R. Chaim Veiler “Pandeler” (5561-5633) was a chossid of the Mittler Rebbe, and a talmid of R. Yehuda Leib Batlan, a chossid of the Alter Rebbe and the Rov of Dvinsk. Reb Chaim assisted R. Leib in Dvinsk, and then served as the Rov of Pandel, Lithuania. A great gaon, the manuscripts of his works were unfortunately lost. He was also known for his selfless acts of tzedakah.

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At his first yechidus, the Mitteler Rebbe instructed R. Chaim to learn Tanya and his own Imrei Binah. Over the next year, he learned the two seforim, and he had many questions.

When he presented his questions to the Mitteler Rebbe, the Rebbe told him, “I didn’t write the Imrei Binah as my father wrote the Tanya. My father was precise with every ‘vav,’ but I didn’t write with that degree of precision.”

The Rebbe concluded, “Learn it once, twice, three, four, five more times, and then you’ll understand it!”

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During his tenure as rov, he focused his learning on Shas and poskim, and didn’t learn anything else besides Tanya.

Once, a seforim seller arrived in shul and put out his seforim on a table for sale. Many of the seforim were still unbound, as was common in those days. The rov was drawn to one particular sefer, and he stood there reading it for a long while. His congregants were curious to know which special sefer had won his heart over. When they peered inside, they discovered that it was none other than his beloved Tanya…

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In his town, there was a feeble-minded young man who would walk around barefoot, and so R. Chaim bought him shoes. Seeing him again walking barefoot, R. Chaim asked him about the shoes, and he responded that he was unable to put them on himself.

From that day on, R. Chaim would visit this young man’s home each morning to put on his shoes, and again every evening to help him take them off.