The Story Requested to be Featured For Children

Welcome to our weekly program, The Inside Story of Chabad in America, through the Mindel archives. Today I want to share with you an amazing story that the Frierdiker Rebbe wrote, and he gave this story to Rabbi Mindel — I don't know exactly what year, I think it was 1942, or maybe 1941.

He wanted to participate in the shmuessen and Talks and Tales. As you know, Rabbi Mindel wrote the shmuessen, and he wrote Talks and Tales. The shmuessen was very holy, very important to the Frierdiker Rebbe. As a matter of fact, I think I once mentioned that the Frierdiker Rebbe's episode "The Wonders of Nature" — that's how holy the Talks and Tales and the shmuessen were to him.

So he wrote a story that he wanted put into the shmuessen, and I think he put it in. So many of you probably heard this story, but probably most of you did not hear it. Now, the Frierdiker Rebbe gave him more stories, and I don't have time today to share them with you, but in the future I will. Today I will share with you this story, because this is what he gave him.

And since we're on this topic now — there's a saying that a story from the Baal Shem Tov is a good sign for livelihood. That's the saying: a story from the Baal Shem Tov — lav davka about livelihood — it's good for all good things, a story of any Tzaddik.

So today I want to read, in English, the story that the Frierdiker Rebbe wrote — originally in Yiddish. But before I say the story, I just want to mention one thing here. Stories of the Baal Shem Tov — all stories, there are hundreds and hundreds of them — not necessarily all true, but it could be true. There's a saying: whoever believes that all the stories of the Baal Shem Tov are true is a fool, and whoever believes that it cannot happen is an apikores, an atheist. The same thing goes also for the stories of other tzaddikim. The same thing also with stories of the Rebbe — many people say stories of the Rebbe are not necessarily true, but definitely it could be true, and it depends who you hear the story from. When you hear the story from a living person who is tocho k'varo — his actions reflect who he is, he means what he says — it's not just whether he's a good speaker, a good lecturer, or gives good advice; he has to be tocho k'varo. Then you know the story is probably a hundred percent true. But the story I'm going to read today is a story which is a hundred percent true, because the Frierdiker Rebbe wrote it.

So here I'm going to read the story — it was written in Yiddish, and I'm going to translate it into English. An amazing story: a Jewish woman came to the Baal Shem Tov with tears in her eyes and begged him — she wanted a blessing, that he should bless her to give birth to a son. He said to her, "Go home, and God should bless you with a son." I'm trying to read from the Frierdiker Rebbe word for word. She came back happy and told her husband about the blessing of the Baal Shem Tov. And a word of the Baal Shem Tov is holy and it's going to be fulfilled. And indeed, a son was born to the couple. He was a beautiful, talented child, and the parents had much nachas from this child.

When the son became two years old, they took him to the Baal Shem Tov to receive a blessing. He took the child in his hands, gave him a kiss, and gave the child back to the parents, and told them, "Go home." As soon as the parents came home, suddenly the child passed away. Broken and mournful, the parents went to the Baal Shem Tov right after shiva, and they poured out their hearts to him.

So the Baal Shem Tov said to them, "Listen to what I will tell you." Years ago, he writes, there lived a "takif" king — takif meaning a king who possesses everything that he needs. He had everything he needed except for a child who would succeed him as king. So he asked his advisor for advice, and the advisor told him, "No one can help you — only the Jews can help you." That's what the Frierdiker Rebbe writes. And the advisor told the king that the king should make a decree: within a year the king should have a son; if the king does not have a son within a year, he should throw out all the Jews [unclear — a phrase in Yiddish, possibly about scattering them].

The Frierdiker Rebbe continues writing: so the king gave the decree, and all the Jews gathered in the shuls, in the synagogues. They fasted, they said Tehillim, and asked God to have pity and give the king a son. They cried, and their pleading split the heavens. Then the Frierdiker Rebbe continues: in the heavens there was a holy neshama that could not bear to see the pain of the Jews, and that neshama stood — this is what he writes — before the Kisei HaKavod, the Throne of Glory, and said, "God, send me down to the material world to be the king's son, so the Jews should, God forbid, not suffer." It was said above, and this is how it was: before the end of the year, a son was born to the king.

The king was extremely happy, and he immediately nullified the decree. The king brought a great professor to learn with his son. The young crown prince displayed unusual talents in all the subjects he was learning, but the subjects did not appeal to him — so the Frierdiker Rebbe writes. One day the crown prince, the son, tells his father that he is not happy with his studies. So the king decided to send his young son directly to the Pope himself, that he should learn with him. The Pope agreed to learn with the king's son, but the Pope made one condition: that two hours a day he locks himself in a room alone, and no one can disturb him — he goes up to the heavens. Also, the king's son should not disturb him during those two hours. So the king promised the Pope that he would see to it that nobody disturbs him.

From then on, the Pope learned with the prince every single day, and the prince soon became well-versed in all subjects — philosophy, language, and more — whatever the Pope learned with him, except for the two hours a day when the Pope secluded himself in his room, and even the prince was not allowed to disturb him those two hours.

Then the Frierdiker Rebbe continues writing — this is again in his own handwriting — one day the prince couldn't hold himself back from opening the door of the room. He was curious what the Pope was doing during those two hours. He somehow made copies of the keys to the room where the Pope was, and he snuck into the room. The prince was shocked when he saw that the Pope was sitting wrapped in tallis and tefillin, learning Torah. The Pope was also very shocked that his secret was revealed — that he is a Jew. But the prince reassured him that he wouldn't tell anybody, and he revealed to him his own desire — that for a long time he had wanted to become a Jew. This is what he told the Pope, and he asked the Pope to prepare him to be megayer, to convert, to become a Jew.

Then the Frierdiker Rebbe continues: later the prince traveled back to his father, but he did not tell his father, the king, what had happened. A short time later he traveled to a foreign land, did not come back home to his father, and he was megayer — he converted — and lived the rest of his life like a religious Jew, until he passed away.

When he passed away, the soul of this son went up to the heavens and stood before the Heavenly Court. No one dared to speak a bad word about this holy neshama that had been moser nefesh for the Jews. But one accusing angel argued that for two years this neshama had been raised by non-Jewish hands, and that this needed to be corrected. So it was decided in heaven that the soul should come down to this world for two years, to be raised in a Jewish, kosher home.

[The Baal Shem Tov] stopped for a minute and then added: "Your child was that holy neshama. It was not destined for you to have children, but what does it matter to you that for two years you raised a holy neshama entrusted into your hands?" And this is the end of the story that the Frierdiker Rebbe wrote.

So what we see from here is that we never really know anything — what happens, happens for a reason.

Now I want to show you — this is the story that the Frierdiker Rebbe gave to Rabbi Mindel, among a few more stories, which I will share with you, as I said. This is in the Memoirs — this is the third volume of the Memoirs. This is the cover that I put in. And this is the story — I took a copy of what the Frierdiker Rebbe wrote in Yiddish, and that's what I read.

Now, this third volume of the Memoirs shows that the Frierdiker Rebbe gave Rabbi Mindel notes to write the Memoirs — this I will share with you some other time. Here we have the cover of the Memoirs, and the Frierdiker Rebbe put his autograph, as you can see, on it. The Memoirs we'll talk about some other time, with God's help.

Next week we will continue our program. The reason I read this story today is because it was written in 1941 or 1942. Next week we will continue our weekly program. Thank you.