138. The Rebbe Maharash Saves The Life Of A Poritz

00:16 Shalom Aleichem, kinderlekh. Uh, freilechen chodesh. Very important chodesh, the month of Shevat. It's the month of the hissedakos of Friediker Rebbe, Yitzchak Friediker Rebbe, and the beginning of the Rebbe's nisias. The Rebbe became Rebbe on Yud Shevat. I wanna share with you a story of the Reb Maharash, an amazing story. In the time of the Reb Maharash, there was Hasidim of the Reb Maharash that lived in a small town. These were great Hasidim, Hasidim that learned and davened, and were yirat Hashem. They did avodas Hashem. They served Hashem like, uh, like Hasidim Chabad did. There was a paritz in that town where they lived. He had a big, big property, bu- a lot of houses and farms, and he employed a lot of the Jews to work for him on his, on his land, on his farms, and on his houses. He made the Jews take care of it, so they had parnasah. So most of the Jews of the town had a lot of baruch Hashem nice parnasah from this paritz. One day, the paritz got older, and he decided he's going to hire a manager. But unfortunately, he hired a manager that was a big anti-Semite. He hated Jews. He d- really didn't like Jews. And this anti-Semite, when he took over m- uh, the, the, all the lands and all the, the properties of the, of the paritz, he saw that all of the workers and all of the people that worked for him are Jewish. He said, "Why should the Jews

02:10 get all the parnasah from the paritz? I'm gonna start putting Goyim in there, and I'll send away the Jews, so the Jews don't have to have parnasah. We'll have the Goyim have parnasah." And so that's what he did. He slowly started sending away Jewish families from the, uh, land and the farms from the paritz and told them, "No, I'm sorry, you don't have a job anymore. Goodbye. I have other people now. They're gonna take your place." The Jews were very upset because they didn't have any income. They didn't have a parnasah. They didn't have any jobs. But they didn't complain. These were real Hasidim who cared more about davening and learning than about money and parnasah. So when they came to the Reb Maharash from time to time for yontif, th- and they went to yechidus, they never asked the Reb Maharash about this problem that they had, that they don't have parnasah. Because they were more interested in asking the Reb Maharash for advice how to serve Hashem and how to deal with your nefesh habamos, your, your yetzer hara, and how to daven better, and things like that. But they never asked the Reb Maharash about parnasah and a brocha for parnasah. They, they, they felt this is gashmiyus, physical things. They, they were-- This was like not something they wanted to ask the Reb Maharash, to bother him about such things. If you're already going to yechidus, and you have a chance to speak to the Rebbe himself, you're gonna use those

03:52 moments you're in the yechidus to ask him for gashmiyus, physical things. So they didn't ask anything. They asked only about ruchnius, spiritual things, davening and learning. So that's it. So, uh, a while went by. Once there was a very rich Hasid who used to do business with that paritz from that town where those Jews used to work for him once upon a time, and now they lost their job because of the new manager. So he used to... That paritz was very friendly with that Jew, that Hasid. The Hasid lived in a different town, but, uh, he used to travel to that town and do business with the paritz. So he and the paritz were quite friendly. That rich Hasid once traveled to the Reb Maharash and went to yechidus. And he discussed his, his things that he, his brocha that he needed. Then the Reb Maharash asked him, "I know that you travel a lot to that town and a lot of my Hasidim there. Tell me, how are those Hasidim doing? I know they never tell me anything about their parnasah, but I wanna know how they're doing with their parnasah." So the Hasid said to the Reb Maharash, "Well, I'm very sad to tell you that many, many of the Jewish families lost their jobs. They don't have any income. They don't have any parnasah, no job because there, there's a new manager, a goy, anti-Semite, yimach sh'mo. He, he, he hates Jews, and he sent away a lot of the Jewish people

05:28 that worked for, for the paritz. Now they don't have jobs and, and they're really, really having a hard time with making, bringing food to the table and giving food to their families. It's very hard for them." So the Reb Maharash said to this Hasid, "You didn't tell me. How come you didn't tell me?" So the Reb Maharash said to this Hasid like this: "You are friendly with this paritz, so what I want you to do, when you go back home, travel through that town- And try to talk to, meet with the Poritz, and tell him like this: "I know," says the Rebbe Maharash, "that this Poritz is very sick. He's old and very sick, and I know his doctor because he's also my doctor." Right? It was a famous doctor. He was both the doctor of the Rebbe Maharash, and lehavdil, the doctor of this Poritz. "And I know from my doctor that this Poritz is so ill that the doctor thinks he's not gonna live more than a few months. He's gonna die soon. But tell the Poritz that I said that I promise him another month of life for every family that he's going to take back into his business and give them a job. For every family, another month of life." The Hasid traveled to that village, the town, and he tried to meet the Poritz, but the people told him in the house, "Oh, the Poritz is very ill, and he's, he doesn't see any people, and I'm sorry, we can't

07:06 let you in." So he didn't know what to do, so he went home. Then after a while, he thought he's gonna go back and try again. When he came back, it turns out that the Poritz was then taken out by his family members on a wagon 'cause he needed some fresh air. The doctor said he has to take a walk or travel a little bit outside with this fresh air for his health, and so they were just about... They just took him out on a wagon. It was an open wagon with this fresh air, and he was traveling, uh, through the town, and this Hasid came. He was tr- also coming, traveling in the streets of the town, and the Poritz sees him from his wagon. So he sees the Hasid who is his friend, and he says, "Please, come on. Come, come into my wagon." So the Hasid right away climbed onto the wagon, and he said to the Poritz, "You know, I have a message for you from my Rebbe, the Rebbe Maharash." And he says, "My Rebbe says like this: He knows that the doctors believe that you're not gonna live very long. You're only gonna live for a month or two. So the Rebbe said like this: He promises to give you another month of life for every Jewish family that you hire and take into your business and give them parnasah. The more families, the more months you're gonna live." When the Poritz heard this, uh, first of all, he

08:37 was very surprised that the manager had sent away all these Jews. The Poritz, uh, liked the Jewish people. He used to hire a lot of Jews. He didn't know what was going on, and then he was also very excited that the Rebbe Maharash promised him to have an extra life, an extra month of life for every family. So he decided to give parnasah to as many Jewish families as possible, so he started hiring many, many, many families. And for all these families, you know, it came up to, um, 15 more years, 15 more years of life. So that's what happened. He told the manager, "You better hire again all these Jews. Why did you send them away? You have to hire everybody again and bring even more. If there's more jobs opening, get more Jews, more J- more Jewish families there. I want as many Jews as possible." So the manager had no choice. He had to do it. In the meantime, the Rebbe Maharash was nistalek, and the Poritz continued to live one year, another year, another year, years and years. Now, it was already a few years, I mean maybe 10 years, 12 years later, um, he got very sick suddenly and very weak, and the Poritz felt that he's going to die. So he called over this rich Hasid, his friend. He said to him, "Your Rebbe promised me for every Jewish family that I give parnasah, I hire, and I ta- I take into my business, I will get an extra

10:16 month. And when I look at, um, the amount of families that I hired, my life shouldn't be over yet. I have still quite a few months left. So I want you to go tell your Rebbe that he owes me a few months of life." Uh, and I f- he feels that he's gonna die soon, and it's not time yet. According to the promise of Rebbe Maharash, he still has quite a few months to live. So the Hasid said, "But the Rebbe Maharash is nistalek. You can't go talk to him." So he said, "Go to his kever. I know you guys have, uh, tzadikim, and you can talk to them in, uh, you know, to the... even after they're nisthalos. So go and tell him that I said that he owes me still a few years of life based on the, the amount of families that I gave parnasah and his promise." So the Hasid went to the Rebbe Maharash's ohel and told exactly what the Poritz said, and the Poritz became well again. He got strong again, and he lived exactly the amount of months, um, as many months as the amount of families that he gave parnasah, exactly how the Rebbe Maharash promised him. Kinderlach, be well, and hope to hear good stories in the future.