In the Baal Shem Tov’s time a certain Jewish community was under a decree of destruction issued by the Heavenly Court. The Baal Shem Tov summoned two of his colleagues, hidden tzaddikim named Reb Mordechai and Reb Kehos, to join him in constituting a beis din, to consider how to nullify the decree.
However, when the Baal Shem Tov experienced aliyas haneshama, he learned that the decree was final and not to be annulled. Returning past the chambers of Gan Eden, he passed a chamber that shone with unusual brilliance. This was the chamber of a villager who said all of Tehillim five times every day, and the words of his Tehillim sparkled.
The Baal Shem Tov traveled to the home of this villager and said to him, “If you knew that by sacrificing your share in the World to Come you could save a Jewish community, what would you do?”
“If I have any share in the World to Come, I give it up,” was his prompt response.
The decree was annulled. It had been the custom of this villager to say Tehillim always, incessantly. While chopping wood he kept reciting Tehillim, and so too while doing any work. It is quite conceivable that he wasn’t scrupulous about his immediate environment, even saying Tehillim where one should not, since he was uneducated. But he didn’t know the din and his intentions were pure, so his Tehillim was effective.
Reprinted from the Parshat Vayeira 5784 edition of The Weekly Farbrengen.
