Emuna Daily

I posted this a few years ago, but in case you missed it, it is one of my favorite stories, especially right before Pesach.

In the time of the Yeshuos Yaakov, there was a Yid in Lemberg who was so hungry you couldn’t even call it fasting.  ‘Fasting’ means that sometimes you eat and sometimes you don’t.  But he never ate.  Nebach, once a year he got to eat: the Yehsuos Yaakov got the community together on Pesach every year to give food, so this man and his family would have something to eat.

One year, in the middle of the Seder this poor Yiddele came running to the Yeshuos Yaakov.  They didn’t have caterers back then; they would take one big pot, throw everything in, and cook it.  One of the poor man’s children just threw something into the pot, and he was pretty sure it was chametz.

Everybody knows that with chametz even b’elef, even if it’s only one part in a thousand, there’s no way out.  The whole pot is chametz.  Okay now, open your hearts.  There’s one opinion, the helige Rav Achai Gaon, that although chametz isn’t batel b’shishim, it is batelb’meiah.  With other treifeh things, if there’s sixty parts of other stuff in the pot it’s all kosher; and Rav Achai Gaon says, although that’s not true with chametz, if there are a hundred other parts, it’s all right.

We don’t hold this way, because only Rav Achai says it, but now the Yeshuos Yaakov is thinking, ‘It’s Seder night.  Gevalt, if the pot is chametz, he’ll have nothing to eat, and he has eleven children.’  He thinks, ‘Reb Achai Gaon can carry this; he has broad shoulders.’  He says to the Yid, ‘Go home; it’s a hundred percent kosher.’  That night Rav Achai came to the Yeshuos Yaakov in a dream and said, ‘Thank you so much, because I want you to know, I only wrote that decision of mine for the sake of this one Yid.’

It’s awesome.  A thousand years beforehand, Rav Achai saw with ruach hakodesh, with holy foresight he saw one Yid in Lemberg.  Now you know what kind of sages we’ve had.  So whenever I say Amar Abayei, that Abayei said this or that, it has to be clear to me that when he said it, he was thinking of me.  When the Torah’s being left uncared for in a dark alley, it has to be clear to us that Rashi, Tosafos, R’ Akiva Eiger, they were all thinking of us.  ~ R’ Shlomo Carlebach zt”l from The Carlebach Haggadah

Shlomo Carlebach was delivering a noon-time lecture to Jewish members of Manhattan’s Diamond Dealers Club,  when a truculent man suddenly interrupted and challenged him belligerently.  “Shlomo!” he demanded, “We love your music, and your hasidishe meisalach (hasidic tales) are also very nice, but there’s one thing about you that bothers some of us and which we just can’t understand:  Why are you always so busy with low-lifes and meshugoyim (crazies)?”

Shlomo stroked his beard reflectively and, looking around the room, said, “You know, I’m sure that all of you here today are among the greatest specialists and top authorities in the world when it comes to jewelry.  Is that true?” Members of the audience bobbed their heads in quick agreement.  “And,” Shlomo continued, “many of you are also probably big experts in diamonds, right?  Oh yes, we’re BIG experts!” the diamond dealers concurred.  “So tell me,” Shlomo asked them, “Did you ever accidentally throw out a million dollar diamond in the garbage can?”  Everyone in the room burst out laughing.  “Are you crazy?” shouted a man.  “A million dollar diamond in the rough?  In a second we would know what we’re holding in our hands! We’re experts!”

Shlomo paused for a moment, surveyed the men thoughtfully, and then said in a quiet voice, “You know, my sweetest friends, I’ll let you in on a secret; I’m also an expert on diamonds.  I walk the streets of the world every day and all I see are the most precious diamonds walking past me.  Some of them you may have to pick up from the gutter and clean a bit, polish a little.  But once you do, my friends, oh how they shine!  Mamesh (really) like the purest, bluest, most perfect gems you’ll ever uncover during your own distinguished careers.”

“So, my sweetest friends,” Shlomo concluded, “please try to remember this because it’s mamesh the most important thing you have to know in life.  Everyone…everyone…is a diamond in the rough.” ~ Holy Brother