Rav Sholom Schwadron & Rav Shabtai Yudalevitz SHABBAT SHALOM Story (BeEzrat HaShem Inc Film)

0:27So the mitzvah of "hocheach tochiach et amitecha" (you must rebuke your brother), and "lo tisa alav chet" (do not come to the way of sin), that was in Parashat Kedoshim. In a previous generation, there were a few tzaddikim that were zealous for Hashem. One of them was Rav Shalom Schwadron. Rav Shalom Schwadron was not only a Gadol BaTorah, but also a powerhouse when it came to helping Am Yisrael do teshuva. He had a very, very unique style of speaking and telling people, making fun of himself, and giving you chiddushim BaTorah, and scaring you to death, all at the same time. He was a very big person, very strong, and he and another tzaddik by the name of Rav Shabtai Yehudah Levitz. Rav Shabtai Yehudah Levitz was also a very big, strong person. And both of them were chachamim, talmidei chachamim, serious talmidei chachamim. Not like today where the guys are being called talmidei chachamim. Now, they were zealous for Hashem. What does it mean to be zealous for Hashem? They would do different things aside from the basics.

1:46On Friday night, you want to make sure that everyone in the neighborhood keeps Shabbat. How do you make sure everybody keeps Shabbat? On Friday, they come to every store, "Shabbat, Shabbat's coming," two hours, three hours before Shabbat, they come, "Okay, Shabbat's coming, let's go, close the shop." Remind everybody, every Shabbat, "Close the shop, close the shop, close the shop." Now, You have somebody coming to your store, reminding you, even if you don't keep Shabbat, but every Friday he comes to your store and tells you to close shop, not to open on Shabbat. After a while, just to really embarrass him, you stop. Unless you're the exact opposite of them. You're zealous for sin. And there was such a person. There was one rasha that hated Judaism. Not only did he hate Judaism, he was zealous for sin. He hated when they came. He'd come to his store... Tell him, Shabbat, Shabbat. And he continued working, careless about what they say. Now, Rav Shwadron and Rav Yehuda Leibowitz weren't just somebody you could pick on. They wanted to make sure if they needed you to close the store, you're going to close the store. So, one day, this guy decides, I'm going to get my revenge. What did he do?

3:12goes, he buys a huge pit bull. A vicious pit bull raised in one of these backyard places where they fight dogs and stuff. The dog just can't wait to kill somebody. Now pit bulls in general, they're very lovely animals. I had one for 16 years. But if you train them to do the opposite of their nature, they'll do it because they think that they're protecting you. So he had this vicious pit bull bought it, and hid it in the basement. Now, anyone that's ever been in a retail store knows that many times the stores put all of the stock of their merchandise in the basement. So they have a door to the basement. It's like a gate that opens, and there are stairs that you walk down. So what did he do? He had the dog right behind it. So as soon as he opens the gate, the dog lunges, comes out, and whoever is in front of it... That was his plan.

4:13...have the dog sit there, starving, waiting for whoever's in front of him. As soon as he opens that gate, finished. Who's the lucky candidate? "I'm going to go against these religious people." So this rasha waited the whole day, licking his lips, waiting, waiting for the opportunity to hurt some religious people. Only today, he tried hurting the wrong ones, but the right ones... so as you would have it, a couple of hours before Shabbat comes, they start on the street: "Shabbat Shalom, Shabbat Shalom, it's time to go, Shabbat Shalom." Everybody does one store after another, one store after another. Eventually, they get to this guy's store and they come together, one on this side, one on that side: "Shabbat Shalom, Shabbat Shalom, Shabbat Shalom." Shabbat Shalom, he opens the gate, the pit bull lunges out. Rav Shwadron looks at Rav Yehuda Leibitch, they look at each other. As the dog, this was like instant, people saw this, instant, the dog lunged at them. One caught him from the front, the other one caught him from the back. They ripped the dog in half. They were so powerful, they ripped the dog in half.

5:39They put it on his table, said "Shabbat Shalom," and left. He kept Shabbat from that point on. From that point on, he kept Shabbat. Why? He understood this is not human power. This is Kedusha power. Kedusha power. We have a hard time ripping a steak, even with a fork and a knife. But when you have two giants in Torah, HaKadosh Baruch Hu will not let them get scratched. True story. See, Rabotai HaKedoshim, HaKadosh Baruch Hu sends different messages to different people in their own ways. The more specific you need it, the more it's going to shock you and maybe hurt you. That guy was not going to do teshuva any other way. He thought he's going to get revenge against the Torah.

6:41He had something coming to him. He got a personal message, but that's the message that he needed.