230. The Big Nes That Saved The Life Of Reb Shaul Because Of A Kindness He Did

00:15 Shalom Aleichem, kindalach. Let me share with you a story that I heard personally from a neighbor of mine where I grew up in Belgium, in Europe. I already mentioned him in another story, an amazing story what happened to him in the concentration camp and how he was saved mamash with a nes. Biggest nes 'cause he had mesirus nefesh for other people to help people who were starving. I'm sure you remember that story. Now this neighbor told me another amazing story that happened to him before the war. Before the war started, he was still a young bachur, a young boy, who was maybe 14, 15 years old, and he went to study in the yeshiva in the city of Bobov. His rebbe was the Bobover Rebbe in Poland, in Galicia. And the Bobover Rebbe in the city was the rav of the city of Bobov and he also had a yeshiva. So this, uh, neighbor of mine, his name was Reb Shaul. Reb Shaul was, uh, 15 years old and he went to study in the yeshiva there and became a big Hasid of his rebbe. Uh, as by all Hasidish rebbes, when it comes to yontif many Hasidim come from all over the country, from all over Europe to be by their rebbe. So the Be- the Hasidim of the Belzer went to the Belzer. The Hasidim of the Bobover Rebbe came from all over Poland to be by him for yontif, by the Bobover Rav. Now Bobov was a very small town. There weren't

02:07 many places to stay for guests. They didn't have any hotels, so people had to stay with other people's homes. They have to go stay with people's houses, and there weren't that many houses to stay with, so people would sleep on the floor, people would sleep in the shul on a bench. This Reb Shaul, who was a bachur in the yeshiva, he was only 15 years old, he came from a, a rich family. His family was quite rich, so his family r- rented him an apartment. So because he had money, he was able to have his own beautiful, big, spacious apartment. Most bachurim had to sleep either in, on a floor somewhere in somebody's house or on a bench in the shul, or they would find somewhere in a, in a room. Somebody gave them the house-- in their house, a, a little room and they could sleep on a mattress. But he had enough money to rent his own apartment. So when the Hasidim, all the Hasidim that came for yontif to the rebbe, Reb Shaul opened up his apartment and, and invited them in that they can stay with him 'cause he had a lot of space, and he filled up his place. One of the guests that used to come very often for yontif, and sometimes he would stay for three, four weeks because Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Simchat Torah, he would come for the whole Chodesh Tishrei. So they would stay in his apartment. There was an elderly Hasid, a very,

03:35 very, very special Hasid who was from the special Hasidim of the Bobover Rebbe at the time. And Reb, Reb, Reb Shaul, who was a young bachur, invited him to stay with him and gave him a very nice room. And since he was older, he couldn't take care of himself so well. He, he made food for him, he washed his clothes for him, he helped him and took care of him. Literally take care of him the whole day. And so he did this for sev- several years. One year this, uh, elderly Hasid came to Bobov to be by his rebbe for yontif, and again, Reb Shaul invited him to his apartment, and that's where he stayed. This Hasid was a very special Hasid. He would daven and learn a lot. He was a, was a, a Jew who was very, very, very spiritual, very... uh, a holy Jew. He did-- he learned and davened all day. That's all he did. And Reb Shaul took care of everything, everything in a really, really nice way. And this Jew, this elderly Hasid was very, very appreciative what Reb Shaul did, and he thanked him and he blessed him and give him berakhos. A few months later, Reb Shaul finds out that this was Tishrei he c- he was visiting the rebbe, and then a few months later, maybe Tevet, Shevat, he heard that this elderly Hasid passed away. He was niftar. No... "Borvu dinu emes." You know what do you say when somebody passes away? "Hashem is the

05:14 true judge," right? So all right. Time went by. Came the-- came summertime. You know, Shavuot is in the summer. Summer can get very hot. Even in Poland it gets hot in the summer. People didn't have air conditioning in those days, so how did people try to stay cool? They would open the doors and the windows. It was the night of Shavuot and Reb Shaul went to sleep in his apartment, and at night he has a dream. Who does he see in the dream? This elderly Hasid that only six months ago or eight months ago was staying in his apartment. He was shocked to see him because he knew he was already in Olam HaEmes. He was already in Gan Eden. And this elderly Hasid speaks to Reb Shaul and says to him very shortly, very briefly, he says, "Shaul, I want you to do me a favor. Tonight is Shavuos and tomorrow will be Yom Tov. You'll probably go davven in the Rebbeth Shaul." Now, the Shaul of the Baba V'Harav was on a hill, so you could see the whole down the city from, from, from, from the Shaul. You could see from the Shaul on the hill. "I'm asking you a favor. The doors will be open because it's hot, it's summer. Don't stand in the entrance. Don't stand tomorrow in the entrance. Make sure that you stand inside the Shaul, not by the entrance." And he disappeared. In the morning, Reb Shaul woke up, he remembered exactly the dream, but he thought,

06:54 "Okay, it's just a dream. I mean, w- w- why would he ask him not to stand by the entrance? What was the point?" He didn't know, so came, came Shavuos in the morning, everybody went to Shaul. Now, that day, Shavuos was on a Sunday. On a Sunday, all the Christians, they go to their church, and in Poland, the Christians were very, very hateful to the Jews. They were anti-Semitic. Anti-Semites, they believed that we killed their God, and they believed that Jews should be, be, be killed. They were, they were very, very nasty to the Jews. They didn't like the Jews. Especially on a Sunday when they, they used to go to the church and the galach would, would say nasty things about the Jews. "The Jews are the ones who killed our God, and, and our Getchke, our Yoshke, and, and that's why the Jews are terrible." So when they, they would come out of the churches, they were so, like, excited against the Jews. So Jews would avoid going outside because if you stand outside while the goyim were all coming out in big numbers from the church, they might, uh, hurt you, or who knows, they might even kill you. They were so hateful then because the galach just got them all excited with his fiery speech against the Jews. That Shavuos was on a Sunday. Well, uh, people, it's very hot, so Reb Shaul was a young bachur, went to stand and I looked by the, by the entrance of the Shaul.

08:31 It was on a hill. He could see down the hill where all the goyim came out of the church. They'd, they just finished their, their Yoshke with Chashke, uh, what they did in the church, and they were all coming out and shouting and screaming about the Jews. And he's standing by the door. And you know these goyim, they would, um... After they came out of the churches, if they saw Jews, um, far away, they would throw rocks at him and stuff like that. So Reb Shaul is standing by the door. He forgot about the dream, and the goyim, they're walking down the hill. They're walking past, you know, where the Shaul is. Suddenly, he remembers for a moment, "Oi, I remember the dream. Last night he told me not to stand by the entrance." And in a second, he moved away to the side so he wouldn't be facing the entrance of the Shaul. But just as he did this, a massive rock flew into the Shaul. He's going down the hill, threw a huge rock exactly where Reb Shaul was standing. Chas v'Shalom, if he hadn't remembered the dream and moved right away in an instant to the side, oi, that's it. He would not have made it. He would have been dead. It was ma'as oneg shanes. Now, he realized this wasn't just a dream. This is that this great Hasid came to give him, pay him a favor because he knew that he took care of him. Every-- When he was alive,

10:11 Shaul took care of him so nicely. So he came from the other world, from Gan Eden, to tell him not to stand by the door so to save his life. Reb Shaul went and told this to the Baba V'Rebbe, and the Baba V'Rebbe told him, "You see, when you do someone a favor, sometimes even if you think they can never do you a favor back, but they can come from Gan Eden and save you." That teaches you that you always do-- Y- y- you go out of your way for someone else, even if you think that someone else will never do you a favor again, but you never know. And even if you help someone who's very old, who's gonna die in two days, so they're gonna die anyways, they can't do you a favor back. But you don't do a favor because you're gonna get a favor back. You do a favor because it's a mitzvah. It's the right thing to do. L'chaim.