;.l1,6,60,66,1,0,10,75,192,2,15,20,25,127,10,0,
=dzshaggy
THE SHAGGY RABBI STORY
	RETOLD BY RABBI DAVID ZELLER (Elaborative edit, sa) 
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Source: 
 Zenith Camp, 1996, Week 5, Tape Week 5 "Evening Tape 1"", Side B
All Zenith Tapes copyright, Zenith Institute.
For further information, contact R. David Zeller, Yakar, OldKatamon, Jerusalem.
Z96W5 transcribed TR, =rabbi.doc (+ =r_rest.doc)
=dzshaggy (polished excerpt) <  =z96w5s0e)
The following note is added 1/20/98, after the teaching was postedto the reb-shlomo list:         

re:  shz_story
Moshe Stepansky writes, almost in toto:  "I remember hearing R'Shlomo give it over, but it was buried very deep."
He adds:  "Actually, I heard R' Shlomo give over this story.  Theyoung Rabbi who got the 'miser' to give over the money would laterbecome known as the great R' Shneur Zalman of Liadi, the Ba'alHaTania, the firwst Lubavitcher rebbe.
I don't recall who the other two rebbes were, but they wereolder."
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	I could tell a long story, but it's getting dark, you won'tfind your shoes.

	This is the story I usually tell, to introduce kabalah. 

	Over 160 years ago in a little town in Eastern Europe, therewas a local policeman.  In those days, the Jews lived in theirpart of town, and the non-Jews, the Christians, lived everywhereelse. 
	Sometimes they lived in peace, sometimes in pieces. 

	The local policeman, was also the tax collector; but somehoweven with two jobs,  he didn't make enough money.  So when hecollected the taxes he would take a little for himself; the Czarwould never miss it.  And if even that wasn't enough, so he wouldarrest somebody from the Jewish community and put a price on theirhead. And the the Jewish community would always somehow scrape upthe money to ransom the poor guy.  
	And so it was that the little local policeman got by, in thiswicked wicked world. 

	But one day the Imperial Treasurer of the Czar noticed thatmoney was missing from the Imperial Taxes.   And the ImperialTreasuer of the Czar noticed that this had been going on for manyyears.  So he sent a letter to the little tax collector, who wasalso the local policeman, and in the letter he said: "Certainly this is just a little mistake but according to our Imperialrecords, you owe the Imperial Treasury 5000 Rubles.   And we aresending one of our Friendly Cossacks to  collect it from youchick-chack, which means, very soon." 

	Well, the little tax collector didn't have the money anymore, because he wasn't really greedy for money, only for womenand whiskey and and pigs' knuckles and all the other good thingsmoney can buy.  And he knew, that if somebody doesn't have theCzar's money, and the Czar's Cossak comes to get the Czar's money,it is an unpleasant situation.  He could end up feeding the pigs,instead of conversely.  And he had become rather accustomed to thelatter.
 
	He was not an unusually bright little tax collector,especially when the whiskey was 10 days old, but he thought and hethought and finally he had an idea.  He said to himself, speakingslowly and distinctly to be sure he would be understood -- for hehad had several glasses of whiskey that day --  Oh, I forgot, Ihave another source of money. I'll arrest somebody from the Jewishcommunity! And I'll demand 5000 Rubles to set him free.'

	So he arrested a young man, and here is where the storyreally begins:
	To arrest anybody for no reason is very bad.  To put a priceof 5000 Rubles for their release is even worse.  But to make thestory even sadder, this young man had been an orphan his wholelife.  He never had any family, so the people in the little Jewishghetto  of the town  had done the best they could to give him foodand clothing and some education;  and now they saw that he was oldenough to be married. So they thought what a wonderful thing wecan do to this young man who never had anyone, let's find somebodythat he can marry and will help him get started in life. 

	And they searched and they found the most wonderful youngwoman with the most wonderful qualities and -- amazing --  shealso had been an orphan her whole life.   They people of theJewish community said, we can bring two people together who havenever had any family and get them started, this is so wonderful. 

	So the whole town was involved in preparing the clothes andthey practised music for the wedding, and they were brewing drinksand they were cooking food to eat and everybody is doingsomething. 

	And in the middle of the preparation this young man isarrested. For no reason -- and 5000 rubles to get him out!! 

	And the town doesn't have this kind of money. 
	It was one thing when somebody was arrested for 100 rubles.Okay, 500 if we really have to, but they realized, if they soldeverything they owned, it didn't come close. What were they goingto do?

	One of the biggest mitzvahs, one of the biggest acts ofkindness in Judaism, is to help somebody get out of captivity,because we were slaves in Egypt and we don't want anybody to everbe a slave again.   

	This was very important for them. But they didn't have themoney.

	There was a young Rabbi, who later became a very greathassidic Rabbi, and he had two other friends who were also rabbis.And he said to them: "You know, I have a plan."  They said: "Nu?" 

	He said: "I think, I know where we can get the money. I needyour moral support. But you have to promise me, don't interfereand don't say anything, don't get in the way." They said: "Fine,okay, but at least tell us where we are going, what's the plan." 

	So he says: "You know there is that old miser and he left theJewish community a long time ago, but he has that kind of money.We have to go and ask him." 
	They said: "You've got to be crazy. This man he hateseveryone who comes to his door, because he knows they only wanthis money. He shoots anybody who comes near." 

	He says: "We have no choice. And if this isn't the finger ofG_d pointing to this man, then I don't know what this is." 


	So they went to his house. And here is where the story reallybegins. 
	I am glad these are long candles. 

	So they come up to the door of the miser and they knock onthe door. And already miracles are happening:  he hasn't shotthem. 

	The miser comes to the door, he says: "Whadaya want?"
	The young rabbi says: "Please, please forgive us fordisturbing you, you've got to believe if it wasn't for the mostimportant thing, we wouldn't have come." 
	And to make a long story short, they told him the wholestory, which I won't tell again, about how this young man had beenan orphan and now they were getting him married and now he wasarrested and 5000 Rubles and they don't have this kind of moneyand what are they going to do? 

	And this old miser, you could see he was very touched by it,he was crying: "Oy", he says "I want to help. Wait right here,I'll be right back." And he runs into his house. 

	They young rabbi's friends are looking at each other saying"Wow, it's really happening, this is great!" 
	And the rich man, the miser comes out: "He says, pleaseaccept this."   And he holds out to them his contribution.

	It was one penny. 
	But not just any old penny.
	This was a dirty penny,
	But actually, if truth must be told, it was not really adirty penny.  It was a filthy dirty penny.  It was turning green,and that was on its good side. 

	And the rabbi took the penny and said: "Thank you so much,thank you so much. I bless you. G_d should give you the strengthto do so much good in the world. And I bless you, G_d should giveyou so much good health. And I bless you, G_d should show you suchjoy with your children. And I bless you that there should be somuch good in the world that you can do.   And I bless you, G_dshould give you this and G_d should give you that." 
	He is pouring out the most beautiful blessings from the depthof his heart. "G_d should help you with this and G_d should giveyou the wisdom for that", such, such beautiful blessings. And by some point the other rabbis are starting to pull on his coat alittle. "Enough already, I mean for one penny." 
	And the young rabbi he goes right on: "And I bless you, G_dshould give you so much courage and so much strength and " andfinally he says: "Thank you so much, thank you so much and G_dbless you with everything." And they walk away. 

	And after they get out of the house, and walk a few stepsdown the steep muddy road, his friends say: "Weren't you a littlebit overdoing it there?" He says: "I told you not to interfere. Ineed your support, but you mustn't interfere. It's not over yet." 
	And they are walking down the street and the miser comesrunning out of his house and the miser says: "Wait, wait, please,come back, I want to help some more." 

	The friends say to the young rabbi, "Hey, you're right, let'sgo." So they go back. 

	The miser says "Wait right here." He goes back in the house,comes back out and says, with the dignity that befits a greatbenefactor, "Please accept this." 

	Another penny. 
	And the rabbi says: "Thank you so much." 


	And not to make this too long, the moral is: One of thethings that we learn from this story is how special it is how togive blessings to one another.  But that's only the middle moral.

	So the young rabbi, who is really a young hasid, pours outmore blessings from the depth of his heart --  true, sincereblessings. After a while he says: "Thank you so much and G_d blessyou", and they walk away. 

	And his friends sort of look at him a little bit.  And theywalk some more.  And then his friends say:   "Look we tried, wethought maybe the second time."  The young rabbi says:   "It's notover yet." 

	And the man comes out again and says: "Please come back, Iwant to help so much." Ok, they go back. 

	This goes on for many trips. And several times the poor oldmiser is giving a penny and the young rabbi who is really a youngrebbe pours out the most beautiful blessings and after a while theold man is giving five cents. And after a while the man is givinghalf a ruble and they are pouring out the blessings, anothercouple of trips and lots more blessings and he is giving a ruble.And soon he is giving 10 and then he is giving 50 and then he isgiving 100 - more blessings - and he is giving 1000 and another1000 and soon they have all 5000. 

	It's not over yet.

	They come back to the community.  They give the money to thepoliceman-tax collector. The young man is released from theprison. They say: "Let's have the wedding right now. Let's nottake any chances of anything happening. Give them their clothes.Get the music going. Bring out the drinks and the food." 
	It was the greatest Simcha, the greatest joy. It was a triplecelebration:  it was a wedding, it was the release of someone fromprison,  and it was the return of the miser to the Jewishcommunity. The joy, the music, the dancing, the drinking, even thepoliceman had the chutzpah to come:, "Good drink, good food, whynot!" 
	And as he is enjoying himself, he suddenly says: "What am Idoing here, I have got 5000 rubles in my pocket. If I stay here,the Czar's Cossak is going to come to take the money from me, butI could disappear. With this money I could live like a gentlemanuntil the world runs out of women and whiskey.

	So he gets up and he gets on his wagon and he gives a whip tohis horse, a really hard whip, because he really didn't likehorses either. 
	But as you know, you shouldn't drink and drive.   Especiallyif the horse is smarter than you.  And anyhow, they had also beengiving the horse a little bit of the wedding cake, and the horseis starting to think, in the slow but honest way that horsesthink, who needs this drunken ruble-snitcher, these are nicepeople and maybe I will settle down and carry milk and water forthem. 

	And so whle the horse is thinking all this it stops stockstill, because horses are not so good at thinking while they aredoing other things, and so the little tax collector policeman is is thrown from the wagon and hits his head on a stone and he isdead. 

	The wedding stops, the dancing stops, the music stops,everyone runs out to the street. The rabbi sees, that bad man isreally dead. So the rabbi he feels for the money in thepoliceman's  pocket and he takes it and he gives it back to themiser.   The rabbi says: "This is really your lucky day. The moneycomes right back to you."  And the miser says: "Oh no, it's not mymoney. Give it to this young couple. This will give them a reallygood start in life." 

	Suddenly everybody starts talking, and everybody says, "Waita minute. It was one thing to get this money from him, but he hada chance to get it back and he gave it to them!  He is not a miseranymore. He's been changed. He's been transformed. What happened?" And they are hugging the old miser, who is not an old miser anymore, and giving him pieces of cake, and some of the women aresaying, hey, there is this widow he should maybe marry, and theyoung rabbi's friends, who are also going to be good rabbis oneday, and  need to learn a few tricks of the trade, turn to theyoung rabbi, who is trying to go back to his book now, and theysay, "What did you do? What happened?" 

	He says: "You remember I said, I had a plan?" 
	"What was it?" 
	He says: "You see I understood something about him that noone else understood." 
	"What was that?" 
	"You remember the first penny he gave?" 
	"Yes, yes; nu?" 
	"Do you remember anything in particular about that firstpenny?" 
	"It was a penny like any other. No.  Yuck. It was a dirtypenny. A very dirty penny.  The most disgusting dirty penny in theworld."

	The young rabbi says: "Do you know why that penny was sodirty?" 
	"What are you asking questions like this for? Pennies getdirty. It was dirty because it was a dirty penny." 
	He says: "No. It was dirty because he was holding onto it forso long. And you know why he'd been holding onto it for so long?" 	"What a question. Of course, because he was a miser.  Whatare you asking these question for?" 
	The young rabbi said:  "No. This is what I understood that noone else understood. He had been holding onto it for so long,because no one would accept it from him.  This is what Iunderstood.  
	"People came to him for money, because he was rich. But itdidn't matter that he was a millionaire. He only had the strengthto give one penny.  So people came to him for help and all hecould make himself offer them was one penny. So they said. Keepyour penny, you dirty old miser! But I understood, he only had thestrength to give one penny. 
	So I accepted it from him, and freed him of that terriblepenny, and I blessed him with all my heart and soul, that G_dwould give him the strength to come into the fullness of hisability.  Because as little as he was giving to anyone else, hewas giving much much less to himself, and that is sad, even if hewas just a starving old miser.   And with all those blessings hehad the strength to give one more penny. So I accepted it from himand I blessed him and said, G_d should give him more strength. 
	And slowly but surely he came into the truth of his ownbeing. And once he was there, and had the strength to giveaccording to his real capacity, then he could give to anyone,easily. 
	"That's all I did. I just helped him come to the truth of whohe really is."
	And then the young rabbi shook hands with his friends andwent back to the Beis Midrash and opened up his books, which hehadn't had time to look at all day.



	We are all millionaires in something -- millionaires in time,or millionaires in love, or millionaires in help --  but somebodycomes and says: "You got a minute?" "And we say, I am sorry. Well, OK, maybe I got five seconds."  
	So we say to each other, in words or in thoughts, "Forget it,keep your lousy five seconds."  We say to someone: "Would you dome a favor?" "Look, I am really busy, sorry." "Can you loan me aDollar?" "Well you know, I have only got -- " 

	You know how it is.                            

	We have to know how to bless each other  to accept whateverothers can bear to give.  And to bless each other that we each have the ability to give more. 



	And so this was a story for times when people ask us forsomething,  and we don't have the strength to give it to them. Weneed the kind of friends who will bless us that we will have moretime, more love, more patience, more of  whatever it is that theyneed from us. 
	And we need to develop communities of blessing each other.

{Singing:
From you I receive, to you I give: 
together we share, 
from this we live.



	So that was my shaggy rabbi story, and I see that the candleshave still a little bit to burn, and you can still find yourshoes, both of them, so nobody will have to hop back to their tenttonight. 

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