139. The Rebbe Maharash Showed Up In A Russian Army Base After His Histalkus

00:16 Shalom Aleichem, kinderlekh. Another story of the Rebbe Maharash. I heard the story from someone who heard it from the Hasid who it happened to. The Hasid who it happened to was a Hasid of Rebbe Maharash, and then afterwards, after the Rebbe Maharash was Nistalik, he became a Hasid of Rebbe Rashab. The name of the Hasid was Rebbe Shir Nimoytin. Rebbe Shir Nimoytin. Rebbe Shir Nimoytin was a young Hasid. He was a b- he was a bachur in the time of the Rebbe Maharash, learned in the yeshiva there and, uh, when it came time, he was of the age when they drafted people to the Russian army. They send him a letter from the army that since he's of age, he became the right age, they gonna draft him to the army. He needs to come and show up at a certain building, which is the building of the army, and there they're going to examine him. They're going to check him to see if he's in good health and if everything is good, he can see well, he can... His teeth are okay, his, his normal, his-- he walks fine, his stomach is not sick, and his brain is not sick. If everything is good, then he will be taken to the army. Now, as you know, that for a Frum boy to go to the army in Russia in those days was very dangerous. First of all, because he's a Jew, and there was a lot of Jew haters, people that hated Jews in

02:02 the army, and they could even, Chas v'Shalom, hurt him or kill him. Besides that, it was almost impossible to keep kosher or to keep Shabbos. If you go to the army, they didn't let you keep Shabbos or kosher. So obviously, if you were a Frum boy, you'd, you keep Torah mitzvahs, especially if you're a Chasidisher boy, uh, you don't wanna go to the army. But how do you get out of the army? If you don't go to the army, they can, uh, punish you, put you in prison. So people would usually come to the Rebbe Maharash, he would give a brachah or an a- an advice what you should do in order not to go to the army. When this Rebbe Shura needed to go to the army, he decided to go in Yechidus by the Rebbe Maharash and ask him what to do. So he went to Yechidus and he told the Rebbe Maharash that they called him up, that he must come and show himself at a certain date. They gave him a date in a few months. He has to show up at a c- certain building in an office, and the doctors are gonna check him, and then they're gonna send him off to the army. So he asked Rebbe Maharash a brachah and advice how he should get out of the army, because it's impossible for a boy like him to go to the army. So the Rebbe Maharash f- stood up from his chair and he said to this

03:35 bachur, "You-- They will not take you. I promise you they won't take you." And that's it. And he left. Rebbe Maharash said very clearly that he promises him that in the end, they will not take him. Now, he was a very healthy boy. Everything. He was strong, he had big muscles, he was very big and tall and broad and, and, and he could see well, he could run very well, he was very strong physically. So there was really no problem with him, so he-- they should take him to the army. There's no reason why they wouldn't. He wasn't sick. But the Rebbe Maharash made a promise: "They will not take you." A few months went by. This was in the year Taf Resh Mem Beis. As you know, the Rebbe Maharash was Nistalik in the year Taf Resh Mem Gimel. This Yechidus took place a few months before the Histalkus of the Rebbe Maharash. The date that this bachur was supposed to go to the army base, to the building to be examined was after the Histalkus. So after the Rebbe Maharash was Nistalik, n- the boy thought, "Okay, they didn't tell him yet that he doesn't have to come." He thought maybe if the Rebbe Maharash made such a promise, he'll get a call or get a, a letter in the mail saying, "Okay, we changed our mind. You don't have to come." But that didn't happen. And as the time went on, another day, another day, till it was the day that he

05:20 had to go to the army base, and still nobody said that he doesn't have to come, which means he better show up or else the police is gonna come and take him to the, to the prison. So he knew he had to go, but he couldn't understand. The Rebbe Maharash so clearly promised him that they won't take him. And here it's already the day when he needs to go. They're going to examine him. He's very strong and very healthy. They're just gonna send him to the army. But the Rebbe Maharash wasn't around. He wasn't there. He couldn't go and talk to him and say, "What should I do?" So he just went. Now, you walk into the big building, there's like a big staircase, very wide, right? These are very large buildings with a lot of people, a lot of offices. So he goes to the up the stairs, right? It's a very wide staircase, and there's a railing on the left side, there's a railing on the right side, and he starts walking up the stairs. As he walks up, he looks to his right, the other end of the staircase, right at the same level as he was up walking, on the same level with him, he sees the Rebbe Maharash. He can't believe his eyes. The Rebbe Maharash was nistalek a few months ago. He went to the levaya. He, he just couldn't believe it. Maybe I'm dreaming it. He looked again, and the Rebbe Maharash was walking alongside with him up

06:51 the staircase. He started shaking. I couldn't believe the Rebbe Maharash is here. And he started shaking from, from fear that he's seeing the Rebbe Maharash after his histalkus. He kept walking up. He had no choice. He had to go. He had a, an appointment. He walks in, and he's all shaken, and he walks into the doctor's office shaking and shaking and shaking his hands and feet, and they talk to him, and they can't even answer because his head is, like, turning so fast from the, from the shock of seeing the Rebbe Maharash. They look at him and say, "Well, this guy is sick. Look at him. He's shaking. You don't have to come to the army." They send him home. When he walked out, he didn't see the Rebbe Maharash anymore. So he understood that the Rebbe Maharash came to fulfill his promise and made him shake so hard that they told him that he can go home. Now, this Yid that told the story, who heard it from him, from this Hasid himself, said, "What did the Rebbe Maharash look like when he walked next to you?" He says, "He looked exactly like when I saw him in Yechidus the last time. When I saw him in Yechidus, he stood up, the same suit with the same... He looked exactly the same." That's the, the, the great-- the greatness of this story is tzadikim, rabbeim don't have a problem giving us a bracha after the histalkus, before the histalkus. It's the same for them.

08:40 We have miracles over miracles. I myself had an amazing miracles with the Rebbe recently. It's, like, such an amazing miracle that nobody can believe it. The Rebbe is there giving us brachas. For the Rebbe, there's no difference. It's even more than before. And in this story, we see how the Rebbe Maharash even was willing to come physically show up to help this bocher get out of the army.