From the Desk of Yerachmiel Tilles
Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, zt”l
Some 250 years ago in Russia, near the area where the first Rebbe of Chabad, Rabbi Shneur Zalman, lived, there was a crazy man. He had been a normal, sensible religious Jew with a wife and family until one day he suddenly lost his mind and began screaming and thrashing about for no apparent reason. His family was shocked, his friends tried to help, his neighbors shook their heads in pity and the Rabbis prayed, but it didn't help.
Doctors Couldn’t Figure Out What to Do
So, they collected money and went for professional help. But the doctors also were at a loss and couldn't figure out what to do. They just scratched their heads and shrugged their shoulders and said that perhaps it would just go away as suddenly as it came. Or perhaps they had to be patient and gradually he would improve. But the years passed and he didn't. To have him committed to an asylum was out of the question. There he would be treated like an animal and would be thrown together with dangerous maniacs. Then someone suggested that they try the [founding] Rebbe of Chabad, Rabbi
Shenur Zalman. So, they bound him, got him into a carriage, and after several hours were in the town of Liozhna entering the Rebbe's office. In the presence of the Rebbe the madman was fairly still, once in a while giving a grunt or some other non-human sound and occasionally waving his hands, but surprisingly, when the Rebbe said he wanted to tell them a story and asked them to be seated, he sat and they untied him and he remained relatively still.
Nebuchadnezzar Noticed the Pool of Blood Bubbling on the First Temple Floor
The Rebbe began. "It says in the Talmud (Gittin 57b) that when Nebuchadnezzar conquered Israel and his troops entered the First Temple to destroy it, they noticed there was a pool of blood bubbling on the floor of the Temple courtyard. The commanding general then gathered the Kohanim (‘priests’) and asked for an explanation. They explained that it was the blood of a little-known Jewish Prophet called Zechariah [not the famous one who lived years later in the beginning of the Second Temple]."
When he saw they were all paying attention, the Rebbe continued. "Now, please listen closely. The accepted story is that the Jews stoned him to death because he stood in the Temple courtyard and told them things they didn't want to hear-- enumerating their sins and threatening them with death and exile if they didn't repent.
