146. The Tzaddik Appeared In The Mirrors Of Two Brothers' Homes

00:16 Shalom Aleichem. I'd like to tell you an amazing story, but I wanna give you an introduction. The previous Rebbe tells us that we can, with our thoughts, make a difference to another person. Let's say another person is sick, another person is in captivity in a prison, and you think about them in a really good way. Yeah, you really want them to get better, then your thinking can make a difference. And he tells a story that Reb Pinchas of Koretz, the great tzadik, talmid of the Baal Shem Tov, wrote a letter to the Mezritcher Maggid, who was his friend, and he says to him like this: "Thank you for remembering me, thinking of me during your davening during Yom Kippur, that you were thinking about me on Yom Kippur. And I want you to know that at that moment when you thought about me in middle of Yom Kippur, I felt it here and I got better." The previous Rebbe says the fact that Reb Pinchas of Koretz knew that the Mezritcher Maggid thought about him during davening on Yom Kippur is an amazing thing. But what's even more amazing is that the, the Mezritcher Maggid, because he thought about him, he made a difference, that Reb Pinchas Koretz became healed and recovered from his illness. The power of thinking. So here's a story. The story is written by a person, a Jew, who came from Hungary many years ago, maybe 160 years ago. He came from Hungary to the United States. His name is Anthony

02:19 Pulitzer. Didn't come from a frum family, and he lived, he lived in Vienna in Austria. And one day, his sister, who lived in another city, the city called-- It's called Abu Santo. It was a place where people had m-- There were many vineyards. Hungary had a place where there were a lot of, uh, trees with grapes, vineyards, and they made wine, good wine, that all over Europe-- They used to ship it all over Europe. And they lived in that little town, Abu Santo. Abu Santo was very close to another small town called Liska. In Liska, there was a famous tzadik who lived in the time of the Tzemach Tzedek. His name was Zvi Hirsch. He was the Rav of Liska. He was a great tzadik, and he performed many miracles. People came from all over Hungary to see him, to ask for his brochos, 'cause even the goyim would come to him, even the pritsim, the rich goyim, and, and, and, and the, and the poritzes. They would come from all over because they thought he was a holy person, a tzadik, and they wanted to get his brocha. And the Reb Zvi Hirsch of Liska was a very nice person. He talked to everybody the same way. He never took money from anyone. He just gave his brochos for free. He and his family lived very poorly, didn't have a lot of money. He only got a little salary from the community. It wasn't a lot of money, but that's how he lived. But

04:02 he gave brochos with a lot of love for other people, and everybody respected him. Even the goyim thought of him that he was a very holy person. When, um, Anthony came to the house of his sister, his sister, Fanny, was married to a, to a, a man, another Jew, by the name called Ignaz Gross. And Ignaz, Ignaz Gross had a brother, Jonas Gross, who also lived in Abu Santo, and the two brothers Gross owned a store, a big store. You know, Anthony, who came to visit from Vienna, his sister, was told by his sister that there's a tzadik that lives in Liska, not far from here. He's a really big tzadik, and that she had a problem. She had, like, a lot of very, very strong pains in her stomach. She got very sick, and she went to doctors all over Europe, and they couldn't help her. And then she went to this tzadik from Liska. He told her to go to the mikveh, and she should daven certain things. T-told her what to say and what to daven, and it w-- and all the pain went away. Now, you can imagine Ig-- Um, Anthony, who came from Vienna, these were Jews that didn't keep Torah mitzvahs, and they thought that miracles is not something that happens. You know, they, they didn't know if they should believe in miracles. They believed in science, everything that makes sense, that is logical. But miracles that we cannot understand, he didn't believe in it, so he laughed at

05:43 his sister. He says, "Ah, this is-- You just believe in nonsense, miracles. Miracles don't happen. Everything is just natural. We have science today. We can figure out why things are happening the way they do. Nothing is a miracle. Everything is-- can be explained through science." But his sister told him, "Listen, I ca-- I, I promise you, I, I, I, I, I saw a miracle." And he laughed at it and said, "Yeah, probably he took some medicine or something, and it helped you." Anyways, they didn't argue too much. The next day, Anthony, the visitor who visits his sister, and her husband, Ignaz Gross, Ignaz is going to the store. And his brother, Jonas, who's a partner with him, they both are in the store. And Anthony, the visitor, right, the brother of, of Ignaz's wife, is also in the store. And a young man shows up in the store, and he says, "You know, my father owes you six hundred gold coins, and my father said I should tell you that he can't pay the money now. But he promises that when the season, when all the grapes finish growing..." You know, in those days, the grapes grow at a certain time of the year. And when they finish growing and they get fully big, you take them off the tree, and then you press them, you make wine. So the old man had wineries, he had vineyards, right, with, with, with grapes. So he-- The, the son said, "My father says that when, when the

07:22 season comes to pick the, the, the, the, the grapes off the trees, and I'll make my wine, and I'll be able to sell the wine, I'll have the money to pay you back, but it'll take about three months." Now, the two brothers Gross, who knew the old man and knew that the old man owes him the money already for a very long time, and he was supposed to pay it back a long time ago, and he didn't pay it. So they told his son, "Listen, go tell your father that half the money, three hundred gold coins, he must pay within three days. The other three hundred gold coins, we'll let him pay in three months. When he gets all his grapes and makes the wine, he'll have money to pay the rest. But the three hundred gold coins, we cannot wait any longer. We waited long enough. He must pay it. And if he doesn't pay it within three days, we'll have to call the police, and the police is gonna go to your father's store and take everything that's in the store and bring it to us, so we can get our money back." Now, the son was very upset that they talked to him like this, but he had to go back to his father. His father lived in a small village right next to Abu Santis, called Terzel. You could walk from one village to the other. And those two villages were next to Liska, with the Rabbi of Liska. You could

08:41 walk to Liska by foot because it was that close. Now, when the young man left, um, so Ignaz Gross told his brother-in-law, Anthony, right? Politzer, Anthony, who came to visit him, um, he said to him, "You know, this old man, he sits and learns Torah a whole day, and he never works in the store. He lets his wife and kids take care of the store, but he hardly does any business. He just learns Torah. And he also learns a lot of Torah with the Rav, the Liska Rav, the, the great tzadik. They learn together. But I know, we know that if we push him hard, he'll come and pay us the three hundred gold coins in the next three days." But the three days passed, and the old man did not bring the money. So the two brothers Gross decided to call the police, and they called the police, and the police said, "Okay, tomorrow morning, we'll go to the store of the old man, the old Jew from Terzel, and we'll take all the stuff from his store." You can imagine if the police takes away everything the old Jew of Terzel has, you know what's gonna happen? He's not gonna have any income. He's gonna starve. His family's gonna starve because they took everything away from him. But the brother Gross didn't care. The brothers of-- the two brothers Gross thought that it's, it's, it's okay. He owes us the money, then we're gonna take it away. Okay, the police is gonna come

10:11 tomorrow morning. They're gonna take all his stuff. That night, the two brothers Gross went home to their own homes, and Anthony, the visitor from Vienna, who came to visit his sister, who was the wife of Ignaz Gross, they went home to their home. And as they walk in, it was already dark outside. They lit a candle to make-- bring some light to the room. And Ignaz Gross is looking in the mirror in the living room. And suddenly, as he's looking in the mirror, he, he points his finger and he's shaking. And he says, "Look, look, look." And Anthony and Ignaz's wife, they don't know why he's saying, "Look." What is there in the mirror? They don't see anything. He says, "Don't you see? Don't you see what I see?" "No, we don't. It's just a regular mirror." He says, "No. Look. Look. I see the Rav, the Liska Rav. The tzadik from Liska is sitting there in the mirror, and he's sitting right next to the old rabbi, the old Jew from Terzel, who owes us the money, and he's talking to him. And I see his sefarim on the table, and I see the old man talking to the Rav." Uh, a-and he started sh-shaking and screaming, "Look, look, I can't believe my eyes." And then he fell down and sat in the chair, and his body was shaking from fear, from fear. Finally, he says, Ignaz says, "Oi, I don't see it anymore. Ah. Ah. Baruch Hashem." And he started calming down a

12:00 little bit. But he was still feeling very scared inside because he says, and he says to, to everybody, "I, I really saw this. I can't tell you. This wasn't just an illusion. I actually saw the Rav in the mirror, and then he disappeared, but I really saw it." They sit down by the table to eat supper, but nobody can eat because they're very shaken by what just happened. And then suddenly as they're sitting there by the table, comes in, you know, the, the brother-in-law of, of Jonas Gross, the other brother Gross. His brother-in-law was there too, and he comes in, and he's also shaking. He says, "Guys, please come with me. I think Jonas became crazy. He, he's crazy. I don't know what's wrong with him." All of us are shaken by what we heard, and I said, "What happened? What happened?" He said he sees things in the mirror in his house. So, so Anthony said, "Okay, I'm coming with you. Let's see what happened." He goes into the house of Jonas, and he sees Jonas is fainted, and they put him on the couch, and they tried to wake him up. And finally, they wake him up, and he says, "I can't believe that I saw this. Nobody saw what I saw. I saw the Rav of Liske in my mirror sitting there with the old man of Terzel that owes us money, and he was talking to the Rav. And it was, it was crazy. It was, like, terrible. Couldn't believe the

13:32 Rav came into my mirror." And, uh, they're telling him, telling Jonas, "I think there's something wrong with you. You're seeing visions that were not there." He says, "I promise you I saw it." But now they realize that both brothers saw the same vision in their living room, in their mirrors, in two separate houses. The Rav showed up in the mirror, and only they saw him. The rest of the family did not see the Rav. They just saw a regular mirror. So the two brothers got together, and they realized that this is the Rav telling them really that they must not hurt this old Jew from Terzel, who's a big Talmud Chacham, learns Torah all day. They shouldn't pressure him. They should wait until he can pay the money. And they decided to cancel the police, tell the police not to go and take this stuff from his store because then he's gonna starve, not have any money. The next day, they're in the store, and guess who shows up? The old man from Terzel himself, who owes them the money. And he says, "Shalom Aleichem, brothers Gross." He gives them both a Shalom Aleichem, and he says, "Listen, I know you called the police to take my stuff, but I just wanna tell you that the Rav of Liske wants to send his regards to you, and he want me to tell you that, that, that he promises that I will pay back the money, uh, in three months when the season of all the

15:09 grapes will be fully grown, and I'll be able to make my wine and then ship the wine and sell it all over the place and make money, and then I'll be able to pay you back." And they say, "Sure, sure, no problem. We'll wait three months." And they let him go. Anthony, who came from Vienna, didn't believe in miracles, didn't believe in anything, didn't even keep Torah mitzvahs, decided he must go talk to this Rav. He just saw with his own eyes an amazing miracle. So he goes, goes to Liske and visits the Rav. He says, "Rav, will you talk to me for a moment? I have a question for you." And the Rav says, "Yes, please sit down." And the Liske-- And he asks Liske, "How could it be that, you know, these two brothers, they saw you? Each one saw you at the same time in their, in their mirrors. Each one in their homes, saw in their mirror in their living room, they saw you sitting there, and they got so scared that they decided that you, you're probably trying to tell them that they must not pressure this old man to give you the mon-- to give you the money and to wait till he can pay. What does that mean? How come we didn't see it? Was it just an illusion they thought they saw you, or were you really there in the mirror? Were you really there in the mirror? How come we didn't see you?" And he explained

16:31 to him, and he said, "You should know that Hashem gives special koach and strengths to people that serve Him and do good things for other people. And Hashem gives those p- people, He calls them tzadikim, and He gives them special powers. And when I heard that the two brothers Gross were trying to take away everything from this poor old man, this poor old man from Terzel, who is a big Talmud Chacham, I felt bad for him. I wanted to help him. So with my thoughts, I invited not-- I, I, I-- It's as if with my machshava, with my thought, I was speaking to them, to the two brothers, and they, in their minds, imagined that they saw me. But it wasn't really physical. I wasn't in the mirror. Of course I wasn't in the mirror. It was just in their minds they saw me. But if for them it appeared as if it's in the mirror. But I did this with my thoughts. I purposely tried with my thoughts to give them the feeling that they see me and that they get the message that they shouldn't hurt this old man and ruin his whole family. They won't have anything to eat, Chas ve'Shalom." And Baruch Hashem, they listened, and they understood. And then the Liske Rav said, "I wanna tell you," and he gave him a whole explanation of how miracles work. And he said to him, "I want you to know that he came here, and I wanna tell you that you're a

18:08 Jew." And now that you saw a miracle, you should know that there is Hashem. I don't have powers. It's Hashem doing everything. He may be doing it through me, but it's really Hashem doing these miracles. And I want you to know there is Hashem, and people that think that now that we have science, and we have computers, and we have all these fancy stuff, we, we know everything, we can do everything ourself. We don't need Hashem, They, they're s- they're stupid. People that think that way are stupid because all of those things that were created, the computers, and, and the, and the machines, and, and the, the helicopters, and the planes, everything that we have, the such amazing things we have, Hashem gave them to us. Hashem gave in our minds the ability to think about new ideas and what to create new things in the world. But, but we don't do it on our own. This is all Hashem giving us. And he says, "I want you to remember that as a Jew, you should, you should keep mitzvahs. You should do Torah mitzvahs. Now that you saw what a miracle is, I want you to take on yourself to do mitzvahs." Anthony writes in his book-- He wrote this story in a book in English. He says, "At the end, when I came to America, I..." Uh, what, 120 years ago, more, 160 years ago, "I decided to follow what the Rebbe, what the Zov told me. I tried to do mitzvahs, and

19:34 I was very happy. And I have a family here in America, my kids and grandkids, and I try to do as many mitzvahs as I can, listening to the Zov. Unfortunately, um, my sister and her children were not as great, and they didn't do as many mitzvahs, but I try to do whatever I can to follow what the Zov, this great tzadik, So this is the story, my friends. Uh, the story was written again, as I said, by Anthony Politzer. He published the book in English 120 years ago, and he told that story that he himself saw with his own eyes. He couldn't believe it. He never believed in miracles. He didn't believe that such things are possible. He didn't believe in tzadikim and things like that. "But this was what I saw with my own eyes, and I wanted people to know that miracles and tzadikim exist."