A Baal Shem Tov Story: The Secret That Made a Poor Man a Millionaire

story is that before the Balsham was revealed, he used to travel around with his uh Talmid with other with hidden incognito holy people and uh so one time the Balsham visited and there Balsham visited a very poor man and woman who lived in a little uh cottage outside on the outskirts of town. They showed up on an air of shabas and showed up on an air of shabas and uh they basically invited themselves for shabas. So like I said this this poor couple they didn't have money which that's what it means that they were poor. So they didn't really have shabas fair that was suitable for guests especially multiple guests. So they took all the money in their house and they they went to town and they bought uh Shabas food and they cleaned them out. That was it. They had to drain the savings account. That was it. So, and they were happy to do it because they were poor, but they were happy with their lot. They were always satisfied even though they had very very little and they were happy to to be hosts. Anyways, after Shabas, the BashMP says, "We're going to stay." Okay. Well, they're going to stay. They don't have any more money. They don't have money. So, and they already, you know, they spent everything. They started selling stuff in the house. So they took whatever the valuables they had, whatever they had. They didn't, you know, didn't have much. And they went to town, they sold it, and they bought, you know, brunch for a Sunday morning, bagels and locks, whatever, you know, they brought it back to meet him to eat. Comes Monday says, "We're going to stay." So they look for more stuff to sell Tuesday, Wednesday, each day until finally the guy has nothing left to sell. Um, and he doesn't want to be rude. He doesn't want to say no. He doesn't want to say, "I can't do it." So finally what he does is um he looks to his wife says you know our one way of making parnosa our livelihood not much but we have this little scrawny cow and the scrawny cow you know the scrawny cow gives milk a little bit of milk not much milk it's a scrawny cow but the scrawny cow gives milk and uh you know that's what we live on but we sold everything we have of value and Now, it looks like we're going to have to sell the scrawny cow. Now, we're going to sell the scrawny cow. That's our entire means of making a livelihood. But what can we do? The the this and he doesn't know it's the BMP. He doesn't know it's even a sadic. He just knows it's a Jew who wants lodging. He says, "But these guests, they want our hospitality. So, let's do it. Let's sell the scrawny cow." So, the wife, she was also very kind and she was also very, very humble and simple. And she says to him, "Okay, go sell the scrawny cow." So he goes to town, he sells the scrawny cow. And after he sells the scrawny cow, it dawns on him, this is it. Like, you know, his whole life he never ever complained about money. He never davened for Parnosa. Um he was always content to get by on what little he had. But now things are serious because now he sold the scrawny cow. See, the scrawny cow wasn't much, but at least it was a way of making a living. Now that's gone. There's no way of making a living. So he was depressed. He started walking and he walked into the forest and as he's in the middle of the forest where no one can hear him or so he thinks as you'll see he say he says a prayer he says hashem in my whole life I never davenined for parnosa I never asked for money I was always content to get by on what little I had but now you see I sold the scrawny cow even the little meager amount of livelihood that we're able to scrape by selling the the milk from the cow. Now, I don't have that. We have nothing. And uh I've never done this before, Hashem. I've never done this, but I have no means to make a livelihood anymore. I have to ask. Please, Hashem, help me. We need money. So, as he's davening, he hears laughter in the middle of the forest, which is very strange. Why is he hearing laughter? He looks over and he sees the town drunk. The town drunk. He knows who the town. Everyone knows the town drunk. town drunk's lying in the forest and he's laughing. And he says, "Listen, you look like an honest guy. I'm going to tell you my secret. I guess I I I just have to tell someone my secret. It's too delicious to keep to myself. You see, everyone thinks I'm a drunk. They don't know. I'm a man of leisure. This is a lifestyle choice. This is this is how I want to live. I'm really very wealthy. They think I'm just a bum. I'm not. I have a fortune. I keep it here in the forest in the tree in gold coins. And I go into the forest. I take a gold coin out of the tree. I go into town and I buy drinks with it. And I get drunk and I come back in the forest. I pass out and the next day I take another gold coin and I do it again. I have enough to do this for the rest of my life. Nobody knows my secret. And now you know and I trust you. Very strange encounter. Okay, fine. Whatever. I I don't know what the connection is with that. And you know, doing for money. I mean, this is this is the money belongs to the drunk guy. Okay. All right. Fine. The next day, our protagonist goes into town to go um look for work. He doesn't have any means for making a livelihood. So, he figures, I'll maybe I'll do some menial labor. I have two hands. I'll I'll go work and I'll I'll shle. I'll I'll do something with my body and I'll and I'll make a couple coins and, you know, maybe we'll be able to eat today. So he goes into town to see if he can get some u a you know basic like uh day day employment and as he heads into town he sees there's a there's a funeral so he asks oh no who died they said oh it's the drunk and he has no family nobody to pay for the funeral is paying for the whole thing the burial society is paying for the whole thing he he died so he just realizes you know light bulb goes off and he runs back to the forest. He takes the gold coins. This this drunk died. He has no heirs. He has no family. Takes the coins. He goes to Kavakadisha. He pays for the funeral and he gives a nice extra bonus. And with the with the money that's left over, he goes and he starts a business. And with the business, he starts making real money. And one thing leads to another he becomes very wealthy, extremely wealthy. He becomes so wealthy he moves out of his little town. He moves to a big city. He buys a big house and he becomes a very uh respected head of the community. Now after he became wealthy this gentleman he had a pastime. He used to use his money to go travel. Uh the kind of tourism he did was he liked to do sadikim tourism. He would go meet rebes. He would go if he would hear about a holy person, he would go to that sadic and get a braha and that was his thing. That's what he liked. That's what he spent his money on. So he hears about this sadic called the balshamp in Majabush. So he travels to Majabush to meet the the holy BMP. And as he comes face to face with the with the holy BMP, he recognizes him. This is the guy who came to our house years ago. Remember our story now is years in the past. This is the guy came with his friends to our house on ed of Shabas. Didn't leave, invited himself, stayed for a week and literally ate us out of house and home. And this is the the holy BMP. Now he knows you don't second guess. He knows that the knows what he's doing. But it's it it's so confusing. He says, "I'm not questioning, but it's so difficult to understand what happened the first time that we met." Balshamto says, "Yeah, I can explain that. Let me tell you something. You're rich. You know why you're rich? Because you had a fortune with your name on it in heaven. It was allotted to you and your wife." Panos says because of the wife. Usually the money was in your bank account up there. There was one little problem. >> You never made a withdrawal. You never went to the bank and made a withdrawal. So you have the money in your account. You never asked for it. You never Daven for paraso your whole life. And I knew that the problem was the scrawny cow that as long as you had that illusion that oh this is our means to parnas. You were limiting it. You were limiting Hashem. So I knew I had one mission when I met you. Had to get that scrawny cow out of your life. >> Oh gosh. and force you to go ask Hashem to give you what Hashem wants to give you. Like Zahog is according to his broad thinking, not your limited thinking.