80. The Baal Shem Tov And The Robbers

00:15 Shalom Aleichem, kinders. Today I'm gonna share with you a story with the Baal Shem Tov. You know that when Baal Shem Tov was younger, he, he wasn't famous. In fact, nobody knew who he was. He was a big tzadik, and he knew the whole Torah, but nobody knew it because he would hide. He would hide his knowledge, he would hide his kedushas, he would hide the greatness that he was, that he had, and nobody knew. People thought he was a simple person. And the Baal Shem Tov had a whole group of hidden tzadikim like himself. They would all meet together, and they knew about each other. They weren't hidden from each other because they knew each other. And they would travel from town to town. They would all pretend to be very simple people that don't know how to read even. Maybe know barely how to read Hebrew, but they don't know how to read a Pasuk Chumash. They don't know how to learn Mishnah, Gemara. They don't understand. They're very simple. But the Baal Shem Tov would hang out, and also his friends, who were great tzadikim and also great gaonim, but they pretended again to be very simple people. So they would spread out in different towns, and they would hang out with the simple people. You know, the wagon drivers, the tailors and the shoemakers, who are very simple and unlearned people, people that didn't know how to learn. And they would talk to them, tell them a story from the Midrash,

01:40 a story from, from a tzadikim, and give them encouragement, and make them feel s- you know, very loved by Hashem. But nobody knew that they were great people. People thought they were simple people like the people they hang out with, you know, they're not any different than them. At that time, the Baal Shem Tov lived in a town, and again, Baal-- Everybody thought Baal Shem Tov is this very simple person. He, uh, had some very simple job. Uh, he would dig dirt in the forest. He would make cement and sell it to people to build houses. Like a very simple work, and he acted like he was very simple. So in those days, uh, the Baal Shem Tov would hide when he wanted to learn and daven like a tzadik. He didn't do it in the city, so nobody would notice. So he'd go out. He had a special place like a cave outside the city, right by a mountain, and he would spend there a lot of hours in davening and learning, and nobody would know what he's doing. Then he would come back into town. So in those days, there were a lot of Cossacks, robbers, who would live around the cities, and they made a lot of trouble for the Jewish people. Many times these Cossacks would come in groups of ten, 15, 20, armed with, with knives and guns, and they would attack the city, and they would t- you know, beat up the Jews and sometimes kill some Jews, and

03:08 then steal all their belongings, and then they run away. And it was terrible because people were very afraid of the Cossacks because they could kill people. So once in the town where the Baal Shem Tov lived, again, he lived like a, like a hidden, uh, tzadik. Nobody knew he was a tzadik. A group of, uh, Cossacks came, and they wanted to take all the belongings of the Jews, and if they find any Jews, they would beat them up and sometimes even kill them. So the Jews, when they heard the Cossacks are coming, they ran away outside the city, and they hide in caves, in different caves. There were, like, a lot of caves outside the city, and they would hide in these caves and wait until the Cossacks would leave the, the city. And of course, the Cossack, when they left the city, they would take all the, the chairs and the tables and the fur coats and, and, and if they had jewelry, they found jewelry or money, they would take it all away and run away and steal and rob all the belongings of the Jewish people. But here the Jews were afraid for their lives, so they said, "Listen, let them steal whatever they want, but we, we don't wanna get killed." So they ran away with their wives and children into a cave outside the city, and people were hiding in many different caves. And they waited and waited for a few days. They had some food with them, and they

04:25 waited there till all the robbers and the Cossacks go away from the city. This was around Lag BaOmer. This happened around Lag BaOmer, and the Baal Shem Tov, as I said, had his own cave. He lived in a, in a mountain in a cave. It's where he used to hang out to daven and learn. When the Baal Shem Tov heard what happened to the city and that all the people of the city had to run out outside the city and hide in caves, so he said, "Okay, on Lag BaOmer, I'm gonna make a big parade." He went over to the families in all the different caves. He went from cave to cave to cave and told the fathers and the mothers, "Listen, it's Lag BaOmer. It's Lag BaOmer today. Let's go out to the fields. Let's take the kids, and we're gonna make a parade in honor of Shimon bar Yochai on this great holy day of Shimon bar Yochai, Lag BaOmer, in that zechus Hashem will protect us." The parents said, "Oh, no. How can you take our kids? If we go outside the cave and the Cossacks see us, they'll come chase after us and kill us." Baal Shem Tov says, "No, don't worry. We will march because it's such a holy day, and Hashem will help us in the zechus of Shimon bar Yochai that nothing will happen to your kids." So when the parents saw that the Baal Shem Tov was so sure of himself that he knows nothing is gonna

05:40 happen to them, even though they thought he was a simple guy, but they, they trusted him for some reason. But not for very long, you know. The Baal Shem Tov took all the kids, and they started marching and singing. And at first the children were singing, like, in a very, very low voice. Then the Baal Shem Tov said to them, "Come on. It's Lag BaOmer. Let's sing loud, right? Even if the Cossacks hear us, don't worry about them. Hashem is with us. Hashem is gonna protect us." And the parents hear- heard that the kids were marching in a open field where the Cossacks can come out of the city and see them, and then they sing with so loud, the Cossacks could hear them. They got very scared, and they- they're like shaking and shivering in the caves, "Oh, no. What's gonna happen to our children? Soon the Cossacks are gonna come, and they're gonna God through Hashem, Chas v'Shalom, do terrible things." But the Baal Shem Tov was very calm, and he told the children, "Don't be afraid. Let's sing." And the Baal Shem Tov's marching in the front, and all the children were marching behind him, and they were singing, singing Lebedik in Nigunim, Siddishen Nigunim, and they were B'simcha. And the people looked outside the caves to stare at the Baal Shem Tov and they saw this man is a very simple man, but his face was so red, and his face was also like with a certain light. You know, you

06:54 could see a, a c- he was not an ordinary person. People were like, you know, very puzzled because this simple Jew, the Baal Shem Tov, he doesn't look so simple. He looks like a big tzadik. Look, look at his face. His face was shining with a certain holiness, a certain kedushah. S- but people thought, "Well, maybe it's just imagin- we're just imagining it because he's a simple person. But look at him, he's so confident, he's not afraid of the Cossacks." People were very puzzled. And they were dancing and dancing and singing in the field loud, loud. You can hear it even in the city. Suddenly, as they're marching, they hear a commotion, noise, people running. Oy. The parents said, "Oh no, oh no, the Cossacks are coming. Oh no. Oh, wei, wei, why do we trust the Baal Shem Tov? Why do we trust him?" But pretty soon it became evident that these were not Cossacks chasing the Jews. These Cossacks suddenly fleeing, running away from the city in every possible direction, one Cossack in this direction, another Cossack in another direction. They were like panicked. They were afraid, and they're running, and they left all the stuff they wanted to rob, they left behind because they were so scared for their lives, as if somebody's chasing them, and nobody understood why they're running like this. What are they afraid of? The Cossacks, when they came into town, they saw there was no Jews there. They said, "Oh, okay. There are no Jews here. Okay,

08:25 we're not gonna kill any Jews today, but we'll take all their belongings, all their silver and gold and jewelry and money and animals, and we're gonna break down their houses. We're gonna destroy their houses." And but then suddenly something happened. Nobody knows what happened, that the Cossacks, instead of stealing everything and breaking down the houses, they started running as if something terrible happened to them. Nobody knew what it was, and so they fled the city. And people, the y- the Jews came out of the caves and decided to go back to their cities, to their houses, and they saw that the Cossacks didn't touch anything. They didn't have time to steal anything. Nobody understood what happened. Finally, it became clear that what happened was that out of nowhere, suddenly the Cossacks spread rumors. One Cossack spread rumors to all the Cossacks that, that some officers, soldiers are coming to get them. Maybe they heard the singing of the Baal Shem Tov and his children. They thought, "This noise is strange. Who is making such noise? It must be some soldiers coming to catch us." And so they were so afraid, so they dropped everything and didn't steal anything, and they ran and ran and ran as far as they could, each Cossack in a different direction, and they never came back. And so the Jews saw on Lag BaOmer the big nes that happened to them, and it happened because of the Baal Shem Tov. People were wondering, "Who is this Baal Shem Tov? Is

09:54 he really such a simple person? He made such a nes and saved everybody's lives and saved everybody's, uh, uh, belongings. Everything that they had is now saved." But nobody knew. Nobody knew. People began to wonder, but nobody knew. And that was the end of the story in the zechus of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai. The Rebbe said many, many times that children during the parades of Lag BaOmer, when children get together on Lag BaOmer, the Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai is there too, and he gives them brochos, and he makes nisim. So this is a special thing that the Rebbe always wanted to happen on Lag BaOmer is parades of little young children before bar mitzvah and bat mitzvah, so they celebrate their Yiddishkeit, the Torah. And Rashbi, the Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, sees that, that the young children are celebrating the Torah and the Torah the way Rashbi taught to the Jewish people, and they, they're happy about it, and they dance. So and that then Hashem sends down so many brochos and nisim that will change the world, and now you get the whole story.