117. Why The Baal Shem Tov Laughed In The Middle Of The Seder

00:17 Hello, Shalom Aleichem, kinders. Let me tell you a beautiful story of the Baal Shem Tov as it is being told by the previous Rebbe in one of his letters. As you know, it's-- the Baal Shem Tov was always Simcha, especially when he did the mitzvah. A mitzvah brought out so much Simcha in the Baal Shem Tov, and everybody loved being around the Baal Shem Tov when he did mitzvahs. He was always very joyous. One Pesach, it was before Pesach, talmidim came to be Pesach by the Baal Shem Tov. And as you know, on the day before Erev Pesach, it's a minhag all over the world, Jews for thousands of years, every year, the day before Erev Pesach, we go to a well with buckets, and we draw water, and that water has to stay overnight in some room someplace. And then the next day, Erev Pesach in the afternoon, we-- they bake without water special matzahs for the night of Pesach. It's a special minhag, and these are very special matzahs because they're baked Erev Pesach in the afternoon, and those matzahs are used for the Seder to do the mitzvah of eating matzah on the night of Pesach. It's called Mayim Shelono. Mayim, water that stayed overnight. Usually going-- when people go to draw the water, it's a very special happy time. Time of the Rebbe Rashab, the bochurim in the yeshiva would dance when they would go draw the water. And many other places, people dance and sing. It's a very special time

02:01 of joy and happiness and Simcha when people go and do this mitzvah of drawing the water, special water to bake matzahs for the night of Pesach. Baal Shem Tov also was usu-usually very happy. That year also, they went to draw water, and the Baal Shem Tov went also along to draw the water for the special mitzvah of matzah, and everybody was very happy. It was a great Simcha. And as you know, the night of Erev Pesach, after dark, we go and check the chametz. Bedikas chametz is also a big mitzvah. Baal Shem Tov used to do this with great joy every year. But that year, unfortunately, the Baal Shem Tov did bedikas chametz, and everybody saw on his face that he was very sad. He wasn't B'simcha. People didn't understand what's going on. Baal Shem Tov is usually very B'simcha when he does a mitzvah, especially bedikas chametz. Here he was very sad. He seemed like very tense and very, very nervous. Nobody understood what was going on. The Baal Shem Tov finished bedikas chametz much faster than usual, and he went into his room and closed the door. Everybody saw on the face of Baal Shem Tov that something is going wrong. Something wrong is going on. The Baal Shem Tov is very, very concerned and very upset. Nobody knew what. Baal Shem Tov sat in his room for several hours, and then after, uh, short-- shortly before midnight, he came out of his room and s-- and he asked ten talmidim, ten of

03:29 his talmidim to come and enter the room next door to his room. He had a room where he, he sat. There was a room next door to his room, and he said they should go into that room, and they should say Tikkun Chatzos. Tikkun Chatzos is a tefillah, a prayer that many tzaddikim say every night at midnight. This is people that are really, really saddened by the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash and the galus of the Yidden, and they go every night and cry and cry at midnight, the middle of the night at Chatzos. They cry for the galus of the Yidden and the churban of the Beis Hamikdash, and they ask Hashem to bring back the Beis Hamikdash and bring Mashiach. S- most people don't do it because usually only tzaddikim that really, really feel the pain and they, they, the hurt because the Beis Hamikdash is still not rebuilt. The Baal Shem Tov told his talmidim that they should also say Tikkun Chatzos that night, and they will hear his voice from the other room that he will also be davening. But if they don't hear him anymore, they hear his quiet, then they should be concerned because something may have happened to him. They should take Tehillim. They should stop saying Tikkun Chatzos, take Tehillim, and start saying the, the words of Tehillim with great kavana. Daven to Hashem that everything should be good with the Baal Shem Tov. So they s-- talmidim went into the room. They said Tikkun Chatzos. They

04:59 could hear the Baal Shem Tov in the other room also davening. But then suddenly, they heard that his voice became silent, quiet, and they knew that this is the time they have to stop saying Tikkun Chatzos and take Tehillim and start, and start davening with great kavana that Hashem should help the Baal Shem Tov, that nothing should happen to him. They didn't-- they weren't in the room, so they couldn't see what was going on. But as they were saying Tehillim, one of the talmidim of the Baal Shem Tov, a great tzaddik, he was called Reb Zvi the Sofer. He was the sofer of the Baal Shem Tov. He would write the tefillin and mezuzahs for the Baal Shem Tov. He came into the room very, very alarmed, and he said to the talmidim, "I've just been in- inside the room of the, of the Baal Shem Tov, and he's lying on the floor, and his body is not moving. Nothing. Not moving at all. I'm very, very scared. I don't know what's going on." When talmidim heard this, they immediately started saying Tehillim louder with greater kavana and crying, crying hysterically because they knew something is really terribly wrong, and they were worried what was g- happening to the Baal Shem Tov. Who knows what's happening to him? And they started saying to him, "Till, till sunrise." And then more talmidim came from outside who didn't know what was going on overnight. They came in for davening Shacharis, and they suddenly heard, heard what happened

06:21 to the Baal Shem Tov, and they were also crying. They went to the mikveh and they said to hill him till they saw the Baal Shem Tov's breath came back. He started breathing, and his body started moving a little bit until he woke up. But he was very, very weak, and he said, "We're going to daven Shacharis, but I wanna go to the mikveh first." He couldn't walk on his own two feet because he was so weak, and they carried him on a chair to the mikveh. Baal Shem Tov went inside the water, and Baal Shem Tov would go in the mikveh very often. He would stay, like, for a little while under the water. It's not easy, but the Baal Shem Tov would stand under the water, and at that time his neshamah would go in G- in Gan Eden, in the higher worlds, and see what's going on. When the Baal Shem Tov came up from the water, his face was, like, white, and his eyes were, like, bulging big, which usually the Baal Shem Tov looked like that when he-- his neshamah was not there. His neshamah was up in Shamayim looking for what's going on there. So they could see in his face that he was-- his neshamah wasn't really there. But they carried him back to shul. By the time they get to davening he came back, and they daven Shacharis. Went back to his room. People saw in his face he wasn't happy. Very, very sad, very concerned, very

07:41 nervous. Then came Mincha time. Before Mincha he said to the talmidim, um, actually he said it before Shacharis also, they should daven with the kavanos of Rosh Hashanah. Kavanos of Rosh Hashanah. Rosh Hashanah where we daven to Hashem to give us a good year, forgive us for everything. We should have the same kavanos now on Erev Pesach in the morning. But that's what Baal Shem Tov said. And not only that, he said they should add the tefillah of Uneinu. Uneinu which we say only on a fast day when it's very sad, like Tisha B'Av, Shiva Asar B'Tammuz, Shiva Asar B'Teves and some Gedalia. These are the days we say Uneinu in Shmoneh Esreh. To say today Uneinu they realize something terribly wrong must be going on and nobody can see it, but he sees in Shamayim that something... There's a great chituk, like a gezera, a decree against the Jewish people, but they don't know what it is. And everybody was very sad and very concerned. After Mincha, the Baal Shem Tov sat down and gave words of Torah to his talmidim, and he talked about bitachon. And he says bitachon means that even when you are in a situation when it doesn't seem like you're gonna be saved from it, nothing looks like as a possibility to save you, and nevertheless you trust that Hashem can save you. For example, he give you... I give you an example. Somebody's in the middle of the water, in the ocean, in the sea, and he's drowning.

09:13 He doesn't have anything. He's alone. He's swimming, but it's, but it's a-- it's, it's in the sea. It's deep water. So, but he sees, like, a boat not far away, so he starts swimming to the boat, and he trusts Hashem, "Hashem, you'll make sure that I can get to the boat and be saved." That's not real bitachon because you hope that the boat will save you. But if a person doesn't see anything around himself, it looks like empty. There's no way, you know? When you look around yourself, you don't see any way you can be saved, and then you trust Hashem can do anything. Even if it doesn't look like it, that you're gonna be saved, but you trust that Hashem can save you, that is real bitachon. That's what Baal Shem Tov was teaching to his talmidim. And then they, they went away. They went home to get ready for the Seder. People daven Maariv, went to the Seder. And during the Seder, again, the Baal Shem Tov looked, like, sad. Sometimes he was a little bit joyous because it's Pesach, but mostly he was not happy the way he is every year. By the Seder usually Baal Shem Tov was extremely b'simcha, would sing the Haggadah, and he would say a lot of words of Torah on different pieces of the Haggadah. But this year... This year, he was not on any, um... Not saying anything. He was just reading the Haggadah quietly, very sadly. People were very concerned, and they wanted to

10:45 hear some words of Torah. Every year, talmidim would wait for months for the night of the Seder to hear new deep divrei Torah. And, um, Baal Shem Tov didn't say a word. Everybody was very quiet, and they was reading the Haggadah quietly and sad. And suddenly, the quiet was interrupted by a very strong laughter. Laughter. People looked up. Who is laughing? The Baal Shem Tov. Baal Shem Tov started laughing so hard. He laughed and laughed and laughed. People didn't understand. Why was he laughing? Nobody said a joke. Nobody said anything funny. Nobody did anything funny. Why is he laughing? Nobody knew, but one thing they all saw. After the Baal Shem Tov finished laughing, from now on the Seder was very happy. Very happy. Everybody ate. The Baal Shem Tov was very happy, very b'simcha, so everybody also, also became very happy, and everything changed. Nobody understood what went on. Why was the Baal Shem Tov sad till now and now suddenly he's, he's laughing and now he's b'simcha? What's going on? Nobody asked. People were afraid to ask. They didn't wanna ask the Baal Shem Tov. So then, then everybody, um, kept quiet. They didn't say anything. But after Yom Tov, the Baal Shem Tov explained. Now, you have to understand that the Baal Shem Tov was born fifty years after a very famous, terrible pogrom took place in Europe. A pogrom is when Goyim come and they destroy Jewish communities, and they kill many Jews. It's called a pogrom. One of the worst

12:32 pogroms in history was fifty years before the Baal Shem Tov was born, when there was a very famous Russia evil person. His name was Chmelnicki. Chmelnicki, in the year תכ"ט, made a rebellion. He rebelled against the Polish government and against the Russian government, and he gathered many, many Cossacks with him, and they conquered all of Europe, all of Poland and Russia, and wherever they went, they killed Jews. They killed many, many Jews. Tens and thousands of Jews were killed. It was a terrible time. After that war, when finally Chmelnicki was... You know, they were all killed. They were captured and killed, and, uh, the Jews were safe again. But the Jews were very poor because many, many Jews lost their homes, lost their, their land, they lost everything. So Jews became very, very poor. And, uh, this, this poverty, this, this, this terrible situation continued for a while because it was so terrible what they did, these Cossacks, that it took a long time for the Jews to start having their homes back and making money again to live a normal life. So the Baal Shem Tov tried to do something very special. He thought it would be better for Jews, instead of living in big cities... Jews used to live in big cities. Big cities are very hard. There's not so much, so many jobs for everybody. So he would encourage a lot of Jews to go to live in villages, small villages, so they would have farms. People would have farms, animals, uh,

14:20 farms where they would plant things. He wanted Jews to be farmers. He thought Jews, when they live in small settlements, right, they, they could make a good living, make, uh, enough money to live, and live a nice life, and live a Jewish life, do Torah mitzvahs, and build small communities in these villages. And so he would go from village to village and, and try to talk to the Goyim, see if, if there's room for Jews to move in there, to have a farm, and to help, um, you know, the other farmers. And so little by little, the Baal Shem Tov managed to get many Jews to move in different places. In some cases, the Baal Shem Tov made a, a new settlement, a new village that wasn't there before. And Jews would move there, and they would, you know, develop a farm, farms with, with, with land, and, and, and they would make a living, right? And, and they would take all their produce, and their eggs, and their milk, and, and the vegetables that would grow in the farms, and they would take it to the big city and sell it on the marketplace, and that's how they made a living. One of those families was a couple who the Baal Shem Tov helped a lot, like he helped many. He gave them money loans, so they'd be able to buy land. And they were a very simple couple. He was not very learned, the husband, but they didn't have any children. That couple

15:46 had a farm. They lived a good life, but they were very sad. They didn't have any children. For many years, they were married, but they didn't have any children. It was that Pesach when the Baal Shem Tov was very sad, and in the middle of the Seder, he started laughing. It was during that Seder that the husband and wife, they lived in a small settlement which the Baal Shem Tov had encouraged them to live there. And they sat down for the Seder. They made Kiddush on the first cup of wine and started reading the Haggadah. And the husband and wife discussed the Haggadah, and when they came to the pasuk, "Kol haben hayilod hayehareg tashlichuho," where we describe how the wicked evil Pharaoh told his soldiers, his officers, that every baby boy that's born from the Jewish people, you should throw it into the river. And when she came to that word, the wife burst out crying hysterically. Husband asked her, "Why are you crying? Don't worry, there's a good ending. In the end, Hashem took us out of Mitzrayim, so why are you sad?" And she says, "No, because if Hashem would have given us a child, I would treat my child much better than He treats His children." We, the Jewish people, are His children. Look how He treated us. Look what tzaros and troubles we had. I wouldn't have treated my son like that. If He gave me a son, I would treat my son so much better. And the husband says

17:15 to her, "But you know what? We don't understand everything Hashem does, but everything He does is because He loves us, even if we don't understand." She says, "Yeah, but look. Look, the Jewish people, are they bad? They're very good. Look how much tzedakah Jewish people give. They give much more tzedakah than the Goyim. They daven, they go to shul. They're so good. They do the mitzvahs that Hashem asked them to do. Why are the Goyim having it easy? They don't have galus. They don't have the tzaros we have. We have tzaros. Why? We are Hashem's children. We're the ones who do the mitzvahs. We're the ones who give tzedakah and daven to Him every day. Why wouldn't Hashem treat us nicer?" And she cried and cried and was very upset. And he's saying, "No, no, no. Well, Hashem has a reason we don't know." And she kept saying, "No, look at the Jewish-- how beautiful people are. Look, Jews are so wonderful." And as she was saying this- Says the Baal Shem Tov, a commotion happened in Shamayim 'cause she said it with such simple sincerity. She was-- she meant it, and she wanted so hard that Hashem should give Jews, you know, a better life. Now, at that time in Shamayim, there was a terrible, terrible decree that was waiting to come against a Jewish settlement of 400 families. 400 Jewish families lived in that settlement. And the first day of Pesach in the morning, there was a decree in Shamayim. Some Malachim came

18:52 and said that those people did something wrong, and the Goyim... It was Sunday morning. The Goyim would come that first day of Pesach, which was Sunday morning, after they go to church, and they would beat up all the Jews. Who knows, maybe they'll kill some people. But then there were good Malachim who said, "No, no, no, no. Why should we do this?" And there was a big debate in Shamayim going on between the good Malachim and the other Malachim, the Malachim that were critical of the Jews, the Malachim that tried to defend the Jews. And the Baal Shem Tov says this started before Erev Pesach, and I saw this during Bikkurim and I became very sad. I was nervous. I was afraid that the Malachim who were accusing the Jewish people and wanted these, this settlement to be suffering terrible, terrible suffering on the first day of Pesach, I was afraid they're gonna win. And so I became very concerned, and I tried and davened and davened, and I told you to daven, but I saw nothing helped. So I decided we need to have Bitachon. So I... That's why we sp- I spoke to you after Mincha about Bitachon, 'cause when you tried everything and, and it doesn't work, then you just have Bitachon. Trust in Hashem, Hashem will help. But then came the night of the Seder, and this simple couple, a husband and wife, were sitting at the Seder, and she was telling her husband, "Look how wonderful the Jewish people are.

20:15 Look how many mitzvahs they do." When she said these words, in Shamayim became very, very excited. There was a big excitement going on. Look what this woman is saying. Now, this is not over. That story is not over yet. This couple kept saying the Hagadah, Hagadah, and every time they argued about whether Hashem is treating the Jewish people well enough or not, and she said, "No, the Jews are really wonderful. Hashem should treat them nicely. If I had a son, I would treat him so much nicer." And towards the end of the Seder, they finished the fourth cup of wine, you know. In those days, wine wasn't like today, like 5% alcohol. Yeah, wine was a little stronger, you know. And if you drink a lot of the four cups of wine, especially after a very long day with a lot of hard work and you're exhausted during the Seder, and then you drink four cups of wine on top of that, you know what's gonna happen? You get a little dipsy, a little bit drunk. So they got very happy. You know, you get drunk, you get a little happy. So they stood up from the Seder pl- table and decided to dance, and the husband and wife started dancing with great joy. It's Pesach. And they danced and danced for hours. And Baal Shem Tov said, at that moment, a huge Simcha broke out in all the heavens, in Gan Eden, everywhere in the Shomayim. Malachim got very excited with joy because this

21:37 couple was dancing with such Simcha, because it's Pesach. Hashem took us out of Mitzrayim. And when Simcha broke out in Shamayim, the Malachim that wanted to attack and criticize and accuse the Jewish people got quiet, and it was decided that when this community will not suffer any terrible things, and they were saved. Baal Shem Tov says, "When I saw how this couple was dancing and what Simcha it caused in Shamayim, I started laughing. I was so excited, full, overfull with joy. I was... Mamish laughing. I found it so funny. A simple couple. Look what she said at the Seder table and how it caused such a, an amazing Simcha in Shamayim." And the Baal Shem Tov said, "Hashem should be blessed. He chose the Torah, and He chose Moshe, and He chose the Jewish people who are called the Yisroel. And some of those Jews, Yisroel, are simple Yisroel. They're simple Jews. They do better, and they can have a bigger effect in Shamayim than Solik Baal Shem Tov." He talked about himself. I tried so hard to daven. It didn't work. A simple couple, they just... It's just simple said they didn't know what goes, goes on in Shamayim, but they were just, you know, really honestly saying to Hashem, "Please help the Jews. They really deserve it." And that did it. The Alter Rebbe told that story to his grandson, the Tzemach Tzedek, and he said he heard from his Rebbe, the Maggid, that heard it from the Baal Shem Tov, that when

23:25 a Jew has a hard time, you suffer from something, you should have Bitachon that Hashem will help. But when somebody else is suffering, don't have Bitachon. Just go help him. If you did everything to help him and you can't anymore, you see, I tried everything and it's... He still needs help, then you should have Bitachon. It's exactly what the Baal Shem Tov did. First he davened and cried and told the Talmidim to daven. They were to hold it till... And when they didn't have, by Mincha he saw, he saw they tried everything, it didn't work, he told the Talmidim to have Bitachon. And then Hashem helped, that because of this simple couple, everything changed.