Okay, we'll get started, late enough. And the topic tonight, as you all know, is why tell stories of tzadikim? We know that this is a custom that any opportunity that you have, we tell stories of tzadikim. And this is a custom by many Jews, certainly by chasidim. Chasidim do that even more than others. And the question is: why is that so important that we spend so much time doing that? It would seem that this is a waste of time, it's a ביטול זמן or bitul Torah. You could have been learning at the same time, and when you learn Torah, you're accomplishing much more, it would seem. Especially if many of the stories we don't even know if they're true. Stories that happened to tzadikim that they tell from years ago, and we don't even know if they're 100% true or they're completely true, and we've never just felt them, so it's possible that it's not only what we call ביטול זמן, wasting time, but it might even be called דברים בטלים, סתם, things which are not even true. And what's the purpose? And we do find in many different places indications that it's not important to tell stories. There was an expression that was mainly said by chasidim of Kotsk, but even in Lubavitch they used to say it, that there is an expression in the davenen that we say אותות ומופתים באדמת בני חם, that miracles are in the land of the people of חם, פשט די גוים, so that joke like, that mofsim, miracles, that that's by the גוים, we don't get involved in miracles. Or like the pasuk says, ומופתים בארץ מצרים, in ארץ מצרים there you talk about mofsim, but we don't talk about mofsim by us because we are involved in more important matters. The Alter Rebbe said that when he was a student in Mezeritch by the Mezeritcher Maggid, this is what he said: מופתים האבן זיך געוואלגערט אונטערן טיש, אבער קיינער האט זיך נישט איינגעבויגן זיי אויפהייבן. Mofsim rolled under the table, miracles by the Rebbe, by the Maggid, and the same thing by the Baal Shem Tov, were rolling under the table. No one bothered to bend down to pick them up, no one cared about them. There's a letter from the Previous Rebbe where he writes that to discuss miracles of tzadikim, he writes the words that it was a פחיתות הכבוד בעיני גדולי זקני החסידים, was like a degrading in the eyes of the great elder chasidim. It was a השפלה, it was something lower. We have to talk about Torah, we have to talk about avodah, serving Hashem, but not tell stories, mofsim of tzadikim. That's what they used to say, that's what their opinion was. And this fits to the Rambam. The Rambam says concerning us accepting the Torah from Moshe Rabbeinu, the Rambam says that the reason the Jews accepted the Torah from Moshe Rabbeinu is not because they saw him perform miracles. It's because we ourselves stood, the Jews themselves stood by Har Sinai, heard with their own ears and saw with their own eyes from Hashem himself Aseret HaDibrot, the Ten Commandments. He uses the lashon: עינינו ראו ולא זר, our eyes saw not somebody else, אזנינו שמעו ולא אחר, our ears heard. And then the Rambam adds: because anybody who believes because of the miracles, יש בלבו דופי, there is still something missing there. To believe because of miracles is not the right thing to do. So it seems like listening to the miracle stories are not such an important matter. They say a story that once Rabbi Aizik Homiler, one of the great great rabbis, was walking by and he saw a funeral and he stopped to listen and there was somebody giving the eulogy. And he spoke about how great, many miracle stories of this deceased tzadik. And he said, \"What do I care about these miracle stories? If I'll hear that he spoke a lot in Torah, that will mean something to me. I don't care, these stories, these things don't mean anything to me.\" And the truth is, that this actually used to be the difference, one of the differences actually, between חסידות חב״ד and חסידות פוילן. The other Chassidim were more involved in miracles. And the rebbes used to do more miracles and they used to talk about the miracles, and in Chabad, starting all the way from the first, the Alter Rebbe, there was no thing about miracles, it didn't play a major role. They even tell a story, doesn't mean they didn't do miracles, the Alter Rebbe did miracles, there's a story told of a young man who used to be a Chassid of a different Rebbe, of a פוילישער רבי, and then he became נתקרב and he became a Chassid of the Alter Rebbe, a Chabad Chassid, and he still kept up obviously his friendship with the other Chassidim. So they used to tease him, they used to tell him, \"You're right, you claim you learn more Chassidus in Chabad, all kinds of things, but a miracle of a Rebbe you'll get by us, not by your Rebbe.\" And the Previous Rebbe tells the story, he says he had a נמיכות הרוח, he felt very bad, he became depressed because it bothered him. And the mashpia of that city got a letter from the Alter Rebbe without him writing a letter, and the Alter Rebbe in the letter writes to him, I think you have to give some chizuk to this and this young man. This young man didn't say anything to this mashpia, certainly didn't write anything to the Alter Rebbe. And the Alter Rebbe says you have to be me'oded him, you have to give him chizuk, and he says why, because he has some kind of depression. And then the Alter Rebbe finished off the letter with an expression of a pasuk: והיה לך לאות ולאחרים למופת. The pasuk says, unto you it's going to be a sign, and to others it's going to be a mofet. In other words, I'll show you that I do mofetim also. But nevertheless, it wasn't something that Chassidim really stressed. So it seems like there is, it's not so important and it doesn't play an important role to discuss and talk about miracles that tzadikim did. On the other hand, you knew I wouldn't stay with that, on the other hand, we know that the custom is and we take every opportunity to tell stories of the Rebbe, of other tzadikim, and not only by us, by all Chassidim, and by all Yidden. They find stories of tzadikim. We always tell stories of tzadikim. What do we need more? The Gemara is full of mofetim of tzadikim. The Gemara tells stories of Chanina ben Dosa, all kinds of stories of miracles happened to tzadikim. And it seems like it's an important matter to tell stories and speak of the greatness of the tzadikim and the stories, the miracles they could perform. Actually, there is a Rabbeinu Bachaye. Rabbeinu Bachaye in פרשת וישלח says on the פסוק וחקר כבודם כבוד, there is a pasuk, which means to look into their honor is an honor. And he explains it means to honor the tzadikim, to speak בשבח of the the praise of tzadikim and tell stories of tzadikim gives the person who tells the stories, gives him kavod. And he explains what that means is it elevates the person. It makes the person reach a higher spiritual level when you talk about the tzadikim and you praise the tzadikim and you tell stories of the tzadikim. And he brings in a pasuk that it says in תהלים, יראי ה' יכבד, that you should give kavod to those that fear Hashem'. You should give kavod, you should give respect and honor to the tzadikim, and speak of their kavod, speak of their greatness, speak of their miracles, and this will make this person himself be elevated to a higher madregah. So obviously, we do see that it is important to tell stories of tzadikim. It's actually connected in Chumash. In Chumash, we find stories of tzadikim. In Chumash by Kriyas Yam Suf, when Hashem' split the sea, it says ויאמינו בה' ובמשה עבדו, that they believed in Hashem' and they believed in Moshe His servant, which is Hashem' praising here, praising Moshe Rabbeinu. The pasuk at the end of Chumash, all the way in the end of the Chumash it describes Moshe Rabbeinu. It says ולכל המופתים, it speaks about the miracles that Moshe Rabbeinu performed. The fuss it makes of Moshe Rabbeinu, when they eulogize, they say, in short, Moshe Rabbeinu, what was Moshe Rabbeinu, so it mentions the miracles that he did. So obviously it's important to talk about miracles. The Alter Rebbe said that when we used to hear a Torah, a dvar Torah from our Rebbe, from the Maggid, that was like Torah shebichtav, like the written Torah. When we heard a story, it was like Torah shebe'al peh, it was like the oral Torah. It was a Torah. The Tzemach Tzedek said as a remez, as a hint, he quoted the Haggadah. In the Haggadah we say אפילו כולנו חכמים, כולנו נבונים, כולנו יודעים את התורה, מצוה עלינו לספר ביציאת מצרים. Even if we're all chachamim, we're all smart and we're all learned and we all know the Torah, it's a mitzvah upon us to tell. So the simple pshat in the Haggadah is to tell the story of Yetziat Mitzrayim, of the exodus of Mitzrayim. But he said a remez that אפילו if we're all חכמים, נבונים, יודעים את התורה, מצוה עלינו לספר. It's a mitzvah to tell. לספר is to tell stories. The word sipur means a story. It's a mitzvah to tell stories. So he says it's it's a mitzvah and it's important to tell stories of tzaddikim, miracle stories of tzaddikim. We even know that there is a famous statement that's known by everybody that to tell a story of the Baal Shem Tov on Motzaei Shabbos is a segulah for parnasah, that will help you get parnasah, make a livelihood during the week. And the Tzemach Tzedek said that in this statement there are three things which are not meduyak, not exactly. It's not exactly of the Baal Shem Tov, it's of any tzadik. It's not exactly on Motzaei Shabbat, it's anytime. And it's not exactly it's good for parnasah, it's good for all the things. It's good for everything. To tell a story of a tzadik is very special and very great. That's what he said. And we see in Chumash that before the Chumash yet gets to tell us the halachot, what to do, which starts first in Parashat Bo, the first mitzvah basically is in Parashat Bo, we have almost a Chumash and a half of what? Of stories. So this comes even before. There is a story told that Rav Aizik Homiler once came to the Ruzhiner, Rav Yisrael Ruzhiner. He was actually sent to him on a mission by the Tzemach Tzedek. And as he was there, he stayed in his room for a while, and he witnessed the different things that this great צדיק, Rav Yisrael Ruzhiner, was doing. And he saw that the gabbai brought in two sefarim, two books written by people, and tells the Rebbe, and he was standing there watching, and tells his Rebbe, the Ruzhiner, that, \"I have two sefarim here that the two מחברים, the two authors, sent me to me. I should ask you for a haskamah, to give an agreement to the sefer.\" One sefer was a sefer of stories, and one was a sefer of chiddushei Torah, of new insights into different deep inyanim in Torah. So he says, \"Read me a few pages from the storybook.\" And he read a few pages. Then he says, \"Read me a few pages here and there from the other one, from the chiddushim, from the...\" And he read a few pages. Then he said, \"Give me a pen.\" And he, or he told, he dictated a haskamah first to the storybook, and then to the other sefer of chiddushim. And when he finished, he turns around, he says, \"I am sure that the ליטווישער גאון,\" he referred to Rav Aizik Homiler as a ליטווישער גאון, he was a Chabad chasid, so by the other פוילישע חסידים they referred to Chabad Lubavitch as ליטווישער, because we speak it, so he says, \"I am sure this ליטווישער גאון is wondering why I asked him to read first from the storybook before the chiddushim of Torah. This is Torah, this is just stories! And why, when I gave my haskamah, I gave first to the stories, and then I gave to the חידושי תורה? So, I just want to tell him he has a good question, but Rashi asked the question in Chumash. On the first pasuk in Chumash, Rashi asked the question, 'Why does the Torah start with stories? Why doesn't the Torah start with the mitzvah?' But you see, and Rashi gives an answer, but we see that the Torah itself starts with stories, מעשים, miracles that happened before the Torah gets into telling us the halachot that the Torah wants to tell us.\" And we actually see, even by the עשרת הדברות, when Hashem came down and said the עשרת הדברות, the Ten Commandments, how did he start? \"אנכי ה׳ אלקיך אשר הוצאתיך מארץ מצרים.\" \"I am Hashem, who took you out of Mitzrayim.\" First he told, \"Remember, I took you out of Mitzrayim, this is a miracle I did to you.\" And then he continued, \"לא יהיה לך,\" \"You should not have other gods.\" So, he started off with a story reminding the Yidden of the miracle that happened. So, we see how important it is. But the question is, it seems to be a contradiction. On one hand, we said before that there are certain sources that show that it's not important. We should really get involved more in learning Torah, in davenen, in these things, but not to sit and tell stories. It's a waste, they didn't say waste of time, but that's not, it's a small thing. And here we see how important it is to tell stories.

Now, I just want to add, make a comment here, that when we talk about stories of tzadikim, there are really two types of stories. There are stories that describe the the צדקות, the piety, of the piety of the piety of the tzadikim, how great they were, how how frum they were, how much yirat shamayim they had. And then you have stories, just tell stories of miracles. They gave a berachah, or they told you, \"Do this and this,\" and it worked, and it helped the person. They are two types. Now, the first type, telling the צדקות, the greatness of the tzadikim, that's not such a hard question. That we understand why we should do, because the more we see how there were people who lived such a holy, in a holy way, they become a living example, and therefore it makes it easier for us to do it. And as a matter of fact, it's not only tzadikim. If we would tell stories of plain Jews, how they went on mesirat nefesh, and the great things they did, also helps us. I know the Frierdiker Rebbe once wrote a letter to the yeshiva that the yeshiva should study Jewish history, and he writes why: because if you study Jewish history, you you read and you learn about the mesirat nefesh, the self-sacrifice of the Jews throughout the generations for their religion, it instills within us yirat shamayim. They become people who we want to follow. If they could do it, we could also do it. And as a matter of fact, in that case it's better to tell a story of a chasid or of a simple Jew than of a Rebbe, because when you tell a story that this this Rebbe was so holy, he did he learned so much, \"Well, that doesn't mean much to me. Well, he is so great, he learned, how could I do that?\" But if you tell a story of another Jew, that a simple Jew, and he also did this great mitzvah, this Jew also did such great chesed, this Jew also did good things, and he and me are the same level, so if he could do it, I could do it! He was moser nefesh, he went on mesirat nefesh, he sacrificed his life, and he is not such a great tzadik, so I could do it, too! I remember there was once a chasid, his name was Rav Abba Pliskin. He went into יחידות with the Rebbe. He is a very, very חסידישער ייד, he's a mamash a real, a great person. And the Rebbe told him that from time to time, he didn't have a position in the yeshiva, but the Rebbe told him from time to time go into the yeshiva and farbrengen, talk to the bachurim. So he asked, \"Rebbe, what should I talk about?\" So the Rebbe said, \"Tell them stories, but not of the Rebbeim. Tell them stories of chasidim.\" And he explained why. Because if you tell them a story of Rebbeim, they it doesn't it's not too it's not close to them, because, \"Well, the Rebbeim, certainly. But the chasidim, they are in my level.\" well, and they could do this and this and this, why shouldn't I be able to do it? But anyway, certainly if it's the stories of tzadikim, it gives you, it shows you that there are people who live a very, very, very holy life, so you could follow. They become a living example. Actually, there used to be a saying by chasidim that, what is the whole idea of a Rebbe? Hashem gave us a Torah, and the Torah tells us exactly how to live. But it's not so simple to follow everything that's written, the instructions in the book. The best way to follow it is if you actually see it with your own eyes. Like we know nowadays, if you get instructions on some complicated machine, what they do is, they give you a book full of instructions, and then they give you a little video. They say if you watch the video, that's the best! You see exactly how things work. So imagine Hashem gave us a book and told us exactly how to live, but then he gave us a video. He brought tzadikim to the world, that if you look at them and they live exactly the way Hashem wants, that makes it easier for us to follow. But anyway, when we talk about tzadikim and we explain how they lived and how they learned and all the great things, that we could understand. But to tell stories of miracles that they did, that's harder to understand. Why is it so important to know that this Rebbe gave a bracha and it came true? This person didn't have any children, the Rebbe helped him, told him, do this and this, gave a bracha, it helped. Why is that so important and what does that, why does that help us? Now to explain that, in Tanya, in Shaar HaYichud VehaEmunah, the Alter Rebbe says like this. He quotes the saying of the Chazal that they say, בתחילה עלה במחשבה לברא את העולם במידת הדין. Hashem, in the beginning, had in mind to create the world in the midah, with the attribute of judgment, of strictness. ראה שאין העולם מתקיים, he saw the world will not exist that way, שיתף עמו מדת הרחמים. So he added the midah of rachamim, the midah of pity, and he added other things to the creation that the people should be able to take it. And there are all kinds of interpretations what that means, but in Tanya there he says what it means is Hashem added to the world the אותות ומופתים שבתורה, the miracles that's in the Torah, and התגלות אלקות על ידי צדיקים, and the revelation of Godliness through tzaddikim. Which means if not for the miracles that the tzaddikim perform, we would not have such a great level of revelation of Godliness. When a tzaddik does a miracle and we hear about a miracle, what it does is it reveals Godliness within us. It makes the truth of Hashem closer to us. And I'll explain it in a short while, but I want to get over for a moment someplace else. After ג׳ תמוז, after the Rebbe passed away, so they found Reshimos of the Rebbe, the Reshimos, notes that the Rebbe wrote for himself, volumes, handwritten notes that they hadn't known about before. And in those notes, one of them they found was a letter that the Rebbe wrote to his father-in-law, to the Frierdiker Rebbe, years, years before. And this was basically a question or a response to the letter that the Frierdiker Rebbe wrote. As I mentioned before that the idea of telling stories of tzaddikim miracles was always looked down upon by Chassidim, cuz that's not an important thing. So the Rebbe writes to his father-in-law, he says like this: You know, he asks, he says, I beg forgiveness for what I'm going to say, for me questioning, but I'd like to question that, the Rebbe writes. He says, well, if you speak about the Chassidim of the old generation, generations before, their hearts and their mind was very clear and they were great people. So they could feel close to Hashem just by learning, that would affect them. But most people are not in that level. This doesn't really affect them so much. But when you hear a story of a miracle of a tzaddik, the Rebbe's expression is that, it shines a great Godly light into the person that it gives a person a shake and a person becomes a different person. And he says nowadays we need it! We can't just rely on just the learning, we have to have this. And the Rebbe goes in more details of explaining to his father-in-law, who was the Rebbe then, and explains to him why he thinks that you should tell stories of tzaddikim. Now we don't know, there we don't have an answer of the Frierdiker Rebbe, we don't know if he answered him anything or not. But basically this was not a question and an answer, this was an explanation. The Rebbe explains the importance of telling stories of tzaddikim. And now let me just go into explaining in short what is the reason why we shouldn't and what is the reason why we should.

Telling stories of tzaddikim definitely brings a person closer to Hashem. When you tell a story of a tzaddik, you realize that Hashem is the one that rules over the world. Because when we talk about a story of a tzaddik and we say, well, this tzaddik was able to perform a miracle, what do we think? How did the tzaddik performed this miracle? How did he do it? God forbid, voodoo, magic? He did it because he's so close to Hashem, so with the power of Hashem he was able to change the nature. A miracle means that it's a change of nature. How is he able to change the nature? Because nature is not the baal habayit. Nature is not the boss. There is a baal habayit, there is a ruler over nature. And when the more miracles you see by the tzaddikim, and we realize that the tzaddikim are people who we see how they behave and they are holy people, meaning they are closer to Hashem, it's with the power of Hashem that they perform the miracles. And therefore, this makes to us the truth of Hashem much more real. It's much more We see it with our eyes. It's much more realistic. And if you hear a story and you know, this is what this tzaddik did, it makes it much clearer and more real in our minds. That's why when it says ויאמינו בהשם ובמשה עבדו, they believed in Hashem and Moshe His servant, the pesuk adds not just they believed in Hashem and in Moshe, Moshe His servant. Why did they believe in Moshe? Because Moshe Rabbeinu was the servant of Hashem. What does a servant of Hashem mean? A servant is somebody who's completely given over, has self-nullification, is given over to his master. He was given over to the Master, Who is Hashem, and that's why they believed in him. The Sifrei says, when the פסוק ויאמינו בהשם ובמשה עבדו, they believed in Hashem and Moshe His servant, the Sifrei, which is the Midrash says that in order to believe in Hashem, they had to believe in Moshe. Now, why would they have to believe in a human being in order to believe in Hashem? Because this made it easier for them to believe in Hashem. When they saw Moshe and they saw that Moshe was an עבד השם, Moshe was battel to השם, Moshe was the one that it says in Chumash said, \"ונחנו מה,\" \"What are we?\" I'm nothing. There's only Hashem. Actually, the word מה, which is מ\"ה means nothing. In Moshe's name, three letters, מ-ש-ה, two of the three is מ\"ה, מה, because Moshe was completely battel, nullified to Hashem. Actually, why did they call him Moshe? \"כי מן המים משיתיהו,\" because they pulled him out of the water. Water, being drowned in water, the Rambam says, and Chassidut explains, shows for bitul. Going to the mikveh, when you immerse yourself, it shows you're completely covered. You lose your own personal being, and you become part of the water. The same thing, the tzadikim we talk about, Moshe Rabbeinu was in the water means he was completely battel to Hashem. So therefore, when they saw Moshe Rabbeinu's miracles, this was a, like it says in in the Sha'ar HaYichud VehaEmunah, התגלות אלוקות, this is a revelation of Godliness to us. This makes us understand, and not even understand, to see the truth of Hashem much stronger. For instance, it says in the Gemara that the daughter of Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa was once wanted to light candles. Her father asked her to light a candle. When she came back to him, she said that she can't find any oil. It was only way those days, they had candles, oil. But she found vinegar. What are you going to do with vinegar? So Rabbi Chanina ben Dosa said, מי שאמר לשמן וידלוק יאמר לחומץ וידלוק. The One that said that oil should burn, will say that vinegar will burn. Boom! She put the wick into the vinegar, and it burned. It lit just like a candle. And Kabbalah explains how it happened, cuz he changed the T- You don't P- Not to go into it. But what did that show? When you hear that story, it shows that there is no such thing as nature. Nature is not its own boss. Why does oil burn? Because that's how it is? It's not because that's how it is. Because that's what Hashem wants. So if there is a tzadik who is able to have with the koach of Hashem make change, he is the baal habayit. He can change it. Story with the Baal Shem Tov, a similar story, that once the Baal Shem- Baal Shem Tov בכלל liked lights. He always liked to have a lot of candles, always, never liked darkness. Once it was a time they didn't have candles. There wasn't. It was the middle of the winter, freezing outside, and the talmidim were very upset that they couldn't find candles for the Rebbe. So the Baal Shem Tov said to them, it was middle of winter, there there were icicles hanging from the roof, says, \"Go out, get some icicles, and light the icicles like a torch.\" And they lit the icicles, and it burned. And it's similar to that Gemara. What did that show? That why doesn't icicle burn normally? So we think because that's the nature. What nature? No such thing as nature. Hashem made the nature. So a tzadik with the koach of Hashem is able to do it. So telling stories, miracles of tzadikim, gives us the yirat shamayim, the proper yirat shamayim of really seeing the truth, fearing Hashem, and seeing the truth of Hashem. There is another point here. It also shows the koach of Torah, the power of Torah, because many of the miracles are done, besides being a tzadik, through Torah. There is a story of the Baal Shem Tov that once somebody came to the Baal Shem Tov and asked him, \"My father lost a whole bunch of oxen, and he doesn't know where to find them.\" So he came to the Baal Shem Tov, like many people did. The Baal Shem Tov opened up a Zohar, looked into it, and said, \"The oxen are in Breslov.\" City called Breslov. So the guy went to Breslov, found his oxen. His talmidim asked asked him, \"Rabbi, if you're able to see it, why did you open the Zohar? What does that got to do with the Zohar? It said in the Zohar that that the oxen are in Breslau?\" So he says, \"I'll tell you. It says in the Gemara, it says in the Midrash, that when Hashem created the world, the light He created in the beginning of creation was so strong that a person could see from one end of the world to the other with that light. That's how strong. You could see all over. Hashem saw the world is not worthy of having such a light, so Hashem hid it. That's what it says in in the Gemara, in the Midrash. Hashem hid it. He hid it for the future. Mashiach will come, he'll bring it back. Where did He hide it? The Midrash asks, where did He hide it? You hide it someplace. He hid it in the Torah. So therefore,\" he says, \"when I opened a sefer of Torah, that light shined, 'cause in the Torah you could see it. So therefore I was able to see where the oxen were, because I saw it through the Torah.\" So when a tzaddik performs a miracle, it not only brings out the power of Hashem, but the power, the koach of Torah, which is connected to we're one with Hashem, that it is through the Torah. For instance, by the Rebbe, I would say 95% of the miracles that we have were all connected to Torah. When like the Rebbe would give a brachah, he would say, \"Well,\" someone would ask a brachah for children, so he would ask, answer, \"Make sure your tefillin are kasher. Make sure that you keep טהרת המשפחה.\" All the things, he would always connect it to Torah. So this shows the koach of Torah. So this, by telling a story, a miracle story of a tzaddik, brings out the koach of Hashem, who is in control of the world, and the koach of Torah, besides the fact that it brings out this greatness of this tzaddik that he reached a level of being battel and being an eved, a servant of Hashem. It brings out the greatness of the tzaddik that he was able to learn Torah in such a way to see the light in the Torah. Not everyone could do it. So that has the other aspect also, the fact that he becomes a living example that we could see that there are people who are able to reach such high madregot, and we want to follow. But besides that, it just brings out the power of Hashem and the truth of Hashem and how the world is really not in control. It's Hashem that's in control. The problem with this is that this is something that comes from the outside of us. This is not something that gives us an understanding. When you hear a miracle or a miracle happens to you, and even when you hear it, and you get nisa'er, and we know that when you hear a miracle story it has an effect much more than if you're learning something in Torah, but it's not because, \"Now I understand what it means Hashem rules the world.\" It doesn't give any understanding. It just, we call it in a form of makif. It's a superficial thing that gives a bolt of lightning into the person. But that's not what really should be. Really, things should be absorbed inside a person. Things should come from within the penimiyut of the person, especially Chabad, we say it has to be through chochmah, binah, daat, through understanding. So the real, real best way to get to recognize the truth of Hashem is by thinking and learning and understanding, that part of within the person. But when you get it from the outside, it's not part of the person, then it's not really where it should be. That's why in the eyes of the great chasidim, they felt, \"No, this is not the right way to do it. Learn and daven and bring yourself to understand, not just have it from the outside.\" That's why the talmidim of the Maggid would not bend down to pick up the miracles. To them, they were able to reach this in much higher level. But most people who are not in that level, in order to get to understand, you've got to start with something. So this gives you the first jump start. It gives you the the the shake, look at this! This shows the koach of beyond nature! And then you're able to go further. And this happened even to great tzadikim. Great tzadikim that we know were nitkarav, became close to the Baal Shem Tov or to other things, through miracles.

The Mezritcher Maggid himself, we keep on talking about the Maggid, the Mezritcher Maggid himself became close to the Baal Shem Tov because of a miracle. I won't take much time, but we still have a few moments, the famous story of how the Mezritcher Maggid became a talmid of the Baal Shem Tov. The Mezritcher Maggid was known to be a great scholar and tzadik and mekubal before he had when he was still an opponent of the Baal Shem Tov. He had problems with his feet. He was sick on his feet, so he had to go to Marienbad every year for baths in order to for his feet. And he used to make sure to pass by the city where the great tzadik and talmid chacham and gaon, the Pnei Yehoshua, used to live. And he used to spend a few weeks by the Pnei Yehoshua, and they'd discuss all kinds of she'eilot and things in learning. It was his best time. And then he would continue to Karlsbad. Once, the Baal Shem Tov stopped by the city where the Pnei Yehoshua was, didn't say anything, stopped his wagon outside the shul, sent in his shamash, said, \"Please call out Out the rav, who was the Pnei Yehoshua. He walks in, and the Pnei Yehoshua was in the middle of giving a shiur. So he says, \"There's somebody outside who wants to talk to you.\" He didn't know who it was. He says, \"Well, tell that person I'm in the middle of a shiur, and, and I can't leave.\" So the Baal Shem Tov says to him, \"Go tell him I have to talk to him.\" Anyway, so he comes out, and the Baal Shem Tov, he didn't say who he was, but he realized right away after he heard that it's the Baal Shem Tov, he says, \"Look, I want you to know that the shochet in your city is not shchating properly, and he's feeding people treif. And you'll have a siman, you'll call him, and he will admit. Then I want to tell you, you see this Maggid that always comes to you? Please tell him next time if he wants to be cured with his feet, let him come to me.\" And he just drove off. He didn't know what to make of it, but he called the shochet, and the shochet admitted, so right away he saw this is not so simple. Next time the Maggid came to him and he was talking to him, and he said, \"You know, this and this what happened, and I advise you to go to the Baal Shem Tov, he'll cure you.\" And he said, \"How could I go to the Baal Shem Tov when I have 500 kushiyot, 500 questions on the דרך of the Baal Shem Tov? So you think I'm going to waste my time going?\" Anyway, the end was that he decided that his foot wasn't getting better, so let me try. Finally, he came to the Baal Shem Tov. First, in the middle of the way, he regretted it because it took up much time from learning, anyway, he came to the Baal Shem Tov, and he stood to stay there and he said, \"Let me see if I'm going to see some holy things.\" A ספר in front, the Etz Chaim, a קבלה ספר. He turns around to the Maggid and he says, \"You know how to learn?\" \"A little bit.\" Said, \"You know Kabbalah?\" \"A little bit.\" So he says to him, \"Here, this passage here in the ספר, tell me the pshat.\" So he looked, took a look, says, told him the pshat. Baal Shem Tov says, \"Nah, that's not really the pshat.\" So he took it back, and he looked again. He said the pshat over, deeper. Baal Shem Tov said, \"Nah.\" So he got upset and says, \"This is the pshat! I'm telling you this is the pshat. If you have a better pshat, you say it,\" he tells him. The Baal Shem Tov says, \"Good, just stand there.\" The Baal Shem Tov started telling him the pshat. This was a passage that spoke about different malachim and different things. What happened was the Baal Shem Tov told him the pshat of these malachim, while he was talking about these malachim, he could see the malachim there. And he said, \"This is what I mean, you got to learn in a way that it has a life. That when you learn, it's not just reading the book, it comes true.\" Anyway, when he saw that, he decided to stay. And the Baal Shem Tov said, \"I'm going to cure you,\" and he told him, \"I'm going to cure you with a miracle, but I want you to go to Karlsbad one more time.\" What he wanted was he should pass again to the Pnei Yehoshua. So next year, he went again to Karlsbad and he passed the city of the Pnei Yehoshua. He told the Pnei Yehoshua the whole story about the Baal Shem Tov and how he became his talmid, and he became his successor later. So the Pnei Yehoshua said to him, \"So what happened to your 500 questions?\" And he says, \"What can I tell you? A person that I realize that if he wouldn't himself have told me that he's a human being, I wouldn't have believed it. I would have thought he was a malach. On a person like that, there are no questions.\" But that all happened because of the miracle that he did to him, and also later when he cured him. So the Maggid himself became מקורב to the Baal Shem Tov through a miracle. And the Toldos, one of the other great talmidim of the Baal Shem Tov became through a miracle, all kind of stories. The Alter Rebbe had many chasidim who became chasidim through miracles that happened to them. The famous chasid, Rav Meir Rafael's. Rav Meir Rafael's was the פרנס חודש of Vilna, he was like the president of the community of Vilna. Vilna, the city of the, the fortress of the misnagdim. And he became a chassid of the Alter Rebbe. And there's a long story, but just to make the story short, but mamash the short, it's a long story. The story is there was a woman whose husband left her, and didn't, couldn't find him, and she came to the Alter Rebbe, what should she do? The Alter Rebbe said, \"Go to Vilna, and ask Rav Meir Rafaels to find you your husband.\" Vilna was hundreds and hundreds of miles away where the Alter Rebbe lived, and it had nothing to do, but the Alter Rebbe said. Anyway, finally she traveled to Vilna, she came to the house of the פרנס חודש, she came to the house of Rav Meir Rafaels, he wasn't home. She says, \"The Rebbe from Liozna,\" the Alter Rebbe lived in Liozna, \"sent me here to find her husband.\" They thought she was crazy. But she had, \"No, I'm not leaving.\" She waited till he came home, he came home, she says, \"Yeah, the Rebbe sent me to here that you should find my husband.\" So he said to her, \"Now I really see that these chassidim are crazy. I mean, I always knew that, but now I really see. What happened was he had no answer for you, so he sent you someplace hundreds of miles away to get away from him, but what am I going to do?\" But she said, \"No, I'm not leaving till you find...\" So she's a meshugene, what's he going to do to her? Said, \"You know what? I'll find. I'll find! I'll find! Go, come back in two days, I'll find.\" He couldn't get rid of her. Two days later she comes back, \"You have to...\" He doesn't know what to do, she's nuts and she's crazy. Anyway, finally he leaves, she leaves, \"Come back in two days.\" He, since he was the leader of the Jewish community, the police department, whenever they had Jewish prisoners coming by, they would notify him with a list, and he would come and see, and they'd get kosher food. So, one day, they sent tell him there's a list of Jewish prisoners that are passing by here from one place to another, you want to see them. He looks at the list, and the name of the husband that she kept saying is on the list. So, right away, he ran to call her. They came and they brought her. She recognized, \"Yeah, this is the guy.\" And they brought him to a beit din, and he gave a get, and she was freed, and she was able to marry. And this put a plant into the how- in the in the in the mind of Reb' Meir Rafaels. To himself, he thought, \"Maybe this is just a coincidence. But, you know, you're never sure.\" So, he made up his mind, \"If something else will happen like this, that will show me, then I'll be I'll I'll go to the Alter Rebbe. But...\" A while later, there was a sort of a guest that came to town, and those days, a lot of people used to travel by, and this old man came into the shul, and he was in the city, in Vilna, and he was davening in the shul. Came, stayed there a day, second, two days. And he didn't want to wasn't like a collector. Everyone tried to give him money. He said, \"I'm not collecting.\" And he would eat He had his own food. Shabbos, there was a man who begged him to come to eat in his house. Anyway, finally, he came. During Shabbos, this guest saw that the host is very upset about something. After Shabbos, he asked him, \"Tell me what's your problem.\" He says, \"I have a problem, but you can't help me.\" He says, \"But tell me. You never know.\" They sat down with him, told him, \"I have a problem. We have I have a partner. We both have a business, and there was a מסירה. They told the government against us, and we were there's going to be a court case soon, and the lawyers told us that it looks like we're going to lose. And I don't know what to do, so I'm upset.\" So, he says, \"Now I'll tell you who I am. I am a chassid of the Alter Rebbe. I live far away, but I'm going now to the Rebbe. I advise you to go to the Rebbe.\" And this was a city of misnagdim. \"What, we're going to go to the Rebbe? What?\" But he started telling him stories about the Alter Rebbe. Finally, they said, \"You know what? Doesn't make sense to go to him, but there is a man here who's very smart. Let's go ask him, Reb' Meir Rafaels.\" And they had no idea about anything else, so they came to Reb' Meir Rafaels, and he was known as a mitnagid. \"This and this is what the guy says. Should we go?\" Now, Rabbi' Meir Rafael's thought to himself, \"Here's my chance. We'll see what's going to happen.\" He says, \"Go. But I want one thing: come back and tell me what happened.\" So they left. They went with him, and he was happy, because they were rich, so they had a wagon. Like this, he was walking. Finally, they came to the Alter Rebbe. Come in, and they tell him this problem. The Alter Rebbe looks to them, looks to them, and he says to them, \"Are you people scholars? Do you know how to learn?\" So they said, \"Yes, a little bit.\" \"I have a kashya in the Gemara. The Gemara says, מלכותא דארעא כעין מלכותא דרקיעא, that the the the kingship, the kingdom, a king down here is similar to a king up there in shamayim, similar to Hashem. What does that mean? How is a king down here similar to Hashem? We don't know. So, I'll I'll tell you the pshat. Just like Hashem has a real name, י-ק-ו-ק, but we don't call him by his real name. We always call Hashem or when we daven, א-ד-נ-י. Same thing with a king. Every king has a name, he has a sir-, but no one calls him by his name. That's what the Gemara means.\" Then he said, \"Go, bye, and be matzliach.\" And they walked out. They were so upset that the guy, what did he tell us? We thought he'd give us an advice. All he wanted to do is show that he knows how to learn, he has a good pshat. They were very upset. They didn't know what to do. But now they're they're back to the problem. So they were got advice that in court, they're going to lose for sure, but what should they do? The only thing they could do is they should travel to Petersburg, which is the capital city, and they should go to the Secretary of Justice, and just simply beg him that they should he should do something, because in normal system, it won't work. So they came to Petersburg. They found that there was a garden there, a okay, where only officers of the government used to go, and they found out that this guy would be walking there, too. So they would want to see him. So they came, and no one was allowed to go in there, but they bribed the guards, and they said what they want. And they said to him, \"We're going to be here. When that Secretary of Justice will come in, you, from far, motion to us, so we'll know who he is, and we'll walk over to him.\" Fine. The guy walks in, very, you know, very looking very, you know, official. They saw, so they turned to the guard to see if it's him. They were pretty far. The guard makes like this: not. But they couldn't see. They thought, \"Yes.\" So they ran over to him, and they said, \"We're begging you. We have families and...\" Then he says to them, \"I'm sorry. You got the wrong guy. I'm the Minister of Education. I'm not the Minister of Justice. You got the wrong guy.\" So they say, \"I'm sorry,\" and so he walks away. As they walked away, they see a moment later that Minister of Education, he came to the guard, and tells the guard something. Guard comes over to them, says, \"Listen, he wants to see you.\" Now they got scared. They said, \"Well, probably he's going to ask us what we're doing here.\" They came over to him, and they said the guard to the Minister of Education says to them, \"I'm not part of Justice, I can't do anything, but I'll tell you: I am close to the king, and the king asked me a question, and I don't have an answer, and you look like you're learned Jews, scholars. Maybe you could give me the answer to the question.\" And if you give the answer, I'll give it over to the king and I'll mention in the meantime your problem. The king told me that he heard that in your Talmud it says that a king down here is like a king up there, and he doesn't know what it means. Can you give me the answer? So they said, \"Yeah, yeah, we have an answer.\" And they gave him the answer. \"And that sounds good.\" He took out his business card, said, \"Come tomorrow 12:00, I'll be after I've seen the king, I'll talk to you.\" Gave him the card, and next day they couldn't wait. They came to 12:00. He tells them, \"Yes, I visited the king and at that the czar, and at that time, I told him I happened to meet two Jews and they asked him and the king liked the answer very much. And in the meantime, I took the opportunity to tell him that you guys have a problem, and on the spot he signed the release. You guys are free.\" They saw that, they saw oh there is something there. They came back to Vilna, everything was fine. They came to the Maggid of Polotsk and they told the Maggid of Polotsk the story, and the Maggid of Polotsk the next day took, I almost said took the plane, but he didn't, he took his wagon, and he went straight to Liadi and he became one of the biggest chasidim of the Alter Rebbe.

Now, I'm just trying to tell the story bringing that because the subject of stories, got to tell stories, but this shows that a miracle that happens is something that awakens within a person. I we said before, this is not the right thing, the main thing usually is through learning, good, but if a person is at a level that he's missing something, everyone in his own level, some people are missing the the essence, the foundation of Yiddishkeit, and through a miracle, a lot of people, you know, through a miracle start becoming frum. Some people are missing chasidut like they were missing, and it's through the miracles. But the miracle starts it off, and then later you could continue and then work on it. So it is important to tell the miracle stories. I some stories might not even be true, so everyone knows the vort of the Tzemach Tzedek and he said, \"Everybody,\" he was talking about the Baal Shem Tov stories, \"anybody who believes every story of the Baal Shem Tov is a fool. Anybody who doesn't believe a story is an apikores.\" How could it be both? He says, \"You have to believe that it could be. He was so great that he could have done it.\" Which means that we we get to understand that there are tzadikim who could do anything. They could do the greatest miracles, sounds like, you know, changing nature. Yes, change nature. And this is something that comes before learning. We see it's before the learning yet. In Chumash it's before the halachot. The Ruzhiner did it before he gave the הסכמה to the sefer of learning, because Reshit Chochmah before you start learning יראת השם, you have to have proper יראת שמים, and talking about tzadikim and hearing the miracle stories of tzadikim gives a person yirat shamayim. It makes the person understand more yirat shamayim. Now there are, the yetzer hara gets involved all over, I could tell you, and even in this, when you tell a story of a tzadik, tell a story of the Rebbe, and it's basically obvious that there's something out of the nature, there are always ways to find people who want, \"Nah, this is this what happened, that happened,\" it's always. Hashem made it special because otherwise there would be no free choice. Even by קריעת ים סוף when he split the sea, it says in Midrash that all the water wherever it was in the world split. Why did he do it? One of the reasons is because if it wouldn't, it would be an obvious miracle for the Jews. So at least now people could say, \"Nah, there must have been some natural phenomenon. Otherwise, why would the water across the ocean also split?\" So Hashem makes it so that people should find excuses and find ways to say. They tell a story of the Baal Shem Tov that once there was a man, a very simple Jew, who had a daughter who couldn't walk. She was completely crippled. And he was looking, went to all doctors, nothing could help. And somebody told him about the Baal Shem Tov. He came to the Baal Shem Tov, and he put down some money, a bag of coins to the Baal Shem Tov, and he said, \"I want I'm giving you the coins, I want you to cure my daughter.\" And the Baal Shem Tov said to him, \"No, this is not enough. I want more money.\" More, more money? He got very angry, and he took the No, no, not he. The Baal Shem Tov got angry, made him look angry, and took the bag of coins and just threw it down on the floor. As the Baal Shem Tov did it, the little girl got up, ran, and picked up the coins. So he turns around to the little girl and says, \"Let's get out of here before he says it's his miracle.\" So Hashem makes it so that people should find excuses and be able to say, but the excuses that they find to explain it that it's not a miracle is probably less than anything else that we do. When we go to a doctor, maybe it's the same thing, he gives you medicine and then you're cured. \"Nah, it's not the medicine, it's just a coincidence. It just happened to take the medicine. I was cured for some other reason.\" No one says that! And here, people will say it. No, it's not the medicine, I mean they when you go to eat the health food and that that helps or whatever it is, but we don't look at it that way. That's the natural way to look. But by miracles, some people who who deny the truth of the tzadikim. The bottom line after all this is just that telling stories of tzadikim is not ביטול תורה, it's not ביטול זמן, it's Not a waste of time. It has a lot to it, because this instills yirat shamayim, and it's certainly important by children. Children are affected when they hear, affects them much more than an adult, and it goes deep in. So when you tell stories, especially stories that are beyond nature, see, and the adult starts questioning, \"Yeah, maybe it's not true,\" a child doesn't question, and it instills yirat shamayim into the child, that the child will grow up with yirat shamayim. But in the adults also, if you hear a miracle, especially from somebody who you trust and you know the story is true, and especially a lot of stories have good sources, and even if they're not true, but they're from people that other stories are true so you know they could do it, this instills yirat shamayim. And then, when we learn, we're able to get to understand the truth of Hashem in a deep way, but it starts off with the stories. So, Baruch Hashem that we're able to do it, Baruch Hashem the Rebbe performed miracles, hundreds, thousands, and we're able to tell these stories, and we will tell them till Mashiach comes very soon, and then we will tell the big story, the story of the גאולה שלימה.