Tales for the Shabbos Table

This week's section continues with the awesome story of the Exodus and begins to explain what a long and complicated process it was.

Once a month, for ten months in a row Moses and his brother Aaron were commanded by G-d to go into Pharaoh and threaten him with a different terrible plague. Only then did each plague occur.

But here we see a strange thing; G-d commanded BOTH Aaron AND MOSES to speak to Pharaoh. (See Rashi 7:2 Moses spoke to Pharaoh in Hebrew and Aaron translated).

At first glance this is strange. Besides the fact that Moses had a speech impediment, he spoke in a language Pharaoh couldn't understand!! Why didn't G-d tell Moses to just whisper to Aaron and let Aaron do the talking? Isn't that what Moses asked for in the first place? Why did Moses have to speak to PHARAOH?

To understand this here is a story that occurred recently.

It was a usual site; two attractive young ladies in their early twenties, sitting next to each other on the number three Brooklyn subway weeping uncontrollably and occasionally crying out in Hebrew, "Oh G-d, help us! Send us the greatest Rabbi in the world!!" and "Oh Daddy Daddy!!! What is going to be?!!"

They did attract a little attention over the noise and bustle of people getting on and off, but their Hebrew cries discouraged would be helpers. Then, when the girls noticed religious Jews getting on they quieted down a bit. After several stops, when they saw the Jews getting off at Kinsgton Avenue, they followed them out of the subway station. They found themselves standing in the cool autumn evening in front of 770 Eastern Parkway; the busy headquarters of the Chabad Chassidim.

Again they began weeping. But this time one of the Chassidim approached and asked if he could help.

"Our father went crazy!" Said one of them and burst out crying. The other continued. "Please, can you send us a Rabbi!! Our father is in danger. Please!"

The Chassid told them to wait, ran into the building and several moments later a different Chassid, Rabbi Yitzchak Lipsh, came out and approached them.

"I'm not really a Rabbi" he said humbly, "but I speak Hebrew and there was no one else around so maybe I can help. Do you want something to drink or eat? There's a restaurant here.

"No, thank you Rabbi" one of them interrupted, "It's very urgent. Who knows if he's still alive!!" And they both broke into bitter tears.

It took a few minutes for them to get themselves together and finally they told the sad story.

Their parents had been divorced some three years earlier and their father, who was as assimilated as they, began dating non-Jewish women.

Then, several months ago, he began acting strangely. At first he became withdrawn and refused to talk to anyone. They thought it would pass, but it only got worse. Until finally, a few weeks ago, he locked himself in his house with the claim that he was being pursued by witches and demons and now was refusing to eat saying that it was his only cure.

They tried to bring people to talk to him but he would have no part of it and just yelled at them to go away. The girls were really afraid that in his demented state he would do something rash and now, at their wit's end, they decided they would fight fire with fire.

They set off to find a spiritual Rabbi to exorcise the evil spirits.

They went to the subway with the intention of taking the number two to Flatbush, where they heard there were a lot of Rabbi's, but by mistake got on the number three subway and now that they were in Crown Heights they wondered if maybe they should leave.

The had heard of the Lubavitcher Rebbe. In fact he was the only Rabbi they knew by name, but they heard that he had passed away almost ten years earlier.

Rabbi Lipsh answered. "Tzadikim never leave this world, especially the Rebbe. In fact, you can get advice now even easier than ever before. Just write a letter and I'll show you."

They followed Rabbi Lipsh to the women's section of the Synagogue, sat down, he brought a pen and some paper and they wrote the letter. Then, when they finished, he directed them to select one of the twenty five volumes of Igrot Kodesh (collections of answers the Rebbe sent to people) put the letter between two pages at random and then open it back up to see what was written there.

Amazingly it was a letter written over forty five years earlier (book 16 page 164) to a troubled man. Rabbi Lipsh read aloud:

"In answer to his letter in which he writes a summery of what is happening and how he attributes it to witchcraft and evil spells...

He must remove his mind from this completely and strengthen his trust and faith in G-d, blessed be He, who cares for each person individually. And he should check his Tefillin and the Mezuzas in his home, give a few coins to charity every weekday before prayer in the morning and read the portion of Psalms as they are divided into days of the month every day after prayer including Sabbath and the Holidays.

Regarding his cure; first begin to look for a proper Jewish wife. But there is no place for fasting as this is the opposite of the teachings of the Baal Shem Tov. And at every opportunity try to take part in a Chassidic
Farbringen (gathering)."

When the girls heard the letter they stood frozen as though suspended in some world beyond time. All his problems; witches, fasting, lack of a Jewish wife and Jewish life, were there!

How could the Rebbe have written a letter almost fifty years ago, as though to their father today!!

They begged Rabbi Lipsh to accompany them to read it to their father in person and he reluctantly agreed. On the way out he met his brother Rabbi Uri who agreed to go along for support. Then, when there were no taxis at the nearest stop, miraculously a friend of theirs pulled up from nowhere and asked if they wanted a ride to Manhattan - not far from their destination!

In no time they were at the apartment house where their father lived. But as they went up the stairs the girls began trembling with fear.

"You don't know how scary it is there!" one of them whispered. "I'm not sure if there aren't REALLY spooks!" said the other.

Sure enough, as soon as they opened the door their father began cursing and shouting at them from the dimly lit room. The smell was almost intolerable. He had filled the rooms with bags of salt, sugar, flour and anything at hand to ward off the evil spirits and the windows had been tightly locked for weeks making it almost impossible to breathe.

As their eyes adjusted to the dark they saw an emaciated madman crouching in the corner behind a chair screaming and yelling at them to leave. Rabbi Lipsh had no choice but to try to yell a word in somehow so he began reading the letter of the Rebbe and hoped their father wouldn't get violent.

There was no way the man could have understood a word they were saying over his own shouting but suddenly he stopped, stood up and told his daughters in a calm voice that he was hungry and wanted to go to the corner store to buy some food. He then opened a few the windows to let some fresh air in and even turned on some lights for the first time in days.

One of his bewildered daughters accompanied him out while the other, together with the Rabbis, tried to restore some semblance of order to the house. Then when he returned with some food, they read and explained the letter to him while he ate (Chassidic Farbringen) until he went to sleep.

The Rabbis left, but next day the girls' father went on his own to the nearest Chabad House to put on Tefillin and to buy Mezuzas for his home.

Today, only months after the story, he has almost completely returned to normal and is on the road to fulfilling the rest of the Rebbe's letter.

This explains our question.

In Rebbe's words were two aspects. 1) Their meaning, and 2) The very words themselves

And it was this second aspect; the Rebbe's words ABOVE understanding, which did the job and shook their father from his insanity.

Similarly here; Rashi explains (7:1) that Moses spoke to Pharaoh in order to 'Judge and punish him'.

In other words, the purpose of Moses speech was NOT to explain and make Pharaoh understand (because even the highest understanding is limited) but rather to reveal pure G-dliness ABOVE UNDERSTANDING.. And THIS is what knocked Pharaoh out.

This is very relevant to each and every one today in our generation, which the Lubavitcher Rebbe called 'The generation of Moshiach' and the 'First generation of Redemption'.

We must not depend on our understanding.

According to reason; Moshiach, Redemption, total awakening of Jewish identity, building of the Third Temple, World peace and prosperity all seem like unrealistic, impossible ideas.

But we must remember that just like Moses' speech, the redemption will come ABOVE understanding. And it can happen in ONE INSTANT.

We just have to do all we can, above understanding . open our eyes and see...

Moshiach NOW!!

Rabbi Tuvia Bolton
Yeshiva Ohr Tmimim
Kfar Chabad, Israel

Tales for the Shabbos Table

In this week’s portion we see two interesting things.

Firstly, in the beginning of the Parsha (6:12) Moses refuses to lead the Jews out of Egypt (despite the fact that G-d spent seven days trying to convince him otherwise). And secondly, G-d repeatedly hardens Pharaoh’s heart causing him to refuse to release the Jews (despite seven plagues that G-d sends to convince him otherwise).

Why did Moses refuse to do G-d’s bidding and why did G-d "make" Pharaoh hard-hearted?

To understand this here is a story.

Fival was almost weeping as he entered the Tzemach Tzedek’s office. He was unexplainably being evicted from the inn he’d been running for over twenty years. He couldn’t understand it; everyone liked him, he always paid his rent to the Poritz (landowner) on time, an he never made trouble. But suddenly a week ago the Poritz came and gave him one month’s notice. All his pleas and reasoning didn’t help, and now with nine mouths to feed and such short notice he had no other recourse than to travel to the Rebbe for help.

The Tzemach Tzedek was the third Rebbe of Chabad. There was no branch of knowledge that he was not acquainted with, and his miraculous powers could only be described as divine. Many considered him to be the embodiment of what the mystical book the Zohar explains that every generation must have. A Moses; a great Jew whose sole purpose is to help each and every Jew.
Fival entered the Rebbe’s study in trepidation as one would enter the Holy of Holies. He closed the door behind him, and poured out his heart. When he was finished the Rebbe took out a piece of paper and a pen, wrote a short letter, put it in an envelope, addressed it and gave it to him with instructions to deliver it as swiftly as possible, and gave him a blessing for success.

He thanked the Rebbe profusely, backed out of the room and when he was outside took a quick glance at the envelope and shuddered; it was addressed to the wrong man!

His heart sank. It was addressed to Shmuel HaKatan (Sam the Small) a simple old Jew that used to be a woodcutter and still lived with his wife in his small hut in the woods; an obvious mistake!!

The Rebbe must have intended to write Shmuel HaGodol (Sam the big) who was a rich, influential Jew. HaGodol had close connections with all the landlords and some said even with the Czar himself! If anyone could help it would be him. Shmuel HaKatan was a virtual nobody!

But Zelig was stuck. To enter the Rebbe’s office again was out of the question. Suddenly he had an idea; the Rebbe had seven sons, he would go to one of them and ask for advice.

But the Rebbe’s son only assured him of what he already knew; the Rebbe never makes mistakes. Normal people make mistakes but, as strange as it might seem, just as a Jewish prophet never errs, so also the Rebbe.

That day, with a heavy heart, he made his way to Shmuel HaKatan’s house in the middle of the forest and knocked on the door. The old man answered, invited Zelig in, asked him what he wanted and when he heard the reason for the visit and saw the Rebbe’s letter, he admitted that he had no idea what the Rebbe meant. He just invited Zelig be his guest for a few days, and see what would happen.

A week passed and still nothing. Zelig began to become depressed. What would become of him? In another two weeks he would have to vacate his home and his job. Winter was approaching; the weather outside was cold and miserable which added to his melancholy. Where would he go? What would he do? What would be with his children and wife? The wind and rain were pounding on the roof and the walls. He put his head in his hands and wept.

Suddenly the front door rattled and thundered; someone was pounding and shouting outside. “Help! Help! Let me in!!” Shmuel HaKatan ran to the door and opened it as Zelig looked on from his bedroom. It was the Poritz drenched to the bone, shivering blue with cold. It seems that he had been on his way home and the storm caught him unexpectedly. He had been wandering in the cold for almost an hour and was on the verge of death. He fell to the floor in exhaustion.

Shmuel brought him a change of clothes (his Shabbat garments, the only change of clothes he had) some warm blankets and hot soup and in no time the Poritz was sitting bundled up, near the stove and showering old Shmuel with praises and promises.

“You saved my life!! I owe you my life!” He exclaimed still shivering. “Tell me how to repay you!”

“Listen” Shmuel answered. “If you really want to reward me then you can do me a big favor.”

“Anything! I swear! I owe you my very life! Just ask!” exclaimed the Poritz.

“Well” Shmuel gave a glance at Zelig peeking from behind his door, “A few days ago you told my good friend Zelig that he has to vacate his inn. I want you to let him stay.”

“So it shall be!!” Shouted the Poritz.

“It just so happens that Zelig is here in the other room” Continued Shmuel. “Will you put it in writing?”

Zelig came out of his room and the Poritz immediately shook his hand warmly, asked for pen and paper and wrote a deed giving him and his offspring sole rights on the inn for all generations, and for good measure he gave him the next three years rent free.

“But just one thing is bothering me,” Zelig said as he thanked the Poritz and took the finished deed lovingly in hand, “Why did you evict me in the first place? After all, I always paid rent and never gave you any trouble. What made you do it?”

“Yes,” answered the Poritz “You were the perfect tenant and I would never have even thought of it. But someone came to me and demanded that I rent the inn to his son-in-law. He promised to pay more rent and even threatened me if I refused. It was that Shmuel HaGodol! I don’t know what got into him and made him so hard-hearted. I even asked him how he could do it to his own fellow Jew and he said he didn’t mix business with friendship. But I’ll take care of him myself. I’ll tell him to go away, and tell him that you are my personal friend. Just one thing that I would like to ask though,” he continued, “How did you happen to be here exactly on this night?”

When Zelig told him about the Rebbe the Poritz exclaimed, “Now I know that G-d is still with the Jewish people!!”

This answers our questions.

According to the Saadia Gaon, the reason Moses refused was because he was afraid his prophesy was incomplete; a prophet has to say what he himself heard from G-d and here Aaron was the spokesman saying things that Moses, not G-d, told him to. So Moses was afraid that Pharaoh wouldn’t listen.

To this G-d answers, “Moses, I have made you G-d to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother will be your prophet” (7:1)

In other words, Aaron WILL be saying what G-d tells him to say because you, Moses, are G-d! (Just as Moses spoke the entire book of Deuteronomy on his ‘own’.)

Similarly with G-d hardening Pharaoh’s heart. G-d gave Pharaoh stubborn self-confidence in order to magnify the greatness of Moses; every plague highlighted even more the fact that Moses was G-d’s man. Until finally, after the splitting of the sea the Jews believed in Moses as they did in G-d (14:31).

In other words it all came to show that the leader of the Jews; be it Moses or the Tzemech Tzedek in our story, or the leader of every generation including ours He is a special person, and cannot be understood with the normal senses.

And the purpose of such a leader is to show us Jews that in the same sense we are all G-d’s people and are above nature.

This is the deeper and more personal meaning of taking all the Jews from ‘Egypt’; namely from all their ‘normal’ ‘everyday’ understanding of the world and of themselves.

That is why the Zohar informs us that the Moshiach will bring even the greatest and holiest of Jews to "teshuva" (self-transformation) because he, like Moses before him, will cause a complete renewal of all human and even Jewish ideals; mankind will desire only to do the will of the Creator. And that is the purpose of our section, as the Lubavitcher Rebbe said countless times, to prepare us for..
Moshiach NOW!!

Rabbi Tuvia Bolton
Yeshiva Ohr Tmimim
Kfar Chabad Israel

Torah Online Site: http://www.ohrtmimim.org/torah

Tales for the Shabbos Table

This week's section describes the first seven plagues that G-d brought upon Egypt.

Let us examine one of these plagues. The sixth plague of boils; everyone but the Jews got boils. The Torah (9:11) tells us that on this plague "The Magicians couldn't stand before Moshe!"

But this is not so clear. It should have said that they couldn't stand AT ALL! Why does the Torah tell us that they only couldn't stand BEFORE MOSHE?

Even more: ALL the plagues affected the Magicians as well as everyone else. Why were they able to stand before Moshe when they were afflicted with fleas or wild animals for example, and only not here with boils?

We have to say that something happened in this plague that was so unusual that the Magicians couldn't, or they were ashamed, to stand
before Moshe.

To understand this, here is a true story that I heard just recently.

Some five years ago a young Chabad Chassid was invited by a Chabad house in Russia to make a Passover "Seder" in a nearby town.

The young man, recently ordained as a Rabbi, arrived several weeks before the holiday. He went, together with the Chabad representative that invited him, to the Mayor of that town to look for a suitable place to hold the festive ceremony. They were expecting several hundred people and needed a big hall.

After a few minutes the Mayor decided that the only place in his town
that would serve their purposes was the Communist meeting hall. It seems that when the Communists were in power, they made sure that the biggest building in every town in Russia would be their party meeting hall. The Rabbis and the Mayor went and had a look, and sure enough the place was perfect.

Posters were put up, people were invited personally, and food was brought and prepared. All the vessels had to be new, all the meat had to be strictly Kosher, the cooking had to be supervised constantly so that no one would bring "Chametz"' (leavened bread products) into the kitchen, and the building had to be completely cleaned, "koshered" and decorated.

All the work paid off. Some three hundred people arrived! Young and old, men and women, all dressed in their nicest clothes and with shining faces. Some came from nostalgia, some from curiosity, some for a good time. But everyone, whether they knew it or not, came because they were Jews and tonight was Passover.

It took a while to get everyone seated and settled. The Rabbi made a short welcoming speech telling them what to expect. For some of them it was their first "Seder" in fifty years, and for many the first in their lives. Hagaddas (Seder books) translated into Russian were handed out, cups were filled with wine, Matzot were distributed, and the evening began.

Everyone did what they were told with joy, and listened to the Rabbi's explanations with great interest. They all read aloud from their books about how G-d did great miracles thousands of years ago, and how He took the Jews out of Egypt. They all ate the Matza, drank four cups of wine, finished their holiday meal, sang, and even danced at the proper times.

Everything went smoothly until the cup of Elisha. This symbolic "extra" cup of wine is poured at the end of the meal to remind us of the immanent arrival of Moshiach. The young Chabad Rabbi explained with enthusiasm how this fifth cup stood for Moshaich who will arrive any moment to gather all the Jews and make a beautiful new world with the revelation of G-d everywhere etc.

Suddenly one of the older men stood up, tapped on the table and said in
a booming voice, "Young man! Excuse me please young Rabbi!"

The place went silent and just as they all had listened to the Rabbi they now turned to the new speaker. He waited a few seconds and continued.

"We are very grateful to you for this beautiful evening with the wonderful food and wine. Everything is very nice. Very beautiful and very tasty." Everyone in the room turned to one another, shook their heads in agreement and wondered what he was getting at.

"Everything you said is also very interesting and nice." The man continued. "Beautiful stories; G-d took the Jews from Egypt, made miracles...very nice Bible stories. We all love stories.

But what you said about some Messiah coming and making a utopia, building a Holy Temple and all this. Please Rabbi, we are grown up people. We are not little children that we believe such nonsense! You are a very nice man and we are very grateful, but please save such foolish superstitions for your children not for intelligent grown-ups. Please understand us, dear Rabbi, nothing personal but you are a naive person. You have been locked up in Yeshiva (Rabbinical College) and we live in the real world"

Everyone again shook their heads in agreement. And looked sheepishly at the Rabbi as though to say "We are sorry, but he's right."

The young rabbi however did not loose his composure. He waited a few minutes and before the man sat down he replied.

"My friend" he said with a warm smile, "My friends!" he opened his arms and looked around the room.

"Do you realize where we are? Do you realize what we are doing? Do you realize what you are saying!?

If someone would have told you fifteen years ago that you would make a SEDER PESACH in the COMMUNIST MEETING HALL, would you believe them?

Why, fifteen years ago there was nothing more powerful and secure than Communism, and nothing weaker than Judaism! Communism was the complete opposite and biggest enemy of G-d and everyone in Russia was sure that Communism was right.

But here we are! The impossible has happened! Communism has not only fallen, it is becoming transformed to Judaism! So is it really so far-fetched that Moshiach can change the entire world?"

The man looked at the crowd then back at the young rabbi, straightened up, smiled broadly and said..."BRAVO!!". And the entire crowd broke into applause.

The plagues were not just to destroy Egypt, G-d could have done that
without any plagues.

One reason G-d made plagues, and so many of them, is to teach those of us who would read about it thousands of years later in the Torah how to alter the spiritual "Egypt" in us, and free the spiritual "Israel" in our personalities today.

"Israel" is the feeling, the certainty, that G-d exists. And "Egypt" is that natural feeling that He doesn't, or that He is far away.

It's not easy to rid ourselves and transform that "natural" feeling. It takes a lot of work - ten "plagues".

Remember that the Egyptians were very spiritual people. The Torah tells us that they could even do "miracles" like changing sticks to serpents and water to blood. Israel versus Egypt is not just the spiritual versus the physical. Going out of Egypt means leaving the spiritual as well.

That was why the miracle of the boils neutralized the magicians. The magicians were spiritual people. They realized that Moses had greater spiritual powers than they, but they thought that they were playing the same game; spiritual versus spiritual. But there was something about this plague that was higher than spiritual.

Moshe didn't just bring the plague from heaven. Here G-d told him to take soot from an oven, throw it up, and it would spread over Egypt and give everyone boils.

In other words, Moshe here combined nature and above nature; one handful of natural ordinary soot traveled thousands of miles and covered an entire nation. But it had to begin with that handful of soot.

This combination, like the transformation of the Communist hall to a Jewish hall, is just the sort of thing that Moshiach will do. He will show that nature itself is really above nature. As the Rambam explains in the end of his "Mishnah Torah" that Moshiach will transform this physical world to be even higher than the highest spiritual levels; the Creator Himself will be revealed in His creation.

And it all depends on us! Let's do all we can to bring....

Moshiach NOW!

Rabbi Tuvia Bolton
Yeshiva Ohr Tmimim
Kfar Chabad Israel

Torah Online Site: http://www.ohrtmimim.org/torah

Tales for the Shabbos Table

In this week’s section G-d smites Mitzriam with the first seven of ten
plagues.
But we see something interesting; before G-d sent the first plague He
commanded Moshe to go to Pharaoh and show him a ‘sign’: turn Aharon’s staff
into a snake.

At first glance there was no purpose in this ‘sign’.

First of all, it wasn’t a plague so it couldn’t scare anyone. Second, G-d
certainly knew that Pharaoh’s sorcerers were able to do the same trick, so
it wasn’t even going to impress anyone.
And finally, G-d informed Moshe just a few sentences earlier that Pharaoh
would harden his heart. So even if it was a plague and no one else could
duplicate it, it still wasn’t going to accomplish anything.

So why did G-d do it?

I would like to answer this with a story.

The founder of Chassidic Judaism, Rabbi Yisroel Baal Shem, (called the Baal
Shem Tov or the Besh’t for short) knew not only all the secrets of the Torah
and of creation, but also the greatest secret of all; what each man’s
purpose is in this world.
Those who completely believed this and followed his directions were called
his Chassidim.
To each of his Chassidim he revealed his task in life, and to one, who is
the hero of our story, he instructed to tell people stories about …. the
Baal Shem Tov.
“You will know when to stop” the Besh’t explained.

For over ten years the Chassid diligently and joyously carried out his
assignment traveling, wandering from town to town telling thousands of
people the ‘Baal Shem’ miracles he had witnessed or heard about.

Then, one day, someone told him that there was a rich Jew in Vitebsk that
actually paid money for such stories; ten rubles (at that time a huge
amount) for every new one and five for those he had already heard, plus
traveling expenses. It was a two-day journey but to our hero it seemed like
minutes. He knew hundreds of stories and he really needed the money!

When he arrived at the rich man’s plush home it was already late Thursday
evening and he was so tired from the road that he only wanted to sleep, but
there would always be tomorrow.
But he woke late Friday afternoon and by the time he finished praying it was
already time to get ready for Shabbat, but there would be Shabbos.
Unfortunately that evening at the Shabbat dinner, try as he could, he just
couldn’t remember any stories, not even one. He thought that after a good
night’s rest his mind would be sharper, but it wasn’t. And the next day it
was the same story; he would begin a story and suddenly his mind would go
completely blank.
He thought that perhaps he was going mad. No matter what he did had no
results. He even remained for another two days but it was obvious;
something strange was going on and he had forgotten everything, he had no
other choice than to shamefacedly give up. The wealthy was very
disappointed but against all hope he accompanied the Chassid in the carriage
ride to the train, perhaps at the last moment some story would pop into his
mind … but it didn’t.
They got out of the carriage and walked to the station where the rich man
bought the Chassid’s train ticket, slipped a few silver coins in his pocket
so he wouldn’t feel completely broken, and escorted him to the train.
Then, as he put his foot on the first step going up to the car he
remembered … “A story!!! OOWAH! I Remember a STORY!’ he shouted.
“Come, come back to my carriage,” Said the rich man excitedly, “Please, let’
s not waste a moment!! They returned, entered, sat facing one another and
the Chassid began:

“Once the Baal Shem took ten Chassidim and told them to get in his carriage
shortly before Shabbat.
They didn’t ask any questions, they were used to such ‘journeys’. They
entered and sat down and as usual they immediately felt as though the
carriage was flying in the air and moments later landed.
“They got out and found that they were in a place they had never seen
before. It was a large empty town square that was completely deserted. Even
the stores were all closed, and off to one side stood a stage or pulpit,
that looked recently built, surrounded by several large Crosses and flaming
torches as though there was about to be some sort of large outdoor Church
ceremony.
“The Besh’t told them to follow him as he quickly left the square, walked
quickly through some winding streets, and in just minutes went through the
gates of what was obviously the Jewish Ghetto. He stopped before one of the
houses and began pounding on the door until a small peek hole opened up and
someone frantically whispered from inside.
“‘Are you mad?!! What are you doing out there?? !!’ Several bolts and locks
clicked and slid until the door opened and the owner frantically motioned
for all of them to enter, slamming it shut behind them.
“‘Tonight is one of their terrible holidays! The worst of the worst!!’ he
said short of breath as he was re-closing the bolts and locks as fast as
possible. “You’re lucky I let you in! In another few minutes the entire
town square is going to be filled with bloodthirsty Jew-haters from all
around, and the devil himself, Bishop Thaddeus, Yemach Shmo (may his name be
erased), will give his annual Easter speech. It’s full of venom against us.
Come, follow me we will make place for you in our underground shelter.
Come!! We mustn’t waste an instant! Before they start going wild.’”

“But the Besh’t turned to one of his pupils and calmly said. ‘Go back to
the square, and when the Bishop begins to speak, go up to the stage, pull on
his robe, and tell him that I want to speak to him urgently.’
“The owner of the house was shocked! He watched in wide-eyed astonishment
as the Chassid actually began to re-open the bolts, open the door and slip
outside. He didn’t know if he should lock them again or not, he’d never seen
anything like it in his life!! It was like seeing someone walk into a fiery
furnace!!
“The Chassid, once outside, made his way back through the winding streets
till he reached the Square. It was already filled with thousands of people
and more were silently arriving from all sides, a strange cold silence hung
in the air and it was beginning to get dark.
“The Bishop strode to the front of the stage as from nowhere and stood
imposingly before the crowd in his bright crimson robes and high pointed red
hat. The torchlight danced weirdly in his eyes and made the huge golden
cross hanging around his neck gleam diabolically. To make matters worse the
fires and huge crosses surrounding the stage reminded the Chassid of the
stories he had heard of the Inquisition. But he pushed all these thoughts
from his mind, waited for the Bishop to begin, closed his eyes for a moment,
whispered “Shma Yisroel……” and, with his head down, began gently pushing his
way to the podium.
“Amazingly no one even noticed him. They were so transfixed on the Bishop
that they just moved out of the way and before he knew it he reached the
front. He took a deep breath, said another ‘Shma Yisroel’, grabbed the robe
of the Bishop and pulled twice.
“The Bishop was just beginning his tirade when he felt the tug at his
garment and looked down. He was startled, outraged, his face became livid
with anger, but before he could utter a sound the Chassid looked him in the
eyes and said, ‘The Baal Shem Tov wants to see you, and he says you should
come urgently’.
“Suddenly the Bishop’s face became pale and his eyes opened wide as though
he was afraid. ‘Not now!’ he whispered after a few seconds of confusion.
‘Tell him that I won’t come now. Later! Tell him later! Go AWAY!’
“Miraculously, the entire crowd was all still standing like statues as
though hypnotized and noticed none of this. So the Chassid backed his way
out, and returned alone to the Besht, convinced that he had fulfilled his
mission.
“But the Besht wasn’t pleased, ‘Go back and tell the Bishop that if he doesn

’t come now it will be too late’.
“Without hesitation the Chassid turned and did as he was told. He left the
house, returned to the Town Center, pushed his way through the crowd, and
pulled on the Bishop’s robe just as before..
“But this time when the Bishop heard the Besht’s message, he was really
stunned. He took a few steps back, put his head in his hands and then,
turning his face to heaven he yelled to the crowd. ‘I’m receiving a message
from the lord!! I must be alone!’
“He motioned the Chassid to leave, watched him as he walked toward the
Jewish section and then he himself descended from the back of the stage and
headed in that direction holding his hat under his arm.
Minutes later he was standing with the Chassid before the house in the
Jewish quarter. ‘Tell him to remove his crosses before he enters!’ Yelled
the Besh’t from inside. The Bishop did so and as he entered the house and
saw the face of the Holy man he fell to the floor and began weeping like a
baby!

“ The Baal Shem turned to the others and explained. ‘The Bishop was born a
Jew. He even had a Bar Mitzvah. But shortly thereafter he was lured to the
Church and eventually became the anti-Semite he is today. I saw in heaven
that now was a propitious time to bring him to his senses.’
“After the Bishop stopped crying the Besh’t told him to stand and follow him
into a side room where they closed the door and spoke for several minutes.
No one knows what they said in there, but after a while the Bishop came out
dressed in different clothes, left the house and no one has seen him since.
And that is the end of the story.”

The Chassid looked at the rich man and saw that he was smiling with
contentment; he liked the story. He liked it so much that he put his hand
over his eyes and tears began rolling down his face, he was crying, weeping
from sheer happiness.
“That is the story I’ve been waiting for,” he said.
He dried his eyes, looked at the Chassid and continued.

“I am the Bishop in your story!! The Baal Shem Tov told me in that side
room to live a life of repentance until someone came and told me my own
story. Now I know my prayers have been accepted by G-d.”

The Bishop became completely transformed through a story.

The story of the Exodus from Egypt is the foundation of Judaism; it reminds
us that G-d controls the world.

Not only is it constantly mentioned in all our prayers, there is also a
Commandment to remember it every day, and it is the beginning of the Ten
Commandments.

But most important of all, it is the source for the belief in the coming of,
Moshiach and the future redemption that he will bring. (See first Mitzva in
Sefer HaMitzvot Katan SM’K)

The Moshiach will be greater than Moshe; like Moshe he will take us out of
all spiritual and physical bondage but unlike Moshe he will transform evil
it to good rather than destroying it as Moshe did to Egypt.

That is why G-d wanted us to read of how the Staff (which represents
Holiness), turned to a Serpent, (representing evil.) and then back to a
staff, (to show that the true source of evil is really G-d Himself) which
then swallowed those of Pharaoh (As it will be ONLY in the future redemption
when G-d and the Creation will be one).
Because this story has the power to transform all who read it.
Something like how the Bishop became transformed before the storyteller’s
eyes from ‘third person’ (the story was told about him) to second person
(the story was told to him), to first person (he found his true self).
In the future redemption all the negative things in the world that seem to
be far from G-d (third person) will first begin to cooperate with G-d
(second person) and eventually unite with the Truth.

And when we read this story we, like the Bishop when he heard his story,
will begin to want the Truth; that G-d is One, there is nothing but Him, and
we will desire and think constantly about bringing the complete redemption
through,

Moshiach NOW!!

Rabbi Tuvia Bolton
Yeshiva Ohr Tmimim
Kfar Chabad Israel

back to top