147. Alter Rebbe's Tale Saves Yungerman from Shmad

00:17 Shalom Aleichem, kinderlech. I wanna share with you an incredible story of the Alter Rebbe, told by the previous Rebbe in his Sichas in Likutei Debarim. And it took place shortly after the Mezritcher Maggid passed away, maybe the first few years that Alter Rebbe became a Rebbe, a Nasi, a leader. He already had many talmidim, Chassidim. They used to come to him to learn from him. So it was one Shabbos, the Alter Rebbe was in Lyozno. Lyozno was a city in Poland. At that time, it was in Poland. Other times it was under Russia, but that time when the story took place, Lyozno was under the Polish government. The Alter Rebbe that Shabbos had many talmidim visit him and learn from him. He said a lot of Torah Friday night, Shabbos day. Then Motzaei Shabbos, there was a big Melava Malka in the Beis Midrash of the Alter Rebbe. The Alter Rebbe said a lot of Torah. People sang Nigunim. People were very happy. Then suddenly something terrible happened at this Melava Malka. In order to tell you what happened, I have to give you a little background. In Poland, Lyozno, as I said, was in Poland at that time, and in Poland, the, uh, Jews and their Goyim neighbors were-- lived very nicely together. The Goyim were very nice to the Jews. Even the galachim in the churches would encourage the Goyim to be friends with Jews, and they told them to learn from the Jews. The Jews have good midos. They have Ahavas HaReuchim.

02:06 They do, uh, a lot of tzedakah. And in generally, the Jews and the Goyim lived very well together. And when that happens, when Jews and Goyim are very friendly, sometimes what could happen is something not so good, that a Jew becomes very friendly with a Goy, and then that leads to Jews marrying Goyim. Of course, it doesn't happen a lot, but it can happen occasionally. A Jew is not so... Doesn't have a lot of yiras shamayim, and he happens to become very friendly with a Goyim, and then he ends up marrying a Goyim. And when that would happen, then the galachim would encourage the Jew to b- convert and become a Christian so he can marry his Goyishe friend. But that was the things that, uh, you know, was not so good at that time. But in generally, Jews lived very well with the Goyim. The Goyim didn't hurt the Jews, and the Jews and the Goyim were very friendly. Now, outside Lyozno, there was... Near Lyozno, there was a small town. There lived an almanah, a widow, who had two daughters and a son. Her husband had died. He left an inn, right? Which had-- People would come and drink. It was like a bar and also a hotel. People could stay overnight. And from that, she had an income. Her son went away to yeshiva to learn, and her oldest daughter-- Her two daughters helped her in the, in the inn. And the oldest daughter got married, Baruch Hashem, to a wonderful, Bachur

03:45 young man. He was a Talmid Chacham, a yiras shamayim. And the almanah promised to support him, that he could sit and learn. He doesn't have to work. And his wife, which is the daughter of the almanah, she will help her mother in the business. And he, the young man, can sit and learn. So the young man was a really Talmid Chacham, very smart. He learned. But every once in a while, he took a break. You know, learned a few hours, you know, take a little break. He used to go to the inn to see how his wife and his mother-in-law and the sister-in-law, how they're, they're doing with the business. And many Goyim, Polish Goyim, would come and drink and sit in the bar and spend time and say l'chaim to each other in a Polish way. And there was also a galach from the town that would come a lot to the inn and to the bar to drink. Or maybe he didn't drink so much, but he liked to hang out there. And when this young man, his name was Zev, the Talmid Chacham who sat and learned, would come into the inn, the galach would love to speak to him, and they would speak for hours sometimes. And the galach saw that this young man is very smart, and he knows a lot of Torah. And when they would go into an argument about religion, whose religion is better and more true, and which one is not so true, he always, the

05:13 Zev, the young man, was always, um, winning the argument. He was always ahead. He was always... Won the argument against the galach, and the galach would praise him. "Wow, he's so smart." Now, this young man, Zev, who sat and learned, was a Ta- Talmid Chacham and a yiras shamayim, but he had one problem. He loved kovod. You guys know what kovod is? He was a bal ga'avah. He loved when people gave him honor, people say nice things about him. He was s- he loved it so much. So when the galach would praise him and say to him, "Hey, you're so smart. You're so amazing. Wow." Um, uh, you know, and he told the Goyim in the church, "You know this Jew over there? His name is Zev. He's very smart. He knows a lot of learning. He's, he's, he's a s- very, very interesting person. You should give him kovod, be nice to him, and give him respect." And so Zev loved it because he was a Bal Gaver, and he loved kavod. And so every few days, Zev would come into the inn, and the galach would be there, and they would talk for hours and hours and hours. There were people who would travel through the town, Talmidei Chachamim, Yidden, Talmidei Chachamim who would go through the town, and they would stop over in the inn to drink something or to stay overnight, and they would see this young man, Zev, uh, having long conversations with a galach about religion and about the

06:45 Goyim and the Christians and the Jews, a-and they didn't like it. They thought it was not a good idea for Jews to get involved in such discussions. And they would tell him that they think he should actually, um, stay away from that, and he didn't listen 'cause he loved the kavod that he got from the galach. One day, the galach told this Zev, "You know, I was in Vitebsk," the big city, Vitebsk, "and there there's the head of all the galachim from the whole area. He's very important. I told him about you. I told him how smart you are, how wonderful you are, and, uh, how I'm having these conversations with you, and he said he wants to meet you. Will you come with me and go meet the head of the galachim in Vitebsk? He will be very impressed with you." At first, Zev says, "No, no, no, no, no, I can't. I'm busy. I gotta learn. My mother-in-law supports me so I can sit and learn, so I can't just g-go away. No, I can't do that." Well, the galach didn't say anything, but then he brought next time two galachim with him, friends, his chaverim from the nearby towns. And it-- a-and they all spoke to him, spoke to Zev, and they liked him. And they said-- they said, "Listen, if you go to the head of the galachim in Vitebsk and have a debate with him, an argument with him, and you win the debate, do you know how much kavod

08:15 you're gonna get? Unbelievable amount of kavod. So many people are gonna know about you. You'll become famous. All the Goyim are gonna know about you, and all the Goyim are gonna give you respect." Finally, Zev said, "Okay, yeah, I wanna go." So he went. One day, he went, and the galach, the head of the galachim, took him into the house. Galachim had very nice houses in those days because all the money from the people went to the church, so the galachim bought themselves beautiful big houses. And the head of the galachim invited him to the house, and they had a conversation, and they had some arguments, debates about religion. And the young man, Zev, always won the debate, and the head of galachim praised him so much, and he told the other galachim in the area, "There's such a smart man. His name is Zev. He's a Jew, and it's so much fun to talk to him." And Zev felt so good. He's never gotten so much kavod in his life, and his gaive went bigger and bigger and stronger. And the head of galachim invited some very important galachim to come to the house. And he said, "You know, I wanna show you this young man, Zev. He's so smart. Let's talk to him. You wanna guys-- wanna meet him? You wanna talk to him?" And they said, "Wow, yes." And they said to Zev, "Maybe you stay here for a few days, so we can spend time talking to you." And Zev at

09:40 first was thinking maybe not, maybe yes, and in the end, he said, "Okay, I'll stay." And, and they gave him a beautiful apartment attached to the house of the galach. They said, "We're gonna get you kosher food, kosher from, from a kosher restaurant. You'll have all the food you want. Don't worry. You have a beautiful apartment. You can stay here. We're gonna take care of you. Just talk to us. We love talking to you. You're such a smart guy." And Zev spent a few days talking to all the galachim, and they loved him. He was so smart, and everybody thought, "Wow, this guy is so smart," and everybody praised him. And before he left home to go back to his town, uh, the head of the galachim invited all the galachim to come make a goodbye party, and they gave a big speech to praise him, that he's so smart. He's the smartest person they ever, they ever met. And then he went home. He was so happy. Zev felt so good. He had so much kavod. Unbelievable. When he came home, obviously, he was away for a few days. He didn't tell his wife and mother-in-law where he was. He said, "I went on a visit somewhere." He didn't wanna tell them he went to a galach. They would, like, think it's crazy. You go to a galach? Not allowed to do this. You can't go talk to a galach. Savui dzore. Few weeks went by, and one day, some guests, Talmidei Chachamim, who

11:06 were traveling through this town where Zev lived, and the almanah had the inn, and they stayed in the inn. Happened to be very hot outside, so they decided to stay in the inn for a little while, maybe for a day, where they would cool off a little bit till the heat goes away. It was very hot. It was summer. So they stayed inside where it was less hot. And these were Talmidei Chachamim, so when they sat down by the table, and they said l'chaim, and they ate some food, kosher food, the almanah gave them food. They were supposed to speak Divrei Torah, and these were big Talmidei Chachamim, not just-- really big Talmidei Chachamim, and they would talk and learning the whole time. And Zev would walk in and hear Talmidei Chachamim learning Torah. No, he wanted to also get involved in the conversation. So when they, uh, somebody asked a question, and somebody tried to give an answer. So Zev also jumped in and gave his answer, and they looked at him, and they laughed at him. This is not a smart answer because they were much bigger Talmidei Chachamim than he was. And they told him, "You know, I think you should- Stay on the side and be quiet and listen to us talk because your, your, your knowledge, your learning is not that great, you know? So they made him feel really bad. And when you're a big Bal Geiver and somebody tells you something insulting like this, that, you know, you--

12:28 what you just said is not very smart, you're actually pretty stupid, you feel very hurt because you're a Bal Geiver. And if you're a Bal Geiver, you like kovod, and you hate when people say something that's not so nice to you. So you are so hurt by what they said that you started hating Talmidy Chachomim. I said, "These Talmidy Chachomim don't have respect for someone like me who knows Torah." He-- He started disliking Talmidy Chachomim. And then something else happened. A few weeks later, a new church was built in a town nearby, nearby the town where Zev lived, and the head of the Galachim from Vitebsk, who already knew Zev, came to the dedication. They made a big celebration for the opening of the new church, and the head of the Galachim came, and many Galachim came from all over the area to celebrate the opening of the new church. And the head of the Galachim knew that he was not far from the town where Zev lived, since he liked Zev and he saw him and met him in his house. So he came to visit him, and he went to the inn, and he met Zev there, and they talked, and he praised Zev so much, and Zev felt so good. His Geiver became bigger and bigger. A few months went by. It was Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, and Zev left the house, and he left for like for a few weeks. Nobody knew where he went. When he came back home,

14:03 he was, like, very excited and nervous, and nobody knew why. And then after a few days after that, he left again. And after he left, after a few days, he sent a letter to his wife and his mother-in-law saying, "Listen, I have moved to the house of the head of the Galachim in Vitebsk. Now I'm living there. They're giving me a lot of kovod. They gave me a beautiful, beautiful a-apartment to live in, and they promised me that if I become one of theirs, one of their people, I will become really, really a great person, and everybody-- I'll be very famous, and everybody's gonna, uh, honor me and respect me." His wife and mother-in-law didn't know what that meant. To become one of the people of the Galach, what does that mean? They couldn't understand what he was saying. Becoming one of the people of the Galach, what does that mean? A few weeks later, the son came home from Yeshiva, and they showed him the letter. When he saw the letter, he understood, and he started screaming, "Do you know what he's saying? He's shmading himself. He's becoming a Christian. The Galach is gonna shmad him." When the wife and the mother-in-law heard this, they started all crying and crying. What? It's, uh, it cannot be. It's impossible. And it was Motzaei Shabbos, and they decided they have to go quickly to the Alter Rebbe. Outside was snow and very cold, but they didn't care. They took a wagon and horses, and they traveled

15:44 to Lyozno, which was nearby. And when they came to Lyozno, they went straight to the Beis Midrash, the shul, while the Alter Rebbe was still having Melava Malka. As I mentioned to you before, the Alter Rebbe was in the middle of Melava Malka, and sh- and the almanah, the widow, and her two daughters and a son burst into the shul crying hysterically, "Rebbe, Rebbe, save our Zev. Our Zev is going to be shmading himself with the Galach, with the head of the Galach in Vitebsk." Everybody in the shul started getting very scared, and people were, like, like, shocked at what they heard. They couldn't believe it. But then when they kept crying, the Alter Rebbe said, "Listen, I cannot help you. But what I can do is tell you a story that happened with my Rebbe, the Mezritcher Maggid. In the year tet kuf chaf tes," this was like seven years earlier, "the Mezritcher Maggid was in Mezritch, and I was in the Mezritch, too. I was learning and, and, and spending time in Mezritch by, by, by, by my Rebbe, the Mezritcher Maggid. A man from the nearby town near Mezritch came to the Maggid and was crying. He said, 'My son got this crazy idea in his head that he wants to become a Christian, and he's went to the Galach that the Galach should convert him.' And the father was crying, crying, crying, 'Please, Rebbe, save my son.' The Mezritcher Maggid turned to his Talmidim and Chassidim right then and there and

17:32 said in the pasuk, in this week's Torah parsha, Parshat Vayikra, it says, 'Nefesh ki sechta o mal o mal Bashem.' If a neshamah of a Yid does an aveira and goes against Hashem, then the Torah says he has to bring a certain korban. And the Mezritcher Maggid says the whole Torah on this pasuk." The Alter Rebbe, when he told this story, he repeated the whole Torah. The previous Rebbe doesn't tell us what the Torah was. He says that Alter Rebbe repeated the Torah that he heard from the Maggid right then and there on this pasuk. After he finished saying the Torah- The musician Maggid said to the Talmidim, "I want there to be a Minyan of you, of Talmidim, that will say Tehillim all night until the morning." And so 10 Talmidim started saying Tehillim. The Alter Rebbe says, "I was one of the 10. We said Tehillim all night till it became light outside. When it became light outside, we saw a young man walking into the Beis Midrash in Mizrich. The old man see-- saw people, 10 people saying Tehillim and, and crying with a broken heart, so he decided to also take a Tehillim and join them. And he said Tehillim and cried, cried very hard. All the people that were there in the shul understood that this must be, um, this young man, the young man who wanted to Shema himself. He stayed in Mizrich for a few days, and he went to Yechidut of the Maggid, then he went back

19:16 home, and he went back to being a normal Jew and, and following Torah and Mitzvahs. That's the story the Alter Rebbe told. Alter Rebbe told telling-- he finished telling the story, he got up, he benched first, and then he went into his room, and that's it. The Talmidim, the Chassidim of the Alter Rebbe, when they heard the story that he told of the Maggid, they understood that Alter Rebbe wants them to do, do the same thing, to say Tehillim all night. So the Talmidim of Alter Rebbe also gathered a Minyan that said Tehillim all night. When they said Tehillim all night, they said Tehillim until in the morning. They said Tehillim all night till, till it was light outside. Again, a young man, Zev, walked into the Beis Midrash, and he joined them in saying Tehillim, and he said Tehillim, and he cried with them. This was Hanukkah time. When Alter Rebbe-- this happened, it was Shabbos Hanukkah. Zev stayed by the Alter Rebbe the whole Hanukkah. Every night after candle lighting, the Alter Rebbe said Divrei Torah. And the Chassidim would review the Torah over and over again till they remembered it by heart. And Zev listened to all this. After Hanukkah, at the end of Hanukkah, Zev went into Yechidut Alter Rebbe. Apparently, the Alter Rebbe spoke to him for a while, and then he went back to the town near the Yozni, back home to his wife and his mother-in-law and sister-in-law. And after a few, a few weeks, they left the

20:52 town and moved to a new place where they could start a new life again. Apparently, the Alter Rebbe must have told him that this is what he must do, leave the place and go to a new place. From here we learn, first of all, that when a person likes too much covet, and they do everything so that you feel good about yourself and, and have gaava, that can lead a person to terrible things. Another very important lesson we learn is the importance of telling stories of Tzadikim. The Alter Rebbe by telling the story of the Maggid was able to make another moifas, a miracle, and stop this Jew from becoming-- from Shemaing himself. Although this was the Alter Rebbe, but it says that every Jew, every Jew, when you want-- when you tell stories of Tzadikim, it brings brachas. Brachas for everything, for health, for parnasa, for all, for children, everything that you need. Stories of Tzadikim is, is a very important thing. If you tell stories, then Hashem gives you brachas, and you can make miracles happen. L'chaim.