Story: The Disappearing Letters
Rabbi Chaim ben Attar, known as the Ohr Hachaim ha’kadosh, was on his bed, breathing heavily. His wife sat next to him crying. Even though it took a lot of strength to breathe, and his chest was starting to hurt, he took a deep breath to say, “I’ll never let you go hungry. Even when I’m no longer here in this world with you, I will always take care of you.” • Story Time By Baila Brikman, Beis Moshiach • Full Article
Story Time By Baila Brikman, Beis Moshiach
Rabbi Chaim ben Attar, known as the Ohr Hachaim ha’kadosh, was on his bed, breathing heavily. His wife sat next to him crying.
Even though it took a lot of strength to breathe, and his chest was starting to hurt, he took a deep breath to say, “I’ll never let you go hungry. Even when I’m no longer here in this world with you, I will always take care of you.”
“How?” Rabbi Chaim’s wife asked.
Rabbi Chaim closed his eyes and smiled. “A rich man will come to you after I pass away,” he whispered. “He’ll want to buy my tefillin. Sell them to him. He’ll give you enough money to live! But tell him to be very careful while wearing the tefillin. When he has them on, he should only be thinking of Hashem. The entire time they’re wrapped around his head and arm, he shouldn’t say a single thing that isn’t for Hashem. Not even one word!”
Not long after, the holy Ohr Hachaim passed away, and just after the shloshim, she heard someone knocking on her door.
“I want to buy your husband’s tefillin,” the man announced. “Please. I’ll give you 300 gold coins!” Back then, that was enough money to buy everything someone would need for a long time. She suddenly remembered what her husband had told her.
Rabbi Chaim’s wife welcomed the man inside and learned his name was Rachamim. She brought him a glass of water and set her husband’s tefillin on the table. “I’ll sell them to you,” she said, “but only on one condition.”
Rachamim leaned forward. “Anything!” he answered.
“You have to remember how holy they are,” Rabbi Chaim’s wife explained. “These tefillin are special. When you wear them, think only of Hashem, and don’t say anything that isn’t tefilla or Torah! Absolutely nothing, understand?”
Rachamim nodded. “Of course,” he said. “I promise to take excellent care of them!”
Rachamim left the Ohr Hachaim’s house with his tefillin held safely in his arms. He was excited. He couldn’t believe he got to wear such a special, powerful tzaddik’s pair of tefillin. He hugged the tefillin to his chest all the way home, taking special care to make sure nothing happened to them.
The next morning, during Shacharis, Rachamim put on the tefillin for the first time. Immediately, he felt a kedusha he’d never felt before. His davening had more kavana, his learning was more focused, and he felt closer to Hashem than he’d ever been in his life.
Rachamim knew the tefillin had a special power inside them that made his davening so special and holy, and he always kept Rabbi Chaim’s warning in mind when he wore them. He never spoke with them on and always made sure to be thinking about Torah or davening. It wasn’t until his young neighbor, Yaakov, came to shul one morning that Rachamim was tested.
Yaakov was late for minyan and sat next to Rachamim in one of the only empty seats. He leaned back and whispered, “I hear your business is doing well. I’ve been looking for some new business opportunities myself!”
Rachamim ignored the young man. He had his tefillin on and was still in the middle of davening.
“You know,” Yaakov continued, “I could use a job, if you could give me one.”
Rachamim stared down into his siddur, hoping Yaakov would take the hint and be quiet. But no matter how much he ignored him, he just kept on talking.
“…or, if you know anyone else who’s hiring new workers,” Yaakov said, “that could help too!”
Rachamim turned his head towards Yaakov and glared, but Yaakov kept speaking. He even started to raise his voice.
“Quiet!” Rachamim finally snapped.
Yaakov’s eyes widened. He nodded at Rachamim and then moved away. Rachamim shook his head and looked back down at his siddur… but suddenly, he felt different. It was as if the kedusha was gone. Rachamim didn’t feel close to Hashem or full of kavana anymore. Rachamim knew he wasn’t supposed to speak while wearing the tefillin, but one word shouldn’t count – especially if that one word was only said so he could focus on davening better.
Rachamim refused to believe the loss of kedusha was his fault; instead he figured something must have happened to the tefillin.
“What I said couldn’t have caused the problem. There’s probably a letter missing… or something needs to be fixed,” he said. “I bet they just need to be checked!”
Rachamim brought his tefillin to a sofer, hoping to fix the problem and get back the kedusha he once had. The sofer opened up the tefillin and stared down at the parchment. He looked surprised.
“What is it?” Rachamim demanded. “Why do you look so confused?”
The sofer lifted the parchment out of the tefillin and showed it to Rachamim. “You say you got these tefillin from the Ohr Hachaim ha’kadosh? I ask because… well, the words…” he said. “…They’re all gone. It’s like they’ve run away! The parchment is here, but all the words are missing!”
Rachamim realized that the one word he’d spoken had definitely had an effect. It had caused all the kedusha of the tefillin to disappear.
***
Many important lessons can be learned from this story. We should always listen to a tzaddik and not play around with his words. We might decide to change little things to make our choices seem okay – tiny things, like one little word. It doesn’t sound so bad at first – but not listening to the tzaddik can strongly affect the future.
Another powerful lesson is that we need to focus on ourselves instead of worrying about what everyone else is doing. If Rachamim had just ignored Yaakov and kept davening, he wouldn’t have had any problems.
Sometimes, other people can distract us from what’s really important. We might even feel like we need to control them. But our job isn’t to be a police officer, correcting the people around us; our job is to focus on our own avodas Hashem and learn Torah. Hashem wants us to connect with Him and help people in a kind way.
Even one angry word can take away all the kedusha!
If we all focus on our own connection with Hashem, we’ll receive many blessings in return.
132
Join ChabadInfo's News Roundup and alerts for the HOTTEST Chabad news and updates!
Related Posts:
Most Popular
New Videos
Editor's Picks
