14. Making a Shabbos meal on Wednesday

00:15 Speaker 1 This is a story about hachnosas orchim, inviting guests to your house. It shows how great the mitzvah of hachnosas orchim is, that when you bring guests into your house, it doesn't matter who the guest is. If you're bringing a guest to the house, you're bringing a certain level of kedusha into your house. The story I heard from my granduncle, Rab Abu Pliskin. Rab Abu Pliskin was my granduncle, and he was a great Hasid. And a few weeks before he died, I heard this story from him. He told me that once the talmidim of the Maggid decided to get together, the Mezritcher Maggid, decided to make a test. What was the test about? Well, they had a question. The question was, you know, Friday night, it's Shabbos, and it says in Hasidus that Shabbos is such a heilige day, such a holy day that if you are on a high level, on a high level of Yiddishkeit and of kedusha, then you can feel the kedusha of Shabbos inside you. You feel that that day is a very different day, it's a special day. You feel there's a special kedusha, an extra neshamah that comes into you that feels very close to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, to Hashem. But they were questioning. They all felt very excited when Shabbos came, but they weren't sure whether they really were excited because they were really able to feel the kedusha of Shabbos. Which means that during the week, they served Hashem with all their heart, with their entire neshamah,

02:31 Speaker 1 with all their effort, that when Shabbos came, they were able to feel the kedusha of Shabbos. 'Cause you can only feel the kedusha of Shabbos if the entire week you serve Hashem with the highest, the utmost way you can serve Hashem. So they thought, "Listen, maybe we're excited not about Shabbos. Maybe we're just excited because everything around us makes you feel excited." For example, we dress up in very special clothes. You light candles on the table. You have your best and nicest dishes out. Oh, the aroma of the food, the special Shabbos food that you don't smell the whole week. And how about the singing and the dancing and the Shabbos davening and Lecha Dodi and the singing of Lecha Dodi, and then the kiddush and wine and Shalom Aleichem and the singing of Shalom Aleichem. All of that could make us feel very excited. So it's not even the- It's from gashmius. It's from gashmius, exactly. Maybe it's just from the gashmius, the good things we do that we feel excited. But it's not because something about the kedusha of Shabbos makes us excited. Maybe not. Maybe we're not such tzadikim, maybe we're not such great people, and maybe we really are not able to feel the kedusha of Shabbos, and all we're feeling is, you know, the effect of the gashmius, the good things, the physical things that we do. So, how are they gonna find out? They decided to make a test. What test are they gonna do? They're going to get

04:16 Speaker 1 together on a Wednesday night in the shul from the Mezritcher Maggid. They all then dress up Shabbos-nik with their shtreimels and their kapotes and everything, and they're going to set the table first with a white tablecloth, a Shabbos-nik tablecloth. Beautiful fresh-baked challah, and they'll have gefilte fish and soup and chicken and challah and wine and... Well, of course, they can't say the berachos of kiddush or the berachos of the Shabbos davening with Hashem's name because that would be a beracha l'vatala, right? A beracha in vain. So what they're gonna do is they're just gonna skip Hashem's name, but everything else they'll pretend it's Shabbos. So they'll p- sing Lecha Dodi, and then they'll, um, you know, sing other Nigunim which they sing on Shabbos, and then they'll sit down for dinner, and they'll all sing Nigunim and zemiros for Shabbos. They'll have Shabbos candles on the table. And they'll see if they feel the same feeling of excitement that they feel on Shabbos, they'll know, uh-oh, it means on Shabbos we don't really feel the kedusha of Shabbos. What we're feeling is just the gashmius, the good things that we do make us feel excited. Not the ruchni. Not the ruchni. It's very good. But what if, what if we don't feel it? In spite of everything we do, we don't feel the excitement that we feel on Shabbos, then we'll know that on Shabbos we actually are feeling the kedusha of Shabbos. What we're excited about is the kedusha of Shabbos. And it's exactly

06:02 Speaker 1 what they did. The talmidim got together, talmidim of the Mezritcher Maggid got together- And they made a beautiful Shabbos meal, and they got together, and they danced, and they sang just like on Shabbos. They did everything the same way they do on Shabbos. They davened with excitement, Lecha Dodi. Well, they skipped Hashem's name so there wouldn't be a bracha levatala, it wouldn't be Hashem's name in vain. But other than that, they tried to make everything just the same as Shabbos. They duplicated a Shabbos on Wednesday night. As much as they could. As much as they could. So now when they did that, they suddenly started feeling an excitement, a big excitement, a huge excitement, an excitement as big as every Friday night. It was exactly the same type of feeling, the same type of excitement. And they said, "Uh-oh, this is bad news. We're all excited just like on Shabbos, which means that on Shabbos we're not excited about the kedusha. What makes us excited is just the food and the singing and the clothes and so on." And they became very upset because that means that they're not really serving Hashem properly, because a tzadik who serves Hashem properly, when Shabbos comes, his neshamah can really feel the kedusha of Shabbos. You know, like the story with the Rizhiner Rebbe when he was a little boy and he learned with his rebbe, uh, the Gemara, where the Gemara says, "What happens if a Jew is lost in a desert and doesn't know when Shabbos

07:35 Speaker 1 is? What should he do?" So there are two opinions in the Gemara. One opinion is he should make Shabbos that day because he doesn't know, maybe today is Shabbos. And then he should count six days and then make Shabbos again. The other opinion is that he counts six days of regular days, and then the seventh day he should pretend it's Shabbos. Hmm. Okay? Okay, that's the opinions how you should do. So Reb Yisroel of Rizhin was a little boy, learned this Gemara with his rebbe. He said, "Rebbe, I don't understand the Gemara." He says, "What don't you understand?" So his rebbe said to him, "What do you mean you don't understand? Somebody's lost in the desert and he doesn't have a calendar, he doesn't know when Shabbos is. He's forgotten Sunday, Monday, Tuesday." So Yisroelko says to his rebbe, "What does it mean you don't know when Shabbos is? You need a calendar to tell you when Shabbos is?" So his rebbe says to him, "So how else do you know when Shabbos is?" He says, "When Friday night comes after sunset, when you look at the sky, you can see Shabbos. You can actually see the world is different on Shabbos. There's a kedusha that comes into the world that you can feel. It's different. How can somebody not know?" But of course, his rebbe didn't understand that this Yisroelko was a great tzadik already from the early... from when he was very young. So that's why he didn't understand why Yisroel doesn't understand.

08:54 Speaker 1 But Yisroel really didn't understand this Gemara because he couldn't understand and he thought everybody else sees what he sees. Everybody else feels on Friday night exactly what he feels. So even if he's in desert and he doesn't have a calendar, and he doesn't know when Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday is, when Friday night comes, he'll surely find out. Not because anybody's gonna tell him, but because the kedusha of Shabbos will come down into the world and he'll feel it. He has a neshamah that is so pure, so heilig that he can feel it. So, so the talmidim went to the Mezitcher Maggid and they complained. They said, "We thought that we were at least serving Hashem enough that when comes Shabbos, we would feel the kedusha of Shabbos. But now we just did an experiment. We just did a test, and we found out that actually on a Wednesday night, we felt the same excitement as on Shabbos, which means we're not really feeling Shabbos. We're feeling something else, something from the gashmius." Yeah. So the Mezitcher Maggid asked them a question and said, "Listen, before you get all depressed and before you get all upset, let me ask you a question." So the talmid said, "What, what is it? What is it?" So he says, "Well, does anybody remember seeing a guest that came into the shul while you were eating that Shabbos meal on Wednesday night? Does anybody remember whether there was a poor man coming in and he sat down and ate with

10:31 Speaker 1 you by the table? Do you remember? Was there a guest at the table?" They said, "No, we, we don't remember. We don't remember. We don't remember inviting anybody. It was just us talmidim. We did it for ourselves." Then finally, one of the talmidim said, "Wait a second. I remember while we were sitting those mirras by the table, I suddenly saw a poor man walking into the shul with his bag and his shoes all dusty from the road. He walks in, and as soon as he sees what's going on at the table, his eyes popped open so big in astonishment. "What's going on? Am I confused? I think it's Wednesday night today, but they're keeping Shabbos." He couldn't believe it. All mirras said, "Uh, am I, am I mixed up? Do I have my days mixed up?" He said, "No, but I know it's Wednesday today, 'cause this morning I was in shul and people put on tefillin. Well, maybe it's Friday night. But no, I saw people traveling outside. A lot of frum Jews were doing melachos. They were wa- you know, traveling and, and building and lighting fires. I don't know. This doesn't make sense." But you know what? As he was thinking, one of the talmidim said, "Come on, come in." Motioned to him to come in and sit down and have a meal. He was very hungry. He was very poor and he hasn't eaten in two days. So you know what? He threw down his bag, didn't ask too many questions.

12:03 Speaker 1 He forgot about his question, whether it's Shabbos or not. He just ran to the table and sat down and ate the gefilte fish and the chicken and the soup and the challah and the wine. Who, who cares it's Shabbos, it's Wednesday? The food is the food, right? Yeah. If the food is tasty, "Hey, I'm gonna eat." And then he left with his bag. So, the Mezitcher Maggid heard this, he said, "Ah, I wanna tell you something. Don't you guys worry. I know you. You're my talmidim, and I know each one of you is a great tzadik, and each one of you davens, and learns, and serves Hashem a whole week with your whole heart and soul. There's no question that when Shabbos comes, Hashem allows you to feel the kedushah of Shabbos. Now, the reason you felt the same kedushah on Wednesday night is because you actually felt the kedushah of Shabbos on Wednesday night." "The kedushah of Shabbos on Wednesday night? What do you mean, Rebbe?" The Mezitcher Maggid said like this, "When you bring a guest into your house, when you bring a guest into your house, you do the mitzvah of chessed of him in your house, you know what happens to your house? A kedushah of Shabbos comes into the house, and therefore you guys felt the kedushah of Shabbos on Wednesday night because you had a guest." But it's not because it was the gashmius that made you feel excitement. It was ruchnius that made you feel excitement. It was

13:40 Speaker 1 the ruchnius of the kedushah of Shabbos. But it was Wednesday night, but because you had a... You did the mitzvah of chessed of him, the kedushah of Shabbos came with him. And that's the story. Okay, here comes the story of Reb Limel of Lizhensk. Reb Limel, when he was young, he had a very close friend, a young man who was a big talmid chacham and a great tzadik, and there was a great love between the two. Reb Limel and his friend were very, very close, and they loved each other very much. Suddenly, this young man, who was already married, uh, he was already married and he had a child, he suddenly got very sick and he was about to die, and Reb Limel went to visit him. So the young man, the young friend cried to Reb Limel and said, "Listen, I'm leaving a young son, a young child behind, and who's gonna raise him? Could you please raise my son?" So Reb Limel says, "I promise you that I will take care of your son, but on one condition. I want you to give me tekiyas kaf." Tekiyas kaf means you give him a hand, and when you give a hand, you make a promise. It's like a shewua, like a neder. You have to, you have to, you have to honor it, right? You have to keep your promise. "So give me your hand and make me a promise that when you die and you go up there in Shamayim, in heaven, and

15:29 Speaker 1 they... the Beth Din judges you, afterwards you'll come and tell me what happened with you." So he gave him, the, the, the friend of Reb Limel gave him his hand. He says, "I promise I'll do this." And Reb Limel, in return, promised him that he will raise his son. And so the friend of Reb Limel passed away. Reb Limel kept, uh, he kept his promise. He took the young boy to his house, and he raised him and taught him Torah. When the young man became 14 or 15, it came time for the, for the boy... When the boy became 14, 15, it became time for him to get married. In those days, people got married- ... at 14, 15, and Reb Limel found him a shidduch with the daughter of a very rich man. Now, on the day of the chuppah, all the townspeople got together for the chuppah, and Reb Limel, of course, was there too. But before the chuppah, Reb Limel went into a special room and sat there by himself. Nobody knew what he was doing there. He just sat in that room. The guests that came for the chuppah waited, and waited, and waited until they didn't know what to do anymore. Should they go on with the chuppah without Reb Limel? They couldn't do that. Reb Limel, after all, is like the father for this boy. He raised him. But Reb Limel didn't show up. Finally, the people decided to go to the door of that room, and they looked

17:15 Speaker 1 through the hole, the hole in the, the, in the keyhole, and they saw that he's sitting on a chair with his eyes closed, completely steeped in thought. Deep? Deep in thought. And so the people got afraid. They saw through the keyhole that he was sitting there completely deep in thought. They didn't want to disturb his thoughts. They knew that he was a Hareidi tzadik who had very important thoughts, so they left, uh, left him alone. A few hours went by again, and finally Reb Limel showed, showed up, and he was the mesader kiddushin. He's the one that led the chuppah and did the chuppah the way, al pi halacha, everything. Then came the seudah, the big meal of the chasunah, of the wedding. And during the meal, Reb Limel got up and said to the guests-

18:17 Speaker 2 Now, let me explain to you what I did before the Chuppah. You're probably wondering why I kept everybody for hours and hours waiting. I'll tell you the story. I want you to know that the father of the Chassan was a very close friend of mine when we were young. He had promised me before he died that he would come and tell me what happened to him in the Beis Din Shel Ma'alah, right? In the heavenly tribunal. On one condition, on condition that I will raise his son, and he gave me his hand and promised. I kept my promise, but he did not keep his. So I didn't wanna go to the Chuppah until he comes and, and makes his promise true. And so I waited and waited. A few minutes before the Chuppah, he came to me alive, awake, not in a dream. I saw him in the room. He looked exactly the way he looked when he was alive, and I asked him, "What happened to you in your judgment in Himel, in Shamayim?" And he said to me the following, "When I died, I didn't feel any pain." It's like the Gemara says, the Gemara says that great people, Tzadikim, when they die, the neshamah leaves the body, and there's no pain at all to the body. It's like pulling a hair out of a cup of milk. It's very easy, you know. Just pull it out, it's smooth. Then the Gemara describes that some death are very painful, and the Gemara gives

20:11 Speaker 2 a different mashal for those, for those types of death. And the body really, really doesn't wanna let go of the neshamah, and the body is in pain. Why? The Ge- the Gemara gives a mashal- Why? -as wool. Why? As wool. Why? Because the body wants to live in this world. Maybe it's afraid to let the neshamah go 'cause it knows he didn't do the right thing in his life. He hasn't done teshuva. And so what happens, the Gemara says it's like when wool gets entangled in, in prickly form. What's thorn? It's like a, like a prickly plant or maybe like a cactus. And you pull the wool and it, like, pieces get stuck, and it doesn't wanna let go of the wool. Anyways, he says, "My death was like what the Gemara describes, like pulling a hair out of a cup of milk. It was very easy. I had no pain. It, it, it felt to me like I just went to sleep. Then when they took my body to clean it, as we do, uh, with, with, um, with the meit, with the dead bodies after they die, before we bury them, it's a mitzvah to clean them. Um, I felt like, you know, I'm alive still. Uh, I, I wanted to get up and tell them to go away from me, but I couldn't. I felt like something didn't let me get up and tell them to get away from me. It looked to me like a dream, like a nightmare. Then they

21:51 Speaker 2 put me in my kavar, and they closed off the kavar. And the people left the cemetery, so I got up from my grave, and I thought I was still alive like before. It was a surprise to me. How did I end up in a cemetery here? And I started walking through the cemetery. I wanted to go back home to my house, but I didn't know how to get out. I didn't know where the gate of the cemetery was. So I climbed over the fence, and I went down from the other side, and I started going to my house. It started getting sundown, so it started getting darker. On my way to my house, there was a little, um, canal, a little stream. So I wanted to go through the stream with my feet. But then the water started getting very high and was afraid to cross. So I decided there were two logs of wood, and I thought I would, um, you know, float on top of those wood. But it didn't work. The water was too deep, and I couldn't cross. Then on top of all that, it started raining heavily, and all my clothes, they started getting very wet from the rain, and I didn't know where to go. I was on the other side of the fence of the cemetery, but I couldn't go home. On one side, there was a cemetery, the other side there was a s- stream that I couldn't cross. And now it was sundown, it became really

23:36 Speaker 2 dark. The night set in, and I really wanted to go home. Such a desire to go home I never had in my life. I don't know what it is, but I had this intense desire to go back to my family. In some great agony and pain, I began to cry to Hashem. Suddenly, a man appeared to me, a man who was very tall. He was tall from the ground all the way to Shamayim, so tall was he. He said to me... He asked me, "Why are you crying?" And I told him, "I wanna go home, and I can't." So the man told me, "Oi, Yisroelish, don't you know you're not in this world anymore? You already passed away. This is Yerushalayim. You're not in Olam HaZe." He took me, lifted me up from the earth, and raised me all the way to the Beis Din Shel Ma'alah. The Beis Din started checking into my, um, my judgment. They couldn't find anything wrong with me, anything that I would deserve to go to Gehenom for. Only a tiny little blemish, tiny little stain they found in me, which they, um, couldn't decide to send me to Ga- Gan Eden because of the stain, because of this blemish. It also couldn't send me to Gehenna because I was generally good. So the decision was that they'll put me in a place, in a heichal. A heichal is a chamber, a, a spiritual place in, in Shamaim, where one door is open to Gehenna and the other door

25:35 Speaker 2 is open to Gan Eden. And by looking at the pain of the Reshaim in Gehenna, my Aveira will be forgiven. That small blemish that I have will be removed. And immediately, I was delivered into the hands of a, an appointed malach who took me to that special chamber where I was supposed to be in order to forgive and atone for my small Aveira. When I was in that chamber, and I looked out the door, which was facing Gehenna, and I saw people that I knew when I was still alive in this world, in Gehenna, and I heard the pain and the crying from people in Gehenna, I couldn't look there. It was very difficult to see. So I closed my-- shut my eyes not to look. But then there was the great joy and pleasure of the Tzadikim in Gan Eden from the other side. I also couldn't stand to look at because I knew I couldn't go there. Then came Erev Shabbos, and Erev Shabbos, all the Neshamas from Ge-Gan Eden are let free. They don't go to Gehenna. There's no Gehenna on Shabbos. So I talked to the malach that was appointed over my place in Gan Eden, in, in, in, in Heaven, and I said, "I also wanna go out of this chamber. Please let me out. It's Erev Shabbos. Even the people from Gehenna are set free." So the appointed malach said that he has no permission to do this. So I said to him, "Why don't you go and ask

27:25 Speaker 2 the Beis Din Shel Maalah? See if I have the same privileges, the same rights as the people in Gehenna." He went and asked, and they answered, "Yes, he has permission to get out of that chamber." So that's when I went outside. I saw, when I went outside that chamber, tens and thousands of Neshamas who were going back and forth in Shamaim to go and prepare for Shabbos, to, to, to welcome the Queen of Shabbos. Suddenly, I saw a very, very big malach, and all the Neshamas were rushing to that malach and embrace that malach. And I asked, "What is this?" And they said to me, "This malach was created from a very Torah, a Torah that Reb Elimelech had just said." On Friday night, Reb Elimelech said a Dvar Torah, and from that Torah, he said it with such Kavana, with such, uh, pure intentions of, of Nishmas that a big malach, a very, uh, pure, ho-holy malach was created from this. And everybody wants to hug that malach because through that malach, they can feel some of the Kedusha of the Torah of Reb Elimelech. When I heard this, I realized, "Oi, you mean this Reb Elimelech, that Tzadik? He was my friend." And I thought, "You know what? I'm gonna capitalize on this. I mean, I'm going to take advantage of this. If Reb Elimelech is so important in Shamaim, I will tell them that I am his friend, and I helped him, and I took care of him, and I was-- We

29:13 Speaker 2 were very close." And for that alone, I deserve to go to Gan Eden. On Motzei Shabbos, the appointed malach came to me and said, "Okay, it's time to go back into the heichal, time to go back into your special chamber." So I told him, "No, I don't wanna go there." So the appointed malach says, "But, but you can't do this to me. I'm, I'm, I'm a messenger of the Beis Din Shel Maalah, and I have to do my duties. So you can't tell me that. I mean, I, I'm-- It's not my, my responsibility. I mean, it's not my... I'm just doing what I'm supposed to do." So I told this malach, "Listen, listen to me. Go to the Beis Din and tell, tell them that I was a friend of Reb Elimelech. Therefore, I don't wanna go back into that chamber. I wanna go straight to Gan Eden." So the appointed malach of the Beis Din went and told the, the Beis Din exactly what I said. And they answered him, "It's true. It's true that he's right, that he was a friend of Reb Elimelech. But he had made a promise to Reb Elimelech, and because of that promise, he can't go to Gan Eden. He must go and tell, and, and, and keep his promise to Reb Elimelech and tell him what happened to him. And then he can go straight to Gan Eden, and he won't have to go back to that special chamber." So I started going to Reb Elimelech, and

30:49 Speaker 2 it took me a long time. And now I arrived right before the Chuppah to tell him everything that happened to me. Reb Elimelech told all this during the meal of the wedding to all the guests. And he said, "This friend of mine told me, 'Please write down on a piece of paper that I have fulfilled and kept my promise and that from now on you don't hold me responsible for this promise anymore. I'm released from that promise.' And I said to him, 'Okay, good, I'll do that. But could you please stay for the chuppah of your own son? Now that you're here, stay for the chuppah.' And he said to me, 'Please, I can't. Don't hold me up. You can't imagine the joy and the pleasure which Neshamah's having in Olam. Right now, after all these years, I've been in Shamayim. This physical world means nothing to me. It's meaningless.' So the Rebbe Meir says, 'I gave him a little piece of paper where I wrote down that I release him from his responsibility because he has kept his promise and he left. And that's when I came to the chuppah.' And Rebbe Meir finished the story and said, 'From here we can learn a very important musa haskel.' That means an important lesson. Look at such a great person as this young man. I knew him. He was a great tzaddik. Nevertheless, to keep his promise, he had to wander for so long just to fulfill and keep what he promised. Now, how much

32:38 Speaker 2 more we simple people, how more we must be careful with what we say and what we do. Okay, since we're talking about keeping promises, there's a great story with a great tzaddik and a great goan. His name was Rebbe Avraham Abishul from Frankfurt. Rebbe Avraham Abishul Frankfurter was a great goan. He lived around the time of the Baal Shem Tov. He wrote many sefarim and he was a very big anav. A goan means a great talmid chacham. He knew the whole Shas, Bavli, Yevishalmi, and the whole Torah and the Rambam, all the sefarim. He also knew a lot of Kabbalah. He wrote many, many, very, very, very brilliant sefarim. But he was a very big anav. Big anav. He never thought of himself much. So much so that he didn't even think there was people even thought of him any special. He didn't even realize that people thought he was any special. In fact, they tell a story about him that once in Frankfurt, there was a minhag, a custom, that during market day, twice or three times a year, there was a big market in Frankfurt where all the Jews from all over Europe would come. All the big merchants would come and do business and buy and sell stuff. And it was a minhag in Frankfurt that one Shabbos a year during the market season, when people come to the special shows where people are trading horses and clothes and garments and all types of things, log merchants, people used to have forest,

34:46 Speaker 2 things to sell their wood on the market. It was a big trade center, a trading center. And during that Shabbos, one Shabbos a year, it was called a Yahche Kala. Yahche Kala in the Gemara means like a few days where people who work a whole day, who are business people, would learn Torah. Great Rabbanim would give them shiurim. So one Shabbos during the year when all the merchants, all the business people were in town in Frankfurt, the Rav of the Abishul Frankfurter, who was famous for his great, great gaonus. He was a huge, huge Talmid Chacham. All over the world, people were in awe of him because his learning and his chidushim, the things that he wrote in his forum was so brilliant, so profound, so deep that even the greatest Chachamim of the generation were like so respectful and so in awe of him. They saw what a great gaon he was. So the Abishul himself would come and give a three-hour drasha, a pilpul, like a drasha on the Gemara on some subject. And all the business people would come to the show and many of them were Talmid Chachamim too. Some business people learn Torah, not some. It's a mitzvah for a Yid to learn Torah, even if you're a businessman. So many of them were Talmid Chachamim, but they decided not to be Rabbanim. They did business. So they would come to the Beis Medrash. And a whole afternoon Shabbos, the Abishul would give this incredible drasha, which would weave together

36:36 Speaker 2 the whole Shas, Bavli, Yerushalmi. Everybody was waiting for that Shabbos. This was like the most incredible Shabbos. Many, many thousands of business people would wait for that Shabbos when they go to Frankfurt and hear the great gaon, the Abishul, give his famous drasha once a year. Now, the Abishul had another minhag during that weekend. He knew there were a lot of rich business people in Frankfurt. So he thought it was a good time to raise money, tzedakah, for poor people. So he would go from hotel to hotel, from one inn to the next inn. On Motza'i Shabbos? On Motza'i Shabbos, not on Shabbos. Right, on Motza'i Shabbos and Sunday or Thursday. People used to come from Thursday till Monday. It was a long, long weekend because people didn't do business on Shabbos. So he would go whenever it wasn't Shabbos, he'd go knock on doors. And the Babish looked like a very simple man. He didn't look like a Rav. He didn't walk like a Rav. You know, he looked like a, you know... Dressed very simple. He never needed any money, and he would never introduce himself. "I am the Rav, the Babish." He says, "I'm, I'm, I'm Avram. I'm, I'm Abish. My name is Abish, and I'm raising money for some yesaimim, orphans and almanas, widows who don't have what to eat. Could you help out with something?" Now, some people who knew his face and they recognized him, they go, "Oi, this is the Babish himself coming." They would give, they would

38:13 Speaker 2 give him a lot of money. But other people didn't know. They thought he was just a beggar or somebody. They would give him money. Once he was knocking on a door, and a voice from inside the room in a hotel. It was a Jew, a businessman who came for the weekend. A Homi Yid shouted and said, "Yes, come in." And the Babish opened the door, and the man was so busy counting his money and writing down the numbers of how much he made and how much he has to sell and so on. He was a businessman. So he didn't have time to even look at the Babish. He just said, "Yeah, well, what can I help you with?" And the Babish says, "Yeah, I'm raising money." Give his whole thing. "You know, I'm raising money for poor people." And the rich man said, "Okay, here, take a few coins. Beggars on tag." The Babish took it and left. A few minutes later, the rich man, you know, was looking for his gold cane. He had a cane which he walked with. Rich people used to have a cane, not only when they had a bad leg and they needed support. You know, like old people. Yeah. In the olden days they thought it looked important. Right. It looked important, exactly. In the olden days, people thought you look important when you have a beautiful cane. And he had a cane made out of pure gold because he was rich and he liked to show it

39:43 Speaker 2 off. "I'm a rich man." Everybody looked, "Oh, this guy's got a cane made of pure gold. Oh." Everybody respected him, and he liked that respect. He looked around. The cane wasn't there. He couldn't find- Geiver. It was geiver, that's right. But some people, you know, we all have a little bit of a yetzer Hara on different things, and some of us have a yetzer hara of geiver. He couldn't find his cane. After the Babish left, he looked for his cane. He wanted to go out, but he couldn't find his cane. He said, "Ah, I know that poor man that just came in. He must have stolen my cane, my gold cane." And he grabbed his jacket and ran out to look for the Babish. He couldn't be too far yet because he just left about five minutes ago. He ran outside, looked in the little alleys right outside the hotel, and lo and behold, he saw the Babish, the poor man walking. And he ran over to him. He says, "Where is my cane? Give me my cane back, you thief. You've got it." Babish says, "I, I didn't steal it. I promise you I didn't steal it." The man says, "You liar. I just had my cane in my room, and now as soon as you left, it disappeared. What did you do? Did you sell it to someone? Where is it? Tell me who you sold it to. You've got it. Where's the money you got for it?" The Babish says, "I promise

41:05 Speaker 2 you, I don't know anything about your cane. I didn't touch it." And the man throws him on the ground. He throws the Babish on the ground. The great, great Tzadik, the great gaon Babish, but he didn't know it was the Babish. He heard of the Babish, of course, and he was ready... He was, he, he was eager to go, excited to go to the big Darush of the Babish on Shabbos afternoon. This was Friday morning. So-- But he didn't know that this was the Babish. He thought this was just a poor thief who, who stole his cane. And he threw him on the ground and kicked him and says, "Give him to me. Tell me quickly where it is." And Babish says, "I promise you, I don't know." And the man just left him. He says he saw he couldn't get anything out of him, went back to his room and grinding his teeth and went back to his room and looked. And then an hour later, he found the cane. It was in a closet. He had misplaced it. The Babish, what did he do? Babish didn't even get upset. You know, okay, you know, the poor guy, you know, he lost his cane. He thought I did it, but I didn't. I didn't steal it. He just brushed off his dust and kept going to the next door and asking for more money with a smile on his face. Then came Shabbos afternoon and the whole city is on wheels. Jews walking everywhere

42:22 Speaker 2 in the streets, some with shtreimels and some with hats and some with yarmulkes. The Jews from all over Europe in Frankfurt and everybody wants one thing only. They want to hear the great famous Rab Babish speak in the base Medrash. Thousands of people are streaming to the main shul of Frankfurt. And so our friend, that rich businessman who accused the Babish of stealing his gold cane also. He says a little bit of a Talmid Chacham. He would love to hear the Babish speak. He goes to the shul and by the time he arrives, it's already packed, packed with people. He could hardly get in, but he squeezes and squeezes in. He wants to get a glimpse at least of the Babish, of the great famous gaon, the Babish. Suddenly, hush, it's quiet. Reb Aba Shlita is going up to this bimah to give his drashah. And the, from all over Europe are there in the shul, standing, sitting in the mizrach, in front to, to, to hear Reb Aba Shlita. And then there are many hundreds and hundreds of business people sitting in the shul waiting to hear the three-hour riveting speech of Reb Aba Shlita. And our friend, the rich businessman, is getting on his tippy-toes, looking between the heads that are ahead of him, trying to get a glimpse of Reb Aba Shlita. And for a moment, ah, he sees him. But oy, as soon as he sees him, he can't believe his eyes. Oy, he feels his knees are buckling. He's losing

44:11 Speaker 2 his consciousness. He's fainting. And you know why he fainted? 'Cause he realized that the man that is standing on the bimah is actually the person he kicked and threw on the ground, accusing him of stealing his gold cane. The man fainted and a commotion started around him. People saw the man is fainting, they didn't know what to do. They took him out and they gave him some fresh air and a little bit of water, and he came back to his senses. They asked him, "What happened?" He says, "You know, I didn't feel well. I didn't feel well, but I gotta go back in." They says, "No, don't go back in. You go back in, you're gonna faint again." He says, "No, no, no, don't worry about it. I gotta go back in." "Well, you do what you do, but, uh, you know, we cannot... You know, we don't know. We can't take responsibility for you." He says, "Don't worry, I'll, I'll, I'll be fine." And he squeezes in to the shul and he waits for hours for Reb Aba Shlita to finish. And now when Reb Aba Shlita finished his speech, people would make a line, you know, like they make a line when the rebbe would go through in seven seventy. And, you know, there was like even if there were thousands of people squished, suddenly there would be room for the rebbe to walk through, right? There'd be a bit of pa- path so the rebbe could walk through easily, right? Same thing

45:25 Speaker 2 they did for Reb Aba Shlita. Our friend, the rich man, now squishes through suddenly, very aggressively, through all the people in the back of the shul, making his way all the way to the bimah and he does it so vigorously, so strongly, so intensely that he finally makes it close to the bimah when Reb Aba Shlita is just about to step down from the bimah, walking to his place, to his seat by the mizrach wall, by the mizrach vant. And our friend pushes through the ranks, the front row, which was standing right by the path that was made for Reb Aba Shlita, and he jumps out in the middle of the path. And he is-- and he goes down on his, on his... on the ground, throws himself on the ground in front of Reb Aba Shlita. He wants to ask him forgiveness. But Reb Aba Shlita, before the man could throw himself on the ground, Reb Aba Shlita sees him and recognizes him and immediately says to him, "Oi, it's you again. Let me tell you, I promise you, I didn't do it. Don't you understand? I, I, I, I feel bad for you. I wish I could help you, but you know, please trust me. Trust me, I, I really didn't do it." The man was shocked. The man was shocked. He was going to cry and apologize to Reb Aba Shlita. Reb Aba Shlita instead thought that he's coming to accuse him again. When the Tamser Rebbe told that story once, he

47:01 Speaker 2 said, "You see, people think an anav is somebody who says, 'Okay, I'm an anav,' you know? Doesn't make a big deal about himself." No, a, a true anav is a Yid who doesn't even think that anybody thinks of him anything. He doesn't even realize that people think of him there's anything special about him. Reb Aba Shlita was standing there for three hours giving an incredible drashah. The greatest geonim of the generation were sitting there in awe, in bittul, watching every word coming out of Reb Aba Shlita's mouth. Can you imagine if you were in his shoes? You'd feel great. For Reb Aba Shlita, it didn't register at all in his mind that people really revere him. To him, he was in his own world. He was in his world of Torah and kedushah, and it was just him speaking Torah. It was nothing to do with him and his ego. It didn't even register in his mind that he's so great and everybody thinks of him so great. So when he went down the bimah, he came down from the bimah, he saw this man, the first thing that crossed his mind, "Oi, he thinks I did it and I really didn't. Let me explain it to him." Now that means a Yid who is bittul. As the great Hasid, the Rashbash one said... There was a Hasid, the Rashbash, Reb Shmuel ButzCalal. He was a rebbe of the and he was also a Hasid of the Tzemach Tzedek still. And Rashbash once said, he

48:41 Speaker 2 says, "In Minsk, there's a city of Misnagdim." He was very old. He was very old, yeah, when he was... when he passed away. And he said, "In the city of Misnagdim, there was a group, they were called the The group of people who are very humble." means they, they're humble, they hide. You know, they keep all their great mitzvahs and their great learning of Torah behind covers. They don't let anybody know about it. And there was a whole group. You had to be a member of that group to be a member of the The people that do everything in hiding, all their mitzvahs and all their great deeds. So Rashbash says, "I have three questions about them." First question is, if they're all so humble and they hide everything they do, their great tzedekas they hide from everybody, how come people hear about them? How come they're so famous? Everybody heard about this, you know, this committee or this, uh, group, this association of the How people, people hear about them if they're so quiet and secretive about their work? Secondly, he said, how do you become a group if everybody does everything so secretively because they're so humble? How do they become a group and know of each other? How do you make a group out of humble people who don't want anybody to know what they're doing and how great theyAnd the third question, that was the most important question. Who are they hiding from? Who are they hiding from anyway? In

50:27 Speaker 2 other words, Bitul doesn't mean that, "Oh, I'm gonna be Batul. I'm gonna hide from this person. I'm gonna hide from that person." Bitul means that to begin with, you don't realize there's anything unique about what you're doing. Your Hashem gave you certain talents and certain strength to learn Torah, and if you learn Torah, hey, it's a great zechus that you can learn Hashem's Torah. What's there to be proud of? And who's there to hide from? That was Raboshe. Now, I didn't tell you the other story which I was trying to tell you to begin with. Now, this is Raboshe. Now, Raboshe had another very great midah. He never, never made a promise that he couldn't keep. If he said something he's gonna do, he would do anything in his power, even sometimes doing things that were putting him at risk in order to keep his promise. He was very big on that. You have to-- If you make-- Something comes out of your mouth, it's heilige. You gotta do it. Once he was traveling with his balagola to another city because he was invited-

51:36 Speaker 3 Wagon driver.

51:36 Speaker 2 His wagon driver. He was invited to come and, and attend to a bris. And so he went to that city-

51:44 Speaker 3 Wow

51:44 Speaker 2 ... to be the sandek. Maybe he was a mohel too, I don't remember, but he, he was asked to come and do a bris. On the way, they had to pass through a village which was known as a very anti-Semitic village. All the peasants and the people of the village hated Jews and if a Jew was ever found crossing that village, they would stone the wagon and the Jew. Many of the Jews were very badly hurt going through that city, that village. And nobody, no Jew would ever go through there. They would always go around and around and around when they had to go in that direction. So when Rabba came close to the village, the wagon driver, balagola said, "Listen, Rabbi, we're not gonna go through that village. As you know, this is a very dangerous place for Jews. Let's go around and around." So Rabba said, "Around? But you know, the horses, are they not gonna get tired and exhausted from making them work so hard?" He says, "Yeah, they'll get tired, but they're horses." Rabba says, "No." Rabba says, "It's tzar baalei chaim. We shouldn't do that to the horses to make them go extra way because of this village. Let's wait here for five minutes. I feel that in ten minutes from now, five, ten minutes from now, there's gonna be a fire in that village and all the peasants are going to be very busy putting out the fire. And when they are busy putting out the fire, it's time

53:12 Speaker 2 for us to get in and go through that village because they're not gonna notice us. They're gonna be too busy to save their property." And the balagola waited. They waited for ten minutes, and lo and behold, they heard sirens going off in the village, and everybody was rushing to the place of the sight of the fire. And Rabba, Raboshe said, "Now it's time for us to get quickly through the village," and they did. After they crossed the village, the balagola sighed heavily, said, "Oh," sighed in relief and said, "Rebbe, tell me, how did you know there's gonna be a fire? What, you have ruach hakodesh?" Raboshe says, "No, I don't have ruach hakodesh. I'm just an ordinary Jew." "So, so how did you know?" He says, "I'll tell you. You should know something. I'll tell you the secret. You can do the same thing," he said to the balagola. The balagola was a very simple Jew, an ama ha'aretz. But Raboshe said to him, "I want you to know you can do the exact same thing I did. No different. I'll tell you the secret. When you keep your promise every time you make it, if you're careful to always do what you promise to do, no matter what, till mesirus nefesh, then Hashem gives you a gift." What's the gift? That what you say will always happen. Since you keep your promise always, you never break your promise. As it says in Zohar, your mouth is like a kli shareis. It's like a holy

54:55 Speaker 2 vessel in the Beis Hamikdash. When you use your mouth carefully for words of Torah, your mouth becomes heilige. So any promise you make, you have to keep very holy because it's spoken by a kli shareis, by a heilige vessel. So I always keep my promise. So therefore, Hashem gave me a present that when I say something is gonna happen, it happens. It's a simple trick. You can do the same. But you have to remember, sometimes it can be very difficult to keep a promise you make, but you have to keep it no matter what. It says in Zohar, in Heilige Zohar, that there's a hint for this point which Raboshe made to the balagola in the Chumash. It says, "Lo yachil devarai." A person should never break his promise. "Ki chol hayetzem mipiv yaase." Anything that comes out of his mouth, he should do. So there's another way of reading this. "Lo yachil devarai." If somebody doesn't break his promise, then "Ki chol hayetzem mipiv," anything that comes out of such a person's mouth, "Yaase Hashem" will make happen. In other words, Hashem will make sure that whatever that person says and wishes to happen will happen.