The "Tzoro" of Moshiach

A Rov was once travelling, and stayed overnight in an inn. The innkeeper was a simple fellow, but he recognized that his guest was a distinguished Rabbi, and tried to accord him every consideration.

In the middle of the night (as was the custom), the Rov awakened to recite Tikkun Chatzos. He sat on the floor, and read chapters from tehillim, expressing his mourning over the churban. In the next room, the innkeeper was somehow awakened, and was distressed to hear sounds of weeping from the room of his illustrious guest. Worriedly, the innkeeper hastened to the room of the Rov to ask about the cause of his sorrow.

“What is troubling you, Rabbi”, he asked, “is your bed not comfortable, is your room too hot or cold, did you perhaps find fault with the meals we served you?”

The Rov set his mind at ease that the service was, in fact, beyond reproach, and was not the cause of his crying. Rather, what the innkeeper overheard was his davening and beseeching Hashem to bring us Moshiach.

“Moshiach”, asked the simple innkeeper, “who is that?”

“Did you never hear about Moshiach?”, asked the Rov. He explained his simple host how all Yidden were eagerly awaiting the coming of Moshiach, who would take us all to Eretz Yisroel. The innkeeper digested this novel idea, and ran to share it with his wife. “What!” exclaimed the good woman, “to go to Eretz Yisroel? Please tell the Rabbi that this is impossible at this time. Why, we have our inn here, and our house and our barn with all of our animals, how can we just pick up and go to EY?!”

The innkeeper ran back to his guest and conveyed his wife’s reservations. The Rov tried to speak to the simpleton in his own language. “True”, he conceded to him, “you are settled here with all of your possessions. But you have no peace here. Every few years, the goyim make a pogrom, and steal and destroy everything, and you need to begin anew. Once we all go to Eretz Yisroel, we’ll be free of the goyim!”

The idea made sense to the innkeeper, but, not one to make decisions on his own, he asked leave of the Rov to consult with his wife. Moments later he returned. “Rebbe”, he asked humbly, “my wife asks to kindly make a request of Moshiach; - let us stay here where we’re settled, and let Moshiach take the goyim to Eretz Yisroel!”

In the early years of the Rebbe’s nesius there was a prominent member of Agudas Chabad of Eretz Yisroel who was in yechidus. This person struggled with many of the Rebbe’s directives (especially in the area of hafotza), that seemed to him to be so different from the style that he was accustomed to with the Frierdige Rebbe etc.

During the course of the yechidus, the Rebbe said to him: “Ir farshteit nisht? Ich farshtei oich nisht, ober azoi azoi iz der inyan!” (You don’t understand? I don’t either understand, but this is the way it has to be!)

A yid and teva

The mayor of Bnei Brak, a Gerer chosid, was once by the Rebbe for dollars. During the course of the conversation, he remarked to the Rebbe “men pruft ton vifil es iz meglech” [‘we try to do as much as we’re able’]. The Rebbe looked at him in amazement, and exclaimed (approx.): “meglech?! dos iz al pi teva,vos far a shaychus hot a Yid mit teva?!” [‘as much is possible, naturally, what kind of a connection does a Jew have with nature?!’]

Eizik Homiler

The Alter Rebbe once remarked to R’ Eizik that he shouldn’t become a Rebbe. Years later, the Chassidim once chose R’ Eizik to become their Rebbe. They sent the wagon to bring him, and R’ Eizik acquiesced, and began climbing into the wagon. As he stood, with one foot on the step, he recalled the Alter Rebbe’s words to him, and he immediately turned back. This was an act of tremendous self-sacrifice on his behalf, because, the moment that he lifted his foot onto the step of the wagon, he experienced all the wellsprings of knowledge opening before him and filling his mind, and when he turned back they ceased, yet he unconditionally obeyed the directives of his Rebbe.

A mohel had been to Japan, to perform a bris there, shared the following story of his visit there by a bris:

‘While in Japan, I visited the city of Kobe. Kobe is the fourth largest city in Japan, and, as an important port city, serves as a prominent business center. While in Kobe, I was taken to one street, where I beheld an incredible sight! In the middle of the street was a shul, and the shul was the only structure standing on the entire block. Like an oasis in the middle of the desert, the shul stood alone surrounded by rubble.

‘My guides shared with me the amazing story of the shul: In 1995, Kobe was hit by a powerful earthquake (otherwise known as the great Hanshin earthquake), in which over 6400 people lost their lives, and much of the city was flattened. This particular block was not spared the devastation, as the numerous skyscrapers in and around it were leveled. Only the shul remained intact amongst all of the ruin, with only a single crack in the wall, reaching from above the aron Kodesh until the ceiling, bearing witness to the extraordinary salvation. The local gentiles also recognized the supernatural survival of the shul, and they dubbed it “the miracle synagogue”.

‘Upon further research, I learned of the remarkable story behind the story of the shul: In the 1950’s or 60’s, Kobe attracted many Jewish merchants, who wanted to take advantage of its’ booming economy, and they decided to build a shul. One of the merchants was a Lubavitcher chosid, and he offered to request the Rebbe’s brocho for their undertaking. The next time that he was in NY, he went into the Rebbe, holding the blueprints for the planned shul, and asked for a brocho. As a matter of routine, he handed the Rebbe the eight pages of blueprint.

The Rebbe perused the pages, and then, to the surprise of the chosid, asked “And where is the mikvah?”

The chosid was caught off guard, and stammered “There was no room to put in a mikvah.”

The Rebbe quickly turned to the 3^rd page, and, - with the skill of a professional architect, - penciled in a mikvah into one spot on the page, remarking “Right here there is room for a mikva!”

The chosid was so overwhelmed that he immediately acquiesced, promising the Rebbe that he would ensure that they would indeed include a mikvah in the shul. The Rebbe then gave his brocho, and added: “By building a mikvah in the shul, the Shul will have a kiyum [will be sustained]!”

Only in 1995 was the meaning of the Rebbe’s prophetic words realized!

Marry Jewish

Rabbi Yisroel Labowski was once flying somewhere. It so happened, that next to him was a young woman that mentioned to him that she wasn’t Jewish but was engaged to a Jew. Seeing the hashgacha protis, Rabbi Labkowski started convincing her not go through with such a ‘marriage’. He tried and tried, explaining her how a union between a Jew and non-Jew is detrimental to both. Unfortunately, his words fell on death ears. Seeing how steadfast she was in her commitment to marry this Jewish man he asked her why she was so inclined to marry someone Jewish. She answered him simply “I want to do like my father did – he married Jewish and I want to do the same”

Anim Zmiros

The halacha and minhag is to daven early on the day after Yom Kippur. In one shtetl, when the townspeople came to shul that day (known as G-t’s tog) to daven, they found a Poylishe chosid dancing at the amud, singing a niggun to the words of the shir hakavod (anim zemiros). It turned out that he had been so preoccupied with his singing, that he danced through the night, and completely forgot about going to break his fast!

He had spent the entire Yom Kippur being in such a lofty spiritual state that he was similar to an angel (as chazal tell us). Therefore, although he was aware that once Yom Kippur had ended it was the Will of Hashem that he return to being involved in worldly matters, nonetheless he was so overcome with yearning for the state that he had been in during this holiest day, that he tried to extend it a little bit longer, and before he knew it it was the next day!

There were rumors going around that the chossid in the story was the Rebbe. When Reuven Dunin came for yechidus he decided to clarify this once and for all, so he asked the Rebbe if the rumors were true. The Rebbe answered him that they weren't and that the story happened with someone before the times of the Baal Shem Tov and he wasn’t even a poilisher chossid. The Rebbe then proceeded to recount the entire story.

“There lived a rich man that made it his business to go around and do pidyon shvuim. One day he was passing by the local dungeon and he heard some cries. Right away, he headed to the poritz, ready to free the man in captivity. The poritz told him that this man is not going to be freed and named an exuberant amount. The rich man was hesitant. Coming back home, his conscience started bothering him. He then proceeded to make a calculation of the value of his entire estate possessions. The value of the entire estate came out to be the exact amount that it would take to free the Jewish man. He went ahead liquidated all of his possessions. Coming to the poritz, he handed him the necessary sum. The poritz burst out laughing as he opened up the dungeon. The man had already passed from this world.

Feeling very dejected and upset over throwing away all of his possessions, the now poor man wandered off and found a place to sleep. As he slept, he had a dream:

In his dream, there was a message from Up Above, and the message was that his money was not wasted. On the contrary, his actions deserved a reward. And he got 2 choices:

1.      Get back his riches plus much more

2.      Get a taste of gan eden while still in this world

This man picked the latter choice. And it was then, when he was singing anim zmiros, that he was experiencing the revelation of the olam haemes.”

The Rebbe concluded:

“With the choice that he made, we see that this man was not a chossid and that he lived before the times of the Baal Shem Tov. Had he been a chossid, he would’ve chosen the money in order to be able to continue doing pidyon shvuim”