228. Why There’s No Roof Vver The Ohel of Reb Leib Sara’s

00:16 Another story of the Rebbe Leib Soras, something that happened after he passed away. The Rebbe Leib Soras was Nistalik on the fourth of Adar Sheni in the year Tet Kuft Nun Alef. Tet Kuft Nun Alef was in the time of Dalta Rebbe. The Semach Zedek was one year old. Not even one year. He was, um-- Yeah, it was maybe a year and a half. Tet Kuft Nun Alef, the fourth o- the Ada- the fourth day of Adar, Adar Sheni, he passed away. Before he passed away, he told his talmidim, a few talmidim that he had, that they should not make a big levaya. You know, like you take a, a very important rav, a tzadik, thousands of people come, and they say nice things about him. He says, "No, I want a simple, small levaya, and they should bury me like every simple Jew, like I'm just a regular person, and they shouldn't build some big ohel on my kever," where, where, where he's buried, "and they should just keep it simple like all other simple people." This is the way he liked to live, and he was alive. The whole-- his whole life, he lived like that. He didn't want people to make a big deal about him. He like would come into a city and wouldn't say that who he is, and he would do whatever he needs to do, and then nobody gave him special kavod because he didn't like kavod. So he's told them specifically, "Nobody should give me any kavod,

01:52 and the levaya should be that it should be very simple. The funeral should be like regular people, and don't put any... Just put a stone like a matzeva like you do for everybody else, and you can put my name on it, and that's it. Don't write any long things on the matzeva. Just write, 'Here is Leib Soras.'" So that's what they did when after he passed away. They, they, they didn't make a big deal by the levaya, and when they buried him, they, they put a regular matzeva. But after a few years, people felt they should do something. So they built like a little hut around the kever made out of wood, and on top they covered with straw. It was very weak, right? Like a little few planks of wood and, and from that they made like a little ohel. And people would come into that little hut, uh, by the kever and daven. Once a rich man came, came from the city of Nikolaev, and his name was Reb Shlomo Yeshaya. He came to daven at the kever of, um, of Rebbe Leib Soras. Now, Rebbe Leib Soras was buried in a city called Yaltyshkov. Yaltyshkov. This Reb Shlomo Yeshaya came to daven in Yaltyshkov by the kever of the Rebbe Leib Soras. What did he daven about? He was very rich. He was building roads and building all kinds of big things, big buildings, and he had an offer from the government that they, they asked people who wanted to take on

03:41 a contract, a, a special project to build for the government, which they can make a lot of money from because the government paid a lot of money for these special buildings. And there were other people that were trying to get the government to give it to them. Everybody wanted to make the money. So he came to daven by Reb-- by Rebbe Leib Soras' kever that he should be successful and that he should get the job from the government. He should get the contract from the government, and he can build a special road and special buildings for the government. There will be a lot of money in it. And so he davened. He put a, um, a pan, a little piece of paper, a note with his name, his mother's name, and by the kever, and he walked away. And he thought to himself, "You know, if I'm successful and I get the contract from the government and make a lot of money, I will build a beautiful ohel. This is such a embarrassment. Look, such a holy tzadik has just a few boards around his kever and a straw roof. It's a joke." It was like looking like it was almost falling, falling apart. So he went. He was successful, and he got the contract and became very rich. So on the way back, um, he, he went back to Nikolaev, to his hometown. He passed by again Yaltyshkov. He went to the, the, the-- The Rebbe Leib Soras had grandchildren that lived in Yaltyshkov.

05:10 So he, this Gvi-- this Gvir, Reb Shlomo Yeshaya, this rich man, went to see the einikelach, the grandsons of the Rebbe Leib Soras, and he gave them a very large sum of money of five hundred rubles. And... No, he gave them, to the grandchildren, some money to support them, right? Because these were grandsons of the Rebbe Leib Soras, and they sat and learned all day. So he gave them money so that they can live and have enough money to live. And then he went to the community, right? The, the, the president of the community of Yaltyshkov. He says, "Here, five hundred rubles, silver rubles," it's a lot of money, "Go build a beautiful stone building with the walls made out of stone around, around the kever of this great tzadik. It should be a real ohel." So the people of Yalchick were afraid to do it. And they decided because they knew that Rabbi Psaris didn't like it, uh, Rabbi Psaris, I mean. Rabbi Psaris didn't like it, and before he passed away, he told them s- very specifically not to build any fancy things on his kaveh. So they decided to go and see and visit the Apter Rav. The Apter Rav was the famous above all, Meshulam Heshel from Apter, a big tzadik. He wrote a very famous sefer, Ohei Yisroel. They were gonna ask his advice what to do. So the Apter Rav says, "Listen, you can build a stone walls around the kaveh, but don't demolish and don't take down the

06:50 old ohel which were made from boards of wood. Leave that also, and around that you build another ohel around the, the wooden one. This way you don't, you, you, you don't disrespect Rabbi Psaris' wishes because you leave the old ohel around his kaveh, but you're gonna make another ohel around that." And so they did that, and they invited the great tzadik, the Mokhtav Chernobyl, to come and dedicate the new ohel. They put the stones down, and they made a, a big, big ohel around it. When they came to put a nice strong roof, they had to take down the straw roof because they couldn't build a new roof on top of the new ohel from stone, um, with... when, when the, when the straw was on top of the old ohel, so they had to take off the straw. So they sent up a worker to go all the way up there to the top of the old ohel and take down the straw. But as soon as he did that, he suddenly felt dizzy and fell down and died. It was a Goyshe worker that was building for them, but, but he got dizzy and died. So they thought maybe it's a mistake. It's just one time, maybe it means nothing. So they send another guy up, and the same happened to him. He fell down and died. So, so they... So then everybody was afraid to go up and touch the, the straw roof. So the grandson of, of Rabbi Psaris who was

08:27 living in town said, "You know what? I'll go up and do it. You know, my grandfather wouldn't hurt me." He went up and felt dizzy and also fell down, but he didn't die. He wasn't actually wasn't hurt at all. So the... So while he was falling down, the grandson screamed and said, "You see, even me, his grandson, my grandfather pushes down." So they realized that they can't do anything. Um, so what did they do? They went back to the Apter Rav, and they told him what happened. The Apter Rav said, "Okay, it seems like Rabbi Psaris doesn't want you to put a fancy roof over his kaveh, and we gotta respect his wishes. He was that way when he was alive also. He didn't like coverage. So let's respect his wishes and don't touch the... Just leave the walls around. The stone walls you built around the old ohel is fine, but don't put any roof." And this is how it is till today. The ohel does not have a, a roof. It's just sto- stone walls around it. The, the, um, the, they tell that there's another story that happened right after that. There was a guard, a goy who was c- was the guard of the cemetery where the, where the, where the, where Rabbi Psaris was buried. And this goy had his house next to the cemetery so he can watch over the cemetery. The, the Jewish community hired him, and they paid him to take care of, of the, of the,

10:08 of the, of the kvorim and everything and clean up everything. Once the goy was building like a new oven. In those days the ovens were made out of stone. So he was trying to build himself a new oven in his house. He was missing two pieces of stone, so he went to the ohel of the sh- of Rabbi Psaris and took... There was like two bricks, two big bricks next to the, to the, to the ohel of, of Rabbi Psaris which they left behind. They weren't... They were building these walls, right? The new ohel. But they left a few stones there on the side which they didn't put up. So he went and took these two stones and started building in his house his oven. But as soon as he got home, he started feeling very dizzy and weak, and his wife noticed that something happened to her husband. So the wife, the Goyshe wife, so she was with goyim, she sent them... She went to the Rav of the city, the city of Yalchickov. And they went to the Rav and said to him what happened, and she started begging with tears in her eyes, "Go to the tzadik, to his kaveh and ask him forgiveness. We, we will never do this again," and, uh, uh, to save her f- her husband's life. So the Rav took a minyan of the, all the dayanim of the city, the rabbonim of the city, and they went to the kaveh to ask of Rabbi Psaris to

11:39 forgive this Goyshe woman whose husband is, is, is dying. And they put back the two bricks that they took. They brought it back. But unfortunately their prayers did not work, and after a couple of hours this goy also died. Rabbi Psaris was not willing to forgive this goy for taking these stones from his ohel. Next time I'll tell you one more story about him, and you will be amazed by that story. Until then, be well. Zay gezunt.