Amazing Story of The Holy & Stingy Yosef (7 Minutes)

0:14There's a story about Yosef HaKamtsan HaKadosh. Have you ever heard about Yosef HaKamtsan HaKadosh? Yosef, the holy stingy person. It's an interesting title, isn't it? He was a rich man, a few hundred years ago. It's a true story, by the way. And he became known as Yosef HaKamtsan, the stingy Yosef, because he had money but refused to give it to anyone. One day, he died. He was hated so much by his kehillah that no one showed up to the funeral.

1:38This is obviously a horrendous situation. He didn't exactly leave such a good past. You know, and as they say, we actually say it in our tefillah, "Tov shem mishem en tov." It's better to have a good name than a lot of money. Shlomo HaMelech said it. Because a good name lasts. Money doesn't last. It's just for this life. And even in this life, it's questionable if it's going to last. So he dies, and no one shows up to the funeral. The funeral, and all of a sudden the day after the funeral, all of these poor people show up at the rabbi's house, knocking on his door, tens and tens of people asking for tzedakah. He says, "Where did you all come from? Because we all live here. All of a sudden, all of you went broke at the same time?" He goes, "No, we haven't had money for many years." He goes, "So how did you survive until now?"

2:38He said, "Well, we don't really know, but we know that every time we went to the stores, the stores would give us the money. The stores would give us the goods. We didn't have to pay. If I went to the store to buy milk, the guy from the milk company, the guy from the store that sells milk, would give me the milk. But all of a sudden, today I went, and he said, 'I'm sorry, I can't give it to you.' And the same thing happened with the next one, and the next one, and the next one." So now, the Rav was not a fool. And he's trying to figure out, where did this money come from? So he goes to all of the merchants. He says, who gave you the money to pay for all these people? Why did you stop giving it to them? He says, well, I gave it to them because every week I would get an envelope with his name on it. And the envelope would have the exact amount of money for what he needs for his groceries, or what he needs for his laundry, or what he needs for whatever goods the guy was selling. And the envelope didn't come this week.

3:46Because who gave you the envelope? He goes, no, no, that's one thing I'm not allowed to say. I promised the person who gave me the envelope that I wouldn't say. So he went to the next guy. The next guy said the same thing. I got the envelope, but I'm not allowed to say. I'm not allowed to say. I'm not allowed to say. The Rabbi invited all of them to his house. He said, I demand that all of you tell me who gave you the envelope. As a Rabbi, back then they respected the Rabbi. They all admitted it was Yosef, Yosef HaKamtsan. Immediately, the rabbi started hysterically crying and began praying non-stop to do teshuva for all the things they said and thought about him. Yosef, why did you do this to us? I'm not sure whether the story goes that he had a dream about him or he actually did one of these mystical things where he asked to be shown. Some type of answer from Yosef. But long story short is that he saw Yosef and he sees Yosef all wearing white, looking very holy in the next world. He says, why did you do this to us? Why did you pretend to be such a cheap guy, when in reality you were feeding the entire community? He says, because I learned one time that if you want your mitzvah and you want all of it, you want to make sure that no one knows, and on top of it,

5:11The receiver, the receiver doesn't even know who gave it to them. And even the highest level that I did is I tried to make sure that the receiver hates me. And what was your reward for this mitzvah? Because Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov and David HaMelech came to welcome me to the next world. David HaMelech was making the music, and the Avot came to me, and they brought me to the next world. He says, "But you know, I still miss one thing. There's only one thing I still miss about this world." "What do you miss?" they asked. "I miss writing the envelopes. There are no envelopes in Olam Haba. There's no more chance for me to do more mitzvot." So that's when Yosef HaKamtzan got the name Yosef HaKamtzan HaKadosh, the holiest in Yosef. When we know the value of each mitzvah, we'll chase it like we chase money. We'll chase it like we chase treasure, like we're chasing something extremely valuable, without focusing on whether anyone notices or not.

6:14If we truly understand the worth of each mitzvah, we'll pursue it with the same fervor as we pursue money. We'll chase after it like we are in pursuit of treasure. Every mitzvah is like something extremely valuable, and we should engage in this pursuit without concern for whether others notice or do not notice.