidim hold their hands and swing to the songs, the Avraham Yitzchak Chassidim jump. I must admit that this is a real show and I like it very much.

The Rebbe is a bit heavy and not the youngest anymore and therefore, two Chassidim hold his arm when he jumps. He does it with such emotions that it must be very hard holding him.
When Rebbe Shmuel Yaakov Kahn started dancing he turned his head right over the table. He really seemed to be in a different higher world. When he starts jumping, he always gets exhausted and must sit immediately. This time, however, some Chassidim made the mistake to take away his chair and the Rebbe almost fell backwards.

There is nothing to be worried about because the Rebbe didn't fall on the floor and he was fine. Already after a short break he went back to dance.

It was a great Tish thanks to the Rebbe. Avraham Yitzchak is still the best Tish in Mea Shearim and worth joining.