A Jewish Story of Rabbi Tzvi Elimelech Spira of DINOV

0:51He wrote a sefer that, no matter what kind of chassid you are, if you're a normal type of chassid, this is almost like your Torah of Chassidut. It's called Bnei Yissaschar, written a little over 200 years ago. Now, Rabbi Tzvi Elimelech Shapira of Dinov, one time on a Friday night, had all of his chassidim with him. They had already completed Kabbalat Shabbat, and they're having the aruchah, they're having the meal. Suddenly, some messy, disaster-looking, drunk, smelly villager walks into the beit midrash. Some of the chassidim figured he got the wrong address. But the Rebbe sees him, leaves all of his chassidim, stands up, and runs towards him in the front. And they're having the aruchah, they're having the meal. Suddenly, some messy, disaster-looking, drunk, smelly villager walks into the beit midrash. Some of the Chassidim figured he got the wrong address. But the Rebbe sees him, leaves all of his Chassidim, stands up, runs towards him in the front,

1:51Come, come, come, sit. In those days, Hasidim had immense kavod for their Rebbe, immense kavod for their Rebbe, as they still do today. So when they see this guy bringing in the smelly, drunk-looking guy, everybody automatically has some thoughts. Maybe this guy is Eliyahu Hanavi. Eliyahu Hanavi, it's known that Eliyahu Hanavi, when he comes to this world, he doesn't come as Eliyahu Hanavi with wings and everything. He comes sometimes as a homeless person, sometimes as a soldier. All types of stories we hear in the Torah. So, people are saying definitely it's Eliyahu Hanavi. But then they see the Rebbe taking him and sitting him right next to him, giving him half of his food. He's protecting him. No one's talking to him, and he's talking to him and taking care of him. And he's feeding him, and this guy's getting kavod. It's like maybe this guy's a malach. This is Michael himself, Malach Michael, the malach of Am Yisrael. It has to be Gabriel, Raphael, somebody. The whole Shabbat he's right next to him, right next to him the whole time; he's not moving.

3:06After he gives him his bed to sleep in, the Rebbe gives him his clothes. This villager is now wearing the Rebbe's clothes. Everyone's baffled. One guy figured, you know what, maybe he's not Eliyahu HaNavi, maybe he's not a malach, but for sure he's one of the hidden tzaddikim of the generation. Has to be. After Shabbat is over, He comes to the Rebbe. He says, I just want to thank you for showing us the big secret that was right in front of us, sitting among us, one of the biggest hidden tzaddikim of the generation. Thank you for showing them to us. Rav Tzvi Elimelech starts smiling and giggling. He says, no, let me tell you a story. He said, years ago, I wasn't so famous. When I was young, I wasn't so famous. And when I would go to different places, people wouldn't know who I was. And I would make it so that I would go visit one of the Gedolei HaDor, the Chozeh of Lublin. I would go visit him. And on one of my journeys to go visit him, in the middle of the journey, I asked someone to move their things so I could sit there.

4:34One of my journeys, it started snowing, a snowstorm. I said, because I'm on a mitzvah, on a journey of mitzvah, the mitzvah is going to protect me. I kept going and going and going, but the snow wasn't stopping. And all of a sudden, my legs started to lose feeling. I fell over. I couldn't move my legs anymore. I fell over. I saw that there's a light right behind the woods, right behind some trees over there. There's a village, and I saw light. I couldn't get up, so I said I'll roll myself there, and I rolled myself little by little until I got to the village. And as Hashem would have it, Baruch Hashem, the first house I got to, I saw there's a mezuzah on the door. I said, "Baruch Hashem." I got myself up. I knocked on the door, and this villager opens the door, and he had a Tisha B'Av face on him. He wasn't happy to see me, and I said, "Dear Jew, have some mercy, please. Please let me inside. It's snowing outside, please."

5:47The villager looks at me and says, "No!" Pah! He closes the door in my face. I knew that if I didn't become a chutzpahnik and push my way in, this would be my last night. So I knocked again. The villager opens the door once more, his face even nastier than before. I said, "Please, Reb Yid (dear Jew), help me." I'm gonna die outside. He says to me, "Listen, I don't have time for people like you. This is not a hotel. I have a barn for my horses, a tool shed, and a place where the food for the animals is kept. Pick one of those places; you could sleep over there, but inside my house, you're not coming in." What choice did I have? I rolled myself into the... The barn, the smell was so bad, I couldn't stay there. I went to the tool shed, but there was no room. Simply no room. Where the food was stored for the animals, there was barely any room, and it didn't smell so good, but it was better than the horses. So I said, what are my choices? I'll go over there. And I spent the night over there, but it was so cold, I could not sleep the whole night.

7:10For a second, I was freezing. I saw it myself. What am I going to do? I'm cold. I can't sleep. You know what? Let's learn Torah! Let's learn Torah! That's what we're going to do! So I started crying to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, and then I started learning Torah. But because I was suffering in so much pain and agony from the cold and the journey itself, this was the type of Torah that came with Mesirut Nefesh, with major sacrifice. There's a Torah that you learn while you're drinking a nice cup of coffee, nice tea with some popcorn on the side. Maybe a cookie, maybe a steak for some people. And then there's real Torah, Torah that you study with mesirut nefesh, with sacrifice. And that's the Torah that I learned. And he says because I learned this Torah throughout that night, suddenly all types of heavenly secrets were opened up and... The heavens opened to me during that night, and I started discovering all types of secrets—powerful, mystical things that I never had in my whole life and still have to this day. So the chassid says to the Rebbe, because the Rebbe said, "What does it have to do with this drunk that came here?" He says, "He was my host."

8:39Because the Kodesh Rav should have told us he was a host, we would have taken care of that man. A couple of big chassidim, ones with a few children, would have handled it. He said, no, chas v'shalom (Heaven forbid). I owe a great debt of gratitude to this man. What gratitude? He almost let you perish outside. He responded, no. Only because of him was I able to elevate my neshama (soul) to such a high level and learn pure Torah with mesirut nefesh (self-sacrifice). else I would have never received those secrets from Shamayim. I owe him a great gratitude for doing what he did. That is the difference between a Jewish story and a non-Jewish story. In a Jewish story, you learn: What can I learn from that story? The Jew will always say, okay, the Holocaust, what could I learn from there? This terrible situation that happened to the Rebbe over here, what could he learn from there? All types of stories, what could I learn from them in order to apply them to my life? Non-Jewish stories, what's in it for me? How much money can this story make me? What can I sell it for? Can I write a book about the story and sell it on ArtScroll maybe? On Amazon?

10:03something not to compare the two, but you get the point. The reality is that a Jewish story is a story that you learn something from. That's what makes you a Jew. If you're only going to look for things based on your benefit, that's not a Jewish behavior. But then, you're going to see that the perception that the goyim have of us is quite the opposite and Perception of the non-Jewish world of Jews is the exact opposite of what I just said. They look at the Jews and make all these caricatures, portraying them as money-hungry, always involved in businesses, banking, and lending. They depict Jews as being behind everything—always having a benefit in something, whether it’s related to the government, missiles, weapons, or anything else. Why do you think that is? That's because their perception of Jews is misguided. Their perceptions of non-religious Jews are that they see Jews who may not act in accordance with Jewish values, even if they sometimes appear religious. These individuals might wear peyot (sidelocks) or hats. They might not, but regardless, their behavior is not reflective of true Jewish values. It's time for us to begin acting Jewish both publicly and privately, with pride and without apology.