223. The Bitachon of Reb Meir Hagodol of Primishlan

00:15 Shalom Aleichem, kinders. I want to share with you a story that happened with the great tzadik, Reb Meir Hagadol, the great Reb Meir from Premishlan. There is a famous tzadik, Reb Meir of Premishlan, but that's not him. I'm talking about his grandfather was also called Reb Meir, but they called him Reb Meir Hagadol, the great Reb Meir. That's the grandfather of the famous tzadik, Reb Meir of Premishlan. So his grandfather was also called Reb Meir, and they also added him-- to him the name Hagadol, the great one. So this is a story that his grandson, Reb Meir of Premishlan, the famous tzadik, told about his grandfather, whose name was also Meir, Reb Meir Hagadol, the great Reb Meir. He says, "My grandfather, he lived in the time of the Baal Shem Tov, and he was very close with the Baal Shem Tov." Reb Meir, uh, for a living, he, he wasn't a rav. He didn't, um, you know, he didn't, um, serve as a rav or a teacher. He was just doing business. And what did he do for business? Um, in, in the city where he lived, he was, uh, doing business in the marketplace. He would, you know, would buy from goyim that would sell different types of things like animals, like a horse or a cow or a bull, and then he would sell it to another goy. That's called a salesman. He was a salesman, right? When you buy from one person and then you sell it for a profit. You

01:58 buy it, let's say, for ten dollars from one person, and then you go and sell it to someone else for fifteen dollars, and you make five dollars. That's how you make a living. Now, all the goyim in the marketplace, they loved this Reb Meir because he was very honest. Everybody trusted him. You know, the other goyim, th-the-they were always afraid that the goyim are gonna tr- tr-- you know, cheat them and lie to them about the price. You know, sometimes you, you say, "Oh, here, buy my horse. He's such a great horse." And then it turns out the horse doesn't have any teeth, right? He can't even eat. It's j- a bad horse. It's not a good horse. It's, it's not worth much. But they would trick them. They would deceive them. The only one that the goyim trusted was Reb Meir. They knew Meir is, is such a... He always told them the truth and never charged them more money than it was worth. They even had a nickname for him. They called him Meirku. Meirku Spravedlivi. Spr- Spravedlivi means the, the trusted one. Meirku Spravedlivi, the trusted Meirku. Everybody loved Meirku. And whenever they, uh, wanted to buy something, if a goy wanted to buy from another goy something, a horse or an animal or, or a, or a coat, they would always come to Meir. "Meir, tell me, is-- should I buy this coat for this and this price?" And whatever he said, they did. And, and they always wanted to buy

03:34 only from him. So it's... They said, "Listen, if you buy it from him, I'll buy it from you because I know you're honest. You're gon- you're never gonna cheat me, never gonna lie to me." And so Reb Meir, Reb Meir, Reb Meir Hagadol, the great Reb Meir from Premishlan, uh, did business and he earned a living. But then one day he decided, "Listen, why should I spend my days and hours and hours on the market and buying and selling animals? Uh, that means I'm not trusting Hashem enough. I should trust Hashem and that Hashem gives food to everybody, and I should just sit in Beit Midrash and learn Torah all day." And that's what he did. He decided no more going to the market. He's going to sit in the Beit Midrash a whole day and learn Torah day and night. He did this for a while, and you can imagine that in his house there was no food left because all the money ran out. He wasn't earning any money. He didn't go to the market. So, uh, the, the family started starving. Reb Meir'el Premishlan, the grandson who tells the story, says, "My grandmother, the wife of the Reb Meir Hagadol, and her children were literally starving until one day Hashem had rachmanus." What happened? A goy came from out of town to the marketplace. He had a big beehive, like a little... it's like a big, um, w- made out of straw or sticks. It's like a big, big, um, s- thing,

05:10 and it has in it a lot of honey. Honey from bees. Bees, they put down the honey. It's a honey-honeycomb it's called, a honeycomb. He came with a big honeycomb, and he wanted to sell it, and there were a number of goyim who wanted to buy it from him. But he said, "No, no, no. I only wanna sell it through Meirku. Meirku is Spraved- Spravedlivi. I only wanna sell it through Meirku. Meirku, I only him I trust. I don't trust anybody else." So they started looking for him. "Where is Meirku? Meirku, Meirku." He's not around. He's not here. It turns out that he hasn't been here in a long time. People haven't seen him. So came evening, this goy with the, with the, with the beehive, with the honeycomb, uh, went b- back home, and he-- his wife sees that he still has the honey with him. She asked him, "Did-- why didn't you sell it?" She said-- He said to her, "Because- I only want to sell it with Mirco. If Mirco tells me I can sell it for this and this price, then I know it's the right price. But I can't find Mirco. So she said to him, "You know what? Maybe he's sick in his home, and he can't go out in the market. Maybe go to his house, and, and then you'll sell it to him, and he'll sell it to someone else because you trust him." That's what he did. The next day, he, he was traveling back to

06:35 Plymshlan, came to the, to the grandfather of Rabbi Meir of Plymshlan, who was telling the story. He came to his house, but he didn't find him in the house because he was learning in Beis Midrash. But the, the, the wife of Rabbi Meir, Rabbi Meir Hagadol, was there. She told him, "He's in the Beis Midrash. He's learning Torah." So she said, "I'll go quickly and tell him that you're here." So he, uh... she went quickly to the Beis Midrash, and she told him that, "Hashem sent us ma- a special deal. This guy wants to sell his beehive, and all he wants to sell it to you because he doesn't trust the Goyim, and you can then sell it for a profit, and we can have food to eat." Rabbi Meir, Rabbi Meir Hagadol listens to this, and he says, "Let me finish my shiur. I'm finishing something, and then I'll come." And, um, good. The, the wife went back home, and she told the Goy to wait a little bit till Rabbi Meir Hagadol came home from the Beis Midrash. And he told the Goy, "Bring me, um... Where, where is the, the, the honeycomb, the, the big, the big beehive that you have with the honey?" Then he said to him, "How much do you want for this?" So the Goy says, "Listen, Rabbi, I only trust you. You tell me how much this is worth, and I believe you because you're the only person I believe and I trust." So Rabbi Meir Hagadol

08:03 says, "I think it's worth twenty reinish." Reinish is like dollars today. In those days in, in, in, in, in Poland or Russia, it was reinish. Twenty reinish. "And I'm willing to give you that money, but unfortunately, I don't even have a penny, so I, I can't buy it from you." Meanwhile, a neighbor of the Rebbetzin, of the wife of Rabbi Meir Hagadol, came over. She sees that the, the, the Rebbetzin is very, very distressed, and she asked her, "Why are you so distressed?" And she says, "Because there's this guy, he wants to sell my husband this big, um, uh, beehive. You know, there's a honeycomb, and he can't sell it because we don't have the money." So she said, "Okay, I'll loan you twenty, twenty reinish. Don't worry." She brings her the money. "This is a loan. You can pay me back when you can sell the honey. You can, you can pay me back." Good. She, um... They bought the honey, and Rabbi Meir Hagadol went back to shul, to Beis Midrash and learn as they said. And we, the wife, the Rebbetzin, she took care of the honey. When she opened up the, the, the, the, the honeycomb, that big thing, she looked. She sees this honey, but it's only a thin layer, very little honey. Most of it is filled with wood. Like there's wood on the bottom. That means there's no honey there. Very little. You can't sell this for twenty reinish. She realized that this Goy had deceived her. He

09:33 sold her like a pretended it's full of honey, but it's not full of honey. It's all of... It's just a tiny little slim layer of honey, and on the bottom you can see wood. So she, um, she went back to the Rabbi Meir Hagadol in the Beis Midrash and said to him, "I don't know what to do, but, but we can't pay back the debt because there's no honey. There's only a little bit of honey. The Goy, uh, tricked us." So when he came home, Rabbi Meir Hagadol looked at the, the honeycomb, yeah, whatever it's called, the, um... And he said, "Okay, then you know what? We'll have to sell our house, so we can pay back the debt." But then he opens up the, the, the, the, this, this beehive, and he sees, and he, and he, and he touches the wood that's underneath the thin layer of honey and picks it up and sees that underneath it is filled with gold coins. So Rabbi Meir Hagadol said... I know when a person would say, "Oh, great, Hashem made us rich. Now we can be rich." But that's not what Rabbi Meir Hagadol said. He said, "This is ma'aseh nisim." Many great tzaddikim did not wanna have enjoyment and benefit from nisim. Why? Because it says if you enjoy from a nes, right, like Hanina ben Dosa saw a, a piece of gold come down from, from Shamayim. The tzaddikim didn't want to benefit from nisim because when you benefit from nisim, then it

11:14 takes away from some of your mitzvahs because Hashem uses your mitzvahs to give you this great nisim. They didn't want that their mitzvahs should be rewarded with, with, with, with, with physical nisim about gold and silver. They'd rather have those mitzvahs, um, in Gan Eden where you get spiritual things. They wanted the spiritual reward, not the physical reward. And so Rabbi Meir said to his wife, "Listen, all these gold coins, we're gonna give it to tzedakah." Um, then a few days passed, and the Goy who sold them the, the, the honeycomb came back to sell something else. So the Rebbetzin, the wife of Rabbi Meir Hagadol, asked him, "Tell me, um, where did you find this, this, this honeycomb? Where did you find this?" He said, "You know, I was in the forest, and I saw a beautiful tree, and there was a hole in the tree, and all the bees were flying in and out of that hole inside the tree. So right away you realize there's something inside. There must be honey or something because the bees are going in and out. So I cut down the tree, and I opened up the tree. I cut the tree open, and I see there is a, um, a honeycomb, right? This big thing full of honey. And I, I brought it to, to be sold, and that's why I gave it to you. I sold it to you." Rabbi Meir Plymshlaner, the grandson who told the story, finished telling this story. He says, "You

12:57 see, those gold coins belong to some very famous, uh, paretses and, and, and who knows, kings who had hidden their money, and they didn't realize that somebody will cut down the tree. They were hiding it in a tree." And, uh, now Hashem, because Rabbi Meir Hagadol had such bitachon in Hashem, Hashem took the money from those, those, those, uh, very rich princes and, and, and paritsim and gave it to his grandfather instead, so he could sit and learn Torah.