31. A Man Who Saved The Rizhener’s Life

00:15 Hello, kinderlach. I'm sorry my voice is a little bit weak because I have a cold, but I hope you'll understand and appreciate this beautiful story I'm going to tell you now. Yesterday, on Shabbos, Parshas Noach was the yahrtzeit of a holy tzadik. His name was Rabbi Yisroel of Ruzhin. He was known by the Tzemach Tzedek. He was called as the Holy Ruzhiner, the Heilige Ruzhiner. The Tzemach Tzedek, um, respected him a lot and said great things about him. Matter of fact, when the Holy Ruzhiner passed away, on the day he passed away... He lived hundreds of miles away from the Tzemach Tzedek. Tzemach Tzedek lived in Lubavitch, in White Russia. The Ruzhiner lived in the Ukraine, in a different country. The day the Ruzhiner passed away, the Tzemach Tzedek suddenly called over one of his sons and said to him, "Please tear my garment, my jacket." You know, you tear your jacket, chas v'shalom, and somebody loses a family member, like a parent or a sibling, you have to tear your clothes. It's a mitzvah. That's how you mourn. That's how you, you, you show sadness. When a Rebbe, when a great tzadik passes away, you also do that. On Gimmel Tammuz when the Rebbe, uh, was nistalek, everybody tore their gar- their garments. The Tzemach Tzedek said he wants to tear his garment. Nobody knew why. So the Rebbetzin came in, the Tzemach Tzedek's Rebbetzin came in and says, "Why are you tearing your clothes?" He said, "The Ruzhiner, the Holy Ruzhiner just passed

02:05 away." It was now nistalek, far away from here. There was no telephones in those days. There was no, um, telegrams. There was no computers. You couldn't f- couldn't have found that out in such a short time. It would've probably taken them several weeks before a letter came all the way from the Ukraine to let the people in Lubavitch know that the Holy Ruzhiner had passed away two weeks earlier. But the Tzemach Tzedek knew the same day, and he tore his garment. That's how close the Tzemach Tzedek was with him, that he felt it. So here's a story about the Ruzhiner. Uh, the-- I don't know if you know this, but the Ruzhiner, similar to the Alter Rebbe, was in prison. And why was he in prison? Because some not such good people decided to tell the Tsar, the King of Russia, that the Holy Ruzhiner is a bad person because he wants to overthrow the government. The Ruzhiner himself wants to be king. He wants to be the next Tsar, and he wants to make a war against the Tsar and kill him, and become the n- and the Ruzhiner will become the next Tsar. Can you imagine such a ridiculous accusation of the Holy Ruzhiner? A tzadik, a Rebbe, has nothing else to do but to become a king over a bunch of millions of Russian boars and peasants. But that's what they told the king, and the king didn't like Jews very much. In fact, he hated them a lot. So when he

03:45 heard this accusation against the Rebbe, a tzadik, that tens and thousands of Jews go to him and respect him, and they ask him for his brochos, and they ask him to daven for them, and they go to hear his Torah. When he heard that there was such an accusation against a rav, a Rebbe, who is so important to the Jewish people, he said, "Yeah, we gotta put him in prison. This is a dangerous man." Well, the Ruzhiner was put in prison for two years, and somehow somebody managed to get him out, to sneak him out from prison. Tell another time the story of how he was snuck out of the prison. And he was carried across the border to another country. The country is called Austria. And here I'll tell you the story of how he was carried over the border. It's an amazing story. There was a man by the name Noson Shimon. Noson Shimon lived in a city called Iasi. Iasi was not far from the border between a country called Moldavia. Today, Moldavia is maybe part of Russia. But in those days, Moldavia was a separate part, separate country. Iasi is in Moldavia, and is near the border with Austria, not far. Maybe a couple of miles. This Noson Shimon, when he was young, he was a talmid chacham. He learned a lot of Torah. He was also a businessman. He was married. But then he did a lot of business and hung out with a lot of Goyim. He traveled a

05:28 lot for business, and he learned a lot from the ways of the Goyim that he did business with. So he slowly, slowly, slowly stopped doing Jewish things. He stopped keeping Shabbos. He stopped putting on tefillin. He stopped learning Torah, of course, and eventually even stopped eating kosher food. But Noson Shimon wanted to be a good Jew, but he just-- the yetzer hara was too big. Too big of a yetzer hara. Noson Shimon was married, as I said before, but he didn't have children. He was married for 10 years, didn't have children. His wife and him almost gave up. His wife said to him, "Nusach Shimon, why don't you go to a great tzadik? His name is Reb Meir of Premishlan." Reb Meir Premishlan was a great tzadik, and many people would go to him to ask for brachos. "So go to him and ask him for a bracha, we should have children. Maybe he'll do a nes, a moefes, a miracle." Nusach Shimon says, "No, I can't go to him, because look, look at me. I'm not keeping Shabbos anymore. I'm not eating kosher. How can I go to the tzadik? I'm embarrassed. I, I, I don't wanna go." So Nusach Shimon didn't go, and he waited until one day Nusach Shimon got sick. He went to the doctor, and the doctor checked him out and said, "Oh no, you're very sick. I don't think I can help you. You have a very, very, very, very serious sickness, and I don't know what to do

07:04 about it. You better go home and rest. Maybe you'll see a miracle, but I, I, I don't think you're gonna survive." And Nusach Shimon went home and was very sick and stayed in bed, and he got sicker and sicker and weaker and weaker until one night he had a dream. In his dream, he saw a man with a white beard and long payos. And the man said to him, "Nusach Shimon. Nusach Shimon, why don't you come to me? Your wife has told you to come to me, to ask me for a bracha. Don't you know who I am? I'm Meir of Premishlan. This is why you're sick. If you promise me that you'll come to me next Shabbos..." Next Shabbos was Parshah Ekev, Yehoshua the Devorim. "If you come to me next Shabbos to Premishlan, you'll get better." And in his dream, Nusach Shimon had no choice because otherwise he's gonna die from the sickness. So he told Meir of Premishlan, "Yes, I promise I'll come to you for Shabbos." And suddenly, Nusach Shimon wakes up and he starts feeling better. And like within an hour, he felt all good as if he was never sick. He couldn't believe it. He got up out of his bed, and he walked around, and he felt like he was totally healthy. And then he remembered the dream that he had made a promise to the tzadik Meir of Premishlan, and that he must fulfill his promise. Uh, also, who knows, he might fall sick again. So in

08:53 order to stay healthy, he better go to Reb Meir of Premishlan for Shabbos. As I said, it was Parshah Ekev. Nusach Shimon traveled to Premishlan, and Meir of Premishlan gave him an aliyah to the Torah on Shabbos. Parshah Ekev. Nusach Shimon was a Kohen. So he gave him the Kohen aliyah. The first aliyah to the Torah, he gave to Nusach Shimon. Reb Meir of Premishlan was the baal koreh. He read from the Torah himself. So he called up, "Ya'amod Reb Nusach Shimon ben Chaim Yankel Hakoeyn." He called him up for the first aliyah. Nusach Shimon said the brachos, and Reb Meir of Premishlan started reading from the Torah. And in Parshah Ekev, when you read the first part, the first aliyah of the Torah, you start reading in Parshah Ekev, what does it say? Moshe Rabbeinu promises the Jewish people that if they do the mitzvahs and follow Hashem's ways, then Hashem will give them blessings, brachos. They'll be rich, and they'll be healthy, and also they'll have children. And the pasuk reads, "Lo yihiyeh b'cha okor ve'akorah." There will be no husband and wife that will be childless. They will all have-- You will all have children, I promise, says Moshe Rabbeinu. When Meir of Premishlan started reading that pasuk, "Lo yihiyeh b'cha okor ve'akorah b'veitecha", he finished the pasuk and finished the aliyah and started telling to Nusach Shimon, "Listen to me, Nusach Shimon. I need a promise from you. Nusach Shimon, you have connections to, uh, smugglers, people that are very good

10:51 at smuggling across the border." You guys want to know smuggling across the border? Because if you are a citizen of one country, you can't go across the other, the border to another country unless you have... You're not, uh, a criminal, unless you're not a bad person. But what if the country you're coming from thinks you should be arrested because you've done something wrong? Then the police from that country will not let you go through the border. But Shimon, because of his business, he had a lot of friends amongst the Goyim who were very friendly with some of the police that were standing by the border, especially the chief of the police. He was in charge of all the police by the border, especially by the border that was near the city of Iasi, where Nusach Shimon lived. There was the border between Moldavia and the country of Austria, and Nusach Shimon and his friends knew very well the chief of the police. They used to send him money and presents, and he always did favors to them. So Meir says, "I know you have close friends with the, with the people that know the chief of police, and you know him too. And I'm telling you, there will be a day, not today, someday, where you will help a Jew, a Yisroel." He said the word Yisroel. Yisroel also means a Jew. But he said, didn't say the word Jew, he said the word Yisroel. You will have to help a Jew, Yisroel, and you

12:19 will help him go across the border even though it's very dangerous. You're gonna do it for him. And if you promise me now that you're gonna do it when the time comes, I promise you a child, "" Lo yirbecho oker va’aker b’yemtecha"" Rabbi Meir'l of Premishlan read that pasuk twice. He says, "I'm gonna read it twice, and that's gonna be a bracha for Nusen Shimon, that he will have a child after 10, 15 years of marriage where he didn't have children, couldn't have children." Nusen Shimon thought for a moment, he says, "Rebbe, I promise. I'll put my life in danger just to save this Jew who you say one day will need me to help him." Rabbi Meir'l said, "I promise you this year you'll have a child." And lo and behold, Nusen Shimon went back home, and a year later, he had a baby boy. A while passed by, Nusen Shimon is sleeping at night. In the middle of the night, there's a knock on his door. When he looks outside the window, he sees two Hasidim. He opens the door, says, "We are messengers, shluchim, of Rabbi Meir'l of Premishlan, who sent us right now to wake you up and to tell you now is the time when you need to save this person called Yisroel. And this is the time you have to da- endanger your life to get him across the border to save his life, 'cause he's in danger, 'cause the tsar wants to catch him, and the soldiers are

13:56 looking for him." Nusen Shimon put on his clothes quickly and went outside in the streets. He didn't see anyone. Finally, he's walking and walking. The whole city of Iasi was asleep. Everybody was at home sleeping. There was almost nobody in the streets. Then he sees a wagon from far away. He goes over to the wagon and looks through the window, and the wagon, he sees a man with a very special face, the long beard and payos. He said, "That must be the, the Jew Yisroel." And he climbs into the wagon. He says, "It's you." And, and the first thing the Rizhoner says to him, "My name is Yisroel." So he should know that this is the man that Rabbi Meir'l of Premishlan told him to save. Nusen Shimon didn't waste any time. He told the wagon driver, "Come take us quickly to the border. To my house. First to my house." He went to his house. He got some money and some various presents in his house a- and then went straight to the border. When they got to the border, the police said, "Okay, who is in the wagon? We gotta check his papers. Gotta see if he's a criminal or something, that he did something wrong. Whether the tsar wants to arrest him, we gotta find out who he is." So Shimon Nusen jumped out of the wagon, went over quickly to the head of the police, and they knew each other well. He said to him, "Listen, listen, listen. My friend, I

15:20 need you to help me out. And don't worry, I'll give you something really special, a very big gift." The chief of police, of course, knew already that Shimon Nusen, Nusen will give it to him because he's done it before. And the chief of police went and suddenly blew a siren. The siren started sounding, ringing all over the station. All over the station, and when the siren was sounding, it, it meant that all the police offers, officers who were standing outside by the border on guard, and it's freezing cold outside, they can come into the building. There's a building which belongs to the police. They can come inside the building and warm themselves, get a little bit more warm, and have some hot coffee and tea, and they have to have a talk with the chief. The chief pretended that he needs to gather all the police. He made the sirens go off, and all the police officers left the border right away, and they were so happy they don't have to stand in the cold, and they went inside the building and gathered around some hot coffee. In the meantime, Nusen Shimon knew this is the moment. He took the wagon, went into the wagon, told the wagon, "Come on, whip the horses fast, fast, fast. The police is gone. While they're gone, we're gonna escape. We're gonna run onto the other side." But the other side, there was a river. You didn't get into Austria, the other country, until you had to cross the

16:43 river. But how are you gonna cross the river? There's no boats. So Shimon Nusen said, "Rebbe, you're gonna climb on my shoulders, and I'm gonna take you across the river. The river is dangerous. It's a freezing cold." There was a lot of ice. "But I'll take you across, Rebbe, on my shoulders." Shimon Nusen started walking through the water deeper and deeper and deeper, and there was ice all over. He pushed away the ice. He was freezing. His legs were freezing cold, but he didn't stop. He kept walking till it was almost like he almost drowned, but he didn't stop. He kept walking. He kept his head above water. At one point, the yarmulke of the Rebbe fell off, and the Rebbe says, "Shimon Nusen, I'm not prepared to continue until you give me my yarmulke." Shimon Nusen went and, and, and s- reached into the water and found the yarmulke and gave it back to the Rebbe. At one point, Shimon Nusen said to the Rebbe, "Rebbe, you see I'm endangering my life for you. Please promise me that if I do teshuva for all my averot, as you know I did a lot of averot, but if I do teshuva, will I go to Olam Haba?" And the Rebbe was quiet, he didn't say anything. Shimon Nusen kept walking, and then he stopped again. "Rebbe, please, please. You see what I'm doing for you. I'm putting my life in danger. Look, I almost die and drowned, and I'm freezing. My body's freezing. I can

18:06 die from it, but I'm doing it for you. Can you please do something? You're a tzadik, you can help me. Make-- promise me I will have Olam Haba." And the Rebbe said, "Shimon Nusen, I promise you, you will have Olam Haba." And so Shimon Nusen, it was a long journey across the river. Several times he almost drowned and almost died, but he made it across the river and got the Rebbe to the other side of the river. And so the Rebbe had to find a house now. They found a house, a place, a hotel, and they, they got in there. Now they were in Austria, in another country. He was safe. At least for the moment, the Rebbe was safe. And that's how Shimon Nusen saved the holy Rizhoner's life. He went back to the city of Iasi. He crossed the border back to his, to Moldavia, to his own city, to Iasi. And from that day on, Shimon Nusen left his business, left all the goyim that he was doing business with, and he went. He had enough money to live, and he started learning and davening all day. Just went into the beit midrash, and day and night he just davened and learned Torah until one day he died. He died doing teshuva, and as the holy Rizhoner said, that because he risked his life to save the Rizhoner's life, he saved such a heilige tzadik, his neshama went to Gan Eden. And that's this part of the story. Again, as I said,

19:36 this is a long story, many, many parts, but at least this part of the story with Shimon Nusen and how he saved the Rebbe across the river that I just told you.