04 Jun BAMIDBAR: SHELOSHES YEMEI HAGBALAH

An opportune time
for preparation is
during the sheloshes
yemei hagbalah, the
three days before
Shavuos. Rebbe
Avraham HaMalach
instructed his students
not to come to him during
sheloshes yemei
hagbalah because he
needed those days to
study Torah by himself.
The students didn’t
obey, and they came to
their Rebbe during
sheloshes yemei
hagbalah because they yearned to hear his
divrei Torah. The Rebbe locked his door and
didn’t let them in. He explained, “One’s
success in Torah for the entire year is
dependent upon one’s hasmadah in the
sheloshes yemei hagbalah.”
Old Yerushalayimer Yidden still remember
that the stores of Yerushalayim would close at
midday during sheloshes yemei hagbalah, so
the shopkeepers could spend the rest of the
day immersed in Torah.
In Poland, two weeks before Shavuos, the
batei midrashim were filled to capacity.
The Imrei Emes zt’l once entered a beis
medresh in Yerushalayim during sheloshes
yemei hagbalah and said in exasperation,

“Where are the Yidden of the alter heim (the
Jewish communities of Europe from before
the War)?”
Rebbe Yehoshua of Belz zy’a would tell the
following story: Once, in Poland, during
sheloshes yemei hagbalah, someone came into
the beis medresh and watched with envy the
passion for Torah in the beis medresh. He
turned to the wall and cried because he wished
to be like them. But unlike many, instead of
just giving a krechtz, he took action. He
reached for the first Gemara he saw, sat down,
and was immediately engrossed in Torah.
That moment changed his life. He experienced
the sweetness of Torah and became a masmid
and a great talmid chacham.
Rebbe Yehoshua Belzer had one bookshelf
where he kept sefarim that were written with
ruach hakadosh, and that man’s sefer was
stored on that shelf.
The daughter of a Lelover chassid was
engaged to marry the son of Rebbe Elazar
Mendel zt’l, the Lelover Rebbe of
Yerushalayim. The chassid was thrilled that
his daughter was to marry into such a
prestigious family, but his wife didn’t share his
enthusiasm. She was upset that the Rebbe’s
family wasn’t sending gifts to the kallah, as
was customary. They sent gifts to the chassan,
but they received nothing in return. (Primarily,
this was because the Rebbe gave away every
penny he had to tzedakah, to support the poor
of Yerushalayim – no money was available for
gifts.)
The chassid’s wife encouraged her husband
to ask the Rebbe to send a gift to the kallah.
The chassid promised his wife that he would
do so, but kept pushing it off because he felt
uncomfortable raising the issue with his
Rebbe.
Each time he went to the Rebbe, his wife
reminded him to bring up the matter, but he
was always in awe when in the Rebbe’s
presence and couldn’t bring himself to discuss
it.
During sheloshes yemei hagbalah, the
Rebbe’s custom was to daven Maariv and
count sefiras ha’omer at the kever of Shimon
HaTzaddik, and then go to the Kosel
haMaaravi to daven some more. The chassid
planned to accompany the Rebbe to these holy
sites. His wife told him, “Tonight, you must
speak with the Rebbe. I’ve asked you many
times, and you keep pushing it off. This time
you must act. Otherwise, don’t come home.”
Her husband knew that it was more than just
a threat.
So, later that night, he knocked on the
Rebbe’s door. As he waited for the Rebbe to
open the door, the husband thought to himself,
“My wife is right. The Rebbe is a holy man,
but why doesn’t he send a gift to our daughter?
Even a small pin would suffice. Why can’t the
Rebbe give our daughter a small pin?”
The Rebbe answered the door, “Mechuten

shlita! I didn’t think that during the sheloshes
yemei hagbalah, you’d be going around with
pins in your head.”
He was astounded at the Rebbe’s ruach
hakadosh. He went home and told his wife,
“Our mechutan has ruach hakadosh. Don’t
bother me any more about gifts…”
The lesson from this story is that sheloshes
yemei hagbalah isn’t the right time to think
about petty matters. Now it is time to be
immersed in Torah study.
People don’t eat matzah before Pesach, so
that they can eat the matzah with an appetite at
the Seder. The Sfas Emes zt’l asked why don’t
we do the same before Shavuos? We should
stop learning Torah before Shavuos, and then
on Shavuos we will be hungry for Torah and
study Torah with thirst!
But the answer is that Torah is different from
all other pleasures. One doesn’t become tired
of it. On the contrary, the more one studies, the
more he loves the Torah. If he learns Torah
before Shavuos, he will be even more thirsty
for Torah on Shavuos.