158. The Soldier That Stole The Inn From A Widow

00:15 Shalom Aleichem, kinders. Here is a story about the first Belzerov, Reb Shalom. Reb Shalom Belzer was known to be a big baal ruach hakodesh. He saw things that nobody else was able to see. And, uh, just as a illustration of that, to point to, to show an example for that, is we know that the Rebbe Maharash once traveled through Poland. This was before he became Rebbe, the time when the Tzemach Tzedek, his father, was still alive. He was traveling to Poland for various reasons. He had to take care of some things. And he happened to go through the city of Belz, and he decided he had to stay there for Shabbos. So the Rebbe Maharash decided to go to the shul where the first Belzerov, Reb Shalom, they call him the Sar Shalom of Belz, where he davened, where he has Hasidim, he's gonna daven there with them. Now, by those Rebbes, the Polish Rebbes, there's davening, and then the Rebbe sits down, and there's a meal, a tish, where the Rebbe eats, uh, food, and he gives sharayim to everybody. Sharayim means when the Rebbe-- it's a big thing by those, uh, Hasidim that when the Rebbe eats something, he eats a little bit and they-- then he gives the rest to the Hasidim. For the Hasidim to eat the leftovers from that tzadik, what the tzadik ate, is considered a very special zechus and a bracha. And so that was the minhag then. The Rebbe Maharash decided that he's gonna dress like a

01:56 merchant, like a businessman, so nobody would know that he's the son of the Tzemach Tzedek. He would look like a businessman who is just traveling through the city of Belz. And he went Friday night to, to the shul. It was packed with Hasidim, with shtreimelach, you know, a shtreimel over their heads and the karpates and bekishes, uh, and, and, uh, with all the garments that they wear. And the, the, the Rebbe Maharash was dressed like a businessman, like a regular businessman. Now, the first Belzerov, at the end of his life, the last years of his life, was blind. He couldn't see anything. He had a certain disease, and actually all the Belzer Rebbes, there were, um, four before this present Rebbe, and they all suffered of blindness at the end of their lives. They couldn't see. So when the Reb Shalom, this was the end of his life, uh, like the last years of his life, so they had to carry him. They had to lead him because he couldn't see. So when they came into the shul, the two Hasidim would each-- on each side of the Rebbe would sort of guide him into the shul to his place where he would stand in front so he could daven with the minyan, and then they would hold his hands and take him to his place by the tish, by the table, where he would make kiddush and have a meal and give sharayim to the Hasidim, maybe say some torim. So that Friday night,

03:30 the Rebbe Maharash was amongst hundreds and hundreds of Hasidim packed in the shul, and they carried the Belzerov. They take-- took him by his hands, two sides. On each side, a Hasid was holding his arm and his hand and leading him to his place. But suddenly, as they came into the shul, the Rebbe, the Belzer Rebbe, started going like with his nose as if he's smelling something. And, and he pushed the two Hasidim aside and said to them he wants to go in a different direction. They were gonna take him to his place where he sits usually in shul in the front. This is the place where the Rebbe, the Rav of a shul usually stands and sits. But he kept telling them, "No, no, no. I wanna go to this side over there." And they asked him, "But this is the wrong place." He says, "No, no, no. I wanna go there." And he kept going with his nose like he smelled something till he, he pushed-- he forced them to take him where he told them to go. He followed a certain smell, as it seems. It seems like it was a smell. Until he got to the Rebbe Maharash. And, and he said to the Rebbe Maharash quietly, "Young man, young man, from us you cannot hide." That means from tzadikim, they know who you are, and you cannot hide. You, you know, there's-- you can smell something physical. If something has a good smell or a bad smell, you can smell

04:56 it with your nose. But tzadikim could smell spiritual things. So he smelled the kedusha of the Rebbe Maharash, and that brought him-- he pushed, uh, his two helpers to go with him to the Rebbe Maharash. And they said to him, the gabaim, the two helpers said to the, uh, Reb Shalom, the, the, the Belzer Rebbe, "This is a businessman. He's nobody special. He's just a businessman." He said, "Ah, he's a businessman? "Ki tov sachom mikol cheled." This is the best businessman. This is a holy business. This is a very special... Anyways, they-- you don't know who he is, but I know who he is. And he took the Rebbe Maharash to the front, and when he came to the tish, he told the Rebbe Maharash that he wants the Rebbe Maharash to give sharayim. In those days, these, these Rebbes, when a, another tzadik would come to visit them, they would give him the zechus, the honor that he should give sharayim. Sharayim means leftovers from his, from his plate to the Hasidim. The Rebbe Maharash told him that, "I... By my father, we don't do this. In Chabad, the Rebbes don't give sharayim." So the Belzer Rav bent over to him and spoke to him in literally in a minute over a thousand words. Can you say a thousand words in a minute? Almost impossible. He said it so quickly, and he gave him the whole secret of what's behind the reason why tzadikim in Poland give . Anyways, this is just to show

06:31 who the Belzer Rav was. So here's a story. It's told in HaSefer Dovei Shalom which tells the history of the first Belzer Rav. There was a village near the city of Hubenev. Hubenev was a city not far from Belz in Poland, Galitzia it's called. There was a Rav, a very well-known Hasidish Rav, Reb Eliyahu Hershovski. He was the Rav of Hubenev. He was a big goan and a Hasid of the Belzer Rav. He was a Rav, a big goan, a very famous goan. He wrote seforim, wrote, uh, seforim and, and chidushim, but, uh, he was a Hasid of the, of Reb Shalom the Belzer Rav. In the city of Hubenev, there was a woman who was a widow. She had a, uh, an inn. And the inn she was able to rent from the Parets of Hubenev. She, the almanah, the, the widow, her husband died. He owned-- he was renting the inn before, but when he died, she continued to rent the inn from the Parets, and she would s- sell drinks and wine and alcohol, and people would stay there like a hotel. She would make a parnasah from this. That's how she earned a living. One day, a new person, a Jew, settled in that village. Hubenev was a small... was a village actually. It was smaller than a city. It was like a village. Um, a Jew who actually served in the army of the, of the tsar, and he was just came out of the army. He just finished his

08:14 army service. And he decided for some reason to settle in this village, the village of Hubenev, where Reb Eliyahu Hershovski was the Rav. And of course, he had to settle there. He had to find a house, and then he had to have parnasah. And he decided that he likes that inn that this almanah, this widow woman, oh, um, was renting from the Parets and making parnasah. He wants to own it. He would like to use that as his parnasah. He did something which wasn't nice. It was, like, pretty bad. Went to the Parets, convinced him that he'll give him more money, that the Parets should rent it to him instead of to the woman, the widow. And the Parets agreed, and he decided to rent it to this former soldier who served for the tsar. He was Jewish soldier, came out of the army after many years, and now he needed a parnasah, so he got... convinced the Parets that he should take it away from the almanah and give it to him instead, and the almanah remained without parnasah. She had nothing, no income. She couldn't make money, and of course she would go starve now. The almanah, when she saw what happened, she went to the Rav of Hubenev and, um, um... Oh, so she went to the Rav of Hubenev and she said to him... So actually I should a- add, Hubenev was a city. The village was near Hubenev, so she and the soldier, the former soldier, settled in the village

09:46 near Hubenev. Reb Eliyahu Hershovski was the Rav in Hubenev, but the village was next to it, and that's where the almanah had the inn. So she traveled to Hubenev, which was right next to the village, and she told him that this guest, this new Jew that came into town, and he took away her parnasah, and, and he convinced the Parets to, to rent it to him instead. Reb Eliyahu, the Rav of Hubenev, heard what she said and immediately sent a schliach, a messenger, to this Jew who took away the inn from her to invite him to a din Torah. You know, when you come to beth din and say, "Okay, we're gonna... The woman has a complaint against you, and you should come to a din Torah in front of the Rav, and the Rav will ask you who is right." But he didn't want to. He said, "Listen, I'm, I'm, I'm not coming to a din Torah." So this soldier, this former soldier who took the, uh, took charge in, of the, of the, of the inn now, he heard the Belzer Rav was not far from the, from the, uh, from his village. And like all Jews used to go to the Belzer Rav, he, um, he went... he also went to the Belzer Rav. You know, from time to time for a Shabbos or for a Yonsef, also went to, to be to visit the Belzer Rav. When the almanah, the widow, saw that this Jew who just stole and took away

11:25 the inn from her is traveling to the Belzer Rav, um, and she saw that he doesn't wanna come to din Torah. So she said... She went to the Rav, Reb Eliyahu, and she said, "Listen, I see he's going to the Belzer Rav from time to time for a Shabbos. Maybe would you please give me a letter which you will sign, and in the letter you'll write to the Belzer Rav the whole story that this Jew comes to him, comes to the Belzer Rav for Shabbos, that the Belzer Rav should know that this Jew stole away her parnasah." She asked the Rav, "Would you please give me a letter, and I will bring the letter to the Belzer Rav." And Reb Eliyahu said, "Sure, I'll do that, of course." And, um, and the Belzer Rav, and he wrote in the letter, "Please tell this, uh, Jew, this Hasid who comes to you, who stole the, the inn away from this poor widow, uh, take it away. Please tell him that he needs to give it back to her, or he should come to a din Torah, to me, in front of me." And Reb Eliyahu signed the letter, gave her the letter, and she traveled to Belz, and she brought the letter to the Belzer Rav himself and his... And, and, and, and that's it. But much to her surprise, time passed. This Jew, this former soldier who took away her inn, kept traveling to Belz, and nothing happened. He came back from Belz very happy,

12:58 like nothing happened. It seems that the Belzer Rav did not say a word to him. She was very surprised because she sent... She brought a letter from Reb Eliyahu, the Rav from Hubenev, that said clearly the guy is a thief. He's a ganav. He took away the, the, the, the inn. So she, um, she was very upset, and she came to Reb Eliyahu again and told the whole thing, and she added, she said, "Rav, you know that this Jew who took my inn, he not only does he go to Belz, he brings also gifts, presents to the Belzer Rav, and they accept it from him. Once he brought a whole basket full of eggs for the Rebbe, and the, and the Rebbe's house, they accept his gifts. And nobody is saying anything to him, 'Oh, where did you get these eggs? Because you made money from the inn, but the inn you're not supposed to have. You stole the inn.' So how can they accept his eggs which he bought with money that he made from the inn? And, and I-I don't understand this. This is so strange that the Belzer Rav would accept his presents." So Reb Eliyahu got very, very upset, and he felt very sorry. He felt very bad for the woman who was crying and crying, and he like said something, "You know what? If that's the case that they take his presents, then this is what you should do. You go bring nicer presents. He brings one basket of eggs,

14:35 you bring two baskets of eggs. Maybe then they'll listen to you instead of to him." So Reb Eliyahu said this so-- because he was angry. How come that the-- and, and the Belzer Rav is not doing anything about this poor woman who is suffering? But he said something which is a little bit chutzpadik. He said, "You know, ah, this is the reason why they don't say anything to him, because he brings presents. Then you bring more presents, and then they'll listen to you." But he knew that this was chutzpadik to say. Chas ve'shalom, a tzadik like the, the Belzer Rav would not say anything to this Jew who stole her inn only because he brings presents. Chas ve'shalom. Talking about a tzadik. So he realized what he said was inappropriate, it was not right. It was chutzpadik. He decided that-- and he was very afraid that saying something like this about a tzadik could be very bad. He could get punished. He decided to go to, to travel to Belz, the Rav, Reb Eliyahu, to go to Belz and to ask the Belzer Rav mechilah, forgiveness, for saying something so inappropriate about the Belzer Rav, that he's only being nice to this Jew because he brings him presents, which is a stupid thing to say. So when he came to the Belzer Rav, he told the Belzer Rav why he came. He came to ask forgiveness, mechilah, for, for saying something. But he said, "I said it only because I felt so sorry for this

16:06 woman who's crying, bitterly crying bitterly because she lost her parnasa." But the Belzer Rav said to him, "Don't worry. You don't have to worry about it. I understand why you said it. It's all good. I, I'm, I'm not upset at you. But I will tell you this. You should know there's a reason why I didn't say anything to this Jew who took away her inn. Because even though he doesn't know about it, the Jew doesn't know about it, you don't know about it, the woman doesn't know about it, but there is another story behind this story that only I know. I know that the inn actually belongs to him." And he said to him like this, the Belzer Rav said to him like this, "I'm gonna tell you what happened. This woman, the widow, her husband's father owned the inn. He was renting the inn for many years. But that former soldier who s-- who settled in this village, why did he settle in this village? Why couldn't he find another place to live? Why did he choose exactly this village? It's min Hashamayim, because his grandfather used to own the inn before this widow's father-in-law owned it. And what happened about maybe seventy, eighty years ago, that husband's father took away the inn from this soldier's grandfather. Neither of them know about it, but that's the truth. Many years ago, the grandfather of this soldier owned that inn. He rented it from the, from the Parets, and he operated the inn. Then came the

17:57 father of this almanah's husband and, and went to the Parets and gave him more money to get away from him. So min Hashamayim, they decided to g-- to restore the inn to the right person's hands. So the Aibishter gave this soldier the idea that he should settle in this village near Hubenev." And he will then have this idea that he needs to tell the poets-- that he wants to tell the poet to rent it to him instead. But really what he was doing is getting the inn back to where it really belonged, because his grandfather used to own it. And he says, "If you don't believe me, I will t-- go back to your-- to, to, to, to your town, to Hubnev, and go visit the village and find an old goy who's very old, maybe ninety or a hundred years old, and he will remember the story when he was a child, and maybe he'll tell you the truth what happened. What is the story behind this inn?" So Reb Eliyahu went back and found out from an old goy that it was true, that many-- eighty years ago, many years before, the, the, the, the father of this almanah's husband had taken away the inn from the grandfather of this former soldier. Now the Belzer Rav told Reb Eliyahu the following, um, an amazing thing. He said, "I want you to know, when I-- it was decided in Shamayim that I should be Rav over Belz..." He was not only Rav of the

19:34 Belz, he was also Rav over the entire region. Belz and all the towns around was all under him, under the Belzer Rav. "I said that I don't wanna become Rav unless the Mina Shamayim, they are going to reveal to me everything that happened in this town and in the surrounding towns. Who owned what hundred years ago, two hundred years ago. Every blade of grass, who owns it? And not only who owns it now, but who owned it for many years before. And Mina Shamayim, they revealed to me everything. So that's why I was able to know that this former soldier, although he did something bad, because he doesn't know about the whole story with his grandfather, but I knew that Mina Shamayim, it really belonged to him, even though he didn't know about it. And therefore, I didn't say anything."