239. Reb Shimon Bar Yochai Saved The Emperor’s Daughter

00:15 Shalom Aleichem, kinders. And a freilechen Lag BaOmer. I'm going to share with you a story with Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. As you know, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai lived in Eretz Yisrael after the Beis Hamikdash was destroyed, and Eretz Yisrael was under the rule of the Romans. The Romans weren't very nice to the Jews. So at one point, the Romans made special laws against the Jews, and they told that the Jews may not keep Shabbos. They must work on Shabbos. They also said the Jews may not do a bris to their s- to their baby boys. Can't do a bris. And so other laws they made that against the Torah. So first, there was a, a... one of the Tana'im that lived, that lived in Rome. His name was Rabbi, Rabbi Reuven, and he would dress up like a Roman, and he would often go dress like a Roman and take a haircut like the Romans, so he would look like one of them, and then he would become friends with the high important officials in Rome, and he would sometimes go and attend their meetings. So whenever there was a decree against the Yidden, he would go and try to get them to change their mind. So in this case, when the Romans made these laws against the Jews, he went. He, you know, he looked like a Roman, he was dressed like a Roman, and they, they thought he was very smart. They liked him, so he would come to their meetings. So at

01:42 one of those meetings, he said, "Listen, I don't understand why we make these rules against the Jews. It's not worth it for us. If you have an enemy," he says, "Let's say you have an enemy, a person you don't like. Would you want him to be rich or poor?" So they said, "Of course we want him to be poor because he's our enemy." He said, "Then if the Jews are our enemy, we don't like the Jews, then why should we tell them to work on Shabbos? If they work on Shabbos, they'll be... make more money, they'll be more rich. You should like the fact they don't work on Shabbos. We should actually encourage them not to work on Shabbos so they wouldn't be so rich." They thought about it and said, "Okay, yeah, you're right. Good idea." And they removed that law. Then the law of bris, same thing. He said, "If you have an enemy, do you want that enemy be strong or weak?" They said, "Of course, he's our enemy. We want him to be weak." He said, "Okay." They said, "Why are you telling the Jews not to do a bris mila? Do you know when you do a bris mila, the baby loses a lot of blood. The ba-baby doesn't get strong. He gets weaker. So we should let them do the bris. It's good for us that they do the bris because then they get weaker." The same thing with the other laws that they made. He had a good

02:52 argument and said, "Listen, you know what? We should not keep these laws." They heard that he was, uh, trying to discourage them, making change their minds about all these laws against the Jews. They started getting suspicious. Maybe he's Jewish. He's pretending to be Romans. And when, when they had that suspicion, they decided, "You know what? We're not gonna listen to him. We're gonna make all the laws back." And they made all the rules against the Jews again, back the way it was before. The, the Jews in Eretz Yisrael were thinking, "Well, how can we go and try to get the Romans to change the rules?" So they had to send a, a group of, of Chachamim, right? Chachamim, rabbis sending to Rome. They should speak to the emperor and ask him to change the rules. Who are they gonna send? Who's gonna be the main person, the main messenger, the main shliach who's gonna go to the, to the emperor? They thought it should be Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. Why him? Because he, they said, is melumad b'nisim. He has-- He's used to have a lot of miracles happen to him. Nisim happened to him a lot. So therefore, it's, it's better that he goes because he'll be protected because Hashem does nisim for him all the time. So he went with a small group of Chachamim that accompanied him, and they... and on the way they went to Rome. They stopped over somewhere because it's a long trip to go to Rome. Can't do

04:12 it in one day. Have to do it in maybe in a few weeks. Takes a few weeks. So they had to stay over in these different places. One place they stayed over, the Gemara says like this: A shin daled, that's like a... it's a, it's a demon. It's a, like a bad spirit that came to, to, to Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and said, "Do you want me to help you get the Romans to change the laws against the Jews?" At first Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai said, "No. Who wants a, a ruach, a shin daled, to come and help us? The others, Avraham, Yitzchak, v'Yaakov, when they needed help, the malachim came and helped them. Yaakov Avinu had malachim helping him, and here the shin daled is gonna help us." But then he thought, "You know what? Maybe I should accept him. As long as we get rid of the gezeiras or the decrees, the laws against the Jews, uh, it's worth it. Let's..." So he said, "Okay, yeah, you help us." Shin daled said, "Okay, I'll meet you in Rome." He went ahead because he's a spirit, he can go very fast. So he flies to Rome, and he goes into the body of the daughter of the emperor. You know what this is? Like a dibbuk. A dibbuk is like when person has a, a, a spirit. It's like a shin, something, uh... right? Um, s- uh, an, a shama, a spirit that comes into a person and makes the person crazy. And this,

05:39 this shin daled went into the mind and the heart of the pre-- the, the king, the, the daughter's, uh, the, the, the emperor's daughter, and she became crazy. Started talking crazy things. And one thing she said, it wa- you know, was, "Only Shimon bar Yochai can help me." And of course, that was the voice of the shin daled inside of her that was saying it, but it sounded like she's saying it. So a few days later, Shimon bar Yochai showed up in Rome. He went to see the emperor and, uh, and he said, "I heard that the emperor's daughter is, is sick, and she became crazy. So I can help her." So the king says, "Sure. Please, let me see you can help her." He went into the room, and he saw the daughter, and he said to the, to the shin daled inside. He called him by his name. He gave... He has his name. He says, "Get out. Get out of her. Get out of her right now. I'm telling you, you must get out of her." And he left. He got out of her, and she became normal again. When the emperor saw this, he was, like, very, very impressed, and he said to Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and his, and his friends, "Go to the treasury house. I'll, I'll tell one of my guards to take you to my treasury house with gold and silver and diamonds. Take whatever you want as a reward for what you did to my daughter."

06:57 So they went there, and they saw in the treasury house a piece of paper, and the piece of paper was exactly the piece of paper where the king had signed those laws against the Jews on that piece of paper. So they took that. The k- the king said, the king said, the king said they can take whatever they want. They took that paper and tore it up, which means there's no more laws against the Jews, and then they left and went back to Eretz Yisrael. And that's how it saved the whole community in Eretz Yisrael. Tzchusa yagein aleinu.