Emuna Daily

As his last few days in this mortal world approached, the Rebbe Reb Elimelech of Lizensk lay in his bed unable to eat. His son the Rebbe Reb Lazer begged his holy father to try to eat something, anything. “Isn’t there anything I can give you?” he asked. “Oy,” sighed the Rebbe, “if only I could get some soup from Malka, the wife of Reb Leibele the water carrier, life would be better.”

As if a jolt of electricity had passed through him, the dutiful Reb Lazer ran down to the ramshackle home of the destitute water carrier. “My father the Rebbe is very ill, and all he can eat he says is some soup you once gave him. Please give me the recipe.” The worthy Malka started to cry, saying, “I have to tell you the whole story. My husband and I always dreamed that maybe, some day, the Rebbe Reb Elimelech would come to visit us, but it was such a foolish dream. We would never have the chutzpa or the audacity to invite such a holy man into our dilapidated hovel.

“Strangely enough, a few weeks ago the Rebbe passed our house. We saw him coming and thought it was our biggest chance, so my husband ran out on to the street. He didn’t know what to say, he just stood there, but the Rebbe is such a special Yid and he understood what my husband wanted. He said, ‘You know what Reb Leibel, I’m very tired, could I spend some time in your house?’ The Rebbe Reb Elimelech came into our home, and it was just like Gan Eden. We didn’t know what to do with ourselves. The Rebbe sat down with my husband. Now my life partner is a good man but not really all that educated. He is just a water carrier with simple ways, he didn’t have anything to say to your Holy Father; he was just happy to have such a tzaddik sitting there with him.

“Suddenly he said to me, ‘Malka! What’s going on here? We have such a special guest; we better give him something to eat.’

“I ran into the kitchen, looked around, and suddenly I remembered that we ourselves hadn’t eaten in days. There was no food in the kitchen. All I saw was salt and a pot of hot water on the stove. What could I do? I took a spoon and began to stir the water, and I davened, ‘Hashem, I have nothing, but if I had something, anything, I would give it to the Rebbe Reb Elimelech. You, Hashem, You have all the tastes of paradise. Can You please put some taste into this water? This is our soup.’ As I stirred the water I cried, and some of my tears fell into the soup.”

Reb Lazer came back to his holy father, and Reb Elimelech said, “Now you understand. With ordinary soup, you can keep from getting hungry. With Malka’s soup you can bring people back to life.”

Last shabbos I was privileged to spend some time with Rabbi Shmuel Wagner shlita, from Yeshivat Ohr Yerushalayim, who related the following amazing story, which just happened a few months ago.

There is a young family living in Har Nof, Israel.  The husband learns in Yeshiva and the wife was making a living and supporting their family, until recently, when she lost her job.  Weeks went by and they literally had no money.  Their credit cards were maxed out and they had no one to go to for help.

The wife said to her husband, “Enough of this, I am going to daven and pour my heart out to Hashem, but while I am praying, I want you to go to the grocery store, “Rami Levy,” and buy us food for the next month.”  The husband said “Okay, but with what money?”  The wife said, “Don’t worry, something good will happen.”  She then proceeded to give him a very long shopping list that would fill their pantry with food for the next month.  The husband was baffled but listened to his wife and went to the store.  He had no idea how he would pay for any of it, but proceeded to fill up 3 carts with the food that his wife requested.  He then got on line and started putting the food on the conveyor belt while the cashier started scanning the items.  There were several people behind him on line.  He still had no idea how he was going to pay for any of this but was just trusting what his wife told him, that something good will happen.

The cashier was finally getting to the last few items, 5 items left…4 items left…when suddenly his phone rang.  Hoping for some good news, he picked up his phone and it was his wife.  “I forgot to put ketchup on the list” she said, “Can you make sure to get a bottle?”  The husband nervously said “sure” and hung up the phone.  He then told the cashier and everyone on line that he would be right back.  He then ran off the line to get the ketchup while the cashier and everyone on line stood there waiting.  When he came back, one of the men on line lost his patience and started yelling at the husband.  He just couldn’t believe that he had the audacity to leave the line to go back and get a bottle of ketchup.  After apologizing to the impatient man on line, the cashier said, “The total is 1900 shekalim.”

The husband then started feeling his empty pockets to see if by some miracle, he had any money to pay for it.  Suddenly, the man who a minute earlier was yelling at him, came from behind him, reached out and swiped his credit card, while saying “It’s on me.”  When the husband looked at him in disbelief, this man told him that he felt very bad that he embarrassed him a moment earlier and wanted to make it up to him.

But that is not the end of the story…

A few minutes later, the two of them were walking out of the store and the man asked the husband, “So what’s your story?”  He proceeded to tell him how he learns in yeshiva and everything was going well until his wife suddenly lost her job, and that it has been really rough lately.  After talking a little more and hearing the whole story, the man took out a checkbook and proceeded to write out 11 checks in the amount of 1900 shekalim each, handed them to him and said, “now you don’t have to worry about food for the next year.”

Again, this is a true story that just occurred a few months ago.