Amazing Story About The Tosher Rebbe

1:06He had a line every day of people coming to him for blessings, people coming to him for help, advice, and guidance. But one day, he notices there's a line, and among the people waiting, one of the guys doesn't look so good. He looks poor. But he knows he just gave away his last dollar. All the chassidim gave him money, and he gave away all the money. He didn't even leave enough money for himself. But this one guy on the line, he looks homeless. He looks homeless, you could tell. Unfortunately, you could tell. And he knows this guy is probably coming for money, but I don't have any money. This guy is going to come to me, and he probably thinks I'm his last hope. Probably doesn't have enough emunah in Hashem. He's going to come to me, and I'm not going to have any money. The guy may break. Momita starts praying and then he looks up. Right behind him, right behind the homeless guy, is actually one of the Chassidim of that movement, who is, in fact, very wealthy. So as the line continues to advance, it gets to the homeless guy. The Rav says, "One second." He tells the wealthy man, "You come first, you come first," so the rich man comes in. They go into the room, he sits down with him and tells him, "Listen, I..."

2:23Whatever his problem was, the guy makes a very big donation, puts it in an envelope, and gives it to the Rav. The poor guy comes back, comes inside, and the Rabbi says, "Yes, how can I help you, my son?" He says, "Well, Rebbe, you know, before I even get to what I'm here for, I'm coming here for you to help me financially. I don't have this, I don't have that, but you know what?" Before I even talk to you about all the things I need help with, I'm really disappointed, Rebbe. I thought you guys were tzadikim. I thought you guys were righteous with Hashem. And you don't make distinctions between someone who's poor and someone who's rich. I thought you would just look at someone and see that he's a Yid, and that's it. He's a Jew, he's a Jew, he's a Jew, that's it. What happened? I'm on the line all day. I'm waiting, I'm waiting, I'm waiting. Right before my turn comes, what do you do? You pick the guy behind me. Why? Because he's rich? Why is his blood better than mine? Why is his Judaism better than mine? Why is he more of a Jew than me? What is this about? He starts tearing the rabbi apart, and the rabbi remains quiet.

3:35The shamash, the helper of the rabbi, is watching the whole thing, and he wants to say something. He wants to give this guy a nice slap to wake him up, to make him realize the rabbi did all this for him. But he doesn't say anything. Why doesn't the rabbi say anything? So this poor guy is tearing the rabbi apart, and the rabbi doesn't say a thing. After he finishes, he says, "Rabbi, so anyway, I need some help." You help me or not? He doesn't even ask nicely. The rabbi got an envelope. He didn't even look at the envelope. The rich guy gave him an envelope. He didn't even look at the envelope. He takes the envelope and gives it to him. The guy leaves. He got an envelope. He doesn't even know what's inside yet. He opens the envelope and sees a huge check. Now he doesn't have a bank account. He doesn't have a bank account. But he's happy to get the check. He's a bit embarrassed about what he did to the rabbi, but still, you know, what can you do? It's already too late. Should he go on the line again? No, let him just get a ride. So he waits, looking for anyone to give him a ride. "Can somebody give me a ride?" he wonders. Eventually, some guy pulls over. The driver asks, "What do you need?" and he replies, "I need a ride." The driver says, "Okay, come in. I'll give you a ride." He notices it's a fancy car and gets into the car.

4:54And the guy asked him, "Where are you from? Where are you from?" He starts talking. He's like, "Listen, do you know anything about checks?" the poor guy asked the rich guy. He goes, "Yeah, of course, I know about checks." He goes, "Can you do me a favor? I don't have a bank account and I don't know what to do with this check. Can you give me money for this? Can you give me cash for this?" So the guy said, "Yeah, sure, give me the check." So he takes the envelope. And what does he see? It's his check. He's the rich guy that gave the check to the rabbi. He goes, "Yeah, no problem. I'll give you the cash." After he gives him the money, he drops him off. He goes back to the rabbi, to the beit midrash. And he says, "Rabbi, I don't understand. I don't understand. How come you didn't open the envelope? You just gave him the money. How come?" The rabbi responds, "What do I care what's in that? It was not for me. It was for him." He insists, "At least see what's in the envelope." The rabbi replies, "I don't need to see it. He needs to see it." Then the shamash (attendant) says to the rabbi, "Rabbi, I don't understand. Why didn't you tell the man that the whole arrangement you made for him to skip this was actually for his own benefit?" He says, "What difference is it going to make if I tell him? He's not going to see it until later on anyway. He's not going to see it until later on anyway. He's not going to understand until later on anyway. Why? Because when you experience a difficulty, you automatically think that Hashem is torturing you. You automatically think that Hashem is punishing you. Little do you know, Hashem is preparing something much better for you. Something much better than you think for yourself."

6:21He says, this is how life is, Dovid HaMelech says. Life is that way. We're constantly complaining against Hashem, and Hashem stays quiet. Hashem stays quiet even though sometimes we say things that are not so nice. Hashem stays quiet even though sometimes we don't do the mitzvot. Hashem stays quiet even though sometimes we become heretics. And He still continues to prepare something better for us. Why? Because He wants us to see that, in the end, it was all Him. If we see it's Him, in the end, it ends up paying off. If we don't, unfortunately, He uses that case against us when we go up to Shamayim. He tells us, "Listen, look at all the wonderful things I did for you. I sent somebody to give you the truth, all the way from a different country, and brought it to your house." Money you needed, I sent it to you from some place that you never thought it was going to come from. The wife you wanted, or the husband you wanted, I literally invented them just for you. I created them just for you. Everything you ever wanted your whole life, from beginning to end, I gave you, and you still went against Me your whole life. So now, when you're going to say, "Wait a minute, but it's not fair because if you're comparing me to the times of Moshe, they had a lot of open miracles."

7:46And then Hashem is going to show us our life. We are going to see that we experienced even more miracles, even more miracles than were witnessed in Mitzrayim, and even more miracles than were witnessed at Har Sinai, within our own personal lives. But unfortunately, we weren't paying attention. Instead, we were paying attention to everything else. Instead, we were wasting our time. Instead, we were simply doing everything but looking in the right place. Now, the Beit HaLevi continues, and he says that if Hashem gave us an open miracle, literally split the ocean for us today, that would mean that He would have to punish us right away if we did something wrong. Why? Because then that little bit of doubt we have right now would disappear. Instead, we were wasting our time. Instead, we were simply doing everything but looking in the right place. Now, the Beit HaLevi continues, and he says that if Hashem gave us an open miracle, literally splitting the ocean for us today, that would mean He would have to punish us right away if we did something wrong. Why? Because then that little bit of doubt that we have right now would be gone. We don't see open miracles. We see miracles, but not open ones. That still gives us a little bit of free choice that we won't have anymore. If we don't have free choice, then Hashem obviously does not extend any free rights to us either, and...