126. Becoming a Rhuziner Chassid

A chassid told the Ruzhiner Rebbe his deepest kavana came during Shema Yisrael. But the Rebbe wanted to know—what about when you say Pote’ach et yadecha? What does it really mean to be a Ruzhiner chassid? 

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If you want to know who רבי ישראל of Ruzhin was all about, and what he wanted to give over to his חסידים, the following short story could probably be very helpful. A חסיד walked into the Ruzhiner רבי and the רבי asked him, תאמר לי, מיין זיסע ייד, where in prayers, where in דאווענען, do you have the most כוונה? So of course, the חסיד said, well, when I say שמע ישראל, Hear O Israel, God is the Lord, is our God, God is one. שמע ישראל ה' אלוקינו ה' אחד, of course, that's where I have the most כוונה. So the Ruzhiner says, okay, what about the פסוק, פותח את ידך ומשביע לכל חי רצון? The famous פסוק that talks about in Psalms that God, you give everyone whatever they need.

So the חסיד said, well yeah, I have a lot of כוונה for that too, but how does that compare to proclaiming that God is one? So the Ruzhiner רבי says, to be my חסיד, וואס עס מיינט, means that just as much that you proclaim that God is one, you also know that even a piece of chewing gum, if that's what you need at that moment, can only come from the one living God. That's what it meant, and still means today, to be a חסיד of the רבי ישראל of Ruzhin, that really there's no difference between those two פסוקים.