246. The Simple Tailor And The Chozeh Of Lublin

00:15 Shalom aleichem, kindlech. I will tell you a story that was told by the great Hasid, Rebbe Srul Noyech Ber Linitsky. Rebbe Ber Linitsky was a Hasid at the time of the Rebbe HaSha"b, the Friediker Rebbe and the Rebbe. Uh, the story he heard from a Hasid, not a-- a Polisher Hasid, not a Chabad Hasid, in Kremenchug in Russia many years ago. There was a man who was very wealthy. He was a rich man and a talmid chacham. He had a big business. He had a custom, a minhag, that he never sat down to eat a meal with his family unless there was a guest. There had to be a guest at the table, otherwise he wouldn't eat. One day, it was a Sunday, uh, the family was sitting down for lunch, and they invited to... asked the, the host to come, and he said, "I'm sorry, I'm not eating. I see there's no guest at the table, and I can't change my minhag, so you guys can eat, but I'm not gonna eat." They came for dinner. He hadn't eaten all day. He fasted all day because he didn't want to eat without a guest at the table. So the family sat down for dinner, and they said, "Aren't you coming to eat with us?" He says, "No, I can't eat because I don't have a guest at the table. But I'll eat a shtickel mezonos. I, you know, I can't fast forever. So I'll just, uh, break my fast by eating a little mezonos

01:54 and drink a, a tea or something, uh, but I can't eat a, a regular meal." Same thing the next day. Came lunchtime, they wanna eat, and he says, "Well, there's no guest. I can't." Because there were no people, you know, guests traveling through the city, so he couldn't get a guest. And so it went Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, till literally f-Thursday night. He still wouldn't eat supper. He just ate, broke his fast with a little mezonos, and that's it. A little piece of cake and a drink, and that's it. So the family got worried, so they decided to send out, uh, to the highway outside the city. Maybe they'll find a, a traveler who needs a place for Shabbos. It's already almost... It's already Friday. So we're gonna, we're gonna invite him for Shabbos so he can eat on Shabbos. Like very, very late at night, they saw an old man with a backpack who is traveling, and they told him, "Listen, can you please do us a favor and come to the house and stay with us for Shabbos? Because the, the, the host, the, the, the head of the family is a very rich man, but he wouldn't eat unless there's a guest, and he's gonna keep fasting. He already fasting a whole week." So the old man says, "Okay, I'll come and stay with you." Now, so it comes Shabbos, Friday night. Everybody's sitting at the table, and the host is also sitting at the table. And the minhag was that when the

03:24 host was to sit at the table with his family, he had his daughters and sons and son-in-laws. They were all sitting, uh, at the table, and also the guest, the old man. They didn't know him, but he was a stranger that passed by, and they... He sat next to the son-in-law of the host. Now, the minhag was that the host would say a Dvar Torah first. Every time he would have a meal, he would say a Dvar Torah because it says in the Mishnah, to have a meal with, with family or with friends without a word of Torah is like, you know, disgusting. The Mishnah says it's like eating, um, uh, like a Avodah Zarah, right? A Jewish meal has to have Divrei Torah. So whenever you kindlech, you sit a meal, al- always make sure there's a word of Torah, even a pasuk or something. Something from a sicha, something from a ma'amar, something that you heard, a story. A story, a Chassidishe story is also Torah. Make sure there is something, even something short. And this host, that was his minhag. He would say a Dvar Torah, then he would honor everybody at the table to say a Dvar Torah, uh, one after the other, right? In order. So first the person on his right, and the next person, the next person. So his son-in-law was sitting next to the old man. He said a Dvar Torah. And then the host said to, to the old... to the guest, "Maybe you have a

04:49 word of Torah to share." And the old man says, "No, I don't have any Torah." So the son-in-law said next to him, said, "How could it be a Jew, an older man, a Jew shouldn't have a wor-- one word of Torah?" And that's it. So the host says to the son-in-law, "Leave him alone. He's probably tired now. Maybe tomorrow, Shabbos lunch, he'll be more rested. He'll say a word of Torah." And so the whole Torah... the whole table, everybody went... They went in, in, in, in, in, in, in a row. Everybody said a word of Torah, and that's it. The next m-- day, it was Shabbos. They went to shul. They came back for lunch, and again, the host says a word of Torah. Then the son-in-law and the sons and... And when it comes to the old man, he says, "I'm sorry, I don't have a Dvar Torah." So the son-in-law again says, "An old man doesn't have Torah? What's going on here? How could it be?" That's it. Nothing. So the host says l-- to the son-in-law, "Leave him alone. Leave him alone. Listen, maybe for Shalosh Seudos he'll say something." Okay. There's another meal. Comes Shalosh Seudos, and again, the host says a word of Torah, then the s- the k- the kids and the son-in-law. And then the old man says again, "I don't have a word of Torah." Now, now the, uh, the young man, the, the son-in-law says to the old man- Oh, this is disgusting. How can you

06:11 not have a word of Torah? At least a passuk. Say a passuk from Tehillim. Say a passuk from Chumash. You can't even say one word of Torah, like even to say, "Shema Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad." That's a word of Torah. The man says, "No, I don't know any Torah." So the, when the young man said to the old man, "How can you... It is so disgusting. A Jew doesn't know any word of Torah. That's terrible." So the old man turns to the son-in-law and says, "A, a young man who's going to be a rav in this, in this town is gonna earn five kopiks." That's like a certain amount of small... Very little money, right? The community is not gonna have a lot of money. They're gonna pay my salary. And a young man like this should insult me like this? You're gonna be a rav in a small shtetl, and you're gonna earn a very little living, and you are insulting me? That's it. And everybody was surprised and, uh, almost laughed because the son-in-law of the, of the, of the, of the host was rich because he worked in the business of his father-in-law, and he had a lot of money, and he's not gonna be a rav. He's not planning to be a rav. They thought it was just, just a stupid thing he said. And so everybody finished saying the V'ahavta and Shabbos was over. And Motzaei Shabbos, the guest, the old man, said goodbye to the host. Says, "I'm

07:35 leaving now, so I wanna s- uh, thank you for the-- for being your guest." And the host says to him, "Oh, I wanna thank you because you literally saved me because I wouldn't eat unless I have a guest, and you came to my house, and you became my guest. So you did me a big favor, so I wanna thank you. But I have one question for you. I have one question for you. What did you mean when you said to my son-in-law by Shalashudis that you will be a rav in a small shtetl, and you said the name of the shtetl, and you said how much he will earn every month, like a few, few, few kopiks. And H-I mean, how do you know that? Do you know that for a fact that this is gonna happen? My son-in-law is in my business. He's not g- becoming a rav. What did you mean by that?" So the guest said, "I have to tell you something about me." He says, "I am a tailor. I'm a simple tailor. I'm not a knowledgeable Jew, but I'm a simple tailor. Simple Jew, I t- I don't know much Torah. I don't know a n- I don't know a lot of Torah. I'm a Frum Jew. I'm a Jew that tries to keep mitzvahs, but I'm not learned. I worked for a Politz. I used to make all the closing, all the clothing for his, for him, for his wife, for his kids, and for his servants. I used

08:54 to sew up. Well, that was my job, and they paid me well. One day, the Politz tells me that, 'I am going to have a special celebration, big celebration in honor of the anniversary of me and my wife's wedding, like 50 years of our wedding. So I'm going to make a big party, so I need new clothes, special, nice, uh, holiday clothes for me, my wife, my kids, all my servants, and I want you to be the one to sew the-- to make the clothing, to sew it up. Now, you have to buy a lot of good material because I want very nice material, which is expensive. So I'm going to give you 300 ruble, and you can go to the big city and go buy all the material you need, and then I'm giving you a few months to sew up all the clothing.'" "So I..." He took... He says, "I took the, the money from the Politz, and I went, and I traveled. On my way, while traveling, I suddenly hear... I w- I was traveling through a little town, and I hear a screaming, screaming, screaming, and I went with my wagon and horse towards the screaming. I wanted to see who was screaming. And then I see... I come in front of a house. There's a whole bunch of police officers, and they're surrounding a house with a family. So I asked the officers, "What, what, what's happening?" They said, 'Well, we're going to take them to jail.' 'Why?' 'Because the

10:20 Politz of this town, he owns the whole town, and the, the man of the house here, the family that we're going to put in jail, he owns a krachmach.'" It's a... It's like a bar, right? "A bar which he rented from the Politz, and he hasn't paid his rent in a few years. So the Politz told us to, to go and put him and his whole family in, in the dungeon, in a prison. So I asked the officers, 'How much money does he owe?' And they said, 'We don't know. Go to the Politz's manager. He, he has all the numbers, all the accounts. He knows what they... everybody owes the Politz.' So I went to the, to the manager of the accounts of the, of the Politz, and I said to him, 'How much does this family owe?' He says, 'Well, 300 rubles.' So I asked him, 'And if I, if, if I would pay the 300 rubles, will you set them free?' And they said... And he said, 'Yes, of course.' So I took out the 300 rubles that the Politz gave-- my Politz gave me to buy materials for the clothing that he wants for the special celebration, and I gave it to the, to the Politz's, uh, manager. I said, 'Here, take this.' And the manager went straight to the police and says, 'Okay, leave them alone. They are free. They don't have to go to jail.' And he saved the whole family from a terrible, terrible situation. The, the, the head

11:48 of the family, the, the guy who owned the bar, the, the bar, and he saw what I did, that I saved the family. He came over to me and hugged me and cried and thanked me, thanked me so much. 'You saved me and my family, and, and, and I, I can't thank you enough. And one day, maybe I'll pay you back for that. I'll, I'll, I'll do you a favor back somehow. And if I can't do it in this world, I promise you- If I die before you, I'll come back from the other world and do you a favor. So that's it. I just went away, and I realized I don't have any money with me. The posek-- my po- my posek gave me money to buy clothing, uh, material for clothing. I have nothing left. What am I gonna do now? I thought and thought, and then I decided I have to go back to my posek and tell him like this: I took the three hundred rubles, I was traveling to the city, and on the way, I had to go through a forest, and a bunch of gangsters, robbers attacked me, and they robbed me of all my money. And then I'll see what he does. Either he'll accept it and say, "Okay, fine, no problem," or he won't believe me, and who knows what he's gonna do to me, but who cares? What can I do? I have no choice. I have to save the life of the, this whole family.

13:20 And I decided to do so. I went back, and I told the posek the whole story the way I made it up. And the story he said to me, "I know you have always been very honest. I've never caught you saying a lie, so I believe you now too. So here, take another three hundred rubles and go buy the materials you need." And I went, and I bought the materials, and I made all the clothing. And I worked for this posek for many, many years till I got older, and I decided, you know, I'm living in a village where there's a posek, and I'm working for the posek. There's no Jews here. Maybe one or two Jews. There's no minyan. I never daven with a minyan. I'm a simple Jew. I don't have a Jewish community. It's time for me to retire from my job and to move to the big city where there's a shul, there's a minyan, there's a whole Jewish community, and I can be part of a minyan, part of a shul. And I moved to another city, to a big city where there were Jews, and I used to go every day to shul and daven and say Tehillim. I wanted to, the, the rest of my life to, to spend time davening and doing good things. It was the night of Yom Kippur. The evening of Yom Kippur, I went to shul like I went every Shabbos and every day to shul. So that's why that night of Yom

14:42 Kippur I went to shul, and I said that I went early. I decided to go early. To go early. I went early, and I sat down in a, in a seat where I thought I could sit for, for Yom Kippur and daven. And I have my, my kittel on, and I have my tallis, and I put my tallis over my head, you know, trying to think about the importance of Yom Kippur and how we'd have to do teshuvah for the averes. I'm thinking, and suddenly I feel somebody's pushing me. So I, I lift the tallis off my head to see who's pushing me, and I can't see anybody. So I moved. I don't know, maybe somebody pushed me and went away. So I went further. So I moved. Maybe it's his seat. He's pushing me because it's his seat, so I moved. So then I feel again somebody, "Oh." So I went to a different seat. Maybe somebody else wants to sit here. Until I finally realized I was at the very end. I, I couldn't go any further. And then I took the tallis off my head again, and I see this Jew who owned the bar, and he almost went to jail with his whole family, and I saved him. He's standing there with his tachrichim, with his white, you know, clothes that you dress people when they, they get buried. And he's telling me, "Listen, I promise to do you a favor for what you did for me. You saved me and

16:05 my family's life. I'll do you a favor either when I'm alive or later. I couldn't do you a favor when I was alive, but now I'm already in Olam Haemes. I'm in Gan Eden, and I came back to do you a favor. And what did I do? What is, what is the favor I'm gonna do for you? I'm gonna show you how Ga-- Yom Kippur is celebrated in Gan Eden." That's a whole different experience, right? The Sham is in Gan Eden. Yom Kippur, this is like the-- what they feel. Hashem's presence is so intense we can't even begin to imagine when you're here in this world. But to have an experience of what it's like to, to be on Kippur in Gan Eden is, like, completely, uh, unusual. It's an amazing experience. And he, and he says, the tailor tells the story, um, to the rich man that he was, uh, for Shabbos. He says, tells him, "I mean, immediately my, my, I started pouring tears from my eyes for what I experienced, and it felt like everything was, like, very, very short. I, I, I, I didn't realize that by the time I, I, like, lifted up my tallis, I saw the shamash standing in front of me saying, 'You know, Yom Kippur is over. People went home already. The lights are out. We were going to have to shut the last bit of light and close the shul. I have to lock the shul. Why are you still davening? Can you finish davening?

17:35 It's already past the fast.' I had no idea that I was sitting there the, the night of Yom Kippur before sun, and I went early, and I sat through the entire twenty-four hours, and it felt like a few minutes. I didn't realize because, uh, you know, in Gan Eden time is, is, uh, different than time here. Everything sounds... Is, is, uh, much... It feels much less time." So I... Okay, so I went home. The shamash said he needs to cl- lock the door, so I went home. But before the, the, the Jew who came from Gan Eden, before he left, he said to me, "Let me give you good advice." Go to Lublin. There's a big tzadik there, the Chozer of Lublin. They call him the seer of Lublin. Go to him. He'll tell you what to do. And the next day after Yom Kippur, I traveled to Lublin. I went to Lublin, and the Chozer says, I mentioned the whole story to the Chozer of Lublin. And he said to me, you need to stay here for a year and daven together with me from my siddur. We'll daven together from the same siddur. When I daven from the siddur, you'll daven next to me, and you read in the same siddur as I'm reading. And that you'll do for an entire year. Shach is mincha ma'ariv every day. The tailor says, okay, I did this. I davened. In the end of the year, the Chozer said to me, I'm giving you a gift.

19:21 A present. That wherever you see a person, you'll know what's going to be in the future for them. Because of the great mitzvah that you did, that you saved the whole family from a terrible situation, you'll get a gift that you'll see a person, you'll know exactly what's going to happen. He says, I saw that your son-in-law will be a rav in a small shtetl. I, you're asking me. He's in business. He has a lot of money. He doesn't need to be a rav in a small shtetl. Listen. That's what I saw, and that's what I told you. And he left. It so happened that a few years later, the rich man lost all his money, and his son-in-law also didn't have any money left. And he had no choice. He had to find a job. Because he was a Talmud Chacham, he was able to find a job of a Rabbonis. He became a rav in a shtetl, in a small shtetl. And they paid him four or five kopkes. That was the salary. Here we see the great, great thing of when you save someone, you help somebody. It doesn't have to be saving a life. Even if you help somebody, if somebody needs help, somebody has a problem, they're upset, they're not You just reaching out, doing something nice for them, making them feel better, is by Hashem so, so special, especially in these days before Rosh Hashanah. Kol tov and be well and do the right thing.