198: The Jew Who’s Life Was Saved by an Earthquake

00:15 Shalom Aleichem, kindlech. I'm gonna share with you a story that happened at the time of the Ba'al Shem Tov. As you all know, I'm sure you heard of the Inquisition. Inquisition was the church from Spain and led also by the king and the queen in fourteen ninety-two. This is almost five hundred, six hundred years ago when the, the government, the King of Spain, Ferdinand, and his wife Isabella, yamach shemam, they, uh, told the church that they can force the Jewish people to convert to, to the Christian religion, and if they don't, they get killed. First they said that up to a certain date, August second, this was in fourteen ninety-two, August second, all Jews must leave. It was actually on the Jewish day of Tisha B'Av, which on all the tzaros of the Jewish people throughout the history happened on Tisha B'Av. This happened on Tisha B'Av. Um, it was moved a day later to Yud B'Av, but it was meant to be on Tisha B'Av. And those Jews that left before Tisha B'Av were able to leave and had to leave behind all their houses and their money and their fields. You couldn't leave with anything in your hands. The king took everything away for himself, stole everything, and you had to leave without anything. Just the clothes on your body and that's it. Over a hundred thousand Jews left Spain at that time and leaving everything behind. All their money and all their property, all the things they owned, they left it behind.

01:55 But there were many, many Jews who stayed behind, and they had no choice. They had to pretend that they're converting to Christianity and go to church every Sunday and act as if they're Christians, otherwise they'd be killed. There's one Jew... Now, the Inquisition lasted for a long time, for several hundred years. It, it, it, it lasted even past the-- till past the Ba'al Shem Tov, the time of the Ba'al Shem Tov. So there was a Jew at the time of Ba'al Shem Tov that lived in Spain. He was very, very rich and very friendly with the king, and the king respected him, and everybody in Spain knew about him. He was like an important man, but he was Jewish. But of course, everybody thought he's practicing the Christian religion and he's not Jewish anymore. But he was not like that. He actually used to practice mitzvahs in secrecy in his basement where nobody saw. Like many, many other Jews who were living in Spain and did not leave the country by August second, as the king said, and they was, they were staying behind, and they had no choice. They had to convert to go to the church and become a Christian. But many, many of them would actually do Torah mitzvahs in the basements. They would hide. They had a special secret place in the house, and they would-- The, the wife would go light Shabbos candles there, and they would make kiddush there. And then, of course, it was a secret place which

03:25 they kept locked all the time. So thousands of Jews did this, and the Inquisition, the Church, they knew that the Jewish people are not always honest. You know? They pretend they become Christians, but really a Jew is always a Jew. He doesn't say... You know, his love for Hashem is al- is always there, and he can't stop doing Torah mitzvahs. So they would always spy on the Jewish people who pretended to be Christians to catch them, to see if they're doing any mitzvahs. So one of the things they would do right before Pesach, we're now right before Pesach, that they, they saw in the market, they would look who is buying a lot of green lettuce in the market, which is unusual amount of green lettuce. So they knew it's because Pesach is coming, they need for maror. And these Jews would do a Seder secretly in a basement in a hidden room, which they kept locked, and that's where they would do the whole Seder. But they needed to get maror and matzah. So matzah they would bake secretly in their home, but maror they need to get vegetables. So they went to the market and would buy a lot of maror. And these Inquisition people, they would spy and see who's buying a lot of vegetable, a lot of, a lot of lettuce. That means they wanna-- they, they're observing Pesach. And then they would check on their homes, and they would go and peek through a hole and see if they're doing

04:53 Pesach 'cause they saw them buying so much lettuce. So this was ongoing all the time. All the time, the Jews were having so much... Many Jews were caught in the middle while they were doing a Shabbos or, uh, um, they would do a Pesach Seder, and they would catch them. They would come with all the officers and catch the Jews, and they would kill them. The-- Most of the time, they would burn them at a stake, burn them in a fire in front of hundreds of people. And sometimes the king would come, and all the ministers would come and watch how they burn a Jew. 'Cause in most of the time, the Jews, when they, when they did that to them, they would scream Shema Yisrael, and they would jump into the fire. They would say the whole Shema loud. Now, this Jew that we're talking about was in the time of the Ba'al Shem Tov, was the last maybe years of the Inquisition, but there was still, which was there and he-- The, the, the galachim from the church, they were spying on him day and night to check him, see, and catch him to see if he, if he's doing mitzvahs, and they did catch him. And they arrested him, and they sentenced him to be burned at the stake. They have a special name for that in Spanish. When they used to burn a Jew at the stake, they call it auto de fe. Right? It's when you put someone in the

06:19 fe, in the fire, and, and they would do this auto de fe for Jews that were caught doing mitzvahs in secrecy. This Jew was caught, and of course, the king was disappointed because it was the king's friend. The king also thought that he was, you know, being Christian, but he wasn't. Apparently, he was, uh, no, it was, it was keeping Yiddishkeit. So they took him to the... They, they, they made a date when they're going to burn him. And when the day arrived, everybody gathered in the center of the, of the city, and they made a big stage and a fire in the middle of the stage. And they... Everyone would watch, and they took the Jew, and they were throwing him into the fire. Now, when this Jew went up onto the stage, and they were tying him up, and they said they were gonna throw him into the fire, and the Jew was prepared to say Shema Yisrael out loud. Um, suddenly, something totally unexpected happened. A massive, massive earthquake started shaking up the whole country, the whole city, at least. All the houses started falling down. People were dying and screaming. People were so afraid for their lives that everybody from that place where they were gathered to watch how the Jew is getting burned in this auto de fe, they all ran. They didn't care anymore about burning the Jew. Even the guy who was supposed to throw the Jew in the fire, he ran away too because he was afraid.

07:57 When the Jew saw that everybody's running away and he's alone, he, he picked up his feet and left and ran himself too, and he ran away from one city to another till he got to the border of Spain, and he crossed the border, and he went into freedom. He no longer lived under the Inquisition. They could no longer hurt him. He was saved. It was a miracle. There was an earthquake exactly when they were about to throw him into the fire, which saved his life. Now this man moved to, to, to Ukraine or Russia, and he always wondered, what, what did Hashem do here? Does that mean that Hashem made the whole earthquake only just for him so that he wouldn't die? Is it possible that Hashem would bring a massive earthquake that, that affected hundreds of thousands of people and so many people died? And all was because so that he could save his life. Is that possible? Maybe the earthquake had to happen for another reason. There had to be an earthquake for another reason. That's what Hashem wanted. There should be an earthquake. The miracle is that he happens to be at that time when the earthquake was supposed to happen, they were going to throw him into the fire. But now that Hashem made the whole earthquake just for him, in the bottom, he wanted to know, is it true that Hashem would make a whole earthquake for me, only for me? He was wondering about it. He would go to

09:34 rabbis and ask them, you know, is it true that Hashem could make a whole earthquake for one person so just to save his life? So they would give him answers, and he didn't like it. So then he heard about the Ba'al Shem Tov. So he went to Mezhibezh, and he said he'd ask the Ba'al Shem Tov. While he's walking the streets, the Ba'al Shem Tov is walking with his talos and tefillin to shul. The Ba'al Shem Tov is motioning to him. He said, "Come, let's walk together." So they're walking to shul, and the Ba'al Shem Tov says to him... He doesn't say, gives him Shalom Aleichem, but they just walk. As they're walking in the street, they see a wagon pulled by a horse and a farmer sitting on the wagon and whipping the horses, uh, the horse. And as the, the wagon is moving, the wagon was full of straw. Straw, uh, hay. And one piece of hay fell off the wagon. It fell on the floor. And the farmer didn't even pay attention to it because it's just a straw. Who cares? And the wagon moves on and leaves. Then a few minutes later, as the Ba'al Shem Tov is still walking to shul, a poor man who, um, had a toothache, a terrible, terrible pain in his teeth, sees that there's a straw on the floor, and he looks at it. He says, "Oh, this is a very special type of straw." There's a kind of species of straw that has a

11:02 special, special thing about them that it can cure, uh, pain in your teeth. So he picks up that piece of straw, and that was the straw that fell off the wagon five minutes ago, and he puts it between his teeth and rubs it, and the whole pain went away. Now he's able to daven Mincha without feeling pain. He's able to learn Torah. Till now, it was almost impossible for him to concentrate on the davening because he was in such pain. Ba'al Shem Tov, the Jew, the Jew who watches this is amazed. The Ba'al Shem Tov turns to him, "You think... Do you think that this wagon, uh, was here, and the horse was here, and the, the wagon, the farmer was here, and there was straw? It just so happens that Hashem made sure that this poor man needs to, you know, cure his problem with his teeth and the pain that he feels. Um, so he made sure that the wagon was coming, coming anyways through here would, would, uh, would drop a little straw." He says, "No, no, no. That's not what happened." He says to this Jew, the Ba'al Shem Tov says to the Jew, "Hashem foresaw That this Jew, this poor man, is gonna wanna daven and learn, but he's gonna be so bothered by the enormous pain he feels in his mouth. Hashem created a wagon, and He created a horse, and He created the whole farmer. He created all of these things, and the straw that was on the...

12:29 in the wagon. All of that was created for this one Jew, poor man, who has a terrible toothache, and it's hard for him to daven and learn. And he's begging Hashem, and Hashem makes sure that this wagon and this horse will... and this farmer will bring all the hay, and then one piece will fall off, so he'll be able to cure himself from his terrible pain. And then Hashem then said to him, "The same thing is with you. There's no question that Hashem has created the whole earthquake just for you to save your life." And this is a very kind... It's a very important thing to remember. This Jew couldn't believe that Hashem would do such an amazing thing like an earthquake just for one Jew, so this Jew can save his life. He's not even such a big, uh, tzadik. He's just a regular Jew. So we see from this story how Hashem loves each one of us enormously. And sometimes Hashem can do massive events just for one of us, either to save your life or to make sure that you get what you need. And it's Pesach time. Now is Pesach time. And Pesach, we know, is the time when Hashem showed love to the Jewish people. Pesach is the Yom Tov of love. Hashem saw us in Mitzrayim. We were having a lot of problems. We were slaves. And Hashem saw, and He... We didn't have any mitzvahs because we were slaves. And Hashem said, "Nevertheless, I love you, and I'm

14:08 gonna take you out." And this is the same with us, too. Hashem loves us all, and we have to show the love back, right? If Hashem loves us, we should show our love to Hashem as well. A good Yom Tov and a