16. Rav Shea Loozer

00:16 Hello children. I'm here to tell you a new, brand new story that I haven't told you before. It's an amazing story, and it's a true story because I heard it from a very great, great rebbe and rav and, and he told a story from who he heard it in Poland, and this is a, a very, very good story. This story took place in the time of Reb Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev. At the same time there was another great tzadik. His name was Reb Mordechai of Chernobyl. Reb Mordechai of Chernobyl was a great tzadik, and, uh, he knew the Alter Rebbe, the Alter Rebbe knew him. And Reb Mordechai of Chernobyl had a father who was a very big tzadik. His name was Reb Nachum of Chernobyl. Reb Nachum of Chernobyl. His son was Reb Mordechai of Chernobyl. Reb Nachum of Chernobyl was a student of the Baal Shem Tov, and later on a student of the Maggid of Mezritch. The son, Reb Mordechai of Chernobyl was the rebbe after his father, Reb Nachum passed away. Now, because Reb Mordechai was such a big tzadik, his father Reb Nachum even after he went to Gan Eden and he passed away, his neshamah, the neshamah of Reb Nachum would come and visit his son here in this world. Like once a month or maybe once a week he would come and he would appear in the house of Reb Mordechai. Reb Mordechai would sit in his room and learn Torah, and then he would see his father

02:11 right there. His father would come from Gan Eden from Shamayim and visit him, and this had went on for a long time. After a while his father stopped coming. Reb Mordechai, the son, didn't see his father coming from Gan Eden anymore to visit him. He was a little bit upset because he wanted to see his father. His father would tell him stories what happens in Shamayim, in Gan Eden, the l- you know how neshamas, uh, learn Torah in Gan Eden. But now his father's not coming anymore. A long, long time passed by, uh, maybe a year, and suddenly he sees his father again. He sits in his room learning Torah and then suddenly he sees his father right standing in front of him. And he says, "Tata. Tati where, where were you? I was waiting for you for so long. You haven't come to visit me in such a long time. What's the matter? Why, why weren't you visit me?" And his father said, "Listen my son, it's not easy when you live in Gan Eden in such a beautiful place wh- where you feel Hashem's presence, you daven, you learn Torah in such a beautiful, beautiful place, and it's such a, a good place and a heilige place, a holy place. Uh, it's very hard to come back into this physical world where people live in bodies and sometimes people do aveiras. Uh, it's, it's not comfortable for a neshamah to be in this type of world, so it was very hard for me

03:59 to come back." So his son said, "Then why did you come now?" He said, "Well, I was told in Shamayim to come down to this world because somebody had just passed away. His name is Shea Lozer. Shea Lozer from Berditchev. Shea Lozer just passed away and there was an announcement made in all the heavens, in all the Gan Edens, in all the higher worlds where neshamas are." They were told that anybody who had done, uh, saving lives during their lifetime, so any neshamah who when they were still in this world, in the physical world, they would do a lot to help people, especially people that were in prison, they would get them out of prison. It's called Pideyon Shvuyim. Pideyon Shvuyim means you, you save Jews that were taken into prison by mean and bad poretzes, pritsim. Oh, you know what a porets is. And a porets would take a Jew, put him in jail in the dungeon. And there were certain tzadikim that they would spend their whole life finding these Jews and saving them, taking them out of prison, out of the dungeon. So it was announced in Shamayim that any neshamah who when they were alive in this world years ago, they were involved and did a lot of Pideyon Shvuyim, they saved a lot of Jews, they should go down to the world now and go to the levaya, to the funeral of Shea Lozer, Shea Lozer from Berditchev. So Reb Mordechai asked his father, "Who is this Shea Lozer that

05:48 they told you to come down into this world?" And his father said to him also, "Since I came already for the levaya of Shea Lozer together with many, many neshamas who came to welcome him to Gan Eden." They came to welcome Shea Lozer to Gan Eden because he was such a... Apparently he did something to save people. Something amazing. And they told all the tzadikim in Gan Eden to come down and w- and, and, and accompany him and walk with him from this world to Gan Eden, to welcome him into, into Gan Eden. So Rabbi Mordechai asks, "Who is this Shir Elazar? Is he some famous Rebbe, some famous Rav, some, some famous tzadik?" And the father said, "No, no, no." Reb Nachum said, "He was just a businessman. He was, he was a sh- a little bit of a Talmid Chaham. He knew a little bit how to learn, but he wasn't a big T- Talmid Chaham. He wasn't a big Rav. He was just a businessman. He did a lot of business." Shir Elazar was once walking in the marketplace of Bordichev, and he sees that there's a huge crowd gathered around some place in the market, and everybody's very, very stressed. Everybody's very, very anxious and upset. And he went over to see what's going on. He sees that people are standing around one person who is sitting on the, on the floor in the market, and he's crying and crying and crying. So they asked him what happened to this man.

07:26 He asked the people, "Why, why, why, what's the... Why is he crying?" So they tell him, "This is the story. This man lives outside Bordichev in a village. And his business, which he makes money from, this is how he lives, this is how he feeds his family, is that he would come twice a week to the marketplace to the bigger city." Bordichev was considered a big city. He lived in a small village outside Bordichev. He would come to the market and buy stuff in the market because in the marketplace, a lot of people come from all over selling their goods. Like people sell fruits, vegetables, horses, cows, chickens, everything, milk. People come from all over and sell their products. So he would come and buy a lot of those stuff, and then go back to the village and sell it to the people in the village. Because most people in the village weren't able to come to the big city. So he was able to come to the big city, and he would buy, and he would sell it a little bit more, right? He would buy it, let's say, for $10, and he would sell it for $11. This way, he was able to make money. He did this all the time, every week, and that's how he made a living. Once this week, he decided to come to Bordichev to buy a lot of stuff. And then he could go to the villages, not only his village, but all the other villages nearby,

08:54 and sell a lot of the stuff and make a lot of money. So he had 200 rubles. Rubles is like dollars in America. In Russia, it was rubles. He had 200 rubles of his own money. He also borrowed another 200 rubles because he wanted to have more money so he can buy more stuff, he could sell more stuff, and then make more money. So he borrowed 200 rubles. And then people in the village gave him 200 rubles, so he should buy it for them because they also wanted to buy some stuff, but they couldn't go to the Bordichev. So they asked this man, "Can you please buy for us also some? We'll give you 200, uh, rubles. Buy for us." And of course, this man agreed. So he had 200 rubles of his own, 200 rubles which he borrowed from people that he promised to pay back when he comes back after he sells his, his stuff. And then there was 200 rubles that other people gave him that he should buy it for them. That's together, 200 plus 200 plus 200 is together how much? 600 rubles. Each 200 rubles he kept in a separate envelope, in a separate little pocket, so that he wouldn't confuse him with know which one is his money, which one is the money from other people. So he kept three separate envelopes. And with that, he traveled to Bordichev. Now what happened today? He came to Bordichev and with his wagon, and he's going into the market, and

10:26 he wants to go buy some stuff. He sees a lot of merchants, a lot of people already selling stuff. He wanted to go buy stuff. So he checked into his pocket to see his money, and he sees all three envelopes were gone. They must have fallen out of his pocket. Fallen out or maybe somebody stole it. Who knows? But he was so upset because this is all the money he has. And not only his money, he has borrowed from other people. Now he's not gonna be able to pay them back because he's not gonna be able to buy anything because he now doesn't have the money. And he said, "Oh, I'm gonna be so poor now. I'm gonna be so poor and, and w- and other people are gonna be angry with me because I don't have money to pay them back." And he started crying and crying, and then he fainted. He was so upset. Sometimes when a person gets so upset, they faint. You know, they faint because they can't take it. It's too much and they faint. That means they become unconscious. You know what unconscious means? Like they can't... They, they don't know. They... It's like you're asleep. Um, people got very upset. "Look, there's a man on the floor. First he was crying, and now he's unconscious. He's like he can't move." So they, they quickly went and brought some water and poured it on his face and to wake him up. And he woke up, and they told him,

11:48 "What's the matter?" And he remembered, "Yeah, I lost all my money and other people's money." A- and, and, and he fainted again. As soon as he remembered what happened to him, he fainted. So they woke him up again. Finally, he didn't faint anymore, but he was crying and crying. "What am I gonna do now? What am I gonna do now?" I don't have any money left. I'm a poor man, and now other people are gonna come and ask me for their money, and I don't have it. It's gonna be terrible, terrible, terrible. They're gonna take away my house. They take everything away because I, I owe them money." So Shir Eluzer, who is walking by the market and he, he hears the story, why this man is crying, why everybody's standing around him and, and worried about him. So Shir Eluzer went over to this man who was on the floor, who lost all his money, and says to him, "Tell me, um, it's possible that I found your money. Could you tell me how each 200 rubles was packed? How did you wrap it? How did you keep it? Tell me exactly what it looked like so I can know if this is your money." So the man says, "Well, the, the 200 rubles which was my money, I put in a yellow envelope. The 200 rubles which I borrowed from other people, I put in a white envelope. And the other 200 rubles which people gave me so I can buy for them

13:15 some stuff here, that 200 rubles I put in a rubber band, and then I put it into a b- brown envelope." So, um, Shir Eluzer is listening. He says, "Okay. Let me go check in my house if I have your money, because I know I found money, but, uh, I need to see if this is your money." He goes home, Shir Eluzer. He never found any money. It was baloney. He never found any money. He was just making it up. He took his own money and took 200 rubles of his own money, put it in a yellow envelope, then 200 rubles of his own money and put it into a white envelope, and then he took 200 rubles of his own money and wrapped it with a rubber band and then put it into a brown envelope. And he pretended that this is what he found. But it's not true. He didn't find it. But he saw the man was so upset. He wanted to make him feel better. So he took his own money and pretended that this is money that he found. This is the lost money from the person. And he ran to the marketplace with the three envelopes, and he went to the man, "Guess what? I found your money. Here. Looks exactly the way you described it. You said a white envelope, a yellow envelope, and a brown envelope, and a rubber band. It's all there. This is your money. Take it." The man was so excited. "Really? You found

14:40 my money. Thank you. Thank you. Thank Hashem. Oh my God, this saved my life. Can you imagine if I couldn't find my money? What would I do? I couldn't go home even. I would be so upset with me, and I would be so poor. Thank you. Thank you." But something else really took place. In the crowd that was standing in the market all around this man who had fainted and cried, there was one person who kept his mouth shut. He didn't say a word, but he had a secret. He had a secret. What was the secret? He actually did find the money. He did find the money. This man had lost the f- three envelopes in the market, and then one of the people in the market found all three envelopes, and then his yetzer hara came to him and said, "Hmm, uh, why should I give it back? I found it, right? So maybe I should keep it. This is a lot of money. 600 rubles. Hey, I'm gonna keep it and buy myself a nice wagon and a horse, and maybe I'll buy my children some shoes and my wife a new dress, and maybe I'll get a new house. Who knows? I can get so many things with the 600 rubles." And he decided not to ask people if they lost money, not to tell anybody that he found it, and he kept it in his pocket. But then when he saw everybody was gathering and this man was crying, he was

16:20 confused. He didn't know what to do. He didn't know what to do. "Oi, oi, look what I caused. I didn't give back the money. Now the man is fainting and he's crying. Oi." But then he felt bad. Should he give it back now? Then people say, "Hey, why did you wait so long? How come you didn't give it back before? You give it back now? Why?" So he was, like, very, very confused. He didn't know what to do, and he didn't do anything. But when he saw how Shir Eluzer, this other guy, Shir Eluzer, went home and pretended that he found the money, and he, this man, was the only one, the finder who really found the money. N- he's the only one who knew the truth, that Shir Eluzer did not find the money. He just made it up. He brought his own money. How did that man know? He's the only one in the crowd that knew it. How did he know it? Because he knew that he himself found it. Couldn't be Shir Eluzer found it. Two people couldn't find the same money. Either he found it or Sh- and he knew that he found it. Shir Eluzer must have made it up. But he was so impressed. He says, "Shir Eluzer's such a tzadik. He brings his own money and pretends that he found it and gives it back." So he had... He started to do teshuva. "Oh, I gotta be, um... This is not right." He felt bad of the

17:38 avera he did, and he told his yetzer hara to, "Go. Go away. I'm not gonna listen to you. I have to give it back to the man, and Shir Eluzer should take his money back." And so this man walked over to the guy who lost the money, to the person on the floor. He says, "Wait a second. I need to tell you a secret. Shir Eluzer did not find your money. He's pretending that he found your money. You know who found your money? I." And he pulled out the three envelopes from his pocket and showed it to the man. The man looked at it, says, "Yes, this looks exactly like my envelopes. Shelozer's envelopes looked very close, but not exactly. But this looks exactly... I can remember that little spot on the, on the, on, on the envelope in this, in this corner. Uh, Shelozer didn't have that." And I know he's right. This is the right envelopes. And so the man thanked the person who returned the envelopes, and he went to Shelozer's house. Says, "Rabbi Shelozer, I'm sorry." He knocked on his door and says, "I'm sorry. I have to give you back your money." He says, "Why? Why? I found your money." He says, "No, no, no, no, no. You didn't find my money. This money, you pretended that you found it. 'Cause you were such a good person, you wanted to give me of your own money so I wouldn't feel bad. But really, I found out the truth. Somebody else

19:07 found my money, and this is your money, and you should keep it." Shelozer says, "Well, I'm sorry. Once I give it away and you took it, it's no longer mine. I'm not taking it back." And the person who lost the money said, "No, you have to take it back because now I really found my money. I found my money. The other person gave it to me." And they decided to go to the Rav. The Rav should give the answer. What is the right thing to do? Who was the Rav in Berditchev? Reb Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev, the holy tzadik. Reb Levi Yitzchok, who, who was the Rav of Berditchev. They went to his house and said, "Rebbe, we need you to, to help us because we have a dispute. We have an argument." Shelozer says, "I gave him the money even though it's true I didn't find the money. He knows the truth now that I didn't find the money, but he accepted it. He took it. Once he took it, it's his. It's no longer mine. I don't want to take it back. Then I'm gonna have twice the money. He'll have more money now." And the man who lost the money said, "No, no, no, no, no. I only wa- I only accepted your money because I thought you really found my money. But now I know that you didn't find my money, I- I'm not gonna keep your money. I'm gonna give it back to you. I have my money already." Now,

20:27 according to this great, great Rav who told the story, I heard it from him. He said, "I don't know. I don't remember what Reb Levi Yitzchok said, who is right and who is wrong. That I don't know, and I don't remember what, what the story said. But I do remember one thing, that after that, after this dispute between the Rab- She- Shelozer and the, and the man who lost the money, Reb Levi Yitzchok... It was Rosh Hashanah. It was very right before Rosh Hashanah. Reb Levi Yitzchok on Rosh Hashanah used to stand up for when he blow the shofar, and he would speak to Hashem, and said, "Hashem, you should give good things to the Jewish people. Make them happy, healthy, rich, uh, and give them all good things. Make sure that the goyim don't hurt them." Right? And he used to speak to Hashem and show how good the Jewish people are. That Rosh Hashanah, he went up to the bimah to blow the shofar, and he said, "Hashem, if you want to see how great your people are, look at what happened in my house a few weeks ago when Shelozer and this other man came to my house, that I should decide for them who should get the money. They weren't arguing like most people argue, "Oh, I want the money." The other says, "No, I want the money." And then they go to the Rav, and the Rav says, "No, no. Oh, you can't get the money. He has to get

21:57 the money." Here it was the opposite. Everybody was fighting that the other one should get the money. What a beautiful fight. I wish everyone would fight like that the whole time, right, children? You know, when you fight with your brothers or your sisters and you wanna have a toy, and he said, "No, no, no, I want that toy." He said, "No, I want that toy." Uh, that's not a nice fight to have, right? But imagine, you know, both of you want the toy, and you say to your sister or your brother, "No, no, you take the toy. I want you to have it. I see you want it. You know what? I want you to have it." And the, and your sister says to you, "No, no, no, no, no. I see you also want it. You should have it." And you both, both are arguing, "No, no, you take, you take." What a beautiful fight. If you had fights like that the whole day, I think Mashiach would have come already a long time ago. So Levi of Berditchev says to Hashem, "Look what a beautiful people you have. Look at this Din Torah. Look at this argument that came to my house between Shelozer and this other man." And what happened? They fought that everybody wanted the other one to get the money. And Reb Nachum tells the entire story to his son, Reb Mordechai. Reb Nachum, who came from Gan Eden to visit his son after a whole year not seeing him,

23:15 and he tells his son, "I came down to this world only once because I was told in Shamayim that I must come down with other tzadikim to welcome the soul, the neshamah, of Shelozer, who had just died today. Today he died, and his neshamah is going up to Gan Eden. But because he did such an incredible act of kindness, of goodness, he was giving... He wa- he wanted to save someone's life. He gave his own money, and he didn't even tell him it's his own money. He pretended that he found it. To do something so amazing, we need all the tzadikim that have done similar things in their lives. They should go down and welcome this neshamah. And because I came for the levaya of Shelozer to welcome his neshamah to Gan Eden, I said, 'Okay, if I'm here already, I'll come and visit you.' And I have a good day, and I want you to know I can't come back anymore." It's too hard when you live in Gan Eden, in such a beautiful, holy, uh, righteous place, to come into such a unclean place like this physical world, where people have bad thoughts and evil speech. People speak Lashon Hara. People lie. And people do Averas the whole day. It's, it c- the whole... It's like, it's, it's like, it's like coming to a place where there's an awful smell. You know, for a neshamah to be in a place where there's an Averah, it's like going into a room where there's, like,

24:45 a dead animal, and it smells terribly. For, for a tzadik, a neshamah of a tzadik to come into the world and feel the Averas that are being done in this world, it's like being in the most disgusting place where it smells awfully. You can't, you can't stand it, right? So this for tzadikim. So Reb Nachum says, "Please forgive me. I will not come again. But just I came now for the levaya of Shelozer. I came to visit you too. Be well."