126. Eliyahu Hanavi's Cup That Saved A Family From Poverty - Story By The Holy Riziner

00:16 Shalom Aleichem, kinderlekh. Today is Gimmel Chesvan, Parshas Noach. It is the yahrzeit of the Heilige Rizhiner, Semakh Tzedek. Used to call him the Holy Rizhiner. So I'm gonna share with you a story about the Rizhiner. The Rizhiner once told, told his Hasidim that he had a Hasid that used to live in Romania, and he had a special cup for Eliyahu Hanavi, for the Seder. And that cup, he was a wealthy man, every year he would take out the cup of Eliyahu Hanavi, and before he put it on the Seder table, he and his wife would spend time decorating the cup, and they would add every year more diamonds and more decorations. They would make it beautiful, more beautiful every year before, before Pesach. But over the years, this rich man became very poor. He lost everything, lost every penny. He had nothing left. And since he was once rich, you know, rich people are not used to take nedavas and tzedakas and handouts from other people. It's embarrassing. So he was a little, he was embarrassed, embarrassed to take from other people, so he lived in, in real poverty, and they barely had anything to eat. So when things got really, really bad and they realized... And the husband realized that there's no money and they, they can't eat, they're, they're, they're gonna starve, he told his wife, "Maybe we should sell that becher, that cup which we decorated with so many diamonds. It must be a very expensive becher. So maybe we should sell

01:50 it, and for that money we'll be able to live." And the wife said, "No." She said, "I'm not allowing this to happen. This is the becher that we for years have decorated with great dedication with the... And, and we're not gonna touch that. This is-- We're gonna continue to try to do our best to make it beautiful every year and to leave it on the Seder table." And she said, "I'd rather live in poverty and be hungry and starve, but this becher cannot be sold. This is for Eliyahu Hanavi. It's Eliyahu Hanavi's becher." So that year on Erev Pesach, it was still early in the day, so the man says to his wife, "Let me go to shul. I'll sit there. And, uh, you know what? I'll stay, stay in shul, and I'll stay there till after the davening tonight when people go home for the Seder, and I'll stay there for a while because I'm so embarrassed to come home to an empty home. People can see there's no light in the house and there's no food in the house. So I'm a little bit embarrassed to come home, so I'll stay a little later in shul till everybody leaves and everybody goes to their homes for their Seders, and then I'll crawl out of the shul and come home," 'cause there was nothing home for the Seder. So it was like, um, before noon he left and went to shul and st- and decided to spend the entire day in shul and stay

03:07 there till late at night when everybody's home. While he's in shul, uh, somebody knocks on the door where his wife was, uh, wife was home, and somebody knocks on the door, and she opens the door. She sees a stranger. She's never met him. He's a Yid, a Jew. And he says, um, "Can I stay with you for Pesach? I'm a stranger. I'm traveling, and I, I'm stuck here, and I, I need a place to stay for Pesach. Can I spend Pesach and do the Seder with you?" And she says, uh, "Mister, we're, we're very poor. I mean, we don't have anything, even for ourselves. I don't know what you're gonna get from being with us. I mean, we would love to have you, but we... there's nothing in the house. We have nothing, nothing, nothing, not even matzah, wine, nothing." So the man said to her, "Oh, don't worry about that. I mean, I am actually traveling, and I have a-- I'm a rich man. I'm a businessman, and, um, uh, I can give you... Here, take a big..." So he, he takes out a big sum of money. He says, "Go. Go out to the store. Buy everything you need, matzah, wine, fish, shallot, uh, kishke, whatever. Whatever you need, um, buy everything for Pesach and buy it nicely. Buy it, you know, comfortably with... Make it very beautiful, and then, then I can stay with you." She says, "Okay. That's, that's so nice of you." And she runs to the market. She buys

04:24 everything. She buys the best food and everything. She even bought special clothes for her husband because he hasn't had a new, a new pair of clothes in a long, long time. So now she bought him a special suit for, for Pesach and, and she bought all the food that she could buy, and she came home with all the food, and she set up a beautiful table with a tablecloth and beautiful candles, and she set the table with all the best, best foods and the matzah and the maror and the, the Seder plate and the wine. Everything was on the table so beautifully set. And she's waiting for her husband to come home at night, but the husband is not coming home because he doesn't know anything. He thinks that, um, you know, there's nothing in the house. He's waiting for everybody to go home after davening on the night of Pesach, and he's hoping that when everybody leaves and everybody's already home, he'll be able to come out of the shul and walk home quietly, and nobody would see him, and there would be no, um, no embarrassment. He didn't wanna be embarrassed that people would see that he has nothing. So he had nothing in the house. So he waits till late, and he comes out of the house. As he walks through the s- the houses, he sees in all the houses a lot of light and singing the Haggadah, and everybody's very excited, and he feels so bad inside. "You know, I

05:39 have nothing. I'm coming to an empty house. There's no food, not even matzah and maror, and I'm so embarrassed." And he's walking and walking. Finally, he makes it to, to, to the house, and he's shocked. He looks through the window. He sees from a distance there's a lot of light coming from his house. He says, "Maybe it's the wrong house. Maybe I made a mistake. Maybe it's a different house." And he looks. "No, no, but this is my house." And he gets closer and closer. And when he gets closer, he sees through the window his wife sitting and waiting for him. And the table is decked with the best and finest food. So he walks into the house and says to his wife, "What is this? Where did you get all this? Where did you get all this from? I mean, uh, we didn't have anything. Am I dreaming? Is this something... Am I having like a dream now? Am I, am I sleeping? Am I... Is this real?" And she said, "Yes. There is a man who came to town, a stranger, I never met him." He says, "He wants to stay Pesach with us." "And I told him we have nothing in the house." And he says, "Here, take some money and, and, and you can buy whatever you need." And I went to the market and I, I, I even bought you a new set of clothing, a special suit for Pesach." The husband is in disbelief, and he says, "Wow, it's

06:49 like a nes, nes min Hashamayim." So they, they sit down by the table. They're waiting for the guest to come, the guest that he wants to stay with them. So later on, the guest actually did knock on the door, and he came in and he said like this, "I wanna bless you, give you a bracha, that you should be... have all good in your life and be very wealthy again." And he disappeared. Right away, he disappeared. He left. Didn't come back. So they understood that this is not a simple story. I mean, this man that came and gave them the money, I mean, he said he was gonna spend Pesach with them, now he disappeared, and gave them a bracha for hashiras, for being wealthy. So they decided after Yom Tov, after Pesach, to travel to the Rizhiner and tell him the story. So the Rizhiner said to them like this, "I want you to know that this man was Eliyahu Hanavi. And because you had such mesirat nefesh for his sake, for his kuvod, that that cup that you worked so hard on every year for so many years to make it beautiful for his, in his honor, so therefore, you had the zechus to see him." He says, "Ashrei mi shezocha lira otso." There's a, it's a, it's a, it's a big zechus to see even Eliyahu Hanavi. Ashrei mi shenomar shalom, it's even a special zechus to give Shalom Aleichem to Eliyahu Hanavi. Not everybody's zoche to that. You had a zechus

08:05 that you saw him, and your wife, she, because she's the one who told you, stopped you from selling the cup, she's the one who pushed you not to sell the cup, she had the zechus to see him twice, 'cause she saw him on Erev Pesach when he came and gave her the money. She saw him a second time when he arrived, uh, on, uh, during the seder. So, the Rizhiner said, "From here we learn, uh, how important it is even min hagius ot, even though the cup of Eliyahu Hanavi is not mameish a halacha, not actually a mitzvah. I mean, it's a, it's a minhag, which is mentioned in halacha, but it's a minhag. But nevertheless, to be so careful about even a minhag can, uh, can be so important in Shamayim. Hashem should bless you all with a good life, happiness, simcha, and do good things. And every mitzvah that you do, and that you're careful to do with special attention, especially nowadays, will, um, will bring a great nisim to the Jewish people in Eretz Yisrael, which we need now more than ever. May the zechus of the great tz- tzadik, the Rizhiner, and all the tzadikim, and all the rabbeim, bring us to a final redemption, to the Geulah Amitzi VeShleima.