The Snowy Night That Opened the Gates of Heaven- RABBI ELIMELECH SPIRA OF DINOV | TORAH FOR KIDS AI

[Music] When you ask people what's a Jew, people really don't know what a Jew is. People really don't understand what a Jew is. They think a Jew is maybe somebody that wears certain type of clothes or maybe a certain person that eats certain types of food or maybe a certain person that knows certain languages. But that's actually not what makes a Jew. One of the in the world of wasabit he wrote a that no matter what kind of you are if you're a normal type of this is like almost like your Torah of called was a little over 200 years ago [Music] now One time on a Friday night he had all of his with him. They already did kabal Shabbat and they were having the having the meal. Suddenly some messy disasterl looking drunk smelly villager walks into the bed midlash. Some of the figured he got the wrong address. But the Rebi sees him, leaves all of his, stands up, runs towards him in the front and hugs him. Come, come, come, come, sit. Those days, they have big kabot for their rebies. Big kabot for their rebies. Still today, sees the sky bringing on this smelly drunk looking guy. Everybody automatic has some thoughts. Maybe this guy's elyan. It's known that ya nave. When he comes to this world and he and he comes, he doesn't come as ya with the wings and everything. He comes sometimes a homeless person. He comes sometimes as some uh soldier. All types of stories we heard in the dua. So people are saying definitely it's yawi. But then they see the rebi taking him and he's sitting him right next to him. Right next to him. And he gives him half of his food and he's protecting him. No one's talking to him and he's talking to him and he's taking care of him and he's feeding him and this guy's getting like no maybe this guy is Malik this is Mik himself is to be Rafael somebody the whole Shabbat he's right next to him right next to him the whole time he's not moving after he gives him his bed sleep in the bed he gives him his clothes this villager is wearing the rabbi's clothes now. Everyone's baffled. One guy figured, you know what? Maybe he's not avi, maybe he's not, but for sure he's one of the hidden sadikim of the generation has to be. After Shabbat is over, he comes to the Reb. He says, "I just want to thank you for showing us the big secret that was right in front of us, sitting among us. One of the biggest hidden sadikim of the generation. Thank you for showing that to [Music] us." Starts smiling and giggling. He says, "No, let me tell you a story." He said, "Years ago, I wasn't so famous. When I was young, I wasn't so famous. And when I would go to different places, people wouldn't know who I was. And I would make it so that I would go visit the one of the I would go visit him. And on one of my journeys to go visit him, it started snowing, snowstorm. I said, "Because I'm on a mitzvah, on a journey of mitzvah, mitzvah is going to protect me." I kept going and going and going, but the snow wasn't stopping. And all of a sudden, my legs started to lose feeling. I fall over. I couldn't move my legs anymore. As I fell over, I saw that there's a light right behind the woods, right behind there's some trees over there. There's there's a village. And I saw a light. I couldn't get up. So, I said, I'll roll myself there. And I rolled myself little by little. And I got to the village. And as Hashem would have it, Hashem, the first house I got to, I saw there's a muza on the on the door. I said, "Baue, I got myself up. I knocked on the door and this villager opens the door and he had a tishab face on him." He wasn't happy to see me. And I said, "Dear Jew, have some mercy. Please, please let me inside. It's snowing outside. Please." The villager looks at me, says, "No." Bach. Clos the door in my face. I knew that if I'm not going to become a and push my way in, this is going to be my last night. So, I knocked [Music] again. The villager opens the door again. His face is even nastier than before. He said, "Please, dear Jew, help me out. I'm going to die outside." He says to me, "Listen, I don't have time for people like you. This is not a hotel. I have a barn for my horses. I have a tool shed. And I have the food for the animals. Pick one of those places. You could sleep over there. But inside my house, you're not coming in. What choice did I have? I rolled myself into the barn. The smell was so bad. I couldn't. I went to the tool shed, but there was no room. Simply no room. where the food was for the animals. There was barely any room and it was didn't smell so good, but it was better than the horses. So, I said, "What's my choice? I'll go over there." And I spent the night over there. But it was so cold. I could not sleep the whole night for a second. I was freezing. I saw myself, what am I going to do? I'm cold. I can't sleep. You know what? Let's learn Torah. Let's learn Torah. That's what we're gonna do. So, I started crying to And then I started learning Torah. But because I was suffering in so much pain and agony from the cold and the journey itself, this was the type of Torah that came with nephesh with major sacrifice. There's a Torah that you learn while you're drinking a nice cup of coffee, nice tea with some popcorn on the side, maybe a cookie, maybe a steak for some people. And then there's real Torah. Torah that you study with sacrifice. That's the Torah that I learned. He says, "Because I learned this Torah throughout that night, suddenly all types of heavenly secrets were opened up. The heavens opened to me during that night. And I started discovering all types of secrets, powerful mystical things that I never had my whole life that I still have to this day." [Music] So the kasid says to the rebi who's a rebi so what does it have to do with this drunk that came here he says he was my host should have told us he's a host we would have taken care of this guy a couple of big that had a couple of truth would take go no shalom I owe him a big gratitude to this to this guy with gratitude he let you almost die outside he goes No, only because of him that was I able to raise my shamat at such a high level and learn pure Torah with nephesh or else I would have never received those secrets from Shama. I owe him a great gratitude for doing what he did. That is the difference between a Jewish story and a non-Jewish story. a Jewish story, you learn what could I learn from that story. The Jew will always say, "Okay, Holocaust, what could I learn from there? This uh terrible situation that happened to the Rebi over here, what could he learn from there?" All types of stories, what could I learn from it in order to apply it to my life? Non-Jewish stories, what's in it for me? How much money can this story make me? What can I sell it for? Can I write a book about the story and sell it on art scroll? Maybe on Amazon on something. Not to compare the two, but you get the point. The reality is a Jewish story is a story that you learned something from. That's what makes you a Jew. If you're only going to look for things based on your benefit, that's not a Jewish behavior. But then you're going to wait a minute. The perception that the goim have of us is quite the opposite. The perception that the goim have of Jews is the exact opposite of what I just said. The goim look at the Jews, they make all these caricatures of Jews. They're all money hungry. They're always involved in all these businesses and banking and lending and in this and that. They're always behind everything. Ah, they always have a benefit in something whether it's the government or it's missiles or it's weapons or it's this. Why do you think that is? That's because their perception of Jews is their perceptions of non-religious Jews. Their perception of Jews is of Jews that don't act like Jews, even if they look religious sometimes. They may have the payers, they may have the hats, they may not, but nonetheless, they're not acting Jewish. It's time for us to start acting Jewish publicly, privately, proudly, and unapologetically. [Music] Thank you for 1 2 3. 1 2 3 [Music]