179. A Rebbe Does Not Make A Mistake

00:15 Shalom Aleichem, kinderlekh. Here is a gevaldiges story with the Tzemach Tzedek. The Tzemach Tzedek had a Hasid. His name was Yankel. Yankel lived in a small town in a village. Uh, the village was owned by a Puritz, and this Yankel rented from the Puritz an inn with a krechme where they served and sold mashke and beer and wine, and, uh, it was a good business. Yankel, uh, made good money, and he paid the rent to the Puritz on time. Everything was fine, and Yankel was happy. One day, the Puritz showed up at his, uh, inn, in the bar where he sold all the mashke, the inn where people stayed overnight, and it was a little hotel. And the Puritz shows up. Yankel says, "What brings you to my place? How are things?" The Puritz says, "Listen, I've got some sad news for you. I decided that you are gonna have to leave. I no longer wanna rent to you. I wanna rent to someone else. So I'm giving you one month to find another place, but within a month you're gonna have to leave this place, 'cause I'm gonna rent it to someone else." Yankel was very shocked and surprised. I mean, he had nowhere else to go. Where is he gonna make a living? How is he gonna make money? And he turned to the Puritz and said, "Mr. Puritz, I paid every month on time. I was very good tenant. I did everything right. I have no idea why you wanna kick me

01:54 out. What's wrong? What did I do wrong?" And the Puritz says to him, "Yankel, it's true. You've never done anything wrong. You always paid your rent on time. That is very, very true. Um, what can I say? It's just that I made a decision that I prefer someone else now. And I'm sorry, this is the... my decision, and you're gonna have to listen to what I tell you." Yankel was very upset, and he went home, told his wife, and was very sad. So he thought for himself, he said, "Wait a second. There's this guy, Moshe. Moshe a Yid who lives in town, and he's very good friends with the Puritz. Puritz likes him, and he is very close friend. And I'll go ask Moshe to speak to the Puritz that he should change his mind and let me stay in the inn." So Yankel's wife says, "Yeah, it's a great idea." Yankel went to Moshe's house. Moshe invited him in and said, "Yes, come in." And Yankel explained to him what happened with the Puritz. He's gonna lose his job, not gonna have any money to feed his family. It's a very terrible situation. And he asked Moshe, "Since you're such a good friend with the Puritz, he'll listen to you. Tell him that you believe that he should not take away the business from me and that he should change his mind." Moshe said, "No yeah, yeah, sure. I'll, I'll try my best." It was quite clear to Yankel that Moshe wasn't that interested

03:38 or that excited to talk to the Puritz. But he said, "Listen, you know what? Since you're asking me, I'll do it." You know, first he tried to say, "You know, I don't know if I can tell the Puritz what to do. He's not gonna like it if I tell him. You know, I'm friends with him, but I don't tell him what to do. I mean, he doesn't like that. But I'll try my best." No, nothing happened. Nothing changed. The Puritz kept sending messages to Yankel every day, another message and saying, "Yankel, make sure you get ready to leave, because within a month you have to be completely out of the place, and I'm gonna have to have the place empty so I can rent it to someone else." Yankel realized that nothing is happening, so he's went back to Moshe's house and begged him and begged him and begged him. And Moshe, nothing. Moshe said, "Yeah, yeah, I'll try my best, and I'll, I'll talk to him again and talk to him again." Nothing happened. Finally, Yankel realized that Moshe is not really talking to the Puritz. Eh, maybe he mentioned it, but he's not really telling him as a good friend that, that he believes that he should not kick out Yankel. And so Yankel decided to go to the Tzemach Tzedek to Lubavitch and told the Tzemach Tzedek that this Moshe in his village... First of all, he told the Tzemach Tzedek the whole story with the Puritz, and now the Puritz wants

05:10 to take away his whole income, his whole livelihood, his whole parnasa, and he's had a lot of tzoros for him. It's a big tzorah. But, uh, he knows there's a guy, Moshe, who's a close friend of the Puritz, and I, I've been begging him to go to the Puritz, but nothing is happening. Maybe if the Rebbe writes a note, a letter to this Moshe and tells him that the Rebbe says he must go to the Puritz and make sure the Puritz does not, um, kick out this Yankel. So the Tzemach Tzedek listened to the whole story of Yankel and said to Yankel, "Okay, you know what? That's what I'll do." Took out a piece of paper, wrote down, "Dear, dear Moshe," and wrote down like a little note and said to him, "Moshe, I would like you to help this Yankel to make sure that the Puritz changes his mind and does not kick him out, so Yankel can stay in this inn and make a parnasa." And he closed the note, put it in an envelope, and on the top of the envelope, he wrote an address. And Yankel is looking as the Tzemach Tzedek writes the address, "This is for Moshe at this and this address." Yankel looks at the address and says, "Wait a second, that's not the Moshe I'm asking about. Um, this is a different Moshe, a different address." But by the time he realized that the address was the wrong address, he was already outside the room. He wanted

06:39 to go back to tell the Tzemach Tzedek that the Tzemach Tzedek made a mistake because it's a different Moshe. The address-- The Moshe of the address that he wrote on the envelope is someone who doesn't even know the Parets, has never met the Parets, doesn't even know about the Parets. He lives, like, further away from the village. He lives, like, in the forest, and he doesn't know the Parets at all. He can't help him. But he wanted to go back in, and the Rebbe's gabbi said, "I'm sorry, it's too late. The Rebbe is very late at night now, and the Rebbe cannot see people anymore. I'm sorry." So he was very upset because he thought that there was a mistake here. So he went to one of the Tzemach Tzedek's children, one of the sons of the Tzemach Tzedek. And, and the son saw that Yankel was very upset. He asked him, "Why are you so upset?" And Yankel said, "I'm upset because the... your father, the Rebbe, made a mistake. He wrote the wrong Moshe. Uh, I asked him to write a letter to this Moshe who's friends with the Parets, but this Moshe that he wrote on the envelope is a different Moshe." So the, so the Tzemach Tzedek's son said to Yankel, "No, my father does not make mistakes. If he told you to take a letter to this Moshe in the forest, don't think. Don't, you know, ask any questions. Do what he tells you, even if you don't understand it."

08:06 So Yankel heard this, so he decided, okay, that's what the... The Tzemach Tzedek did not make a mistake. I don't understand how, but... So he traveled back to his village. He went all the way in the forest where this strange Moshe was living, and he knocked on the door, and he said to, uh... Moshe came to the door and opened the door, and Yankel said to him, "I have a letter for you from the Tzemach Tzedek." "What? You said from the Tzemach Tzedek to me? What would the Tzemach Tzedek want from me?" And Moshe said-- And Yankel says, "Go, open the letter." He opened the letter, and he said to Yankel, "The Rebbe says that I can help you with the Parets, but I think it's a mistake because I don't know the Parets at all. Maybe he means a different Moshe, but..." And, and Yankel says, "You know what? I thought the same thing, but, uh, that's what the Rebbe wrote, so I decided I'll come to you." So Moshe says to Yankel, "You better come inside. It's getting late. It's getting at night. It's getting dark, and it's very cold outside. Stay, stay. Let's, let's have a... Let me give you a h- a hot cup of tea, and you warm yourself a little bit, and let's talk about it." They talk and talk, and it turns out that they both agreed the Tzemach Tzedek must have made a mistake because this Moshe says, "I have no idea who the Parets is. I've

09:25 never met him even. He has no idea who I am, and why would I be able to change the, the Parets' mind?" So the, the... Yankel says, "You know what, Rebbe? If that's the case, then let me leave, and I'll, I'll go back to the Tzemach Tzedek and, and have him write a new letter to a different Moshe, to the real Moshe." But Yankel-- But the, the, the, the, the man, the Moshe in the forest says to Yankel, "Listen, it's already late at night. Why don't you stay here overnight? I'll give you a room and a bed, and in the morning, you'll go back. You go to Lubavitch and tell the Tzemach Tzedek what you want to tell him." So Yankel says, "Okay, fine. I'll stay overnight." Yankel is saying Kirsh Amital, and he's going to bed, and he's getting ready to go to sleep. It's late at night. It's eleven o'clock at night, and suddenly he hears a commotion downstairs. Somebody was knocking at the door and knocking and knocking, knocking for a long time until Moshe decided to go open the door, see who's there. He opens the door, and a man walks in, a goy. And he says to Moshe, "Listen, um, I own a, a big, big piece of land and real estate, a lot of houses not far from here, like a village. I own the whole place, and I decided to take a little bit of a, of a ride with my horse in the forest. But I'm trying

10:53 to find my way back home, and I can't find... I got lost in the forest, and I don't know how to get back to my, uh, to my village. Maybe you can help me." So Moshe listens, and Moshe realized that this must be the Parets. And he says to him, "Sure, sure, come inside. First, get a hot cup of tea. I'm gonna set you right next to the stove, the wood stove. It's very warm there. You'll warm yourself a little bit. Everything will be good. And then I'll show you, um, how to get back. I'll show you, give you directions." Meanwhile, Yankel upstairs hears the commotion and realizes this is unbelievable. This is Mamish a nes. The Tzemach Tzedek was right. Who would believe that the Parets would show up here late at night in this Moshe's house? The Moshe that never met the Parets. Parets never met him. They don't know each other. But somehow he ended up in his house. And, um, okay, Yankel didn't go downstairs. He didn't want to disturb. After the Parets warmed himself and felt very good, he was so grateful because it was so freezing cold outside, and this Moshe literally almost saved his life, made him warm and made him feel good. So he said to, to, to Moshe, you know, "Show me how to get back." And Moshe showed him. Before the Politz left, he said to Moshe, "Listen, you saved my life. You, you helped me when I was freezing cold. It was dark, and

12:25 I didn't know where I was. I would've been lost in the forest for the whole night, and who knows what would've happened to me in this freezing cold time." So he said to Moshe, "Tell me what I can do for you. I'll do anything for you as a, you know, as a reward for, for saving my life." And Moshe says, "You know what? I do have a request. I don't need personally, I don't need anything. But come, let's sit down. I wanna tell you something about a friend of mine. His name is Yankel. He happens to rent from you an inn, and I understand from him that you wanna throw him out, and he's gonna lose all his Parnassa. He, his wife, and his kids wouldn't have what to eat. And I'm asking you as a favor because you asked me to ask for anything, and you promised to do what I asked you. So I'm asking you to change your mind and not to throw out Yankel." The Politz hears this, and he says, "You know what? You saved my life. I'm gonna do exactly what you said. But let me tell you the reason I wanted to throw him out. Why did I wanna throw out this Yankel? You're right, he never did anything wrong. He paid the rent on time and everything. But there's another Jew in town. His name is Moshe. He's a close friend of mine. He's been coming to me day after day and asking me to get rid

13:50 of Yankel because he, this Moshe that lives in my town, the Politz and is friends with the Politz, he, he, he has a relative that needs Parnassa, and he wants the relative to have a chance to rent the inn from the Politz. So he asked the Politz to kick out Yankel so that Moshe can bring his cousin into the inn, that he should rent the inn and make a Parnassa. So since he's my friend, I, I said I'll do what he wants 'cause he's my friend." When Yankel hears this, he says, "Wow, now I understand the Ruach Hakodesh of the Tzadik. The Tzadik understood that the problem was Moshe in the village. I thought that the Tzadik will write to him, he'll help me. No, he was the reason why the Politz wanted to kick me out." But instead, the Tzadik sent a no to the other Moshe, who didn't make sense. Who is this other Moshe? Nobody... The, the Politz doesn't know him. He doesn't know the Politz. But Hashgacha Prot is from Hashem. The Politz ended up in this house, and this Moshe was able to tell him to change his mind, and he did exactly that. He sat down, the Politz sat down in the house right before he left to go back to his house and wrote a note where he makes a promise that Yankel can stay in this inn for as long as he wants. He'll never kick him out. And that's the story. You see sometimes when a

15:22 Rebbe Tzadik tells you to do something, sometimes it doesn't make sense. You know, the Rebbe must have made a mistake. And there are many stories like that with the Rebbe, where people-- the Rebbe told people something, and it didn't make sense. And then we realized that the Rebbe was right. It wasn't a mistake. But you have to have trust in Tzadikim. When the Rebbe says, you can have Emunah, that the Rebbe's words are true, and they come from Hashem, and Hashem reveals the truth through the Tzadikim, and we gotta do what they tell us. Maybe one day I'll tell you personal stories, stories in my family that I know personally that where the Rebbe said something to do and didn't make sense, then it turned out that was the only way that the people were helped. All the best.