212. The Promise Of Reb Hillel Paritcher

00:15 We just had Yud Aleph of this, um... The day after, two days after Tisha B'Av is the Yahrtzeit of the great Reb Hillul of Parich. Reb Hillul of Parich was the Talmud of the Mitteler Rebbe, the Zimach Tzedek, one of the great Hasid, not only a great Hasid, was a tzadik. And here comes an amazing story about Reb Hillul of Parich. Reb Hillul of Parich here was a big Hasid with a lot of Mesirat Nefesh. He would make sure that not a single mitzvah or even a minhag, a custom, everything, he would go and give his life in order to make sure that he does the mitzvah right and that he keeps all the minhagim. Very, very careful with that. Once, the government of Russia made a rule that Jews must wear hats where the brim goes down in front of your face, like we have today, our hats. But in those days, Jews didn't wear such hats. Jews wore hats where the brim goes up, and you could see, you can... It doesn't block your vision of the, your view of the sky, right? So Reb Hillul of Parich, davka wanted to wear a hat with the brim up so that he can see the sky. Because when you look at the sky, you always remember Hashem, right? It says in, in Shulchan Aruch that when a Yid wants to have Yiras Shamayim, always want to be aware of Hashem. Hashem is here all the time next to you, and so that you behave

02:03 the way Hashem likes. Because if you think, if you feel that Hashem is next to you, you will do what Hashem wants. So the, the, um, the, the Rebbe, it says in Shulchan Aruch, you should look up at the sky. Every once in a while, you look up and you see, wow, look how big the sky is. Look how big it is. It's all Hashem's creation, and you feel like a sense of awe and fear of Hashem, and that makes sure that a person doesn't do averus and only does mitzvahs. So Reb Hillul of Parich didn't want to listen to the government. The government said, "Everyone, all the Jews must wear only hats the way the Russians wear, where there's the front brim of the, of the brim of the hat is, is, is turned down." But Reb Hillul of Parich, who wanted to see the sky all the time so he can always remember Hashem, he refused to wear it, till one day a police officer saw him, and they caught him, and they grabbed him, and they wanted to take him to jail. They took him to jail. They also wanted to shave off his beard, but he didn't let them. He had Mesirat Nefesh for everything. For sure, for shaving off the beard, he put his hands. He didn't let them shave his beard. Finally, they dragged him into the prison. The whole community of Parich, he was the Rav in Parich. So the community heard that the rabbi, the Rav, was

03:27 taken to prison by the Russian police. They got all upset. So there was a tailor in Parich, a simple tailor. He had... He was friends with the mayor of the city of Parich, and the people in the community asked him, asked the tailor, "Why don't you go to the mayor's office, the mayor's house? You're friends with him," because he used to sew the clothes. He used to... He was a tailor. He used to sew the clothes for the mayor and his wife. So they, the people in the community said to him, to this tailor, "Since you're so friendly with the mayor, you should go and tell him that he must let the Rav out of the prison." So he did. He decided he's going. So he said he'll go to the wife of the mayor because, um, uh, he, he, he helped her a lot with her clothes. He was, uh, her tailor. And he said, "Please go tell your husband that this Rav is innocent. He's just very religious, and that's why he doesn't want to wear a hat up, but they shouldn't... They should please let him out of jail right away." And you know what? The mayor agreed. He agreed to let the Rav out of jail. So the, the mayor said to the police, "Go to the jail, open up the s... the jail, and let the Rav go home." And this tailor went with the police officer together to tell the Rav that he's free to go home. When the

04:51 tailor went into the cell, the cell, the prison cell, this, the room in the prison where the Rav was sitting, he said, "Rav, you, you, you're free to go. We, we, you can go." So the Rav understood that this tailor is because of him that he's now free to go. So he turned to the tailor and said, "Listen, uh, what can I do for you? What can I do for you for s... for what you did for me? I appreciate so much what you did for me. You saved me from prison. What can I give you, a bracha, to help you in something?" And the man said, "Rebbe, I want... I don't, I don't need anything, only one thing." Tailor says when he dies, when the tailor dies, he wants to be buried next to the Rav. Now, usually a spot like this, next to Reb Hillul of Parich, you don't put a simple tailor. Usually, you know, you give kovod to the Rav, and you put somebody who's also a Rav or a famous tzadik. That's a... But not a simple tailor. But he asked Reb Hillul of Parich, "Promise me, give me a bracha that I should, I will be buried next to you." And Rav said, "Okay." I'm giving you that berakhah. Because you saved my life from the prison, I'm giving you a berakhah you'll be buried next to me. Years went by, and Reb Bil Paritch used to travel every year for a few months to a place in Russia

06:23 which were called the steppes, the steppes. The steppes were a place with a lot of farms, and the Mitteler Rebbe wanted a lot of Jews to go and become farmers and work the land, and he got permission from the government to use the place near, um, a place which, in Russia was called the steppes, and use a lot of the farms for Jews, Jewish farmers, so that they can, um, earn a living and, and make parnasah and so on. So the, and the Mitteler Rebbe had promised all the families that agreed to move to those farms, he promised that he will send them a Hasid that will farbreng with them and learn Torah with them. For a few months a year he'll come and visit them, so they wouldn't be totally alone. And the, and the Mitteler Rebbe asked Reb Bil Paritch that he should be the Hasid to go there and learn Hasidus with them and say, "My Morim of Hasidus" and farbreng with them. And Reb Bil Paritch used to do this for many years. Once he was visiting the city of Kherson, which is in that region where the steppes are, the steppes where all the farms are. So he stayed in the city of Kherson. It was Tisha B'Av, and two days after Tisha B'Av, suddenly Reb Bil Paritch passed away. So the people of Kherson decided we're gonna bury him in Kherson, and they buried him there. Years later, there was an old man who came to live to the

08:09 town of Kherson. He came from another city, and he stayed with his daughter 'cause his wife had died. He was all alone. His daughter took him into the house. He lived with her in Kherson, in the city of Kherson. And when he got older and older till one day he died, and the daughter called the Chevra Kadisha to bury him. It was in the middle of the winter. There was a lot of snow. But they had a custom that they didn't wait. If somebody died, the same day they buried him. Since it was at night and it was a lot of snow, they couldn't see, so they looked around on the cemetery for a proper place to, to bury him. They saw one spot didn't have any snow, so it was easy to dig, dig a k-- a grave and put him in the grave. But they didn't realize where it was, but they just dug the grave because there was, there was very little snow there, and they were able to dig there and, and bury this, this Jew. When the winter passed by and there was no longer snow, all the snow melted, they suddenly noticed that they actually buried this poor, simple man next to the great tzadik, Reb Bil Paritch, and they were horrified. How can you put a certain, a person like this, who knows how many averos he did, and, and, and n-next to such a great tzadik, Reb Bil Paritch? They were very upset. So they went to

09:41 find out from his daughter, uh, who's the daughter of this man who died, who is he? Who is her father? So she said, "Well, my father came from Paritch, and in his old age when his w-wife died, he came to live in my house. That's it." So they went to Paritch to find out what happened 'cause they were so, uh, confused. How could this happen that he would be buried next to such a tzadik? So they, they, they found out in Paritch that there was this story where Reb Bil of Paritch was forced by the soldiers to get a hat the way the Russians wanted him to get. Uh, but he refused. They took him to jail, and this man is a tailor. He was a tailor. He knew the mayor, and he knew the wife of the mayor, and he got them to agree to let the Rav go, Reb Bil Paritch go free. And when he did that, Reb Bil Paritch promised him that he will be able to be buried next to him. So now everybody understood that me'hashem shamayim, they made it in such a way that, that nobody would know. Nobody that, uh, he would be, he would, he would go move to, to Kherson because his daughter is there, and he would, um, die in his daughter's house. And the day he died would be a lot of snow. They wouldn't be able to tell where the kever is. They would just dig a kever, but who knows where

11:10 it is? And then it turned out it was next to Reb Bil Paritch. So Reb Bil Paritch's promise was fulfilled.