Nifla’os Chadashos [Rav Y.M. Greenwald]
Rav Yeshayahu Cheshin was a pious talmid chacham who lived in Yerushalayim; as a youth, he was zocheh to serve the Saraf of Brisk, the Mahari”l Diskin. Rav Yeshayah would tell the following story to every bar mitzvah boy who came up to him to receive a brachah and hadrachah:
One bitter day, it happened. A terrible plague began to spread in the town of Ostraa’ah, and it took many lives. Men, women, old and young, fell ill and passed away a short time later, as there was no medication that could cure it.
The residents of the town were panicked and weepy, terrified that they or their families would get sick. Doctors were brought from nearby cities; some were afraid to come, while others claimed there was nothing to do, a plague was a plague. Not every plague was stoppable.
The Rav of the city and his beis din declared a taanis and day of tefillah, when all the healthy residents would gather in the shul to plead on behalf of the sick people and beg Hashem to remove this terrible decree.
The Rav also asked that if anyone knew about something that was not right in the community or among its members, he should come to the beis din and speak about it, so that they could rectify it, and perhaps bring an end to the plague. Because we are believing Jews – and everything that happens is because we need to introspect into our deeds and repent, as the Rambam rules in Hilchos Taaniyos (1:2-3): “When a trouble arises...everyone should know that the bad things are because of their bad deeds. But if they do not cry and plead, but rather say, this is the way of the world that this happened, and it’s a coincidence, that is a cruel way and it causes them to cleave to their bad ways...”
In Ostra’ah there was a mysterious person who did not attend shul during davening. Two members of the town decided to keep an eye on him, to check how it is possible that a Yid who is a yarei Shamayim is absent from the tefillos. They began to track him, but didn’t find anything. The plague continued to rage through the town, and these two people refused to give up. Perhaps the actions of this strange Jew were what had brought this trouble upon them?
The resolved to continue to check his actions and to try and figure him out. They made up to come to his house after darkness; maybe at night they would find something that would explain his behavior.
The two men hid behind a tree near the home of that Yid. Silence hung over the town; everyone was ensconced in their homes, and only these two men near the tree were outside, looking at the small house to try and find a solution to the mystery.
At about midnight, the darkness deepened and the two shivered with cold. Just then, the Yid got up from his bed, and came out of the house, as the two followers silently walked after him.
To their surprise, this Yid went into the thick forest on the outskirts of the town. It was a dark forest that no one dared go into by himself during the day, and certainly not in the middle of the night. The two Jews studied the figure of the mysterious man as it grew more distant and disappeared into the forest. They did not dare follow him in...
They returned to the Rav and told him what they had seen. He said to them, “I will come with you tomorrow night to follow this Yid. It looks like there is secrecy surrounding his deeds.”
The next night, again at midnight, the pair accompanied the Rav and together, they made their way into the dark forest. There, they discovered the Yid, sitting on the ground saying Tikkun Chatzos as he cried bitterly and shed hot tears, that melted the hearts of those who were watching him.
But something else aroused their wonder: Another voice, which they could not identify, joined the lamentations of this Yid, saying them together with him. They heard a voice – but could not see to whom it belonged...
When the Yid finished his tikkun, the Rav approached him and revealed that he was watching him. The Yid recoiled with shock at being discovered, and the Rav asked, “Who is the voice saying Tikkun Chatzos with you?”
The Yid tried to be evasive, but the Rav instructed him: “I decree, as the mara d’asra, that you tell me the truth!”
Upon hearing this, the Yid said: “It has long been my custom to grieve for the churban Bais Hamikdash, and I was answered from Above, and each night, Yirmiyahu Hanavi comes to the forest to say Tikkun Chatzos with me...”
The Rav asked: “Because you have merited this great thing, why do you not daven to nullify the terrible decree that has taken hold in our town?”
The man said: “Indeed, the Rav is right, tomorrow I will ask the Navi Yirmiyahu what I should do.”
The next day, the Yid came to the Rav and said, “Yirmiyahu Hanavi revealed to me that the churban was supposed to happen forty years before it actually did. But because the Yidden were careful not to speak idle talk in shul, the Bais Hamikdash remained standing for an additional forty years!
“But after the mispallelim began to speak idle talk, the Bais Hamikdash was destroyed – and all the troubles in our generation are because people speak idle talk during davening in shul!”
The Rav convened the whole community in the shul and spoke about kedushas bais haknesses, and the laws of the proper respect and fear one has to have there. He recounted the frightening story he heard from the mysterious Jew that Yirmiyahu Hanavi told him. Ultimately, he concluded that this was the reason the terrible disease was raging in their town.
The residents heard this, and they began to sob, and do heartfelt teshuvah for being lax about their respect of the shul. The entire community undertook not to speak idle talk in shul, especially when wearing tefillin.
Wondrously, right after that, the plague stopped completely.
Birchas Dovid, Parashas Terumah
