197. The Amazing Story The Heiliger Rizhener Told On Purim In His Prison Cell

00:15 Shalom Aleichem, kindelekh. As you all know that the was in prison for twenty-two months, I think he was in prison, and, uh, he, he was over Purim. Had to spend Purim in prison. He didn't have a Megillah. So he told the, the guy that was with him to let him have one of his Shamashim, helpers, to stay with him in the prison. He told him, "Listen, if you don't have a Megillah, I'll tell you a story. That will be instead of the Megillah." What was the story? There was once a king who had a beautiful, beautiful garden. In that garden, there were many beautiful trees, expensive trees, gorgeous trees. And the king made sure that the garden was always closed, so strangers, outsiders could not go into the garden. Only the king and his family could enjoy this beautiful, beautiful garden. One day, the king goes into his garden and he sees a Jew, a Jew is standing in the middle of the garden, and he asks him, "How did you get here? My garden is closed. How could you get here?" The Jew didn't answer, but just said to him, "This is an amazing garden. Your Majesty, I can build for you with the wood from the trees in your garden the most magnificent palace that no king has ever had. These trees are so beautiful. If I can make, uh, building wood, wood out of these trees, your palace would be so amazing. No one would ever, ever, ever imagine such a beautiful

02:12 palace. But you have to give me permission to cut down the trees." The king said, "Well, if I give you permission to cut down the trees, and then you cut down the trees and you don't build me the palace, what guarantee do I have that you will actually do it?" The Jew says, "Listen, if I don't build you that palace, you can kill me. You can kill me." So the king says, "Okay, go ahead. Start building my palace." The Jew cut down many of the beautiful, most beautiful trees and made them into wood and boards and built this incredible palace. Took two years to build this palace, but fine, by the, by the end when the palace was finished, it looked so gorgeous. No one, no one has ever seen such a beautiful palace. The king also wanted windows because the Jew was able to build a beautiful palace, but the palace was made with big openings which needed windows, large windows, which was very difficult to make. So the king... The, the Jew said, "I can't make those windows. We have to find somebody who's a craftsman who can make these special windows to make the palace look even more beautiful." So the king looked around in his whole empire, in his country and the other countries. They couldn't find a, a craftsman, an artist who can actually create these beautiful windows that the king needed for his palace. Finally, finally, they looked and looked, and they found one person. That person was a

03:59 very famous craftsman, but a very big antisemite. He hated Jews. When he heard how famous this Jew became, the Jew that built this magnificent palace, he was very jealous of the Jew. So he sent a message to the king that he can make the windows. So the king invited him to the palace. He came to the palace, and the king asked him, "How much do you want me to pay you for those windows?" He said, "You don't have to pay me anything. Only one thing I need. That Jew who built the palace, you should kill him. If you kill him, then I'll make you the windows." When the king heard the request that he wants the king to kill the Jew who was so nice to him, built him this magnificent palace. Now this Rosha, evil person who's going to make the windows for the king, wants the king to kill this Jew for no reason, only because he's Jewish. And the king didn't... Uh, was a little bit upset because he didn't wanna kill the Jew. The Jew was so nice to him. On the other hand, he wanted this, this guy, this goy to, to do the windows. So he, he called his advisors. He says, "What should I do? I don't wanna kill the Jew. The Jew was good to me and nice to me. On the other hand, he wouldn't make my windows." So the advisors gave him all kind of advice. Eh, he didn't like it. Till one advisor said

05:29 to him, "You know what? I know you're gonna have a hard time seeing this Jew, uh, getting killed, so I... I have an idea for you. You have a palace far away from here, near the ocean, near the sea, like a seafront palace, especially where the king would go on vacation in the summer. And they had a guard that was there all year round watching over the palace. Take the Jew who built you the palace, give him a letter, say you want him to deliver the letter to the guard of your palace by the sea." In the letter you'll write to the guard that the person who brings you that letter, you must take him and throw him into the water, into the ocean. Don't have any pity on him. Just pick him up, take him on a boat, and throw him in the middle of the ocean, so he can drown there. So the advisor said, "If you do that, you won't have to see it. It's far away. You won't have to see it, so it won't bother you so much. And this way, you can get your windows." So the king liked this idea, and he called over the Jew. He says, "Listen, I have a favor to ask you. Can you go to my guard by my summer palace, which is by the ocean, and I need to send him a letter. Can you please give-- bring him that letter?" He brought the letter to the guard. When the guard opened

06:57 up the letter, he saw the request that the king is saying in the letter, "This Jew who just brought you the letter, you must take him and throw him into the ocean." The guard knew this Jew because he built the palace for the king, so he knew, he knew him, and he felt bad because they were very good friends, the guard and this Jew. So he didn't wanna throw him in the ocean. So the Jew asked him and say-- He sees that the guard is, like, very upset 'cause the guard didn't tell him what the king wrote. He says, "Why are you upset? Maybe I can help you. Maybe I can speak to the king on your behalf. Is there anything that I can help you with?" And the guard didn't wanna tell him. Finally, the Jew pressured him, and he said, "Okay, I'll tell you the truth. The king sent me just a letter now that I should s- throw you into the ocean so you would drown in the water. He wants you to drown in the ocean." So the Jew became very upset, and he realized that the one who did it was this Rosher who wants to build windows for the king. But he made a condition that he needs to kill the Jew first. So the Jew started asking this guard, "Please don't kill me. Let's think of a way by which you can let me live, and still you wouldn't be in trouble with the king 'cause you didn't

08:23 listen to him." So the guard thought of an idea. He said, "Listen, in this palace here by the ocean, there's a room which nobody ever goes in there. If you're willing to go into that room and stay there and not to come out, and I'll bring you food every day, and the king will think that I threw you in the water 'cause nobody will see you." The Jew agreed, and he stayed there in that room. But from time to time, you know, when it was safe to go outside, he would go out for a little bit and maybe go fishing, and then would go back to his room. So the king thought that the Jew was in the water, was already drowned, and he's gone. And now the, the, the, the window-maker, the Rosher, made the windows for the king. One day, the king came to his palace, the summer palace, uh, by the ocean, and he decided to go, um, on a boat on the sea, on the water, you know, to have a good time, fresh air. And the king had a very expensive ring on his finger. So while he was sitting on the boat, he was playing with his little, um, ring with diamonds on it and everything, very expensive. He played with it, and by mistake it fell into the ocean, and he tried to catch it and catch it, but he couldn't catch it. That's it. It was down, went down deep, deep into the ocean. There's no chance

09:59 of him getting it back. King was very, very upset 'cause it was, uh, probably the most expensive piece of jewelry he had, and now it fell into the ocean. No, but what can he do? He gave up on finding it. He went back to his palace. Finally, his vacation was over. He went back to his regular palace where-- which was in the capital of the country. One day, the Jew goes out of his room to go fishing a little bit, so he can have some kosher fish. And he catches a fish and decides to open it up, so he can clean it and then cook it. And he opens up the belly, and he sees a ring. He s- he recognizes this is the royal ring with diamonds and everything. Apparently, a fish swallowed the ring of the king. The ring fell into the ocean, fell deep, deep down, and a fish saw it and swallowed it, and it stayed in his belly. Now the Jew opened up the belly, and he was able to get the ring. Finally, the Jew saw the ring, and he calls over the guard who was guarding the palace and let him stay in the room. And he says to him, "Listen, I wanna go back to the king." So the guard says, "You crazy? You gonna go back to the king? King is gonna find out that I never threw you into the ocean, and then he's gonna kill me." So the Jew says to the guard, "What

11:29 do you think? I don't know that. He's gonna kill me too. Do you think I wanna kill myself? Of course not. I'm smart too. I know. I understand. Trust me. If I tell you I wanna go back to the king because I know I'm gonna say something to the king that's gonna save my life and your life, nothing is gonna happen to us. Trust me." Finally, the guard gave in. He says, "Okay, I'll trust you." And he traveled to the capital and went into the palace and met with the king, and the king was shocked to see him. He says, "What are you doing here? I thought you were thrown into the ocean a long time ago." And the Jew says to the king, "Your Majesty, yes, you're right. They did throw me into the ocean as you asked, and I was in the ocean, and a big fish swallowed me." So I told the fish-- I was in his belly of this fish, like Yonah Navi was in a fish, fish's belly, right? I also was in the belly of a fish, and I said to the fish, "What do you get from having me in your belly? It's just probably I'm giving you gas, indigestion. Why do you wanna keep me in your belly? Why don't you do this? Take me to the king of the ocean." Who is the king of the ocean? The Livyatan. Right? The big giant fish, the Livyatan. Which Hashem will give the tzadikim when Mashiach comes. He'll,

13:03 he'll kill the fish, the Livyatan, and all the tzadikim will have a great, great, great meal with Livyatan fish. So there's-- so, so he says to the fish, "I said to the fish, 'Take me to the Livyatan, the king of the ocean, 'cause I have a message for him.' So the fish took me there and spit me out. And when the Livyatan saw me, he said to me, 'What are you doing here?' And I said, 'Well, there's a big, big, big powerful king on Earth, and he needed... I promised to build him a palace, and I did build him a palace, a magnificent, magnificent palace. But then we needed windows, and we found a person who can do these special, special windows. But he told the king that the king must kill me first, throw me into the ocean. And that's why I'm in the ocean.' So the Livyatan said to me, um, 'So you build nice palaces. How about you build me a palace?' And I said to the Livyatan, 'Of course, I'm gonna build you a palace right here under the water in the ocean.' But I told him, 'I can only build the building. I can't do the windows. The windows needs a special, special person with a special craftsman, special artist that knows how to make those windows.' So Livyatan says to me, um, 'So can I get this person to come here and make my windows after, after you finish building my palace?' Says, 'Yeah, let me first build you

14:38 the palace, and then, um, you know, we'll, we'll... You'll send me back to Earth, and I'll go to the king and tell him if, that the king of the ocean asked that he, the king, um, in the palace should send him that special craftsman who wants to make windows.' And the Livyatan agreed. I built the Livyatan a magnificent palace. Took me a long time. And now we need to put windows. So I came to the king, to the king, Your Majesty, to tell you that the king of the ocean, the Livyatan, he wants to have this same guy who built your windows. He wants it for him too, that to make the windows for him in the ocean." So the king says, "How do I know it's a true story? You're making this up. This is like some fantastic story that seems, like, unreal, right?" So he said, "Well, I'll show you because the king of the ocean gave me a ring, and he said it might be your ring." And he shows the ring that he, the Jew, had found in the belly of a fish when he was fishing. And he showed it to the king. When the king saw it, he recognized it. "What? This is my ring. I lost it in the ocean." He says, "Yeah, and I brought it. The, the, the Livyatan, the king of the ocean, had the ring, had your ring, and he gave it to me to give it back to you." So that was a,

16:00 a great sign for the king that actually this Jew was in the ocean because how come he has the ring of the king? The king knows that his ring fell into the ocean. So he believed him. He believed the whole story that he made up, that he comes from the ocean now, and he built a palace for the king of the ocean. And we need... And the king, king of the ocean is asking a favor from the king on Earth that he should send him his craftsman. So the king said okay. He told his guards, "Take the guy who built the windows and throw him into the ocean so he can go and make windows, those special windows, for my friend, the king in the ocean, the Livyatan." And so they took this guy, and they threw him into the ocean. And of course, he drowned, and he died. The Rizhiner told that story. Then a great tzadik, the Sanzer Rebbe, would tell it over. He said that's what the Rizhiner told. I'll tell you what the... This is a mashal for the story of Purim. Because the Rizhiner didn't have a megillah, he told that story instead. And this is like the story of Purim where Haman builds eight gefail chamishim amor, a very tall tree, very tall piece of wood, a gallows, to hang up Mordechai, to hang Mordechai on it. And what happened? They hung him instead. Just like this guy, this Rosha, the window maker, tried to throw the Jew into

17:34 the water and kill him that way. What happened? He himself got killed by the same water that he tried to kill the Jew. Just like Haman, the same gallows he wanted to kill Haman on, he himself, Haman himself was killed, and he was hanged there. They're sure there's more and more deeper secrets and ideas hidden in this mashal of the Holy Rizhiner because everything is very, very special and precise. And the Rizhiner didn't just throw out stories, but in every detail of the story, he was hinting to some deeper ideas related to the Yom Tov of Purim and the, the, the destruction of Haman. And what it means in our spiritual lives is the Haman inside of us, and the Haman is trying to trap us to do bad things, and then we trap that Haman, that Yetzer Hara, and make him, you know, lose his life and stop bothering us. A freilechen Post Purim. Now, if you see in the story, the king lost his ring in the sea, in the ocean. It was found by the Jew, and he used that ring to save himself because by finding the ring, he was able to bring it back to the king and convince the king that he was in the ocean. And the king of the ocean sent him to the king. What is the nimshal for that? I think it says in the Gemara... First of all, it says in the Megillah, how does Haman get the king to make a law that

19:22 would allow him, Haman, to, chas v'shalom, kill all the Jewish people? He made the king take off his ring, and with the ring, right, he, the king gave the ring to Haman. He says, "You can sign my, with my ring, this law, this decree that allows you to do, chas v'shalom, the most terrible thing to the Jewish people." Now, the Gemara says, Gemara Megillah says that when the Jewish people heard the terrible decree that Ahashverosh allowed Haman to sign with his ring, the Jews were so fear- afraid and so terrified that they all did teshuva. They all did teshuva. They realized that they have to do teshuva for Hashem so Hashem would save them, and that's exactly what happened. Hashem saved them. The Gemara says something very interesting. This one time when Ahashverosh took off his ring to give to Haman, that moment, that event, that thing that he took off his ring, had a more bigger influence on the Jewish people to do teshuva than all the forty-eight neviim that came in the past and that told the Jewish people how they m- must do teshuva for their averos. And it didn't help. The Beis Hamikdash was still destroyed. In the first Beis Hamikdash, we had so many neviim, so many neviim that came and told the Jewish people, "Don't do aveiras asa, don't do terrible things, don't do averos because Hashem will destroy the Beis Hamikdash and expel you from Eretz Yisrael." It didn't work. And one stupid king, Ahashverosh, takes off his

21:07 ring, and all the Jews suddenly do teshuva, and Hashem brings the great Yom Tov Purim. So that could be the mashal of the king losing his ring and the Jew finding it. Instead of the ring of Ahashverosh becoming, chas v'shalom, a way to kill the Jews, it became the reason why Hashem saved the Jews because when the Jews saw how the ring of Ahashverosh was removed and given to Haman, it made them so scared that they did teshuva, and that is what brought the big salvation, the big yeshua, and the big miracle in Nes of Purim.