ונשא אהרן את שמות בני ישראל… אל לבו…(תצוה כח:כט)

The chassid R’ Yosef Leib Reichman z’’l was from Belz’s chosuv – noble Belz chassidim.  He came from the city of Lubitsch and moved after the war to the East Side, New York, and lived in his final years in Bnei Brak.

R’ Yosef served as a beloved melamed (boys teacher) in the East Side and also made רצועות (leather straps) for tefillin.

One year, when he traveled from America to Eretz Yisroel to spend the Yamim Tovim with Maran Reb Aharon of Belz zt’’’l, he gifted Maran Reb Aharon with a new pair of retziyas, which he painstakingly prepared.

Maran Reb Aharon thanked him profusely and told his gabbai to place the retziyas in a special closet in his room. The retziyas lay in the closet for years.  Maran never changed his old retziyas for new ones.  But every year, when Maran would travel from Tel Aviv to Yerushalayim, they would empty all the closet’s content, including R’ Yosef Leib’s retziyas, and take them along.

On Thursday, י’’ב מנחם אב תשי’’ז, three days before Maran’s הסתלקות (passing), Maran suddenly asked his shamesh R’ Yitzchak Landau z’’l to take out R’ Yosef Leib’s retziyas and give it to the gabbai R’ Shulem Fogel z’l to change Maran’s old retziyas to R’ Yosef Leib’s retziyas, because Maran wanted to use R’ Yosef Leib’s retziyas the next day.

R’ Yitzchak Landau obeyed, and R’ Shulem changed the retziyas.

The following day, Friday, Maran put on tefillin for his final time.  R’ Yosef Leib merited his retziyas to be used by that generation’s Tzaddik Hador. “ונשא אהרן את שמות בני ישראל  על לבו”