5. Yankel the Shikker

00:15 Hello, children. Here is a great story for you. This story has a special meaning for Purim because Purim, as you know, is the story of Esther, who was a Jewish girl who became the queen of the big, big, big country of Persia and, uh, she saved the Jewish people from Haman. I'm sure you know the story. Well, that story is connected a little bit to Esther. The story took place many years ago, maybe 500 years ago. There was a very famous Rav. A Rav, his name was Reb Moshe Isserles. Reb Moshe Isserles. Can you say that? M- Reb Moshe Isserles. His father's name was Isser, and Moshele, when he was a little boy, his father was very rich. His father had a lot of money, but he wanted his son, Moshe, to grow up to be a big Talmid Chaham, very learned. He should learn a lot of Torah and become a big Rav, and that's exactly what happened. His father said to his son Moshe, Isser said to Moshe, Isser, that was the name of the father, he said to Moshele, "I just want you to learn Torah all the time, and don't worry about money and how you're gonna live. I'm gonna give you as much money as you need. I thank God, Hashem helped me, and I have a lot of money, and I can give you money and make sure that you have enough to live and to eat. And don't worry, you just learn Torah." And that's what he did.

02:16 And little Moshele started learning Torah day and night. He s- never stopped learning Torah, Torah until he became very early on, when he was still a young person, he became a huge Talmid Chaham, a big Talmid Chaham. He knew the whole Torah, everything, and he became so famous. He built a yeshiva where he had students learning all day long Torah. And who supported the yeshiva? Who gave money to give food for the people that learned in the yeshiva? Isser, the father of Moshe. The father of Moshe supported the yeshiva, gave money that everyone who learned there had enough money to live and to buy food. And so this Moshe became very famous, and we know him today by the word Rama. Rama. Rama. Can you say the word Rama? Rama. Rama stands for three letters. Rama is spelled resh, mem, alef. Reb Moshe Isserles. Reb Moshe, the son of Isser. And he's so famous today because what he wrote, he wrote, uh, uh, Halachas. He w- wrote all the Dinim, all the Halachas that we need to do, what we need to do every single day. He's very, very, very famous and very important. So this story takes place with the Rama. The Rama was the Rav in the city of Krucke. Can you say Krucke? Krucke. I know it sounds funny, but that was the name of the city. In English, they call it Kraków. That's even funnier. Can you say Kraków? Kraków. Well, it doesn't sound as good. Krucke is a little nicer.

04:17 Or some people in Russia call it Krucke. Krucke or Krucke, but that's a very famous city. There were many, many, many thousands of Jews living in that city, and to be a Rav in that city, you had to be very, very, very famous and a very big, big, huge Talmid Chaham. Otherwise, you couldn't be a Rav there. They only got the best and the biggest Talmid Chaham to be their Rav. And the Rama, who was still very young, became the Rav of such a big city. That shows how big he was. He was so famous and so important. Now, in the city of the Rama, in, in, in Krucke, in Krucke, there was a man by the name Yankel. They called him Yankel the Porter. Yankel the Porter. You know what a porter is? Porter means a carrier. He used to carry stuff for people. That was how he made money to live. He would carry packages for people. People needed to send something to another person's house, they would ask Yankel, "We'll give you a little bit of money. Can you please take this package to this and this house in the other side of the city?" And he would do this all day long, and that's how he made his money. Yankel also had another name. They called him also Yankel the Shicker. You guys know what a shicker is? Shicker Shicker. Shicker means somebody who drinks a lot of wine and a lot of alcohol. You know, mashke. He drinks a lot

06:16 of mashke and a lot of beer, and when people drink a lot of that stuff, they become shicker. They become drunk. And when they're drunk, they start acting a little crazy. And Yankel used to be called Yankel the Shicker because every Friday, only once a week, 'cause every day he had to work, he couldn't be shicker. If he was shicker in the middle of the week, he wouldn't be able to carry packages because people that are shicker and drunk from drinking too much mashke, they, you know, you, you, you, you walk like a crazy person. You know? You wobble, and you fall on the ground in the middle of the street, and then you throw up in the middle of the street, and then you can't... You don't even know where you're going. Uh, you can't even remember the address where you had to go because you're so drunk and so crazy. And you say crazy things. You act in a crazy way. So he was called Shicker, but he only got shicker, that means drunk, once a week on Friday afternoon. Friday, when he finished work, he would finish work early, the middle of the day, 'cause it's Erev Shabbos. But instead of Erev Shabbos like everybody else, Erev Shabbos, you go to the store, you clean the house, and you cook for Shabbos, Yankel said, "Okay, my wife will do that. I will go to the bar." The bar is a place where you get mashke, and you can drink as much as

07:53 you want, but you have to pay for it. So Yankel would save a- Yankel was very poor. You know, when you're a porter, you know, porter means you carry stuff for people, you don't make a lot of money. So he barely had enough to live. But he would save a little bit every week. And then on Friday, he had a little extra money, and he used that to drink, and he would drink so much that he became drunk. He became a shicker. And on Friday afternoon, late afternoon before Shabbos, you could see Yankel every Friday, late afternoon, walking down the streets of Krukke. And he was, like, wobbling and, and, and falling down and picking himself up and then falling down again. And then he would, like, shout and scream and say crazy things. And, and then he would make a mistake. He'd go to the wrong place. He forgot where he lived, which house is his house. He would forget because he was so drunk. But everybody knew already that Friday afternoon, Yankel Shicker gets shicker. He gets drunk. Now, one Friday afternoon, something amazing happened. Yankel had just finished working, and he decided, "Oh, okay, it's the middle of the day. It's Friday. Soon it's gonna be Shabbos. I gotta get drunk first 'cause I can't wait. I love my mashke. I gotta get, get drunk." And he had a few, uh, coins of money that he had saved, and he decided to use it to buy some mashke so he can get

09:44 drunk. On his way to the bar where you buy the mashke, he was passing by a house on a street in the city, and a lady, an older lady, was looking out of the window, and she says, "Yankel the Porter," or, "Yankel the Shicker is walking." And she said, "Ah." She said it sort of loud. She said it loud from the second floor. She was looking down from the window. Said, "Ah, Yankel the Shicker is probably going to the bar to buy mashke so he can drink until he gets drunk. Well, if he has money to buy mashke, but I don't even have money to buy for Shabbos, basic food, and here is this Yankel spending his money buying stupid mashke that's gonna make him drunk and shicker, and he's gonna start rolling in the streets and fall down flat on his face, on his nose because he's so drunk he can't walk straight, and I don't even have a penny, even a dollar to buy food for Shabbos." And she said it so loudly when she was looking out of the window that Yankel below heard it. He heard what she said. What did she say? That, "I, Yankel the Shicker, is spending money to buy stupid drinks of mashke so I get drunk, and then I fall on my face, and then I come home, and I fall down on my bed and fall asleep because I'm so drunk." And she, this lady says, "And I don't even have money to buy challahs

11:34 for Shabbos." And Yankel thought about it. "Hmm. Oh, I feel so bad. She doesn't have any food?" And he thought again, and he said, "You know what? I'm not gonna go to the bar to spend that extra little bit of money that I have in my pocket. I'm gonna go to see this lady and see if I can give her that money that I have. I only have a little bit of money. There's not enough for me to buy a drink and to give her. So I'll give it to her. Let her buy challahs for Shabbos. She should have food for Shabbos." And I guess I won't drink today. I so much love to drink on Friday afternoon. I'm doing this every Friday, and I love it. I wait a whole week. Oh, when is Friday gonna come when I'll be able to drink and drink and drink myself crazy until I get so drunk? I love getting drunk. But today I'm not gonna do it. Even though I like it so much, I'm not gonna do it. Kids, do you know what it means sometimes to do something you really don't like because you know it's the right thing to do? Did that ever happen to you? Your mommy or daddy tells you, "Hey, you gotta do this and this and this," but you really don't want. Well, but then you do it anyways. You don't listen to your yetzer hara. Well, that's quite amazing if you can do that because Hashem loves it

13:05 when you do something that y- that you really don't like, you really don't wanna do it because the yetzer hara tells you not to do it. Well, that's a very special thing to do. Well, Yankel did exactly that. That Friday, he was so excited about going to the bar to drink and you know what? He said, "No, I'm not gonna go because this lady doesn't have food for Shabbos. I'm gonna give her my money instead so she can buy for Shabbos." And that's what he did. He walked up the second floor. He says, "Here, take my money," he said to the lady, and the lady looked at him and said, "You serious? You're gonna give me that money? You're not gonna drink today?" And he said, "No, no, not today. I'm not gonna drink. Here, you take the money." And he walked away. He walked home. That Friday afternoon, he walked home, and then Shabbos came, and then Shabbos passed by. It was the end of Shabbos, and the famous rav of the city, as you all know, I told you before, the Ramah, Rab Moshe Isserless. Remember the name Ramah? Rab Moshe Isserless. Reish, mem, alef. That's the name of the rav. The Rav, the Ramah, was in his house Motza'i Shabbos, and suddenly he got up and went to the shul. In the shul on Motza'i Shabbos, it was full with big Talmidi Chachamim, students of the Ramah who were learning Torah day and night. And as I told you before, the father

14:48 of the Ramah, Isser, right, he would support them. The Ramah goes into the shul, and he starts asking the Talmidim Chachamim who are learning Torah, "Guys, do you guys ever hear-- What, what ha- Did anything happen to Yankel the porter, Yankel the shaker? Any news about him?" Oh, so a young man, he was 17 years old, he was learning in the shul as well, said, "Yes, yes. Actually, yesterday on Friday, very late afternoon, little before Shabbos, my mother was looking for someone to carry a package to a friend, and she told me to go to Yankel's house to ask Yankel the porter, but if, if we pay him a few dollars, would he take a package to someone's house quickly before Shabbos. When I got to the house of Yankel, I was told that Yankel had just died. Yankel just died. Nobody knows what happened. He just suddenly came home on Friday afternoon, and he didn't feel well. He went to lie down, and he just died suddenly." And this boy in the shul is telling this to the Ramah, "I heard that Yankel died on Friday late afternoon." And the Ramah says, "Really? Yankel actually died. Wow, I didn't know that." And everybody's asking the Ramah, the Rav, "Why are you so surprised? What's, what's the matter? Why are you so interested to know what happened to Yankel?" And he says, "I'll tell you the story. Tonight, when Shabbos was over, I made Havdalah, and right after I made Havdalah, I sat down at

16:59 my table in my dining room, and suddenly I see Yankel in my dring-- dining room. I see Yankel. I didn't know Yankel died, but I see him there, and he says to me, he says to me, 'Rebbe, um, I died on Friday. I'm in Gan Eden now, and, um, I want you to know that when I came up to Shamyim after I died, because on that day, on Friday, I gave away my money to this poor woman instead of going to drink. I broke my yetzer hara to drink a lot of mashke so that I can help this woman buy food for Shabbos. They said in Gan Eden that I can go straight to Gan Eden, and I'm like a tzadik.' And they also said, 'I... You know, you never really did many aveiras.'" Can you believe it? Yankel the porter, the, the peop- You know, the besdin. You guys know what the besdin is? There's like a court in Shamayim where big tzadikim judge every neshamah that comes up there and says, "Oh, is this neshamah done averus? Has he done money? How many mitzvahs does he do? Does he go to Gehenom? Does he go to Gan Eden? Does he have to first be cleansed and cleaned his neshamah before he can go to Gan Eden?" Do you know a neshamah, when you live here in the world for 70, 80, 90 years, you do mitzvahs, then your neshamah gets very, very pure and very bright and so holy and so heilig. But

18:47 when chas v'shalom, when you do an averah, your neshamah gets these stains, right? These ugly, awful stains. And what happens when your neshamah goes up to Shamayim after the person dies, the bezdin, this is in Shamayim, there's a whole court of big tzadikim and they look at the neshamah and say, "Wait a second. I see there's a lot of stains and awful and ugly things on your neshamah that you did because it's from the averas you did. We need to clean the neshamah before it goes to Gan Eden." So they send you to a place called Gehenom and there it gets cleansed, it gets cleaned. When the neshamah is clean, it's not so pleasant. It's a little bit painful, but really it's good for the neshamah. The neshamah gets cleaned and after a while when the neshamah is already cleaned, it goes to Gan Eden. When Yankel came up to Shamayim on Friday late afternoon when he died, the bezdin, this is the court of the tzadikim that are in charge of looking at the neshamah and see whether he deserves to go to Gan Eden right away, they saw that he was pretty pure and clean and didn't have too many stains. And then when they looked and they saw he did this incredible mitzvah. He so badly wanted to drink mashke but he didn't because he wanted to help this lady buy for Shabbos. So wow, they said he goes straight to Gan Eden. He doesn't need any cleaning. But in Gan Eden

20:25 is a very special place. In Gan Eden there are big tzadikim and they learn Torah and they're very close to Hashem and they have so much fun. We can't even imagine the fun that neshamah is having in Gan Eden from being so close to Hashem. Can you imagine the biggest fun you have here? Like say you have your most favorite dream toy or the most favorite game in your life or the most favorite food like some favorite flavor of ice cream that you dream every night you wish you had. It's nothing compared to the joy and the happiness that neshamah is having in Gan Eden. And it's all from learning Torah and being close to Hashem. But Yankel never learned Torah. He was very poor. He had to work all his life. So what is he going to do in Gan Eden? He can't learn Torah. It's not going to be good. So they decided, listen, Yankel, you'll be a helper. We need sometimes neshamas that will go help out and send a message here, send a message there. You were a porter when you were alive in the world in your body. You were carrying packages. Now you'll be carrying messages to different neshamas and to different people. And sometimes you will even be sent to carry a message to a tzadik or a rav that is still alive in the world. And Yankel is telling all this to the Ramah. And the Ramah says, I'm standing there and I'm thinking, is Yankel drunk?

22:13 Why is he telling me he died? He's telling me he went to Gan Eden. He must be drunk. And I say, Yankel, I know you got drunk yesterday, but didn't you get over your drunkenness? You're still drunk from yesterday? You drank so much mashke yesterday that you're even drunk now after Shabbos? So many hours later, you're still drunk? And Yankel disappeared. He went away. And I thought, ach, this Yankel, when is he going to stop drinking? He's saying crazy things. That he's in Gan Eden and the bezdin in Gan Eden made him a messenger to carry messages and he's carrying a message to me. Well, then I thought to myself, well, something strange happened here. How did Yankel get into my house? He just showed up right after Havdalah. But my house was locked. Nobody could get in. I didn't hear him knock on the door. I didn't open the door. Nobody opened the door for him. How come he was in the middle of my living room? He said, oh, that's strange. Hmm, maybe he wasn't drunk. Maybe it's true. He's actually dead. His neshamah is in Gan Eden. And of course, a neshamah can get through locked doors. A neshamah doesn't need, you know, to open a door. A neshamah can just show up anywhere. And so I came to the shul now, the Ramah says to the students, I wanted to find out if anybody heard if something happened to Yankel. But now I see, oy, Yankel, he really died. And this

24:07 was real. Yankel actually came from Gan Eden. And he felt very bad that he said he's drunk and he made him feel bad and he said bad things to him. So he davened. The Ramah went and davened and said to him and cried to Hashem, please make Yankel come back. I want to talk to him. I want to ask him forgiveness. Please forgive me for insulting him like this. And so he davened and Yankel came back that same night. And Yankel said to the Rav, I wanted to tell you something, a secret. It's a secret from Gan Eden that I found out. I found out they told me that this lady that I helped on Friday, that last Friday before I died, do you know who this lady was? Her neshamah was the same neshamah of Esther Amalca. She was the of Esther. Esther Amalka, 2,000, 3,000 years ago, two and a half thousand years ago, no, when she came up to Shomayim, when she died, she was a tzadekes. She was a big tzadekes. She saved the Jewish people from Haman. And she kept Torah and mitzvahs. She did all the mitzvahs even though she lived in the palace of Achashverosh. But one malach came and said, but of course she kept all the mitzvahs and she did Torah and mitzvahs even in the palace of Achashverosh. But she was very rich. She was a queen. And when you're rich and you have everything, it's easy to do mitzvahs because you don't have to

26:04 worry about money. Things are not hard for you. You have everything you want. You have servants that do all your work for you. They prepare your food. They wash your clothes. You don't have to do anything. So it's easy to do mitzvahs. But would Esther Amalka be so, such a tzadekes, do so many mitzvahs even if she was poor and life was too hard for her? Maybe not. We should put her to the test. And the besdin from Gan Eden from Shomayim decided, yes, we should send her back into the world. And she should live in a poor, in a poor place, in a poor house. And she'll have no money. And then we'll see if she's going to keep mitzvahs the same way she kept when she was wealthy and rich and she lived in a palace. And that old lady that lives in your city in Kroka, in Kroka, that lady that I saved and I helped her, she has the neshama of Esther Amalka. And the reason she's poor, because they're testing her from Shomayim to see if she's going to keep Torah and mitzvahs when she's poor. And then Yankel said to the Ramah, I want to tell you something else, another secret. And I'm telling it to you because I think it's important that you know that secret. And what's that secret? When I was in Shomayim, I heard the besdin discussing you as well. I overheard them saying, the Ramah, he's a big tzaddik. He's a big rav. He's

27:54 a big chacham. He knows the whole Torah. And he's a good rav. He has many talmidim, many students that he teaches Torah to. And you know what else? He's so good with tzedakah. Whenever there's a person who's poor in the city and they need money, he goes himself from door to door and collects money from the rich, from the rich people and helps the family that's poor. But there's one problem. He only goes to the rich people because the rich people have a lot of money. So it's easy for them to give because when you have a lot of money, you don't need so much money. So you give a little bit of tzedakah. So it's very easy to get money from them. You don't have to argue with them. Please give, please give because they have plenty of money. So they give. But the poor people who don't have enough, well, it's a mitzvah to give tzedakah even for poor people. Poor people also should give tzedakah. But for them, it's harder because they don't have enough food. So for them to give tzedakah is so much harder. And so the Ramah never goes to the poor families to collect money from them because he thinks they don't have enough and it's hard for them. And then if I go to them, I have to argue with them and ask them to give a little bit and a little bit. And it's so hard. I'll make it easy for myself. I'll go only to

29:24 the rich people. And so what did they say in the besdin in Shomayim? The Ramah is wrong. He should go to the poor people too, even if they give a tiny amount because it's the mitzvah that counts. He should give the poor people a chance to do such a big mitzvah of tzedakah. And he's not giving them that chance. And that's a problem. And for a moment, it was decided by the besdin that maybe it's time for the Ramah to die also. His neshama should come up here. And then we'll send him back down. He'll be born in a child, in a baby somewhere. And he will have to start again. And this time around, he'll live in the world and become a rav. And they will start collecting money from the poor as well because they also need to do the mitzvah. So Yankel tells all this to Ramah what he heard in Shomayim from the besdin. And he says to the Ramah, listen, you do teshuva. And from now on, you should collect from the poor families too. I know it's harder for you because you have to go to these poor families and they only give you a tiny amount. So you have to go to more families and more families. It's much harder on you. But it's a big mitzvah because you're helping them do the mitzvah of tzedakah. And if you do that, it will save your life. You won't have to die. And when the Ramah heard this, he

31:12 says, "Thank you, Yankel, for sharing this with me." And with that, Yankel left and disappeared, went back to Shamayim. And from that day on, the Ramah, Reb Moshe Isserles, went every time there was a need for money. He would go not only to the rich families, but he would tell the poor families, "Give even a tiny amount, a little bit, because you know when you give tzedakah, Hashem pays you back. He makes sure that when you do business or you work, you end up making a lot of money. That's what Hashem gives you as a reward. So it's good for the poor to give a little bit tzedakah. Hashem will help them, help them make that money back many times more." And that's an important lesson, that not only is it important to give tzedakah, not only for the rich, but also the poor people should give tzedakah. And not only that, it's a big mitzvah for people to go and collect tzedakah. That if you know there's somebody who's very poor and needs money, and he's starving, and they don't have any food at the house, even if you don't have enough money to help them, go and ask other people to give money. It's a special mitzvah to go and collect money from other people. That's also a big mitzvah. And we also learn the important mitzvah of not listening to the yetzer hara, but sometimes to do something very good and very special, even when you don't want it. And it's when

32:52 you don't want it, that's when Hashem likes it the most. Have a Good Shabbos and a Happy Purim.