(recent lecture)

Today is the death anniversary of The Bal Shem Tov. Rav Ashlag speaks about the great kabbalists that have lived. Although their source was the Zohar, they had different ways to pick people up. Rav Ashlag compares it to people drowning in the river. When they are drowning, you grab whatever you can get, the hair or the arm. For each kabbalist, they used the tool of the Zohar to grab people at the level they were at. In our generation, we have to use all the tools because everybody is at a different level of drowning.

This story is about the Bal Shem Tov, as he was about to leave this world. Of course, the students were upset and gathered around him. He told every student what their job would be and how to make their correction. When he came to his closest student, the person who literally took care of him, he said, your job is to travel the world and tell stories you have seen with me. This is how you will achieve your correction.

The Bal Shem Tov was about to leave this world. There really wasn’t room for argument. The student said, “Certainly I will do this, but will I do it forever?” The Bal Shem Tov said when the time comes that you have completed your correction, you will know.

The student travels the world and tells stories about the Bal Shem Tov. He hears in a certain town there is a wealthy man who pays a lot of money to hear stories of the Bal Shem Tov. It’s a long way to go, but it will probably be worth it.

The student arrives on Friday, tells the wealthy man who he is, and says, I have an endless amount of stories to tell you. The wealthy man invites him into the house. They make the evening connection, Arvit. They are at the Friday night meal, and the wealthy man turns and says, please share with us a story.

The student is trying to think of a story and he cannot remember. Nothing. Not one story.Maybe he is tired, and can’t think straight. He says I’m sorry.

The wealthy man says, you are tired. Maybe tomorrow.

The next morning they do Shacharit, and then come to the Shabbat table. Again the wealthy man asks him to tell the story. The student cannot remember a single sorry. He is embarrassed, thinking the wealth man thinks he has no story.

Comes time for the third and final meal. At this point, the storyteller is sitting at the end of the table. The wealthy man looks to the student and the student can’t remember a single story. The Shabbat ends. The wealthy man is disappointed, and the student is embarrassed. The student gets on his horse and rides for hours. At maybe four in the morning he suddenly remembers one story. He thinks, shall I go back so he doesn’t think I’m a complete liar? The student thinks, by the time I get back, I’ll probably forget. But he goes back, and at eight or nine he knocks on the door of the wealthy man.

And when the door opens, he can see the wealthy man has been crying. The student says, I remember one story, but it’s probably the worst story that I know. I don’t know the beginning and I don’t know the end, but I know the middle. The wealthy man says, just tell me.

The student says once the Bal Shem Tov went to a certain town, and the governor of the area was a very negative person. He had decided to slaughter the whole village. The Bal Shem Tov gathered his students, as Rabbi Shimon had gathered his students, and they meditated and prayed. In the middle of the prayers, he said to the student, call the governor and say I want him to come to me.

The student said he thought the governor would probably kill him, but he goes to the governor and surprisingly he comes to see the Bal Shem Tov.

The governor and the Bal Shem Tov go into a room, and they were there for four or five hours. I don’t know what they talked about. All I know is that the governor left and the massacre didn’t occur.

When the student gets to this point in the story, the wealthy man looks at him and says, don’t you recognize me? The student says no. The wealthy man says, I’m the governor, I’m that guy. When the Bal Shem Tov took me into the room with him, he saw something in me, and he awakened it in me.

Certain people have the ability to reach into our soul, take it out and cleanse it.

I asked if there was any way for me to cleanse the rest of my life. The Bal Shem Tov gave me a list of things to do and said, I hope with this work that you will be able to cleanse your soul.

I turned and said “How will I know?” Your master said to me, “If ever a man comes to you and tells you this story, then you will know you have corrected.”

From that time I have paid everybody to tell me stories, hoping that I would hear this story. I knew when you came that you had the story. I knew I was this close to finishing. But when you couldn’t remember the story, I knew I had not cleansed myself. I began praying and asking to cleanse. Obviously, through the work I have done, I have merited it.

There are many lessons from this story. One is that at the point when the student left, the wealthy man had a choice to make. He could have given up. The man could have given up. The student had a choice to make as well when he remembered a story.

They both made a decision to go beyond their abilities, to go beyond the last point that they felt they could accomplish. It was only because they went beyond what they thought they could do, what they needed to do. The lesson for us is that the only hope we have to complete the journey for the reason we came to this world is when we go beyond. Today we have the merit of the Bal Shem Tov to awaken in us a true desire to go beyond those limits.