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From: goldfarb@dnai.com (Yehudit & Reuven Goldfarb)

Subject: Shimon:  A Story of Loyalty

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Shlomo Carlebach





SHIMON:  A STORY OF LOYALTY





        One of my most favorite love stories, a very holy story, I want to

tell it to you now.  I want to bless you, that God should always be between

you and your children.

        About 1480, in Vienna, was a great center for learning.  And there

was one young man, his name was Shimon.  Remember I spoke about or zeruah,

the light that makes everything grow?--But at that time he was just a boy.

He was fifteen years old, and he was the top student in the Yeshiva.

Everybody knew that some day he'll be the greatest in the world.

        I don't know if you know this, but in former good days, by us

Jewish people, it was the custom that if a man was very wealthy, he would

say, "Who is the best student here? I would like to take him as a

son-in-law.  I will support him for ten years or twenty years so he can

really sit and study and become a great light."

        In those days, people got married when they were fourteen or

fifteen.  They would first go to Yeshiva, to school, by the Rabbis to

study.  So a very, very rich man in Vienna goes to the Yeshiva, to the

Talmud school, and he asks, "Who is the best student here?" So they say,

"Shimon, Shimon, gevalt!" Okay.

        And this rich man was very wealthy, and there was the most

beautiful wedding in the world, and this girl is so beautiful! And as I

mentioned, the bride and groom never see each other; just one minute before

the wedding they open the doors, and they see each other for one split

second.  And there was the wedding.

        And this is sad--but it's not to make you sad--you know, sadly

enough, in those days, we Jewish people didn't have so many rights--we're

still a little bit behind.  The saddest thing is, that a lot of people were

jealous of this father-in-law who was so rich.  So they decided to make a

little pogrom during the wedding.

        So here are all these hundreds and hundreds of guests; the bride

and the groom are standing under their canopy, and he had just put the ring

on her finger, and suddenly, it's the end of the world.  Hundreds and

hundreds of peasants come riding on horses, and they throw torches at the

Jews.  So the wedding canopy was immediately on fire.  Shimon, the groom,

ran off.  He came back the next day, and there were dead people burned, and

he asked, "Has anybody seen my bride? Is she alive? I don't know.  Where is

she?" People said, "Most everyone was killed."  And you know how people

are, they say, you know, "Forget it, start all over again."  But his heart

told him that she's still alive.

        He was only fifteen.  And he went from city to city, all over

Europe, looking for her.  He looked for her for five years.  After five

years--he's twenty years old--he comes back, goes back to the Yeshiva.



-1-

        Another rich man comes, and he says, "I would like to have the

greatest in the world."  Huh! There's no two ways about it! So--listen to

me, friends--he says to his future father-in-law, "I can only marry her

under two conditions.  The first thing is--don't ask me questions now, I'll

explain later--the first seven days I cannot be with her.  The second thing

is"--the father was very wealthy--he says, "please, I want you to invite

all the poor people from all over Europe."

        Let me tell you something, friends.  You know, today, when people

get married, and they send out invitations:  this rich man, please come,

and the other rich man, yeah and they also donate $20 for Israel--

        In former good days--and this is really holy--in former good days,

the first invitation was to all the poor people.  And they were actually

the essence of the wedding.  Bride and groom would not sit [alone]--the

head table was for the poor people, in the center--they had a huge hall.

The poor people are sitting together with bride and groom, in the center.

And then the guests are sitting around them.

        I want you to know, I had the privilege:  when I was six years old,

my father was invited to Vienna--you know, that is, Vienna before the

Second World War.  In Vienna [there] was a Jewish man by the name of

Stekopnik, who was like Macy's in New York--was Stekopnik in Vienna--a

multi, multi, multi-billionaire, and he was a Chortkover Chasid, one of the

big Chortkovers.  So my father was invited to that wedding.

        And my father--you know, in Germany it wasn't so Chasidische--had

never seen anything like it! You know, there were all the dignitaries of

Vienna, even the top people in the government, because he was not only one

of the richest Jews, but one of the richest people in the country--in

Austria.

        And the most unbelievable thing is, in the center, with bride and

groom, were two thousand poor people surrounding them.  And the heiliger

Rebbe, the heiliger Chortkover, was sitting next to the groom, with the

poor people.  It was a gevalt.  My father couldn't stop talking about it

for months.  My father said, "It was so holy! It was so holy!"

        You know what it means, in the deepest depths? What's a poor man? A

poor man has nothing.  He has nothing.  Only what God gives him--what

people give him.  You know, a bride and a groom, on that day when they get

married, they realize, "We have nothing.  We need everything from Heaven.

It's all a gift from Heaven."  You know that mamesh, like touching in

Heaven, Chesed sheba Chesed, like that kind of love that's only given to

those that have nothing, in the deepest way.

        Anyway, so he says to him, "Under two conditions.  One, I will not

live with my wife until after seven days.  The second, you have to invite

all the poor people"--because he was very wealthy.  Okay, he's sending out

letters to all the Jewish communities, all over Europe, making known to all

the poor people that they're invited "to my daughter's wedding."

        And you know what he did? Nebich, Shimon was hoping, "If she's

still alive, she'll come to that wedding.  Hopefully.  It's my last

chance."  So he had a thing that any poor man or woman who comes to the

wedding has to sign in.  And then, he thought, he'll go over the list.



-2-

        Okay, let's assume the wedding was Tuesday night--because Tuesday

night's a good night.  The list of the poor people? She isn't there.  Maybe

some of you know, according to our tradition, you celebrate a wedding for

seven days.

        Okay, Friday night, before Shabbos, he gets the list of all the

poor people who will be the guests for the feast for Shabbos--the most

unbelievable thing--she is on the list.  Can you imagine? She's still

alive!

        One way or the other, you know, he was sitting in the center of all

the poor people, so he could see her.  And just remember, he saw her only

one time in his life, and she was so beautiful! But you know what happens,

nebich, to a girl who from the age of fifteen till twenty never sleeps in a

bed, doesn't even have a chance to wash properly--even the most beautiful

girl looks starved, broken.  But somehow, one way or the other, she was

still a queen--so special.  You know, inside he is so proud of her.  But he

didn't know if she still loves him.  Maybe she is mad at him.  I don't

know.  Who knows?

        Anyway, they had two big tents--one tent for the women.  One way or

the other, he walks into the tent of the women, and he finds her, sleeping

on the floor, on straw.  He ways to her, "I want to talk to you."  She says

to him, "What do you want?" He says, "I just want to thank you--that you

came to my...to my celebration."  So she says, "Are you...are you walking

around thanking everyone?" He says, "No, I just...it's just special to you,

because you're so beautiful."

        You know, she must have felt some deep connection to him.  She

says, "I'll tell you the truth.  I'm not beautiful.  Only one second in my

life I was beautiful."  So he says, "You want to tell me when?"

        And after that, when Reb Shimon would tell the story, he would say,

"I was so glad it was dark, so she couldn't see how much I was crying."

She says to him--and she tells him the story--"I'm the daughter of a very

rich man.  And at my wedding they killed my whole family--maybe through

torture, God forbid--and my groom ran off, or maybe he's dead--I have no

idea.  But I want you to know, that one second before the wedding, when he

looked at me, at that moment I was beautiful."

        So then he asked her, "What are you doing now?" She says, "I'll

tell you.  Everybody tells me that he was killed, but my heart tells me

that he's still alive.  And I'll tell you the truth--I came here to look

for him."

        He didn't say a word.  You know on Shabbos you're not permitted to

leave the city anyway, so he knew she's not leaving.  Because he first

wanted to settle with his father-in-law, to okay everything.

        So the next morning, he called in his new father-in-law, and he

called in the top Rabbis of Vienna, and he says, "I have to confess

something."  He says to his father-in-law, "I have to ask you for

forgiveness in front of these holy Rabbis."  And he began telling his

story.  And he says, "Please forgive me, but I just could not marry without

one more attempt to find my first wife.  So forgive me that I'm not...that

I'm not going to your daughter--I'm going back to my first wife."





-3-

        His father-in-law jumps up like--bitten by a snake--and mamesh,

like, like he wants to kill him.  He says, "You crazy or something? I pay

all this money to get the poor people together and then you jump, running

back to this"--he calls her all kinds of dirty names--"What do you think

she was doing those five years?" And he says, "What are you doing going

back to her? She has nothing! My daughter is the daughter of the richest

man in Vienna!" And mamesh he yells at him and curses him.

        Shimon says, "You know something? You're a hundred percent right.

You're right.  But what can I do? I have to go back to her now."

        At that moment the father-in-law hugs him and kisses him.  He says,

"I want you to know--I just wanted to test you.  Do you know why I wanted

my daughter to marry you? Because you're so holy and so special.  Believe

me, if you would have told me you're not going back to your first wife, I

wouldn't have wanted you as a son-in-law.  But," he says, "I want you to do

me one favor.  Please, all the money I wanted to give my daughter, let me

give it to your wife.  Let her be my daughter."

        Okay.  In the meantime, word got around all over Vienna about this

unbelievable story.  You know, that the daughter of this rich man got

married, and at the wedding, her husband finds his first wife.  And he's

ready to go back to his first wife although he won't have a single penny by

his soul.  So--this is a classic story--the Kaiser of Austria heard this

story--whatever his name was at that time--Franz or whatever his name

was--and he says to himself, "I have to see that couple! I want to see that

couple."

        So, in the meantime, you know, she had time to take care of herself

for a few weeks, and after two months they were introduced to the Kaiser

[and] to the Queen.  Isn't this unbelievable? The Kaiser says to him two

things.  First of all, he says, "She is so beautiful, I would have done the

same thing."  But the second thing he says, "I don't have a couple in my

court who love each other like you do.  I don't have anybody in my court.

Can I ask you that you two should be our best friends?" And he says to

Shimon, "I want you to teach me every day what God is all about.  I want

you to teach me the Torah."

        And this is classic, because Shimon became the Chief Rabbi of the

whole--of all the Jews under the Kaiser.  I don't know if some of you know,

that at that time, Austria was the biggest--around 1480--all [central]

Europe was under Austria.  And he was teaching the Kaiser every day.  And

the most unbelievable thing is, because of Shimon, there was no Inquisition

in Austria--because in 1492, when the Inquisition was instituted in Spain,

the Pope wanted to put pressure on the Austrian Kaiser to make an

Inquisition also in all his countries--and, because of Shimon, it didn't

happen.  And there are a lot of classic stories, that Shimon was able to

smuggle out from Spain five of the greatest Rabbis in Spain--and save the

Torah, like Yochanan ben Zakkai.

        This is my favorite love story.





This story was told at the Chanukat HaBayit of Dr. Gabriel and Nora Cousens

in Petaluma on January 24, 1985.  It was recorded, transcribed, and edited

by Reuven Goldfarb.



-4-

GLOSSARY:



Gevalt--untranslatable expletive.  Can be used as a noun:  "A tremendous thing!"



Heiliger--holy.



Mamesh--absolutely.



Nebich--pitifully.



Chesed--Loving-kindness; one of the attributes of God.



Chesed sheba Chesed--the same quality intensified:  the Loving-kindness of

Loving-kindness.



Chanukat HaBayit--literally, "Dedication of the House."  A Jewish housewarming.





The above story appeared, with a graphic by Kei January, in AGADA, issue

Tet/#9, "Survivors," Spring/Summer 1986.  I'd like to rededicate this tale,

which I heard directly from Reb Shlomo, to our beloved newlyweds, Reb Sammy

and Sister Irma, who are building a home in Kenesset Yisrael, the community

of Israel.  May their home be a place of healing, renewal, and joy.  May

love pour forth from its doors and windows, and may everyone who knows them

feel the sanctity of their love and devotion to HaShem and to one another.

It would be my greatest honor if someone on the list who receives this

message would bring the story to be told over at one of the two remaining

Sheva Brochos.



If anyone would like a photocopy of the story as it originally appeared in

print, just send us a note at our e-mail address above, and I'll happily

send it out for free.--RG



