One Shabbos, when Rav Boruch spent Shabbos in a certain town, they brought a very large fish before him on Erev Shabbos. Rav Boruch asked them to prepare it in honor of Shabbos and at his tisch he divided its portions among the Chassidim.
As he distributed the fish he told the Chassidim the following story:
There was once an upstanding yungerman who spent his days studying Torah while his wife ran a small convenience store to earn them a modest living. The Soton was jealous of his success and so he decided to test the yungerman and his wife by sending them an abundance of customers. This left his wife overworked and overwhelmed, and so she complained to her husband, asking him to help her run the store. He began to shave off some hours from his learning, here an hour and there an hour, until he had completely left his studies and devoted his entire day to running the business. This is the way of the evil one: today he tells him to commit one type of sin and tomorrow another; slowly but surely our pure, innocent yungerman shook off the yoke of Torah and mitzvos until he was transformed into a totally irreligious rebel.
He was once traveling when he reached a crossroad. At that point, he was contemplating a certain transgression when there came to his ears the sound of distant weeping. When he enquired as to the source of this misery, the townsfolk explained that the cries were from one of the prisoners of the poritz, the wealthy Polish landowner. Upon approaching the poritz, the poritz told the yungerman, “This wretched Jew is late paying his rent, so I have jailed him until someone ransoms him or till he dies and rots!”
The small spark that is never extinguished in any Yid was rekindled as the yungerman heard the poor Jew’s distressful predicament. “I shall redeem him!” he declared and on the spot he pulled out his money pouch and ransomed the captive. Nu, as Chazal say, mitzva goreres mitzva – one mitzva leads to another, and the pintele yid within was now truly awake and aflame. Feelings of remorse and bitterness about his current empty state and vacant lifestyle stirred within him warm memories of yesteryear, when with purity and innocence he sat and studied Torah. He was overcome with his new resolve to be better and do teshuva, when a new and frightening fear gripped his heart: what if...? What if chas vesholom (heaven forbid) he wasn’t strong enough to withstand temptation once more? What if his newfound resolve waned and he went back to his errant ways? Who was to say he wouldn’t simply go back to a life of lawlessness and disdain for all he once again held dear? As he passed by a river his resolve grew until his decision was final: he took a leap of faith and drowned himself in the torrential waters of the raging river, sure that only such a drastic action could help him to remain pure of heart!
Now his soul ascended heavenward as his waterlogged body descended, plunging into the depths. On high, the heavenly tribunal convened to try his case and the arguments back and forth between the prosecution and defence flew fast and furious. On the one hand, he had previously led a holy life full of Torah and mitzvos; on the other, he had turned toward a life bereft of any religious observance. On the one hand, he had just performed the important mitzva of pidyon shevuyim (redeeming captives) and pikuach nefesh (saving another Jew’s life), using up all his money; on the other hand, he had just committed a grave sin by jumping into the river and taking his own life – yet he had done so for the purpose of escaping temptation and preserving his newfound faith and Emunas Hashem!
Finally, the Bais Din Shel Maala concluded that he must return to this world; their psak din was handed down that his soul must come back as a gilgul in a fish; if a Jew ate it, that would be a tikkun for his neshoma.
And so, concluded the Rebbe Rav Boruch, his soul had come back in the fish that they were eating, and he hired a minyan to recite Kaddish and study Torah as a tikkun for his neshoma, till she could return to her source. And so it was. (Mizekeinim Esbonon II p. 112:7)
