101. Making 300 Rubbles Out Of a Single Rubble

00:15 Shalom Aleichem, kindlibach. Here's a beautiful story with the Baal Shem Tov. A Hasid once came to the Baal Shem Tov and said to the Baal Shem Tov, "I don't have any money. My daughter has to get married, and I need three hundred rubles to do the wedding, and I don't have any money in my house. I don't know what to do." Baal Shem Tov took out of his pocket a single ruble and said to this Hasid, "You go back home. You take this one ruble with you and on the way, wherever you stop on the way going home, if somebody offers to send you something, somebody offers to sell you something for one ruble, you should buy it. Anything, doesn't matter what it is. Somebody says he has something to sell you which costs one ruble, you should buy the thing, and with Hashem's help, whatever you buy for this one ruble, you'll be able to sell for a lot more, and you'll make three hundred rubles, so you can do the wedding." The Hasid, who believed everything his rebbe said, so he did it. He did exactly what the rebbe said. He took the ruble and thanked the rebbe, the Baal Shem Tov, and hopped on his horse and was riding back home. It took a while to get home because he lived in another city far away, so it took a few days to get home. So on the way, of course, at night, he had to stop over in a inn, like

01:48 a little hotel. So he stopped over in one of the inns on the way on the road, and the inn belonged to a Jew. He walks inside the inn, and he sees a table, and around the table there are people sitting and drinking, drinking l'chaim, drinking vodka, and they all seem a little drunk. The owner of the inn is also sitting at the table. He's at the head of the table, and he's also very drunk, and they're laughing and making jokes. And when they saw this Hasid of the Baal Shem Tov walking in, it was late at night, it was cold outside, it was snowing. They said to him, "Hey, what's your name?" He says, "My name is Yankel." "What are you doing here so late at night?" He says, "Well, I came to find a place to sleep because I need to go to my house. I live in another city, and it takes a while, and so I need a place to sleep over tonight till tomorrow morning. I also wanna eat something, if you have something. I'll pay you for the room and for some food. Please, do you have room for me?" And the owner of the inn says, "Of course we have room. Don't worry, don't worry. It's fine. Tell me, where did you travel? Where, where did you go that you have to go home now? What, what brings you here?" He said, "Well, I had to travel to my rebbe, the Baal Shem Tov." And they asked him,

03:15 "Why did you go to the Baal Shem Tov?" He said, "Simply because I don't have any money, and I have to do a wedding that costs me three hundred ruble. So I went to my rebbe, the Baal Shem Tov, to ask him for a bracha and for advice." "And what did the rebbe tell you?" "Oh, my rebbe gave me one ruble, and he said that on the way home, wherever I stop over on the way, if somebody tries to sell me something for one ruble, I should buy it. And from this thing that I'm buying for one ruble, I'll be able to sell and make three hundred rubles." When the people in the inn, including the owner of the inn, heard this, they burst out laughing so hard, so loud. They couldn't believe it. What a foolish, stupid guy. He believes that he, he can buy something for one ruble and then sell it for three hundred rubles. What is he, crazy? And he believes his rebbe told him that. So they decided to have a lot of fun. They're gonna mock him and make fun of him. And so what did they do? The owner of the inn said to Yankel, "Yankel, listen, don't wo- don't worry. I have an idea for you. I can sell you something for one ruble." Yankel says, "Really? Tell me what, what are you gonna sell me for one ruble?" And he said, "You know what? I'll sell you my portion in Olam Haba." Every Jew has a

04:42 portion in Olam Haba. After a person dies, after a hundred and twenty years, you go to Olam Haba. "Nu, I'm gonna sell it to you. You're gonna own my share in Olam Haba for one ruble." And the people at the table are laughing. What a joke. What a joke. He's gonna sell him his share in Olam Haba. Let's see how Yankel is gonna respond. And Yankel is a very simple man and very sincere. He believed every word the Baal Shem Tov said, and the Baal Shem Tov told him very, very clearly, "Anything somebody tells you, you should buy it for one ruble. If they're willing to sell you something for one ruble, buy it." This man is willing to sell me his share in Olam Haba. He didn't think it was a joke. He thought it was serious. So Yankel says, "Sure, no problem." And when they hear this at the table, the drunken people at the table, they start laughing even harder. Yankel thinks it's serious. And so they're laughing and laughing at him. And finally Yankel says, "So are you gonna sell me your portion in Olam Haba for a ruble?" He says, "Yes, of course," says the owner of the inn. "Let's do it." Says Yankel says, "Where is the contract? We have to sign up a contract where you promise to sell me your share in Olam Haba, and I'll give you a ruble. And we'll have two witnesses sign the contract. Then we know the sale is a real sale."

06:07 And so, uh, the own innkeeper said, "Okay, sure, no problem. We have plenty of people that can be witnesses, they can sign it, and you are going to buy my share in Olam Haba for one ruble." And they were laughing and laughing. They thought it was so funny, and Yankel was serious. Yankel did not laugh. His Rebbe told him, "Buy whatever somebody's gonna sell you for one ruble," so that's what he did. So they signed a contract, and they wrote it up, and they're having a lot of fun making a joke out of this, but Yankel is not laughing. He's serious. And they wrote up the contract, and finally Yankel gives the ruble to the innkeeper, right? The owner of the inn. And the innkeeper says, "Okay, I sold you my portion in Olam Haba." And they're drinking and laughing. "It's so funny. It's so funny. What a silly person, this Yankel. He, he thinks he bought something for a ruble. It's a joke." Yankel is very serious. He holds onto the contract, puts it in his pocket, makes sure that he doesn't lose it. In the meantime, the wife of the innkeeper, she's upstairs. She hears this wild laughter downstairs. Sh- she doesn't know what's going on. Something... What's happening? So she comes running down the stairs. She says, "What's this laughter and this noise that you guys are making?" And her husband, the innkeeper, says, "Oh, oh, Rivka, you don't know what just happened. Something so funny. This Yankel, he-- his Rebbe told

07:36 him that he should buy anything that somebody sells him for one ruble, so I offered him to sell him my share, my portion in Olam Haba, my portion in Gan Eden. So he bought it, and his Rebbe told him that he, that he's gonna make three hundred rubles out of it. And he bought it, and we signed a contract, and he thinks he's serious, but it's such a joke. Ha ha. It was so funny." So, the innkeeper thought that his wife, Rivka, is gonna also laugh. But she didn't laugh. She became very angry. She said to her husband, "You mean to say that you sold your portion in Gan Eden, in Olam Haba, for one ruble? That means when you die, you're not gonna go to Olam Haba. You're not gonna go to Gan Eden. You're gonna go to Gehinnom. You sold your portion in Olam Haba. You can't do that. I'm not gonna be married to a man, to a husband, who doesn't have a share in Gan Eden. No. You better go and buy it back from him." The innkeeper was a little surprised. He says to his wife, "Don't you see it's a joke? It's not really serious." And she said, "No, no, no, no, no. You wrote a contract, you signed it, and the witnesses signed. It's real. You go to Yankel and ask him to sell you back your portion in Olam Haba." And Yan-- and the innkeeper saw it's serious, and she said-- his wife said, "If you don't

09:12 do this right now, I'm leaving the inn, and I'm never coming back. I don't wanna be married to a man like this who... Every Jew has a portion in Olam Haba, and you are not gonna have a portion in Olam Haba. I'm not gonna be married to you." When Yan-- when the innkeeper heard this, he said, "Okay, okay, okay. Don't worry about it. I'll take care of it." Goes over to Yankel and says, "Yankel, do you mind if I buy it back from you? What I..." He says, "What?" "Well, the portion in Olam Haba. I sold you my portion in Olam Haba. Can I buy it? I'll give you back the ruble, and you sell me back my portion." He says, "No, no, no, no, no, no. I'll sell it to you, but not for one ruble." So the innkeeper says, "Well, how much do you want?" He says, "Uh, I want a lot more than that." So the innkeeper says, "I'll give you ten rubles, okay? But just sell it to me back. My wife is so angry, she wants to run away." He says, "No, no, ten ruble is not enough." "How much do you want?" He said, "Three hundred ruble. My Rebbe, the Baal Shem Tov said, I-- after I buy... Whatever I buy for one dollar, for one ruble, I should sell it for three hundred rubles because I need three hundred rubles for the wedding. So I'm not selling it for a penny less than three hundred rubles." So the

10:23 innkeeper says, "What are you, crazy? You know what three hundred rubles... Three hundred rubles is a fortune of money. I'm not gonna buy my Olam Haba for three hundred rubles. I sold it to you for one ruble, and now I should pay three hundred rubles? That's like a, a rip-off, right? You're stealing my money." He says, "I'm sorry. That's what my Rebbe said to me. I'm not selling it." So the innkeeper goes back to his wife. "See? He's a meshuggener. He, he thinks that I sold him his-- my portion of Olam Haba, and now he doesn't wanna sell it back only for three hundred rubles. Do you think I should just pay him three hundred, three hundred rubles? That's a fortune of money." And she said, "Well, I don't care. You better give him whatever he wants. You need to have your portion of Olam Haba, or I'm outta here." So he goes back to Yankel and says, "Yankel, please, please, I'll give you a hundred rubles, okay? A hundred rubles, but please give me back my portion of Olam Haba." He says, "No, no, no, no. My Rebbe said three hundred rubles." Finally, the innkeeper had no choice. He had to give him three hundred rubles cash. And then Yankel said, "Okay, now we can tear up the contract, write a new contract that I sold you back your sh- portion of Olam Haba for three hundred rubles." And Yankel took the three hundred rubles, and the next morning he left home. He was

11:38 able to do a wedding for his daughter. Now, the innkeeper was very upset. He was even more upset at the Baal Shem Tov because the Baal Shem Tov is the one who made him do this. He told him, "Buy anything, and then you'll sell it back for three hundred rubles, and you won't have a choice." The Baal Shem Tov apparently knew, Baruch HaKodesh, that this i-- this, uh, Yankel will end up in this inn, in his inn, and I will be drinking and making fun of him and selling him my portion of Olam Haba as a joke. And then my wife is gonna say, "No, no, no, no, no, you can't do that," and I'm gonna have to buy it back from him for any money that he wants. And Yankel is gonna say 300 rubles, only 300 rubles, not a penny less. And then he'll have his 300 rubles and do his wedding. So I have to pay 300 rubles, lose so much money. I'm getting ripped off so that Yankel can do a wedding. This is, this is like a, a scam. It's, it's a rip-off. And he decided to travel to Mezhibezh to the Baal Shem Tov. And he asked the Baal Shem Tov, "Rebbe, how could you make Yankel do such a terrible thing? He ripped me off of my money. He s- I, I bought it-- I sold him my portion of Olam Haba for only for one ruble, and then I had to buy it back for 300 rubles.

12:53 That's a rip-off. I paid way too much." So Baal Shem Tov said to him, "No, no, no, no, no. Let me explain to you. When you sold him your portion in Olam Haba for one ruble, he gave you more than your Olam Haba was worth. Trust me, your Olam Haba wasn't worth much then. What have you done? You've mocked a Jew, laughed at him, denigrated him, insulted him. What do you think your Olam Haba was worth? Your Olam Haba is only worth for as many mitzvahs as you do. If you do bad things, you mock another Jew, then your, your Olam Haba's value goes down. At that moment, he gave you a ruble for your Olam Haba, he gave you way more than it was worth. Your Olam Haba wasn't worth anything then. Then when you gave him 300 rubles so he could do a wedding, you did a big mitzvah. Because of that mitzvah, the value of your Olam Haba went very, very up high, high, high. In fact, your Olam Haba became so valuable that 300 rubles was a steal. It was worth billions, not 300 rubles, billions of rubles, and even, even more. The value of one mitzvah is worth more than all the money in the world. You got actually a bargain. You got a bargain. You mean you paid 300 rubles for that Olam Haba? That Olam Haba became so valuable 'cause of the mitzvah that you did. And so there was no rip-off here. Everything was just right." And

14:38 from this, the Jew learned an important lesson. Your Olam Haba is worth as much as you put into it. What do you put into your Olam Haba? Mitzvahs, tefillah, tzedakah, helping a Jew, not mocking another Jew. You're in, you're in school, you see a friend who needs help, you don't mock them, you help them. Then your Olam Haba goes up. If Chas v'Shalom you do the opposite, you make your Olam Haba smaller and smaller. And this is basically what this story is telling us. Have a great summer.