251. The Riziner Reveals How A Simple Jew On Yom Kippur Took Away A Decree

00:15 The story is that once on the night of Yom Kippur, the holy Rogashiner was seen pacing the shul back and forth. He seemed very restless and preoccupied, and his chasidim didn't wanna ask him. They were a little bit intimidated. And so this happened all night. The Rogashiner went back to his room. A few hours later, he came out to the shul again and paced again the shul back and forth, and he seemed very preoccupied. In the morning on Yom Kippur, he seemed very happy, so there was a change of his mood. Nobody knew why. On Rosh Hashanah Yom Kippur, chasidim decided they need to ask him about it. Something went on, something mysterious. And so chasidim came over to the Rogashiner, and the Rogashiner understood right away what they wanted, and he told them, "Listen, in town, at the end of the town, there's a man by the name Meir. He is a shamesh, like a caretaker, takes care of his property. Tell the caretaker I wanna see him." Uh, boneh. A delegation of chasidim went down to Meir's house. They asked him for his helper, and the helper when he heard that none other than the Rogashiner himself wants to see him, he got very scared and he said, "Please, no, no, I can't go." He's afraid. They went back to the Rogashiner, and the Rogashiner said, "Listen, tell him not to be afraid. I just want him to come here. He shouldn't be afraid of anything. Nothing will happen to him." So they

01:52 went back. They got him. He came to the Rogashiner, and the Rogashiner said to him, "Listen, don't be afraid. Nothing will happen to you. Just tell me what happened last night." And the Jew says, "Rebbe, last night I went to shul like every other Jew, every other Jew in the world that goes Kol Nidre to shul. And I remember the people came to a certain place in the Machzor where it says , 'Hashem, you shall forgive our sins because they're many. They're great. They're many. There are a lot of them, a lot of sins.' And I saw a lot of people broke, broke out in hysterics. They're crying and crying during that pasuk. Now, Rebbe, I, I know how to read Hebrew, Rebbe. I can make out the sounds, but I don't know what the words mean. And I saw everybody around me was crying, but I wasn't crying, so it bothered me. Why can't I cry? And I said, 'Ribono shel olam, uh, uh, help me. Um, I don't know why everybody's crying.' And then I started thinking to myself, oh, I learned in cheder a long, long time ago as a, as a young boy, and I do remember a few words in Hebrew that my rebbe taught me. And I remember the word selichah, selach, uh, that sounded like the word selichah, which means forgiveness. Hashem, you forgive. Um, , I remember means sins, so you forgive for sins. was big, great, many. So I couldn't understand according to my little poor

03:32 understanding, Rebbe, uh, uh, what it, what, what it was saying in the Machzor is, 'Hashem, forgive us because our sins are so many.' So I couldn't understand because if you're coming to the poretz and the poretz is accusing you of something and you're trying to plead to the poretz for mercy that he shouldn't punish you, then you try to minimize the sin. You don't try to tell the poretz, 'Yeah, my sin is so great. Forgive it.' So I couldn't understand why we say this in the Machzor and everybody's crying like this. And it bothered me a lot, and I cried again to Hashem. I said, 'Hashem, please help me. I, I should understand like all other Jews here. Why should I be different?' And then I, I broke my head, and finally I came up with a very good insight, a good pshat." And he says, "I am a carrier. I carry packages, loads for my master, Meir, and for other people. That's how I make my living. And I know in my profession when I-- somebody gives me a very heavy load, a load so heavy that it's very hard for me to carry by myself, but I need the money, so I take it on. I take on the job and I say, 'Yeah, I'll do it.' But I know because the load is so heavy I have to stop every like five minutes. I have to sit down, put down the load, and then I pick it up again. And what I

05:00 often do, I meet a friend on the way who's coming from the other direction. I say, 'Yankel, um, forgive me. Forgive me. Uh, this load that I have is so heavy. Could you maybe help me a little bit and lift the load from me and carry it with me?' And so Yankel is a good friend. He takes it with me. We go a little bit of a distance. Suddenly, Yankel has to go, so he leaves. Then I meet another friend and says, 'Chaim, uh, forgive me. Please forgive me, but I, I, I need help. This load is so heavy. Can you help me carry that load?' And I remembered that I keep doing this every day, and I said to myself, 'This is what we're telling Hashem. Hashem, the sins are so heavy. We have done so many of them. It's too hard for us to carry all this. Please lend us your shoulder and carry some of that burden with us together.'" And you know, the, the, the helper said to the Rogashiner, "Well..." The Rogashiner said, "I, Rebbe, I, I, I don't know if I am correct, but I... It's the best answer I can come up with and understand the, the, the prayers." The Rebbe said, "Listen, listen. It's fine. It's fine. You can go. Thank you very much. Zo gezunt." And the Rogashiner turned to his chasidim and said, "I want you to know that last night I saw a terrible ominous decree hovering over the Jewish people, and I was

06:31 very disturbed all night long. I couldn't sleep. And then in the heavens came up this simple, sincere interpretation of this simple Jew who said, 'Ribono shel olam, our sins are way too heavy for us to carry ourselves. You need to help us a little bit.'" And he says, "This broke this decree, and thank God the Jewish people are safe now."