88. The Boy That Pretended To Be A Thief

00:15 Here's the second story about the Rothschild family, how Amschel Rothschild, the first of that famous family who became very rich, what berachah, you know, which tzaddik, uh, brought this incredible, um, wealth and richness to that family. Last time I told you about the Chacham Tzvi, but as I told you, there are others who tell a story that he got a berachah from-- also from Reb Zvi Hirsch Halevi, the Rav of Chortkiv. The story goes like this. The Rav of Chortkiv had his wife and he had a family. As I told you, he had two sons. One was the famous, uh, Hasidish Rebbe, the Reb Shmelke of Nikolsburg, and the other one was Reb Pinchas Horowitz, the chief Rav of Frankfurt, the Rebbe of the Chasam Sofer. This Zvi Hirsch, um, of Chortkiv, the Rav of Chortkiv, had a helper, a young boy, I mean, he was a teenager, who worked for him. Didn't have a family, so the Rav took him in and he helped him out. He helped the Rebbetzin clean the house. He helped the Rav with all the things that he needed. Now, once it was before Pesach, and of course, before Pesach we clean the whole house, and the Rebbetzin hired a Polish woman that she should, uh, help her with the cleaning, because the cleaning before Pesach is not like regular cleaning. You don't just, just take a broom. You have to go into every drawer, every closet, and every shelf and look and make sure that it's all wiped

02:17 down and there's nothing left behind, no crumbs left. So she started work. It took a few days. She and the cleaning lady, the Polish cleaning lady, were cleaning and cleaning, and then they got to the room of the Rav, the Rav's personal room where he had his desk and his sefarim, and they told the Rav that, um, he needs to, uh, move out of the room because they need to clean it for Pesach. Right? Famous thing. All the rabbonim write in their tshuvahs that before Pesach they're, they're, like, being moved around by their wives and by the people that clean the house because it's Pesach time. So she asked the Rav if all the drawers are open because she needs to clean everything, and the Rav said one drawer in his desk is locked, but I'll give her the key just to clean out the drawer, and then she must lock it again and give him back the key. What was in that special drawer that the Rav insisted should always be locked? Well, the Rav had a few children, and he wanted to make sure that when they get married and they grow up and finally get married, that he has enough money to do a wedding and to give them money so that they can, you know, have a parnasah. So he would save up money. Every month, he would save a little bit of money, put it in the drawer. Over the years, in the many years, he managed to gather a

03:51 lot of money. Maybe ten thousand gulden, ten thousand gold coins. And he locked the, the, the, the drawer so nobody would be able to get to the money so that when the time comes he needs the money, he'll have the money ready. And so, uh, the Rav say-- give the Rebbetzin the key. The Rebbetzin unlocks the drawer and she cleans, and meanwhile she leaves the drawer open for, for a little bit, for a few minutes, while she's looking for other places where to clean and what to clean and, and she didn't look much. She cleaned, she cleaned, and she closed the drawer and locked it. She gave the key back to the Rav, and then Pesach came, and then Pesach was over. And a few months later, the Rav wants to check his drawer. He needs to see if he has enough money for something, and he opens the drawer and he sees to his horror, he was horrified the entire money is gone. There's nothing left. He start thinking, "How did the money disappear? It's not possible. The money's supposed to be there. How could the money disappear like this?" And the Rav begins to think, "When was the last time... When was the last time that the, um, that the drawer was open?" And he thinks and thinks, and then he realizes the last time was Erev Pesach when his wife was cleaning the drawer. And who could have stolen the money? Well, the cleaning lady no, because she wasn't there. She was

05:35 in another room. It must have been the only person that was in the house while they were cleaning the drawer was Amschel. The young boy probably-- he saw a lot of money, the drawer was open, and the Rebbetzin went somewhere to get maybe some shmatas, some brushes to help her with the cleaning, and, and the drawer was left open and he quickly took the money and he-- and took it away, and then they locked the drawer and then nobody realized it. So that's the only person that could have done it. And so, the Rav didn't know what to do. He didn't wanna embarrass Anshel, telling him that he's suspecting and accusing him that he's the one who did it, and he was thinking, "What can I say? What can I do? How can I get my money back? This is a lot of money. I need it." He asked the Rebbetzin what to do, and she also thought, "Hey, the only one who could have done it is Anshel. Nobody else was there." The goya, she was, uh, you know, with her all the time. She, uh, she didn't see it. She wasn't even near the drawer. So the Rav said, "Listen, we have no choice. We gotta ask Anshel to be nice to us and to please have rachmanus, that we need the money, that if he hasn't used all the money yet, whatever he has left, he should give us back." And so one evening, the Rav calls Anshel over to him and

07:07 said to Anshel, "Anshel, my friend, I wanna talk to you." Anshel is wondering what the Rav wants to speak to him about, and he sits down, and the Rav says to him, "Listen, I had saved a lot of money and, um, put them in my drawer, and somehow the money disappeared. The only time I can remember when the drawer was opened was Erev Pesach, where you were in the house also helping with cleaning, and the Rebbetzin was here, and the Rebbetzin, of course, didn't take the money, and the only one we think that was around here in the area in the room at the time was you. So we have a feeling that you may have taken the money. Probably you were in desperate need of money because you don't have very much money. You work for us, and you don't have money, and you needed to buy shoes, you needed to buy this, you needed to buy the clothes, so maybe you just felt like you needed the money, and you took it. But please, please, please do us a favor and give us the money back. We'll, we'll help you in every way we can, but, but this money we need, and please don't... Give us back." Anshel thought for a moment and said, "Yes, Rebbe, I'm sorry. I needed the money, and I don't have it anymore. I spent it, but I promise I will give you... I'll pay you back the money. Every month I'll send-- I'll give you a certain

08:41 amount of money, like 100 gold coins a month." He said, "I'll leave the house. I can't stay in this house now, uh, after what happened, and, um, I'll go somewhere else, and I have, uh, start work and start a business, and I'll s- keep sending you every month 100 gold coin until I pay off the entire amount of money." And Reb Zvi Hirsch thanks him, and Anshel says goodbye. He packed his bags and moved to another city, uh, a few hours away. He have to take a, take a train to get to that city. You have to take a train from Chortkiv, uh, maybe five hours on a, on a train. And so every month from that point on, Anshel kept sending 100 gold coins to the Rav, the Rav of Chortkiv, to pay off his debt, the money that he stole. And took a long time because, uh, it was a lot of money, so he-- every month, he kept paying back, he kept paying back for years. One day, it was at night, the Rav and the Rebbetzin were sitting at the table eating dinner, and there's a knock on the door. The Rav thought, "Who could be knocking at night?" He went quickly to the door, opened the door a crack. He sees a policeman. The Rav got a little scared, "Why is a policeman coming to me at night? What happened?" So he invites the police officer into the house, and the police officer sits down and says, "Uh, Rabiner, did

10:21 you ever have a bundle of money in a-- somewhere in your house which you lost?" And the Rav says, uh, "Yes, of course. I had 10,000 gold coins that I lost." So the police officer takes out a bag from his pocket and says, "Rabiner, this is the money. I have it." And the Rabbi says, "What? How do you have it?" Says he tells him a story. There's a Polish lady that got very old and very sick. She was about to die, and as the Goim do, they call the galach before death, and the galach tells you that you say hello to the tzelem and goodbye to the tzelem, and then you, you die, and then you go to, to the Goyishe, to the Goyishe Gan Eden. That's what the galach tells the people, and, uh, she wanted the same thing to hear from the galach, so she calls the galach over, and the galach tells people usually, "If you did any averus, you know, then you should come-- you should tell me now and say that I did it, and, and, and Yoshke Pandrik will, will, will forgive you." Something like that. So she told him. She told the galach, "I have a secret to share with you I never told anyone. Many years ago, I was in the Rav's house, and I was helping the Rebbetzin clean, and the Rebbetzin unlocked a drawer which I never saw open, and when I peeked from a distance, I could see a lot of money, a lot

11:55 of shiny coins, so I waited for a moment when the Rebbetzin went out of the room, and I quickly rushed to the, to the, to the drawer, and I took all the money out and put it in my pocket, and then I didn't tell her. When I got home that night- After work, I put it in a bag and I buried it in a forest not far from here under a tree, so one day when I'll need the money, I'll be able to get money. But now I realize that this was the wrong thing." She said since she's gonna die, she wants the galach to know about it, and maybe the galach can help her return the money to the Rav. The galach promised her, and she died. Galach went to the police. He said, "This is what the woman said. It's under this and this tree in this and this forest." And the police went there, and they were digging and digging and digging till they found a bag with money. It was exactly that amount of money. And now the police officer says, "Here, rabina, this is your money, and I'm happy there's a happy ending to this story." The police officer said good night, and he left. And the Rav and the rebbetzin are looking at each other and saying, "What is going on? What is going on? Anshel stole the money. He even admitted it. He admitted that he stole the money. Now we find out this Polish cleaning lady was

13:22 actually the thief. But how could both be the thief? Something doesn't make sense." And they were thinking about it. They were very, very puzzled by this. Till the Rav said, "You know," he said to the rebbetzin, "I have a suspicion that Anshel never stole the money. He just felt sorry for us. He saw how pained we were and how badly we needed the money, so he pretended that he stole it because if he had given us the money without stealing it, we wouldn't have accepted it. He knew that we would say, 'No, we don't want him to give us a gift.' So he pretended that he really did steal it, and therefore we will accept his money, and they'll be able to give us the money we need. He thought to himself, 'Maybe we'll never find the thief, the real thief. So this way they'll think I'm the thief, but at least I'll give them back their money, so they should be happy.'" The Rav realized what an amazing thing Anshel did. He was blamed of being a ganef. He was humiliated. He was embarrassed. He let himself being embarrassed just to help the Rav to get his money back and give the Re- the Rav the money out of his own pocket. The Rav said, "I, I can't find any peace. I'm going with that bag of money that the police officer just gave me, and I'm packing my bags. I'm going to this town, this city where Anshel lives, and I have to

14:58 give him back that money because he pay- keeps paying us every month. So I'll give him whatever money he pays me. I'll pay him back now and thank him for being so kind to us." The Rav in the next morning ba- packed his bags and took the f- next train for five hours, traveled, came to the city. He asked people around, "Where is this Anshel Rothschild?" And they, "Oh, Anshel, Anshel, he has a store there not far. He has a little store, and, uh, you can go there. He's there now." The Rav shows up at the store, and Anshel picks up his eyes and sees the Rav. Reb Tzvi Hirsch of Chortkiv is here, the Rav himself. The great Gaon showed up. And Anshel says, "Rebbe, what- what's going on? What- what, what brings you to town? Why did you come here?" And the Rav says, "Anshel, we need to talk. We need to talk. Sit down, please." And the Rav says to Anshel, "Anshel, I came to thank you for being such an incredible person. I know now the truth. You did not steal my money. You just pretended that you were the thief." And the Rav told him the whole story with the lady and the police officer, and then he pulled out the bag. He says, "Anshel, here's the money that you were paying me for all these years. I'm here giving it back to you because you, you're not a thief." Anshel was a little bit, uh, embarrassed. He says, "Rav,

16:29 it's true. I, I did not steal it, but I saw how difficult and painful it was for you not to have all that money that you so badly wanted to save for so many years, and now it's all gone. So I, I said, 'You know what? I know you're not gonna take my money if I offer it to you,' so I pretended that I'm the thief." So the Rav says, "Anshel, because of what you did, I wanna give you a special bracha, that you will become s- extremely rich, extremely wealthy, one of the wealthiest people in the world, and the wealth will go down to you and your family, your family, including the children, the grandchildren, great-children for many generations to come." And he hugged Anshel and said goodbye to him, and he thanked him again, and he left and went back to Chortkiv. And this Anshel then went off and took the bracha, the bracha of the great Rav, the great tzadik, and he started a business, opened a bank, and became extremely, extremely rich, and he gave a lot of tzedakah. And that's the second story that happened to Anshel. As I told you last time, there are people that believe, there are people, historians that believe that both stories could be true, and he got a bracha from two tzadikim. There was a story with the Chacham Tzvi, and there was a story with the, um, Reb Tzvi Hirsch of Chortkiv.