58. 3 Tzadikim That Fought The War Of 2 Countries In the Heavens

00:15 Hello, kinderlach. We're still in the month of Nisan. We just came from the Yom Tov of Pesach. I'm gonna tell you a story, an amazing story, which involves the Alter Rebbe, Reb Shloime Carliner, and a third tzadik, Reb Mordche of Nes Chiz, who was also a talmid of the Maggid. I already told you that in the year 5522, 5523, the last year when the Alter Rebbe-- before the Alter Rebbe's histalkus, there was a big war in Russia. Russia against France. Napoleon was the king of France, and he made a war against Russia. And the Alter Rebbe, who lived in Russia, was davening that the Russian government should win the war. But there were tzadikim who believed that the, the French, Napoleon should win the war, because Napoleon was good to the Jews, and the Russian government, the Russian tsar, was not nice to the Jews. But the Alter Rebbe felt it's better that the Russians win because even though they're not nice to the Jews, but they let the Jews do Torah and mitzvahs. They're not nice to them when it comes to money and where they can live, where they cannot live. They don't live-- let them live in every place they want. They make them pay higher taxes, but that's b'gashmiyus. Physically, they have to pay more money, but spiritually, they can do Torah and mitzvahs. And he-- well, the Alter Rebbe realized that if the French win, the Jewish people are gonna be very free and be able to do whatever they

01:56 want. But who knows? They might, chas v'shalom, also not keep Torah and mitzvahs properly. In the end, the Alter Rebbe won, and the Russians won over the French. Now, the tzadikim that disagreed with the Alter Rebbe, and they believed that the French should win, they were also great tzadikim. But you have to understand that tzadikim, when they decide which country should win a war, they don't go to the king of that country and tell him, "Hey, I'm gonna tell you how to win the war." They do this in Shamayim, because every country has a malach in Shamayim that oversees that country. Whatever that malach does in Shamayim, that's what happens down here. And if in Shamayim it's decided by the Beth Din Shel Ma'alah, the Beth Din Shamayim, that this malach of this country should win, then the army down here ends up winning the war. And these tzadikim, they know what goes on with the malachim, because they can have aliyah of neshama. And they can decide-- They have the power. Hashem gives the tzadikim the power to decide which malach of which country should win the war. And if that win, win the-- when the, when the Beth Din Shamayim decides which malach should, should win the war, then down here, that army ends up winning the war. So the Alter Rebbe decided that the Russians should win and not the French, and that's why in the end, the Russians did win, and the French were defeated. Now, this war happened in 5522,

03:31 but about twenty years earlier, in the year 5512, there was another war. The Alter Rebbe was younger then. There was a war between Russia and Poland. It was a very bitter war. It took many months. Like the war today, you know, I don't know if you heard the war between Russia and Ukraine, which is a terrible war, which has been going on almost two months. Well, a similar war was then the time of the Alter Rebbe between Poland and Russia. The Russians didn't like what the Polands were-- the, the Poland people were doing and decided to go and make a war and conquer them and take the country of Poland and make it part of Russia. No more Poland government, no more Poland country. They would be-- Poland would be part of Russia. It was a very harsh war, and the Alter Rebbe decided that the Malach of Russia should have the stronger hand. He should win. And therefore, the Russian army down here has to win the war. Of course, Alter Rebbe lived in Russia. In a-- And, you know, every citizen of a country has to daven for the government of his country because his country, his government, and his king protects the Jews of that country. So he has to daven. As the Mishnah says, every Jew has to daven for the success and the, and the power of his country. So he, the Alter Rebbe, had to daven for the Russians. Reb Shloime Carliner, the great tzadik who lived in Poland,

05:09 so he davened that the Polish government should win. But really, these two tzadikim were fighting not here on Earth. They were fighting which malach in Shamayim should be the stronger malach. And then it will automatically cause that here on Earth, that army will win over the other army. But first, we have to fight the war in Shamayim, make sure which malach should be the stronger one. And that had to be decided by the Beth Din Shel Ma'alah. And the Beth Din Shel Ma'alah decided that we need tzadikim that are alive still on Earth, which is the Alter Rebbe, Reb Shloime Carliner, and Reb Mordche of Nes Chiz. He will be the one to decide between the two tzadikim. He will be the third one to make sure that we have a final decision who should win the war. Now, before we go to these tzadikim, how they decided- Who should win the war, we have to understand that these two malachim, the malach that was in charge of the Russian people, and the malach that was in charge of, that was in charge of the Polish people, they both came in front of the Bet Din Shamayim, and they each presented their arguments. The King of Poland, uh, the Malach of Poland said to the Bet Din Shamaya that he-- his country should win because they were nice to the Jews. 'Cause a few hundred years earlier, when the Jews were driven out of Spain... Remember the Jews were in Spain in the 1400s, and

06:42 the, the, the, the, the Spanish king and queen decided that the Jews must convert to Christianity, and if they don't want to, they can leave the country. They must leave the country, leave everything behind, their homes, their, their-- all their, their jewelry, all their money and all their land, everything has to be left behind. They have to leave penniless without anything. Just the clothes on their body, that's all they can take with them, and leave the country. Over a hundred thousand Jews left Spain because of that. They didn't wanna convert to, to, Chas ve'Shalom, to Christianity. So the Jews left Spain. And they came-- and Poland invited the Jews to come to their country, to Poland, and settle there and find new homes, and maybe they can buy or make a new business. They can open stores so they can make a living, so they can live, they can have food. So Poland, the Polish, the Malach of Poland said to the Bet Din Shamaya, "My country deserves to be winning this war because we were so kind to the Jewish people when they left and they were driven out of Spain. We opened up the doors of the country of Poland and invited the Jews, and we gave them a chance to rebuild their homes and, and, and make themselves, you know, successful here in this country. So we deserve to be successful in this war." Then the Malach of Russia said, "Well, yes, they did that maybe hundreds of years ago when Sp-

08:16 when the Spain-- during the Inquisition, when the Spanish government kicked out the Jews. But look what they're doing now. In Poland, if you do-- you break the law, like a tiny law, you didn't pay your taxes, or you passed through a red light or a stop sign, you're supposed to stop, you didn't stop, they immediately kill the person. They, they use capital punishment." You know what capital punishment means? Is that you kill people for even the slightest thing they break the law, which is terrible. You kill people for doing almost nothing. And that's the law in Poland. They kill people, especially Jews. If you were Jewish, they kill the Jew even for breaking a tiny law. He said, "We in Russia, we don't kill people, even if people do terrible things. Maybe we send them to Siberia for many years, but we're not gonna kill them. So we're a much better country. We do-- we're a much nicer people. We should win the war," said the Malach of Russia. It was decided in the Bet Din Shamaya that they cannot decide. The Bet Din Sha- in Shamayim cannot decide who should win the war. It should be decided by three tzadikim that will be like a Bet Din here on Earth, and these tzadikim are still alive here in the world, and they will decide who should win the war. And one of them is the Alter Rebbe, the other one is Rabbi Shlomo of Karlin, and the third one... And of course, we know

09:41 that the Alter Rebbe and Shlomo of Karlin each were on the opposite sides. The Alter Rebbe said it should be Russia that should win, and, and Rabbi Shlomo of Karlin davened and believed that the Polish government should win. So Motta of Nesvizh was-- He was asked to be the one decide between the Alter Rebbe and Rabbi Shlomo. He should be making a decision which side should win, the Alter Rebbe's side or Rabbi Shlomo of Karlin's side. So now we hear the following story. This happened in the month of Nisan. In Nisan, it says from the Baal Shem Tov, this is a time when great tzadikim decide which kings in which country should remain king and should continue to rule over the country, and which ones should be thrown off the throne, overthrown, because they're not nice, they're not good, and they're bad for the Jews and bad for the world. Because the month of Nisan, it says in the Mishnah, is Rosh Hashanah for kings. The great tzadikim on Nisan would decide which kings should be king for this year. In the, the Degel Machne Efraim, the grandson of the Baal Shem Tov mentions in his Sefer that he remembers his grandfather, the Baal Shem Tov, once saying that this year we have a very bad king in a certain country, and we need to daven on Chodesh Nisan, on Rosh Chodesh Nisan, which is Rosh Hashanah for kings, that this king should be overthrown and there should be a new king there which is

11:10 better and nicer. So this happened. So now we have the Alter Rebbe and Rabbi Shlomo of Karlin in the year Tet Kuft Nun Beis having a dispute, an argument. The Alter Rebbe says the Russian Tsar should win the war, and Rabbi Shlomo of Karlin said the Polish army should win the war. And they were deciding which malach in the heavens should have the upper hand, should be the stronger one. And now Rabbi Motta of Nesvizh was charged by the Bet Din Shamayim to decide which one, which side should win, the Alter Rebbe's opinion or Rabbi Shlomo of Karlin's opinion. It was the night of the Seder, and the sons of Rebbe Motta of Nesvizh... He had two sons, and one of the sons told this story to his son, and his son wrote it up in a Sefer. It was the night of the Seder, and Rabbi Motta of Nesvizh, everybody's waiting for the Rebbe to come out for the Seder. Rab Motke says to his children, "Listen, tonight I'm gonna take a while. I'm gonna be in my room locked up, and it's going to be a while before I come out for the Seder. Go learn something because it's gonna take me a while." Nobody understood because it says in... What does it say? That the Tatte kommt heim from shul, that right away, as soon as it gets dark, you daven and you right away make the Seder. It says you shouldn't wait. So it's very strange that the great tzadik, Rab

12:37 Motke of Nesvizh, is, is going to have the Seder late at night. He's gonna start the Seder late at night. He's going into his room, locking himself up. Nobody understood. What is he trying to do? Why is he locking himself up? What's going on? They knew something was going on. What was even more surprising and shocking, Rab Motke of Nesvizh told his shamash, "Listen, Yankel, you stand by my door. I'm gonna go inside my room, lock the door. Don't let anybody in. There might be maybe two people that you don't know. They look very important Rabbanim, with long white beards, with long kapotes, and with big hats. They look like very important Rabbanim, and they're gonna come to you, say, 'Please let us in to the Rebbe.' Say, 'No. You can't go in. The Rebbe told me no one can go in.' And even if they beg you and they say, 'Please let us in for just a minute to say shalom aleichem, to get a bracha from him,' you'll say, 'No, no, no, no, can't go in.' Absolutely don't let them in." So then he says, "And you know what? Sometimes there might be-- You might have people that look like high, important government officials, like very important ministers of government. One of them can be a minister from the Polish government. The other guy may be another minister from the Russian government, goyim. But they're very important ministers. They come dressed in fancy clothes and they say, 'We are very important government officials,

14:12 and we want to see the rabbin.' You tell them, 'No, the rabbin doesn't want to see anybody. Don't come in. Get away. Go away. We-- He can't see anybody now.' Now, they will want to bribe you. They're gonna say, 'We'll give you a lot of money. Let us in.' You say, 'I don't want any money. Don't give me any money. It's Yom Tov, I can't take any money anyways. But forget it, I, I, I can't let you in.' So when they leave, you might have some other visitors, some important generals, army officials, very high-ranking, important generals. One general will be a general from the Russian army. The other guy will, will look like a general from the Polish army, and they'll come with their swords and they'll say to you, 'Let us in to the rabbin.' And you'll say, 'No, I can't.' And they'll say, 'Hey, here's some money, Jew. We'll give you some money. Let us in.' You'll say, 'No, absolutely not.' You stand in front of the door. Don't let them through. Don't let them through the door. And then you know what they'll do? Maybe they might threaten you with their swords. They'll take out their swords and say, 'If you don't let us in, we'll kill you right here, right here on the spot.' You should go mesirat nefesh and stand in front of the door and say, 'I don't care if you kill me. I can't let you in.'" That's all the Rebbe telling the shamash, Yankel. And Yankel, the

15:34 shamash, is shocked, surprised. Why is the Rebbe telling him this? The Rebbe goes into his room, locks the door, and lo and behold, after ten minutes, two very important-looking Rabbanim with long white beards, with long kapotes and shtreimels, and they come to the shamash, says, "Yankel, please let us in. We want to take a bracha from the Rebbe." Yankel says, "No, no, no, no. You can't come in, please." And they beg him, "Please let us just say shalom aleichem to the Rebbe." He says, "No, no, no." So finally, they have no choice and they leave. Ten minutes later, there's some sound and noise outside in the courtyard, some big wagon arriving on the night of Pesach. Obviously, it's goyim, and you hear, like, noise of horses, and in come two very, very important-looking government officials. One is an official with the Polish government. One was a great important official of the Russian government, and they speak in Russian and Pol- and Polish, and they say to Yankel, "We need to go in to see the rabbin." And he says, "No, you cannot go in. The rabbin said nobody should go in." And they said, "Listen, we'll give you a lot of money. Here, take, take a lot of money. Let us in." And he says, "No, no, no." And he stands in front of the door. He doesn't let them in, and he said, "I can't let you in." And they beg him and beg him and beg him. He said, "No, no, no, no."

17:01 After a while, they gave up and they left. Ten minutes later, whoa, now he hears horses, horses coming into the courtyard, making a lot of noise with their hooves. And then he sees the door opens up, and two tall, big, um, generals from the army. One was a Russian general, the other one was a Polish general, with swords and guns, and they're coming in. They said, "Hey, Jew." They don't talk to him respectfully. They speak to him like they're not nice to the Jews. They're, they're anti-Semites. They really hate Jews. And they say, "Hey, you Jew, let us in to the rabbin. We need to talk to him right now." And he said, "No, I'm sorry. You cannot talk to him now. He doesn't want to see anybody." And they said, "Well, we'll give you some money, Jew." And he said, "No, no, no, no. I can't let in no money. I don't care. You can't come in." So then they pull their swords out and they said, "Hey, Yankel, if you don't let us in, we're gonna kill you right now." Yankel remembered what the Rebbe told him: Go mesirat nefesh. Even if they kill you, jump in front of the door. Don't let them come in. And when Yankel jumps in front of the door, he says, "You can kill me," he says, "but I can't let you in." So the two generals put their swords back, and they push Yankel aside and go and open the door without his permission. Yankel screams

18:34 out and faints, and falls on the ground, totally unconscious. He doesn't know what happened afterwards because he's unconscious. But the two sons of the Rebbe, of Reb Motra, who were sitting in the other room learning, waiting for their father to come out for the Seder, heard a noise, Yankel screaming and then falling down. They wanted to come see. They rush over and they see that there's nobody there except Yankel is on the floor, and then that's it. Their father is still in the room, locked up. After a while, Yankel woke up and Reb Motra opened the door. There was nobody inside, just Reb Motra. He came out of the door and says, "We're going for the Seder now." The two sons of Reb Motra asked Yankel, "Why did you faint? What happened-- Why did you scream? What happened?" 'Cause they couldn't see anybody, 'cause these people were not real people. These were Malachim from Shamayim. First, they came dressed as Rabbanim. They thought they'll be able to go in. And then when they couldn't go in, they came dressed like government officials, and then they came dressed like generals. But Reb Motra said to his sons, "I'll tell you what happened, and then you'll understand why Yankel fainted and why he screamed." And he told his two sons, "There's a big war going on between Russia and Poland, and the two Malachim, the Malach of Russia and the Malach of Poland, had a big debate in front of the Beis Hamikdash. The Beis Hamikdash decided

20:13 that there are three Tzadikim here in this world that need to decide whose war-- whic-which country should win the war." And he said, "The Alter Rebbe, he decided, the Alter Rebbe Baal Hatanya, he said that the Russian, the Russians should win." And the Alter Rebbe said, "Why should the Russians win?" Because he said, "What did the Polish, uh, Malach say?" The Polish Malach says, "Oh, we-- f-a few hundred years ago, we were nice to the Jews." Hashem doesn't look at what you did before, He looks at you now. What are they doing now? They're killing people for even breaking a small law. That's not a, not a good way to do a la- a law. That's not, that's not good justice. That's not the way you run a country. You don't kill people even for the slightest law that they break. And now they're bad, so therefore the Russians should win. The Russians, they don't kill people. Even if people do something serious, they don't kill them. They send them to Siberia. And it says in the Torah, you always judge a person by what he does now, not by what he did before or what he's gonna do later. We look at him now. How is he behaving now? And of course, the Alter Rebbe also pointed to the Mishnah. You have to pray for the, for the success of your country where you live. They protect you. So I, I believe that the Russian, the Malach of the Russian government should win, and

21:38 therefore the Russian army should win over Poland. Reb Shlomo Carlina argued and said, "No, the Polish government should win, because they were nice to the Jews. They let the Jews in when they were running away from Spain." And also Reb, Reb Shlomo was-- lived in Poland, so he wanted to, uh, support the country that he lived in. You have to daven for the success of your country. So here we have two Tzadikim against each other. One prayed for the Russians, one prayed for the Poles. It's like today, there are Shluchim who live in Ukraine. There are Shluchim that live in Russia. What are they gonna do? The Shluchim that live in Russia have to be nice to the Russian government. The people that are living in, in Ukraine have to be nice to the Ukrainian government. It's a very difficult place to be. Came now the two Malachim of the two countries were supposed to go to Reb Motra of Nesliz, that he should decide which, which Tzadik should be followed. Should the Alter Rebbe be right, or should Reb Shlomo Carlina be right? If the Alter Rebbe is right, then the Russian army should win the war. They should conquer Poland. And if the Polish Malach wins, then Poland should win. Reb Motra said to his two sons, "I knew that these two Malachim were gonna come to me. They're gonna come dressed in the dress of Rabbanim or a dress of government official. They're gonna try to get into my room, but I

23:07 didn't want to decide between these two great Tzadikim. The Alter Rebbe, Reb Shlomo Carlina, these are giant Tzadikim. I don't wanna get involved in their Machloket, in their dispute, in their debate. So I told Yankel the Shamesh, 'Don't open the door. Don't let anybody in.' And I described to him, they might come in the form of two Rabbanim, they might come in the form of government officials, they might come in the form of two generals. Don't let them in, even if they threaten to kill you. Because I didn't wanna get involved in this. Who am I to tell which Tzadik is right? But I knew that in the end, they will make it in. They'll push him aside, and they did make it into my room. And I listened to the two generals, which were really the two Malachim from Shamayim that came down in the form of generals. And I said to the... I turned first to the Malach of Poland because I live-- we live in Poland. Nesliz, the city of Nesliz is in Poland. I said to him, 'Tell me, you said that you should have the, the, the-- You should win the war because you were nice to the Jews when they left Spain. Tell me, were you nice to the Jews because you really tried to help the Jews, or because you thought that when the Jews come to your country, the Jews have very good way of doing business, and when Jews do business in your country, they'll bring

24:29 in a lot of money, they'll make you rich, they'll pay a lot of taxes? Isn't that the reason why you were nice to the Jews? Yeah, that's not a good reason why we should make you successful, because you didn't do it to help the Jews. You did it for yourself, because you knew the Jews are gonna bring a lot of business into your country and make the country rich. But you do something terrible. Your country,' he says to the Malach of Poland, 'your government down below, they kill people for every little s-thing that people break the law. Can you make me a Shevua? Swear me that from now on, they'll abolish capital punishment in Poland. Nobody will get killed. Whether a Jew or a non-Jew, nobody will get killed f-just for, for, for breaking the law.' And the melech of Poland said, "Well, maybe I'll try. Maybe, I'm not sure. I, I'm not sure I can make them do it." So then he turned to the melech of, of Russia. He says to him, "Can you promise me you'll never allow capital punishment where the government will kill people just for breaking the law?" And he says, "I promise. And I promise that will never happen. Our government will never have..." And it's true. Until the end of the tsar's period, before the communists came, there was no death penalty. At least there was no death penalty for normal, uh, you know, violations of the law, only for maybe very serious ones, like murder, somebody

25:57 killed somebody. But otherwise, they didn't have the death penalty for it. So the-- I decided that the Alter Rebbe is right, and the Russian government should win the war. Then he turned to his sons. Reb Mordechai turned to his sons and says, "You'll see in a week from now that you'll hear that the Russian government overran Poland, and there'll be no more Polish government for a long while because they'll all become part of Russia, and Russia will win the war." And that's exactly what happened. After Pesach, everybody heard that the Russians won the war, and the king of Poland surrendered to the Russian government, and the whole army of Poland surrendered to the Russian army, and Russia became in control of the entire Poland.