“Rebbe, I Will Listen! Rebbe, Save Me!”

R. Yekusiel Deitsch of Dokshitz, affectionately known as “Kushe Dokshitzer,” was an Alef Beis melamed who taught the Frierdiker Rebbe. At first, his father-in-law implored the Tzemach Tzedek to allow him to do business, but when a wagonload fell over him, he realized that he wasn’t doing what the Rebbe really wanted.

R. Yekusiel Deitsch of Dokshitz, affectionately known amongst chassidim as “Kushe Dokshitzer,” was a chossid of the Tzemach Tzedek, the Rebbe Maharash, and in his old age, the Rebbe Rashab. He was a melamed and merited teaching the Frierdiker Rebbe Alef Beis. For more than fifty years, he literally walked to Lubavitch each Tishrei. He passed away in the year 5668 (1908).

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Kushe became engaged to the daughter of a wealthy chossid. At the yechidus before his chassuna, R. Kushe understood from the Tzemach Tzedek that his life’s mission was to be a melamed, and infuse his pupils with yiras shomayim and chassdishe warmth.

His wealthy future father-in-law though, thought otherwise. He wasn’t comfortable with the prospect of his esteemed son-in-law being a “plain melamed,” and he resolved to “sort it out” with the Tzemach Tzedek. In response, the Tzemach Tzedek gave permission for R. Kushe to go into business, and it would not constitute noncompliance of the Rebbe’s orders.

Shortly after the chassuna, R. Kushe was sent off by his father-in-law to the fair in Leipzig to amass merchandise to sell in his hometown. But as R. Kushe got into the wagon loaded with the goods he had bought at the fair, the horses suddenly took off wildly and started galloping at high speed down the mountain slope. The wagon overturned and the sacks of merchandise landed on R. Kushe, pinning him down to the ground.

It dawned upon R. Kushe that although the Rebbe had said that going into business would not constitute disobedience, it still was not what the Rebbe wanted him to do. With his last strength, he called out: “Rebbe! I will listen. Rebbe, save me!”

He managed to free himself from the wagonload on top of him and find his way home.

He proceeded immediately to carry out the Rebbe’s instructions and became a melamed bent on educating the next generation in the chassidishe way.

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The Frierdiker Rebbe once said: “The love among the chassidim of old was like the love between two brothers. In fact Reb Kushe Dokshitzer, the famed chassidisher melamed of Dokshytz, once described the love between two biological brothers by saying that “their love is like the love between two chassidim.”

For sources, visit TheWeeklyFarbrengen.com