240. Reb Peretz’s Mysterious Dream

00:15 Shalom Aleichem, kinderlach. Let me, uh, share with you a story, uh, with a great Hasid, Reb Peretz Mochkin. Reb Peretz Mochkin was a, one of the great Hasidim in Chabad. Came out of Russia, was a Hasid of the Rebbe Rashab, and learned in the Yeshiva of Tomchei Tmimim in Lubavitch during the time of the Rebbe Rashab. Then he was a Hasid of the Friediker Rebbe, and then a Hasid of the Rebbe. Later on, he came out of Russia and lived in Canada, in Montreal, and, uh, he was one of the great Hasidim. Reb Peretz, when he was younger, he lived in Russia. This story took place during the war when the Nazis, the Germans tried to conquer all of Europe, and they killed so many Jews. So they conquered over all of Poland, and they got to the border of Russia, and were going now to conquer Russia. Russia was a very big country, so there were Hasidim and Jews who realized that they're better off to save their lives from the Nazis to run further away from the Nazis deep inside Russia. Deep inside Russia meant that you get all the way to this, uh, country called Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan was part of Russian, of the Russian, uh, country, uh, of the, the, the, the, the kingdom of Russia. But it was a separate state. So they ran to Uzbekistan. In Uzbekistan, there were two main cities called Tashkent and Samarkand, and many Hasidim ran away to, to Tashkent and Samarkand to live there until

02:00 the Germans, the Nazis lose the war, and they did eventually. Because, uh, the Nazis couldn't get that far into Russia. Eventually they lost the war, and they were defeated, and they-- that's it. There was no more. They were no, no longer there. But while Reb Peretz lived in Tashkent, uh, as I said, m- other Hasidim lived there too, an amazing story happened. Reb Peretz wanted to go to Samarkand to, to visit Hasidim in Samarkand, and he and two more friends, Reb Avrohom Mayer and the other guy was Reb Yechezkel Kahan. These two of his Hasidische friends, they also were gonna join him. Now the son of Reb Peretz had a business. He would buy a lot of stuff, whether it's clothes or socks or shoes in Sa- in, in Tashkent, and he would travel, uh, with a truck, an old truck which a goy was driving, a Russian goy was driving, and they would pile up the truck with all his stuff that he would sell and travel to Samarkand and sell everything and make money from that. Reb Peretz told his son, "I hear you're going to Samarkand. I wanna join you. Can I go onto the truck with you so that I can go get a ca- get a ride to Samarkand?" Of course, his son agreed, and the two other Hasidim also joined them. Now it was a very difficult trip because normally it takes about a few hours to get to Samarkand, but it took them more than a day, a

03:36 day and a half to get to Samarkand. Why? Because in those days, there were always, um, every, every few miles there were, like, police and, and soldiers w- out by the road and stopping every car that passed by and checking their papers to see if they have good papers. Um, and, and if not, they would go to prison. And the Hasidim usually didn't have good papers, um, because they weren't always allowed to be living in this co- in this part of the country. You need to have special papers to live in that part of the country. So what they did is when they saw the soldiers from a distance, they would get off the truck, and the Hasidim would walk on foot, like far away where the soldiers can't see them, and pass, pass where the soldiers were standing, and the truck would be driven on the road by the goy, the driver, who would just pa-- He, he had good papers. He was a Russian peasant, so they let him through. And then the Reb Peretz and his friends would meet up with the driver past the place where the soldiers were and would get back into the truck, and they would drive again. But they had to do it a lot of times. Then a few times the truck would break down, and the goy would go and fix it. Once on the road, they were near a village, very far off a village which really very few people lived there, like a

05:03 small, small, small village. The truck broke down on the road, and they tried to fix it. But this time, no matter how much they tried to fix it, it didn't work. So the driver said, "We have no choice. We have no choice. We have to go into the village and find a mechanic who is going to fix the truck." So they went into the village. So they found a mechanic, and Reb Peretz walked out of the truck just to, you know, the-- while they're fixing the, the truck, he went out of the truck, and he sees a lady and a husband who's behind her. He's walking over to them and saying, "Shalom Aleichem, Yidden. Shalom Aleichem." See, he, Reb Peretz realized right away these are Jewish people. He never imagined that Jews live in such a small village. And then he hears the woman saying to her husband, "You know, now we can do a Pidyon HaBen for our son 'cause we have-- we'll have a minyan." Because we have Jews here that they can come and join us for a minyan. So her husband said back to her, to his wife, Pidyon Haben, we didn't even do a bris yet for him. When he was eight days old, we didn't have a mohel. There was no mohel in the whole village, so we didn't give him a bris. We need to do a bris first, and then we can do a Pidyon Haben. So when the Peretz heard this, he walked over to the

06:27 couple and said to them, listen, I've been a mohel. It's been a long time since I did a bris for a baby, but I am trained to be a mohel. I'm trained. I know how to do a bris. Let's get a minyan together to your house, and I will do the bris. But how do you find a Peretz didn't come prepared with a knife? No, the mohelim have a special knife. He says, listen, go find me, he said to the father of the baby, to the husband of this woman. Go to the barbershop and see if he has very, very simple sharper blade. And the barbershop did have it, and he loaned it to him. And with that, the Peretz did the bris. And they named the baby's boy Shimon. Then they did a quick meal. It's a mitzvah to eat a meal by a bris. And during the meal, the Peretz got up and told a shocking story what's behind this trip. And now he revealed the reason he was actually traveling now from Tashkent to Samarkand. And he told the family and all the people that were there that actually he wasn't planning to take a trip. He wasn't going to travel from Tashkent to Samarkand. But the night before, I went to sleep. And in my dream, someone is telling me, get up, get up and travel. You must go travel. And when you travel, you find something very important. I woke up from the dream, and I remembered what I dreamt.

08:11 And I thought it was just a stupid dream. I went back to sleep. As I went back to sleep, suddenly again I hear the same voice telling me, don't go to sleep. Get up and go. You need to go somewhere. Because there's something very important that you need to do. So again, I thought it was just a stupid dream, and I went back to sleep. When it happened a third time, I said, this is not normal. Something must be going on. And I got up, and I got dressed, and I told my wife, I don't know where to go. Because in the dream, I didn't hear where I should travel. She said, travel. My son, I know, is going in the morning to Samarkand. So I'll ask him. I'll travel with him. I don't know what else to do. And that's how I ended up traveling with my son to Samarkand. Because of this dream. And now, then we noticed that the truck broke down. And no matter how much we tried to fix it, every time we fixed it, it was fine. This time, we couldn't fix it. We had no choice. We had to go into the village. And I realized this is Hashem made this happen so that I would come here. And now I know what the dream was about. It was so that I can meet you and help you do a bris for your son. And then the pidyon haben. They did the pidyon haben right after the bris.

09:38 Now, that boy, Shimon, that boy, Shimon, grew up. He ended up living in Eretz Yisrael, in Bnei Brak. His name is Shimon Eilenberg. And he eventually found out where Reb Peretz lived. And he wrote him a beautiful letter that I heard from my mother. The incredible story of how you did my bris and the dream that you had. That Min HaShamayim, they pushed you to wake up and go because a Jewish boy, a baby boy in some little village far away from Jews needs to have a bris. So I want to thank you for what you did for me. And that's the end of the story.