131. The Evil Poritz And The Young Holy Porush

00:16 Like last story, the following story is told by the previous Rebbe in Sefer HaZichronos. And, uh, the story was heard by the Alter Rebbe's father, Rebbe Baruch. Alter Rebbe's father heard this from a young man by the name Shmuel Nachum, whom he heard-- who he met in the city of Dobrimisl. This young man, Shmuel Nachum, was a learned talmid, a talmid chacham, and he learned in the yeshiva in Dubrovno when he was a young bachur. And this Shmuel Nachum told the Alter Rebbe's father, Rebbe Baruch, this following amazing story about this young Parush, as you'll hear now. Shmuel Nachum describes that when he was a boy, he was, uh, sixteen, seventeen years old, he decided to go to yeshiva to study in Dubrovno. Dubrovno had a big yeshiva. In order to be accepted in the yeshiva, you had to first get a test. You have to be tested to be accepted in that yeshiva. It was a very important yeshiva, and not everybody could get in there, but you had to be tested first. So when he arrived in Dubrovno, he thought, "Okay, I can't get into the yeshiva yet because they haven't accepted me yet, so I'll go in one of the shuls and sit and learn and prepare for my test." He met in Dubrovno a shamash, uh, that his name was Avraham Moshe. He was a shamash of a shul that was called the Shul of the Old Parush. A Parush is a Jew in olden days. There used to be Jews

01:57 that were so, uh, holy that they, they wouldn't have anything to do with the physical world. They would close their eyes and shut their ears with plugs or something, or cotton wool, so wouldn't hear anybody talking. And they would just learn and daven all day, day and night. They would stay in the shul, they would sleep there, and they would eat maybe once a day. People would bring them a piece of bread and water, and that's what they would eat. They're called a Parush. Parush means somebody who's completely divorced, separated from the physical world. He had nothing to do with the physical world. All he wanted is to connect with Hashem through Torah and tefillah. That's all they did all day, and they didn't talk to anybody. They didn't look at anything. They had their eyes shut the whole time. And, um, they would just sit there and they'd never move. Sleep on that bench, sit on that bench, daven there, learn there. When they had to go to the bathroom, then somebody would help them and walk with them to the bathroom because they couldn't see. They wouldn't wanna see anything. Now, some of those Parushim were true great tzadikim, and some of them, eh, they thought they were gonna be great tzadikim. They, they felt special. They had a little bit of gaava. And the Baal Shem Tov used to make fun of them and-- or he would, uh, tell them that what they're doing is not right. Hashem doesn't like what they're

03:21 doing 'cause they're doing it for their own personal kavod, right? They wanna feel great, so they think if they are going to be Parushim, that means they're great, great tzadikim. Uh, so that's not what Hashem wants. Anyways, this shul was called the Shul of the Old Par-- of the Old Parush. Avraham Moshe advised this young bachur, Shmuel Nachum, that while he waits to be accepted into yeshiva, he should come to that little shul where he, Avraham Moshe, is the shamash of and, uh, and he should come and dive in. There he can learn and sit and learn and, uh, till he is accepted to the yeshiva. When he came into the shul, he saw an old man, Reb Chaim, and everyone called him-- everybody called him Reb Chaim the Parush. Apparently, this Reb Chaim was one of the Parushim, one of those Pa-Parushim that used to completely separate themselves from the world. They didn't talk to anybody. They didn't listen to anybody. They just were in their own world. They would daven and learn and close their ears and their eyes, and they wouldn't see anything, and they wouldn't see anybody. And that's how they were always connected to Hashem. So Shmuel Nachum thought that the shul was called this, the Shul of the Old Parush because of this Reb Chaim, was an old Parush that was sitting here for many years. So the Avraham Moshe told him, "No, no, no, no. This shul has a story that goes back eighty, ninety years ago." Eighty,

04:53 ninety years ago, there was an amazing story behind this shul, and this is the story Avraham Moshe told him. There was a boy in Dubrovno. His name was Faivish Henoch. Faivish Henoch was a young boy who showed great yiras Shamayim. He seemed to be even as a early child like he had a lot of yiras Shamayim. Tried to do mitzvahs very special in a perfect way, davening with kavana. Unfortunately, Faivish, Faivish Henoch wasn't able to learn a lot of Torah. His head-- He didn't have a good head. And Gemara can be hard, and he wasn't able to understand the difficult Gemaras, so he spent most of his day saying tehillim. And he said tehillim with such joy. You could see he's enjoying it with such geschmack and joy. And, and, and he, he literally would say it with great excitement, and you could feel like his whole neshamah was into it. He said the words with such passion. He was so excited when he said the words of Tehillim. Every word he said so clearly. And so he also had a very beautiful voice, so he would like sing the Tehillim. He would sing it with a special tune. And he also-- This Faivish Henoch happened to be like tall, healthy, looked very nice and big. I mean, like, he looked like very healthy. And, um, he just didn't care about the physical things, about his body, about... He only cared about Hashem and saying Tehillim, and he felt so close to Hashem when he

06:46 said Tehillim. The shul and the entire day, and most of the night, were echoing. Now, what echoing means, you could hear the sound of his voice the entire day. He never stopped saying it. He closed his eyes-- Well, before he closed his eyes, this is when he was a little boy still. He would say Tehillim all day long, and he would like... You could hear when he was saying certain part of Tehillim, he would say it with such joyous voice. And then when he came to a certain part of Tehillim which talk about sad things, David HaMelech crying out to Hashem that he's in trouble and his enemies wanna hurt him, so you could hear in the voice of Henoch, Faivish Henoch, how he was... Like, his voice became like very sad and bitter, and he was like pleading with Hashem. You could hear what the, the Perek is about based on the type of voice that he was saying those words. When Faivish Henoch became sixteen years old, he decided that he's not just gonna say Tehillim all day. He's just gonna become a Parush. He's gonna separate himself from all the physical pleasures of the world. He's gonna close his eyes with a big, um, cloth, a handkerchief, tie his eyes up so he wouldn't be able to see anything or anyone. He's gonna stuff up his ears, so he wouldn't hear anybody talking, and also his nostrils, his nose. Stuff up his nose, so he wouldn't be able to smell any food.

08:16 He didn't wanna have any connection to the physical world, and no pleasures in the physical world. All he wanted to do is say Tehillim with great, great geschmack and joy, and that's all he loved doing, and that's what he did. He knew all of Tehillim ba'al peh. He knew all of the davening from all the tefillot, Shabbos, Yom Tov. He knew them all ba'al peh, and all he did is just stand there and say Tehillim all day. And when it came time to daven, he davened. That's all he did. He stood in one corner in the shul, and he never moved from there. At night-- He fasted every day and only ate at night a piece of bread and a little bit of water. That was his only meal during the day. On Shabbos, Friday night, he would make Kiddush on bread. He wouldn't drink wine. And he ate a little bit more than every night because it's Shabbos. And also during the day of Shabbos, he ate a little bit of bread, a little bit more than, than usual because it's Shabbos Kodesh. More than that, he didn't eat anything, not on Shabbos, not on Yom Tov, just an extra piece of bread and some water. He also slept very little. As much as he could, he would just daven and daven and say Tehillim all the time. He made sure that his body didn't enjoy any physical pleasure. And everybody was surprised that his body was still very strong. Can you imagine somebody

09:44 who hardly eats like him, fasts every day, only eats a piece of bread? And he wasn't skinny. He was like pretty strong. He looked tall. He looked good. He looked strong. He was-- Nobody-- You couldn't see on his body that he was fasting like this. And that's what he did for many years. His name became famous in all of Dubrovno. And not only in Dubrovno, but all the cities and the towns around Dubrovno. Everybody heard about this Parush, this boy who is s-- from sixteen years old, didn't hear, didn't look at anything, and he's just in his own corner davening, davening, davening, saying Tehillim all day and most of the night. Even the Goyim in the villages around Dubrovno have heard about the amazing sweetness by which this boy says Tehillim every day. People would come and listen to his Tehillim, and when they heard the happy voice, they would like become very joyous. And when they heard him, you know, say the words of Tehillim with a sad voice and begging Hashem, they would begin to cry because it was so moving. He had such a sweet voice when he would say something in Tehillim, you could feel what the words were saying. And people would start crying whenever he was sad, and it was a sad Perek of Tehillim. The Goyim even loved listening. They would come outside the shul and stay behind the wall and listen to him say the Tehillim. Now, not far from Dubrovno, there was a big, um... an

11:20 estate. That means a big land and parlor and a big mansion and a lot of land that was owned by a Poritz. That Poritz was famous for his being an antisemite. He hated Jews. He was very hateful to Jews. This despicable Poritz who hated Jews had one day this brilliant idea that he is going to bring that famous Parush, right? That young man, that boy that, I don't know, maybe at that time he was already twenty, or maybe a little older, but e-everybody talks about him. Even the Goyim said that what an amazing boy he is. He just reads the Tehillim all day. He doesn't care about food, he doesn't care about people, don't care about anything in the physical world. He's like a Neshamah. In Gan Eden davening to Hashem the whole time. And his voice was so sweet, even the Goyim were amazed by it. And this Poritz said, "Ha ha." He said, "Nah, this is-- the guy is nuts. He's crazy. Who in the world shuts their eyes with a handkerchief and stuffs up their ears and their nose, and, and, and all they do is just say words and sing to, to some invisible Hashem that you can't see? I mean, this kid is a little crazy. Let's have fun." You know, in those days, the Poritzes who were anti-Semites, they hated Jews, they would often grab a Jew, and they would make a big party and invite all their friends, the Goyim Po- Poritzim from the surrounding villages, and they

12:55 would put the Jew on a stage, and they would make him dance. They would tell him, "You must dance, or else we're gonna beat you up." And the Jew had to dance, and then they would make him dance certain dances like a Cossack, which a Jew wasn't able to do, and it looked so funny when he tried to dance like a Cossack. And they would all laugh and laugh, and that was so much fun for the-- for these anti-Semite Goyim. This Poritz had an idea, "Oh, this is this crazy kid that everybody talks about. I'm gonna bring him to my palace. I'm gonna invite all my friends. We're gonna put him on a stage, and we're gonna make him dance and do all kinds of funny things, and we're gonna have such an amazing time. We're gonna be laughing our heads off. It's gonna be so much fun." Well, the Poritz decided to carry out his dream. He invited everybody with a big party, with music and food in his house, and, and hundreds of Poritzim and all-- and their children and their wives, everybody came to have fun in this Poritz's house and palace. He told one of his servants to go to the Plovna nearby and bring this Porush, that famous Porush that hasn't moved out of that shul for many years. "You grab him and bring him to me here, and we're gonna have some fun with him. We're gonna make him do things that are gonna be so laughable. We're all

14:20 gonna have so much fun." So his servant went to the Beis Midrash, to the Plovna, came to the Beis Midrash where the Porush was sitting, and he said to him with great excitement, and this Shliach, this messenger of the Poritz, when he heard the voice of the Porush, suddenly was gripped with such fear. He was so terrified, he couldn't move. He said, "Wow, this is..." Like he couldn't believe what he was hearing. He heard such a sweet voice davening to Hashem. It's like he doesn't know why, but he felt afraid to approach the Porush. He didn't even dare to go inside the door. He just heard the voice of the Porush from outside the shul, and he couldn't get inside. He says, "This is too much. This, this, this is like so awesome, so amazing." He couldn't, he couldn't do this. So, um, he went back to the Poritz, his master, and told him that, "You know, you don't understand. We're talking about a very holy person. You can't even get close to him, because when you hear him say what he says, the Tehillim, the Hebrew stuff, you know, these prayers, it is so powerful. Uh, you, you like feel like this awe of Hashem. You can't even come close to him." And he says, "I, I wouldn't dare to hurt this, this Porush. He seems like such a tzadik. I want to respect him and not..." When the Poritz heard that, he flew into an anger, a rage, and he said to this,

15:53 "You dare not to listen to me? I told you, you must bring this Porush here to my, to my palace, to my courtyard, and you didn't bring him." And he said, "Aha, I'm gonna give you the punishment I give to everyone who doesn't listen to me. Fifteen lashes in public so everybody will hear and see what it means not to listen to me. I'm the boss, and everybody has to listen to me." Well, and he said, "You know what?" The Poritz said, "I'm gonna do this in public. I'm gonna make it in front of everyone." And he sent out messengers on horses with trumpets to call everybody in the area must come to the palace because the king, the Poritz, is going to give lashes to this servant who didn't listen to him, and everybody should come and watch. The Poritz had meanwhile someone build a, a big large stage, and on the stage he was going to, um, is going to lash the, the, this, this servant, and he's gonna give him fifteen lashes. Normally the way it would happen, if somebody didn't listen to the Poritz, and he would have his people lash him. He had special people that were strong people, and they would give lashes, very strong lashes with a very nasty whip that could hurt the body so badly that after the first three lashes, the body would turn red with blood, and people would feel the pain. It would be torturous. By the time all the lashes were given

17:28 to the person, fifteen lashes, the person was like almost unconscious. He could barely ma- walk. He was in such pain. And then the Poritz made these people who were punished with these fifteen lashes because they didn't listen to him, he would make them crawl while they were bleeding. He would make them crawl to him and kiss his shoes, right? Because they couldn't stand on their feet. And then they would take them on a bed to their houses, these servants, so they could recover, recuperate, and become-- and, and heal because they were like totally half unconscious. And this would happen usually, but here in this case, when they started giving lashes to this servant who said he cannot approach this Porush, he has too much respect for him, he was so impressed with his Tehillim that he felt like this awe, this terrible fear of going over to him. So the Poritz took him and gave him fifteen-- said to the people there, "You should give him fifteen lashes in front of the Poritz, in front of everyone." And surprise, surprise, the lashes did nothing to his body. They lashed him one, two, so the Peretz thought maybe the gi- the guys who give the lashes are not strong enough, and maybe the lashes, the, the whip is also not strong enough. He made them bring a new whip, which was really strong and nasty and hurtful, and he told them to bring other people that can lash, stronger people, and they told him that with

18:53 all their strength, they should beat this Mashal, but nothing helped. His body didn't show any signs of bleeding or wounds of red, red signs, and he didn't even scream as if he didn't feel anything. And when they finished all the fifteen lashes, he still stood up like as if nothing happened. He went down on his knees to kiss the shoes of the Peretz as the Peretz requested, but he went home like a normal person. Everybody was surprised, how did that happen? But the Peretz said to send more messengers, a whole bunch of, uh, s- guards and soldiers and officers to go and catch the, the, the, the young, the young Perush. The Peretz sent a bunch of soldiers, as I said, to the, to Brovner, to the shul, to catch the Perush. And he said, "Even if you have to force him, just drag him with your hands and put him into the wagon and bring him here." You know, they had a stage where they beat the previous Mashal, the previous, uh, servant of the, of the Peretz, and they were gonna use this stage to put, uh, five-ish Henoch on that, on that, on that, uh, stage, and make him dance and do funny things. So they're all waiting for the soldiers to bring the, the Perush here. Now, when those soldiers and those guards and officers came to the shul, they, they don't know what happened, um... And they, they came back. They came back with empty-handed, without the Perush. The Peretz

20:44 got very angry. Instead, what? And, um, what happened? So the head of the officers that went to catch the-- to bring the Perush said to the Peretz, "I'll tell you why we didn't bring him." He says, "Impossible to get close to him. Well, we'll-- I'll tell you what happened when we came to the shul. We found the Perush where his sweet voice was singing so loud and beautifully all the words of the, the Tehillim, and his words went into our bones, into our kishkes. We felt like, wow, this is amazing words. We felt something deep inside of us like an awe, a fear of Hashem. When I got closer to him, to the Per-- to the Perush, and I saw that he was sitting with closed eyes, his eyes were tied up with a, with a piece of cloth, and he's singing his davening, and he didn't hear that anybody was here around him. He didn't notice anybody. So I became filled with respect for him. He was dressed in a talis on his head, and he also had these black boxes on his head and on his arm." These are the tefillin, obviously. "And but nevertheless, I decided to go over to him and tell him that you told us to bring him, that he must come with us. But I tell you, I tried to talk to him, but my voice became frozen and my feet froze. I couldn't move." So then the Peretz says, "So what happened in the end?" He says,

22:15 "I took my whip and I thought I will make a, uh, m-make a, a-- I'll lash the whip in the air so he would hear the noise." Makes a lot of noise. You take your whip and you put it through the air, like make a quick lash through the air, it makes like a strong noise. "Maybe he'll wake up and he'll look at us, and I'll tell him he must come with us. But he didn't hear a thing. He was so deep into his mirras and his singing of Tehillim that he didn't hear a thing. And then my-- the other riders, the other officers that were with me noticed that my hand became frozen. I couldn't move it. They were so scared when they saw this that they started running away, and I started thinking, oh, I'll, I'll leave also if, if my hand can move and my feet can move. And suddenly I was able to move, and I was able to leave the shul. But I realized if I stay there, I wouldn't be able to lift my hand and move my feet. I'd be frozen forever." When the Peretz heard that story from the head of the officers, the second group that he sent to catch the Perush, he got into a huge, uh, rage and anger and he said, "You also are going against my word." And he took the head of the riders, the head of the, of the officers and told them-- told his people to give him thirty

23:40 lashes. Not fifteen, but thirty lashes. This time, the lashes really had an effect on the, on the, on the, on the officer, and his body was bleeding and he was almost unconscious, and in the end, he went and kissed the feet and the shoes of the Peretz like the Peretz always would ask people to do. He could barely crawl on his feet because he was so weak, and then they took him home to recover. Finally, the Peretz says, "I will go myself." Right? "I will go myself to the Brovner with a bunch of my guards and officers, and I will show everybody that you guys have stupid ideas. He's not a holy person. He's just crazy. He's nuts. No young person ties his eyes and his ears. He's crazy, and I'm gonna bring him here, I'm gonna show you that you guys are all delusional. You're thinking stupid things. He's not a holy, he's not nothing." And he right away, the Peretz said to prepare his horses and his com-- people that go with him, his officers, and all went. Now, the Peretz invited the Galach of the town to also come with him. Uh, may-maybe the reason he invited the Galach because he wanted to make a big dramatic thing out of it, that the Galach is also coming, or maybe he was a little bit afraid, maybe what they're saying is true, and maybe this Perush is actually a magician. He does magic tricks on people, so maybe the Galach will help me

25:13 undo the magic becauseMalach is the Galach. The Malach the Galach is like, um, you know, a Galach. Well, anyways, Bizah may the Galach told him, "I'm sorry, I'm not going with you. I think you're making a big mistake to starting up with this Parosh. I've heard a lot about him. He's a very holy person. You're making a mistake." But the Parosh says, "Ach, stupid, I'm going to get him." And when he got to Dubrovnik, the Paritz, um, came into the shul, and they're going to drag the Parosh. Now, the Rav and the head of the community of Dubrovnik, when they heard that the Paritz himself is coming to the shul to grab the Parosh, they were a little bit af-af-afraid. What's gonna happen? So they told everybody in the city, "You must stay home. Everybody should stay home. Close the doors and close the windows so the goy wouldn't see us, because who knows, you know? If they come to get the Parosh, and then they think that we're, we're... It's our fault that they can't get the Parosh, if they see Jews, they're gonna start, you know, hurting us. So better we all stay home, safe, close our doors, and don't even look outside the window." Only the Rav and a few leaders of the community went to the shul of the old Parosh, the shul where the, the, um, h-Henach, uh, uh, Faivish Henach was, was there. And they decided that if the Paritz comes, they'll go over to the Paritz and

26:47 beg him to leave the Parosh alone and not to bother him. When they came, when the Paritz arrived, um, he k- took his whip in his hand right away and ready to go and grab the Parosh. So the Rav came with a few people from the community, started begging him, "Please, this is a holy person. Look, he's saying all he's doing is he's not harming anybody. Leave him alone. Listen. Listen to how he sings. You'll see that it's so amazing. They... Uh, how can you denigrate such a special boy?" And the Paritz says, "No, no, I gotta prove once and for all that the guy is a crazy boy. He's just nuts. He's out of his mind." F- and just to show that he's not afraid and he's not impressed with this crazy boy who's shutting his eyes, he took, um... He started screaming at, at the Parosh louder than the Parosh could sing, so to make sure that the Parosh hears him. But the Parosh didn't move as if nothing happened. The Parosh didn't even know that he was in danger. He was in a different world. He was just saying Tehillim. The Paritz got so angry, he started... He picked up his whip, he started moving it towards the Parosh to hit him up, to hit him hard. But for a moment, um, it looked like as if the sh- the whip is about to hit the Parosh, but suddenly something happened. The whip fell out of the hand of the Paritz, his

28:26 hands collapsed downwards, like without strength, and his whole body started shaking. And then suddenly he felt this incredible pain in his hand which he used to hold the whip about to strike the Parosh. That hand began to hurt terribly, and he started screaming from such great pain. He started saying, "Save me. Save, save." The Parosh didn't hear anything. He didn't even know something is going on around him. He just kept saying pasuk after pasuk and perek after perek. Um, the Paritz and the people around him that came with him stopped thinking about the Parosh. They would-- They wanted to help the, the Paritz. The Paritz is in pain. He's screaming. He can't take it. He says it's too much to bear, and he's screaming and screaming on top of his lungs. He can't take it. The pain is too strong. They took him quickly, they put him in the wagon, and they went back to his palace, and they didn't know what to do. The Paritz laid sick for six weeks. His entire body was full of pain and suffering. He me-- He sent many times special messengers to the Parosh, to Dubrovnik to ask him to forgive him 'cause he saw, he knew that this is because of the Parosh. The Parosh-- Because of the Parosh, because he wanted to hit the Parosh, that's why his hand is in such poor shape and he's dying. His hand is dying. And, and so-- But, but they came to tell him that the Paritz wants to

30:00 ask forgiveness, but they couldn't get through to him because he was so busy davening. He wouldn't hear anything, so they couldn't ask him. The Paritz went to many doctors to find some kind of a healing, but nothing worked. They said that the only thing that can save him is to cut off the hand, 'cause the hand is so infected that if he'll l-leave it, it will affect the whole body and he might die. So they said they wanna save his life, we need to cut off his hand. And from that point on, um, nobody bothered the s- the, the Parosh anymore, and even the Paritz realized, and the people around the Paritz, what a great tzadik this boy is, and the boy didn't even know that anything was happening. In Dubrovnik there was a Jew by the name Zundel Moshe. He and his wife never had children. They were married for many years, didn't have children. So his wife came up with an idea that all the women in Dubrovnik who don't have children should, should collect money, and they should build a new Beis Midrash for Faivish Henach with a special room attached to the shul where he can have his personal things, his... He can lie down for sleeping sometimes. He have his own private room next to the shul. That shul was built in what was called the Cold Street. It's called the Cold Little Street, and that was the shul where Shmuel Nachum the bachur was waiting to be accepted in

31:28 the yeshiva in Dubrovnik, was sitting and learning, and Avraham Moshe was the shamash there. It so happened that all the akeres, the women that didn't have children in Dubrovnik got together. They built-- They got money. They raised money. They built a new shul, and they called the shul the shul of the old Parosh 'cause this boy, Faivish Henach, became older and older, and he, for the rest of his life, he was a Parosh in that shul and never moved from that place. Now, Avraham Moshe the shamash, who told Shmuel Nachum this, says that he was one of the children that were born because his mother also didn't have children, and she, because she, um, because she helped in raising the money and helping the Parosh have what he needs, she had a boy, Avraham Moshe, who was the shamash.