60. A Chossid Who Played Rebbe And Performed A Miracle

00:16 As Lag BaOmer is coming, I wanna share with you a story that is related to Lag BaOmer. Lag BaOmer, as you know, the Rebbeim in Chabad would often make miracles about children. People that didn't have children on Lag BaOmer was the perfect time when they would go to the Rebbe and the Rebbe would then show miracles. Many children that were born because of a bracha the Rebbe gave people on Lag BaOmer. Here is a story about two Hasidim who were able to pull off a miracle and bless someone with a child, even though their Rebbe wasn't able to do it, and here's the story. The great Chozeh of Lublin was a great tzadik, had many Hasidim. Many of his Hasidim were also great Rabbanim. They weren't Rebbes or tzadikim, but they were great Rabbanim. They served as Rabbanim in different cities, and they all would come to the Chozeh of Lublin from time to time for Shabbos or for Yom Tov. Once there were two of these Rabbanim, uh, one was a Rav, one was a dayan, a judge. One, one guy's name was Yochanan, another guy's name was Shimon. These two Hasidim of the Chozeh decided they wanted to go for Shabbos to spend time with the Chozeh of Lublin. They didn't have any money to pay for a wagon driver, so they didn't tell the wagon. They thought that when they get to Lublin, they'll ask people to loan them money, and then they'll pay the wagon driver. But they didn't tell the

01:56 wagon driver they don't have any money. They told him, "No, we'll pay you when we get there to Lublin." But they really didn't have any money. So the wagon driver took him on the way, took hours and hours. On the way, the wagon driver said, "I need food for the horse, you know, otherwise the horse can't go. Horse needs food, otherwise he can't travel." It's like today, a car without gas cannot travel. In those days, we didn't have cars, but we had horses. What was the fuel, the gas? The gas was food. You had to give food to the animal so the animal would continue to walk. So the wagon driver said to Yochanan and Shimon, the two Hasidim, "I don't have any food, and I need you-- I need to buy more food so we can continue on our road, so I need money." And the passengers, they had to pay for the food. So the Yochanan and Shimon said, "Listen, you know what? There's a village right nearby. Why don't we go into that village, and we'll spend a few hours, and we'll get you the money." Now, in that village, there was a Jew, a farmer, who was quite well-to-do, had a lot of money. He was a very simple man, and they thought they would stop over in his house, and they'll pretend... They won't tell him the truth. One of the Hasidim, Yochanan, will be a Rebbe, pretend to be a Rebbe. He'll act like a Rebbe, and Shimon will

03:25 pretend to be his gabbai. You know, in Europe, every great Rebbe had a, had a gabbai, like a guy who would take care of him, like a secretary. So one Hasid will be the Rebbe. He'll pretend he's a Rebbe, and the other Hasid will pretend to be the gabbai. And they'll go to this rich farmer, and they'll tell him the Rebbe came to town, and usually people would give money to Rebbes. Maybe the Rebbe would give them a bracha, so people would give money. So this way they'll have money to pay for the horse's food, and they'll be able to pay for the wagon driver when they get to Lublin. So they did so. Shimon was the gabbai. He said to the wagon driver, "Stop here. I'm gonna walk over to the house and knock on the door, and I'll tell the wa- the, the, the house, the house owner, the farmer that there's a big Rebbe coming to town. He's the Boyan Slava Rebbe. Okay?" So they stopped the wagon. Shimon went off, walked all the way to the door, knocked and knocked and knocked. Finally, the farmer opened the door, and he says, "Oh, good evening. Um, I'm the gabbai of the famous heilige tzadik, the Boyan, Boyan, Boyan, Boyan Rebbe." So the farmer said, "The Shmoye, the Boyan, Boyan, Boyan Rebbe? I never heard of him." So the gabbai said, "Well, well, he's, he's a very holy... You never heard of him? He's such a big tzadik. He's a holy tzadik. We

04:56 came, we were passing by, and we need a few hours to rest up. Can you please let us be in your house for a little, for a few hours to rest up and eat something so we can go back on our road on the way?" The farmer says, "Of course, of course. For this heilige tzadik, the Boyan, Boyan, Boyan Rebbe, of course. Come into my house. It'll be an honor for me." So Shimon went back to the wagon and says, "The farmer agreed to let us into his house. Let's go." Yochanan acts like a Rebbe. He puts on, like, a hat and closes his eyes, and, and Shimon goes ahead, and he supports him, and, and holds his hand like, like a gabbai holds the hand of the Rebbe, and he takes him into the house. And the farmer says, "Oh, welcome, welcome. Shalom aleichem, that you came to my, uh, to my, uh, to my house. Here, I'm gonna give you a special room." He says, "The Rebbe, here is your private room where you can sit and do the things you do. You study Torah, you say tehilim. Whatever you do as a Rebbe, I'll let you sit there quietly. This is your special room." And the Gabai, he's sitting with a farmer in the other room, schmoozing with him, trying to see if he can get some money out of him. And he says to the farmer, you know, this Rebbe, he's such a big tzaddik. You can't imagine. Thousands of people

06:16 come to him every day with broches, all kinds of things. People that are sick, he gives them a brocha and they get well right away. He's such a big Baal Mefis. He's a Baal Ruach HaKodesh. The farmer listens, really? Well, I also need a brocha. I have a very, very big problem. I need a very special brocha. He said, what kind of brocha do you need? Well, I need a brocha for children. For children? How long have you been married? I've been married for 25 years and I still don't have a child. So the Gabai said, really? So the farmer says, can I write a pan? A pan is like a note where you go to a Rebbe. You give him a note and tell him that you need a brocha for something. And then the Rebbe gives you a brocha and you give the Rebbe money for the brocha that he gives you. I'll give the Rebbe some money if he gives me a brocha that I'll have a child. The Gabai Shimon says, sure, sure, sure. Let me knock on the door, see if the Rebbe is ready to see you, you know. So Shimon knocks on the door and Yochanan, who acts and pretends to be the Rebbe, he says, yeah, come on in. And so the farmer goes in and Yochanan says, nu, what kind of brocha do you need? And the farmer says, I need a brocha for children. For children? You don't have any children? He said, no, I

07:42 don't have any children. How long have you been married? I've been married for 25 years. So Yochanan says, oy, oy, oy, 25 years. And Yochanan thinking in his head, the man hasn't had children in 25 years. Forget it. He's never going to have children. But he didn't tell him anything. He didn't want to tell him that. He pretended that, you know what, I'm going to give you a big brocha. He closes his eyes and he says a capital tilim. And then he opens his eyes and says, you know what, I give you a brocha that Hashem should give you a child. You'll have a son in a year from now. And the farmer says, amen. And then the farmer gives a nice amount of money to the Rebbe. Nu, Yochanan and Shimon, they see the money and they see there's enough money here for them to pay for the food of the horse and to pay the wagon driver. When they get to Lublin, they'll be able to pay the wagon driver for the trip. So they pretend that they stay for a little longer. And then they leave the house and they say goodbye to the farmer and thank him for letting them stay in his house. And now they're very happy to have the money. They come to Lublin and thousands of people came from all over Poland and from other countries. They came to see the Chazeh of Lublin. And as they go into the big shul, for the Chazeh's shul, and

09:11 the hundreds of people are there coming in and out, they hear a commotion. They don't know what is this commotion, what's going on. And so they ask what's going on. They say the Gabai is looking for two people. The Rebbe, the Chazeh of Lublin, said he's looking desperately for two people. What are the names of the two people he's looking for? One guy, his name is Yochanan and one guy's name is Shimon. He said, what? Our name is Yochanan and Shimon. From which town? They said the Rebbe said he wants to see Yochanan and Shimon from this and this town. So we are from that town. So he's looking for us. And they go over to the Gabai. Gabai says, you're Yochanan and Shimon from this and this town? And they said, yes. I've been looking for you for so long. The Rebbe wants to see you. So they get very scared. Why is the Rebbe calling them? What did they do wrong? So they get ready and they put on their gartel and their hats. And they go in to the Rebbe's room, the Chazeh of Lublin's room, with great fear and trepidation. And the Chazeh looks with his holy eyes at them. And he said to them, I don't understand something. This farmer that you visited just now before you came to Lublin on the way, he's been coming to me for 25 years. He's been asking me for a brocha for children. And I saw in Shomayim that I can't help him.

10:38 He wasn't meant to have children. No matter how much I davened, I saw it's not possible. So I could never give him a brocha. I always said to him, it'll be good, it'll be good, it'll be good. But I knew he can't have children. And now the two of you visited him. And one of you promised him a child or gave him a brocha for a child. And in Shomayim, they accepted it. He's going to have a baby in a year from now. And that indeed happened. In a year from that day, the farmer had a first baby boy after 26 years. But the Chazeh already knew now that the brocha was already accepted. He knew before the baby was born that there's going to be a baby. That this farmer and his wife will have a baby boy. So he said to Shimon and Yochanan, I don't understand. You two Chassidim were able to perform a mefis, a miracle that I couldn't do. But I want to know one thing. Which one of you played Rebbe and which one of you played Gabai? Apparently the Chazeh didn't know. He knew the whole story beruch HaKodesh. He knew that one guy was a Rebbe, the other one was a Gabai, and that they gave a brocha and that the brocha worked. He saw all of that in Shomayim, in the heavens. But he didn't know which one of them was the Rebbe, which one of them was the Gabbai. So he asked, "Tell me, which

12:11 one of you played Rebbe?" And these two Hasidim became very afraid. Didn't wanna tell the Rebbe who played Rebbe and who played Gabbai. First of all, you know, it's something that they did that they were a little bit embarrassed. They pretended, they cheated. They lied to the farmer, said that he's a Rebbe, but he wasn't a Rebbe. Just so he'd give them money. They didn't wanna tell The Chozeh who acted like a Rebbe here. Also, Hasidim don't perform miracles and moifos in front of a Rebbe. They have a Rebbe. So they were very embarrassed and didn't wanna tell The Chozeh who was Rebbe, who was Gabbai. They're afraid he's gonna be upset at them. So they kept quiet. So The Chozeh kept asking again, "Please tell me who-- which one of you was the Rebbe, which one of you was the Gabbai?" And they still didn't wanna answer. Finally, when The Chozeh asked a third time, one of them, Shimon Yehuda, said to The Chozeh, "Rebbe, I-- we see that you have Ruach Hakodesh. From Shomayim, they revealed to you that we visited this farmer. They revealed to you that we gave him a bracha, that we gave him bracha to have children, and they revealed to you that the bracha was accepted. How come they didn't reveal to you also who was the Rebbe and who was the Gabbai? Maybe that's a sign that from Shomayim they don't want you to know." That was a very clever answer. And when The Chozeh heard it,

13:48 he says, "You're right. You don't have to tell me." Now, this is the end of the story. This farmer really had a baby boy. Now, what's going on here? How come the bracha of these two Hasidim who pretended to be a Rebbe, they didn't even expect that the bracha would work. They just did it because they wanted to have the money, but it actually worked. And The Chozeh himself, the Rebbe of these Hasidim, couldn't do it. What is the meaning of that story? Obviously, it's very clear that these two Hasidim, they couldn't pull off such a moifis, such a miracle. They were just Hasidim. They weren't a Rebbe. They weren't tzadikim like The Chozeh. It was obviously the power of The Chozeh, the zechus of the tzadik that helped him give that bracha that worked. So how come The Chozeh himself couldn't do it? Only when they pretended that they are Rebbe and Hasid and Gabbai, only then was the zechus of The Chozeh able to give an effective bracha, a bracha that worked. The answer is, sometimes a Rebbe needs Hasidim to help him. Sometimes the Rebbe himself can't do it. He needs the Hasidim to bring out the power of the Rebbe himself. See, these Hasidim, they didn't think of themselves that they know anything, they're, they're able to do anything. They didn't think they can do a moifis. They didn't think they can do anything. But they were so committed to their Rebbe. They wanted to be at the Rebbe for Shabbos

15:24 and learn his Torah, and then take the Torah that they learned from him and use it in their lives and, and follow the teachings of the Rebbe in every day's life, become closer to Hashem and closer to Hashem, and they wanted it so badly that even though they didn't have any money, so they said, "Okay, we'll give him a bracha, so we'll have the money, but we really need to be by the Rebbe." Hashem saw how these Hasidim were so close to the Rebbe and so devoted to the Rebbe. So that Hashem says, "I'll bring out the greater zechus of the tzadik that the tzadik himself didn't know he had, but the Hasidim are able to bring it out." And then they were able to perform this moifis. Sometimes Hasidim aid the Rebbe, so to speak. That's what it says. So when we are close to the Rebbe, we're also making the Rebbe more effective in the world. But we have to show our total commitment and devotion to our Rebbe, and then the Rebbe is able to perform even greater miracles because of our devotion to him. Just like these two Hasidim of The Chozeh were able to perform a moifis. It's not they performed, it's through The Chozeh they were able to do it. But because of their devotion to The Chozeh. A freilechen lebbn.