For Only Two Coins | Rabbi Elimelech Biderman

This is a Vort by one of the sons of R’ Akiva Eiger. There was a Talmid Chacham, who had an ignoramus father-in-law. His father-in-law was an ignoramus. And the son-in-law, the Talmid Chacham, sat during Seder night and said, חד גדיא דזבין אבא בתרי זוזי. Asks the father-in-law, the ignoramus, Tell me, what happened there? So he told him: There was a goat that a father bought for two coins, and the cat bit it, and the dog bit the cat. The ignoramus father-in-law said to him, I don’t know what you want. I don’t know what this is. So he explained to him again. The ignoramus father-in-law says: I don’t know what you want. Until the Talmid Chacham son-in-law saw that his father-in-law is not leaving him alone, so he said to him: Dear father-in-law, it’s according to Kabbalah (secret). Said the ignoramus father-in-law: Ah, I understood right away that it’s secret. What did the father-in-law understand that is secret? So he told him: I understood right away, because no one can sell me nonsense. I know very well that a goat does not cost two coins. A goat costs a thousand dollars. So what did the father-in-law understand that is secret? I understood well, by secret, because in the black market you can find a goat for two coins. So he said: ‘One goat’ is the person, ‘that father bought’, he can buy our Father in Heaven. I can buy Father in Heaven? Yes, with two coins (movements), with two movements. Moving our eyelids to guard our eyes, or moving our lips to close our mouth. You buy Father in Heaven when you close your eyelids or your lips. I can’t believe it. I can buy Father in Heaven? Yes, in the black market. When the Yetzer Hara rages and you overcome it, you buy our Father in Heaven. And every one of us can. Here in Bnei Brak, there is a Jew, a photographer, who is on a low spiritual level. And he told us that once he was hired to take pictures at an event which he described as ‘not so strict in יראת שמיים.’ It wasn’t good for Shmirat Einayim. They wanted to pay him 15,000 shekels for two days. That’s a lot of money. He saw that it wasn’t strict, he canceled the event. A month passed, and there was a big rally here in Bnei Brak, in which R’ Chaim Kanievsky participated and he was hired to take pictures. He was the photographer. And when R’ Chaim Kanievsky was wheeled in, so R’ Chaim Kanviesky motioned to him to approach. So he looked right and left to see who he meant. Surely not me. So he motioned to him: No. He motioned to him with his finger that he should come over. He walked up to R’ Chaim Kanievsky and R’ Chaim Kanievsky said to him, I’m jealous of you. He asked him: Why is the Rebbe jealous of me? So he told him: They don’t know. I do. So he told us and he said, What did this story teach me? That if R’ Chaim Kanievsky knows about it, that’s a sign that in Shomayim they also know about it. Meaning, now he understood that he shook the heavens, he bought Father in Heaven with two coins (movements). Not only R’ Chaim Kanievsky can buy Father in Heaven, so, too, the photographer, in his low level, he bought his Father in Heaven. And every one of us can.