193. Reb Zushe Saves A Community From Eating Treif

00:15 Shalom Aleichem, kindalech. Reb Zusha, you all heard of Reb Zusha, the great tzaddik, Reb Zusha, a Talmud of the Maggid of Mezritch. Reb Zusha had a mechutan. Mechutan means one of his children married the daughter of this Rav. His name was Reb Leib Volozhysker. Volozhysk was a city somewhere in, in Ukraine, and this Reb Leib was a big Goan. He was the Rav of Volozhysk, but he was a big Misnagid. But nevertheless, Reb Zusha's... One of Reb Zusha's children married into the family of Reb Leib Volozhysker, who was a big Misnagid. Reb Zusha went to the wedding, to Volozhysk. The night of the Shabbos came, the night of Shabbos. Reb Zusha had, you know, special kavanas when he ate the meal. So after they finished eating the fish, Reb Zusha said like this. He made a-- called out loud, he said, "Zusha loves tzimmes." You know what tzimmes is? Tzimmes is sweet carrots, right? In the old country, in Europe, tzimmes, sweet carrots, was considered one of the best, most delicious foods. He says, "Zusha loves tzimmes, and let them bring tzimmes now." After the fish, he says, "They should bring in the tzimmes." So Reb Leib, his mechutan, who was the big Misnagid, the Rav of the city, said to him, "First we eat soup. This is the way we do it. We eat fish, then we have soup, and then we have meat, and then we bring in the tzimmes." So Reb Zusha said, "No, but Zusha loves that they should bring right

02:13 after the fish. They should bring tzimmes. I wanna have the tzimmes now." And he says, "Not only do I want a little bit of tzimmes, I want the whole pot of tzimmes. I want them to bring it here." Reb Leib said to him, "Do you know we have a huge pot? We prepared a big, big pot of tzimmes for everyone. There are hundreds of people here." So Zusha says, "Yes, I want the whole pot." Now, this Misnagid, uh, the Reb Leib, who was a Misnagid, he sound like he would get very annoyed, and he walked away. He says, "Okay, bring him the pot." And he says... He walked out. They brought the whole pot, and Reb Zusha, without hesitation, stuck his hand into the pot, all the way to the bottom of the pot, and pulled out a bone. A bone of a chicken. Um, the bone was broken. And, uh, broken in a certain place where it says in Shulchan Aruch that if a chicken-- Somebody shechts a chicken and you find, you open up the chicken, you see that that bone was broken in a certain place, that means the chicken is treif. Can't eat that chicken. So he went, took out the bone, and said to one of the people by the table, "Go to the Rav," who went off to the side because he didn't wanna be there. He was so upset that Reb Zusha was asking for the whole pot of tzimmes. And he says, "Here, take this bone, show

03:50 the Rav and ask him if it's a kosher chicken or a treif chicken." So the person went over with the, with the bone, and Reb Leib looked at it, and he said, "It's treif." And all the food of Shabbos became treif, because we don't know. They, they cooked the pot, and the pot is treif. So everybody saw that Reb Zusha had Ruach Hakodesh. He didn't ask for the pot of tzimmes because he wanted to eat the tzimmes. He knew, he felt, Ruach Hakodesh, that there was a treif piece of meat in the bottom of the pot of the tzimmes, and that's why he wanted the whole pot, so nobody with, Chas ve'Shalom, eat from it. He didn't want, he didn't want anyone to eat from that treif tzimmes. On Sunday, the next day, Reb Leib, the Rav of the city, told all the people of the city to go to Reb Zusha and give him a pan, like a letter, ask for his brochos. Amongst the people that went to ask a brocha from Reb Zusha was the president of the community, he was a very rich man, very arrogant. When he came in to see Reb Zusha, Reb Zusha screamed at him. He says, "What is a bad person who committed aveiras do in my place? Go out. Leave. Get out." The, the, the, the... This important person, he was a very important person, he was the president of the community, got so scared, he ran out, ran away. When Reb Leib, Reb Leib

05:24 saw what happened, he felt bad for his president, the president of his community, that he was so insulted by Reb Zusha, so he said-- He went after him and said, "Come, come. Maybe we'll go together. Reb Zusha will be nice to you. If you come with me together, then he'll... He won't yell at you." So they went back in together with Reb Zusha-- together with the Rav, Reb Leib, and Reb Zusha again yelled at him, "What is a sinner doing here? A guy who commits aveiras. Sh-- Get out of here. I don't wanna see you." So he ran away. So then Reb Leib went over to this, to this president, and he said to him, "Listen. Reb Zusha, as we all can see, is a Baal Ruach Hakodesh. And if he says that you need to do teshuva, you've done something wrong, maybe you should think about something you did wrong. And the president says, "Well, I don't remember me doing any averos. I don't know of any averos." He said, "Well, think, think hard." So then the Rav says, "Think hard. Maybe you'll remember something." So he thinks and thinks. He says, "Listen, maybe something. I mean, uh, there was once, uh, many years ago, um, um, I used to have like a big piece of land, and on that land, there were many krachmas, right? Many krachmas where people would have different businesses like a bar where people come and drink, and, and they go... They, they used to rent from me all

06:57 the krachmas. One of the krachmas was owned, was, was run by a Jew, a Jew who rented from me. And, um, and he, uh, had a business there. You know, people would come and drink in his krachma, and then he made a living. But once, for some reason, I didn't want him there anymore, so I kicked him out, and I brought in somebody else. And this poor man became very, very poor. He... because he didn't have parnasa, because I kicked him out of the krachma. He was very, very poor. Um, but you know, I feel bad. Maybe I made a big mistake. I did an avera. So... But what can I do now? He died already. This poor man who owned the krachma is no longer alive by now. I can't go and help him now. How can I do teshuva and fix what I did?" So the Rav told him, "Go and find his children and appease them. Give them, uh, what they need, money, whatever, and you will, uh... By that, you'll fix the avera that you did to the, to their father." And the president did exactly that. After that, he came to Reb Zusha again a third time, and this time Reb Zusha s- greeted him with a great, great s- smile, and he said to him to sit down, and he gave him coffee. And he says, "Okay." Didn't mention anymore his avera.