241. The Evil Mossur

00:15 Shalom Aleichem, kindalech. I'm gonna share with you a story that happened in the city of Zbarazh. Zbarazh was a city in Poland, and there lived a very famous tzadik in that city, Rabbi Meshulam Feivish Heller, who was the tzadik, the Rebbe, and the Rav of the city of Zbarazh. He was a Talmud of the Mezritcher Maggid in the time of the Alter Rebbe, and also a Talmud of Rabbi Michel of Zlotchov. In the town of Zbarazh, there lived a Jew by the name Chaim. They called him Chaim the Mossad. Chaim the tell-teller. He would tell on other Jews to the Goyim, to the government, and to the police that the Jews are doing bad things, and then they would punish the Jews. It's called a Mossad. A Mossad means he mosses, he tells the government, the Goyim, the-- something bad about the Jews, so they would hate the Jews, and then they would punish the Jews. And that can be very dangerous because sometimes he's telling things against Jews that are very serious, and then the government is gonna kill the Jews. So people realize that he's a Mossad. He tells on other Jews, it's called a Mossad. And Chaim the Mossad is very dangerous, and they said, "What are we gonna do? He's gonna cause, Chas ve'Shalom, terrible things to the Jews in the whole area." Not only in Zbarazh, but all the towns around. Now, there were several tzadikim that lived in the areas, in the towns around Zbarazh, and they were very

01:37 concerned, and they got together, and they said, "Let's daven to Hashem that Hashem should kill Chaim. Hashem should take him. We're not gonna kill him. Let Hashem take him away, 'cause he's dangerous to, to the, to the Jewish people." But they didn't wanna do it on their own. These were great tzadikim. They could daven, and when they're davening could have a real effect because they had... They were great tzadikim. But they felt that because in the city of Zbarazh, where Chaim the Mossad lived, there's this great tzadik, Rabbi Meshulam Feivish, um, of, of Zbarazh, the, the, the, the, the famous tzadik from the, from the city, we need to ask his permission that he's agreeing with us that we should daven that Hashem should kill Chaim the Mossad. So they all came as a group of tzadikim from the surrounding towns, and they came to Zbarazh, and they asked Rabbi Meshulam Feivish if he'll agree with them to, to daven that they should daven that Hashem should take away this Chaim because he's a big danger to the Jewish community. Rabbi Meshulam Feivish, it was Thursday afternoon when they came to him, Thursday, like, uh, right before Shabbos, like, right before Erev Shabbos. So Rabbi Meshulam Feivish says to them, "Listen, it's before Shabbos. It's not a proper way to prepare for Shabbos by cursing a Jew and davening to Hashem that Hashem should kill him. That's not a proper way to prepare for Shabbos. Let's first do Shabbos and celebrate Shabbos, and after Shabbos

03:07 we'll discuss it." So these tzadikim stayed in Zbarazh for Shabbos and waited for Rabbi, Rabbi Meshulam Feivish to give his, his approval, his consent, his, his agreement that they can curse this Chaim the Mossad. Rabbi Meshulam Feivish didn't talk about this a whole Shabbos. He was busy davening, learning, saying divrei Torah and singing. Didn't wanna think about it on Shabbos. After Shabbos, he called everybody together Sunday morning, and he said, "Listen, let me tell you something. I thought about it on Shabbos. Let me think about it. Let me tell you something. When Mashiach comes, David HaMelech says, 'Yoivilu shai lama'arah.' When Mashiach comes, the kings, the non-Jewish kings of the world, of the different nations, will bring a present to Mashiach." The question is, why would they bring a present to Mashiach? The answer is because when, when the-- all the nations of the world, especially the kings of all those nations, when they hear that Mashiach came, they'll hear the s- the sound of the shofar, and they'll hear the blast of the shofar. There'll be such a terrifying blast, they'll all get scared and say, "Oy vey, Mashiach came. He's going to punish us because we did all the terrible things to the Jews during the Galus. We made the Jews suffer. Now he's gonna punish us. Oy." They got very scared. So the kings got together-- will get together, and they'll say, "What should we do to save ourselves from Mashiach?" And, and the kings will decide, "You know what? Each one

04:43 of us is gonna go to our own treasury." Right? The treasury house. Every, every, every king has a big treasure house where he has so many diamonds and gold and silver, endless, endless, endless because they-- the kings were very rich. "We'll all choose the nicest piece of diamond and jewelry, and we'll bring it as a present to Mashiach, and then he'll be nice to us." So there was a wise man there, and he said, "Oh, come on, you guys are stupid. You mean to say that Mashiach needs your jewelry? You think he needs your money? You think he cares about your jewelry? Mashiach has got whatever he-- he has plenty of that. He doesn't need it. He doesn't care about it. He doesn't care about the cashmires, he doesn't care about diamonds and the rings and... Well, you're not gonna make him happy with this." So they said, "Oh yeah, you're right. You're right. So then what can we bring him? What can we bring?" So the wise man said, "Listen, there's one thing that's gonna make Mashiach very happy if you bring it to him as a present. Bring him a Jew." "A Jew?" they said. "A Jew? H- all the Jews went to greet Mashiach. They're all... Everybody heard Mashiach is here, so all the Jews left, and they went to, to be with Mashiach." Said-- the wise man will say to them, "Yeah, but you know there are Jews that are so far away from the Jewish community, they ran away- They

06:05 decided to go as far as possible from Torah and mitzvahs and not to be-- have any connection with the Jewish people. They want to become like the Goyim. They're trying to be like the Goyim. They don't want even the Goyim to know that they're Jewish. They wanna completely mix with the Goyim, and some of them are so bad that they tell on Jews to the Goyim. They go to the Goyim and tell bad things about the Jews, so the Jews would get hurt and, and punished. So those Jews did not go to greet Mashiach. I can promise you they're somewhere between the Goyim, you know, running away from Mashiach. So you kings, each one of you go to your country, find these lost Jews who are so far away from the Jewish community that even the Jewish community doesn't like them because they, they were so bad to them, and you find that Jew, and you bring him, and you clean him, and you take him as a present, and you bring him to Mashiach. "Here, Mashiach, I have a present for you, a Yid, a Jew." And Mashiach is gonna like it so much he's gonna take that Jew, even that terrible bad Jew, a Rasha. Mashiach will love him anyways. He'll take him, and he'll wash him and clean him and make him do Teshuvah until he will do a, a real Teshuvah and become a real-- uh, become a Tzadik, and then he'll join the Jewish people. Says Rabbi Sholom Fayvish to

07:30 the Tzadikim, "You understand Chaim the Masia, when Mashiach comes he will be such a-- he'll be like a hero. Th-the king of the country is gonna take him and bring him as a great present wrapped in a, you know, in a wrapping paper, present for, for presents and a li-- bow on top. Here's a present for Mashiach, a Jew, a lost Jew, and Mashiach is gonna rejoice so much for having a Jew, another Jew that's lost far away. You want me to curse a Jew like this? How can I do this? No, I can't do that." The Tzadikim who came realized that it's not gonna work. Rabbi Sholom Fayvish is not going to agree. His Ahavas Yisroel even for a Jew like this is so great. They decided we have to wait something. We'd have to do something else. Let's wait till Chaim decides one day to move to another city. He'll move to another city, and there in the other city, he will no longer be in the same city as the Rabbi Sholom Fayvish. Rabbi Sholom Fayvish will not be able to protect him, so we'll be able to daven and, and, and, and curse him, and Hashem will, will kill him. And so it happened f-- a short while later, Chaim decided, "I'm gonna move to another city called Rupshtzyn." Rupshtzyn, they had a very famous Tzadik, a Rov, a big Rebbe. His name was Rabbi Naftali of Rupshtzyn. Naftali of Rupshtzyn, but he was different than Rabbi Sholom Fayvish. Now, Chaim

09:13 when he came to the city of Rupshtzyn decided to go still to Rabbi Naftali's house, and he thought, "Okay, I'm gonna convince Rabbi Naftali that, that he's wrong and I'm right. I'm gonna convince him that all the stupid Torah and mitzvahs are really not important. I'm gonna argue with him, and I'm gonna make fun of him, you know?" Chaim came to the city. Chaim came to Rupshtzyn, went straight to the-- Rabbi Naftali's house, and he decided to make a joke and make fun of Rabbi Naftali first. He said, "Rabbi Naftali, Rebbe, they suggested for me two kallas, you know, getting married to a kallah, but there, there's two suggestions of two kallas. I need your help to decide which kallah I should marry." To him it was way like making a joke, you know, of Rabbi Naftali. Rabbi Naftali said to him, "Oh, they suggested for you two kallas, and you want me to help you? Well, I'll help you. I'll give you both kallas." You know which two kallas? In the-- In Tehillim there's a passuk. "Kaleim-- Kalei b'chemah, kalei ve'ein nima." Kala. One kala-- Kala means destroy them. David Hamelech is asking Hashem to destroy the evil people. Kalei b'chemah, destroy the evil people with your anger. Kalei ve'ein nima, destroy the evil people so there will be no more. Rabbi Naftali turns to Ch-Chaim the Masia, "You see? Both kallas I'm giving you. You should be destroyed with Hashem's anger, and you should be destroyed, and you'll no longer be around." So

10:58 he wanna make problems to people. And a few days later, that's exactly what happened. Chaim was going somewhere, and he fell off a, um, a horse or something, and he broke his neck, and he died. That's the story, but what do we learn from the story? So we see Tzadikim that even the biggest Rasha'im, they wouldn't wanna curse. It was hard for them, and that's really what the Baal Shem Tov taught us, is to love even a Rasha, you have to love him.