180. The Simple Jew Who Trusted The Advice Of The Alter Rebbe

00:16 Shalom Aleichem, kinderlekh. This is a story that was told by the great Hasid, Rebbe Persen. Eh, Rebbe Persen was a Hasid of the Tzemach Tzedek, the Rebbe Maharash. The story was originally told by the Tzemach Tzedek, uh, when he was telling his children the story, and told them how important it is to listen to, uh, the advice of a tzadik, of a rebbe, and not to doubt even for a moment. The story goes like this. The Mezritcher Maggid once traveled with his talmidim for all night until in the morning they got to a inn, to a krachma, a inn, and it was owned by a Jew, and they asked this Jew to get them rooms because they're gonna stay overnight in, in this krachma, in this inn. The, the, the owner of the inn was very, very excited that he has this zchus to have such great people in i-in his, in his, uh, house, and he prepared them very nice beds and made everything. Came to this, the evening, when they were at night, when the, the Mezritcher Maggid was about to go to his room, the, all the, the owner of the inn came to the Mezritcher Maggid and said to him, um, "I, I have a very important question and I need advice, and we're thinking of traveling to the Rebbe, to Mezritch, but now that the Rebbe's here, I would like to ask him now the question." So the Mezritcher Maggid said to him, "One of my talmidim, who was the

01:58 Alter Rebbe, is also here. He's a big chacham, and he has in him the neshamah of the Ramban. Not the Rambam, the Ramban, Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman, who was the same time as the Rambam. He has the neshamah of the Ramban and is a big chacham, and you should listen to him. Whatever he tells you, you should do." So the owner did exactly that. He went to the Alter Rebbe and asked Alter Rebbe, "I have... The Rebbe told me to come to you, and I need advice." So the Alter Rebbe asked him, "What kind of advice do you need?" He said, "Listen, um, I've had this inn for many years, and I had a pretty good life. I made a good living. But now the, the, the, the owner, the, the paritz, wants to raise the rent. He's charging me a lot of money, and it's gonna be very hard for me to make parnassa. So I was thinking, there's another inn across the street, actually across the river. And you have to cross the river, and on the other side of the river, there's another inn. I can actually rent that inn and move over there. What do you think?" And the Alter Rebbe said, "I like the idea, and I think you should do that, and move over to the other side. Meshana mako meshana mazal, so it will bring great success to your business." After the Alter Rebbe finished giving him his advice, the Alter Rebbe went to sleep. The next morning,

03:32 the Alter Rebbe gets up, and he sees that the entire inn is completely empty. Uh, the owner took all the furniture out and all his stuff out, and the whole i-inn is to-totally empty. And the Alter Rebbe sees the owner standing there, and he's waiting. Alter Rebbe asked him what happened. How come the whole... All the tables and chairs and all the furniture, everything is moved. It's not there. So he tells the Alter Rebbe that he had learned from his teacher that when you get advice from a big chacham, from a rav, from a tzadik, you should do it right away. Whatever he tells you, don't wait. Do it right away. So last night, as soon as he gave me this idea that I should move, I went and, and moved everything over, and now I'm waiting just for you, so I can move you also over to the other inn, because now we're gonna leave this inn. We're gonna go to the new inn. The Alter Rebbe was very impressed. A Yid has such trust in the words of chachamim, such trust in the words of a, of a, of a rebbe, of a rav, that right away, as soon as he hears his advice, he does it right away with full trust. He believes that this is the right thing. So the Alter Rebbe said, "Okay, let's, let's move over to the other side." So they had to take a little boat and ride over the river. So the Alter Rebbe went onto

05:06 the boat, and so did the owner, because everybody else already moved to the other side, and all the furniture was moved. Only the Alter Rebbe and his luggage had to be moved over to the other inn. So they go into the boat, and they're making it across. They're riding the, the, they're riding across the river, and as they're in the middle of the river, a, a, a s- a, a storm broke out with thunder and lightning, and a very strong lightning struck the, the old inn, the inn which they just left, and burned it t-to the ground. The whole inn burned down. So this was a nes that he left right away, because a few minutes after he left, the whole inn was cau-caught in fire through a lightning and, and it burned down. So that was a lesson. The Alter Rebbe, um, uh, later on told that story, and the Tzemach Tzedek told it to his children to learn a lesson from this Yid. He was a poshite Yid, a simple Yid, but when the Alter Rebbe told him what to do, he did it right away without even waiting one minute, and that saved his life, and it saved everything. Saved, saved everything. Saved all his furniture. Because if he had waited another day, everything would have been burned down, including all his furniture and all his stuff, all his belongings. And who knows, maybe some people would have died from the fire. But that shows the great power of believing in the

06:38 word of a tzadik, of a rebbe. And when they tell you to do it, don't delay. Just do it right away.