53. Reb Avrohom Abishel And The Rich Man

00:16 Hello, kinderlach. I'm gonna tell you a story now, amazing story about an amazing person. The person lived in the time of the Baal Shem Tov, a little before. He was the Rav of a city called Frankfurt. Frankfurt is in Germany. He's, uh, well known. He was well known at the time. His name is Rabbi Avraham Abish from Frankfurt. People used to call him affectionately, lovingly Avraham Abishul. Rabbi Avraham Abishul. He wrote a very famous sefer called Birkat Avraham. He was a great gaon and a tzadik, and he knew Kabbalah. He knew everything. And the Baal Shem Tov said about him that he has ruach hakodesh and he knows what goes on in Shamayim. But he was also an extremely humble person. You know, there's two types of humble people. Some people are humble, you know, people say, "You're so great," but the person says, "Well, yeah, people think I'm great, but I don't think I'm that great." Why not? Because when a person is always thinking about Hashem, Hashem is so infinite, and compared to Hashem we're nothing. So a person who only thinks about Hashem, he doesn't think he's so great. But he's aware that other people think he's great, but he doesn't think of himself as great. But this Rabbi Abishul, Rabbi Avraham Abishul, was very unusual. He was, like, so humble that he didn't even know that people think of him in a special way, that people think he's great. He didn't-- He wasn't even aware of it, 'cause he was so...

02:02 His mind was always thinking of Torah, always thinking of Hashem. He was always in awe of Hashem, in fear of Hashem, always had it the whole time. And he never had a moment where he was thinking what do people think of him. So I'm gonna tell you a story about him. Rabbi Avraham Abishul, because he was so humble, one of the ways by which he could... You could see his humility is that when somebody, a poor man, would come to him and says, "Rebbe, I, I need money. I don't have what to eat. My family doesn't have what to eat," he wouldn't say, you know, "Hey, Yankel, you're a rich guy. Can you help him? Go maybe find other rich people to help him." No, he wouldn't do that. He would just go from door to door like he himself is a beggar, and he would go and beg money for this person. And he was a big Rav. He was a very famous Rav. He was like people... Known all over the world. But to him, it didn't mi- It didn't matter. He would just go by himself, like ask people, "Please give a few dollars. Give another few dollars. Help this person." So now, here's the story. Rabbi Avraham Abishul... There was twice a year, uh, in the city of Frankfurt that some special events took place. Frankfurt was a big city. It's also a very famous Jewish community. Frankfurt had a lot of big geonim, many great people who knew the whole

03:32 Torah. They knew the whole Gemara, everything, whole Shas. There was a lot of great, great people in Frankfurt. And he was the Rav of the city. Can you imagine? He must have been the greatest of all of them. But twice a year, people would come from all over Europe for Shabbos. Actually, would come before Shabbos, and people would come on Thursday and stay f- till Monday after Shabbos because twice a year in Frankfurt there was a major trade show. You guys know what a trade show is? A trade show means that people come from all over the world, and they would sell things. Some people would sell jewelry. Some people would sell clothes. Some people would sell horses. Some people would sell dishes, pots and pans. Everybody had things they would sell. And since you wanted to have a lot of people see what you have to sell so that people... A lot of people would buy it, people would come once a year to one place in Europe, in Germany, in Frankfurt, which was a very big city. And twice a year for an entire weekend, people would come and sell and buy. And of course, the Jews couldn't do it on Shabbos, but they would come Thursday, so they could sell their stuff on Thursday and on Friday, and then Sunday they could s- sell it again, and Monday too. And Shabbos, of course, they had to take off because they were Jewish, but the goyim, they would sell on... The, the... They

05:02 would have a market where they would sell also on Shabbos. Now, this brought a lot of Jews to Frankfurt, thousands and thousands of Jews, many of them rich people, big business people that would sell a lot of stuff. They were very wealthy and rich, and they would all come to Frankfurt. Many of these Jews were also very learned. They learned Torah. They learned a lot of Torah. So it was a s- a custom, a tradition that during those two Shabboses of the year, one was in the s- in the spring and one was in the fall, these two Shabboses when so many Jews came to Frankfurt from all over Europe, the Rav, Rabbi Avraham Abishul, the great gaon that everybody in the world was so in awe of, they had such respect for him because he was known as the greatest gaon of the generation So he would give a very long shir, a very deep shir, and everyone was anxious to hear it because they knew that if he gives a shir, it's so brilliant, it's so smart, it's so interesting. So everybody wanted to hear what Rav Avigdor had to say. So many people would look forward for those two weekends, those two, you know, from Thursday to Monday, you know, over Shabbos, they would come to Frankfurt to do business, but on Shabbos, they would come and hear the big famous talk of Rav Avigdor, the great Gaon of Rav Avigdor that the whole world was speaking about. How smart he was,

06:39 how brilliant he was, and how he knew the whole Torah and all the Kabbalah, he knew everything. Everybody heard about him. People also heard that he's a Bal HaRuach HaKodesh, and he's also has Gilu Eliyahu Hanavi. Yeah, people knew that. They said, "Rav Avigdor has Gilu Eliyahu Hanavi." Right? So once there was actually... They didn't have... Rav Avigdor was in a place, and they didn't have a minyan. They had nine people. So they said, "Okay, let's daven alone. We can't daven with a minyan. There's no minyan." So he said, "No, no, give me two minutes." He went outside, and somebody approached and said okay, stayed for the minyan, and then he disappeared. Nobody saw him again. So they knew it was Eliyahu Hanavi. It's an interesting question, can you count Eliyahu Hanavi for the minyan? Eliyahu Hanavi is not part of this world. You know, Eliyahu Hanavi lived thousands of years ago, but he can come down in a body, right? He can come down in his body and, and appear in a bris he comes, right? Not always is he visible. But it's an interesting question, can you count Eliyahu Hanavi for a minyan? But that's what the-- That's one of the stories. There are many stories about him. Like once, uh, um, there was a bris in the town in, in Frankfurt, and, uh, a very rich man made a bris for his son, and they would ask the Rav to be the sandek. So when the Rav came to the bris, and

08:03 they told the Rav to sit down on the chair where he's gonna be sandek, he, like, didn't wanna sit down. He, like, started thinking and pacing the room back and forth, and people said, "We're wanna start the bris. Rebbe, can you sit down?" And he just didn't answer. He just didn't... In the end, like, after pacing the room back and forth, very nervously, he, he told his son, "You know what? You, you be the sandek." Then there was the seudah, the big meal of the bris, and Rav Avigdor was sitting by the table with his head down like as if he's sleeping. Like, he was very... He was, he was thinking. People were very upset that he, he insulted the father of the baby, who was a very important person in the community, very rich, and, and here Rav Avigdor didn't, uh, you know, sit down and be sandek. He sent his son, and he... So finally they said, "Okay, we're gonna fire him. You're gonna stop being-- He's gonna stop being our Rav. We're gonna send him away." So they, everybody at the table, everybody's there, the whole town was there. Everybody signed a letter saying to Rav Avigdor, "You're fired officially. You're no longer our Rav." And they put it in front of him, and he raised his head because he was lying down. He looked, and he saw it, the old signs. So he said, "Okay, you know what? I'll tell you the truth. I'll tell you why I didn't-- I wasn't

09:20 sandek." He says, "Normally, when I'm invited to a bris to be sandek, if I don't see Eliyahu Hanavi sitting on the chair, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't sit down. And when I came to this bris, I didn't see Eliyahu Hanavi. So I understood that this baby, there's a problem with this baby. This baby was born, uh, not from a very kosher father. It must be that the baby was born like a mamzer. It wasn't a kosher child, and that's why I couldn't sit down." In the end, they found out that's true, that this was a baby born not in a kosher way, and that's why Eliyahu Hanavi wasn't there. Anyways, there's many stories like that. So Rab-- Everybody knew that Rav Avigdor sees Eliyahu Hanavi, he was a Ruach HaKodesh. So everybody when they came, I'm going back to the story, that the weekend, the Shi-- Twice a year when people would come to, to do business, the Shabbos, they wanted to hear the great speech of Rav Avigdor. Everybody heard so much about his greatness. So Rav Avigdor would, uh... When he knew that every- everybody's coming from all over Europe to Frankfurt, he thought, "Ah, this is a good time for me to raise money for all the poor people in this town." There were a lot of poor people that were like widows, women that their fa-- their husbands died, and they left little children, and there was nobody to feed the family. So he would always raise money

10:56 for them. He, he would always raise tzedakah money. So when a lot of people came to Frankfurt, he says, "Ah, I'm gonna go start raising money from them. There's so many visitors." But-- So what would he do? He would go to the hotels. You know, all these guests would stay in a hotel. So he would go from room to room, from one hotel to the next hotel, and they're all Jews there coming from all over Europe. Many of them were rich, and he would knock on each door and say, "Please, can you give some money for tzedakah? There are a lot of poor people in this town. We need to help." Now, you have to understand, most people who were guests and they came from out of town didn't know what-- who Rav Avigdor, what he looked like, 'cause they never saw him. Many of them, it's the first time that they came to Frankfurt to do business, and, and they were very curious to see this Rav Avigdor. Rav Avigdor, this great Gaon. They wanted to see him, they wanted to hear him, they wanted to hear his div-- his words of Torah that was so fascinating, amazing. Everybody spoke about it, but they didn't know what he looked like. Now, if you saw Rav Avigdor in the street in Frankfurt, y- I can promise you, you wouldn't even know that this is a Rav. He, he lo- walked around like a simple person. He didn't walk around with a, a nice beautiful hat

12:08 and a beautiful kapote and looking like a Rav. Uh, he looked like a simple person, you know? He didn't think that he needs to dress up in a special way, you know? You saw him, you would-- If you never saw him, you would think he's just a, a schlepper, a beggar who's begging for money. So, so he went from door to door in the hotels to raise money. So he goes to one door, and he knocks on the door, and a person behind the door says, "Come in." And Rabbi Abba Mariashal goes into the room. This was a-- it seems like a rich man who's counting his money at the desk inside his room. And he didn't-- He barely looked at Rabbi Abba Mariashal, and he thought Rabbi Abba Mariashal is this beggar who's asking for tzedakah probably. He didn't know this was the great, awesome Rabbi Abba Mariashal. He thought it was just a beggar because that's what he looked like, you know? So he says to Rabbi Abba Mariashal, "Yeah, what can I help you with?" He said, "Well, I n- we need money for tzedakah for poor people." He said, "Yeah, here, take a few rubles. You know, take a few dollars. Take." And Rabbi Mariashal said, "Thank you, thank you." And he walks out, and he goes to the next door, into the next room, and then he goes to the next hotel and the next hotel and so on. This rich man who just gave Rabbi Mariashal a few, few

13:19 dollars, he decided to go take a walk. He finished counting his money. He's gonna take a walk in the streets. And you know, in those days, if you were rich, you wouldn't walk alone. You would walk with a cane. And not just a cane, it was a cane that had a golden handle on top. And everybody saw, oh, this guy walks with a cane with a golden handle. Hmm, this guy is amazing. He must be rich and important. Okay? So if you're a rich man, you don't leave your room without your cane. You need people to know in the streets this is an important guy, right? So people give you respect. They were not very humble, as you could see, right? But this rich man, he needed his cane. So he looks in the closet where he put his cane. It's a very expensive cane. It has a gold handle. So he looks and looks and can't find it. He says, "Oh, maybe this poor man that was just here, asked me for money for tzedakah, maybe he just sneaked into my closet and took the cane away and, and took my cane with my golden handle and, and stole it from me. Yeah, it must be him because nobody else was in this room other than me and this poor man." So he runs out to catch him, and he says, "Where is this guy?" So he was, uh, already going for, for the next street and the next little street to another hotel,

14:38 and he finds him in a little tiny street. The Rabbi Abba Mariashal is walking to the next hotel. So he runs over at him angrily and s- yells at him, "Hey, you. How can you dare? You stole my cane. Where is my cane? What did you do with it?" Rabbi Mariashal says, "Oh, I know I didn't do it. I, I, I, I didn't steal your cane. I didn't see it. I don't know what you're talking about." And the, the rich man is angry with, "Ah, you're lying to me." And he pushes him to the ground, and he kicks him. He didn't know this was the great, great, great tzadik, the great holy goon, Rabbi Abba Mariashal. He had no idea this was him. He thought it was just a beggar who was stealing his cane. And Rabbi Mariashal didn't say one word, "Oh, I'm the Rav of the city." He didn't say such a thing. He was too humble to do that. So this man is like... He sees that he can't get the cane from him, so he said, "Okay, you go away. You don't ever come to my room again." Well, Rabbi Mariashal, you know, he didn't care much. He just got up and brushed off all the dust and kept walking on to the next hotel, making some more money. Him, there was only one thing that he cared about. He wanted to make sure that he gets enough money to feed all these poor, suffering families, so he can feed them

15:51 and give them enough money. That's all he cared. That's all that made him happy. He didn't care the guy threw him to the ground, kicked him, and, and, you know, that, that didn't matter to him. Then this was Thursday. Friday comes and then Shabbos. You know, all the Jews that came from all over Europe, they, of course, didn't go to the market, to the trade show. They didn't go sell anything. It's Shabbos. Shabbos Kodesh. Everybody had their meals in the hotels, and people were invited to other people's homes. And then came Shabbos afternoon at five o'clock. There were signs all over the city. The great goon and tzadik and holy tzadik, Rabbi Abba Mariashal will give his famous drashah, his famous talk, his famous shiur on Shabbos afternoon at five o'clock. And usually, the shiur lasted three hours, and it was so, so amazing, the shiur, that people were sitting there. You could hear like yeah, like a, like a pin drop. It was, like, so quiet. Nobody said a word. People were like with their mouth hanging open, trying to hear the next word and the next word. It was so amazing to listen to him. And people tried to understand everything because some of the things were just a little bit too deep for them, right? You had to be a big goon to really understand everything he said. But everybody wanted to be there to see this. Even if they didn't understand everything he said 'cause it was too much for them,

17:19 they would still wanted to see him. So this rich man who had just kicked and, uh, pushed, uh, to the ground this, uh, the great Rabbi Abba Mariashal, he had no clue what Rabbi Mariashal looks like. So he came also Shabbos Shul. Shabbos after the Cholent, he took a nap. At five o'clock, he goes to the big shul, which had maybe a thousand people at the shul. Everybody was crowding. Walter was packed. You couldn't even get in the door because so many people wanted to hear and see the great Rabbi Abba Mariashal. And so, this rich man also wants to be there, so he pushes his way in, and he pushes and pushes and gets inside the shul. Finally, he is in a place in the shul where he can see. He can get a glimpse of where Rabbi Abba Mariashal is going to stand. Rabbi Mariashal didn't come into the shul yet. He's about to come in. It's almost five o'clock. So at 5:00 sharp, uh, the door opens up on the other side of the shul. Reb Avishal comes from his little office, his little room there near the shul. He walks into the shul, and it's quiet. Thousand people, everybody's quiet. Not a word, not a sound. And Reb Avishal walks up to the bimah so he can be heard by everybody, and everybody can see him, to give his very famous speech. He gives every year, twice a year, this incredible shiur and talk that everybody wants to hear. Now, this

18:49 rich man is trying to get a peek. What does this great man look like? I wanna see at least his face. And finally, he gets a glimpse of him, and when he gets a glimpse of him, he starts shaking. He shake, shake, shake, shake, and then he fainted. He fainted. He fainted right there. Of course, you know why he fainted. 'Cause he saw that this man, the gr- who everybody said, "This is the great Rav Avishal of Frankfurt," this is the guy that he had kicked and pushed to the ground on Thursday, accusing him that he is a thief, he's a ganav, he stole his cane. Oh my God. He couldn't believe it. He m- he fainted. People around him thought, "Wow, there's a man fainting. What's going on? Let's bring some water so we can save him." So they tried to save him, tried to save him, but it didn't, uh, so they woke him up. So he wakes up, and then he looks again, and he sees Reb Avishal again. He faints again 'cause he remembers what he had done to him. And then they wake him up again with water, and again, he, he wakes up. Nobody knows why he's fainting because he couldn't talk. And, and again, they put water on him. After the third time, he woke up, and then this time he didn't faint anymore, but he decided he needs to go over to Reb Avishal and ask forgiveness. Look what I did. Isn't it incredible? But you couldn't

20:14 go up now. He's in the middle of giving a shiur. Can't interrupt him. But he thought that when Reb Avishal is going away, uh, is going away from the bimah, he's leaving the bimah, he finishes his speech, and he's going out of the shul back to his room, so there'll be a path. People make a path for him so he can walk, like when the, the rebbe used to walk in 770. They were packed with people, but when the rebbe walked, people made a big path for the rebbe to go through. Same thing for Reb Avishal. They made like a path in the shul so the great, uh, rav could pass through. So he'll push himself into the path, and then he'll fall on the ground next to his feet, of Reb, uh, the feet of Reb Avishal and ask him to please forgive him for what he did and, and that he accused him of being a ganav. So he can't wait for the three hours to be over, and finally, the three hours are over. And you could see in the room, everybody was like, "Wow, this was amazing. Unbelievable." They've never heard such deep, deep ideas and concept. It was so brilliant. It was amazing. And this guy, uh, who wants to ask forgiveness, he decided, "Quickly, I gotta push my way through." And Reb Avishal is walking down from the bimah, and everybody's so quiet and so full of respect. And this man is, like, breaking into the path right in

21:36 front of Reb Avishal, about to go down on the floor to beg him for forgiveness. But when Reb Avishal sees him, Reb Avishal says, "Oh, I promise you, I didn't steal your cane. I really, I, I, I promise you. You have my word. I didn't do it." Oh, this was so interesting. Reb Avishal still thought that this man still thinks that he's the thief. Can you imagine? Just put yourself in the place, in the shoes. Imagine you are Reb Avishal. You are so famous, so great, so brilliant, and the entire shul is, like, standing there with such respect because they just heard the most amazing shiur. And everybody's so respectful, they make a path for you. Would you even think for a moment that this person, uh, he's, like, still thinks you're a thief? Of course, this person is now feeling so guilty. Obviously, right? Anybody would, would know that. How come Reb Avishal still thought that he, he's coming to tell him that he stole his cane? Reb Avishal thought that he's still telling him, "Hey, you, you stole my cane." So he right away, he said to him, "No, I didn't steal it. I didn't steal it." But that's not what he was going to say to him. He was going to ask him forgiveness. But that shows what humility is. You know, Avishal wasn't humble, saying, "Oh, everybody thinks I'm great. I think I'm not so great." That's not what he did. He wasn't even aware that he was special. He w-

23:11 didn't he... You know, around him, everybody thought, "Wow, this is the great Reb Avishal." He wasn't even aware that people thought that way of him. He wasn't even aware of this. For him, he was still this little, uh, Avishal. I'm just Avishal, and, and, and this guy thinks I'm a thief. Does this guy understand what, what, how humble this man was? Well, that's a good story. Think about it.