In the city of Medziboz lived a man who was righteous, as well as G-d-fearing and a huge talmid chacham. He lived in abject poverty, unable to make ends meet. His family dressed in tattered clothing and subsisted on whatever food they could possibly scrounge together. In the meantime, this man dedicated himself wholly to Torah study and avodas ha’kodesh. A time comes, however, when even a tzadik requires advice on how to continue. The suffering was becoming more and more debilitating. He decided to go to the Baal Shem Tov HaKadosh, who lived in Medziboz, and seek his sage advice – and encouragement. He presented his case to the sage who instructed him to travel to Izmir to search for a carpenter with a certain name. Sadly, the tzadik had no way of reaching Izmir, other than by walking. It took a few weeks before he arrived exhausted, hungry, but excited that his issue would be resolved.
The man immediately went to the local shul and asked about the carpenter. Apparently, the members of this shul were a younger crowd, thus, they had no recollection of the man. He went to another shul where he encountered an elderly Jew who said that, sixty years earlier, there had been a miserable person, a Jew by birth, who was a rasha gamur, represented consummate evil, having transgressed every aveirah, sin, in the Torah. He was a miserable person who would report members of the Jewish community to the authorities. He was reviled by everyone. He had neither been seen nor heard of in sixty years. Dejected, the tzadik turned around and began his return trip. Another few weeks passed, and, finally, he arrived at the home of the saintly Baal Shem. He related the entire story, everything that he had heard, adding that the man had not been heard from in sixty years. The Baal Shem looked the man straight in the eyes and said: “You are that man! When you arrived in the Olam Ha’Emes, you were given a punishment commensurate with your sins. You pleaded for an opportunity to repent your sins. You received it. You returned to this world to live a life of misery and abject poverty. Now you know the rest of the story. It was your choice. The Heavenly Tribunal was kind enough to allow you to return.”
