6. True Kavod Shabbos

00:17 Once upon a time, there was a small place, a small city, a small town somewhere in Poland, and there lived a Jew, an elderly man. His name was Shabsi. Shabsi, Shabsi and his wife were getting old. They were already 65 years old, and they didn't have any children yet. They davened so hard, "Hashem, please, please give us a baby. We want a baby," but nothing happened. They were married for so long, uh, for 50 years, and they still didn't have children. Finally, they gave up, and they thought Hashem decided not to give them children. Now, Shabsi worked. What was his job? How did he make money to survive, to give food on the table for him and his wife so they could live? He was a book binder. Do you know what a book binder is? Well, today almost nobody does that anymore. But in the olden days, many years ago, people used to do that. Book binders were people that people had at home like old books, like a Siddur, a Chumash, a Gemara, any sefer that was getting old and the cover was getting torn off from the book, they would bring it to the book binder, and he was able to glue it back together and fix the books. It was a job, and people would pay him something for fixing their books. He would tie them together, and he would, uh, glue together the cover back to the book, and he would sometimes sew the pages together at the end so

02:23 that they wouldn't fall apart, and he would fix the books. That's a book binder, a book fixer. Shabsi was a book binder, but you know, book binding didn't make a lot of money. Book binding, um, people made very little because people didn't pay a lot for fixing books, and some people had enough money to buy new books. They didn't have to fix their old books. They put their old books in the schemes. You know what schemes is? Schemes is where you put your old, foreign, holy books, holy, a heilige sefer, that you put in a place called schemes, and they bury it because you're not supposed to throw it in the garbage. If you have a Chumash that's old and torn, don't throw it in the garbage. It's not nice. It's a heilige sefer. It's a holy book that has kedushah, has, has words of Tehillah in it. You're not supposed to throw it in the garbage, but you put it in a special place. The tatte and mamme knows where to go, by the shul sometimes, and they put it in schemes, and then they bury it in the ground, and that's a respectful way to do it. So many people didn't bind their books. If their books were too torn, they went and brought it to the schemes, and they bought themselves new books. So Shabsi didn't make a lot of money. In fact, he made very little, and he and his wife were always hungry and starving because they never had enough

03:58 money to buy enough food. But Shabsi was such a good Jew. You know what Shabsi would do every week before Shabbos? Shabsi and his wife loved Shabbos. They absolutely loved Shabbos. You know why they loved Shabbos so much? Because Shabbos is such a special day. Hashem gave it to the Jewish people as a present, and He says, "On Shabbos, I am very close to you." Shabbos is so holy. It's so special. You don't work. You can spend time with the family. You eat special food. You light candles. It's like very special Shabbos. So they loved Shabbos, and they were very thankful to Hashem for giving us Shabbos. So what would Shabsi do? You know, it's a mitzvah to honor the Shabbos, to make Shabbos special with food, special good food, foods that are better than a whole week, right? You eat on Shabbos special food, food that you don't eat the entire week, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. Only on Shabbos we eat special food. So but Shabsi didn't have enough money to buy special food. He couldn't buy kugel and challahs and, and, and chicken because he didn't have any f- enough money. So what would Shabsi do? See, every day he would eat a piece of bread and a cup of water. That's all he had money for. But he would save a penny and another penny and another penny every night of the week. He would put aside a little bit of money, extra money, so when Shabbos came, he would be able to

05:39 buy something extra special. What was that special thing? A piece of fish. So they were pleased to have a piece of fish with the bread and water. So they didn't have a lot, but on Shabbos, at least they ate something more and more special than every other day of the week. They ate a piece of fish. And how did Shabsi do it? He saved very, very little by little. They did this every Shabbos. One day, it was a week when Shabsi had made so little money that he didn't even have what to eat during the week. He went hungry at night. He didn't eat supper because he didn't have money. He would go hungry to bed, then wake up next day, be hungry all day. He would try to find work, and so people would come to him and bring him their books so he can make a little bit money so he could eat because he's hungry, but people that week did not come with any books. Oh, Shabsi was very worried because it was Tuesday, then they got Wednesday, and Thursday, Shabbos is almost here. We're not even gonna have anything special for Shabbos. Oy vey, it's terrible. What are we gonna do? Not only are we starving during the week, we won't have anything for Shabbos. So Shabsi was very sad, very sad. Now, his wife, she saw that her husband is very sad and he doesn't have any money this week. So she thought, "Listen," she said, "Hashem, we can't honor

07:22 Shabbos this week by getting any special food because we have no money, nothing this week. Shabsi didn't make any money, so how are we going to honor the special day you gave us, Hashem? I know what I'll do, Hashem. For that special day, I'm gonna sweep the floor extra hard and clean the house more than I do every other day. That would be in honor of Shabbos. And not only that, I'm gonna sweep places that I haven't swept in so many years, like in the bedroom, under the bed." Normally, you know, Shabsi's wife would always clean the kitchen and clean the dining room and the living room, but to go to the bedroom and sweep with the broom under the bed, eh, who does that, right? She, she wouldn't do it. But this time, since she couldn't cook for Shabbos anything, she didn't have any money, she said, "Okay, let me do something else for Shabbos. I will honor Shabbos by sweeping everywhere in the house," everywhere, in the bedrooms, in the bathrooms, under the bed and over the bed, everywhere. And as she was doing this, Shabsi was in shul davening, and his wife is sweeping under the beds, which she hasn't done so in so long. She hears a dangling sound, and what comes out from under the bed with the broom? She sweeps out from under the bed a gold button, a button from her dress. It's a gold button. You know, a button made from pure gold is very expensive. She

09:07 hasn't seen that button in so many years. Since she got married 50 years ago, she had lost that button. These are buttons that her father gave to her as a present when she got married to Shabsi 50 years ago, and she lost the buttons, but one button was under the bed for 50 years, and she didn't even know because she never swept under the bed. Now she swept under the bed for Shabbos because she couldn't cook anything. She wanted to do something for Shabbos, so she found a gold button. She was so excited. She said, "This is a nes. This is a nes," she screamed. "This is a miracle. This is amazing. Hashem made a nes." She went quickly to the jeweler who buys gold from people, and she asked him, "How much money can I get for this gold button?" He said, "Oh, for that gold button, I can give you quite a bit of money." He gave her a nice amount of money, and she said, "Um, okay, um, here's the money." She said, "Wow, this is such a miracle Hashem made for us, because Hashem saw how upset we were that we couldn't honor the Shabbos, so let me go and make a very special Shabbos with that money. I'm gonna buy the fanciest food, mmm, two, three different types of kugel, luxury kugel, potato kugel, and apple kugel. I'm gonna buy chicken and meat and everything. I'm gonna buy matzo ball soup and chicken soup and, and I'm gonna buy gefilte

10:42 fish and other fish, five different types of fishes. And the best challah, the nicest challah, like, like Menachem's favorite challah, the artisan challah. E- everything. She's gonna buy this type of challah, that type of challah, and she's gonna buy the best wine and grape juice for Shabbos because she wants to show Hashem how grateful and how thankful and how happy she is that Hashem made such a miracle to help them make Shabbos nice. Wow. Shabsi didn't know anything about it. Nothing. Nothing. He was sure that this Shabbos was gonna be a very sad, miserable Shabbos because there's gonna be no food on the table. They're gonna go both hungry for Shabbos, so... But he was very embarrassed to come home, that his wife was gonna say, "No, no, we have no money. No, no food." Uh, he was so embarrassed, so he decided, you know, on Friday night, he said, "Why should I go home after davening?" After davening, everybody comes to shul, and they sing Lecha Dodi, and they daven Maariv, and then they go home, and they sing Shalom Aleichem with the whole family. Shalom Aleichem. And they say Es Es Chayim, and then they say kiddush, and everybody's so happy and smiles, and everybody eats challah, makes kiddush, and challah and fish, and they sing Nigunim, and they tell words of Torah and stories- And everybody's so happy, but Shabsi knew that he can't go home because there's nothing for Shabbos. There's no food, not even candles. It's probably dark in the

12:19 house because they have no lights. In those days, you had to make lights with candles. They didn't have electricity like we have today. So we have no money today, and no money for candles either, so it's probably very dark in the house, and there's nothing on the table, and, and, and his wife probably went to sleep right away. So Shabsi decided he's so embarrassed to go home, he's gonna stay in the shul. Everybody left, and people went home to sing songs and to eat good food, and Shabsi stayed in the shul and davened and said Tehillim. He said, "Hashem, what can I do? I'm sorry I couldn't honor the special day, but I'll daven for you. I'll say Tehillim. Please accept my Tehillim." And so he stayed till midnight, very late, when he heard all the voices would get quiet because he heard a lot of people singing from that house and from that house. People were singing so loud you can hear them in the shul. But at midnight, everybody went... finished eating. They made their bentch, and then they went to sleep, and everything got quiet in the city, the little town, and the lights went off. So he crawled out of the shul and quietly walked to his house, expecting to see a dark, miserable house. Probably his wife is already sleeping. But as he gets closer to the house, he is so shocked. He can't believe his eyes. What does he see? He sees an amazing amount of light coming out

14:01 from the windows of his house. He says, "What? I must be dreaming. This must be a dream. This can't be true. How can there be lights in my house? We don't have any money. Who, where, wherever?" Then he gets closer, and he sees through the window that his wife is sitting by the table, and the table is full of the nicest food, food he has never had in his house because he was always so poor, and now there's this fancy meal. And he can't believe it. He thinks, "I must be dreaming. I must be dreaming. Maybe it's just a nightmare. Maybe I'm just sleeping, and I'm dreaming it." And he pinch his face. "No, no, no, no, I'm awake. I, I, I'm really seeing it. It's really true. My house is full of fancy food. It's unbelievable." He walks into the house, and his wife says, "Shabsi, I've been waiting for you. It's midnight already. Everybody went to sleep. All the houses are quiet now. How come you didn't come home? I have a beautiful Shabbos for you." Shabsi can't believe it. His mouth is dropping open. "Huh? Huh? What, uh, uh, what, what, what happened? What... How did this happen? Did you steal money or what? How did you have money for that?" And his wife says, "Shabsi, sit down. I'll tell you the story." And she tells him the story how she was sweeping the floors because she realized there was no food, and they couldn't honor Shabbos, and she swept and swept,

15:21 and then she went to the bedrooms and swept again and swept again. "And finally, I heard this dangling sound, and I see this gold button on the floor. I ran to the jeweler, and I sold it, and he gave me a lot of money. I said, 'Hashem, you made this nes for us.' We found money to make a beautiful Shabbos, and I made the nicest Shabbos to thank Hashem." Shabsi couldn't believe his ears when he hears the miracle, the nes Hashem made. He said to his wife, "My God, I can't believe it. This is amazing." And he wants to start dancing from great simcha, from great joy, and he and his wife start dancing together, and they dance with such joy, so hard. They dance, they dance, they dance, they dance. And then they dance for so long, by the time they realized it's already morning, they hadn't even made kiddush yet. They quickly made kiddush and ate some food, and that was the end of the Shabbos. Shabbos next day, they had Shabbos. Motzei Shabbos, after Shabbos, late, late, late at night, there's a knock on the door. Who was at the, by the door? They opened the door, and they see it's the Baal Shem Tov and his students. Apparently, the Baal Shem Tov, on that Friday night... The Baal Shem Tov lived very far away, but he was sitting that Friday night that Shabsi and his wife were dancing all night because they were so happy for the nes Hashem made for

16:59 them. The Baal Shem Tov was sitting far away with his talmidim in his shul and eating Shabbos meal and singing songs and telling stories. And then suddenly, the Baal Shem Tov began to laugh so hard, and nobody knew why is he laughing. Nobody said a joke. He was laughing and laughing . Nobody knew why the Baal Shem Tov laughing, so nobody wanted to ask. After Shabbos, the Baal Shem Tov said, "Come." He took a few talmidim, a few students. "Let's go travel to another city." And they came to Shabsi's house, and when they walked into Shabsi's house, he said to Shabsi, "Please tell me what happened Friday night in your house. What happened to you?" Shabsi's embarrassed to say, "Oh, rebbe, I'm so embarrassed. I probably did something bad. Oy, I'm so, so sorry." "No, no, no, no," Baal Shem Tov says, "No, tell me, tell me." And Shabsi tells him the whole story, how he had no money at all, and when Shabbos came, there's nothing to buy for Shabbos, and his wife... And he went to shul, and he stayed there till midnight because he was so embarrassed to come home. And his wife found a gold button, and she went to the jeweler, and then she bought all the fancy food. And they saw the nes, the miracle Hashem made for them, that they decided to dance all night, and we forgot to eat because we were so busy being happy. So busy dancing and he says to the Baal Shem Tov,

18:25 "I know I made a mistake. I shouldn't have done this. We should have eaten normal meal on Friday night. It's a mitzvah, I know, but we got so excited, so we forgot and we danced and was so happy that Hashem made a nest for us." Baal Shem Tov said to Shabsi, "Sit down. You did nothing wrong. I want you to know that when you were dancing with your wife, you were so happy that Hashem make a nest for you so you can make a beautiful Shabbos because you love Hashem so much. At that time, all the Malachim and the angels in Shamayim were gathered by Hashem and Hashem said, "You see? Look at Shabsi and his wife, how happy they are for my Shabbos that I gave the Jewish people." And all the Malachim said, "Wow." They all started dancing with Shabsi too. In the Shamayim, hundreds of millions and millions of Malachim were dancing and singing the whole time while Shabsi and his wife were dancing down here in this world. In Shamayim, the angels were dancing too." And the Baal Shem Tov said to his student, "You remember last night on Friday night, in middle of the meal I started laughing? Well, I started laughing because I saw how much happiness there was in the heaven, in Shamayim." And he said to Shabsi, "Shabsi, listen to me. You have a choice. Hashem wants to give you a big reward for being so nice to Shabbos and for honoring Shabbos, and your wife too.

19:56 You both have shown that you're so happy to keep Shabbos and to make Shabbos so special, so Hashem is gonna give you a reward. You have a choice between two rewards. One reward, either you can become very rich. From now on, you'll be so rich, be able to make Shabbos every day in the most beautiful way, or you can be blessed with a child." And Shabsi and his wife said, "No, we want a baby boy." He said, "Okay, baby boy, you'll give him a name like me. My name is Yisroel," the Baal Shem Tov's name was Yisroel, "Give him the name Yisroel." Shabsi and his wife were so happy to hear this. Baal Shem Tov left for his farbrengen. Six months later, the Baal Shem Tov passed away. He was nistalek and went to Gan Eden and to Shamayim, and nine months later, Shabsi and his wife had a baby boy and they named him Yisroel like the Baal Shem Tov. And this boy became a very, very famous tzadik and a very, very famous Rav and Rebbe, and they called him the Kozhnitzer Maggid, the Kozhnitzer Maggid. That's the story