ACHAREI
MOS
"..After the death.." (Leviticus 16:1)
* * *
THE MISPLACED SOUL
And then there was the time, shortly before the Baal
Shem Tov left this physical world, that his
granddaughter, Udel's daughter, came to the him for
a blessing.
"Zeide," she begged him, "bless me. I have
been married for some time but still have no
children."
Her beloved grandfather assured her that she would
soon give birth to a son. Soon thereafter, she
conceived. But before her son was born, the Baal
Shem Tov passed away. When the child was born,
he was named Yisrael after his illustrious
grandfather.
When little Yisrael was only two years old, he fell ill
and soon passed away. His mother, beside herself
with grief, took the lifeless body to her grandfather's
grave. "Is this the child you promised me?" she cried
out. She left her baby's body by the Baal Shem
Tov's grave and returned to her home,
brokenhearted.
On that same day, some people came to visit the
grave of their departed Rebbe. They were surprised
to find a young child playing by himself near the Baal
Shem Tov's grave. "Who would abandoned a child in
a cemetery?" they wondered. They brought the
child
to the nearby village, hoping that someone would be
able to identify him. When little Yisrael's mother
heard the startling news that a young child had been
found at the Baal Shem Tov's grave, she quickly ran
to claim her son. She was overjoyed to find him alive
and well.
That night the Baal Shem Tov appeared to his
granddaughter in a dream.
"Why did you have to create such an upset by
bringing your child to my grave? You could have
simply come alone to tell me of the death of your
son. By leaving him in the cemetery you forced me
to go searching among thousands of souls to find the
right one to return to his body."
And so it was.
Freely adapted by Tzvi Meir HaCohane (Howard M.
Cohn, Patent Attorney) from a letter from the Rav of
Medzibush as translated in Stories of the BAAL SHEM TOV by
Y.Y. Klapholtz
