253. The Punishment For Insulting A Tzadik A Talmid chochom

00:20 There was a of the Alter Rebbe who didn't have children for many years. Came to the Alter Rebbe year after year and asked him for a bracha. One time the Alter Rebbe said to him, "Listen, I want you to go to Rebbe Yitzchak of Berditchev. Go to Berditchev, and go to Rebbe Yitzchak's house, and tell him that I sent you, and don't leave his house until he gives you a bracha." So the Hasid traveled to Berditchev. At first, they didn't let him in, so he had to wait for a while, several weeks, until he finally was given permission to go into the house-- into the room with Rebbe Yitzchak. When he came in, he said, "Rebbe Yitzchak, the Alter Rebbe sent me to you, that you should give me a bracha for children." So Rebbe Yitzchak said to him, "If you give me today five hundred ruble that I can give for tzedakah, I promise you a child." Now, the Jew had money, but five hundred ruble is a lot of money still. He could pay it, but it's a lot. So he said, "Rebbe, I can pay about half of that, but I can't pay the full five hundred." So Rebbe Yitzchak said, Rebbe Yitzchak said, "If you can't, uh, give the whole thing, then I can't give you a bracha." So the Hasid went away, and he started thinking about it. And he waited till at night, and then he thought about it and realized that maybe he made a mistake. If Rebbe

01:59 Yitzchak asks him for money, you gotta give it. If you wanna have a child, you better do what the Rebbe says. So he, um, went back to Rebbe Yitzchak and said, "You know what, Rebbe? I- I changed my mind." Now, he came back the next day. Rebbe Yitzchak said to him, "It's too late. Yesterday, if you gave me five hundred rubles, I would have given you a bracha, and you would have had a child. Today is too late. I am sorry, I can't help you anymore. I'm not gonna take any money from you. It doesn't make a difference. It's not gonna make a difference." The Hasid was very heartbroken. He went to-- back to to the Alter Rebbe and told him the whole Hasid-- the whole story. He said to the Alter Rebbe, "Why couldn't he take the money afterwards, the next day? What was, what was the difference the day before or the day after? I wanted to give him the money in the end." So the Alter Rebbe said to him like this: "Min Hashamayim, there's a very big punishment against you because you once insulted a big Talmid Chaham and a tzadik. And because of that, in Shamayim, for insulting a tzadik, they punish a person for not having children. But what was yesterday? The day before, when you came to Rebbe Yitzchak and he said to you, said to you to give five hundred rubles is because there are opinions in Halakha who say that for insulting a Talmid Chaham,

03:41 there is no solution. That's it. You get the punishment Min Hashamayim, no children. But the Rambam disagrees. The Rambam holds that even for something so terrible as insulting a tzadik, a Talmid Chaham, if you give a certain amount of money for tzedakah, you can actually solve the problem and take off the punishment and, and be saved." He says, "That day you came to Rebbe Yitzchak, and he told you to give him five hundred rubles, it was the yahrzeit of the Rambam. And therefore, Rebbe Yitzchak thought that because it's the Rambam's yahrzeit, on the day of the yahrzeit of the Rambam in Shamayim, they rule, they're passing like the Rambam on that day, even though the majority of opinions disagree with him, and they say that for something like this, insulting a Talmid Chaham, there is no... There is no, uh, solution. There's no th-- nothing that can fix it. But that day, because it's his yahrzeit, the Halakha is like the Rambam. So on that day, if he gave the money, he could have helped you, but you missed it." So the Hasid asked the Alter Rebbe, "So why didn't you tell me the same thing? You could have asked me to give five hundred rubles, and I would have given it. Why did you send me to Rebbe Yitzchak Berditchev if you know all this about the Rambam and the yahrzeit and the Halakha is like the Rambam on that day, then you could have done it. Why did you send me to Rebbe

05:12 Yitzchak?" And the Alter Rebbe answered, "That Talmid Chaham that you insulted was my teacher when I was younger. Because he was my teacher, I couldn't be the one to forgive you. I couldn't be the one to help you out because he's my Rebbe. If he's my Rebbe, I, I have to stay out of this. But Rebbe Yitzchak could have helped you." We learn from here that never to say any negative things, even about another Rav or the tzadik or the Rebbe. Even if it's not your Rebbe, don't say negative things, because what do you know? Better to be quiet. You know, you have your Rebbe, and you follow your Rebbe, and that's it. But to say something bad and negative and derogatory, something that's insulting about another tzadik, another Rebbe is, is, is not a nice thing, not a good thing.