Why the Chossid Ran to Daven in the Cold

By Dovid Zaklikowski for COLlive and Hasidic Archives

When he first arrived in the city of Kharkov, Rabbi Yitzchok Horowitz, known as Itche der Masmid (Itche the Diligent), lived in the home of R’ Mendel and Hinda Deitsch.

The Deitsches provided the respected chossid with a comfortable bed, but Reb Itche seldom used it.

The sages teach that sleep is one-sixtieth of death, he used to say. “If one falls asleep against one’s will, so be it—one’s life is in G-d’s hands anyway. But who would prepare to go to sleep in a bed to die, even if only by a sixtieth?”

The Deitsches’ large apartment served as a shul during the day, and Reb Itche would spend many hours there in prayer. One day, in the midst of his prayers, he realized that everyone else had gone out, and he was alone in the apartment with Hinda’s mother, Rochel Leah Shagalovitch.

To adhere to the laws of Yichud, Reb Itche immediately ran to the porch and continued davening outside in the frigid cold. That was where the Deitsches found him when they returned home, hours later. Only when he saw them did Reb Itche return to the warm apartment.

He explained, “I cannot be in the house alone with a woman.”

But Rochel Leah was an old lady, the Deitsches objected, and Reb Itche himself was not feeling well. Surely there had been no risk of impropriety.

“The yetzer hara (evil inclination) is talented in his work,” Reb Itche said. “He knows how to make an elderly woman young again, and a sick person healthy.”

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