78. The Chossid That Saved Many Cantonists

00:16 Shalom Aleichem, kinderlech. Let me tell you a story that the previous Rebbe tells in his sichas and his letters about a man by the name Reb Gavriel Neuserchen. His name was Reb Gavriel, and he had a nickname called Neuserchen. Neuserchen means that he found favor in people's eyes, that people liked him. People wanted to be his friends. Everybody he met immediately liked him. And we'll find out why he got this name. This Reb Gavriel grew up in a city called Vitebsk. He grew up at a time when there was a lot of Misnagdim in Vitebsk against Chassidus, against the Baal Shem Tov, against the Maggid. The Alter Rebbe lived in Vitebsk in his younger years when he got married. He got married to s- to someone, her family in Vitebsk. The name of the father of his wife, of his Rebbetzin, was Reb Yehuda Segal. He was a very wealthy man. He was also a Misnaged. At first, nobody knew that the Alter Rebbe has a sheyches to Chassidus. But after the Alter Rebbe was married and after a while, people already respected the Alter Rebbe. The Alter Rebbe was... Everybody knew the Alter Rebbe is a big gaon, and a lot of young people, Talmidie Chachamim, would, would, uh, come to the Alter Rebbe with their questions in Gemara, and they came learning with him. Everybody respected him. But then they found out that the Alter Rebbe started traveling to Mezritch, to Mezritch Maggid, and he came back and started teaching the Torah of

01:50 the Baal Shem Tov, and that made a huge uproar in the whole city. It's a lot of people talking about it. The Misnagdim said we should, like, distance ourselves. We should, you know, not talk to him anymore, to the Alter Rebbe, because he's part of this evil group, the Chassidim. And they also, his father-in-law, the Alter Rebbe's father-in-law, um, they said to him that he should pressure his daughter to, to divorce her husband, that, uh, the Alter Rebbe should get divorced from his wife because he's a bad person. And of course, the Rebbetzin of the Alter Rebbe did not want to. And the, the father-in-law of the Alter Rebbe kicked them out of their house. It was a terrible situation. But later on, the Alter Rebbe, when the, the Mezritch Maggid passed away, the Alter Rebbe moved to Liozner, and he started his own, became a Rebbe and a Maggid. Everybody came to the Alter Rebbe. People came from all over. While the Alter Rebbe still lived in Vitebsk, he, as I said, he drew a lot of young people that became very close to him, and they started learning from his Chassidus. And this was especially true because at one point when they-- there was a big, big machloket, a big argument against him and a fight against the Alter Rebbe that he's a Mis-- that he's a Chassid, and we need to, you know, kick him out of town. And Alter Rebbe said, "Listen, why don't you listen? Let's make a big public,

03:17 uh, uh, debate, and I will, uh, explain to you what the Baal Shem Tov is really saying. You'll see that you're making a mistake. The Baal Shem Tov is actually very good." And at first they didn't want to, then they agreed, and the Alter Rebbe had a public debate. Uh, many of the Rabbonim asked him many questions, and he answered, and he gave a really beautiful explanation of what the Torah of the Baal Shem Tov is. And this caused that many young people, even more young people, started going out to the Alter Rebbe. They were so impressed with the way he explained the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov. They all wanted to learn Chassidus now. So not only was the Alter Rebbe a big gaon in Nigleh and Gemara, but he was also-- was able to teach them how to serve Hashem properly. But on the other hand, there was a lot of people in, in Vitebsk that were even more Misnagdim now. They became even more against the Alter Rebbe, and they were very upset and angry at the Alter Rebbe. And it became a big machloket, a big, big fight in the city of Vitebsk. But then eventually, the Alter Rebbe moved to Liozner after the hishtalshelut of the Maggid. Now, Reb Gavriel was also from a family of Misnagdim. His brothers, his parents, his sisters and brother-in-laws, they all lived in Vitebsk, but they were all very strong Misnagdim. Also, his wife, Chana Rivka, she was also from a family of

04:38 Misnagdim. They were very strongly against Chassidim. And, uh, his family was, uh, all Talmidie Chachamim, and they were all wealthy, rich. They have big businesses. But, uh, Reb Gavriel became a Chassid of the Alter Rebbe. So when he went to Liozner for the first time, when he came back and everybody found out that he went to Liozner, that was terrible, and they, they cut him out from the family. Nobody wanted to talk to him anymore. Not only that, they started making his life very difficult. They started ruining his business. He had a store which he-- his father left him when his father died. And his brothers and, and all his family members, they all tried to ruin his business, making people shouldn't go and buy from him. And, and he started losing a lot of money. It was very, very hard for him. But in those days, Chassidim of the Alter Rebbe, they didn't care about gashmius. When they had trouble be-gashmius, when they went to the Alter Rebbe, they didn't ask him for bracha for gashmius. Eh, gashmius, who cares about gashmius? Hashem will help. When they went to the Alter Rebbe, they were so eager to ask Alter Rebbe for bracha and for, for teaching, teaching them how to serve Hashem better, how to have love of Hashem, ahavas Hashem, yiras Hashem. That's what they cared about. The gashmius didn't care, and especially if they had a very difficult life because the Misnagdim made their lives difficult, which, uh, in the case of

06:01 Reb Gavriel, they made his life so difficult, they ruined his business. He was losing all his money because of them. And some Hasidim was even worse. The Misnagdim would f- caught them in the street and would beat them up till they broke some bones. Some Hasidim had broken bones. One Hasid broke his nose because... He didn't break his nose. They broke-- The Misnagdim broke his nose. They called him the, the, the, the, the nose guy because his, his, his, his nose stayed forever crooked because they broke it. And the Hasidim when they, when they used to suffer because they were Hasidim, they didn't mind. They weren't upset. On the contrary, they, they thought it was a zechus that they had Mesirat Nefesh, that they were beaten up because of Hasidus. That was considered a big zechus. They used to make a big fabregen and celebrate that our zechus to have Mesirat Nefesh for Hasidus. So this is one of those Hasidim was Rabbi Gavriel. Came very close to the Alter Rebbe, used to travel to the Yoetz and Halachot. But he never told the Alter Rebbe about his problems with his parnasah. Whenever he went to the Alter Rebbe, he simply enjoyed listening to the Ma'amarim, to the Hasidus, and all he wanted is to learn from the Alter Rebbe how to serve Hashem even with more-- with, with more ahavah, with more love, with more yirah, and get closer to Hashem all the time. Rabbi Gavriel also never had children. Rabbi Gavriel, Gavriel, and

07:19 his wife, Chana Rivkah, they weren't blessed with children for twenty-five years. They didn't have children. And he also never asked the Alter Rebbe for a bracha because he wasn't into gashmius, you know, children. He-- When he went to the Alter Rebbe, he was like... Totally forgot about all the gashmius. He forgot about all the physical things. All he wanted is, is, is, is, is, is to learn from the Alter Rebbe how to be closer to Hashem. Now, the Alter Rebbe used to collect tzedakah, especially for Eretz Yisrael. The Jews, the families in Eretz Yisrael didn't have what to eat. So Alter Rebbe would raise money from Russia, and he would send the money to Israel, to the families that the poor families didn't have what to eat. The Alter Rebbe would send a sh- a shliach, a messenger, that would go from city to city and visit all the Hasidim of the Alter Rebbe. The Alter Rebbe would g- send him with a letter and say to him that every single Hasid, he gave a certain amount of money that the Alter Rebbe expects him to give that money for tzedakah. And Rabbi Gavriel, when he had the store and he made money, he used to... The Alter Rebbe used to tell him that he has to give a certain amount, which was a lot of money, and he would give it happily. But he didn't tell the Alter Rebbe that lately he no longer had money. His money was lost. Not only that, more

08:39 recently, his family, his, his brothers, they went to the government and told on him that he's cheating on his taxes and he's not paying, and the government was making a case against him, and they were gonna go search his house for money, so they can take the money away from him, so they can pay for all the taxes that he didn't pay. But it wasn't true. They made it up. They just wanted to ruin his life because he was a Hasid. In the meantime, the shliach of the Alter Rebbe, uh, uh, the Alter... He got a letter from the Alter Rebbe that said how much he has to give this year, and that the shliach will come in about a month to collect the money. Rabbi Gavriel was very depressed. How is he gonna get that money? The Alter Rebbe sent him a letter that he has to give a certain amount. He doesn't have that money. So his wife sees, Chana Rivkah, she sees her husband is very down. She asked him, "What's-- Why are you down?" So he told her the truth. "You don't know what's happening, but we're-- I'm losing all my business. I don't have any money, and here I wanna give the Alter Rebbe the tzedakah, but I can't." So his wife said, she was at tzedakah, so she says to him, "Didn't you tell me that the Alter Rebbe teaches in his torahs that a Jew has to always have bitachon in Hashem and always trust in Hashem with--

09:56 and be b'simcha all the time, no matter what happens, and Hashem will help? Why are you depressed? You should be b'simcha." And he listened, of course. And then his wife secretly, didn't tell him, didn't tell Rabbi Gavriel, she snuck out of the house. She took all her jewelry that she got when she got married, all her jewelry, all her rings, everything she had, and she went to a jeweler and sold it and got money for it. She got exact- exactly the money she needed to pay off the tzedakah for the Alter Rebbe. She came home and put it in a nice bag. Said, "Here, I want you to take this and give this to the Alter Rebbe. This is the money that the Alter Rebbe wrote for us that we need to give this year. It's exactly that amount." No-- So we have to wait for the shliach to come, the mashulach, for the Alter Rebbe. It comes in a month. But then when Rabbi Gavriel realized that the government is going to search his house to take away all his money because his relatives had told the government that he owes a lot of money to the government, he's stolen taxes from the government. So he was afraid they're gonna come to the house and find his bag of money, and they'll take it away. So he said to his wife, "You know what? Chana Rivkah, I'm gonna go to the Alter Rebbe and give it to him right away. I won't wait for

11:10 the mashulach, because if I wait till the mashulach comes, in the meantime, the government's gonna come and take away the money." So she said, "Yes, go now and give it to the Alter Rebbe." And they-- He traveled to the Alter Rebbe, and he said, "Here, this is the money that we-- You told me I have to give a certain amount. This is the amount of money I wanna give." The Alter Rebbe, um, and he said-- Alter Rebbe said, "Why did you come so quick? Why didn't you wait for my messenger to come to get the money? Why did you travel yourself?" So he said, "Because you know what? I'm having a problem. The government is gonna search my house. I'm having a lot of trouble with my relatives because I'm a Hasid. They ruined my business, and now they told on the government that I owe a lot more money, and I'm afraid that the government will take away this money, so I came and, and, and, and brought it myself. I didn't wait for the mashulach." The Alter Rebbe said, "Open up the bag. Let's see what's inside." And so he opened the bag and spilled all the money on the desk of the Alter Rebbe, and suddenly he sees that the, the money was sparkling. It was shining with a special light. He was very surprised. But the Rebbe when he saw this, he says, "Where is this money from? Who gave you this money?" And Gavriel told the Alter Rebbe the truth.

12:26 It was his wife, Chana Rivka. She sold all her jewelry, and she knew that they didn't have any money to pay to give the tzedakah, right? The yearly tzedakah that they have to give every, every year to the Alter Rebbe. So she went and sold all her jewelry. So the Alter Rebbe leaned forward and closed his eyes, and then he opened his holy eyes and said to Reb Gavriel, "You should know that the women in the time of the Mishkan, they brought mirrors to the Mishkan, to Moshe Rabbeinu, and those mirrors was their gift to the Mishkan, and those mirrors had a special light, more than all the, all the gold and silver that the men brought." And he says, "This-- these coins reflect that light. Your wife gave this with besirat nefesh. She took all her jewelry and sold it just to give tzedakah." Then the Alter Rebbe said like this: "You should know..." The Alter Rebbe leaned forward again, closed his eyes for a while, and then he said, "Listen, the gezeirah is bottled. You from now on, you'll be very successful, and Hashem will bless you with children." And the Alter Rebbe said to him like this, "Close your store. The store is worthless. There's no point in going back to the store. Close it down, and you start a business with jewelry, with diamonds, and, um, diamonds and other jewelry, and Hashem will bless you. You'll be very successful. And Hashem shall bless you." He said another berachah. "You should be

13:50 nosei chein. Wherever you go, you go to the pritsim, to the Goyim, the noblemen, to sell them jewelry. They'll like you right away, and they'll wanna buy from you. You'll find favor, nosei chein. You'll find favor in the eyes of the Goyim, and they'll all buy from you a lot of jewelry, and you'll make a lot of money. You'll be very rich." Reb Gavriel came home and told his wife the good news. And lo and behold, a year later, they had their first child, Chaim. Chaim was the son, the first son. And he closed the store like the Alter Rebbe told him. He started a business of jewelry, and he became very wealthy because he went around the towns and met all the big noblemen, the very wealthy pritsim, and they would-- they loved him so much, and he found favor in their eyes. And they always would buy only from him, and he became very rich. And through that, he had many connections with many of the very important governors and mayors and pritsim. They all became his friend, and they liked him a lot. Also because he was very smart and wise, they would ask him his opinion, his advice on ma- on different things. Now, this Reb Gavriel nosei chein, uh, became quite old. He died when he was a hundred and ten years old. Alter Rebbe also blessed him with aarikis yamim, and indeed, he lived till a hundred and ten. Now, here comes a very important part of the story.

15:11 When Gavriel was already quite old, Alter Rebbe was Nistalik, then Mitteler Rebbe. He was a chossid of the Mitteler Rebbe after the Alter Rebbe. Then Alter Rebbe, Mitteler Rebbe was also Nistalik, and he became a chossid of the Tzemach Tzedek. He, he was a chossid of three Rebbes because he got quite old. In the time of the Tzemach Tzedek, a terrible thing happened. There was a chossid of the Tzemach Tzedek. His, his name was Reb Chaim Yeshua. Now, Reb Chaim Yeshua was involved in a dangerous mission. As you know, in the time of the Tzemach Tzedek, there was a terrible decree that the tsar issued that all Jewish families have to give some of their children, or one of their children at least per family, one child per family, to the tsar's army, and they're gonna spend the rest of their lives in the army for thir- thirty years. And they would be taken away when they're young children, like seven or eight, and they would never see their families again. They would forget about their Alef Beis and their Chumash and their Torah and their mitzvahs. They would be forced to eat treif and everything and live like Goyim. It was a terrible decree because when the soldiers would come and pick the children away from their families, sometimes in the middle of the night, the families would cry, cry bitterly. "Oi, oi, my Yankele, my Chaim, my Yossela." And the people-- they would... The soldier would tear them away from their families, and

16:32 they would never see the children again. And only thirty years later did they-- were they released and made free from the army, and then they would be able to join the Jewish community. But they were very ignorant. They didn't know anything. Many of them had eaten treif for so many years, and they, they had no knowledge of Torah and mitzvahs. It was a terrible thing. Many of these children died because they refused to eat treif, and they would starve themselves until many of them died from starvation. There were a lot of terrible stories that happened then, and the Tzemach Tzedek, uh, was very involved in helping those children. And he had Chassidim that he told them to go get involved in, in, in saving those children. What happened was that there were Jews, unfortunately Jews, who were called chapers, grabbers. What they did, they grabbed children in the streets, young children, and they said, "Ah, we're gonna bring them to the army, to the Russian army, and we'll get money." Because the Russian government would pay money for anybody who would bring a Jewish child because the parents, because they were afraid their children would get gr-- uh, taken by the soldiers, they would hide them. So these Jewish, Jewish chapers, they're called chapers, that means grabbers, they would grab these kids and tie them up and take them to the, the army, to the tsar, tsar's army, and, and they would get paid. They would make some money. Now, this Reb Chaim Yeshua was

18:08 very special because he got into this work of saving these kids from the chapers. He would go and find these chapers- Then he would either pay the money and take the children away from them, or he would steal the children away from them in a very, very, uh, difficult way. He would just try to steal it in a way that, you know, that was very, very dangerous. It was a very dangerous, uh, work because if the tsar finds out that the-- these Hasidim were involved in, in stealing the children back and bringing them back to the families, they could have been arrested and get killed. Even the Tzemach Tzedek was in a lot of danger because of that. They wanted to arrest the Alter-- the Tzemach Tzedek because they found out that Tzemach Tzedek was also involved in encouraging the Hasidim to work against the government to save these kids. Now, here's the story of Chaim Yeshua, and then you'll understand how Rabbi Gavriel Meir Savei saved his life. Rabbi Gavriel Meir Savei, who had connections with all the government officials, saved literally the life of Chaim Yeshua. First, let's see who's this Chaim Yeshua. Chaim Yeshua, uh, lived in a, in a village. Uh, he and his family were, um... The village was called Zastke. Zastke. It was near the city of Kalisk. There he lived with his father, and they were S- his father was a Hasid of the Alter Rebbe and the Mitteler Rebbe, and the Mitteler Rebbe sent him to the

19:38 village to have a farm. And so the whole family settled in that village, and they had a big farm with animals, and they would do a lot of chessed because a lot of people would travel through the village to go somewhere. They, they would travel through. They would always host them and give them food. So he lived... Al- So this Chaim Yeshua also lived in this-- in the village of Zastke. There on the farm, he had a big farm. It was one night, it was a winter night in the year תש"ה, and there's a knock on the door. It's late at night. There's snow outside. It's a blizzard. And Rebbe Chaim Yeshua was already going to bed, was already lying down, uh, trying to fall asleep. He hears a knock on the door. He jumps out of bed and goes quickly to the door. He opens it up. He sees two Jews dressed in nice winter feer-- fur coats, and they're covered with, with snow, and they're standing by the door. So he tells them, "Please, come in, come in. Shalom aleichem." He tells them, "Take off your coats. Sit next to the stove. You'll be warm." And he gives them a cup of tea and brings them bread and food and butter and gives them, uh, things to eat. They sat down to eat, and Chaim Yeshua decided to go outside to check on the animals in the stable. So he goes outside the house to go to the side of the house where

21:04 the stable was. As he goes outside, he hears the sound of a child crying. At first he says, "I didn't pay attention because I thought maybe it's a cat." You know how sometimes cats can cry? It sounds a little bit like a child. "But then as I s- you know, listened to the cry more and more, I saw that it was actually the cry of a child. So I couldn't understand. So late at night, it's the middle of the night, in the dark, I hear a cry child-- the cry of a child. I, I followed the sound, and I saw the wagon that these two men came with." They are sitting in his house eating now. Um, the wagon they left there in, uh, in the front yard, there's two children tied on that wagon. One of them is crying, the other one is sleeping. He says, "Who are you?" And the boy says, "I'm Binyamin." And he's saying it with a very shivering voi-voice. "And I asked him, 'Why are you crying? What's happening?' I understood right away that these were khappars. These two guys that are in my house were khappars. And I realized I have to quickly untie these boys and bring them to a safe place. So I brought them to a safe place, to my brother's house, Michoel. I woke up my brother in the middle of the night. I said, 'Listen, there's two khappars in my house. Please keep these two kids in your house so they can't find

22:35 them, and I'm gonna rush back to my house because I'm afraid they're gonna catch one of my kids.'" So he-- I-- Chaim Yeshua ran quickly back to his house, and when he came in, he saw one of the khappars was sitting next to his son, to Chaim Yeshua's sons, Ephraim Zalman. And, and the khappar says to, to, to Chaim Yeshua, "You see your son, Chaim Zalman, he's such a good kid. Your kid is such a good kid, but I have two children that are crazy, and I had to tie them up in my wagon." See, he was afraid that they're gonna think that he's a khappar, right? That Rebbe Chaim Yeshua saw the two kids in the wagon, so he right away said, "Oh, yeah, I have two kids. They're crazy. I had to tie them up because otherwise they go wild and they do-- create a lot of damage. So they're, they're really crazy. I have to take them to a doctor to Vitebsk." Of course, Rebbe Chaim Yeshua didn't believe a word of it, and he went quickly, woke up his family. He said, "Listen, there's a-- there are two khappars in the house. Watch the kids. Make sure nobody gets c- gets, uh, uh, you know, grabbed by these people." Then he went downstairs, and as he's going downstairs, his brother Michoel, Michoel gave the kids to eat first in his house, the two children, and he gave them food and put them in a room, and then he went quickly to,

23:52 to Chaim Yeshua's house, his brother. And when he came in, he saw the two men, the two khappars sitting and eating bread. He said, "Oh, shalom aleichem, khappars." He told them that they're khappars. Of course, that was a big insult to call them khappars. So... And he said to them, uh, Rebbe Michoel said to the two khappars, "You are khappars, and you better get out of this house as quickly as possible or else you'll have a bitter end." And the two men said, "What? You have no rachmanus in us? My friend here has two children that are meshuggoim, they're crazy. We're going to a big doctor in Vitebsk and you're calling us khappars?" And Rebbe Michoel said, "No, no, no. Just forget about it. We don't believe a word you're saying. Just get out of here." They left. They went to the wagon to see that the two kids that they tied up were gone. They were hoping to make some money from these two kids. They're gonna bring them to, to, to, to Petersburg and, and deliver them to the government, and they'll go to the army, and then they get some money for this. But now the kids are gone. So they came back screaming, "My two kids are c-crazy and I had to bring to the doctor, and you, you-- what did you do to them?" They, they kicked them out of the house, and they had to leave. So they saved these two kids, but they didn't know what to do

25:07 with them. So Michoel went to the Tzemach Tzedek, and the Tzemach Tzedek, he told the Tzemach Tzedek the whole story,they found two chapers and they took their kids away, and now the kids are s- living in the house of Michoel, and they don't know what, what should he do? Should he bring them back to their families? Tzemach Tzedek said, "No, keep them first for a year in your house, teach them Torah, do everything, give them food and everything, and after a year, you bring them back to the families." Why after a year? Because during the year, the police is probably gonna come check the families to see if the kids are there, 'cause they're gonna wanna see where the kids are. So you wait a year, then they'll fig- they'll give up on finding them by the families, then you can secretly bring them back to the families. And the Tzemach Tzedek, when he heard what they did, that they saved these two kids, he was so Besimcha, so excited. He gave them berachos and berachos. Okay. Michoel came back and he... They did exactly this. The two children stayed in the house of Michoel. They learned with the same teachers that his kids learned with and, and, and they ate the same food, and they were, they were very happy. Rabbi Chaim Yeshua said later that, "When I saw what happened with these two kids, how I was able to save the lives of these two kids, I had suddenly a desire to

26:23 do this a lot, to go out and devote my life to save many children, but I didn't know if I should really do this. So I went to the Tzemach Tzedek. I went to Lubavitch and told the Tzemach Tzedek in Yechidus that I, that, that after this incident with the two boys, I feel like a desire. I wanna do more of that, save many children." The, the Tzemach Tzedek agreed that he should do this. A few months a year, he would travel from village to village and see if there are any chapers that stole any kids, you know, because they travel and they stop in villages. So he would s- it's like he's steal, steal those children away from the chapers. Tzemach Tzedek told him how to do this, and he, and, and he started d- uh, getting very involved in working against the government and, and stealing the children back and bring them back to their parents. Not always was he able to bring them back to the parents. Sometimes he had to keep them in other cities and hide, hi- hide them for a while, and then they brought them back to the families. One day, something terrible happened. A Jew showed up in a village where Rabbi Chaim Yeshua was there at the time looking for children. Rabbi Chaim Yeshua would always tell, when he came to a village, he would tell the people in the village, "Oh, I'm a merchant. I sell, uh, wool and linen and stuff. I'm here, s-

27:46 here for business." He didn't tell them what he's there for because that was a whole secret mission, because if the government finds out, he'd be arrested and killed. So he's in one of those villages and secretly looking for children, and a man, a Jew shows up, and he speaks Yiddish, and he sees Rabbi Chaim Yeshua, says, "Oh, uh, I'm also a merchant. I also deal with, with wool and linen. Let's be friends." Chaim Yeshua believed him. He trusted him. But he was actually a chaper, and he also wanted to spy on Chaim Yeshua because he was gonna tell the government that Chaim Yeshua works against the government. He's stealing kids away from the army. So first he need to have good proof. So first he decided to be his friend, and then he'll be able to spy on him, and then tell the government what he saw. So he told Chaim Yeshua, "You know what? I wanna help you. I understand you're trying to save these children. I also wanna save these children. Let's work together." And Chaim Yeshua really believed him because he sounded for real. But he was a dangerous man. So Rabbi Chaim Yeshua worked with him for a month, and one day they were in a village and he managed to catch eight children, and this man, uh, who was really a spy, helped him, and then he was supposed to take some of the kids with him to their families. Before he left the village, suddenly three soldiers showed up,

29:19 and Chaim Yeshua... not Chaim Yeshua, this Jew who was the spy, was with the sol- soldiers, and they arrested Chaim Yeshua. They took him to prison. They put him in chains, and for seven months he was in prisons. Finally, they brought him to a prison in Vitebsk, waiting for his court case to decide whether they're gonna kill him. The Tzemach Tzedek was working very hard to save the life of Chaim Yeshua, but it didn't look like they were able to do this because this is a big crime, a terrible crime. But then one day, uh, Rabbi, uh, Rabbi Gavriel Necher Chen, who lived in Vitebsk, somebody told him about that Chaim Yeshua is in the prison in Vitebsk, and they said, "Maybe you can use your connections." So he went to the mayor of the town, who he was very close with, and he told him, "Listen, this Chaim Yeshua didn't really do such a bad thing. I really would love you to s- to help him." The mayor said, "Listen, if I do this, I'm gonna get arrested myself. I'm gonna help Chaim Yeshua? I'm not supposed to help him. But you know what? If you get him out secretly and make sure that he leaves town and never comes here again, never comes to Vitebsk again, he, you know, I want him to live far away where they can't see him, and then I- I'll, I'll help you because I like you so much. Rabbi Gavriel, we like you so much, so I'll

30:44 do it for you." And so that's what happened. Rabbi Chaim Yeshua, after seven months being in terrible danger, now was saved and went free. The first thing he did, he went to the Tzemach Tzedek. The Tzemach Tzedek told him that he should move to a city called Glukhov, far away, and start a business, and Tzemach Tzedek gave him a loan of money- And Tzemach Tzedek wished him that he'll be- have a lot of parnasah and live a long life, and then he said something amazing. "I want you to know that I give you a promise that you will be in Gan Eden where I am." It's called in Hebrew, "Immi b'metsadsi." You'll be with me in the same place where I am in Gan Eden, you'll be next to me. That was an amazing promise. I mean, Chaim Yeshua was a good person, but he, you know, did, uh, an amazing job, had mesirus nefesh to save children. But to be in the same place as Tzemach Tzedek, that's quite an amazing thing. Rabbe Chaim Yeshua li- uh, moved to Glukhov and became quite old. He was 87, and before he passed away, he called over Hasidim from the town of Glukhov and said to them, "Listen." Told them their, his whole life story. Then he said that, that, "Tzemach Tzedek promised me that I'll be with him in Gan Eden." Now, Tzemach Tzedek was already in Gan Eden then, at that time. So he said, "When you, when, when I get, when you bury

32:25 me," since he said he's gonna die soon, "you bury me, before you close the kever, I want you to say like this, 'Rebbe,'" meaning the Tzemach Tzedek, "'you promised Chaim Yeshua ben Esther that he will be with you in Gan Eden. Chaim Yeshua just passed away, so we were sure that you're gonna fulfill your promise and take Chaim Yeshua next to you in Gan Eden.'" And Chaim Yeshua wanted that a minyan of Jews should say that. To be a minyan of Hasidim standing by the kever and say that. And that's what happened. They closed the kever. Later on, one of the Hasidim was by the Rebbe Maharash, because the Tzemach Tzedek was already passed away, was in Stalinh. So he came to Rebbe Maharash and told him the whole story, and Rebbe Maharash said, "You should know that Rabbe Chaim Yeshua got himself a really good place in Gan Eden. This is the reward you get for doing action, working hard, doing things for other people with mesirus nefesh like he did. And my father was a trustworthy person, the Tzemach Tzedek meaning. Tzemach Tzedek promised, he d- definitely fulfilled it." That's the story.