Passover: The Seder of Moshele the water carrier
After one Seder with Rav Tzvi Elimelech, the chassidim got together and said, “Rebbe, there is nobody who makes a Seder like you.” Rav Tzvi Elimelech said, “Let me tell you something. Moshele, the water carrier’s Seder was the best Seder, this year, in the world. I’ll let him tell you tomorrow what he did.”
The next day, after davening, the chassidim went up to Moshele the water carrier and said, “The Rebbe wants to see you.” Moishele came before the Rebbe, and he began to cry bitterly. He said, if ‘Rebbe, I’ll never do it again. I’m so sorry. I don’t know what came over me.” He was crying. The Rebbe said, “Listen, Moishele, just tell us what you did.”
Now, I always tell my friends that basically we Jews are not so much into drinking. But, in every city there is one Jew who drinks for all in that city. Then, there is some kind of higher drunkard, who drinks for the Jews of that country. And then, there are some lamed vov drunkards who drink for all the Jews of that generation. And then, there are some drunkards who drink for all the Jews from Avraham Aveinu until Mashiach. Anyway, this Moishe, the drunkard, was a lamed vovnick. His greatest joy in life was drinking. The saddest thing is, on Pesach you can’t drink whiskey. So, he had a tremendous idea. He’ll stay up the whole night, erev Pesach, and he’ll be drunk for the rest of Pesach, he’ll be drunk right thru. Anyway, he drank, and even a drunkard who is a religious Jew knows that ten minutes after nine, on Pesach, you stop. He stopped exactly, and he was out.
Seder night, his wife came to wake him up and said, “Moshele, it’s really not fair. Every Jew has a Seder. Every house has a Seder. We have little children, and we don’t have a Seder. So what’s going on here?” And, he said, “By then, did I regret that I drank so much at night. Did I regret it! I would have done anything not to be drunk. But I couldn’t help it. I said, ‘Please wake me up in an hour. I just can’t get it together yet.’ Anyway, my wife kept waking me up every hour, every half hour. Then, suddenly, she came to me and said, ‘Moishele, in five minutes, five minutes, it’s gone. You didn’t have anything and the children are waiting.’ “Gevalt”. he said, “was I broken. Here, my children are so holy and I am such a lousy father, I didn’t even give them a Seder. So, I said to my wife, ‘Please, call my children.’ She called the children in and I said to them, ‘Please, sit very close to me on my bed. I have to talk to you. I want you to know, children, that I am so sorry that I drank. I am so sorry that I am a drunkard. But, I want you to know that if my drinking can make me not have a Seder with you, then it’s not worth it.’ So, I said to my children, ‘I swear to you, Seder night, tonight, that I’ll never drink again. But, right now, it’s Seder night, I am so sorry, we didn’t eat matza, we didn’t eat maror. But, let me just tell you the Pesach story, in a nutshell.’”
Moishele said to the Rebbe, “You know, I was still drunk. But, I tried my best. I said, ‘Children, I want you to know that G-d created heaven and earth in seven days. And, I want you to know that Adam was thrown out of Paradise the first day. Then everything went downhill. There was a flood, there was a tower of Babylon; that was as much as I knew. Then came Avraham. He began fixing the world again. Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaacov and his twelve holy sons. Then Pharaoh made slaves out of us, and tonight, G-d took us out from Egypt. And, I said, children, I want you to swear to me right now, that you’ll always know that the same G-d who took us out from Egypt is still alive. It’s the same G-d. Whenever a Jew cries to G-d, G-d always hears our prayers and takes us out from all our troubles.’”
“Rebbe, I’m so sorry. I couldn’t say anything more because I was still drunk. I turned over and I fell asleep again.”
So the heilege (holy) Reb Tzvi Elimelech was crying bitter tears. He said to his chassidim, “Did you hear that? Did you hear that? I wish that one time in my life, I should be privileged to give over Yiddishkeit to my children, the way Moishele the water carrier gave it over to his children Seder night.” Gevalt.
Brooklyn, 5745
Edited from Connections Magazine Vol 1 No 2
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