42. The Shpoler Zeide And The Sick Child

00:16 泰来 Kinderle. Good vuch. I'm sorry last week I didn't send you a story, but I was traveling, very busy, and also very tired from all this traveling. So I'm gonna try to send you two stories this week. First, I have to finish the second story that I told you last time about. When I told you the story with Reb Zev Wolf of Zhytomyr. The awesome story, what a tzadik he was, what a great tzadik he was. And how he helped a Jew who was in the forest and ended up being invited in this strange house, like a palace, and the people there looked like tzadikim, like they were like holy people with long beards and payos and, and kapotes, and they were learning Torah, but really, really it was all just a disguise. They look like it, but they're really part of the world of evil, of Klipa. And they wanted to take this Hasid and make him part of them, and he didn't know. But then his rebbe, the Reb Zev Wolf of Zhytomyr told him to go back and tell them he doesn't want to be part of them. Remember the story? It was a crazy story, but you have to understand, we don't see such things. This happens once in a thousand years maybe. But we can learn something from it. A number of things we can learn because we also have a little evil inside of us that wants to hurt us, hurt our neshamah. And so we learn from

02:23 the story, how do we make sure that we don't let the yetzer hara, the evil inside of us, hurt our neshamas? So when the yetzer hara comes and says, "Ah, when we do this, do this," first of all, we learn from the story that the yetzer hara sometimes can come dressed like a tzadik. "Yeah, it's a good thing. It's a mitzvah to do it," but really it's a terrible thing to do. But he makes it sound like it's a mitzvah. That's one thing we can learn from that story. Sometimes it can be a person that looks like very, very Jewish and very, very frum, very religious, and they make-- they w-- they really are gonna try to make you do something bad. Don't trust them. Be very careful. Every time something like this happens to you, ask your tata and mommy, "Should I listen to this person?" Don't listen to what a person tells you that you don't know who they are, even if they look like a tzadik. You have to ask your parents or your teachers, "Should I listen to this person to do this and this?" Another thing we learn from the story is that sometimes the best way to be protected against these evil traps that try to trap you is by saying, "I am a Hasid of the Rebbe, and no one can hurt me. No yetzer hara can hurt my neshamah. I can stay strong and say no to my yetzer hara because I have a Rebbe, and the

04:04 Rebbe gives me strength." So these are all things we can learn from the story, but as I told you, this story was a beginning story. It is a continuation because that story is to show how great Reb Zev Wolf of Zhytomyr was, what a great tzadik he was. But now we'll find that based on this story, in another story, how great the Shpoler Zeide was. Because we'll see how the Reb Zev Wolf of Zhytomyr, this great tzadik, what he said about the Shpoler Zeide. So we can imagine how great the Shpoler Zeide was. If Reb Zev Wolf of Zhytomyr said these amazing things about him, then how much more the Shpoler Zeide must have been really great. And then we'll have a third story, and we'll see how the Shpoler Zeide treated the Alter Rebbe, so we can imagine how great the Alter Rebbe must be. So here comes the second story. Reb Zev Wolf of Zhytomyr, he lived in a city called Zhytomyr. Once he heard that the Shpoler Zeide was traveling not far from the city of Zhytomyr. He was going to travel through outside the city. He was going to, uh, some other village. When Reb Zev Wolf of Zhytomyr heard that the Shpoler Zeide is going to travel not far from him, it was Thursday afternoon. He thought, "Oh, it's Thursday. Why should he stay Shabbos in some village with maybe there is a minyan, maybe there's no schul, maybe there is a schul? Let him stay with us for Shabbos.

05:45 It would be so amazing to have such a great tzadik like the Shpoler Zeide stay with me for Shabbos. I'll give him the nicest room in the house, and we'll be able to see what makes him such a great tzadik because everybody has heard that the Shpoler Zeide is amazing. Every bracha he gave to someone happened right away." He made miracles, Nissim, all the time. When he said, "Hashem will make you h-healthy," even if the person was so sick that there were doctors said they're gonna die soon, the person turned around and became healthy. If somebody didn't have children for 20 years, he would say, "Okay, you'll have a child next year," and they had a child next year. When somebody was poor, they didn't have any money, any money, nothing, he'd say, "Hashem will make you rich." And then within a week or so, the person had a business and was able to become rich. People saw that he's able to say things and Hashem listens to him, 'cause he must be a very great tzadik. So the Reb Zev Wolf of Zhytomyr said, "I wanna see how he, how he davens Shabbos, how he learns, and what c- you know, what kavana he has when he davens. So I need to... I wanna have him as a guest." So he said to the Hasidim, "I'm going outside the city by the highway to see if the Shpala Zayde is driving by with his horse and wagon, and I'm gonna stop him and beg

07:16 him to stay with us for Shabbos." So the Zev, the Reb Wolf of Zhytomyr went outside. Everybody in the community went with the Rebbe, with Reb Wolf, to the highway to see if the Shpala Zayde is gonna ride right next to the city, so they can stop him and beg him to come to them for Shabbos. And so they stood there for hours and waited. And then finally, finally they see a wagon coming from very far away, and the wagon is getting bigger and bigger and bigger as he gets closer and closer. And finally, they see the wagon and, and the horses, and there was somebody inside the wagon, but they couldn't see. But Reb Zev Wolf said, "This must be the Shpala Zayde." And he stopped, stopped the wagon driver. He said, "Stop, stop, stop." And he stopped the wagon, and the Sh- Reb Zev Wolf climbed into the wagon and sat down next to the Shpala Zayde and started talking to him. People were outside the wagon, hundreds of people watching, watching and waiting. They were so excited. The Rebbe's gonna make sure that the Shpala Zayde spend, spend Shabbos with them. What a treat. They'll see a great holy tzadik, how he davens and how he learns, how he eats the meal of Shabbos. It, it will be amazing. So they, uh-- one person snuck up on the, next to the wagon to listen in, and he heard how Reb Zev Wolf of Zhytomyr was telling the Shpala Zayde, "Uh, uh, Zayde,

08:45 please, can you stay with us for Shabbos?" And the Zayde said, "No, no, please. I'm gonna go to a village for Shabbos, a small village not far from here." And, and Reb Zev Wolf said, "No, no, please, please stay with us for Shabbos. It'd be so amazing. We would love to have you." He said, "No, I can't stay with you for Shabbos." He says, "Why not? Why not?" He says, "Because you, Reb Zev Wolf, you're such a great tzadik. You daven Kabbalah Shabbos, but so long, with so much kavana, and then you dance and you sing and, and, and you, you, you feel you're dancing with the Malachim in Shamayim. You're, you're like such a holy tzadik. When you daven Kabbalah Shabbos and you get so excited, and it takes a long time till you finish davening. I, on the other hand, I'm a simple Jew. I go to shul, I daven Kabbalah Shabbos, I finish, and I go home. I don't take a long time. So I can't stay with you for Shabbos because I like things to be quick, short, you know, you finish the davening." So Reb Zev Wolf says, "Rebbe, Zayde, you know what? If you stay with us for Shabbos, I promise you that this Shabbos I will daven fast. I won't take a long time." So then the Shpala Zayde says, "But you know what? I know when you sit down for the meal, you say a lot of words of Torah, Hasidism, and then you sing songs and

10:01 niggunim and zemiros. And between the fish and the soup, it takes like an hour and a half because you sing a lot and you say a lot of Torah. And then between the soup and the kugel and the chicken, you also take a long time to say Torah and to sing a lot of songs, and you get very excited. And it's won- it's wonderful, but I don't do that. I, I just sit down with a meal, I w-- I make kiddush, and I wash, I eat my meal, I, you know, I, I say-- sing maybe one or two songs, and then I bench, I finish up. So I can't stay here because I don't like with spending a lot of time at the meal. I'm a simple Jew." You know, the Shpala Zayde was very humble. He felt like he's a simple Jew. And, and but you, he says, "You, Reb Zev Wolf, you're such a tzadik. That's why you take so long when, uh, during the meal. You, you say Torah and you sing." So Reb Zev Wolf said to him, "Rebbe, Zayde, I promise you that if you're here for Shabbos, I will make the meal very fast. I won't sing a lot of songs. Maybe one song and that's it. One nigun and, and, and, and maybe a short word of Torah and that's it. And we'll, we'll finish the meal very fast. Please stay with us." So finally the Shpala Zayde said, "Okay, I'll stay with you." Was all excited. Uh,

11:19 Reb Zev Wolf told the people, "We have a great tzadik with us this Shabbos. Let's get excited. Everybody get ready. Let's prepare." And, and, and of course, the Shpala Zayde went to the house of Reb Zev Wolf of Zhytomyr. He was the Rebbe of Zhytomyr, and he gave him a very nice room. He says, "Shpala Zayde, whatever you need, I'm gonna give you food, whatever you need, and just tell me what you need, and I'm gonna take care of you." Shpala Zayde stayed for Shabbos. Friday night came, and the Shpala Zayde and Reb Zev Wolf of Zhytomyr both went to shul. And of course, since everybody in the city knew that these, these two great tzadikim, first of all, Reb Zev Wolf of Zhytomyr, who's always there, he's the Rebbe of the city, but also the great Shpala Zayde is here. So everybody wanted to go to sh- to that shul to see that these two tzadikim together and how they daven. So the shul was so packed, you could barely fit in. Everybody came in. Everybody came to listen and to see them daven. Now, Friday night, Rab Zev Wolf of Zhitomir had a minhag, he would be the chazan. That means he would start, "L'chu n'ranena l'Hashem." He would say, "L'chu n'ranena." And usually he would daven with great kavana, great vekus. He would, you know, get all excited. His face would turn red from excitement, and then he would-- couldn't hold himself back. He would start dancing and singing, and it took

12:47 a long time for him to finish, uh, the first, the first perek of the, of the davening. And then l'cha dodi, he would dance for hours and get so excited, and everybody would dance with him. But this time he promised the Shpoler Zeide no long davening, very quick. So he said, "L'chu n'ranena." He got very excited. He was heating up with great excitement, but he knew he had to do it fast, so he davened much faster than usual. Everybody was so surprised. The Rebbe usually davens for hours, now he's davening very quickly. And he finished, "Habaim shana hakud bidai." He's almost finishing, but the Shpoler Zeide is already finished. He said, "No, no, no, no." He looks at the Rab Zev Wolf, "No, no, no, you promised. Let's finish, let's finish. Let's go faster." So Rab Zev Wolf fast-- makes it faster and faster. And then the next paragraph, the next prayer, l'cha dodi, no, not much dancing, just quickly singing a quick song. L'cha dodi likud sha- and then we finish the whole l'cha dodi, then we come to Ma'ariv and Shmoneh Esreh, and it's the fastest davening Rab Zev Wolf of Zhitomir has ever davened in his life. And all the people in the shul were very surprised. They never saw anything like it. They never saw this. Finally, they go home for the kiddush, and again, no lo-long singing of Shalom Aleichem and Eshet Chayil. No, no, no, everything is fast, you know? Let's sing it quick, you know? Like they-- he

14:14 promised the Shpoler Zeide that he'll do it fast. And every time he sings the l'cha dodi-- um, Eshet Chayil, Rab-- the Shpoler Zeide says, "No, no, no, no, let's go faster, faster. Uh, you know, I can't wait that long." And, uh, they finish Eshet Chayil, they make kiddush, and then they sit by the fish. And the Shpoler says, "No, no, no, no, let's go, let's go, let's go to the next me- next course, the next course. Where's the soup?" Uh, it was very strange behavior for a great tzadik like this to rush through a m- meal. He wants to eat fast, fast. Great tzadikim don't eat that much anyways, and even when they eat, they eat slowly, and they say words of Torah, they sing. They don't rush the food. So-- but the Shpoler Zeide said, and Rab Zev Wolf promised, so they did it. They did it fast. They barely sang, sang any songs. He said, "Maybe a very short V'HaTorah and that's it." They finished the meal, they benched, and now the Shpoler Zeide said, "Okay, good night, good Shabbes, I'm going to my room." And Rab Zev Wolf wanted to see what he does in his room. Such a holy tzadik. I mean, his davening was so fast. His m- meal for Shabbes was very fast. Now, what am I gonna do? I mean, what does he do afterwards? Does he just go to sleep like a regular person? He's supposed to be a great tzadik. So he looked through the keyhole

15:35 to see what he's doing. What is the Shpoler Zeide doing in his room after the meal? And he sees he sits down and opens up a Chumash, and he does what every Jew is supposed to do, doing Shenayim Mikra v'Echad Targum. That means that every week it says the halakha is that a Jew has to go through the whole parsha twice, the Chumash, and one time the Targum, the Targum of Onkelos. So he was going through the whole parsha twice and one time Targum, and then he closed the Chumash and kissed it and went to bed to sleep. Wow, it's very strange. We don't see anything, like, so holy, so great in the way he serves Hashem. But of course, the Shpoler Zeide inside was burning with a great love for Hashem, but he didn't show anything. He pretended on the outside he was just a simple person. Then Shabbes morning came, the same thing, you know. "No, no, no, no, let's rush through the davening and the meal." Till it was the end of Shabbes. After Havdalah, the Shpoler Zeide said to Rab Zev Wolf, "Since you're the rav of the city, I wanna ask your permission that people should be able to come." People were waiting in line. They wanted to say-- come to the Shpoler Zeide to ask for bracha. Everybody had a need, uh, needed something. Somebody needed health, somebody needed money, and they all wanted to get a bracha from the Shpoler Zeide before he leaves town. So he asked

17:00 the, the Rab Zev Wolf, "Can I, you know, take people into yechidas? People would come to me, and I would give them brachos." He said, "Sure, sure, sure. Here's a room. I'll give you a special room with a desk and a chair." And people would start coming, hundreds, maybe thousands of people. People came from all the villages to, uh, see the Shpoler Zeide, ask him for a bracha. So one person needed health for his mother. His mother was very sick. Another person needed he-health for his child. Another pe-person needed money. He lost his, his job. He doesn't have any money to eat. Another person needed, um, you know, children. They didn't have any children. Everybody had problems and they all came to him for a bracha. So every person who came in, he would say, "Okay, give me eighteen rubles for tzedakah." Shpoler Zeide would raise a lot of money for tzedakah. Why? Because he would travel a lot. Where would he go? He would go and find poor families that didn't have any food to eat, and he would give them money so they would have food to eat on the table. And he would raise the money from the brachos that he gave. He gave people brachos, but he said to them, "My bracha I'm giving to you on condition that you give so much m- certain amount of money for tzedakah." So he says, "Okay, you want to have children? I promise you children. By next year you'll have a child, even

18:18 though you didn't have any children for 20 years. But Hashem will give you a child, but you have to give me 18 rubles for tzedakah." People put down 18 rubles on the desk, and the next person. Next person came in and says, "Well, my, my, my, my, my, my sister is very, very sick, and, and we don't know what to do, and the doctors don't know what to do." And he said, "Okay, 18 rubles on the table, and I will give you a bracha, and Hashem will listen to my bracha, and your sister will be well." And so a whole night people kept coming and coming and coming till the end of the night. There was a Jew who came to him and said, um, "Rebbe, I have a child who is very, very, very sick. He's so sick that he's unconscious. He's in bed. His eyes are closed. He doesn't hear anything. He's, he's, he's, he's fainted. He's unconscious, and the doctor says that he's very sick, and there's no medicine they can give him that will help him. Nothing can help him. Rebbe, please give me a bracha bit." And the Rebbe said, "Oh, 18 rubles. Put 18 rubles and I will give you a bracha." And he said, "No, Rebbe, Rebbe, I want you to come to my house and see my child, and there I want you to bless him and give him a bracha. I want you to come into the house and, and, and visit the child." And the

19:44 Rebbe says, "Oh, for that you're gonna have to give me more money. To come to your house, I want you to give 18 times 18 rubles." That's a lot of money. If you have a calculator or you know how to do the math, you can figure out how much that is. It's a lot of rubles. "If you want me to come to your house, you have to give 18 times 18 rubles." The man says, "Rebbe, for my son, I'll do anything. Come, I'll give you 18 times 18 rubles." And the Shpala Zayde says, "I'll come to you soon. Uh, give me a little, a little while." And the Shpala Zayde s- has all this money on the table from hundreds of people that put 18 rubles on the table, everyone with their bracha. And so he takes a bag and takes all the money, puts it in the bag. "Okay, this is the money that I needed to help all these great people that I needed, needed to be helped." Then he says, "Okay, I'm coming to, to your house, and just show me where to go." The man says, "Here, I have a wagon and horses. We can ride to my house." Now Reb Zev Wolf of Zhytomyr, he was watching all this, and he was amazed. Here the Shpala Zayde, you know, davened, fast Shabbos, he ate fast Shabbos, and now it comes Motzaei Shabbos, he just gives brachas like that. And, and everyone says, "He, he knows the brachas. He promises them

21:05 everything will be good." And it's gonna happen because everybody knew when the Shpala Zayde said it, it must happen. And then, so the Reb Zev Wolf wanted to see what he's gonna do to this child when he goes to that house, how he's going to make a nes and make the child healthy again. So he went quickly ahead before the Shpala Zayde got there, and he told the people in the family, "Please, can I-- I wanna stay in a closet, uh, in the room where the, where the child is, so I can hide in the closet, 'cause I wanna see and hear what the Shpala Zayde is gonna do to your child." They said, "Oh, sure, sure." Showed him a closet, and Reb Zev Wolf was hiding in the closet. Shpala Zayde came in, saw the child was totally pale. He had no color on his face, and his eyes were closed. He was barely breathing. It looks like he was almost dying. Shpala Zayde said to everybody, "Everybody, please leave the room. I wanna stay alone with this child." Everybody left the room. They closed the door. And Reb Zev Wolf is in the closet. The closet was a crack open, so he could see what's happening. And what does he see? The Shpala Zayde is looking at the child, and then he starts pacing the room back and forth and back and forth, and his face is turning red like a tomato. He gets very excited. Then he puts his eye-- hand on

22:35 his eyes, and there's s- streams of tears coming down his face. He's crying. He's crying to Hashem. Then he finish crying, and he goes over to the child, looks again in his face, and the child is still fainting. He's still unconscious. So again, he paces the room back and forth, very red in his face, and then he stops and puts his ha- hand on his eyes, and there's tears coming down. It looks like he's sobbing and sobbing, and his lips were moving. He was maybe saying a prayer, a tefillah. And then again, he looks at the child. Nothing yet. Finally, he did it a third time, pacing the room back and forth, all red in the face. Then he stops, and then he puts his ha- hand on his eyes again, and tears and tears and tears come down on his face. He's sobbing and crying, and then suddenly he hears the child coughing. He starts coughing. See, he does something. He makes a sound. And then the child started slowly, slowly opening up his eyes. And then the child wants to say something, but he can barely say it. Says, "Tati, Tati, I'm thirsty." And the Shpala Zayde went outside the room. He called the father and says, "Listen, here is your son. He's gonna be healthy now." And then Shpala Zayde went over to the closet where Reb Zev Wolf of Zhytomyr was hiding, and he said, "Reb Wolf, well, if you see somebody that has such a high level that Hashem listens

24:29 to what he says, and he has it every day, whenever he wants, he can give a bracha, and Hashem listens to him. No, are you happy now that you saw this?" And he left the room, and he went to his wagon and left the town of Zhytomyr, and that was the end of the story. So we can see from here, from this story, what a great tzadik the Shpala Zayde was. And now I will tell you quickly what he said about the Alter Rebbe. One day, the Shpala Zayde was in Shpola, and he told the people in the shul, "Please clean up the shul quickly. We have to clean up the shul, make it really nice and clean and spotless." People said, "What's happening? What's happening?" "Oh, today's gonna be Simchas Torah." "Simchas Torah? What Simchas Torah? It's the middle of Shevat. When's Torah?" And they said, "No, no, no. You'll find out soon. We're gonna have a Simchat Torah tonight. We're gonna be dancing at Kapos tonight." And he said, "But I want you to clean up the shul spotless and beautiful. She's sparkly clean." So they said, "Okay." Everybody started working and working and cleaning the shul. And he says, "Okay, guys, let's go. We're going to meet a Sefer Torah. A Sefer Torah, a holy Torah." They say, "Holy Torah?" They walk, walk outside the city, and there a wagon approaches, and the Shpalizader waves and welcomes the wagon, and out comes out a very, very important Rav and tzadik, and that

26:04 was the Alter Rebbe. And, uh, Shpalizader said to the people, "You see? This is the Sefer Torah I was talking about. He's like a Torah, and we're going to dance at Kapos with this Torah." And he took the Alter Rebbe by the hand, brought him into the shul, and everybody came to the shul, and said, "Everybody, let's open up the Aron Kodesh, and we take-- And we're gonna start singing like we do on Simchat Torah." "And then," he says, "we're gonna do Hakafos." And he went over to the Alter Rebbe and picked up the Alter Rebbe, says, "I'm carrying a Sefer Torah, and we're going to dance around the bimah." And they did Hakafos around the bimah with him carrying the Alter Rebbe. And he said to the people, "Now you understand what I told you. We're gonna have a Simchat Torah tonight because the Alter Rebbe is like a Sefer Torah." And he said, "Not every day do we have such a zechus to have someone like the Alter Rebbe, who's like a Sefer Torah, to come to our town." And here we can see how the Shpalizader thought of the Alter Rebbe, what a great, great tzadik and gaon the Alter Rebbe was. And who did this? The Shpalizader. And who was the Shpalizader? Someone like what Reb Zegev of Ostrozhe said about him. And who was Reb Zegev of Ostrozhe? As you know from the first story, what a great person he was. Now we can understand how great the Alter Rebbe

27:35 was.