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Weekly Chasidic Story #1332 (5783-39) 30 Sivan 5783 (June 19, 2023) "Not Once, but Twice!" "I was about to travel to Colombia, where a sale of emeralds was already arranged that would gain me a profit of almost one million dollars. Connection: Wednesday night-Thursday is the 29th yahrzeit of the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
NOT ONCE, BUT TWICE!A chasid from Antwerp whose first name is Yechiel was in Las Vegas to participate in a diamond convention. He ate his Shabbat meals in the Chabad House. During one of the meals, when the guests were encouraged to share a Torah thought or a story, Yechiel shared the following personal narrative: In the late 1980's, my mother travelled to Brooklyn one Sunday, in order to see the Lubavitcher Rebbe and receive a dollar and a blessing, because there was a family member in need of an emergency healing. After giving her the dollar and blessing, the Rebbe said: "Tell your son not to travel." My mother was surprised. "My son is not traveling anywhere," she clarified. But the Rebbe repeated: "Tell your son not to travel." As soon as she came outside from the encounter she contacted me, sharing the strange exchange that she had with the Rebbe. I was able to shed light on it. "In fact," I explained to her, "I had been planning a trip to Colombia, where a sale of emeralds was already arranged that would be worth a million dollars to me. I hadn't told you about this because I didn't want you to worry about my traveling to such a dangerous part of the world. But, if the Rebbe said that I shouldn't travel, then I will immediately cancel my trip." I called my Italian partner and informed him of my change of plans. He became quite angry with me, warning me that I wouldn't get any share in the profits if I stayed behind, but I was adamant. I told him he could take the entire profits, but I was not going to accompany him in Columbia. "I subsequently learned what had taken place. The buyers handed the Italian the cash, he turned over to them the emeralds, and then, on the spot, they tragically shot him in the back, killing him instantly. The Rebbe's timely directive had saved my life! In 1995, one year after the Rebbe passed on Gimmel Tammuz, I was in the NY area. I have a brother, David, who lives in Texas, and it's easier to call him from NY than to call him from Antwerp, so I decided, prior to departing back home, to use the opportunity to call him and say 'Hello.' As soon as I reached him, my brother David exclaimed to me excitedly, "Yechiel, how amazing that you're calling me, I've been trying to reach you all day. I need to tell you about a dream that I had last night!" He related the following: "Last night in my dream I saw a painting, and in the painting, I saw the Lubavitcher Rebbe. All of a sudden, the Rebbe in the picture spoke to me - 'Tell your brother Yechiel, "Zachor v'al tishkach et hadevarim" ["Remember and don't forget the words"].' That was the dream, I don't know what it means, but I felt I must share it with you." "Wow," I thought to myself, "what words does he mean?" Then I recollected the last words, the last communication that I had from the Rebbe. Why, it had been when he had instructed me through my mother not to travel. And here, I was about to fly back to Antwerp, and the Rebbe sent me a message to remember his words. The Rebbe must be telling me again not to travel! I decided immediately to cancel my travel plans. But there was one problem. I was supposed to give a ride to the airport to the wife of a friend, who was supposed to be on the same flight as me. But if I shouldn't be taking the flight, surely neither should she. But how can I stop her? If I tell her my brother had some kind of a dream, she'll think that I'm crazy; so she definitely won't change her plans because of that. I decided that there was only one solution: I would have to ensure that she misses her flight! So, I picked her up on schedule, but instead of driving her directly to the airport, I pretended to get lost and kept on making wrong turns. She kept on screaming at me that I didn't know what I was doing -- now she really thought I was crazy! -- but I just continued to feign confusion. Only when I was certain that it was much too late for any chance at the flight, did I finally let her off at the airport. At that point she was furious with me. She stomped out of the car in a rage without a backward glance, and headed straight for a phone to inform her husband of her predicament (and what a mess his friend had gotten her into). However, when she finally reached her husband and heard what he had to say, she let out a horrified shriek and fainted. The flight that we had been scheduled to take was TWA flight 800, which had exploded into a fireball 12 minutes after takeoff, killing all 230 people on board. Yechiel concluded his remarkable narrative with these words: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Connection: Wednesday night-Thursday is the 29th yahrzeit of
the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
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Rabbi
Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe (11 Nissan
1902 - 3 Tammuz 1994), became the seventh Rebbe of the Chabad dynasty after
his father-in-law, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, passed away in Brooklyn
on 10 Shvat 1950. He is widely acknowledged as the greatest Jewish leader of
the second half of the 20th century. Although a dominant scholar in both the
revealed and hidden aspects of Torah and fluent in many languages and scientific
subjects, the Rebbe is best known for his extraordinary love and concern for
every Jew on the planet. His emissaries around the globe dedicated to strengthening
Judaism number in the thousands. Many hundreds of volumes of his teachings have
been printed, and hundreds of English renditions too.
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.