Rabbi Meir of Parmishlan, z"a, was approached by one of the righteous men of his generation and revealed to him that he intended to travel to Eretz Yisrael. Rabbi Meir listened to his words and remained silent. After a few moments, the Rebbe asked, "And from where will you take money for the trip?" The tzaddik replied that he intended to stay with his relatives and acquaintances on the road and collect the travel expenses there – four hundred shekels of silver. Again Rabbi Meir was silent and fell into thought, and then asked: "And your trip to your relatives does not involve the abolition of the Torah? It is better that you sit with me during that period of time and meditate on the Torah, and I will collect the necessary sum for you." The tzaddik made up his mind and decided to accept Rabbi Meir's suggestion. In the meantime, Rabbi Meir of Parmishlan called his servant to instruct him to bring all the people who wished to enter into his room. The following began to enter,
The first was a rich Jew, a mighty man among his people, who had already stepped on the threshold of Rabbi Meir's room, and suddenly he noticed that there was another Jew in the room – it was the tzaddik who had accepted Rabbi Meir's suggestion, so the gentleman recoiled and did not know what he was going to do – to go in or out, so he stood on the side, embarrassed and waited. A few minutes passed, and in the eyes of the gentleman seemed like an eternity. And then Rabbi Meir opened his mouth and turned to the tzaddik who was in his room: "I want to tell you a terrible deed, this man will also hear" – he added as he turned his face to the mighty man – "and he will learn the morals." And this was the story that Rabbi Meir recounted:
In one city lived an extremely wealthy man, who owned a lot of property, Rabbi Moshe – that was the name of the rich man – was extremely miserly, Rabbi Moshe's house was never invited to enter, never a guest came under the shade of his roof, no one ever had the privilege of eating bread on his table, sometimes, although poor people happened to enter his yard, but they were not brought inside. The owner of the house would send them to his neighbor, To the God-fearing and upright Rabbi Matityahu, "You will surely receive food and a place to stay with my neighbor," the miserly rich man would say to those poor people. Indeed, he spoke the truth, in the house of Rabbi Matityahu the poor were given a warm welcome, during the house he and his wife were generous and welcomed every person, and it was the poorest and simplest, with a beautiful welcome. That same Rabbi Matityahu was not rich, he was far from it. Although his family never knew of shortage, even though his means were not many, his home was always wide open. If you think that the people of Rabbi Moshe and Rabbi Matityahu cherished Rabbi Matityahu thanks to his acts of kindness, and on the other hand, they despised the miserly Rabbi Moshe – you are mistaken! It is true that the people of the city appreciated Rabbi Matityahu for his kindness and great kindness, but the people also respected and cherished the rich and miserly Rabbi Moshe, then the way of the world is to honor the rich even when they are not worthy of it at all! Since this is the case, A great reproach arose in the heavens against the rich Rabbi Moshe, and this is what the dwellers of Heaven said to one another: "It is true that in the world below, they share with him like a book and call him 'Rabbi Moshe,' and all this because of his wealth, but in our world, in the world above, every person is judged according to his deeds and behavior, and not according to his wealth!" "To Rabbi Matityahu!" And behold, the prophet Elijah came and said, "No one is judged according to rumor alone, I will go and see if he really deserves such a punishment for the rich Rabbi Moshe!" The prophet Elijah went with his likeness like a poor man, and came to the house of Rabbi Moshe on a cold and snowy winter day. His body was clothed in rags, and his body trembled like a leaf in the wind. He came to the door of the house and asked to enter, and at that time the rich man was not in his house, the prophet Elijah, who was pretending to be poor, turned to the servant who opened the door and said to him: "Please allow me to go inside and warm up by the stove." "I can't," replied the servant, "hurry out of here, soon the landlord will come – he is a bad and narrow-eyed man, and he is not willing to help anyone, and when he sees that a guest has entered his house in his absence – he will drive us both away from here to the snowy street." While they were still talking, Rabbi Moshe himself entered the house, his eyes fell on the poor man standing in the foyer, and a question came out of his mouth: "Who is this man? What is he asking for?" the servant's tongue stuck to his pale with embarrassment and fear, but the guest opened his mouth and without hesitation turned to the landlord and said, "Can I get a glass of wine to revive my soul?" "Get this man out of my house!" he shouted at the servant. And the servant, with great sorrow, filled his heart, but having no choice but to do his master's order, he went up to the poor man, led him out, and closed the door behind him. Through the door was heard the voice of the poor man, who was standing in the frost, crying, begging, and arousing pity, but the landlord pretended that the voice did not reach his ears and went on with his usual business. When the prophet Elijah saw how low the rich man's low rank had become, he buried his face to the ground and wept because a person from Israel was capable of behaving in this way! He came back to the entourage above, and this time he had no words in his mouth, the dwellers understood from his silence that the prophet Eliyahu was now agreeing to carry out the sentence that had been imposed on the rich and miserly Rabbi Moshe. "And then, when all the summer was over," the Tzadik Rabbi Meir of Parmishlan continued his story, "it was difficult for him, Meir, to sit down and see how such a harsh sentence was imposed on a man from Israel, a Jew who was caught in his sins like a fly caught in a cobweb. Unable to restrain himself, he jumped up and said, "Gentlemen! We have a great rule: there is no punishment, unless we warn that I will be the messenger of the heavenly court, and I will go and give him a final warning. And if the rich Rabbi Moshe agrees to give four hundred shekels of silver to this righteous Jew who wants to immigrate to the Holy Land, and in addition to that he takes upon himself to improve his way and repay kindness to other people, his wealth will continue to be in his hands, but if, God forbid, Rabbi Moshe continues in his evil way, the sentence will be upheld: all his possessions will be taken from him, and all the days of his life will be near the table of others. The Rav Rabbi Meir of Parmishlan finished his remarks, waited a little and then said in his turn but the wealthy Jew who was standing at the entrance to the room: "After all, Rabbi Moshe is here, we will ask him where he is." Before he could finish speaking, a crying sound came up in the room, and a moment later the gentleman fell to the ground, fainting. For a long time they tried to wake him up from his fainting, and when his spirit returned to him and his strength returned, the man approached Rabbi Meir and said: "My sins, my transgressions, my transgressions, and my transgressions are true, and now I take upon myself to leave my evil ways and do good deeds, and it is said: 'I confess and leave Yeruham!'" As he spoke, the gentleman took out four hundred shekels from his pocket and handed them over to the man sitting in the corner of the room, the righteous man about whom the Rebbe had said that he wanted to immigrate to Eretz Yisrael. "Please!" the gentleman requested, "When you arrive in Jerusalem, remember My name for blessing at the Western Wall!" and with God's help, the tzaddik merited to immigrate with his family to Eretz Yisrael, without wasting his time and Torah on collecting coins for this purpose. And did Rabbi Moshe increase? He changed his way from one end to the other. His home was wide open and the poor were members of his household. Soon his name became famous throughout the Jewish communities as a charitable and hospitable person, and his many possessions were a blessing to him and others.
