182. The Tzadik Who Davened Mincha In The Forest

00:15 Shalom Aleichem, kinderlach. I wanna share with you a story about a great tzadik, a heilike tzadik. His name was Reb Eliyahu Lieber. They called him Reb Lieber HaGodol, the great Reb Lieber. Lieber was a Yiddish name. Reb Lieber lived in Bodichov. Uh, Reb Lieber was born before the Baal Shem Tov. Um, his father's name was Reb Avraham Ashkenazi, and, uh, his father's father was the son of the great Mekubal, Reb Shimshen of Ostropolle. Shimshen of Ostropolle was killed by the Cossacks during the terrible pogroms of Taf Kes and Taf Tes, Tach Tat it's known. Tach Tat, these are the two years, fifty years before the Baal Shem Tov was born, there was a terrible pogrom in Europe where hundreds of thousands of Yidden, nebech, were murdered by these Cossacks, uh, on Kiddush Hashem. And Reb Shimshen of Ostropolle was also in the middle of davening at one point, and a Cossack came in, and he, Reb Shimshen, was in such a dveikus. He was so... He had such kavana during davening, he didn't even notice that there was a Cossack there. The Cossack killed him, and he didn't even feel anything because he was totally, uh, in a, in a dveikus, connected to Hashem at that moment. But he was a holy, holy Mekubal, and his great-grandson was Reb Lieber. Reb Lieber was, uh... lived in Bodichov because his father had moved, uh, near Bodichov after there was pogroms in Kraków, and so he left to, to Ukraine and went to live near Bodichov. As

02:19 I said, Bodichov at that time was a very small, almost like a village. Much later, when Reb Levi Yitzchok Bodichover became the Rav, Bodichov became a big city, like, uh, one of the large cities with a lot of Yidden. Sixty thousand Yidden lived in Bodichov. It was a big city. But at the time when Reb Lieber lived there, it was like a small... almost like a village. People hardly heard of it. It was so tiny. Reb Li-- Reb Lieber was a, um... He was-- He had a position in the city. He was like the Maggid. He would give drashes. That was his position. But Reb Lieber kept most of the time to himself. He didn't, uh, talk to people a lot. He would just learn and daven. That was his main, uh, occupation, and he didn't talk so much to people. One of the things that Reb Lieber would do, the Mincha, he would daven every day Mincha in the forest. There was a forest outside Bodichov, a big forest. He would go alone by himself into the forest and stand next to a tree, and he would daven Mincha for hours, hours and hours, with a dveikus, with such kavana, that he wouldn't notice anything. Now, this Reb Lieber was a big oheiv Yisroel. He loved another Yid. He would do anything to help another Yid. And the Baal Shem Tov once said about him, Baal Shem Tov gave him a lot of kavod. He was very, very... Baal Shem Tov praised him a

04:02 lot. He would go to Bodichov to visit Reb Lieber. He would go to tevil in Reb Lieber's personal mikveh. Lieber had like a well where he would go to the mikveh, and the Baal Shem Tov wanted to go to that mikveh. And, uh, so one-- the Baal Shem Tov said that once Reb Lieber was walking in the market, and he sees Eliyahu Hanavi, and Eliyahu Hanavi wanted to talk to him. But Reb Lieber was busy raising money for Pidyon Shvuyim. You know what Pidyon Shvuyim is? When you go and, and redeem Jews that are in prison or in the dungeon because they couldn't pay their rent. So Pidyon Shvuyim is one of the greatest mitzvahs. Greatest mitzvahs of tzedakah is to save a Yid who is... unfortunately, the Polak threw him into the dungeon, and he would go around, raise money to save Yidden's lives. So when Eliyahu Hanavi approached him, Reb Lieber said to him, "I'm sorry, I, I can't talk to you now. I'm busy doing Pidyon Shvuyim." So Rebi-- the Baal Shem Tov said, "Some tzaddikim, for them, it's a big zechus that Eliyahu Hanavi reveals himself to them. They see Eliyahu Hanavi. For Eliyahu Hanavi, it's a big zechus when Reb Lieber has time for him, and Reb Lieber reveals himself to him." Because Reb Lieber felt that the mitzvah to help another Yid is greater than having the big zechus to have Eliyahu Hanavi talk to you. It's like similar to Avraham Avinu. Even Hashem, "Vayera Hashem el Avraham," Hashem

05:34 appeared to Avraham. Can you imagine Hashem appearing to Avraham? He had mamash nevuah at that time. And then when he sees three men standing outside that may be hungry, he says to Hashem, "I'm sorry. Um, thank you. This is an amazing, an amazing thing that you came to visit, but I'm busy now. I gotta go help these three people." So that's, it's what the Rebbe always taught us, that helping another Yid is greater than the greatest, the greatest giluyim. Even Eliyahu Hanavi coming to you is, is not as great. Even having Ruach HaKodesh, even Hashem revealing Himself to you. What's even greater than that is to do a mitzvah for another person, to help another person, do a kindness to another person. That's what Reb Lieber did. So the story is about Reb Lieber who would daven milche every day in the forest. Once Reb Lieber was standing Shemoneh Esreh in the forest, far away from the city. And he davened with such kavanah, with such tvekus, he didn't hear anything. The Paritz who was in charge of the whole area, Bardichev and all the towns around, he owned everything. He didn't know Reb Lieber, who Reb Lieber was. Basically, he's riding by in the forest with his horse. He had two horses, two white, powerful horses and a beautiful wagon. You know, he was a rich Paritz. And he sees a man standing by a tree with his eyes closed and his lips are barely moving. And he's like deep in thought. And it's

07:14 a strange sight. Why would a person stand in the middle of a forest and just stand there with his eyes closed? So he told his servant, go down from the wagon and go tell this man that I want him to come here. I want to talk to him. So the servant went down. He started talking to Reb Lieber. But Reb Lieber didn't hear anything. He was so deep in his kavanah, in his tvekus when he davened that he didn't hear anything. So the man kept telling him again, hello, hello. Can you please listen to me? Come and the Paritz wants to talk to you. You better come. So Reb Lieber didn't even move. He didn't even hear. And so the servant went back to the Paritz, told him that the guy is not moving. So the Paritz said, you know, tell him that if he doesn't come here, I'll punish him. So he goes back. The Paritz thought that maybe Reb Lieber hears the servant, but he ignores him. He doesn't listen to him. So he threatened him. But he didn't realize that Reb Lieber just simply couldn't hear anything. He was so deep in talking to Hashem with such deep kavanahs that he didn't hear anything. So finally, the Paritz got so upset and angry at Reb Lieber that he told a few of his servants to get down from the wagon and to go over and to pick up Reb Lieber by his hand and feet and drag him here against his will.

08:57 They went down and they picked him up and they brought him to the Paritz, to the wagon. And the Paritz kept saying, hello, wake up. What is going on? What are you standing there for? And Reb Lieber is just, he's not even aware now. Even after they carried him to the Paritz, he doesn't even feel anything. So the Paritz again thought that he's just ignoring him. So he took a whip and he started beating him. And he beat him so hard that he even started bleeding. Reb Lieber started bleeding. And finally, after, so the Paritz realized that there's something strange. The guy, normally a person gets beaten so hard with a whip that he started bleeding. You would be in pain and screaming. Reb Lieber is like totally quiet. He's like deep in thought as if nothing is happening. He said, I've never seen anything like that. Paritz couldn't believe it. So he decided, he said to his servant, take him, put him back where he was. This is a very unusual person. Maybe it's a holy person. Even though the Paritz was a goy, but he said, this is not a normal person. This must be a very, very unique person. So he told him, put him back where he was. And finally, Reb Lieber finished one essay and the Paritz was waiting for him. And he was very sorry. He felt bad because now he realized this Reb Lieber is a holy person. And he started asking forgiveness. He called him over. He

10:25 says, Rabbi, I'm so sorry. First of all, we're going to take care and heal you and bandage you the wounds so that you don't bleed. But I want to ask you forgiveness that I beat you so hard. I didn't realize that you were not listening. You were not hearing me. I thought you're not listening. But really, you just couldn't hear because you were so connected to Hashem. And I realize now what a holy person you are. And I feel terrible. And I ask you forgiveness. So Reb Lieber said to him, I'll forgive you on one condition. You promise me never, ever to hurt another Jew. And Reb Lieber said, if you tell me that, you promise me, then I will forgive you. The Paritz says, not only do I promise I will never hurt another Jew, but I promise you that here in this forest, I'm going to build this very place where I beat you. And I feel so bad that I beat you. So that Hashem would forgive me. I will build the biggest shul that the Jews ever saw. And I'll make sure there will be a city here. That Bardichev will grow to a big city with a lot of Jews. For a long time, most of the people that lived in Bardichev were Jewish. Jewish were the largest percentage of the population. There were more Jews than Goyim in Bardichev. And this is after Reb Lieber's story, when Reb Lieber was beaten so badly and the Paritz saw what a

11:51 tzadik he is. The Paritz fulfilled his promise, built this huge shul and built houses and invited Jews to come live there. And that's how Bardichev became a very large city. Now When this Reb Leiber became close to a hundred years old, his wife had already died. He didn't have any children. His niece took care of him. His niece was also a little bit older, but she was his niece, was much younger than him, and she took care of everything that he needed because he was an old man. So he said to his niece, "You know an uncle can marry a niece." He says, "Would you please marry me so that I can have a wife?" She said, "Yeah, but you're almost a hundred years old." Like in your nineties. He was in his late nineties, almost a hundred. And he said, "How am I gonna have children? I wanna have children." So Reb Leiber promised her that if she marries him, she will have children. And she married him. And two years passed by, and there was no children. And she, the wife, was very upset 'cause she's not having any children. And her husband, the great tzadik, Reb Leiber, promised her. So once the Baal Shem Tov was traveling to Berditchev, and the wife of Reb Leiber went to the Baal Shem Tov and cried, and she gave him, um, for tzedakah. You know, you give a pidyon. You know, when you give to a tzadik, you want a berakhah, you give a pidyon.

13:25 A pidyon is like you give like a, a certain amount of money for tzedakah, and the tzadik gives you a berakhah. She gave a thousand rubles, a lot of money, for pidyon that, that the Baal Shem Tov should bless her with a child. Baal Shem Tov... And she cries. She said, "My husband, Reb Leiber, married me, and he promised me I will have a b-- have children, and I still don't have any children. He's almost a hundred years old." Baal Shem Tov said, "Don't worry. I'm gonna speak to him." Baal Shem Tov went to the market, and he sees Reb Leiber, um, is, is standing on a wagon. He took a wagon to, to go and collect wood and sell wood because he wanted to make a living. So what will he make a living from? By collecting wood from the forest, and he would sell the wood. But Reb Leiber was standing in middle of the market on top of the wagon and with his eyes closed, and he's jumping up and down. So Baal Shem Tov said to his talmidim, "Do you know what he's doing now? He's listening to the kedushah the malakhim say in, in the heavens and in the higher world, and they're saying, 'Kodesh, kodesh, kodesh.' And you know when you say, 'Kodesh, kodesh, kodesh,' you, you lift your, your feet up, so that's why he's jumping." Finally, he finished, uh, saying, "Kodesh, kodesh, kodesh," and jumping. Baal Shem Tov went over to him and gave him shalom aleichem.

14:44 Said, "Listen, your wife is very upset. You promised her when you married her that she'll have children, so that was a condition you made. So you should keep your promise, and if you don't keep your promise, then it's a question whether the condition is still a condition, whether you guys are really married or if you make a condition or I'm marrying you on condition that I'll have children, and then the, the promise doesn't come true, then it's not a marriage, right? Because that was the condition for the marriage." So Leiber said to the Baal Shem Tov, "You're right, and you came to me in the right time." And then he bent down to the Baal Shem Tov and whispered something in his ear. And immediately after that, the Baal Shem Tov and his talmidim left right away, and the Baal Shem Tov went back to Medzhybizh. That was the year Tet Kuf Chaf Alef. And shortly after that, the Baal Shem Tov passed away. Was Nistalik. And Leiber, Reb Leiber, and his wife had a baby after the Baal Shem Tov was Nistalik, and the Reb Leiber called him Yaakov. It was a baby boy, called him Yaakov, and he said, "This is a name after the Baal Shem Tov." Even though Yaakov is not Yisroel. The Baal Shem Tov's name was Yisroel. But as you know, the Yaakov is the other name of Yisroel. Yisroel and Yaakov is the same person. Now, nobody understood exactly why he gave Yaakov and not Yisroel, but that's

16:02 another... Nobody understood it, but this is, uh, probably deep secrets in Kabbalah why he thought he wanted to give him a name Yaakov. Then he had another... They had a girl, and he gave the name Rochel. Reb Leiber gave that... Had a boy and a girl, uh, um, after the Baal Shem Tov was Nistalik. And then finally, shortly after that, there was a major epidemic in the small town of Berditchev, and people started dying one after another. It was terrible. And Reb Leiber said that he wants to be, uh, like a kaparah. That means he'll be like a carbon for everybody else, and with that, he'll save the city because he says he sees in Shamayim that, chas ve'Shalom, the whole city is going to die from this epidemic, so he wants to save the city. And he said that he's giving his life to go instead of everyone else. Shortly after that, he became also sick from this epidemic. You know, during epidemic like COVID, remember, um, people are afraid to... It's contagious. If, if you, if you get too close to a person, you might get the disease. So especially when somebody dies from a disease, and you have to take care of the body and bury him, so it's very dangerous for the people that take care of the body because the body still has some disease on it, and it can, uh, make the people sick. So people usually, you know, uh, have to be very careful. So before he, he

17:27 got sick and before he died, he called over four people from Berditchev and said to them, "I promise you that nothing will happen to you. Take care of my body. When I die, I want you to bury me like a normal and do everything that you need to do, uh, to prepare my body for burial." And, and he promised them that they will not get infected by the disease, and that's how he passed away. And as soon as he passed away, the epidemic stopped, and the Jews of Berditchev were saved.