By Dovid Zaklikowski for COLlive and Hasidic Archives
When the idea of a breast pocket on a suit was still new, the Rebbe Maharash – Rabbi Shmuel of Lubavitch, once asked a follower in a private audience, why it was necessary to follow the latest fads.
The Chasid asked, “Rebbe, who cares if there is an additional pocket above?”
The Rebbe responded that there is a saying, that one is a Chasid until their pocket.
While it is understood that it refers to where one’s money is held, Rabbi Shmuel took it literally.
“If the pocket is below,” the Rebbe said, “there is a larger part of the body that is a Chasid. If it is below, then there is a much smaller part that is one.”
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אני בצדק אחזה פניך
From this pasuk chazal learn that one should give tzedakah before davening.
בצדק is also a Roshei Tavos for: ביז צו דער קעשענע (up until the pocket) I.e. one serves hashem only as long as it doesn’t hurt.
So until now that the pocket was down below, there remained at least a half of a chosid, but now that the pocket is up above, there barely any chosid left..
Similarly, the Rebbe explained that the ישמעאלים wear a rope around their headgear, like a gartel. For a yid the נפש הבהמית is from the waist down and we place our gartel there, and for them it is throughout….