OBST 25

In the last installment, the Rabbi's boy, after finding out that his father had promised to give him to a stranger when he turned 13, travelled to Poland and journeyed until he reached Reb Yoel Baal Shem's house. There he was taken in and learned Torah until the age of thirteen.

Just before his thirteenth birthday and his Bar Mitzvah, the boy told Reb Yoel all that had happened to his father and why he himself had come to Poland.

Reb Yoel instructed the boy to take his staff and go to a certain place outside of the city. There he was draw three circles and to stand within the innermost circle. Then he must concentrate on special holy words that Reb Yoel taught him.

Reb Yoel went on to explain that at first, all kinds of wild animals would appear and try to tear him apart but they would not be able to penetrate beyond the circle.

Afterwards, a wild boar would attempt to attack him but Hashem would deliver him from this danger too.

Then devils and spirits would come to destroy him, but the Keeper of Israel would protect him once again from all harm.

Finally, a horde of demons surrounding the King of the demons would descend upon him and ask what he wished. He must reply that he wanted the agreement his father had once signed.

The boy gathered up his courage and went to fulfill his rebbe's instructions. Everything happened exactly as Reb Yoel had previously described to him. When the King of the demons finally appeared, he told him that he wanted the letter his father had signed.

The king asked his followers, "Who among you knows about this matter?" But he received no reply. He went and counted all his demons and saw that one was missing. When the missing one was brought to the King, the latter demanded him to return the signed contract but the demon refused. The King beat him and punished him but he was adamant. Finally the King ordered that his special club be brought. This club was reserved in Gehonnom for a certain wicked thief on some island. When the demon heard that he was to be beaten with this club, he hurried to fetch the signed document. The King of the demons handed it over to the boy who immediately recognized his father's signature.

The boy didn't move from the inner circle until the demons had all disappeared and then he returned to Reb Yoel's house. The Baal Shem greeted him happily, placed the tefilin upon his head and showed him how to perform this mitzvah now that he was a Bar Mitzvah..

To be continued. . . . . .

Freely adapted by Tzvi Meir HaCohane (Howard M. Cohn, Patent Attorney) from a story in Moroim Gdolim as translated in Tales of the Baal Shem Tov by Y.Y. Klapholtz.

THE BRIDE IN HER GRAVE

In the last week's story, the Baal Shem Tov made a miraculous journey with several of his followers and a tavern-keeper to Berlin to conduct a marriage ceremony. The tavern-keeper met a young bridegroom that was grieving over his bride that had just passed away.

The tavern-keeper could not contain himself, and cried, "Come with me to the rabbi. He can do all things! He came a hundred miles in one night, to perform a wedding here in Berlin!"

The bridegroom said, " My bride is dead."

The tavern-keeper replied, "His powers are so great, he can surely raise people from the dead! Come, I will take you to him!" The bridegroom, in a daze, put out his hand, and the inn-keeper led him to the Baal Shem Tov.

When the bridegroom met the Baal Shem Tov, the latter said, "Tell me what has happened,"

"Today, I was to have been married, said the choson in a weeping voice. "Last night there was a great feast in the house of the bride in preparation for the wedding. All through the feast, she was so joyous, she danced, she was the happiest person in the house. Then she went up to her room and slept. And this morning when she awoke and tried to rise, she fell to the ground, dead."

"Take me to the house," said the Baal Shem Tov.

They came to the beautiful house that was decorated for the wedding. They passed through the ballroom where the feast had been held, up the stairway and into the bride's bedroom. There, dressed in a long white robe, lay the body of the bride. Beside her on the bed lay the wedding-dress that she had begun to put upon herself before she passed away.

The Baal Shem leaned over and looked into the face of the girl. Then he said to the women who grieving in the room,"Dress her in her shroud." And he turned to the men of her family standing in the room, "Dig a grave for her in the cemetery." And to the groom he said, "I will go with you to bury the bride. But you must do everything exactly as I order. Take her wedding-dress, her jewelry and her wedding-shoes, and bring them to the grave."

The women prepared the bride and dressed her in a shroud for the grave. And when she was ready to be buried, they put her in a coffin. The bridegroom took her wedding-dress in his hands, and carried it with him as he walked beside the coffin to the cemetary.

Two grave-diggers were standing in the grave they had just dug in the earth. They straightened their backs, and prepared to climb out of the grave.

As they started to climb out, the Baal Shem Tov called down to them, "Remain there, and do as I say. Let one of you stand at her head, and the other stand at her feet. Do not take your eyes from the face of the girl. And if a change comes over the face of the girl, I will give you a sign. Then lift her, and help her to rise and get out of the grave."

They took the bride as she lay in her shroud, and they put her down into the earth. The cover of the shroud was pulled away from her face so that they might look the last time upon her. Her face was white as her shroud.



Before they started to throw earth over her body, the Baal Shem leaning on his stick over the open grave, stared into the face of the dead girl. And all those who were there looked first at the face of the corpse, and then at the face of the Baal Shem Tov. As they watched his face, they saw that he had gone into another world. As they kept looking into his eyes, they could almost see what he saw in the other world. They knew that the Power had come over him, and he was no longer among them. They saw his mouth move, and heard him speak words they had never heard before. And later, none who were there by the grave could ever remember the Words that he had uttered.

Only the bridegroom kept his eyes upon the face of his beloved.

And after a long while, a shiver coursed through his back for it seemed to him that he had seen a tinge of color upon her cheek.

In that same moment, the Baal Shem Tov trembled with a mighty force, as a man trembles who clutches with all his strength to hold back the wheels of a wagon that would break away and rush downhill.

Then, Rabbi Yisrael straightened himself and breathed freely. He made a sign to the two men, and they lifted the girl out of the grave. Her eyes were open. She looked to her bridegroom, and smiled.

"Dress her in her wedding clothes, and take her under the chupah," said the Baal Shem Tov. And then he said to everyone, "All that has happened, forget."

With these words, Rabbi Yisrael started to walk away. But the groom ran after him and begged him to be the one to conduct the wedding service,

For the wedding, a great feast was prepared and the joy in that house was unbounded, for the bride had returned from the dead.

All day long, when they asked of her, " What happened to you?" she became confused, and answered in a bewildered way, " I do not know. I do not know who he was."

When the bride and groom stood under the wedding canopy, and the Baal Shem Tov began to read the wedding service, the bride cried out in a joyful voice, "It is he!"

Rabbi Yisrael whispered to her, "Be still!" and he finished the wedding service.

But when the blessings were over and the couple was married, the bride could no longer contain her secret. She ran over to Rabbi Yisrael nand exclaimed,. "It was he who brought me back from the other world. I know him by his voicel"

Then, after they sat to eat the wedding meal, the bride told of all that had happened.

The groom had been married once before. His first wife had been the aunt of this bride, who was an orphan. The girl had lived happily in their house.

When the wife became sick, and knew that she was about to die, she called the girl to her bedside and said, "Promise me that you will never marry my husband. Otherwise, I cannot die in peace."

The girl was afraid to make the promise, for she already felt stirring within her the love for her future groom. But because she could not deny the wish of the dying woman, she gave the promise that was asked of her.Then the woman called her young husband to her bedside and said, " I cannot die peacefully unless you promise never to marry my niece." In order that she might die peacefully, he gave her his hand and his word.

But after the dead woman was taken from the house, the man and the girl were left there together. Each day, they felt their love for each other to grow stronger. At last they could no longer restrain their love, and they agreed to marry each other.

On the morning of the wedding day, as the bride arose to put on her wedding garments, the angry soul of the dead woman came into the house. She seized the soul of the girl, crying, "You have broken your sacred promise! Come with me!"

When the bride was placed in her grave, her soul went up before the court of judgement. The souls of the two women stood for judgement together. The soul of the first wife cried, "She has taken my beloved from mel And before the Almighty she demanded the death of the bride.

And the soul of the bride cried, " She has taken me from my beloved!"

At that moment, the Baal Shem Tov came before the court of judgement. He placed himself between the two souls. "The dead have no right on earth!" he declared. "The judegement must be in favor of the living! "

He seized the soul of the girl, and drew it away from the soul of the dead woman. "The bride and groom are not guilty of wrong," he said. "The promise they made was given against their wills and only to give peace to the soul of the dying woman. And now she must leave them in peacel"

The words of Rabbi Yisrael were judged to be right. And pronouncement was made, "Let the girls soul return to her body."

But the dead woman would not free the soul of the girl. She clung to the girl's soul with all her might.

" Let her gol " cried the Baal Shem Tov. And then he drew all his strength together and wrenched the soul of the maiden from the clutches of the dead woman's soul. " Let her gol Can't you see that the wedding canopy is waiting! "

That was when the bride returned to the living, and was taken out of her grave, and dressed in her wedding garments.

Anjd what happened to the tavern-keeper? That's another story.

And so it was. .

Freely adapted by Tzvi Meir Cohn (Howard M. Cohn, Patent Attorney) from a story in Classic Chassidic Tales by Meyer Levin

These are the accounts of the Tabernacle, the Tabernacle of the Testimony. . . (Exodus 38:21)

We need to understand why, when the parasha list all the details that went into [the construction of] the Tabernacle and the vessels, it concludes each case by stating that it was done "as G-d commanded Moses." Why does it mention this each time, rather than making a general conclusion at the end, that everything was done "as G-d commanded Moses"?

The Torah is teaching a fundamental lesson in the service of G-d and the fulfillment of the commandments, be it shofar, succah, Pesach, tefillin, etc. Each one consists of action, words and intention, i.e., thought. The underlying intentions of the commandments and prayers are great and awesome, and few people, even those on a high spiritual level, grasp more than a minute portion of the intentions that the Men of the Great Assembly put into the prayers.¹ The same holds true in the performance of the commandments. And yet, every Jew must partake of these three aspects. Because the physical act of the commandment creates a garment for the soul in the lower Gan Eden,²and the intention put in the commandment creates a garment for the soul in the higher Gan Eden.

The answer, then, is to include oneself and ones intentions - be it in prayer or in the performance of commandments, in one's weekday meals, and all the more so, in the three meals of Shabbat - with the "perfectly faithful of Israel,"³ who know the inner meaning of the prayers and the commandments, according to the Men of the Great Assembly. This is the meaning of the Arizal's statement that one should precede each prayer with the words: "I hereby accept upon myself the positive commandment to shall love your fellow as yourself,'" for then one includes one's own prayers with those who know how to unite the supernal attributes. Let these words be sufficient.

Now, in building the Tabernacle [in the desert], their thoughts were focused on building the Supernal Tabernacle, as the verse says: "And the Tabernacle was erected" (Exodus 40:17) - that is, when the Tabernacle below was erected, so was the Tabernacle above.⁴ And while their thoughts and intentions were carried out in the physical world below, they had in mind the spiritual world, to build the Tabernacle above, which is the secret of the creation of heaven and earth and all the worlds. However, not every mind can grasp this. Therefore, after the construction of each vessel of the Tabernacle, the people clearly stated that they were doing it according to the inner intention that G-d commanded Moses.

This is also as we say [before the performance of each mitzvah]: "May the pleasantness of the L-rd our G-d be upon us, and establish the work of our hands, and establish the work of our hands" (Psalms 90:17).
Ben Poras Yosef, Introduction, p.8-9

¹The Men of the Great Assembly (c. 4th century B.C.E.), formalized the prayer service that has been used until today.
²Gan Eden literally means "the Garden of Eden," but refers here to the spiritual dimension that the soul ascends to after death. According to Kabbalah, when the soul leaves the physical body, it enters a spiritual body, called the "Garment of the Rabbis," that is formed of all the good deeds and mitzvos that the individual performed during life. And just as a living person has a physical and a spiritual side, an outer and inner dimension, so the soul after death has an outer dimension, the "Garment of the Rabbis," and an inner dimension, that was formed by the intention one put into the performance of the mitzvos in this world. Furthermore, as the soul continues to ascend after death, the inner dimensions become externalized to become outer garments, and new inner dimensions become revealed. See R. Tzadok HaKohen of Lublin, Tzidkas HaTzaddik 155.
³I.e., the Tzaddikim.
⁴Midrash Tanchuma, Ki Sisa 18; Zohar 2:240a.

22. Rabbi Yitzchak Isaac of Komarno (1766-1834) said that my teacher and father-in-law, Rabbi Avraham Mordechai of Finshtov, had told him that one of the disciples of the Baal Shem Tov asked the Rebbe, "What will be my livelihood?"

The Baal Shem Tov responded, "You will be a cantor."

The surprised disciple exclaimed, "But I can't sing!"

The Baal Shem Tov replied, "I will bind you to the World of Melody." And soon after, the man became the greatest cantor in the world.

Once, this cantor came to Rebbe Reb Elimelech of Lizensk.¹ An intense discussion ensued between the Rebbe and his son, the Tzaddik Reb Elazar, over whether or not to honor the cantor with leading the Kabbalas Shabbos service.² Reb Elimelech was afraid that the cantor would disrupt him from the state of holiness he normally experienced during the Shabbos prayers.

Finally, they decided to honor the cantor and his two accompanists with leading the Kabbalas Shabbos service. Their decision was a result of their great awe of the Baal Shem Tov, for the cantor was known as "the Cantor of the Baal Shem Tov." Out of respect for the Baal Shem Tov, they decided to honor him, and whatever would be, would be.

When the cantor and his two accompanists began to sing the prayers to welcome Shabbos, Reb Elimelech sent word that the second accompanist should stop singing, and only the cantor and the remaining accompanist should continue. Afterward, he ordered even the cantor and accompanist to stop, for he was afraid that he would be annihilated in the Divine light emanating from their singing.

"On subsequent Shabbosim, Reb Elimelech showed honor to the cantor, but because of his fear, he would not allow him to pray before the congregation."
From the Manuscripts of Rabbi Yitzchak Isaac of Komarno

¹A disciple of the Maggid of Mezritch (1717-1787)
²Initial Shabbos evening prayers

From DIVINE LIGHT by Tzvi Meir Cohn

9-d1 Rearranging the letters or words of foreign thoughts in prayer.

When you have foreign thoughts in prayer, think of how everything comes from the letters making up the thoughts. These letters are holy, and it is only your mind that has combined them into foolish patterns. If you can rearrange these letters to spell out holy words, it is very good. Alternatively, you can rearrange the words of the foreign thoughts, or divide one word into two, or extract the first letters of the words, just as long as you do not lose your spiritual attachment.
Darchei Tzedek 25

HEART OF PRAYER by Tzvi Meir Cohn

Kst 63

The Baal Shem Tov taught:

There was once a king who had a son whom he wanted to teach many fields of wisdom. So he hired for him many wise men to teach him, but the prince was unsuccessful in learning any wisdom. Eventually, all the wise men despaired, and only one of them remained with him.

Once, the prince saw a beautiful young lady and desired her. The wise man rushed to warn the king about this, but the king answered him, "If he does have desire, even though this be for something sensual, he will eventually attain all types of wisdom."

So the king ordered to bring the young lady into the royal courtyard, and commanded her to reject the prince's approaches unless he agreed to learn some field of wisdom. She did this, and kept telling him that he must learn another wisdom and another, until he had learned all fields of wisdom. By the time he had attained all this wisdom, though, he was not interested anymore in the young lady, because a princess was more fitting for him.¹

This would explain why the Mishnah asks, "What is the difference between Abraham's followers and Bilaam's followers,"² [after having delineated the good traits of these compared to the bad traits of those]. The intent is to differentiate between them even when Abraham's followers possess the same bad traits as Bilaam's. Nevertheless, Abraham's followers will reap spiritual benefits from those traits both in this world and the next, as we see in the above parable, whereas Bilaam's followers will only spiritually deteriorate until they descend to hell.

<sup>1 Ben Porath Yoseph 88a. Although the parable involves a wise man guiding the prince, a person can accomplish the same thing by "tricking" oneself and constantly postponing one's baser desires until one has made some spiritual attainment, after which one would postpone it again. Of course the prince did not realize that it was only a trick, whereas we would, but it is still possible to act "as if" one didn't know about the trick.

Another point in the story is that in the end, the prince does get married anyway, so what was gained? The answer is that while he was attracted to the first young lady simply on the physical level, by the time he acquired his wisdom, he realized that all earthly pleasures are really a distant reflection of the sublime spiritual pleasure of being with G-d, which is represented in this parable by his marrying the princess.
2Tractate Avoth 5:19.</sup>

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The goal of the Foundation is to hasten the imminent coming of the Moshiach (Messiah) by acting on the answer of the Moshiach to the Baal Shem Tov's question: 'When are you coming Master?' (The Moshiach answered) "When your teachings have become well-known and revealed throughout the world, and when your well springs have spread outwards, imparting to others what I have taught you, so that they too will be able to perform contemplative unifications and ascents of the soul…" [quoted from a letter from the Baal Shem Tov to his brother-in-law Rabbi Gershon Kitover.]

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