209. The Or Hachaim And The Lion

00:16 Here is a story of the Or HaChaim HaKadosh. Tes Vov Tammuz, this last Friday, was his yahrtzeit. The story was told by the Rebbe Maharash, who told it to Rebbe Rashab, his son. The Rebbe Rashab told it to his son, the previous Rebbe, the Rebbe Rayatz, and he told it to the Rebbe. And the Rebbe told that story in the Farbrengen and also in one of his Rishimus. The story is like this. The Or HaChaim HaKadosh lived in Morocco. For a long time, he didn't wanna be a Rav, didn't wanna be a Maggid Shiur, he didn't wanna be a Rosh Yeshiva, although he was a big gaon and a big tzadik. He tried to make a living for himself from jewelry, and he was a jeweler, and I already told a story about him in the past here on Klimovitch, where he was a jeweler and the king, uh, hired him to make special jewelry. And that's how he made a living, and the rest of the time, he only made enough money to, to live, and the rest of the time, he just sat and learned and davened. He-- and the Or HaChaim was a very big tzadik. Uh, one day, the Or HaChaim HaKadosh, his name was Rabbe Chaim Ben Attar. Or HaChaim is the name of his sefer, a sefer he wrote on the Chumash. Um, but his real name was Chaim Ben Attar. Chaim Ben Attar had to go on a trip. In those days, he had to go on a

01:43 trip from one country to the other, sometimes he had to cross a desert, but the deserts in those days were full of wild animals, lions and tigers and snakes, dan-dangerous stuff. So what people did when they had to travel long distance through a desert, they would go in large groups, like a whole group together. Uh, the-- all these people had to go to the same place, so they would travel together, but as a group, it's easier to protect themselves against dangerous animals. And they would have people with, with, um, you know, with, with, with bows and arrows, they could shoot the animals and defend themselves, so it's safer. It's much safer to go with other people. Since Or HaChaim HaKadosh had to go to a certain place and he had to cross the desert, he looked for a group of people that were also traveling in the same direction, in the same country, so he could join them. It's called a caravan, a group of people that travel through the desert together with, with camels and, and donkeys, and they take all their food with them. Sometimes they could travel for a week or two weeks, right? They take a lot of water with them, but they travel together. This way, they can protect themselves against bad people. Sometimes there are gangsters and robbers, but when they're a large group of people, then they're, they're, they're, they're safe. So they traveled for one day and another day and another day till it came Friday. Came

03:15 Friday, uh, they're still in the desert, and they had to travel and travel and travel. And they, um, realized that they can't stop there as the middle of a desert, and it's very dangerous, so they kept going. But it was getting Friday late night by sundown, and, um, it was almost Shabbos. So Or HaChaim said to the people, the people were not Jewish, they were Arabs, "Maybe we can stop here till tomorrow night for twenty-four hours for Shabbos, 'cause I'm Jewish and I have to keep Shabbos, and I don't travel on Shabbos." So they said to him, "Uh, that can-- we can't do that. That's dangerous. Can-- you don't stop in the middle of a desert. There's so many terrible, dangerous animals here. You, you try to go as quickly as possible through the desert. You don't stop in the middle. We can't do that. Twenty-four hours, a whole day and a whole night to, to stay in one place in the desert, that's too dangerous. We're not gonna do that." So they, uh, said to him, "Listen, Rabbi, we can't stay here. We're gonna keep going. It's dangerous." So Or HaChaim says, "Okay, in that case, you can go. I'm gonna stay here by myself. Here, I'll take my stuff. I'm gonna have a tent." He had a little tent. He pitched a tent in the middle of the desert. And the group, they tried to tell him again, "Please come with us. It's dangerous. You're gonna be here alone. You know how dangerous

04:49 it is? You shouldn't be alone. You know the lions and the tigers and all the, the terrible, terrible, terrible, uh, you know, animals and, and, and who knows what else is going on here. You don't wanna stay here by yourself. It's very dangerous." Or HaChaim says, "Listen, I'm sorry, I don't travel on Shabbos. If you don't wanna wait with me, I'll have to wait by myself, and Hashem will protect me." And that's exactly what he did. It was Friday night. The sun was setting. The group has already left a long time ago, and Or HaChaim was alone in the middle of a dark desert, just sand and sand and sand, endless sand. You know a desert, there's no trees, no nothing, just sand. And during the day, it's very hot. And just sand and the sunshine that's baking and hot, very, very hot the whole day. That's all. And then there are animals, wild things. Or HaChaim put up his tent before Shabbos, had a little bit of food, and maybe some wine to make Kiddush. And of course, he could hear the sound of wild animals from far away. And it was scary, but the Or HaChaim didn't care. He was busy doing Shabbos, serving Hashem. And suddenly, from a distance, you could see a lion, a massive, huge lion, one of the biggest lions in the desert came over, and was walking slowly, very slowly, over to the tent of the Or HaChaim HaKodesh. The Or HaChaim HaKodesh didn't think twice. He was

06:34 just saying Shalom Aleichem and Eshes Chayil, and singing. First he was singing Lecha Dodi and, and, and saying Kabbalah Shabbos, and then he made Kiddush and said Shalom Aleichem. And then he made Kiddush, and with a great Kavanah, he didn't look at the direction of the lion. The lion kept coming closer and closer and closer, and he just kept busy davening and learning, davening and, and, and making Kiddush and singing songs for Shabbos. And as the lion got pretty close, the lion looked at the face of the Or HaChaim, and the Or HaChaim looked at the lion in the face. And when the lion saw the Or HaChaim, he stopped and sat down and didn't move any closer. It's like the lion became afraid of the Or HaChaim, and he became very humble, lied down. He's stood there and watching the Or HaChaim make Kiddush and sing Zmiros. And whenever a wild animal started coming from far away, the lion would jump up and chase the animal away, as if the lion decided to protect Reb Chaim Ben Attar so no animal would hurt him. And the lion lied there a whole Shabbos, lying there and watching over Reb Chaim. When Motzaei Shabbos came, Reb Chaim Ben Attar made Havdalah, and now it's no more Shabbos, he can travel. But how is he gonna catch up with the caravan who's already, since the day before, they've been traveling? Suddenly the lion, while Reb Chaim packed up all his stuff... What is he gonna do? He's

08:36 gonna go walk, walk in the desert, and Hashem will protect him. The lion stood up and came closer to Reb Chaim, and he bent down, showing to Reb Chaim, "Just go on my back," like he was inviting him to go sit on his back. And so Reb Chaim got the message and took all his bags, put it on the lion's back, and he hopped onto the bag on the back of the, of the lion. And as soon as Reb Chaim sat on the back of the lion, the lion started running, running so fast. A lion can run very, very fast, faster than people, faster than even other animals. And he kept going so fast, fast, fast, fast, fast, fast, fast for like a few hours until you could see from far away the group of people that left Reb Chaim Ben Attar alone for Shabbos, he was catching up with them. When he got closer to the group, the lion stopped, bent down, as if telling Reb Chaim, "You have arrived. You can join your group. You can take it off my back. Take all your bags off my back." And the lion ran away, ran away back into the wilderness, into the desert, and not to be seen again. And Reb Chaim was joining again the group. When the group saw this, they were in disbelief. How is it possible that a person survived living in the desert for the whole Shabbos by himself, and then they saw a lion taking him? They realized

10:20 this is not normal. This is only, uh, a spec-- Uh, only, uh, Hashem could do this. And the Rebbe Maharash said, when a person is a tzadik and doesn't do Averus, then your face looks like, like, um, like a person. Not just like a person, like a holy person. And when a person does Averus, then you start looking a little bit like an animal. So the animals can tell whether you're a human being, a person, or that you're an animal. We can't tell the difference, but you see people that do Averus, and we see tzadikim, and they look similar. But the animal can tell the difference. An animal looks at a person and says, "Ah, he, he is just an animal like me. He does Averus, so he looks like an animal." So that's why he can attack him and hurt him. But when you see a tzadik who doesn't do Averus, then his neshamah, the holiness of his neshamah shines through his face. And the m-- The, the animals can tell that. The animals can see it. Humans cannot see it, but the animals can see it. And when they see that, they become very humble, and they're afraid of the person, the tzadik, and they... Just like the story with Daniyel, the famous story with the navi, the prophet Daniyel, when the king, Nebuchadnezzar, threw him into the cage of lions. What did the lions do? Is... They made sure the lions are very hungry, but the lions didn't touch him. They just

11:51 sat down next to him, even though they were starving. They wouldn't hea-- They wouldn't eat him, they wouldn't touch him. Why? Because he was a tzadik. They looked at his face. Oh, he's, he's like a malach. He's, he's... We can't touch him. He's, like, greater than us. He's... So this is what we learn from here, that everyone can be a person. And the Rebbe said this in a sicha that if you try hard to do all mitzvahs and to follow the mitzvahs of Hashem and to do everything that's right and follow what the, the Torah tells you, then you become like a person, and the animals can tell the difference. Just like with Bilaam. Remember Bilaam? The donkey was able to see a malach, but Bilaam couldn't see the malach. Sometimes animals can see things that human beings cannot see, and there's a reason for it, why Hashem lets animals see things that are so holy, so great, but human beings cannot see them. An animal can tell on a person if you're a tzadik or you're just a person who does Averus. And that was the story of Or HaChaim. The m-- The, the, the, the lion could tell that this person is just a real tzadik, a holy person, and he's never done Averus. His neshamah is so bright, so he didn't touch him.