A Special Garment: The Seer of Lublin and the Yid HaKodesh
Shlomo Carlebach
Listen friends, can we sit here for five more minutes? Let me tell you a fast, cute little story; then we’ll take a little break-aleh.
[He catches sight of Aryeh Trupin] — Hey, brother, hey, I’m overjoyed to see you. [Changes his tone] You didn’t bring your trumpet? [Aryeh plays clarinet and flute, but Shlomo didn't forget; he meant it generically.]
— I did, but I was, I was sitting so entranced —
— No, brother, I was sure you didn’t have it. How could you hold back? But, you know, I’m so glad —
Chevra, can you get a little bit closer for two more seconds? I want to tell you a sweet story. Just to warm your bones with a good story.
[Confers with Jerry Strauss about the schedule. They agree, and Jerry makes an announcement. Shlomo compliments him.]
Okay, friends, let me tell you a fast story. Maybe some of you heard me tell it already, so you’ll have to forgive me. And if you didn’t, you’ll have to forgive me I didn’t tell it faster.
You know, some of us, friends, are doing someone a favor, and the saddest thing is that you regret it after that. You know? You do somebody a favor — you did — that’s it, right? But to regret it after — what kind of gesheft is this, right? Imagine I walk down the street, and I see a poor man. And at that moment, something touches my heart, and so I give him ten dollars. Next block, I think, “Crazy! Ten dollars? Five dollars wouldn’t have been enough?”
The famous, classic UJA story about this Yiddele going on a bridge and [the bridge] begins to shuckle, and he’s afraid he’ll fall in, and he says, “G-d, I donate $100 for Israel.” Okay, suddenly the bridge is okay. Nothing. It stops shuckling. He thinks, “$100 for Israel? Fifty wouldn’t be enough?” I begins to shuckle again. He says, “G-d, I was only joking.”
But anyway, listen to this. The is a true story, a classic story. Everybody knows that the Yid HaKodesh, the Holy Jew, was the highest pupil of the Seer of Lublin. And one of the reasons he was called “Holy Jew” is that he had the same name like the Seer of Lublin, Ya’akov Yitzchak, and since you’re not permitted to call anybody by the name of your holy master — so one way or the other — but the real holy reason is that one time all the pupils of the Seer of Lublin were standing in [the] marketplace of Lublin, and suddenly a Cossack passed by, riding on a horse, and he pointed at the Yid HaKodesh; he says, “He looks like a Jew.” And he took off. So obviously it was Eliyahu HaNavi, and he told them that the Yid HaKodesh looks like a Jew.
Anyway, he was called Yid HaKodesh, and also everybody knows that if the Yid HaKodesh and the Seer of Lublin would have been always very close, they mamesh had it in their hands to bring Mashiach. So if you know, in the history of Chassidus, the saddest thing happened. Suddenly there was a whole group of people in Lublin, and they told stories to the Seer of Lublin about the Yid HaKodesh. It was like a little wall between them. So this took place at the beginning, when the other side was working for them not to bring the Messiah and to make a little anger between them.
Okay, now I want you to know, the whole time the Seer of Lublin was aware — he didn’t believe anything they tell him, but he knew maybe really the time isn’t there yet, you know? Maybe it’s because the time isn’t there.
Anyway, one Friday afternoon, the Yid HaKodesh — the Holy Jew — walks into the Seer of Lublin, and the Yid HaKodesh was so poor — his father-in-law was a baker, and you know — very, very poor. So his shirt was torn, and it was really dirty. So the Seer of Lublin says (you know — everybody knows — a Talmud Chocham — a scholar — is really not permitted to walk around dirty ’cause it’s a desecration of G-d’s name, so he said to the Yid HaKodesh, “You’re not permitted to walk around with that shirt on Shabbos.” Walks into his bedroom, takes out a beautiful shirt — and you have to realize the Seer of Lublin would not give a shirt to somebody unless he’s completely holy, right — because all the garments of my soul, of my body, are just one, right? And to wear a shirt which was worn by the Seer of Lublin — ah, your kishkes are turning over, right? I’d be afraid even just to go into the same room with the Seer of Lublin and his shirts, right?
Okay, the Yid HaKodesh takes the shirt, and he walks down the street. He wants to go to the mikveh. On the way to the mikveh, he meets Mosheleh the Shikker.
And Mosheleh the Shikker, you know, is a shrewd fellow, but mamesh his shirt is even more torn and is more dirty, so the Yid HaKodesh suddenly has a flash, “I wish Moshele the Shikker would look decent on Shabbos.” He says, “Mosheleh, you want a good shirt? I just got a gift from the Seer of Lublin. Here, I give you the shirt.” The Yid HaKodesh went to the mikveh, but in the meantime, Moshele Shikker — Moshele the drunkard — wasn’t as stupid as that. He walks back to the bar, and he says, “Friends, I have here the most unbelievable thing, which nobody ever had. I have a shirt of the Seer of Lublin. Who’s offering the most?” He auctions off the shirt for 1500 rubles, and the one who bought it was the bartender, and Monday, he went to the marketplace in Lublin — it was a real Jewish city — getting on a chair, and he says, “I have a shirt of the Seer of Lublin. How much are you offering?” And he auctioned it off for 10,000 rubles because someone had a thought, “I have no children,” chas v’shalom, “and if I wear the shirt,” you know, “G-d will help me.” 10,000 rubles.
Word got back to the Seer of Lublin, and the Seer of Lublin, to tell you the truth, the Seer of Lublin was a bit angry — because he really gave it to him as a present, you know? Imagine someone loves me, gives me a gift, I’ll say, “Listen, I gave it away” — “I gave it to YOU,” right? I can understand both sides, right? And remind me, I want to tell you an Ishbitzer Torah on that, but I don’t want to interrupt myself.
Anyway, the Yid HaKodesh was very downhearted. He thought, “Maybe it’s really stupid. Maybe I shouldn’t have given it. Maybe I should have — I don’t know.” Anyway, he walked down to the outskirts of the city, and he was sitting there, and he was mamesh crying ’cause he knew that means another war between him and his holy master. Sitting there and crying. Suddenly, another drunkard — but this time, mamesh, Elijah the Prophet. You know, when you’re very broken, then the best thing to tell your story is to a stranger, right? So suddenly this drunkard comes up to him and sits next to him and he says, “Hey, why are you crying?” You know? Tells him the whole story.
He says to him, “Let me tell YOU a story.” He says, “I want you to know, a few hundred years ago, in a city, there was a big thief, Yankele the thief. And he mamash stole, but he was so polished that you couldn’t catch him. He mamash stole every penny out of the hands of every Jew in the city, until he was so rich, he decided to retire. Okay, he bought himself a beautiful house. Everybody knew it was stolen money, but you couldn’t pin him down. And he lasted very happily after. But you know, if you don’t continue to steal, finally your money goes out.
One day, he was left with no money — listen to that chutzpah — he comes to the Jewish community, and he says, “Folks, I’m poor. I want you to support me.” They said, “What? Until now you ate of our money, and now you have the
chutzpah to come we should give you more money?” You know? “Give us back the money you stole from us and we’ll support you.”
Meantime, this nebich, Yankele the thief, has nothing to eat. One day, a very wealthy man, who was a neighbor, passed by the house of Yankele the thief — and by that time he was already an older man. He saw him sitting by the door of his house, so broken, and so hungry, and so desperate — so he said to himself, “I don’t care,” you know? “I don’t care if it’s right or wrong. I gotta give this Yiddele something to eat for Shabbos.”
Went back to his wife, and he says, “Do me a favor. Send him a lot of lukshun kugel, a lot of cholent, and a gefilte fish so he can have enough to eat until next Shabbos. Send him a lot of food! We have enough.”
To make it very short, from that Friday on, the rich wife sent food to Yankele the thief every Friday. This went on for many years. And now, you gotta open your hearts, like from here till the end of the world.
One day there were two funerals: a big funeral — the rich man died; and a little funeral — Yankele the thief died. They both died at the same time, buried at the same time, coming up to Heaven — rich man goes first.
Okay, the rich man — and you know, there’s a huge scale. Okay, first they put on his good deeds; it didn’t take much — a little briefcase — an angel brings the good deeds, puts them on one side, that’s it. Now comes the bad side; trucks are coming, you know? The Yiddele sees there is no hope for him — you know? He’s at the end. Okay, he’s sitting there and shivering, and he knows, “In a few more seconds they’ll decree I have to go to hell, they’ll push the button, and I’ll be a barbecued rich man.”
Now listen to this — at the very last second something happened, and suddenly the high court says, “You’re going to Heaven.” The high court says, “You’re going to Heaven.” The rich man looks at the scale — the bad side is so heavy, and the good deeds is nothing — suddenly he sees — something wrong with the scale. And he asks one of the angels, “What’s going on here?” They answered him, “Don’t you understand? Your friend, Yankele the thief, stole away all your avayras, all your evil deeds.”
It’s a gevalt story, you know? What a story, you know? Mazel tov, yeah. Such a holy story, you know? Good Yontif. Peace.
From the series, Reb Shlomo at Congregation Beth Ami, 4676 Mayette Avenue, Santa Rosa, CA 95405 . Sunday, November 30, 1980 (22 Kislev, 5741), Parashat Miketz. (Two days before Chanukah, the week of Parashat Miketz.)
Recorded and transcribed by Reuven Goldfarb.
Transcription dedicated to the complete refuah of Yitzchak ben Leah — Jerry Strauss, Shlomo’s great friend and supporter — who organized the concert and learning at which these teachings were given over.
Copyright held by the estate of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach.
