Back in Bialystok, passing a mental home, R’ Yankel Galinsky heard two people calling him over. They were crying, begging him to do whatever it takes to get them out of there. “We shouldn’t be here,” they said to him. “Whatever was said about us is false. Please, do whatever you can to get us out of here so we won’t lose our lives stuck in this dire situation.”
R’ Yankel stood there for an hour, giving them chizuk and encouragement. He explained how Yosef was imprisoned for twelve years and soon after was taken out to advise the king... In the end, R’ Yankel confirmed that he would do whatever was in his ability to get them released.
Concluding the conversation, one of the men requested that R’ Yankel speed up their discharge, as it was a matter of pikuach nefesh. “I’m Mashiach,” he said with urgency. “I must redeem the Yidden already!”
Hearing this, the other man replied: “Sha, sha! What are you saying? It’s not time for Mashiach to redeem the Yidden?! Why are you speaking like this? Mashiach will come when Hashem says so, and I haven’t said so yet, so don’t tell everyone that Mashiach has come!”
Right then, R’ Yankel realized why these men were there. Their normal appearance covered up what was really inside them. How they’d first addressed him was misleading, but he knew now that they were there for good reason.
This story, told by R’ Yankel, can serve as a lesson for us. Once they impressed on R’ Yankel how they oversee redeeming the Yidden, and that they are running everything, he got how they were missing their brains, and that they didn’t understand that Hashem runs everything. Thus, the moment R’ Yankel realized something was terribly wrong, he realized there was a good reason for their presence in this home. (Reprinted with permission from Be’er Haparsha, Vaeira, p. 25)
