234. The Lost Son That Was Found Before His Chupah

00:15 Shalom Aleichem, kinderlach. Let me share you, with you a story, an awesome story that happened with the great tzaddik of Chaim of Sandz. In Germany, there was once a very wealthy Jew, very rich man. He had only one daughter, and he wanted his daughter to get married. And he thought to himself, "I have a lot of money. I don't need my daughter to marry a rich guy because I have plenty of money. I'd rather have a talmid chacham. I want my daughter to marry a husband who is a, is a big talmid chacham." And, uh, so he went to different cities and yeshivas. He visited various yeshivas to find this special bachur, a special boy who is a big talmid chacham. He came to one of the big yeshivas and told the rosh yeshiva that he's looking for his daughter. His daughter is very special, and she's very nice, and she's wonderful, "And I want to, uh, her to marry the, the, the biggest talmid chacham that you have in the yeshiva. And I got plenty of money. I can support them, and he can sit and learn for the rest of his life." So the rosh yeshiva suggested one of the bachurim or one of the best bachurim in the yeshiva. And, uh, the rich man had him meet his daughter, and they decided to get married. By the time the wedding came, so the father of the kallah invited all the guests. He made a beautiful, big, big-- prepared for a big wedding

02:07 with a lot of food and a beautiful place like a rich man. It so happened that in that town where the rich man lived, the, uh, Sandzer Rav, Reb Chaim of Sandz, was traveling through. He went to Germany to a place to, uh, get, um, for, for medical reasons he needed for his health. He had to go, uh, visit some, some doctors in Germany. So he happened to pass by that city on the day when the wedding happened. So the rich man heard that the Sandzer Rav came to town, so he decided to honor him, give him the covet of being the rav who is mesader kiddushin. Mesader kiddushin means he's the rav who oversees the chuppah, right? The wedding, the whole chasuna. Like in every chasuna, we have a rav who does the wedding. So he wanted to invite the Rav of Sandz, Reb Chaim Sandzer, that he should be the rav who will be mesader kiddushin. So Sandzer Rav agreed. Uh, when he came, he told, uh, the father of the kallah, "I'd like to see the chassan. Can you introduce me to the chassan?" So he said, "Sure, sure." And he said, "You know what? Tell the chassan that Sandzer Rav said... Tell the chassan to come to my room. I want-- I would like to speak to him." So this was the day of the wedding. So the chassan went into the room, and the Sandzer Rav closed the door, and he spent a long time with the chassan for hours

03:54 and hours till it got quite late because the chuppah was supposed to be already, and the guests already came, and the Sandzer Rav is still sitting in the room with the chassan. And everybody outside is waiting, waiting for hours. Finally, people wanna go-- started leaving who, who can't wait so long. So the father of the kallah was getting a little nervous, so he went and knocked on the door from the Sandzer Rav's room. And then he opened the door, and he says, "I'm so sorry that I came in, uh, uh, unannounced, you know, without, you know, you letting me in. And I-- But I, I, I have to tell you that we need to go to the chuppah. It's very late. People are leaving already who have been waiting for hours and hours." So Sandzer Rav says to the father of the kallah, "Don't worry. It's fine. But I'd like to speak first to the mother of the kallah. That means your wife." And the, the, the rich man went and called his wife and said that the, the Sandzer Rav wants to speak to you. So she came, and the Rav-- the Sandzer Rav started asking her questions. "Is this your only daughter?" And she said, "Yes, I only have one daughter." "Do you have any..." "No, no other children." "No other children?" "Nothing, no brothers and sisters." So the Sandzer Rav said, "Are you sure that you didn't have any other children?" And she says, "Well, many, many years ago, I had another

05:33 child. It was a baby boy, and I had, um, like a, a nanny, like a nurse who would nurse my baby." Like you-- in those days, people used to have a special woman who's to nurse the baby, and she was like his, uh, his nanny. And one day, she went to the river, you know, to take a swim. She wanted to swim. It was a very hot day. She took the baby with her, but she fell into the water with the baby, and they both drowned So the Tzanz Rov said, "Well, let me tell you that your baby did not drown. She, the maid, the nanny, she dr- she drowned, but your baby boy did not drown." And actually the Chosson, that's the baby boy. This is your son, and he can't marry your daughter because they're brothers and sisters. A brother can't marry his sister. And the Tzanz Rov, just to prove it, called over the Rosh Yeshiva because the Rosh Yeshiva, where the boy, the Chosson learned in the yeshiva when the father of the Kallah went to s- search for a Chosson, remember he spoke to the Rosh Yeshiva, and the Rosh Yeshiva is the one who recommended this boy. So the Rosh Yeshiva also came for the wedding because he was his student, his Talmud. So the Tzanz Rov called over the Rosh Yeshiva, he said to him, "Where do you-- Where is he from? Do you know anything about his-- where he came from, this, this, this, this Chosson?" The

07:11 Rosh Yeshiva says, "Oh, we found a baby once on the-- floating on the water who was still alive, but he was drowning, and we quickly saved him. We saw that it was a Jewish child, so we raised him and we then-- he w- became my Talmud and learned in my yeshiva and became one of the very, very big Talmidic Hakham in the yeshiva." And that's the Chosson. So the Tzanz Rov said to the rich man and his wife, "Hashem gave you back the child that you lost. Now you have him back. And Hashem also did a great kindness to you. He pr- saved you from a terrible avera." Can you imagine if you didn't know that? That this is your son and he would marry your daughter. That would be a brother and a s- sister getting married, would be so terrible. Then everybody saw that the Tzanz Rov saw with such clarity. Ruach Hakodesh, he saw that this wedding should not happen. It may not happen. It's not supposed to happen because it'd be terrible.