232. The Miracle Of The 3 Mitzvos

00:16 Speaker 1 Shalom Aleichem, kinders. Uh, I'm gonna tell you a story about the Rebbe, our Rebbe. This story took place before the Rebbe became officially a Rebbe. You know, after the previous Rebbe was Nistalik on Yu Chvat, the Rebbe didn't wanna take on to be the new Rebbe for another year. Now, during that year, there were people who came to the Rebbe to ask for a bracha for, for, for something. So sometimes the Rebbe would answer them, but the Rebbe officially didn't want to be Rebbe. So this is a story I heard from Yael Kahn, the great Chassid, Yael Kahn. He remembered that story himself. He was there when it happened. An amazing story. In New York, there lived a Jew who was quite rich. He was not from. He did not keep Torah and mitzvahs, neither Shabbos, Kashrus. He was not religious. He had a daughter who was very, very sick, and she was in the hospital, and the doctors thought that she was in very, very big danger, and they were afraid she's not gonna live very long. So this man went to different tzadikim, you know, even though he wasn't from, but he, you know, his-- maybe his grandmother told him that going to tzadikim is a good thing. Tzadikim can daven for you, and they can make a nes, and something can happen. So he went to big tzadikim in, in New York. You know, a lot of the tzadikim that time came from Poland, from Russia, from Ukraine, right? It was right

02:04 Speaker 1 after the war, right? And he offered them, like, five thousand dollars, ten thousand dollars if they promise him that their daughter will be healthy. Of course, none of these rebbes were willing to promise him. "We can give you a bracha, but we can't promise you." "So I'll give you twenty thousand dollars. Just promise." They say, "We can't, we can't." So none of them wanted to promise him, so he decided, "Okay, I guess it's not working. Trying to give them money, they don't wanna take it. They say they can't promise him." So his wife said, "You know, I heard there's this young Rebbe." Although the Rebbe, the, the, the Rebbe didn't wanna be a Rebbe yet, but people are going to him, and they're asking him for advice. They're asking him for brachas. "Why don't you go to him? Try with him." At first he said, "No, why should I go? None of them... You know, I went to so many of them, and they all said, 'No, no, no, no. We, we, we can't promise you for money.'" So she said, "Please go, go, go anyways. What can you lose? You know, our daughter is in such big danger." So he came to Seven-Seventy. It was, like, towards the end of Shabbos. He came on Shabbos to Seven-Seventy, and it was, like, by Maariv or closer, Maariv and Motzai Shabbos. We're gonna make Havdalah. And he asked everybody, "Can, can I see the rabbi? I wanna go talk to the rabbi." And they told him,

03:34 Speaker 1 "No, the Rebbe-- You can't talk to the Rebbe directly. You have to talk to his secretary, Rabbi Chodakov." So he went to Rabbi Chodakov. He said, "Rabbi, I, I need to speak to the big rabbi because I have a very big problem. My daughter is very, very sick." So Rabbi Chodakov said, "Listen, let me, let me ask the Rebbe, and I'll tell you in a minute." He went into the room where the Rebbe was. It was after Havdalah already. And he came out and said, "The Rebbe says that tonight he can't see you. Come back tomorrow morning." So he started crying. He said, "Tomorrow morning? The doctor said it's... Who knows? She might not live by tomorrow morning. She's so, so sick. She's in such big danger. She might die during the night." Rabbi Chodakov said to him, "If the Rebbe says you should come tomorrow, that means she will be alive tomorrow." And he told him to go home and come back in the morning. So the man had no choice. The next morning, he calls the hospital to make sure, and he asked, "How is my daughter doing?" "Oh, she's still alive. Still alive. The same as yesterday. Nothing changed." So he went to Seven-Seventy, and Rabbi Chodakov let him go into the Rebbe's room. Went into the Rebbe's room, and right away the Rebbe said to him, "You know, they're waiting for you in Shamaim to do something. That means if you want your daughter to be well, there are three things

05:07 Speaker 1 you need to do. Shabbos, keep Shabbos from now on. Tefillin, put on tefillin every day. And keep kosher. If you take on these three things, your daughter will get well." So he said, "Rebbe, I can't take this on. This is too much. I'm, I'm-- I've never done Shabbos. I've never done tefillin. I, I-- I'm sorry, Rebbe. Can I give you more money? I'll give you more money. But I don't wanna do these things. It's too hard for me." So the Rebbe said, "No, I don't want your money. You don't have to give me a penny. Nothing. No money. Just these three things, and it's not up to me. This is how they decided in Shamaim." You know what Shamaim is?

05:51 Speaker 2 Yes.

05:51 Speaker 1 This is what they decided. Hashem decided that if you do those three things, your daughter will get well. So the Rebbe said, "I don't know how to put on tefillin." So the Rebbe said, "Don't worry. I will tell some of the students in the yeshiva here in Seven-Seventy to teach you." And so he had no choice because the Rebbe said, "I don't want your money. All I want you to do is these three mitzvahs." He says, "Rebbe, okay, I'll take it on." So the Rebbe said, "In that case, if you promise to do it, your daughter will get well." And he went out, out and then-- and he bought a pair of tefillin, and he came every day to Seven-Seventy. And there was a bracha by the name of Berel Yunik who, who helped him put on the tefillin every day. And a few weeks later, his daughter got better and better. She became totally well. And, um, he started keeping Shabbos too and kosher. And the Rebbe said to the, uh, people of the, the, the head of the yeshiva, "If he wants to give you money for the yeshiva, don't take anything. Don't take his money." Because the Rebbe didn't want him to think, you know, we're gonna give him-- for money, he can get a bracha. It's not money. You gotta do mitzvahs, right? If you want Hashem to help you, you gotta do another mitzvah. Hashem doesn't need money. Hashem ne- wants mitzvahs. And so came a few weeks later, a

07:21 Speaker 1 few months later, his daughter got completely well. He made a big kiddush in Seven-Seventy on Shabbos Parshas Vayigash. Made a big kiddush in Seven-Seventy to thank Hashem for the big miracle. And the Rebbe himself came to that kiddush, and he said l'chaim. That's the story.