On other occasions, R’ Moshe Leib shared with those who sought his chizuk a personal experience:
R’ Moshe Leib was once walking from town to town collecting funds for hachnasas kallah when a band of robbers attacked him. The robbers surrounded him and wanted to kill him when, suddenly, their leader recognized him and prevented them.
“This is the holy Rabbi of Sassov!” he exclaimed. “I won’t allow anyone to harm him!”
That robber had once been a beggar. Together with other beggars, he came one day to the marketplace in the city of Brod very hungry with no means of buying food. Someone informed him that R’ Moshe Leib distributed food free-of-charge, and the entire group made their way to his house. Reb Moshe Leib welcomes them into his home and he personally served them a lavish meal. Now, that same beggar remembered the good R’ Moshe Leib had done way back when, and was sending it back.
The robbers treated R’ Moshe Leib with respect. “We have a Jewish boy with us who once learned Torah, but now he’s a member of our gang,” they told him. “Test him and see what he remembers.”
R’ Moshe Leib asked the boy a question in Gemara, but he couldn’t answer. He asked him a question on Chumash, but that, too, he couldn’t answer. When the robbers saw that the young robber failed the test, they started to lash him. When the Sassover saw that he begged the robbers to pity him, and the lashes stopped.
The gang agreed to allow the youngster to accompany R’ Moshe Leib to the next town. At one point, R’ Moshe Leib turned to the robber and asked, “How did you bear all those lashes?”
“We get used to them,” replied the robber. “We beat each other to build up our strength so that, if we’re ever caught by the police and tortured to reveal our secrets, we’ll endure the pain and remain quiet.”
“And how do you muster that strength?”
“I keep thinking that each lash is the last one. After all, a beating doesn’t last forever!”
As they walked, R’ Moshe Leib tried to convince him to do teshuvah, and indeed he left the gang and became a baal teshuvah.
And from this, Rav Moshe Leib learned an important lesson: a beating does not last forever. “The challenge that you face will one day leave!” This was the message he relayed when people requested his chizuk.
