91. How Can A Brother Marry A Sister?!

00:16 Here is a story that I read in a safer written by a great Hasid. His name is Rabbi Yaakov Kadano. He was a Hasid of the Mitteler Rebbe, the Tzemach Tzedek, and his safer of stories is accepted to be real stories, true stories. So he tells a story that happened many years ago. A Jew who lived in a certain town, and he was renting his store, his business, from the local Peretz, and he had to pay him every month a certain amount of money. But then he ran into problems. He couldn't make enough money to pay his rent. And as you know, the stories that happened in those days, that if you couldn't pay your rent, the Peretz, it wasn't very nice. He would take the Jew, and he would threaten him that if he doesn't pay his rent on time, he would throw him in the dungeon together with his whole family. And this Jew had a wife with seven children, and it was a t- terrible time. He didn't have any money, and he tried very hard. He didn't make enough money. Customers didn't come. And finally, the Peretz had enough. He took him, the Jew, and his wife and kids, seven children, threw them into a dungeon, a dark dungeon d- deep inside the ground, and they had to spend their time there. But the mother, the wife of this Jew, was expecting a child. When the Peretz took them to the dungeon, she was already expecting a child. So a few

02:00 months went by, and she was about to give birth, and she had to give birth inside the dungeon. She gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. But now the problem is you gotta make a bris. How do you make a bris? In a dungeon, there's no mohel. There's... You can't make a bris there. So Jews in the community got together and went to the Peretz, and they gave him money. They bribed him, and they said, "Listen, can you please do a favor to this Jew? Let us take the baby out to do a bris, a kosher bris, and please let the father and the family come out only for a few hours from the dungeon so they can come to the shul where the mohel is gonna do the bris. We'll do a little bit of a seudah, a party, a celebration, and, and then we will take him back to the dungeon." The Peretz, they gave him a lot of money, so he agreed. And the day of the bris came, the eighth day, and the family, the father, mother, and the seven children, and the baby, were allowed to come out of the dungeon, and they went to shul. There were a lot of Jews. All the Jews in the community got together to ha- take part in the simcha and the joy of this family. And they did the bris, and they set the tables with a beautiful, beautiful meal and a lot of l'chaim and mashke. And the Peretz sent his

03:27 guards, two of his guards, to join the family to make sure that they come back right after the bris. They didn't want them to escape. During the bris, the two guards, who were Russian, Russian peasants, they loved to drink mashke. So they saw the Jews drinking mashke, they said, "Hey, can we also have?" And the Jew says, "Sure, sure, sure. Here, take a full cup." And they gave them very, very strong mashke, like ninety-six percent. Sechsundneunzig, ninety-six percent, they gave them to drink. And these guards , they loved it so much, they asked for another cup and another cup. And the, the, the Jews in the town said, "Okay, yeah, let's give them more, more, more," till they got so drunk that they fell asleep and they didn't hear anything. They were, like, totally out. They were sleeping a- and, and totally drunk. The Jews said to each other, "Listen, the guards are asleep. Let's do something quickly. Take the whole family on a wagon and take them away out of the city and take them to another town far away where they can escape. They wouldn't have to go back to the dungeon. Let's do it fast before the guards wake up." And that's what they did. They hired a person with a wagon, and they put the family onto the wagon, and they escaped quickly from the city. It was already after dark, so it was easy to escape without anybody noticing them. And they took them far away to another city. But

04:59 on the way, the mother noticed, "Oy. Oy vey. Look what just happened. We forgot the baby. We left the baby behind." They were in such a rush that they forgot to take the baby along. And the wagon driver says, "No, we can't go back now because if we go back, they'll catch us, and they'll kill me too. So I'm sorry, I don't know what to do, but we can't go back." The family was very upset. Very, very, very upset. Can you imagine a newborn baby just had a bris, and now they left him behind, and they can't go back to get him because if they do, they get killed. So they had no choice. They had to go to another city, and they escaped. Basically, the wagon driver went back quietly, secretly to the town. Now, when the Peretz found out from the guards... The guards woke up in the end, and they saw, they looked around, there was nobody in the shul. The shul was empty. Well, where's the family? They were supposed to watch and guard the family. They realized that they're not there. So they were very upset because now the Poorets is gonna punish them for not watching over the family. But they had no choice, they went back to the Poorets and told them what happened, and the Poorets gave them a big punishment. He whipped them with a whip, with lashes. Gave them lashes, I don't know, thirty-nine malkis. He gave them lashes and beat them and said, "You

06:25 know, this is because you didn't do your job right." Then the Poorets then found out that the family left behind a baby. And the Poorets had a manager, a very important man who took care of all his businesses. He was a goy, a Y-- a Russian goy, and he didn't have any children. So he said to the Poorets, "Listen, do you mind if I adopt this baby? He'll be my child. I don't-- I can't have any children. My wife can't have any children, but I wanna have a baby, so can I adopt this, this Jewish baby? We'll raise him like a Christian, like a goy. We won't tell him he's Jewish." The Poorets said, "Sure, go take him if you want." And so this goy, this very important and rich, powerful manager of the Poorets' properties, adopted this baby, and he raised him as his own child. He and his wife, they pretended that they-- it is their child, as the woman gave birth to him, really which is not true, of course. They didn't tell him he's Jewish or anything, and they raised him like a goy. And they gave them such a good life because they were rich, they had money, and he went to school, to the goyish schools, and they took him to church, and they took him to all the goy-- like a regular child. And the child had no idea who he was. One day, he's like seven or eight, he's playing in, in the yard with, with his

08:01 friends from school, and one of the kids got up, upset at him. Maybe because, um, he took the ball away from him or something like that, they had some kind of a fight. And the other kid said to the Jewish kid, in Polish, "You're a Yid, you're a Jew. Get away from here. You're just a Yid." Like he cursed him. And the boy said, "What? What is he saying I'm a Jew? I'm not a Jew." Went back to his parents and said, "You know, today I was on the courtyard, and one of the kids, while we were playing, called me a Yid, a Jew, a cursed Jew." And the parents, "Ah, he's just being silly. He's just saying th-this to hurt you. But of course, you're our child. You're a special boy, and we, we love you. You're our child. You're, you're not a Jew." Then a few weeks later, again it happened with another child. Got into a little bit of argument with another child, and the child also finally got so upset at him and said to him, "You're Yid. Get away from here." Another child tells him the same thing. They don't say it to other kids, only to me. Why? He went back home and he was crying, and he said to his parents, "They called me Yid again. I don't know why they only call me Yid, and why they're so nasty to me." And the parents says, "Ah, they're just jealous of you because you have-- we have money,

09:25 and you have such a good life. So they call you Yid because they're jealous of you." Okay, fine, he accepted it, and he went back to school. And so a few weeks later, again and again it happens. Now he became very suspicious. This is strange. Strange, strange. So he decided to ask an elderly man in the town who he trusted, and he went over to him and says, "I wanna talk to you privately and secretly. I don't want you to tell anybody. Is there anything wrong with me? Everybody calls me Yid, Yid, Yid, Yid, Yid. Jew, Jew, Jew, Jew, Jew. What's going on here? Am I missing something?" And the elderly goy says, "Listen, I'll tell you the truth if you promise not to tell your parents that I, I told you this. You have to keep it a secret and pretend you don't know about it." And the child says, "Yes, I promise you." The child at that time was already ten years old. That means he was old enough, mature enough to understand what's going on. And the elderly goy said to him, "Listen, you are actually a Jew. You were a tiny baby, part of a family of seven, eight kids." And this is the story, you know. They were-- couldn't pay their rent, they were in the dungeon. And then but during your bris, they escaped, and they forgot you, they left you behind. So the, the manager of the Poorets took, took you in as a child, but he doesn't

11:08 want you to know. So please don't tell anything that you know anything about it. The boy promised him. But from that day on, he started thinking differently. I am actually a Jew. What is it to be a Jew? What does that mean? I know everybody hates the Jews. In my family, in my school, in my church, everybody hates the Jews. The Jews are like these terrible people. But I am actually a Jew, then what does that mean? And he didn't tell his parents anything, but he started getting very, very curious. Finally, he decided to secretly meet an old Jew in the town. He was a shamas of the shul. And he decided, he went over to him, says... And the shamas was a little concerned. Why is this the, the son of this very powerful manager of the Poorets coming to him? But then the boy says, "Listen, listen, don't be afraid. I have a very personal question for you, and I want you to maybe help me." And he said to him, "Listen." He said to the elderly Jew, "I know my story. It's a secret, but I, I know it, and please don't tell anybody that I told you that I know. But I, I feel terrible because I know I'm a Jew, and every other day somebody calls me Yid in, in, in school. My friends, even elderly pe-- older people say, 'Yeah, he's a Yid.' And many kids say, 'My parents told me that you're a Yid.' So I said I

12:37 can't take it anymore. I need to find out more what it means to be Jewish because I'm actually a Jew." When the elderly Jew heard this, he says, "Yes, I know. I know. I remember that story, the story when you were born. But of course, nobody w-was able to talk about it. We weren't allowed to speak about it." But he-- So the boy started crying. He says, "I want to become Jewish. I want to know what it means to be Jewish." So the elderly man says, "Listen, if you promise to keep it a secret, I'll tell you this. I'll help you escape the village, the town here, and I'll take you. I'll send you to a place in another city where you're gonna be raised in a family. They're gonna raise you there. It's a Jewish family with good kids, and they all go to cheder. And they'll send you to cheder, and you'll start learning Aleph Bet, just like Jewish children start from the beginning. You'll learn with little kids because you didn't learn anything, but you will slowly... See, you're a smart boy, you will learn fast. I will send a letter to that family to make sure they take good care of you. I'll tell them your story." And so one day they made up that in the evening, the boy will sneak out of the house when his parents don't watch, and he'll meet this elderly Jew at a certain place at the edge of the town, the edge of the

13:59 city. There, there will be a wagon waiting for him. And he's not supposed to talk to the wagon driver. He's just gonna take him to a certain place far away to another city and drop him off at a certain family, and that will be the end of it. And that's exactly what happened. He knew exactly the day that he was supposed to sneak out of the house secretly. He went to the edge of the town, and there was a wagon waiting. And the, and the old man gave him a big hug and said, "Listen, get into the wagon, and he'll take you where you need to go." And so the boy was taken hours and hours away to another city. He was dropped off by a family's house. They took him in with a lot of love, and for the first time in his life, this boy saw what a Jewish home looks like. The, the, the people in the family started teaching him. The boys in the family were very nice to him, and they started teaching him Aleph Bet. And slowly, they sent him to cheder also together with the other kids. He had a lot to catch up, but he learned and learned very well. He was a big, big masmid. He learned, learned, and learned, and tried very hard to learn everything he didn't-- he missed and didn't learn when he was young. And so he became very learned. He became quite learned. He went to yeshiva afterwards, became a talmid

15:20 chacham, a very learned boy. One day, he ends up... You know, he has no family. Obviously, he doesn't know who his parents are. His parents escaped when he was born, and his goyische parents are not his parents, so now he's without a family. Now he needs to make a living. He finished yeshiva and went to a certain city where a man, a Jew, was quite rich, had a big business of flour. That means he would make flour. People would bring him grain, like wheat and barley, and he would grind it up in a mill. You know a mill, like a windmill? You ever saw these windmills, right? And this, he would have a mi-- windmill, and he would make flour. It was a big business. A lot of people would bring their grain to him to make them flour, and he would use his mill and take and charge them money. And he needed a manager, somebody who's smart enough to be a good manager of his business. When he saw this young man, right? He's this, the kid that escaped from, from his town and didn't have any parents. He saw him. He was, uh, twenty years old, twenty-one years old. He said, "Listen, come in. Let me show you what the business is like, and you'll be the manager." And he took over, and he was very good, very good. His own-- He's-- The, the, the, the Jew who owned the mill was very pleased 'cause he did a great job, and he

16:39 was very honest and very correct and very tru-- Everybody... He was truthful, never lied. He was always honest and very generous. He loved him very much. And so he worked for this mill owner, the Jew, for, for, for a number of years, till one day, this mill owner was visited by a rich businessman, a friend of his, a friend of the mill owner, who came to visit him. And they're sitting down by the table and schmoozing, and while they're schmoozing, the guest, the rich man, says to the mill owner, "You know, I have a daughter. She's so special. I'm looking for a really good boy, a good, good choson for her. I don't know where. Do you know anybody?" And the mill owner says, "Wait a second. I have a manager, a boy. He's twenty-two years old. He's a great guy, such an honest person, smart, intelligent, a talmid chacham. I can trust him with anything. I think he'd be a great guy to have as your-- the choson for your daughter." So the rich man says, "Show him. Sh-show me where he is. Go." He says, "Go into the factory. You'll see. He's there. You'll see. Look at him." And the father, the, the rich man liked him. He went into the factory and saw, and saw how he worked. He was very impressed with him. And he went over to him and says, "Listen, I have a beautiful daughter. She's very nice. She has good middas, and she's a yiras Shamayim, and I'm

18:07 looking for a choson. Would you be interested?" He says, "Of course. You know, I need to get married." I don't have a family though, but, uh , you know, I hope you don't mind. I, I don't know where my parents are. I hadn't seen them since I was born. So he said, "Don't worry about it. I'll take care of everything." And so he meets the g- the, the daughter and they g- they felt the... They, they, they get engaged and then the wedding, the chasuna is supposed to take place two months later, three months later. The day of the wedding comes, arrives. In the meantime, in the meantime, before the wedding, this boy hears that there's a great tzadik that's arriving in near- in a town nearby. See, he worked in a certain town for the mill owner. Next town over there was a great tzadik that was coming, driving by, and he's just driving, riding by. He's staying there for a day, and everybody from the whole surrounding area wanted to go see him, get a bracha from him. He was a great, great tzadik. His name was Rabbi Michel of Zloczow, a talmid of the Baal Shem Tov, a very great tzadik. So this young man says, "Wow, I wanna see a great tzadik. I haven't seen him. I have never seen a great tzadik like that. I wanna go see him, get a bracha from him. And maybe I should ask him, since I heard he has ruach hakodesh, I'll ask him

19:36 if he knows, he can tell me where my parents are, my real parents. Where did they go? He's such a tzadik, he's ruach hakodesh, he can see and tell me, 'Yeah, go to this city.' Maybe he'll tell me exactly where to go." So this boy traveled to the town next to the town where he lived, and he went, stood in line to see the tzadik. People went in to the room with the tzadik, and after a few minutes they got their bracha, they left, and the next person went in. A long line of people till it came his turn, and the gabbai of the Rebbe said, "Go inside. It's your turn." He goes inside and tells Rebbe, "This is my life story." He tells his whole life story, and he says, "Rebbe, I-- can you help me find my parents?" The Rebbe did not answer the question, but instead he took a pen, or a quill in those days, and a piece of parchment, scribbled something on it, wrote something down, put it in an envelope, sealed it, said to the boy, "Listen, I want you to put this envelope inside your jacket." That means you sew in the lining, you know. You can tear open the, the, the lining of a jacket and you stick it in, and you sew it back up so it'll never get lost. "I want you to put it in there." And the boy says, "And what am I gonna do with it? Just leave it there?" He says,

20:56 "Well, the day of your wedding, the day you get married, when you go to the chuppah, the rav that's going to be the rav that, that takes care of the, of the wedding, of the chuppah, you'll tell him that before you marry this girl he must read this letter. Before we start the whole, you know, kiddushin, the whole story, the whole ceremony with the, with the, with the, with the chuppah, he needs to read a letter, and you take it out of your jacket and you give it to him." The boy was very surprised. The Rebbe didn't answer his question. He wanted the Rebbe to tell him where his parents are and instead he gives him this strange letter that he can't even read. Didn't, didn't show him, didn't, didn't make him read it, and now he tells me he's to give it to some rav who's gonna be the one... The rav who's gonna take it, you know, oversee the wedding. So he did it. Okay, then the, the... A few months later, the, the, the day of the wedding came and he forgot about the letter. The, the choson forgot. He's very excited. Today is the wedding. He goes to the chuppah and then suddenly, boom, he remembers, "Oi, oy, oy. The Rebbe told me not to get married and not to go on with the chuppah until the rav reads the letter." So he told the old rav, there was an old rav there, and he said to the rav, "Rebbe, uh,

22:18 this, I saw a tz- tzadik and he gave me a letter. He said you must read the letter before we, we start, you know, doing the chuppah, and, and, and I can't get married until you read the letter." So the rav said, "So show me the letter." So he opens up this, the, you know, the lining of his jacket and tears it open, takes out the envelope and gives it to the rav. The rav unseals the letter, takes out the piece of paper and reads, and he can't believe his eyes. What does it say here? Strange. And the choson sees that the rav is very surprised. He says, "Rav, what's going on? What does it say?" And he shows him the letter. It says, "How can a brother marry his sister?" Suddenly the choson realized something has happened here. He looks up at the father of the kallah and looks him in the eyes, and suddenly he realizes this must be his father. This is his father, and the kallah is actually his sister, and that the Rebbe, Rabbi Michel of Zloczow actually did answer his question, but he wanted them to meet him, he'll meet them at the day of his wedding. And right away the father-in-law, the father of the kallah also realized what was going on, and pretty soon the choson and the father of the kallah were hugging and kissing and crying together. And the choson realized that he's not a choson and she's not a kallah, she's his sister, and

23:55 they were happy to find each other. And of course, he later got married to another girl and built a beautiful home.