188. The Tzemach Tzedek Who Saves A Jew From Loosing His Business

00:15 Shalom Aleichem, kinders. Tonight I'm gonna tell you a story that happened many years ago in the time of the Tzemach Tzedek. Not far from Lubavitch, there was a small town, and the town was owned by a Poretz, a very wealthy landowner. He also owned the land where Lubavitch was built. He owned a lot of property. It was a go-- Uh, and, um, there was a Jew who lived on that property, on that land which the Poretz owned, and he rented from the Poretz a milk farm. It had, uh, different, uh, uh, buildings on the milk farm which you house the, house the cows and, and it had all the things you need to make milk. And he paid his rent. And this Jew, who was a milk farmer, was very, very wealthy. Became rich. Became rich from the milk. Was a good businessman, he knew how to sell milk, and he made a lot of money. Now, the landowner, the Poretz, uh, who was his landlord, didn't like the fact that this Jew has become so rich, "And where? On my property. He must be stealing somewhere from me. How can he become so rich? It must be that he's maybe stealing from some of my lands and some of my property, because how did he become so rich?" And he suspected that he's not an honest person, so he called him over one day. This is after living there for many years. He tells this Jew, "I don't trust you anymore. Uh, you've become

02:10 very rich, but because you stole from me, you must have taken some stuff from me that what made you rich, rich, and I want you to leave for good, and I don't want you to stay here anymore." And he told him, "I give you seven days to leave the property." Uh, the Jew was terribly devastated. He was so upset 'cause now he's not gonna have a source of income. This was the... This, this milk farm was where he became rich, but, but this is what gave him Parnassa. So at first he thought that the Poretz was making jokes because he was living there for so long, and they had a very good relationship, and he never caused any trouble, and he paid his rent on time. Why is he suddenly angry with him? He could understand, why is he suspecting that he's not honest and he's stealing? The Jew couldn't understand, so he started begging him, "Please, please, uh, I'm an honest person. I didn't do anything wrong. Please." But the Poretz was very serious. He wasn't joking, and he said, "No, no, no, no. You need to leave. If you don't leave, I'm gonna throw you out and take everything that you own in the house, I will take it for myself. If you don't leave on your own and I have to throw you out, sending my guards to throw you out, then I'm gonna steal all your stuff away. So you better leave on your own." The Jew saw what happened, so

03:36 he went to the bookkeeper. There was a bookkeeper that was the personal bookkeeper of the Poretz, of the landowner, and he went to this bookkeeper. He was a Jew who was a friend of his. And he asked the bookkeeper, "Can you please talk to the Poretz? I know you're very close to the Poretz. You keep all his books, you make, uh, sure that, uh, he's... You're his accountant. Can you please speak to him that he shouldn't throw me out? I won't have any Parnassa." The Jew says, "I'm afraid because he's a very angry person, and if I go and tell him that he shouldn't leave you, he's gonna get angry at me too." And the Jew, the milk, uh, the milk farmer, uh, also has... saw this, that every time he went back to the Poretz begging him not to throw him out, Poretz got even angrier and angrier at him. So the bookkeeper said, "The same thing is gonna happen to me, so I'm afraid to go to him." So the Jew, the milk farmer, decided to travel to Lubavitch, which wasn't far away, and talk to the Tzemach Tzedek and ask the Tzemach Tzedek to write a letter to this bookkeeper of the Poretz and ask him to please go to the Poretz and, and tell him that this Jew, this milk farmer, is an honest man. He never stole from anyone. He's just a good businessman, and he made a lot of money, but he didn't take anything from the Poretz. So

05:01 he went to Tzemach Tzedek, and Tzemach Tzedek told his, his helper, his shamash, his name was Chaim Ber, and he told him to write a letter, and the Tzemach Tzedek will sign it, and we'll give it to him. The, the, the milk farmer wanted to have a letter from the Tzemach Tzedek to the bookkeeper. So Tzemach Tzedek said, "Okay, I'll write a letter." He wrote a letter, and he gave it to the, to the milk farmer, and the milk farmer thought this is a letter to the bookkeeper, that the bookkeeper of the, of the Poretz would talk to the Poretz. But as he travels away from Lubavitch, he looks at the letter, he sees that the letter is addressed to a very wealthy man who lives in Chernigov. It's a different city. So he thought, "Oh, the Rebbe must have confused with somebody else, because this letter was maybe he had to send it to someone else. He, he gave the wrong letter." He goes back to Lubavitch and speaks to the Rebbe's shamash- Chaim Ber and said, "Listen, I think the Rebbe made a mistake, or you made a mistake, you switched letters. There must be another envelope which says on the, on the envelope that this is meant for this bookkeeper. Because that's what I asked the Rebbe for, and that's what I think he wrote. He wrote for the bookkeeper, but here it says it goes to Chernigov, some rich businessman." So Reb Chaim Ber said, "Listen, if the Rebbe... No, the

06:24 Rebbe gave me that letter for you, and if he wrote some rich man in Chernigov, then that's it. I'm not going back to the, to the Tzemach Tzedek to tell him he made a mistake. A Rebbe doesn't make a mistake." So this man was, like, really broken. He says, "You know, this must be a mistake, 'cause what does this rich man in Chernigov gonna know about this porec that is here near Lubavitch?" Uh, he went home and told his wife everything that happened. And his wife, she was a good woman. She had Emunah Tzadikkim. She said to her husband, "Listen, if a Rebbe, a Tzadik tells you something, even if it makes no sense, you just do what he tells you, and Hashem helps." And she told him he should go to Chernigov. No, he had no choice, and did what his wife told him. He went to Chernigov and looked for the address of this name, of this person, and people showed him where that person lives. He knocks on the door, and they invite him in, and he meets the rich man of Chernigov, a rich Jew. He says to him, "I have a letter for you from the Lubavitch Rebbe, the Tzemach Tzedek." He says, "Tzemach Tzedek? How does he know me? I, I'm, I'm not even a Hasid. I'm actually a Misnagid. I have nothing to do with Hasidim. Why would he send me a letter? I never sent him a letter. I never saw him. Never spoke to him. I

07:42 never wrote to him. It's very strange." So he says, "Okay, give me the letter. Let me open it up." He opens up, and it says that the Tzemach Tzedek is asking this rich Jew, rich businessman from Chernigov, to go to this porec near Lubavitch and convince him that he should not throw out this milk farmer, this Jew, the milk farmer, and tell him that, uh, that this rich man should tell the porec that this milk farmer, this Jew, is an honest man. He never took anything which wasn't his. When the rich man looked at it, he says, "I, I, I... Listen, I have respect for your Rebbe. He's a big Talmid Chacham. But listen, I'm not a Hasid, and I believe your Rebbe must have made a mistake. Because I, I don't-- I don't even-- I don't know who this porec is. I have nothing to do with him." So when the, when the, the milk farmer heard this, he almost fainted and started crying, "That means I'm lost. I'm gonna lose my job now, I'm gonna lose my business now, and, um, me and my wife and my kids are gonna have to wander and be homeless. It's gonna be terrible." And he started crying. The wife of this rich man in Chernigov, she heard the man cry. She said to her husband, "Listen, uh, what can you lose? Why don't you go to this porec? A Rebbe, a Tzadik came in, and who knows? He says that you should go, then try it.

09:10 Maybe Hashem will help. How do we know? Can't lose just to go." So the husband, the rich man, heard this, said, "Okay, you know what? Let's go." And he, the rich man, and this milk farmer together, they traveled to this little place where the big porec, the landowner, lived. And they went over to his big mansion. He had a big mansion. He was very rich. And when they look at the gate, it was the gate of the yard. They had a big, big yard, and inside the yard was the big mansion. But he couldn't get into the yard. There was a big gate. So he looked at the gate through the... between... in the fe-- through the fence, and he sees that there's... Inside the yard, there's a big commotion. There's a lot of wagons and important-looking people. Like, it looks like people, they're all pritzim and important noblemen from different places, and they're all there with their wives and, uh, and, and there's fancy wagons and horses all in the yard, and people are... There's like a whole celebration going on. And as he's looking, the, the rich man is looking... Now, the milk farmer, he went to hide because he was afraid that the porec will see him and start getting angry at him again. Because every time he saw him, he'd get angry at him. "I told you to leave. Why didn't you leave yet?" But the rich man, he kept looking through the, through the gates, and suddenly he hears there

10:34 is a, um... The, the, the porec, who is the owner of the house, the host of the whole party, is looking at him from the, from the, from the entrance of the house, the main entrance. He didn't know he was talking to him, but he's calling out and says in Polish, "Chavdi pan reide. Chavdi pan reide." In other words, he's saying to Mr. So-and-So, "Come in, come in." Now, the, the, the rich man, the rich Jew, didn't think that it was him because he, he, he doesn't know the porec, and the porec doesn't know who he is. Why would the porec call him? He thought he's calling probably somebody else who's standing behind him, and he just stood there. So he called... The, the, the, the porec called three times. He sees that the Jew is not moving, so he went from his-- the house, from the entrance to the house, all the way to the gate. And he said to him... And, and he opened the gate and took this, this, this Jew, a-and he said to him, "I'm calling you. Well, I, I, I'm asking you to come in. I wanna invite you in. Why are you standing here? Come inside my house, come inside my mansion." He took him by the arm and brought him into the house. He called his wife and daughter. The porec called his wife and daughter and said to them, "Look who came to visit us. Somebody came to honor us. He came here for my birthday."

11:56 It was the porec's birthday, and all these pritzim and noblemen came to celebrate with him. So he said, "Oh, we have another guest that came to, to, to celebrate with us." And the guest, the, the, the Jew, the, the wealthy Jew was very surprised. He's like, "What? I don't even know who this Poritz is." Uh, but the Poritz kept telling him, "No, no, no, no, no. Do you... Didn't you come for my birthday?" Uh, and, um, then he saw that the Jew is surprised. The Jew doesn't know what he's talking about. So the Poritz says to this re- rich Jew, "Don't you recognize me?" And the Jew says, "No, I don't recognize... I don't know who you are. You must have made a mistake. You confused me with someone else." He says, "No, no, no, no. Seven years ago, don't you remember? Seven years ago, I and my wife were traveling in your area, and we got lost. It was the winter. It was a big storm, a big snow, a blizzard with several feet of snow. We couldn't travel anymore. The, the, the wagon got stuck in the snow, and we, we didn't know what to do because we were lost. We didn't know where we were going, and we were almost... we froze to death. We almost froze to death, and then we saw a light in your house. So we, we decided to get off the wagon and to walk in the deep, deep snow, and we walked all the way till

13:21 your house. We knocked on your door middle of the night, and you opened up. We were freezing and shaking from the frost. We thought we were gonna die from the, from the cold, and you opened the door, and you invited us in. And y- you and your wife took care of me and my wife. You, you gave us some hot tea and some mashke to warm up our bodies, and we stayed in your house for an entire week because you told us not to travel until the snow starts melting because there was so much snow that it would be dangerous to travel back to our house. And you took care of... You gave us a room, and you gave us food every day. You fed us. You gave us a pla-- a warm place to stay for an entire week, and then when the snow started melting, we went back home. And when I asked you, 'I wanna pay you,' before I left, don't you remember? I said, 'I wanna pay for all the food and the lodging for staying by you.' And you said, 'No, I don't want anything.' This was... You did it with great pleasure, and you were very happy that you could do it to help, to help us." He said... So now the rich man from Chernigov remembered, "Oh, yes, I remember that story." So they kept, like, uh, speaking and talking, and after they spoke, the, the rich man said to him, "Listen, I came for a particular reason.

14:42 Yes, your, your birthday is nice to be here, but, um, I didn't know it was your birthday. But I came for a different reason. I came because I have a cousin." Of course, he made up this is his cousin, but he said, "I have a cousin who, who is, uh, renting from you a, a milk farm. And for many years he has a milk farm that he's renting from you, and he had good parnasah from it, and he lived the whole time under your, um, you know, under, under your leadership. And now I found out that you wanna cut off his parnasah and send him away. I can tell you I know him, he's my cousin, that he's a very honest man. He would never steal anything from anyone. Any... Chas v'shalom, he's, he's not that type of person. I'm asking you to please have rachmanus on him and leave him with the milk farm just the way you did till now." So the, the Poritz asked this Jew, "All right, can you promise me that he's an honest Jew?" And the je-- and the rich man says, "Yes, of course." So then the Poritz says to the Jew, "Call him in. Can you ph-- Is he around, the, the, this milk farmer?" He said, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll call him in." So the rich man goes outside. He finds where the, the milk farmer was hiding and says, "Come, come. The Poritz wants to talk to you." He came in, and the Poritz said

16:04 to him, "You know what? You can stay. I'm not gonna throw you out. And I wanted just to, to see whether maybe you're stealing or something, but now I see that you're an honest person. You can stay." And the Jew, the milk farmer, was so happy. He was almost started jumping from simcha. And then they left from there. They said goodbye to the Poritz, and the rich man of Chernigov went back home. But the rich man of Chernigov was also amazed. He saw the Tzemach Tzedek sent a letter to him knowing that he would know the Poritz, and even though the, the rich man doesn't... didn't remember it, the Tzemach Tzedek knew about it, and he knew that he's gonna be able to help this Jew. So he went, he traveled to Lubavitch, and he said to the Tzemach Tzedek when he went into yechidus that, um, first the Tzemach Tzedek thanked him for listening to what he said in the letter and to trust the letter and do what the Tzemach Tzedek says. And then the, the, the, the rich man said to the Tzemach Tzedek, "I was a Misnagid all my life. I never, never believed in all these moifim and nissim that they tell about tzadikim in our days. I thought this was all bubbe meises, nonsense. But now I saw a clear, open moifas miracle from the Tzemach Tzedek." So the Tzemach Tzedek said, "Ah, no, no. This is not a moifas." You know, tzadikim don't like to make a big

17:31 deal about their moifim. So he said, "No, it's not a moifas at all. Hashem gave me a very good memory. I have a very good memory, and everything I see or I hear, um, I know that this is a reason why Hashem made me see it and why Hashem made me hear it, and therefore I remember. I try to remember everything. So when this Jew, this milk farmer, came to me and asked me for a letter, uh, to, to this, uh, bookkeeper, that the bookkeeper should, should talk to the Poritz and, and help him, I remembered that seven years ago there was a story with a Poritz who was traveling and got lost with his wife in the freezing cold in the middle of the night. He almost died from the frost. And what did he do? The, he knocked on the door of a rich Jew in Chernigov, and he saved his life. So I thought to myself, you know what? This Jew is gonna be able to help him. That's why I sent the letter to you." Now how did the Tzemach Tzedek know about the story with the Poritz? But the Tzemach Tzedek made it sound like it's all just my... good me-- I just remembered things. It's not a moifas. So this rich man from Chernigov was very impressed with the Tzemach Tzedek that not only did he see the Ruach Hakodesh in Tzemach Tzedek, but he also realized Tzemach Tzedek is trying to make it sound it's all natural. It's

18:49 not a moifas. It's just that he had a good memory.