64. Reb Zushe Sends A Letter To His Brother Reb Elimelech In Gan Eden

00:15 Hello, kinderlach. Today I'm gonna tell you a gevaldig story which happened to Reb Zusha of Hanipoli. After Reb Elimelech, the brother of Reb Zusha, was nistalek, Reb Zusha happened to travel through a town. In that city, there lived a young man who was a Hasid and a Talmud of Reb Elimelech. Reb Elimelech had passed away. This young man used to, used to be a Hasid of Reb Elimelech when Reb Elimelech was alive. At that time, this young man-- when Reb Zusha traveled through that city where this young man lived, this young man was very, very ill. He was dangerously sick. The doctor said that he's gonna die soon because he's so sick. Now, the family of this young man found out that Reb Zusha is in town, so they rushed to Reb Zusha to mention the name of the young man, the, the chole, the person who was sick, and they begged him, and they said, "Please daven for him. Daven for this young man. He's a Hasid. He was a Hasid of your brother who passed away." So Reb Zu- so Reb Zusha came, visited the sick, and started davening for him. He tried very hard to break the very-- the, the, the terrible decree in Shamayim against this young man, hoping that he can turn-- overturn the decree and that this young man will live. But it seemed that Reb Zusha saw there's nothing he can do. It was already, you know, decided in Shamayim that this young man has to die. And

02:05 unfortunately, this is what happened. The young man died a short while later. But at the levaya, the funeral, Reb Zusha went and accompanied like everybody else, gave kavod to the, to the deceased, to the meis. And by the levaya, Reb Zusha said like this: "I'll do him a favor at least now. I couldn't save him. I couldn't save his life, but I'll at least help him now, so he will remember that Zusha was here in town." How is he gonna help the person who passed away? So Reb Zusha took a piece of paper, wrote down on, on a note-- on the piece of paper a note, "My dear brother, Elimelech, I beg you, make sure that this young man, his neshamah is coming up to Gan Eden now, that he will be not far from you, close to you in Gan Eden. Bring him close to you in Gan Eden." And Reb Zusha took this note, put it into the hand of the niftar, the person, the young man who passed away, he put it into his hand, into his dead hand, and he closed the hand, and then he spoke to the young man who passed away. He spoke to him and said, "This note you should give to my brother, Reb Elimelech. Now, many will come to you on the way to Gan Eden. There will be many neshamahs are gonna come and ask you, 'Please give me that note,' because they'll know this note is a valuable note, and they're gonna wanna

03:41 take it from you. But you should not listen to them. No matter what they promise you, don't give it away. Don't listen to any what they say. Even if they beg you, don't. Now, don't le-leave it out of your hand until you come to my brother. Now, I'll give you a sign to recognize who my brother is. He's very tall. He stands out higher than everybody else." That's what he said. Uh, who knows why Reb Zusha told this young man what Reb Elimelech looked like. This young man was a Hasid of Reb Elimelech. He saw Reb Elimelech when he was alive. I guess he didn't mean it physically that he was tall. He meant something spiritual, right? That his neshamah is-- stands out above other neshamahs, and he'll see it, and then he'll know this is Reb Elimelech, the, the neshamah of Reb Elimelech, and he'll give him this note. But Reb Zusha said, "I give you one condition, though." He told this young-- this-- the, the meis, the dead person, he said to him, "I'm giving you this note, and I want you to take it to my brother in Gan Eden, but I make one condition with you. You come and tell me afterwards what happened. What happened in Gan Eden with you?" A year passed by, and the young man came to Reb Zusha, and he was very thankful. He likes praising and thanks-- thanked Reb Zusha from the depths of his heart for-- he did such a kindness with me. "You

05:05 helped me so much." And he began to tell to Reb Zusha what happened. He said, "Indeed, you were right. Many people tried to get this little note that you gave me out of my hand. They wanted it, but I kept very, very close to my heart what you said. You said not to give it to anyone. And I held on to it until I came to Reb Elimelech, till I knew this is for sure Reb Elimelech, and I followed the signs you gave me that he's tall, and I gave him the note, and I told him, 'This is from your brother, Reb Zusha, who is still a-alive here on Earth in the world.'" Reb Elimelech took the note. This is what the neshamah of this Talmud tells Reb Zusha, "Your brother, Reb Elimelech, took the note from me, and he was very surprised." He says, "How does my brother know this young man?" And why is he so concerned for him that I should take care of him in Gan Eden, put him next to me? He's my chasid, not his. How would he know about him? Why would he make such an effort to do him such a favor, to bring him to Gan Eden close to me? But you know what says Rebbe L'Melech after a while, I'm not surprised. My brother is such a Oyev Yisroel. He loves every single person. Even if it's not his chasid, he cares about him with all his heart. After a while, Rebbe L'Melech took care

06:39 of this neshama and he makes sure that he was not far from his heichal, from his place in Gan Eden, as his brother Rebbe Zusha had asked of him. So this is all telling the nifter, the person who passed away, his neshama came to Rebbe Zusha in the dream and told him this. So then Rebbe Zusha said to him, well, thank you for coming back and telling me all this, but I have another request from you. I saw and noticed my neshama went up to the higher worlds. I saw there was a big commotion. Many, many neshamas of tzaddikim were rushing to welcome the neshama of a great person that came from Olam HaZe, from this world. Somebody had passed away. His neshama went up L'Meilah and many neshamas of tzaddikim were rushing to go welcome him to Gan Eden. Now, it seemed from that, this must have been the neshama of a great tzaddik that had arrived in Gan Eden from Olam HaZe, from this world. But I haven't heard of any great tzaddikim that had passed away recently. So I couldn't understand that when my neshama, you know, Rebbe Zusha when he davened, sometimes his neshama would go up in L'Meilah, in the heavens. So you heard, you saw this incredible commotion. Hundreds and thousands of neshamas were rushing to greet this new neshama that came from Olam HaZe. He said, I didn't hear in the news. I would have heard about it that somebody had died. Somebody, some great tzaddik had passed

08:19 away. So I want to know what was this commotion about. So I'm begging you, go and find out and come tell me what was it, who was this neshama that everybody was so excited to meet and welcome to Gan Eden. So a few days went by and the Yugerman, the nifter who passed away, came back to Rebbe Zusha. And he told him what happened with this neshama. Who is this neshama that arrived in Gan Eden that caused such a commotion? He told him like this. Because of your effort and your work, you asked my brother to put my neshama close to his heichal, to his place. So I was able to be close to Rebbe L'Melech. So when I was in my place in Gan Eden, I yelled at Rebbe L'Melech and I said, your brother Zusha wants to know who this neshama is. And I heard Rebbe L'Melech responding like this. To my brother, I will give an answer. Because if I don't tell him, he'll start fasting. Because Rebbe Zusha was like this. If he wanted to know something in the Gemara, he wanted to understand the Rambam, he wanted to understand the Chumash and he didn't understand, he would cry. And then he would fast like three, four days at once, maybe three days. He would fast without even breaking his fast at night. He would like fast straight for three days, 24 hours. And because until Hashem would make sure that he understands what the Gemara is saying, he understands what

09:55 Teche is saying, because it bothered him so much. So when he needs something to know, he's going to cry and daven and fast. So I'm going to give him the answers. He shouldn't fast. I want him to be healthy. So tell him what went on here with this neshama. He said like this. The neshama that came to Gan Eden was actually a simple farmer who had passed away. He was a very good Jew. He learned Mishnayis and he used to ziri the Zohar. He didn't understand the Zohar, but he read the words. He was a very simple person. There's one thing that he did that was so outstanding. He did Hachnasas Orchim. He would invite guests in an exceptional way. His house was always open, wide open for anyone who passed by. And he never took money from any Jew for food and drinking. In his last years, this farmer decided that in addition to doing Hachnasas Orchim in his house, he lived in a village. He had a farm. So anybody who traveled through would be able to come into his house and eat and drink and sleep. In addition to having his home opened up to all the guests, he will also open up a shul for guests. No, not a shul, a house for guests. Hachnasas Orchim, like a little motel, a little inn where people Where? Not in the village. Outside the village on the highway where a lot of people were traveling. So instead of them having to go into

11:34 the village to stay in the farmer's house, he made a special place outside on the road so they don't have to bother to go inside the village. As they travel, they stop over on the side of the road. There's this big inn and they can stay there and eat and drink and sleep for free. And they can eat wine, drink wine. They can eat cake and cookies and coffee and no charge. That made it much easier for people that traveled quickly to just stop over, take a cup of coffee. Either they stayed overnight or they didn't stay overnight, but they drank something, they ate something, and they were able to get new strength to go on with the journey. Now, Malach Michol, as we know, is the Malach in Shamayim that always tells Hashem how great the Jewish people are. He always tries to find the great mitzvahs Jews do to tell Hashem, "Look how great the Jewish people are," 'cause he's the defender of the Jewish people. So the Malach Michol made a big deal about this Jew, this farmer. He said to Hashem, "Look at this farmer. He's such an amazing guy. Look, he opened his home to anybody who wants to come to his home. Now he decided to open a new hotel where he's going to let anybody pass by, come in and eat and drink for free." So Malach Michol said, "Look, Hashem, you should be nice to the Jewish people. Look what precious and wonderful Jewish people w- you

13:00 have." Came to Satan, and Satan didn't like it. Satan said, "Wait a second. This farmer, eh, what's the big deal? You know why he's doing it? Not because it's a mitzvah. He's not doing the mitzvah of hachnasat orchim because he wants to do a big mitzvah. He wants people to see and hear about him. People say, 'Wow, look at this farmer. He built a new hotel where everyone can come there and stay for free and eat and drink for free. Wow.' And everyone's gonna sing his praises and say what a great guy he is. He's just doing it for his own self." But Malach Michol said, "No, no, no, no, no. This is nonsense. Why would he do it just because he wants to be proud so people would say nice things about him? That's ridiculous. Why would he spend so much money and so much time to have, uh, have people drink and eat for free? No." So finally, the Malach Michol suggested to the Satan, "You go down and test this farmer the way you wanna test him. Test him whatever way you want. You'll see that he's really, really a good person, and he does everything for Hashem's sake." And so the Satan accepted the offer, and one day somebody showed up at the doorstep of this farmer. The-- Who was this man who was at the doorstep of the farmer? He was the manager of the fields and houses and many, many properties of a very big poretz. Now, there was

14:34 a big poretz in the region, in the area. He was the poretz of the entire area. All the villages and towns belonged to him, and he had a big manager, and, um, he w- the manager was very famous. Everybody knew he was the manager of all the towns and all the villages, and he owned all the houses, and he showed up at the house of this farmer. Now, this farmer never met this manager before face to face, but he heard about him. He knew that he was very powerful. He can do whatever he wanted. He controls everything. And he knew that, um, you know, that this manager controlled all the stores and all the businesses and all the farms. If he wanted to kick you off a farm, he can kick you off a farm. You wouldn't have any income, any parnasah, any money. He, he, he can control everything. He was very powerful. So he knew that this manager, he better treat him nicely. He comes to his house for the first time, there must be a good reason, right? So he's gonna take good care of him, be very nice to him, so he wouldn't hurt him. He wouldn't take away his business, wouldn't take away his house. So he was very anxious to take care of this manager, but as he's busy taking care of this very important manager, there was a commotion outside. A wagon of a Jew came into the courtyard of the house of this farmer, and it's a

16:09 Jew who was traveling through the village, and he knew that this farmer's house is always open for everyone to come and stay and eat and drink and sleep, and he was coming to stay in the house, maybe to have some food and, and relax and s-sit down on the couch and schmooze with the farmer. He came just to have a good time. Now, the farmer realized he has this manager waiting for him to treat him to a nice cup of vodka and a little mezuzahs, right? He wanted to be nice to him, but there's a Jew coming to the door. It's a mitzvah to do hachnasat orchim to this Jew. So he ran outside. He told the manager to wait and went outside to greet the Jew to come into his house. And he quickly brought the Jew inside and put food and drinks in front of him, and as he finished taking care of the Jewish guest, he went over back to his goyishe, uh, guest, the, the manager of, of, of the poretz, and, uh, to see that... whether he can help him with anything. It turns out that the manager, while the Jew ran off to invite the other Jew to do hachnasat orchim, the manager got very insulted, and he left. He left angrily. So it seems like the manager was very hurt, and now, well, he knew he was in trouble because this manager could have hurt him a lot. But in his heart, he was thinking, "Listen, I did

17:41 a mitzvah. I ha- I, I took another Jew who was hungry and tired and needed a place to stay, so I'm not worried. Hashem is great, and Hashem is in charge. He'll protect me." That was the first test. Who was the manager of the poretz? None other than the Satan, came dressed like the manager. He wanted to see if this farmer is gonna do the mitzvah hachnasat orchim even though he might end up, uh, upsetting the manager. Then a while went by, and one day- As a Cossack, a Cossack from the Russian army... You know, the Cossacks were very dangerous. He was armed with knives and some guns. A Cossack walked into the house of the, of the farmer, and he looked very mean. It was very scary to look at him. He was tall and big and strong, and he had knives everywhere, and he came into the house, like very angry and, and, and he's, he's... And took his, his big gun, and he held it pointing to the farmer and said, "Give me a meal right now. I'm starving or else you know what's gonna happen." The farmer was like very anxious. He ran quickly and took care of the Cossack. But as he was trying to take care of the Cossack and prepare the table and put a nice meal in front of the Cossack, another Jew knocked on the door. It seems like a Jew that came from a very far road and needed help, and the Jew, the farmer,

19:32 as he heard the Jew on the other side of the door coming to the door, he left the Cossack sitting there by himself and ran to the door to welcome this Jew into the house. And he took the Jew into his arms, said, "Ah, Shalom Aleichem, come inside." He was so happy to see him, and he brought him into the, into the house and put him by the table, and of course, gave him all the things he needed, food and drinks. And of course, he made sure that the Jew would wash his hands and eat his meal. But as his guest, the Jew, was eating his meal, he remembered, "Oh, yeah, I left the Cossack in the other room all by himself, and he has guns. He's got knives." So he went quickly back to see if he can take care of the Cossack, but then he saw the Cossack also disappeared, like he's gone. And that was the second test that the Satan tested this guest. There was a third test. The third test was... This was actually-- this happened very close to the time when this farmer was about to die, end of his life. The Satan showed up to the house of this farmer dressed like a disgusting-looking beggar. He had bruises all over him. He had leprosy, metzora'as, all over his body, and he looked awful. He looked like full of diseases and sicknesses. But the farmer was not, you know, um, upset or anything. He took him in the house

21:12 very friendly like he always did with everybody even though this, this guy looked very awful and disgusting. He put him by the table, and he gave him the best food he could find, and, uh, during the meal, he poured him a cup of, of, of wine and, and, and even gave him l'chaim and, and, and it made him feel very good. And then he hears that the poor man, this disgusting-looking poor man, is mumbling to himself, and he's saying, "Oh, this guy is for sure doing this for Hashem's sake, not for himself." And as he says these words, this disgusting-looking beggar says these words, he disappears, and the farmer was shocked. "Where, where is he? Suddenly he's gone." And so this was the third test, and this was the Satan coming to test him. When his neshamah went up to Gan Eden, an announcement was made in all the upper worlds that he deserves honor like one of the greatest tzadikim of the generation, and the entire ar- army of neshamahs from all over Gan Eden came rushing to welcome this special neshamah of this simple farmer. This was everything told by this Hasid of Reb Elimelech, this young man who Reb Zusha helped by giving him a note in his hand to bring to his brother in Gan Eden that he should put him next to him in Gan Eden, right? And again, he also came back to tell him to solve the second mystery that Reb Zusha had. Who was this great neshamah

23:05 that came to Gan Eden that everybody was so excited to meet? Reb Zusha himself told that story 'cause he wanted people to know how great in Shamayim is when people do achvas Yisroel, and generally, Ahavas Yisroel, and that Hashem loves it when people show ahavas yisroel to another person, even if it's a simple person who doesn't know much, but he gave his life to help other people with mesirus nefesh.