In honor of the Yom HaHilula of the holy Rabbi Chaim Cheika of Amdura, one of the greatest disciples of the Maggid of Mezeritch, we have gathered for you a few chapters from his stormy life ■ His drawing close to Chassidus ■ His Divine service and lofty attainments ■ The controversy and persecution ■ His passing and the place of his grave

His Drawing Close to Chassidus

After the holy Rabbi Aharon the Great of Karlin drew close to the great Maggid, Rabbi Dov Ber of Mezeritch, the Maggid sent him to plant Chassidus in the soil of Lithuania. On one of his journeys he arrived in the town of Amdura, near Horodna. Rabbi Aharon the Great instructed the wagon driver to stop by the Beis Midrash and went straight inside. There he saw a young scholar completely immersed in learning the holy Torah.

Rabbi Aharon the Great approached him and asked: “What is the master engaged in?”

The young scholar answered: “Torah lishmah—Torah for its own sake!”

Rabbi Aharon the Great asked him: “And where are the ‘many things’ [that one merits when he learns lishmah]?”

Without hesitation, Rabbi Aharon quickly left the Beis Midrash, leaving the young scholar stunned by the piercing question. Rabbi Aharon the Great climbed back onto the wagon and told the driver to set off.

The young scholar—whose heart had been penetrated by Rabbi Aharon’s few words until they churned within him—rose from his place, ran out of the Beis Midrash, and began chasing the moving wagon, begging Rabbi Aharon the Great to stop. When Rabbi Aharon saw this, he told the driver to spur the horses and increase the pace. The young scholar did not give up; he cried out and pleaded that they stop the wagon, but Rabbi Aharon kept instructing the driver to do the opposite. When the young scholar’s strength gave out and he was close to despair, Rabbi Aharon the Great commanded the driver to halt the wagon.

The young scholar reached the wagon and asked Rabbi Aharon the Great: “Rebbe, how can I merit the ‘many things’?”

Rabbi Aharon the Great said to him: “For that, you must travel to Mezeritch—there is the Doctor of souls!”

That young scholar—Rabbi Chaim Cheika—set out to the great Maggid of Mezeritch, and there his soul cleaved to the Tree of Life. He sat by the Maggid for a full year and became one of the lions of the holy fellowship.

After some time, Rabbi Aharon the Great of Karlin came to his teacher, the Maggid of Mezeritch. When the Maggid saw his disciple, he said about his close one, Rabbi Chaim Cheika: “You brought me a menorah of pure gold—there was nothing left for me but to light it!”

Service of the Creator and Lofty Attainments

Before Rabbi Chaim Cheika of Amdura drew close to the light of Chassidus, he would fast from Shabbos to Shabbos and practice various forms of self-affliction. He also remained awake for a thousand nights, immersed in the holy Torah. Yet with all this, he did not feel he had reached wholeness. After he drew close, Rabbi Chaim Cheika continued fasting, but he told no one. The Maggid of Mezeritch—nothing was hidden from him—saw it, called Rabbi Chaim Cheika to him, and said: “When one can see from one end of the world to the other, there is no longer any need to fast!”

The holy Rabbi Yitzchak Aizik Yehudah Yechiel Safrin of Komarna, author of Heichal HaBerachah, writes that he heard from his uncle, the Atteres Tzvi of Ziditchov, that all the hair on Rabbi Chaim Cheika of Amdura’s head fell out from awe of Hashem, may He be blessed.

When Rabbi Chaim Cheika would pray, people could actually see the Name Havayah in letters of fire before his face.

In Distress and Constriction

Rabbi Chaim Cheika returned to Amdura and established a Chassidic court there. As mentioned, Amdura was located in an area where Jews who opposed the newly rising Chassidus lived, and therefore great suffering was the lot of the Chassidim who lived there. This suffering did not pass over Rabbi Chaim Cheika himself, who became a target for mockery, slander, and humiliation.

As stated, Rabbi Chaim Cheika would fast from Shabbos to Shabbos, so on Shabbos itself he could not eat meat foods, and he would drink a cup of milk. One Shabbos afternoon, one of the opponents saw Rabbi Chaim Cheika drinking a cup of milk and concluded that Rabbi Chaim Cheika must certainly have eaten meat cholent in the morning—and if so, he was not keeping the required waiting time between meat and milk. Like fire racing through thorns, the report spread that the Chassidim’s rabbi eats meat with milk. After “collecting testimony,” the judges of Amdura ruled that Rabbi Chaim Cheika should receive lashes. The court in Amdura took Rabbi Chaim Cheika to the center of the village, laid him on a stone, and flogged him…

After some time, Rabbi Aharon the Great of Karlin came to Amdura. The Chassidim there told him the story and showed him the stone upon which Rabbi Chaim Cheika had been flogged. Rabbi Aharon the Great was shaken and said: “Shame, shame—fire will seize Amdura!” And indeed, after a short time a great fire broke out in Amdura and consumed entire homes.

When Rabbi Chaim Cheika himself related this incident, he said that several of the opponents had participated in the punishment: they struck him and pinched him, and he felt that all their intent came from jealousy and hatred. But there was one person who pinched him, and Rabbi Chaim Cheika sensed that his intention was truly for the sake of Heaven—because he believed Rabbi Chaim Cheika had strayed from the path of Hashem by eating meat with milk. About another opponent who took part in the abuse and did so with great cruelty, Rabbi Chaim Cheika expressed that in his opinion he was not of the seed of Israel, and soon the hidden thoughts of his heart would be revealed and he would deny Hashem—and indeed, after a short time, this is what happened.

His Passing from This World

Two full days after the passing of his friend and companion, the holy Rabbi Elimelech of Lizhensk, author of Noam Elimelech, Rabbi Chaim Cheika of Amdura also departed to the World that is entirely good. The holy Rabbi Yisrael of Stolyn (the Yenuka, the Frankfurter) related that at the moment of Rabbi Chaim Cheika’s passing, all the clocks in his house stopped, and even though they tried to fix them, it did not help.

When the opponents heard of Rabbi Chaim Cheika’s passing, they decided to bury him in disgrace outside the cemetery fence. But because during his lifetime he had been part of the Chevra Kadisha, and according to the Chevra Kadisha’s rule that anyone who had belonged to their group is not buried outside the fence—whoever he may be—they were forced to bury him inside the cemetery like everyone else. When they told this to the holy Rabbi Aharon the Second of Karlin, author of Beis Aharon, he said: “Rabbi Chaim Cheika would have been more pleased to be buried outside the cemetery fence than to be buried among the opponents.”

Over the years, his burial place in Amdura became a renowned address, to which all who needed salvation would come—and they would receive it as in his lifetime. About twenty years after his passing, the nearby river overflowed its banks and Rabbi Chaim Cheika’s grave was exposed to all. They found him completely whole, with his curled peyos as on the day of his passing.