THE KOHEN GODOL WHO ATONES FOR YOU
The Toras Chaim was one of a kind when it came to hiding his true nature and concealing his greatness.
He would often dress very simply in a shpentzer, a short leather coat worn by peasants, tied with a coarse rope as a belt! He also had a large bird coop full of chickens, geese and ducks, and would often be seen feeding them or checking that others were handling them and feeding them on time. Needless to say, such simple behavior did not appear very Rebbish or refined and caused some to wonder.
There once arrived a Chassid who found the Toras Chaim dressed as described, standing, ordering the farm hands to feed the hens and geese and acting in a very non-Rebbish manner. Seeing the Chassid’s obvious astonishment and dismay, the Toras Chaim told him a story:
“Many years ago, when the Bais HaMikdosh stood, there was an elderly Jew who lived far from Yerushalayim and had never yet been there and thus had never seen the Bais HaMikdosh. He once inadvertently sinned and this accident caused him to be liable to bring a Korban Chatos. And so this elderly Jew set off to offer his sin offering, not knowing the way to Yerushalayim.
“As he traveled, he had no choice but to ask for directions. All the passersby and travelers laughed and wondered, ‘How can such an old Jew not know the way to Yerushalayim, to the Bais HaMikdosh? Haven’t you ever been there, and why are you going now?!’
“He had no choice but to explain his reason for travel by admitting his sin and suffering their stares and jeers.
“When he finally arrived, he experienced the same torment again and again. First, when he was laughed at, gawked at and jeered at for his lack of knowledge as to where to purchase an animal for a korban, then by others when he asked for directions to Har HaBayis. ‘An elderly man such as yourself still sins? What, don’t you know where they sell Korbonos? Didn’t you realize you need to buy two – one for a Chatos and one for a Shelomim? Don’t you know the way to Har HaBayis? What do you mean you were never there before?’ And so on...
“Finally, after the long journey, suffering the distance, time, effort, money, jeers and insults of folk who could not believe his ignorance, the elderly Jew reached the Bais HaMikdosh and approached the Kohen Godol who was busy and in the middle of the Avoda. Our elderly Jew looked up and gazed at the Kohen and saw a man dressed in short pants standing barefoot, with bloodstains covering his clothes and body. The elder stood bemused and wondered to himself, ‘For this barefooted butcher did I have to travel and suffer such a long, arduous journey full of insults?!’
“However,” concluded the Toras Chaim to the Chassid, “Davka through the Kohen did he achieve his atonement!” The Chassid got the hint. (Sarfei Kodesh p. 435)
