Holy Broomsticks

In honor of the yahrtzeit of Rav Aryeh Levine zt”l

Reb Aryeh Levine zt”l loved Jews in the deepest way. He used to walk through the streets of the Old City early each morning to daven Vasikin at the Kosel. As he was walking, he met a Yid named Yehuda Harush (who shared the story about this encounter). Yehuda worked for the municipality of Jerusalem and used to clean the streets. 

When Reb Aryeh noticed him, he greeted him warmly, as he did to everyone he met. “Precious Jew, good morning!”  Yehuda was embarrassed about his profession as a street cleaner, and the moment he saw the great tzadik Reb Aryeh he hid his broomstick behind his back. 

But Reb Aryeh didn’t stop at a greeting; he gave Yehuda a warm hug. As he wrapped his arms behind his back, he noticed the broomstick he was hiding there. His secret was up! Yehuda was terribly embarrassed, but before he could say anything, Reb Aryeh said “Eizeh zechut yeish lecha! What a merit you have, that every morning you have the opportunity to clean the streets of the city of Hashem, the holy Yerushalayim, the palace of the King! Ani m’kanei b’cha, I am jealous of you!”

This Yid was shocked. “You are jealous of me?? You get to learn Torah and do mitzvos all day, and my life, from morning to night, is zevel, zevel, zevel (filth, filth, filth)!” 

Reb Aryeh fiercely disagreed. “That is not true! You have a tremendous zechus to be cleaning the streets of Yerushalayim!”

This Yehuda told this story at a yahrtzeit event for Reb Aryeh Levin, and he ended by saying:   It’s already 20 years since Reb Aryeh told that to me. And I still look at myself as a prince, and I still look at my broom as the royal scepter. 

Take It To Go!:

We all have moments in our life when we can spiritually relate to Yehuda. We all have moments when we feel that our life is “Zevel, zevel, zevel,” when we wish we didn’t have to deal with so many of the difficult things in life. We can get distracted by galus, consumed by our responsibilities, and feel like we keep making a mess and then cleaning it up. We are sweeping all day, but we just want to exchange our broomsticks for the Beis Medrash! 

Reb Aryeh taught us to cherish the opportunities we have as Yidden, to remember which “Municipality” we work for, and that it is our holy neshamos we are working on cleaning. Our broomstick is our holy scepter. We are the children of Hashem, and we are cleaning the streets of Yerushalayim!