Welcome to the Daily Holy Story. The holy and great Rabbi Shalom of Belz had a poor farmer enter his office, asking him to pray for him and save him from his suffering.
“What do you do?” asked the Belzer Rebbe (Hasidic rabbi).
“I work the land. I’m a farmer,” said the man.
“Do you keep Shabbat?” asked the Belzer Rebbe.
Suddenly, the poor farmer started to stutter. He said, “Please, Rebbe, forgive me. You know, in the fields, you can’t totally keep Shabbat. You can’t stop working for the whole day because the field needs to be worked.”
The Belzer Rebbe realized that this farmer didn’t keep Shabbat. He started to rebuke him and speak to him softly, with words of Musar (ethical instruction), to improve his ways and rest on the day. He also gave him advice on how to make sure his crops didn’t get ruined and were preserved, even though he wasn’t working on Shabbat.
After a long hour of convincing, the poor farmer promised the Rebbe that he would keep Shabbat. But he had one request. He said to the Rebbe, “Please, can we wait until after the season of harvest and gathering the crops? That’s a very, very heavy workload on the farm.” Then, after that, he would start keeping Shabbat like he was supposed to.
A smile came to the Rebbe’s cheeks, and he told the poor farmer, “Listen to this story that I’m going to tell you.”
Long ago, there used to be landowners who had a Jew running their local bar in their municipality. The Jew was dependent on his boss, the landowner, like a slave. One time, one of the large landowners made a big party for all his friends, all the other landowners in the province he was in. In the middle of the party, happy with the wine he had drunk, he started to brag about how great the Jew he had was. Each of the landowners said, “My Jew is the best. My Jew is the most loyal.” The one who made the party said, “Nope, my Jew is the best Jew, the most loyal servant that anybody could have.”
“Well, you know what? If you think you have the best Jew, let’s put him to the test,” they all said.
“Well, what test do you want to put him to?” asked the landowner who made the party.
“We’re going to ask him if he’s willing to convert. If he’s willing to convert, then we’ll know that you have the best Jew of all of us,” he said.
Immediately, the landowner summoned his Jew. When the Jew heard that his boss wanted to see him, he put on his beautiful Shabbat clothes. With shaking legs and knees, he came to his master.
The master told him with a loving face, “Mushka, I’m asking you to convert. No longer are you Jewish.”
“What are you asking of me?” the Jew asked.
“I said, you’re no longer going to be a Jew. You’re going to convert to my religion. And if you don’t listen to me, you’re going to be in big trouble, and you’ll have a bitter end.”
The poor farmer thought for a moment and said, “Please, my master, let me go and seek advice from my wife. Let me ask my wife.”
The landowner agreed, and the Jew hurriedly went home to his wife and told her, “My boss wants me to convert. He told me that if I don’t convert, I’ll be in big trouble.”
His wife told him, “Don’t rebel against your master. Go and do whatever he says.”
The man went back and told him, “My wife said I should convert.” The landowner was very happy. He proved to his friends that his Jew was the most loyal.
So the landowner told him, “Mushka, you’re no longer Mushka. From now on, your name will be Ivan. And we’re also going to change your wife’s name. Now you can go home.”
Months passed. Once again, the landowner sent a messenger to call his Jewish slave, whom he called Ivan. When Ivan came, the landowner told him, “From now on, you can go back to being Jewish. And you can go back to being called Mushka.”
The Jew said to his boss, “This time, too, I have to go consult with my wife.” He went back home to his wife and asked her, “My boss said we could be Jews again.”
The lady’s face got a little sour, and she told her husband, “It’s very nice that we can go back to being Jewish again. But now, you know, soon it’s going to be Pesach (Passover). It’s very hard work on Pesach to burn the chametz (leavened food) and clean the house. We also have a tremendous amount of ham and pork in the refrigerator and freezer, and it’s a shame to throw it away. So go back to your master and ask him if he can wait until after Pesach. Then we’ll do what he wants, and we’ll go back to being Jews.”
When the Belzer tzaddik (righteous person) finished his story, he raised his head and looked at the poor farmer opposite him. The poor farmer understood the hint that the Rebbe was giving him. He told the Rebbe, “I will no longer speak nonsense. I accept upon myself immediately to keep Shabbat Kodesh (holy Shabbat).” Thank you for listening. Have a wonderful, wonderful day.