Teachings heard from our teacher Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Bender zt"l about Rabbi Elimelech of Lizhensk ■ The greatness of his spiritual attainment ■ The destruction of his holy gravesite during the Holocaust

The Blind Beggar

Among An"sh it is accepted that one of the בעלי זכרונות (“masters of memory”) mentioned in the holy book Sippurei Ma’asiyos of our holy master Rebbe Nachman of Breslov—in Story 13, of the Seven Beggars, in the tale of the Blind Beggar—is Rabbi Elimelech of Lizhensk. As is known, he possessed an extraordinary memory, and he remembered that he struck his mother at the time he was nursing from her—and he even did teshuvah for this. (Siach Sarfei Kodesh, Part 4, p. 125)

His Greatness and His Avodah

When the Chozeh of Lublin was still young, he saw Rabbi Zusha of Anipoli. Rabbi Zusha gazed at him for a long time, and afterward said to him: “I gave you nefesh and ruach. If you also want neshamah, go to my brother Rabbi Elimelech.” (ibid., Part 5, p. 507)

Our teacher Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Bender related in the name of Rabbi Elchanan Spector that the Chozeh of Lublin expressed himself about his master, the holy Rabbi Elimelech of Lizhensk, that he is the Rebbe of the entire world. (ibid., Part 5, p. 506)

Rabbi Elimelech of Lizhensk ate his bread for six years while it was soaked with his tears. (ibid., Part 3, p. 674)

His Teachings

The Noam Elimelech explained the difference between Moshiach and the other Tzaddikim: Moshiach is “like a weaned child upon his mother.” Moshiach will begin his avodah each day from ayin—like a small child—without any accounting of the past at all. And he will serve Hashem with the ultimate level of attainment and greatness, continually adding in his avodah beyond all the previous days in which he served Hashem. This is not the case with the other Tzaddikim, who serve Hashem each day by adding onto what they attained in the previous days. (ibid., Part 6, p. 542)

The Destruction of His Gravesite During the Holocaust

Our teacher Rabbi Levi Yitzchak related that when he was in Germany after the Holocaust, he met a young man who was born in Lizhensk. The young man told him that before the Nazis, may their name be erased, entered Lizhensk, very many Jews of Lizhensk went and prostrated themselves at the gravesite of the Noam Elimelech. The next day the Nazis arrived in the city, and the non-Jewish residents told them that the Jews had gone yesterday to the cemetery, to the grave of Rabbi Elimelech, and surely they had hidden their treasures and money there. The Nazis went and opened the holy gravesite of the Noam Elimelech, but of course they found nothing.

When that young man learned of the desecration of the gravesite by the Nazis, he went to the city’s rabbi, who was hiding in a hiding place, and told him about it. The rabbi of the city told him that if he would go and cover the holy gravesite and arrange it properly, he promised him that he would be saved and no harm would come to him. And indeed, the young man went—at mortal risk—and restored the gravesite of the Noam Elimelech properly. The young man told Rabbi Levi Yitzchak how he was saved in the Holocaust through open miracles, exactly as the rabbi of Lizhensk had promised. (ibid., Part 5, p. 375)