The Anguish of Shabbos

Rav Hillel devoted much of each year to journeying around the towns of southern Russia, where he taught the practical ethics of Chassidus and aroused people to teshuvah wherever the need arose.

In one town he learned that the Jewish tavernkeepers kept their taverns open on Shabbos. Shaken, he invited them all to meet with him and explained how grave this was. They agreed to keep Shabbos on one condition. The richest tavernkeeper in town, whose business was the largest, had to agree as well, for otherwise none of them could compete with him. Three times Rav Hillel sent for that man, and three times he ignored the call.

Rav Hillel stayed in town for Shabbos. That morning the rich tavernkeeper was seized by stomach pains that kept growing worse. His wife feared they came from the disrespect he had shown the tzaddik, and she rushed to find Rav Hillel at the Shabbos midday meal, where a large company of chassidim sat around him. With tears in her eyes she burst in and begged him for a blessing that her husband would recover quickly.

Rav Hillel did not answer. The chassidim were dismayed, and urged him to say at least the words customary on Shabbos in such cases: "It is Shabbos, when one may not cry out; healing will come soon." Still Rav Hillel said nothing. The woman left crushed, and her husband's pain grew worse.

On Motzo'ei Shabbos Rav Hillel sat with his chassidim at a table where a samovar stood, in keeping with the words of Chazal that a hot drink after Shabbos brings healing. The same woman ran in, weeping and wailing, and pleaded with him to have pity on her husband and daven for him. This time Rav Hillel said, "It is Shabbos, when one may not cry out; healing will come soon."

The chassidim were astonished. On Shabbos itself he had been silent, and now that Shabbos was over he spoke the words that are usually said only on Shabbos. Rav Hillel explained, "If Shabbos itself will no longer have cause to cry out against him, then healing will come soon." He told the woman to go and tell her husband that if he would give his solemn handshake before three witnesses to close his tavern on Shabbos, he would be cured.

Three chassidim hurried to the sick man's bedside with the message, and he gave his word in earnest. His illness passed, and from then on the sanctity of Shabbos in that town was something remarkable.