200. The Amazing Life Of Baron Eibeshitz, Son Of Reb Yonoson

00:15 Shalom Aleichem, kinders. I'm going to share with you an awesome story that happened with the youngest son of the great Gaon and the great holy tzadik, Reb Yonasan Eybeschutz. Reb Yonasan Eybeschutz lived a little before the Baal Shem Tov and also a little bit in the time of the Baal Shem Tov. He was very, very, very great. One of the greatest Gaonim of his time, wrote many seforim. He's famous all over the world. Until today, people learn his seforim. Reb Yonasan Eybeschutz was the Rav of Hamburg in Germany. He was Rav in other places first and then other-- Reb Yonasan Eybeschutz had number of children. At the time of the story that I'm going to tell you, his older children already got married and lived in different places. He had a younger son. The youngest son, his name was Binyamin Wolf. Binyamin Wolf was the youngest and, um, by the time he was, uh, bar mitzvah, all his older siblings were already married. But then when he turned fifteen, his mother died. So he was just left alone in the house with his father, and he wanted to be with his siblings who he didn't know. They were older than him. He told his father, "Tatty, I wanna go and travel to other cities where my brothers are, where my sisters are." The sisters were married to other people, to Rabbonim. He wants to travel, and the father said to him, "You're traveling, but I'm a little bit worried. You're gonna go to big cities,

02:05 and you're gonna be alone, and who knows what kind of friends you're gonna have." Reb Yonasan Eybeschutz felt that for this young boy, fifteen years old, to travel away from home can be a bad idea. He's gonna end up, Chas ve'Shalom, getting involved with, with, with young people that are not involved in Torah and mitzvahs, and they have an influence on him. So he told him, "Listen, if you're gonna travel to the big city," to other cities, to his-- where he lived-- where his brothers and sisters live, "then you have to make me a promise," a shevua. He made him make a shevua, a promise, that he will never leave Torah and mitzvahs. He'll stay a, a frum Jew, put on tefillin, Shabbes, Kashrus. He'll do everything he has to do. And he promised him. He also gave him a kamea. A kamea is like a special thing that great tzadikim, they write a special little document, a little paper in a-- on a parchment. It's like sometimes they write something from Kabbalah, names of Hashem, and they close it in an envelope, and they make the person wear it, and it has a special influence on the person. His father wrote a little note, it said, but on the note says something very simple. He said, "You should know you're a Jew, and you belong to Yiddishkeit, to Torah." And he made him hang it up on his neck, that he should never forget who he is. And so the young Binyamin Wolf left

03:36 the city of Hamburg and went off to different cities. He went to visit one brother in one city, another brother in another city, and then his sisters. Two of his brothers lived in a city called Dresden. Dresden is a famous city in Germany. There was a big Jewish community there, and two of his brothers lived in that city, so he went to visit them. He went from city to city. He went to Vienna to visit other family members. He wanted to see the world. Unfortunately, his father's fears came true. He ended up in Vienna at one point where he... He was very, very smart and very tall, and everybody liked him, and he became very friendly with some of the higher ministers in the government of, of Austria, and they trusted him and started giving him businesses. They trusted him with business, and he started selling stuff which they gave him, and he started making a lot of money, became a very, very, very rich. Until one day, he lost everything. He lost everything, and he owed a lot of people money, and the people that he owed money were Goyim, all Goyim. All his friends were Goyim now. And he owed them money. And he, by that time, already left Yiddishkeit, didn't put on tefillin, didn't keep Shabbes, ate chazer treif, mamesh, ate everything treif. It was... Didn't keep any mitzvahs at all. And now he was in a lot of trouble because he lost all his money, and he owed money to a

05:18 lot of the rich Goyim at the time, and they wanted to get him in prison because he owes them money he couldn't pay. So he fled from Austria, went to Germany, went to Hamburg to his father's house, and he cried and asked his father to help him. His father felt sorry for him. And the father was then printing a Sefer that he wrote, a very famous Sefer, Kesub Plisi. Everybody who studies, you know, Gemara and Shulchan Aruch knows the Sefer, a very famous Sefer. And the father rushed to print the Sefer so when he sell the Sefer, he'll get money, be able to help his son. So he rushed. He didn't even finish the Sefer, writing the Sefer. He just sold it so he would have money to help his son. He hoped that if he sells, he helps his son with the money and pays off all his debts, the son will do teshuva and come back to Yiddishkeit. So he saved his son from all the, you know, dangers of being arrested, but it didn't help. The son decided to, to tell his father he wants to leave town and travel again. And this time again, he made friends with some very important people in the government. He became rich again. People liked him. Everybody liked him because he was a very tall, smart, handsome, beautiful person. Everybody loved talking to him. All the Goyim, they loved being with him. All the parties, the Goyim, the, the, the big, you know, rich people,

06:46 Goyim, they made-- they invited him to all the parties, and he went to all the parties. He was living like a Goy. Mamish like a Goy. In the meantime, he became rich again, very, very rich. And his-- and one of his closest friend who was a very important government official, and he became the Duke of Saxon. Saxon is a big region, a province in Germany, which included the city of Dresden, where two of his brothers lived. And this close friend who became the duke, the king, uh, appointed him as a Duke of Dresden, of, um, Saxon, which included Dresden, moved to Dresden, and he moved with him. That was the city where his two of his brothers lived, but of course, he didn't live in the Jewish community because he was partying and having friends amongst the Goyim, and he didn't go to Shul, he didn't put on tefillin. So he hung out with the Goyim. He built himself a big mansion, a huge mansion, a little bit outside the Jewish community amongst the Goyim, and he had, um, big beautiful yards and gardens and, and horses and, and slaves and, and people working for him. He was like very, very rich. He had diamonds and gold. He had like s-- he was so rich. People like respected him because he was so rich, and he became friends with all the important Goyim. But one thing about this Binyamin Wolf, meanwhile his father w-- has passed away, was nifter in, in Hamburg a year after

08:19 he left. So he never saw-- Once he left, he never saw his father again. His father passed away. And he became more and more mixed with the Goyim, doing what they do, living a life like a Goy. But he never forgot that he's a Jew, and he always helped the Jews. Whenever the Jews was trouble, he used his connections with the important ministers helping the Jews. In the city of Dresden, there was a rule that the governor of Dresden made that the Jews who wanna leave the city, because outside the city of Dresden, Dresden had a wall. In those days, all the cities had a big wall, so if an enemy comes and attacks in a war, he can't get in because the wall will stop him. So in order to get out of the city, you had to go through a gate. There was always guards by the gate, and you had to have permission to leave the city. There was a beautiful park outside the city, beautiful gardens. People loved walking there, taking a, a walk. So there was a rule, a law against Jews, that Jews cannot li-live-- leave the city of Dresden unless they have a special certificate. The certificate has to say that they pay their taxes, because if a Jew didn't pay his taxes, he can't leave the city. And he has to have that certificate in his hand that he's allowed to leave the city. Now on Shabbos, if Jews wanted to go outside the city to walk

09:47 into the park and enjoy the park, it was so beautiful with birds and, and ponds and fishes and beautiful trees. It was so nice. Jews wanted to go take a walk Shabbos afternoon, especially in the summer. It's a long Shabbos afternoon. They couldn't carry the certificate with them to show the guard. So th-they went to the gate and a bunch of families with kids and the wives and kids, and the guard said, "No, no, no." He pushed them back and he says, "No, you can't leave 'cause you don't have your certificate." They said, "Well, it's Shabbos, we can't carry it." Didn't let them in. Just then, Binyamin Wolf... Binyamin Wolf was called, they called him the Baron Eibeschütz. Nachman Eibeschütz was his father. But they called him Baron Eibeschütz because the Goyim, they made him very important. A baron means like a very important man who is honored by the king. So he was riding in his wagon on Shabbos next to some very important generals that were his best friends. And he sees how this guard by the gate is pushing the Jews back in and doesn't let them leave the city to take a walk. And he says to the, to the big general quietly, "Now look, he's pushing the Jews there. And, and you know, what do the Jews do? They, they just didn't have their certificate, but it's Shabbos." So the general called over the guard and gave him... yelled at him and says, "Don't let-- Don't stop these Jews. Let

11:12 them go if they wanna go." And from then on, the Jews on Shabbos were allowed to leave and go walking. So he helped his Jewish friend, and he had a big home, a huge palace, and every time Jews came, he always opened up the doors and invited them. But he never went to Shul, didn't keep Shabbos, ate chazer, treif, everything. One day, he was already thirty-seven years old, and he wasn't married yet. He planned to marry a non-Jewish woman, Chas ve'Shalom. She was the daughter of one of his best friend from the very important ministers in the government that was his best friend who died. His daughter, he was gonna marry. This was in the year Taf kuf samech. He was gonna marry shiksa. He was gonna marry, becoming ganz like a Goy. It was Rosh Hashanah, the year Taf kuf samech. The night of Rosh Hashanah, he went to sleep in his palace And in his dream, he suddenly sees his father. His father had passed away many years before. His father is there in the dream, and he yells at him, and he tells him, "What are you doing? You promised me before you left the house that you will stay Jewish, you will keep to the mitzvahs. You didn't keep." And he screams and screams at him. He says, "I'm telling you, you must do teshuva or else it's gonna be very bad for you." And he yells and yells and yells. And from the screaming in the dream, he woke up,

12:59 and guess what? He realizes that he's not in his bed. He fell off the bed in middle of his sleep, in middle of the dream. Fell off his bed, and his whole body's covered with sweat. He's sweating from the shaking from, from what he saw in his dream. Saw his father, with his gray, with like a very, very s- awesome face, came from Gan Eden and yelled at him, scolded him. He was so shaken, but then he tried to forget about it. The second night Rosh Hashanah came, and again, his father shows up in a dream. And he says, "My son, I told you last night," and he not listening. "Stop doing what you're doing. Do teshuva and come back to Yiddishkeit, to Torah, mitzvahs. You're giving me a lot of pain." And he screamed at him so hard in the dream that he woke up. Again, he found himself on the floor. He wasn't in his bed. He fell off the bed somehow. After the second time, he was so shaken. It was already Rosh Ha-- second day of Rosh Hashanah, so then it was Aseres Yemei Teshuva, the days of teshuva between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. He was so shaken that he decided, "Oi vey, what did I do? I was gonna marry a shiksa. I'm eating chazak treif." He decided to go to the Jewish community in Dresden. He called the shamash and told him, "Listen, I wanna do teshuva. I need help. I need someone to help me kasher my

14:42 kitchen, throw away all my dishes. I wanna buy new dishes." He had plenty of money. He bought new dishes and everything. "I wanna start coming to shul." And he cried. He was very, very upset. He realized that he has done terrible things. That Yom Kippur, he came to shul for the first time, and he stayed the entire Yom Kippur, the whole night of Yom Kippur, whole day, didn't leave. Just cried and cried nonstop for 24 hours. People that came to shul saw Rebbe Elazar, the great Rebbe Elazar Naiman's son is crying 24 hours bitterly. Everybody was, was also shaken, and they also did teshuva because they were all inspired by his teshuva. They saw this Binyamin Wolf changed his ways. He, again, as I said, he threw out all the treif dishes, sent away all the goyim and didn't have goyische friends anymore. He moved closer to the shul, went every day to daven. He asked the shamash to buy him tzitzits and tefillin and tallis. And with his money, he gave a lot of tzedakah in the city. He, he supported the shul, he supported the rav, the chazan. He gave all the money, a lot of money to the shul. He started giving a lot of tzedakah. He became a real baal teshuva. He was so broken inside. He would always say Tehillim and cry to Hashem to forgive him. Once something happened in shul. In that shul, this was the shul where his two brothers used to daven there. His brothers eventually

16:25 died, and he was the only one left in Dresden. And they used to give him in the shul, because he supported everything, they, they, they... And they knew he's the son of the great Gaon Rebbe Elazar Naiman, so they respected him, and they gave him a special aliyah every Shabbos. The, the schlichi. Schlichi is considered a very special aliyah. But you know, in Parashat Bechukotai, schlichi is actually the Tohecha. You know what the Tohecha is? It's where Moshe Rabbeinu tells the Jewish people terrible things are gonna happen to the Jews in Galus if they don't do the mitzvahs. It's called the Tohecha. Usually, that aliyah, you don't give to anyone because people are afraid to take this aliyah because it says terrible things about what's gonna happen to us, so people don't wanna have that aliyah. Usually, the shamash gets the aliyah. He takes it. In Dresden, that was the minhag, that the shamash would take the aliyah. But the, the gabbai forgot, made a mistake. He called up for schlichi in Parashat Bechukotai this, the, the Baron Habersit, Rebbe Binyamin Wolf. He forgot that this is the Tohecha. We don't call up people for that aliyah. We just give it to the shamash. And Rebbe Binyamin Wolf went up to the bimah, and they realized they made a mistake, so the rabbi, him paskened, "Okay, let him stay on the side. He's not gonna get this aliyah. We'll give him the next aliyah, and the shamash will just go up and take the aliyah."

17:50 And the Baron Wolf Habersit, Binyamin Wolf said, "No. I did so many averot. I sinned so much. Hashem is... should punish me." He wanted Hashem to give him suffering, because suffering he learned from his father that when you suffer, it takes away all the evil and all the tumah from your averot. He begged Hashem, "Make me suffer, so I would... it would take away the, all the evil that I, that I did in my life." And he says, "I wanna hear the Torah here. All this terrible thing should come upon me. No, don't give it to someone else. I should get this aliyah. I deserve it." And he took this aliyah. Shows how well teshuva he did. Now something tragic happened. First of all, Binyamin Wolf got married to a very, very wonderful Yiras Shamayim woman. He had three daughters after with her. And one day, there was a big chasuna, a wedding in Dresden, where Binyamin Wolf lived. Two great gaonim, their children got married in Dresden. One gaon was a famous gaon. He was the rebbe of the Chasam Sofer, Reb Meshulam Igra. Meshulam Igra, he was like... The whole world was-- knew about him. He was, like, so famous. He was such a incredible genius gaon, like the whole world was, like, in awe of him. Meshulam Igra is very famous. The seforim from him. He was a gaon olam. And the other side, the other family was Reb Yisroel Berish, who was a rav in Germany, one of the big cities

19:37 of Hanover. He was the grandson of the Pnei Yeshua, and his daughter married the son of Reb Meshulam Igra. Reb Yisroel Kalelo was the son of Reb Meshulam Igra. And the chasuna, the wedding, was in the year 5605 in the city of Dresden. After the chasuna, Reb Binyamin Wolf, the rich, he was very rich, had a big, beautiful mansion, invited the great gaonim, the mechutanim, the, the, the father, the family of the choson, the family of the kalla, they should come to him to drink tea or for a meal, to, to have a meal in his house. He's gonna make a beautiful meal, a festive meal for them. They didn't wanna go to his house because they didn't trust his kashrus. They thought maybe, you know... They knew that he was a big baal aveira. He was living like a goy, so they didn't... They were afraid that they can't eat in his house. They didn't know that he did teshuva really with all his heart. Um, but they didn't... So they told him, no, they can't come. They just turned him down. But then they realized he's gonna be offended, so they decided to come and just drink tea. They didn't wanna eat dinner, but they wanna come to his house to hon- They know he's the son of Reb Yonasan Eibeshitz. They wanted to give honor to his father, so they came to his house. But he was very hurt. When he saw that they didn't wanna eat in his house, that they

20:56 don't trust his kashrus, he was so hurt, but he couldn't say anything. And something terrible happened. A year later, Reb Meshulam Igra passed away suddenly, unexpectedly. A few months later, the other rav, Reb Yisroel Berish, the father of the kalla, also suddenly passed away. And a year later, that is three years after the chasuna, the choson himself, Reb Yisroel Kalelo, passed away. And everybody spoke about it that this was because they hurt the feelings of a genuine baal teshuva, who was b'emes a baal teshuva, and he, and he asked Hashem forgiveness. And, and because they didn't... They hurt him, and they hurt the covenant of his father. They didn't trust Reb Yonasan Eibeshitz, his son, and that's why they were punished. That was what people were saying. This Binyamin Wolf lived to his-- was older age. In the end of his life, what he wished for became true. He started getting very sick, and he suffered a lot. His feet, he had a, a illness on his feet that caused him tremendous pain, but he was very happy. He says, "Hashem, give me pain." Although the Baal Shem Tov said that you shouldn't look for pain and suffering and fasting because the body, we have to protect the body and take care of the body. But us in Hasidism, but before Hasidim, the Baal Shem Tov, people thought and the people believed that suffering takes away. It says that in the Gemara too, that suffering takes away the, the, the evil and the tumah from

22:43 the aveiras. So he was so happy that he's suffering. And before he passed away, he gave huge amounts for tzedakah, and he hired someone should say kaddish for him every year during his yahrtzeit. And so he passed away. And the ma-- the amazing lesson from this story is that, A, even a person who's completely far away, almost marrying a goy, can come back and do a m- an amazing teshuva. Another thing we see from here that the parents in Gan Eden, their grandparents, know exactly what happens to us here, and they're in pain when something is wrong, when we don't do the right thing. All right, so the great-grandfathers in Gan Eden are hurt when they see that, uh, you do an aveira here. They, they, they don't like it. It bothers them. So much so that, that the Binyamin Wolf's father came to his dream twice and yelled at him until he did teshuva. And the other thing we learn from here, not to hurt anybody's feelings, especially someone who's trying to do teshuva, but to be loving him and helping him and supporting him.