133. The Tzaddik Who Gave Up His Olam Hazeh And Olam Haboh For Another Jew

00:16 A freilechen Chanukah, kinderlekh. You know that Chanukah, Hashem gave us a very big matanah, a big gift. He gave us the lights. The lights of Chanukah is very different than the lights of Shabbos candles, the lights of the candles in the Beis Hamikdash. It's a very special light. What makes it so special, it's a kind of light that can bring light even into the darkest places in the world, in the darkest situations in the world. No other light, not Shabbos candles, not the Beis Hamikdash candles, no other light has such an amazing power. And you know why Hashem gave us this special gift? It's because the Chashmonaim had mesirus nefesh. They had mesirus nefesh for Yiddishkeit. They didn't listen to the Yetzer Hara, and they didn't listen to the Greeks, and they were willing to sacrifice, to give up everything, even to put themselves in danger to protect Yiddishkeit, to protect Torah and mitzvahs. And the Rebbe says that when you have mesirus nefesh, Hashem gives you a gift, this special, special light of Chanukah that can even change the darkest, darkest place. That means even a Jew who is very far away from Hashem, far away from Yiddishkeit, he's in a very deep spiritual darkness. Even such a Jew, when you give him the Chanukah menorah, you can take him out of there and pull him out and bring him back to Torah. We see this every day in Chanukah. So many Jews that have no connection to Torah and mitzvahs, they don't do

02:16 anything, they don't keep Shabbos. When they see the Chanukah menorah, they're reminded that they're Jewish. There's a special light there. So I want to share with you a story of a tzadik that had mesirus nefesh, and because of his mesirus nefesh, was able to do something, an amazing miracle. The story is about the Tzemach Tzedek. The Tzemach Tzedek lived in the city of Sanz in Poland. In those days in Germany, the Jews of Germany were not very, very frum. They didn't keep Torah and mitzvahs. Most Jews in Germany were far away from Shabbos, kashrus. They didn't care about it. They cared more about going to university and becoming very smart, but they didn't have any interest in Torah and mitzvahs. A Jew came from Germany and traveled all the way to Sanz in Poland and told the Tzemach Tzedek, "I heard that you are a wunder rabbiner." In German it means you're a wonder rabbi. You're a famous-- That you're a rav, a rebbe that makes miracles, makes nissim. Wunder, wonders. You're the wunder rabbi. "So I'm asking you, can you make a wunder for me?" A miracle. He says, "I've been married for more than twenty years, and my wife and I can't have children. The doctor says that it's impossible for us to have children. Maybe you can make a wunder, a wonder, and a nes, and Hashem would give us a child." So the Tzemach Tzedek said to him, "If you promise me you'll start keeping Shabbos, then I promise you that

04:18 you will have a child, a son, in a year from now. But you have to remember, you have to keep Shabbos. If you keep your promise, and every Shabbos you keep Shabbos completely according to the way Torah describes, then I promise you in a year from now you'll have a child." The Jew thanked the, the, the Tzemach Tzedek. He thanked, "Danke schön." This is how you say in Germany, "Thank you very much." And he left. He went back to Germany. A year later, this Jew from Germany came back to Poland, to Sanz, and when he went to see the Tzemach Tzedek he said, "I wanted to thank you for your bracha. Your bracha was fulfilled. It happened. My wife gave birth to a baby boy. But I want to tell you that I kept my promise, too. I kept Shabbos." Now, this story spread very quickly all over the city of Sanz, and all the Sanz Hasidim heard about this amazing miracle that the Tzemach Tzedek performed. Now, in Sanz, there was an older Hasid who was a big Hasid of the Tzemach Tzedek, a yid, a big talmid chacham, and a yerei shamayim, a, a, a very special Jew. He also didn't have any children. When he heard that story, he was very upset because he has been coming to the Tzemach Tzedek every single year and asking, "Rebbe, Rebbe, please..." Give me a bracha. Not just a bracha, give me a promise that I'll have children." And the Tzemach Tzadik always told him,

06:08 "No, Hashem should help, Hashem should help." He never gave him a promise. Now he hears that the Tzemach Tzadik promised a Jew from Germany that doesn't keep kashrus, doesn't put on tefillin, doesn't do anything. He asked him to do one thing, to keep Shabbos, and because of that he did this incredible wonder, this incredible miracle. So he went, decided to tell the Tzemach Tzadik what bothers him, and when he went into the room he told the Tzemach Tzadik, "Listen, Rebbe, how come that this Jew who doesn't keep any mitzvahs, just for keeping Shabbos you promise him a child and you give him this incredible matanah, this incredible gift? And I, who davens and learns and is a Hasid of yours, and, and, and I, I try to be a yirashamayim, I learn Torah every day, I don't deserve a child? Why do you never promise me? For one mitzvah, for Shabbos, you promise him a child. For me, I do all the mitzvahs and I, I learn and I daven, and I don't deserve a child. Doesn't make sense to me." And the Tzemach Tzadik said to him like this, "I want you to listen carefully." He said, "When I have to p- promise someone a child, when I know that in Shamayim it was decreed that he will not have a child, that means this person was not meant to have children. Even in Shamayim it was decided that this man cannot have children. Now I, Chaim of Zantz, has to come and tell

07:55 the heavens in Shamayim that bezrat Hashem that I want him to overturn this and give him a child. Do you think this is a simple thing to do? I am putting a lot at risk. I'm risking my Olam Haze. I may have to lose my whole Olam Haze." That means he may not live for very long. "And I may risk my Olam Haba." That means I won't go to Olam Haba. Chas v'shalom. "But I have to give it... I have-- I may lose all of this only because I'm asking that the sh- the bezrat Hashem, the bezrat in Shamayim should overturn that which was decreed in Shamayim by, uh... about this Jew. But for this Jew, who I saw doesn't even know there's a... Hashem exists, doesn't even know there is a Shabbos. Just that he would know there is a Hashem, just that he would, that he would keep one Shabbos, uh, keep one mitzvah, which is Shabbos, I'm willing to sacrifice and give away my Olam Haze and my Olam Haba, only so that Jew would begin to keep Shabbos and know that Hashem is there. But for you, Iz," the Tzemach Tzadik said, "you're a Hasid. You daven, you learn, you were raised by your parents to be a firm Jew. It's very hard for me to give up my Olam Haze and my Olam Haba. For this Jew, I know that this will make this Jew believe in Hashem and keep Shabbos. But for you, you already believe in Hashem. You

09:40 already keep Shabbos. Why should I sacrifice and give up my whole Olam Haze and my Olam Haba?" Here we see the Mesirus Nefesh. A Mesirus Nefesh of a tzadik, not only his Olam Haze and Olam Haba, which is much harder, much harder to give up. Give up everything only for another Jew. And what kind of a Jew? A Jew that doesn't keep any mitzvahs. So only that would keep Shabbos. The, the Tzemach Tzadik was willing to, to take a risk and put in danger his entire life. A freilechen Chanukah.