2. The Michalel Shabbos

00:15 This story happened a long time ago. There was a man by the name of Eliezer. Eliezer, his wife's name was Sarah. Eliezer and Sarah did not have any children. They were married for a long time, and they still did not become a tatty and a mommy. But Rabbi Eliezer and his wife had some money. They had quite a bit of money, and they decided that they're going to do a special mitzvah every single day. The mitzvah is called hachnasas orchim. Do you know what hachnasas orchim means? First, let's say it together. Hachnasas orchim. Hachnasas orchim means inviting guests to your house and giving them food and a place to sleep when they need a place to sleep. And who was the first person to do this mitzvah in the Torah? Who remembers the first person in the Torah that did the mitzvah of hachnasas orchim, always inviting guests to his tent? And of course, of course you know it's Avraham Avinu. Avraham Avinu brought the three angels into his tent and gave them food. So we learn from Avraham Avinu that it is a very big mitzvah to invite guests to your house and to feed them. And this Eliezer and Sarah decided that they're gonna make their home a special place for people that travel through the city. They have no place to stay. They have nowhere to eat. They have nowhere to sleep. They're going to give them a good meal. Any time people want to eat, they can just come in, knock

02:02 on the door, and come in, sit down by the table, and eat a meal, and especially on Shabbos. On Shabbos, oh, lots and lots of people would come, poor people. Poor people that didn't even have money to buy food, they would come to Eliezer and Sarah's house. And they would hear Eliezer make Kiddish and have beautiful, beautiful, oh, delicious challah, and gefilte fish, and the matzah ball soup, and the kugel. Everything was so delicious. And 20, 30, 40, sometimes 50 people, 50, that's a lot of people, would come into their house, and they would just eat the food of Eliezer and Sarah. And Eliezer were very happy they could do such a big mitzvah. 'Cause most people were poor, and they really didn't have food, so they were happy they could do the mitzvah of giving food to the poor. And so they did this every week, every day, and especially on Shabbos. Lots of people. And sometimes these people were, like, very poor, and dirty, and smelly. Ah. Ah. And people go, "Oh, no, it smells. It smells." Hey, and Eliezer would say, "Nobody smells. Everybody is delicious. Everybody can eat in my house. No, everybody's special. Everybody is my best friend. And nobody should make a nasty comment about somebody, oh, that he smells or that he's dirty." He invited everybody, "Come on, sit on my chair, and eat my food." He was so nice. One Shabbos, they're sitting for lunch. Eliezer made Kiddish, and Sarah brought out lots and lots of food.

03:48 And there are, like, 30 people by the table. And there's a knock on the door in the middle of the meal. Eliezer goes to the door and opens up the door a crack, and he sees... Outside, it's cold. There's snow. There's mud outside. And he sees a poor man with boots, and his boots is full of mud and snow. He's all dirty, full of snow on his head, and on his toes, and on his nose, and on his pinky, and on his belly button. Everywhere there's snow, and dirt, and mud. And he, he said, "Please, can I come in? Can I come in? It's so cold outside, and I'm hungry, and I'm hungry." And, and, and, and Eliezer says, "Oh, well, come. Good Shabbos. Good Shabbos. It's Shabbos today. Come in. Come in." And the man has a backpack with a lot of stuff in his backpack, all his clothes. And the people inside the house of Eliezer who are sitting by the table, all the other guests, were saying, "What? This man came in the middle of Shabbos with his backpack? That means he was traveling on Shabbos. We don't know him. He doesn't live in this city. That means he must be traveling today. On Shabbos, he was traveling. He came all the way to Eliezer's house, and Eliezer is nice to him. He shouldn't be nice to him. He should tell him, 'Get out of here. You broke Shabbos. You did an aveira. You're mechallel Shabbos. You shouldn't be coming into my

05:19 house.'" So Eliezer said, "No, no, no, no. Come in." He pretended that everything is good and gave him a nice seat and a l- lot of food. And everybody's saying, "Oh, no. First of all, he smells. He's dirty. Uh, it's yucky. Uh..." Anyway, Eliezer, "Shh. Everybody quiet. He's a great, great person and a good person. Everybody be nice to him." So then people go over to Eliezer, "Eliezer, look, he guy did a big aveira. He was traveling on Shabbos to your house. How come you let him into your house? How come you don't tell him that it's terrible what he did? He was traveling in a wagon on Shabbos to come to your house from the other city, from another city." Eliezer tells people, "No, no, no, no, be quiet, be quiet. We don't tell people such things. When people come to your house, you give them food, you're nice to them, you make them feel like they're your best guest. Make them feel like they're your family, and you feed them in the nicest way. And you don't ask them questions, do they do an avera, didn't do avera. That's not what you do when people come to your house. People come to your house, you're nice to them, even if they did an avera. You don't mention the avera. You don't embarrass them and say, 'Oh, you did an avera.'" But people would tell him, "No, Eliezer, you're wrong. It's... What you're doing is an avera, Eliezer. You're doing an avera now because

06:40 you're supposed to tell him that he's not supposed to travel on Shabbos. And how come you're inviting him and you're so nice to him, and you give him the nicest chair in the house, and you give him so much food, and you s- smile to him, and you hug him, and, and y- and you kiss him, and you say, 'Oh, you're so special,' when you know he did an avera. He traveled on Shabbos." And Eliezer said, "No, no." Eliezer said... Oh, then Eliezer started feeling bad. Maybe they're right. Maybe they're right. Maybe I'm doing the wrong thing. And Eliezer decided to go to another room. He went to other room. He says, "Everybody, please wait here. I have to go to my room by myself. I have to do something." He goes into the other room, and he takes from the shelf in his room a Tehillim, and he starts crying and davening to Hashem. "Hashem, help me. The people are telling me that I'm doing the wrong thing, but I have a feeling that I'm not doing the wrong thing. I should be nice to this person and not embarrass him that he didn't keep Shabbos. But what should I do? I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe they're right." And he cried and cried and cried, and then as he was saying Tehillim and crying to Hashem, he suddenly felt in his heart, "Ah, they're wrong. I'm right. Hashem wants me to be nice to this guest." Avraham Avinu, look, what did Avraham

08:02 Avinu do? He took three people. He didn't know they were malachim. He didn't know they were angels. He thought they were idol worshipers. They worshiped idols, and he still was nice to them. So I should be nice to this man as well and not ask any questions and not tell him that he's bad because he traveled on Shabbos. Just give him food. And so Rav Eliezer came out of his room, and he wiped down his face, his tears, so people wouldn't see that he was crying. He comes into the dining room. He says, "Everybody quiet, and eat, and let's have fun. Let's enjoy. Let's sing nigunim. Let's tell stories of tzadikim. And everybody, let's celebrate Shabbos, and nobody say a bad word about anyone else." And so the whole Shabbos everybody was eating and drinking and sleeping. Finally comes Motzaei Shabbos. All the guests left except for this traveler who came on Shabbos. He said to Eliezer, "I'm very tired. Can you give me a bed?" He says, "Sure, sure, sure." And he gives him his own bed, and this traveler goes with his boots, muddy, muddy, dirty, snowy boots, straight into the bed on the sheets, making the all bed dirty, and then he goes to sleep, and then he snores like this, . And Eliezer didn't say a word. Said, "No, no, no problem. You sleep, sleep." After an hour, he wakes up and says, "Okay, I'm ready to go now. Goodbye, I'm leaving." "Oh, El- are you leaving now, or can I

09:38 give you some money for the way, maybe some food for the way?" And he says, "Listen, Eliezer, I gotta talk to you. I have a secret to share with you." "A secret? What's the secret?" "First, let's make Havdalah, and then I'm gonna tell you the secret." They made Havdalah, and then the man walks over to Eliezer and says, "Listen, Eliezer, I'm not the person you think I am. I'm not this poor man traveling on Shabbos. Do you know who I am? Do you know who I am? I am Eliyahu HaNavi. I was sent by Hashem specially to see how special your mitzvah of achinasas orchim is. Because you know what? There were bad malachim in Shamayim that said, 'Oh, Eliezer is not such a tzadik.' Everybody was saying, all the malachim and the neshamas in Gan Eden and up in Shamayim were saying, 'How great this Eliezer is. He- look how he's treating his guests so nicely. He always feeds people. Anyone, anyone who wants to come to his house can come. What a great tzadik.'" But then the bad malach, the Yetzer Hara came and told Hashem, "No, no, no, he's not such a big tzadik. Look, let's go test him. We'll send Eliyahu Navi. He'll dress up like a poor person, and we'll see how he treats him. Let's see if Eliezer's gonna treat him nicely or not. Maybe he's gonna say, 'Ah, he came on Shabbos. Ah, I can't, I can't invite him to my house.' Or w- when he says, 'Oh,

11:06 I wanna go to sleep with my boots,' he'll say, 'Oh, no, you can't go with your boots. Your boots are dirty.' You'll see. You'll see. You'll see. He's not gonna be so nice to him." And Eliyahu Navi said, "Hashem, I'm gonna go and test Eli- Eliezer. I'm convinced that he's gonna be very nice." So he said, Eliyahu Navi said to Eliezer, "I want you to know I came to test you, and you passed the test. You did an amazing job. And now Hashem said because you did such an amazing mitzvah, for so many years you've been inviting guests, all types of guests, people that you've never know, you invite them to your house and you're so nice to them, Hashem said that you're going to have a child. I know you're very old. You and your wife are already 60 years old, but you're gonna have a child for the first time, and that child will be a very, very big tzadik." And with that, Eliyahu Navi disappeared and went away. And the next year, Sarah and Eliezer had a baby boy who they named Yisrael, and guess who he became. He became the famous Ba'al Shem Tov. The Ba'al Shem Tov was born from Eliezer and Sarah because they did such a mitzvah so beautifully that Hashem said, "I'm gonna make a nes, a miracle for them, that even though they're very old and they have never had children, they'll have children. Now they have a child, and not just a child, a huge

12:38 tzadik, such a holy man like the Ba'al Shem Tov, who really taught so many people and brought so much light to the whole world." Good Shabbos.