In the town of Vysove, near Gorlitz lived the wealthy Reb Elazar Tzieger, of blessed memory. He managed his business dealing in glassware in the village of Pahremba, which was about four miles away from the city of Sanz, Galitzia, Poland. There were many notorious gentile thieves in that area who would steal glass even during broad daylight. Reb Elazar was a very strong man, and he constantly pushed them back from these thefts.
My grandfather, the pious Reb Yudel Shabsi, from Sanz, owned a glassware shop. The aforementioned Reb Elazar used to frequent Sanz to visit my grandfather, Reb Yudel, who would purchase all his glass stock from him. He would pay him a sum of money in advance for the merchandise, as is the custom among merchants. Reb Elazar’s family still resided in Vysove, while Reb Elazar himself stayed in Pahremba, to tend to his business.
Once, on a Friday afternoon they were loading glass onto wagons. Reb Elazar was standing by watching, when some young gentile boys tried to steal some of the glass tubes. Seeing this, Reb Elazar became filled with anger and struck one of the youth on his cheek—who happened to be the son of the village judge. The boy fell to the ground and could not stand up on his feet, and the other gentiles carried him back to his home.
Reb Elazar became deeply frightened, but because it was Friday afternoon close to Shabbos, he could no longer leave the village. On Shabbos night, he prayed with all his heart for the honor of Shabbos and then lay down to sleep. A gentile acquaintance of his came and knocked on the door, asking to be let into the house. Reb Elazar opened the door for him, and the gentile entered.
The gentile said to him, "Elazar, give me a cup of whiskey and I will tell you what is happening. Although I am strictly forbidden from telling you because I was sworn to secrecy, you know that I am your friend, so I am compelled to tell you." Reb Elazar gave him a cup of whiskey, and the gentile revealed to him that all the gentiles of the village had gathered at the judge's house. They had concluded among themselves that at midnight, they would all assemble—each armed with whatever he had at home, an axe or an iron bar—and they would do to Reb Elazar what he had done to the boy. Furthermore, they planned to smash the entire glass inventory so completely that no one would ever recognize a building had even stood there.
Hearing this, Reb Elazar did not know what to do, as it was already the holy day of Shabbos. However, being a devoted Chosid of Sanz, he composed himself, took a few loaves of challah and some fish, with a little whiskey, and fled into hiding in the nearby forest. He sat there in the forest until the conclusion of Shabbos. On Saturday night, as soon as darkness fell, he ran to Sanz.
He arrived in Sanz in great terror and went straight to my grandfather, Reb Yudel Shabsi, who was very close to the heilige Rebbe of Sanz, Harav Hatzaddik Rav Chaim Halbershtam. My grandfather was originally a chosid of Radoshitz. He begged my grandfather to go with him to the Rebbe with a Kvitel so the Rebbe would pray for his safety. Since Reb Elazar had fled in a hurry, he no longer had money on him from his business, to add with his Kvitel, a Pidyon as was the custom. He wrote down the entire incident on the Kvitel and borrowed ten rubles from my grandfather for the Pidyon.
They went together to the Rebbe of Sanz. When the Rebbe read the Kvitel, he turned to him and said: "For a crisis as severe as this, one only gives ten rubles for a Pidyon Nefesh? You need to give one hundred rubles!" My grandfather Reb Yudel ran to his house, took out one hundred rubles cash from the drawer, and placed it before the Rebbe. The Rebbe counted all the money, and together it totaled 110 rubles. The Rebbe counted them all—the entire 110 rubles—and exclaimed, "I told you I need only 100 rubles!" My grandfather explained: "Ten rubles are for the Pidyon Nefesh, and one hundred rubles are on account of the crisis."
The Rebbe then said to Reb Elazar: "Don’t worry, the gentile boy will be fine, and the decree will change. Go back to your home, take one hundred rubles, go immediately to the judge, and place the one hundred rubles before him. Then leave there, and everything will already be fine."
Reb Elazar did exactly so. He went to his house, took one hundred rubles, went to the judge, placed it before him, and returned to his home. The boy did not die, and the crisis quieted down completely, just as the Sanzer Rebbe said. Reb Elazer was shocked to find out from his gentile neighbor that on that holy night of Shabbos, when the gentiles had gathered, they simply returned and did nothing at all to harm him. Hashem listened to his prayers from the heart and completely saved from all evil.
