There was once a group of chassidim who traveled to Reb Hersh of Riminov. Their wagon driver was a Yid who was unfortunately very far from spirituality. After letting the chassidim off, he went to stay in a hotel at the other end of town and returned to pick them up at the designated time. When he arrived, however, the chassidim were not outside yet, as the Rebbe was still in the middle of davening. After waiting outside for a while, he lost patience and walked inside.
Reb Hersh would become very engrossed in davening and would sometimes begin walking around the beis medrash with great dveikus, not seeing anyone or anything around him. This is exactly what happened when the wagon driver walked in. He watched as the Rebbe walked around, his face red as he cried out in davening, and tried to figure out what the Rebbe wanted. The chassidim frantically tried telling him to move out of the Rebbe’s path, but to no avail.
Before he knew it, the Rebbe grabbed him as if he were a beam of the building and began shaking this wagon driver like a lulav! The wagon driver tried escaping from the Rebbe’s grip, but to no avail. Finally, after a few minutes, white as a sheet, he managed to get away.
After davening, the chassidim found him sitting furiously on his wagon. He told them, “Your Rebbe is a strong man! He caught me by surprise. Just wait until I meet him next time. I will beat him up, and he will remember it all his life!”
A little while into the trip, the chassidim noticed that their driver was silently weeping. When they stopped at the next inn, the driver turned to them and said, “I have decided to do teshuvah and start a fresh page. I feel an amazingly strong urge to come close to Hashem. I think the Rebbe’s shaking is what stands behind this, and so I am turning around and going back to the Rebbe. Please find yourselves another driver!”
This Yid eventually became a great chassid and talmid chacham!
The passuk says, “U’mal Hashem Elokecha es levavcha,” “Hashem your G-d will open your heart.” Hashem will bring us to do teshuvah. Sometimes the way Hashem brings us to do teshuvah is through great tzadikim who were given a special koach to inspire Yidden to teshuvah.
This article was found in Nekuda Tova Issue 97.
