74. The Heiliger Rizhiner Performs Techiyas Hameisim

00:16 Hello, kindeleh. I'm gonna tell you a story, an, an amazing story of the holy Rizhiner, Rebbe Yisroel of Rizhin. There was a Jew in the Ukraine who was a Hasid of the Heilige Rizhiner, Rebbe Yisroel of Rizhin. He had a big factory where they made soap. He manufactured soap, and he sold the soap all over Ukraine and all over Russia. This Jew, this Hasid who owned the factory, had a manager who was a Jew, but not a Hasid. He was just a good Jew who, who was, uh, keeping Torah and mitzvahs, but he was not a Hasid, and he was the manager of the factory. Now, in the factory, there worked... A number of workers were involved in the factory. One of them was a goy by the name Ivan. Ivan used to work every week from Monday till Friday. He used to work in the factory. Sunday, he would not come to the factory 'cause it's Sunday, and the goyim, Sunday, they go to the church, so he didn't come to work on Sundays. Once, Ivan, this Ivan, who was a young man in his early 20s, got into a fight with his father. His father threw him out of the house, told him, "Get out of my house. I don't wanna see you." So Ivan was left outside, decided he's gonna go to the factory. It was Sunday morning. He went to the factory, and he got so up- he was so upset that his father kicked him out, and he decided he

01:59 doesn't wanna live anymore, and he killed himself. And Sunday morning, later on, the manager, the Jew who was the manager of the factory, came into the factory, unlocked the factory, and he sees Ivan has died, and he's right there in the factory. So he got very afraid because Ivan was a goy, and if a goy is found in a Jewish factory dead, the goyim will suspect that the Jew killed him, and then they'll, uh, k- kill the Jews because they killed Ivan. So he realized that he needs to do something, something to hide the body of Ivan so nobody will be able to find him in the Jewish factory. So he took the body, and he buried him somewhere in a secret place, uh, outside the, near the factory, and nobody could find him there. The manager didn't even tell the owner. He didn't want anybody to know what he did. He was afraid that the, that the goyim will find out, and then they'll accuse him, the manager, 'cause he was there in the factory that morning, and they'll accuse him, and then they'll kill him. So he told nobody, not even the owner of the factory. Meanwhile, Ivan disappeared, and in his house, his father was hoping that he would come back after he kicked him out. Yeah, so, uh, he's gotta live somewhere. But Ivan wasn't coming home one day, another day, another day, so people started searching for him. They couldn't find him anywhere. Finally, there were people, goyim, uh, who

03:44 said, "Let's go to the factory. Maybe he worked there every single day. Maybe they know what happened to him." But of course, the owner of the factory, the Hasid, he didn't know anything. He said the truth. "You know, I have no idea what happened to Ivan. I haven't seen him in... I haven't seen him in the factory." Now, the manager did know what happened to Ivan because he buried him, but he also pretended he doesn't know anything. And then, okay, so there was nobody, nobody said they know anything. But then there were two witnesses, goyim, who said that they saw Ivan going early Sunday morning, walking to the factory. And so they s- made a libel. They accused the owner of the factory, he must have killed him because the last time we saw Ivan was when he walked to the factory Sunday morning, and then he disappeared. So the only, there's only one option, one possibility, that the owner of the factory, the Hasid, he must have killed him. And right away, the police arrested this Hasid, and they took some money from him. They said, "Listen, we'll take like a mashkan," right? Take a... It's called bail. You give money, and you promise that... A big lump sum of money. They hold your money, and they say, "You have to promise you're gonna come to the court at a certain date where we're gonna judge you in front of the court, and then you can get your money back, but if you don't

05:15 show up, we take away your money." So this way, they make sure that the person doesn't run away and comes to the court. In the meanwhile, so they let him go, and he had to give a guarantee of a certain amount of money, and, um, he was able to go free for a while until the court date. So this Hasid, he knew he was in a lot of trouble, and the court case was set for a month later. So he said, "In the meantime, I'll go to my rebbe, the holy Rizhiner," and he told the Rizhiner his whole problem and the terrible danger that he's in. And the Rizhiner said to him, "Calm down." Don't be afraid of anything. He says, "Ivan will be found. Don't worry." See, the Hasid, the owner of the factory, didn't know that Ivan is dead 'cause the manager never told him. So he thought maybe Ivan is really alive, he just ran away somewhere. He's hiding. So the Rizhiner said to him, "Don't worry, Ivan will be found. Don't be afraid." Now, the court case was supposed to be in the big city, the capital of Ukraine, which is Kiev. The time, the day came when the court case was supposed to be happening, so the police came and they took the Jew, they put him in, in, in, in shackles and k- and they tied his hands, and they took him to the courthouse of Kiev. Now all the Goyim from Kiev heard about this case and by

06:52 the court case against the Jew who is suspected and accused of killing this non-Jew, this Ivan. So they all wanted to see what's happening in the courthouse, how it's gonna turn out, will they make him guilty or not, and they all wanted to go to the courthouse to see and watch how the judge is going to decide this case. So many people were walking to the courthouse. Now there was another group of Goyim that was walking down the street. They didn't know about anything. They didn't know about the court case. They see everybody's running towards the courthouse. They're asking. So they, this group of Goyim asked the other Goyim who were going to the courthouse, "Where are you going? Where, where are you going? Why is everybody going to the courthouse?" So they told them, "You know Ivan? The guy Ivan was killed by a Jew, and now we're going to the courthouse to see how the judge is going to decide his case. We're all very curious. We wanted to see." So these group of Goyim said, "What? Ivan was killed? But you saw him. But you saw Ivan." Ivan is actually right by the river. Near Kiev, there's a river where people who want to cross the river need a little boat. So Ivan has this little boat, and for a little fee, for a little money, he would take people from one side of the river to the other side. And they said, "You know, this Ivan is a really interesting guy.

08:15 If you don't pay him the money he wants, he doesn't take you over to cross the river." When the Goyim who were walking to the courthouse heard about it, they told the father of Ivan. Father of Ivan was also there, and they told the police, "Look what these guys are saying, that he's-- they saw Ivan." So everybody decided to go to the river. The father of Ivan, the police, and the Goyim that heard it, that heard this, this, this story that, that Ivan is actually by the river, they all walked to the river, and indeed, Ivan was right there working hard, getting people onto the ship, get them off the ship, traveling across the river. Ivan is right there. When the father of Ivan saw his son Ivan, when Ivan's father saw his son, he ran over to him in a rage, angry. He said, "You, my... Ivan, where were you for all this time? You see, we all thought you were dead and, and, and we accused your boss, the owner of the factory, the Jew, that he killed you. But now you're really here. Why are you causing all this trouble?" And he started beating him up and punching him. And Ivan said, "F- Daddy, uh, don't, don't slap me. I'm gonna slap you back. I have enough of you." He said, "Enough of you beating me in the house. Whenever I lived in the house, you always beat me up. Now I, I don't want you to beat me up here outside

09:33 the house. I don't wanna go back to the house 'cause you beat me up all the time, and I'm gonna beat you back if you beat me. And I'm sick and tired of you beating me all the time. And you know what? I, I don't wanna live anymore." And he said, "I'm gonna jump into the water, into the river, and drown myself, so I don't have to put up with all this beating up that you do. Always beat me up all the time and make me so much trouble and pain." And with that, Ivan jumped into the water, and he drowned. So of course, the Hasid was let set free because everybody saw that he never killed Ivan, because Ivan was alive and well. He just killed himself now in front of his father and in front of all the Goyim and the police. Now, this Hasid saw this amazing miracle, how his life was saved because of the bracha of the Reb Israel of Rizhin. He told the Rizhiner, he said, "Don't worry, Ivan will be found." He decided he's gonna go to the Rizhiner, prepare a beautiful gift, and to thank the Ha- the holy Rebbe for giving him, for saving his life and performing this incredible miracle. Now the manager, who was not a Hasid, also decided he wants to go with his, uh, you know, boss, the Hasid, and go see the Rizhiner. They both went into the room of the Rizhiner, and the Hasid thanked the Rizhiner, told him the

10:58 whole story. They actually found Ivan as the Rebbe predicted. Ivan was right alive and well, but he just killed himself afterwards in front of everyone. So now he's free, the Hasid is free, and they're not going to hurt him. They're not going to punish him. So the Rizhiner was very happy to hear the news that his Hasid was saved. And but the manager, he was not a Hasid. He was very, very curious because he knew the truth, and he's the only one who knew the truth that Ivan actually did die way before. He died in the factory. But he kept this as a secret. Nobody knew about it. He-- only he knew that Ivan actually did die before and that he mer- buried him. So he turned to the Rizhiner. He says, "Rebbe, no, my boss, the Hasid, he doesn't know of anything. He doesn't know that Ivan actually really did die." And he thought that Ivan just ran away from his father, and he was alive until when he jumped into the river. But I know the truth. I know that Ivan killed himself in the factory. And in order to protect the community or to protect my boss, that they shouldn't make an accusation that he killed him, I, with my own hands, I, I, I buried him. So how did he become alive suddenly? A few weeks later, we see him alive by the river, working with a boat. I know the truth. For me, you can't tell bubbe meises. So tell

12:49 me what's going on here. Was he dead or alive?" So the Rege ner said to the, to the manager, "I'll tell you a story. There was once a tzadik, he called him a Stam Bal Shem." Bal Shem is a... We know of the Bal Shem Tov, but there were other Bal Shems too. A Bal Shem is usually a term that you use for a tzadik who performs great miracles. Bal Shem, the owner of the name, the name of Hashem, people that are great tzadikim, they were able to use the powers of the name of Hashem and perform great miracles. So he called this tzadik Stam Bal Shem. He didn't say his name, but there was this story with the Stam Bal Shem and a Jew who owned a store, which he rented from a Politz. And the Politz was a goy. He used to pay him every year the rent for the stores, and he would make parnasah. Many years went by. The Jew kept holding onto the store and paid his rent regularly. But after a long time, business became very, very slow. There was no money coming in, and the Jew couldn't pay the rent. Couldn't pay the rent. There wasn't enough income. Finally, the Politz called him over and warned him and said, "Listen, if you don't pay the rent, I'll throw you and your whole family out of my business, out of my store, and out of the house. You'll be homeless. You better pay the rent." Look, the Jew was,

14:23 uh, very upset. Didn't know what to do. So he went to this Stam Bal Shem. He calls it the Stam Bal Shem, meaning the tzadik. A tzadik was, was a great tzadik. He was a Baal Nefesh. He did nisim. He went to him, and he asked the Rebbe, "Rebbe, help me. I'm gonna be dr-- I'm gonna be expelled from my store and from my house. I'm gonna have no income, and my-- me and my family are gonna starve." So this tzadik told him, "Listen, my son, I'll give you advice. Go to the Politz and tell him secretly, privately, nobody should hear it." He's saying to him like this, "Who are you? What, you own my store? I have to pay rent? Show me the papers that prove that you are the owner." Usually an owner of, of a house has to have papers, documents from the city, from the government that shows he is the owner. Otherwise, who says you're the owner? Anybody can say, "Hey, this house is mine." How do we know? You have to have papers to prove it. "Show me your papers. Where are your papers?" And that's what the Rege ner said to this... The Rege ner, the tzadik, the Stam Bal Shem said to, to tell for this Jew that he should tell to the Politz who he's want to throw him out. Look, the Jew went home, and he asked his wife, asked, "Nu, how, how did, what did the Rebbe say?" And he said to her, "Everything

15:55 is good. Everything will be fine." She thought that the Rebbe must have given him money so he can pay the rent. She-- He didn't tell her exactly what happened, what the Rebbe told him. But early in the morning, when the Politz was still sleeping, because these Politz, they sleep late, late. They puff into the day, many hours in the day because they have nothing to do. They got a lot of money. They don't have to work, so they, they sleep in late. The Politz was still sleeping in his bed. He was chropping away. And the Jew shows up at his mansion, and he knocks on the door, and some people in the house open the door. So he said, "I need to talk to the Politz very, very soon." So they went to his room, to the Politz's room, and they woke him up. Said, "The Jew is waiting by the door." So the Politz thought, "Ah, he's coming so early in the morning because he has the money with him. He's gonna pay me the rent." So he got very excited. He got out of bed and went to say hello, welcome the, the, the Jew into his house and said, "Nu, give me the money." But when he came in, the Jew came in, the Politz asked him, "So where's the money?" He said, "I don't have any money." So the Politz flew into a rage. He got very angry and says, "You didn't bring any money, and you come so early to

17:11 wake me up? I thought if you're waking me up, you probably have money for me. But you don't have money, but you still wake me up like this?" And the Politz was ready to grab his gun, and he was going to shoot the Jew for having the chutzpah to wake him up without any money. But the Jew stopped him right away. He says, "Listen, listen, listen. I gotta talk to you first, and then we'll talk about the money. But first, I gotta ask you a question." So the Politz put down the gun, and the Jew said to him, "Tell me, are you really the owner of my store? Show me the papers that prove that you are the owner of that house. Where's the papers from the government that shows that you are the legal owner? And then I'll talk to you, and we'll talk about the money. I'll give you the money. But first prove to me." When the Politz heard this, he completely changed. His face turned red and white. A-a-and, and he was afraid. You could see he was shaking, and he asked while he was shaking, he says to the Jew, "How do you know that I don't have any papers? Even my wife and my family doesn't know about it. It's a secret. I didn't tell anybody I don't have any papers. People think, oh yeah, I'm the owner and I have real papers to prove it, but nobody knows the tr- the truth. It's a secret, and you know

18:32 my secret, that I don't have any papers to prove it. How do you know that? Whoever told you this? I never told anyone." And the Jew says, "Don't worry, I'll tell you how it happened." "Uh, you threw me out. You, you threatened that you're gonna throw me out of the, of the store and of my house. So I went to my rebbe, and my rebbe said to me I should tell you that you don't have any papers." So the Purist said to him, "Oh, this rebbe, this tzadik, he knows all the secrets of my life? The truth is I am the owner because I inherited the store from some uncle of mine, but I don't have the papers that show that I am the legal owner of the house. I was never given the papers, so I can't find it, and I was always afraid that somebody's gonna ask me for those papers and I won't be able to show him, and then that means that the law is gonna say that I, I, I don't own the house. I'm gonna lose the, the, the, the, the store." "But maybe I have an idea," says the Purist to the Jew. "Let's go to your rebbe. If your rebbe knows such secrets about me, that I don't own and don't have any papers, I don't have any papers to prove that I own the store, uh, let's go back to him, and you take me with you to him, and we'll ask him. Maybe he can

19:56 help me out and tell me where my papers are so I can go and found them, find them, so I wouldn't have to be afraid all the time." So they went. The Jew says, "Oh, no problem." And the Purist promised the Jew that, "If you take me to your rebbe and he helps me find my papers, which was something I always was very afraid of, that I still don't have my papers, still don't have my papers. Just if somebody asks me for the papers and I won't be able to show it, then the, the law, the police, they're gonna say, 'Hey, you don't own the house.' But now I want your rebbe to help me find my papers. I wouldn't have to worry about it every day. And if you do that, I promise you, you'll lay... be able to live in my, in my store forever, be able to run the store. You won't have to pay me any rent, and I forgive you all the back rent that you owe me. You don't have to pay me anything." So the Hasid took him to this Bestan Baal Shem, which they originally called the Bestan Baal Shem, and he went to him, and the rebbe said, "Listen, go to Peterburg. There in this and this place, you'll find the person that has your papers." So the Jew and the Purists, they went out of the room of the Rejiner, and they decided to travel together. "We'll go to Peterburg, and we'll find the papers."

21:22 So they came to Peterburg. They walked around. The, the, the, the tzadik, the Bestan Baal Shem told them they should go to a certain neighborhood in Peterburg. Peterburg is a big, big city. So he told them, "Go to that neighborhood of the city, and in that neighborhood you'll find it." He didn't tell them exactly the street. He told them just the which neighborhood to go to, and they'll find it over there. They walked around for several weeks, the entire neighborhood back and forth, up and down, and nothing happened. Finally, the Purists gave up. So he tells the Jew, "I think that we are here, you know, for no reason. I mean, we, we're not gonna find it here. I'm giving up. I'm going back home. But don't worry, my promise to you that I will not charge you any rent, and I give you... and I'm forgiving you all the past rent that you owe me from before, I still will st- keep to that promise if you promise me you'll never tell anyone my secret, my secret that I don't have any papers." So the Jew said to the Purist, "Listen, I appreciate that very much, but if my rebbe said that we'll find the papers here, I promi-- I'm sure we'll find it. Just let's wait a little bit longer, a few more days." So they decided to stay a few more days. One day they, they're walking down the street for a walk, and suddenly there was a tremendous amount of rain

22:44 coming down. It was like pouring down heavily, and they had nowhere to go. They were, they were outside in the street. They were getting soaking wet. So they looked for a house where they can go inside to protect themselves against the rain, and they see a house a little further in the distance, and they w-- they traveled right there, right with their coach. They went straight to that house. The Jew went into the house first and asked the owner of the house, he says, "Listen, I'm traveling with a very important Purist, and his name is so and so, and he's, uh, from this and this place. Many people have heard of him. He's very famous. Can we please go in because... till the rain stops? You know, this, this is a very important Purist I'm traveling with. So can you please help us stay in the house for a little bit so we can wait out till the rain goes away?" So the owner of the house said that, "You know what? There's another Purist that just came to my house to visit, and I gave him one of the guest rooms. So I don't have any rooms for you guys to rest up. But I'll ask this Purist who's staying in the house in the guest room whether he minds if another Purist would also stay in that same room. Eh, there's another bed over there." So he went upstairs and asked that Purist, came back and said, "You know what? I told that

24:08 Purist who is in my guest room, 'Who is... Who wants to come and stay here?' And I told him the name of the Purist, the young Purist, and the old Purist in the be-- in the, in the guest room said, 'Oh, this is my nephew. Tell him I wanna see him right away. Please tell him to come up. Yes, I have room for him.'" So the young Purist who traveled with the Jew went upstairs, and this was his uncle. And his uncle says to him, "Listen, I've been looking for you for so long. Do you know I have papers for you? Papers that, that show that you are the owner of the store. And I've been looking and finding you because I'm..." He, the Purist says, "I'm getting older. I don't know how long I'm gonna live, and I wanna make sure you get the papers before, uh, you know, it's too late." So the young Purist was mamish amazed. Wow, he saw the, uh, the, the, the Baal Shem, the Bestan Baal Shem, the tzadik that he went to had Ruach Hakodesh and knew that his papers are gonna be found here. So he says, the young Purist says to the, the uncle, the old Purist, and says, "Wow, it's amazing. Where do you live now?"And the old Parets says, "I'm living in Holland in a certain city, in a certain street." He gives him the whole address. So the young Parets says, "Can I travel with you back home? When you go

25:24 home, I wanna go with you. You know, I wanna catch up with you. You're my uncle." He said, "No, no, no. First you take the papers home and go home and, and take care of all your... Put away your papers in a safe place. And then if you wanna come and visit me in Holland, you can come." So the Parets went back home together with the Jew. He was very happy that the great tzaddik, the Stam Baal Shem, uh, made him find his papers. And so when they got home and they settled in, the Parets said to the Jew, um, "You know what? Um, let's go to Holland now. We wanna thank my uncle, the Parets, for, for literally helping me." So they went to Holland. They traveled all the way there, the Jew and the Parets. When he came to the address which the uncle Parets had told him when he was in Peterburg, he looked for that address. At first he asked people in the town, in the area, do they know such a Parets? People said, "That Parets? Nobody knows who he is." So finally he went to the actual address which the, the uncle, the old Parets had told him about in Peterburg. So they went to that address, and he started asking people that lived there, "Do you know a Parets by this and this name?" And they said, "Oh, him. He died 15 years ago. He hasn't been around for 15 years." So the Parets, the young Parets said,

27:00 "What? He's been dead for 15 years? I just saw him a few weeks ago." But apparently, uh, there was a nes. And the Rizhiner finished the story and said, "You see, if one could make a dead person alive just to save a Jew from being thrown out of his store, how much more so one can perform tes huas masom and bring the dead back to life if it concerns a danger that a Jew is in. If a Jew is in danger, they are going to kill him, uh, then for sure you should make tes huas masom to save this Jew's life." And he says, "That's the story." So the manager of this Jew, of the, this soap factory, remember the manager could understand why the Rizhiner was saying to the Hasid, "We'll, we'll find Ivan." And then they find Ivan. But then he was very confused, the manager, because he wasn't a Hasid. He said, "Wait a second. I know Ivan was dead. How come we saw Ivan there by the river? You tell me, Rebbe. What, what is the true story behind it? The Hasid doesn't know the truth, but I know the truth." So the Rizhiner told him this whole story to hint to him that this was tes huas masom. Ivan had actually died. He's right. Ivan had died way before in the factory. The fact they saw Ivan much later by the river, because the Rizhiner, through his, you know, through his holiness, through his tefillah, was able to bring Ivan

28:41 back to life for a short while so that would save the life of the Jew. And then he died again because he jumped into the, into the river. Now, when, uh, one of the Rebbe's, um, close aides, you know, the gabbai was there hearing the story that the Rebbe told, the Rizhiner told this manager and the Hasid. So the, he, he said, "Rebbe, the story with the Stam Baal Shem happened with you. I remember this." So the Rizhiner smiled and said, "Oh, so why don't you tell the story then?" In other words, he was saying to him, "You know, don't, don't, don't talk about it." So apparently the other story, both stories happened with the Rizhiner. Now, this story was written up by a Hasid of the Rizhiner, of the Chortkover. The Chortkover Rebbe was the grandson of the Rizhiner. Rebbe Yisroel of Chortkiv, uh, lived before the war in Poland and then in Vienna. Uh, he was a grandson of the Rizhiner. He was named after the Rizhiner. His name was Yisroel, just like the Rizhiner, who was also called Yisroel. And he heard the story from the Chortkover Rebbe himself. And the Chortkover Rebbe said to him, "I want you to know that this is a true story. I remember the furniture that this Parets, after he saw the amazing miracles, the amazing miracle that happened to, to the Jew." And he saw that this Parets went and brought the Rizhiner fancy furniture from Peterburg as a gift for the Rizhiner. He says,

30:26 "The Chortkover Rebbe," the grandson said, "I saw the furniture myself."