219. Why The Holy Rizhiner Sat In Prison

00:16 Shalom Aleichem, kindalech. Today is Gimmel Chesvan. Shabbos was Gimmel Chesvan, which is the yahrzeit of the Heiliker Rizhiner. I already told you a number of stories of the Heiliker Rizhiner, and how he was very close with the Tzemach Tzedek. This is a story which one of his grandchildren, the Sadiger Rebbe, who was a grandson of the, of the, uh, of the Rizhiner, he told that story. In the city of Iasi. Iasi is a city in Romania. There was a big Jewish community there. One day, there's a terrible epidemic. Epidemic means that children used to die. Many children started getting sick, and many children died. It was getting worse and worse. It started spreading, and more and more children got sick and died. And the people of, uh, Iasi, the Jews of Iasi, went to different tzadikim to ask them why this is happening. Why is it that in their city there's this terrible thing that Hashem made that little children should get very sick and then die? And they were told by certain tzadikim that the reason is because there's a lot of machlokes. Machlokes means disagreement and fights between people. The people in the community of Iasi are not being nice to the rabbonim, and they're fighting with the rabbonim. Because of this machlokes, this, this, this fighting and, and, and this-- and they're not being respectful to each other, that's why it's happening to them, that the children are getting sick. So they went, uh, so they s-so basically they were told that

02:20 if they can get some tzadik to come to the town of Iasi and make peace between the different people so that everybody would be loving each other and stop fighting, then the, the epidemic, you know, th-this terrible thing of the children dying would stop. So they asked the Rav, a very famous gaon and a tzadik. His name was the Rav of Buchach. Rebbe Avrohom of Buchach. Buchach was a city in, uh, Poland. He was a great gaon and a great tzadik. And they asked him to come for a Shabbos to Iasi. And they come to Iasi, and they will-- and he will then make peace between the different parts of the community. Everybody will get along, and then Hashem will help them that the children will no longer be sick. So he agreed, but then he overheard behind the door one of the people who came from Iasi to speak to the Buchach-- asked the Buchach Rav to come to Iasi. He heard him say to his friends, "You know, when the, when the Rav of Buchach will come to Iasi, we should give him a lot of kavod, and we'll make sure he can raise a lot of money for his community. We'll make sure that he has a good time." When the Buchach Rav heard this, he got a little scared. He said, "No, I can't go to your place, to your city, because I see you wanna give me a lot of kavod and a lot of money, and that's gonna make

03:55 me not such a big tzadik. It's gonna make me a... You know, I will come to you and enjoy the kavod and enjoy the money." Then it's, it's no longer a good thing, right? It's, uh, you're doing it for money and for kavod. He was afraid that the kavod will have an effect on him. It will make him feel proud. And he didn't wanna feel proud because he knows it's a terrible thing for a Jew to feel proud. So he didn't wanna go because he was afraid they're gonna give him so much kavod and so much money that he'll just enjoy the kavod and the money, and that's not a good thing. So he told them, "Listen, I can't go, but you should go," you know to whom? To the Rizhiner. The Heiliker Rizhiner. He is not in-- It won't make a difference to him if you give him k- a lot of kavod, a lot of money. He's-- He doesn't care. He, he f- he's, he's gonna stay humble and bitter to Hashem because he-- to him, when people give him kavod, it doesn't matter to him. It doesn't have any effect on him. He doesn't feel proud from it. He doesn't care. Doesn't care what people say about him. So he can go to your place, and he can help you bring shalom, peace in the community so nobody would fight. They went to the Rizhiner, and the Rizhiner said he's coming. The Rizhiner came to Iasi. They, um, they, they invited him

05:24 to stay in a certain house. There were a lot of people that wanted to see the Holy Rizhiner. The Holy Rizhiner was very, very famous. Everyone knew, everybody knew what a big tzadik he is. So a lot of people were pushing to see him, and especially when he came to the shul there of the city, it was so crowded that people like... The whole street was filled with people pushing and pushing. So the community decided to call the police to make sure the police can make order, so people wouldn't push so much, and they will make people stand in line peacefully without pushing, without crowding. One of the Jews tried to push his way through the crowds into the shul when a police officer, a goy, you know, it was goyish police. When he saw that this Jew was trying to get into the shul and pushing his way in a harsh way, in a strong way, the police officer beat him on the hand. He gave him a little, took his stick, you know, police officer that had sticks on the side, and he, and he hit him very hard on the hand till the hand started bleeding. It was very painful. And when the Ruzhiner heard that they beat a Jew on the hand, the police hurt somebody, it's all because of him, because everybody wants to see him. That means he is the reason and the cause why this Jew was beaten. He got very, very, uh, upset. And, uh, and he

07:00 was, he was very worried that he caused that a Jew should get beaten because of him, because he showed up in town. But nevertheless, the Ruzhiner was successful at bringing peace in the community of Yassi and made peace so the people wouldn't fight anymore, and indeed, as soon as he finished making peace, the children stopped getting sick, and those who were sick got well, back well again, and none of the children died anymore. Now, years went by, and as you know from the previous stories that the Ruzhiner, the holy Ruzhiner was put in jail. He spent almost two years in jail. The reason was because some people who didn't like him told the government, uh, the, the king of Russia, Nikolai, that the Ruzhiner, he just wants to be a king. Look here, because the Ruzhiner, as we know, I already told you this before, he had a very beautiful, beautiful house, big house with mirrors and fancy carpets and fancy... Everything was fancy and beautiful. He, like, he lived like a rich person, but he didn't do it because he cared about money. The Ruzhiner was a tzadik, a holy tzadik, didn't care about money or anything. He did it only for the Jewish people so they would feel that we Jews, you know, are special in the eyes of Hashem, and would feel good about ourselves, even though the Goyim give us troubles and problems, and they make us feel bad, and, and they, they, they, they punish us, but we, we feel

08:41 inside pride. Inside, everything the Goyim do to us doesn't have any effect on us. We know that we are Hashem's people, and Hashem gave us a Torah, and we're special, and we're proud of it. And so he would-- wanted to have, like, a big, nice, beautiful house with, uh, horses and, like, like a rich man. But really, he didn't care about the money. The money didn't matter to him. Just to give the Hasidim a feeling that a Yid has to be proud in knowing that he is Hashem's servant, and only Hashem is important to him and nothing else. And so the-- some people told the government, "See, he's, he's living in this big, big fancy house, and he has all these, these horses and people taking care of his horses like a rich man. Uh, you know, he, he's trying to become a king." In other words, he wants to overthrow the government of Russia and become the k- the next king. So they ended up putting him in jail. He was in jail for twenty-two months. That's almost two years. And they put him in a jail where they didn't let anyone visit him. He was there alone. The one of his Hasidim, who was very wealthy and a big businessman, it was, uh, Rabbi Cheskel Zavenitzer. He was a Hasid of his. He was very, very, very rich, and he had a lot of good connections with the government of Russia because of his business. So he was very close to many of

10:17 the ministers in the government. So he used his money and gave bribes to the, uh, government people that he knew, the government officials. And through them, he was able to get permission to visit the Ruzhiner, the holy Ruzhiner for a quarter hour, hour. Only for a quarter of an hour. That means fifteen minutes. They allowed him to go only for fifteen minutes, and that's it. So he went in for fifteen minutes, and when the Ruzhiner saw him, he was so happy to see him. And he-- the Ruzhiner said to him like this, "Cheskel, my dear, my dear Cheskel, I thought for a long time, why is this punishment coming to me? Why did Hashem make it that I should be in jail? And I tried to think of maybe I did an aveira, I did something bad. Maybe something very, very small, small, small aveira. Tiny, tiny, tiny bit of an aveira which most people don't even notice. And I realized that there's nothing. I, I, I couldn't find any, any, even the slightest, tiniest aveira that I ever did that, that because of that I should deserve a punishment. Then I realized, you know why this is happening to me? Because once I was in the city of Yas, and there was a huge crowd that came to see me, and there was so many people pushing and pushing that they had to ask the police to make order and keep people from pushing. And then the police saw one Jew pushing, and they

11:59 hit him over the hand and hurt him badly. And because it happened because of me, even though I didn't do it." I just came because they invited me to come to the city. But because I came to the city, this Jew was hurt by the police. So that means I am considered the cause of it. So the Rizhiner Rebbe, great tzaddik, he was so humble that he felt that this was a problem, that this, a little bit he is guilty, right? It's his fault that because through his coming to the city, a Jew got hit by the police. So therefore, he had to be punished with being two years in jail. So he said, "You know what? I want you to do me a favor. Go to my house in Rizhin and tell my wife that there's a special closet, and I'm giving you the key to that closet. You tell her to open up the closet, and they should take the-- They have, they have there a little bag of gold coins, and, uh, I want you to, uh... This is money I got in Yas, when I was in Yas, making peace between the different, uh, people of the community. So they gave me some money, and the money I put away in the closet. I want you to go to my wife, and here's the key. She take out the money, and they should send two people back to Yas, and they should try to find out who that Jew was that

13:35 was hit and hurt because of me. I don't know who he is," says the Rizhiner, "but I know they call him Velvel the Schenker." A schenker means he's a person who owns, like, a store where people come and buy mashke to drink. It's like a bar. People come in, and they buy a cup, and they drink. So they call him Velvel, who owns the bar, a bar where people drink, the schenker. In Yiddish, we call a schenker. "They should try to find this Velvel the Schenker 'cause... And they should... And if he's not alive anymore," because it was many years after the, the, that story when he was in Yas, "they should at least try to find some of his family members and give them this bag of money and ask in my name that he should forgive. He should forgive me because through me, I caused him to have terrible pain with this police officer hitting him." And Reb Heskel, when he heard this, "And I want you to go now and take them, take the key and give it to my wife, and she should take the money and give it to two shluchim, two messengers. Go to Yas, find the, the, the, the, the Jew Velvel the Schenker, and if he's not alive, give it to his family." So they, they, sh- Reb Heskel was so excited they can help the Rizhiner Rebbe, the Rav Solove Rizhin, and he went to Rizhin and took the key and told the Rebbetzin of the

15:01 Rizhiner what the, what her husband said. And they went to the closet, and they found the bag of money, and they sent two messengers to go to Yas to find this Jew, Velvel the Schenker, and give him the money because of all the pain that he had to have, and ask him to forgive, mechilah. He should forgive the Rizhiner Rebbe for what happened to him because the Rizhiner came to town. They came to Yas, and when he asked about Velvel the Schenker, it turned out he was no longer alive, but his wife and children were still alive. So they went to his wife, and they told her what the Rizhiner had said, and she was very, very impressed. She said, "Oh, the, by-- This happened a long time ago, and actually my husband recovered right away. The, the, the wound on the hand healed very quickly, and he never really was upset or anything. It wasn't a big deal." But they, they told her that the Rizhiner wants you to take that money and forgive him. So she said, "Well, he's not here to forgive." So they went to the kever of Velvel the Schenker, to his kever, and they asked him, 10 people. Usually when somebody, you hurt somebody's feelings, you have to ask mechilah. But what if the guy died, and you can't ask him mechilah anymore? Then you send 10 people to his kever, and they ask mechilah for you. And they say to the-- in front of the kever, the, the

16:31 sham of the, of the person that's buried, that, "This and this person sent us here to ask that you should forgive him for what he did to hurt you." So they sent 10 people to the kever of Velvel the Schenker and to ask him mechilah. And so the wife took the money, and they asked mechilah by the kever. And a s-- literally a few weeks later, the government of Russia said that the, that the, the Rizhiner can go free. That's the story. What did we learn from that story? One of the things we can learn is how to be careful not to be even the cause of somebody getting hurt. Even if you don't hurt anybody, but because of you, somebody got hurt. Even that, you know, you should be careful, all right? Nobody should get hurt by you. And another thing we learned, that if you did hurt someone, go and ask forgiveness. Make sure that he forgives you and is, uh, no longer upset. We, we also learn from this story an amazing thing. Chas v'Shalom when there's machlokos, arguments and fights between people in the community, it can be terrible. Having Ahavas Yisroel is the most important thing. So if people fight and, and, uh, hate each other, it brings terrible things to the community, so we have to be very, very careful.