243. Shimon Noson The Baal Tshuva Who Saved The Holy Rizhiner

00:15 Shalom Aleichem, kinderlach. You all heard of the great tzadik, Reb Meir of Premishlan. Reb Meir Premishlan was famous for knowing Beruch HaKodesh. He know everything that people did from the day they were born. Once there was a man by the name Noson Shimon. Noson Shimon was unfortunately a Jew who became less religious. Not only less religious, he became like completely not religious. He stopped doing mitzvahs, stopped learning Torah. He became friends with all these types of Jews that think that they are smarter than the Torah, and they, they know what's, what's, what's, what's, what's important, and the Torah is not so important to them. And he stopped learning and davening and, and doing mitzvahs, and he lived like Goyim. His wife, on the other hand, was a very good woman, and she was very, very good. She did mitzvahs and followed Torah. She was very upset about her husband being not religious like this. And they didn't have children. Noson Shimon and his wife were married for a long time, they didn't have any children. So she wanted to go to Reb Meir Premishlan. She heard that this great tzadik, uh, when he tells people you have a child, it happens. You know, he c- he has a great power, great, great power in Shamayim, and, and whatever he says happens. So she told the husband, "Noson Shimon, go to the tzadik. He'll give you a berachah for children." He says, "Ah, tzadik. I don't believe in all that stuff. I don't believe in any

01:59 of this. This is all, all s- nonsense. You know, I, I, I believe only in, uh, you know, logical things like science and mathematics. But, but all that stuff, religious stuff, I don't believe in it." So she decided to go herself. She went to the great tzadik, to Premishlan. Premishlan is in Poland. And she went to the tzadik and she says, "Rebbe, I need a berachah from you to have children." So the s- rebbe says to her, "Where's your husband? Why didn't your husband come? Normally, the husband comes and asks for the berachah." So she said, "My husband, oy, oy, he, he, he doesn't believe in it. He doesn't believe in anything, and that's why he didn't wanna come. So I came instead of him." So the rebbe said to the wife, "Go back home. Tell your husband that I want him to come to me. I want him personally to come to me f- to ask for a berachah. And he's gonna laugh at you, right?" "Ha, who is the rebbe to tell me to come to him?" "Well, tell him as a sign that I know who he is, he just spent time in a city called Galatz, and he did a certain thing in that city, something ver-- nobody knew about." It was a secret thing that he did. He didn't say what it was, but something very, very embarrassing. And the rebbe said, "Tell your husband I know he was in that city, and he just did this, this thing on

03:39 that day. And that will be a sign to him that I know what he did, and I know everything about him." So she went back home, and her husband came home from the city called Galatz. She said to him, "Please, why don't you travel to Reb Meir?" "Ah, leave me alone. This nonsense, the rebbe, tzadik, what do they know? It's nothing. This is like people believe superstition. It's like doesn't-- it's nothing is true about it. It's nothing is that true." So she said, "Hey, the rebbe actually told me to tell you, you must come to him very soon. He wants to see you, and as a sign that he knows everything about you, he said you were just in the city of Galatz, and you did this and this and this and this thing on that day at that time." When he heard this, he turned white. "How does the rebbe know this? Nobody knows this." But he was embarrassed. He's gonna tell his friends, "Oh, I'm going to Premishlan to this tzadik." They'll laugh at him because they also didn't believe in anything. "Oh, yeah, you became crazy? You believe in these rebbes and tzadikim?" So what did he say? He told them, "I'm going to another city. I'm going to a city called Lviv." And they're for business, right? I, I will lie to them. He lied to them 'cause if he tells them he's going to Premishlan, everybody knows if you're going to Premishlan, you go to see the big, the big

05:08 tzadik, right? Nobody goes for business to Premishlan, you know. So he told them a, a lie that he went... He's going to Lviv. So he told them he's going to Lviv, but instead he went to Premishlan. He came to the rebbe. The rebbe says, "Who are you?" He says, "My name is Noson Shimon." "What are you doing here?" He says, "I came here because I wanted a berachah from you." He said, "Well, you told your friends that you're going to Lviv, right? Well, you need to go back to your hou- to the house, tell all your friends you're coming to Premishlan, and come back here." Right? He said, "Tell them the truth, you're coming here." So he went back, he had no choice. Told all his friends that he's going to Premishlan to see the big tzadik, and they all laughed at him. But he knew that he has no choice. He's gotta tell them because the rebbe said so. Came to Premishlan- And the Rebbe said to him, "What do you want?" He said, "Well, I need a bracha for children." He said, "Well, you are such a rosha. You've done so many averas. How can I give you a bracha? But I'll tell you one thing. There's one thing that you can do that I can help you." So first of all, when he heard the Rebbe said that he did so many averas, and the Rebbe started telling him, "You did this and this avera on that day. You remember in that

06:32 place? You remember that big avera you did?" "Wow," I said, "Rebbe, no, I did this." "And you did this big avera in this day on that place." He started giving him a whole list of the biggest averas he did in his life. And he started crying. He said, "Rebbe, help me do teshuva. I want to do teshuva. I want to do teshuva." And the Rebbe said to him, "Listen, this is the way you're going to do teshuva. There's a very big tzadik. His name is Rebbe Yisroel of Ruzhin, right? The holy Ruzhiner, right? The big tzadik, the Ruzhiner." Ruzhiner was, as you know, in prison, right? I already told this story before, how he went in prison because they made up a story, a lie about him that he wants to become the, overthrow the government, like, you know, stories that weren't true. And they put him in prison. And you, Nelson Shimon, you live next to the border between Russia and Austria, two countries. We're going to save, somebody's going to save, get the Ruzhiner out of prison in the middle of the night, and he's going to try to cross the border to another country so the Russians can't catch him, right? He's going to run away from Russia in the middle of the night, and he's going to need help getting across the border because to get across the border from Russia into Austria, which is another country, you have to cross a big river. And the Ruzhiner cannot swim. He doesn't,

08:09 he can't do it. So you are going to go meet him in the middle of the night and take him across the river to the other country, and there he's going to be safe because the Russians can't go into Austria. It's not their country. And he says, "When you do this, that will be a big mitzvah for you because you're going to be such a zechus that you're going to save such a holy tzadik, and that will be your teshuva." So Nelson Shimon found out where the Ruzhiner is going, when he's traveling, and when he's leaving the prison. He found out all the details, and he went and made sure to meet the Ruzhiner while he was running away from prison near the border of Austria. And he said, "Rebbe, do you know how to swim?" The Ruzhiner says, "No." He says, "Well, Rebbe, you go on my shoulders. I know how to swim, and you will swim. I will swim and take you across the river." And the Ruzhiner went on his shoulders or on his back. Nelson Shimon was very strong, and the Ruzhiner was extremely big. He was sick. He had a sickness, so he was very, very big. He weighed a lot, but Nelson Shimon held him very strongly, and he swam across the river. And in the middle of the night, the guards didn't see him because if the guards caught him, they would arrest him and send him back to prison. It would be very dangerous because if you

09:42 run away from prison, they might actually kill you. But he managed to cross the river in a place where there were no guards, went into Austria, and he saved his life. And the Ruzhiner said to him, "Nelson Shimon, because you did this, I promise that you will go to Olam Haba." On the way, the Ruzhiner, what was he doing? While he was swimming, it was very hard because it was a big river, very wide. He had to swim for a long time and carry this big man, the Ruzhiner. It's not easy. The Ruzhiner was singing a song on a prayer of Tehillim. Do you know that prayer of Tehillim? We say it every Shabbos. And he sang a very beautiful song the whole time while he was taken across the river, and they made it across. And the Ruzhiner ended up in a city called Sadigur. It's a city not far, and that's where he lived for the rest of his life, and he was saved from the Tsar, from the Russian Tsar. When Nelson Shimon came back to Premishlan, he told the Rebbe from Premishlan, "I did what you told me to do. I saved the Ruzhiner's life." He said to him, "What did he tell you when you took him across?" He told me, "Promise me I will get Olam Haba." He says, "You know, if he tells you, you're guaranteed to go to Olam Haba." He says, "And now you can do teshuva." And he did teshuva and became a big Hasid

11:21 of Rebbe Meir of Premishlan. That is the story