The book A.I. tells that near Worke lived a person in a village who, on Hoshana Rabbah morning, made himself a hoshana (a bundle of willows), and set out to Worke, to be with our holy rebbe and pray there.
As he was holding the hoshana in his hand, a gentile nobleman met him and asked him, “What is in your hand?”
He told him, “A hoshana.”
And he said, “Call it a meitla [a disparating term?],” and struck him cruelly so that he would say that. But he refused and insisted on saying “hoshana.”
The nobleman then asked him, “Where are you going?”
He told him, “To the rebbe of Worke.”
He told him, “Call him Yutzke [a colloquial version of the rebbe’s first name]!” and struck him again with murderous blows.
But he cried out, “To the rebbe!”
And then the nobleman vanished.
When he came to Worke, our holy rebbe asked him, “What happened to you on the way?” And he told him the entire story.
Our holy rebbe told him, “Know that this nobleman was the Evil One, and he wanted to destroy you, heaven forbid, in two ways: first, that you should show contempt for the mitzvah, and second, that you should call your rebbe by name. And you experienced great miracles and withstood the test. And so a heavenly decree against you was torn up and changed from evil to good. And may you be written and sealed for a good life.
And so it was that he had a good year.
Esser Zechuyot
No comments:
Post a Comment