There was an individual who lived in Liozna
(in the city of the Alter Rebbe) who, unfortunately, had strayed from the path
of Torah, and became extremely lax and liberal in his day-to-day life. Having
spent much of his life amongst Chassidim, he was familiar with their ways and
their sayings, and was aware of the above-mentioned promise of the Alter Rebbe.
Being a local, he had had opportunities to
find himself in the home of the Alter Rebbe, and even grasped the doorknob of
his door. Thus he would go around, cynically boasting “You see, I have nothing
to be worried about, I grasped the Alter Rebbe’s klamke, and I am assured not
to die unrepentant”.
One day he was in shul, and he was called
up to the Torah for an aliyah. He approached the bimah, and began to recite the
brocho. Suddenly, he was overcome with an uncontrollable fit of weeping, and
couldn’t continue. He stood there crying from the very depth of his tortured
soul, while everyone watched in astonishment. And there, standing in front of
the sefer Torah, in the midst of his weeping, his soul departed from his body.
All those present clearly saw how he passed away in pure Teshuva!
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