By Dovid Zaklikowski for COLlive and Hasidic Archives
The famed Russian manufacturer of oil and sugar, Zelik Persitz, was a descended from a long line of rabbinical luminaries. Though not a scholar himself, he had founded many yeshivas and had great respect for Torah scholars, particularly the fifth Chabad Rebbe Rashab – Rabbi Sholom Dovber Schneersohn.
Whenever the Rebbe visited Moscow, Mr. Persitz made a point of calling on him in his lodgings. Once, hearing that the Rebbe was at a meeting in another rabbi’s home, he immediately went there and waited for the meeting to finish so he could have the honor of taking the Rebbe home in his wagon.
Mr. Persitz was not a Chabad Chassid, however, and the long private audiences he had with the Rebbe differed markedly from those the Rebbe had with his other disciples. At times, the conversations became heated when Mr. Persitz disagreed with the Rebbe or chose not to follow his advice. Nevertheless, the two maintained a close relationship.
It once happened that the Rebbe was in Moscow at the same time that Mr. Persitz held a bar mitzvah celebration for his son. Hundreds of people were invited to the grand celebration, where the elite businessmen of the city mingled with important rabbis and heads of yeshivas.
The meal was catered according to all the stringent laws of kosher, and the Rebbe, sitting in a place of honor at the head table, appeared to be partaking in the meal. But the Chassid R’ Schneur Kahan watched the Rebbe carefully and noticed something unusual. “The Rebbe ate the fish, but (when the meat course was served, he) did not bring the meat to his lips,” he later told his son.
He described how the Rebbe cut the meat into pieces and moved the pieces around on his plate as though he were eating. Then he would take a piece of bread and eat it. “The meat he never ate.”
It was clear to the chossid that the Rebbe was not eating the meat because he did not know who had slaughtered it, a task he would only entrust to the most G-d-fearing Jew.
The chossid explained to his son that the Rebbe had carried out the pantomime of eating in order not to embarrass the host. Indeed, later on, the rich man boasted of how the Rebbe himself had partaken in the meal.
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