Welcome to the Daily Holy Story. Rabbi Yechezkel Landau, better known as the Noda B'Yehuda because of the famous book he wrote, was the rabbi in Prague. The story goes as follows.
One day in the middle of the week, after Arvit (evening prayer), Rabbi Yechezkel Landau was walking home from shul. All of a sudden, he saw a non-Jewish child dressed in torn clothes, standing in the middle of the Jewish neighborhood and crying. Rabbi Landau went over to the boy and asked him with compassion, “What are you doing in the Jewish neighborhood right before nightfall? And why are you crying?”
As tears flowed from the boy’s cheeks, he began to tell the rabbi, “I am an orphan; my mother is gone. My father is a baker, and he took a second wife. She is very cruel. Every day, early in the morning, she puts two baskets filled with bread on my shoulders, and I have to sell that bread all day long in the streets of the city. If I don’t sell all the bread, then when I come back home, terrible punishment is waiting. My stepmother hits me cruelly.
“Today, I had a good day and a bad day. I was able to sell all the bread. But after night fell and I wanted to go back home, I put my hands in my pocket and realized that the money was gone. 30 coins were either stolen or I lost them. If I go back with no money, I’m ready to go back. I’m ready to get terrible beatings from my stepmother. All day long, I ate nothing. Now, I’m going around in the streets, afraid to go back home.”
Rabbi Landau was full of mercy for the non-Jewish boy. He brought him to his home and gave him food to eat and drink. After the boy finished the meal, the rabbi took out 30 coins, gave them to him, and the boy went back home happy.
After this story, the rabbi didn’t pay much attention to it. Years passed. Rabbi Landau, the rabbi of Prague, grew older. All of a sudden, on the seventh night of Pesach (Passover), after they had their meal, the members of his household went to sleep, and only the rabbi was up, learning in his study and deep in thought about Torah. All of a sudden, he heard footsteps coming toward the house, followed by a light knock on the door.
He opened the door, and a non-Jewish boy came in. The rabbi looked at him and asked him, “What do you want? And why are you coming to me in the middle of the night?”
The non-Jewish boy looked to the sides, came closer to the rabbi, and whispered in his ear, “Rabbi, don’t you recognize me? I’m the young non-Jewish boy you did a great favor for a few years ago. You took me to your house, gave me food and drink, and gave me money to go back home to my stepmother, who was evil and wanted to beat me. Now, a terrible thing that’s about to happen to the Jews of Prague has become known to me. I remembered how kind you were to me, and I decided to come secretly to your home to reveal to you what is about to happen.
“My father was a baker. With the advice of my evil stepmother, all the bakers gathered at my father’s home and decided to take care of the Jewish problem—a Jewish solution—and take care of all the Jews of Prague in one night. They know very well that when the holiday of Pesach is over, all the Jews run to buy bread from the non-Jews. The non-Jewish bakers are preparing bread for them at the end of the holiday of Pesach. And all the Jews come to buy that bread. So, this year, all the bakers decided in high secret to put poison in the bread and, once and for all, put an end to the Jews of Prague.
“So, I have revealed to you the secret,” said the non-Jewish boy, “and I’m sure that you, the rabbi, will not reveal that I’m the one who gave you the secret, and you will find a way to solve the problem.”
When Rabbi Landau heard this, he turned white in the face and didn’t know what to do. He decided to keep it to himself and not reveal the terrible tragedy that was about to happen to the Jewish people. The rabbi started thinking and thinking about how to solve this problem.
On the last day of Pesach, he gave an order that all the synagogues in Prague should close and everybody should come to the main synagogue, because after Tefillat Shacharit (morning prayer), the rabbi was going to reveal a very important foundation of Judaism and reveal secrets in the synagogue. Everybody gathered to hear Rabbi Landau.
Right before Musaf (additional prayer), Rabbi Landau got up on the stage. He looked at the tremendous crowd around him and started saying, “Rabotai (gentlemen), you know that the Torah is becoming more and more unknown to us, our minds are becoming closed, and the wise men of the generation sometimes make mistakes. I am telling you with pain that this year we made a mistake in the calendar and began the holiday of Passover one day early, and we need to celebrate Pesach an extra day. We almost made a mistake and made everybody eat chametz (leavened food) on Pesach. Therefore, I am telling everybody in the city of Prague that we have to lengthen the holiday of Pesach and not end it tomorrow night, but the next night.”
All the people of Prague couldn’t believe what the rabbi was saying, but nobody would defy his order. Everybody celebrated an extra day. The next day, since the rabbi had sent a message to the authorities, the police came and surrounded the homes and stores of the non-Jewish bakers. They checked the bread they had prepared for the Jews at the end of Pesach, found poison in it, and arrested all the bakers.
Then the congregation of the Jews in Prague understood why the rabbi had lengthened the holiday for another day. Because of his wisdom, he was able to save the entire generation from destruction. But the Jews did not know who had revealed the secret to the rabbi.
When the rabbi became very old, before he passed away, he told his son, Rabbi Shmuel Landau, the secret. He told him everything that had happened and said, “It wasn’t my wisdom or my Ruach HaKodesh (holy spirit), but rather my heart, which had mercy on that non-Jewish boy, that saved the entire generation of this congregation in Prague.”
Have a wonderful, wonderful day.