124. The Wife That Bit Off The Pitom!

00:15 Shalom Aleichem, kindalech. Good Moed. Good Moed. We're gonna share with you a story of the Baal Shem Tov that was shared by the previous Rebbe. The previous Rebbe tells a story in a, a very beautiful, beautiful story with the Baal Shem Tov, one Rosh Chodesh. The Baal Shem Tov on Rosh Chodesh would have a meal with all his talmidim, and in honor of Rosh Chodesh. Rosh Chodesh is a very special day. It's the beginning of the month. For Jewish people, the first of the month is a very special day. So Rosh Chodesh is a holy day. We say special tefillahs. We say Hallel. We say HalleluYAH because it's a special day. So the Baal Shem Tov would even have a special meal, like a Yom Tov-dikah meal with, with talmidim and say divrei Torah. And usually the talmidim, they, they were so anxious, so excited every time the Baal Shem Tov would have a meal, and they were invited to the meal. They were hoping to hear some new Torah from the Baal Shem Tov. And so they would all come, the Mizrachi, Maggid. All these great, great tzadikim and gaonim would s- would sit there by the table waiting for the Baal Shem Tov to say something of Torah which they wanted to hear. And very often when the Baal Shem Tov was a little bit more quiet into himself, he didn't speak much, they would try to sing a Lubavitch niggun or tell something nice to the Baal Shem Tov to make him

01:43 happy. And when the Baal Shem Tov was happier, maybe he would talk more, 'cause they wanted to hear what he had to say. So this, um... So this one Rosh Chodesh, the Baal Shem was sitting at the table and was very-- seemed to be very serious and, uh, he wouldn't talk. He was, like, very deep in his own thoughts. And they tried to sing a Lubavitch niggun, but it didn't work. They tried to tell the Baal Shem Tov, "By the way, we heard that in this and this community there is, um... something nice happened." You know, because people would come to the Baal Shem Tov and tell him all the troubles with the pogroms did this, and this pogroms did that to the Jewish people, and the Baal Shem Tov would get sometimes very sad from this. So they would tell him good news, you know, so he would be happy. But nothing worked. No matter what they tried to do, it was still the same. The Baal Shem Tov was very serious, um, not paying attention to anybody, just thinking deep in, in his own thoughts and very serious, and didn't talk. And talmidim were very upset. They were very, um you know, disappointed because they were hoping that the Baal Shem Tov would, would, would talk and would say something. Then at, um, one point, they're sitting there for a long time and the Baal Shem Tov is not saying a thing, and so they, um, see suddenly the door opens up and

03:14 a man walks into the shul. You know, the sh- the, the meal, the Yom Tov-dikah meal was, was in the shul. So they... So suddenly the door opened up. One person who was not from the talmidim of the Baal Shem Tov, he was a Hasid of the Baal Shem Tov, but a simple man. His name was Dovid. Dovid was a very simple man. Didn't know much how to learn, but he was very frum. He did everything he could with all his heart and soul. He, he really loved the Baal Shem Tov, and he would come sometimes just to be around next to the Baal Shem Tov by his meals just to see him, even though he didn't understand the Torah the Baal Shem Tov would teach. And at one point... So this Dovid walks in, and as soon as he walks in, the talmidim see that the Baal Shem Tov's face became suddenly very happy. Like, suddenly he smiled 'cause he saw Dovid. And the talmidim were a little bit upset. Why is he suddenly becoming so happy when he sees this simple, not learned, uh, Dovid? And we, we're a big talmidim of his. We learn so much Torah, and we can't make him happy. Only this simple Dovid can make him happy. They were, like, a little bit upset. What are we, like, not such good people? We're his talmidim. And so the Baal Shem Tov sensed that the talmidim were a little bit disappointed, so he decided to send Dovid on a

04:53 mission. He decided, "Dovid, listen, can you leave for... I need you to go somewhere to buy some more wine for the seudah, for the meal." The Baal Shem Tov didn't want Dovid to be there when he tells the talmidim how special Dovid is. You're not supposed to tell the full praise of a person in front of his face. He might get gaavah. The Baal Shem Tov gave him a few rubles and said, "Go find some wine," and he went out. And while he was away, the Baal Shem Tov spoke to the talmidim and said to them, "I know you feel bad. Why am I getting so happy when I see Dovid, the simple, not learned, very unlearned Dovid? But when you are around me, and you're such talmidim, gaonim, tzadikim, I'm not getting excited." And the Baal Shem Tov tells them like this: "I want you to know who this Dovid is. Dovid is a simple Jew, doesn't know a lot of learning, but he's a hardworking farmer- He has a farm. He works from very-- from early in the morning till at night. I mean, he goes for Mincha to daven Mincha. But, uh, until Mincha time, he daven-- he works hard. He grows vegetables and all kinds of things in his field, and it's a very hard work. It's very hard work. At night, he davens Mincha, Maariv. Between Mincha and Maariv in the, in the shul where David goes, there was somebody giving a shiur in Gemara, in Midrashim, stories of the

06:37 Gemara. And one day, David hears the Rav who gives the shiur talking about an esrog and how important the Torah says-- how important it is for the Torah that we should have the nicest esrog you can get. "Wa'lakachtem lachem beyom harishon", you should take on the first day of Sukkot, "pri eitz hadar", a fruit from a tree that is beautiful. And our-- the Chazal, the Gemara says, we know from Moshe Rabbeinu's times that what it means, it means an esrog. Esrog is considered a beautiful fruit. And it says in the Gemara that because it says by esrog, "pri eitz hadar", that the fruit should be beautiful, you should try to make it as beautiful as you can. Try to find the most beautiful esrog. Now, what happens when you go buy an esrog and you want a very beautiful esrog? You're gonna have to pay a lot of money because a beautiful esrog is not so easy to find. There are not that many on the tree, right? Most of the esrogim have some spots here, spots there. To have a beautiful esrog that's so-- both beautiful, it's cleaned, no spots on it, and its shape is so beautiful, right? Nice and smooth and everything is great. It looks so beautiful. That's not so easy to find. That's why it costs a lot of money. So, but the, the, the Rav who gave the shiur said, "You know what? When a Jew tries hard and saves money and buys a beautiful esrog, Hashem loves the

08:06 mitzvah very much." So David heard this. He said, "Well, I'm such a poor man." He was very poor because even though he grew vegetables and stuff, but he didn't make a lot of money. And he had a whole bunch of children in his house. You know, he had, like, his wife and his children, and they were starving because there was not enough food in the house because David didn't earn enough money. And sometimes they were barefoot. Didn't have shoes for the kids because he couldn't afford to buy shoes. Sometimes the, the clothes were torn because he couldn't go and take it to the tailor to fix it. They were so poor. So but David wanted to do the mitzvah of esrog once, at least once in his lifetime. Once he wanted to do it beautifully. So he decided, "You know what? I'm gonna do something really crazy. I'm gonna save up money every day." You know, for supper, David would eat maybe a f-few pieces of bread and water. That was his supper because that's all he could afford. For his wife and kids, he gave them a little bit more bread, a little bit more water, but they didn't have-- uh, he didn't have money to buy anything extra. So David decided he's gonna deprive himself. He's gonna eat less every night, and he's gonna save the money that he's-- from that extra food that he's not eating, and he's gonna put it aside. But it'll take a long time. Take a long time

09:28 to save enough money to buy an expensive, beautiful esrog. But David says, "I'm gonna wait. I'm gonna save every day and suffer a little bit of hunger. I'll stay hungry a little bit, so I eat a little less, so I can save that money for the esrog." That's what he did for a long, long, long time. And every penny that he, that he made and that he would put it aside and put it in a special bag. This is the money for the esrog. And so the bag got fuller and fuller and fuller until David counted the money. He saw there was enough money for a nice esrog. It was two hundred rubles. Must have been a very long time for David to save so much money. But he didn't tell his wife, because his wife, you know, she was a good mother and a good wife, and she wanted the children to be happy. She didn't want the children to starve. Sometimes the kids would cry because they didn't have enough food at night, and they'd be hungry and said, "Mommy, I'm hungry. Mommy, I'm hungry." And, and, and the mother would say, "Oi, bubelah, I, I don't know. I'm sorry. I, I don't have enough food. There's no food in the house. I wish I had more food." And, and the kids would go to sleep hungry. And she worried about the kids, right? Because she was a good mother. But so, so David was afraid to tell his wife that he has

10:39 a lot of money put away for an esrog. So he didn't tell her. Put it aside on a shelf where nobody could see it. Once he had enough money, he decided to travel to the big city because they didn't sell esrogim in a small town like in Mezhibez. In Mezhibez, yeah, they wanted to get an esrog, a nice esrog, you had to go to the big city where all the big stores have a lot of very expensive esrogim. So he decided to travel to the big city, but it was like, you know, it was rain and, and mud and muddy roads. But he had an old horse which barely, barely walked and an old wagon that barely held together, almost fell apart. But anyways, he used the wagon and the horse, and he traveled with his money to the big city. And took him a long time because the w-- the horse stopped, couldn't walk anymore, was too tired, and the wagon almost fell apart. He had to fix this wheel and that wheel. It took him a long time to get to the city. And finally, when he got to the big city, he went to the, to the store where the guy sells the esrogim. And he said to him, "I want the nicest esrog you have." And the guy looked at David. David looked like a poor man. "You wanna buy the nicest esrog? You know how expensive it is?" And David said, "Fine. No problem. No problem. I, I have the

11:57 money." "Where do you have the money? Did you steal the money, adir?" He said, "Don't worry about it. I have the money here with me. Just show me the nicest esrog." And so the guy showed him the nicest esrog. And Dovid looked at it and says, "Wow, this is such a beautiful esrog. I've never seen such a beautiful esrog in my entire life." And so Dovid said to him, "Okay, I'm buying it. How much is it?" "Two hundred rubles." "Here, the whole bag is yours. Take, you can count the money. I saved it over many, many, many days and nights. I saved all that money, uh, for my food, for my supper. I didn't eat, and I starved. It's just so I can have enough money to buy this esrog." And the guy gave him the esrog, and he took the money. And Dovid is so happy. You can't imagine how happy he was. He didn't care that he was hungry. He didn't care that he was starving. For him, the best thing in his life was that he had a n-nice esrog so Hashem would love the mitzvah that he's doing. He wanted to make Hashem happy. So now he can make Hashem so happy because he bought a beautiful esrog, and he made his way back. Took him a long time. There was mud on the road, the rain, and this. It was not easy. It was a hard trip. Finally made it home. Came home, he took the care-- the esrog carefully

13:12 and put it, like, very, on a, on a very high shelf so that nobody can touch it. And he waited for Sukkot to come. No-- It was only two days away from Sukkot. Sukkot was almost there, and he was getting more and more excited because as Sukkot came close, he says, "Wow, in two days, I'll be able to do a mitzvah with the nicest esrog, and it'll be such a beautiful mitzvah for Hashem." He was so excited, like, his hands began to shake from excitement. Now, the night before Sukkot, his wife comes into the room, and she says, "Dovid, we need food. The kids are hungry. What are we gonna do? How are we gonna feed the kids?" And Dovid says, "Well, let me see. Maybe I can find some money. Maybe I have some vegetable from, from the garden. Now let me see what I can do." And then she looks up, and she sees on a high shelf a beautiful box. She says, "Dovid, I never saw this before. What is this? What is this?" And Dovid says, "Uh, ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba." Dovid didn't wanna say. He was embarrassed to say that he saved so much money, even though the kids were starving, and he was hungry, and his wife was hungry, and everybody was hungry, and he was saving so much money just to buy an esrog. He didn't wanna tell her, so he started, like, stammering, like, "Uh, ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba, it's a box. Ba-ba-ba, the box is ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba." She said, "Tell me, what is

14:31 this box?" "Uh, ba-ba, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's an esrog. It's an esrog." She ran over and took the esrog down, and she opened up the box. She says, "Wow, what a beautiful esrog. I've never seen it. How did you get such a beautiful esrog? This costs a lot of money. Where did you get the money from?" And he says, "Well, I'll tell you the truth. I didn't wanna tell you, but really the truth is I saved money every single day. I saved another penny and another penny for very long time. I even starved myself. I ate less so that I would have a little bit extra money to put aside. Finally, I was able to get that esrog." And she gets very upset at him. She says, "You saved two hundred rubles when you see the kids are starving, and they're cold, and they don't have shoes, and you take two hundred rubles, and instead of feeding the children, you go and buy an esrog?" And she bit off the pitom. It was a beautiful pitom on top of that esrog. She bit it off. She says, "Forget it. You... This is what you do with two hundred rubles?" She was very upset at him. Now, can you imagine this happened to you? Imagine it happened to you. You have this most beautiful thing that you got as a present, and you love it so much. You can't get enough time to play with it, and you play, you play. It's like

15:47 your most special thing. And then one of your, uh, siblings, your brother, your sister, your little brother, little sibling goes and takes it, throws it in the garbage, and, and breaks it. You'd be upset. You'd be screaming, right? Can you imagine Dovid, after everything he went through, how much money he had to save and how long it took him to save all that money, and how much-- how many days he starved just so he can have enough money to buy the esrog, and how much time it took him to get to the big city and come back, and now he didn't even get a chance to say the brachah over the esrog even once because it's not Sukkot yet. And his wife took it in front of him and bit off the pitom, and now it's not a kosher esrog. Dovid, of course, wanted to get angry, very angry at his wife, but he didn't do that. He swallowed hard, and he said, "You know what? You're right. Who am I? I'm just a simple Jew. This is so arrogant. What am I, Bal Gaava, that I have to have the nicest esrog in town? You're right. I shouldn't have had such a-- shouldn't have spent so much money on the esrog. I should have spent the money for, for other things that we need in the house." And he thanked her, and he was nice to her. The Baal Shem Tov turns to his talmidim and says, "You know, what was the biggest test

17:10 that anybody got in history? What is the greatest test? Avraham Avinu. Hashem asked him to take his son, Yitzchak, his special son, and sacrifice him as a... And Avraham was happy to do it. Hashem says that I'm doing it. Then Hashem told through a malach, "No, no, no, no. I was just a test to see if you're gonna do it." But this is such a big test that we mention it every day in davening. Hashem, give us everything good that we need in the zechut, in the merit of Avraham Avinu passing such a huge, humongous test. Says the Baal Shem Tov, "You should know that from the time of Avraham Avinu until this Dovid, there's never been a Jew that had such a big test like Dovid. Dovid is the f-second person in history that passed a huge, huge test similar to the test of Avraham. And his-- the fact that he didn't get angry- In Shamayim caused a big commotion. And this is why when I see David, even though I'm a little bit serious then and I don't feel like talking, and I'm very quiet. But when he walked in, he changed my mood. I became so happy. And after that, the Baal Shem Tov began to speak Torah for a long time, and the talmidim were very happy. This is the story. Now, the previous Rebbe told that story when? On Shavuot. Now you may ask the question, why would the previous Rebbe tell such a story on Shavuot? We don't take

18:47 an Esrog on Shavuot, we take an Esrog on Sukkot. Why would the previous Rebbe tell the story on Shavuot? I don't know. He-- I don't think he told it. I, I don't think he explained it to anyone, but I'm guessing. Do you know that the Jewish people are compared to an Esrog, to an Esrog tree? Why? Because the Gemara says all trees... You know when the fruit grows on a tree, the first thing that appears on the branch is the leaves. There's leaves, it's like a flower, and then after the flower appears, inside between the leaves comes out the fruit. But first the leaves come out, and then the fruit starts growing. The only tree that's different is an Esrog. The fruit begins to show on the tree before the leaves. Says the Gemara, "You know what the difference between the leaves and the fruit is? Well, it's a mashal. The fruit is like the mitzvahs. Mitzvahs are like fruit." 'Cause a mitzvah does good things for the world. It changes the world, makes the world a holier place. And fruit also makes people happy, right? Gives people, uh, uh, food. It makes them healthy and strong. So mitzvahs are like fruit. But you can do mitzvahs without understanding why Hashem wants you to do it. But then if you understand it also, and you have a lot of understanding, and you appreciate it, you love the mitzvah because you know why Hashem is telling you to do it, then that's called like the leaves.

20:21 The leaves sort of protect the fruit. See, the leaves go around the fruit and they protect the fruit, so the sun wouldn't dry it up when it gets very hot on the tree. It can dry up the fruit from this heat of the sun, so the leaves protect it. Also protects it against bugs. You know, it shields, it surrounds the fruit, so the bugs don't get to it. So it-- the fruit is like... The, the, the leaves are like the knowledge, because when you know why you do a mitzvah, it makes you do the mitzvah better. Because then you know why you're doing the mitzvah. You're excited about the mitzvah 'cause you understand the meaning of it, right? So the Yidden, when they were at Har Sinai and Hashem asked the Yidden, "Do you wanna take the Torah?" The Yidden said what? "Naase v'nishma." We'll do, even if we don't know yet what it is. We'll listen later. We'll understand later. But first, because you ask us, it's your mitzvahs, we're gonna do it, even if we don't know what it is yet. We trust you. So that's why we're compared to an Esrog. Because an Esrog, the fruit, which is the mitzvahs, come before the leaves. Naase, we'll do, before nishma, we'll understand. And maybe because of that on Shavuot, the day we got the Torah, the previous Rebbe told a story about an Esrog. That's just what I think. I might be wrong, but you can ask your rebbes, your tatties, your mammies,

21:41 what they think the answer is. Have a good Yom Tov.