Chassidic Story #260

CONTRARY COUPLES

The two women from adjacent villages were friends, even though they held opposite positions in a particular matter. One of them believed in the powers of the genuine holy rebbes, while the other didn't at all. To confuse matters further, the woman who believed was married to a man who was completely skeptical about the rebbes, while the husband of the woman who didn't believe was a fervent follower of Rabbi Yisrael of Rhyzhin.

One time, the man who believed became so sick he was confined to bed. Doctors were summoned and various treatments applied, but nothing helped. He asked his wife to travel to the Rebbe to request a prayer and a blessing for a complete, speedy healing. She thought the idea senseless, but since her husband couldn't go for himself, she agreed to do so on his behalf.
She hired a carriage and set off. The way passed through the village of her friend, the woman who believed. It turned out that she too was about to head for the Rhyzhiner. Her husband was in a serious financial situation. He had no money at all, yet he was in arrears to his landlord for the large annual lease payment for his tavern, and now the nobleman was threatening him with mayhem as well as immediate eviction if he didn't pay the whole debt within a week. When her cynical husband wouldn't accept her advice to travel to the tzaddik for advice and blessing, she announced she would go herself.

The two women decided to make the journey together.
When they reached their destination and entered the Rebbe's anteroom, the Rebbe's secretary, as was the custom in the Rhyzhin court, wrote for each of them a kvittel, a note with each petitioner's name and mother's name, and the details of their individual requests. Afterwards, somehow each woman mistakenly took from the secretary's hand the note of her friend, and then unwittingly sent on to the tzaddik the wrong note. The woman whose husband was sick presented the Rebbe a note asking advice and relief from dire financial straits, and received the answer, "May the Al-mighty provide you salvation." The woman whose husband had no money handed in to the Rebbe a note asking for healing, and received a reply, "Do benkess" (a painful medical treatment utilizing leeches and heated glass cups to drain blood, which was a popular and trusted remedy in that era).
The woman was quite startled by this answer -her husband was not sick; he has money problems!- but in her innocence and absolute faith she did not consider the possibility of a mix-up.

When she arrived home and her husband asked what had the rebbe said, she replied that the rebbe had advised a segula (propitious, good-luck maneuver), and he should prepare himself to do "the leeches and the cups."
Her husband was astonished, of course. What a bizarre idea! He laughingly dismissed the suggestion, although he did admit after some prodding from his wife that it least it was an idea, while he himself had no ideas at all about how to help himself.
Shortly thereafter came the day that the debt to the landlord was due. Still having no money at all, he decided that he might as well follow the rebbe's suggestion; it was better than complete passivity and couldn't be any worse than what the landlord and his henchmen would do to him, and maybe it would stave them off for a while.
He lay on his bed, and applied the blood-sucking leeches and the heated glass cups to many different places on his body. As a result, blood began to stream out from all over him.

At that moment one of the guards from the landlord's mansion rudely barged into the house with the warning that if he didn't deliver the lease money that same day, he and his family would be forcibly expelled. The innkeeper simply lay on his bed and didn't respond.
The surprised guard reported back to the landlord that the Jew was in his sickbed -perhaps even his death bed!- wallowing in blood. The nobleman couldn't believe it. Hadn't he seen him just the previous morning, seemingly in perfect health? He ordered that the Jew be brought do him. When the guard expressed doubt whether the Jew could walk or not, the landlord told him to take a few others along and carry the Jew in his bed.
They followed orders, and soon returned and deposited the Jew in his bed, still gushing blood, outside the front door of the mansion. The bearers returned to their regular tasks while the original messenger went inside to summon the landlord, leaving the innkeeper alone.

Just then, the nobleman's wife emerged from the house. When she saw her husband's tenant lying near his doorstep, bleeding profusely from "injuries" all over his body, she clasped her hands and shrieked. "My poor man! What happened to you?"
At that moment he was struck with inspiration, and launched into a story.
"I was under so much pressure from our lord, your husband, to pay off my debt to him today that yesterday I decided to go to town and try to borrow the money. It was very hard. I had to go to from door to door to all my acquaintances. It took all day and all my energy until I managed to collect the required sum. By then it was too late to hire a wagon to return home. None were available. I had no choice; I was forced to walk home alone in the dark.
"With my bad mazal, I was set upon by a vicious band of robbers. They took all the money I had collected with such difficulty, leaving me penniless again and with a whole pile of new debts. And they beat me to within an inch of my life, as you see. It is only thanks to G-d's mercy that I am still alive."

The noblewoman was shocked. When her husband appeared a few minutes later, she spoke firmly to him.
"Do you see this poor man? He is practically dying and we are responsible. It is all because you put so much pressure on him for the lease money. You must forgive his debt immediately."
The landlord could see that he would have problems if he didn't comply. So he did. He told his tenant that he no longer owed him anything and that he, the lord, would be responsible for all medical costs.
"That's not enough," his wife insisted. Now he has incurred a new set of debts because of us too. Therefore, you must let him have the tavern rent-free for three years.
The nobleman gulped, but to this too he agreed.
~~~~~
When the Rhyzhiner Rebbe told this story to the Rebbe of Karlin, his relative by marriage, he emphasized that when he received the note about the innkeeper's debts, he didn't see any opening in Heaven to allow him to help. Only the woman's great faith enabled her family's salvation.

[Translated and freely adapted by Yrachmiel Tilles from Sipurei Hassidim pp.107-109].

Copyrighted © by Ascent-of-Safed, 2002

Biographical note:
Rabbi Yisrael Friedmann of Rhyzhin [1797 - 3 Cheshvan 1850] was a great-grandson of the Maggid of Mezritch. At a young age was already a charismatic leader with a large following of chassidim. Greatly respected by the other rebbes and Jewish leaders of his generation, he was -and still is-referred to as "The Holy Rhyzhiner." Six of his sons established Chassidic dynasties, several of which -Sadigora, Chortkov, etc- are still thriving today.

Editor's note:
Perhaps, dear reader, you were about to ask, as someone always does whenever I tell this story live, "What happened to the sick man?" I hope he recovered, but the truth is that his outcome is not mentioned in any source for this story that I have encountered.