50. The Promise Of A Neshama To His Friend

00:16 Hello, kinderlech. I'd like to share with you a great story with the Baal Shem Tov that was written in a sefer 150 years ago. There was a Hasid of the Baal Shem Tov who had a very close friend who was a Misnagid. He was not a Hasid, and he actually didn't like Hasidim so much. He thought Hasidim don't learn enough, they daven so much. They, they should be spending more time learning Torah all day and daven less, 'cause Hasidim used to daven a long time. Some Hasidim daven several hours, and they get all excited about davening. And these, uh, guys, the Misnagdim, they, they felt that the Torah is the only thing you should get excited about. You daven what you need to daven, and what, uh, the Torah says you have to daven, but then you spend most of your time just learning. So he didn't like Hasidim so much. But he and his friend, who was a Hasid, were very good friends. You know, we have to learn from that. You know, people can disagree with other people, you can still be friends with them. Just because you disagree on something doesn't mean you can't be their best friend. So this Hasid and the Misnagid who was against Hasidim, they were very close friends. They learned Torah together for many, many years. One day, they were so close that they got together and they made a decision. They made a kind of a agreement that whoever will die first will go up to

01:54 Shamayim. He'll come back to his friend, to the other guy in a dream and tell him what happened to him, how to come back and tell him in a dream what went on with his neshamah, what went on, and how did it happen, and where did he go, to Gan Eden, to Gehenom. So they made agreement whoever dies first promises to go back and tell to the other guy who is still alive in a dream what happened to him. It so happened that, um, the Hasid died first. Before he died, his best friend, the Misnagid, came to him, uh, front by his bed. Says, "Remember, Yossel, you promised me, eh, that we promised each other that whoever dies first will come back after a little while in a dream and tell whatever happened to him. You know, what went on up there in Shamayim." Yossel says, "Listen, I remember the promise, and don't worry, I'll try my best." And so Yossel passed away, and his friend Mordechai was very, uh, lonely because he didn't have his friend. They were friends for so long. But he continued to learn Torah and made friends, but he was still waiting every night. When is his friend Yossel, the Hasid, gonna come to him in a dream and tell him what happened to him in Shamayim? But he didn't come. So one month went by, another month went by, another month and another week and another week and another week, but Yossel ain't coming. But he made a promise.

03:40 Finally, finally, after six months, one night when Mordechai really forgot about the promise, he gave up on it. He said, "Okay, I guess he's not coming." And suddenly Yossel, the Hasid's neshamah, surprised him. Came to him in a dream. Says, "Mordechai, my friend, I came to ask you a favor, that you should forgive me the promise I made to you." 'Cause they had made a promise that he will come back from time to time, not only once, many times. Tell him things that go on in Shamayim, whatever is happening, you know, the latest, what's going on in Shamayim, which neshamah said this and which neshamah-- and what Torah they're learning. But he says, "I, Mordechai, I, I, I, I, I beg you to forgive me the promise. I came once, but I cannot come again." So Mordechai says to him, "Yossel, but where were you? For six months I've been waiting for you. I really gave up on you. Why did you come so late?" So Yossel says, "I'll tell you what happened, and then you'll understand. But please promise you'll forgive me, not that I don't have to come back, because I cannot do this anymore." And Mordechai, they called Mottel. Mottel, that was his, uh, name the way they called him. Mottel, Mottel the Misnagid. Mottel said to Yossel the Hasid, "You know what? I'll forgive you, but tell me why you came so late and what happened." So Yossel begins to tell him, "When I died, my neshamah went up to Shamayim,

05:27 and you go in front of the bizdin shel ma'alah. It's the bizdin in Shamayim of great neshamahs, of great tzadikim. They sit on the bizdin and they look at your neshamah and everything you've done, every thought, every speech, every action that you did from the day you were born until the day you-- the minute you died. Everything, they know about everything. And they look at your whole life. They saw I was a pretty good person, that I davened and learned a lot, and I tried to do all my mitzvahs right, and not to think about bad things and not to look at bad things, not to listen to bad things. I really tried very hard to do Hashem's mitzvahs and watch what I'm thinking about, watch what I'm saying, and watch what I'm s- doing." And so they sent me to Gan Eden. So in Gan Eden, it's an amazing place. I can't even begin to describe to you how amazing Gan Eden-- There's nothing like it in this world. You know, in the physical world, you can't even imagine what it's like. But I-I'll just tell you, we learn Torah there. But the way we learn Torah there is so amazing that I can't even begin to tell you. So I got very excited because in Gan Eden, you get to hear, you know, words of Torah from the greatest tzadikim in history, from the Rambam, from Moshe Rabbeinu, from, from Rashi, from the-- from all the great tzadikim. And so you can go

07:00 to this tzadik and to the Arizal, Reb Shimon bar Yochai, Rebbe Rabbeinu HaKadosh, uh, who wrote the Mishnah. You can go and listen to, to, to, to Shiurim from so many great tzadikim. They sent me to one place, one yeshiva, so to speak. It's like kind of a yeshiva. All the neshamas come together, and they learn. They were learning Zohar. But I noticed a strange thing. When I tried to talk to another neshamah... You have to understand, neshamas are spiritual things. They don't talk like we talk, like with our mouth. They don't have a mouth because they're spiritual. But when neshamas talk, it's in a different way. It's in a spiritual way. But neshamas could also talk to each other, but not through a mouth, not through spiritual-- physical speech. It's a different kind of speech. So we try to talk to each other, but nobody's answering. Can you imagine you talk to people, you go into a room full of people, and everybody's talking, and you try to talk to them, they don't talk to you? It's very sad. And so nobody's talking to me. I'm like alone. I try to talk to this neshamah, to that neshamah, to this neshamah. No one is answering. They're like pretending I don't exist. I couldn't understand this, and it was very, very, very frustrating. So I decided my Rebbe, the Baal Shem Tov, was still alive in the world, and my Rebbe, the Baal Shem Tov, has a minhag that every Friday, you know, Friday evening

08:37 before Kabbalah Shabbos, L'chud Na'ananah, between Mincha and Kabbalah Shabbos, he usually sits in his room for two hours. We never knew what he's doing, but I found out what he's doing. Now in Gan Eden, I could find out what he was doing. My Rebbe, the Baal Shem Tov, every Friday night, he sits in his room, closes the door, and neshamas come from Gan Eden that need help. Neshamas need help with all kinds of things. Some neshamas are not in Gan Eden yet. They've done some bad things, and they want the Baal Shem Tov to help them fix their bad things so they can go to Gan Eden. And he helps neshamas for two hours. So I thought I should go to my Rebbe and tell him my problem, that I'm in Gan Eden. It's an amazing place. It's unbelievable. I can't even begin to tell you how amazing it is. But I-- nobody's talking to me. So I stood in line as a lot of neshamas wanted to see the great tzadik, the Baal Shem Tov, and I waited for my turn. When I came, the Reb asked me, "Nu, what do I want?" And I said, "Rebbe, I'm in Gan Eden. Baruch Hashem, they let me go straight to Gan Eden." But in Gan Eden, there are no neshamas I can talk to. I can't communicate with any neshamas. So the Baal Shem Tov said, "Uh, you know what? I have an idea for you. What are you learning in, in Gan Eden now?"

10:01 So I told the-- my Rebbe, "We're learning the Zohar on this and this page. We're holding by this and this page." So the Baal Shem Tov, my Rebbe, said, "In a few-- in a little while, you'll come to the next page, and on the next page, there's something in the Zohar that is so hard to understand. I have a very, very, very, very amazing question there. I'm gonna tell you the question. Oh, and I'm telling you, people are gonna ask the question. Neshamas, they are gonna ask that question." The Baal Shem Tov told this Hasid, the neshamah of this Hasid, what question people will be asking, neshamas will be asking, what's going on in the Zohar. Why is this author saying this? It will be a very difficult question, and nobody's gonna know the answer. Says the Baal Shem Tov, "And I will give you the answer now. So when all the neshamas in that yeshiva will, will say, 'Hey, what's going on? Why is the Zohar saying this?' And they'll have this very, very, very difficult, difficult question. They won't be able to answer it. You'll get up, you'll give my answer. And they will say, 'Wow, what an amazing answer.' And they'll start talking to you." Well, so I said, "Okay." So Baal Shem Tov showed him the Zohar. Said, "You see this piece in the Zohar? This is the question they're gonna be asking, and here's the answer I'm giving you. They're not gonna come up with an answer, but you're gonna

11:24 give them the answer, and everyone will notice you." So he gave him the answer, and the neshamas went after that. And Yossel says, "I went back to Gan Eden." And indeed, after a few days, a little while, they came to that portion in the Zohar. And in fact, the Baal Shem Tov was right. Many neshamas had this very, very big question that they couldn't resolve, they couldn't answer. So I said, "Ah, I gotta k- get up now and give my answer." So I gave the answer. And they all listened to my answer, and they, oh, they, they appreciated it, but that's it. They still didn't talk to me. They took the answer. They were happy with the answer, but they didn't, uh... But they stopped-- They still continued being quiet and not talk to me at all. So I waited for the next Friday night. And I waited again in line to go see my rebbe, who was in this world, and ask him, I said, "I did what you told me to do, but it still didn't work." So I came to my rebbe on Friday night, came my turn, and I told my rebbe what happened. So my rebbe said, "I'll tell you what you should do. If they don't talk to you, then you should make a big, big, big commotion. You should, like, yell in middle of the, of the learning and say, 'I won't let anybody learn until you tell me why you're not talking to me.' You ask them,

12:59 'How come nobody's talking to me?' And you'll see what they say." Yossele said, "I went back to Gan Eden, and we learned Torah until I got the courage to, to s- make a big, big, big commotion, and I said, 'I will not let anybody learn until they don't tell me why no one is talking to me. What is wrong with me?' Suddenly, a malach came over to me and said to me, 'Yossele, I'll tell you what's happening. There's nothing wrong with you. But you have to understand, you made a promise to someone who is still alive in the physical world. And you haven't fulfilled your promise. When you make a promise to someone, there's like a spiritual connection you have with that person. That spiritual connection may seem like, eh, not important when you live in the physical world, but in the spiritual world, you see how important it is. And you actually are creating a bond with that person who's still alive in the physical body. And because you're still connected to the physical world, the neshamas in Gan Eden cannot talk to you, because you have to be completely in Gan Eden. You're not completely in Gan Eden yet. You're, you feel a little bit connected to the physical world because of this promise. The solution is you need to go down to your friend and tell him in a dream that he should forgive you for the promise. Once he releases you and forgives you from the promise, you have no longer

14:38 a connection to the physical world, then you're able to completely go into Gan Eden and be completely part of Gan Eden, and then everybody will be talk to you.'" And that's what Yossele said to his brother Motel, to his friend Motel, the Misnagid, "I came to tell you this story by asking you that you should forgive me the promise that I should never have to go back to you, because it's really, really giving me a lot of trouble in Gan Eden." Motel said, "Sure, sure, sure. No problem, I forgive you. You don't have to come back." And with that, Motel woke up. Motel remembered the whole dream. He remember everything, everything his friend Yossele told him about the Baal Shem Tov, what the Baal Shem Tov told him to do. He even remembered the Zohar that the Baal Shem Tov pointed to what page, and he said, "In this, in this page, and this, in this part of the page, the neshamas in Gan Eden will have a very big question." And the Baal Shem Tov told him what the question is, and he also gave him the answer. Now, all of that he heard in the dream from Yossele, and he remembered that. He was so amazed that the Baal Shem Tov was really such a great tzadik. He can tell a neshamah what to do in Gan Eden, and he sees the neshamas every Friday evening before Kabbalat Shabbat. He was like, "Bl- wow. Wow, how amazing this is. Baal Shem Tov is

16:03 such a great tzadik, and I'm a Misnagid, I'm against him. No, I have to go see him." And Motel, the Misnagid, decided to travel to Medzhybizh, where the Baal Shem Tov lived. He came there for a Shabbes and checked into a little motel. The whole Shabbes he kept for himself. He davened by himself. And then he heard that the Baal Shem Tov, for Seudas Shlishit, towards the end of Shabbes, he-- everybody comes together in the shul and there is a Tisch, there's a table, and the Baal Shem Tov says Divrei Torah, words of Torah. So Motel decided to go to shul and to hear what the Baal Shem Tov has to say. Comes into the shul, and the Baal Shem Tov's in the middle of speaking, and he hears the Baal Shem Tov cites this Zohar that he heard in the dream from his friend Yossele. And then he was even more amazed when he heard how the Baal Shem Tov raises the question that he heard from Yossele in the dream. The Baal Shem Tov says, "There's this big question in this part of the Zohar. Why is the Zohar saying this and this and this? It's so difficult to understand." And Motel heard this, he said, "Wow, I can't believe it." And since he was a Misnagid, he had to show the Baal Shem Tov that he knows something. A Misnagid sometimes has to show off, right? Because he doesn't bibitel. So he said to the Baal Shem Tov, he interrupted the Baal

17:32 Shem Tov in the middle of his ma'amar, in middle of his, of his, of his, of his talk, and said, "Oh, I know the answer." So the Baal Shem Tov said to him... He raised his eyes, opened his eyes, looked at him and says, "Ah, Motel. I know where you know the answer from." And Motel realized the Baal Shem Tov had Ruach Hakodesh and knew that he had heard the whole thing in the dream from his friend Yossele. He realized that the story of the dream was a true dream. Yossele indeed did come to the Baal Shem Tov. And after that, Motel became a big Hasid of the Baal Shem Tov. So thanks to his friend Yossele, who came to him one time in the dream, he learned how great the Baal Shem Tov truly was, and from that day on, he became a Hasid.