Melave Malka - 001 Telling Stories of Tzadikim

Many in Klal Yisrael have a custom on Motzoei Shabbos to tell stories about tzaddikim (righteous individuals). There are two aspects: firstly, the actual concept of telling stories of tzaddikim, and secondly, the time to say them, which is Motzei Shabbos.

What is the concept of telling stories about tzaddikim?

The superficial aspect is to relate stories of tzaddikim so that we can learn from their actions. This is certainly true, but there is a more inner, truthful point. The inner aspect of the matter is to learn about hidden matters when we enter the inner world of these tzaddikim. It’s as if we are “observing from in between the cracks” (“meitzitz min hacharakim”) and observe the actions of the tzaddikim.

If someone is a feeling kind of person he can actually feel the person he’s hearing about when he hears a story about them. When one hears stories about tzaddikim, he can connect his heart to them and receive vitality (chiyus) that was present in the actions of the tzaddikim.

But it is even more than that.

There are two powers of maaseh\”stories” in Creation: Maaseh Beraishis (the story of the beginning of Creation) and Maaseh Merkavah (the vision of the Holy Chariot, which was shown to Yechezkel).[1] These were not just stories that took place – they actually reveal two different powers of how we hear a maaseh.

Maaseh Beraishis is to just hear the details of a story with its various details without seeing the connection of the facts. Maaseh markavah, though, is to hear a story and see how all the facts in the story connect. (Merkavah comes from the word markiv, which is to combine.) Hearing about tzaddikim is like the concept of maaseh merkavah — when we hear stories of tzaddikim, we can learn how to combine the spirituality of their lives into our materialistic existence.

Thus, hearing stories of tzaddikim can help us infuse spirituality into physical materialistic existence. It blows a soul onto our bodily existence.

To elaborate even more, stories of tzaddikim are not just about stories of a particular tzaddik, but they are also about combining the lives of different tzaddikim together. When we take one story of a tzaddik and then another story of a different tzaddik and we learn from both, we are essentially gaining vitality from both of these tzaddikim’s souls!

Hearing stories of tzaddikim helps us take the spirituality of these stories and to clothe them onto our physicality. If a person isn’t connected to spirituality, then he won’t be able to gain from stories of tzaddikim. Thus, the first thing a person has to do is to hear the d’var Torah of that tzaddik, and only after that can he connect his heart to the stories he hears about that tzaddik.

Why is it only on Motzoei Shabbos that there is a concept to say over stories of tzaddikim?

On Shabbos itself, we eat three meals whose purpose is to elevate the physicality into spirituality. But Motzei Shabbos is a different concept – it is about “Baruch HaMavdil Bein Kodesh L’Chol” (“Blessed is He Who separated between the holy and the mundane”). It is about bringing spiritualty into the physical. The meal we eat by Melave Malke can bring the light of Shabbos and shine it onto the materialism of the weekday.

Shabbos contains great spirituality, but it needs a container to hold onto it and maintain it. The container that we use to hold the spiritual light of Shabbos is through the Melave Malke we eat on Motzei Shabbos – the “meal of tzaddikim”. It is the meal in which we bring spirituality into the physical, infusing our materialistic existence with spirituality which we gain from hearing stories about tzaddikim.

Melave Malke is called the meal of Dovid HaMelech – “Seudas Dovid Malka Meshicha”. Dovid HaMelech’s power was Shabbos; he represents the power to infuse physicality with spirituality.

When Shabbos is over, we still have to use the light of Shabbos. We do this through the meal of Melave Malke. Shabbos is not only a light that is within Shabbos – it is a light that we are meant to shine it outward onto the physicality of the weekdays.

Stories about tzaddikim often involve telling over miracles (mofsim) they performed. Why do we speak about their miracles they performed? We want to show how the tzaddikim were able to overcome laws of nature – but why? What is the point in knowing that the tzaddikim could overcome nature?

Since the tzaddikim had mesirus nefesh (self-sacrifice), they merited to overcome the laws of nature. That is the lesson we learn from hearing about all the mofsim (wonders) they performed – it shows us that they must have attained a very high degree of mesirus nefesh. That’s the point we are supposed to understand from hearing about all their mofsim.

The main mesirus nefesh is to be willing to endure pain for another. The Chazon Ish once said that a person has to be willing to endure the pain of Gehinnom for another, to save another person from sinning.

The mesirus nefesh was that their hearts were constantly burning with truth – they lived lives of mesirus nefesh; they weren’t just willing to die al kiddush Hashem – they lived their very lives with mesirus nefesh.

Thus, hearing stories of tzaddikim is to hear the inner essence of all their good deeds, which was based on mesirus nefesh. On Motzei Shabbos, when we eat Melave Malke and we hear stories of tzaddikim, we can spread the light of Shabbos onto the rest of the week by absorbing the mesirus nefesh that we hear from these stories.

To hear stories of tzaddikim offers us the opportunity to transcend our physical existence, to go above ourselves – to connect ourselves to these tzaddikim we hear about. Although these tzaddikim were totally far removed from the kind of life we are currently living, we can still connect ourselves to them – and we can find for ourselves a whole new world of friends, so to speak! We can go back forty or fifty years in time, through our very soul…

Hearing stories of tzaddikim is the tool we can use to connect ourselves to the souls of the tzaddikim, who are eternal – and leave physicality. When we do this, we can then radiate the light of Shabbos onto the rest of the week – and then we can merit to the true “Vayechulu” (“And He finished): the longing of the soul for Hashem.