129. The Tzadik Who Was Forced To Hide His Miracles

00:16 Shalom Aleichem, kinderlach. I'm gonna tell you today a story about a tzadik. His name was Reb Mordechai of Nesvizh. Nesvizh was a city in Poland. Reb Mordechai of Nesvizh was actually a Talmud of the Mezritcher Maggid. He had a son, Reb Yitzchak of Nesvizh. He was the Rebbe after his father, Reb Mordechai. Reb Yitzchak told a story to a Rav who wrote the Sefer. He says he heard it from him. The Sefer where I read it from. Reb Mordechai of Nesvizh was a big bal mofes. People would come to him with illnesses like that no doctor could heal. People that were, like, so dangerously sick that they-- everybody knew they were gonna die, and he would cure them. He would, um, you know, with a nas, with m-mofesim, with nissim. Now, one day, Reb Yitzchak says, "My father told me that in Shomayim there's a kitrug against him." Right? There's a, a complaint, a very strong complaint, an attack in Shomayim by certain malachim. It's mainly the Satan that, uh, has a strong complaint against him. So at first, he didn't say what the complaint is, but he was very worried. As you know, tzadikim, when they get a kitrug in Shomayim, it's a serious thing. You know, we know from the Alter Rebbe. There were several kitrugim against the Alter Rebbe. One time with his d- his daughter, Devorah Leah, gave her life in s- for the Al- for her father because in Shomayim it was decided the Alter Rebbe has to leave the

02:05 world, Chas v'Shalom, and she wanted to go instead of him. Remember the story I told y- I told you before? And later on, when Alter Rebbe had to go to prison, it was also because of a kitrug in Shomayim. So a kitrug in Shomayim is not a good thing. Can, can, can end up in, in not good things for the tzadik. So Reb Yitzchak-- Reb Mordechai was worried, but he didn't say what the kitrug was, what it was about. And after a while, he told him that, uh... He told him what the kitrug was. And he told him the story. He said... So Reb Yitzchak explained like this, so we understand what the kitrug was about. We have to understand how Reb Mordechai used to, uh, you know, behave with people that came to him. If a Jew came to him and he was very, very sick, and the doctors said, "That's it, he's gonna die. Can't help him anymore," what Reb Mordechai would do, he would say to the Jew, "Do you believe that Hashem is the only one in charge of everything? He's Yachid V'Yuchad, and there's no one other than Him. He's in charge of everything. He's in charge of your illness. He's in charge of you and of everything in the whole world and all the malachim. Everything. He's the only one." And people... And then, and then he would say to him, "And do you say Shema with kavana? If you say Shema with kavana, then you know that Hashem

03:35 is one. He's everywhere. He's one everywhere." And when people would hear these words, they would, like, get this, uh, very strong feeling of teshuva because they realized that they don't really believe that so strongly. And he would then ask them again and again until they began to shake and feel that they actually believe that Hashem is everywhere and Hashem is in charge of everything. And then Reb Mordechai would tell the person to say Shema Yisrael together with him. He would say every word, "Shema Yisrael." And they would repeat after him, and he would translate in simple Yiddish every word because these were simple-- sometimes simple people. So just explain to them in simple words that Hashem Echad, Hashem is one. He's everywhere in the heavens and the Earth. And every single person, every single creation, Hashem looks after. And when the people would hear this from Reb Mordechai, they would become baal teshuva, even if they did that or many aveiras before. They would right away, instantly, feel like they wanna do teshuva. When-- Then Reb Mordechai would tell them, "You can go home because you will for sure get healed." And he did this to many, many people all the time. They would come to him, and they would spend an hour with him, and right away they become baal teshuva, and they would go home, and they would get healed. They would have a refuah. He would do this with Goyim also. If a Goy came to him, the Goy already knew that

05:05 this tzadik, this rabin, uh, is a wonder rabin, and they would come to him, and he would tell them right away, "Do you believe that there's only one God?" And he would ask them again and again until they said, "Yes, I believe." Then he would tell them, "You can go home. You'll be fine." So the Satan was complaining. He said, "You know that the Satan is the same as the Yetzer Hara, is the same as the Malach HaMaves as the Gemara says, the same malach. When he comes and tells the person and pretends to be his friend and says, 'Ah, why don't we do this little aveira?' You know? He's geshmak to do an aveira. You know, pretends that he's trying to make you happy and feel good. That's when he's called the Yetzer Hara. But then he changes his face. He goes up to Shomayim. He starts talking against you and tells Hashem that this person has done an aveira. Right after he succeeded at, at making you do the aveira, he goes to Hashem, and now he's called a Satan. Satan means he's causing trouble. Goes and trouble for the person. First, he pretends and tells him, "Yeah, you should really do this." And when he succeeds at getting him to do this, he goes and tells Hashem, "Look, the person is bad." And then in the end, if he doesn't do teshuva, he becomes the Malach Hamavet and comes and takes away the neshamah. So it's the same as the Gemara says,

06:25 "Who are yetzer hara? Well, Satan or Malach Hamavet." It's the same Malach just taking on different faces. So the, the Satan was complaining in Shamyim that Reb Mordechai is ruining his job 'cause he said before Reb Mordechai started doing all these moifim and wonders with the sick people, so if a person did an aveira, I used to work very hard to make a person do an aveira. I would convince him here, and he didn't listen. So then I would make it, oh, but still do it again. I would come back to him. I'd work very hard to make him do an aveira. And when I finally get him to do an aveira, he didn't do teshuva right away. First, he went to doctors and spent a lot of money. He thought that the doctors are gonna save him. And after save-- spending a lot of money realizing that it doesn't work, then maybe after a while he would start thinking, "Maybe I should do teshuva." And then maybe Hashem will give him a refuah. But, but it was worth it because it took a long time before he did teshuva. But now, since Reb Mordechai do- does what he does, a person does an aveira, and the next day he goes to Reb Mordechai. He gets sick, and the next day he goes to Reb Mordechai. Reb Mordechai makes him about teshuva on the spot. And the same day he's become about teshuva and he's healed. So my work is, is, is, is, is worthless.

07:47 What's the point for me to work so hard? So they answered him in, in Shamyim, the Beth N'shal Milo, answered the Satan, "Well, this is what Hashem decided. When tzadikim say something should happen, he listens. Hashem does it. He does what tzadikim say." So the Satan says, "I understand. I understand that because Reb Mordechai is a tzadik, uh, the Yid still listens to what he says, and if he says a person should get healed, Hashem listens to him. But who says he has to do it in such an open, miraculous way? He can make it sort of a little bit more naturally. Let him give them some little medicines or maybe some herbs, you know, like some people do. They give them natural herbs and stuff, and then say, 'Take this a little bit.'" And of course, these things don't always work, but, uh, Reb Mordechai, because of his davening and his tefillahs, of course, is gonna make sure that the person gets healed. But at least in this case, the person is not gonna see right away and openly that this is a miracle from Hashem or that he's a tzadik, Reb Mordechai, who just, you know, can overpower nature and he's above nature. They'll think, you know, he's doing just-- he's just a very good, uh, uh, healer. He knows a lot of the natural stuff in the world, the different spices and herbs that can bring, uh, better health to people. And so people won't know right away that there is something

09:24 spiritual and holy about this. This way, says the Satan, at least people will have bechira, free choice. Hashem wants people to have free choice. He doesn't want people to see openly that Hashem is everything. And, and, and then of course, who's gonna do an aveira if you see everything so clearly and openly? Hashem wants people to choose something because even-- Hashem wants the people to have a yetzer hara and still choose the right thing. But he's taking away the free choice from people because he's showing them openly that Hashem is making miracles with them, and that he is a tzadik, and he is not interested in nature. He can go above nature. So then, well, of course people are gonna do teshuva, and they're not doing the teshuva because they choose to do teshuva. They're doing the teshuva because how else are they gonna do if they see clearly that Hashem is in charge? So there's a problem with what Reb Mordechai is doing, said the Satan. So it was decided in Shamyim that this is a, a legitimate and, and this is a justified, uh, complaint of the Satan. It was decided from now on, Reb Mordechai has to sort of disguise. Disguise means mask, hide his powers of performing moifim and nissim, and he has to do things more like pretend it's natural. It's like the Rebbe sometimes would tell people to go to that doctor, to the other doctor. But really, these doctors didn't-- couldn't do anything. But Hashem wanted it to

10:55 go-- it should look like it's, it's, it's a little bit natural. And, and that's what was decided in Shamyim. Now, how did Reb Mordechai start doing-- changing the way he did it till now? So here is what happened. There was a city called Libovna. Libovna was next to Neslizh. And there was a doctor there who was a very prominent doctor and very famous, uh, goy. He made a lot of money because a lot of people used to come to him, and people would come to him from all over, from far and wide. And he was a big balgayveh, you know, "I'm a great doctor." And then he heard, this doctor heard that there's a city, the Neslizh, the city Neslizh, which is next to the city of Libovna, where he lived. There's this Rebbe that performs mi-- people are sick, and they go to him, and i- on the spot, he heals them. So he got very jealous and very upset because he's taking away all his customers. He's taking away all his patients. Although even the Goyim would go to the Rebbe. And he was losing a lot of his patients to go to the tzadik, 'cause what the tzadik did was worked much better. It worked on the spot and right away in a miraculous way. So he got very upset. So he complained to the government and told the government... There was a special office in the government for, like, science and f- medicine. You know, in, in, in Russia, you weren't

12:37 allowed to practice magic or kishuf, right? Sorcery. So the doctor said, "Listen, there's a rabbi who heals people, and it's impossible that he uses normal medicine. It must be that he's a mechashif. He's a sorcerer. He's a m- magician, and that's bad, and therefore we need to stop him." So they sent a message, the government sent a message to the mayor of Nesvizh in saying that he needs to, he needs to tell the Rav, the Rabbi, Rabbi Mordechai, to come on a, in a wagon to Vilna, and the, the people of the minister of medicine, they will test the rabbi to see if he knows any medicine. And if he does know any medicine, then that means all the healings, and all the refuos, and all the things that he does is not through medicine. He does it, uh, like a, like a sorcerer, like a, a mechashif. He's a, he's a magician, and, and that's terrible. We're gonna put him in prison. But the mayor of Nesvizh was very friendly with Rabbi Mordechai. When he got that message, he was very sad 'cause he didn't know what to do. He was afraid. He knew that Rabbi Mordechai is not doing this with kishuf, chas v'shalom. Jews are not allowed to do kishuf. Um, but he knew that Rabbi Mordechai was a tzadik and he just daven to Hashem. And he asked Hashem to heal these people, and Hashem listens to tzadikim. So he knew the truth. Although he was a goy, but he knew

14:17 the truth. So he, he was afraid. Didn't know what to do, and he didn't wanna... He knew if he sends Rabbi Mordechai there, they'll see that it's not medicine, and then they'll hurt him. They'll, they'll put him in prison. So he decided to call the Rav into his mansion and asked the Rav, "Please come in. I have a very important message for you." And he told him, "Come, come to me in my private room. I need to talk to you about a secret." And he told him, "Listen, I got a message, an order from Vilna, from the main office, from the m- um, minister of, of science and of medicine, that they wanna talk to you. You need to come to Vilna right away, and they wanna test you and see how you perform these miracles of healing people. Do you use natural medicine, or is this like magic? If it's magic, then it's a terrible crime, and they, they really, they punish people." So says the mayor to him, "But Rebbe, you know that I know the truth. I know that you're a tzadik, and Hashem listens to your tefillahs, and it's not magic. And I don't wanna send you there, but I don't know what to do because, uh, I have to. They told me to. So I have one id- one, one solution, and please listen and let me know if you're willing to do it." So the Rav says, "Please tell me what you think." He said, "From now on, when

15:46 somebody comes to you who is sick, pretend that you're giving them something like some natural herbs or something that has some things, you know. Just get a few things that you know people claim they work, and tell them to take this. But of course, i- it's your tefillahs that work. But the, the people won't... People think that you're just very, very, very smart when it comes to medicine, and you know a lot of medicine. And so if you do that, then I can send a message to Vilna and say that I am promising, guaranteeing that the Rav, Rabbi Mordechai, is not doing things with magic. He's doing things with, with medicine. And if they come and check, they'll see it." Rabbi Mordechai heard this. He said, "Ah, this is what the Satan was asking in Shamyim that I do." And now because in Shamyim they agreed with the Satan on this part, that Rabbi Mordechai cannot just blatantly do a miracle where everybody can see Hashem is doing it. This is not nothing to do with nature. It has to be a little bit more look... It has to look a little bit like it's nature so that people wouldn't right away know that it's Hashem doing it, so people will still have free choice and be able to say, "Ah, I know the truth, that Hashem did it." Hashem wants a person to choose it on their own. And Rabbi Mordechai said to the posek right away, "Uh-huh. Yes, I agree." 'Cause he knew

17:24 that it's not just the posek saying it. This is the reason the posek is saying this, because in Shamyim it was decided that he has to do this now. So this is the story, and this was the kitrug against Rabbi Mordechai. And this tells you that the Rebbe many times would tell people, um, I know in my family have some amazing stories where the Rebbe did some major, major miracles, right? Even with health. And he would say, "Well, but ask this doctor." And the doctor said, "Well, really there's nothing that I can do." And then when the Rebbe pushed, you know, he pretended that, "Oh, yeah, maybe, yes." Like the Rebbe tried to sort of mask it and make it look that it's based on medicine. It's in, it's in order to... It was easier for tzadikim to do this in a more, you know, uh, hidden way, so it wouldn't look so openly because otherwise the Satan would complain that this is a little bit too open, and it ruins his job and also ruins what Hashem wants, that people should chose, choose on their own to believe in Hashem, that Hashem is really the one who's doing it. So even when you take medicine, even when you go to the doctor, it's not the doctor that's healing, it's Hashem that's healing. But He's using the doctor as his tool, as his shliach to heal you.