204. The Pnei Yehoshua Sends The Magid To The Baal Shem Tov

00:15 Shalom Aleichem, kinderlach. Shavuos is coming up, the great Yom Tov of Shavuos, Matan Torah. Shavuos is also the Yahrtzeit of the Baal Shem Tov and David Hamelech. The Baal Shem Tov's Yahrtzeit is on Shavuos, and so I will tell you a, a beautiful story of the Baal Shem Tov, which involves also the Maggid and how the Maggid came to the Baal Shem Tov. This story was told by a great Chassid of the Mitteler Rebbe and the Tzemach Tzedek. His name was Rabbi Yaakov Kadana, in his Sefer. And, and, um, he mentions that he heard the story from the grandson of the Pnei Yeshua. The Pnei Yeshua you already know from the stories on Klimovitch. I told a few stories about him. He was a great, great Gaon. He was a talmid of Baal Shem Tov, and he was the Rav of Frankfurt later on. He became the famous, famous Rav of Frankfurt. His Seferim are studied in all the yeshivas. He's one of the most famous, uh, meforshim and commentaries on the Gemara. Early on in his life, he was the Rav of Karlsbad in Czechoslovakia, uh, the Pnei Yeshua. Pnei Yeshua was not a Chassid, but nor was he a Misnagid. He heard of the Baal Shem Tov, but he didn't, uh, get too close. Now, according to the story that Rabbi Yaakov Kadana heard of the einikel, the grandson of the Pnei Yeshua, the son of the son of the Pnei Yeshua, that he heard from his father, who heard it from his

01:49 father, the Pnei Yeshua himself. So it's a true story. The Mezritcher Maggid, before he became a Chassid and a talmid of the Baal Shem Tov, he was a Misnagid. He was against the Baal Shem Tov. He spoke of the Baal Shem Tov not well, not nicely. In general, in those days, they thought the Baal Shem Tov was not a learned person. He doesn't know how to learn. He doesn't-- He's not a Talmid Chacham. He just makes these miracles because he knows Kabbalah. And people that know Kabbalah, they play with the, with the names of Kabbalah. It's like a magic trick. Uh, they, they thought that these people were not great people. And the, and the Mezritcher Maggid at that time was already a big Gaon, and they called him Rab Dov Ber from Rovno. The Rovner was a Melamed, and he sat and learned. Most of the day, he sat and learned. Other than being a Melamed, to earn a little bit of meager living, he would study and learn and study. He knew the whole Shas, Bavli, Yerushalmi, Gemara, Rambam, even Kabbalah, Zohar, Kesef HaRizal. He knew everything. He learned it over a hundred and one times. The Mezritcher Maggid, when he was young, he already had an illness. Since childhood, he had-- he was-- had bad feet. His feet, uh, he had a sickness on his, on his feet, on his legs, and he had to go seek doctors to help him. In Karlsbad, in Czechoslovakia, was a famous place where there were

03:15 a lot of, um, springs which were very good for healing people. People would come from all over Europe there to some doctors and clinics and get some special healing from different illnesses. And so the Mezritcher Maggid, Rab Dov Ber from Rovno, at that time he came from Rovno, uh, um, he would, uh, travel to Karlsbad to get some, uh... Every year for a couple of months, he would be in Karlsbad getting some healing and medicine and medical treatment from the doctors there. And when he stayed in Karlsbad, he stayed with the Pnei Yeshua, who at the time was the Rav of Karlsbad. This is again before he became the famous Rav of Frankfurt, and he's buried in Frankfurt. If you go to Frankfurt today, to the old cemeteries, there are three Jewish cemeteries. One is the oldest, oldest cemetery, and then there's little bit old cemetery, and then there is the newer cemetery. You'll see in the very old cemetery, that's where the Pnei Yeshua is buried. There's a matzeiva there. But early on in his life, he was the Rav of Karlsbad. And the, and the Mezritcher Maggid, in his youth, when he used to travel to Karlsbad for medical treatment, he would stay with the Pnei Yeshua. Whenever they would talk about the Baal Shem Tov, the Pnei Yeshua would say, "Oh, I heard about him." But the Mezritcher Maggid would say not nice things about the Baal Shem Tov. He's not a learned man. He doesn't know. I don't know what's about

04:38 him, but so-- He wasn't very nice. One day, the Pnei Yeshua also had a yeshiva in Karlsbad where he would teach Talmidim Torah. One day, he was teaching like every day, learning a Gemara Sugya. They were having a, a very deep discussion on the, on the Gemara, on the Rashi, on the Tosfos. And the Shamash comes in and tells the, the Pnei Yeshua, um, that there's a person outside in the street next to a wagon who stopped over here, and he said, "I should tell the, the Rav, the Pnei Yeshua, that I have a very urgent message for him, and he should please come outside so I can tell him the message." The Pnei Yeshua told the Shamash, "Go tell the man outside that I'm busy teaching Torah to a whole group of Talmidim, and the Halakha says that if you learn Torah, you don't interrupt the Torah. Tell him to come inside the shul, the Beis Midrash, and he can sit on the side, and when I'm finished my shiur, then he can tell me the message he has to give me." Shamash goes outside, and this mysterious person, um, hears what the Pnei Yeshua is saying. So the person says to the Shamash, "Tell the Pnei Yeshua that the message that I have is so urgent that it's more urgent and more important than the Torah that he's teaching to all his Talmidim. That means it's a message that's so important that he should interrupt his learning. It's important to interrupt his learning

06:12 for that message." When the Pnei Shual heard that, he excused himself from the Talmudim, went outside, met this mysterious person, and right away the mysterious person says to him, "You know, I want you to know that the shehitah of your town..." There was one shehitah in the city of Karlsburg, and everybody ate the meat from his shehitah. "I want you to know that his shehitah is worthless. He's giving all, the whole community treif meat. It's already ten years that he's not careful with the shehitah. He doesn't follow the halachas of how to shehit, which means according to halacha, the behemas that he shehited are all nevelah and treifa, and that's not kosher meat. And nobody knows because they all trust him. But he's, he's, he's not doing the shehitah right, and he's causing the Jews of your city to eat treifas every day." And with those words, the man didn't wait for the Pnei Shual to respond. He hopped onto the wagon and left right away. Pnei Shual was like stunned. What's going on here? What is this man saying? The shehitah. So he was thinking for a while, and then he said, "Okay, let me try it out. Let me call the shehitah." And the Baal Shem Tov told him before he left, I mean, this mysterious man, says before he left, he said, "Remember, call the shehitah and you'll see, he'll admit it. If you ask him and you push him to... And you pressure him, he'll tell you the truth." And so

07:39 the Pnei Shual called over this man, the shehitah, and, and he invited him and started asking him questions about the shehitah, and pressured him with questions and questions till the shehitah had no choice, he had to tell the truth, that he wasn't doing the shehitah right, and as a result, the Yidden of Karlsburg ate treif meat. Everybody was shocked and horrified by this. What a terrible thing. But the Pnei Shual was wondering, who is this man who knows this? Nobody in Karlsburg knew this. Only this man. How does he know? Who is this man? Anyways, they dismissed the shehitah. They got a new shehitah. And the Pnei Shual went back to being the Rav of Karlsburg and teaching his shiurim to his Talmudim every day. A few months later, he's again teaching his Talmudim, and again, the Shamash walks in. "That man that came a few months ago and asked you to come outside in the middle of the shiur, he's here again, and he asks me to tell you that you should come out now because he has a very important message again for you." So the Pnei Shual excused himself, went outside, and the mysterious man says to him, "There's this Dov Ber of Rovno." He was talking about the Mizrachi, that later became the Mizrachi Maggid. "This Dov Ber of Rovno that comes to you every year for a few months for medical treatment for his legs. Next time when he comes to you, tell him that he will not succeed at

09:04 healing his legs until he comes to me and becomes my Talmud." And with those words, he left, this mysterious man. And that, that's when the Pnei Shual realized this must be the Baal Shem Tov. When the, when the Mizrachi Maggid, Rav Dov Ber from Rovno, came the next time to the Pnei Shual's house to stay with him, uh, the Pnei Shual told him the whole story that there was this man and I... He said, "I believe this must be the Baal Shem Tov who said that... He insisted that I must tell you to come to him, and then you'll have a healing. You have a refua shleima." So the Mizrachi Maggid said, um, "Okay, yeah, it must be the... It must be the Baal Shem Tov." He agreed it must be the Baal Shem Tov. And the Pnei Shual urged him to go to the Baal Shem Tov. "You know, this, this is, this is something interesting." The man says, "The Baal Shem Tov seems to be a Bahal Ruach Hakodesh. He knows things that nobody knows. And he says that you must go to him. Then try and go. See, see what happens." And the Mizrachi Maggid went, and there's a whole story of how the Baal Shem Tov impressed him so much that he stayed. But the Baal Shem Tov told him, "You should go back at least once to Karlsburg, uh, to the doctors, and you should stay in the Pnei Shual's house, and then you can come back here and, and

10:31 be my Talmud." And when the Mizrachi Maggid went back to Karlsburg, he stayed again with the Pnei Shual, and Pnei Shual said to him, "Now, what do you think of the Baal Shem Tov now?" He says, "He's an amazing person. He's a tzadik. He's a goen." He said amazing, he said amazing praises about him. So the Pnei Shual said to, to, to the Mizrachi Maggid, "But you know, before you used to always tell me all these questions you have about him and all the criticism you have about him. What happened with all these questions?" He says, "Listen, before I thought he was a regular human being, just a big talmid. Maybe he's a, he's, he's a little bit a talmid hakham, maybe not. Uh, but he's a person. And a person, you ask questions. But now I can tell you, I don't even know he's a normal person. He's a malach. He's, he's so awesome. He's just not from this world. So you can't ask questions. All my questions are gone." The story is that how did the Baal Shem Tov get the Maggid to become a Talmud is that the Baal Shem Tov told the Maggid, uh, to come into his room. And he said to him... Uh, because at first, the Maggid came to measure bush. You know, he... The Maggid-- For the Maggid, he came from a place where if you learn Torah and you're a goen and you're a big talmid hakham and everyone can see what a goen you are,

11:49 then you're a great person. But if you... And they all see your learning, you're not giving shiurim and tifer and deep Gemaras and lamdes and so on, then you're, you're just an am ha'aretz. Since he never saw the Baal Shem Tov learning, the Baal Shem Tov never gave over these deep shiurim that he could hear. So he's, uh, he thought the Baal Shem Tov was not learned, was not a talmid hakham, so he didn't respect the Baal Shem Tov. So then the Baal Shem Tov called him into the room. This is after he visited for a little while and said to him, "Tell me, do you know Zohar? The Sefer HaZohar, the Holy Sefer HaZohar of the Zohar HaKodesh of the, of the Rashbi, of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai." He said, "Yes, I learned the Zohar." So Baal Shem Tov opened up a place, and it's a page which talks about a certain malach. What this malach is like. Something about the malach. As you know, the malachim, they say Sheer to Hashem, and they're constantly, uh, feeling this intense love for Hashem. They wanna connect with Hashem all the time. Never stops. So the Baal Shem Tov says to the Maggid, "Can you explain this line in the Zohar? It's a difficult line. Please explain it to me." And the Maggid read it and gave him a Pshat, what it means. Says the Baal Shem Tov to him, "No, that's not how you learn Pshat." And he started giving him Pshat, started learning, reading

13:16 inside with him this piece in the Zohar and discussing the name of the malach. And as he was speaking, suddenly the room was filled with fire, like a raging fire, and the roo-- and, and the Maggid was filled with such a fear and awe that he thought his neshamah was gonna pass away. And, and then the Baal Shem Tov st-stopped reading and everything went away. And the Maggid realized that when Baal Shem Tov was reading about this malach, the Baal Shem Tov was Mamshich the malach in the room. You know, when a malach has the awe of Hashem all the time in him, he's like always has this incredible yirat and, and awe of Hashem. So when he's in the room, everybody feels that awe. But it was too much for the Maggid to take. So he was in such fear till the malach went away because the Baal Shem Tov stopped reading the Zohar. So Baal Shem Tov said, "This is how you learn Torah. You learn Torah, you bring the Torah down. It comes into the world." That's when he became a Chassid and his Talmid. Later on, the Maggid says that the Baal Shem Tov was actually in Nigla, in Gemara, a Gaon HaGaonim. People just didn't know. But he knew everything, the whole Torah, and he knew it in such a deep way that nobody else could. Greater than even the biggest Gaonim in the world. I'll tell you one more story that shows the great Gaonus of the Baal Shem

14:59 Tov. There was a Rav. His name was Rabbi Chaim Margolies. He wrote a very famous commentary on the Shulchan Aruch, Shaarei Teshuva. If you open up the big Shulchan Aruch, you'll see Shaarei Teshuva. In all the big Shulchan Aruchs, you'll see his commentary on the Shulchan Aruch. He was a big Gaon. He was the Rav of Dubna, and he was a Misnagid. He wasn't a Chassid. But he was once in a group of Misnagdim, and they were talking against the Baal Shem Tov, and he said, "No, against the Baal Shem Tov you cannot speak because I know personally what a great person he is, what a great Gaon he is." He said that he was once in Medzhybizh, and he heard the Baal Shem Tov giving a Shiur in Gemara, in Masechet Shabbos, to his Talmidim. And they were learning a story in the Gemara. The Gemara tells a story, Rav Hizda, the famous Amora, Rav Hizda, and Rabba bar Avuha. Two Amoraim were ca-- were, were, were traveling on a boat, and in walked, on the boat, walked in a, another passenger, a woman. She was like a princess, an important woman of royal family, and she saw the two rabbis, um, Rav Hizda and Rabba bar Avuha sitting in the boat, so she wanted to sit between them. So she said, "Excuse me, can I sit between the two of you?" And you know that Jews in Halakha, we don't sit a man between two women or a woman between two men because

16:43 it's not tznius. So they said, "No, you can't sit between us. We don't do that. No, as Jews, we don't do that. It's not tznius." Uh, so she, this, this, uh, princess woman, was also a magician. She was, um, she was doing Kishuf. So she says in the Gemara, she was upset with them, and she decided to punish them by, by using a magic word. It says she said, "Milsa." Milsa in Aramaic means a word. She uttered a word, like a word which was a Kishuf word, of sorcery, and it caused the ship to stop. The ship couldn't move. So it says in the Gemara, so they, Rav Hizda and Rabba bar Avuha also, Amru, Amru Milsa, they also said a word, and their word overpowered her word, and the ship began to move. So she, she couldn't, um, she couldn't, uh, punish them because they were more powerful than her. They, they'd used words. And Rashi says that when it says she used a word, it's a word, a shame of tumah. You know, Kishuf is tamei. Hashem says we shouldn't-- a Jew shouldn't get involved in Kishuf, in sorcery and black magic because it's all tamei, and it makes you a Neshamah tamei. They use like certain powers, special, special powers that allows them to make miracles, just like the magicians of Paroh. They were able to imitate Moshe Rabbeinu's, uh, Nissim and Maket, some of the Maket Um, so they use a, a certain word of Tumah that causes-- Hashem gave these

18:28 words and these powers of Tumah certain power to, to sometimes do things against nature. So she used a, a, a, a Shem of Tumah. When it says they also said a word, Rashi says Shem Tahara, a pure word. It doesn't say what they said. So the Baal Shem Tov asked the question: we know why the, the Rashi doesn't-- uh, the Gemara and Rashi doesn't tell us what word she used because she used an unclean name that had power and caused the ship to stop. But why doesn't the, doesn't the Gemara tell us what holy name the, the, the two, the two Amiraim said? Right? They said they used Hashem Tahara. That means a holy name, and that name had more power than the Kishuf and was able to undo and overpower the Kishuf. So why doesn't it say what they said? If it's a good thing, then we should know. The Baal Shem Tov said, that you should know that there is a special name of Hashem. Hashem has many names, and each name has a certain power. There's a name of Hashem that has the power to, to, to, um, destroy all the power of Kishuf. If you only know that name, and you can say it with a special Kavanah, you can destroy all the powers of Kishuf that will never hurt you. And he says that that name of Hashem is hidden in the Pasuk: Mechasshef lo sachayah. It's a Pasuk in Parashat Mishpatim that a, a, a magician you should not

20:06 let live. In other words, Jews never have magicians in their community. We never have a magician. Magician is bad. It's evil. It's unclean. It's Tumah. So Mechasshef lo sachayah. If you take the three word, Mechasshef lo sachayah, it starts... Each word starts with one letter. Mechasshef is a mem. Lo starts with a lamed. Sachayah is a chaf. Mem, lamed, chaf is milseh. Only thing is, in the Gemara, milseh is in Aramaic. Milseh means a word, but it's written with an aleph in the end. Milseh, mem, lamed, chaf, aleph. There's a silent aleph at the end. So when it says that sh- this princess said a word, it says milseh, mem, lamed, chaf, aleph, because in Aramaic it means a word. Says the Baal Shem Tov when they said milseh, the truth is there shouldn't be an aleph there. And what really should say here in the Gemara, m- mem, lamed, chaf with two apostrophes between the lamed and the chaf that shows that it's a Roshei Teivot, an acronym. It stands for three words. Mem, lamed with two apostrophes at the top and then a chaf, which means Mechasshef lo sachayah. In other words, the Gemara does tell us exactly what they said. These two Amiraim knew the secret name of Hashem that has the power to go against the forces of Kishuf, and they knew the Pasuk Mechasshef lo sachayah has that name of Hashem and of course you have to say that Pasuk with a special Kavanah, then you can use that power

21:43 of Kedushah, of holiness and destroy the powers of Kishuf. In other words, the Baal Shem Tov was saying that when it says in the Gemara milseh the second time by the Amiraim, it's not the same milseh as she said. Milseh is a word of Tumah. Milseh means a word. When it says milseh by the, by the Amiraim, it's not saying a word. Milseh, it, it's a mistake in our Gemaras that says milseh the same spelling as her milseh. But really the milseh of the two Amiraim is spelled without an aleph and actually there should be two little lines on the top showing that this stands for three words, mem, lamed, chaf. Milseh, milseh, mem, lamed, chaf. Mechasshef lo sachayah. And Baal Shem Tov give a whole deal on the meaning of this Pasuk according to Kabbalah and how a person can have special Kavanah, what the Kavanahs are to have in order to overpower the powers of Tumah, of Kishuf and sorcery. This Rab Chaim Margolis was amazed. The Baal Shem Tov, uh, says that, um, there's a mistake in the Gemara and it should be milseh, mem, lamed, chaf with two apostrophes because really it stands for a Pasuk. It's not like people think it means a word like it says about her. She said a word. No, here it says it's, it's without an aleph because it's really, it really means mem, lamed, chaf, which is Mechasshef lo sachayah. So Rab Chaim Margolis said, "I went to, uh, some, uh, libraries. I wanted

23:12 to see the, these..." You know, you know, Gemaras were printed thousands, uh, over a thousand years ago. The first Gemara was written more than a thousand years ago, and so we, we don't have most of those Gemaras. But if you go and you look at the very, very old in the museums, they have some Gemaras from, uh, over a thousand years ago. You can see the early Gemaras before there was even a printing press, and they had just the written Gemaras by hand. So this Rab Chaim Margolis went and found one of those very old Gemaras, and he found that in the early printings of the Gemara, the Baal Shem Tov was right. The word milseh by her, milseh says with an aleph. She said a word, a word of, of Tumah. But it says they said Rav, Rav Chisda and Rav Bar Avua said also milas. It doesn't say an aleph at the end. It says mem, lamed, chaf, and there's actually two apostrophes on the top, which the Baal Shem Tov was right. It means Mechasshef lo sachayah. So then he saw the Baal Shem Tov's greatness, that he knew without having this old, old, old edition that you only find in a museum. The Baal Shem Tov with Ruach Hakodesh understood what it really said in the Gemara, and there was a mistake. Later printings, they thought that milas, milseh by, by the Amiraim is the same milseh as the, as the, as the, as the princess, and therefore they wrote it

24:34 with an aleph. They added the aleph on their own. But in the original Gemaras there was no aleph there and there was actually two apostrophes on the top to show it's a Roshei Teivot from Mechasshef lo sachayah. And here we see the greatness of Baal Shem Tov. Not only was he able to explain the Gemara, but he was able to know things about the Gemara that nobody else knew. Because when you have a great Bitul to Hashem, Hashem makes sure that you see the Emes, the truth in the Gemara and the Torah.