185. Reb Shmuel Munkes Kills 2 Galochim Sorcerers

00:16 Shalom Aleichem, kinders. I wanna share with you a story that is connected to Yut Tes Kislev that we just celebrated. As you all know, the Alter Rebbe had a famous Hasid, Rebbe Shmuel Munkes. Shmuel Munkes was famous because he, uh, pretended to be like a joker and made a lot of funny things, a lot of funny stories about him, but really he was a very, very great man. He was a holy... He was a big tzadik, and, uh, he would just hide some deep ideas that he had and pretend that he's making a joke, but really he was hiding deep things in these jokes. Now, Shmuel Munkes, uh, was named Shmuel after his father who passed away before he was born. That means, um, his mother was pregnant with him, and that's when his father passed away, and that's why when he's Brit, they named him after his own father. He lived as a child and grew up in a city called Polotsk. Uh, in the area of Polotsk, there lived some galachim, goyim, and there were two particular galachim who were mechashfim. They were me- kishuf, like sorcery, right? Black magic. But they were dangerous people. They would, um, you know, they would try to approach the Jewish people in the area and try to argue with them about their religion, and, um, they would... Sometimes they would, uh, do kishuf and hurt people. And they caused a lot of tzoros to the Yidden in the area. Now, the mechashfim, these two mechashfim, these

02:13 two galachim that were mechashfim, they never bothered Reb Shmuel. Eh, Reb Shmuel didn't mix with them, didn't... You know, he was a Yid who was busy learning Torah davening. He was not, um, didn't get involved with them. But one day, um, somebody, a Yid showed to the mechashfim, he said, "There, this... You see that Yid over there with the white beard? That's Reb Shmuel Munkes, the famous guy, Reb Shmuel Munkes." So the mechashfim, the two galachim mechashfim went over to him to talk to him, you know, argue with him about religion, that maybe their religion is right, you know, the shtusim, the nonsense. And they, they started talking to him, and then they started talking to him about how they can do kishuf. They know how to use black magic and do all kinds of, uh, you know, magical things, and they can hurt people with their magic. So Shmuel said to them, this was-- they were sitting in a, in a bar, in a krachmach. Eh? The krachmach is a bar, or it was like an inn where they also used to drink, and they were sitting in that, in the, in that krachmach, and there were other people in the krachmach at the time. There were goyim, lahavdil, Yidden. They were all sitting there, and they watched Reb Shmuel talking to these two mechashfim, these two galachim. So Reb Shmuel, they started telling him, you know, how much they know how to do kishuf, and they're very powerful. They can really do all

03:52 kinds of hurtful things to people through their kishuf. So Reb Shmuel, you know, wanted to, you know, shut them down because he realized that they were terrible people. He said to them, "You know what? I'm a bigger mechashif than you. I am... Can make bigger kishuf. My kishuf can, can overpower your kishuf." So, so they started making all kinds of kishuf stuff against him. Reb Shmuel didn't do anything, but their kishuf didn't do anything to him. It didn't hurt him at all. So the mechashfim, the galachim, they suggested, uh, to Reb Shmuel, "You know what? How about you and I, you and us will drink a cup of mashke. L'chaim, eh? A mashke. You'll pour us a cup, we'll pour you a cup. We'll pour you a cup, and we'll make some kishuf, you know, say some abracadabra, and that will make the mashke very, very, very strong, full of kishuf, and then you'll have to drink it. And then you can pour us also a cup, and you can do your kishuf. You say you're a bigger mechashif than us, so then you, you'll sh- will see who is more powerful, who is a greater mechashif." And before, you know, making sure that they didn't put any poison in there, that it's only kishuf but not poison, so they'll let somebody in the audience drink a little bit of that to make sure that it is, he's not dying because there's no poison, and then they'll put in the kishuf, and Reb Shmuel will

05:32 have to drink it. So they did that. Reb Shmuel agreed. He agreed. But he said again, he made a condition with them, "I agree to drink the cup that you will put kishuf in there on condition that I will pour you a cup as well, and, and you will have to drink it." So they agreed. The mechashfim agreed. So they took a cup of mashke, and they went into a corner, and they started, like, uh, mumbling some words, abracadabras, all kinds of stuff. And then they brought the cup back, and the cup was sizzling, and they were-- we could see there's something happening inside the cup, and they gave it to Reb Shmuel Munkes. Shmuel Munkes took the cup, said loud, "A bracha, Shehakol nihiyya bidvari," and he drank it. Now, normally, what should have happened is somebody drank that cup that was full of the power of Kishuf, person would have died on the spot. They made sure that there was a lot of Kishuf in there, enough to kill somebody. But he drank it, and the Mechashvim saw that nothing happened to him. He's normal. Everything is normal. He's healthy. He's sitting there smiling. There's nothing happening to him. So they became a little bit shocked. So they said, "Oh, no, he, he really is something special, and he's really powerful. They can't kill him." They tried to do the most they could. It didn't work. But now they have to drink his cup. Now they were afraid. Says, "No, no, no, no,

07:03 we don't wanna drink your cup." But everybody around them said, "Wait, wait, wait, wait, that's the deal. We made a deal. You gotta keep your, the deal." So Shmuel, they had no choice. They had to drink it, and Shmuel poured a cup to each one, and one of them died the same day, like a few hours later, he suddenly died, and the second Mechashav died the next day. That's it. And now the whole community, the whole city, and, uh, all the surroundings of the city were now free of those two Mechashvim that used to make a lot of tzoaros to the Yidden with their Kishuf. That story happened on a summer, summer of the year Taf Kuf Nun Tes. And, uh... I mean Taf Kuf Nun Ches. Then it was Rosh Hashanah, Taf Kuf Nun Tes. Reb Shmuel came to Lioznen, to the Alter Rebbe, to be there for Rosh Hashanah. After Rosh Hashanah, he went back home, and he came back for Yom Kippur. On his way back to go to the Alter Rebbe for Yom Kippur, um, on the way, something crazy happened. He's trying... He's already close to the city, outside the city of Lioznen. It's Erev Yom Kippur. He wants to go there before Kol Nidre. He'll be there with Alter Rebbe. But there's this huge army of ravens, black ravens, that descended in front of him and all around him, and they blocked him. They didn't let him go forward. And Reb Shmuel Munkes realized he has to daven Mincha

08:47 first because it's getting late, so he davened Mincha right there. He made it very brief and short, and he tries to walk, you know, past the, the ravens and get to the city for Yom Kippur, but he can't. These, these birds, these are big black ravens, they stand sitting there, and they're blocking him. They don't let him move forward. Meanwhile, in the Beis Midrash of the Alter Rebbe, they're really coming to Kol Nidre. It's really time for Kol Nidre, so the Alter Rebbe turned to the Mitteler Rebbe and said to him... And said to the Mitteler Rebbe right before Kol Nidre, he says, "You know, Shmuel," he meant Shmuel Munkes, "Shmuel is walking and walking, but he can't arrive." Alter Rebbe said, "Baruch HaKodesh." And he says, "Go out and meet him and, and help him come into the city so he can come in for Yom Kippur." Um, so he went, the Mitteler Rebbe went, and he took with him Rabbi Isaac Hameler, one of the great Hasidim and Talmidim of the Alter Rebbe, and Reb Pinchas Reisas, also from the great Hasidim of the Alter Rebbe. So all three of them went, and they walked outside the city of Lioznen. And while they were walking out, Alter Rebbe left the shul for a moment. People, the Rebbe, Alter Rebbe was already in his kittel and his tallit, ready for Kol Nidre. Suddenly, the Alter Rebbe went out of the shul and looked. Nobody knows what he was doing, and then he came back

10:12 inside. When Reb Shmuel Munkes saw from a distance the Mitteler Rebbe, Reb Pinchas, uh, Reisas, and Rabbi Isaac Hameler, he said, "Why did you have to come here? Who asked you to come?" Right? And anyways, he was like, um, not happy they came to help him. And they helped him come in, and when they came out, I guess the ravens must have moved aside, and he was able to walk through, and he was arriving for Yom Kippur. Mamish for-- Mamish, mamish by Kol Nidre, he arrived in Lioznen. That Yom Kippur, Reb Shmuel did not go to shul. He did not go to the shul of the Alter Rebbe. He davened Yom Kippur maybe by himself in his room, or maybe he went to another shul in Lioznen, but he didn't want to go to the Alter Rebbe shul and... Because he felt bad that, um, the Alter Rebbe seems to have known about what he did. It seems that these ravens were, like, not good things. These were coming. They, these, the... He killed two Mechashvim, and they had... You know, they were part of a Klipa of, of tumah, of the forces of tumah, and, and that's why they came to stop him from going to the Alter Rebbe. And Alter Rebbe, after Yom Kippur, he, he saw the Alter Rebbe, and Alter Rebbe, uh, was very upset with him and gave him a very big, you know, um, Hochach, Hochach. He gave him musar. He told him that his-- what he did was

11:50 wrong, and he shouldn't mess with Klipa, Veset Ha-Acha, and tumah. These were tumah, the Mechashvim. He shouldn't have messed with them. And then the Friediger Rebbe told that story to the Rebbe, and he said, "On that year, Taf Kuf Nun Tes, right by Simchat Torah time, they arrested the Alter Rebbe." So the Rebbe says in his Reshimas that he asked the previous Rebbe, "What is the connection between the two stories? The story with Reb Shmuel Munkes and the Mechashvim and the ravens, and Alter Rebbe being upset with Reb Shmuel Munkes for messing with such terrible people, and the fact that Alter Rebbe was arrested shortly after that, that year, that same year that Alter Rebbe was arrested. Is there any connection between the two stories, the Alter Rebbe's arrest and the story of Reb Shmuel Munkes?" And the Friediger Rebbe said, "Whenever by, in the family of the Friediger Rebbe, by the Rebbeim, in the family of the Rebbeim, whenever they told the story with Reb Shmuel Munkes, they always finished the story by saying, 'That year, Alter Rebbe was arrested.'" And that's all. He didn't explain the connection, if there's any connection, but that's how it was traditionally told in the family by the Rebbeim, that Reb-- after Reb Shmuel Munkes was by the Alter Rebbe, they would finish the story saying, "In that year, Alter Rebbe was arrested." So nobody knows what the connection is, but that's the story.