Maasei Emunim
A Story About Amen and Tefillah
It was a regular morning in the home of the tzaddik Rav Tzvi Hirsh of Liska. The Rebbe sat at his table, wrapped in his tallis and tefillin, deeply engrossed in the sugya, when there was a light knock at the door.
The gabbai got up to open the door. The great Rebbe’s home was renowned in Hungary and beyond, and people in trouble seeking balm for their pain flocked to it. The Rebbe’s door was always open to listen to them pour out their hearts and to offer comfort.
Standing at the door was a hunched over woman, whose faded garments indicated her poverty. The woman respectfully walked over to the doorway of the Rebbe’s room, and with her eyes lowered and back bent, she began to share her story.
“Holy Rebbe, I am a poor and miserable woman. Together with my husband Eliezer, I live in a shack on the outskirts of the nearby town of Szerencs. My husband is a simple porter, and each day he leaves the house to do his hard work. He carries heavy loads on his bent back, from the train station to the city and back. It’s backbreaking work and he makes just pennies, barely enough to support our large family.
We’ve gotten used to living in poverty and keeping quiet, but now, holy Rebbe, our situation has gotten worse. The years have not been kind to my husband, and while our expenses mount, his strength is waning. He needs to cut back on his work time. I cannot see our family suffer any more, please Rebbe, effect a yeshuah for us,” the woman concluded in a choked voice.
“And what can I do?” the Rebbe asked when she finished. “I’m just a Rav in a small, poor town, and I don’t have the power to effect yeshuos. All I can do is daven for you that Hashem should see your suffering and send salvation.”
“That’s exactly what I am asking for,” the woman replied, and added, “Even though I do not merit to run my home in the path of our patriarchs and matriarchs, I have always been raised to believe in the power of tefillah of tzaddikim, and I have no doubt that if the Rebbe davens for me, his tefillah will be answered and we will see reprieve!”
Upon hearing her words, the Rebbe understood that she and her husband were not mitzvah observant. He thought for a moment and said, “Know, that when one remembers their Father in heaven and is careful to follow His laws and directives, then HaKadosh Baruch Hu treats that person like a merciful father and showers him with salvation. If you do teshuvah, and return to the right path, and conduct a Jewish home according to halachah, and your husband is strict to go to minyan in shul, I’m sure you will see salvation.”
From the Rebbe’s home, the woman hurried back to her house, and told her husband Eliezer what the tzaddik of Liska had said. Together they resolved to heed the Rebbe’s words, and they become complete baalei teshuvah from that day on.
They began to keep a kosher home and Eliezer began to daven with minyan in the morning and evening. This was a great effort for him, because there was unwritten rule in the world of porters: The earliest one to get to the train station gets work first, and the later one come the further back on the line he has to stand.
Because his early morning hours were now spent in shul, Eliezer found himself losing out on work each morning, and waiting a long time for his turn.
The poverty in their home became even more acute. They spent their last pennies, and things just got worse, but they didn’t give up. They withstood the test with strength and emunah and continued to heed the Rebbe’s advice.
Two weeks passed. It was a morning like any other. One of the wealthy men of the community appeared in the doorway of the shul, like every day, but this time, he was accompanied by one of his workers, whose arms were laden with baked goods and confections. He was the manager of the large sugar factory in the city, and in honor of his father’s yahrtzeit he wanted to offer the mispallelim some cake and whisky to make a l’chaim after davening and saying Kaddish, as is customary.
Davening ended, and everyone walked over to the manager’s seat to wish him well on the yahrtzeit and that his father’s neshamah should have an aliyah. Eliezer the porter also went over, and after shaking his hand warmly, the manager looked at him and said, “I’d appreciate if you come to my office this morning, because I have something to talk to you about.”
Right after davening, the porter arrived in the manager’s beautiful office. He innocently through that the man needed his services to carry something, so he had equipped himself with the strong ropes that could help him in his work. He was shocked then, when the manger opened the door and invited him with a broad smile to come inside, and said to him, “My friend, toss away the ropes, you will no longer need them! You won’t have to carry heavy burdens, as you have now been hired to serve as the guard of the factory. You’ll get your new uniform and on the first of the next month you’ll get your generous salary, like the other workers here.”
That manager had known Eliezer for many years. He’d always felt so bad to see how hard the man worked, and how he struggled in life. But Eliezer’s lax observance and absence from shul prevented him from hiring him at the factory. But when he saw that Eliezer had changed his ways, and begun to attend shul regularly, his compassion rose even more and he decided to help him out.
Eliezer returned home overjoyed, his mouth full of praises to Hashem, Who he had learned to recognize in the last two weeks, since he’d adopted the Liska Rebbe’s advice to return to the right path, and to start visiting shul regularly and davening three times a day with minyan.
Sefer Zichronos Lebeis Liska p. 6
