Everyone Can Rectify Himself:
Sefer M’Zekeinim Esbonen (page 84) relates that one year on the seventh day of Pesach, the Bais Avrohom of Slonim zy”a related the following story about his father, Rav Yose’le Hotiner zy”a, a close talmid of the Baal Shem Tov zy”a:
For a number of years after his marriage, Rav Yose’le’s father was not blessed with children. He asked the Baal Shem Tov many times for a bracha, until he finally blessed him to have a son, with this son being Rav Yose’le.
As the boy grew up, he rebelled against his father and against Yiddishkeit. Eventually, he left the path completely. He left home and went to work as an apprentice to a non-religious shoemaker. His brokenhearted father went to speak to the Baal Shem Tov. He told the Besht that if he had known that this is what was to become of his son, he never would have asked for a bracha for children.
The father spoke like this to the Baal Shem Tov several times, crying about his plight and saying that it would have been better if his son had never been born. One time, the Baal Shem Tov handed him a kamaya and said, “If your son touches this amulet, he will immediately be inspired to do teshuva.”
The father hurried to the shoemaker’s house and hid the amulet amongst his son’s possessions, hoping that he would end up touching it. And so it was, the boy touched the kamaya as he was rifling through his belongings and he was immediately struck with a sense of awe and fear. He began to cry, “What has become of me?”
He regretted all his previous sins and asked the Baal Shem Tov to help him do teshuva. He ultimately became a full baal teshuva and a lofty individual. He began traveling from place to place, telling his story and urging everyone to do teshuva. He would say, “Do you know why I am telling my story? So that you can see how anyone can repent. I had already sunk to the lowest level of impurity but, through the power of teshuva, I managed to return to Hashem. None of you have sinned as badly as I did. Every one of you can certainly do teshuva and reach a much higher level than I have reached.”However, you should not think that this is easy. You should know that I fasted so much in order to attain full teshuva that not one tooth remains in my mouth. I fasted so much that every one of my teeth fell out.”
He would then open his mouth and show the crowd that he was toothless.
As the Bais Avrohom related this story, he became very passionate and he said, “Do you know why I am telling my father’s story? So that you should all learn how much a Jew can improve and perfect himself!”
