18. The Or Hachaim In The Lion's Cage

00:15 Today, kindalech is the 15th of Tammuz. It is the yurtzeit of the great tzadik, Reb Chaim ben Attar. He wrote a very famous sefer called Or HaChaim. Many people call him the Or HaChaim HaKadosh, the Holy Or HaChaim, because he was a really, really big tzadik. The Or HaChaim used to live in Morocco, in Africa. And, um, in Morocco, the Or HaChaim was working as a jeweler. You know what a jeweler is? Somebody who makes jewelry. You know, the jewelry that you see your mom is wearing or your grandmother is wearing, your bubbes, uh, aunts. This is the kind of jewelry that the Or HaChaim would make. He would take gold and melt it, and then he would put it into a shape, like a beautiful, beautiful jewelry. And he was very, very good at doing it. The jewelry the Or HaChaim HaKadosh made was the most beautiful in the whole country of Morocco, and everybody heard about it, including the King of Morocco, heard that the Reb Chaim ben Attar, this great tzadik, makes the best and the nicest gold jewelry. Now, the Or HaChaim, because he was a great tzadik and a big, big talmid chacham, he lo- he only wanted to learn Torah. He really didn't wanna work and make money. But he didn't want people to give him money. He wanted to make money from his own work. He wanted to work for a living to make money. So he worked only what he needed to live. And he didn't, he

02:05 didn't need a lot to live. He lived in a very simple house, and all he needed to eat is a little piece of bread and some water. He didn't eat much, and his family also, they didn't need a lot. They had clothes. So when he made some jewelry for people and people paid him, and he saw that he had enough money to live, and he still had money in his pocket, then he wouldn't work. He would just go to the Beis Midrash, to the shul, and would learn Torah all day and maybe most of the night. Only after he saw, "Oh, there's no more money in my pocket. How am I gonna buy food for myself and my family? We need to eat, otherwise we're gonna starve. And I need clothes." So then he went and got some more jobs. He got more gold for people, people that wanted him to-- Everybody, a lot of people wanted him to make the jewelry for them because he was so famous. People knew that he make the nicest, nicest jewelry. So everybody wanted him to make jewelry for them. But he would say, "No, no, no, I still have money in my pocket. I wanna learn Torah." When the money ran out, he didn't have any money in his pocket, he had no choice. So then he would, you know, take gold and make jewelry for people, and people would pay him. And when he had enough money, he wouldn't work again. He would just go to

03:23 the Beis Midrash and learn Torah until again he ran out of money. Once, the King of Morocco, who also heard about the Reb Chaim's incredible, incredible jewelry, the beautiful jewelry that he made. And the king's daughter was going to get married, and he wanted to make for his daughter, for her wedding, a beautiful piece of jewelry. So he sent two servants, uh, and he told them, "Go to the house of this rabbi, of this rav, Reb Chaim. Tell him that the king would like to pay him a lot of money so that he would make some jewelry for his daughter." And also, he gave the two servants a lot of gold so that the Reb Chaim could make the jewelry for the king's daughter's wedding. Reb Chaim, uh, welcomed the two servants, and he asked them what they wanted. They told him what the king sent them to do, and he said, "Okay, give me the gold." And, uh, and they told him, "Okay, the king wants it to be ready in ten days. In ten days, we're coming back, and we're getting the jewelry. You better have it finished by then." Chaim said, "Thank you very much and goodbye." Look, Reb Chaim knew he still had money in his pocket, and Reb Chaim, if he had money in his pocket, he didn't do any work. He was learning Torah the whole time. Learning and davening, doing mitzvahs, but h- he only wanted to work when he needed to work, when he didn't have any

04:57 money. So Reb Chaim took the gold, hid it somewhere, and went to the Beis Midrash to learn, and learned Torah all day and all night, and learned, and learned, and learned. And when he came back home, he forgot completely about the gold. He forgot that the king wants him to finish the jewelry in ten days. And if a king wants it, you don't mess with a king. You don't start up with a king because a king is very powerful. A king can kill you if he wants to, right? You better listen to a king. But Reb Chaim forgot completely. He just enjoyed the learning Torah. He had such a joy from learning Torah that he forgot completely. He had so much fun. He learned and learned and, uh, completely forgot about the gold. Ten days passed by, and the two servants with several soldiers came to get the gold jewelry, and they said, "Knock, knock, knock." Reb Chaim opens the door and they say, "Okay, where is the jewelry?" Chaim says, "Oh my-- Oh, I forgot. Oh no, I completely forgot. I was learning Torah so much." And I didn't need any money, so I put away the gold and I forgot to make the jewelry." So they said, "Uh-oh, that's bad news. We have to go back to the king now and tell him what happened." They went back to the king and told the king that Rab Chaim did not make the jewelry. He didn't even start working on it, and the king

06:24 got very, very mad. And when a king gets mad, that's not a good thing, 'cause he can get mad and do terrible things. So the king sent soldiers to take Rab Chaim from his house and put him in prison, and when he put him in prison, he said, "Okay, now we're going to decide what to do to this rav who did not listen to the king." And the king had in his prison, near his prison, he had, like, a little, like a zoo with animals, very wild, mean animals. One of the cages was in a hole. It was a cage of lions, hungry lions. Anybody that was put in there was eaten up by the lions right away, 'cause the lions were very hungry and they would eat everybody. The king decided, "We're going to take Rab Chaim and put him inside that cage in the ground where all the lions are, and they will eat him up." Rab Chaim said, "Okay." They told Rab Chaim what they're gonna do to him. They're gonna th- lower him into the pit full of lions. He said, "Well, do you mind if I take... I go home, I get my tallis, and my tefillin, and a few sefarim that I wanna learn to, and I'll go down to the pit and, and, and I'll be there just like the king wants." The soldiers, the guards, started laughing so hard, and they said, "What? You're gonna take your tallis and tefillin inside the pit with the lions? The

08:09 lions are gonna eat you up. You're not gonna be able to put on your tefillin. What are you taking your tallis and tefillin for? What are you taking your books for? You're gonna be eaten up in a minute." Rab Chaim says, "But still, I wanna take my tallis and tefillin. Can I please take it?" They say, "Okay, take it. Don't worry about it. Take your tallis and tefillin." He took his tallis and tefillin, he took his siddur, he took a Tehillim, and he took some sefarim, and then they took him with all the stuff that he had, with the tallis and tefillin and the sefarim, and they lowered him into the pit. And then they covered the hole, and they went away. The soldiers went away. Now, the guard of the prison wanted to see what's happening. "Eh, is Rab Chaim still there, or is he eaten up? Is he inside the belly of the lions?" So there was a little window you could open up from the pit and look inside. He opened up, and he couldn't believe it. Rab Chaim had put on his tallis and his tefillin, sat down in the pit, and started davening and saying Tehillim with a beautiful voice, singing to Hashem. And then he took a Gemara and started learning Torah with a beautiful voice, and the lions were just sitting around him and listening. He couldn't believe his eyes. He has never seen anything like it. He ran quickly to the king and told the king, "Please,

09:36 I have to tell you, this Rav Rab Chaim is sitting in middle of the pit, and the lions are sitting all around him, and they're listening to him daven and learn Torah. This is very strange. This never happened." The king said, "Really? I can't believe it. I have to see this myself." And so the king left his palace, went to that little cage, opened up the window, and he looked inside. He saw Rab Chaim was learning and davening with his tallis and tefillin, and the lions are just sitting there happy, and they're listening to him. So the king said, "Oh, he's a great tzadik." So he told the guards to take him out, and take him out with his tallis and tefillin and with all the sefarim, and to bring Rab Chaim to his palace. He wants to talk to him. So the guards took him out of the pit, brought him to the king, and the king said to him, "What's going on? How come the lions are not eating you up?" He says, "Well, Your Majesty the King, I have to apologize for, sorry, I forgot completely about making the jewelry." And the king said, "Why did you forget? I'm the king." He said, "Well, I learn Torah, and I love learning Torah so much that when I learn Torah, I forget about everything. I'm so focused and so learning Torah so much that I forget about everything else. I even forget to eat. I forget to sleep because I love learning Torah

11:03 so much. Torah learning is so much fun because you're learning Hashem's Torah. So I forgot about your gold, but I'm sorry. But I want you to know, you're asking me why the lions didn't eat me up, because the Torah, when you're learning Torah with great joy and excitement, and you're so happy to learn Torah, and learn Torah a lot, then the Torah comes and protects you against the lions, and that's why the lions didn't touch me, because I learned a lot of Torah." When the king heard this, he said, "You know what? From now on, you don't have to make me the jewelry, and I will only r- be nice to you, and I will never hurt you again. And now I see that Hashem is so great and the Torah is so great." And he said goodbye and sent Rab Chaim home. When his wife, Rab Chaim's wife, saw the Rab Chaim coming back, she asked him, "Where did you go with your tallis and tefillin?" "Oh, I just went out for a little bit, but, you know, I came back." He didn't wanna tell her because she would get scared. What? He was thrown to the lions. So he told her, "Yeah, I just had to go out for a little bit with my tallis and tefillin. I came back and everything's good." And that's the end of the story.