New York, 5749.

A Meeting on the Road
by Reb Shlomo Carlebach

The Zohar HaKodesh, the book of Jewish mysticsm, says something
very deep. In your mind you are either happy or you are sad. Your
soul can be both sad and happy at the same time. The soul is crying
and laughing at the same time. Sitting and dancing, sleeping and
awake. The soul is one.

There are all kinds of music in the world. The kind of music that
can make you both cry and laugh at the same time reaches this
oneness within you. If it affects you only in one way, then it hasn't
reached very deep. It is still in your mind, not your soul. Sometimes
you meet people and they touch this oneness in your soul. Then it
is both crying and laughing, utmost sadness, utmost joy.

This is a story about our holy master, the Baal Shem Tov. The Baal
started the whole Chassidic movement about two hundred years
ago. One of his top pupils, Reb Dovid Leikes, started out
on the road to be with his master, the holy Baal Shem
Tov for Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year. But, now,
the craziest things happened. Now normally, it takes just one
day to go from the town where Reb Dovidel lived, to Mezhibuzh,
where the Baal Shem Tov is, but this time everything that could
go wrong, went wrong. Every few minutes one of the horses got
stuck in the mud, or the wheel fell off, or the whole wagon turned
over. Nebekh! Finally Dovidel is just two miles away from
Mezhibuzh and he has exactly twenty minutes to make it there
before Yom Kippur. "Barukh HaShem, Thank G-d! I'll still make
it to Mezhibuzh if I don't waste any more time. It should have
taken just one day and I've been on the road for three days already.
Gevalt! He was crying, begging the horses, "Please, please
don't make any trouble now. Let's get to Mezhibuzh before the
sun sets." With that, a little village appears and out of nowhere
nine people come out and block the road in front of him. The horses
come screeching to a halt. One of the people walks up, and tells
Dovidel, "We are nine of us living in this village here. We need one
more person to make ten people for our minyan."

Maybe some of you know, we need ten people for certain prayers.
Do you know why ten is such a special number? It is the first
number that needs two digits, yet it is still a single number.
Ten isn't like two, three, four, five. Ten is a unit, a very deep
kind of unit. The number ten is like the world. It is so much
and yet it is one. The first number that begins to reveal the
multiple nature of G-d's Oneness is ten. So we need ten before
we can pray together in a group.

So the ten people were begging Dovidel, "You are our tenth man.
Please stop and stay with us here in our village for Yom Kippur."
He says, "Are you crazy? I've been on the road for three days
already. I must be with my holy master, the Baal Shem Tov
of Mezhibuzh for Yom Kippur. Please don't be brogez, angry,
with me, but please, don't ask me for such favors." Saying that,
Reb Dovidel gave the horses a zetz, and off they were, leaving
the nine villagers in the dust. So Dovidel got to Mezhibuzh just
in time for Yom Kippur.

In Mezhibuzh by Kol Nidrei everyone stands in line to wish the Holy
Baal Shem Tov a good yom tov and to receive the Rebbe's blessings.
But when Dovidel's turn comes, already the Baal Shem Tov is
looking at the person behind him in line. "Perhaps he didn't
see me", thought Reb Dovidel. And the davening in Mezhibuzh
that Yom Kippur was mamash to high heaven, gevalt. So Yom
Tov is over and all the Hasidim line up again to get brakhos
from the Baal Shem. But when Reb Dovidl's turn comes, again,
the Baal Shem Tov's attention is somehow diverted elsewhere.
Nebekh! Its Succos already, and if it wasn't obvious before,
it's obvious now. Now Reb Dovid Leikes knows that the Baal Shem
Tov is ignoring him. Simchas Torah passes, Yom Tov is over.
It's time to leave Mezibuzh. Reb Dovid is in tears.
So he grabs hold of the Baal Shem just as he is about to leave
the Beis Medresh, "Please Rebbe, please, tell me, what did
I do?" So the Holy Baal Shem answers him, "Don't you realize?
Your soul was waiting for hundreds, for thousands of years
to pray together with those nine people. How can I fix your
neshama now ?!  Oiy ! "

We are all together and we'll never know how long we were all
waiting to be together. We never know. Meaning to say that you
don't know how much your soul live in this world depends on
one evening, on one hour, of praying with nine other people.
You never know. You might think, "Oh, I'm going to Yerushalayim.
I'll be praying by the Holy Wall. What a special, holy place."
Obviously, Reb Dovid Leikes thought, "I'm going to Mezhebuzh
to be with the Baal Shem. There, there is real davening. What
in the world am I doing praying here in a village I never
knew existed before, with these nine creeps?" But we never
know. That is what the Baal Shem Tov told Dovidel. That is
what the Holy Baal Shem Tov is telling you, me, all of us... 

What is the miracle of the last day of Pesach? At
the Red Sea, G-d is fixing how we connect back
with one another. So today is Reb Dovidel Leikes' yahrzeit.

So let me pray, from my heart to your heart, if we meet someone,
it is only because we have to. So let it be strong...