The Secretary in the Forest

I heard the following story from a reliable person, who heard it from someone who had met an exceedingly old man who possessed remarkable strength.

That [old man] told a story about the holy Worke rebbe, when the holy rebbe was young and a secretary in a forest [in a lumber operation]. And there was also a treasurer there there. And [this old man] was a worker there--called a gei’avi—and there were other workers there as well.

One time, the treasurer suspected the gentiles of stealing wood from the forest. So he told the servants to watch for thieves in the forest that night, and if they caught a thief they would be given half of the fine [that the thief would have to pay]. And that is what they did they did.

Suddenly that night this worker saw the secretary going through the forest. And he was very surprised, because it is not normal for a secretary to look for thieves at night. So he kept an eye on him and saw that he was going to a pit filled with worms and muravkes (leeches[?]). The secretary took off his clothes and went in naked, until blood streamed from his entire body. And near by was a pit filled with water, and he immersed in it and went home.

The worker discreetly kept an eye on the secretary the next night and the following nights, and the secretary did the same each night. And the worker kept this matter hidden in his heart, considering the secretary to be a holy man but not revealing it to anyone.

One time the treasurer celebrated his new-born son’s circumcision, and before the circumcision he gathered all of the workers and gave them pastries and vodka, as is the custom.

Afterwards, he asked them to bless him that the boy should grow up.

They asked him, “What particular blessing do you want us to give you?”

He told them that whenever he had had a son, either before or immediately after the circumcision the baby passed away.

This worker could not contain himself and told the treasurer, “I have to tell you that the only person who can help you is our secretary. He will help you, because he is a holy man.” And he told him the whole story.

So the treasurer sent for the secretary and gave him pastry and vodka. And then he brought him into a room and closed the door. And he said, “Please bless me.” And he told him of his trouble.

The secretary said to him, “What do you want from me? Am I a rabbi or a rebbe?”

The treasurer told him, “Don’t conceal yourself from me, for I have learned that you are a holy man.” And his wife also wept before the secretary, out of the bitterness of her soul, and she said, “Save me, my master!”

And since the secretary saw that he had no alternative, he sat on the seat and held his holy hands before his face for a few minutes. And then he said to the treasurer, “Once when you were a boy you were playing with other children, and you took a ring and put it on the twig of a tree and said, ‘Behold, you are betrothed to me.’ One of the beings from the Side of Evil was sitting there, and it is she who is killing your babies.”

The treasurer remembered the episode. He wept and asked the secretary what to do.

The secretary asked for paper. He made lines and wrote some text on the paper, and he told the treasurer to go to a tree that he would point out and tell the tree, “I give this to you as divorce papers.”

And the secretary stood there by the window and gazed out until the treasurer finished and returned to him.

And the secretary told the treasurer, “You have already been saved.”

And so it was.

And this worker was standing there and saw all this. And since he realized that this was a propitious moment, he said to the secretary, “Bless me too.” And the secretary blessed with him with long life.

And then the secretary left the area, since he saw that people were beginning to notice him.

And that secretary was our holy rebbe of Worke.

Esser Zechuyot