130. The Amazing Story Of Reb Eliyahu Baal Shem's Birth

00:15 Shalom Aleichem, kinders. Here is a story that takes us back five hundred years. In the year Reis Samech Alef, this is over five hundred years ago, um, a Jew arrived in the famous city of Kraków, or some call it Kraków. It's a very famous city in Poland, very large city with lots of Jews. A Jew showed up that nobody knew who he was. They knew he came from Spain. He came there after the expulsion of the Jews. The Jews were expelled and thrown out of Spain during the Inquisition. He came from Spain. His name was Reb Yosef Yosefa. Reb Yosef Yosefa, that was his name. Not only was he a great talmid chaham who knew a lot of Torah, he was also a big tzadik. He was about fifty years old, and he moved to Kraków, and people after a short while noticed that he's really a big tzadik and that he has nothing to do with the pleasures of this physical world, of Olam HaZe. He's-- doesn't enjoy food and nice food and nice drinks. He has nothing to do with the pleasures of the world. He's completely busy with learning Torah and davening and serving Hashem day and night. Also, he never married. He was fifty years old and never got married. He lived in Kraków for thirty years till he was in his eighties. For thirty years he lived a life where he had nothing to do with the physical world and only ate a piece of bread and water and that's

02:20 it. The minimum he needed to live, but he didn't have any pleasure from the physical world, and everybody was very respectful to him. They saw that he was a very holy person. But, uh, he never talked to anybody. He was very quiet. He sat in shul and learned. Then something surprising happened. At that time in Kraków, there was a famous man. His name was Reb Levi. Reb Levi was a very rich businessman who had a large business, and his business he did with many, many pritsim, right? Noblemen, pritsim in the area that would buy his merchandise. He also was a big bal tzedakah. His house was always open to the poor. Anybody who wanted to eat could come into his house. Reb Levi had a son, Yosef. Yosef got married to the daughter of Reb Avraham, the goldsmith. Reb Avraham the goldsmith is-- used to make jewelry from gold. This Reb Avraham the goldsmith was a big yirashamaim. His daughter married Reb Yosef, the son of Levi. And so after he got married, uh, Reb Yosef got married to the daughter of Reba-- Reb Avraham the goldsmith. He went into the business with his father, Reb Levi, the father of Reb Yosef, and he started doing a lot of business with his father's business and was very successful. He was very smart and clever. He knew a lot of languages, knew a lot of things about the world, and the pritsim and the noblemen, they loved him. And every time he would come to their

04:16 mansions and houses to sell some merchandise from his father, they would invite him in and they loved talking to him 'cause he was a very smart person and he knew a lot of things. And Reb Yosef, because he had a lot of connections now with pritsim and important people, so the Jews in Kraków would ask Reb Yosef often to ask the prits to help a Jew who needed help. So whenever a Jew needed help with something, they would come to Reb Yosef, and Reb Yosef would speak to the prits. And because he was loved by the prits, the prits would help the Jew. So he did a lot of favors to a lot of people. And Reb Yosef had to travel a lot for business. Especially one of the places he traveled a lot was Prague. He went to Prague for business. One day he went to Prague for business, sold his merchandise and made a lot of money, and he came back with his wagon and horses and his helper. He had a helper that helped him with the merchandise. And they came back-- They went back-- They traveled back to Kraków. On the way, they were attacked by robbers. The robbers unfortunately killed them, killed Reb Yosef and the helper, and robbed them of all their money. Now, Reb Yosef left his wife, the wife who he married, the daughter of Reb Avraham the goldsmith. They didn't have any children. You know what happens if a woman, her husband dies and they don't

05:58 ch-- they didn't have any children, and the husband who died has a brother that is alive Then the brother is alive, has to give her chalitza. She can't get married to anybody else unless the brother of the husband who died gives a chalitza. Chalitza is a form like a get, but not exactly. He has to do something similar to what we do with a get, where she can now marry someone else. Unless she gets chalitza, she can't get married to anybody else. Usually chalitza is done with a shul. Learn about it in the Chumash, Parashat Ki Seitzei, and usually it's done in front of a beit din. So they did it, and usually they-- it was considered a special mitzvah to do a chalitza. And at the end of the chalitza, the brother of Reb Yosef gave chalitza to his sister-in-law, right? His, his brother's wife. And, um, at the end of the chalitza, the beit din would give her a bracha, a special bracha, that she should get married and find a husband and have children. And also what they would announce is after the chalitza that anybody who wants to marry her should know that she's available. And if she wants to, then they can marry her. Of course, she also has to want. Nobody, uh, married her. And a little while passed by, and a strange thing happened. The old man, Reb Yosef Yitzcha, they called him the Holy Sephardi Jew, because he was a holy man. He davened and learned all

07:45 day. He didn't partake and didn't use-- enjoy any of the pleasures of the world. He lived a life like a malach, like an angel. He showed up to the beit din and said, "I didn't think of getting married. Thought I was gonna stay unmarried for the rest of my life and just learn and daven all day. But for some secret reason, which I can't tell you, I decided that I should marry this chalitza, this wife of Reb Yosef. And she got chalitza from Reb Yosef, her husband-- her dead husband's brother. I'd like to marry her." People were quite shocked because Reb Yosef Yitzcha was then, what, almost eighty. She was still a young woman. So the beit din decided, "Listen, Reb Yosef Yitzcha is a holy tzadik." They said, "I don't wanna say no to him." So they said, "Okay, we'll talk to her. We'll see what she says." So they invited the wife of Reb Yosef to come to the beit din. When she came to the beit din, before the beit din was able to tell her why they called her in, she burst out crying. She cried and cried and cried. Finally, she calmed down, and she said to the beit din there was something that has been bothering her. And she said it has something to do with her father, who is already in Olam Haemes, in Gan Eden for many years. Her father passed away a long time ago. And he came to her in a dream already five, six

09:26 times and told her to do something. But she can't decide to do it, whether to do it, to listen to him or not to listen to him. She can't decide it. Um, so after a while, the, the beit din said to her, "Why don't you tell us what the dream was?" She w-- she was afraid to tell them. She didn't wanna tell them. Finally, she agreed to tell them. And she said-- She-- First of all, she started crying again. She said that, "The first time my father came to my dreams, he was dressed in Shabbos clothes and put his hands on my head and gave me a bracha and wished me mazel tov." And she said, "The reason he's wishing me mazel tov, because in Shamayim it was decided that you should marry this holy Sephardi tzadik, Reb Yosef Yitzcha." When she woke up and she says after the first time her father came to her dreams, she was, like, very shaken by the dream. She didn't know what to do. But then a few days passed, and her father came back, told her, "You need to get married to this tzadik." But again, she couldn't get herself to do it. She didn't take it seriously. And then again, he come-- came. And then he told her very strongly, seriously, "You must marry him." He says, "This is what the Beit Din in Shamayim decided." And then her father said, "If you f-- If you do what I tell you, you will have a son.

11:00 But if you don't, it won't be good for you." And all this she's telling in front of the dayanim who are asking her why she's crying. When the dayanim heard this, they looked at each other and said, "Wow." They were, like, shocked. And they said to her, "Actually, the reason we called you is Reb Yosef Yitzcha said he wants to marry you." So here the woman, uh, realized that this is min Hashamayim. Her father's telling her she needs to marry him. And Reb Yosef Yitzcha came to the beit din separately, told them that he needs to marry her, and he didn't wanna say why. So she decided, okay, she has to marry him because what-- because that's what it's, it's decided in Shamayim. Now, in Krakow, there was a custom that if a chalitza, a woman whose husband died and, and the brother of the husband gave chalitza to her, when they-- when she got married to another man, they would make a big deal about it because they felt it was a big mitzvah. Chalitza, her husband died, and she got chalitza from, from her brother-in-law. So it's a mitzvah to marry her off, and everybody would come to the wedding. Then we will take care of the wedding. It was at a minhag by a wedding of a chalutza that all the kohanim of the city would come from thirteen years up. All those that were kohanim from thirteen years and older would stand in two lines dressed in their tallisim and kittel.

12:31 And the chasen kala would walk between them, between the two lines, and the kohanim would give them the birkas kohanim, the yevarechecha Hashem veyishmerecha, yeor Hashem panav eleicha veychuneka. They would all say the bracha for the chasen and kala. This was an old minhag, and the minhag was also to do the wedding in the courtyard of the shul. That was the minhag. When it was a wedding of a chalutza, everybody came. It was in the courtyard of the shul, and they had this minhag with the kohanim. And everybody gave some money for the wedding. Everybody felt that this wedding with the holy Sephardi, uh, Jew, Rebbe Yosef Yosfa, and this woman who lost her husband, they felt there was something very strange and mysterious about it. They knew there was something holy about it. It's not a simple story because everybody heard about the dreams she had with her father telling him-- telling her she needs to marry him, and how he showed up in Bezin that for some mysterious reason he needs to marry her. Everybody understood there was something deep and important going on here. They got married, and everybody in the community got together and paid for buying them a house so they have a place to live, and they supported him and his wife. And, and then a y-- and a year later, they had a son. They called him Eliyahu. Why Eliyahu? After Eliyahu HaNavi. Before the boy, Eliyahu, became two years old, his father started teaching him Torah, and

14:11 he continued to teach him himself. Didn't go to cheder. The father taught his boy, Eliyahu, Torah, and didn't let him go to cheder to learn from a lamdem, from teachers. He taught him himself. When Eliyahu became seven years old, his father took him with him every night when he went for Tikkun Chatzos. You know, the great tzadikim say in the middle of the night, they sit on the floor, and they cry for the Churban Beis Hamikdash, the special tefillahs and prayers we say. So he would take his son, Eliyahu, from the year age seven to go with him to say Tikkun Chatzos every night in the middle of the night. Also told him not to talk much to people, not only in other things, but even in Torah not to speak to people. And he would take him in a special room and learn with him Torah. Two weeks before Eliyahu was supposed to be bar mitzvah, Rebbe Yosef Yosfa called his wife over, told her, "You should know that my neshamah is going to Gan Eden. I will not be at our son's bar mitzvah." He told her not to cry too much when he, when he goes up to Gan Eden. And he says, "You," he says to his wife, "you're still young, not old. So if you find another shidduch, somebody, you should- shouldn't, shouldn't worry. You should get married. And soon our son, I want you to know, our son Eliyahu will be bar mitzvah soon. And shortly after the bar

15:41 mitzvah, he's gonna wanna go to yeshivas far away outside the city of Krakow. So I'm telling you not to stop him because he needs to go. I want you to know our son is a very holy neshamah." And he said, "From the day that your previous husband was killed, I was told min hashamayim that I am supposed to marry you so that we can have a son who has a very holy neshamah, and he will bring goodness to the whole world. And he will start, uh, to teach people in a way that will bring Mashiach, and there will be many generations coming from him, all of which will, will bring Mashiach Tzidkeinu." Then Rebbe Yosef Yosfa, when he finished talking to his wife, he called the leaders of the community of Krakow, and he's thanked them for being so kind to him with the wedding, and they supported him and his wife and his son. And he asked them to continue to support his wife and son because he's going to be mestalek soon. He's gonna be nifter. He's gonna pass away from the world. And he asked them to continue to bless them. And he blessed the community and the heads of the community, and he passed away. Eliyahu the boy said Kaddish for his father, learned Mishnayos in-- at the-- in the minyan, uh, for the neshamah of his father. And people saw for the first time how he davens and how he learns Mishnayos. And everybody saw that this young boy, even

17:20 though he's very young, he's still thirteen years old, he's a very, very special neshamah, a holy neshamah. He's a v- very-- He has a, he's a big tzadik, and he knows a lot how to learn. Then the bar mitzvah came. They made-- the whole community made a big bar mitzvah. And his mother came. She was very proud of him. Then a few weeks after his bar mitzvah, Eliyahu came to his mother and says, "Mom, I wanna leave Krakow. I wanna go to yeshiva far away." His mother did not stop him. She remembered what her husband told her before he died. And he left the house, and for forty years, for forty years, we don't know what happened to him during those forty years. Well, he went to study in yeshivas. We don't know where. But the next thing we hear about him is when he's in the year-- He left Krakow in the year Shin Yud. And when he came-- When he left Krakow until the year Shin Nun, that's when he-- Shin Nun, that's when he showed up in the city of Vermeiza in Germany, and he became famous there, and he became famous as Rebbe Eliyahu Baal Shem. He was one of the first Baal Shems. Uh, after him was his talmid, Rebbe Yoel Baal Shem. Rebbe Yoel had a talmid, Rebbe Adam Baal Shem. And after Rebbe Adam came Rebbe Yisroel Baal Shem, who is known as the Baal Shem Tov, as we all know, the founder of Hasidus. But really, the

18:56 beginning of Hasidus starts with the Rebbe Eliyahu Baal Shem because he started teaching Kabbalah, and he opened a big yeshiva. A big talmid ha'chamim came to him. The Maharal of Prague learned by him in his yeshiva, and many others studied in his yeshiva. This is the story of Rebbe Eliyahu Baal Shem, how he was born.