168. Reb Zushe Teaches The Shamosh A Lesson.

00:15 Shalom Aleichem, kinderlach. I want to share with you a story with Reb Zusha, the famous Reb Zusha of Anipoli. Reb Zusha was very poor. Didn't have money. He had a wife, he had children, but he had no money. Hardly any food in the house. So Reb Zusha would go to shul every morning, and when he finished davening Shacharis, take off his tallit and tefillin, he would sit down. He wouldn't go home to eat breakfast because he didn't think there was enough food in the house. He wanted his wife and kids to eat, but he didn't want to take away from what they, they can eat because there wasn't enough food. So he would stay in shul and would raise his eyes to Hashem and says, "Hashem, please, Zusha is hungry. Please give him food." And Zusha really believed it, that he's telling Hashem, "I need to eat. I'm very hungry." Now, in the shul, the people in the shul already knew that Reb Zusha, every morning after he finished davening, he would ask Hashem to give him breakfast because he's hungry and there's no food in his house. So they already knew that they need to get him food. So they would go to the kitchen of the shul and prepare him like a small breakfast, maybe a few pieces of old bread and maybe a cup of milk, and that was his breakfast. Reb Zusha didn't need much. He didn't care what he eats. He was a tzadik. He wasn't into gashmius, what he

01:58 eats and if it tastes well. He just ate a piece of stale bread is good enough, and a cup of milk, that's it. So every day he would do the same thing. After he finished davening, sit down, says, "Rabbeinu shel Olam, please help me. Zusha is hungry. Get me some food." And the shamash from the shul, he was in charge of the breakfast. He would go into the kitchen, bring a few pieces of bread and some milk. Now, this shamash got a little bit upset because he thought to himself, "I mean, let's face it, I am the one who's giving him food, not Hashem. Look, every time he says, 'Hashem, please, Zusha is hungry. Get me some food,' I am the one who's going to the kitchen and bringing some bread and milk for him, and I place it right in front of his face. I come in, I put the bread and the milk in front of him. He sees me, so he knows it's me. Why is he saying, 'Hashem, give me food'? The next day, the same thing. The next day, same thing. 'Hashem, I'm hungry,' as if Hashem is doing it, but I am doing it." But every day the same thing. Reb Zusha raises his eyes to heaven, "Hashem, just like yesterday and the day before You gave me food, please give me food again." And the shamash is getting angrier and angrier every single day. "Why is he saying Hashem is giving him food when I'm the one who's

03:26 bringing him the food?" One day the shamash said, "I'm gonna teach him a lesson. I'm gonna teach this Reb Zusha who is really giving him food. It's not Hashem, it's me. How am I gonna teach him a lesson? Tomorrow morning he's gonna ask, 'Hashem, give me food,' and I will not go to the kitchen and bring him food, and then he'll see that he's gonna starve, and then he'll know that it's me doing it, and if I don't do it, he's not gonna have what to eat." Okay, that was the plan. The shamash got very excited. He's gonna teach Reb Zusha a real lesson, and he's gonna once and for all tell Reb Zusha, "You know what? I am the one who's getting you food. Thank you very much." No, meanwhile, Reb Zusha went home that evening, uh, slept at night, got up in the morning again to go to shul, and that's the morning that the shamash was not going to bring him breakfast. Reb Zusha is on his way to shul, and in those days in Ukraine, in Russia, in the winter there was a lot of ice, and sometimes there was, like, rain, and the rain created muddy roads, because they didn't have stone roads or asphalt like we have, like hard roads. The, the roads were dirt roads, like full of dirt. So when it rained, it becomes very muddy, and sometimes the mud went so deep you could... It went all way to your knees. So the city of Anipoli,

05:02 what did they do to help people walk in the street without getting mud all the way till their, their knees? They would, th- they would p- place, put down wooden boards, like boards, maybe two by fours, two by eights. Like these are like wide boards and they would put them across the street, so if anybody wanted to cross the street from one side to the other side, instead of going into the mud, uh, you can just walk on the board and go across the street. So that morning was a... There was a lot of mud and there were these boards on the road going across the streets. In every street there were some boards where you... Anybody wants to cross from one side to the other goes on that board. Reb Zusha had to go to the other side because the shul was on the other side. Now he's holding his tallit and tefillin in his right hand under his arm and he, and he starts walking on the boards, but he didn't notice- That Yankel, the richest man in Annopolye, who gave a lot of tzedakah, he supported the school, he supported the yeshiva, he supported everything. He was a very important guy, but he also felt important. So he also wanted to cross the street, but the other direction. See, Reb Zusha was gonna go one direction, from this side of the street to the other, and the rich man was standing on the other side. He wanted to cross to the, to

06:30 the side where Reb Zusha came from. So when Reb Zusha walked halfway on the board, the rich man also walked from the other side. And now there was only room for one person at a time, so now they're facing each other. Reb Zusha is facing a Yankel, the rich man, and Reb Zusha can't go through, and the Yankel can't go through because there's only room for one person to cross. Uh, so the Yankel got very upset. He says, "You." He said Reb Zusha looked like a beggar. Reb Zusha didn't dress nicely because he didn't have any clothes. He was very poor. So you had old clothes which looked like from a beggar, an old poor man beggar. That's how you looked. So Yankel didn't know who Reb Zusha is. He thought it was just a beggar that had the chutzpah to come across the road on the, on the board when I, Yankel, the richest man in town, who everybody respects because I give so much tzedakah, and I also need to cross. He should have waited on the other side before he crosses the street to wait for me to go cross first from the other direction, from the other side. And he has the chutzpah to walk first, and now I'm stuck. We can't... And he pushed Reb Zusha into the mud, off the board, into the mud, and he crossed all the way to the other side, the rich man. Reb Zusha fell into the mud, but yeah, Reb Zusha was such

07:57 a Ɣittel di keyid. He was so bottled, so was such an anav. He didn't make himself... Ah, big deal, so he just brushed off the mud from his jacket and, and went back on the board and, and went to Shul. He didn't even think twice that there was something terrible that this man did. Okay, listen, who am I? I'm just a simple Jew. Reb Zusha didn't think of himself as a tzadik, and he was close to Hashem. He felt Hashem's presence, so he didn't feel like a, you know, big deal, so he put-- pushed me in the mud. And he went to Shul. As Yankel, the rich man, crossed the other side, somebody saw the whole incident. He saw how Yankel, the rich man, pushed Reb Zusha into the mud so that he would be able to cross to the other side. He told Yankel, "Do you know who you just pushed into the mud?" Yankel says, "Oh, some chutzpanik beggar, schlepper, poor man who had chutzpah. He sees me crossing the street, and he's crossing before me, and, and he doesn't let me get through. Th-th-then he's a beggar, he's a chutzpanik. He has a lot of chutzpah." So the man says, "No, you don't know. This is the famous, famous tzadik, Reb Zusha." Now Yankel has heard about Reb Zusha but never saw him. He never even imagined that this man who looks like a poor old beggar with, like, old clothes, that he's actually a great tzadik, a great important person that

09:29 everyone in the world has heard from. He couldn't-- He, he never even imagined that. So when the person tells Yankel, the rich man, that the person he pushed in the mud was actually Reb Zusha, he almost fainted. He says, "Oh my God, I can't believe I did this to such a great tzadik." So the man says, "Listen, listen, I have an idea for you. You wanna ask forgiveness from Reb Zusha for what happened. Let me tell you something. Reb Zusha, every day when he finishes davening, he takes off his tallis and tefillin, sits down in Shul and says, 'Rabbonim shel Em Hashem, please help me. Give me breakfast. I'm hungry. Zusha is hungry.' And the shamash usually brings some old stale bread and a cup of milk. But you're, you're a rich man, Yankel. Listen, today you go home, tell your servants to prepare a beautiful breakfast on a silver tray made omelets and pancakes and fresh bread and cheese and eggs and all kinds of stuff, and it would be like a rich man's breakfast, like beautiful stuff. And you tell your servant, and, and you will take the tray. You, you, Yankel, yourself, have to take the tray, run to the Shul, and wait for Reb Zusha. When he finishes davening, and he raises his eye to heaven, you're going to open the door and come in with a silver tray, and you're gonna go over straight to Reb Zusha and says, 'Reb Zusha, I'm so sorry what I did.' You're gonna cry.

11:02 You're gonna ask forgiveness, and then you're gonna give him the breakfast. Please take this breakfast from me to show you that I'm, I'm, I'm so sorry to what I did. And this way you'll, you'll, you'll-- he'll forgive you." The rich man thought this was a great idea, went home, told his servants to prepare a beautiful, beautiful breakfast with a lot of food, and he grabbed the tray and he, and he went straight to the Shul. But he didn't go inside the Shul. He waited outside the door. He waited to see through the cracks when Reb Zusha will finish davening, take off his tallis and tefillin, and then raise his eyes to Hashem and say, 'Hashem, please, Zusha is hungry.' And then I'll go in, and I'll bring him the tray, and I'll ask forgiveness. And that's what he did. In the meantime, the shamash... You remember that shamash? The day before, that shamash made up his mind that he's gonna teach Reb Zusha a lesson and not bring him breakfast. No, the shamash is waiting at the entrance of the Shul. There was two entrances on two sides of the Shul. So the, the rich man, Yankel, is waiting with a beautiful tray of food, uh, by one entrance, and the shamash- Is waiting to see what's gonna happen with Reb Zusha on the, by the other entrance, and he can't wait to see Reb Zusha asking Hashem for food, and he's... And, and the Shamash is not gonna bring him any food, and that'll

12:21 teach Reb Zusha a lesson. But little did the Shamash know of what happened that morning with Reb Zusha and Yankel, the rich man, and how Reb Zusha was pushed into the mud. He didn't know the whole story. So as Zusha finished two copies of talisman filling that morning, he sat down and says, "Rabbeinu Shel Elim, Zusha is hungry. You always gave me food. You always sustained me. You always gave me food when I was hungry. Please, today make sure that I have food because I'm hungry." And as he said that, the Shamash says, "Aha." The Shamash thinks to himself, "Ah, this is amazing. I'm gonna teach him a lesson. It's gonna be so amazing, so geshmak. I'm gonna... He's gonna s- see there's no food. There's no food, and he's gonna wonder, how come he doesn't have any food? And then he's going to realize because I didn't bring it to him, and it has to do with me. I'm the one who's giving him breakfast." But as Reb Zusha finished speaking, from the other door came running in with a beautiful silver tray with beautiful breakfast. The rich man, Yankel, ran over to Reb Zusha, placed the tray in front of him, started crying and begging him for what he did that morning. He was, "Oh, no, it's no problem. I'm, I've-- I'm, uh... You're right, probably. You're a rich man. How come I, I, I stand in your way? I shouldn't be doing this. And don't worry about it. It's all fine. It's

13:40 all fine." And, uh, Reb Zusha, and, and, and, and Ya- Yankel, the rich man says to him, "Zusha, eat, eat some of my breakfast, please. Please, that would give me a lot of pleasure if you eat from my breakfast because I'm so sorry what I did, so I wanna give you something, a gift, a present." The Shamash is looking from the other door, and he sees this amazing thing. Reb Zusha is asking Hashem to give him food, and food did arrive, even though he, the Shamash, decided not to bring food for Reb Zusha. And the Shamash then learned an amazing lesson, that Reb Zusha, because he believed that Hashem really gives you food. Yes, it comes to you through different people and through different ways because you work, and then you make money. Then you think that, you know, the work that you do and you earn money, this is what gives you food. Truth is, Hashem is making everything. Hashem is doing everything. It's just Hashem is doing it through your job or through different ways where you get money, and you can buy food. Everything is Hashem deciding how much you should get and how much food you should have. So, Reb Zusha believed it, that Hashem is the one who's really doing it. That's why he always turned to Hashem. And the Shamash thought that he's gonna teach him a lesson, but you know what? Reb Zusha taught him a lesson, taught the Shamash a lesson. The Shamash learned that it's true,

15:07 and Reb Zusha is right. Hashem gives you food. Yes, He gives it to you through mommy, through your tati, through, uh, your tati's job, uh, whatever. But, but in the end... But it's Hashem doing it through them. Really, it's Hashem. So when you daven, you daven to Hashem, "Hashem, please give me food."