After his nomination as Radomsker Rebbe, the Tiferes
Shlomoh arrived in Radomsk on 19 Adar. Immediately he
set about correcting longstanding mistakes and improper
customs of the city.
Since it was before Pesach, the Rebbe went to inspect
the work being carried out in the matzo bakery. There
he noticed that the bakers, ignorant of halochoh,
were baking very thick matzos and rendering them
chometz for, due to their thickness, they were
not baked through properly and flour and water remained
inside.
Without hesitation, he alerted the townspeople and
announced that these matzos were chometz gomur.
Not only was it impermissible to use them on Pesach,
but he did not even allow them to be sold to a gentile
for the duration of Pesach for use after yom tov.
Hilchos Shabbos too, was an area with much left
to be desired and the Rebbe fixed many takonos to
strengthen halocho.
His jurisdiction extended to the dead as well as the
living, whereby he determined that men were not buried
next to women in the Radomsk cemetery.
Rabbeinu was fearless of any man no matter what his
rank or status, when it came to matters of Torah and
mitzvos.
Radomsk's chassidim were happily anticipating the
hachnosas sefer Torah that was to take place.
Some of them had pooled their assets and ordered a new
sefer Torah which was due to be led in the next
week in a grand ceremony into the shul.
As they were planning the agenda of the day, setting
certain hours for the writing of the last letters and
planning the time of the ceremony, one of the chassidim
gave a cry of dismay.
He reminded his friends that among those who would wish
to be honored with writing a letter was Feivel the
moser. Feivel was a Jew who had struck it rich
and had long left the path of Torah. Worse still, he
had close connections to the governor of the area.
However, he still considered himself a member of the
shul and would surely arrive at the right time to
write in the sefer Torah.
To allow him to write would render the sefer
posul, however, to prevent him — they shuddered to
think of the consequences.
In their quandary, the chassidim wrote a kvittel
to the Tiferes Shlomoh explaining their predicament.
"Of course Feivel may not write in the holy sefer
Torah, but don't worry. Allow him to come, honor him
with the quill and you'll see he will not merit to
write."
Startling though the Rebbe's assurance was, it placated
the chassidim and they continued with their
preparations for the great day, in honor of the Torah.
On the appointed day, the city bustled and hummed with
activity. The streets of Radomsk were teeming with
people, and all shops and businesses were closed in
festive celebration.
Dignitaries, rabbonim and prominent Yidden of
Radomsk and the surrounding areas converged on the
house where the finishing touches to the sefer
Torah were being made. Sure enough, among the crowd
making its way, was Feivel the moser. The sight
of him made the people quake with fear.
When his turn came, they handed Feivel the quill with a
little more trepidation than curiosity. The crowd
waited with bated breath to see what would become of
the Rebbe's assurance.
With a swagger, Feivel drew near to the table and took
hold of the quill and prepared to write with a
flourish. But before he could put the quill to
parchment, his finger somehow got in the way and he
pricked it deeply with the nib of the quill.
A roar of pain escaped Feivel's lips as he tried to
stem the flow of blood pouring from his finger.
Unsuccessfully he bandaged the wound, but his finger
was too injured to write. He turned to the side to
nurse his wound and the other people waiting took their
turns to write until the sefer Torah was
completed without Feivel's posul letters.
Before Pesach, the Tiferes Shlomoh would visit rabbonim
and morei horo'oh, encouraging and exhorting them
to learn thoroughly all the numerous laws of the yom
tov, whether they were practical for the times or
not.
He once revealed the reason in a private talk with
HaRav Yisroel Yitzchok, zt"l, rov of Plavna. The
latter came one year before Pesach to the Tiferes
Shlomoh, expressing his fear that he would be either too
lenient or too strict in the stringent halochos.
He quoted the Arizal as having promised that one who is
extremely careful with the dinim of Pesach will
not be ensnared by sin throughout the year. "I beg you
Rebbe, give me a seguloh and brochoh that I
should not be beset with a sheiloh of
chometz on Pesach, chas vesholom."
"I have but one seguloh for you," replied the
Tiferes Shlomoh. "That is to learn, in the days
preceding Pesach, all the laws of the Yom Tov until you
are erudite in each halocho. Then you can rest assured
that you will not err even unintentionally with the
halochos."
"I'll explain to you how this seguloh works,"
continued the Tiferes Shlomoh.
"The halochos that are not usually learned by
Jews every year since they have no practical
application come before Hashem to complain that they
are being ignored. Hashem therefore causes problems to
abound that will cause people to ask sheilos and
the rov or moreh horo'oh will have to learn all
the halochos in order to answer and solve the
problems, thus placating the halochos that
complained.
"However, if you learn all the halochos in detail
before yom tov, they will be satisfied and will
not complain. There you have a sure seguloh to
avoid such problems."
The Rov of Plavna would say that from that year when he
took upon himself to study all the laws of Pesach
during the thirty days beforehand, he was zocheh
that not a single sheiloh of chometz was
brought before him on Pesach.
The Tiferes Shlomoh — HaRav Shlomoh Hacohen, zt"l, of
Radomsk