237. The Poritz That Was Killed After Trying To Forbid Baking Matzos

00:17 A good Yom Tov, kinderlekh. This is a story for Pesach. Uh, you heard of the first Belzer Rav. They called him the Sar Shalom of Belz. In the city of Belz, which is in Poland, in Galicia, there was a poretz who was in charge of the whole area. He owned literally all the houses of Belz and the surrounding villages, and he was a big rosh. One year, he decided that... You know, they used to bake matzahs before Pesach. In the city of Belz, they had a special matzah bakery. But he decided that it's dangerous to have a matzah bakery. The smoke and the fire that they use, it's, it's dangerous. It can burn down the whole city. He said, "You're not allowed to have a matzah bakery anymore." And of course, that made a big problem because you couldn't bring matzah from outside. It was too far and, and the only way to have matzahs in the city, in Belz, was by baking matzah. And now the poretz said no one is allowed to bake matzahs. So the Reb Shalom, the Belzer Rav said to all his talmidim and chasidim, "You are all going to be at my Seder this Pesach, and I have bitachon in Hashem that we will have plenty of matzahs." Okay. But it was raining. It was only a... It was, like, a maybe a week before Pesach, and there's still, uh, no matzahs. Where are we gonna get matzahs? So here's what happened. A few days later, the poretz of

02:00 the city of Belz who made this terrible gezera, this terrible decree that you can't have matzah bakeries bake matzahs, was riding on his horse. He had this big horse. He was a very proud guy and rich. Uh, he owned the whole city. He was riding on his horse and from the other direction came another poretz from another town nearby, also on his horse, and they were both coming to a very narrow space where only one horse could go through. So the question was: Who is going to go first? Because this one, this poretz from Belz, wanted to go through this narrow space in this way, in this direction. The other wanted to go the opposite direction, but you can only have one person go through. So which one is gonna go first? And of course, each poretz thought, "I'm more important, and I am gonna go first," and told the other one, "Hey, you wait till I get through." And the other poretz says, "No, you wait. I'm more important than you." And so there, there was a fight, and they really started fighting. And you know these poretsim, they carried swords and guns with them. You know, they were poretz. They could carry a lot of dangerous stuff with them. So they started fighting, and a real dangerous fight started, and the poretz of Belz was killed by the other poretz. And this was a few days before Pesach when the Chasidim saw that the poretz, the rosh, had died in such a terrible

03:35 death, and this was mamesh a nes from Hashem. They were able to bake matzahs quickly, and there was plenty of matzahs for Pesach. That's a miracle story for Pesach. Now I'll tell you one other story about Pesach, also have to do with Belz, and it's a story that was heard by one of the grandsons of the Rav who was present during that story. Once the Reb Shalom of Belz, who was a big tzadik, was sitting by Shalosh Seudahs Shabbos late afternoon. They were having Seudah Shlishis, and he was saying divrei Torah, and at the end of the divrei Torah, he said, like quietly to himself, "Ah, Baruch Hashem, I seem to have an opinion in Shamayim." That means when I say something, in Shamayim, they take it seriously. They, they think, uh, that, uh, they listen to my, to my opinion. That's what he sa- Uh, and he says, you know... And he said, "Somebody knows about it. There's somebody who can actually, um, tell, uh, tell to, you know, prove that this is true. And this Jew who can prove that is a Jew that comes from, uh, uh, you know, a foreign country, somewhere in Iraq, right? In, in, uh, from the Sephardi, Sephardic countries. And he-- this Jew knows the truth, that my opinion is very important in Shamayim, and whatever I say, they take seriously, and they, they do what I want." So the son of the Rebbe, Rebbe Yehoshua, and another Rav, a talmid of Shalom, they went and they

05:21 wanted to find who is this Jew. He must be in town. It seemed like the Rebbe was saying that recently there was a Jew here, a Sephardic Jew. In Poland, you didn't see Sephardic Jews much, especially a Jew that came from somewhere all the way from, from near Eretz Yisrael, in Iraq, in, in, in, in, in, so Syria or somewhere. From one of those countries, it wa- it was very rare that somebody came from there. But they said there's a Jew from, from that country, from those countries that, that can t- say, he can prove that I, that I have an opinion in heaven. They wanted to know is this guy in town. So they-- af- right after Shabbos- They went to all the hotels to see if there's a Jew, a guest that came, a Sephardic Jew that came from another country. In those days, it's the Jews that came from those countries dressed differently, they looked differently. They also spoke with a different accent, right? The, the, the, the Sephardi accent. And, and, uh, and so they were looking for someone. They're looking, looking, they couldn't find. Till finally, they went to a house at the edge of the city, and they, they, they told him... asked him if he had a guest who came from, from one of those, uh, countries, you know, Iraq or Syria. And he said, "Yes, there was a Jew here, but he already left. He was here for Shabbos and left. Now he's going back home to

06:41 his home country somewhere far away. Twenty minutes ago, he left." So they asked him, "Which direction did he go?" And they showed him to go-- he went in this direction. So they started taking... They took a horse and a wagon, and they chase as fast as they could to catch up with him. Finally, they saw him, and they stopped and said, "Stop." And he says, "No, please don't stop me. I gotta go, I gotta go. I can't, can't stop." Said, "Why? Why? Just for two minutes." And he said, said, "No, no, no, I can't. Please leave, leave me alone. I have to go." So they said, um, uh, he says, "You know, I am the son of the Rav, the Belzer Rav." When he heard that, he said, "Okay, okay, I'll stop for two minutes, but please don't hold me for too long because I need to go." So they asked him, "What-- what happened to you? Do you have a connection to the Rab Sholom, the Belzer Rav?" He says, "Listen, I'll tell you quickly the story, but I'm afraid to tell it, 'cause maybe I'm not supposed to tell it." They told him, "No, no, no, you can tell it, you can tell it. Please tell it to us." And they-- and he asked them, "Do you give me permission? Is it sure that it's okay for me to tell?" They said, "Yes, yes, tell it." And he told them like this: "I live in a-- in this country far away from here,

07:51 right? Somewhere in Syria or the Iraq, whatever. And I had a good friend. We were very good friends. We learned together. We were very close friends. And we did Torah and mitzvahs. We did everything. One day, my friend became very, very sick. He was very, very, very sick. And came Pesach time. The doctor prescribed a medicine for him that he should take it, and he didn't wanna take it because he thought there was chametz in it. It was Pesach time. He didn't wanna take a, a medicine which has chametz. But I convinced my friend and said, 'No, you have to take it because, you know, the doctor prescribed. You have to take it even though there's chametz.' And he said, 'Well, no, I don't wanna take it. It's has chametz. I don't wanna take it.' So I told him, 'You know what? I will take the aveira on me. If it is an aveira eating chametz on Pesach, I will take the aveira. I will-- I-- The aveira will be mine. Okay? It won't be your aveira.' So he said, 'Okay. Let's sign a contract.' So I signed a con... Said, 'Okay, I take the aveira of his eating chametz from the medicine on me.' And he took the medicine, but unfortunately, a few days after Pesach, he passed away. He went up to ƔBet Din Shel Ma'alah in the heavens, in, in front of the ƔBet Din, and they looked at all. He was a big tzadik. He was a good person. He did

09:17 a lot of Torah and mitzvahs, and they were gonna send him to Gan Eden. Then a malach came and said, 'Wait a second. He ate chametz on Pesach just recently. He ate chametz on Pesach.' And they started judging him again. 'Oh, chametz on Pesach.' So he said, 'Yeah, but I have a shtark. I have a piece of paper that my friend took the aveira on him, so it's not my aveira anymore.' They said, 'Okay, then we have to bring your friend here for a Din Torah, for a judgment in front of the ƔBet Din and see who is right.' So my friend indeed came to me in a dream. He said to me, he wants-- he's inviting me to come up to Shamyim in front of the ƔBet Din because they, they wanna punish me for, for the aveira of eating chametz, and I know that you promised to take the aveira, so they want you to show up for-- in front of the ƔBet Din." Which means basically he's gonna have to die. He can't go up there like this with your, with your body. His neshama is gonna have to leave the body and go up to Shamyim. So I panicked, and I said, "No, no, no, please, uh, I don't wanna go up there. I mean, um, I, I still wanna live." So next night I had the same dream again, and again he's inviting me to come to ƔBet Din Shel Ma'alah, the ƔBet Din in Shamyim. I got very, very

10:37 nervous. I went to the chacham, the Sephardic Rav in my town, and I told him, um, what's happening, and I'm very afraid. So he said to me, "You know what? Next time he comes to you in a dream, tell him, yeah, you're willing to go to ƔBet Din with him. But it says in Shulchan Aruch, in Halakha, that if two people have a dispute, they have to go to ƔBet Din. One person lives in one city, and the other person lives in another city. Let's say I borrowed money from Yankel, and Yankel wants me to pay him, and I don't wanna pay him, or I claim that I don't have to pay him. But he lives in another city, and I live in my city. We wanna go to ƔBet Din, but he wants me to travel to his city to go to his ƔBet Din, so he doesn't have to travel. And I want him to come to my ƔBet Din. I don't wanna travel. So normally the Halakha is that if he-- whoever is being sued, right? If Yankel wants the money from me, he has to come where my ƔBet Din is. Right? If you want money out of someone, and you wanna go to ƔBet Din, you have to go to the person that you want to, to pay you the money. Right? The guy who's being sued, you go to his ƔBet Din. You have to travel to his ƔBet Din. So therefore, if you are suing me in ƔBet

11:55 Din, you want me to come to ƔBet Din and, and sort of because you want me to take the aveira, then you have to come to where I am. That means let the ƔBet Din down here on Earth decide-" What, uh, what the Halacha should be and what the Psak Halacha should be. And, uh, that's what I said. Next time he came to me in a dream, I said, "Listen, it says in Shechinah you have to come to where I am, so you would need to come down to Beis Din here." So he went back up to Shamayim, and he s-- and they told him, "Okay, he's right. That's a good, good argument. Uh, we need to do the, the Din Torah by a Beis Din here down on earth." But who is gonna do it? They say, "We need someone whose opinion is important in Shamayim. In Shamayim, they take his opinions seriously." And who is that? The Belzer Rav, Reb Sholom of Belz. So therefore, you have to go to him. So, uh, the, my friend came to my dream and told me what the Beis Din in Shamayim said, and he said, "We have to go to the-- in Poland. I've never been that far away, never been to such a place, but we have to go to this Rav." So I saw the man. It's so far away, I don't even know how to get there. Never been there. It's like it would take months and months to travel there. He

13:13 said to me, "Don't worry, I will take you. I know I can take you within seconds to Belz." And that's what happened. We met. He took me, uh, on a quick flight. It wasn't a flight on a plane, but it was a spiritual flight. It was in seconds, I was in Belz. And the Belzer Rav, uh, gave his Psak Halacha, and the man said to the son of the Belzer Rav, Rebbe Shlale, and to this other talmid, Reb Sholom, he said to them, "Uh, uh, please let me go because my friend from Olam HaEmes, from the, from, from Gan Eden, he's waiting for me. He wants to take me back home." So they, they said, "Yeah, but quickly before you go, what did the Belzer Rav pasken? What was the Halacha?" So he said quickly that he said that, um, "I only meant it because I wanted him to eat, to take the medicine, because I wanted to do a mitzvah and save his life. But I really didn't mean that I really want his aveira. I said it because I want him to, to take the medicines and, and I didn't want him to worry about aveira. So really, it shouldn't be something that I should have to be punished for." On the other hand, this guy, uh, he, he thought that, um, we made a contract. So therefore, he said like this: "You..." Da, da, da, da, da, he said about him, about the, the guy who's still alive, "You can go live

14:41 a long life and nothing should happen to you because you did it as a mitzvah." And to him, to the neshamah, for my friend, he said, "Don't worry, um, you will go to Gan Eden, and I will make sure that they don't punish you for this aveira because you really didn't wanna do it, but your friend convinced you. And also it was Pikuach Nefesh. Why should it be an aveira? They did it because the, the, uh, Pi-- Din Torah. If your life is in danger, you can do anything." And so-- And he took off. He left. He says, "Please let me go because my friend is waiting for me. He goes-- He's going to take me back all the way to the Middle East, to Iraq, Syria, to my hometown."