Neshama of the Chofetz Chaim | Rabbi Eliyohu Meir Schmeltzer

I was sitting in a Beis Medrash in Lakewood and a fellow, who I'm remotely familiar with, approached me, seemed to be very befuddled and very downcast. And I said to him: Listen, I want to give you a Chizuk story. I just read a story. My brother's a prolific writer, R’ Reuven Schmeltzer, and he documents the following story. Maybe you'll get some Chizuk. A lady, who had unfortunately married a non-Jew, her marriage was broken and she wanted to come back to the fold. And she came crying to R’ Yaakov Galinsky and she said: Listen, I made the mistake of marrying a non-Jew and I had a child. That child is Halachically a Yid, but unfortunately, he met a girl, a non-Jew, and he's on the cusp of marrying her. Please, please, I want to spare my family. I finally got out of this marriage and I don't want him to fall into the same trap that I did. R’ Yaakov meets with the young man, and he tells him the following. Did you ever hear of the Chofetz Chaim? He says: Of course. He says: Do you know that the Chofetz Chaim married a non-Jewish girl? And the fellow looks at him, aghast, The Chofetz Chaim? He says: Yes, the Chofetz Chaim himself, בכבודו ובעצמו, married a non-Jew. He says: That can't be. Such a heilige Neshama, the Chofetz Chaim, the Gadol HaDor, the Manhig HaDor. How could that be? R’ Yaakov Galinsky turns to him and says, Do you know that you have the same Neshama as the Chofetz Chaim? And if you can't believe that the Chofetz Chaim would have married a non-Jew, it cannot be that you would do that. And the boy walked away and he broke the Shidduch. This is the story that I shared with this young man, who seemed to be in a very downcast mood. A few weeks later, I was davening in a Beis Medrash in Lakewood Mincha, and somebody was standing near me. I hadn't recognized him. And he says: Can I speak to you, Rabbi Schmeltzer? Do you remember I came to you a few weeks ago? I was so down and out. I'm a young man with a young family, crammed into a two-bedroom apartment. It's impossible to live. I was looking to buy a house and you know what the housing situation is in Lakewood to buy. I was totally outpriced from the market. I was bidding for a house and they outbid me and the price went way above. Right after I finished speaking to you, I said to myself, If that young man, who was about to marry a non-Jew, understood that he has the same Kedushas Neshama as the Chofetz Chaim, how about me? And I walked away and I was Mekabel on myself, I went out to the workforce recently, and I work in a building which is full of different men and women, and it's a very, very big social scene. And I was Mekabel on myself, I am a Neshama like the Chofetz Chaim, I am not going to use the main entrance of the building. I will only walk in through the side entrance, where I do not have to pass by the people and I don't have to be involved socially and I can go directly to my office. And I was Mekabel that on myself. That same evening, I got a phone call from that real estate agent and he told me, I want you to know that the person who bid for that house, who outbid you, who outpriced it, was Chozer. He lost it. He cannot do it. He didn't have the mortgage. And they came back to me and they told me, You can have the house. But not only could you have the house, you can have the house at the price that you originally bid for it. And I said to myself: I have to share this story with you, because everybody has to know that I, you, we are all a piece of Neshama, the נשמת אלוה ממעל from תחת כסא הכבוד. We all have that intrinsic Kedushah. And all we have to do is be aware of it. So let's all become aware of who we really are. And if we know who we are, we will do what we're supposed to and it will bring us tremendous שפע, ברכה והצלחה.