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Weekly Chasidic Story #571 (s5769-06 / 6 Cheshvan 5769) A Source of Blessing "Please bless the children as their father, the Sefas Emmes, has requested," the Rebbe's relative said to the bewildered simple Jew. (Connection: weekly Torah reading--circumcision/power to bless)
A Source of Blessing
The Gerrer Rebbe, Rabbi Yehuda-Aryed-Leib Alter, author of the Sfas Emes, once asked a relative to take his two sons, Avraham Mordechai (his eventual successor) and Moshe Betzalel, to a certain Jew in Warsaw for a blessing. The relative set out for Warsaw with the two boys. Upon his arrival, he began to seek the Jew in question, assuming that he was surely a well known tzadik (holy pure person). To his surprise, it took many long and exhaustive inquiries before he tracked the man down. And, to his even greater astonishment, when he finally met the fellow he found him apparently nothing more than a simple Jew! He brought the boys and asked for a blessing, but the impression he received was that the man was equally bewildered by the request. Nevertheless, the Rebbe's relative was determined to fulfill his mission. "Even if you know nothing about all this, please bless the children as their father, the Gerrer Rebbe, has requested," he said. The man did so, placing his hands on the boys' heads and blessing them. It was time to leave. The Rebbe's relative was still burning with curiosity to know who the man was and what he had done to merit such attention. Could he perhaps be one of the world's thirty-six hidden righteous ones? But there were no answers…until he returned to Ger and heard them from the Rebbe himself. "Yes, he is a simple Jew," the Rebbe said. "But once, when the time came to circumcise his son, he found that he had not even a penny to spend on a meal to honor the occasion. In order to raise the money for the mitzvah feast, he sold his bed linens. Afterwards, he was left truly destitute. This act, by a simple Jew, made a tremendous impression up in Heaven. It was decided to grant him a reward in this world as well -- the reward that a blessing issuing from his mouth would find fulfillment. "The man himself," the Rebbe added, "has no idea that he possesses the power to give blessings that come true." ~~~~~~~~~~~ [Adapted by Yrachmiel Tilles from "Stories my Grandfather told me" (Mesorah) by Zev Greenwald] Biographic Note:
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Yerachmiel
Tilles is co-founder and associate director of Ascent-of-Safed, and chief editor
of this website (and of KabbalaOnline.org). He has hundreds of published stories
to his credit, and many have been translated into other languages. He tells them
live at Ascent nearly every Saturday night.